By
Obododimma Oha
In my essay, “Wrestling with Chukwu,” in which I reflect on Chukwu’s testing of the wisdom of Tortoise, one idea that emerges is that both individuals come to the full realization that they have something in common or that they could get along well. Chukwu, I have argued, could have been testing Tortoise, his invention, to find out whether the latter possesses the critical thinking skills required of a genuine intelligent being. Chukwu is the scientist of scientists, oriented towards observing, inventing, testing, and following up with improvements on the initial product! Chukwu is satisfied with the way Tortoise even puts Him, the tester, in a position of disadvantage in the argument. The Supreme Being, obviously, is the ideal Creator-Mentor who would not be satisfied with anything less than a courageous challenger in the critical business of the mind. In the present essay, I dwell on how Tortoise himself continues this project of mobilizing and mentoring critical thinkers as sons and daughters of Chukwu.
Mbe the Tortoise, living out that attribute of his maker, wants to try his children on cleverness and wisdom. He wants to know whether they could use that mbeness of Mbekwu in living and interacting with the world. Tortoise wants to find out whether his three children have mastered the art of cleverness and could represent him effectively, anywhere and any day, in the game of wits. So, he invites them to his obi. Addressing them one after the other, beginning with the first-born, he asks: how many times would somebody do something against you before you realise what that person is up to? The first-born answers, “After the seventh time.” Tortoise, disappointed and infuriated, gives him a serious knock on his head, saying: “Stupid fellow! Whom do you resemble? Me? Idiot; get out of my sight!”
Then, the turn of the second son, who, thinking the first-born should not have mentioned a very high number, answers: “After the third experience.” Tortoise is mad with rage and gives this second respondent a punch in the stomach. “Brainless fellow,” he screams. “It is possible that at birth, they mistakenly threw away my baby and brought in ichi nwa, the afterbirth, instead! Get away!”
And now the turn of the third, who is barely five years old. Turning to him with eyes still burning with rage, Tortoise asks: “What about you, sapling? When would you realise that that individual in question is working against your interest?” To his surprise, this third son, fondly referred to as “Ebulu Ako” (the wise and cautious ram) answers: “The very first time, sir! That very first instance is enough for me to know whether that fellow is working against my interest or not. And, of course, I would start right from that moment to mobilize my own resources against him.” Tortoise, greatly amazed and overjoyed, lifts the boy up and presses him to his chest, saying: “You are truly my son! You will be the one to accompany me when I am going to pay my targets a visit!”
Perhaps this is just one variant on the narrative about test on faithfulness or steadfastness, another being that of the Middle East (probably) in which a dying king tests his wives, to know which would agree to follow him to the grave. In the story, the first wife – the wife of his youth who had aged – accepted to die with him, to our surprise and his. Quite clearly, wisdom comes (in both stories) from the most unanticipated. There is the surprise! We had expected the more elderly brothers of Nwa Ebulu Ako to be wiser with age. No! Old age, ironically makes the foolish more foolish! We are not surprised that their father, Tortoise, dispenses the hard knock on their heads! Well deserved punishment.
Like any father who knows his duty would do, as practised in the Igbo context of culture from where this story is harvested, Tortoise the trickster is giving his children the essential training in cleverness and wisdom. This training requires testing, to find out the level of knowledge and cleverness acquired. A father that does not test the son on thinking skills cannot be sure of how this son is going to wrestle with challenges in the future. Akonuuche (ako na uche), which literally means “caution and thoughtfulness,” is the Igbo articulation of the essential wisdom with which an individual confronts life. It is interesting that wisdom is seen as being inseparable from caution (or carefulness), which explains why both words are merged into a compound word (akonuuche or ako-na-uche). The Igbo see caution as an essential part of wisdom; one cannot claim to be wise when one is careless with ideas, words, things, and situations. We could, in fact, say that it is wisdom that makes someone act cautiously or handle situations carefully.
Learning caution is a major step in the training on critical thinking and social skills. Those who lack patience cannot learn to be cautious and can hardly think and act critically in the drama of social experience.
Interacting with others or acting in their presence, responding to the politics of nwannadi, and getting to understand what others are doing with us and against us, all require the orientation to Nwa Ebulu Ako. Those who submit themselves entirely to the nwannadi, or who do not even know what the nwannadi is doing against them – even using them against themselves – are just dead bodies! Those that would rather arithmetically or geometrically extend express their openness and friendliness to please the nwannadi cannot accompany Wisdom on its scheduled visit to its targets.
