Ms. Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani is a Nigerian author and journalist. She is based in the United States of America, we believe. Our records show we have not met or chatted. But we have in earlier essays taken on aspects of the meaning of her name. Please click: https://www.sunnewsonline.com/igbo-cosmology-the-meaning-of-ubani/
Our thesis is essentially this. That nwa – son/daughter – of uba – wealth – of ani – of the earth/land, does not mean that. Rather it means nwa – son – of uba – wealth – of ani – the god/s. The point we contended is that ani is a metaphor for god in this and similar instances. The same figurative line, we contended, explains the meaning of names like [Chinua] Achebe. Achebe as every Igbo knows is a dimunitive of Anichebe. Anichebe is a petition that god [not land/earth] guard or protect me. Ani in anichebe/achebe is a metaphor, for the gods who made and own the earth. It is also important to remind ourselves that ani is metaphorized variously. For 
example, Ani na eli ma omara ife ona eli, a line from Osita Osadebe, cannot be translated literally. It does not mean that the earth eats but is not aware of what it eats. Rather, it may more appropriately be translated: Death kills, but without knowledge or discrimination as to the greatness of its victims. Thus ani-na-eli taken together as it is intended, means the rite of burial/death. Ani which is the earth [hollowed to be a grave], is taken to mean ili/grave/death. The eli/eat is a rhyming word echoing ini/grave, without stating so.
On further reflection, it has become evident that even the word nwa does not simply and wholly mean son/daughter. In several instances, nwa has been deployed as a figure of speech. So there is the need to figure out what nwa in nwa-ubani, nwa-chukwu and other prefixed nwas really mean. This essay is such an attempt.
A caveat is indicated. This has nothing to do with Ms. Nwaubani as a person. Our concerns are for Oru na Igbo. It is just that nwa-ubani is our point of contact, to spoof the Pentecostals. Our suspicion is that other language groups suffer similar mistranslations and may thus learn off the Igbo with this attempt.
Now, Nwa – means son/daughter but only generically, ordinarily. However, Igbo like all language groups are into the manufacture of figures of speech, metaphors, puns and word plays. Thus things often do not mean what they literally state. And this is more so for our indigenous languages whose continuity as in-group lingua franca was shattered by colonialism. Colonialism thus has infested us with ‘’multiple-languages sclerosis.’’ And this lingual split-personality and inability to inter-communicate, weighs in heavily against our local tongues. This is especially, and as it concerns us here, in the matter of translating indigenous categories and concepts into the metropolitan languages of English etc.
Because the balance of what is normative is Euro-colonial, the default position is that our national languages are local and come short of the capacity for loftiness of thought. In other words, compared to English/French etc. national languages like Igbo, Yoruba etc. are flat and un-leaven. Colonialists are no doubt fit for blame, but the most blame goes to our national elite. It is their inferiority complex that prompts them to wear suits under blazing sun as well as denigrate national categories of thought and speech. In consequence, these elites, Igbo in this specific instance, translate Igbo words and concepts as if they possess no subtleties. Yet, it is on record that Achebe, one of the most awakened souls ever, had quietly cautioned us against reflexive abasement. For instance he reminds us:
‘’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.’’ Things Fall Apart.
There is little doubt that by the rite of conversation, Achebe means not banter but the art of the rhetoric. Of course it is safe to suppose that other African languages might just as well fit into the Achebe categorization of Igbo language as a vehicle for sophisticated communication. Achebe, we may wish to recall, was writing under dark clouds of colonial oppression. Achebe’s masterpieces, were certainly not art for art’s sake. Achebe is restoratively educational, but in a quiet way, we repeat. Oru na Igbo ronu.
To broaden the thesis, let us take an example from another language in conflict with colonial sensibilities. I belong to a WhatApps group, ‘’Book Forum.’’ A member who is a scholar, I suppose, was crowd-sourcing for insight or help on sources, etc. on the subject of ‘’scarification’’ as done by many Africans, especially Yoruba. By the way, out here in neo-colonial Nigeria, scarification is taken as a standard translation, alas.
