Documentation of traditional Igbo children games: Towards a revitalization of Igbo oral genres

Abstract

The prediction that the Igbo language is endangered is controversial. While many believe that the endangerment is farce, many others have taken it seriously. The fact that there are about 29 million speakers of the language supports strongly those who take the prediction as untrue. However, it is obvious that some aspects of the language are endangered largely because they are no longer functionally represented in the use of the language. The aspects of the language that are mainly affected are the oral genres: folktales have been replaced by movies and cartoons, lullabies and birth songs have been replaced by hip-hops, and religious hymns, traditional games have been replaced by electronic and computer games, etc. This observation is palpable even with the attendant negative attitude of many speakers of the language to the language: a factor that has driven the establishment Otu Sụbakwa Igbo pioneered by Prof. Pita Ejiofor. The need to answer the following questions has therefore arisen: ‘What can be done to recover and preserve the endangered Igbo oral genres?’ and ‘How can the negative attitude of the speakers to the language be handled?’ The present pilot project targets opening the frontiers for answering the questions. It adopts the language documentation approach to collect and annotate children games in Mgbakwu, Awka North Local Government Area of Anambra State. This approach, according to Lehmann (2001), involves the activity, which gathers, processes and exhibits a sample of language data that is representative of its linguistic structure and gives a fair impression of how and for what purposes the language is used. A successful documentation of the games would provide a framework for replication of the project from one Igbo speaking area to another and grant the impetus for the documentation of other genres. Consequently, the endangered Igbo oral genres would be recovered and preserved. Moreover, the language documentation approach emphasizes multimedia projects. The multimedia projects would include the Internet enabled children Igbo games and CD copies of the games: these would count as materials for the revitalization of the games and would contribute immensely in breaking the barriers of negative attitude to the language by providing proof to children that what looked impossible in and with the language is possible after all.