₦airaland Forum

babyosisi:
donzman,GC,Zulu,freewilly and ninetofive,davidylan are all my relatives,according to terracotta.

I said

expecting my cousin or my aunt or my internet chat buddies to corroborate every new thing I find out about

makes little sense. Read again, and please cover your mouth when you yawn. It's rude not to do so in certain cultures

ghettochyk:
. . . the thing that's making you mad is the fact that your mother or whoever took care of you your zoo keeper was/is decided to vandalize your already fxcked up face with a machete.

Didn't even notice this before. You know the discussion's gone off the deep end when people resort to making stuff up and insulting people's parents etc. Your name suits you well, sha. You can feel free to say whatever insults you come up with---I won't be bothering to reply to you

Laudate--you sef, you don try I was just talking to someone about Urhobo markings (I was thinking about your grandfather's neighbor from the Niger Delta with the 'rings' on her arms). She said they were mostly done for beautification purposes, not identification etc.

abocana:
hi there,
i believe someone should know the price per unit now.

thanks.

People on the Stockmarketnigeria board say it's between 15 - 22 naira, but that's not for sure.

More than 500,000 sold in the first weekend = about $300 million in revenues

They want to sell 10 million by the end of 2008, which is highly likely at this rate. Most purchasers are ecstatic about the phone, although there were some problems with activation for some people.

I knew if I left this simple discussion alone for the weekend, I'd come back to a thread full of crap. Eyin Naijas, sha.

On to the comments. The only one I could really make sense of was this one--

my sister.I weak o.
How can there be naming ceremony in Igboland and Igbos don't know it,

Ah--stop there, babyO. Several Igbo academics have been quoted already in this thread. They know all about Igbo naming ceremonies. You don't. If you believe they're wrong, go and confront them. Or better yet, publish your own scholarly article on the issue. What you can't do is expect anyone to trust your limited knowledge or that of your relatives, who I'm sure are very pleasant people, but none of whom seem to be experts on Igbo culture.

worst of all,they read it on the internet from a yoruba man and woman.

Is that what's 'paining' you about the whole issue? You go threaten to commit suicide if I tell you that the first book in Igbo was written by Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther, a Yoruba cleric? Knowledge has no colour or ethnicity, 'baby'.

guess all the Igbos who have this same views with us all lived in a cocoon,a book has revealed this,lol

No--it just means that they don't know what an 'igu afa' is. No crime in that---I learn new things about my culture all the time. What's silly is expecting my cousin or my aunt or my internet chat buddies to corroborate every new thing I find out about. By your standard, I'd be claiming Yorubas no longer make facial marks since none of my immediate relatives have them. I'd expect more logical reasoning from adults, but I don't want to disappoint myself so I'll keep the standards low here. Please keep us posted on your ongoing research though---just try and keep it in the appropriate thread.

Alright--this thread is not about naming ceremonies, folks. Those who are wilfully ignorant of their own cultures can stay that way in peace--whatever you believe about igu afa (which, by the way, is translated as 'naming' ceremony in my copy of "Igbo-English Dictionary : A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Igbo Language" by Professor Michael Echuero, sitting on my shelf at home ) is not the point of this discussion. There's a whole thread about Igbo names and their meanings somewhere in this forum, so direct your questions or comments there and I'll be happy to answer if I can.

Back to topic: as I posted earlier, a smart young medical student named Olubimpe Ayeni at the University of Ottawa posted some of the images from Rev. Samuel Johnson's 'History of the Yoruba' in her essay about cicatrization in Africa. Here's the link again for those who missed it in the middle of all the nonsensical chatter earlier: http://www.med.uottawa.ca/medweb/hetenyi/ayeni.htm (ghetto folks are exempted from reading about culture, if it's too taxing for them).

I'm attaching the image to the thread too. What's most interesting is that Ife people (considered the heartland of Yoruba culture) do not make facial marks traditionally (see image). The other option pictured as 'Ife marks' are actually the same as the Oyo marks and were likely brought there by the Modakeke migrants from Oyo that settled in Ife in the 19th century. Oyo marks are also the most recognizable, i.e. the black-and-white photo earlier in this thread of the old Western Region premier and Nigerian minister for health, Samuel Akintola.

