The Igbo language is at the crossroads of tainted history.

a global research conducted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, in 2016 warned that Igbo language could go into extinction by 2025.
It is perhaps on this scary forewarning and other social setbacks facing both the speaking and written attributes of the language that the Enugwu-Ukwu Community alongside three sister towns under the Umunri ancestry, Enugwu-Agidi, Agukwu- Nri and Nawfia, made efforts to channel this year’s Umunri Colloquium, the sixth in its series, on what must be done to save the face of one of the largest dialects in West Africa, spoken by more than eighteen million people.


This year’s topic for the Umunri Colloquium “Community-Based Approach to Promoting and Sustaining Igbo Language”, was carefully chosen to examine the threats to Igbo language ideals and other stumbling blocks to its existence.

In their separate remarks, the chairman on the occasion and the state President of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief Damian Okeke-Ogene and his co-chairman, Chief Martins Ezendu, avered that both the Igbo cultural ideals and ways of life must be sustained in the face of religious invasion.


The traditional ruler of Enugwu-Ukwu Community, Igwe Ralph Ekpeh, in his speech, noted that the process of saving the Igbo language must begin from homes, the cradle of socialization, and praised the ABS Boss, Chief Uche Nworah, who spearheaded the event, for championing the crusade.

The lead speaker at the event and Professor of African and Comparative Studies at Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam Campus, Mrs. Ngozi Chuma-Udeh, noted that the roots of Igbo ideologies and culture must be made a cardinal socio-cultural affair, beginning with an Igbo communal conference, if the fight to save the language must be won.


Earlier in his remark, the chairman of Umunri Colloquium Commission, Chief Nworah, expressed hope that the exercise, an intellectual discourse, would bring solution to saving the Igbo historical pride, and thanked everyone that made the occasion a reality.

At the end of the keynote lecture, a panel of discussants and the audience affirmed that all platforms must be incorporated to teach the younger ones, the Igbo ideals and cosmologies, from the language, folklores, poetry, moonlight plays, masquerades and cultural festivals.
The book, “Umunri in Retrospect- Enugwu-Ukwu, Nawfia and Agukwu-Nri” written by Oba Nwaduche, was also launched at the event.

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