‘A People’s Firewood Cooks for Them’: The Contextual Prosody of Igbo Mask Poetry and Mbem Poetics
Chike Okoye & Juliet Ifunanya Okeyika
INTRODUCTION
The common view that most poetry is in verse but not all verse is poetry is largely factual, especially when minor and basic constructs are considered, such as visual and concrete markers (graphology, page layout, grammar, etc). The Igbo mbem mmọnwụ (ancestral mask chants) is laden with the basic features that constitute traditional Igbo poetry. It encapsulates the Igbo essence of tradition, ontology, and belief system in rhythmical verse and in a contextually cryptic nature that appeals to universality and excites the imagination, as all good poetry does. Proof of such essence in poetry is the focus of this article, such that despite and beyond the maxim of ‘a people’s firewood’ contextualization, a universalist comprehension, rooting, and relevance, as a direct result of a general and acceptable test of what really constitutes poetry, is the ultimate goal. The construct of ‘a people’s firewood’ is about a considerable degree of sustenance and adaptations of a people over time in most aspects of life for their continued existence and, in this context, it is encapsulated in a proverb, as will be seen later. The quest for proof is akin to Matthew Arnold’s rejection of historical and personal estimates in favour of the real by the application of the touchstone theory in his guide for the sublime and ‘high seriousness’ in quality poetry (‘The Study of Poetry’). There is truth in James Reeves’ conviction that the primary purpose of poetry is magical. For him, magical rituals, especially connected to birth, survival, and death, are accompanied by words embedded in magical formulas and ‘are often accompanied by music and dancing. The words supply an indispensable intellectual element in what is largely a physical activity’ (Understanding Poetry 8). The mystery of poetry that prevents a quick loss of fascination lies in constructs such as these.
THE IGBO ANCESTRAL MASK AND THE ‘FIREWOOD’ CONSTRUCT
Igbo mask origins are embodied in oral tradition handed through down generations, thereby making appropriate written dating impossible; with its dateless and ancient origins, it is an embodiment of magic and mystery. This provides the element of ancestral mystique as salient flavour to its narratives and poetic chants. According to Chike Okoye’s reiteration of common knowledge in The Mmonwu Theatre, the Igbo are known for their rich cultural heritage and are geographically native to the south-eastern part of Nigeria and domiciled in their home states of Anambra, Imo, Enugu, Abia, and Ebonyi, with sizeable communities in Delta, Rivers, and Cross-River states also. They are culturally bordered by the Ijaw, Isoko, Bini, Igala, Tiv, Idoma, Ekoi, Efik, and Ibibio ethnicities. Their mostly patrilineal societies basically comprise woodland farmers, hunters, traders, and fishermen. They are also known for palm-oriented enterprises such as wine tapping, fruit husking, oil milling, etc., and staple food crops such as yam and cocoyam. Their religious life before the missionaries (gradually resurfacing presently) centred on the belief in and worship of a supreme God through many other lesser gods, deities, and forces housed in shrines and groves. Their brand of ancestor worship incorporates their veneration and intercessory role in supplications to higher gods and the supreme God (Okoye, The Mmonwu Theatre: Igbo Poetry of the Spirits 2). In addition, there are stories of ancient migrations and resettlements from other places to and from the present Igbo, notably those of the Igala and Bini not included or referenced here.
These ancestors and other forces and elements periodically appear among the living in ritual, festive, entertainment, policing, enforcement, votary, and representative forms. In these modes they are revered, sacrosanct, and held in varying degrees of awe and dread. While actuated by human actors and controllers, these manifestations take different physical forms that range from humanoid through animal and to utterly abstract shapes and forms. They are, according to the Igbo communities and clusters involved, called variously mmọnwụ, mmanwụ, mmụọ, ekpo, okorosha, omabe, odo, ọkọnkọ, but, collectively, they are loosely known as ancestral spirits or masks. The use of the term ‘mask’ here is partly conceptual and partly synecdochical because a major part of ancestral spirit attire is mask.
