Urhobo Studies Association: Celebrating Two Decades Of Language Development

By Moses Darah

The Urhobo Studies Association (USA) was founded in 2005 at Delta State University, Abraka, by a group of scholars who responded to UNESCO’s warning on the rapid extinction of world languages. Concerned about the decline of Urhobo in favour of English and Nigerian Pidgin, they resolved to revitalise, document, and preserve it. The Association’s first landmark was the development of a standard orthography, building on the earlier establishment of a B.A. programme in Linguistics/Urhobo in 2001.

Since then, the USA has championed major projects: symposia, workshops, and the production of a school curriculum, which was formally approved in 2014 and unveiled in 2017. Despite bureaucratic hurdles and the lack of government recruitment of trained teachers, the Association has pressed on, producing textbooks, training programmes, and its flagship academic journal Aridon. It has also organised Urhobo Language Competitions in 2012 and 2024, inspiring students to embrace their heritage.

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The USA’s progress has been sustained by the support of scholars, politicians, traditional rulers, diaspora groups, and philanthropists. As it turns twenty, the Association will celebrate its achievements with an International Conference at the Delta State University, Abraka, from 1st to 3rd September 2025, under the theme “Two Decades of Advancing Urhobo Studies: Reflections, Progress and Future Direction.”

Two decades on, the USA remains a beacon of resilience, renewing its commitment to the preservation of Urhobo language, literature, culture, and identity for generations to come.