Wednesday, July 14, 2021
Used to Think “Bianca” and “Biafra” Were Igbo Words!
By Farooq Kperogi

Twitter: @farooqkperogi

Don’t laugh too hard at my ignorance, but until fairly recently, I used to think Bianca was an Igbo name and thought any non-Igbo person who bore the name did so out of (benign) appellative appropriation—such as many Black Americans who bear African names.

Don’t blame me: the first person I ever knew to bear the name was Bianca Onuh Ojukwu, the former beauty queen who became former Biafra warlord Emeka Ojukwu’s wife. Through the logic of false attraction, I thought the “bia” in Bianca was derived from the Igbo “bia” that means “come.”

This notion was congealed in my mind because “bia” is probably Igbo language’s single most recognized word to other non-Igbo Nigerians. “Bia” is lexically frozen in my imagination in the trinitarian alternative indigenous name for Nigeria called WAZOBIA, which is formed from the Yoruba “wa,” the Hausa “zo” and the Igbo “bia,” which all mean “come” in English.

In addition, Biafra, the name Igbo people chose for their homeland when they seceded from Nigeria and which new secessionists still cherish and embrace, begins with “bia.” In fact, an Igbo friend and classmate of mine in high school by the name of John Chukwu convinced me that “Biafra” was short for “bia fara,” which he said literally meant “come take” in Igbo.

You can imagine my shock when I discovered that even Biafra that I’d invoked as the lexical evidence for associating “Igboness” to the name Bianca and which my friend told me meant “come take,” isn’t even an Igbo word! It’s a Portuguese word—like Lagos is, by the way.

Well, maybe it’s incorrect to say Biafra is a Portuguese word since it really doesn’t mean anything in Portuguese—like Lagos does in the language. (Lagos is the Portuguese word for lakes.) We do know, however, that Biafra was singlehandedly invented by Portuguese explorers and cartographers to refer to “the Gulf of Guinea stretching from the Niger River delta to northern Gabon.”

But why would people want to escape an odious colonial name like “Nigeria” for another colonial exonym like “Biafra”? If Biafra would be an ethno-state, what’s hard about coming up with an Igbo name for it? Are we that mentally damaged by colonial subjugation that we can’t even name ourselves by our names in our dream ethno-states?

Back to Bianca. I learned that Bianca is actually an Italian name that means “white.” How interesting! If I had taken literature in high school, I probably would have encountered the name in Shakespeare’s “Othello” and “The Taming of the Shrew.”

https://www.farooqkperogi.com/2021/07/used-to-think-bianca-and-biafra-were.html

Actually, her name does mean something in Igbo! In my Mums place Azumini, bia nca means come here!

PROUDIGBO:
Actually, her name does mean something in Igbo! In my Mums place Azumini, bia nca means come here!

Thinking of wazobia. I think there is marginalisation there, the Hausa and Yoruba remove "Bia" from wazobia 50 naira note. Now Hausa and Yoruba call it Wazo, what does igbo call 50 naira in South East?

I remember Disney's Beauty and the Beast.

You had a poetic and masterly writeup.

I advise you to keep the ball rolling in your writing pattern and the sky will definitely be your stating point.

Keep it up

SlyDev:


Thinking of wazobia. I think there is marginalisation there, the Hausa and Yoruba remove "Bia" from wazobia 50 naira note. Now Hausa and Yoruba call it Wazo, what does igbo call 50 naira in South East?

SlyDev:


Thinking of wazobia. I think there is marginalisation there, the Hausa and Yoruba remove "Bia" from wazobia 50 naira note. Now Hausa and Yoruba call it Wazo, what does igbo call 50 naira in South East?

In east, it is called "white"

What's the moral lesson of this epistle now?

PROUDIGBO:
Actually, her name does mean something in Igbo! In my Mums place Azumini, bia nca means come here!

Are you Ndoki

ChangedMan1999:





Are you Ndoki

Mum is.

Praxis758:
You had a poetic and masterly writeup.

I advise you to keep the ball rolling in your writing pattern and the sky will definitely be your stating point.

Keep it up

who are you commending? didnt you see who the author of the write up is?

Ikemba007:
Wednesday, July 14, 2021
Used to Think “Bianca” and “Biafra” Were Igbo Words!
By Farooq Kperogi

Twitter: @farooqkperogi

Don’t laugh too hard at my ignorance, but until fairly recently, I used to think Bianca was an Igbo name and thought any non-Igbo person who bore the name did so out of (benign) appellative appropriation—such as many Black Americans who bear African names.

