IGBO INGENUITY OR MEDICAL PROWESS? -Reply

[Maurice O. Ene]

Gregg na Umuibe:

I don't want to take away from "ike mmanya" sending a newly married
man into a sexual frenzy ;)! I know the basic composition of the dregs of
palmwine is "yeast"-- whatever that is. It may be all the mind... you know,
as in psycho- ife di iche. However, I like to look at it from an entirely
different angle: the symbolism of offering it to a newly married man. I
have reviewed this in a publication and I believe this is one of those rites
that make runaway individualism impossible in unadulterated Igbo
societies.

You see: the elders show with this "ike mmanya" ritual, which rightly
belongs to Ani or some other clan deities, that they care about the
welfare of the couple. The women in my village join in teasing the man to
take the beautiful bride home and get her out of her fine, new dress in
three months! Wow... those women can be jealous. They even comment
on her "standing" ife o pa na chest, cherishing the thought that a strong
child will "drink it down" to their padded "kolosheted" sizes... someone
please tell me about silicon :)))!

It is all good fun, and you need to see the bride giggling as everyone gets
on her case. The men, however, do not go that far-- they give it to the
man, and remind him that the dregs should not "wasted"... in firing blanks,
I suppose!

So I doubt the yeast transforms into some aphrodisia, or even beltter,
help in the production of the fluid of reproduction. It may, but I don't
believe our elders take it that way.

On the other hand, I guess what you mean by "bruntashi" is the Hausa
"magani burantashi".... I am blushing, but don't LOOK! ;)) Well, that
"magani' [medicine] is something else. This is a very potent concoction I
will not recommend to anyone. Try spaghetti, banana and peanuts...
whatever, but leave "magani" alone. When I did my youth-corps service
in Kaduna State, I saw a LIVE demonstration in Zaria. Yuk! Things dey for
that country no be small!

And to add my tuppence piece: there is this popular orthopedic dibia in
Ngwo. When the hospital brings a case they have patched but can't
handle the bones, or you go there with bones falling apart, this man gets
a chicken, breaks its bone where and how your bone has packed up
and, wait for it: get down to work on the chicken! If the fowl walks, you
walk. It is that simple. Then you go home to continue with "abuba eke"
[python fat] therapy... and "okwume" too. "Shea butter"?

And because I may not revisit this thread, primarily due to a new project
for ndi Igbo... don't get me wrong, I must add that a friend's father had a
"stone-therapy" that amazed me. I had this terrible headache while I was
at Umudike-Umuahia. Folks said someone had "jazzed" me! Well, you
can't "jazz" nwa Ene, because you don't "fee aju" to just about anyone. I
tried the best docs in town but this damn headache wouldn't go away.
Glasses? Didn't cut it; I had 20/20. I know something was wrong with
my head threathening to take off.

Home for Christmas, I went to see my friend. Then the headache came
again. The old man was there. He asked me how long I have had such a
sudden attack of migraine (?); I told him. He smiled. He said I should
follow him. He sat me down outside and said: whatever you do, don''t
touch me. Then he pulled a small stone from under a tree. Black, hard as
nail and as cold as frozen cucumber. He rubbed it round my head in
some geometric fashion blew in a halfpenny he had in his palm. Suddenly
it was over. I was sweating. Cold sweat.

Guess what: I NEVER had that periodic headache. Check this out: I
selectively forgot to tell my mum. What would she tell Fada Parishi anyi?
That I went to a dibia? Boy, how screwed up we have been. This sort of
denigration of our ethnopharmacology gets my goat. Irony of ironies, this
my friend discovered too late that there was money to be made by the
number of people streaming to their house every morning seeking this
simple, once-and-for-all, touch-and-go therapy.

Unfortunately, the old man had moved on, he had no clue how and what
he did. We all moved on to "mahadum," where no one knows a thing. I
heard ten years ago that the skill "waalu" [manifested to?] his kid brother.
The young man wasn't too serious either. He had a good palmwine
palate and a soft spot for umuikporo. So, since the therapy demands
certain abstainance on the night before the particular therapy day... Eke, I
think, I am not sure... he always falls foul of the basic rules. Efficacy
dropped and folks began to seek alternative sources elsewhere.

There are more, but let the doctors (no Ph.Ds. please) attend to Maazi
Ekwueme's antibiotic properties of palm oil, especially when administered
with a kiln-hot knife.

I hope I didn't mess up a good story with typical MOEsque "fa-fu njakiri"...
been trying to cut down to near zero. Going.... going......
Uzo nwa Chukwu, OVER.

Have a good night, y'all.

Ndeewo nu.

MOE