"IGBO": Let the search continue.
Maurice O. Ene
Nwa Akoma:
Your piece is very interesting. I sugbukwalu mmadu, nwanna a!
However, I must not allow you to run away with a few "fabu." But then,
"uche bu akpa: onye obula nya nke ya."
>>> Chiji <bc7...@binghamton.edu> 01/14/97 03:10am >>>
>>Maazi Egwu: i doubt the "seriousness" of any answer that may attend
to your questions.
Do you mean "veracity"? Okay, the IGBO that shocked Maazi Ofobike
may be way way out (International "Danduka" whatever); needless to
say, that sort of alternative ife-di-iche is alien to Igbo traditional society.
Okay, Chinyeaka's offering may be true to form: "Eze ama na o ga-echi"!
But you never know how "mmiri si aba n'opi ugbogulu." Someone might
just nail it. In fact, your offering makes me believe that the name "IGBO"
was given to us by another ethnic group. It might have been a bit
derogatory at the beginning. Like Chinyeaka jocuously hinted, the Igbo
must have suffered worse Pogrom than what Nigerians dished out to us
in 1966.
Check this out. The Igbo setlle in another community. They oil the wheel
of your economy and fire your social life. They even imbibe your culture
more than sons of the soil. But they stay out of your political life. You
want them in, they politely refuse. You wonder: they are up to
something. You wait. Suspicion galore NOTHING. Then the next
generation gets involved to preserve peace. Ah ha! We thought as
much! Lets get rid of them: they have been planning to take over!
You see how no contribution should be taken lightly. If in a country of
projected 30 million, the Igbo are about 30 million, that about makes us the
largest ethnic group there is in this myriad of about 300 ethnocentric
entities. Does it not surprise us that the Igbo never flex political muscle to
get something for their people? It is always ONE Nigeria, the peace of the
whole even when the components are sick. {Didn't I say I was not giving
up politics until Lent? Please ignore this digression.]
I will give you an example to illustrate my theory: When the term "Wawa"
and even "okpa" started creeing into urban Igbo lingo, it was nothing to
shout about. "You eat okpa? Hmmm?" Your girlfriend will even leave you.
Your drink Udi palmwine, "You are a bush man! Drink Guiness Stout!"
Have you ever taken an Igbo girl out and she wanted palmwine? NO
WAY: It's either Big Stout & Maltex or Gin & Lime, or any other stupid
concoction some "oku enu" drank last in London.
Then C. C. Onoh made of point of eating it in public while sitting on
whatever Mercedes class rolled out of Munich. "Oh, you are a wa-wa
man.... mmmmm, lets see!" And C.C.'s now many disciples, would yell:
"YOU better believe it." Then, the people took the bull by the balls and
said: "You know what, we like being Waawa; so would you just buzz
off and lets drive this social evolution vehicle for a change!" And the
Awka man said: "I too say 'wa'; even 'wa-wa'. What's the big deal."
Compare with "oyibo." Before long, a name that means someone of
"natural" light complexion was turning into a derogatory term for
someone who pretends to be what he is not, or even an oppressor. It
was never a term for people of European extraction. A spaniard in Igbo
in "Panya"; a Portuguese, "potokiri"; a Brit is "Bekee" (after Mr. Baikie of
Royal Niger Company, abi him come with Mungo Park/Landers Brothers!);
etc.
I go a bit further. An Onicha Ado person would say: "Nwa onye Igbo!"
like "i kpu nshi n'ike." Of course, they were then the all and all in the
colonial setup. Now, the "Onicha" man is as Igbo as he wanna be. And
Onitsha? Please! When was the last time anyone called you "nwa onye
Igbo"?
I believe that in Yorubaland, you hear "You Ijebu man"! like they came
from another planet. Especially in Lagos, I understand the hinterland
Yoruba still get called some uncomplimentary names.Then there is the
Igbo man. "Okoro" used to be too derogatory to be true. But I just spoke
with a friend of mine who came back yesterday. "Brother MOE," he
says, "Lagos just empty. My tire burst I no fit repair am. All those our
Area Boys them just dey shako, dey fool around.... Ye-ye suegbe them."