Is one saying that in Igbo thought there is nothing like forgiveness? No. Forgiveness exists in thought and is considered a manifestation of wisdom. Forgiving someone or a group does not mean that one should throw away caution. It rather means that one has chosen not to get angry and immediately seek revenge but to get wiser. Don’t get angry; get wiser! One that prefers to get wiser is armed with a better calculus, first of all dealing with self before wisely dealing with the other.
It is our expectation -- and is sometimes the case -- that wisdom comes with age. No; we must now begin to be careful with that assumption! It should be the case that greater exposure to the experiences of life should come with age, given that the older person must have had greater encounter with life, and must have learnt from those encounters.This is why the Igbo say: Nwaanyi buru ibe ya uzo luo di na-aka enwe mkpomkpo aria (The woman who is the first to get married accumulates more broken pots).But the woman who is the first to get married and out of her own laziness is unable to buy and get pots broken will have less broken pots to offer, or the one that is very careful with her pots, will have less broken pots to show! Amamiihe (wisom), the Igbo philosophise, is unevenly distributed among folks!
Why does Tortoise choose to couch his question in mathematical terms? Do decisions to be aware and to react hinge on calculations of the number of incidents? Perhaps the two children who fail the test operate from the angle of the Igbo philosophy expressed in the proverb which says: A borue agu n’okpukpu, o mee uṅara (When a leopard is butchered to the bones, it stirs). But agụ does not have to wait until it is butchered to the bone before it stirs! It does not have wait till it is cut down and the butchering commences. Things that are already cut down operate from the angle of disadvantage. The leopard must begin to perform its leopardness when it is still standing, fierce, and fully alive. That ebube agụ na-eche agụ, the awe of the large cat protects the cat, does not mean that it has to allow the enemies to commence butchering and then wake up later to drive them away and recover its flesh. Ihe agu na-erkwa bu anu; o bughi ahihia! What the leopard eats is meat (not grass!).
Obododimma Oha
In my essay, “Wrestling with Chukwu,” in which I reflect on Chukwu’s testing of the wisdom of Tortoise, one idea that emerges is that both individuals come to the full realization that they have something in common or that they could get along well. Chukwu, I have argued, could have been testing Tortoise, his invention, to find out whether the latter possesses the critical thinking skills required of a genuine intelligent being. Chukwu is the scientist of scientists, oriented towards observing, inventing, testing, and following up with improvements on the initial product! Chukwu is satisfied with the way Tortoise even puts Him, the tester, in a position of disadvantage in the argument. The Supreme Being, obviously, is the ideal Creator-Mentor who would not be satisfied with anything less than a courageous challenger in the critical business of the mind. In the present essay, I dwell on how Tortoise himself continues this project of mobilizing and mentoring critical thinkers as sons and daughters of Chukwu.
Mbe the Tortoise, living out that attribute of his maker, wants to try his children on cleverness and wisdom. He wants to know whether they could use that mbeness of Mbekwu in living and interacting with the world. Tortoise wants to find out whether his three children have mastered the art of cleverness and could represent him effectively, anywhere and any day, in the game of wits. So, he invites them to his obi. Addressing them one after the other, beginning with the first-born, he asks: how many times would somebody do something against you before you realise what that person is up to? The first-born answers, “After the seventh time.” Tortoise, disappointed and infuriated, gives him a serious knock on his head, saying: “Stupid fellow! Whom do you resemble? Me? Idiot; get out of my sight!”
Then, the turn of the second son, who, thinking the first-born should not have mentioned a very high number, answers: “After the third experience.” Tortoise is mad with rage and gives this second respondent a punch in the stomach. “Brainless fellow,” he screams. “It is possible that at birth, they mistakenly threw away my baby and brought in ichi nwa, the afterbirth, instead! Get away!”
