Eko oni baje o!

Those of you who follow my other blog will find a post on this. It straddles the purpose of both blogs so I thought I would post again! Eko oni baje o! I didn't learn that phrase in my Yoruba lessons and my dad has only used the word 'baje' once or twice within my exam period this year. I learnt it in this video below. It's an explosion of culture, language and patriotism.

You hear so often that African states can't prosper because there are too many languages and it is best to use English to aggregate the cultures. In Lagos, the language is Yoruba. The city is often referred to by its original Yoruba name and you know for a fact that not every person cheering "Eko oni baje" is an omo yoruba. People have bought into Yoruba culture which defines Lagos culture, the filas and geles were looking on point. Mo feran Eko pupo!

Journey to our culture

It is harder now for people of Yoruba descent living outside of Yorubaland to learn about their culture. They spend half their time learning about their host nation's culture and immersing themselves in that. Having done an essay on Yoruba language, I've really come to appreciate the works done on exploring the Yoruba culture, language and politics. I've learnt things in the past week that my father never took the time to teach me in all my life but I don't blame him, he was brought up to know more about British culture than his own.

I just feel enlightened. I can set my own personal worldview in this hybrid of heritage and environment. I feel like I have a better understanding of how my parents think and this is because I've had to take an objective, academic approach to the culture I'm only just discovering. If you've got library admission look for Yoruba Creativity by Toyin Falola and Ann Genova. Read as much of it as you can, it has many wonderful contributors with wonderful stories and great explanation.

Once you are finished with that, for the more politically inclined like myself, Yoruba Identity and Power Politics also edited by Toyin and Ann. Both books are great compilations and to be honest they've helped make this essay less work, more journey.

Yoruba in Practice

Best way to learn Yoruba, is to be forced to speak only Yoruba at a Nigerian restaurant. That's what Akin had us do at our first visit to 805 on Old Kent Road, when we went just before Christmas.

We went back there last week but this time we gotta away with English! I obviously let down #TeamAfrica by eating jollof rice when my European and American classmates had pounded yam, but eating with my hand in public is a no-no and eating pounded yam with a spoon is blasphemous.

Anyway, 805 never disappoints. Here's my Yelp review for it after I first went.

O soro Yoruba? Here's some apps for that.

At our Yoruba dinner at 805 on Old Kent Road, my friend Segun showed me a Yoruba app on his iPhone. It looked pretty impressive. Turns out he was shown it by a friend in America. This is all well and good, except I use Android and always will and so I needed to find the same app on android. Sadly, I couldn't find that app on android so I went in search of any others. Here you go:

http://goo.gl/nc08e

Yoruba Basic Phrases

http://goo.gl/UbDx8

Learn to Speak Yoruba Language

http://goo.gl/mUX5J

Plugin Yoruba

So there you go just 3 apps you can find on play.google.com for learning Yoruba. There are about 6 more on android. I've not tested them out yet, but maybe if you try the above 3 you can give me your opinion and we can work to improving apps aimed at preserving African languages.

There is one app that you can find on both android and iPhone. It's called uTalk Yoruba. It's $11.99 on the apple store, £2.99 on Google's Play Store and made by EuroTalk.

I can't recall the name of the app Segun uses, but search around you'll find it if iOS is your thing.

Iya Ni Wura

Here's a lovely song Yinka my other Yoruba teacher taught us. 

It's a song about your mother. Translation is below:

Iya ni wura iyebÍye 

Tí a kò le fowórà

Ó loyun mi fósù  mésànán

Ó pon mi fodún metà

Iya ni wura iyebÍye 

Tí a kò le fowóràu

Mum is as precious as gold

That we cannot pay with money

She carried me for 9 months

and put me on her back for 3 years

Mum is as precious as gold

That we cannot pay with money

Oya

We've reached lesson 16 in Yoruba. I've not remained faithful to the weekly update, but equally I have not engaged with the syllabus as I had expected I would.

Anyway, in the past 3 Tuesdays our Yoruba teacher Akin has compressed a usually 2 hour long lesson into 1 and a half hours to allow us to watch this film he found on YouTube. Watching Nollywood as a form of study - AWESOME!

I thought I'd share. So below is the first video for your viewing pleasure. You should be able to find the subsequent videos in the menu at the end. There are tonnes more on YouTube and remember by watching them, you not only improve your Yoruba but you raise the profile of Nigeria and its film industry:

Enjoy!

Week 1: Ikini

Ikini

Greetings

Starting Yoruba has been very exciting. Our first lesson was in greeting other people. A very apt topic for the first lesson I think. Many of us had turned up 30mins early to the lesson because the SOAS timetable had said that it begun at 6pm and not 6.30pm. My Yoruba teacher had said to me before that he would see me at 6.30pm, but you know when you think someone's either mistaken or being a typical African man.

Yeh well, either way he's not entirely a typical African, the class really did start at 6.30pm. And he's a really nice guy. Laughs to himself even when the class doesn't get the joke. It's nice. It's good to have a lighthearted lecturer.

In my class we have many girls. In fact only 2 guys. One's Cameroonian and the other is a Nigerian by descent British lad. Much of the girls are also Nigerian by descent, including myself. Those who aren't are American, Caribbean, Chinese, English and Scandinavian. I would say that's a pretty diverse class really.

It was interesting though to see how many of us were there because I parents didn't teach us when we were young. According to Akin, my teacher that is the most consistent demographic over the years. So, if you've got a little child and you speak a language other than the one they learn at school as part of the nations lingua franca, please, I beg of you teach your child that language. It will first of all give them an edge on others on their CV and second of all help them develop their brains to learn other languages. Before you know it you've a multilingual child being paid by the UN for that very skill.

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I didn't go to lesson 2 later in the week because I had to play conkers with City boys and rugby lads. So this week I have learned:

E kaaaro, E kaasan, E kaale

Emi ni Charlene