Igbo Childhood

AmadiÝ Press Amadi Ý Press

Igbo Childhood

"It is time for our generation to make significant deposits in the Cultural Treasury of our people!" - Dede Obinkaram

_______________________________

If you are an Igbo and spent your childhood in Igboland, we would like to hear from you. We are compiling stories of childhood from Igbo natives who grew up during any of the decades between 1930 and 2000.

In the months ahead, this page will also be dedicated to providing the many Igbo children who live outside the homeland opportunities to experience a measure of Igbo life. Most of us adults have fond memories of our childhoods. We owe our children comparable experiences of unrestrained, childish mirth -- a sense of community and conviviality embedded in such things as festivals, dances, masquerades, and oro moonlight play.

Illulu nsi na agwo otu madu nhuru aghojogh eke. (A snake seen by only one man has a tendency to be dubbed a great python).

Si kwa na, Ikete-ukwu otu madu ejegh ada ngiri-di-ngidi. (Also that the footsteps of one man cannot create a stampede).

All of which is to say that we (Igbo people everywhere) need to see this snake together, and mingle our footsteps, so to speak, to cause a genuine cultural stampede. So, we solicit your contributions and comments. Send them to Webmaster@Amadipress.com

______________________________________________

While we are waiting for your contribution, Dede Obinkaram will kick off the page with recollections of his own childhood in Igboland during the 1940's and '50's. He was born in the kindred of Umu Amadi, village of Egbelu Mbutu, town of Mbutu, in Isi Ala Ngwa. (Onye n'amagh, amagh!). Dede's recollections will include songs, riddles, akuku (cat-calls), folk plays, and whatever else Ngwa children used to do in those days that had no equivalents in Western culture and therefore no names in English.

For a start, Dede Obinkaram presents the Secret Riddle of the Ngwa people, a riddle that tested whether a person -- a passerby, for example -- was truly an Ngwa man or not. A person who did not know the answers to the riddle was instantly recognized as a non-Ngwa, and such determination had immediate social consequences. In general, riddles, signs (ikara) in the form of gestures, handshakes or drawings on the ground (with the finger or nzu -- kaolin) were common forms of communication, especially among members of title and secret societies.

The particular riddle presented here belongs to the class that Western anthropologists ignorantly used to classify as Nonsense Riddles. Ironically, these anthropologists were correct, in a sense. The riddles were nonsensical by design. The answers to the questions posed by the Interrogator were not logical. Therefore, the only way for the Respondent to respond correctly was to have memorized the riddle. Furthermore, the riddle was very long, not something one could learn quickly or in passing. Ngwa children began learning it at an early age, usually as part of their oro moonlight plays, and would have learned all of it by the time they were about ten years of age. Most Ngwa children in the generation of the '40's and earlier knew riddle. It is titled by the first question it poses: Egbuo nne gi, gbuo nna gi, iga irah n'ole? It is dedicated to all Igbo children, with the understanding that there are probably other such riddles in other parts of Igboland. We invite anyone with a knowledge of such to contact the Webmaster@Amadipress.com.

The riddle is dedicated to the memory of the late Professor Francis Enyinna Ngwaba, with whom Dede Obinkaram was planning an Ngwa Folklore Project before his recent demise. The photograph was taken in Philadelphia in November 1999. Frank was in the U.S. on a Fulbright Fellowship, and was attending a conference in Philadelphia.

Egbuo Nne gi, Gbuo Nna gi, iga irah n'ole?

Interrogator: Egbu nne gi, gbuo nna gi, iga irah n'ole?

Respondent: Okpo nkwu n'okpo ngwo

Interrogator: Taa nghiri nghiri?

Respondent: Nkikere nkikere

Interrogator: Nkikere nghiri?

Respondent: Nkikere uzamiri.

Interrogator: Uzamiri nghiri?

Respondent: Uzamiri okpa-ah.

Interrogator: Okpa-ah nghiri?

Respondent: Okpa-ah nkelu.

Interrogator: Nkelu nghiri?

Respondent: Nkelu ugo.

Interrogator: Ugo nghiri?

Respondent: Ugo l'aka.

Interrogator: Aka nghiri?

Respondent: Aka ututu.

Interrogator: Ututu nghiri?

Respondent: Ututu awula.

Interrogator: Awula nghiri?

Respondent: Awula eseh.

Interrogator: Eseh nghiri?

Respondent: Eseh l'ugbo.

Interrogator: Ugbo nghiri?

Respondent: Ugbo aragha.

Interrogator: Aragha nghiri?

Respondent: Aragha iche.

Interrogator: Iche nghiri?

Respondent: Iche ogodo.

Interrogator: Ogodo nghiri?

Respondent: Ogodo agbah.

Interrogator: Agbah nghiri?

Respondent: Agbah l'udu.

Interrogator: Udu nghiri?

Respondent: Udu doh-gho-roh-rohm lachia egedeh kpoh!

Vocal

My efforts to translate the riddle into English have not been fully successful. For one thing, the meanings of the words are not literal but obliquely allusive. In lieu of a literal translation, I have composed a poem of like nature, which contains elements of the original (in words and structure) but is not identical with it.

Egbuo nne gi, gbuo nna gi

iga ira n'ole?

A Group-identification riddle for Igbo children

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Interrogator: If your father and your mother were killed, where would you sleep?

Respondent: On top of the palm trees.

Interrogator: And while you are up there, what would you eat?

Respondent: Things that go crack and crunch.

Interrogator: What things that go crack and crunch?

Respondent: Grubs that live in the palm trees.

Interrogator: What grubs that live in the palm trees?

Respondent: The same grubs that were pecked by the woodpecker.

Interrogator: Which woodpecker?

Respondent: The one that is kin to the eagle.

Interrogator: What eagle?

Respondent: The eagle that comes in the morning.

Interrogator: Which morning?

Respondent: The morning of good luck.

Interrogator: What good luck?

Respondent: The good luck of the ese drummers.

Interrogator: What ese drummers?

Respondent: The ese drummers who crossed the river on a raft.

Interrogator: What raft?

Respondent: A web raft woven by the spider.

Interrogator:: Which spider?

Respondent: The same spider who caught a parrot in her web.

Interrogator: Which parrot?

Respondent: The parrot that had bow legs.

Interrogator: What bow legs?

Respondent: The bow legs that kicked over the water pot.

Interrogator: Which water pot?

Respondent: That water pot which your father and your mother gave you to go to the stream and fetch some water. But now the pot is broken, and your father and your mother are dead. So, it is my turn to ask you, Now that your father and your mother are dead, where will you sleep?

Where have all the trees gone?

The big trees are fast disappearing from Igboland. In the Ngwa area from which I hail, that was the frightening discovery I made during my visit in August, 2004. There no apu trees in Amapu, nor orji trees in Amorji, no egbu trees in a market called Nkwo Egbu, no ugba trees in Ugba Junction, no ahaba to be seen along a road that used to be known as Okporo Ahaba.