From Adeyinka Olaiya,
Editor-at-Large, Sao Paulo/
A university in Brazil has created a YouTube channel dedicated only to the teaching of the Yoruba language.
NewsmakersNG learnt that the Ministry of Education in collaboration with the Department of Arts, Linguistics, Education and Human Sciences of the Universidade Estadual Do Sudoeste Da Bahia (UESB) – the Southwest State University of Bahia, in Brazil, created the channel for people to further embrace and appreciate the Yoruba Language.
Described as the first of its kind in the history of Brazil, the YouTube channel is designed for the in-depth teaching of the much respected African language brought to Brazil in the slave trade era.
According to the brain behind the innovation, Professor Wermeson Silva of the language department, the channel is meant to expose every African-Brazilian including the deaf and dumb to the most important African indigenous language spoken in the Latin American country.
The professor of African philosophy, however, integrated the signs of the deaf and dumb in the YouTube channel for every Brazilian to benefit from the opportunities.
According to the University spokesman, It is the concern of the institution to extend every of the Yoruba culture, language and tradition to the deaf and dumb and the creation of the YouTube channel in Yoruba will definitely help to extend the teaching of the Yoruba language in signals to every student.
According to the professor “LIBRAS” meaning the “Brazilian language of signs” is the mode in which all deaf and dumb students in Brazil are taught how to communicate in signs and it is necessary to also carry them along in this new cause of bringing the African-Brazilians to their roots.
The project tagged ‘ÉDÊ LAMI’ in Yoruba, a joint work of the university together with the authorities of the community schools management board for the deaf will attend to the importance of Yoruba language in the schools for every student, including the deaf and dumb in signs.
Here’s a link to the YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/BimrADxHVVg
According to the law bill of 10.639, 2003 that was recently passed to a law in Brazil, that gave official status to Yoruba language, it is now compulsory that African history, culture and tradition must be included in schools curriculum and taught in all primary and secondary schools in Brazil.
According to Professor Mariana Cudjoe of the “Center of Odu-Ifa”, Salvador, Bahia, It is a great achievement to the African Brazilians bringing their language and their roots closer to them.
Another link to ÉDÊ LAMI: https://youtu.be/Bh1GusvgiCA
In an exclusive interview with Iyalawo Patricia Bairros of “Oluwo Cult”, this initiative will increase the practice of the Yoruba traditional religion among the youths in Brazil.
Speaking in Yoruba and Portuguese, Iyalawo also related how important the Yoruba language will be in future to the Yoruba religion called “Candomblé” in Brazil.
Iyalawo Patricia, however, mentioned how the African Brazilian community in Brazil and the Yoruba traditional religious leaders in Brazil received the Ooni of Ife, the spiritual head of the Yoruba people at the legislative house in Rio de Janeiro in June 2018. According to her, the last visit of Oba Enitan Adeyeye Ogunwusi contributed highly to the recent achievements of the African-Brazilians in Brazil.
She said, “We have a father and our father is Ooni of Ife.”