Why, was Lagos life too tough this December? I asked? "You no know?
Okoro people be like say them just plan vamoose for Lagos this
December. Until them come this weekend, nothing go dey happen. So I
kukuma carry my bag leave town. They leave Lagos, eh, that place na
die hin go die." I smiled. He was serious. You ask why my friends feels
comfortable using "okoro" for an Igboman: because he knows the
meaning -- an Igbo male!
>>it is very uncommon for any group of people to choose their primordial
name.
Exactly my point! I take yours very seriously, so why advocate that we
doubt the "seriousness" of further contributions. We may have to look
into Efik, Edo -- especially, Yoruba, Ijaw, Itsekiri, Ibibio (Akwa Ibom?), etc.
Where else does the name appear? Ijebu Igbo? What is the " Igbo" there?
People of the Forest? People of the Woods? Hey, you never know what
we are looking for may just be a few miles away across the River Niger.
What is "Ibom" in Ibibio? Was Igboland a sanctuary for the oppressed?
Was it where people sought shelter from vandals from Sudan and other
Nilotic groups? In that case, the Igbo are ACTUALLY the only group who
did not come from anywhere. WE ARE THE SONS OF THE SOIL, the
original people.
[So all the immigrants should seek to regularize their visa or face
deportation before May 30, 1997! For Form I-30/67 please send me, MOE,
a non-refundable $50.00 application fee in e-money order. Checks,
certified or not, and credit cards are not acceptable, even if your papa's
name is Abacha.]
On a more serious note, See how "Bonny" evolved. From "Igbani"! Know
what it means? IGBO ANI (southern Igbo people); yes! Check out ENUGU,
from ENUUGWU (Hilltop) NGWO (an Ngwo village on top of Udi Hills.) But
Enugu is in a valley!! Know the real name of where Enugu is? OFU ANI
(ie. "Ike ani") the bottom of the land..... YES! Or, as we now call a
section of the Coal City: UWANI. This should havew been the name for
"Enugu." And did you know that Eko (Lagos) is an Edo word meaning
"CAMP"! Now this is a very big story of how Lagos came to be, but I will
leave it for Lagosians to tell.
BTW: I just find out that Itsekiri calls chicken "egbele." In my Igbo dialect,
"egbene" means a cock.... I mean the feathered he-chicken. Of course,
southern Igbo say; "oke okuko" (male fowl). And do you see how
"egbene" could be de-concatenated to "egbe ene" [the kite of....] And you
wonder why I am "Egbe daa: o vulu". Tochai.... keep arranging those
chicks from Awka for me, if you want yours safe! Hmmm, I am beginning
to enjoy this search) So let the search continue into neighbouring ethnic
groups. Any imput must be read and appreciated, no matter where the
author comes from.
>>An aside. sometime in the eighties, something happened in the village
of Ezebudele (yep, you got it right, "the Vulture is King") in Asa area of
Ukwa.
Interesting, but your translation may be wrong. Ezebudele (Eze bu udele)
means "The King is a Vulture"! Your translation: "the Vulture is King" will
be: "Udele bu eze" ... but "Udelebeze" will mean "Royal Vulture." This is
the problem with concatenation in Igbo. Before you know it, bukuru
people go carry "semantic emptiness" pump into every lexical item. Within
months, the word wears another meaning. Which is why I am now a
student of Omenka Ejike Eze school of extended vowels, not to forget
Nkiru's school of bilabials and tabooed double-consonants.
>> But they did change it.
Too bad. Then AKPU people should run and change too? "Nwankwo
Udele" should change his name too. Okereke Udoakpuenyi should just go
and hide. Maazi Abacha (I no mean Uncle Sani o!) should become "Mr.
Abacus." If you are called "Agwu" run, eh? Osuagwu? Na wah o! So
unless you are Don Eze (as in Mr. Don King) or Nathaniel Eze-Okoli (as in
Nat King Cole) or William Okpuuzu (Will Smith) you must change your
father's name, your village name, and we may even end up changing the
name IGBO. Maybe, Nigerians will love us more if we become BIAFRANS
instead! (BTW, what is the origin of this name. "BIAFULU ... Biafura?)