Donzman still hasn't told me how he's planning to pay, by the way. My people are known as 'osomaalo'--we always collect on our debts, o.

McKren:
Well I have been unable to trace the source in the leadership archive where I once read it.

But am sure I read it when an ANPP chieftain in Katsina stated how much he declared in 1999 and accused him of awarding state contracts to family owned bussinesses in the run up to the elections.

However it looks like I misplaced the figure, it may not be 150million but approximately 500million. If the latter is the case then may be am not being fair to him. As his latest figure of 900million will mean he made 400million in 8years as Governor of Katsina (average of 50million annually).

But then people must realise that the act of asset declaration should not be used as a means of political spin nor should the asset declaration form be percieved as certificate of good character. It should rather be a reference or benchmark for which we will in future access our leaders. So people should be more concerned scrutinizing the details rather than eulogising the act.

However because he made history as the first President or Head of State to have done that, and not giving into the senseless spin that "Asset declaration must not be made public" (God knows what the word declaration means as Femi Falana will have it).

So on this note I think the act is commendable.

McKren--not to join the chorus of your praise singers, but people like you are rare on this forum. Most people would have ignored the request for info on Yar'Adua's 1999 declaration, but you were honorable enough to look for it and to admit a possible error. I agree with you--it's a great development in our political culture for future presidents to emulate, but we do need to know how his assets were developed and how much they have grown since he took office. I've read that he declared assets during his two terms as governor, so this shouldn't be hard to do.

All in all, a good step forward for the new Nigeria.

laudate:
Um. . . . .I don't quite get you. Why on earth would I deny my ethnic background?? I don't think I have ever spoken about it. I grew up in the South-West, studied the language, can read & write it because it was made a compulsory part of my high school curriculum, etc.

So does that make me a Yoruba person?

Laudate--I was agreeing with you. I didn't see what you would supposedly gain from denying your ethnic background. If you are a Yoruba person, I'm pretty sure you would have just said so. So hopefully, our resident soothsayer will be able to prove her claims.

Femtex:
With Bio-technology gaining ground everywhere, rumors of Nigerians consuming 10% Alcohol as additives with pms, with the whole world going green, with the right technology and economics put in place, there will always be market for Cassava and other ethanol producing raw materials for commercial purposes. Instead of us exporting all these Raw Materials to other part of the world, we ourself are in a better place to use these raw materials to produce high yield, High Quality, better grade ethanol and later export the refined product to other part of the world. I'm pretty sure its a matter of time B/4 Nigerians understand and realize that there is a lot of money to be made by setting up ethanol plant using Cassava, maize, guinea corn, millet, grass as Raw Materials.

Sight always determines direction and longetivity.

Great points. This company, based in Minnesota, is already building a $50 million biofuel production factory in Taraba state (using sugarcane, not cassava). They've done several infrastructure projects in the old Soviet republics, and they're supposedly working on the Lagos light rail project as well. Biofuel production's definitely an underappreciated sector in Nigeria.

laudate:
Hehehe. . . .thank you jare, my brother. It is sad that this website does not support PM. There are several other references, but I think I'll stop here now.

I have been trying to upload relevant sections of Sabine Jell-Bahlsen's work on Names and naming: Instances from the ORU-IGBO By Journal of Dialectical Anthropology, Volume 13, Number 2 / June, 1988. But am running into some technical hitches. Maybe I'll just type out relevant sections and paste it here, when I have time.

Work beckons, now. Gotta run.

Laudate--There were a couple of other references I had to pass on to you as well, but this discussion is going to degenerate into nothing but rants about naming ceremonies if people have their way. I applaud your efforts sha. Sadly, no amount of information you provide can change a resolutely closed mind. Igbo naming ceremonies haven't happened in certain people's backyards, so therefore they cannot and can "NEVER BE" true

babyosisi:
Ok we have naming ceremonies,I have attended several and I was infact named in one.
The chief priest looked at me on the 28th day and called me babyosisi daughter of papaosisi
Uzochukwu and terra cotta clapped their hands as the elders blessed me.