While there are numerous categories of Igbo (ancestral) masks and their sub-traditions, our concern here is basically on chanting masks. This category of masks, despite their further subdivisions into singing only, chanting only, singing and chanting, mask-only troupe, human-mask troupe, musical instruments accompanied and unaccompanied, most use a device that aids in their vocalizations. A simple, cylindrical contraption with two open ends covered with cellophane or spider-web gossamer, about three inches long with a rectangular slit in the middle, is held to the mouth and spoken into. The resultant effect is a distorted, deep, rasping, and guttural sound supposedly characteristic of the disembodied spirits. This helps give the wisdom-filled, anecdote-dotted poetic versifications they sing and chant a serious, scary, and unsettling quality that deepens the grave mien of their being, message, and aura. One of the authors of this article is an initiate of the mask group and has carried out further research from which this article has benefited.
With descriptive names that shed light on their ideology, mettle, and mission, such as Okwuanyịọnụ (the mouth can never tire of speech – indicative of the mask’s propensity to say all things regardless of obstacles and sensitivities), Akịka-ataokwu (speech and word of mouth can never be destroyed by termites – showing that words outlive man), Odogwuanyammee (the red-eyed brave – indicative of its derring-do and courage), etc., these masks deliver verses of poetry that are both sublime and indigenously unique. This forms the major thrust of this article – that these poeticisms, complete with their prosody, paralanguage, nuances, context, and content, function for the owner-culture (Igbo) as fit-enough homegrown poetry that can be further appreciated beyond the Igbo community, if analysed while guided by appropriate critical theories. This construct is encapsulated in the Igbo proverb that propagates self-contained and indigenized cultural productions, that ‘a people’s firewood cooks for them’ – nkụ di na mba, neghelu mba nri. The concern of this article is mainly the ‘peoples’ firewood’, which in context refers to the concepts, devices, and theories that the Igbo have devised as necessary and adequate for their art productions.
Ideas such as self-sufficiency, contextual relevance, indigenization, and cultural ethnocentrism can all be linked to that same proverb: ‘a people’s firewood cooks for them’. This proverb in all its wit and wisdom has a downside that is largely false: it suggests that any group can survive despite the doctrine that no man is an island, and it encourages obsolescence through a shunning of possible positive external influences. In this context however, we are more interested in the germane and functional aspects where foundational knowledge of a culture’s appropriate indices of artistic, aesthetic, literary, and linguistic bents are in line with other societies and are aggregated and brought to bear on native art forms – poetry in this particular case. ‘A people’s firewood’ therefore refers to a set of rules of literary appreciation that are unique enough to work for the owner-culture and still make sense for the stranger or outsider to the cultural product in this context. This in many ways also aligns with what can be seen as an encapsulation of what Chinweizu and Madubuike, proffer in their ‘Gibbs’s Gibberish’ retort: ‘the responsibility for the critical evaluation of African writing and the establishment of reputations for African authors belongs to Africans themselves, for they are the primary audience’ (28). The project is to work out a practical perspective and application of the most fitting prosodic construct for the analyses and appreciation of Igbo and in extension (via similar domestication or fabrication), other African cultures’ versifications. We offer a textual analysis of mask chants with chosen concepts and theories for their meanings, nuances, and contextual relevance.
PROSODY AND THE QUEST FOR A THEORETICAL CONSTRUCT
Prosody in general involves the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech and is important in providing information not contained in the literal meanings of words and words in sentences – the elements also known as suprasegmentals. It also extends to the technical aspects of writing poetic verse – the type that contributes to rhythm, while extending to other uses of sound. This implies that prosody is concerned basically with metre and even rhyme. Essentially, it means the study of all the elements of language which contribute toward acoustic and rhythmic effects, mostly in poetry but also in prose. There are reasons poets use prosody. Apart from enhancing rhythm, stress, and sound, prosody also adds a melodious and pleasing quality to verses while providing interesting paralinguistic slivers of meaning that can be context-dependent.
This study is about Igbo verse and the need for a context-based, homegrown method of measurement and appreciation; therefore, the use of the term ‘traditional’ for English prosody as established by Renaissance-era scholars gives impetus for an Igbo verse justification (Hardison, Prosody and Purpose in the English Renaissance). As prosody implies several important elements other than metre and rhythm, such as rhyme scheme, alliteration, assonance, etc., which influence the total ‘sound meaning’ of a poem, it also takes into cognizance the historical period to which a poem belongs, the poetic genre, and the poet’s individual style.
