The call to preserve and revive indigenous languages as repositories of cultural wisdom and tools for addressing environmental challenges took centre stage at the 2026 Wisdom Gathering Session held in Kaani, Ogoni, Rivers State.
The gathering, organised by the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) in collaboration with Miideekor Environmental Development Initiative (MEDI), brought together stakeholders to examine the role of language and indigenous philosophies in advancing socio-ecological justice.
Speaking at the session, Executive Director of HOMEF, Nnimmo Bassey, linked the loss of indigenous knowledge and the persistence of environmental injustice in the Niger Delta to the manipulation and erosion of language.
Bassey said, “All the environmental injustice meted out on the people of Niger Delta have been achieved through the manipulation of language to confuse the common people and sell false solutions to them.”
He urged participants, particularly young people, to return to the wisdom embedded in indigenous languages and cultures, saying the values of previous generations could offer useful perspectives for addressing contemporary social and environmental challenges.
According to him, traditional ideals centered on honesty, integrity, solidarity, community building and mutual support, rather than competition, destruction and the indiscriminate exploitation of nature.
Bassey stressed that the preservation of language was inseparable from the preservation of identity, warning that the loss of cultural knowledge had accompanied the degradation of the Niger Delta environment.
“When you loose elements of your language and culture, you loose your identity,” he said, adding that the destruction of the region’s environment had also weakened the people’s connection with their cultural identity.
Delivering a keynote address on “Ecosystem Restoration: The Role of Indigenous Languages and Philosophies in Achieving Socio-Ecological Justice,” Executive Director of the Indigenous Language and Cultural Empowerment Foundation (ILACEF), Magnus Lesor Edooh, warned that several indigenous languages were gradually becoming extinct because of declining usage.
Edooh called for indigenous languages to be taught and spoken both at home and in schools, while urging government to enact policies and laws that would support their teaching and use in educational institutions.
He also identified traditional rulers, women and local communities as important actors in the preservation and promotion of indigenous languages.
Edooh further called for the use of local languages during environmental impact assessments, arguing that communities should be able to fully understand the nature and implications of projects proposed or carried out in their areas.
For Team Lead of MEDI, Celestine Akpobari, the cultural identity of Niger Delta communities is deeply connected to their natural environment, but that relationship is being weakened by years of oil and gas pollution.
Akpobari said the region needed to reconsider the meaning of development and reconnect with traditional ways of living that sustained communities before the widespread degradation of the environment.
“It is time for us to reorganize and go back to the basis we are coming from,” he said, recalling the healthier relationship previous generations maintained with nature and their reliance on locally available food resources.
He urged communities to reconnect with nature and culture, arguing that the earlier this was done, the better for the people and the environment.
Participants at the gathering examined language as a repository of memory, identity and ecological consciousness. They also considered ways of reclaiming religious and cultural knowledge as part of efforts to respond to present-day environmental challenges.
The programme also featured the commissioning of the Ken Saro-Wiwa Legacy Hall and the War Room for political research and action, named after Rev. Nnimmo Bassey, at the Miideekor Centre in Kaani, Ogoni.
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