"Baby" Osisi--please don't prematurely age me o. Whatever elders were around at your birth, I don't think I could qualify to be one of them. And why all the anger? Laudate and I are just trying to enlighten you about Igbo traditions you don't seem to be familiar with. Your gripe should be with Professor Uzochukwu or countless numbers of other Igbo and non-Igbo anthropologists, historians etc. that have written about Igbo naming ceremonies.

laudate:
Don't change the topic. You raised the issue of Laudate being yoruba. Oya, substantiate it with proof, now. Don't be dishonest by making false claims.

If you had simply called facial marks "primitive" etc. you could have easily claimed to be born and raised in Umuahia or Asaba . As it is, you've been forced to join the 'opposition'. Why you would supposedly deny your ethnic background is beyond me, but let's hope the all-knowing soothsayers of Nairaland will back up their claims somehow, as you clearly did on the naming ceremonies question.

WesleyanA:
this is 2007. I don't think there is any reason why "tribal marks" should still exist.
but i can understand if it existed a while ago when there was need for it, . . for whatever reasons. lol

WesleyanA--you've said it all. The original question about the significance was answered a long time ago. Somewhere along the lines, it turned into a typical Nairaland ethnic contest. Either way, I've seen very few people in here who plan to give their children facial marks, but I'm sure the discussion won't come to such a simple conclusion for some.

Interesting that he called Ghana the most corrupt country on the continent. I know that the Naija govt. workers in the audience must have laughed at that. Tinubu by himself probably chopped more money than Ghana's budget. He's just playing politics because he doesn't like Kufuor's government and they've had that recent scandal about diplomats acting as drug couriers.

I agree with most of what he said though. I think OBJ's era may be seen as a Rawlings-style turnaround in the near future. Rawlings was (and still is) hated and reviled by many Ghanaians during his tenure too, until they started reaping the benefits of the structures he created.

Laudate--great minds think alike! LOL--didn't see your replies until I posted mine. I think I posted that link about the Uzochukwu book a while ago in another thread. None of what you said will convince certain fellow Nairalanders, but be assured that you're doing other Nigerians a great service by highlighting aspects of our culture.

babyosisi:
Laudate,Igbos do not have naming ceremonies,we never had it .

This book, called 'Traditional Birth Poetry of the Igbo' by Prof. Sam Uzochukwu, discusses naming ceremonies in some detail. I know I've talked about this in another thread where we were discussing this same issue. As I pointed out there, christenings have replaced traditional naming ceremonies in most places, which is why you and other relatively younger Igbo people may not know about them. It's also possible that your village/town did not practice any naming ceremonies. To say that Igbos "[size=18pt]never had[/size]" naming ceremonies though is simply untrue. I feel like I should be getting paid for these tutorials

I was hoping to relieve Donzman of some more of his cash but it's probably better to clarify things with you.

The thing is that most of you Yorubas automatically think when one says differently of something that's your culture,that person is saying bad of the culture.There is nothing wrong with having naming ceremonies,nothing wrong with street wide owa nbes,nothing wrong with any of these activities at all.

LOL @ forcibly drafting Laudate into an ethnic group because she (?) disagrees with you. Who says you think naming ceremonies or "street wide owa nbes" is bad Sounds like a persecution complex Your opinion on whether a particular culture is good or bad is frankly not that important. Laudate and I were just interested in setting the record straight about both Yoruba and Igbo (and other Nigerian cultural issues) for those who seem to be ignorant on the topic. As you admitted earlier, you'd never heard of Igbo ichie scarification marks. Now you've made it clear that you don't know about Igbo naming ceremonies too. It's not a crime to be uninformed about certain aspects of your culture (especially since those practices are rapidly disappearing) but it baffles me why you think anybody would want to argue with you about it.

Those calling me names because I think tribal marks (be they the tiny Igbo ones, large Yoruba ones or designer Hausa type) are disgusting can keep doing so.
Tribal marks may have served their purposes in the dark ages,they are now useless and no child ought to be abused in that manner.

