‘Yoruba, English should co-exist’

Chief Executive Officer of Genii Games, Adebayo Adegbembo, has said that the Yoruba and English languages should co-exist in the same space. He declared this while responding to questions from TheNiche.
“I think both languages can co-exist as long as the Yoruba language doesn’t suffer as it currently does. Hence, there needs to be more effort to encourage the use of Yoruba language to further raise it to the level where we have accepted English today,” he said.
The founder of Genii Games has evolved various platforms from his deep understanding of Yoruba language and is pushing the frontiers of the language to ensure that people from Latin America can have access to it.
His company, he said, is where interactive mobile apps and animated videos are developed to help children learn Nigerian languages, ethics, etiquette and more.
On how he came to be a speaker of the two languages, he said he grew up in a household where Yoruba remains the language of communication.
“This is coupled with the fact that Yoruba is the dominant native language in Lagos where I also grew up. With respect to English, I learnt it at school from the nursery level,” he said.
The story of Genii Games is as interesting as it is educative. Adegbembo said that though the company was incorporated in 2013, he started out in 2012 as a way of using technology to make the subject of Nigerian languages fun for kids using games.
“Starting out, I had to rely on my programming skills; but I have since grown to leverage the skills of others as a team, thanks to the support of the Co-Creation Hub (CCHub), my primary partners. Having come out of the Tech-in education competition that was run by them (CCHub), I received support in the areas of funding, mentorship among others,” he recalled.
Saying the whole idea was driven by the need to make Yoruba language fun for kids, he explained that our local languages can sometimes seem boring for kids, especially in light of other attractions (cartoons, games etc) at their disposal.
“I found a need to leverage features that they find interesting to help them learn Yoruba. Specifically, the Yoruba101 app uses colourful graphics, animations, text, voice, sound and games to teach Yoruba language and culture,” he said.