Prof. Kay Williamson

12:15 - 13:00 Kay Williamson, Linguistics, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, Endangered languages in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria: Situation and suggestions

Prof Kay Williamson, erudite professor of linguistics at the University of Port Harcourt, succumbed to the cold hands of death at her Choba home penultimate week after a brief illness.
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With the establishment of the University of Port Harcourt in 1977, Kay was among the few U. I. staff that volunteered to nurture the new university of Port Harcourt that had affiliation to the University of Ibadan. Her mission was not to teach Foreign languages but to nuture and develop at least one of the myriads of local language existing in the Niger Delta.The university of Port Harcourt therefore provided a veritable platform to achieve a long wished ambition.Arriving Port Harcourt, he met the likes of Nolue Emenanjo, Nnolim, Okafor, who together gave birth to what is now referred to as the most verile faculty of Humanities in Nigerian education history.Prof Williamson was not done yet; she then put together the first department of a real African language not just to teach Nigerian major languages of Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba but Ijaw spoken by at least two third of the Niger Delta. To the envy of scholars and indigenes of the then Rivers State, Kay began the exposition and development of Ijaw language, almost putting down a complete volume of Ijaw Dictionary.I once asked her after a lecture, one hot afternoon, why she preferred Ijaw language.Her answer was short and simple: "If you go the library you will see so many works on the three Nigerian languages, Ijaw you know is the fourth most spoken language in Nigeria even though at a rural setting but somebody must develop it, that is what I am doing.
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Prof Williamson was widely published and did far more than anyone else to develop Ijaw dialects and the language.It was in recognition of this she was bestowed with the Governor's award of Excellence in Linguistic Development by the Government of Bayelsa last year.At the time of her death, she held the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Studies at the University of Port Harcourt
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In 1988, Professor Kay Williamson was asked by NTA Port Harcourt during an interview about her marital status.Her reply was simple and sharp: "I am married to Linguistics."The interviewer and her viewers were surprised.To them, it was incomprehensible for a full-grown woman, well advanced in age and radiating warmth and excitement to live without a family of her own.To Mama Kay (as she was fondly called by her students) and those who have passed through her tutelage, this colossus of a woman was not only married to Linguistics (The scientific study of languages) but, to Nigeria in words and deeds.Originally a British citizen, Professor Williamson took up Nigerian citizenship and ended up being adored by many ethnic nationalities.The Ijaws of Bayelsa state honoured her for helping to develop their dialect and language while other nationalities respected her for her pioneering efforts in developing other Nigerian languages.
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According to the erudite professor, it was under Professor Williamson that he learnt the rudiments of Igbo, his own language.Mama Kay was a nationalist whose works and deeds were eloquent testimonies.Her works also gave expressions to Nigeria's yearnings for unity.From another of her works, The Pedigree of Nations, She said from the study of historical linguistics, we learn that the enormous complexity of Nigeria's languages has developed from a small number of original proto-languages, and thus that below the surface differences lie old and deep-seated similarities, which point to common origins.Even where the different language families cannot be shown, at present to have a common origin, as with Chadic and Niger-Congo, thousands of years of interaction have resulted in widespread borrowing and language shift, both of which show evidence of mutual accommodation.Thus it is not recently, but for millennia, that Nigerians and their ancestors have been working out the theme of Unity in Diversity?She was at home Nigerian delicacies and it would be surprising seeing her savouring eba and egusi soup.To her students, Mama Kay was fun to be with as she affected everyone around with her intellect.It was from her we imbibed the culture of cherishing our books as a possession.Books, according to her were a treasure which must be handled with utmost care.A mere mishandling of the books or any book whatsoever in her presence could earn one a query.