Once upon a time, a female crocodile settled on the bank of a river. One evening, as she was strolling, she chanced upon some eggs lying in a nest, partially covered. Her jaw dropped as she marveled at their freckled beauty, wishing they were her own eggs. When she got home and mentioned her adventure, seeking someone who could help her to decorate her eggs, she was directed to Mr. Tortoise. Thanking the neighbours for […]
Culture: Feast of the First Fruits
Since ancient times, the Igala race have routinely offered the ‘First Fruits’ of their farm-work as a sacrifice to their ancestors during the Égwú Festival. Similarly, the ancient Greek, Roman and Hebrew were known to present, through a priest, the ‘First Fruits’ of their agricultural yields. This practice underscores their commitment to ancestor veneration as a cardinal principle of the Igala Traditional Religion (ITR), which the call Ògwùchẹ́kwọ̀.
Igala Vowels Versus English Spectre
Learning a new language is a very interesting phenomenon; but, sometimes, it is not without its own downsides. More often than not, an Igala language student is faced with occasional interference, either from another language or other language varieties, mostly through code-switching. Wikipedia defines code-switching as “language alternation,” describing a situation where a speaker ‘alternates’ from one language to another without control. It is true that the Igala alphabet descended from the English alphabet; but […]
Origins: Genealogy Bonds Ethnicities
Like twin infants exchanged in their cots in a maternity ward at birth, groups of ethnic nationalities in my African country act like strangers to one another. Whereas, if they were a bit more careful, they would know that there is a supernatural bond of common patrilineal ancestry tying them together. If they had carefully studied these so-called strangers’ family pedigrees, their peculiar animal totems and traces of lexical commonalities between their two languages, they […]
The Igala Alphabet
The website’s in-house teacher has assumed duty in the Kigala Klassroom, beginning his teaching of Igala language from the cradle – the ABC of education, the alphabet. When a child is born, its mind is completely clean, like a blank slate or tabula rasa. Then, physical impressions and psychological responses come together to influence its mind. The child’s first teacher is, naturally, its mother; later, the nursery school teacher joins her in his education, beginning […]
