Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.

Dismiss

IGBA NDU & IGBU OGE

467 views

Skip to first unread message

Maurice O. Ene

unread,

Jan 8, 1997, 3:00:00 AM1/8/97

Ndi Igbo:

I was being extra careful not to let my postings filter into naija-net I
deleted "igbo--net" from the address list of my last posting. Hence, those
of who read Chinyeaka's latest offering, and Vincent's contribution, may
not get the full gist of his jokes. I had asked Mr. Chief Chi nwa Okoli
earlier today to repost the piece when I couldn't find it on my system. I
just saw the piece in the "OUT BOX" of my PO, so I am re-posting it.

Before that let me comment briefly on the postings after mine: I think
Chinyeaka's use of "Okpa wawa" is tautology :-)! You see:
OKPA na-esighi na Mba Waawa puta abughi nke oma;
ndi Naijiria na-akpo ya "akpuruka."

As for catching up with Chinyeaka on eating okpa, I can only say that
"nwata tunyia nna ya enu, ogodo nna ya ga-ayochi ya anya." I do not
have to mount a voklsnwaogbenye to get the Real Mckoy: I live the Real
Mckoy!

On "Okeokpo (egbene) ishi nnekwu okuku" and "Mkpi igba nnekwu ewu"
.... and "okoro ikwa agbogho iko" ... FA NCHA is BONDING. But on the
linguistic particularities, I think we can take the discusssion back to Uwa
ndi-Igbo now that Onyenkuzi Omenak Ejike Eze is back. Yes, Igbo lingo is
truly deep.

Finally and most important, I thank Victor for his support of my use of
"Ogbagbandu Oji" to tie the entire ceremony of kolanut communion. This
is the "ishi okwu sekpu nti"; every other thing is as I would say.... not that
it means anything I truly understand is: "an addendum to the agendum"!!!
Thank you nwa Okany. Bilikwa. Jide ka i ji.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Now read the piece, first posted on January 7th, 1997, at exactly 5:02
PM EST:

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

>>> Chinyeaka Emmanuel Okoli <ceo...@acs.ucalgary.ca> 01/07/97
04:26am >>>

>> MAZI MOE & MAZI TOCHI, Whatever happens to OGE, both of you
are responsible! Igbo-titled-men kill animals. Each of them is nick-named
after the animal slaughtered. This is as far as I know. I wonder why
someone chose to kill a human being OGE(CHUKWU) and you proudly
announce it to "republik of igwemadu!

++++

Ojionuegbuoji nwa Okoli:

Ishi na o gini? Lekwa m lee motosikulu!
Funny piece... apropos, whatever happened to our Igbo Finns? Last
year, I asked if anyone knew what 'appened. No one wrote a word.

About "Ogbuene" as a title, I don't think the Igbo praise hunters who kill
the beatiful but agile royal antelope. Meanwhile, add to your collection:

1. Ogbuacha (What is "acha" in English? Giraffe!!)
2. Ogbuachara (for "oriaku" to make better fish & nsala soup?)
3. Ogbumgbada ("mgbada bu nwanne ene," kajikwo?)
4. Ogbuewu (which many tri-Stateans now are... thanks to Kwame
Owusu nwa Ghana na Newark, NJ.... unu ma na o nwere ndi ishiewu
na-atoru aru ma ha para apaama ha bia be gi; ha laa be ha, ha atawa
sooso "mortuary drumsticks".... DO NOT SAY I TOLD YOU!)
5. Ogbuezi (a dirty person, probably)
6. Ogbunkita (maybe his ancestors came from across the Cross River)
7. Ogbuibe (original "sabo")
8. Ogbuinyom (a wife basher who does not necessarily "OJ" her....
which does not mean that anyone EVER tried to kill his wife. C'est ne pas
possible. Marital murder? No way. Ife LOVE na-eme erika! As Kris Okotie
sang it: "Kill me with love...." A bi na Jide Obi? Whichever, it's been
awhile since those boyoyo days.)
9. Ogbueze (since Igbo communities rarely take their kings seriously,
regicide is not on! You want it, you buy the man out! You want examples,
private e-mail please ;-))]
10. Ogbu-ijiji [a truly lazy and decrepit village idiot. Why would any young
man bother with the annoying houseflies? Beats me too.]

A couple of comments on your own submissions:
You wrote:

>>OGBU OGECHUKWU, or OGBU OGE for short.

