₦airaland Forum

To all, again I send my gratitude for the knowledge. As this is the name of my restaurant in Los Angeles, it was/is very important to me that what i tell people, or rather that the information I give them, be accurate. I always held steadfast to the notion that this phrase was in fact Igbo/African, and NOT of European origin, and I now feel armed with good and proper understanding, so EKELE KWA to all of you who helped me with this. PHUT, you are a gem, and I have used your explanation and thus proven my point to the fullness
1Luv,
Caro Lafaurie
Equelecuá Cuban Cafe
1120 W FLORENCE AVE, Unit C
INGLEWOOD, CA 90301
323-741-CUBA (2822)

Thank you all for your comments, knowledge and information. To clarify the use of this phrase in Cuba I'll explain it in a small dialogue:
Caro: Hey what is the name of that restaurant we used to go to?
You: Pizza Palace?
Caro: No that's not it
You: Los Taquitos?
Caro: No...
You: Cuban Cafe?
Caro: EQUELECUA!! or Ekele Kwa!!

SO i'm not sure if its a way of exclaiming THANK YOU! or if we use it to mean, "Yes that's right!" or "That's it!"

Now as we have knowledge of history we know that many people were stolen from the Motherland and carried to the Caribbean, and in particular many were taken from Nigeria to Cuba, but obviously there were many stolen from other parts of the continent as well, sooo maybe Ekele was the "giving thanks" or "greeting" part and KWA was a way of indicating that they were speaking to someone of the same "ethnicity"? kind of like how folks from the coasts of Colombia, known as Costeños will speak to another person from the same region and would say something like, "Gracias Costeño".
NOW there is another aspect to all of this that I had not thought about till today, and that is that aside from the African and Spanish roots, Cuba also has the indigenous who were known as Taino, and Puerto Rico's indigenous who were also Taino also go by the name Boricuas, so maybe there is a combination of several things goin on here....
Again I thank all of you for your feed back, and I await more knowledge....

Greetings! I have a question and I am hoping someone here may be able to give me an amswer. In Cuba and the Spanish speaking Caribbean we have a phrase, "Equelecuá", and I have heard many different ideas as to where this phrase comes from. One of the main things I've heard is that it is Igbo, and that the spelling of Equelecuá is a Europeanized version of Ekele KUA or Ekele KWA. so I would like to know if in fact Ekele Kua or Ekele Kwa actually is an Igbo phrase, and if so, what is the translation? Thank you for taking time with this, any and all info will be much appreciated!!!!!