These are in line with Okoye’s The Mmonwu Theatre on the Igbo mbem chant in relation to prosody and literary devices:
The outer form of an mbem or chant and its rendition especially, is characterized by its prosody and literary devices. Inasmuch as most African verse (including traditional) is in free verse, a conspicuous rhythm is often discernible in traditional poetry and verse especially the mbem. There might not be a conscious European-like effort at stressed and unstressed syllables … by the said poet in order to create a distinct prosody, but an observant audience cannot help but notice that in its original vernacular form, the mbem mmonwu contains a type of prosody. (106)
A unique component of this custom-made prosody is what Nnabuenyi Ugonna (Mmonwu: A Dramatic Tradition) describes as ‘igidi’, a rhythm segment roughly equivalent to ‘breath pause’, ‘pause length’, and ‘breath group’.
The ‘igidi’ is succinctly explained by Ugonna:
In Igbo metre this succession of recurrent movements is achieved by the ordered arrangement of strong and weak elements corresponding perhaps to the raising of the foot from the ground and its being put down in the course of a measured movement or dance. This, no doubt, explains the use of the term ‘foot’ to imply that unit of measure in the prosodic analysis of the English poem. In Igbo prosody the concept ‘igidi’ (dance-step) may conveniently express the idea of ‘foot’. This is because the Igbo metre may be said to have its basis in the Igbo dance. (165)
For practical analyses and proper appreciation of Igbo verses, we adopt Igbo-centric equivalents as appropriate tools where necessary; and the idea of the igidi is both helpful and apt.
An already developed theoretical construct that forms a bulwark projecting and justifying the igidi concept appears in Okoye’s 2021 Research in African Literatures article, ‘A Practical Poetics for Orality: Nnabuenyi Ugonna’s “Igidi” and Ezenwa-Ohaeto’s Poetics and The Voice of the Night Masquerade’. The essay develops and postulates a unique poetics termed ‘universalist relativism’ which
relates to the poetics of orality, which is essentially culture-bound (relative) but could be understood and fully appreciated through an Eliotian ‘historical sense’, which is still contextual per the historicity of the parent culture and yet demanding in the sense of requiring an appropriate knowledge of aspects of the mother-culture. Universalism owes its essence to parts of the rubrics that are generally accepted (universally), while relativism belongs to the parent culture of the oral tradition-influenced production. (137)
This construct was derived from a then work-in-progress poetics of orality previously applied to oral chants of Igbo masks in a doctoral dissertation (Okoye, ‘Igbo Mask Chants as Poetry: Mbem Mmonwu’), aiming at and succeeding as a theoretical framework in the quest to prove mask chants’ poetry. Drawing from and leaning on connected conceptual forays by other scholars, one of us developed what is termed a context-based pragmatic analysis method which has presently birthed this new theory, universalist relativism – ultimately designed to be applied in cases featured in this article. The context-based pragmatic analysis describes the contexts where chants are explained from the perspective of their natural context, covering their functionality in reasonable terms to their milieu – as it works for the people who own it, i.e., ‘cooking their food’, but not electing to forget or ignore connections and equivalences that will enhance understanding for people who do not share the same knowledge or have familiarity with the producers of the art. To achieve this, the work looks into the conventional elements of what constitutes poetry, especially imagery (metaphor, simile, allusion, etc.). But the catch is in the home-bred method of prosody and scansion; and this is very germane because of the intrinsic differences in the tonality, intonation, orthography, and other peculiarities inherent in Igbo and other languages. The universalist relativism poetics itself is not different from the context-based pragmatic analysis method and concerns works that despite being culture-bound (relative), are made, through this poetics of appropriate knowledge, to still resonate meaningfully beyond its origins. This is made possible by being universal in the import and application of generally accepted rubrics.