Pele--sorry that these mean people have been calling you names. It's not right. _{Could you please point out the offending culprits?}

Hope I've been helpful in passing along the info about Igbo naming ceremonies. I can pass along some more on the subject, if you're interested.

Back to the thread: I found this excellent thesis by a Nigerian medical student named Olubimpe Ayeni at the University of Ottawa. It goes into great detail about the purposes of cicatrization in Yoruba and other African cultures. She also has images from the pages I mentioned from Reverend Samuel Johnson's "History of the Yoruba" that illustrate the different markings. It's a great read, for those who have the time and the inclination to learn about the subject.
"Observation on the Medical and Social Aspects of Scarification in Sub-Saharan Africa"

Shaparo (pretty much the same as shepe, I think).

Sapele water in pidgin

spoilt:
the arguments have gone way off course and have igbos in the blue corner and yorubas in the red corner now.

That's the way most discussions seem to end up on Nairaland. It's a typical example of why I don't post regularly.

Donzman:
So nobody wants to apologize now, that horse you were all riding on doesn't seem so high anymore. The only mention of naming ceremony came in this light:

This means that in the villages, naming ceremonies do not EXIST!

LOL--your interpretation of that sentence, which clearly mentioned naming ceremonies, is . . . interesting. I'm sure Laudate will have a suitable answer for you. Do me a small favor though. Please make another bet that there is no such thing as an Igbo naming ceremony. You've lost one bet and haven't had the decency to admit it, so why don't you give yourself a chance to earn a little self-respect back?

Please don't forget to specify whether you're paying your previous (and future) losing bets with paypal or cash.

laudate:
More info. on giving names to Igbo babies can be gotten from this journal:

Names and naming: Instances from the ORU-IGBO by Sabine Jell-Bahlsen
Journal of Dialectical Anthropology
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
ISSN : 0304-4092 (Print) 1573-0786 (Online)
Issue: Volume 13, Number 2 / June, 1988

Laudate--I was going to go down this route (I had already talked about Igbo naming ceremonies in another thread), but I doubt that anything you say would change certain minds so it's a waste of time.

BabyOsisi--there's a picture of an old Ozo chief with ichi marks on his face in the link I posted earlier. There are a couple of older black and white photos I could show you, but this thread is being diverted too much and I don't want to add to that.

I agree with TayoD--circumcision and cicatrization are directly comparable. Both are forms of mutilation practiced for cultural reasons. You might find one form of mutilation acceptable because your religion says it is, but it doesn't make it any less of a form of mutilation than facial marks. After all, the people who give their children facial marks often have religious reasons for doing so too, abi?

Children shouldn't have to be circumcized or marked without their consent. You can't objectively agree with one and not the other, IMO.

The reviews so far are glowing. The iPhone can't be compared to other handsets currently out--it's got too many revolutionary features. $500 and a two-year contract is still a little too heavy in my eyes, but you can't deny that this phone is next-level technology.

From Apple.com:

“The phone is so sleek and thin,” reports David Pogue (New York Times) in his review of iPhone, that “it makes Treos and Blackberrys look obese.” And the software transcends. “It’s fast, beautiful, menu-free, and dead simple to operate.” If you need “to answer a call, you can tap Answer on the screen, or pinch the microscopic microphone bulge on the white earbud cord. Either way, music or video playback pauses until you hang up.” As for email, it’s “fantastic. Incoming messages are fully formatted, complete with graphics; you can even open (but not edit) Word, Excel and PDF documents.” And “the Web browser,” he points out, “is the real dazzler.” No “stripped down, claustrophobic My First Cellphone Browser; you get full Web layouts, fonts and all, shrunk to fit the screen. You scroll with a fingertip — much faster than scroll bars. You can double-tap to enlarge a block of text for reading, or rotate the screen 90 degrees, which rotates and magnifies the image to fill the wider view.” In short, Pogue calls the iPhone, “the most sophisticated, outlook-changing piece of electronics to come along in years.” [Jun 26, 2007]

laudate:
@ Terracota,
The fact that a work of non-fiction was written about the tribal marks of old Ichies obviously means it must have existed at some point in time, even if it is dying out now. My maternal grandfather's elderly neighbour came from the Niger-Delta, and she had some tribal marks on her fore-arms. They were dark, concentric rings etched in an symmetric pattern. Till she died, I never knew what they were called, or what they stood for. Now I wish I had asked. So I understand your point. It has been made eloquently.

