How long is 'the Efik tongue' in Lagos? strategies of maintaining Efik in Lagos state, Nigeriaa

Abstract

Maintenance of minority home languages in a multilingual mega urban cosmopolis is a huge challenge. Consequently, this study examines the state of Efik language in Lagos State where the Efik are a minority group. This is with a view to estimating the strategies adopted by Efik in-migrants in Lagos State with respect to evaluating home-based strategies, culture-based strategies, community-based strategies, network-based strategies and entertainment-based strategies. Through purposive and snow-ball sampling, a total of 50 families were selected for the study from three clusters in Lagos State namely Orile, Oshodi and Ajegunle which are home to various minority ethnolinguistic groups in Lagos State. The questionnaire was used to elicit information from respondents, in addition to interviews for reasons of obtaining the subjective opinion of participants. The result shows that few participants utilized home-based, culture-based strategies and entertainment-based strategies which were considered very effective in redirecting the focus of children to the heritage language. However, more participants adopted community-based and network-based strategies. The overall result indicates that the Efik participants were not taking proactive steps towards maintaining Efik in Lagos State where it is surrounded by dominant languages such as English and Yoruba. The result provides the need for holistic and sustained effort towards preserving Efik, especially in multilingual spaces such as Lagos where its existence is precarious.