₦airaland Forum

Fact is Nigeria's "unity" has yet to yield anything significant in over 100 years. A section of the country showed it up with a heavy handicap in three years.

Abagworo: Then we had a challenge and common enemy which was the rest of Nigeria and most people were fighting for survival and not for oil or tribe. Today most of the people claiming to be agitating for break-up are making their claims because of tribe, religion ad oil. These 3 things are never defined in absolute and that was why Ojukwu disagreed with Gowon on State creation based on ethnicity. Inside every assumed major tribe, their remains sub-tribes that will emerge dorminant thereby creating neo-ethnic groups in the tribal conscious society. Look at Mbaise and Owerri and Mbaitoli in Owerri zone of Imo State as an example. Ordinarily it is assumed that they are all Owerri zone in Imo State in Igboland but they can never agree. Even if you create an Owerri country, there will be core Uratta or Owerri, then Mbaitoli/Ikeduru and then Mbaise. They will all demand for their turn to be Governor or want their own independence.

You can never compare the disagreements (usually over land) of Igbo-speaking groups with the sabotage, murder, and general discord between the major ethnic groups in Nigeria. The scale of animosity do not match in any sense. The difference between an Mbaise and Owere squabble, and a Hausa-Fulani and Igbo squabble is mass murder, as in Fulani hoards will kill everyone in your village if they can, while Igbo intra-ethnic problems rarely escalate to violence. Not to even talk about how the major ethnic groups in Nigeria sabotage each others projects at the federal level, which never happens in the south east zone between states.

The excuse that Biafra was so efficient because of a common enemy or goal is weak. As everyone should know by now, Biafra was a multi-ethnic state, many of the ethnic groups it was comprised of deflected to Nigeria against Biafra. If the Igbo spirit of cohesiveness were as flimsy as you suggested, why did we not witness a massive disintegration of Igbo loyalty, even to the point that there were Biafra soldiers from Agbor fighting for the cause until their towns were captured and they went into hiding? In fact a common goal wouldn't even be a glue that holds such a country together with a group of people so disunited as you suggest.

Not to even delve into how the Nigerian state has designed many Igbo intra-ethnic divisions, a fact that a person from Imo State should know quite well.

Abagworo: This is the reason why we should always practise politics of unity and not tribalism and religion. The worst country that can emerge out of Nigeria if we separate based on tribe and religion as often suggested by most PDP lapdogs is Igboland and South-south. The only way to avoid a continuous crisis is to give every family or village their own country.

Yet the most organised autonomous indigenous-run nation-state in African history was Biafra.

Paschal007: Someone please tell mukina2 it's 'Igboland' not 'iboland'

I'm starting to think this was done on purpose now.

RandomAfricanAm: The caption says "days". Is there suppose to be some correlation between "days" and direction?

Yes.

RandomAfricanAm: something is fishy here. Did you get this from a dictionary?
If this is true that would mean all or part of this word didn't exist until European contact because the word north & south isn't native to Africa in general or Igbo land in particular.

Actually no ...I could be wrong and over thinking things. If you have a notion of the stars or know the sun rises in the east sets in the west you can note a direction that's perpendicular to the movement of the sun. That's literally the phenomena that the word describes(unless your talking about magnetic or polar north). I think my mistake is in confusing the term "literal meaning" with the "phenomena" the word describes. I was expecting the literal translation to point to the phenomena it describes same as east = sun rise or for north = "sighted before coming" in Yoruba(though I'm not sure the full significance of the phrase).

I noticed the need for literal translations & phenomena contextualization when I came across the term slave while reading an anthropology book. When he gave the literal meaning of the word the local Africans used it ment "pot holder" and I was like "wait what"? In the Congo the words' literal translation was a district in the kingdom that was fighting against the king today it's a distinct linguistic/ethnic group. Also when you read what they were doing (I.E the actual phenomena the word slave is sapose to describe) it had little in common with what it described throughout the Americas.

So I'm now a stickler for literal translations & phenomena contextualization. It still annoys me when people say chief, traditional "gods", tribe, etc.