Some of us have learnt something new from the info. you supplied. Thanks so much, for your input. But don't wait for Donzman to apologise. It isn't likely to happen. When his errors are pointed out in such a glaring manner, he just goes all quiet, and drops further questions on the subject, without a whimper. That is more in tune with his style.

Laudate--glad to hear that you found the information interesting. I saw your earlier post in this topic, which had already covered most of what I was going to say anyway. I've always enjoyed your posts and I know you've had to correct our wayward friend in several other threads too. There's no apology necessary in my eyes--it would have been honorable to admit his mistake, but even that might be too much to expect.

@ThiefofHearts,

WORD!! Girl. . . . .you are something else!!

She is .

Soundmind:
@ atiku07,
Plsease, i want to take a study on those pictures you posted.
From what tribe are they from? Which country are they from. Is this what have been happening in old in days or is it a recent pics.
Please text your pnone no to me thro' 08033166648.
I am expecting your text.
Hello Nairaland users, i will late you know of my findings when i am through

I think those people are from Papua, New Guinea, not Africa or Australia. That's the main place where those penis sheaths are common. Hope that helps.

This thread is hilarious, by the way.

Donzman:
@TerraCotta

You're terribly ignorant and like I adviced you before, quit reading books about your culture, go down and experience it for yourself. I know an old customs clearing agent that lives in PH, he's an Ichie, mind you this man is OLD, he has none of those marks.

I already told you the marks you see on Igbos, they're often given when an individual is sick by native doctors. Other than that, I've seen nothing (and believe me, for my age, I've seen ALOT and definitely more than the person who wrote that article you posted! Maybe the "ichie" marks are isolated to some REMOTE Igbo community, doesn't make it something Igbos as a whole practiced.

A more honest and mature person would have already conceded that they're wrong. I've been down this road with you before so I'm not surprised that you refuse to accept your ignorance even when confronted with evidence. I've provided you with a link describing an old Ozo titled man with ichi markings on his forehead. This was formerly a common practice that is dying, so it's unsurprising that you have not seen someone with them before. Before, you swore up and down that ichie marks did not exist. Now you're telling me that you've seen "a lot" and that perhaps ichie marks are "isolated in some REMOTE Igbo community". You don't seem to have enough respect for yourself to humbly admit your mistake, so this discussion is over. We can't turn the whole thread into a "Help Donzman Learn About Igbo Culture" lecture

Mr. man, do not run away from the bet I placed. I said the person who wrote that article you posted is definitely NOT Igbo, please provide prove to the contrary or tell the people the TRUTH!

Would the writer being Igbo make the article more or less true? You are obsessed with ethnic issues, and yet you're plainly ignorant about basic Igbo culture. It's a funny combination. At any rate, you have lost your bet. The article I posted was from a memorial website put together by the Okongwu family for their deceased elder. The Okongwus are from Ezeagu Local Government in Enugu State. I'm hoping that you can figure out their ethnic affiliation without doing genetic testing or whatever.

Now--can I expect my winnings by paypal or cheque?

Back to thread topic--I once met an American from South Carolina who had the Oyo ethnic marks etched in her cheeks as an adult. She was really happy about it, but all I kept thinking was that she's trying a little too hard--most Oyos in Oyo state don't have marks! Cubans and Brazilians who are interested in Yoruba culture also sometimes paint them on as temporary tattoos, which I thought is an interesting modern twist on the whole idea.

The price is insane (there's a $500 model too, BTW) but the phone's features are pretty unique. It's not outrageous for business users who want a phone will full browser support, video voicemail etc. There are many phones in that price range if you don't factor in contract discounts etc. I've been going back and forth on getting one since February, but the fact that it's first-gen/untested with so many possible glitches (the touchscreen keypad has been criticized a lot; glass screen prone to scratching; battery life issues etc.) makes me want to wait. That and the fact that they want you to get into a 2-year contract to get the phone at all is ridiculous to me. There's no denying that it's a great machine though.