And now the turn of the third, who is barely five years old. Turning to him with eyes still burning with rage, Tortoise asks: “What about you, sapling? When would you realise that that individual in question is working against your interest?” To his surprise, this third son, fondly referred to as “Ebulu Ako” (the wise and cautious ram) answers: “The very first time, sir! That very first instance is enough for me to know whether that fellow is working against my interest or not. And, of course, I would start right from that moment to mobilize my own resources against him.” Tortoise, greatly amazed and overjoyed, lifts the boy up and presses him to his chest, saying: “You are truly my son! You will be the one to accompany me when I am going to pay my targets a visit!”
Perhaps this is just one variant on the narrative about test on faithfulness or steadfastness, another being that of the Middle East (probably) in which a dying king tests his wives, to know which would agree to follow him to the grave. In the story, the first wife – the wife of his youth who had aged – accepted to die with him, to our surprise and his. Quite clearly, wisdom comes (in both stories) from the most unanticipated. There is the surprise! We had expected the more elderly brothers of Nwa Ebulu Ako to be wiser with age. No! Old age, ironically makes the foolish more foolish! We are not surprised that their father, Tortoise, dispenses the hard knock on their heads! Well deserved punishment.
Like any father who knows his duty would do, as practised in the Igbo context of culture from where this story is harvested, Tortoise the trickster is giving his children the essential training in cleverness and wisdom. This training requires testing, to find out the level of knowledge and cleverness acquired. A father that does not test the son on thinking skills cannot be sure of how this son is going to wrestle with challenges in the future. Akonuuche (ako na uche), which literally means “caution and thoughtfulness,” is the Igbo articulation of the essential wisdom with which an individual confronts life. It is interesting that wisdom is seen as being inseparable from caution (or carefulness), which explains why both words are merged into a compound word (akonuuche or ako-na-uche). The Igbo see caution as an essential part of wisdom; one cannot claim to be wise when one is careless with ideas, words, things, and situations. We could, in fact, say that it is wisdom that makes someone act cautiously or handle situations carefully.
Learning caution is a major step in the training on critical thinking and social skills. Those who lack patience cannot learn to be cautious and can hardly think and act critically in the drama of social experience.
Interacting with others or acting in their presence, responding to the politics of nwannadi, and getting to understand what others are doing with us and against us, all require the orientation to Nwa Ebulu Ako. Those who submit themselves entirely to the nwannadi, or who do not even know what the nwannadi is doing against them – even using them against themselves – are just dead bodies! Those that would rather arithmetically or geometrically extend express their openness and friendliness to please the nwannadi cannot accompany Wisdom on its scheduled visit to its targets.
Is one saying that in Igbo thought there is nothing like forgiveness? No. Forgiveness exists in thought and is considered a manifestation of wisdom. Forgiving someone or a group does not mean that one should throw away caution. It rather means that one has chosen not to get angry and immediately seek revenge but to get wiser. Don’t get angry; get wiser! One that prefers to get wiser is armed with a better calculus, first of all dealing with self before wisely dealing with the other.
It is our expectation -- and is sometimes the case -- that wisdom comes with age. No; we must now begin to be careful with that assumption! It should be the case that greater exposure to the experiences of life should come with age, given that the older person must have had greater encounter with life, and must have learnt from those encounters.This is why the Igbo say: Nwaanyi buru ibe ya uzo luo di na-aka enwe mkpomkpo aria (The woman who is the first to get married accumulates more broken pots).But the woman who is the first to get married and out of her own laziness is unable to buy and get pots broken will have less broken pots to offer, or the one that is very careful with her pots, will have less broken pots to show! Amamiihe (wisom), the Igbo philosophise, is unevenly distributed among folks!
Why does Tortoise choose to couch his question in mathematical terms? Do decisions to be aware and to react hinge on calculations of the number of incidents? Perhaps the two children who fail the test operate from the angle of the Igbo philosophy expressed in the proverb which says: A borue agu n’okpukpu, o mee uṅara (When a leopard is butchered to the bones, it stirs). But agụ does not have to wait until it is butchered to the bone before it stirs! It does not have wait till it is cut down and the butchering commences. Things that are already cut down operate from the angle of disadvantage. The leopard must begin to perform its leopardness when it is still standing, fierce, and fully alive. That ebube agụ na-eche agụ, the awe of the large cat protects the cat, does not mean that it has to allow the enemies to commence butchering and then wake up later to drive them away and recover its flesh. Ihe agu na-erkwa bu anu; o bughi ahihia! What the leopard eats is meat (not grass!).
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