Another important poetics that will complete the components of what will be tentatively termed ‘Mbem Poetics’ is the ‘praxi-phonoaesthetics’. This model, like the universalist relativism, is relatively new, introduced in the article, ‘From Minstrelsy to the Spoken Word Poet: Oral Tradition and Postcolonial Nigeria’ (Okoye and Okoye-Ugwu). The need for a holistic theoretical framework to cater to the combination of variegated aspects of spoken word poetry and performances such as subject matter, voice modulation, theatrics, and the overall spectacle, especially of African and Nigerian origin, necessitated its development. It was successfully applied to samples of spoken word verses that have unmistakable traces and influences of traditional oral elements and orature, especially Igbo and Yoruba. It essentially derives from theatre’s art of experiencing, which is germane for the performance poet whose dependence on emotionally moving acts is not to be underestimated. From there, this experiencing
is intrinsically more dynamic, engaging, and genuine than ordinary representational acting. When this is applied as the crux of performance in spoken word, it constitutes the moving visual spectacle of the performance. The other defining aspect of spoken word is phonoaesthetics or the aesthetics of sound. This involves wordplay – intonation and voice inflection – in the recitation of spoken word verses. The major essence of spoken word is sound and its manipulation; its dependence is not on the visual or concrete poetry … but on the power and range of voice modulation – assisted to a lesser extent by the accompaniment of gesticulations and theatrics.
From the foregoing, the affective and causative practical realities of context and contemporaneity, the preferred mode of visual theatrics, and the defining component of voice modulation, all point to the fact of the unavailability of a tailor-made theoretical framework for interrogations of spoken word performances and texts. (7)
In the new theoretical framework model called praxi-phonoaesthetics, the ‘praxi(s) (practice; practical) [prefix] covers contextual utilitarian dynamics of the text (tensions and problematics such as subject matter), the whole theatrical performance matrix, and the persuasive/affective lexes in the content’ (7). This leaves out the sound component, phonoaesthetics, and this aspect ‘takes care of the beauty of sound (delivery), flow and cadence, and rhyme and rhythm’ (7). The best application of this model also considers the audience response (in live situations) to ensure a real and objective assessment since the product’s effectiveness is easily seen in the reaction of the target audience.
In all, with our understanding of the concepts of a people’s firewood, prosody, and igidi, and the introduction of the new theories and models, universalist relativism, and praxi-phonoaesthetics, we will engage the main thrust of this article, which is to propagate and apply appropriate homegrown models to indigenous (in this case, Igbo mask chants and poems – mbem) literary expressions. The chants are chosen because they are an important repository of Igbo lore, wisdom, and ontology; couched in the garb of revered ancestral spirit vocal manifestations, they are near-perfect examples of where our conceptual and theoretical expositions are best suited for meaningful appreciation.
SELECT UR-TEXTS AND ANALYSES
First, a context-based appreciation of mask chants is necessary to showcase the importance of cultural nuances and semiotic signposts. In the imagery, line delivery, and versified medium method of mmọnwụ, the chants are a combination that makes the subject matters of the poetry easily memorable, and this provides an advantageously seamless synergy to the whole rendition of the mbem (mask chants). The Okwuanyịọnụ is an example. This mask, whose name means ‘the mouth never shies from speech’ is from the central Igbo area of Agulu in Anambra state of Nigeria and is generally classified as an ancestral chanting spirit and, in the short verse below, uncannily refers to himself as dependable and fearless:
Okwuanyịọnụ na-ekwuru ndị dị ndụ e kwuru ndị nwụrụ anwụ | Okwuanyịọnụ speaks for the living and the dead |
Okwuanyịọnụ bata obodo e delu: | When Okwuanyịọnụ steps in there is calm: |
| |
Anụnụ-ebe m na-aracha akpana ya | The Perch-not tree I lick its droppings |
Mbụba pụrụ ije nne ya na-na-atụ anya ya… | The wandering bull awaited by the anxious mother… |
Nya bịakwaa na oge a kara aka e jenu ruo | It had better come, for the day has come |
The mystique and aura created in the lines above by the mask for itself is not missed; rather the allusions and images of the magical ‘Perch-not’ tree of Igbo ontology, fabled for the legend that no living bird perches on it, the idea of dependable action in the vision of a hair-trigger gun, and the imagery of an adventurous and derring-do bull coming home to a worried mother – all mental pictures flush with Igbo indigeneity – underscore the importance and appropriateness of the theory of universalist relativism. More importantly, the newly generated images hold strong appeal regardless of a reader’s affinity or lack thereof with Igbo culture or cosmology, keeping again in line with universalist relativism. They deepen understanding and appreciation for those with a considerable grasp of the culture and open fresh vistas for the less knowledgeable.
