₦airaland Forum

nero2face:
Maybe they tasted their new harvest of "Oshogbo weed "

Joking about rape’s a new low even for Nigerians. Thunder fire you. Idiot.

Opharhe:
Okay then. Certainly, some of the consonants common to the languages of Edo-Speaking people may not be exclusive to those languages, but just more common with them than others.
Thanks for the info anyway.

Yeah. No wahala.

Are you Edo yourself?

nwachinemelu:
What is this one saying

It’s comments like these that prove how much of a baby society Nigeria is.

bigfrancis21:
As a country, Nigeria is predominantly a baby and young soul country, with sprinkles of infant, mature and old souls here and there. Also, certain tribes tend to be more of a particular age group than the other.

Care to expand?

Opharhe:
Awka in Anambra?

Where else?

Opharhe:
Avwebọ (or Amebọ as it's pronounced in some parts) is an Urhobo word meaning favorite wife in a polygamous home, the least favorite being referred to as 'Avweorọvwe'.

In Urhobo culture, where polygamy was common before Christianity, the favorite wife (Avwebo) of a homestead, is loved and desired by her husband for various reasons such as beauty, submissiveness, good culinary skills or other desires qualities.

The Avwebo was looked up to not just by the husband but by the extended family and even the community, with high expectations. It was her duty to ensure that everything is in place for the husband and she was expected to be friendly with her husband's family, friends and community and try not to fall out of favour with them.

Due to the high social expectations invested in her, such a woman would normally always go out of her way to try to please everybody with the husband at the helm. Some of the things an 'Avwebo' would normally do more than the others apart from spending more nights with the man of the house include washing Oga's clothes, cooking most times, being in charge of the hospitality for oga's guests, sharing thoughts with the Husband etc. Hence she has the ears of the man of the house and will be the first to report whatever must have transpired in the compound or community while hubby was away including the misdeeds of her mate's children.

'Avwebo' was also fond of breaking the news first and telling people around the negative things she must have heard about them from others in her efforts to be in their good books.

Why "Amebo" for gossip in Nigeria parlance?

The Urhobo people metaphorically do refer to people especially females with a holier-than-thou- attitude or those who will always talk about everything that happens, sometimes to the point of exaggeration as 'avwebo'. As a result of this, other Nigerians started using the word too when referring to a notorious gossips and the name spread gradually starting from Lagos.

Peter Ikogho also gave an interesting account about this matter in an earlier post.

"... Coming to Amebo being refered to as a Gossip is a fallout of the role played by Veteran Actress Mrs Ibidun Allison in the now long rested Soap Opera/Drama series -The Village Headmaster(NTA Series) of the middle 1960s up to early 1980s - where in her effort to please everyone in the Community became a gossip/local News carrier."

'Amebo' is more common as against the 'Avwebo' mostly due to the inability of most Nigerians, non Urhobo or Edo speakers to pronounce some consonants like 'vw/vb', replacing it with 'm', though some Urhobo groups pronounce 'Amebo' in their dialect.

Awka use vb.

Iamlamide:
Boiled unripe plantain and garden egg stew

Nne, e don tey wey I chop garden egg stew oo. Did you use the green or white garden eggs?

This my ogbono that’s even tasting somehow.

RedboneSmith:
Redeemed. I attended Redeemed for a bit, because of this girl I had an interest in back in school.

Despite being non-religious, I really enjoyed the praise-and-worship session.

That’s it Redbone. Deeper Life had decent tunes back in the day too. I’ve Got My Mind Made Up and Highly Exalted are my favourite church songs to date. That’s why I’ve never been big on Catholic Churches. All those stilted hymns feel forced coming from a bunch of core Nigerians.

I’m even non-religious like you too. But Nigerian churches are a funny experience sha.

RedboneSmith:
To be honest, it is more of a social obligation for me than an exercise of faith.

You'll be surprised at how many people show up to church on Sundays to avoid Auntie X or Friend Y or Father Z (who is a close friend of the family's) asking a barrage of questions.