It is wrong to change names without first establishing the reason for the
name. Take "Owerri": the name is from "O were" and it tells the story of
how Owerri came to be. You see, Ekwem Aruugo has this wahala with
his senior brother, Ndum Oha at Ala Umuenyi, their ancestral land. It was
at the funeral of their father, Oha, or something similar. Since "onye
nwere ego kwa nna ha -- o bughi okpala gbulu," Aruugo "declared"
surplus. [Maybe Ndum Oha no too get, or him dey do aka chichichi.] So
who will get the "cow killer" (ogbuehi) share, abi na share "reserved for
supposedly eldest son who kills the cow"? [King Solomon came to
justice!] Aruugo had prominent elders by his side {as na him dem see say
e get "hand" well well!] So Aruugo went ahead and took the share of the
sacrificed animal.
"O werela nke maara ya o!" screamed the congregation! Yes, he took
what rightly belonged to him. "O WERE!"
End of story? Think again. Not in Ndum Oha's books. He sought to
remedy the situation. Here the story may vary, like the "O" kwara "O"
story of Onicha and Obosi people. I will skip this part so as not to offend
any party. [You see, I be in-law for Owerri Royal Family, and some bias
fit creep in since odoziaku sabi cook wonderful ofe owere wey dey turn
head no be small!]
Anyway, Aruugo took off with his family, including his son Ikenegbu and
other elders known to be on his side, and who feared possible
persecution. Off they went. Exodus of the people. Wilderness... abi na
Jungle. Before they got "political asylum" in the lands that Owerri is
located today, the first "Oru Owere" had taken place at what is today
Ugwu Ekwem Aruugo in Owerri. The story gets even deeper, and
explains the relationships between ndi Owere and their brethren, but I
will spare you guys the gist. And this might just support Chinyeaka's
submission that IGBO may mean a land of succor, comfort,. shelter; a
promised land for all those who face persecution and oppression. Was
this not how Onicha people came calling from Edoland? Or was it just a
geopolilitical mago mago?
Hmmm, didn't I say I was not going to shoot my mouth again unless on
hardcopy and someone was paying? Oops.
Okay, please let the search continue. And if anyone knows anything
about "OGBUGBANDU OJI" in Ezebudele and environs, please let us
know. May be, just may be, UDELE, or Udene as we say, then meant
something else. An environmentalist, not a scavenger!
Ndeewo nu, ndi be anyi. Onye anwuna ma ibe ya efuna. Nwa mmadu
emegbula nwa mmuo, ma nwa mmuo emegbula nwa mmadu. Egbe belu,
ugo belu; nke si ibe ya ebela gosi ya ebe o ga ebi.
Peace.
MOE
BEN AKPA
Omenka Ejike Eze wrote:
>
>Back to the question "what is the meaning of the word Igbo?" I say I don't
>know. I don't even know the meaning of the name of my town. But I remember
>that Nnabuenyi Ugonna once told us that the Oduduwa people when the first
>came met the Igbos in the bush and since they had no name for them, they
>called them "igbo" (Yoruba for bush). Now, I ask (I didn't ask him that
>then. I was just trying to pass my exams) what did the Igbos call
>themselves before the Yorubas gave them the name Igbo? Did they forget
>their own name and take on this strange name? Sounds typical!
>
Mazi Ejike,
I don't think the Igbos forgot their name. We tend to assume our group
identity as ndi Igbo when dealing with other groups. While in Igboland, we
usually identify ourselves by where we come from. Thus a group of ndi Igbo
bi na Enugwu, for example, will tend to say, "abum onye Udi," ma obu "abum
onye Isiekenesii," ma obu "abum onye Mbaise." The same group living in
Benin will tend to say "abum onye Igbo" until you ask, "kedu ebe isi n'la
Igbo?" If there were no outsiders to identify yourselves to as a group,
there would be little need to have a group name.
