ziga:

interesting to know that just like Nigeria, Kenya has lots of tribes.
Question - Do you have various tribes in Kenya claiming superiority over other tribes just like we usually have here on Nairaland

Ohh Yes we do! I find though, that this is changing among the younger generation. Or maybe its just a Nairobi thing, am not sure. Maybe because you grow up amongst people of various tribes you get to see that we are all the same, it all comes down to individual traits and not that of a whole tribe!

@mukina2
Oku your tribe must be from Eku which was the name the slave traders called the yorubas from yoruba greeting word eku. Eku alejo. Eku ise. Eku abo. etc The name yoruba did not come into usage till late 19th century.

Akua, Kudjoe and Kwabena are truly beautiful names.

P.S. it's nice to see friends and guests from other countries also frequent here. You are welcomed - yep that means you too Zim Drill lol.

Happy New Year guys!

Questions
1. For the Germans, how many tribes are in Germany?
2. For the African-Americans, how many tribes are in USA?
3. For the British, how many tribes are in the United Kingdom?

Great question.

otumfour:

these 2 names, Accompong and Cudjoe
the Accompong sounds like the Ghanaian name >>Acheampong-an ASHANTI name
and CUDJOE  is a Ghanaian name as well, Cudjoe is the name given to a Monday born in Ghana
In Ghana, we have names for all the 7 days, so a child is named after the day he/she was born,we call them house hold names

MALE
MONDAY- CUDJOE/KUDJOE
TUESDAY- KWABENA
WEDNESDAY- KWEKU
THURSDAY- YAW
FRIDAY- KOFI
SATURDAY- KWAME
SUNDAY- KWESI

FEMALE
MONDAY- ADWOA
TUESDAY- ABENA
WEDNESDAY- AKUA
THURSDAY- YAA
FRIDAY- AFUA
SATURDAY- AMA
SUNDAY- AKOS

I say, this thread's been 1 of the best so far on Nairaland

Kilode?!:

The Wikipedia entry for "Nanny the Maroon" actually said "The Maroons mainly consisted of people from the Akan region of West Africa. The Ashante tribe, from which Nanny came"

Otumfour, I suspect "Nanny" is a corrupted form of the Akan/Ashanti name "Nana" or what do you think?

MzDarkskin's post Reminds me of Wole Soyinka's tale about his search for an old lady who kept memories and stories of her family history from Africa. Soyinka went searching after he learnt about and her village in the Jamaican hill settlement of Bekuta (Soyinka belived it was named after his birth-city Abeokuta)

otumfour:


am very sure on this 1 bruv, the Nanny is surely Nana
Nana has 2 meanings in Akan-Ashanti, NANA= A KING & NANA= GRAND PARENTS, I even refer to my Granny as NANA

tht Soyinka piece is really interesting, wow! am loving this thread mahn

WOW! That is SOOOOOO AMAZING! I NEVER KNEW THIS  . This is soo exciting to see such similarities btn my island and Africa particularly Ghana!
We Jamaicans are a mix of West Africa and Central Africa but the main countries that contributed to our population are in the following order according to numbers: Nigeria, Ghana, Congo, Cameroon & Angola. We took the Nigerian language (remixed pidgin mostly of Igbo vocab.) with us, the Ghanaian "rebellious" spirit, and the Central African (Congo, Cameroon/Angola) dancing styles. We are truly a well blended people however of them all we have such a STRONG connection with Ghana (lol I can't explain it!), I have YET to discover why but it's amazing!

I remember my mother's reaction during the world cup when she saw the Nigerian, Ghanaian, Cameroonian teams and she was soo intrigued that she would pause the t.v. and point out to us the features she saw very common amongst Jamaicans on the players. She was so excited to do so and was smiling all the while LOL. Its a beautiful thing.

*update, I even know a few Kwames. One is American and three are Jamaican. Cool stuff.

ajileko:

Yes I've heard a lot of stories about Granny Nanny, she's quite a strong lady. Also tell me something, is the goat soup "Manish water" same as "pepper soup" we eat in Africa? Bwoy, mi lov manish water fi real.

lol might be. What are the ingredients in Pepper soup? Manish Water is basically a watery soup that consists of: goat meat (sometimes), Green or black pepper, green banana, chicken noodles, garlic, salt, yam, thyme, pimento seed, escallion, Irish potatoes, dumpling, scotch bonnet pepper, and chocho (avocado looking things).

@Deejay20, no offence but you didn't have to display such nonsense on a thread that's going wonderfully well, thereby making people to think otherwise before posting. For crying out loud, its about knowing other people's culture! Your maturity on this is really to be questioned.

zibe:

@Deejay20, no offence but you didn't have to display such nonsense on a thread that's going wonderfully well, thereby making people to think otherwise before posting. For crying out loud, its about knowing other people's culture! Your maturity on this is really to be questioned.

