Igbo Kwenu!

Please What does the title Eze Nwanyi Odoziaku Mean?

How, why, and who is it used for?

Sweetlemon:
Igbo Kwenu!

Please What does the title Eze Nwanyi Odoziaku Mean?

How, why, and who is it used for?

Lol
No one says it in that way I think

Eze nwanyi is like a chief, a female one
Odoziaku.....rather like, "one who fixes wealth"
There is an implied assumption that she fixes her husband's wealth.....
There is..oriaku ...."one who enjoys (husband's) wealth
But none has a negative connotation....just what is

I remember some Igbo teachers back then asking us to address them as say,
Odoziaku XX Aeiou
Maybe as opposed to Oriaku, as they had somehow perceived an Oriaku to be a housewife, they wanted a reflection of their statuses as working class ladies....then housewives then also argue they do not waste the wealth but put it to good use, so they are also Odoziaku


I am too lazy to reread...hope I have not ended up confusing me, and you!
Cheers

In summary, Odoziaku is fixer/correcter/etc of wealth
Not as popularly used as Oriaku
I do not hear anyone around me use either actually...whether in the city or village

Sweetlemon:
Igbo Kwenu!

Please What does the title Eze Nwanyi Odoziaku Mean?

How, why, and who is it used for?

Odozi Aku means: custodian of weath, financial manager. It's a popular Aro honorific.

odumchi:


Odozi Aku means: custodian of weath, financial manager. It's a popular Aro honorific.

And I thought it was exclusively an Anambra title ,for married women. Especially,those married into rich family. Other related names in Anambra are Oliaku,Odebeaku,Onoenyi,Nwanyibulusia,Agbalanudia,Aruegwu,Nwanyilieze,Ugodie,Ugoeze,Nwomu,Asuoefechaa,Orjiugo,Osodieme,iyom aku,Agbaladimma. Some of these names are strictly for those women with Ivory title(Nwanyi Odu/Iyom ),while some are just nickname.

Eze Nwanyi = Queen Mother

Odoziaku = Mrs/Wealth Manager

Odoziaku is usually used to show respect or acknowledge a good wife.
Eze nwanyi on its part is a cultural title.

OdenigboAroli:


And I thought it was exclusively an Anambra title ,for married women. Especially,those married into rich family. Other related names in Anambra are Oliaku,Odebeaku,Onoenyi,Nwanyibulusia,Agbalanudia,Aruegwu,Nwanyilieze,Ugodie,Ugoeze,Nwomu,Asuoefechaa,Orjiugo,Osodieme,iyom aku,Agbaladimma. Some of these names are strictly for those women with Ivory title(Nwanyi Odu/Iyom ),while some are just nickname.

That's interesting. I've always been subconsciously aware that people in other regions use it as well, but, personally, I've always seen it as something definitively Aro (like Máàzị). We Aro call our married women: Odozi Aku, Ada Mazi, Nnye Mazi, etc.

odumchi:


That's interesting. I've always been subconsciously aware that people in other regions use it as well, but, personally, I've always seen it as something definitively Aro (like Máàzị). We Aro call our married women: Odozi Aku, Ada Mazi, Nnye Mazi, etc.

Odumchi,are you certain about the origin of the first Aro that migrated to their present location?

OdenigboAroli:


Odumchi,are you certain about the origin of the first Aro that migrated to their present location?

I should be asking if you're certain Idemili isn't a long-lost cluster of Aro settlements.

odumchi:


I should be asking if you're certain Idemili isn't a long-lost cluster of Aro settlements.

No need to get defensive nwa Aro,because the founding of Aro is not a mystery. Most Idenmili towns are a combination of Nri migrants,Umuezechime/western Igbos and Aborigines and these towns were long founded way before Aro existence. So,what will make you think Idenmili is a long lost clusters of Aro settlement ? I dont believe you truly thought about that.

odumchi:


That's interesting. I've always been subconsciously aware that people in other regions use it as well, but, personally, I've always seen it as something definitively Aro (like Máàzị). We Aro call our married women: Odozi Aku, Ada Mazi, Nnye Mazi, etc.

Is Mazi not an exclusive Aro honorific before it became a general igbo term?

Ihuomadinihu:

Is Mazi not an exclusive Aro honorific before it became a general igbo term?

Ginwa ozokwa?

odumchi:


Odozi Aku means: custodian of weath, financial manager. It's a popular Aro honorific.