Ok I'm all off topic. Hmmm... What are the words for up and down in Igbo? I guess I was expected something like...

North
Mgbago - place up (up place)

South
Mgbada - place down (down place)

North, south, east, west is also Afo, Nkwo, Eke, Orie/Oye, similar to Bini.

https://oldsite.thebakken.org/education/SciMathMN/time-space/images/ubochi-days.jpg

The Google translation doesn't run on a team of Google coders inputting entries, it relies on the contribution of the crowd, which means that their translations are from 'layman' contributors and each contribution is analysed and weighed by the system for relevancy and consistency. Ultimately, when translated terms are overwhelming preferred by a group of random contributors, the systems picks these translations as the best suggested terms to everyone, which is why you are able to click on a word/s and change it to another suggestion in a list of related translations.

If you pay even more attention you will realise that you are able to edit the translated results by typing in the correction. If enough people correct a translated entry it the system will become partial to that correction and will suggest it automatically when a query is ran.

This is how all the language translation work is done by Google, although I expect there to be more administration of major Western/Eastern languages. This was the same reason Google opened up a test for the language before they went on the main translator. This means over time the translations should get better (and more diverse) as more people contribute.

If you have a Google account you can also make your own translations into many languges including Igbo here: http://translate.google.com/toolkit

A writing system is not going to develop just because, writing systems (the one created without influence) were all created by chance, not because people were necessarily super 'sophisticated' and set out to invent writing.

And can we not evaluate the sophistication of cultures we know nothing about? Especially ones that were among the only to create stone age monuments 3 meters high and more in southern Nigeria, and let's not forget about their massive inter ethnic fraternities that at least exist till this day over two massive countries and over the sea to Cuba.

Yeah.

Igbo surgical knives: http://ukpuru..co.uk/2011/01/surgical-knives.html

Hey. There's more info in this link: http://ferrari.ng/graduating/apply

Well the rebel governors are becoming as archaic as the people on this website. Look at that:

http://ukpuru..com

Well, good luck.

Another view on here though: [url=http://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=CNLJxfziNUrLRH4Sj8AOziYF4n_WU5gSvjsmGdensvexnEAEg54KpH1CRtt-P_v____8BYLu-roPQCqABwYDW_APIAQKoAwHIA9EEqgR6T9COrbJXecSd307vOX49du4uR0oFrbqskNZZmOAF4IEQZ4ng_KNl6rZmcsHWVHXW2JlEKq9pL_ZM5Vc1gAas0NlxO3O7PqpCrVX_P_xUZhqXbZyQCes9_kBD3-ZvBpadVi2cDLsphAgnPOA1Upw-yviLi0h7O2pFvGeIBgGgBgKAB6f_qQM&num=1&cid=5Ggw3iRQVcHCyQNYUmF_DWiO&sig=AOD64_39r--dadun67A6BTz-r9GHOvBfXw&client=ca-pub-2025748867162813&adurl=http://www.google.co.uk/adwords/coupons/%3Fsourceid%3Dawo%26subid%3Duk-en-gdn-aw-rstat&nm=3&mb=2&bg=!A0Q_s0csZfgVQwIAAAAqUgAAAA8qANcRU5OHzMzgjBudlva2sD8nHziZ4h1KvQPvy36ywZTCjtzWwE9H5-SkXaPMU_OLs_EwAETC_ho6PZqA7iKYyQzRC2cY8_O9cBdQqoMDI9Z6vNVFJBUjA00a4Frx3IqSYHYqJDGapg4V45IybaYlagIlf6MigiJONxsh5U9MuI5XuIrFSrS4K9gOsIr2z7KqWZBe_vY9p-hGUByXTOp6Vxwazlxs6_os03mcaeJiLKgVQiHsNHh5qoZHIv0Zu_KvN0lxt6YtiDC2thF8DgOf8-B7diXR1psirw&clkt=79]http://dailypost.com.ng/2013/11/18/women-protest-against-anambra-election/[/url]

So women are at the head of protests in Nigeria generally.