Don’t blame me: the first person I ever knew to bear the name was Bianca Onuh Ojukwu, the former beauty queen who became former Biafra warlord Emeka Ojukwu’s wife. Through the logic of false attraction, I thought the “bia” in Bianca was derived from the Igbo “bia” that means “come.”

This notion was congealed in my mind because “bia” is probably Igbo language’s single most recognized word to other non-Igbo Nigerians. “Bia” is lexically frozen in my imagination in the trinitarian alternative indigenous name for Nigeria called WAZOBIA, which is formed from the Yoruba “wa,” the Hausa “zo” and the Igbo “bia,” which all mean “come” in English.

In addition, Biafra, the name Igbo people chose for their homeland when they seceded from Nigeria and which new secessionists still cherish and embrace, begins with “bia.” In fact, an Igbo friend and classmate of mine in high school by the name of John Chukwu convinced me that “Biafra” was short for “bia fara,” which he said literally meant “come take” in Igbo.

You can imagine my shock when I discovered that even Biafra that I’d invoked as the lexical evidence for associating “Igboness” to the name Bianca and which my friend told me meant “come take,” isn’t even an Igbo word! It’s a Portuguese word—like Lagos is, by the way.

Well, maybe it’s incorrect to say Biafra is a Portuguese word since it really doesn’t mean anything in Portuguese—like Lagos does in the language. (Lagos is the Portuguese word for lakes.) We do know, however, that Biafra was singlehandedly invented by Portuguese explorers and cartographers to refer to “the Gulf of Guinea stretching from the Niger River delta to northern Gabon.”

But why would people want to escape an odious colonial name like “Nigeria” for another colonial exonym like “Biafra”? If Biafra would be an ethno-state, what’s hard about coming up with an Igbo name for it? Are we that mentally damaged by colonial subjugation that we can’t even name ourselves by our names in our dream ethno-states?

Back to Bianca. I learned that Bianca is actually an Italian name that means “white.” How interesting! If I had taken literature in high school, I probably would have encountered the name in Shakespeare’s “Othello” and “The Taming of the Shrew.”

https://www.farooqkperogi.com/2021/07/used-to-think-bianca-and-biafra-were.html

I never take this man seriously since 2015 he campaigned for Buhari

PROUDIGBO:
Actually, her name does mean something in Igbo! In my Mums place Azumini, bia nca means come here!

Correct...in my mom's place in Item, Bia nkaa means come here too.

ScamHunter:


I never take this man seriously since 2015 he campaigned for Buhari

What exactly are you saying?

Ikemba007:
Wednesday, July 14, 2021
Used to Think “Bianca” and “Biafra” Were Igbo Words!
By Farooq Kperogi

Twitter: @farooqkperogi

Don’t laugh too hard at my ignorance, but until fairly recently, I used to think Bianca was an Igbo name and thought any non-Igbo person who bore the name did so out of (benign) appellative appropriation—such as many Black Americans who bear African names.

Don’t blame me: the first person I ever knew to bear the name was Bianca Onuh Ojukwu, the former beauty queen who became former Biafra warlord Emeka Ojukwu’s wife. Through the logic of false attraction, I thought the “bia” in Bianca was derived from the Igbo “bia” that means “come.”

This notion was congealed in my mind because “bia” is probably Igbo language’s single most recognized word to other non-Igbo Nigerians. “Bia” is lexically frozen in my imagination in the trinitarian alternative indigenous name for Nigeria called WAZOBIA, which is formed from the Yoruba “wa,” the Hausa “zo” and the Igbo “bia,” which all mean “come” in English.

In addition, Biafra, the name Igbo people chose for their homeland when they seceded from Nigeria and which new secessionists still cherish and embrace, begins with “bia.” In fact, an Igbo friend and classmate of mine in high school by the name of John Chukwu convinced me that “Biafra” was short for “bia fara,” which he said literally meant “come take” in Igbo.

You can imagine my shock when I discovered that even Biafra that I’d invoked as the lexical evidence for associating “Igboness” to the name Bianca and which my friend told me meant “come take,” isn’t even an Igbo word! It’s a Portuguese word—like Lagos is, by the way.

Well, maybe it’s incorrect to say Biafra is a Portuguese word since it really doesn’t mean anything in Portuguese—like Lagos does in the language. (Lagos is the Portuguese word for lakes.) We do know, however, that Biafra was singlehandedly invented by Portuguese explorers and cartographers to refer to “the Gulf of Guinea stretching from the Niger River delta to northern Gabon.”

