In an
effort to close a little
circle before the process of handing
the over and changes in the
platforms as I said
recently, I decided
to rekindle the project which
we all were proponents or promoters
(REVIVAL AND PROMOTION OF OUR
CULTURE) some years ago.
This time
coming from a different angle thus the creation of the NENWEI language
group.. It will be very improper to pretend that everything went or is
going well with the Cultural revival project. During my
stay in Nenwe (Nigeria) in the last 3
years I understood most people inwardly
regret this train we missed , therefore we should not miss a train twice as they say.
I saw the politicized project
and not the one most of us had in mind. I saw a lot of people hoodwinked into
feuds, jealousy, disrespect for elders, lack
of regards for traditional and cultural institutions, disregard for instituted hierarchies
and selfish personal gratifications /egotism:
Many still trying to hide one or a
cocktail of the above under the cloak of religious belief . Some decided to
keep away from ‘giants fighting’.
Tell your mind this loudly ; are you happy with the situation of
things as they are now?
Myself, Charles Okechukwu Chukwubike is not happy. I normally get to an embarrassing
point whenever I proudly tell my kids of the gallantry of Nenwe people in liberating themselves and her neighbors
of slave mongers after a fierce battle , and that this liberation day was
celebrated annually when I was a kid and that ill-conceived religious thought/teachings has made us to abandon it a pagan festival. My kids who have been to Nenwe only twice but write and speak Igbo (more than many children living in
Nigeria) though sometimes in their own
ways told me.. ‘ hahaaha daddy may be
your people in Nenwe would prefer American HALOWEEN and Brazilian carnival ’. I sincerely was ashamed the
day these our ‘European kids’ laughed at me on this issue. Though I also understood
it was a wish things were the other way round so that they could take their
friends home.
When I tell them of Edja aho;
their new year eve sort of, oriri Ali and the meaning, I tell them that I am an
Onye Ali…showed my daughter the Ali shrine
and Eke shrine and the stories behind them. When I tell them of Ovivi
ekwa by newly married ladies and their late evening trips to Eke ukwu for the Ovivi ekwa , When I showed my daughter Onye Ali of Eziecho : Chief Nathinel Nwigwe and told her his status in the town, when I
tell them of Oriri ndi agbo and oriri ndi Ugwu Amorji and our yearly oriri obulorum in our Aunties
house at umuduru and the rain fall that never missed beating us on our
way back yearly. When I tell them of Ogalugwu and the rain dances and that sometimes the rains were prompt by coincidence or not . I show
them of pictures of Ogu okokoro, tell them of the Ekpe of Agbada, tell them of
Iconic Maestro like Money Hard , Chief ‘Nwa
nzelukwu’ and their magic like the ones
they see in TV today. After all these
they ask me one simple question; …ma daddy cose è succeso che non succeed più
niente …but, daddy what happened that
nothing is happening anymore? A stupid person will still continue to blame colonialism .
They asked me ‘but you people
were still great during and after colonialism from what you say’ then I answered yes and went
back to my little litany of Nenwe people
as :-
- ·
The (probably)
only people that invited the British to leave
them alone because they learnt Germans in Cameroon were better. We all
know the consequences of that.
- ·
The (probably)
only people who planned
a bloody coup d’état (beheaded
him in a market)to remove a dictator
planted on them by the British empire.
- ·
The people
who produced the first senator (RIP) for
Enugu and Awka areas In the 1st republic
- ·
The people whose
son (RIP) was the second person with Nzeogwu that wanted to bring equity to Nigeria by executing the 1966 coup. That made
him the last Biafran that left Nigerian prisons in 1977 with
Col Achuzie..seven good years
after the ‘No victor no vanquish’
- ·
The people whose
son was such a wizard with the jet
fighters both in Nigeria and in Biafra that the Nigerian government did
not imprison him as expected
rather reinstated him almost immediately to help brush up the
battered and almost non existing NAF
after the war. May his Soul RIP.
- ·
The people whose
land was built the state of art college
of its time in 1957
Sometimes I stop the litany abruptly like now at their ‘what then is happening now’? Do we continue to live
on past glories?
Well we must recognize the giant stride
many people made in the areas of
politics, education, and business, but collectively are we as a people sitting on a foundation that will
continue to hold us as a people that
should be proud of a common heritage of are we drifting to an individualistic
state that is baseless. The European culture is individualistic as we may see
on the surface but siting on a strong cultural heritage.
I don’t normally like writing more than two pages therefore I must conclude now.
The formation of the Asusu NENWEI
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1505573913074466/ group on face book is just a gradual way of trying to step back
into reviving our culture , this time laying a good foundation and a gradual growth of interest. I recognize
that many people have written things on Nenwe
, many people not even linguistics promoting the language in many ways for this I would personally suggest we take time to build a base before one fires us
with a Nenwe vocabulary or dictionary and the confusion would be more
I am highly motivated by what I am seeing on Facebook from our people.
The interest and courage people take in
writing as much as they understand is encouraging . Ifeoma Alinta was appointed as the second
coordinator and moderator and we still encourage others to enlist write or
especially read the discussions. We
certainly shall get somewhere from
there.
Do know that the taunting cross
country song by some umu mbala in County (Nenwe Boys) were typical authentic Nenwe parlance we should
adopt as symbols… and themes :
Lekweeteee lekwete ogbo ngula!
Lekwete ..ogbo ngula lekwete.!
Do you remember these songs at county?
I shall complete this write up by the week end as I wait for your reactions.
Good night.
Chukwubike O Charles
(The Moderator NOL)