I’m the same. It’s more of a cultural thing for us negroes whether you believe or not.

We’re more Anglican-influenced in Awka but we switched to Deeper Life and my experience of social obligations to turn up and show face in that holy holy church is something that’s stuck with me since. I go Redeemed whenever I feel like showing face at church though. Unless I’m at my mum’s house.

RedboneSmith:
No. The nonsensical logic I was using is actually yours. Remember, you are the one who have always used the presence of European-derived names in Southern Nigeria among other elements European culture to castigate Southerners as 'white worshippers'. Thank God that when someone makes the same argument about you and your people you realise how nonsensical it sounds.

So you have only one Arabic name (your middle and last names, being Fulani). Well, congratulations. That means you have one foreign name MORE than me, a Southern Christian 'white-worshipper'. My first name, middle name and surname are all ethnic names. And I have met many Southern Christians who are like me in having only Yoruba or Igbo names; no European-derived or Biblical names at all. So next time you want to use Jennifer as a prop to pontificate to Southerners, you might do yourself the favour of remembering this, if you don't want me to use Umar and Abdul to pontificate to your own people.

So you learn Arabic for religious purposes only. What difference does it make if it is for secular or religious reasons? The fact is your children spend years in school learning and perfecting their Arabic, a language that is not theirs. If you want to call kids in Lagos speaking Pidgin or domesticated Nigerian English 'white worship', then you have to allow that children in Qu'ranic school reciting verses in Arabic is 'Arab worship'. Worship na worship - whether done full time or only when reciting certain texts. You are also a part-time white worshipper because we are using English now. You realise how ridiculous this kind of thinking is, don't you?

By the way, as a Roman Catholic from the south, I do not even need any foreign languages to learn about my religion. I learnt Catechism in my native tongue, I pray in my native tongue, there are Bibles and prayer books in my native tongue, and on Sundays I attend service (mass) in my native tongue - although there are also masses in English or a mixture of English and Latin, for those who fancy that.

It is always funny to me how some people in the north will want to speak about a Southern Nigeria they do not really know but the second you say one thing about the north, they get agitated and tell you you don't know anything about the north and Africa. Well, guess what? You don't know anything about the South either. And FYI, you told me nothing about the north I already didn't know.

Final word: Stop condescending to Southerners. If you think calling you up north 'Arab worshippers' is nonsensical [and I don't think you lot are - I was only making a point, but look at how animated that got you!], it should also be pretty easy for you to understand that calling us 'white worshippers' is also nonsensical.

I’m quite surprised that you subscribe to organised religion Redbone. Aren’t you a scientist?

Hell yeah. At least if I’m someone to go by.

Because they’re silly cunts for the most part. Never trust an Ifeanyi from Mbaise. Especially if he goes to Redeemed.

Wulfruna:
First, shelve the sarcasm.

Second, you see all these things you were saying about wars and genocides? That's what is called a straw man. Look it up if you don't know what it means.

Nne, don’t mind him.

No one likes masquerades more than Igbos.

.

Lawani means onye ala in Igbo if the lawanis that post on Nairaland are anything to go by.

room089:
The Awka people were/are never Wawas. Though people carelessly or hastily allude Awka to be part of Wawa because of its usage of 'wa' for 'no'.


One thing that stands Awka out is its dialect: it's very unique. No other community shares that dialect with Awka. Believe it or leave it.


It's evidently clear that Awka has strong ties with some 'wawa' communities. There are some traces of similarities in their customs and traditions. They freely inter-marry.

Owing to the itinerant nature of Awka blacksmiths in the olden days, I would agree that Awka tradition has been influenced by outsides cultures and traditions. Most blacksmiths came back with strange women and idols from those lands. And as we know, the idols must certainly be appeased; and appeasing them is a tradition.


Apart from the name 'Attah' borrowed from Igalla, they have the likes of 'Agbo' etc.


Awka started eating Fiofio before the Wawas. Fiofio thrives on their land; they plant it as a flower to decorate their compound and as feeds to goats.


Amongst the Awkas, groundnut is simply 'Okpa' as AjaanaOka enthused.


