By
Obododimma Oha
Some Igbo proverbs could be very humorous. One of them is the one that says: “The dog says that those with buttocks do not know how to sit down.” What an observation? The animal is quoted as having made this wise observation about human beings, obviously jealous that the later do not make good use of their resources. The dog was also very critical of humans being careless! Well; even though an animal is provided as the source of this wisdom, it talks to us about good use of resources; in fact, it challenges us!
If an animal so challenges humans, is it not a shame that the later has not learnt something but is still carrying on unwisely? Should humans have tails instead and strugggle with it? Maybe.
Yet this saying, obviously from humans, invites us to the classroom of thought. We are being asked to think, for thinking is what can save humanity and to stop all the disgrace, especially having buttocks for support and not knowing how to sit down.
It is not a crime to be asked to think. It is not a crime to ask somebody to wise up. But it is unfortunate to be given a mind but depending on another person’s own.
Dear Dog, I hear you. It is one thing to have millions of Naira and another thing to know how to invest the money, another to know how to make the money produce more money. It is one thing for a country to have petroleum, oil well and all that, and it is another thing to have good roads roads and other commendable public facilities created without expecting a word of praise. It is one thing to have natural resources and another thing to have unnatural ways of using them unwisely!
Yes; those gifted with buttocks do not know how to sit down. They can sit with their heads or with one leg high up there pointing to Abeokuta and the other leg down there pointing ti Ile-Ife.
Honestly, one would like to know the nationality of that fellow in the Parable of the Talents who hid the single talent he received in the soil, instead of investing it and doing so with the belief that his master is hard-hearted and would reap where he had not sown.What was his national identity, please? He, too, wants to reap without sowing! I hope he is not from the same nation as the reader of this blog essay! Imagine telling his master to his face that he was selfish and wicked. Good that the single talent was rescued from him and that he received the payment he bargained for!
I like way that narrative is presented in one of the great poems of Ifa translated by Wande Abimbola. Agbigbo, one of Orunmila’s bastards,chooses to bury his own 20,000 cowries outside the city gates, to lie to and deceive the master of divination. His punishment soon comes, for when he digs up the cowries and puts the luggage on his head, Esu uses his power to turn it to a stone, which is why the Agbigbo bird carries a burden on its head like a stone and Agbigbo bird, as it explained, is not the favorite of Ifa diviners but is regarded as a fraudster.
Is it not said in Ifa about Agbigbo,
O hu egbaaawa ti o ri mọle,
O gbe e kari,
O kori si Ikoolo,
Iluu babaa re,
Esu lo di agbo
Mo lo di afakan,
O kuuru ọpọn ọnaa sun.
O ni ta lo ru
Ta ni lo ru?
Wọn ni Agbigbo nikan ni o rubo.
(translated as:
He dug the twenty thousand cowries which he buried there,
Placed it on the head,
And went towards Ikoolo,
His father’s city.
Esu said, “agbo.”
To which I replied, “afakan”
He added that the carved wooded receptacle of sacrifice was
already on the move.
Esu asked, “Who performed the sacrifice?”
And who didnot?
To which people replied, ‘Only Agbigbo did not perform sacrifice.’
From Wande Abimbola’s Sixteen Great Poems of Ifa)
Those that have been given buttocks, maybe worth twenty thousand cowries, should try to make proper use of such; at least, try to sit down properly. Do they have tails to bother about and whether to tuck it in?
Buttocks are resources. And resources are not there for us to misuse them, waste them or squander them. Maybe the dog, a mere animal, is telling us not to be “animals” but to act rationally in using our resources.
Obododimma Oha
Some Igbo proverbs could be very humorous. One of them is the one that says: “The dog says that those with buttocks do not know how to sit down.” What an observation? The animal is quoted as having made this wise observation about human beings, obviously jealous that the later do not make good use of their resources. The dog was also very critical of humans being careless! Well; even though an animal is provided as the source of this wisdom, it talks to us about good use of resources; in fact, it challenges us!
If an animal so challenges humans, is it not a shame that the later has not learnt something but is still carrying on unwisely? Should humans have tails instead and strugggle with it? Maybe.
Yet this saying, obviously from humans, invites us to the classroom of thought. We are being asked to think, for thinking is what can save humanity and to stop all the disgrace, especially having buttocks for support and not knowing how to sit down.
It is not a crime to be asked to think. It is not a crime to ask somebody to wise up. But it is unfortunate to be given a mind but depending on another person’s own.
Dear Dog, I hear you. It is one thing to have millions of Naira and another thing to know how to invest the money, another to know how to make the money produce more money. It is one thing for a country to have petroleum, oil well and all that, and it is another thing to have good roads roads and other commendable public facilities created without expecting a word of praise. It is one thing to have natural resources and another thing to have unnatural ways of using them unwisely!
Yes; those gifted with buttocks do not know how to sit down. They can sit with their heads or with one leg high up there pointing to Abeokuta and the other leg down there pointing ti Ile-Ife.
Honestly, one would like to know the nationality of that fellow in the Parable of the Talents who hid the single talent he received in the soil, instead of investing it and doing so with the belief that his master is hard-hearted and would reap where he had not sown.What was his national identity, please? He, too, wants to reap without sowing! I hope he is not from the same nation as the reader of this blog essay! Imagine telling his master to his face that he was selfish and wicked. Good that the single talent was rescued from him and that he received the payment he bargained for!
I like way that narrative is presented in one of the great poems of Ifa translated by Wande Abimbola. Agbigbo, one of Orunmila’s bastards,chooses to bury his own 20,000 cowries outside the city gates, to lie to and deceive the master of divination. His punishment soon comes, for when he digs up the cowries and puts the luggage on his head, Esu uses his power to turn it to a stone, which is why the Agbigbo bird carries a burden on its head like a stone and Agbigbo bird, as it explained, is not the favorite of Ifa diviners but is regarded as a fraudster.
Is it not said in Ifa about Agbigbo,
O hu egbaaawa ti o ri mọle,
O gbe e kari,
O kori si Ikoolo,
Iluu babaa re,
Esu lo di agbo
Mo lo di afakan,
O kuuru ọpọn ọnaa sun.
O ni ta lo ru
Ta ni lo ru?
Wọn ni Agbigbo nikan ni o rubo.
(translated as:
He dug the twenty thousand cowries which he buried there,
Placed it on the head,
And went towards Ikoolo,
His father’s city.
Esu said, “agbo.”
To which I replied, “afakan”
He added that the carved wooded receptacle of sacrifice was
already on the move.
Esu asked, “Who performed the sacrifice?”
And who didnot?
To which people replied, ‘Only Agbigbo did not perform sacrifice.’
From Wande Abimbola’s Sixteen Great Poems of Ifa)
Those that have been given buttocks, maybe worth twenty thousand cowries, should try to make proper use of such; at least, try to sit down properly. Do they have tails to bother about and whether to tuck it in?
Buttocks are resources. And resources are not there for us to misuse them, waste them or squander them. Maybe the dog, a mere animal, is telling us not to be “animals” but to act rationally in using our resources.
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