CrossOver is great for people who don't want to reboot a Mac before running a PC program, but my understanding is that it doesn't support all Windows programs. There's another app called Parallels that basically works the same way. BootCamp from Apple, on the other hand, lets you actually choose between running OS X or Windows on a Mac. It's a free download at Apple.com. The only catch is you need to get your own copy of Windows.

ThiefOfHearts:
Donzie rather believe his own hype so I doubt he'll bother to read all that.

Hey you--feels like ages since we last spoke

Donzman:
You also need to stop reading too many books and spend sometime IN Nigeria so you can familiarize yourself. Nobody marks their faces with permanent scars just to signify titles. I know OLD titleholders where I come from, they have nothing on their faces. The few Igbos I know with marks on their faces got it when they got sick and it fades out over them as you have to look closely to see. QUIT reading too many books, they're for whites/foreigners who want to feel like they know when they really don't.

Why am I not surprised that this Donzman character would happily display his ignorance again? This is not the first time I've had to teach you about Igbo culture, and I get the feeling it probably won't be the last. It's not a surprise that you would ask people to "quit reading too many books" when you know so little. Ask any older members of your family what ichie marks are and hopefully they'll be able to teach you something. This has nothing to do with books--most people truly familiar with Igbo title-taking would know about them. Of course you haven't met any old titleholders with marks--I specifically said "it is very rare to see a traditionally tattooed ozo titleholder these days, as the practice is dying out."

I guarantee you an Igbo person didn't write that book, you want to place a bet?

I hope you're not so careless about betting in real life. You can read about ichie in [b]dozens [/b]of books written by Igbos and non-Igbos alike, from Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" to Prof. Adiele Afigbo's many books, and an 18th century reference in Olaudah Equiano's autobiography. Even better, here's a memorial website of one ozo titled man with ichi tatoos who recently died. He's believed to have been the last living 'ichie', although there's no actual proof of that.

In case it's too much effort to expect that some of our fellow Nairalanders will read the whole site, here's the relevant part:

Okpuwe OzoOhaezue OzoOkongwu OzoUwa (aka: Ozo Ochi-gburugburu) died last Friday evenning November 28, 2003 in Enugu, Nigeria. Papa was 95 years old. He is survived by his wife, childrens, grandchildrens, greatgrandchildrens, brothers and sisters. He had a full good Life.

Papa, a Nigerian with "Ozo" cultural, traditional and "Ozo gbuluichi" beautification markings all over his face from early age,

Perhaps Donzman will come in and hem and haw that the website couldn't possibly be depicting a titled Igbo man. Perhaps the website was made by and for white people who only know about Nigeria through books?

This thread was about the significance of Yoruba cicatrization. I think I answered the initial question, whether it was sincere or not. Donzman's lack of knowledge about traditional Igbo culture is not the point of the discussion. It's shameful to even have this discussion with someone who claims to be from this culture. Whether ichi marks are "better" or "worse" doesn't interest me--the whole purpose of mentioning them was to show that the practice of cicatrization is/was found throughout Nigeria, as indicated by the earlier Hausa-Fulani, Edo, Igala etc. examples. If you'd like to learn more, open a new thread and continue to celebrate your ignorance in public. I'll be happy to teach you even more interesting facts you probably don't know.

@ Thread: funnily enough, the Washington Post ran an article on this subject just yesterday. It was titled "Tradition of Scarification Begins to Fade in Nigeria". Here's an excerpt:

"If I am in another place and I see someone with marks like mine, of course I will have a soft spot for that person," said Ade Muyiwa Adegoke, a well-known Yoruba actor with triple lines radiating from his mouth.

Adegoke said he is not ashamed of his scars, which along with a bracelet of beads mark him as local royalty. But he has decided not to mark his children.

"These days, it is not necessary that anyone can look at your face and tell where you are from," Adegoke said. "And I did not want to hurt my children."

