Literature in Indigenous Language: Its Relevance to Human Development

Abstract

This paper attempts the examination of the relevance of literature in indigenous languages such as Igbo in human development. One of the major challenges of Nigeria is how to work out modalities that will enhance good human development. Human development has been defined as a process of widening people’s choices as well as raising the level of well-being. For this to be actualized there is need to carry out a re-orientation of the people’s general conception of process of development in terms of economy. The paper therefore argues that since human development have to do with human mind, literature (as genre) in indigenous language such as Igbo as a school subject at all levels of education and as well as reading it for leisure will obviously play important role in achieving good human development index. Igbo literature in the areas of prose, drama and poetry can play crucial role in sensitizing and orienting the people on the steps to take in other to achieve good human development index. The theoretical framework adopted for the study is Aristotle’s Rhetorical Theory. This literary approach is relevant to this study because it advocates that its concern is with the type of discourse whose chief aim is to persuade an audience to think and feel or act in a particular way in other to achieve the desired objective(s).It is hoped that this study will be useful to the government and students who are carrying out further research on human development.