Yesterday I did a piece on the trending criticisms on Air Peace hostesses adorned on what was generally agreed to be an Igbo cultural attire, the “Isi Agu”, in that piece I tried to throw more light on the difference between Agu( lion) and Odum( Tiger) which I later found out to be wrong.
Thanks to my beloved brother Dr. Kachi Nwoga who sent me a well detailed work on Igbo concept and differentiation on the cat family.
Reading that piece whose author is unknown brought clarity and further reinforced my earlier stand on the wrong use of Isi Agu on our traditional attire. It also exposed the very deep seated ignorance of many Igbo traditional leaders who keep adorning themselves with this attire with a wrong inscription, a sign of infiltration of deep acculturation in our cultures.
What is wrongly known as Isi Agu( leopard head) has become one fabric that every Dick, Tom and Harry wear . This cannot possibly be the real Igbo cultural Totem. We have a tradition that is sacred and revered, not one that gets demeaned by the influence of social liberalism.
Reading that wonderful piece sent by Dr. Kachi this part caught my attention
*Knowledge of the Igbo language structure will indicate agụ is not lion. Many Igbo words were created from metaphorical use of existing words. To form names for creatures or objects, Igbos often devised a two-word metaphor comparing what is sought to be named to an another named object or creature. For example, ụlọ is house, and school is “ụlọ-akwụkwọ” (house for books), while hospital is “ụlọ ọgwụ” (house for medication*).
*Leopard – agụ – preys on mammals and has spots on its furs. That is why the wall gecko, that preys on insects and has spots, is called agụ ụlọ (ie house Leopard). And the Crocodile, that preys on water creatures and has patches that resemble the leopard’s spots, is called agụ iyi (Leopard of the waters). Similarly, the palm genet, a small mammal that resembles the Squirrel but unlike the Squirrel has spots on its furs, is called “agụ nkwụ”. In contrast.] the Lion has no spots on its furs. The Lion’s fur is generally plane brown*.
Any bona fide Igbo person that grew up in the village would certainly relate with the above. It is unarguably apt and undoubtedly the real picture of what Agu means in Igbo cosmology.
Interestingly, I am from a village called *Awagu. Growing up the story surrounding the origin of this name with the mind of a child sounded thrilling and scary. I remember sighting the frayed skins of Leopards not Lion in old people huts and “obiri ama”.
The various traditional personalities that adorn such frayed skin, it is usually the skin of a Leopard not of a Lion. Watch any movie that projects Igbo tradition, such frayed skin used to depict royalty is usually that of Leopard not a Lion. Read Eze goes to school by Onuora Nzekwe, The Village School by Anezi Okoro, The Leopard Claws by Cyprian Ekwensi, Antihills of The Savannah by Chinua Achebe and many more Igbo folklores one would appreciate the constant depiction of Leopard as Agu not lion.
It is sad how this narratives have been overshadowed by unconscious assimilation of foreign manipulative image swapping.
The real Igbo Totem isn’t Odum ( lion) rather Agu ( Leopard) by this revelation, any Igbo man wearing what we call “Isi Agu cloth” which has the Totem of a Lion ( Odum) in the name of cultural attire is committing a cultural rape on Igbo heritage.
I know many communities have such as their cultural uniform, it is about time we began to change this wrong narrative by changing the lion Totem attire to the Leopard which represents our root, our history and our heritage. I have that lion Totem attire as my Imo/Abia Community cultural attire, for years I have not adorned it. A rape and desecration of the beauty of my sweet memories of my forefathers and what they held sacred if I should.
*If you’ve read the works of late great poet Christopher Okigbo, you will see repeated references to the leopard. In a manuscript drafting the poem ‘Land of Our Birth’ which he intended to be Biafra’s anthem, Okigbo wrote of Eastern Region’s (mostly Igbos) resolve to found its own republic: “This Leopard is now unchained*”. ( unknown author)
Igbos know this and know peace
Jarlath Uche Opara Jarlathuche@gmail.com