I guess this should have read: "Ogbu mgbe" ( a time killer, literarily) but
the phrase came from the streets, not from Mahadum nke Nsuka (UNN)

>>OGBUENE (not MOE-o. Whoever implies that, my hands are clean!)

Onye ga-egbu m, o ga-eli anu m?

>>Ogbu(okuku)

This is too loaded, but you probably do not know it. This is a female title,
a *periodic* title for every agbogho gbara oso puta uwa. What they do
with the chicken, I don't know. If you Chinyeaka have ever tasted of this
bloody sacrifice, biko mee ka anyi mata n'Ama Igbo na Intaneti. {Is it a
form of "igba ndu"?}

>>Ogbuoke

A title for young boys, probably.

>>Ogbu'dene

Is this better than "TABANSI UDENE"? I go die -o!!!

>>>ABOUT IGBA NDU, I'll like to read more about this igbo word
"IGBA". It sounds to me like "Igba" The membranic Drum, or
"Igba ndu" The Drum of life or the life drum.

You should have known better after Uwa ndi-Igbo class. "Igba" is a
concatenation of the verb "i* gba (to bond), but because of the semantic
emptiness of the "i*" ... or rather, as some egghead sold it to us... the two
words are combined when the gerund "igba" (bonding) is formed.
Believe me, the linguistic analyses of these lexical items are profound. I
am sure someone will step in and clear the air.

>>>In Awka, we call popular "Okpa wawa" by the name "igba".

As an original Waawa man, I can tell you with authority that "IGBA" is
not "OKPA" in any way, shape or form. Biko, gbaa brake there! The
edible "igba" is made from some other nut, not "mkpulu okpa" (bambara
nut). In fact the nuts are completely different: The one used for "igba"
grows in pods and looks like "fi*o*fi*o*" and is brown; while bambara nut
is a soil-resident and is black (nke ndi UmuNeeke, i.e. Udi) or white with
black eye (nke ndi ozo na-aburu UmuNeeke!) I could go on and on about
this topic, but it won't be fair on you guys: you see, I just ate a delicious
cake of "okpa" an hour or so ago! My friend says the "moin moin" is
"exotically challenging to the taste buds"! His taste buds, that is! You dey
mind Americana: small pepper him go dey complain! Me I just knack the
thing like say na last supper! What followed? Don't even think about it!

>>Another "Igba" is the one associated with "hiscent nwankpi"
"Nkpi igba nwunye ewu".

Vintage Chinyeaka! Hyacinth Nwamkpi is a goat--a he-goat, but onye
nwe nwa mkpi is a man. Therefore, the man cannot start doing what
nwamkpi does best. So, before you drag us down the porno lane this
early in the year, I must say that "ikwa iko" ; "iyi oyi" "ime enyi"; "nlaru";
"ikwokilikwo" ikpu akwa" ; etc. are more acceptable euphemisms for
sexual intercourse between human beings. About "ikpu akwa", biko
Chinyeaka do not read another meaning into it: it simply means "to cover
cloth" [see again how this concatenation of "i*" and the root verb "kpu"
can cause a whole lot of lingustic wahala?] Anyway, I can't wait for
nwanna Onyenkuzi Omenka Ejike Eze to come back to class.

>>Ndibanyi, biko tinyekana nu onu nime ya! Ndewo nu-o.

>>Chinyeaka.
>>Kill my write-up, but please, spare me!

Yor write-ups liveth forever. YOU? I bu Ogbu-ogili! And the "ogili" is
already stinking to high heaven. Chere aka yoro mkpuru i kuru.

Have a great day. I am outta here!

MOE

s05...@aix1.uottawa.ca

unread,

Jan 8, 1997, 3:00:00 AM1/8/97

Moe Nwannaa,
Nna gi muru gi. Please find my comments within yours.

On Wed, 8 Jan 1997, Maurice O. Ene wrote:

> Before that let me comment briefly on the postings after mine: I think
> Chinyeaka's use of "Okpa wawa" is tautology :-)! You see:
> OKPA na-esighi na Mba Waawa puta abughi nke oma;
> ndi Naijiria na-akpo ya "akpuruka."

Mhmm. If okpa is not from Waawa, where would it be from?

