Jking Izonebi Alfred's Worries and Fears about the Dying Ijaw Language in 'Izon Fiye'

By: Enewaridideke Ekanpou

Let all Ijaw people listen to me very carefully and take to every home this message delivered here.
Ijaw people should teach their children the Ijaw language.
A great celebration is coming tomorrow!
When you are suddenly entrapped and endangered in the course of life, you can speak Ijaw to your neighbour and create life-saving possibilities.
With the communication routed through your language, your neighbour can walk away saved.
Our children of this generation can no longer speak the Ijaw language as it should be.
Our children have developed apathy towards our Ijaw language in communication.
This is a parental failure because fathers and mothers no longer teach their children Ijaw.
This is a disastrous phenomenon that does not augur well for the future of Ijaw language.

Some families in Ijaw still teach their children Ijaw language. If I must count such families,
Senator James Manager is a good example of a family  that teaches their children Ijaw language.
In the family of Senator Manager his children speak Ijaw as fluently as they speak English despite the fact that they were born in the city.
Our children no longer want to understand and speak our Ijaw language because their parents have strayed from the right path.
Everybody should follow the example of Senator Manager.
Let Ijaw people teach their children Ijaw;
Let them count from one to ten in Ijaw.
Now the father cannot even count from one to ten in Ijaw;
The mother cannot count from one to ten in Ijaw.
When parents cannot count from one to ten in Ijaw, neither can their children count from one to ten in Ijaw.
What do you expect the children to do when their parents cannot also count from one to ten in Ijaw?

Anemi M.P. Evilewuru should bring out the Ijaw dictionary and share to both the young and the old in Ijaw so that Ijaw language can be mastered by all the Ijaws as embodied in this my song because I am seemingly in the spiritual world. Without your Ijaw dictionary I cannot understand the Ijaw language too and do justice to my task here today.
Dear Dr. Ekanpou E .Enewaridideke, play your own role from your end too so that this matter of Ijaw language can be tackled and  given adequate solution.
I want to speak Ijaw now.
Every Ijaw person should understand Ijaw whenever it is spoken.

To understand Ijaw when Ijaw is spoken is the ideal.
Now I want to speak Ijaw.
Alligator is supposed to drink happily when iguana is the dispenser and sharer of  'ogogoro' gin.
Spoken word is an iron wood.
It shall be over someday  however the duration.
If it is too long, it will not take more than three days and it shall come to pass.
Even if the child of the 'asu' pole gets decayed and spoilt, the child of the  piassava will not get decayed and spoilt.


Fully loaded dug-out canoe always journeys close to the shoreline.
I am on the shoreline;
I am always in
the shallow part of the river.
Jubilate that mango has refused to   fall on the doorstep of the man who has teeth but rather it is falling on the doorstep of the man who has no teeth.

Iguana is on the way to school.
Be wise and watchful now that iguana has gone to school.
Even if the townspeople migrate and desert the town, the ground goes nowhere.
The 'Azuzu' fan does not take part in a wild and trouble-ridden party.
A blacksmith knows his mission and does not depart from it.
Whenever a dug-out canoe capsizes, things are no longer complete.
The butterfish looks back before it comes to the surface to float and sport. Why didn't you look back before floating on the surface of the river?
'Agbolo' (slug) does not dance according to one's thought and expectation; Agbolo finds its way to the dug-out canoe through the  'asu' pole on the canoe.

A cripple only dies when no pre-information of death  comes to him through his ears.
A prophet does not see his back.
The hunter does not tell a full story of everything he sees in the forest.
A fart let loose inside the river stinks on the surface outside the river.
The goat that did not even eat the yam had its own teeth broken.
When water is poured everywhere, it cannot be scooped and gathered.
You can understand me if your ears are pierced as I am speaking Ijaw.
Mouth attains maturity only in the hands of the owner. Mouth does not stink in the eyes of the owner.

This is a dawn and it is also dawn for the mouth.
A bad day paradoxically becomes a good day.
A responsible and beautiful woman only becomes one's wife  when the emissary  is good and responsible.
A good bunch of palm nut is known from the nut.
I have to journey today through a canal because the day has gone far.
A canal hastily dammed up with a weir does not produce a large haul.
A bone-eater forgets nothing.
The intestines of a crocodile are not caught open in the public.
Water you will drink can never pass you by as it flows.
Ant is a lover and follower of sweet things.

A fully loaded dug-out canoe only journeys close to  the shoreline and within the shallow parts of the  river as it journeys.
Goat eye is the product of Etoro''s divination performed.
The visitor feels a stomach pain only after he has eaten something enough; the visitor only knows the day has gone far after he has eaten to his fill.

No smoke emerges without fire.
Izonebi Alfred is a forbidden animal that must not be eaten.
From whatever angle the shot is fired, disaster lurks because every shot is likely to aim at a killer spot in the body.
A  stubborn masquerade dead to codes and advice only gets disgraced publicly on the playground.

The bloodfish cannot be dammed up. I am only lucky to escape narrowly, unhurt
A thing that crawls on the body is different from the one that bites.
Tongue is the first to grow and appear before mouth appears.
When something falls twice, it is a killer blow  because it will land on the bridge of the nose.

The hippopotamus searches for the dug-out canoe-owner under the guise of looking for the dug-out canoe.
The hand of a lobster  burnt signals danger.
Sandbank is the home of swallows when the play or the sporting is movingly  enjoyed.
Even a rat killed in the heap of refuse carries its own fame.
The eye of an elderly person is that of an owl. 
Whoever that appears carries his own beard.
The one who scoops sand does not scoop gari.

It is difficult to take care of a foster child satisfactorily. I thought I was doing a good job in this direction. Only good days are celebrated.
The foster child always complains whenever the fishing session is not blessed with a large haul.
An ugly wife  is taunted and slept with.

The rain that falls in the east should remain in the east.
An urhobo man is known by the way he paddles.
A good man understands when a sash is tied around the waist.
Every god has his own territory or domain.
The house 'gide basket' is not opened in the public; the opening is done in the privacy of a house.

Antelope is always different from duiker however emaciated it looks. 
White colour signals identity and identity marker is all;
What you therefore parade is that of the leg of a duiker 

Music is everywhere played by different people.
Izonebi, are you the only musician?
Izonebi, why is it that the rhythms of your songs are the only ones echoed everywhere, always heard by people and pinpointed?
Dear Izonebi, you must allow your life-journey on earth to be guided by wisdom.
Izonebi, you must remember the words of King Robert Ebizimor.
Understand Ijaw when Ijaw is spoken.
Dear mummy  Biboere, be guided by wisdom in your life-journey;
Dear Funyei Manager, be guided by wisdom in your life-journey;
Dear Fun-ere, be guided by wisdom in your life-journey;
Dear daddy Kestin, be guided by wisdom in your life-journey.
Dear Ekomienyefa Udubor, be guided by wisdom in your life-journey.
Dear Doutimi and Akpoebibo, have you heard the stories too?
I am saying that you should all be guided by wisdom in your life-journey and remember the words of King Robert Ebizimor.

Dr. Ekanpou translates and writes from Akparemogbene, Delta State.