₦airaland Forum

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qIqKhAEU6E[/flash][/center]

How well do you people understand?

I've even found more for Igbo and Japanese

Japanese - Igbo
De (in) - Di (in, is, present)
No (on position) - Nor (on position, present)

Some of the words are interesting, most of them are just random coincidental similarities that don't prove anything. The interesting ones are the similar sounding words that have roughly the same meaning. Another thing that makes the comparison less interesting is that the languages used come from random languages from different language groups that are sometimes unrelated.

On the other hand I've seen similarities with Japanese and Igbo, that is names and words that are similar sounding and that also have similar meanings. These are some of them.

Japanese - Igbo

Nani (what) - Gini (what) Ani (how far in some dialects)
Ta (rice field) - Ta (eat)
Shita (down) - Hida ('come down' in some dialects)
Asaba (a Japanese village) - Asaba (although originally Ahaba)
Ookii ('big') - Ukwu (big)
Otoko (man) - Okoro (man)
Hi (day) - Chi (day)
Mizu (water) - Miri (water)
Mu (wood) - Nkwu (fire wood)
Teishi (stop) - Kushi (stop)
Oyogu (swim) - igwu (mmiri, swim)
Sansan (shine brightly) - Chaocha (Shine bright, light or white)

buzugee:
race does not equal class in america. it just so happens that there are more poor black people hence they will be in a lower class. in america, the rich all roll together, play together and live together (regardless of color ).

Incorrect.

Schizophrenia - Nigerians should learn the word.

I never understood how 'witches' could fly and kill their victims, but when caught they all of a sudden lose their powers, at the most important time for them. They better be sure the girl is not part of Boko Haram if this is even a true story.

ifyalways:
alright.
If we are to break it down to meaning and usage,it wud boil down to 2 things:sand and land.

Yes, Ajala would mean 'sand of the land'.

Ohuhu-Umuahia Ekpe
In the Umuahia Ekpe the festival is danced on the villages market day centred on the villages square, the night before the Ekpe festival is used for practice and is called nchichi ekpe and this night is for the ekpe people and the drummers in the ogba. The oke ishi ekpe is the president of Ekpe and leads the other maskers through the night. Wood is burnt so that the people who carry the Ekpo (ndi na fu ekpo) can rub on their skin to make the masquerades darker. On Ekpe day the nkpo na ala (Igbo explosives) are exploded to start the Ekpe usually in the afternoon depending on how quick guests arrive from other villages. The Ogba music plays in the little makeshift roofless hut where no one but male members of the village can enter. The black Ekpo masquerades are the first of a variety of masquerades to come out and they act as evil spirit police. These Ekpo are dangerous and carry whips with them, their masks are big and sometimes have multiple faces or hinged jaws that open and close (an Ibibio influence). They also have male village members who follow them singing music (usually the ekpos theme music) and usually carry canes as well along with cutlasses. The Ekpo come from different parts of the village but all must pass through and dance in the village square.

The next masquerade to appear is Eru or Nwa Eru, a feminine masquerade. The dancer has a carved head or carved full figure of an Owumiri on his head and many wrappers tied around their waist. The dancer dances iborokiti which is a sort of waist dance that Umuahia people are known for. This masquerade is not violent and women accompany it but it barges past people in its way when dancing. When Eru reaches the market or village square the loud ogba music stops and the Odumodu music accompanying eru is all that is heard. After dancing around the village square (like in the video in the first post) the Eru leaves for the rest of the village to dance in peoples compounds. All Ekpe masquerades enter peoples compounds and collect money and usually stop cars passing by.

