Celebrated Nigerian author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, has called on parents to prioritise teaching their children their native languages over foreign ones.

Speaking during the review of her latest book, Adichie posed a pointed question to the audience, “Do your children speak your language? If they don’t, why? Please don’t tell me they are taking French lessons if they cannot speak Yoruba, if they cannot speak Hausa, if they cannot speak Igbo.”

She challenged parents to reconsider their language priorities at home, urging them to drop foreign language lessons if their children are yet to learn their mother tongue.

“Then please stop that French lesson and start teaching them their language. Because honestly that’s the thing that will give them confidence,” Adichie said.

Adichie linked the language crisis to a lingering effect of colonialism, which, she said, deeply influenced how Africans perceive their cultural identity.
“One of the most insidious things that colonialism did to all of us mentally is that it succeeded in encouraging us to think that what is ours is somehow inferior,” she emphasised.

The award-winning author emphasised that language is not just a means of communication, but also a vessel of identity, history, and self-worth. Teaching children to speak their native language, she argued, is a powerful way of grounding them in their roots and instilling pride in who they are.