It is difficult to express the reality of Ibo society in classical English.
A proud heart can survive a general failure because such a failure does not prick its pride.
Ghana and Nigeria resented each other and competed for supremacy in every sphere – politics, academia, sports, you name it.
Clearly there is no moral obligation to write in any particular way. But there is a moral obligation, I think, not to ally oneself with power against the powerless.
Onye nkuzi ewelu itali piagbusie umuaka. One of the ways an emphasis is laid in Ibo is by exaggeration, so that the teacher in the refrain might not actually have flogged the children to death.
And how is my daughter, Ezinma?” “She has been very well for some time now. Perhaps she has come to stay.” “I think she has. How old is she now?” “She is about ten years old.” “I think she will stay. They usually stay if they do not die before the age of six.” “I pray she stays,” said Ekwefi with a heavy sigh. The.
Having spoken plainly so far, Okoye said the next half a dozen sentences in proverbs. Among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.
The dispossession that caused my shrillness is in retreat though the marks of its pillage are still everywhere. I can see, in spite of them, that I have come a long way.
A person who has not secured a place on the floor should not begin to look for a mat.
The poor of the world may be guilty of this and that particular fault or foolishness, but if we are fair we will admit that nothing they have done or left undone quite explains all the odds we see stacked up against them. We are sometimes tempted to look upon the poor as so many ne’er-do-wells we can simply ignore. But they will return to haunt our peace, because they are greater than their badge of suffering, because they are human.
Our humanity is contingent on the humanity of our fellows. No person or group can be human alone. We rise above the animal together, or not at all. If we learned that lesson even this late in the day, we would have taken a truly millennial step forward.
Igbo sayings and proverbs are far more valuable to me as a human being in understanding the complexity of the world than the doctrinaire, self-righteous strain of the Christian faith I was taught.
When you have paid a hundred and thirty pounds bride-price and you are only a second-class clerk, you find you haven’t got any more to spare on other women.
As the saying goes, the unexamined life is not worth-living.
Orthodoxy whether of the right or of the left is the graveyard of creativity.
I felt so bad I did not need any further comfort for myself.
His mind, never content with shallow satisfactions, crept to the brink of knowing. What kind of power was it if it would never be used?
The point in all this is that language is a handy whipping boy to summon and belabor when we have failed in some serious way. In other words, we play politics with language, and in so doing conceal the reality and the complexity of our situation from ourselves and from those foolish enough to put their trust in us.
Children left their old parents at home and scattered in all directions in search of money. It was hard on an old woman with eight children. It was like having a river and yet washing one’s hands with spittle.
Who ever planted an iroko tree – the greatest tree in the forest? You may collect all the iroko seeds in the world, open the soil and put them there. It will be in vain. The great tree chooses where to grow and we find it there, so it is with greatness in men.
That we may accept a limitation on our actions but never, under no circumstances, must we accept restriction on our thinking.