ABSTRACT
This chapter considers Itsekiri as a threatened and an endangered language. It touches on issues affecting the existence of the people and especially as they relate to the people's culture and language. It argues that the Itsekiri people are threatened culturally, politically, ecologically, and economically with the consequence that their language which gives them the distinction as an ethnic nationality is being endangered. The Itsekiri's fear of extinction is real, and is not an exaggeration. 'The language of a people is the imminent annihilation of their history and corporate existence'. The Itsekiri ethnic nationality exists as such unless it wins the battle of survival of its language. The chapter dwells on various aspects of the Itsekiri quagmire and efforts to circumvent it. But it is people's contention that the efforts of various individuals to rescue the language from extinction appear to be too little or too insignificant to rescue the Itsekiri language from imminent annihilation.
