Ama erika nu na Ama Erika: (Space Aboundsin Erikaland)

J. Akuma-Kalu Njoku

Published online: 28 August 2011

� Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011

The Igbo that are Igbo be all ears

Hear the drumbeat of the ant.

Space abounds in Erikaland

A broad and spacious land

To domesticate and cultivate

Build and humanize

Populate and prosper

In the process, to prosper Igboland

Yes, space abounds in Erikaland

New Igboland is not a taboo for us.

Hear the drumbeat of the ant

Okike of all creation

Made Alaigbo our primordial home

The world our territory

To domesticate, cultivate, and populate

With the soil as travel guide

Until the sea, we encounter

In search of space, we disperse

Meandering along swamps and riverbanks

Reached Isiokpo, Igirinta

Obigbo, Echee, and Ikwere

Got to Diobu and caused river Ntanwaogba to dry up

Through Diobu to Pitakwa—the magnificent garden city

J. Akuma-Kalu Njoku (&)

Folk Studies and Anthropology, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY, USA

e-mail: johnston.njoku@wku.edu

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Dialect Anthropol (2011) 35:377–380

DOI 10.1007/s10624-011-9247-5

Still, in search of land

Reached Bonny at Ubani

Where the Salt Water ends in a twilight zone

Enslaved and forced across the Salt Water

The Igbo reached the Erikaland

Built, domesticated, humanized Erikaland

Freed, they populate Erikaland

By air and by land

Still searching for land

We still come to Erikaland

For land abounds in Erikaland.

Now is the time to act,

Make our Igbo virtue a fact

To domesticate and cultivate

To populate and prosper

To render service and to prosper

The Igbo that are Igbo be all ears

Hear the drumbeat of the ant.

Land abounds in Erikaland

Territory though bigger

Let the homestead remain

Erika, which is bigger

Bigger than Igboland

That is Igbo territory

To settle and make home

Making Erikaland home

That’s a new Igbo sense of place

A distant sense of place that includes Igboland

Prosper in Erikaland

To prosper Igboland

That is the standard rhythm of the drumbeat

Listen.

Hear the drumbeat of the ant

Okike made us strong

Made hard work our inheritance

The alternative of which is working harder.

To eke is not punishment for us

But we take no pride in imposed hard labor

Falling belongs to the one who pursues the chick

Feigned running belongs to the chick

378 J. Akuma-Kalu Njoku

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Now is the time to act,

Make our Igbo virtue a fact.

Igbo is Service

To serve is Igbo

Service to Erikaland

The territory make home

The Igbo that are Igbo

Listen to the drum-beats of the ant.

Remember the mandate

Our travel guide is the soil,

The earth is our territory.

Wherever we find a forest

To clear for a living place;

Wherever we find a forest on earth

To clear and to cultivate

And make for us a farmland.

We are the problem solvers

Helping one another solve problems

Problems of hunger

Problems of war

Tearful problems

All different kinds of physical problems

We are the problem solvers

Helping one another solve problems

Problems of hunger

Problems of war

Tearful problems

All different kinds of physical problems

Rendering service is Igbo distinguishing character.

We are a problem-solving people (ndi igbo mkpa)

Service (Igbo Mkpa) is our basic character

Commitment to service makes us greater than other people.

Okike with knife and hoe reinforced our strength,

Fortified us with dignity of labor,

Made us yamlords and warlords,

Rendering service is Igbo distinguishing character.

We are a problem-solving people (ndi igbo mkpa)

Service (Igbo Mkpa) is our basic character

Commitment to service makes us greater than other people.

Okike with knife and hoe reinforced our strength,

Fortified us with dignity of labor,

Made us yam-lords and warlords,

Ama erika nu na Ama Erika 379

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The Igbo that are Igbo be all ears

Hear the drumbeat of the ant.

Land abounds in Erikaland

And, we have our hoes and knives.

If the soil in Erikaland becomes too hot

We have the Nfujuoku—to restore tranquility to a land.

When in doubt and bamboozled

Pull out your bag of intellect and prudence

There is plenty of land in Erikaland.

New Igboland is not a taboo for us

The Igbo that are Igbo be all ears

Hear the drumbeat of the ant.

If Erikaland is not habitable, we leave.

Our place is not Oru that never was.

We do not bring death to the host land

That when leaving we leave without a hunch-back.

If by speaking, the mouth commits no offense

By listening, the ear should not.

Let the adjuration we hear

Not be used as judgement against us

The Igbo that are Igbo be all ears

Hear the drumbeat of the ant:

‘‘Ama erika nu na Ama Erika’’.

380 J. Akuma-Kalu Njoku

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