Reno Omokri has advises, using Chiamaka Nnadozie’s and Ademola Lookman’s speech at the CAF awards as examples that you should teach your children your culture and language.
He said Chiamaka Nnadozie was born and raised in Nigeria. When she received her award as the CAF Women’s Goalkeeper of the Year 2024, she spoke only in English while dressed in Western clothes. Ademola Lookman was born and raised in London, yet while accepting the CAF African Footballer of the Year award, he was dressed in Lukumi Yoruba traditional clothes and spoke in his native language.
We learn from this that where and when you are born does not matter as much as how you are raised. If you raise your child to identify with and project your culture, your offspring will grow up with a sense of self-worth that makes them impossible to dominate. They will become adults with a very healthy self-image and self-esteem.
Teach your children about your culture and language. Make them proud of it. Whether you live in Lagos, New York, Enugu, Paris, Kaduna, or Toronto, you should still go to church on the Sabbath Day or Sunday and attend mosques on Friday dressed in your traditional clothes.
Doing so will help keep you and your offspring grounded in your culture and prevent the type of self-loathing that we are now seeing in Kemi Badenoch. Africa needs you to preserve your culture so that your mother tongue will not be among the 396 African languages that are endangered as of 2024 and the 127 that are about to go extinct.