Red danger flags are flown twice through the lively village square by an Ekpe member over a few minutes then nkpo na ala is blown again. The last masquerade to appear is the president himself, oke ishi ekpe. No one but male village members and special male guests are allowed to see the oke ishi ekpe. The masquerade is accompanied by male members of the village with a larger wrapper hung in front of him so no uninvited people can see him. The oke ishi ekpe and the followers are usually armed with whips and machetes. The oke ishi ekpe is covered from head to toe, sometimes carries a carved head, it carries a special knife and a carved head as a headdress. If this headdress is taken by another village then the village cannot dance Ekpe for a certain amount of years. The oke ishi ekpe dances in the village square (usually with chaos of other villagers and visitors running away) and visits peoples houses marching around the village. After the oke ishi ekpe has done his procession he goes near the ogba where a special line of omu is hung and cuts it ending the Ekpe, nkpo na ala is blown again.

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An Umuahia Ekpo

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/Igbo_contemporary_masquerade.jpg/411px-Igbo_contemporary_masquerade.jpg[/center]

I will try and do the Calabar one next.

ChinenyeN:
People are confusing this ekpe thing. One is a festival, the other is the actual Cross River/Aro-originating leopard society (Okonko). The two are not the same.
Nice videos though. I especially like the Umuahia and Efik ones.

Okonoko is a related but separate society that is almost completely Igbo. Ekpe, meaning Leopard in Efik is another society that exists over a wider area. The Ekpe in Umuahia was for the most part only introduced in the 20th century by a lady and in some villages it was introduced as early as the late 1980's so Okonko is actually superior to Ekpe in places like Umuahia, even some elders do not recognise Ekpe and have fought against it. Okonko people do not perform as frequently as Ekpe people do, but they are active in the funerals of ndi ichie and their members, new yam festivals and other major Omenala events. So you can say Okonko is the Igbo version of Ekpe. Any village person can gbala Ekpe, but only initiates are allowed to follow Okonko processions.

ifyalways:
^I have overheard elders talk abt the Okonko,what is it all abt?
Make u try hafu ala bekee small ga gbatukwanu ekpe. 

Okonko is a society of men, members who talk about Okonko rites to non-initiates and women are cursed. Okonko is like Ekpe, only that they do not have a regular festival.

This is an Okonko masquerade from Umuahia (don't know which community or village).

[img]http://mccoy.lib.siu.edu/jmccall/jones/igbo/ekpe11.JPG[/img]
G. I. Jones

ifyalways:
Methinks its 2 things 
Ala/ana/ani  . . . .The ground/land
Ajana/ajani/ajali/aja . . . sand
I could be very wrong though.

They're all names of one Arushi.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbo=1&tbs=bks%3A1&q=ajana+ajala+ala+ani&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=

From parts of Imo State to the Southwest province of Cameroon, Ekpe is celebrated in different communities around December, the styles of music and masquerade varying. The Ekpe festival is said to originate from the Cross River area from the Qua or related peoples. Ekpe spread to what is now the Southwest province of Cameroon and other areas and spread west towards what is now Abia and parts of Imo and Ebonyi state, largely due to the old Aro Confederacy.

'Ekpe' means leopard and the many masquerades across the Bight of Biafra region, although differing in shapes and size, usually mimic the movements of the leopard. Ekpe is not confined to a religion or ethnic group. It was originally used as a way of enforcing laws. Ekpe is usually only used for festivals now although many people are still initiated into the society. Ekpe is strictly for men only and there are masquerades that women are barred from seeing, along with non Ekpe members.

These are some videos found from Ekpe from the December 2010/January 2011 period:

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Igbo - Ikwuano
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fz_D-VKYL50?fs=1&hl=en_GB[/flash]

Efik - Calabar
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pxgi496Pfhw?fs=1&hl=en_GB[/flash]

Efik - Calabar
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJVQ4AK6mgA?fs=1&hl=en_GB[/flash]

Igbo - Umuahia
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWfVJVOd5kQ?fs=1&hl=en_GB[/flash]

Manyu - Cameroon
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HS6dy3b_34?fs=1&hl=en_GB[/flash]

Igbo - Umuahia
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFGPz68CX4Q?fs=1&hl=en_GB[/flash]
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asha 80:
and one wonders why igbo language is not developing and evolving and why one cannot speak it without adding english to it.black people can be their worst enemies, i can imagine a croat saying the same thing.

