Pronouns are words that can function by itself as a noun phrase and that refers either to the participants in the discourse (e.g., I, you ) or to someone or something mentioned elsewhere in the discourse (e.g., she, it, this ). In the Igala language, there are [insert text here]… NÀ ÒMÌ, U; ÙWẸ̀, Ẹ̀; ÀWÀ (à) or À; ÀMÀ, MÀ; I, ÒÑWÙ; ÑWU Sometimes, you choose not to mention nouns. Instead, you use other words in their places. Those ‘other words’ are […]
Igala History: Àbùtù Ẹ̀jẹ̀
Àbùtù Ẹ̀jẹ̀ (c.1597-1627) was the great grand-father of Àtá Áyẹ́gbà and his brother, Átíẹ̀lẹ̀, who founded the Ògwùchẹ́kwọ̀ royal house at Ánkpa, both sons of Ata Idoko Agánápojè. Robert Arthur Sargent, in his doctoral thesis, Politics, Economics and Social Change in the Benue Basin: 1300 – 1700 (1984), recounts an exhaustive political history of Àbùtù Ẹ̀jẹ̀. Between c.1520 and 1550 A. D., he was “the leader of the leopard community,” the […]
Igala Rites – Ìchòlò Ígáláà
In the Igala culture, certain solemn ceremonies are performed during the year in the practice of the people’s traditional, ancestral religion, called Ògwùchẹ́kwọ̣̀. Traditional rites are performed during a variety of social events, such as marriage, child-naming, dedication, funeral activities, conferment of titles, appeasement of spiritual entities and during festivals scheduled for both the rainy season and the dry season. […]