ABUJA (Sundiata Post)
It is not always easy to understand the Igbo; his almost absolute self-possession, his near lack of fear, his pride in his heritage and wait for it; his eagerness to try something new.
The Igbo is at once complex and simple. He dotes on his tradition but he won’t let it stand in the way of discovering other people’s ways of life. It is something of a paradox, really. The same paradox which left the colonial master puzzled that the Igbo rejected colonial rule but accepted the white man’s education with both hands. Egwu di, nwanne!
We are not an easy people to understand. Our love for otherness is deep. The Igbo would always stand apart. Even from his kit and kin. He would gladly hold onto a different blade of argument from the position collectively held by his brothers. There is a provision for otherness in the Igbo temperament that is often not fully acknowledged by the Igbo nor his neighbours. When this effervescence keels over, it is sometimes wrongly interpreted as self-loathing by people who have no navigational aids to arrive at a logical explanation. That is why it is common place to hear sweeping condemnations like ‘the Igbo do not love themselves.’ But I digress. Mana anyi ma n’oburo eziokwu!
My point really is that while it may be admirable to value dissent; while we have undeniably mastered the art of adapting to some of the most hostile territories on the planet, we need to also take along with us, a part of our heritage as we journey. We need to imbue in our consciousness, the importance of a cultural identity and marker. It is perplexing sometimes to see just how easy it is for some of us to morph into grotesque cultural identities that we can never own.
It is indeed embarrassing to note that Igbo cultural identity as mostly depicted in fashion and aesthetics is the least popular in urban Nigeria. In other words, while the Igbo has impacted economies around Nigeria and beyond and attracted envy and hate to himself, he has had no impact whatsoever on the urban cultures of his host community in terms of fashion and style. This may be because, the Igbo does not travel with a serious attachment to his cultural heritage that might get in the way of his adaptation to a new environment. It may also be that his culture does not impose a heavy burden of strict compliance to cultural ethos on him as the Indian culture imposes the Sari on their women or as the Hausa-Fulani culture imposes the long gown on the Hausa-Fulani men. Whatever it is, it is obvious that the Igbo travels light. Unlike the tortoise, he does not carry his house on his back when he journeys.
The flipside to this is however that the Igbo is never quite the same when he returns. He returns with the heavy baggage of a new tongue, a new culture and a new sense of self. The virtues of Igbo wanderlust is often glorified in the saying that ‘onye njenje ka onye isi awo mma.’ But the time has come to question this because it is not entirely true. Sometimes too, he returns with some material wealth. But whatever he returns with he must have traded something of his old self to gain. And while it is not certain that sloughing one’s old skin for a new one necessarily makes one look better, there is a growing fear over the future of Igbo Language on account of the Igbo wanderlust. Many children born of Igbo parents outside the homeland don’t speak Igbo and a growing number of children born in Igboland today struggle with the language. It is a measure of Igbo complexity and it may well be perplexity, that in Igboland today, some educated but culturally blind parents prefer to raise their children in English Language. So, Igbo becomes a foreign language in these families with the children struggling but not quite succeeding in mastering this rich, textured heritage.
While the language perplexity of the Igbo seems unlikely to go away soon, another strange threat to Igbo culture is growing in scope across the homeland. Many young Igbo now proudly step out in full Hausa and Yoruba attires which they consider more modern or sophisticated than Igbo fashion and style. It is almost a common sight nowadays to see some rich young Igbo men strut proudly at social functions with folds and folds of flowing robes and the high-rise Hausa cap or the Yoruba cap that droops at an angle, jauntily perched on their heads. To them, it is a mark of personal sophistry and high accomplishments. But whatever it might mean to them, if we all adopt other people’s fashion and styles, what will become of Isiagu, Akwete, George and other rich fabrics our fathers left for us? Are they inferior to the ones we proudly embrace?
The practice that should worry us though is the growing trend of young Igbo men and women turning out in borrowed cultural outfits on their traditional wedding ceremonies in Igboland. Some people rightly scoff at it. Others insist that we should not dictate to people. But at least we can offer enlightenment. It is almost unthinkable to attend a traditional wedding in Yoruba or Hausa land and see the young couple bedecked in Isiagu or George. The day such a thing happens; there will be a tremor under the Nigerian earth. But almost every weekend, newly married Igbo couple flood the social media with pictures of traditional weddings in Igboland where the couples and some of their self-important guests are dressed in Bini, Yoruba and sometimes Hausa clothes, grinning proudly into the camera.
Two years ago, I attended a traditional wedding in Obosi and when the groom stepped out, I thought our young in-law was Yoruba. He wore his voluptuous robes so well with the trademark cap slouching on his head that nothing in his appearance or carriage gave him away as an Obosi prince. I smiled wryly when someone told me that just like his bride, he was from Obosi.
Indeed this cultural naivety of the Igbo should worry us. It became a real source of concern to me recently when my friend who lives in Poughkeepsie, upstate New York came home for a family Thanksgiving and all his children attended mass dressed in Yoruba clothes. Now, my friend’s family had never been to Nigeria. Yet they came home to dress up in Yoruba clothes. What kind of cultural self-immolation is that?
My point really is that we can no longer blame outsiders for things that we should have done for ourselves but failed. Aba is West Africa’s answer to Milan and Paris when it comes to fashion. If all the creativity in the booming fashion houses in Aba cannot construct new fashion themes and motifs that the Igbo will accept in this century, then we have only ourselves to blame.
It has to be mentioned though that our political leaders have a big role to play in raising the cultural consciousness of Ndigbo. They must fully understand that they are not just our political leaders but also our cultural icons. As political leaders, they are the most visible symbols of the Igbo cultural group. There are some Igbo governors and legislators who have never been seen in Igbo cultural wears. Governor Obiano and Chief Victor Umeh are the only Igbo political leaders I know that turn out in mostly Igbo dresses on major occasions. Others remember Isiagu only when they run into a political storm in Abuja. A handful seems to have found fulfillment in the voluptuous robes that belong to other cultures outside of Igbo land. But if Igbo political leaders who are expected to inspire trends turn their backs against their own cultural dresses then the fish has actually started to rot from the head.
*Source: Facebook