Funny dude; you have this wonderful believe that most igbo words/titles/proverbs had its root in Aro; together with its exclusive usage.

Ihuomadinihu:

Is Mazi not an exclusive Aro honorific before it became a general igbo term?

Nope, ngwa people had mazi in their diction right from the day eve ate the fruit Bende people in central Abia use mazi to indicate an elder.

MaziOmenuko:
Nope, ngwa people had mazi in their diction right from the day eve ate the fruit Bende people in central Abia use mazi to indicate an elder.

That is actually incorrect. The expression 'maazi' is recognized as an adopted expression. Traditions credit the Aro as having introduced the expression into Ngwaland. The Ngwa then adapted it to code their greeting as a way of identifying Ngwa from non-Ngwa during that pre-colonial period. The coded greeting was initially used by some communities in the former Obioma Ngwa LGA (the Akuma Imo-Ohanze-Ugwunagbo axis) before later diffusing to other Ngwa communities toward the end of the colonial period.

^^ is it even possible for such an adopted expression to be widely and generally accepted as a core method of greeting? Is there any direct link between the aro and ngwa? If such an adoption exists, why didn't it spread through other groups?

I believe the maazi greeting of the ngwas is a root culture and not adopted.

MaziOmenuko:


Funny dude; you have this wonderful believe that most igbo words/titles/proverbs had its root in Aro; together with its exclusive usage.


Nope, ngwa people had mazi in their diction right from the day eve ate the fruit Bende people in central Abia use mazi to indicate an elder.

So because I thought Odozi Aku was unique to my people, all of a sudden I think "most Igbo words/titles/proverbs had their roots in Aro"? Interesting.

Are we so forgetful that the origin of terms as recent as "Mazi" are now even up for debate? Forget the fact that modern Igbo academia is trying to implement "Mazi" as a general Igbo honorific, if you pay attention to the naming traditions of various Igbo peoples, you'll realize that the Aro are the only people who have a dynamic structure built around the term. You will not find "Mazi" amongst the traditional honorifics of any other Igbo people besides the Aro. Historically, it was general knowledge that anyone that was addressed as "Nwa Mazi", "Ada Mazi", "Nnye Mazi", or "Mazi" was clearly an Aro. Let's not misconstrue this simple fact, for goodness' sake.

MaziOmenuko, the expression 'maazi' isn't in any way a root culture. Elderly Ngwa will easily tell you that it was borrowed and then modified into a coded series of greetings for the sole purpose of distinguishing oneself as an indigene within the old Obioma Ngwa administrative zone. A large number of communities in Ngwa (being all of Isiala Ngwa and some communities in the Obioma Ngwa zone) did not use the greeting even as late as the 1960s. Even today, you may still find some elderly Ngwa who may not know how to respond if you greet them 'maazi', as the expression has no interpretable meaning in Ngwa lects.

By the 1970s, the coded greeting became institutionalized on a pan-Ngwa level for the same reason it was initially developed.

Now, to your question regarding whether or not it is possible for an adopted expression to become generally accepted, it would seem so. Cultural diffusion isn't a science. Ideas and practices can spread quickly or they can spread slowly depending on the socio-politics involved. In the case of Ngwa, we could easily postulate that the strong ethnic consciousness that predicated the use of 'ohuhu' in the Ngwa cultural area is also responsible for the later adoption of the 'maazi' coded greeting on a pan-Ngwa level. The continued influx of non-indigenes into the Ngwa cultural area simply heightened an already strong sense of ethnic consciousness. The institutionalization of the 'maazi' greeting and other forms of coded communication can be viewed as the result of such socio-politics.

By 'direct links', I take it you're referring to ancestral ties. If that's what you mean, then no. No direct links exist between Ngwa and Aro save for a few communities in the then Obioma Ngwa administrative zone, the largest of which being Arongwa, whose inhabitants either claim Aro or Ngwa descent.

MaziOmenuko:


Funny dude; you have this wonderful believe that most igbo words/titles/proverbs had its root in Aro; together with its exclusive usage.


Nope, ngwa people had mazi in their diction right from the day eve ate the fruit Bende people in central Abia use mazi to indicate an elder.

You probably thought am Aro too?
No,am not Aro,but it has been established that Mazi is a borrowed Aro expression. If i find any contrary source of origin, i will gladly post it here.