Whether anyone likes it or not, new words will be and have been added to Igbo, it's natural for a living language. The word 'Beke' did not exist until the arrival of William Baikie and his people. 'Mahadum' was created in the 20th century. There's no way that a living language will not add new words, especially with a people who are in constant progression like the Igbo.

ChinenyeN:
I don't know, it's still not cutting it, especially the osu part. If I'm not mistaking, Nri ritualists' time and efforts were especially invested north (toward Igala/Idoma) and westward (toward Edo) as opposed to south (toward Ijo) and eastward (toward Cross Rivers area). Now, I'm not denying some sort of influence or change to indigenous practices in the early early days, but to be honest, I think it's nothing more than a huge stretch to claim Nri hegemony covered the entire present day 'Igbo area'.

Honestly, I think people give Nri way too much credit. I even read somewhere that Nri is credited with the development of Nsibidi and Manilla currency.

Osu can be made freeborn in Nri. Reliable sources give proper credit to when it is due. There are too many things that Nri has given to the Igbo world, and even if they chose not to be militaristic, their hold on Igbo religion was strong enough to get some things done, unfortunately also negative things, and they did for a very long time. The Igbo of the south were not in direct influence of the Eze Nri but their religion and taboos were dependant on Nri. Nri had a hold on spirituality and there's nothing more powerful maybe except food.

odumchi:
In the traditional Igbo that i was taught,

And isnt deaf: nkiti? or ntiike
brain: oburu-isi
doctor: (Native doctor) dibia

And i personally dont like these new modern Igbo words. Igbo is a traditional language and in my perspective, there doesnt need to be a word for everything. Thiese new Igbo words are confusing, and ikwurugi eziokwu I doubt they will ever become popular.

Obia, ovuru and nzu are all Igbo words that have been used for hundreds of years, the only one that may be new is 'ilunilu' which isn't even new because ilu is a proverb.

ChinenyeN:
I guess this goes back to the early early days, when Eri met indigenes and began building for himself, a dynasty upon the indigenes' early culture and then Nri who established and sent out Ozo's to help expand the hegemony. . . wait. . . Ozo's (the actual indication of Nri presence/influence/hegemony) who don't even exist beyond northern Imo state.

I'm not trying to argue this with you, Ezeagu, because I don't know much beyond Ezilihitte, but I'm just saying. I find it rather difficult to believe all that you're asserting.

There's nothing difficult to believe when the same people were summoned regularly by communities across Igbo land because they were thought to have special powers. The Eze Nri only has to order that some taboo has been broken by another population and the communities who practice the Igbo religion with Ajana at the head would be hard pressed not to listen to him. The Eze Nri is one of the figure heads of the Igbo religion, it's only now that Nri influence has died that their contributions don't seem apparent, but if these same people were able to affect peoples religion then manipulating their politics (as they have done before) would be too easy. It's been done too often in history to be doubted. I don't know why people think that Africans didn't know anything that existed outside one mile of their houses, other Igbo communities called other Igbo communities Igbo, if not then why do the names of some towns themselves acknowledge the Igbo identity? An Igbo community may or may not recognize the Eze Nri (I don't know any that didn't) but they will certainly accept a slave or osu that has been freed by Nri priests, that is the extent of their power.

ChinenyeN:
Ezeagu, I'm not saying that Nri has/had no influence, I'm just saying that I think you're seriously overplaying the extent of it. But that's just me. Quite personally, and as an Ngwa son, I don't recognize Nri, and I have yet to meet any other Ngwa who does (this includes the elders which I've had the opportunity to ask questions upon questions regarding culture and history). Though, there are those few adults I come across who do, but at the same time, those few, for whatever reason, buy the whole Jewish/Hebrew origin of Igbo deal. Other than that, forgive me if I'm finding it really difficult to believe what you're saying.