James Reeves rightly posits that poetry, with its compressed and compelling structure, has little time for the leisurely digressions of prose, and thus he leans on the notion that poetry is magical speech. He adds that its ‘words are full of suggestions of unrevealed meaning which grow out of them under the influence of the reader’s (audience’s) thought and imagination’ (26). This view forms the precursor to the Odogwuanyammee chanting mask, from the Arọndị’zuọgụ Igbo community of Imo State, whose name means ‘the red-eyed brave’. Here, it recounts elements of a mystical and metaphysical quest of African juju proportions that it embarked on:
Ha sị m tọghee ngwugwu Ihiridarịda | They asked me to untie the parcel of Ihiridarịda |
| So themselves may see its contents |
| I then said they should arise, |
Ka e je wetalụ m ọjị e ji | |
| escorting corpses to wastelands be brought to me; |
| That the king-vulture perching |
| high on a tree be brought; |
Ka e weta ụdọ e jiri gbata | That the rope used to tie down |
agụ n’Ikeji tinye n’ime ya | the leopard at Ikeji be put inside; |
Sị weta akị onye ogbi tàrà tinye n’ime ya. | Let the kernel chewed by the mute be brought and put inside. |
E weta ama-amara ozu tinye n’ime ya | Bring the corpse’s grave-mark and put inside. |
Weta mkpọ onye isi tinye n’ime ya | Bring the blind man’s staff and put inside. |
Weta otutu ọcha onyengwọrọ tinye n’ime ya | Bring the white scars of the lame and put inside. |
Ka e wee tọghezie ngwugwu Ihiridarịda | So that Ihiridarida’s parcel may then be untied. |
The ritual sequence in this dramatic monologue is heightened by the rhythm, repetition, and balanced structure of the lines of the verse. There are many other examples that could be fielded to prove the poetic contents of the mbem mmọnwụ such as metaphor, simile, alliteration, and so on. But an important focus of this article is prosody – vernacular prosody that could and actually does have universal appeal and relevance. The maxim of a people’s firewood does not imply that the cooked food should not be edible for all to eat. Cooked food is the same everywhere – and if the Igbo food is cooked then all humans from every part of the globe will confirm that it is cooked, although tastes differ. Being weaned on or still clinging to occidental ideas, canons, and conventions of what constitutes poetry is not totally undesirable in itself – it is only more interesting if a homegrown scansion and or prosody works better and validates more effectively alongside the prevalent conventions.
In practice, stress or prominence is often analogous to the tonal aspects of the Igbo language and tonal variation plays an important role in meaning and semiotics in the paralinguistic elements of Igbo mask chants. Igbo phonology uses three basic tones: ụda-elu: high (∕), ụdansụda: down-step (_), and ụda-ala: low (\). It is the alternation and variation of these tones in the igidi (rhythm segment) that produces rhythm and nuanced meanings in the Igbo mbem mmọnwụ mask chants as well as other chants and versifications. The examples below from the Odgwuanyammee mask are the first two lines that set a down-step tone that runs throughout the four last syllables at the end of every other line. The narrative piece describes the solemn rite of passage intrinsic in the mask’s mytho-spiritual journey into the ontological beginnings of the community in order to unravel the creation/birth totem of the community’s guiding spirit. Such a quest is fraught with dangers that can only be fully appreciated as the encounters are gilded with the appropriate grave mien, manifest in the sombre down-step tones of the last syllables of the lines. The illustrative tone-marking below indicates the descending rhythm and diminuendo effect:
The igidi segments labelled 1, 2, 3, and 4, in the above are roughly equivalent to feet in English metrical poetry. These observations about rhythm segments and their applications can be repeated in other verses with similar results in English and other European metrical verses. This is homegrown and effectively gets the job done.
