Pat Utomi: Ochichi Na Odimma Igbo

Igbo People, Culture, and History

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!'

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)

I Find Joy in Igbo Language, Archbishop Obinna

Archbishop AJV Obinna

We haven’t quite fully recovered from the old indoctrination that everything from Europe or America is the best. Nigerians would have done better, but for the fact that we had people who were not properly educated leading us, and putting undue emphasis on everything Western. 

But when you study the Western culture as a real scholar, like some of us have done, you would discover that there is really nothing to get excited about. I have seen Europe and America, seen the white man, black man, yellow man, and all that. I have rediscovered myself. 

Indeed, when you have not rediscovered yourself, you will continue to look up to the Western world to define yourself. That’s why I define myself much more locally. I’ve found joy, learning and speaking the Igbo language. And that is why, in part, I started the Odenigbo Lecture Series.

The lecture series are conducted in my Igbo language; that every one in the village can understand. And I have discovered that it gives my people a great sense of joy, because I am helping them rediscover their identity, and to know that Igbo language is as good as English, French or any other, and never a mark of stupidity if you speak only Igbo. 

That there are very brilliant people who speak only Igbo because, after all, it was through the natural talents of farmers, fishermen and traders who never went to school, and what they cultivated, that their children were able to become trained as engineers and scientists. Indeed, many children of farmers, wine-tappers and wrestlers, have turned out to be excellent role models, because it is the practical knowledge of our people that laid the foundation for further intellectual or mental development of the later generation.

Igbo People and Igbo Land

Olaudah Equina - Jaja of Opobo - Nri Obalike - Chinua Achebe
Philip Emeagwali - Pat Utomi - Chris Abani - Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Chimamanda N. Adichie - Chiwetel Ejiofor - Mikel Obi - Genevieve Nnaji

(From The World Igbo Congress) - Igbo people are among the largest single ethnic groups in Africa. They are based mostly in southeastern Nigeria constituting about 25% of the population of the country. Because the Igbo is daring, competitive, hard-working and enterprising, they can be found doing business in all parts of Nigeria, in Cameroon, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea. 

These attributes brought success, wealth and power… as well as distrust, jealousy and outright hatred within the polity. The mass exodus of Igbo people from their homeland has continued unabated and the Igbo can indeed be found in very significant numbers in all parts of the world. Their language is Igbo. 

Administratively, Igbo people make up 100% of the five states of the southeast zone comprising Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo. The contiguous states of Delta and Rivers in the south-south zone also have very significant Igbo populations. Igbo is the language throughout Igbo land. Prominent cities/parts in the Igbo country include Aba, Awka, Owerri, Orlu, Nnewi, Mbaise, Nsukka, Enugu, Onitsha , Afikpo, Okigwe, Umuahia, Asaba, amongst others.