The same is true at the village level. People from the same village will
tend to identify each other according to ikwu na ibe. But the moment they
cross the river into the next village, then quickly they assume their group
name. The group name often identifies the group as the children of somebody
(e.g Umuezeoke, children of Eze Oke) or as the inhabitants of a place with
certain characteristics (e.g. ndi Akpu-Ugo, even though the eagle
population in that community has declined considerably). Sometimes, the
name is just too different, such as a place in Izzi called Uwalagbaegwu
(the world is dancing)
The Yoruba origins of the name Igbo is probably true. I have heard of wars
between the Ife and the Igbos. I think that a very long time ago, we and
the Yorubas were probably neighbors. In fact the way I heard the story of
the Igbo and the Ife, there was even intermarriage between them, which
suggests they lived within a relatively short distance from one another.
(If any members of Igbonet are from Ife, could they please tell us the
story?)
Also, there are a lot of words that have the same meaning in both
languages. In fact there are more such similarities between Igbo and Yoruba
that between Igbo and any other Nigerian language.
Let the search continue.
nwa Akpa
Chiji
Maazi MOE:
Gi anwuna!
> I sugbukwalu mmadu, nwanna a!
biko, ewekwala iwe maka the linguistic ife-di-iche in my posting. onweghi
ihe ama-uma eme :-)
> Do you mean "veracity"?
Probably, yeah. i think i was using the word Maazi Egwu Kalu had used in
his response to Chinyeaka's response. But in any case, after reading your
very enlightening posting, what with a generous splash of humor, i must
indeed agree with you that there's probably more to Igbo than mere lexical
items.
i'm inclined to examine the yoruba "Ile Igbo" something. i first
encountered the name in F. Osofisan's play, Morountodun, and there it
seems to suggest bush people, i.e people who lived in forest territory.
going by earlier conjecture that when the meaning of a primordial name is
not found in that group's "lexicon," it is possible that another group
gave them the name, maybe, we need to look outside of igboland to get the
meaning.
>
> On a more serious note, See how "Bonny" evolved. From "Igbani"! Know
> what it means? IGBO ANI (southern Igbo people); yes! Check out ENUGU,
> from ENUUGWU (Hilltop) NGWO (an Ngwo village on top of Udi Hills.) But
> Enugu is in a valley!! Know the real name of where Enugu is? OFU ANI
> (ie. "Ike ani") the bottom of the land..... YES! Or, as we now call a
> section of the Coal City: UWANI. This should havew been the name for
> "Enugu." And did you know that Eko (Lagos) is an Edo word meaning
> "CAMP"! Now this is a very big story of how Lagos came to be, but I will
> leave it for Lagosians to tell.
>
>
> BTW: I just find out that Itsekiri calls chicken "egbele." In my Igbo dialect,
> "egbene" means a cock.... I mean the feathered he-chicken. Of course,
> southern Igbo say; "oke okuko" (male fowl). And do you see how
> "egbene" could be de-concatenated to "egbe ene" [the kite of....] And you
> wonder why I am "Egbe daa: o vulu". Tochai.... keep arranging those
> chicks from Awka for me, if you want yours safe! Hmmm, I am beginning
> to enjoy this search) So let the search continue into neighbouring ethnic
> groups. Any imput must be read and appreciated, no matter where the
> author comes from.
Very very impressive, Maazi MOE!
> >>An aside. sometime in the eighties, something happened in the village
> of Ezebudele (yep, you got it right, "the Vulture is King") in Asa area of
> Ukwa.
>
> Interesting, but your translation may be wrong. Ezebudele (Eze bu udele)
> means "The King is a Vulture"! Your translation: "the Vulture is King" will
> be: "Udele bu eze" ... but "Udelebeze" will mean "Royal Vulture."
yup, now that you've spelt it out, i'm probably wrong, and so are many of
the members of that village. because if i recall well, the urge to change
their name was borne from their translating the name with the kind of
connotative meaning my translation suggested.
