As We Embark on an Interesting Journey: Welcome on Board!

Culture is simply the way of life of every living creature. Everything that has life has a culture. The plants, animals, and human beings all have their cultures which varies based on specie. In other words, there are divers cultures.

Different species of plants have their growth periods, preferred climate,nature of existence,so does different insects and animals. While an Eagle in the family of birds has a culture of not feeding on dead animals, but sets its prey, a vulture finds its sustenance in feeding on dead animals. The horse is known for its strength, just as a cockroach is known for its perseverance. Convincingly, we can say that different living things in existence has a culture that differentiates them from other things. I think culture has its root in the word 'Unique'.

Uniqueness makes every individual value their culture. In fact, we can narrow down culture to the life of an individual. What differentiates Jack from Jacqueline, Paul from Paula, Joseph from Josephine, Mayowa from John, Ikechukwu from Haruna? More so, individuals exist to form families, what makes the Jones' family different from the Peter's family? When we discuss culture we can not but mention values and pride.

The most commonly associated with culture is the society.On a broadview, based on skin colour, the caucasian  style of life is very much different when compared to the way of life of the blacks. Every nation has what makes her stand out as a nation. Culture is defined by the beliefs, practices,faith,custom,arts,language,intelligence, food habit and facts about the people.

Kroeber A.L and Kruckhohn (1952), says, 'Culture consist of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols,constituting the distinctive achievement of human groups,including their embodiment in artifacts;the essential core of culture consist of traditional,( that is, historically derived and selected) ideas and especially, their attached values,culture systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action and on the other hand conditioning elements of further action.'

Banks and McGee (1989) says further, 'Most social scientist today view culture as consisting of the symbolic, ideational and intangible aspect of human societies. The essence of culture is not artifacts,tools and other cultural tangible elements but how the people interpret, use and perceive them. It is the values, interpretations and perceptives that distinguish one people from the other in modernized societies;it is not material objects and other tangible aspects of human societies. People within a culture usually interpret the use of symbols, artifacts and behaviorism the same or similar ways.'

Nigeria is a nation known for unity in diversity. Nigeria has about 240 ethnic groups,each with her culture. Every tribe values their culture but the lack of adequate knowledge of the culture is bringing emptiness into the supposed rich and abundant culture. Westernization has caused a major drift away from culture. The reverse would have been better; westernization should drive our culture positively. We should not lose touch with our tradition and way of life but we should make them better aesthetically and give them good publicity.

Cultural trumpet is of the objective of bringing out the beauty in the culture of a group of people known as the Yoruba people in the western part of Nigeria, located in West Africa. The language they speak is the Yoruba language. The Yoruba Language is  a tonal language, and it is spoken in different dialects with a standard dialect known as the Yoruba Ajumolo,(Yoruba for the collective).

The ancestors of the Yoruba people according to oral tradition is Oduduwa,son of Olodumare (the supreme god of the Yoruba people). This question comes to mind, what is the meaning of Yoruba? The term emanated from the relationship between the Hausas and the sons of Oduduwa resident in the old Oyo Empire. The concept of the name 'Yoruba' sometimes called 'Yariba' is not well defined. This led to the consensus of the Yoruba scholars to change the nomenclature to 'Omo Oduduwa' (children of Oduduwa), which they can give an explanation for.

As said earlier, the Yoruba language has many dialects. These dialects can be classified into three dialect areas: NorthWest,Central, and SouthWest. The NorthWest Yoruba(Ariwa Iwo Orun Yoruba) consist of: Oyo, Osun Ibadan, and Lagos. The Central Yoruba speakers are: Ife, Ijesha, and Ekiti areas; The SouthWest (Gusu Ila Orun) speakers are: Ondo,Owo,Ilaje, Ikale,Ikare, and Ijebu.

People in this part of the world may not be known for technological innovations and inventions but something is unique about their spirituality, that is, their religion and the oba institution. Beyond the language, there is a lot to share about the traditions, beliefs, history, faith, practices, custom, arts, intelligence, food and facts that this great people exhibit.

As we ride together, welcome on board!