The news about Maazi Ogbonnaya Okooro publishing the first-ever Physics textbook in Igbo history has gone viral online, with huge joy and hope for a better Igbo race.
The Book is titled: FIZIKSI: Ihe Ọmụmụ Mbaraigwe Na Ụwa N’ụzọ Dị Mfe. The past few years have seen a heightened zeal by Ndi Igbo to return to our language, culture, and traditions – asusu, Omenala na Odinala anyi.
Voice of the Sun report that this heightened zeal in the past 20 years and more has brought forth many teachings in Igbo history, arts, science, archaeology, cosmology, spirituality, and many other fields. And in that return to the very foundations of what makes us Ndi Igbo, many of us still use the English language in our teachings. So, it is a monumental feat for an entire Physics textbook to be written in the Igbo language.
In a Facebook announcement of the publishing of the book, and its availability for purchase, Maazi Ogbonnaya Okoro said:
“The first ever Physics textbook rendered in Nigerian language (Igbo) is OUT!!!!”
“Over the years, I have read so many threats facing the Igbo and how it will go extinct. This motivated me to embark on this project that seemed unattainable, for science subjects to be taught in Igbo. I started from Physics. I said I would do it, and I DID IT.
This book is designed in a way that one without formal education can understand Physics. It’s needed in all libraries, schools, homes, and for individual use.”
Maazi Ogbonnaya Okoro hails from Ebonyi State, Igbo land, and has been a major proponent in the revival of the Igbo language over the years. His story books and Novels, all written in Igbo language are currently being used in many Nigerian secondary schools and Universities.
This Physics Text Book is the only major subject (of importance to Igbo development) that has ever been translated into the Igbo Language. The only other book that has been translated into the Igbo language was the Bible, which was translated by Archdeacon Thomas J. Dennis between 1913 and 1917.
Ever since that time, Igbo scholars have lived their lives as though the Bible is the only foreign text that the Igbo need to be translated into the Igbo language. In a world fast developing and expanding, and with Ndi Igbo being some of the brightest minds in various fields of science and technology, our earlier scholars should have found it important to translate Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Geography, and other subjects to the Igbo language.
And so, in this age and time, Maazi Ogbonnaya Okoro has made history and has launched Ndi Igbo into an era where consciousness about our language and its use in various faculties of learning will be adopted by various scholars and academicians.