@ Osisi--I believe I mentioned that traditional markings were banned in Ekiti state last year. I don't recall anybody suggesting that making ethnic marks is a good thing in this thread Perhaps you can point out the post that gave you that idea. Most people also made it clear that it is a dying tradition--explaining the reasons behind a particular belief isn't exactly the same thing as endorsing it.

[i]Ila [/i]is the word for traditional Yoruba cicatrization ("scarification". They were made for a variety of different reasons, but mainly to differentiate between the different sub-groups of Yoruba-speaking people during wars. This became important during the slave-trading era of the 18th and 19th century, because people from different city-states like Ibadan, Ijebu, Ilesa etc. used cicatrizations to quickly distinguish between allies and members of their own group and their 'enemies' who could be sold. Some families elected to continue the custom, but it is far from a common practice these days. I think it was actually banned in Ekiti State last year. Bishop Samuel Johnson, a clergyman from present-day Oyo state who wrote a comprehensive book called "The History of the Yorubas", describes the shapes and meanings of the various types of cicatrizations. Illustrations are also provided in the book, for those who are interested.

There were/are also forms of [i]ila [/i]done as traditional tattooing, i.e. purely for aesthetic reasons. These are called [i]kolo [/i]and are not generally put on children (or on faces, for that matter). Adults chose them and they can depict a variety of things, from representations of animals and scenic places to abstract designs. Both types of cicatrizations are fairly rare these days.

Cicatrization is common to many ethnic groups in West Africa, and to most ethnic groups in Nigeria. It seems that many Nigerians commenting in this thread are not familiar with their own cultures, so it's funny to read some of the comments about Yoruba practices. Those who wish to spend a little less time studying ghetto culture and familiarizing themselves with their own should read about ichi/ichie, which is the Igbo term for extensive facial cicatrization. Ozo titleholders in southeastern Nigeria traditionally had their entire faces covered with lines to signify their titled place in society. It is very rare to see a traditionally tattooed ozo titleholder these days, as the practice is dying out, but it was formerly an extremely high honor in places like Nri and Awka, which are considered to be ancestral homes of Igbo culture.

Threads like this is why Nairaland bores many people these days--as TOH says, it's plain to see that the thread starter wasn't interested in posting an 'innocent' question and that many of the derogatory remarks are left by people who feel compelled to comment on anything regarding their 'rival' ethnic groups. Read a book, or go outdoors and talk to fellow Nigerians every once in a while.

Red_Lips:
meaning?

I meant my red lips are "unavailable" (it seems like 'taken' is overused in these parts). This is a conversation of most concern to those still looking.

My red lips will remain sealed on this topic

ikamefa:
is the part 2 out yet?

Yeah--I got it last December. Definitely worth watching, although it wasn't as good as part 1 to me.

I'm hoping this gets released on VCD/DVD soon--the video clips and the site are really impressive. Hopefully, it can make enough money to be worth the investment.

It also won Best Indigenous Movie at last month's AMAA Awards in Yenagoa.

No sweat, Ayeisha. I'm pretty familiar with rastas, i-tal food, livity etc. I've got a couple of friends who are serious about their faith. I assumed that the poster had some idea about the Rastafarian connotations and was more interested in learning about the "dada" and its meaning in Yoruba culture. As an aside, Ethiopians don't generally lock their hair. The first Rastas claim to have been inspired by photos of Mau-Mau rebels in Kenya who were fighting to overthrow British colonialism. Some other scholars believe that they absorbed the concept of long, locked hair, ganga smoking and a vegetarian diet from the saddhus amongst the Indian indentured workers that came to Jamaica in the 19th century.

To answer the question posed (which didn't even mention Rastafarianism, as far as I can see):

'Dada' in traditional Yoruba culture described children who were born with locked hair, or people who grew them for religious purposes. They used to be consecrated to the Orisa (or deity) of vegetables and newborns called Dada in the past, and their hair was supposed to be left uncut for a specific amount of time until a special celebration/ceremony could be held. Ijebus also sometimes call them 'omolokun', and they share similiar beliefs with Ijaw and other Niger Delta peoples about the special qualities of these children. Most of the traditional beliefs are not closely followed anymore though.