Scholars under the banner of the International Society for the Oral Literatures of Africa, ISOLA, are calling for the digitization of Nigeria’s oral traditions, claiming that failure to do so means loosing a valuable part of the African heritage.
To this effect, the Society is calling on the National Universities Commission, NUC to upgrade Oral Traditions to degree standards as in the case of medicine and engineering.
Speaking yesterday at the Yakubu Gowon University in Abuja during the 15th International Conference of ISOLA, renowned literary scholar and President of ISOLA, Prof. Akintunde Akinyemi, said the government needs to key into the vision of Oral Literature and support scholars with financial support for digitization, while noting that the gains have a lot to contribute to the nation’s GDP and its perseverance of diverse cultural heritage.
Speaking on the theme, “Revival and sustainability of oral texts, artefacts and heritage sites”, the president stated that
the best of scholars in oral traditions have been taken out of Africa and failure of the government to work swiftly will cost a lot.
According to him, “If we are not careful, our children and grandchildren will have to rely on them to go and study about our tradition and culture because we are loosing it. Moreso, we are quick to take their own culture and replace with ours. So we have to make sure that we do something about that.
“Scholars are trying in the continent of Africa, but the resources are not there and that is the main problem. The scholars are not getting the necessary financial support.
“Nigerian scholars from Ibadan and Ilorin amongst others have not been able to attend this conference despite being in Nigeria. They are trying their best, but the government should support the endeavour, otherwise, it will continue to fail.
“If we are not careful, we will be looking out to the west and civilized cultures for our oral traditions because they are taking the materials.”
In his keynote address, foremost oral tradition expert, Prof. Gabriel Darah, stated that if not for Nollywood which is an aspect of Oral Literature, Nigeria will not have been as popular as it is today.
According to him, there are 506 languages that are still alive in Nigeria, it is important to always remember that the country and continent are blessed compared to others, and further stated that if the government does not recognize such an asset, then the gold mine will be diminished.
He said: “Oral Literature should be as prestigious as medicine, engineering and other high demanding courses, noting that with this, people will pay serious attention to them, and they will not be allowed to perish.
“It is more lucrative than oil. It is the new oil. Oil and gas will perish, but culture does not perish, it renews itself any time.
“Dance and theatre arts are more lucrative if they are properly organized. What has given Nigeria publicity in the past 20-30 years have been nollywood, and this is oral tradition. Without nollywood, Nigeria would probably not have been known in the world of acting.
“When Europeans see Africans dance, they marvel at what we are able to communicate with our bodies. The human body can communicate 1001 gestures without a word being uttered.
“With this, creativity is been improved and when creativity is improved, the quality of the world is further improved.”
The two days event had 12 countries in attendance and few universities out of the scheduled 22 Nigerian universities.
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