But why would people want to escape an odious colonial name like “Nigeria” for another colonial exonym like “Biafra”? If Biafra would be an ethno-state, what’s hard about coming up with an Igbo name for it? Are we that mentally damaged by colonial subjugation that we can’t even name ourselves by our names in our dream ethno-states?

Back to Bianca. I learned that Bianca is actually an Italian name that means “white.” How interesting! If I had taken literature in high school, I probably would have encountered the name in Shakespeare’s “Othello” and “The Taming of the Shrew.”

https://www.farooqkperogi.com/2021/07/used-to-think-bianca-and-biafra-were.html

There's mystery in names.
Nice writ.
Informative yet rhetorical, keeps the mind working.

Ikemba007:
Wednesday, July 14, 2021
Used to Think “Bianca” and “Biafra” Were Igbo Words!
By Farooq Kperogi

Twitter: @farooqkperogi

Don’t laugh too hard at my ignorance, but until fairly recently, I used to think Bianca was an Igbo name and thought any non-Igbo person who bore the name did so out of (benign) appellative appropriation—such as many Black Americans who bear African names.

Don’t blame me: the first person I ever knew to bear the name was Bianca Onuh Ojukwu, the former beauty queen who became former Biafra warlord Emeka Ojukwu’s wife. Through the logic of false attraction, I thought the “bia” in Bianca was derived from the Igbo “bia” that means “come.”

This notion was congealed in my mind because “bia” is probably Igbo language’s single most recognized word to other non-Igbo Nigerians. “Bia” is lexically frozen in my imagination in the trinitarian alternative indigenous name for Nigeria called WAZOBIA, which is formed from the Yoruba “wa,” the Hausa “zo” and the Igbo “bia,” which all mean “come” in English.

In addition, Biafra, the name Igbo people chose for their homeland when they seceded from Nigeria and which new secessionists still cherish and embrace, begins with “bia.” In fact, an Igbo friend and classmate of mine in high school by the name of John Chukwu convinced me that “Biafra” was short for “bia fara,” which he said literally meant “come take” in Igbo.

You can imagine my shock when I discovered that even Biafra that I’d invoked as the lexical evidence for associating “Igboness” to the name Bianca and which my friend told me meant “come take,” isn’t even an Igbo word! It’s a Portuguese word—like Lagos is, by the way.

Well, maybe it’s incorrect to say Biafra is a Portuguese word since it really doesn’t mean anything in Portuguese—like Lagos does in the language. (Lagos is the Portuguese word for lakes.) We do know, however, that Biafra was singlehandedly invented by Portuguese explorers and cartographers to refer to “the Gulf of Guinea stretching from the Niger River delta to northern Gabon.”

But why would people want to escape an odious colonial name like “Nigeria” for another colonial exonym like “Biafra”? If Biafra would be an ethno-state, what’s hard about coming up with an Igbo name for it? Are we that mentally damaged by colonial subjugation that we can’t even name ourselves by our names in our dream ethno-states?

Back to Bianca. I learned that Bianca is actually an Italian name that means “white.” How interesting! If I had taken literature in high school, I probably would have encountered the name in Shakespeare’s “Othello” and “The Taming of the Shrew.”

https://www.farooqkperogi.com/2021/07/used-to-think-bianca-and-biafra-were.html

And who told Farooq Kperogi that Biafra would be an ethno state? What was the original composition of Biafra as at May 1967? Was it an entirely Igbo affair?

Kperogi should stop revising history so to sound intelligent, there's nothing ethno about Biafra as the state would encompass other nationals who believe in the Biafra dream and I know millions of other non Igbo who do.

It seems like before these people can make progress in life, they must mention igbo

Bianca and Biafra are not Igbo words

The bight of Biafra does not even share boader with any Igbo land

The bight of Biafra shared boaders with Ijaw lands though.

Bia nka in her native language mean come here. What I don't know is if her name is based on that.

Kindly mention the specific "ethnos" you're referring to.

Okpeke22:


And who told Farooq Kperogi that Biafra would be an ethno state? What was the original composition of Biafra as at May 1967? Was it an entirely Igbo affair?

Kperogi should stop revising history so to sound intelligent, there's nothing ethno about Biafra as the state would encompass other nationals who believe in the Biafra dream and I know millions of other non Igbo who do.

The name "Biafra" was never an Igbo word. Many still do not know that it was an Ijaw man called Frank Opigo, who was at the time the head of of Yenagoa Province of the Eastern Region, that suggested this name to Ojukwu before he declared Biafra

The bight of of Biafra has been there even before the creation of Nigeria.

