Yoruba [yáwrəbə]

(plural Yo·ru·ba or Yo·ru·bas)

1. member of W African people: a member of a West African people living mostly in Nigeria
2. W African language: a Niger-Congo language spoken in southwestern Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. Native speakers:20 million.

So, I happen to be a member of this tribe (I detest the use of the word tribe, it has been known to be used to characterize exotic peoples as wild, uninformed and, quite frankly, daft), but I also feel vainly satisfied when I imagine the fear that must have gripped the colonial masters and their counterparts the first time they set eyes on the nappy haired spear wielding tribes man. Yes, I am sure the tribes man was also gripped with fear, but this is my blog and I get to antagonize or ridicule whomever I want to.
In any case, I have recently, let me see, by recent I mean the past 9 years, fallen in love with my culture and language. To the surprise of my father I have become an avid fan of Fela, Tunde, I.K. Dairo Senior, Orlando Owo and some other older generation artistes. The most surprising part of it all perhaps is the fact that I didn't grow up listening to these genre of music, except for Fela's Afrobeat, and really they ought to be just as unfamiliar to me as they are to my siblings.
So what happened?

I moved to the U.S.

I find that most Nigerians who find themselves suddenly enthralled by their culture abroad were not completely exposed to it in the first place. I barely remember watching NTA and other local Nigerian channels. I'm sure my parents would have loved to get us acquainted to them, problem is, the channels were never clear enough and so they reverted to cable and satellite services. In a country like the U.S. where foreigners view the culture simply as technology(politely saying that the results of a melting pot is grossly looking cultureless goo), it very quickly dawns on even the most clueless foreigner that he does have a culture. No matter how faint it is in him, he finds that he exhibits it in class, at work or wherever he goes. It is up to him of course to expand upon it if he so chooses or to allow it to quickly begin to decompose and well, eventually liquefy in the pot.
Furthermore, a frequent traveller tends to appreciate both his home and the foreign places he travels to. Rather than dwelling on the negative sides of the different places one tends to visit enough places enough times that the comparison becomes not only clear, but one now starts to miss them. Yeah, I mean the comparisons, thus the places anyway.
Back to the issue.

Aha! Yes! So now, I am a lot more fluent in my native language than I have ever been at any point in my life. How did I do it you ask?...music. With a language that is so tonal as the Yoruba language is, you can often interpret words based on the pitches of the syllables. Also, the use of vowels in certain words play a good role in tipping you as to the shape, texture and manner of objects.

I am currently listening to a cassette that I "borrowed" from the trunk of an older family member. As I have translated it, the lyrics appear to be speaking about one's enemies who sit by one's blessings. It then asks for God to get them busy with other issues pertaining to themselves seeing as they have spare time at hand. I happen to find it very hilarious and quite entertaining. I also happen to say Amen to that everytime I hear the song. I'll share:

Eni to duro
Sibi ire ayo mi
Jesu, bami wase fun se.

As it were, I am only fluent when speaking. On paper though, well...the above is what you get.