Dude Please!!! zibe, i know both sides of the fence all too well (Nigerians/Non Nigerians), so save your "key-strokes" as most Non - Nigerians dont know better!!!

The interaction field is not balanced here on Nairaland!.this is not a Japanese forum board and Canadians trying to get to know them ie (both developed countries). Which sometimes end up with the Canadian person visiting Japan and even staying with the Japanese friends he/she or they met online.

This is a Nigerian forum Board and most Non-Nigerians here are living in Developed countries so the communications on this forum is going to be distorted more often!!!
Look at the pure trash that comes out of the hearts/minds of most Naija's on here.

Its hard to find a genuine Nigerian who understands the concept of friendship and u betta believe that as i spent my last 3 years of Secondary school in Nigeria and 2 years of University there!!!

Nigerians always want to know eveything about you but dont want you to know much about them, seen it every day while i lived there, schooled there, worked and did business there,  sooo sad, openess and honesty is "values in short supply in nigeria"

BTW, what bout you zibe, where are u from , whats your culture, what do u do?
where do u live? do u have any non-nigerian friends?, lets see how open you can be,

who be dis nah?
19 post and u've started attacking, wanting 2derail a thread meant not for nigerians only, but also for non-nigerians to interact and discuss about theirs own. Which for real we all has been showing our prides/culture on dis section. No one is hiding any informatn.
Brova, abeg lets be calm and respect views and learn from each other. ok
u're too much

..

MzDarkSkin:

WOW! That is SOOOOOO AMAZING! I NEVER KNEW THIS . This is soo exciting to see such similarities btn my island and Africa particularly Ghana!
We Jamaicans are a mix of West Africa and Central Africa but the main countries that contributed to our population are in the following order according to numbers: Nigeria, Ghana, Congo, Cameroon & Angola. We took the Nigerian language (remixed pidgin mostly of Igbo vocab.) with us, the Ghanaian "rebellious" spirit, and the Central African (Congo, Cameroon/Angola) dancing styles. We are truly a well blended people however of them all we have such a STRONG connection with Ghana (lol I can't explain it!), I have YET to discover why but it's amazing!

I remember my mother's reaction during the world cup when she saw the Nigerian, Ghanaian, Cameroonian teams and she was soo intrigued that she would pause the t.v. and point out to us the features she saw very common amongst Jamaicans on the players. She was so excited to do so and was smiling all the while LOL. Its a beautiful thing.

*update, I even know a few Kwames. One is American and three are Jamaican. Cool stuff.

LOL at what your mother did, I'm suprised the male relatives allowed that unless of course it was just you girls watching.

@ bolded please tell me more, I would like to see a list of the vocabs this greatly interests me.

My Gosh! M so loving this thread, MsDarkskin ur the bomb, i'll never have know this much about Jamaica, pls i'd really love to know about the vocabulary part.

@Deejay20, thanks for almost ruining such an educative thread, u are so shallow minded, Nigerian's are very hospitable pple and even a lill too trusting at times, i just wonder about the ones u lived or mixed with while u were here in Nigeria.

@base1
Pls, pls, pls i dont want any response towards DJs utterance. We shld pls be dat matured and educated individuals with attitude and not the other way round.
As a nigerian we cnt just help loving our neighbours. Tho. we might differ sometimes but we still have a mad love for y' all.
@deejay
i wnt u 2help us 2ease any kinda tension and foster decorum or peace up in here.
As u can see we all have been enjoying ourselves, aint it? thanks

malabite:

Questions
1. For the Germans, how many tribes are in Germany?
2. For the African-Americans, how many tribes are in USA?
3. For the British, how many tribes are in the United Kingdom?

What concerns the origin the German people is a mixed one with Germanic, Celtic and Slavic components.
German main tribes are the Bavarians, the Saxonians, the Swabians, the Franconians, the Thuringians,
the Frisians, the Prussians.

Due to immigration it has changed more and more.
According to a study from 2006 40% of the under-forty-years-old, i.e. almost half of the German population
is not originally German. All in all approx. 200 different ethnics live in Germany.

@sunch, i apologise for my response towards deejay, pls let this wonderful thread continue and please let it make front page!

Nice thread. There is history of The Yoruba tribe in Brazil, Cuba,Sierra Leone and some states in the USA.

The Yoruba tribe live on the southwest coast of Africa in Nigeria and can also be found in the eastern Republic of Benin and Togo. The majority of the slaves brought to the Americas were from West Africa, Yoruba descendants can also be found in Brazil, Cuba the Caribbean and the United States.

