Celebrating Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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The Fabric of Nigerian Weddings

Bride Dola Olutoye poses with her bridesmaids in traditional Nigerian attire and matching geles, a scarf or fabric folded into an ornate shape atop a woman’s head.Olu Ogundeyin of IMG Artistry

(By Adenike Olanrewaju) - The Fabric of Nigerian Weddings. The color and flair of traditional ceremonies give brides and grooms a way to express a vibrant cultural heritage.

Dola Fatunbi Olutoye, 25, was ecstatic after becoming engaged last November to Dr. Yinka Olutoye, 26. She knew she wanted a traditional Nigerian wedding, but needed help executing the cultural elements of the ceremony, which took place on May 25 in Houston. 

Mrs. Olutoye, a pharmacy student from Houston, and Dr. Olutoye, a recent medical school graduate, are both Nigerian-Americans who are part of the Yoruba ethnic group, which is heavily concentrated in the Southwest region of Nigeria.

Adichie, Anambra, and the Core of Igbo Society

(By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) - I am from Abba, in Njikoka LGA. My mother is from Umunnachi in Dunukofia LGA. I grew up in Nsukka, in Enugu State, a town that remains deeply important to me, but Abba and Umunnachi were equally important to me. My childhood was filled with visits. To see my grandmother, to spend Christmas and Easter, to visit relatives. I know the stories of my great grandfather and of his father, I know where my great grandmother’s house was built, I know where our ancestral lands are.
          Abum nwa afo Umunnachi, nwa afo Abba, nwa afo Anambra.

          I am proud of Anambra State. And if our sisters and brothers who are not from Anambra will excuse my unreasonable chauvinism, I have always found Igbo as spoken by ndi Anambra to be the most elegant form of Igbo.
          Anambra State has much to be proud of. This is a state that produced that political and cultural colossus Nnamdi Azikiwe. This is a state that produced the mathematics genius Professor James Ezeilo. This is a state that produced Dora Nkem Akunyili, a woman who saved the lives of so many Nigerians by demonstrating dedicated leadership as the Director General of NAFDAC. (May her soul continue to rest in peace)

          This is a state that produced Nigeria’s first professor of Statistics, Professor James Adichie, a man I also happen to call Daddy. This is a state that produced the first woman to be registrar of Nigeria’s premiere university, UNN, Mrs Grace Adichie, a woman I also happen to call Mummy.
          This is a state that has produced great writers. If Chinua Achebe and Flora Nwapa and Chukwuemeka Ike had not written the books they did, when they did, and how they did, I would perhaps not have had the emotional courage to write my own books. Today I honour them and all the other writers who came before me. I stand respectfully in their shadow. I also stand with great pride in the shadow of so many other daughters and sons of Anambra State.

"Does Nollywood Actually Portray Igbo Culture?"

(By Eddie Iroh) - I know that aficionados of Nollywood will have my guts for garters for saying this. I will say it all the same. But there again this is directed mainly to Ndigbo who, with some justification, traditionally claim “ownership” of the genesis of the Nigerian film industry because of their pioneer role in the home video enterprise.

To be sure Nollywood is said to have bumped up the re-jigged Nigerian GDP a few years ago and helped propel the economy to the biggest in Africa. The industry provides substantial outlet for the employment of scores of Nigerians from actors to crews and staff. No one can sniff at that.

While this is not a critique of the quality of Nollywood’s output one cannot but observe similarities between Nollywood and the excessively exaggerated plots and storyline of the Indian films of the 60’s – even though art and technology have moved on in the five decades of the then nascent Bollywood.

But my concern here is whether the Igbo people take any notice of how Nollywood portrays their culture in the so-called Epic movies? Is art imitating life here or is it an instrument of correction and change? Do Ndigbo notice how they are portrayed as a people who can do just about anything for money, thus reinforcing the stereotype even though those who have looted Nigeria since independence are predominantly non Igbo?

Nollywood’s Igbo characters will allow any moneybag however unscrupulous and questionable the source of his wealth to marry their daughters, however miss-matched. The parents will swallow even her most serious reservations the minute a wad of Naira enters their hands.