I know how this sounds, but once tribalism moves away from politics and moves more into science, education, technology, and over all soft-power, wonders would happen. Tribalism is why we have Samsung vs. Sony, after all.

Igbo is actually spreading. Look at Equatorial Guinea, and other parts of West-Central Africa for evidence. Nigerian films and music have also helped considerably.

It's Ann Coulter so no surprise. (Google her)

Eze Promoe: [color=crimson]None of Nigeria's major languages can go extinct in my opinion. It is like a competition between the three ethnicities to preserve their languages, and save it from going extinct before that of their counterparts.

I foresee in the future (like 100 years to come) the fusion of all languages into each other, maybe then there will be call for a united Nigerian lingo.[/color]

I've never heard of any languages fusing completely into each other in 200 years.

atuks: According to the study of a research carried out in 2007 in Imo and Lagos state to test Igbo competency level of three age groups , aged 1-5 and,6-11,and adults, a grim picture awaits the language . The report shows that seventy percent of children between 6-11 years and ninety percent of children aged five years and below were unable to speak Igbo language . The Igbo language will likely become extinct in the next fifty years.

They should stop using Lagos Igbo people to judge igbo language competency.

0monnakoda: You act like my youngest son,always seeking attention. Always wanting to be like Dada, Always watching me when I pee. In fact I have convinced him now to eat plenty vegetables,which he dislikes, so he too can have a big prick when he grows

Why do you folk suffer from such strong inferiority complex collectively .That is what we all struggle to understand ?? Always needing to Prove this and Prove that. The harder you try the sillier you look

I am very very careful how I use my words.I did not use the word "Cinema" at all. That was not by chance though such nuances are wasted on proles

Look, if you have nothing else to contribute again except your random anecdotes about children and your private parts, then let the thread carry on from where it left off.

0monnakoda: I said I will not measure prick with Ezeagu and that is final. Yours is a different matter. I can see you are very curious and if you ask nicely I will show you the Eight Wonder of the World.
Seriously you guys have no culture. No religion, No music,No Fashion,No values NOTHING> Just a bunch of unruly and disorderly shrieking savages.
It really is desperate when a people need to seek external validation or affirmation of their authenticity. Yoruuba do not need to make claims. Others maake them for us. Ask yourself why with the Ibo dominance of the home video industry they don't make Ibo Language videos? The Ibo language is as good as DEAD.

Yet you know what umunna and mba means, you don't seek external validation (which I'm guessing means that you don't want to be floored by the challenge I've put up) but you can take your time discussing how others have no culture because you're so secure in your own. You just showed your life by mentioning the Nigerian cinema, the biggest in Africa and one that is spreading Nigerian culture, and specifically Igbo culture and language around the globe. Insecurity is real.

And just for you to sweat finish:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p2Eix66U9U

2012, by the way.

Nonsense reply from someone who has nothing to contribute.

0monnakoda: The Ibo nation is too small and inchoate culturally to compare itself to Yoruba. Ibo should compare themselves with the likes of Efik,Urhobo,Isoko etc those are nations of similar size and political development. They did not advance from the Umunna or tribal level of political organization before colonization and there is really no history to talk about.
Is there any account of any Ibo Nation that anyone can tell us here.The simple answer is No. A very loud Mba!!
Is there anyone trying to copy Ibo culture ,learn Ibo language or Ibonize ? I doubt tht very much .No one wants to copy the Ibo ways or style. I certainly am not planning to buy any red baby hats

Oya, you want to put Igbo people down so let's go toe to toe with facts. Produce the Yoruba equivalent of all the following, and then I'll post the Igbo.

1. Writing system
2. Publicly elected leadership
3. Oldest site of a bronze casting site and the date of the earliest artefacts.
4. Date of publishing of earliest known writer.
5. Ethnic placenames in the Americas.
6. Most widely used words in Caribbean creoles, and even words in many dictionaries including English.
7. Most prominent person ever in the diaspora who has claimed descent.
8. GDP of countries where the language is an officially recognised minority language.
9. Communities that abolished slavery before the 1800s.
10. Amount of wars and the longest fought against the British.
11. Oldest kingdom.
12. Post pictures of most impressive civil and military architectures.

