Cultural erosion

viewpoint illustration

At different times in the last few years, Nigerians have berated federal, state and local governments for their negligence in preventing or controlling physical erosion, following downpours or ocean surge. This year alone, such incidents have occurred multiple times in Lagos State and one or more times in Benue, Plateau and Kebbi states, killing people and destroying property and infrastructure. Downpours and ocean surge cannot be prevented; but their effects could be controlled. The appropriate government is liable to the extent that it fails to undertake necessary preventive and emergency measures. At the same time, however, citizens are often responsible for the environmental degradation that complicates the effects of physical erosion.

But there is another type of erosion which cannot be blamed on nature but largely on humans. I mean  cultural erosion, whose long-term effects could be more widespread and more devastating than those of naturally induced physical erosion. By cultural erosion is meant the systematic devaluation, sometimes leading to the deletion, of certain aspects of our culture due to foreign influences. Such influences could wipe out a people’s memory of their past; their traditional cultural practices; and their language. Above all, it can change their worldview, including their perception of reality.

The major influences responsible for cultural erosion in the geographical space we now call Nigeria came from three major sources. They are: Islamisation, Christianisation, and colonisation, in that order. Islamic religion penetrated the northern parts of the country as early as the 9th century and extended southwards, while Christianity made inroads through the south in the eighteenth century and moved northwards. Both processes met with varying degrees of resistance, which accounts for the present scope of their influence in the country. British colonisation would follow in the nineteenth century, which took hold throughout the country by the early 1900s. Present day Nigeria was born in 1914 when the Northern and Southern Protectorates were amalgamated by the British overlords.

By the time Nigeria became independent in 1960, the constituent groups had lost their cultural virginity due to these influences, and the cultural erosion continues unabated. True, these influences brought many advantages, including literacy (that is, the social practices associated with reading and writing activities), Western education, new professions and occupations. But by and large, they’ve had devastating effects on the people’s cultural practices.

In the last chapter of his book, titled, A History of the Yoruba People (published in 2010), Professor Banji Akintoye noted the social and cultural transformations that these three influences have brought to his people. He singled out the dissolution of the agbo-ile (lineage compound) and its negative consequences on Yoruba lineages and society. The attendant disputes and feuds among lineage members due to conflicting property claims began to erode the core values of omoluwabi, the philosophical matrix that guided their behaviour.

True, Islam and Christianity helped in propagating literacy, but they also turned some converts into Islamic fanatics and “wild” Christians, to borrow a usage from Professor Wole Soyinka. Today, our landspace is dotted with mosques and churches as if our social, economic, and political salvation depended on them. We gleefully invoke Allah or God at the slighest provocation and even use either as cover for our misdeeds and justification for our misfortunes. As if in an act of purifcation, we destroyed our shrines and denigrated our traditional festivals. Some even became “born again” in the attempt to sever relations with the past. What is worse, the nation is held ransom today by a religious sect, which sees nothing good in others who do not share their faith and worldview.

What happened to us in the realm of religion is replicated in other spheres. Our languages became subjugated to the colonial language to the point that we now discourage our children from speaking them. It began way back in colonial schools when schoolchildren were punished for speaking in the “vernacular”. Today, some Nigerians speak English to their children at home even when they themselves hardly speak the language effectively, leaving their children to wonder what gibberish they speak to relatives from the village with whom they converse in the mother tongue.

The government carries part of the blame for the neglect of the mother tongue by not encouraging and funding developments in local languages. Similarly, the government is responsible for the neglect of history and social studies in the curriculum, which should have provided schoolchildren with the opportunity to learn about their past and their people’s salient social mores and cultural values.

Yet, the erosion of values is one of the social banes of contemporary Nigerian society, made worse by a corrupt and decadent political system that allows efulefu, nonentities and thieves to become political leaders. What kind of value system would allow a convicted thief and felon to become a state governor but a banal one like Nigeria’s?

Worse still, in recent years, we seemed to have sold our soul and values to modernisation forces, particularly globalisation, communication technologies, and popular culture. Let me illustrate the problem with popular culture. Apart from a few copycats of Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey and King Sunny Ade, the preponderance of music produced by the present generation of artistes lacks cultural content. You could hardly understand or tolerate their lyrics. It is this kind of music tradition that produced the vulgarity of St. Janet’s lyrics. Yet, this is the kind of music that young children hear on radio and TV on a daily basis.

