Indigenous Hands and Voices

15/06/2026

"When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground."

Across Africa, priceless knowledge, languages, stories, and cultural wisdom are disappearing every day. The question is: are we preserving them fast enough?

In this article, we explore why intergenerational knowledge matters and how organizations like IHAV, S-DELI, and Omenka App are working to ensure that our voices, signs, stories, and heritage are not lost to time.

Read more here:

The Library is Burning: Saving Intergenerational Knowledge Before It’s Too LateJune 10, 2026|In Language Preservation|By Kingsley IbeThere is a famous African proverb that says: “When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground.” This is not just a poetic phrase; it is a literal warning. Fo...

03/06/2026

What happens when a people lose their language?

They lose more than words. They lose stories, identity, history, and a unique way of understanding the world.

Across Nigeria, Africa, and the diaspora, many indigenous languages are disappearing quietly. For some, it begins when parents stop speaking their mother tongue at home. For others, it starts when children are taught to feel ashamed of their native language.

For the Deaf community, the challenge can be even deeper, as many children grow up without early access to sign language, creating barriers to communication, identity, and belonging.

In this article, we explore how language loss affects both spoken and signed languages, why it matters, and our organization is doing to preserve our linguistic and cultural heritage.

Read the full article and join the conversation on preserving the languages that shape who we are.

https://i-hav.org/blog/language-identity-loss-the-invisible-theft

01/06/2026

“Onye nọ n’ụta n’asị na ọ nọghị n’ọma” (He who is in the center says he is not in the field).

Parents, educators, and cultural advocates, the "center" of the world today is online. If we want our beautiful Igbo heritage to thrive for the next generation, we must make it visible on the screens they look at every day!

Social media is our modern digital town square. From viral videos to interactive spaces like the Omenka App Weekly TikTok Monday Live Classes, technology is giving our mother tongue new life and global reach.

We just published a brand new piece breaking down how this digital shift is happening, and how you can help.

👉 Read the full article here: https://i-hav.org/blog/making-igbo-visible-online-social-media-and-language-growth/

Language growth is a collective effort. Social media is the tool, but YOUR voice is the driver. Let’s make the internet speak Igbo!

👇 LET’S START RIGHT HERE:
Share your favorite Igbo word in the comments! Let's flood the feed with our language today. 🖤👇

Making Igbo Visible Online: Social Media and Language GrowthMay 15, 2026|In Language Preservation|By Kingsley IbeFor a long time, people feared that indigenous languages like Igbo would go extinct due to the advent of the internet. But today, the opposite is happening. Social media has become a digi...

03/02/2026