BlogIgbo language and culture
Articles about the Igbo language, its culture and its history.
Ceremonies · 4 min readThe Igbo traditional wedding, step by stepIgba Nkwụ and everything before it: knocking on the door, the bridal list, and the cup of palm wine the bride carries through the crowd.Read it 
Ceremonies · 4 min readThe kola nut: who breaks it, and what’s saidỌjị opens almost every Igbo gathering. Who presents it, who may break it, what’s said over it, and what the number of lobes means.Read it 
Words and meanings · 3 min readWhy so many Igbo names begin with ChiChidi, Chioma, Chinedu, Chukwuemeka. What chi means, why it turns up at the front of so many names, and what each of those names is saying.Read it 
Ceremonies · 3 min readThe Igbo naming ceremony: when it happens and who names the childA child is named days or weeks after birth, in front of the family. When the day falls, who says the name, and what the kola nut is doing there.Read it 
Everyday life · 3 min readIgbo food names, and what each one actually isAbacha, nkwobi, ugba, ofe onugbu, ọkpa. What’s in each dish, what it’s made from, and when you’re likely to be served it.Read it 
History · 3 min readỌgba: the brass anklets Igbo women woreForged and fitted by Awka smiths and worn in pairs, ọgba couldn’t be taken off. What they said about a family, and what they cost the woman wearing them.Read it 
Festivals and seasons · 4 min readThe New Yam Festival: what Iri Ji is, and when it happensIri Ji, the Igbo new yam festival, marks the first yams of the harvest. What the name means, when communities hold it, and who eats the first yam.Read it
Learn the words themselves
Asụsụ Ọma teaches Igbo in short lessons, with every phrase recorded by a native speaker. It’s free.