Adichie and the Love of Igbo Names

“I love unusual names. At my book-signing events, when I come across a beautiful name – from any part of the world – I write it down and plan to use it in my fiction. I am Igbo so obviously unusual Igbo names mean even more to me. I think Igbo names are so beautiful and so full of poetry and many of them are not often used because the same few post-Christian names are now in circulation. I love the idea of names as history.”

                                                          ……….

“I think it is catastrophic that we, in the name of Christianity, are destroying our pre-Christian heritage. An ancient tree burned down during a vigil. Artifacts destroyed in the name of 'progress.' We need to tell those stories. If you are thinking of 'addressing that combination,' please do. You have a reader here.”

ChimamandaNgozi Adichie

Oraukwu: Igu Aro, Iro Mmuo, Iwa Ji, et al

(Oraukwu.comOraukwu.com)--Ofala (Igu Aro)

The word "Ofala", as one of those non-indigenous Igbo words, probably Igala derivatives, but more precisely origin unknown, would best be defined as a Royal outing involving communal celebrations, in a carefully planned program wrapped in a grandeur and outpouring of respect, revelry and as established by custom and sponsored by the with the benefit of hindsight, it is easy and safe to say that Ofala festival represents the apotheosis of Eze, Igwe or Obi in Igbo land. The event is used to celebrate in royal fashion the reign of the Igwe unprecedented for its length, its glory, its prosperity and let it be added, its goodness and peaceful tenure.

Igwe Osita Agwuna III: For the Love of Culture

(Okey Ndibe)-- …It was in that ancient town [of Enugwu Ukwu] that my awareness of the depth, beauty and pageantry of Igbo language, customs and culture was awakened. Every traditional ceremony in the town was marked by an enchanting festive air featuring a parade of hundreds of masquerades of different sorts, sometimes including the majestic Ijele.

Igbo Hospitality: Kola Nut and White Clay

Bowl of kola nut; source: www.oraukwu.com

“Kola nut, oji (Cola acuminata), and white chalk, nzu, are two of the most frequently used and

culturally important substances in the Igbo world, and both figure prominently in initial hospitality ceremonies crucial to the success of any social or ritual undertaking.

Both substances are regarded as having ritual power, are sacrifices, and function as facilitators of communication between men and between men and their gods. The two substances are different but each is indispensible, and it is difficult to imagine Igbo like without them.

The cultural preeminence of kola nut and chalk has inspired the Igbo to devise special containers for their ceremonial presentation. While these serving dishes are optional and not always artistically elaborated, the substances are mandatory.

Raised Catholic, Inspired by Pope Francis

Holy Trinity Cathedral, Onitsha, Nigeria; source: Reuters

(Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)--As a child, I loved Mass, its swirl of music and rituals. My family went every Sunday to St. Peter’s, the Catholic chapel at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka. It was full of perfumed people: gold pendants at women’s throats, their headscarves flared out like the wings of giant butterflies; men’s caftans crisply starched; children in frilly socks and uncomfortable clothes. Mass was as much social as spiritual—an occasion to greet and gossip, to see and be seen, and to leave consoled. I loved watching the priests sweep past, all certainty and majestic robes, behind the sober Mass-servers holding candles. The choir sang in Igbo and English, each song a little plot of joy. I loved the smoky smells, the standing and sitting and kneeling, the shiny metal chalice raised high in air charged with magic and ringing bells. The words of the liturgy were poetry.

Igbo People, Culture, and History

The Ancestors and the Dialogue of Religions

Source: timeslive.co.za

"My father was a man of few words, and I have always regretted that I had not asked him more questions. But I realize also that he took pains to tell me what he thought I needed to know. He told me, for instance, in a rather oblique way of his one tentative attempt long ago to convert his uncle.

It must have been in my father’s youthful, heady, proselytizing days! His uncle had said no, and pointed to the awesome row of insignia of his three titles. “what shall I do to these?” he had asked my father. It was an awesome question. What do I do to who I am? What do I do to history?

An orphan child born into adversity, heir to commotions, barbarities, rampant upheaveals of a continent in disarray: was it all surprising that he would eagerly welcome the explanation and remedy proffered by diviners and interpreters of a new word [i.e., Christianity]?

