My tribe is Igbo; other people spell it as Ibo but it is wrong, we are reside in the south-eastern Nigeria. We are mostly farmers with hoe and cutlass, palm-wine;nkwu-ocha, tappers, hunters and most dominantly traders, we work hard to earn our living because of our proud nature. Having said that, you should not get me wrong by thinking we are not hospitable infact that is our talent.
A typical Igbo mans day starts with a prayer to God Almighty - Ezechitoke-Abiama, it entails pouring out your heart and mind to Ezechitoke-Abiama; God, the way you deem fit with a whole lot of respect and after that he goes off to his farm, check his traps/palmy and what have they, they just go off doing their trade. They do this with all their might and their heart and more to it their heart set to Ezechitoke-Abiama in prayer. As that is going on for the men, the women-odozi-akus are at home making sure that compound and the home is clean, they will see to it that water is fetched from the stream for drinking and what have you and after that will settle down with hands well cleaned make a very good dish for the household having it at the back of her mind that the husband deserves a good meal when he comes back from wherever. A very good Igbo woman knows that a well prepared meal is smooth way to a mans heart.
Well, after all the running around chasing money, wild animals and what have mother earth for us, we gather at an open space and is time to wind off the day. Save from money earned, every other product of trade plied is brought to the fore for consumption as a good orator tells us a great story; tales by moonlight. If we are lucky to have the moon up in the sky.
These stories instill morals, bring young ones into the knowledge of the beliefs/culture of the land. Our people only has this informal way of documenting their knowledge and beliefs, though it is not even as if they see it as a means of documentation but rather it is just part of their culture.
Folktales:stories of our fore fathers that was passed on to us, are rather a good way of teaching children the way to grow and about their society, beliefs of the land and about their linage, if it is a right way to preserver the culture and belief of the land is another thing altogether.
Our elders will once in a while say "..in the good old days, life was sweet......" and I sometimes ask them, what is so good then that is no longer now? One told me that the communal life back then was just the thing. The ability to live with every other people in the society as one big family. He said that back then people had a very large heart, they were less envious and cared not to have what they can't share with others. My Aunt once told me that during the civil war in my country, they fled to Orlu; a town in a neighboring state, they lived comfortably under the same roof with pythons and more to that, the pythons even help them look after their kids while the humans are away. Can you beat that?
Having said that, what a typical nwa-afo; son of the soil, looks forward to is this tales that happens late in the evening. That was our concert, call it opera, everything entertainment comes with it and for sure it was filled with that African sports man spirit. There was no looser everybody was a winner and every body goes home happy. I envied my parents when they recreate these events... hmm... if wishes were horses....
Different animals have peculiar characters that tells a whole lot about them, like the Odum-Lion is about the bravest and the strongest of the whole lot, one might ask me; what about the Enyi-Elephant? Well, he is not the king of the jungle but really, he looks like it. The obere anu-smaller animals like some of the insects are make up for their size with their high organizing skills; they have got the brains, funny.
