Evaluating the usage of indigenous languages in African literature: Biakolo’s situation in wonderful child

Abstract

Language is undoubtedly fundamental to literature, and African literature like other literatures in the world depend solemnly on it for its full expression. The primary language used by the African writer is the one inherited from their colonial masters. However, during the last few decades there has been a remarkable shift in the focus of some African writers. They tend to bring into limelight some aspects of indigenous languages by way of substituting some western words with indigenous ones like Biakolo did in Wonderful Child. In this paper, our attention is focused on the combination of the two languages: English and Urhobo, with emphasis on how the Urhobo words are used. Biakolo made the reader to consciously or unconsciously identify with some Urhobo words. Effort will be made to determine the position of the writer as a teacher of the Urhobo language especially in relationship with its development as a minority language in Nigeria. Suggestions will be made on the analysis and which could be applied to other minority languages in Nigeria.