>
> It is wrong to change names without first establishing the reason for the
> name. Take "Owerri": the name is from "O were" and it tells the story of
> how Owerri came to be.
for a person who is only an in-law of ndi Owere, the depth of your
knowledge of the oral history of your wife's people is flattering.
henceforth, i won't doubt the ambrosiac powers in an ofe owere! the soup
can actually quicken the dead, and open one's consciousness to the past
with an amazing clarity of vision and narration :-))
Ya gaziere gi, nwannaa.
nwa Akoma
s05...@aix1.uottawa.ca
MOE,
You are really God's gift to the Igbos. The dept of your knowledge of
nearly all issues is amazing. Kedu mgbe ndi injinia bidoro suwa bekee ka
ndi mmmm mmm ndi m amaghi aha ha?
"Veracity, community, pogrom, jocuously, derogatory, contribution,
generation". Suwa Bekee nwannaa na ego e jiri kwuru gi ugwoakwukwo
alaghi n'iyi. Okwuru amighiri m, ya miara nwunye di m ka m ghorowa nke ya.
On Tue, 14 Jan 1997, Maurice O. Ene wrote:
> You see how no contribution should be taken lightly. If in a country of
> projected 30 million, the Igbo are about 30 million, that about makes us the
> largest ethnic group there is in this myriad of about 300 ethnocentric
> entities. Does it not surprise us that the Igbo never flex political muscle to
> get something for their people? It is always ONE Nigeria, the peace of the
> whole even when the components are sick. {Didn't I say I was not giving
> up politics until Lent? Please ignore this digression.]
Thirty million ndi Igbo cannot be wrong.
>
> Interesting, but your translation may be wrong. Ezebudele (Eze bu udele)
> means "The King is a Vulture"! Your translation: "the Vulture is King" will
> be: "Udele bu eze" ... but "Udelebeze" will mean "Royal Vulture." This is
> the problem with concatenation in Igbo. Before you know it, bukuru
> people go carry "semantic emptiness" pump into every lexical item. Within
> months, the word wears another meaning. Which is why I am now a
> student of Omenka Ejike Eze school of extended vowels, not to forget
> Nkiru's school of bilabials and tabooed double-consonants.
While I make no attempt to remove anything from your translation, I must
say taht Chiji's is also right. Ezebudele could be translated "the vulture
is king" if the speaker meant to say the abridged form of "onye bu eze bu
udele" (It is the vulture who is (really) king). Picture a context where
egbe and udele both want to be king and an abitar has to declare who is
really the king. He could say "eze bu udele (QED)". See how cool our
language is.
> It is wrong to change names without first establishing the reason for the
> name.
Yes, but if the name makes it impossible for the people to come to the
community to ask the umuagbogho ma ha kpowara akpowa ka ha na-ere ere, I
say change it. This was the case in Umuekwensu until the name was changed
(yes?)
Back to the question "what is the meaning of the word Igbo?" I say I don't
know. I don't even know the meaning of the name of my town. But I remember
that Nnabuenyi Ugonna once told us that the Oduduwa people when the first
came met the Igbos in the bush and since they had no name for them, they
called them "igbo" (Yoruba for bush). Now, I ask (I didn't ask him that
then. I was just trying to pass my exams) what did the Igbos call
themselves before the Yorubas gave them the name Igbo? Did they forget
their own name and take on this strange name? Sounds typical!
The history of the origin may well become clearer if we could unravel the
mystry of the name. Let the search continue.
Omenka Ejike Eze.
Eric Kalu
I'd like to thank those of you who have contributed to the search of the meaning
of the word, "IGBO". Through this, I have learnt some new things. Maazi Akpa,
nwa Akoma, Ejike, Chinyeaka and our venerable and veritable MOE - I thank you
all. Like MOE cautioned, the search has to continue.
Many moons ago when I went to Lagos newly, I heard the Yorubas use Igbo
(tonation is different from i'gbo), igbo-obi and I reached conclusions
similiar to what some of our contributors have put forward. However, when
subjected to further analysis, one is still left with many questions.
It is not a coincidence that despite varying dialects, all Igbos consider
themselves as Igbo. I am of the opinion that the meaning of "igbo" could be
found within the language.As you all are aware the language has gone through a
lot of changes with time and influences from our neighbors.My own theory is that
there was a time in the past when the community that became Igbo was forming,
they might have referred to each other as "Ibe m" - my colleagues or partners.
