Obeta & Associates

11/05/2025

07/22/2025

Igbo world view Through the Proverbs

When the eyes cry, the nostrils cry also.

There is an anatomical connection between the eyes and the nostrils. When we cry, the tears move from the lacrimal glands of the eye through the tear drainage system. This drainage system is called the Neso-lacrimal ducts. Tears move through this duct into the nasal cavity. That is why when we cry, our noses run also.
The ancient Igbo may not have known this scientific connection but they knew that when one cried, both the eyes and the noses shed tears. This proverb is used to emphasize our inter-connectedness with one another. What affects the eyes also affects the nose. In other words, what affects one also affects his neighbor or kin.
People do not cry for the fun it. People cry when are in pain, physical or emotional. It may be due to death in the family. It could be just a fight going on. It could be because of a house fire or any other form of alarm or emergency.
Whatever the reason may be, when a cry is heard coming from a house in any Igbo village, everybody is seen running toward the house to see what is going on and how they could be of help. Every member of the village is obliged to be there. Any able-bodied adult that hears an alarm and fails to turn up without an acceptable reason may be sanctioned by the village. Everybody is supposed to be mourning when one person is mourning.

07/17/2025

Igbo World View Through the Proverbs

When a child eats what has been keeping him awake, he will go to sleep.

Nothing really is new under the sun. My mother recalls when she was growing up and their parents were telling them, “Children of nowadays do not listen.” I can recall so many things that my parents told me that I did not listen to. And so, the other day I was looking for a better way to tell my son the same thing. I then told him that it wasn’t that I did not make mistakes during my own time. I give advice because I made those mistakes and learnt that it did not benefit me and that I did not want him to make the same mistake. To which he responded, “Dad let me learn from my own mistakes.”
It is this insistence on making one’s own mistake and learning from it that is at the core of this Igbo proverb. Children will not listen. They are impatient. They want to be adult overnight. They think that they are smarter than the adult. They fail to realize that adults were once children and passed through the same process. They call adults “old school.”
And so, they embark on dangerous ventures and get injured. Then they rest on their sick bed if lucky to be alive. They join bad companies and end up in prison, then they listen. The females get unwanted pregnancies, then they learn too late. And on and on and on.

07/17/2025

Igbo World View Through the Proverbs.

The same god that brings sickness also brings the medicine for the cure.

Simply put, we should not worry ourselves about things we have no control over. This is at the core of the Igbo man’s belief even as he does not just fold his hands and wait for things to even out. He also believes that the gods will help only those that are trying to solve their problems.
What this proverb is saying in essence is that unless the gods have decided to end a man’s life, a man does not get a problem for which there is no available solution. There is mysteriously always a way out.
Take the case of the recent Covid-19 pandemic. The disease killed so many people in Europe and America before the vaccine came out. But in Africa where little to no attempt was made to find a solution, the disease had no noticeable effect. The people were more concerned about food than about mask, hand sanitizers and vaccine. With all the noise about the pandemic, one would have expected to be picking up dead bodies along the streets of Nigeria and other third word countries. But that did not happen. The problem went to the people who had the solution.
Certain problems are prevalent in certain places because the solution to those problems are available there. It may be equally argued that it is because of the existence of the problem that made the people came up with the solution. That is also right. And the result is the same: problems and their solutions go hand in hand.

07/15/2025

Igbo Worldview through the Proverbs

He who is holding a child’s toy up beyond the child’s reach will eventually get tired and lower his hand.

When we encounter a child playing with a toy, we may want to take the toy away to see the child’s reaction. Different children react in very many different ways. Some will smile at you and look at you in the hope that you are playing and will soon return the toy which is the case in most instances. Some will immediately start crying and kicking and fighting to get their toys back. Whatever the reaction of the child is not our main concern here.
There are people who will take away a child’s toy for the share joy of making the child cry or to punish the child for no reason at all. Children on the other hand, do not give up on their toys. Whether the child is crying or taking it calmly, whatever the reaction of the child when the toy is taken away, the child will continue whatever it takes to get back the toy. Eventually, whether in the long or short run, the holder will lower his hand and the child will get the toy back.
So is the windmill of justice. It may grind slowly but it grinds exceedingly small. Whatever we do in life, good or bad, it will even up eventually.

07/10/2025

Igbo world view through the Proverbs

One cannot climb a tree while holding things in his two hands.

Igbos do not climb trees for the fun of it except perhaps little children. We climb trees because there is something worthwhile up there. It may be fruits, medicinal leaves or firewood. In other words, it must be for an important reason. And to climb trees, we need our two hands. What this means is that one has to put down whatever one has in his hands in order to climb a tree. Palm tree is the most climbed tree in Igbo land, to harvest the fruits, to cut the leaves for the making of sheds and fences, to feed the goats and also to tap the most popular drink in Igbo land, the palm wine.
When one is on top of a tree, he literally is on a higher level than the rest of the people. When one is on top of a tree for any reason, he can see further and clearer. In a related saying, the Igbos say that the palm wine taper does not say every thing he sees from the tree top. This may be a topic for another segment. When one is on top of a tree, he can eat of the fruits thereof and enjoy the things beyond the reach of those on the ground. When one is on top of a tree, he must be careful not to lose his balance and fall to the ground.
Just like in life, for you to get to the top, there must be something you have to lose in order to get there. Most importantly, you must know what it is you have to give up in order to get there. It is impossible to make any advance in life, in our career while holding tightly to our present position. If you are not ready to give up your present position for someone else, you just remain where you are. Your hands must be empty before you can climb.

07/08/2025

05/15/2025

Summer is here

04/25/2025

6703 Highway Blvd, Katy TX 77494