Resemblances and Thin Boundaries

By

Obododimma Oha

Convergences. Meeting points. Then, narrow walls of difference.  And I lean on indigenous Igbo thought to probe these, for a start. So, where do we  come face-to-face with resemblances and thin boundaries? Consider these Igbo expressions:

(1)   Ura bụ nwanne ọnwụ (Sleep and death are siblings)

(2)   Agbata ikpu na akpụrụnsị a gaghị atụta ya ọgụ ji (We cannot plant up to twenty yam seedlings in the stretch  between the vagina and the anus)

(3)   A na-esi n’isi ahụrụ amara ụtọ nsị (From the smell of fart  we could tell the taste of faeces.

(4)   Akị na nwanne ya bụ ma ejiri nchara gbaa oke (The palm-kernel and its sibling in the same nut are related but divided by a wall of shell)

(5)   Nduru na-aga abụọ abụọ maka na otu chezọọ, ibe echeta (Pigeons go in twos  because when if one forgets,the other remembers).

Interestingly, most of the expressions above are proverbs, with other expressions as their meanings. A recursive experience, because in finding an equivalent expression that is the preferred translation, we are asking for further relationship of signifier and signifier. Proverbs are just that recursive: the meanings attached to them invite other meanings or explanation. Ad infinitum. It is worse when the expression is ambiguous or when it can apply to some other contexts neatly. So, these thin expressions are  also slippery. Why shouldn’t they be? If you are on a thin parch of ground, there is the likelihood that you can descend this side or that, should it be a slippery place.

Okay, look at the stand on death. The boundary between sleep and death is such a thin ground that we we can think of their relationship as familial. They must be close relatives, even though we can convincingly say that we have not fallen off the cliff of the death-side and have succeeded in climbing up and out to our reality! Oh, some that have tasted what we call “Near-death Experience” say they have been down that cliff. Anyway, we are only imagining things when we assert a familial relationship.

But there is something interesting in our imagination: we want you to think about reality in both. Is it not from the smell of fart that you tell the taste of faeces? Do you go tasting the faeces first to find out, to show us that you are an empiricist? You may likely start smelling all over after the tasting; worse, if you come to the public place and talk! So, let us take the simple analogy to understand the hard one, death. Even our ancestors went as far as mythologizing and personifying death, to make the dreaded abstract concrete.  Check the following simple logic to understand further how and why death is implicitly euphemised in that first example:

(a)   The sleeping persons do not know where they are.

The dead do not know their whereabouts.

Dying, therefore, is just a relocation to nowhere (and some may like it that way!)

(b)   The persons asleep do not feel any pain.

The dead do not feel pain.

Dying, therefore, is not a painful experience.

(c)    Sleep could be an enjoyable experience (Sometimes, you would hate to wake up, to plunge into our reality!)

Death promises an enjoyment (A freedom from the garment of flesh).

Death, therefore, is a welcome experience after all  (As something that grants freedom and fun). Yet, there is a reverse angle that would make one even fear sleep itself if it is related to death. The evidence is there,in that one could sleep and not wake up! He died in his sleep! Somebody may think that it is better that way, that the thin boundary is indeed very slippery in the case of sleep and death transition!

So, you see, that sleep and death are siblings is not an innocuous statement. It involves syllogisms of syllogisms! It is heavy logic of logics!  In sum, the close relationship imagined could be seen as a way of (1) providing an explanation for what appears inexplicable, (2) providing a therapy for the fear of death (the euphemism!),and (3) showing how close,very close, both are.

But goodbye to death, whether softened or hardened. That thin, slippery boundary is frightening still. Let us look now at the bright side of life. The second expression is laughable: it is about the relationship between the anus and the vagina! The vagina? Ho! I am already sitting on the edge of the chair! But let us look at the situation, when we want to put it there or there! The imagined situation is that of yam farming, something that one is very familiar with culturally. The text says literally that up to twenty yam seedlings cannot be planted in the dividing stretch of land. So, it must be a very small portion of land. Being a small portion means that:

(a)   One can,  without knowing, end up entering the other side, a possible confusion, too.

(b)   Both neighbours have no choice but try and be friends (as they are there as neighbours forever!)

(c)    The closeness only shows how the anal and the vaginal are close but not the same (The locals know human physiology well!)

This only shows how close the paths of life are, but it is important that we know which we are following, and get ready for the shit or the semen. Is one vulgar?The boundary between vulgarity and “pure” speech is also a thin one!

Now, the shit. The third expression captures it aptly. It invokes the indexical in the determining of the awful. The local people, as "scientists" who have to work on the ugly, do not think that they have to immerse themselves in ugliness before comprehending it. As they understand, farting and defecating are related. The fart is gas but it tells from where it has come from, faeces. Maybe it is the envelope or the enveloped! But that local thinking reveals some important things about reasoning. Sometimes, one can go empirical and sometimes one cannot. Maybe that one cannot is a matter of courage and risk-taking. For now, for instance, we can only speculate about death and dying and grow myths about them. But  it is a one-way ticket. No one has really gone there and come back. Same with going to Heaven or Hell. We can only speculate and maybe use the holy books, myths, etc as indexical signs or sources of indexical signs.

The palm-kernel separated from its kith and kin by a thin wall of shell should be aware. How do we treat this wall? As a facilitator or hindrance? Each palm-kernel needs to have the right attitude to think beyond the wall, shout beyond the wall to be heard by the other, or relax and submit to blindness. The wall finally becomes some strength. Mmiri  mara ugo, achaala ugo ahụ. That rain that beat the eagle has helped in making it more beautiful, ironically!

That is even why nduru the pigeon has to go in twos, when one forgets, its mate remembers. It like a relay race. The other only inherits the baton and carries on, and that is even a better way of remembering for us. You can’t take memory away from the head of the pigeon. It will remember and it is not a crime to remember. The boundary between one memory and another is thin. When one forgets, another remembers....!

So, there are resemblances and thin boundaries driving my life.