16/05/2021
It's actually a new world for me granting interviews because of ebifolorunso, I am sure in the next few years to come, I would probably run away from them 😂😂😂 or have a spokesperson. The Interview was with -African. you need to follow them to enjoy a lot of content that would enrich your mind.
Just an insight into what the interview covered.
Lola Bailey: Why did you create Ẹbí Fọ́lọ́runṣọ́?
Kayode Oloko: Ẹbí Fọ́lọ́runṣọ́ – an advocate for the teaching of the Yoruba language – is more than just a fun children’s web series; it’s a campaign to raise awareness of culture, tradition, language, and identity.
In Nigeria today, many parents prefer their offspring to speak the English language over their own native language. It’s a sad reality that future generations could lose their identity and purpose, a heavy price to pay for living in a host country.
Lola Bailey: I am reminded at this juncture of a Maya Angelou quote: “I have great respect for the past. If you don’t know where you’ve come from, you don’t know where you’re going.”
Lola Bailey: Some will argue that English is all that’s needed these days – it’s the universal language.
Kayode Oloko: It’s easy to forget that only very few of the developed countries use English as their official language. Unfortunately, the education systems in most developing countries do not recognize the use of one’s mother tongue as a valid form of communication, reasoning and teaching. So most of these languages, bar the privileged few, are not taught or even given as options. Mother tongue languages are often wrongly dismissed as “vernacular”, a term that refers to the language spoken by people of a particular country that – and this is key – differs from ‘literary, cultured or foreign languages. A student caught speaking in “vernacular”, would be penalized. So it is that Western societies impoverish younger minds by disregarding their own unique language, leading to the extinction of several mother tongue languages.
pan-African's Lola Bailey caught up with the Finland-based, polyglot creator of the Yoruba language animation series Ẹbí Fọ́lọ́runṣọ́,
