USA Africa Dialogue Series - "Ambushing" Your Task in Igbo Traditional Philosophy of Work

"Ima ubi oru is actually an attempt at literally ambushing the
remaining work to be done. Imagine the lovely euphemistic
personification! It is as is the task is a living thing one is
pursuing and targeting! One must not let is escape! One must catch
and deal with it!
It is a lovely way of one placing an obligation on oneself to complete
the task by all means. If one leaves the portion uncompleted, it would
be to one's shame. It may become the gossip of wagging tongues in
town. Somebody could pass the site of work and say: "Who is this lazy
fellow who has not completed the job started? The person must be damn
lazy and stupid!" Who would like the comment? It does not have to be
made on Facebook (on one's wall!) before one gets shocked and
embarrassed. Members of the village know the owner of the plot of
land. Even if they do not mention names in their comments, one can
count one's teeth with one's tongue and know how many they are! Your
plot of land is your Facebook wall and you should expect reptiles and
spiders to visit it. You invited them."

Read the full essay on my blog, X-Pens:

http://x-pensiverrors.blogspot.com/2018/10/ambushing-your-task-in-igbo-traditional.html

Thanks.
-- Obododimma.


--
--
B.A.,First Class Honours (English & Literary Studies);
M.A., Ph.D. (English Language);
M.Sc. (Legal, Criminological & Security Psychology);
Professor of Cultural Semiotics & Stylistics,
Department of English,
University of Ibadan.

Fellow,
Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies,
University of Ibadan.

COORDINATES:

Phone (Mobile):
+234 8033331330;
+234 9033333555;
+234 8022208008;
+234 8073270008.
Skype: obododimma.oha
Twitter: @mmanwu
Personal Blog: http://udude.wordpress.com/

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.