Said with original igbo dialect and accent,"umu ibe" sounds like "umu Igbo"
today. Ofcourse others on hearing how original Igbos referred to each other
within their group might have thought they heard "igbo". When asked, an outsider
will refer to the "ibe' group as ndi igbo. (cf. inyamiri, unee, okoro)
Infact one good way of identifying the location of earliest Igbos will
be to find the dialect whose tonation and accent for "umu ibe" (umu ibem)
sounds similar to "umu Igbo" today.
Another point raised in this discussion is what has bothered me for a long time
as Igbo. MOE raised the issue - dialectical differences. My interactions with
many Igbos from different areas in Igbo land show one consistency - each igbo
area thinks that the area represents the true Igbo. Others are just "ofeke" igbo. Unfortunately, I feel the same way and it is wrong. The irony is that despite
such feelings, we still accept and recognize the others as true Igbos. Let me
quote MOE
MOE wrote:
>You see nothing else besides being Igbo binds us together more
>than Oji Igbo -- not even the language (I have heard some Igbo dialects
>that sounded like something straight out neighboring tongues... it was not
>funny!)
My problem is with the sentence in brackets! The truth is that except one is
speaking your dialect, we all sound funny to each other - unless you are fluent
in the dialect being spoken. For instance, when I hear Udi people (including
you my dear MOE - no offence meant) speak, those words I don't understand nor
familiar with, sound funny to me. Ofcourse, they tell me the same thing. Come to
music, I love Igbo music - more especially the work of one of our greatest
unsung philosopher/poet/musician - Celestine Ukwu, however, there are words used
that I don't quite understand. Nearer home, Abriba is eight miles away from my
village, yet some of their constructions are often above my comprehension.
I am a home boy - not a question of not growing up there. My point is that we
all have attitudes towards other igbo dialects - we hardly verbalize how and
what we feel. But, hey, I still think we all are very good Igbos as long as you
have some igbo blood in you.
mazi egwu
EJEC...@wl.aecl.ca
On Jan 15 1997 Mazi Egwu Kalu wrote
==========deleted stuff=======================================================
>Another point raised in this discussion is what has bothered me for a long time
>as Igbo. MOE raised the issue - dialectical differences. My interactions with
>many Igbos from different areas in Igbo land show one consistency - each igbo
>area thinks that the area represents the true Igbo. Others are just "ofeke"
>igbo. Unfortunately, I feel the same way and it is wrong. The irony is that
>despite such feelings, we still accept and recognize the others as true Igbos.
>Let me quote MOE
>>MOE wrote:
> >You see nothing else besides being Igbo binds us together more
>>than Oji Igbo -- not even the language (I have heard some Igbo dialects
>>that sounded like something straight out neighboring tongues... it was not
>>funny!)
Mazi Egwu
I agree with you that it is wrong to think or refer to another igbo as "ofeke"
Igbo, however, the feeling or thinking that ones place is the true Igbo is what
makes us unique, and one of the characteristics of Igbo people that still
baffles other people. We never accept defeat, we never accept that someone else
is better than we are, they may be good but in our mind we never accept
second place or second class. Never accepting being subordinate to anyone
is one of the things that drives us to keeping aiming higher, higher and
better.
Despite all the derogatory things that are said about Igbos, each Igbo person
still feels pasionately about being Igbo and claims that his/hers is the true
Igbo, to me that is good quality. " Oweghi onye kwere na ofe Nne ya siri di
njo". We are then all true Igbos.
My brother don't let it bother you anymore, paraphrasing W. E. Henley let us
"thank whatever gods maybe for our unconquerable soul".
>My problem is with the sentence in brackets! The truth is that except one is
>speaking your dialect, we all sound funny to each other - unless you are fluent
>in the dialect being spoken. For instance, when I hear Udi people (including
>you my dear MOE - no offence meant) speak, those words I don't understand nor
>familiar with, sound funny to me. Ofcourse, they tell me the same thing. Come to
>music, I love Igbo music - more especially the work of one of our greatest
>unsung philosopher/poet/musician - Celestine Ukwu, however, there are words used
>that I don't quite understand. Nearer home, Abriba is eight miles away from my
>village, yet some of their constructions are often above my comprehension.
