Igboproverbs

Igboproverbs A Catholic priest. This is about Igbo culture, wisdom, proverbs, folktales, question and answer.

WAEC has approved 'Mbe Agaba' for AGỤMAGỤ IGBO starting from SS 1-3 2023/2024 Academic Session.
02/12/2023

WAEC has approved 'Mbe Agaba' for AGỤMAGỤ IGBO starting from SS 1-3 2023/2024 Academic Session.

30/11/2023

ON THE ORIGIN OF IGBO PEOPLE

ONYE ỤJỌ AMAGHỊ NA URU DỊ N'ỌGỤ(A coward does not know that there is great benefit in going to war)Mpụtara:Ọtụtụ afụfụ a...
28/11/2023

ONYE ỤJỌ AMAGHỊ NA URU DỊ N'ỌGỤ

(A coward does not know that there is great benefit in going to war)

Mpụtara:

Ọtụtụ afụfụ anyị na-agbara ọsọ jupụtara n'ihe ga-abara anyị uru. Onye ataghị ahụhụ anaghị enweta ihe ọ chọrọ. Uru dị n'igba mbọ. Ọ bụghị oge ọbụla ka ize ndụ ji aba uru. O nwere mgbe mmadụ ga-atụfu ndụ tụtụrụ ọnwụ tupu onyeiro esepụ ya aka n'ahụ. Ọ bụ onye tụfuru ndụ ya na-azọpụta ndụ ya. Onye ụjọ ga-adị ndụ mana ọtụtụ ihe ọma ga-akọ ya ụkọ na ndụ a.

Meaning:

Some of the challenges we run away from or try to avoid are quite good for us and quite beneficial. Nothing is really yours until you are ready to struggle for it or defend it. Every good achievement comes at its own price. A person who is not willing to challenge his potent enemy may never find true freedom. Laziness is a price for poverty. Fear is some times part of our problem.

Lesson:
Some of the good things we enjoy today have been paid for by others in the past. At times with their lives. Sacrifice is an inevitable part of human existence and to shun it is to strip life of its true meaning. At times, to die is to live. Cowardice is not a virtue for a true Igbo man.

Wisdom of the Ancients
- Okenye

28/11/2023

WHEN I WAS A CHILD: Tips from my early upbringing (I)

My mother never went to any conventional school but she was a solid hand in proper child upbringing strategies and general discipline.

She was fully in charge of all of us. It was well-known to all of us that running your mouth when she is speaking is asking for trouble, the type of reaction you'll not forget in a hurry. The least you will get is a slap on your mouth with the back of her hand. The result is that using your mouth that week will be with great difficulty.

Whether you are right or wrong, you keep quite until she finishes what she is saying and delivers verdict. Your age or status in the family as a child did not really matter. It was an unwritten law in the family that you don't challenge your senior either in a quarrel or a fight. You are expected to report to either herself or your father.

She had a way of teaching you the hard way. It may pain you so much but you have no option. But the message will surely sink into your head and remain there for ever.

One day, she was busy removing palm fruits from the thorny head (ọghịrịgha) at one corner of the compound. It was time for me to leave for school I was in Primary 4. I went to her to inform her that I was leaving. You must do that whenever you have reason to leave the compound. After that I left. Leaving for school by 9am was even very early for all of us. It was a village school, about one and half kilometers away. It is whenever you finish your morning duties that will signal the time to go to school.

I was about to enter the school compound when another boy from the same village caught up with me and told me that my mother asked me to come back. I felt very bad and pained but I had no option. I asked him to send in my bag and ran back.

I met her in the same position and asked her why she wanted me back. She pointed at a small spoon in front of her that had been there since yesterday and asked me to wash it and take to the kitchen.

I hurriedly did this and still wanted to know why she called back. She then told that it was just to pick up that spoon which I overlooked and went to school. 'Next time, when you see anything lying where it should not be, take it to the right place', she 'mischieviously' admonished. She told me that she deliberately wanted me go far before calling me back. I 'wisely' swallowed my fury and went back to school at about 10am to pick up seven lashes that awaited me for late coming. The lesson has not left me even till today.

LESSONS:

You may not agree with her style but we have been living by most of her teachings till today.

