A GLOSSARY OF IBO WORDS AND PHRASES
agadi-nwayi
: old woman.
Agbala
: woman; also used of a man who has taken no title.
Chi
: personal god.
Efukfu
: worthless man.
Egwugwu
: a masquerader who impersonates one of the ancestral spirits of the
village.
Ekwe
: a musical instrument; a type of drum made from wood.
eneke-nti-oba : a kind of bird.
eze-agadi-nwayi: the teeth of an old woman.
Iba
: fever.
Ilo
: the village green, where assemblies for sports, discussions, etc., take
place.
Inyanga
: showing off, bragging.
isa-ifi
: a ceremony. If a wife had been separated from her husband for some
time and were then to be re-united with him, this ceremony would be
held to ascertain that she had not been unfaithful to him during the time
of their separation.
iyi-uwa
: a special kind of stone which forms the link between an ogbanje and the
spirit world. Only if the iyi-uwa were discovered and destroyed would
the child not die.
Jigida
: a string of waist beads.
Kotma
: court messenger. The word is not of Ibo origin but is a corruption of
"court messenger."
Kwenu
: a shout of approval and greeting.
Ndicbie
: elders.
nna ayi
: our father.
Nno
: welcome.
nso-ani
: a religious offence of a kind abhorred by everyone, literally earth's
taboo.