By
Obododimma Oha
The idea of the impossible in Igbo folklore could be seen in narratives concerning tricksterhood and the desire to run away from obligation. Actually, it can only be through rare wisdom and tricks that one may try to escape obligation. In other words, obligation comes as the inescapable and we can only dodge it if we can find a loophole somewhere. So, we learn from one Igbo narrative on tricksterhood that tortoise, in order to escape being asked to bring this and that when his aged parents are dead, being asked to provide cows (ihe maghara odu!) for their burial rites, called together the kinsfolk and announced that he he was setting out on a distant and compulsory trip. And that he should not be asked to return, except the unusual, what never happened before in the land, happened! The experience that never happened before, the impossible, were listed as follows:
(1) nwoke idi ime (a man becoming pregnant),
(2) onye no n'ala idagbu onye no n'elu, (the person on the ground falling on top of the person at the top and killing the fellow), and
(3) akwu icha n'odu igu (a palm head developing and getting ripe at the very tip of the palm-frond).
Of course, these three are part of the Igbo articulations of the impossible in human experience. For instance, in spite sex changes or the gay marriage of a man to a man, the "wife" does not or cannot develop a natural womb and so cannot get pregnant. A man cannot really get pregnant naturally, even with the metaphorization of pot-belly (afo beer) as a pregnancy! No man has ever got pregnant! And so the trickster scored a fast one there. The impossible is impossible!
Even if all the men in our village have pot-bellies (which is understood as "iriputa ahu" or "eating out the body"), the trickster cannot be asked to come home for any burial. The evidence is not evident enough! And the message is weak!
Now, to think of subverting the force of gravity on earth and the person below falling and killing the person at the top is also impossible! It is only where this force of gravity does not operate, say on the moon, that this impossible can be possible. This trickster must have done his homework well, being a student of thought! When would the ptheerson below fall on top of the person at the top and kill the fellow, except through a coup d'etat?
The third is equally impossible. Our senses teach us that the palm-head only forms at the beginning or head of the frond and not at the tip. The palm-head forming and getting ripe at the end or tip of the frond is unusual. It is naturally impossible, unless in another world, maybe in the land of the spirits where things are believed to stand upside-down.
To expect the impossible is to state indirectly an unwillingness; in other words, one is suggesting an unwillingness to come. The message is clear: "I will only come when the impossible happens." What other statement of refusal is needed?
The idea of the impossible is based on observation of natural processes and situations. That, for me, is a local philosophical inclination. The observer depends on competence to make a declaration which a trickster can use in escaping from responsibility. The culture imposes obligations on us, but we can also use that same obligation as a weapon to fight back. Are we not learning from the trickster? No wonder many African cultures are ambivalent in their treatment of the figure of the trickster. We learn from those tricks. Let us be honest: the trickster is a bad guy, but we admire that trickster sometimes. We need some tricks to survive everyday, to swim the risky ocean of life that is populated by devourers.
Although we search for how the so-called "impossible" can be made possible, we need to be mindful of our limits and sail round ideas with great caution. The impossible is still impossible! Recognizing it is one way of showing readiness to examine life and to examine it philosophically. Don't ask to come home to buy a cow for funeral unless the impossible becomes possible. I learnt that from mbe the trickster!
Is the trickster not reminding us indirectly that we are first of all thinking creatures and should use our heads as we enslave people to cultural practices? Perhaps when next we agree to kill a cow for a dead ancestor, we should ask whether the ancestor prefers the shit to the blood of the animal.
What has never happened before is strange but not necessarily impossible. Uwa na-atughari atughari (The world changes all the time). And so new things that were hitherto thought emergency could take place. For instance, my late father that never lived to see the emergence of mobile telephony may see me using it now and think that I am into some kind of witchcraft or something sinister. Imagine somebody in New York talking to another person in London! And no wire connecting both ends! He may even think that I have acquired a powerful charm!
Not everything thought to be impossible at every time is impossible at other times. The trickster has been educated by culture to know what is possible and what is not. The trickster also teaches us to think of the use we can put the idea of the impossible. It helps us to reflect on the limits of our world and the boundaries of thought.
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