Mazi_Omenuko: I know one Mazi in nairaland

Odenigbo Aroli: To my knowledge "Mazi" is a southern Igbo thing and it can not be equated to the "Nze" title from Nze n' Ozo,which has its origin in the Nothern Igbo. However,the northen Igbo has an equivalent title of "Mazi",which is "Ogbuefi" but its fast going extinct. Ogbuefi is used mostly for the elderly,married or the affluent.

Odenigbo Aroli:


I'm not surprised,at all because part of Ebonyi was carved out of Abia. I stand corrected.

ROYALD:

POINT OF CORRECTION
MAZI IS MR


EXAMPLE : MAZI OBI ..... IN ENGLISH MR OBI

1bunne4lif: nwamazi!

Cyberknight: The "Igbo bu otu" reaction may be a bit extreme in this instance, but I must also confess that I have lived in Nigeria all my life and have never heard of the whole "southern", "eastern" and "northern" Igbo distinctions that are being mentioned on here; this is the first time I have ever heard of them. What I am aware of is the broad dialectal division of the language into so-called Anambra Igbo and Imo Igbo (ofu/otu, afia/ahia, uno/ulo, etc, etc) that was being spoken of in the 80s, but I have no knowledge of any other divisions. As some posters have pointed out, the political divisions of the Igbo into states do not necessarily follow lingusitic or cultural boundaries (e.g. the Orlu people near Ihiala area are culturally and linguistically more similar to Anambra than Imo, etc.), but to my knowledge that is about the extent of the classification of Igbo people that is not based on broad geography or culture.

ChinenyeN: Igbo people have unfortunately allowed Nigeria's politics to get in the way of simple academic/intellectual discourse. The delineation of the various "Igbo" communities into geographically identifiable culture zones is nothing to be afraid of. There is no need to trivialize and otherwise distort good discourse with the constant "Igbo bu Igbo" or "Igbo bu ofu" reaction.

Mr9iceGuy:
Hia which one be northern and southern igbos again? Hmmm unu eburukwele bata 18 ooh, lekwenumohh mmadu eji ogbunigwe meruo mmadu ahu ebea

Aro Okigbo:
I am from Arochukwu (Obinkita). I am married with three kids. In English language, I am addressed as "Mr" however at home I am not addressed as "Mazi" but "Nwa Mazi" simply because my dad is still alive.

Mazi is "NOT" Mr!

Odinaka00:

Abukwam nwa Mazi...onye ndi aniche ndi be obaa

me_for_you: I enjoy every bit of this topic. hearing the northern/southern igbo for the first time.
I miss home so much. always enjoying listening to news in igbo language, where i find out that i dont know a lot in igbo language.
Thank God for this topic. i have discovered my brothers.
I'm from Arondizuogu too.

Abagworo: Ikwerres use Mazi as well while the Ngwas greeting for an elder is "mazi"

Lordave: ndi Aniche Obaa??
Nwanne Ima Mazi Otti?

ChinenyeN:

Cyberknight, the "Igbo bu otu" reaction is more than a bit extreme. It borders on paranoia, but that is a different matter for a different day. The point of my response now is to touch on the geographical delineation. As this topic has clearly shown, most Igbo people know nothing about the northern, northeastern, southern, etc. geographical delineations. I do not find that surprising at all, since the terminology is currently only used in academic discourse. The typical Nigerian trivializes academic/intellectual discourse and as such will have no use for the terminology. Instead, they will use those politically-induced terms like "Anambra Igbo" or "Abia Igbo", which have no real bearing on any kind of academic/intellectual discussion. Anambra, Imo, Abia, etc. are all administrative creations.

The communities within these administrative borders existed long before the development of these administrative demarcations; demarcations which pay no attention to preexisting historical, cultural and linguistic interconnections. In all reality, there is nothing like "Anambra Igbo" or "Imo Igbo" or "Abia Igbo", etc. Those demarcations are administrative and do not provide any real, delineating information about the people and cultures within those boundaries. As you have rightly mentioned there are communities in Anambra, such as Ihiala, that share more with Orlu than they do with the rest of Anambra. Ngwa in Abia shares more with bordering Imo state communities than it does with Abia in general. The list can go on, as we are all aware, but listing is not the point of my long essay. Instead, the point of my long essay is to give you some background insight into the reason why the geographical delineations are used, and that reason is to bypass or overlook the problem of ambiguity and triviality created by the persistent usage of "Abia Igbo", "Rivers Igbo", etc. so that better discussions can be held.

If you want to expand your knowledge and learn more, I suggest doing some reading and research. You can start with Google Books. Though it can prove frustrating, as an academic tool, it is a place to start. You can learn a lot, and also see that the "northern", "northeastern", "southern", etc. terms that some of us use are not NL creations. I encourage all other Igbo people in general to do the same, for their own sake.

chrisxxx:
U r misinforming the populace when u say ikwerres use the title mazi. Ikwerres never make use of mazi. we make use of the title Nye Dike meaning a brave one.Stop roping Ikwerres into this ur Ibo arrangement.

some-girl:


One cannot class Igbos into the aforementioned groups only.
Someone stated Mazi to have originated from "southern" Igbo which is clearly not the case as it was originally peculiar to the Aros and no other "southern" Igbo groups.
These classifications may cause one to presume that "southern" Igbos have more in common that they do with those in the north and vice versa when in fact, several groups in the south are significantly different (for lack of a better word) from any other Igbo group.
It may be easy to label "northern" Igbo groups but labeling the "south" is not as straightforward.

odumchi: Another equivalent of "mazi" that comes to mind would be "deede" or "dee".

chrisxxx:
U r misinforming the populace when u say ikwerres use the title mazi. Ikwerres never make use of mazi. we make use of the title Nye Dike meaning a brave one.Stop roping Ikwerres into this ur Ibo arrangement.

