by
Obododimma
Oha
ịwa anya (roughly translated as being courageous and
confident, even fearless and ready to demand one’s rights) is central to Igbo
training of successors, as opposed to ịjụ
anya oyi (being cowardly, literally translated as being “cold-eyed”).
Incidentally, both literally have to do with the eyes, for it is with the eyes
that we behold the world around us! Yes; it is about how we see experience and
respond to it. Do we respond to register our presence or to erase it? Can you
see why the Igbo emphasize it in training successors, whether one’s children or
one’s apprentices of various kinds? One rascal in our village who got the
lesson very well put it this way: “The meat has been divided on the plantain
leaf on the ground and people are taking their shares. If it does not get to
me, if I am excluded, then I will definitely scatter the shares and we start
afresh or there is no going forwards.”
ịwa
anya does not mean slicing one’s eyes with a knife, as it would literally
suggest. Good enough that those eyes are open, quite open. It is when they are
open that they can see that the sharing of meat mentioned above involves
injustice. The eyes that are blocked, that look away, or that pretend that the
sharing is fair when it is not, are simply “COLD,” too cold to for the
processing of experience.
It is good
that ịwa anya is also about cognition
and awareness. How do we see the world around us? To see that something is
black and to call it white is to present distorted cognition; it is designed to
mislead or may provoke us into taking a closer look to see that the person has
lied, is interested in revealing the nature of falsehood. In this case, ịwa anya is not only to our gain but has
implications for other observers around. They have to know what a thing is not,
and to realize that seeing black and
calling it white is the onset of disorder, a design to enact disorder
--- what you say is right is right; if you call something X, then it is X. In
fact, the character, Humpty-Dumpty, in Alice
in Wonderland, has a relative in the person, if not a clone!
This is why
the Igbo make it central in the upbringing lessons they give their children.
You must know your rights and refuse to be “pocketed.” You must insist on
having your rights. That requires understanding the self and understanding the
other, to know when your rights are neglected. ịjụ anya oyi
means that you are present and your interest is not accommodated; yet it means
nothing to you. You want to be seen as the good
person around, yet you are eventually not seen as one. In fact, you are
seen as a fool, a big fool. That you
have foolishly sacrificed your interest actually means that you cannot
be trusted or entrusted with ”our interest” to protect.
Secondly, the
person given to ịjụ anya oyi carries
the problem of others on his head. He likes being blamed for the sins of others;
he is the lamb of stupidity that wants to wipe away the sins of all stupid
people and likes it when he is used as a shield and suffers for others or dies
for them.
The student
of ịwa anya does not play an avatar where
it is not necessary, or try to justify evil in order to be praised. The student
of ịwa anya teaches the world to be
courageous and vocal in confronting injustice. Such a student is consistent in
opposing what is wrong anywhere.
The idea of ịwa anya makes a man go where his type
is obviously detested or people would not think of going. There the man makes
his home and brings over more of his detested kind. This creates additional
discomfort for those initially opposed to his presence. But he trusts his
rugged mind. He trusts his ịwa anya
to see him through and it does. ịwa anya tells him, “Jebe; egwu atula gị” (Go; do not be
afraid) and he goes. He becomes a pathfinder!
Some people
may misconstrue their ịwa anya as
pure orientation to aggression. Indeed, it is necessary for him to approach
dislike with a sense of confidence. To some extent, we need an aggreesive
spirit to be able to wrestle with the
angel till dawn and to hope to win at the end. To lack aggression in
whatever we do is to lack drive and to become students of ịjụ anya oyi. Yes; we need aggression to confront the world. This
was one reason that in ili ozu
(burying a corpse) in Uli, one of the ritual animals used (in traditional
rites) is nkịta the dog. The dog sees
things we do not see and confronts it, barking. The dog is presented (kept in
front of the body lying in state). I was told that, in the past, that eyes of
living dog were gorged out and placed in the hands of the dead man. That was
horrible; you would say. And it was.
Death is more horrible and has been a performance of horror! The idea in that
pagan tradition was that the gorged eyes stand for sight and insight, which
would guide the soul of the dead in the dark portals of alammụọ the land of spirits. The point then is that aggression is
still relevant to the life of an individual and society.
This
philosophy of ịwa anya jettisons fear
from the person’s dictionary. It is the spirit that promotes exploration and
discovery. Recall that I pointed out initally that ịwa anya involves “open eyes” while ịjụ anya oyi involves lowering the eyes or gaze, even shutting
them. In that case, the student of ịwa
anya can see what others cannot see because they are casual or do not fully
apply themselves as self-reliant beings.
ịwa anya
is awareness, I have stated. ịjụ anya oyi
does not promote awareness; does not ask us to be fully awake to know what is
going on around us; tells us to fall asleep!
A very good
model of ịwa anya that I see today is
the life of the young Igbo business person who takes a plunge into the dark
waters leading to faraway places like Australia, Malaysia, China, etc., in
search of his future. He gets there and eventually starts a legitmate business (I
know that some misuse their ịwa anya
in bad things). Call him “an economic refugee” or whatever you like, but his
survival is his business, period. He will return home better, tougher, richer,
wiser, and build a big mansion in his village. His mates are still around; some
shot dead in ordinary flag-waving protest. In fact, those that challenged their
chi to a wrestling bout and acted on ịwa
anya are free from that terrible land that devours its inhabitants and can
travel internationally any time, even though they do not have any degree; not
even ordinary school certificate. Iwa
anya was the education they needed and had and in which they live and have
their being.
If you ask
me, I would choose ịwa anya and wrestle with my chi instead of being an endless
student of ịjụ anya oyi, trying to
please others who would never be pleased
and being seen as a BIG fool.
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