The speculation or talk of where the name Biafra comes from will be discussion for another day but what sets it apart from the name "Nigeria" is that indigenous west Africans such as Frank Opigo and Ojukwu sat down in Enugu, West Africa, and chose that name for their new country

In the case of Nigeria, Frederick Lugards girlfriend, later wife, Flora Shaw, sat down in an office in London and came up with the name "Nigeria"

Over a hundred years later, indigenous West Africans are still shamelessly answering to this British colonial name, "Nigeria", a white woman created in London, as their national identity

Terrible

gidgiddy:
The name "Biafra" was never an Igbo word. Many still do not know that it was an Ijaw man called Frank Opigo, who was at the time the head of of Yenagoa Province of the Eastern Region, that suggested this name to Ojukwu before he declared Biafra

The bight of of Biafra has been there even before the creation of Nigeria.

The speculation or talk of where the name Biafra comes from will be discussion for another day but what sets it apart from the name "Nigeria" is that indigenous west Africans such as Frank Opigo and Ojukwu sat down in Enugu, West Africa, and chose that name for their new country

In the case of Nigeria, Frederick Lugards girlfriend, later wife, Flora Shaw, sat down in an office in London and came up with the name "Nigeria"

Over a hundred years later, indigenous West Africans are still shamelessly answering to this British colonial name, "Nigeria", a white woman created in London, as their national identity

Terrible

be more straight forward,,,why twisting the story as if everyone on nairaland is ignorant?
You putting it as it was opigo and ojukwu that created the name biafra....
maybe that's what the ignorant chief called Kanu teach you..

Let me teach you the real biafra..
Biafra, nigeria, niger delta, middle belt, there is no difference in any of these names,,,they are all slaves masters names.

incase you don't know,,,,,,biafra was a portuguese given name to a port where they ship slaves..
the biafra is in Ijaw land,,,but it is not our native name, so stopped lying as if you are devil...lying is for devil not children of God..

The reason we Ijaws will be different from you igbos is because we are children of God that only talk truth and love people that talk truth,,,but Igbos are like children of devil that lied a lots thinking the lies will make people love them,,,,but they never know the lies ar
further Ijaw Nation from disliking them.

Light and darkness have nothing in common.
except you ibis repent and start saying the obvious truth, we will never be in same place with you..

Frank opigo remains a traitor.

IjawTukpa:
be more straight forward,,,why twisting the story as if everyone on nairaland is ignorant?
You putting it as it was opigo and ojukwu that created the name biafra....
maybe that's what the ignorant chief called Kanu teach you..

Let me teach you the real biafra..
Biafra, nigeria, niger delta, middle belt, there is no difference in any of these names,,,they are all slaves masters names.

incase you don't know,,,,,,biafra was a portuguese given name to a port where they ship slaves..
the biafra is in Ijaw land,,,but it is not our native name, so stopped lying as if you are devil...lying is for devil not children of God..

The reason we Ijaws will be different from you igbos is because we are children of God that only talk truth and love people that talk truth,,,but Igbos are like children of devil that lied a lots thinking the lies will make people love them,,,,but they never know the lies ar
further Ijaw Nation from disliking them.

Light and darkness have nothing in common.
except you ibis repent and start saying the obvious truth, we will never be in same place with you..

Frank opigo remains a traitor.

And while Ijaws like you have been talking this same nonsense since the the end of the war, the Hausa/Fulani oligarchy have cornered over 80% of your oil wealthand reduced Ijaws to an insignificant minority in Nigeria. Look at the entire Ijaw land, despite your oil wealth, you dont have one single area that qualifies as a city. Yet your problem is with Igbos who have no ruled Nigeria for over 50 years?


When una go get sense?

gidgiddy:


And while Ijaws like you have been talking this same nonsense since the the end of the war, the Hausa/Fulani oligarchy have cornered over 80% of your oil wealthand reduced Ijaws to an insignificant minority in Nigeria. Look at the entire Ijaw land, despite your oil wealth, you dont have one single area that qualifies as a city. Yet your problem is with Igbos who have no ruled Nigeria for over 50 years?


When una go get sense?

what you don't know is that,,,, WAZOBIA join hands together to place Ijaw ethnicity among minorities so as to bathe on the oil.
in that case,,we Ijaws see no difference between hausas, Yorubas and igbos.....

infact it wise to say, it is the Igbos among the WAZOBIA that campaign for the minority order most...

any ethnicity that falls under the evil coup called wazobia is enemy of Ijaw.

besides,,, you have not been to Yenagoa recently....I don't think there is any city in the southern nigeria that is more beautiful than Yenagoa apart from lagos..

Yenagoa is like london now...all thanks to our miracle Governor