Did you know that the first book on Ao Naga Grammar with Illustrations, Phrases and Vocabulary was published as early as in 1893? That was 129 years ago. Speaking from the literary perspective, Rev Dr Clark’s magnum opus was the Ao Naga Dictionary, the first dictionary of its kind containing 10,000 word entries published from Baptist Mission Press, Calcutta in 1911.
His wife, Mary Clark, was also actively involved in literary works. Besides helping her husband, she prepared and published Ao for School Children in 1877. Her major literary contribution was The Ao Naga Grammar with Illustrations, Phrases and Vocabulary published in 1893, the first grammar book of Ao language. We did not have a script until the Christian missionaries introduced the Roman Script.
If we flip through the pages of the history of Ao literature, we will find that the pioneering writers have made a monumental contribution towards the evolution of Ao language and literature. We ought to acknowledge them. We must, likewise, appreciate the contemporary Ao writers for breathing in life and exerting active contribution towards the evolutionary process of Ao language.
Literary affluence was inherent to our ancestors. Look at the lyrics of their songs – they are of the highest form of literature. They were most prolific in the usage of metaphors and similes. They were splendid lyricists. Such vivid aesthetic sense, they possessed. Their figure of speech and sublime romanticizing of the world around them was a product of their literary imagination.
The next 30 years, or the next putu, could possibly turn out to be the age of Ao literary renaissance.
We have a number of qualified intellectuals in almost every field. They should contribute. They should write. In Ao, of course.
Imagine Ao books being translated into other languages.
Imagine Ao words finding its way into the next edition of the Oxford dictionary.
Imagine a computer application software specifically designed in Ao – perhaps we can replicate MS Word.
The young should be taught to read and write Ao. The apex Ao Senden’s diktat that Ao must be taught in every school in Mokokchung, is a step in the right direction.
Ao should find a place in Nagaland University.
Imagine an Ao Encyclopedia, an exhaustive paperback on Ao Grammar and Composition and its usage.
Here lies before us an opportunity to be part of an epoch making period of time. Let posterity define this generation as the age of Ao literary renaissance. To make it happen depends on our imagination.
Mokokchung Times