Our ‘’first-aid’’ help to him was to advise that the word, scarification [for facial mark or better facial artworks], is damn wrong. While facial artwork is nearer the vision of our forefathers, however, scarification is supremely damnable.
First, scarification is a medical and largely non-sociological term. Two it is not a term of beauty or adornment or art or mark of achievement. Three, scarification denotes and connotes something detestable, undesirable. Actually, it is a counterfoil of something gone wrong, even if now partially corrected. It is just that sadly, the sign of it stubbornly remains. Point is that scarification is so medically haram, that modern medicine delivers procedures that are studiedly scarification-free.
We illustrate. It so happens that there is a certain lady, Ms. Annie Tuface-Idibia. She is by the fact of being Ms. Tuface-Idibia, one of Africa’s hottest celebrity consorts. Tuface Idibia is a big name of contemporary Africana music. Now, Ms. Annie is a mother via Caesareans. And Ms. Annie, almost pretty as a goddess, loves her figure. And Ms Annie thought it wonderful to flaunt her figure in bikini, via social media to the world and beyond.
As with such celebrities, one of her social media followers or fans ‘’called her out.’’ For the fan, Ms. Annie’s tummy comes with scars etc. and should better be hidden, out of view. Ms. Annie came after the fan:
[I’m] ‘’So proud of the imperfections! d scar n stretch marks from my 2 CS is the best part of this pic. Cover yours! am proud of mine!’’ https://www.lindaikejisblog.com/2019/8/im-proud-of-my-scars-and-stretch-marks-annie-idibia-replies-fan-who-criticised-her-bikini-photo-2.html.
While we hold no opinions one way or the other, we wish to make the following observations. Ms. Annie affirms that those are scars left after two Caesarean procedures. By choice, she affirms to those being imperfections. It is just that she later comes round to appropriating it as glorious. In other words, it being glorious is a personal choice not a default station for her or society.
Anyway, such acts of appropriations are commonplace. For instance, Muslims canvass that the stink from a Faithfull’s fasting breath smells sweeter in the face of Allah than all the perfumes of Arabia. Of course, as a Biafra veteran, I treasure my scars – and in my best moments rank them above the epaulets of any African general, coup made or quota driven. This is me. Ahiazuwa.
The point however, is that facial arts or honours and specifically igbu ichi in Igbo is not an imperfection and is not a scar. Igbu ichi is considered beautiful and desirable in the eyes of god and man. It was something they wanted to be there and seen with, unlike a scar. It is not something to be appropriated as great. It is ipso facto great and beautiful, at least philologically.
Igbu ichi is like Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man, spotted in ripped-up jeans. See: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-7412007/Jeff-Bezos-Lauren-Sanchez-kiss-cuddle-aboard-yacht-Venice.html. The fact is that the very ripped-upness is the game, the goal. It is not scary, in fact is taken as fashionable, desirable, even supremely beautiful. Definitely Bezos is too high-net worth to wear rags. So just as it is wrong to say that poor rich Bezos was spotted in rags, so also is it to say that igbu ichi is scarification.
The point is that translators and communicators must search out for words or combinations thereof, that connote and denote the original in word and in spirit. In the case of igbu ichi it must be some word or combination that denotes and connotes what’s honorable, what’s beautiful and serving as evidence of supreme achievement. However in the absence of any such translational words, the word/concept should be loaned to the English as in the original. The Indians etc. have done it. See Kalidasa translated by Chandra Rajan, Penguin Books, for instance. Also we have written on Igba nwku/onu aku etc. which are readily mistranslated as Wine carrying or bride price. And sometimes there are consequences to poor quality translations. It is such as that that led Ms. Chimamanda Adichie to speak evil of so called ‘’bride price.’’ Oru na Igbo ronu. See our book: The University Media Complex: As Nigeria’s Foremost Amusement Chain, or essay: https://www.sunnewsonline.com/the-bride-the-price-and-ms-chimamanda-adichie/. To be continued….