On Identity and Representation

“Hi, my name is Makuochi”

“Oh, do you have another name, a foreign name perhaps?”

“No, Makuochi”

“Oh, okay makwbekbewkhb”, LOL “Your name is rather tough, can I call you Mak?”

*Sigh* “Sure but you can try to get it right”

“Nah, Nice meeting you Mak”

I have been told by many that I am a people person, whether it be true or not I can hardly tell but I have come to accept it. The scene above plays out 8 times out of ten times when I meet people. I think it’s funny, actually, I think it’s not. The fact that fellow Nigerians will not take something as important as a fellow Nigerian’s identity seriously is rather unfunny. To many, they are being “modern” when they do these things, not only is this disrespectful it is also unacceptable. Listening to these “Hip and Urban” radio stations, I hear presenters, Radio Personalities who should know better “Murder” Nigerian names and laugh over it. (same people who would pronounce “Ivanovich”, “Zach Galifianakins” and “Zlatan Ibrahimovich” with no sweat. Pathetic!)

A man’s name is an important part of his identity, a medium through which he conveys (Knowingly or unknowingly) his faith, belief, gender, tribe, state of origin, nationality, family heritage and etc. These things are rather a vital part of a person’s existence and when people, fellow Nigerians request you throw all this away just because they will not attempt to try, I find it unamusing and pathetic.

“I can’t tell your tribe, are you from Edo?”

“No, I’m Igbo”

“Oooooh, You’re Ibo, nice”

“No, I’m not Ibo, I am Igbo”

“But they’re the same thing”

“No, they’re not, Ibo is neither a thing, a place nor a people”

“Oh, okay, Omo Ibo”

This plays out as the second stage to most conservations I have with people when I meet them newly.

Note: I have observed that most Nigerians I’ve met feel “fancy” when they cannot pronounce traditional African names appropriately, mostly because it makes them feel “exposed”, distant and removed from the realities of being African. However, spitting out tougher foreign names are worth a thousand claps.

And by the way, my fellow Igbos brethren, Ibo is not a word, it is not a people, it is not a place, it is stubborn mispronunciation and mostly borne out of ignorance and perhaps a bid to sound “modern”. I may permit a foreigner who lacks the phenotypical knowledge of paired alphabets like “gb, kp, kw…”, but for Nigerians, I have no words. This erroneous pronunciation dates back to the arrival of the white man and I forgive them. In my opinion, I think it tribalistic to remain adamant in stating wrongly a person’s identity and when corrected you wave it off with “both of them na the same thing”

“You are Ibo, but you don’t sound Ibotic”

“Okay”

At this stage of most conversations, I am mostly walking away or holding myself from a rage fest. “Igbotic”, one of the most disrespectful and most derogatory designation any Nigerian can assign another Nigerian. A proclamation made to another with an expectation to denounce or be apologetic of his true identity. A man’s accent is his heritage, an important part of his identity and must be worn with pride. But to the Igbo man, this has been made a thing of shame and laughter. To me, once words are pronounced appropriately, amidst proper tenses, grammar and well laid out syntax, there should be no reason whatsoever to ridicule a person’s identity or mount negative undertones to his origin. In a tribalistic Nigeria, many have been raised and handover baseless stereotypes, fuelling and feeding the growing Nigerian divide. Igbotic does not end with a thick accent, it comes with an expected stereotypical behaviour and an expectation of looking yam like, being bold, loud and generally money-hungry. If a man is Igbo, he is expected and should be allowed to be “Igbotic” there is no shame and should be no negative consequences for a person to express himself in his identity. The Igbo man has lowkey been made over the years an unspoken enemy of the state (but this is a story for another day).

Moving from Enugu to Lagos exposed me to a shocking reality, one that I could not understand; the fact that being regular everyday self, speaking like everyone I grew up with, living and acting out the normal Igbolife I was born into was laughable, perceived as “unpolished”, undesirable and at best, unacceptable to many. This not only took me unawares but got me really sad. Not because I cared much but because I lost hope in the concept of a united Nigeria.

Being Igbo in Nigeria gets really tiring not just because you are easily against the general Nigerian tide but also because every other Nigerian is allowed to be validly anti-government or lend a voice to any form of injustice around the country but as an Igbo man, at the slightest attempt to speak up against the government or lend a voice to any cause (no matter how valid they are) that may not be Pro-Nigerian Government, you are speedily branded a “Biafran Zealot”, a separationist, an enemy of the state… Not only is there a conscious attempt to silence you, but there also is an unspoken You vs the State stance at every point of “transaction” with the state.

Away from State, correct me if I'm wrong, I am yet to see or hear anyone ridiculed for being “Yorubaic” or “Hausaic” and when that day comes, I will write a post like this calling out the act for what it is, foolish.

[Note: This is not to say there are no tribalistic slurs against other tribes (other than the Igbo tribe) but there clearly, their expressions don’t exist enough to be tied to the full identity and existence of the tribe as in the case of the word — “Igbotic”]

My name is Makuochi, I am a writer and a talker. See me for who I am on Twitter and Instagram @Ticktacfoe