Are we Igbos or "Ibos"?

Special to IgboEvents
USAfricaonline.com
USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston
The Black Business Journal

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The "Ibo" misspelling of the south eastern Nigerian Igbo ethnic nation of almost 32 million people reflect, essentially, a post-colonial hangover of British and Euro-Caucasoid colonial miseducation, misrepresentations, and (mis)pronounciation preference. It is/was just easier for the White man/woman to say 'Ibo' rather than 'Igbo.' We must remember the late psychiatrist, pan-African scholar and activist Franz Fanon's mytho-poetic and insightful words in his 1952 book, Black Skin White Masks, that "A man who has a language [consequently] possesses the world expressed and implied by that language." Should Igbos and other African nationalities, incrementally and foolishly give up the core of their communal and national identity on the discredited altars of Euro-Caucasoid racist supremacy and colonial predations? I have two modest answers: first is No; and second is No.

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By Chido Nwangwu

(December 11, 2001): Regarding the use of the word "Ibo" as opposed to "Igbo" in the commentaries and recent announcements by our some of our folks, may I make a few observations.

First, let's state the most important element of this language advisory: the erroneous, incorrect usage and blatant dislocation of the Igbo identity and name is the preference for the colonial spelling and reference, lazily spelled as "Ibo." Second, the "Ibo" misspelling reflects, essentially, a post-colonial hangover of British and Euro-Caucasoid colonial miseducation, misrepresentations, incorrect spellings and (mis)pronounciation preference. It is/was just easier for the White man/woman to say 'Ibo' rather than 'Igbo.'

Such language and cultural impositions which are fancifully and farcically adopted by the colonized natives and the dispirited are still evident across the African continent, south and central Asia and parts of Latin America where colonialist predation was not only economic but a crude decapitation of the languages, mores, culture and identities of the ethnic nations they invaded and colonized.

Third, and more important, the linguistic history, autography and anthropological identities of the almost 35 million citizens of the enterprising, vibrant, resourceful, unduly intra-antagonistic, capitalistic, religious, and republicanist communities and people who form the Igbo nation show, credibly, that our language and ethnic nation should always be identified and spelt as Igbo.

Note the fact that there's an Igbo alphabet identified as "gb" as distinguishable from "g" and "b"; same for "gw" as distinguishable from "g" and "w". For instance in Nwangwu, which many inattentive non-Igbo, put forth a wrong, hurried misspelling: Nwangu.

Again, they remove the Igbo alphabet "gw". For the nation, Igbo, the 'gb' is the key.

Many Igbos and other people have mixed up the Igbo identity/name/language/people with this colonial misrepresentation as "Ibo(s)."

We must not dilute the correct spelling(s) of the Igbo nation and people; and in fact ours, individually. Otherwise, we should all gladly celebrate the backwater hatefulness encapsulated in the misspelling of Obigbo and Umumasi as (R)umuigbo and (R)umumasi. It's that important and basic, too.

We should not give up any Igbo alphabet and spellings, in this regard, therefore. It is different from abbreviating a long surname or first name.

Immediately after the birth on December 20, 1998, of the Houston octuplets, I believe one of the better things I've contributed to global Igbo interest was factually and materially causing the world's number 1 news agency AP through some of its news staff, especially Mark Barbineck (bless him!) to change the reference to Igbos as "Ibos" as a minimum standard for me to do the interviews with AP (same standard was held up for any other media corporation during my pro-bono (free) international multimedia projection services and news interviews I offered to benefit the octuplets and their parents. It has become, thankfully, the AP standards as well as those of almost 30,000 newspapers who take the AP and Reuters' news feed to refer to us as Igbo(s). If your local newspaper does the "Ibo" stuff, kindly write them and demand a correction.

I never heard/read the Azikiwes, Okparas, Ojukwus, Achebes, Nwangwus, Nzeogwus, Obis, Emeagwalis, Nwafors, Ogbalus, or Obicheres refer to us as "Ibo(s)".

Hopefully, this modest language advisory will set the affirmative, conclusive identification on the issue of whether we are "Ibos" or Igbos. It is, for me, Igbos, sui generis, as a people, an identity and as a language.

We must remember the late psychiatrist, pan-African scholar and activist Franz Fanon's mytho-poetic and insightful words in his 1952 book, Black Skin White Masks, that "A man who has a language [consequently] possesses the world expressed and implied by that language."

Should Igbos and other African nationalities, incrementally and foolishly give up the core of their communal and national identity on the discredited altars of Euro-Caucasoid racist supremacy and colonial predations? My modest answer is No.