The fact is Nri influence is strong enough as to affect the counting of market days and to even cause people to kill their own children. Whether or not you recognise Nri now along with any other Ngwa does not change the fact that there were some Ngwa who listened to Nri strongly enough to adopt their taboos and to kill off their twins. If affecting the way people treat their own children isn't a powerful enough influence to suggest that they could make these same people go to war, I don't know what else is. I'm even certain that even Ngwa communities received Nri priests.

buzugee:
i am sure you know that there are exceptions to every rule. this is not what your typical yoruba woman looks like. if anything i would have guessed that she was african-american.

[quote author=tpia* link=topic=587084.msg7558656#msg7558656 date=1295382630]yes, she has a lanky bone structure, but would you assume she's fulani?

i do get your point however.[/quote]She is what is a little bit over average for a middle class Yoruba-Lagosian. This was just an example of the many Yoruba women with features like this. I think many people just think 'thick' features Southern Nigeria and 'thin' features Northern Nigeria which is over simplifying. It's amazing how Africans carrying on stereotypes about themselves.

buzugee:
my esteemed compadre, i beg to differ. she is gaunt, tall, lanky and has those sharp and waif like features that the fulani are known to have.

There are gaunt tall and lanky Yoruba women. I've seen hundreds of them, mostly madams.

https://www.hautefashionafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/funke-fowler.jpg

Guess what ethnicity, you see?

buzugee:
tpia is right. she looks fulani

Fulani women don't have cheekbones like that, it's Yoruba or sometimes Igbo women. The only thing that suggests Fulani is her pointy chin and maybe her nose, apart from that she just looks like a Lagos madam.

[quote author=tpia* link=topic=587084.msg7558421#msg7558421 date=1295379890]she looks kind of fulani


https://img684.imageshack.us/img684/1033/cynthiabaileyfull.png[/quote]She looks Yoruba.

Please credit the people who took these pictures and the people who brought them to attention:

Most of these pictures were taken from the following websites.

http://mccoy.lib.siu.edu/jmccall/jones/
http://ukpuru..com/

Check this out:

Ala, Ana, Ani, Ali, Ajala, Ajana, Ajani, Ajali

One name.

People need to calm down, it's not that serious.

ChinenyeN:
Maybe it's just me, but I seriously doubt that.

You doubt that a group of people who ordered a population to dump their twin babies in a forest to die in the name of taboo could not convince the same people to wipe out another population in the name of religion?

ChinenyeN:
Do you mind explaining this? Especially the second part.

Nri was a spiritual centre for the Igbo and when the British took it over they made way for their religion and education.

ChinenyeN:
Are you referring to the present known Igbo (the area from Igu Ochha to Izii, and from Arochukwu to Ika) calling each other "Igbo"? Is that what you mean?

Yes, like Olaudah Equiano described seeing people of "his own nation" in Britain and Jamaica. Like the accounts of every Igbo person literal in English before 1800 calling their homeland the "Eboe country", and like how Igbo communities once sent representatives to Nri.

Ibime:
@ Ezeagu,

With reference to the theme that Igbos never dominated Ijaws - hence my statement that there was no Igbo nation nor Ijaw nation.

You can have situations where one Igbo group would join an Ijaw group to attack another Igbo group or vice-versa eg. Kalabari and Ikwerre ganging up on Okrika or Okrika allying with Etche to defend against Abam. These are actual historical events.

There was no scope for any homogenous "Igbo Nation" to dominate any homogenous "Ijaw nation" or vice versa. . . and that has nothing to do with kindness on anyones part, cos Ethnic cleansing was the norm back than.

Historical events include Ijaw men beating up people in their land who spoke Ijaw with Igbo intonations, this is before Nigeria existed. This Igbo nation had an underlying culture that was partly formed due to Nri and it was through Nri that the Igbo areas were partly taking over by the British. Someone already mentioned Olaudah Equiano. I know that if the Eze Nri and the Ozo wanted, they could have mobilised communities into a religious war (of course this would be against the law).