I once attended a toddler’s birthday party and observed 2 and 3-year olds humming tunes and imitating dance moves by these same artistes. I witnessed the death of culture as the young children angrily left the dance floor when the Yoruba parents of the host changed the music to Ebenezer Obey’s.

I indicated last week that culture and language are subject to change. As a result, societies are often in a state of flux due to contact with other cultures, religions, and languages. Societies that cherish their history and cultural values are more likely to remain intact than those that don’t. That is why the extent to which the decadence of our political system is mirrored by the erosion of our history, culture, and value system should be a cause for concern. We may hoot and shout about fighting corruption, about eradicating electoral malpractices, about improving the educational system, and so on. No significant improvements are likely to occur until our value system changes for the better. No society can develop beyond the scale of its value system.


  • Dele Olowu

    You are wrong to insist that present generation Nigerian musicians lack a cultural context. No music is produced without a context. Our current music is increasingly eclectic and profits from a diverse range of cultural impulses. It contains highlife pop akpala and a host of other strains. Our musicians have brought us great glory. Nigerian music is now widely played and accepted not only in Nigeria but also in other parts of Africa and the world. The least we can do is to show some sense of appreciation for these cultural icons.

    • Robert Obayuwana

      eclectic indeed at the expense of indigenous cultural encapsulation to promoting our heritage.

  • Columnist

    Yes, the music produced by the present generation of artistes does not lack CONTEXT. Every action or statement occurs within a context. But my point is not about context but about CONTENT, specifically cultural content. There is little or nothing in the music that reminds us of our tradition, our past, and our traditional value system. We cannot play most of the music to teach our grandchildren about our culture or philosophy in the same way that we can play, say, Ebenezer Obey’s “Oro Oluwa ede” or Sunny Ade’s “Eye meta tolongo wa’ye” to achieve that purpose. I am not saying that all of the music is useless, either. Rather, I am challenging the musicians to pay attention to cultural content in their lyrics, and to think of the value system they want young children to imbibe.

  • Baba Ijebu

    hmmm….the writer is actually right,….we are gradually loosing our local content, we have become so westernized that radio presenters must speak in foriegn accent, betterstill form “phoneey” to be acceptable by the public, wat the hell is wrong with the nigerian accent,.the church has lost its local content, as we see pastors forming “yankee” by all means possible, trying hard to be like T.D Jakes, Last sunday my church hard disco lights on the stage!!!!! i was so suprised….dis na church or club….its a sorry state. parents taking their kids to learn bailey, wats wrong wit BATA and yet pple come from all over the world to learn african dance, its even a thing of pride among parents when their kids dont understand the local language,…We are so westernised that parents are so happy to see their children dress half naked- even kids as young as 6/7yrs(go to shoprite)u wld see the parents walking behind them feeling so sophisticated…children dis days hardly greet, especially in the cities….Listen to Alagba Adebayo Faleti, Baba Elebuebon, Wande Abimbola and appreciate culture, people like us had the opportunity to witness Agemo, Egungun festivals, Oro festivals, as kids and we really enjoyed it, look at Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago who have preserved their culture…we shldnt dump our own heritage all in the name of westernization

  • sotola

    Sir, culture is not static. It changes over time as influence by knowledge, religion, economy etc. The king sunny Ade and Obey that you mentioned were non-comformist in their own era in the sense that what they sing were against the dominant culture at that time. How can you expect us to sing and act like they do in the 60s? Some of the cultural content you want us to follow are ill-tuned to modern day. The philosophy and mindset underpinning them are limiting and unsophisticated. We will never move forward if we follow you proposition. Anyway, i do enjoy your write up sir.

    • clem


  • Gabriel Machelo

    You are right by saying that we are losing some part of our culture, but we have not completely lost it, after all. We could still hear Afro-Hip hop embedding Yoruba lyrics. Also, we could still hear Contemporary High-life mixed with funk or Hip hop. This tells you that cultures mix with other cultures to remain relevant. My dear, the constant thing in life is change; hence, cultural erosion does not take place when you feel other people’s cultures in your culture. If you fail to change, you will remain irrelevant.

  • femi

    we are loosing our culture faster than we can think…..most people who dont agree with the columnist are part of the culture lost group.

  • Columnist

    Let me add one point to my previous comment. I know a well educated new generation Yoruba artiste with a degree from a reputable American university–he goes by the stage name of The African Aqua Dragon–who has been researching aspects of Yoruba culture, such as proverbs and other words of wisdom, to include in his lyrics. I consider one of his trial recordings, “Our forefathers”, to be in the right direction.