Abstract— This article examines a central paradox in postcolonial Nigerian literary and linguistic history, with a specific focus on Igbo. It argues that while early Christian missionaries used translation into vernacular languages as a tool for evangelism—thereby actively developing the language’s lexical and conceptual capacity—the subsequent project of anti-colonial cultural assertion by Western-educated African writers and intellectuals has been conducted predominantly in English. This literary strategy, though successful in challenging imperial myths of cultural inferiority, has had the unintended consequence of further institutionalizing English as Nigeria’s “power language.” Meanwhile, vernaculars like Igbo have been relegated to a protected but stunted domain of “in-group” communication, denied the “rough and tumble of acculturation and translation” necessary for full modern development. Through analysis of language policy, translation history, and literary texts (by Achebe, Tutuola, Adichie, Soyinka, and others), the article demonstrates how the predominance of English in Nigerian writing has created a state of dependency for African languages, leaving them vulnerable to attrition and hybrid encroachment (e.g., “Engli-Igbo”), while secular translation work that could fuel their growth remains neglected.
Amechi Nicholas Akwanya (Sun,) studied this question.