>
> >>>ABOUT IGBA NDU, I'll like to read more about this igbo word
> "IGBA". It sounds to me like "Igba" The membranic Drum, or
> "Igba ndu" The Drum of life or the life drum.
>
> You should have known better after Uwa ndi-Igbo class. "Igba" is a
> concatenation of the verb "i* gba (to bond), but because of the semantic
> emptiness of the "i*" ... or rather, as some egghead sold it to us... the two
> words are combined when the gerund "igba" (bonding) is formed.
> Believe me, the linguistic analyses of these lexical items are profound. I
> am sure someone will step in and clear the air.

Gwa ya okwu! Where is Nkiru? Chinyeaka, when did the tonal structures for
"igba" (to bond) and "igba" (drum) become the same? Nakwa echeki!

>
> >>>In Awka, we call popular "Okpa wawa" by the name "igba".
>
> As an original Waawa man, I can tell you with authority that "IGBA" is
> not "OKPA" in any way, shape or form. Biko, gbaa brake there! The
> edible "igba" is made from some other nut, not "mkpulu okpa" (bambara
> nut). In fact the nuts are completely different: The one used for "igba"
> grows in pods and looks like "fi*o*fi*o*" and is brown; while bambara nut
> is a soil-resident and is black (nke ndi UmuNeeke, i.e. Udi) or white with
> black eye (nke ndi ozo na-aburu UmuNeeke!) I could go on and on about
> this topic, but it won't be fair on you guys: you see, I just ate a delicious
> cake of "okpa" an hour or so ago! My friend says the "moin moin" is
> "exotically challenging to the taste buds"! His taste buds, that is! You dey
> mind Americana: small pepper him go dey complain! Me I just knack the
> thing like say na last supper! What followed? Don't even think about it!
>

In addition, let me draw the following distinctions between okpa and igba:

OKPA IGBA
Red in color (after preparation) Blackish in color (after prep)
wrapped in layers of banana leaves wrapped in some other type of l.
Much softer in texture than igba almost as hard as stone
requires you to drink two cups of requires you to drink at least
water within the first hour of 4 cups of water within the first
consumption hour of consumption.
A lot more expensive than igba the sellers would almost pay you
money to buy.
So, how can Chinyeaka mistake "igba" for "okpa"?

> can cause a whole lot of lingustic wahala?] Anyway, I can't wait for
> nwanna Onyenkuzi Omenka Ejike Eze to come back to class.

You got it brother. Let me have the names of noise makers. I need to
decide on a befitting "utari" or "utapii" as they would say in Udi.

>
> >>Kill my write-up, but please, spare me!

We cannot do without you anyway. You are spared.
>
>
Ka o di nu.

Omenka Ejike Eze

dsm

unread,

Jan 9, 1997, 3:00:00 AM1/9/97

MOE Nwoke m,

Ekwerom. Okpa wawa abughi tautology. With so many fakes around one needs
to make sure one is eating the real okpa i.e. okpa wawa, otherwise you may have yourself paying for okpa Taiwan instead of okpa wawa.

Uzo.

----------
From: Maurice O. Ene
Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 1997 7:37 PM
To: ceo...@acs.ucalgary.ca; iwu...@ccmail.dcu.ie
Cc: igbo...@mcfeeley.cc.utexas.edu
Subject: Re: IGBA NDU & IGBU OGE

Ndi Igbo:

Before that let me comment briefly on the postings after mine: I think

Chinyeaka's use of "Okpa wawa" is tautology :-)! You see:
OKPA na-esighi na Mba Waawa puta abughi nke oma;
ndi Naijiria na-akpo ya "akpuruka."

As for catching up with Chinyeaka on eating okpa, I can only say that

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++

Ojionuegbuoji nwa Okoli:

>>Ogbu(okuku)

>>Ogbuoke

>>Ogbu'dene

>>>ABOUT IGBA NDU, I'll like to read more about this igbo word
"IGBA". It sounds to me like "Igba" The membranic Drum, or
"Igba ndu" The Drum of life or the life drum.

>>>In Awka, we call popular "Okpa wawa" by the name "igba".

>>Another "Igba" is the one associated with "hiscent nwankpi"

"Nkpi igba nwunye ewu".

can cause a whole lot of lingustic wahala?] Anyway, I can't wait for
nwanna Onyenkuzi Omenka Ejike Eze to come back to class.

>>Ndibanyi, biko tinyekana nu onu nime ya! Ndewo nu-o.

>>Chinyeaka.

>>Kill my write-up, but please, spare me!

0 new messages