G. Statement of Urgency

This section states the severity of the situation and explains why the project must take place now.

The Nigerian Middle Belt is an ethnically diverse region that has many undocumented and/or endangered cultures, at risk from Hausa assimilation and globalization. According to the Atlas of Nigerian Languages (Blench 2022), 42% of the languages in Nigeria have no data at all. The largest number of languages with high endangerment or no data is found in the Middle Belt. The Delta also has tens of threatened languages. Cultures of the Middle Belt face compounding challenges because of climate and insecurity, which makes the documentation of these cultures more urgent. The Nigerian Middle Belt has far less documentation than more well-known loci of cultural diversity such as the Amazon Basin or New Guinea.

Preserving architecture and artifacts does not have the same urgency as languages and intangible traditions because the latter are vanishing without the possibility of restoration. The UN General Assembly proclaimed 2022-2032 the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (Resolution A/74/396, 2019). Nigeria is one of eight megadiverse countries with over 500 languages (approximately one-twelfth of the world’s languages). The Middle Belt, with over 300 of those languages, should be a top priority for the preservation of language and Intangible Cultural Heritage. To begin this project in 2024 and complete it by 2027 will ensure that the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the US Mission in Nigeria, Morehouse, KWEF, and CONAECDA makes a central contribution to the global effort to generate more educational resources on endangered languages and cultures. The documentation we produce will include hours of unique speech recordings transcribed in the indigenous language and accompanied with phrase-by-phrase English translation in a widely accessible format of timed-text captions interoperable for video streaming, TV broadcasting, and language annotation software.

Communities with vigorous indigenous languages often have correspondingly vibrant ICH traditions. It is difficult to estimate the degree of endangerment of a language or cultural tradition without any data, however, smaller communities tend to attract less scholarly attention with some exceptions. Less is known about the variety and status of ICH traditions within these ethnolinguistic communities than the languages. In many cases, when a language is lost, so are most of the associated ICH. There are some cases where ICH maintains a privileged status in the community while the language fades. According to Blench, “members of the [Yangkam] ethnic group [in Plateau] are very proud of their history and identity but do not associate that with retention of the language” (2022). However, Yangkam is an exception.

There is now a strong movement to protect and revive cultural heritage, manifested by the growth of participation in CONAECDA since its establishment in 2014. However, the movement is held back by a major skills gap within communities. Effective documentation of minority cultures and skills transfer will benefit communities, generate national awareness of diversity, and expand human knowledge at large. It can also promote stability within a region that faces security challenges, including religious fundamentalism and pastoralist conflict. In February 2022, Carter-Enyi and Blench traveled to Gure, Kaduna to record ICH traditions and interviews on recent conflicts between farmers and herders.

Interviewees affected by conflict cite lack of opportunity and drug and alcohol abuse for conflict, as much or more than ethnicity or religion. In the past, Fulani pastoralists were known for a core of intergenerational family ties, but now disaffected young men with substance abuse problems are becoming synonymous with the nomadic lifestyle. It is the essentialization of otherness (around issues such as ethnicity or religion) and the blaming of that otherness for economic challenges.

Unfortunately, the Nigerian government is unlikely to adequately support preservation activities, especially not in minority communities that lack the sociopolitical clout to attract the attention of federal ministries. There are several barriers to cultural heritage preservation having maximum benefit to the economy and Nigerians at large because it cannot have a positive impact without growth in education and tourism and these industries are threatened and non-existent (respectively) because of security. Therefore, although the Nigerian government purportedly values cultural diversity, it does very little because it does not see an economic benefit, but there cannot be an economic benefit without security. Nonetheless, at the state level, in 2022 there have been significant advances in promoting selected vernaculars in education, and since many of the languages chosen have been the subject of documentation by project members, the proposed project will tangibly support this process.