Yoruba is a colonial term coined in the mid-nineteenth century as a common name to identify the Nago, Egba, Egbado, Ijubu, Ijesa, Oya, as well as other groups of people. The tribe is known for their art with beads, ivory, and brass.

The earliest evidence of artistry in the Yoruba tribe dates back to about 8000 BCE. Yoruba art frequently depicts creatures that are composites of human, animal, bird, and fish forms

I ALSO CAME ACROSS THIS ARTICLE, I DONT MEAN TO DIVERT FROM THE TOPIC BUT THIS MIGHT ALSO SHOW SOME SIMILARITIES BETWEEN THE YORUBAS AND THESE PLACES :

1- "Santeria" and "Macumba" (from Nigeria):

See Art Gallery-Santeria

In Nigeria, the Ju-Ju tribe of the Yoruba culture has a religion with 600 gods who are demons, because the "false gods" are "demons" (Psa.96:5).

They came to Cuba and Brazil with the slaves.

From Cuba, with the name "Santeria", they came to Miami, New York, only in Miami there are 20,000 Santero-priests (babalaos).

In Brazil its name is "Macumba" (sanctuary), and only in Rio de Janeiro there are 65,000 temples, with 40 million Brazilians combining Christian beliefs with Spirit worship.

Both in Cuba and Brazil 25 gods-demons were given the names of "Catholic Saints", therefore, the new name "Santeria" in Spanish, or "Macumba" (sanctuary), in Portuguese.

The supreme deity, and the father of all the gods, is "Olurun", represented by Jesus Christ on the cross. But the 3 most popular are "Obatalá" (O.L. of Mercy"; "Changó" (St. Barbara); and "Ochún" (Virgin of Charity), but these gods are no God, they practice adultery, homosexuality, incest, they hate and fight each other, for example, "Yemayá" (Virgin of Regla), had 14 children in incest-impossible relations with her son "Orungán" (Baby Jesus), there are "gods-demons"!, demons!, (Psalm 96:5)

To become a "santero" it may cost $10,000, with the right to use the "snail shells" for divination or magic, charging about $500 for each work of magic; those who do not have the $10,000, can became "smaller Santeros", but they only can use "coconuts" for their divination or magic.

To become a "santero-priest", a "babalao", is more expensive, but he has the right to offer "sacrifices of animals" for magic.

2- "Abacua" and "Candomble" (from Nigeria):

Also from Nigeria came the "Abacua" to Cuba, and the "Candomble" to Brazil, mainly to the Bahia area. They are worse than the Santeria, using mainly "black magic", to take vengeance, to injury or even to kill an enemy. They may offer to the gods "humans", instead of animal sacrifices.

http://www.forafricanart.com/Yoruba_ep_35-1.html

http://www.sbbtm.com/Occults/voodoo_hoodoo.htm

emofine:

LOL at what your mother did, I'm suprised the male relatives allowed that unless of course it was just you girls watching.

@ bolded please tell me more, I would like to see a list of the vocabs this greatly interests me.

LOL my step father was with us. He was doing some of the "pointing out" too. Especially when Cameroon was about to play. He said most of the mean police officers he knew in Jamaica looked Cameroonian LOL. (I am SOOO serious!)

base 1:

My  Gosh!   M  so  loving   this   thread,   MsDarkskin   your   the   bomb,   i'll   never   have   know this   much   about   Jamaica,   pls i'd   really   love   to  know   about the   vocabulary   part.

@Deejay20,   thanks   for   almost   ruining   such   an educative   thread,   u  are   so   shallow minded,   Nigerian's   are  very   hospitable  pple   and  even  a lill too   trusting at   times, i   just wonder about   the   ones u   lived or  mixed with   while u   were here  in  Nigeria.

Gee thanks!

Now for the words. I am too lazy to type them LOL plus I was banned on my MzDarkSkin i.d. for "spam like posts", so I am kind of weary about making long posts. Instead I have links for you to check out when you get the chance.

*Wikipedia is not always correct however I check out the words that they say we Jamaicans use, and they are correct for the most part, only we don't use "mumu" much. They also forgot to add "Labalaba" which for us is used to express "drama or over exaggeration".

EX: "Mi nuh inna di labalaba sinting/sitten" or "I am not into the drama".

One word they didn't explain is that fufu which is food for Africans for us is "foolish or dumb"

for example: "Mi nuh wa da fufu sitten deh!" or "I dont want that dumb thing." (fufu is sometimes written as "fool fool" in patois).

