When I was younger, I used to think that a lot of Igbo cultural beliefs were fetish and revolved around idolatry and so on. This viewpoint had been canvassed mainly by the early missionaries and their early converts, leading to the decades – long brainwashing of the African, and altering of his mind to hate what is his, and accept wholeheartedly what is not. The carrot and stick approach ‘masser’, the early missionaries adopted led Africans to demonize their fellow Africans and condemn as heinous some of Africa’s traditional practices. Some of these include pouring of libation, sprinkling of blood on wooden carved objects regarded as Ikenga, through which our forefathers worshipped and communed with their gods and others.
There appear to be a resurgent attempt by Africans, Ndigbo in particular to re-connect back with their roots. Even some African -Americans are retracing their roots doing DNA searches to find their home African countries. Many Africans are today searching for explanation and are beginning to rethink some of those acts and behaviours we term as ‘omenani’, but which have been condemned and demonized by ‘masser’ and some overzealous converts.
This afternoon i visited my parents in the village in Enugwu-Ukwu in Anambra state and couldn’t help but notice a broken piece of clay pot (udu), tied to a coconut tree. This is a sight i have not seen in a long while but surely i used to see back in the day during our younger and adventurous days roaming the tiny streets in our village during holidays, on our way to the village stream, or during our many endless searches for pears (ube), mango, udala and other trees to pluck. People will tie bands of red clothes or other items around their trees and farms to scare ‘invaders’ like us away. I must admit that it never really worked as we lived to tell the tale after each successful adventurous outing.
Back to the coconut tree in the village with the broken clay tied to its stem with a rope. On enquiry, Chinedu and Onum, the two youngsters that live with my parents informed me that the object was to prolong the life of the tree, help it carry its birth of new coconuts to full term, and prevent the coconuts from falling, especially the young coconuts that hadn’t yet matured. I asked them if it actually works, they both confirmed that it does, and that since the object was tied to the coconut tree, the coconuts have not been falling.
My dear mother confirmed this. There is no explanation for this, so there is no need to attempt to understand the science behind it. Perhaps you may describe it as African magic but it works for us Africans. It has always worked for our forefathers. This awakening really got me thinking, how many of such traditional African belief systems that could have helped us to solve critical problems in rural Africa have we condemned and discarded, just because ‘masser’ says it is evil? Several i guess. Our forefathers really got a lot of things figured out. They left a lot for us to learn from and also put to good use, but are we?
Uche Nworah