After you've posted the Yoruba equivalents and I've posted the Igbo, we'll see whether there is our isn't Igbo culture to talk of.

Why is it always 'Yoruba' and 'Igbo', always thinking within colonial borders. Igbo people have more in common culturally with someone in southwestern Cameroon than in south western Nigeria. The Fon and Yoruba share history and culture to a depth that the Igbo and Yoruba don't, so I don't understand the focus. Not to mention the different ethnic groups that make up these blanket groups, and also the dozens of ethnic groups between the two lands.

TerraCotta: You're changing goalposts. Earlier, you wrote:



That's obviously wrong, which is I was pointing it out.

It's not that serious, were talking about major discoveries here so when I say every archaeological discovery in Nigeria has been by accident I'm not taking about 150 year old hair combs. But even if we're talking about all, most if not all are found by accident with the archaeological teams following. It's unlike in Europe for example where there is a documented site where archaeologists try to find something. Anyway, we've already talked about how there's no interest in archaeology from the looks of things. All in all, anything else is an exception to the rule.

TerraCotta: I don't know which ones you're talking about. These broad generalizations aren't helpful. If you live in or vist Lagos, you can go to visit the National Museum from 9 am to 5 pm. It's in very poor shape because of funding issues but it's available for anyone who's interested for about 150 naira: http://premiumtimesng.com/regional/125968-lagos-residents-want-fg-to-upgrade-national-museum.html

There's also the Didi Museum, TerraKulture, Nike Art Center(s) etc:

http://ckdigital.net/didimuseum/
http://www.nikeart.com/
http://home.terrakulture.com/

Parks and natural spaces aren't in short supply either. There's the Lekki Conservation Center (http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g304026-d2305113-Reviews-Lekki_Conservation_Centre-Lagos_Lagos_State.html) in Lagos, the 100-acre IITA campus in Ibadan (http://inasonki-ng.com/2013/05/01/getaway-iita-ibadan/), and Obudu ranch in Cross River state (http://www.africansunhotels.com/?fuseaction=hotels.info&name=obudu_mountain_resort), off the top of my head.

These are a few of the ones I know of personally and I am sure there are many more. The point is there are working archaeologists and available cultural and natural institutions, if you're interested in attending them. They may not be up to the global standard in some (not all) cases but it would be wrong to say they don't exist.

Apologies for derailing the thread.

Most of them are shut for most of the year, there was a documentary on the Benin kingdom on the BBC and you could tell they opened the main museum at Benin for the crew because the whole place was empty.

TerraCotta: You're wrong, and working Nigerian archaeologists like Professors Ogundiran (http://africana.uncc.edu/people/dr-akin-ogundiran-phd) and Usman (https://sst.clas.asu.edu/aribidesi-usman) are living, working proof. I understand that it's hard to find their work if you're not a professional academic but that doesn't mean it does not exist. There are working Nigerian archaeologists making interesting finds everyday. They might not be the spectacular bronze or brassworks or major architectural works but they're crucial pieces in the puzzle of reconstructing the precolonial past.

The major discoveries were by accident, not by piecing together. The point was that nothing was being done at present in Awka.

TerraCotta: I don't want to dispute your personal experience but other people have had a very different experience--going to the museums in Lagos, Umuahia and Jos, preserving old structures and natural spaces in Ibadan, Calabar, Osogbo, Benin, Kano and Ile-Ife, taking scenic photos etc. It's easy to generalize about how uncultured we are but I don't think it's accurate; if anything, we can see how attached Nigerians are to their cultures here. There's just very little money and education devoted to the field, which is a fairly common problem worldwide.