1. Some people will never learn until they are taught in a hard way.

ii. Teach your child to act proactively and with initiative. To removed anything that is lying in an awkward location. Even adults of today see such things and look away.

iii. Corrections point the way for little children, adults too. It was a wise adage that says that he who refuses to work in dry season will surely face what is greater than work itself when rainy season comes.

From your Village Elder,
Rev Fr Dr F.O.F Onwudufor
Okenye Igbo Niine

WHEN YOU TOUCH A DEAD PERSONIn the time of great grand fathers, when you come into contact with a co**se, you have to un...
28/11/2023

WHEN YOU TOUCH A DEAD PERSON

In the time of great grand fathers, when you come into contact with a co**se, you have to undergo a process of ritual cleaning. This is especially if dead person is not related to you. They believe that if you do not do this, some misfortunes and setbacks may come down upon you:

1. Loss of customers in business
2. War misfortune
3. Farm infertility and labouring in vain.
4. Wife miscarriage
5. Occupational accident
6. Bad debts
7. Unexplainable sickness
8. Inter-generational poverty

Spiritual Remedy -

1. Look for 'ogirisi' leaf and mash it with 'ebu aja' in your two hands as in the picture
2. Collect kola leaf and mash in your two hands. That alone can restore your clean state again.
3. Collect ordinary sand, add water and make some pronouncement.
4. Then, water and soap will come last.

From the Village Elder,
Rev Fr Dr F.O.F Onwudufor
Okenye

28/11/2023

OMENALA-ỤKA-ỊGỌMMỤỌ

28/11/2023

TODAY'S IGBO PROVERB

26/11/2023

TODAY'S IGBO PROVERB

AGỤỤ....

25/11/2023

Today's IGBO PROVERB

NWADIBIA....

THE VILLAGE APPIAN WAY FOR THE LEGENDS1. The 'Appian Way' was, originally, a Roman Road used for military supplies for t...
25/11/2023

THE VILLAGE APPIAN WAY FOR THE LEGENDS

1. The 'Appian Way' was, originally, a Roman Road used for military supplies for the conquest of southern It@ly in 312 BC.

2. It got its name from Appius Claudius, the Roman Censor, who started and completed the military road in 312 before Christ.

3. About 3000 prisoners were ex£cuted on that road.

For us, as village area boys and girls, 'appian way' was our shortest cuts for running errands in the village and connecting places, a narrow pathway often overgrown by weeds and grasses:
- doing shuttles to your maternal homes, village markets, fetching firewood and fireballs, home purchasing of pepper and fish when your mother suddenly runs out of it.
- Early in the morning, we used appian ways to go and check our traps, 'udara', african pear eaten by the birds in the midnight (ube nchịchị), family breadfruit heads and searching and picking of ripped palm nuts with polythene bags.
- in the village, you use these roads to scout for yam tubers forgotten by 'careless' farmers after harvest.
- we navigate these roads to connect neighbouring villages when you are 'following or searching' for masquerades to entertain you during festivals.
- while using these appian ways, you may easily run into wine tappers, hunters, animal trappers, fishermen and even criminals plying their trade.
- we were afraid to use these pathways in the night to avoid meeting ghosts.

Even till today, the appian ways are still useful when you return to the village and want to go and greet cousins and neighbours or checking your father's farmland boundaries.

As a legend, did you have any of these experiences before being blown to the cities?

From the Village Elder,
REV FR DR F.O.F ONWUDUFOR
Okenye Igbo Niine

THE ERIGHERI SPIRITUAL TREE:1. This tree is about 100 years old. 2. The Erigheri tree served as the cathedral for the sp...
20/11/2023

THE ERIGHERI SPIRITUAL TREE:

1. This tree is about 100 years old.
2. The Erigheri tree served as the cathedral for the spirit of the village ancestors.
3. It was usually found in the village squares where villagers gathered to decide on controversial and delicate matters.
4. The ancestors were said to dwell in the tree to moderate and oversee village meetings.

IS THIS A FRIEND OR AN ENEMY? I. As a village area boy, what do you call this in your dialect?2. Have you had any experi...
18/11/2023

IS THIS A FRIEND OR AN ENEMY?
I. As a village area boy, what do you call this in your dialect?
2. Have you had any experience with it.
3. Any solution when it attacks you?
4. Any proverb around it.

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