>I am a home boy - not a question of not growing up there. My point is that we
>all have attitudes towards other igbo dialects - we hardly verbalize how and
>what we feel. But, hey, I still think we all are very good Igbos as long as you
>have some igbo blood in you.
>
>mazi egwu
There is a saying that goesthat "variety is the juice of life" I don't know
who said it so credit to whoever the originator is.
Bosa
*********************************
:Under the bludgeonings of chance
:My head is bloody, but unbow'd.
By W. E. Henley
*********************************
s05...@aix1.uottawa.ca
Maazi Akpa,
Ndeewo. Sorry for the late response.
Please find my comments following yours.
On Tue, 14 Jan 1997, BEN AKPA wrote:
> Omenka Ejike Eze wrote:
> >
> >Back to the question "what is the meaning of the word Igbo?" I say I don't
> >know. I don't even know the meaning of the name of my town. But I remember
> >that Nnabuenyi Ugonna once told us that the Oduduwa people when the first
> >came met the Igbos in the bush and since they had no name for them, they
> >called them "igbo" (Yoruba for bush). Now, I ask (I didn't ask him that
> >then. I was just trying to pass my exams) what did the Igbos call
> >themselves before the Yorubas gave them the name Igbo? Did they forget
> >their own name and take on this strange name? Sounds typical!
> >
--Maazi Akpa responded--
>
> Mazi Ejike,
>
> I don't think the Igbos forgot their name. We tend to assume our group
> identity as ndi Igbo when dealing with other groups. While in Igboland, we
> usually identify ourselves by where we come from. Thus a group of ndi Igbo
> bi na Enugwu, for example, will tend to say, "abum onye Udi," ma obu "abum
> onye Isiekenesii," ma obu "abum onye Mbaise." The same group living in
> Benin will tend to say "abum onye Igbo" until you ask, "kedu ebe isi n'la
> Igbo?" If there were no outsiders to identify yourselves to as a group,
> there would be little need to have a group name.
>
I agree with you on this. But my point is: if the Yoruba origin of the
meaning of the term "Igbo" is true, what did the Igbos call themselves
"collectively" before they were referred to as "Igbo" by the Yoruba? I
understand and heed the calls to be cautious in accepting this
Yoruba-origin hypothesis for the etymology of the word Igbo. At the same
time, the various words so far suggested as possible roots of the word
Igbo do not make much sense. How many nations do we know whose names
originate from a few isolated lexical items like the ones being suggested?
I mean no offence to anyone but I believe that place names usually
result from people's experiences/worldview/culture/etc. Where is Ugo
Nwokeji when I need him?
> Let the search continue.
Amen!
BEN AKPA
Maazi Ejike,
Please find my comments following yours.
Omenka Ejike Eze wrote:
>I agree with you on this. But my point is: if the Yoruba origin of the
>meaning of the term "Igbo" is true, what did the Igbos call themselves
>"collectively" before they were referred to as "Igbo" by the Yoruba?
No one is saying for sure that the term Igbo originated with the Yorubas. I
understand that the Yoruba word "igbo" means bush or forest. Thus Ijebu
Igbo would mean forest Ijebus or the Ijebus who live in the forest, as
opposed to those who live in the grasslands?
In searching for answers, it is important to consider all leads, eliminate
those that are not feasible, so that what remains is the truth. That's how
the idea of Ife and the Yorubas came about.
Assuming the Yorubas referred to Igbos as people who live in the forest or
more pejoratively as "bush people," at what point did we accept this
definition? And how was our acceptance communicated to every village and
hamlet so that everybody now knew that we have acquired a group identity as
people of the forest? So you see, standing alone, this does not make much
sense. However, if we knew where the Ifes are coming from, we may be able
to establish if we gave them the word or they gave it to us. That could be
very important.