Tsiya:
Some assumptions here!!!! Homogenous!!!!

I don't want to be drawn into to this what if arguement___but let your emotions out and look at this holistically____the northerners were gradually moving not fighting by force. Take a look at Kogi State, Edo State and the Yoruba states that will tell you how gradually Islam and Northern influence was gradually heading towards the East and West.

Mosquitoes would kill off any jihadists' cavalry (the strength of the Sokoto Empire) which is why they stopped at where they did.

ChinenyeN:
Obia? Science? What is Ovuru? What is Nzu? Ilunilu? etc. etc. I wonder who is writing all this, and am I the only one who finds this Igbo wiki somewhat difficult to read? as in, I can't really make sense of most of what I read. I sometimes feel like I need a translator.

Obia is native doctor or 'doctoring'.
Ovuru is brain
Nzu is tools/technology 'teknonzu'
Ilunilu, maybe proverbs?

Akhenaten:
The Ijo have always feared Igbo domination even before Nigeria gained its independence. That is why they wanted a separate region for themselves, which was shot down by the British colonials who stated that they would be protected under the Constitution.

Minorities views are suppressed by majority groups. Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo there is no difference.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that the Ijaw is a tiny secondary group because they are actually becoming a main group and they have also been dominating smaller groups like the Ogoni as well.

Ibime:
@ Ezeagu,

You are forgetting that before Lord Lugard and British anthropologists classified us, there was no such thing as the "Igbo" nation.

There was an Igbo nation and different towns and Igbo groups identified each other as Igbo. The mistake people make is with the strong group identity Igbo groups have. If there was no Igbo nation then it wouldn't have been possible for Nri peace warriors to have distributed yam medicine and other cultural things around Igboland. To give you an example of how the Igbo were a nation, if somebody had been given a red cap title in Umunede it would be recognised in Nike.

All this is to say that the Ijaw and Igbo have been living side by side for thousands of years despite the Igbo having become much larger than the Ijaw. The Ijaw culture still exists which is a rare thing to happen under a dominant group.

Sagamite:
The report did not say "she suggested", the report said they criticised and told her it was inadequate and they "want" it to be re-done.

Logic? Comprehension? Which one are you struggling with?

Exactly, so where in the report did it say that she was pressured into re-doing her wedding, in fact where does it say that the family wanted her wedding redone? And you're asking me about comprehension? I already asked you to go and find the transcript from the newspaper of the private conversation you know so much about and you ignored it. Next time it would be better to think about an argument before you make one or else you'll just be digging yourself deeper like you are now.

Sagamite:
The same way I found out she went to Nigeria: errrr . . . . News report?

It says in the report that "because the family told her they didn't do it right according to Igbo tradition - her family wants the husband to pay the bride price and do all the traditional stuff". Does that not sound like an imposition to you?

Her reaction is a sound logical deducement of how an average human being would respond to a soft imposition by people they are trying to ingratiate themselves with. They just follow, not to offend traditions.

Logical Deducement!!! Not the daft, moronic deducement obiagu1 gave earlier.

Ok, so since you know exactly what happened with her and her family from the news report, can you offer a transcript of how the conversation went with her family?

All your doing is guessing her reaction and obongo English doesn't hide it. My "logical deducement" can be that she was excited about the prospect of an Igbo wedding so she suggested to re-do her wedding, tell me how you're going to judge how logical your statement or my statement is?

Akhenaten:
And the Ijo had every right to fear majority domination after all they have been through in the ages starting with British aggression as British merchant men subjugated the people of this region all in the name of capitalism and colonialism.

If the Igbo wanted, they could have shifted small and engulfed the whole Ijaw population. They've had 1000 years opportunity with no NATO or Human Rights Watch. You think the Igbo started having an opportunity to dominate the Ijaw only since a British man decided to create a company called Nigeria?