Letter From WebDiva

Yoruba-Specific???

Written on February 27th, 2000

The MotherlandNigeria.com site is now over 2 years old. In that time, I have received many omments, some good, and some bad. It used to be that when I received a bad comment, I would immediately want to fix the problem and make the complainer happy. For the most part, I still want to make this site suitable to most reasonable people, and in that time, I have learned to sift through comments and ignore the ones that should be ignored. I know there are some who would think that I should also ignore the variations of the "why is the site so Yoruba-specific?" complaint, but I have decided to respond to it.

When I started the site, I was sure that it would not take too long to make the information representative of as many cultures in Nigeria as possible, or at least the Yoruba, the Igbo/Ibo and the Hausa. Well, I was wrong. It has taken me a long time to find information on the other cultures. Eventually, I gave up on this goal, and settled for listing links on the people page to as many different cultures in Nigeria as I have been able to find (and as usual, if you happen to know of one that is missing, let me know). On the other individual pages, I mention if the information I am providing is of a general nature, or specify that it is Yoruba-specific. When someone emails me personally asking me for information on someone or something, the first thing I ask them is which ethnic group they are referring to, and if it is not Yoruba, I usually suggest that they go to some of the other links I have provided.

I once had a guest email me asking me to stop differentiating between the different groups on my site because we are supposed to be united. While I agree with her that we are supposed to be united, and while that is one of my prayers, I think it is unrealistic to tell someone that 'this is done in Nigeria' when it might only be done in one ethnic group and might be as foreign to the other ethnic groups as it would be to a foreigner. Because of that, I have continued to specify when the information I am giving is Yoruba-specific and when it is not. When it is Yoruba-specific, the information about the other cultures is often missing (for instance, the attire, the food, the recipes, etc. etc.). Yet I get guestbook entries and email comments that say things such as:

I make it seem like Yoruba is the dominant culture when this is so untrue.
I am giving wrong information about the Igbo people, and should give the information accurately or not at all (now THIS comment is really confusing because the only places that I say anything about the Igbo cultures is on the languages page and the names page, and that information was either given to me by Igbo's or verified by documentation).
I have not given the other ethnic groups the attention that I have given my own ethnic group
I am missing a lot of information about the other ethnic groups.

Even though I am a Yoruba girl myself, there is some information that I did not know off the top of my head. There are a number of reasons besides being Yoruba that I've been able to expand on those sections more easily. (1) I have family that I can ask. (2) I can find more resources. If you want to do a test, go to BarnesAndNoble.com and do a keyword search on 'yoruba', 'ibo', 'igbo', 'hausa' and compare the quantity of results that come up with each one. (Yet, I can often find books more easily online than on my visits to Nigeria.) For instance, it took me over 2 years of reordering to finally get an Igbo-English/English-Igbo dictionary (even though the store said it was ready to ship in a few weeks). Also, I get a lot of visitors to the site who offered to assist, but few of which came through (and they are mentioned on the pages that they helped with as a sign of extreme gratitude).

So, it is not that I don't care or that I am being partial, or that I believe that we are not all one. In fact, I have spent more time trying to get information about other ethnic groups, only to come up empty. And while I could give up my entire life (family, job, etc.) to try to complete the information about those groups, I do not have the means to do so. I am providing the best service that I know how, even if this site were not a hobby.

So, if you can help with the information, great. If not, then just assume that the site will stay as it currently is.

Well, that's all I have to say for now.