Before some demagogic and ill-informed "native" comes to the defense of the Euro-Caucasian impositions, let's quickly note that this is not a debate about language accretion and/or adding conceptual properties and descriptive symbols to enrich our language, or any language, for that matter. For example, I argue we should add the words Computer, Internet, etc to the Igbo language, and regarding same in its contextualized Igbo meaning or word(s).

 I'll state, without fear of contradiction that no language, today, is clinically restricted and strictly reflective of its national borders. None! Not even the Talibans in their tunnel vision of the world, and cultural phillistinism.

May God continue to enrich the Igbo nation as we protect, project and defend our heritage and identity into the new millennium. I'll close with the wise words of the same, late African warrior Franz Fanon who wrote, "Each generation must discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it." On whose and which side are you?

Igbo traditional life, culture and literature
By Prof. Emmanuel Obiechina

Monday, June 17, 2002
Re: USAfricaonline.com: Are we Igbos or "Ibos"? By Chido Nwangwu

In a book co-edited by Michael J.C.Echeruo and myself in 1971, I devoted considerable space dealing with this question of the correct naming of
Ndi-Igbo, the ethnic nationality, the language, and the identity, in a fairly lengthy "Introduction." I commend this discussion to your audience.
The book is titled Igbo Traditional Life, Culture and Literature and was published by Conch Magazine Press in New Paltz, New York.

It is now out of print, after a number of reprints, but it is available in major libraries in the United States. An interesting aspect of this question is that it has been deliberately and intelligently dealt with by James Africanus Beale Horton, a Sierra Leonean intellectual whose parents were Igbo, in the nineteenth century.

From all available evidence, it is obvious that from deepest antiquity, the people have always known themselves and their language as "Igbo."
Prof. Obiechina, a leading scholar on English, literature and African sociology, teaches at Harvard University. He was a deputy vice chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

Tuesday, December 11, 2001
Re: USAfricaonline.com: Are we Igbos or "Ibos"? By Chido Nwangwu

Chido, (you've written) an excellent insight. Please continue the good work of educating our kith and kin who swallow foreign rubbish, hook, line and sink(er)!
I once told one racist that I care less what he decides to answer since he cares less how my own name is pronounced. I cannot struggle to pronounce McPherson with all the tonal accents when the Caucasian does not care a heck how Chukwudi is pronounced.
Ndiribe is a Professor of International Relations at Seton Hall University in New Jersey.

Wednesday June 12, 2002
Re: USAfricaonline.com: Are we Igbos or "Ibos"?

I salute Chido Nwangwu for a well-articulated position. It is baffling that in the year 2002, some segments of the Western world still need to be educated that we are Igbo not "Ibo." These guys must be tone-deaf. The earliest Europeans who wandered into our lands were incapable of pronouncing "Igbo" (and didn't bother to learn how to pronounce it).

They found it more convenient to refer to our forebears as "Heebo," "Eboe," and "Ebo" -- as evidenced in the accounts of those of them who visited the Lower Niger in the 19th century (e.g. M. Laird, R. A. K. Oldfield, W. Allen, T. R. H. Thomson, Richard and John Lander, William Baike). By the turn of the 20th century, the Europeans had settled on "Ibo" -- and for quite a while some of our Westernized kinsmen and women went along with them in this regard.

The "consensus," over the past 20 years, has been to abandon the colonialist corruption of our collective identity (Ibo) and re-instate the original and true usage (Igbo). Today, only walking museums of the European muddling of African languages still refer to the Igbo as "Ibo." Incidentally, this is an elaboration of lines I had written in December 2000 on www.jendajournal.com/jenda/vol1.1/responses
Nwaubani teaches at the Department of History, University of Colorado at Boulder.

This issue is food for thought....
By C . Ukachukwu <c_ukachukwu@yahoo.com>
Tuesday, December 11, 2001
Re: USAfricaonline.com: Are we Igbos or "Ibos"? By Chido Nwangwu

This happens to be a pet peeve of mine: Ndigbo who address themselves as "Ibos". Simply because it was good enough for the whiteman doesn't mean it ought to be good enough for nwa afo Igbo. This goes to the core of one's identity. We are Ndi Igbo.

Contrary to popular belief, we shouldn't view mangling our own identity as cute. I've called people's phones at work (and sometimes even at home!) to hear their imitation of Americans imitating the French (or whoever) trying to pronounce their own Igbo names. "Hello, you have reached Nu-wa-nko's desk,..."(he means Nwankwo!) How about this: "Sorry The Yoo-Bah family cannot take your call right now..." (Yoo-Bah is for Uba). I can go on. If one voluntarily validates the wrong identity erroneously hung on one by an unwitting associate where does one eventually stand to get it right? This food for thought by Mr. Nwangwu is worth a sober digestion.

Thanks for the correction.... Thanks for your great work.
By Ngozi Nweze-Eleweanya

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