Some don't even know where they are from and parents/guardians keep calm thinking it's okay. There is this popular slang when something bad happens to you the first thing that comes out of your mouth is "my village people have come" lol I hear it everyday and it seems people run away from their roots thinking probably their village people don't want their process.
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The new generation don't even know about some of their extended family, they can actually walk pass their uncle on the road because they don't know who he is and they have never come home before to know. They are satisfied staying in another man's land, I'm not saying it is bad but at some point you have to come home, show your kids who their extended family are and teach them their native language. Even some of us in our own country can't even speak our language. Culture and heritage keeps dying away slowly.
Storytelling has been a means of creating fears in children telling them some of the values to avoid, like the story of the corny tortoise. These stories which were told by the elders had a means of passing down like the proverbs. It enlightens us to draw experiences and moral lessons. As an igbo girl whenever I hear proverbs from elders they are usually connected to real time experience. You feel it and it addresses so many things in one word, when you think deep into it.
This story passes a message of some of the consequences of living a tricky life like a tortoise. There are numerous of them. These folktales pass a message of some values which are not accepted in the society and the consequences of doing so to children at that tender age, but what do we have now? A 6 years old baby having a phone.
Now here is the question, why will you give a phone to your tender child?
Once upon a time when I finished secondary school that was when I got my first phone, you could imagine how I felt when all my classmates had one. Funny enough, that was my parents' rules.
Furthermore, the modern age is faced with so many challenges, the new generation that has streaming services, digital media and entertainment makes our tradition of oral storytelling crumble. Whether it is tiktok or nothing, our storytelling has become less common. There are lots on the internet, so many things on the internet. But then the question is are you going to allow our identity, traditions, culture to crumble. Are we going to risk our heritage being overshadowed? In a world saturated with distractions.
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Posted Using InLeo Alpha