By
Obododimma
Oha
A young man
newly married, fails to appear for a village meeting in time. The elders are
all there with their goatskin bags in good time. They are waiting. They fill
the time of waiting with the telling of stories and sharing of jokes. But they
have gathered for a serious community business. Everybody knows that and is
waiting for when and how the wrapped object would be unwrapped. Then, a young
man saunters in, looking obviously like somebody denied sleep. The elders
exchange glances, one breaking the awkward silence by clearing his throat
noisily. Then, one elder says, as if he hardly cares about the comic import of
what he is saying: “Of course, we know that newly married people don’t attend
village meetings in time. They may overstay, working overtime at their duty
posts!” He has not talked to anyone in particular. His assertion also hardly
fits into the preceding discussion, either with a leg or a tail. But to the new
arrival, it would seem so.
Njakịrị, that
art in Igbo discourse in which anybody can be told plainly and publicly his or
her dark sides, is a kind of talk that may, directly or indirectly hit a
target, especially when the target is not expecting it. One may sit in a
gathering where njakịrị is being traded and njakịrị experts, who are hardly
offended when they have been hit, are doing what they know how to do best.
Actually, in our village, everyone is expected to have a heart to accommodate
njakiri, to possess njakiri competence, to treat njakịrị as njakịrị and be ready to give it back. Njakịrị does
not get to court. Yes; it does not. Everybody learns to unburden the self. It
is community therapy.
Also, all
have sinned and come short of righteousness. So, no one is spared. No one has
not got something form njakiri. Waiting until njakịrị gets there! The njakịrị
experts do not think njakịrị is easily exhaustible. The store of njakịrị is
always full provided there are people around. Even Adam, the first man
according to the Holy Bible, has his own njakịrị waiting for him. For instance,
when he was munching that forbidden fruit, did he remember to keep a chunk for
me? What then is my business with his disobedience? If he sinned, he sinned. It
is his business; I have no hand in it and cannot share in the punishment. Anwụrụ sokwa onye ji ọkụ! Let the smoke
follow the person holding the burning faggot!
Njakịrị even
has theories – theories about the art and its nature, its practititioners, its
relationship with other artforms and discourses. The following statements, for
instance, point to those theories:
(1)
Ebe a na-ama njakịrị ka a na-ekwu
ziokwu (Where njakịrị is being performed is where the truth is revealed, or
njakịrị is a way of telling the truth);
(2)
Onye njakịrị abụghị onye iwe (An njakịrị
practitioner is not a person of anger or, an njakịrị practitioner does not hold
hard feelings about things)
(3)
Njakịrị laa azu (Njakịrị is not
involved in this matter; I am not joking)
Well, we can
see that even njakịrị practitioners formulate theories or philosophies about their
performance. But the njakịrị expert can even turn the theorising into an njakịrị
itself!
The njakịrị
experts finish giving an njakịrị bath to themselves. And you are around and
laughing at their expense. Really? A strategy to keep you seated, my friend.
You are actually the target. They will get to you and devour you. Remember I
said that njakịrị does not get to court. No litigation. Hold your heart, nwoke m; it is not the end of the world.
Jide obi gị aka! Is mmanya the wine not sweet again; does it
shake you before uncorking? Don’t drink what you don’t want to drink and the
quantity you don’t want to drink. Ah, are
you sweating? Oh, your heartbeat? Don’t worry; what goes up must come down. You
are really sweating. Do you want to change your seat? Are you that young man in
that Achebean narrative, that young man newly married?
There is njakịrị
for the individual, but when we are done with the individual, we shift to community
or even country. Yes, country. You read me well. That Trump who called some
countries “shithole” is just a beginner in njakiriography, the performance of
njakiri. He is just a learner and should be humble enough to visit our village,
become a target, and learn from the masters. Nonsense, shithole fellow. Dat one na njakịrị? The real njakịrị
comes when I have said something without saying something. That is when it
becomes irresistible and one cannot just leave one’s seat, even though a
captive and also a target. It is that time it hits had at everybody and all
your patriotism becomes rubbish. It is even better that you don’t come forward
to defend the community, for that is when you are most vulnerable. You have
chosen to direct all the njakiri missiles to yourself. I am sorry for those who
ignorantly and blindly fall into a trap. Njakiri will devour them!
I said above
in my rewriting of the Achebean context of njakịrị that it is one elder who
delivers the salvo, not even showing signs that it is funny. Similarly, one
elder, a herbal physician, says to another herbal physician who heals insane
people, when this other healer gets noisy and disorderly at a village meeting: “Di
anyi, that medicine you prepare for mad people, it would be nice if you first
taste it before administering it.” He does not tell him directly that he is
behaving like a mad person. He should use his tongue to count his teeth. Oh, I
like the way the Igbo elders subtly couch their njakịrị, as if it is harmless!
They couch and craft it proverbially, and indeed, that advice, that njakiri has
now beome a proverb in our village.
Now, when I
leave book people and travel to our village, I try to leave unnecessary
seriousness behind. I try to leave book people behind because I am entering
another world, another life. I get ready for njakịrị. I bring out my goatskin
bag when I get to the village and become an njakịrị practitioner. Yes; I become
one of them, sharing drinks with them, my lips loose in njakiri, too.
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