Why I wrote Igbo dictionary for kids – Yvonne Chioma Mbanefo

Bookshelf: Your book, ‘Okowaokwu Igbo Umuaka: Igbo Dictionary for Children’ became a number one best seller within 24 hours on Amazon USA. How did this happen? Yvonne Chioma Mbanefo: I don’t quite know how it happened, to be honest. I did some marketing on social media, but I never envisaged the response the book got […]

Bookshelf: Your book, ‘Okowaokwu Igbo Umuaka: Igbo Dictionary for Children’ became a number one best seller within 24 hours on Amazon USA. How did this happen?
Yvonne Chioma Mbanefo: I don’t quite know how it happened, to be honest. I did some marketing on social media, but I never envisaged the response the book got once it was released to the public. I think it’s because it met a need.

Bookshelf: Do you speak Igbo? When and what made you say, ‘okay, I will write an Igbo dictionary for children’?
Mbanefo: Yes, I speak Igbo fluently. I wanted my children to learn the language and I couldn’t find the kind of material they were used to, so I decided to create it myself.

Bookshelf: Why not simply ‘an Igbo dictionary’? Or are you more tilted toward children?
Mbanefo: We already have a more detailed Igbo dictionary that we are working on as a group. It’s not that I am more tilted toward kids per se. I just discovered a need that had to be filled.

Bookshelf: And to think it was your first book ever. Do you have any writing background?
Mbanefo: I come from a digital media and information design background. So yes, in a sense I have a writing background, from creating assets to arranging information in an easy to digest manner.

Bookshelf: What was your experience like writing this book?
Mbanefo: Challenging, but at the same time I couldn’t wait to see what the end product would look like. I also felt a bit of trepidation which is normal, really, when one is breaking new ground.

Bookshelf: How did you go about researching for the book and what challenges did you encounter? 
Mbanefo: I researched for the book by looking at dictionaries in other languages, some lexicological data and existing Igbo dictionaries.
The main challenge I encountered was designing a dictionary that is suited to children learning Igbo as a second language, as there is a shortage of materials in Igbo as a second language. Others were finding the right images, finding Afrocentric images and also getting the exact layout I wanted for the look and feel of the pages.
I also had some challenges in deciding which high frequency words children encountered on a daily basis. The varied dialects in Igbo language were also a big issue, but I eventually decided to write the dictionary in standard written Igbo, which is the version currently used in formal settings, broadcasting and education. I added a few dialectical variations to the headwords on the dictionary but all the sample sentences are in Igbo Izugbe, or Central written Igbo.  I also included some phrases and ‘service words’, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and verbs in the dictionary, with contextual sentences based on the supplied images to give greater meaning to the child reading the book.
Another challenge was finding a Nigerian publisher for the book as most of the Nigerian publishers I contacted were not interested. However, once I contacted Kawuriz and Manilas Publishers at Onitsha, everything was sorted out and the rest is history.

Bookshelf: What is your educational background?
Mbanefo: I have a BSc Hons in Digital Media, a Master’s degree in eLearning and Information design, as well as a Post graduate certificate of education. I am also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, United Kingdom.

Bookshelf: What’s the demand for the book like at the moment?
Mbanefo: The demand for the book is still very high in the diaspora at the moment, and it has only just become available in Nigeria, which is looking very promising. It is printed, marketed and distributed by KMP Publishers in Onitsha.

Bookshelf: Are you working on any other project at the moment?
Mbanefo: Yes, I am working on a companion workbook for the dictionary, as well as completing the main comprehensive dictionary I mentioned earlier.