The Outlaw The Nigerian Media Should stop glorifying fake/foreign accents
Many would not admit it, but most of our on air personalities and
celebrities speak with an intonation reeking of foreign affiliations, or
what we now know as fake accents.
Nigerian celebrities live
fake lives. Even their accents are fake. I stopped listening to radio
because everyone is either trying to sound British, or American.
Originality is zero..... Annonymous.
It’s sad
that many Nigerians have carried the mentality of our forefathers that
the best of products, come from the overseas and netherlands. This has
translated into so many facets of our society to the point where instead
of a symbiotic fusion of our cultures with the foreign, we now have a
confused sense of cultural identity.
Some of the
products of this confused sense of identity is the fact that we would
rather hire foreigners to handle high budget contracts than graduates of
our own training, prefer to answer to a foreign boss, and more
commonly, the fake accents we hear from our media and celebrities. As
much as we do not want to admit it many of our on air personalities and
celebrities tend to speak with an intonation reeking of foreign
affiliations (the very moment you hit stardom/wealth/popularity, one of
the first things to change is the accent). Let’s admit it, even when we
speak to persons of renown and high social standing, we tend to add the
extra slur, and roll our tongues to sound more refined.
The
media is largely responsible for this scourge. A lot them favouring
those who by virtue of birth, or acting prowess, have a foreign accents.
For some weird reason you are considered more hip and socially pleasant
if you have a foreign accent. It’s really ironic how one should discard
his/her Nigerian accent to be given an opportunity to speak to
Nigerians.
The human mind is devoid of language
and only seeks to identify with honesty irrespective of tribe or tongue.
The very moment you sound fake you lose a bond with your audience, and
have to rely on hype, not actual talent to maintain relevance.
It’s
high time the media and Nigerians as a whole stop glorifying the
fake/foreign accents that plague the entertainment industry. Among the
many colonial burdens we need to drop and discard, this is one of them.
It is so bad that many media houses don’t consider you because they feel
you don’t sound british or American enough to stand in front of a
camera/mic (check out most radio and TV presenters)
Gone are the days when the man with the British accent has the smartest thing to say. The likes of Chinua Achebe, 2face, Psquare, Olamide, and Don Jazzy
have shown that you can have a Nigerian accent, and even be more
relevant and successful than those with an English accent mixed with 'ijebu' intonations.
Until
every aspect of our culture and lives can imbibe this rule, we will
remain in the obscurity of our lack of original identity. Its all about
keeping it real, so let's start with how we speak.