Also there is a place in Cross River called Igbo (pronounced I-gb-oh), just
across the river from Aba-Omeghe as you head to Itighidi. It would be
interesting to know the origin of their name, so that if necessary we can
eliminate it from the list of all possible options.
Now to answer your question, Igbo communities bordering non-Igbo cultures
especially in the Cross River and Benue areas often identify themselves by
their clan names even when dealing with their non-Igbo neighbors. Thus a
person from Aba-Omege would say to an Itighidi person, "I am from
Aba-Omege." Period. It is usually the other side that refers to them as
"Ibo people." How and when this began, we have to try and find out.
In his book, Olauda Ikwuano referred to himself as an (Iboe) Igbo. Septimus
Paul, a gentleman from Trinidad knows he is an Igbo descendant because his
great grandmother told his grandmother, who told his mother, who told him
that they were Igbo. The story goes that the great-grand mother said she
and her sister were swimming in a great big river when men in a boat
kidnapped them. Of course they laughed at the old woman, but on her
deathbed she admonished her children to pass on the story. That was how
Septimus came to know the story. Then in 1968, as my friend was studying
for his M.A. in London, the news of Biafra and the Igbos hit the airwaves.
He called his mother in Trinidad and they cried together on the phone. What
his great-grandmother woman told his grandmother was true. "There is such a
people as the Ibo." So 150 or so odd yeara ago, a young girl knew precisely
that she was Igbo, and was proud of it too.
Justin K Akujieze
For the origin of the word "Igbo" l refer you to the book titled
West African Countries and peoples written by Dr James Africanus Beale
Horton in 1868. This man was "Heebo, Eboe, Egboe ".Published by Edinburgh
University Press. There is a section he calls empire of the Eboes.
Get the book from your library, you will be amazed.
Heeboes are something else,not close to oba, egbas, akus, nor yoruba
proper.
akujieze
Chiji
nwa Akpa:
thank you so much for the Olauda Ikwuanao (Olaudah Equiano) connection.
by mentioning ndi igbo (which he had anglicized as "eboe") in his
narrative, we do know that by at least 1745 when Maazi Ikwuano was born,
the name Igbo was already being used to refer to our people.
Although Ikwuano rightly points out that the distance between his Essaka
homeland and the Benin kingdom is "very considerable, " he makes an
interesting suggestion that the Oba's suzereignty actually spread to parts
of igboland.
i'm interested in the relation between the bini (by extension yoruba) and
ndi igbo. from Mbonu Ojike's book, "Trade and Politics in the Niger
Delta" we understand that the fame of Bini was well known in igboland. it
seems to me that in the dealings between ndi ibo and their bini or yoruba
neighbors, we were probably referred by a name which was descriptive of
where we inhabited. it was convenient for external identification since
it is evident that this name did not writeoff ancestral names whose
equivalent today would be surnames.
i'm looking at the case of some place names in ndoki, Ukwa, abia. there's
azumini. azumini of course simply means behind the water/river which
partly describes the location of the community in relation to the aba
river which flows into the atlantic. but the azumini never called
themselves azumini. the patriarch was Kwokwo Eze who had sons among whom
were Bele, Akanta, Ogwe. from these sons the "compounds" that make up
azumini emerge. outside of the corporate protocols of "community,"
natives of this azumini refer to each other by their "compound." hence,
"onye uhu bele," "onye uhu dede Ogwe," etc.
there is also Obohia in both the ndoki and asa sections of ukwa. though
with different accents, both refer to "heart of (the) forest." again, i
would be surprised if inhabitants of these villages chose the names. for
sure, the communities are located in the interior (for a region where
trading activities took place along the coastline). but they do possess
ancestral names.
for fear of boring y'all, i guess the point i'm trying to make, and which
with varying emphasis nwa Akpa and Onyenkuzi Ejike have stated, is that we
need not fear that the integrity of our nationhood would be compromised if
we end up "discovering" that our political name was actually given to us
by our neighbours. as we are seeing, indeed it is the way it goes. i
wouldn't be surprised if the name yoruba was ascribed to the present
bearers of the name by outsiders or something like that.
nwa Akoma