And his uncle Udoh, a leader in his community, a moral, open-minded man, a prosperous man who had prepared such a great feast when he took the ozo title that his people gave him a unique praise-name for it: was he to throw all that away now because some strangers from afar came and said so?

Those two—my father and his uncle—formulated the dialectic which I inherited. Udoh stood fast in what he knew, but he left room also for his nephew to seek other answers. The answer my father found in the Christian faith solved many problems, but by no means all.”

Chinua Achebe (2009: 37), The Education of a British-Protected Child

Growing My Hair Again, by Chika Unigwe

Source: vowinitiative.org

(Chika Unigwe)--"I am crouching beside the bed, my palms flat on the deep red rug that swallows my sobs. The rug is warm. It is a mother's hand. My posture is--I hope--appropriate to the occasion. My mother-in-law is watching me, her eyes hawk-like even through her own tears. She sniffs and says, 'You're not crying loud enough. Anyone would think you never loved him. Bee akwa!'

She never approved of me. I had an excess of everything. Education. Beauty. Relatives. Hair. Sure to bring any man down. At the thought of my hair, my palms go cold. By this time tomorrow, it will all be gone. I shall be taken to the backyard by group of widows, probably all of them strangers. One of them, the oldest, will lather my hair with a new tablet of soap (which will be thrown away once it's been used on me), and then shave all of is off with a razor blade. I shall be bathed in cold water. Strange women splashing water on me. Cleansing me to make my husband's passage easy on him: a ritual to make the break between us final so that he is not stuck halfway between this world and the next shouting himself hoarse calling for his wife to be at his side when he joins his ancestors.

'You should cry louder. You sound like you're mourning a family pet. You are a widow, nwanyi a! Cry as if you lost a husband! Bee akwa. Cry!'

Flavor: Igbo Amaka

Photo source: @igboamaka

"Chi" in Igbo Cosmology, by Chinua Achebe

There are two clearly distinct meanings of the word chi in Igbo. The first is often translated as god, guardian angel, personal spirit, soul, spirit-double etc. the second meaning is day or daylight but it most commonly used for those transitional periods between day and night or night and day. Thus we speak of chi ofufo meaning daybreak and chi ojiji, nightfall. We also have the word mgbachi for that most potent hour of noon that splits the day in two, a time favoured in folklore by itinerant spirits and feared by children.

I am chiefly concerned here with the first meaning of chi, a concept so central in Igbo psychology and yet so elusive and enigmatic. The great variety of words and phrases which has been put forward at different times by different people as translations of this concept attests to its great complexity and lends additional force to the famous plea of Dr. J. B. Danquah that we pay one another’s gods the compliment of calling them by their proper name.

In a general way we may visualize a person’s chi as his other identity in spiritland – his spirit being complementing his terrestrial human being; for nothing can stand alone, there must always be another thing standing beside it.

Mazrui Got It Wrong on Okigbo, Ekwe-Ekwe

Rudolf's "Memo To My Fellow Ndi-Igbo"

Igbo drummers

I write you all with great humility. I forgot how much I missed you all and missed engaging in the all-important conversation we need to have within our “mkpuke” (inner chamber) and the ones we need to have in the square.

As a kid, I was once marveled by the sight of a large cart kept in the church premises on which it was written, “Ọ bụ m, ka ọ bụ gị?” I asked my parents what it meant. They explained that the cart was used to push coffins into the church for funeral mass and was simply asking the question, ”Would it be me or you?” In other words, for whom does the bell toll?

Happy Birthday Chinua Achebe. #Inspiration

Achebe (b. November 16, 1930)

"I'd like to pursue my own understanding and study of Igbo culture, which excites me more and more everyday.... This is one of the major cultures in Africa, and it's received scant attention. And somebody ought to get down to work on it, you know, just to uncover the mainspring of Igbo thinking. This is a major undertaking. And I'm not certain just what aspect I shall begin with, but that doesn't matter--this is the major area that needs to be attended to. So, that's the next thing that I'm excited about--getting back to Igboland, getting back to the study of Igbo people and Igbo culture." (Chinua Achebe, 1976)