One Yoruba word I know for sure is "Bosi", for us it's "Boasy" which means "brag/boast/show off" 

"Di man dem boasy yu see?" or "See, those guys are show offs!"

*Somewhere down the line we used the same words but changed the meanings (fufu and labalaba for ex). The origins as listed on Wikipedia maybe questionable tho. 


My sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_African_words_in_Jamaican_Patois

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-34293.0.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igbo_Jamaican#Proverbs Igbo vs. Jamaican proverbs (INTERESTING!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igbo_people (see the regions with significant populations box  )

MORE TO COME. If you guys want to we can even exchange "lessons" lol in pidgin and patois! If you want to that is! In the meantime check those out!

I read somewhere that both Pidgin's Picken/pikin and our pickney/pickeny (both meaning child/boy/girl) are actually not African at all but is Spanish/Portuguese from the word Pequeno which means small person/child. Hmmmm. Also Pidgin's sabi comes from the Spanish word "Saber" which means to know. Our languages are too mixed up o!

Speaking of 'o', i noticed Niaja folks say "O" a lot as a means of emphasizing their statement, same in Jamaica. We say "Ah-oh" if we are angrily making a point or agreeing and a simple"O" as well. Usually when we say either one, you will notice us (being dramatic as always) rolling our necks lol.

Hissing of the teeth is also prevalent in the Caribbean too. We have brought with us much more than just language from Africa as "fanning" some one off or "throwing one's arm in the air" in annoyance is also something we both do.

Ehen MZJamoGal so you sabi wetin we dey tok before?

I tink say this pidgin/krio na small small ingredients we tiff from European languages and arrange am into our West African syntax, so no be only english we yarn for mouth, we spray different dialects before. Even pesin wey tok no sabi which language dey spray, whether spanish or portugese na simple pidgin to us.
lol I no know before Jamo pipu day embellish their words with 'O' I tink say that be Naija pipu style

E be lyk say we for trace our origins through our dialect nau abi?

Happy New Year!

@emofine:
For those of us who are not well-versed in Pidgin, how about a translation of your post?

I have been an avid reader on here for over a year now. I am originally from Congo but I was raised with a very open mind and with friends from all over the africa so truly most people can never guess until I tell them. I am panafricanist at heart and consider myself african before anything else (and more then specifically coming from a particular country).

My cultural contributions today, Lingala is the language mostly used in congo, its used as a venacular language for communication purposes (at the market etc etc) and is a watered-down and "frenchized" version of the original Lingala spoken Bangala people in the north of the country. There are over 400 dialects in kongo with 5 main tribes. My family is from the
Kongo or Bakongo (who speak kikongo) tribe which gaves its name to the country. We also belong to a smaller tribe inside the bigger kongo tribe, called the bayombe (and they speak kiyombe). Because we were first colonized by the portguguese alot of words derived or similar to portuguese words are part of lingala, kikongo and kiyombe.
Examples: In lingala we say mesa = table portuguese is mesa
sapatu = shoes sapato
kopo= cup/glass copo/copa
and some english, we say miliki for milk.

I'll come back with the bakongo/kongo tribe influences on brazilian culture and music as 40% of the slaves that entered brazil were kikongo speakers.


Happy New Year!!!

yorubas too miliki for milk,and kopu or ife /cup

Table in Swahili is Meza

I beg your pardon drrionelli I didn't think any non-pidgin/krio speakers will care for what I was saying

In regular english:

MZJamoGal so you understand what we were saying before?

I thought that the components of pidgin/krio was taken from European languages and embedded into our West African syntax, so it is not only english we are communicating in, we are conversing in different dialects. Even some people who are speaking pidgin are not aware of which particular language they are talking, whether spanish or portugese it is just pidgin to us.

lol I never knew Jamaicans decorated their words with 'O' I always thought it was a Nigerian style.

It's as if to say we are tracing our origins through our dialect, is it not?

Happy New Year!

I hoped that settled it for curious minds

Hello to everybody and happy new year!.

Edit:

Dear fellow bloggers:

I'm afraid I wrote too many things not related to this topic, including certain details that I would rather keep to myself.

I hope you understand the reasons  for this modification.

Nothing personal. Seriously. You have been very kind to me.

Yeah we have a Kongolese and Kenyan in our midst - I hope we can expect the arrival of an Angolan next

Lallafati I have always adored Lingala as it sounded so romantic now I know why - you guys have been embedding french all along.

I'm curious about the religious make up of Congo, I'm aware that it is largely christian but are there any large muslim communities?

I am also eager to hear about the Kikongo that influenced Brazil I had no idea about that, I was only aware of the Angolans and Yorubas.

