Because Of English || Throwback to early 2000s

Ever since Davido's song "With You" was released and he talked about getting inspiration from Bright Chimezie's song "Because Of English" released many years ago, the discussions about that very old song have been buzzing on social media. Today, I finally went to search for the song on YouTube and I was totally amazed by it, especially the storyline, because it brought back a lot of memories from the days I was in primary school.

The people who grew up and schooled in the city do not know the troubles we passed through in the rural areas all because of English.
There were times— in fact, it happened countless times— when teachers would forbid us from speaking vernacular in school because school was a place to learn to be civilised. In those days, the prefects of the class were usually the brilliant ones who knew how to speak English, so the teachers would always give them the responsibility of catching or writing down the names of students in the class who spoke vernacular. The teacher would then collect the list and beat the hell out of the defaulting students.

Who experienced this? Of course, many of you did not experience it because you all grew up in the city where English was already a thing. Or did you experience it? Tell me in the comment section.

No lies, I got a lot of whipping for speaking vernacular because English was not my thing back then. I was not dull— in fact, I was among the top students in the class— but the only challenge I had was not being outspoken, and that was as a result of not being conversant with English. Sometimes, to avoid being whipped, I would remain completely silent in class to the extent that I would hold on, very uncomfortable, when I was pressed, just to avoid speaking English. I would stay very uncomfortable until it was break time, when I would finally have the chance to go out and ease myself.
Another pattern of punishment for defaulters was paying a fine— and that meant money. Funny and strange, right? We did that a lot, and it was better for us than receiving a beating.
The prefect would collate the names, and a 1 Naira fine would be attached to each time a person's name appeared on the list.

But then, we no longer have things like that in the school system. I think English has become very common in our societies to the extent that even little ones are now fluent in it— at least in the pidgin aspect of it.

But also, the song talked about how bad it is for us Africans to kick away our languages and force ourselves to learn English. I fully support what the song said, because it is very bad how some parents raise their children to speak only English and frown at the idea of making their children learn their dialect. It is very bad.

Thanks for reading.
Video: YouTube
Photo: Freepik