The Punch Newspaper: Surprise as undergraduate Americans teach Nigerians Yoruba

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The Punch Newspaper: Surprise as undergraduate Americans teach Nigerians Yoruba

April 5, 2011 by Cara Titilayo Harshman

We made front page headlines again…I was standing with my classmates in the Faculty of Arts at UI this morning when one of my classmates told me, “Titi, mo ri oju e ni oju iwe kinni Punch loni. Titi, I saw you on the front page of Punch today.” I said “Enhh? Opuro ni e. You’re a liar.” He said he was serious, so I went to the Student Union Building to investigate. I approached the newspaper table where men (women are never there) congregate everyday to look at the headlines and gossip about news. I pushed my way to the front. Sure enough, there was my face on the bottom of the paper, under election headlines. I paid 150 Naira for the paper and after about five people nearby grabbed the paper from my hands and exclaimed that it was in fact me on the cover, was on my merry way.
::Surprise as undergraduate Americans teach Nigerians Yoruba::
The article is about the program we did at Vivian Fowler Memorial College for Girls a few weeks ago. It is well written for the most part but, like the other articles printed about us, there are serious misquotes. At least they captured the overall idea of what I wanted to say. I guess the exact words are too much to ask for.

Posted in Blogstream | Tagged article, Oyinbo, The Punch | 11 Comments

11 Responses

on April 9, 2013 at 11:10 pm | Reply newsies sheet music

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on May 7, 2011 at 4:02 pm | Reply Adedoyin oluseyi

That is not surprise the issues of language as not being taken very serious in nigeria and these is what our leaders subjected us after independent
on April 13, 2011 at 4:17 am | Reply Dele Oluwole

For those of you worrying over my use of ‘rare specie’ (with single quotes) in my previous post, it is not the same meaning as rare specie (i.e. without the single quote signs) you may need to retake your GNS 101.

Enough said! %&$*~#

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on April 12, 2011 at 6:47 pm | Reply Johnkenn

Titilayo, o ku ise, wa kere oko dele ni oruko jesu. Amin.
on April 5, 2011 at 2:37 pm | Reply Sisi London

Oga Dele stop getting too sentimental abeg. nobody is trading the Nigerian passport for anything. and the black race is not a rare specie. just a group of people that are finding it hard to get their acts together and run a country.

Anyway, Titi welldone oh. Nothing do you oh jare
on April 5, 2011 at 1:30 pm | Reply Toni

rare specie/black race!!!…and all this while i thought there was only one race the human race..naive me hey. Offf!
on April 5, 2011 at 9:31 am | Reply Michele

Love it! Any way you can post a picture of the paper?

Loves,
Michele
on April 5, 2011 at 8:10 am | Reply Dele Oluwole

a rare specie
- on April 7, 2011 at 4:09 am | Reply Ade
  
  A Rare specie of the black race? Don’t flatter yourself. You have Yoruba people in neighboring Benin. Because they aren’t in Nigeria, does that make them less of a rare specie?
on April 5, 2011 at 8:09 am | Reply Dele Oluwole

Titilayo, I am not surprised with the news.

Under the imperialist, I mean during colonial rule Nigerians were orderly, peaceful, and devoid of corruption and all the social vices that plague us as a people today.

An American is proud to be an American, A British never denies his country, and a Canadian would do anything for his country. Unfortunately, most Nigerians would do anything to carry a British or an American passport because of the battered image the country has, so if Nigerian parents are encouraging their children to speak English and not local language like Yoruba, Igbo, or Hausa should one be surprised?

Nigerians are in a hurry to trade their Nigerian passports for foreign passports but unfortunately swapping international passport does not change who we are. We are ‘rare specie’ of the black race.

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- on April 7, 2011 at 4:08 am | Reply Ade
  
  I have to add that Nigerians were orderly during colonial rule not because of colonial rule, but because our societies were orderly before Europeans arrived. Over time we’ve adopted their system and problems to solve our problems, so far it’s obviously not worked out.
  
  Question to you:
  Why do Nigerians with American/other passports apply for Nigerian ones, and use them to enter Nigeria? Convenience.
  Foreign passports offer their own benefits, which make them attractive to carry than a Nigerian one. It has little or nothing to do with Africans teaching their kids their native language. Speaking of passports and benefits.
  Concluding Question:
  How many Nigerians/Africans would show their American passport if they were in a plan with terrorist Hijackers? Case closed.
  
  The reason they don’t teach their children their languages is because they don’t see it as important in today’s world. Just as when the colonist came and we started changing a lot of our ways to conform to what they felt then were new ideals.