F.C. Ogbalu: Father of Igbo Orthography and Literature

“F. Chidozie Ogbalu (1927-1990), sometimes called the "father" of Igbo language and culture, was born in Adagbe, Abagana, and was a lifelong teacher and champion of his Igbo heritage. He taught Latin, Geography and Igbo at a number of schools, and took a great interest in the Igbo-related controversies of his time. These controversies revolved around efforts to standardize the writing and spelling of the Igbo language, and to improve its numeral system.

Thus in 1948, while teaching at Dennis Memorial Grammar School, Onitsha, Ogbalu wrote a newspaper article in The Nigerian Spokesman attacking the colonial administration for its failure to encourage standardization, and forcefully arguing against a new "Adams-Ward" orthography being advocated by some linguists. This orthography, which he called "obnoxious," involved phonetic symbols that would inevitably have complicated the process of learning to read the language. Ogbalu's principal at Dennis Memorial then advised him that instead of writing to the newspapers, he would do better to write and publish his own material in the Igbo language. Ogbalu took up the challenge, and by the following year he had founded the Society for Promoting Igbo Language and Culture (SPILC). He was then only 22 years old. (Eight years later, carrying the advice a step further, he established the Varsity Press in Onitsha.)

Reinventing Enterprise in Igbo Land

NKATA UMU IBE | MARCH 2019

Centre for Memories: Ncheta Ndigbo
Topic: 'Mkpuru Onye Kuru'
Reinventing Enterprise n' Ala Igbo. Speaker: Ike Chioke (Group Managing Director, AFRINVEST)

"Nma," "Chidinma": Igbo Names Spelt Incorrectly

(By Azuka Onwuka) - Why Nma, Chidinma, Uzodinma are not Igbo Names
It is common to see people who write their names as Nma, Chidinma, Agbonma, Uzodinma, Nmesoma, etc. In fact, if you spell your name as “Chidimma,” someone would promptly edit it to read “Chidinma.” But these are not Igbo spellings and cannot be called Igbo names.
          Why?
          It is not possible for “n” and “m” to follow each other in Igbo language, no matter the dialect. It can never happen. The use of “nm” together shatters the structure of the Igbo language, making a mockery of its phonology and phonetics.
          The ridiculous argument such people make is that “nma” means beauty, while “mma” means knife. But like Chief Zebrudaya would say: “Fa fa fa foul!”
          Whatever its meaning, “mma” must be spelt as “mma.” The only way to differentiate one from the other is by tone-marking. The same thing applies to “akwa” which can be tone-marked to mean four different things: ákwá (cry), àkwà (bed), àkwá (egg), and ákwà (cloth).
          Here are the variants of mma:
beauty = mmã
knife/machete = mmà
mother = mmá (adapted from “mama” just as “mpa” is adapted from “papa”).

Lionheart: A Movie for Business and Film Schools

(By Toni Kan) - Three years after her first award winning feature film, Road to Yesterday, Nollywood screen goddess, Genevieve Nnaji has returned with her sophomore feature, Lionheart starring a slew of Nollywood greats – Pete Edochie, Onyeka Onwenu, Nkem owoh, Chika Okpala aka Zebrudaya, Kanayo O Kanayo as well as music star Phyno and award winning young actress, Jemima Osunde.

The film which was rejected by a section of film distributors in Nigeria made its worldwide debut on Netflix on Friday January 4, 2019.
My friend and brother, Wilfred Okiche has described Lionheart as “the feel good movie of the year” and he is correct but there is a lot he did not say.
            Genevieve Nnaji teaming up with Ishaya Bako (who directed Road to Yesterday) and Chinny Onwugbuenu has given us a very important movie. Lionheart, as its title suggests, is that rare and brave thing, a stereotype defying movie, a business primer and a very, very wise movie.
            Kudos must be given to the writers – Genevieve Nnaji, Chinny Onwugbuenu, CJ Obasi, Ishaya Bako and Emil Garba – for providing a unifying vision around the original idea.
            I have described Lionheart as an important movie because it speaks to the future in an eloquent voice.

Lionheart: Lessons for an Impressed Fan

Genevieve Nnaji and Nkem Owoh

(By Nkechi Bianze) - I watched #LionHeart on Netflix yesterday.

The movie is a breath of fresh air. Away from the usual stale boring storyline.

1. The uncle came to actually contribute his bit to saving the company. He didn't come to kill the brother and take over the company and money.

2. Pete Edochie didn't die suddenly by a heart attack or something. He fell ill and got back on his feet.

3. Pete Edochie and his wife recognized the strengths of their children. The son wasn't victimized for choosing not to manage the family business. He was allowed to follow his own dream of a music career. He wasn't taunted like a lost soul or prodigal son as a result of his choice.
Genevieve, even as a woman was given the freedom to manage the family business and source of wealth. There was no sexism in this case like most other Nollywood movies would have shoved down our throats.

4. There was no family feud. Sister inlaw and brother inlaw weren't fighting their brother's wife. Son wasn't trying to claim he is the man and in charge of the family wealth, either by crook or real.

5. The storyline is simple yet engaging. It was all about saving a drowning family business. The struggles were realistic, and the journey to finally being able to save Lionheart was quite realistic too.
A Billion Naira didn't suddenly appear from nowhere for them to clear their debt. They fought, tried and tried, and they triumphed.

To Write in Igbo Or Not to Write in English

(By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) - "I’m not sure my writing in English is a choice. If a Nigerian Igbo like myself is educated exclusively in English, discouraged from speaking Igbo in a school in which Igbo was just one more subject of study (and one that was considered ‘uncool’ by students and did not receive much support from the administration), then perhaps writing in English is not a choice, because the idea of choice assumes other equal alternatives.

Although I took Igbo until the end of secondary school and did quite well, it was not at all the norm. Most of all, it was not enough. I write Igbo fairly well but a lot of my intellectual thinking cannot be expressed sufficiently in Igbo. Of course this would be different if I had been educated in both English and Igbo. Or if my learning of Igbo had an approach that was more wholistic.

The interesting thing, of course, is that if I did write in Igbo (which I sometimes think of doing, but only for impractical, emotional reasons), many Igbo people would not be able to read it. Many educated Igbo people I know can barely read Igbo and they mostly write it atrociously.

I think that what is more important in this discourse is not whether African writers should or should not write in English but how African writers, and Africans in general, are educated in Africa.

Ugwumba TV: Emume Ndi Igbo

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).

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.

For the Love of Igbo and Igbo Culture

"Igbo Child in Finland" by Adebanji Alade

I recently recalled a conversation I had with a good friend of mine some years ago. I had expressed a desire to study Igbo (language, literature, culture, anything) at the university level but my friend immediately dismissed it as a "stupid" thought. "What? Are you crazy," he asked me in utter disbelief. He had not understood why people go to the university to study English language, much less French, he said. And there I was expressing an interest in Igbo language. I must be crazy, he concluded.

Thank goodness I'm as sane as they come. My sole insanity is my passion for a culture that I love so much--its language, its history, and its people. I remember an equally great passion and pride with which the likes of Nigeria's literary giant, Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, and celebrity journalist, Bashorun Dele Momodu (who actually studied Yoruba in the university), speak of their Yoruba culture. I remember a similar fervor with which the 17th century English playwright, William Shakespeare wrote about English culture and by so doing preserved it for posterity in his plays. I remember a comparable enthusiasm that prompted a group of French men in 1883 to found Alliance Francaise "to promote French language and culture around the world." I remember all this and I wonder at my good friend's disdain for the study of his own culture.