M.O. ENE
Igbo language is verb-based. Almost every consonant forms a verb root with a vowel. To deconstruct ‘ebeanọ,’ we will proceed from the specified premise: ‘be’ and ‘nọ.’ If we prefix particle ‘i’ or ‘ị’ (subject to vowel harmony), we get these verbs: ‘ibe’ and ‘ịnọ.’ From these verbs, via a simple but standard grammatical rule, we get the nouns ‘ebe’ and ‘anọ.’
‘Ébé’ means place, where something is located by the force of gravity (ikéjiàlà).
‘Anọ’ is the number ‘four’(4). It derives from the verb ‘ịnọ’ (to stay), which is also a dialect of anọ. Igbo speakers are conversant with a common question about one’s location or situation: “Ị nọ ya?” (Are you there?) The obvious response is “Anọ m ya.” (I am here).
Hence, ‘anọ’ is a statement of stability, of permanence, of feeling the full force of gravity, and of being comfortable at a certain settled location. Either as a reflection of location, composition, or derivation, Igbo communities use anọ as a suffix of names: Awkunanaw (Ọkụnanọ), Ebenanọ, Ekwuanọ, (which the English hackneyed as ‘Equiano’), Ibeanọ, Ikwuanọ, Mbaanọ, Mbananọ, Mbanịnọ, Mkpuanọ, Ọkụnịnọ, Ụmụnanọ, etc.
Four is so significant and symbolic in Igbo culture it will take a book to deconstruct. The four periods in a day are morning, afternoon, evening, and night. There are four days in a native week (izu): Eke, Orie, Afọ, and Nkwọ, which also represent the four cardinal points. The Igbo have a natural calendar based on these four days, and the ancestors knew about the interchangeability of matter, energy, time, and space—the core of creation.
The four-lobed kolanut (‘ọjị aka-anọ’) finds exclusive use at special ceremonies: divination, marriage, title-taking, new yam festival, etc. It symbolizes the four points in a lifecycle: birth, teenagehood, adulthood, and death. This is the basis of the saying, “Onye wetere ọjị wetere ndụ.” [He who brings kolanut brings life.] Four indicates balance and fullness. Four conveys comprehensiveness and steadiness: bed, car, desk, quadruped, table, etc.
The ideal site or location (ebe) for posting sacrificial servings is at four-way junctions or crossroads (ebe ụzọ gbara anọ), not at T-junctions. If a fiancée visits her fiancé’s home for the first time, she must leave on the third day; the fourth day portends permanence. Islam must have a good reason for pegging polygyny at four wives: If four women do not produce a man’s emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual stability, nothing else will! A sleep that lasts for four days (ụra kwere izu) has become permanent: death. This may explain why Jesus rose from the dead on the third day (Luke 24.46; 1 Corinth 15:4).
There is ‘ebe+anọ’; and there is ‘ebe+a+nọ.’ ‘Ebe’ and ‘anọ’ concatenate to form a popular lexical item ‘ebeanọ,’ which now conveys ‘current, ‘trending,’ or ‘in vogue’ (French ‘en vogue’). In the expression ‘ebe á nọ,’ ‘á’ is an indefinite pronoun representing ‘anyone’ or ‘anything.’ By using this peculiar pronoun, ‘ebe á nọ’ conveys ‘where we are situated’—safe, secure, steady, strong: #NoShaking.
From a nonpartisan political platform to a supermarket chain and on to a Nigerian restaurant in Berlin, Germany, ‘Ebeanọ’ trends and means different things to different people in different places. Because of the indefinite pronoun, English equivalents vary: ‘Where we are’; ‘Where it’s trendy; ‘Where we situate’; ‘Where to be’; ‘The place we are’; ‘T/here it is!’; etc.
The founder of Ebeanọ political platform that popularized the expression at the tail end of last century, Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani, submitted a concise characterization: “the place to be.” In his hypothesis as Enugu State governor (1999-2007), he projected a platform to form future leaders who will take the state to different levels of development with a defined ideology—something Nigerian politics still lacks.
Prepared to pass on the leadership torch to the incumbent governor at Government House Enugu on Saturday, September 19, 2020, now Senator Nnamani posited: “Ebeanọ signifies equal opportunity, balancing of interest, applying leverages to guarantee interest.”
Ebeanọ epoch has brought a certain political stability and defined the politics of Enugu State for 23 years. If it were easy, a stronger political platform would have emerged. So, if you can’t beat them, join them! Instead of swinging sledgehammers of cotton candies, scratching cysts while scabies itch, it is better to copy Ebeanọ recipe and build superior setups across the southeast space (Aladịmma). Such a pan-Igbo political corpus will fortify institutions and inject new talents.
Since 1999, Ebeanọ Enugu has produced succeeding governors and top legislators whose roles saved the fourth republic, thus making Ebeanọ the most successful Igbo political group. Only Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Lagos compares in Nigeria, and he operated where followers are more devoted and easier to corral; east-of-the-Niger entities are rugged republicans and dedicated democrats.
#moe, 12/27/2022
@aladimma
aladimma.net 