"When I write, I always think of my hometown, my district, my province, my race. One must take into account those who speak a language which is exclusively yours and whose problems you share. Problems like oppression, like living in a given society. I began from the inside, in my own thinking, and worked out; and I hope that others will understand and get something out of what I am saying." (Chinua Achebe, 1973)

Nwulite Asụsụ Na Omenala Igbo

Mwulite Asụsụ Na Omenala Igbo Na Kọleeji Ọzụzụ Ndị Nkụzị: Ụzọ A Pụrụ Ịgbaso

Ebere Dominic Chibuzor

Ngalaba Asụsụ Igbo, Kọleeji Ọzụzụ Ndị Nkụzị Gọọmenti Etiti Dị Na Kano.

dominozion@yahoo.com

Ụmi Edemede

Ọtụtụ mgbe, imeriime ụmụ afọ Igbo anaghị eji asụsụ Igbo ebido ikwu okwu. Tụmadị ndị nne na nna ha rụrụ ọrụ bekee n’obodo ndị mepere emepe na mpụga ala Igbo. Ọtụtụ n’ime ha ji asụsụ a gwara ogwa akọwapụta uche ha. Maka ụmụaka ndị dị etu a, ohere ọzọ ha nwere ịmụta asụsụ na omenala Igbo bụzị n’ụlọakwụkwọ. E ruo n’ ụlọakwụkwọ, ọ naghịkwa adịịmfe n’ihi na ha na-amụzị asụsụ Igbo dị ka asụsụ nke abụọ. Ọnọdụ a wee bụrụ nnukwu ihe ndọlaazụ nye ọmụmụ asụsụ na omenala Igbo. Ụta adịghịrị ụdị  ụmụaka ndị a n’ihi na ọ bụ asụsụ nwata na-anụkarị na gburugburu ebe obibi ya ka ọ na-ebu ụzọ amụta.  Ọ bụ nke a kpatara o ji dị oke mkpa ịchọ ụzọ a ga-esi chọpụta ma gbochie ihe ndọlaazụ niile na-egbochi ezi agamnihu n’ọmụmụ asụsụ na omenala Igbo n’ụlọakwụkwọ tụmadị na Kọleeji ebe a na-azụpụta ndị ga-akụzịasụsụ ndị a. N’ime nke a, ihe nchọcha a gbasoro usoro nchọcha nkọwasi na nnyocha ya. Ihe nchọcha a gosipụtara na enweghị mmasị so bụrụ nnukwu ihe ndọlaazụ nye ọmụmụ asụsụ na omenala Igbo. Ọ kwadoro usoro nkụzị ga-akwalite mmasị ụmụakwụkwọ n’ọmụmụ asụsụ ụ nke ga-eme ka asụsụ, tụmadịasụsụ nne nọrọ n’ogo kwesịrị ya n’ọmụmụ ihe. N’ikpeazụ, a chịkọtara ihe niile a rụtụrụ aka n’edemede ma site na ya wepụta ndụmọdụ na mmechi zuru oke.

Writing in Igbo Language

Writing in the Igbo Language: Standards and Trends, by M. C. Onukawa

1.0      Preamble

Before the advent of Christian Missions in Igboland (through whose efforts the Igbo language was reduced to writing) Igbo, like several other Nigerian languages, had no written form. The Igbo language, literature, and culture were transmitted orally from parents to their children, adults to young ones, generation to generation. 

Children “were taught the history, geography, literature, civics, etc., of their people through stories, songs, myths, legends, and even contact with the environment” (Nwadike, 2008, p. 2). They were also taught different traditional trades and spheres of life in practical terms. 

The Igbo, however, had some esoteric sign writings through which they kept some accounts and records, and also preserved and transmitted some information (particularly secretly). There was also the NSIBIDI sign writing that was popular among the Igbo and their Ibibio neighbours.

1.1      Some Facts of Orthography

Orthography consists of the letters (i.e the alphabet) used in writing the sounds, as well as the rules that govern the spelling of words, phrases and sentences in a language.  A good orthography should therefore provide the following: the alphabet, the spelling rules, the punctuation marks and the rules governing their use. There are five recognized principles

that make a good orthography: accuracy, consistency, convenience, harmonization, and familiarity (Williamson, 1984).