Jambo Tausi - I hope that's correct if not then welcome

So kenya has too many tribes to talk about - welcome to the club lol

but please do tell us more about the largest ethnic in Kenya and if you are not amongst them then tell us of yours also. I'm also keen to learn more about the Massai, for the longest time now ever since I read a book from childhood I always used to think that they were the majority not the minority. I believe that they are one of the most famous ethnics from Africa so please do inform us more about them.

Welcome Alcofrybas - is that yor real name because it kind of sounds cool

Part German and Italian - what a combination lol. Where in South America where you raised?

P.S. I'm also clumsy with blogs.

I wish you guys a productive year

Edit:

Dear fellow bloggers:

I'm afraid I wrote too many things not related to this topic, including certain details that I would rather keep to myself.

I hope you understand the reasons  for this modification.

Nothing personal. Seriously. You have been very kind to me.

Have a wonderful 2011.

Alcofrybas:
You're right. The offspings of Italian-German marriages are quite a combination, especially when they're irritated  . Just imagine, the hot-headed Italian temperament combined with the German frankness. Oh whatever. I wouldn't have it any other way. Family ties, especially in Italy, are very strong. The´re extraordinary grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, daughters and sons. You can count on them. Word!.

LOL That's exactly what I was alluding to. I have a friend who is half Nigerian and Italian and wow you know when not to mess with her lol and the funny thing is she's normally quiet and shy until, you make her blow a fuse I also love it when she's screaming in Italian hehe

Alcofrybas:
I was born and raised in Venezuela, where there's also a strong Yoruba presence. They even have their own radio station there.

Now, you might wonder, why am I interested in Nigerian culture?.

First: The exquisite masks and ornaments carved in ivory. They're museum items, and in some books about art they're the only items showed under the section "African Art".

Wow I'm positively suprised, the Yorubas must be Nigeria's biggest export ethnicity lol. Venezuela? They have truly marked their stamp in this world particularly South America. I was only aware of Cuba and Brazil how interesting please tell us more tales of the diaspora there and influence if you can.

About 'African Art' lol I see that often as well when the majority of the book have pages containing benin bronzes or figures from ile ife. I was going to an exhibition here in London back in July, and it read 'West African Art'. Well to be fair that's proably the closest they've come to lol. I too adore their work, the realism is quite amazing and when I lean close to inspect the Benin bronzes sometimes I forget that these people were using cast to create these works. One of the most prestigious art works in the world are the Benin bronzes.

Alcofrybas:
Second: The percussion. I love to play (or rather struggle with  percussion, and believe me, Nigeria has produced the majority of African Percussion known and manufactured outside Africa. Here is a list of the most popular African Items made by major western manufacturers:

Non-Nigerian Percussion and the ethnic groups that invented them

1) Bougarabou (Jola).
2) Djembe (Mandinka).
3) Djun Djun (Mande tribes).
4) Ngoma (Swahili).
5) Rattles (Various African Countries).

Nigerian Percussion:

1) Agogo (also known as Gankogui in Ghana).
2) Ashiko.
3) Bata.
3) Shekere (also known as Atxase in Ghana).
4) Talking Drum.
5) Udu.

The great artist Peter Gabriel introduced me to this wonderful world.

I am sorry for any typos and grammatical errors (or horrors  ), but it should be quite clear by now that I'm not fluent in any African Language

I know that there is much more to know about Nigerian culture than its works of art and its percussion. That's why I joined this forum.

Well, this is fun. Have a wonderful 2011, emofine.

It's amazing the things you learn from Non-Nigerians Sometimes we Nigerians fail to appreciate what we have contributed or sometime we don't even know what we have offered, thanks for the info. I believe the Djembe drum from Senegal is truly one of best creation of drums, I think it is probably the most famous African drum perhaps. I have heard the bata drums but I've only heard it played by the Cubans.
The talking drum amazes me, I can't fathom how the Yorubas created such an instrument that actually mimics the tones in their language - genius work lol.
If you meet a Yoruba hopefully they can teach you percussion - I personally believe these people are one of the best drummers in Africa - they are certainly the best in Nigeria - and they hardly get tired, they can drum from morning to night.

Peter Gabriel? hmmmm now I'm curious I must make sure I research this guy now.

Furthermore I hope you obtain all the info and materials you want and need here, it's been very infotaining conversing with you

P.S. It's a good thing your Italian-German so you have a thick skin because some people here are too blunt even I prefer to dodge the bullets

Edit:

Dear fellow bloggers:

I'm afraid I wrote too many things not related to this topic, including certain details that I would rather keep to myself.

I hope you understand the reasons  for this modification.

Nothing personal. Seriously. You have been very kind to me.