There are instances of the mask chant performance spectacle that require live audiences or physical witnessing to appreciate fully, be they impromptu or deliberate. Even recorded versions are distant renderings of the physically live versions. While some are deliberately structured as drama, others hover in that performance matrix space regarded generally as solo performance and performance poetry or chant. Such spectacles fit appropriately into the ambits of cultural productions that are best appreciated critically by applying theoretical constructs and frameworks such as the earlier discussed praxi-phonoaesthetics, which incorporates content, audio, gesture, and audience response concerns in one construct. Apt for productions such as contemporary spoken word slams and similar activities, it is also a fit model for live spectacle-oriented chant renditions and performances that contain tangible vistas of the theatric and histrionic. An example is described by Emeka Nwabueze’s emphasis on the drama of the Agaba mask skit and the secondary supporting role of the narrative. He says:
the first thematic performance of the Agaba is a brief dramatic skit called Efulefu. This skit is a re-enactment of the legend of a cowardly young man who, during the intertribal wars, sold his machete and wore the empty sheath to battle. (‘The Aesthetics of Narratives’ 86)
A good example could be gleaned from Okoye’s ‘The Igbo Mask as Solo Performer’, a situation where an Agaba or Okwomma mask (both normally armed with machetes and known to represent destruction and force) is accosted by a wayfaring human:
Agaba/Okwomma: (On sighting a human ‘foe’, takes dramatic strides to and fro, at least two strides forwards and two backwards all the time thrusting its machete in a warning and menacing motion. Suddenly it stops with both legs together quivering and bobbing its shoulders up and down). (43)
In the midst of this action, the mask in an appropriate threatening guttural voice asks: ‘Ọ bụ nche ka ị na-eche m? (Are you waylaying me?)’; [takes the forward steps]/ ‘ọ bụ anwa ka ị na-anwa m? (Or are you daring me?)’; [takes the backward steps]/ ‘Ka ọ bụ ka ị mara ebe mna-edobe isi m? (Or you want to know where I lay my head?)’; [moves forward again with the accompanying shoulder movement]. In this performance, there is the threatening message, choice of words and accompanying action as the praxis, and the delivery tone of menace, the proper voice inflection and modulation befitting an angered ancestral spirit as the phonoaesthetics. Again, the appropriate apologetic noises and cowering withdrawal of the hapless human afraid of the mask’s wrath fall under both praxis and audience response. This impromptu performance analysed using the applied model is an index of practicability even in deliberately structured chant performances where there is an arena and an accompanying audience. Its advantages are in the holistic and wide-ranging nature of the model.
TOWARD A POETICS
So far, we have justified the positive aspects of the Igbo proverb concerning indigenous utilitarian self-sufficient firewood in the design and application of homegrown and effective critical models. These models are designed to accompany and accentuate cultural productions such as poetic performances and versifications. Their effectiveness has been proven through the examples of ontologically bulwarked critiquing and explications. The conceptual gem of the firewood proverb, Ugonna’s idea of the igidi concept, the theory of universalist relativism and its demands for appropriate knowledge and rooting while seeking universalism, and the all-encompassing model of praxi-phonoaesthetics for performance poetry, have been coalesced into a broader poetics emanating from the original nucleic impetus – mbem mmọnwụ. In the same manner in which postcolonial literary theory is broad enough to house concepts such as Hybridity, Otherness, Orientalism, Trauma theory, etc., Mbem Poetics has igidi, Universalist Relativism, and Praxi-phonoaesthetics as concept and theoretical models, respectively. Mbem Poetics is essentially used to refer to the holistic theoretical framework or body of theories and models pertaining to the rubrics of analyses of and for mostly traditionally influenced and orature-infused performances, especially versified. It requires and advocates a deep and effective knowledge of parent cultures and their ontological, linguistic, and paralinguistic nuances.
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——— The Mmonwu Theatre: Igbo Poetry of the Spirits. Saarbrucken: Lambert, 2014.
——— ‘The Igbo Mask as Solo Performer’. In 50 Years of Solo Performing Art in Nigerian Theatre: 1966–2016, Greg Mbajiorgu and Amanze Akpuda (eds). Ibadan: Kraft, 2018: 31–48.
——— ‘A Practical Poetics for Orality: Nnabuenyi Ugonna’s “Igidi” and Ezenwa-Ohaeto’s Poetics and The Voice of the Night Masquerade’. Research in African Literatures Vol. 52, No. 1, 2021: 127–38.
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