Odenigbo Aroli: To my knowledge "Mazi" is a southern Igbo thing and it can not be equated to the "Nze" title from Nze n' Ozo,which has its origin in the Nothern Igbo. However,the northen Igbo has an equivalent title of "Mazi",which is "Ogbuefi" but its fast going extinct. Ogbuefi is used mostly for the elderly,married or the affluent.

odumchi: Thank you all for your replies. I was confused because, although I was told that "mazi" was exclusively Aro, I've come across several cases in which non-Aro (like Mazi_Omenuko) bear it, in addition to seeing it in Igbo literature.

Anyway, "mazi" is not a title of the same caliber as Nze or Ozo, because (like Chinenye mentioned) there isn't a ceremony accompanied with it and it doesn't signify achievement or accomplishment (we don't even take titles in Aro). In the same vein, it isn't limited to elders. In Aro society, "mazi" is simply a title that is used to politely identify any man whose father is no longer alive. If such a man's father were alive, he would be identified as "nwa mazi" while his father would bear "mazi". For women, the title "ada mazi" exists and is born by all women, irregardless of whether or not the father is alive.

Another thing that I've noticed is that the Aro are the only Igbo people that I know of that refer to their king as "mazi".

ChinenyeN:

Cyberknight, the "Igbo bu otu" reaction is more than a bit extreme. It borders on paranoia, but that is a different matter for a different day. The point of my response now is to touch on the geographical delineation. As this topic has clearly shown, most Igbo people know nothing about the northern, northeastern, southern, etc. geographical delineations. I do not find that surprising at all, since the terminology is currently only used in academic discourse. The typical Nigerian trivializes academic/intellectual discourse and as such will have no use for the terminology. Instead, they will use those politically-induced terms like "Anambra Igbo" or "Abia Igbo", which have no real bearing on any kind of academic/intellectual discussion. Anambra, Imo, Abia, etc. are all administrative creations.

The communities within these administrative borders existed long before the development of these administrative demarcations; demarcations which pay no attention to preexisting historical, cultural and linguistic interconnections. In all reality, there is nothing like "Anambra Igbo" or "Imo Igbo" or "Abia Igbo", etc. Those demarcations are administrative and do not provide any real, delineating information about the people and cultures within those boundaries. As you have rightly mentioned there are communities in Anambra, such as Ihiala, that share more with Orlu than they do with the rest of Anambra. Ngwa in Abia shares more with bordering Imo state communities than it does with Abia in general. The list can go on, as we are all aware, but listing is not the point of my long essay. Instead, the point of my long essay is to give you some background insight into the reason why the geographical delineations are used, and that reason is to bypass or overlook the problem of ambiguity and triviality created by the persistent usage of "Abia Igbo", "Rivers Igbo", etc. so that better discussions can be held.

If you want to expand your knowledge and learn more, I suggest doing some reading and research. You can start with Google Books. Though it can prove frustrating, as an academic tool, it is a place to start. You can learn a lot, and also see that the "northern", "northeastern", "southern", etc. terms that some of us use are not NL creations. I encourage all other Igbo people in general to do the same, for their own sake.

Afam4eva:
Every group or even village in Igboland have some level of uniqueness but that's not to say that they don't have more in common with groups closer to them than those far away. Arochukwu may have their USP but they also have a lot in common with other Igbo groups closer to them. States were created using these similarities though not as perfect as one would expect and one example is in the case of Okigwe which should ordinarily be in Anambra state based on it's similarities with groups there.

some-girl:



I agree with the bolded however southern groups that aren't close to each other i.e have other groups between them could be very dissimilar. Where then does one draw the boundary between north and south without reference to states?
Like you've pointed out, Okigwe could very well have been part of Anambra state, so could Orlu. If these had been part of Anambra state, the argument would then be that LGAs close to Okigwe and Orlu that would most likely have a lot in common with them could very well be northern Igbo as well.....
Point is, these classifications are a bit tricky especially when one starts to bring in "northwestern/ eastern" and "south western/ eastern" classifications.
Would you say Owerri is "southwestern", "southeastern" or "middle belt"?

chrisxxx:
U r misinforming the populace when u say ikwerres use the title mazi. Ikwerres never make use of mazi. we make use of the title Nye Dike meaning a brave one.Stop roping Ikwerres into this ur Ibo arrangement.

some-girl:


One cannot class Igbos into the aforementioned groups only.
Someone stated Mazi to have originated from "southern" Igbo which is clearly not the case as it was originally peculiar to the Aros and no other "southern" Igbo groups.
These classifications may cause one to presume that "southern" Igbos have more in common that they do with those in the north and vice versa when in fact, several groups in the south are significantly different (for lack of a better word) from any other Igbo group.
It may be easy to label "northern" Igbo groups but labeling the "south" is not as straightforward.