The neglect and bastardization of our cultural heritage -Aare

The neglect and bastardization of our cultural heritage    

the advanced learner dictionary defines culture as all the arts, beliefs, social instructions of a community, race, nation etc.

Taylor {1902) define culture as that complex whole, which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, laws customs and any other capabilities acquired by man as a member of a society.

            This article focuses on the neglect of the rich Yoruba culture. The INFLUXES of western culture and civilization have had negative effects on our youths who are supposed to be custodians and vanguards of our cultural heritage. The stupendous mess of our cultural values by the educated youth knows no bound. Children born and bred up by Yoruba parents prefer speaking English language to Yoruba language. In fat, very few students studies Yoruba language in our tertiary institutions. The once cherished language is now neglected to the alters of APATHY AND HATRED.

            Foreign cultures have eroded our own mode of dressing like the awesome tsunami. The educated sons and daughters of ODUDUWA are now in the habit of dressing like the pampered European magnates. Agbada, Dangodo Sulia, buba and sapara which are some of the beautiful dresses cherished by our FOREFATHERS are now abhorred by the so called educated youth. Most of our women prefer NECKLACES to LOCAL BEADS, ILEKE is no more popular as it were in the good old days. Also "OFI AND EPINRIN" the father of all clothes are no more common in the wardrobes of our "civilized" women. This is simply NAUSEATING.

            Majority of our educated women are no more using "laali, osun, inabuje and inaburu" which were used in those days as parts of ornaments. rather they prefer to use powder, paints, lipstick and other ornaments. Some of them always dress gorgeously and look like horrible masquerades in their foreign apparels and absurd ornaments.

            Most of our young girls prefer foreign types of air dressing such as 'jerry curl" popularly known as "perming" in Yoruba land to native hairdo such as "ipako elede, panumo, alagogo, suku, oweere, ijebutosoo, koroba, adite and olowu dudu" They promote foreign hairdressing neglecting their native hairdo. Some women in Yoruba land like to wear wigs popularly called "kaninkani dugbe". Foreign cultures have indeed baptized our native cultures. Some women even prefer to use foreign soap; they hate native soap called "ose dudu" like leprosy. They bleach their skin like venomous cobra in the bush with foreign soap, they want to become, Afro-Americans neglecting their natural skin values thereby endangering their lives by such act.

Pounded yam to some Yoruba people is like feaces of a sick child. They prefer salad, Indomie and Macaroni to Eba,Amala and Ewa ososo which are our native delicacies. Our forefathers who ate pounded yam, "Egbo", "ikokore" kengbe", Mosa and Cocoyam lived longer than the now educated Yoruba’s. Who are now eating salad, indomie and macaroni. Bush meat laced on their food could not be compared to modern day Chicken "periperi" and turkey from foreign lands consumed by the modern day elites.

Apala, Sakara, Awurebe, Alamo, Orin obitun, reso and other types of music in Yoruba land are now replaced with Hip hop, high life, raggae, makosa and other foreign. No one among the elites wants to dig the rhymical tango ofthe ever popular africa kenery and Apala music waxed into record by Olando Owo and Haruna ishola both of blessed memory. Some Yoruba indigenes prefer any music records releasedby Jimmy cliff or Barry White to miliki music by King sunny Ade. Why should we sell our glory to the foreigners in the market of outright stupidity? Our native songs are more Meaningful than some of these foreign musics. It is wrong to allow foreigners to kill our cultural heritage on the altar of selfish interest and ignorance of the first order

Our cultural values, societal ethics and tradition norms have been bastardized in the name of civilization and western education. Moral decadeness has reigned supreme in our society like the stone-hearted pharaoh. Our believe in the phenomenon of "omoluwabi" has nose-dived like meteor in the night sky. The younger ones find it difficult to respect the elderly people. The youths in our society see the elders as uncivilized. Where are the olden day’s moral ethics? Greeting and respect for elders are parts of our cultures. In the olden days, when a man sees an old man carrying a heavy load, it was the duty of the young man to help him carry the load. But today, the reverse is the case. Where is the world heading for? The bastardization of our cultural value abd good altitudes is a thing of corncern to the wise in the land of "Olofin Oodua, Onipopo of Popo, Oranmiyan, Orangun ile-ila, Elejelumope, onitagi olele" and other departed Yoruba legends and titans are weeping in their grave, on account of the stupendious mess of our traditional Yoruba values and societal ethics by this younger generation

It is high time we came to our senses. All hands must be on deck to revive our dying cultures. Traditional marriage and funeral rites must stay. We should not allow modern cooperative society to swallow the famous "egbe alafowosowopo ibile" inYoruba kingdom. The cultures "Aradosu, Owe, Aaro, Abo, Ebese, Arokodoko, Ajo and Esusu" should be revived in earnest. What is whorth doing at all, is worth doing well, and it should be done very fast. Our traditional cultures in Yoruba kingdom must survived, despite all odds!

                                    Williams Rotimi Olaniyan teaches at st. Louis grammar school, Owo, Ondo state