Most of those museums are shut most times of the year, it's a well known fact, and most parks and natural spaces have been overrun by weed or used for trading.

iphy42: I know but we have more Igbos married to Yorubas than those married outside Nigeria not to mention those in other parts of Nigeria.

What does that have to do with Igbo people living in Igboland?

Every archaeological discovery in Nigeria has been accidental, every single one, and if not for people of European descent the artefacts would be discarded or broken down for reuse. It's a cultural thing, it's the same reason Nigerians don't go to museums, preserve old structures/natural spaces and objects, the reason they don't take pictures of scenery or anything that isn't a relative/friends face, or read to their children at night.

Short attention spans, which is why there's absolutely no sign Nigeria was in a heavy war 40 years ago or that it was ever a British colony.

bigfrancis21: An Asaba man personally told me that himself. They used it to refer to the people east of the Niger who sold themselves off as slaves. That that was why they found it difficult accepting the name 'Igbo' at first. In Ika Igbo, 'Igbo' also means 'slave'.

Honestly, I don't know where you get all these claims from. Who told you that Benin and Ijaw people are yoruboid? In fact, how old are you to begin with?

I guess I'll avoid your statements from now on because you always make no sense.

Ika Igbo 'slave' is Igbon (nasalisation) which is loan from Edo, not like 'Igbo' which is not nasalised and has a different tone.

Bobo45: ihe na ju ma anya bu, amam otu eji ede asusu igbo na akwukwo mana ihere na e'mem isuputa ya na ebe umaka ibem, maka na achorom ha chia mu ochi. Biko unu were ike e'mem enyem aka?

Suwazie ya ka ásụsụ échìchè gi, ásụsụ nọ na íshí gi. Ọ wụ na ị má nwátàkị́rị́, suwazie ya Igbo, ọ́ gị nye gị áká ka Igbo gị a diwazia mmiri-mmiri di ka diala. Ị makwa na ọ dị ndi n'amaghị na ị na suma okwu Igbo mma mma ma ọ bụ na mgbe ọwụla, suwazie ha Igbo, ha ga'a ma ihe di iche, ya wuruzia na ha ga'a chi gi ọchi.

NRI PRIEST: Amadioha was popular,quite alright but for you to say it is the most popular is a big fat lie. Amadioha was popular in southern of Igboland and Ikenga and the rest of Nri deities were popular in the whole of southern Nigeria. Benin doesn't know what is Amadioha,Idoma don't know it,Uhrobo don't,Igala don't. Compare that with the popularity of Ikenga.

Both of you are wrong, the most popular deity not only in Igboland, but in southeastern Nigeria and the southern Cameroons is Ala. She is not only venerated by every Igbo community is some way, but she is also venerated by the Igala, Ibibio and acknowledged by communities as far as those of Tikar of southern Cameroon.

Ala is also the highest deity.

pazienza: I don't really understand this your post. Was ikwerre aware of northern Igbo groups? Yes. case closed.

I don't think the point is whether they were vaguely aware that a distant people lived to north of them that came to trade, I think it's more so the fact that this interaction wasn't significant enough for there to be wider diplomatic relations and sharing between the groups. Benin traders also came to Bonny, but that doesn't mean much.

pazienza: Another thing i found interesting in that awka story was the fact that their blacksmith seem to know all the regions of igboland, and indeed other related nion igbo groups like ijaws,annangs, ibibios ans Efiks. They journeyed to those lands with impeccable accuracy like they had a map before hand, or pre knowledge of the existence of these places.

This is exactly against the notion that those igbos in northern parts of igboland knew nothing of those places, and only come to know of them because of the creation of pan Igbo union by the whites.

On the contrary, These awka blacksmiths lived amongst the ikwerres, Ngwas,Ndokis and the ijaw groups, includind the ibibio/annang/efik axis, they knew the the differences between these groups and their culture.

I think a pre-European pan-Igbo theory and an acknowledgement of interactions between these groups are separate discussions, for example, we know that Aro were allies with Nike people in the Enugu area, but that doesn't necessarily mean they had a shared identity, although I'm not doubting it.