manny4life:

Oh we will, I cannot debate this issue now, brother is cooking up some meals, when I'm done, I will bring this issue up. We like to know who this executive is.

[size=18pt][center]Are we Igbos or "Ibos"?[/center][/size]



The "Ibo" misspelling of the south eastern Nigerian Igbo ethnicnation of almost 32 million people reflect, essentially, a post-colonial hangover of British and Euro-Caucasoid colonial miseducation,misrepresentations, and (mis)pronounciation preference. It is/wasjust easier for the White man/woman to say 'Ibo' rather than'Igbo.' We must remember the late psychiatrist, pan-Africanscholar and activist Franz Fanon's mytho-poetic and insightful wordsin his 1952 book, Black Skin White Masks, that "A man who hasa language [consequently] possesses the world expressed andimplied by that language." Should Igbos and other Africannationalities, incrementally and foolishly give up the core of theircommunal and national identity on the discredited altars ofEuro-Caucasoid racist supremacy and colonial predations? I have tw omodest answers: first is No; and second is No.

By Chido Nwangwu


(December 11, 2001): Regarding the use of the word "Ibo" as opposed to "Igbo" in the commentaries and recent announcements by some of our folks, may I make a few observations.

First, let's state the most important element of this languageadvisory: the erroneous, incorrect usage and blatant dislocation of the Igbo identity and name is the preference for the colonial spelling and reference, lazily spelled as "Ibo." Second, the "Ibo"misspelling reflects, essentially, a post-colonial hangover of British and Euro-Caucasoid colonial miseducation, misrepresentations,incorrect spellings and (mis)pronounciation preference. It is/was just easier for the White man/woman to say 'Ibo' rather than 'Igbo.'

Such language and cultural impositions which are fancifully andfarcically adopted by the colonized natives and the dispirited arestill evident across the African continent, south and central Asia and parts of Latin America where colonialist predation was not only economic but a crude decapitation of the languages, mores, culture and identities of the ethnic nations they invaded and colonized.

Third, and more important, the linguistic history, autography and anthropological identities of the almost 35 million citizens of the enterprising, vibrant, resourceful, unduly intra-antagonistic,capitalistic, religious, and republicanist communities and people who form the Igbo nation show, credibly, that our language and ethnic nation should always be identified and spelt as Igbo.

Note the fact that there's an Igbo alphabet identified as "gb" as distinguishable from "g" and "b"; same for "gw" as distinguishable from "g" and "w". For instance in Nwangwu, which many inattentivenon-Igbo, put forth a wrong, hurried misspelling: Nwangu.

Again, they remove the Igbo alphabet "gw". For the nation, Igbo,the 'gb' is the key.

Many Igbos and other people have mixed up the Igbo identity/name/language/people with this colonial misrepresentation as"Ibo(s)."

We must not dilute the correct spelling(s) of the Igbo nation and people; and in fact ours, individually. Otherwise, we should allgladly celebrate the backwater hatefulness encapsulated in them is spelling of Obigbo and Umumasi as (R)umuigbo and (R)umumasi. It'sthat important and basic, too.

We should not give up any Igbo alphabet and spellings, in this regard, therefore. It is different from abbreviating a long surname or first name.

Immediately after the birth on December 20, 1998, of the Houston octuplets, I believe one of the better things I've contributed to global Igbo interest was factually and materially causing the world's number 1 news agency AP through some of its news staff, especially Mark Barbineck (bless him!) to change the reference to Igbos as"Ibos" as a minimum standard for me to do the interviews with AP(same standard was held up for any other media corporation during mypro-bono (free) international multimedia projection services and newsinterviews I offered to benefit the octuplets and their parents. It has become, thankfully, the AP standards as well as those of almost 30,000 newspapers who take the AP and Reuters' news feed to refer to us as Igbo(s). If your local newspaper does the "Ibo" stuff, kindly write them and demand a correction.


Hopefully, this modest language advisory will set the affirmative,conclusive identification on the issue of whether we are "Ibos" or Igbos. It is, for me, Igbos, sui generis, as a people, an identityand as a language.

We must remember the late psychiatrist, pan-African scholar andactivist Franz Fanon's mytho-poetic and insightful words in his 1952book, Black Skin White Masks, that "A man who has a language[consequently] possesses the world expressed and implied bythat language."

Should Igbos and other African nationalities, incrementally and foolishly give up the core of their communal and national identity on the discredited altars of Euro-Caucasoid racist supremacy and colonial predations? My modest answer is No.

Before some demagogic and ill-informed "native" comes to the defense of the Euro-Caucasian impositions, let's quickly note thatthis is not a debate about language accretion and/or addingconceptual properties and descriptive symbols to enrich our language,or any language, for that matter. For example, I argue we should add the words Computer, Internet, etc to the Igbo language, and regarding same in its contextualized Igbo meaning or word(s).

I'll state, without fear of contradiction that no language,today, is clinically restricted and strictly reflective of itsnational borders. None! Not even the Talibans in their tunnel vision of the world, and cultural phillistinism.

May God continue to enrich the Igbo nation as we protect, project and defend our heritage and identity into the new millennium. I'llclose with the wise words of the same, late African warrior FranzFanon who wrote, "Each generation must discover its mission, fulfillit, or betray it." On whose and which side areyou?
ChidoNwangwu, recipient ofthe Journalism Excellence award (1997), is Founder and Publisher ofUSAfricaonline.com(first African-owned U.S.-based professional newspaper to bepublished on the internet), USAfrica The Newspaper, NigeriaCentral.comand TheBlack Business Journal.