What the Wawas call 'Okpa' its full name in Awka is 'Igbagu-Okpa'.


Thank you

And is Igbagu-Okpa indigenous to Awka?

shinarlaura:
Am a firewood user..

Grassroots village cooking’s always the best.

I’ll go for gas cooker between the two but nothing beats firewood and cast iron pots. Especially for jollof rice.

We all know nothing beats mai mai cooked with uma or banana leaves.

AjaanaOka:
In a thread on Awka that I created with my old moniker I hinted at the possibility that 'vb' in Awka might have been picked up from the Edoid peoples. But it is only a possibility, a hypothesis. I won't say it's anywhere near being a fact.

There's a wide range of sounds that the Igbo peoples use in place of h/f. There's V, W, WH/HW, PH, etc across many dialects. The Awka 'Vb' sounds somewhat between 'V' and 'H'. In an environment of such phonetic diversity and divergence, it wouldn't strike me as odd that 'vb' could be a local innovation rather than an import.

About 'ndu': Are you positive the Igala use that word? I have never heard that before. 'Nd-' is very atypical of Igala words, as far as I know.

No I corrected myself about Igala up there. Turns out they use abo.

Crayfish is just a standard ingredient for moi moi but that’s where it ends for me if it counts towards protein.

I don’t like busy mai mai if you know what I mean. I prefer it plain with nothing inside.

How do we prefer our mai-mai on this forum? Basic with nothing inside it or stuffed with up to 7 lives?

bigfrancis21:
They use 'ndu' to mean 'people' as we do?

Also by Igala, you mean upland or 'core' Igala or ibaji Igalas (with Igboid influence)?

Just had a quick re-check. It’s even abo that they use. God knows where I got ndu from.

bigfrancis21:
Ndu is just a dialectical variation of 'ndi'. My mom's place in Enugu say 'ndu' instead of 'ndi'. Owerri/Abia will say 'nde'. 'ndi', the standard form, I would say is Onitsha.

Hmm. I only say so because I know Igala also use ndu. You reckon it’s a possibility they borrowed it from us or is it just a coincidence?

Did you know Awka takes influence from Edoid lects (aka vb/fv in place of the standard h/f)?

RedboneSmith:
I knew when I saw the post you made with your now-deleted moniker in the culture section that you were just another lowlife troll!

Nna, nwayo.

Awka's mixed through and through innit. Even ndu (presumably) comes from Igala.

AjaanaOka:
Lol. I thought you've asked me this before. When I told you I was from your ikwunne, and you are my nwadiana. Remember?

Short-term memory like a sieve. Ndo.

AjaanaOka:
There are two ways that I know the term Waawa is used. The widest meaning of Waawa covers all of the northern part of Old Anambra, i.e., today's Enugu state and Ebonyi state, except for the part that was sliced off from Abia. Going by this meaning, all of Enugu State without exception is Waawa.

A more narrow meaning of Waawa restricts the term only to Agbaja area and (sometimes) Nkanu, too. By this narrow definition, the Nsukka and Awgu areas of Enugu are not truely Waawa.

Yh, that's why I said Abakaliki axis. Afikpo/Edda's more akin to the Ohafia/Bende/Abiriba zone, I know.

It sounds like the majority of Enugu State'sWaawa either way.

What part of Awka are you from btw?

AjaanaOka:
I honestly didn't know fiofio (vbiovbio) and akidi are of Waawa origin. That's something I'll have to ask my folks.

Okpa I grew up knowing as the stereotypical Enugu snack, so you're probably right about that one.



Interesting trivia: 'Okpa' in Awka dialect refers to groundnuts. If you ask a typical Awka man to give you okpa, you'll end up with groundnuts.

That thing Enugu people call okpa, our name for it is igba.

They might be more shared foods than copied from Waawa. I dunno how popular okpa is in the rest of Anambra (as an indigenous staple) but it's always been in Awka even when I stayed there last year. The whole "okpa di oku" thing's a morning alarm for Unizik students sef.