He serves as an adviser tothe Mayor of Houston on international business (Africa), has appearedas an analyst on the CNN, VOA, NPR, CBS News, NBC and ABC newsaffiliates, and South Africa Broadcasting Corporation, SABC.

naijababe: Jisox! Katsy, na you be this!!! That your epistle must have taken some effort o

Afam4eva: One thing is certain. The correct spelling and pronunciation is Igbo and not Ibo. But that doesn't make Ibo derogatory. It's unfortunate that some Igbos and other Nigerians have adopted the white man's way of calling the Igbos. Even Achebe, Azikiwe and other prominent Igbos have always used the term Ibo. That doesn't make it right and that doesn't also make it derogatory. OAM4J was actually ready to start banning people for using Ibo instead of Igbo but i explained to him that it will set a bad precedence if we do because we also have to start banning people for typing Enugu instead of Enugwu, Ibusa instead of Igbo-uzor and Anambra instead of Omanbala. We may even need to start banning people for typing Chichi instead of Chinyere, Chioma etc. It will also not be ideal to ban someone who has known it as Ibo all his life and comes to Nairaland and be banned without knowing that it's wrong to type Ibo. My Igbo brothers, i think this is one fight we have to let slide. I'm Igbo but i don't find it derogatory to be called Ibo because Ibo along with Ibo are been used in official and even cultural documents. What we have to strive to do is to educate people on the right way to refer to Igbos and not punish people for doing what they never thought was wrong.

Ikenna351:

What does chichi got to do with Ibo? If you are saying Ibo is a short form of saying Igbo, then allow Igbos to give any short name to Yoruba. If that is the case, dont bane anyone that call yorubas "Y.bas".

How do mean that Achebe, Zik and other prominent Igbos "always" use the word Ibo? Stop saying that, its very annoying.

Ikenna.

Afam4eva: One thing is certain. The correct spelling and pronunciation is Igbo and not Ibo. But that doesn't make Ibo derogatory. It's unfortunate that some Igbos and other Nigerians have adopted the white man's way of calling the Igbos. Even Achebe, Azikiwe and other prominent Igbos have always used the term Ibo. That doesn't make it right and that doesn't also make it derogatory. OAM4J was actually ready to start banning people for using Ibo instead of Igbo but i explained to him that it will set a bad precedence if we do because we also have to start banning people for typing Enugu instead of Enugwu, Ibusa instead of Igbo-uzor and Anambra instead of Omanbala. We may even need to start banning people for typing Chichi instead of Chinyere, Chioma etc. It will also not be ideal to ban someone who has known it as Ibo all his life and comes to Nairaland and be banned without knowing that it's wrong to type Ibo. My Igbo brothers, i think this is one fight we have to let slide. I'm Igbo but i don't find it derogatory to be called Ibo because Ibo along with Ibo are been used in official and even cultural documents. What we have to strive to do is to educate people on the right way to refer to Igbos and not punish people for doing what they never thought was wrong.

Afam4eva:
We're talking about Ibo being derogatory and i'm saying that there are people that may find using Chichi instead of the proper name as derogatory. Same goes for Enugu, Ibusa and Omanbala that i mentioned. This is not about shortening it. I really have no problem in allowing that whoever uses Igbo be banned but the problem is that the rule will not only apply to Ibo but will apply to other terms that can be described as derogatory as well.

Seun: This Ibo vs Igbo issue deserves its own thread. Lets allow this thread to be used for more serious complaints, please.

OAM4J: As advised by Seun debate on Ibo Vs Igbo should be taken to a new thread in Ethnics section. Further comments on the debate on this thread will be removed.

Thanks.

Onlytruth: @ALL Mods of this Section


There have been several reports by Igbo posters alleging that they are being banned for actions which Yoruba posters readily embark upon with total impunity.
Sometimes dayokanu instigates attacks and insults, and when Igbo posters respond, they are banned.

This is an official complaint from Eze Ndigbo Nairaland.

Such biased moderating of this Section should stop in the interest of peace and "cleanliness" of this Section.

Respect is reciprocal.

I take it that the owner of this site will not allow his site to be used as a platform for attacking the Igbo Nation.

Like I have said severally, we are not totally powerless here.

Let the rules apply to all equally.

A word is enough for the wise.

Onlytruth: @ALL Mods of this Section


There have been several reports by Igbo posters alleging that they are being banned for actions which Yoruba posters readily embark upon with total impunity.
Sometimes dayokanu instigates attacks and insults, and when Igbo posters respond, they are banned.

This is an official complaint from Eze Ndigbo Nairaland.

Such biased moderating of this Section should stop in the interest of peace and "cleanliness" of this Section.

Respect is reciprocal.

I take it that the owner of this site will not allow his site to be used as a platform for attacking the Igbo Nation.

Like I have said severally, we are not totally powerless here.

Let the rules apply to all equally.

A word is enough for the wise.

Onlytruth: @ALL Mods of this Section


There have been several reports by Igbo posters alleging that they are being banned for actions which Yoruba posters readily embark upon with total impunity.
Sometimes dayokanu instigates attacks and insults, and when Igbo posters respond, they are banned.

This is an official complaint from Eze Ndigbo Nairaland.

Onlytruth:

There have been several reports by Igbo posters alleging. . .
This is an official complaint from Eze Ndigbo Nairaland.

Onlytruth: This is an official complaint from Eze Ndigbo Nairaland.