Àékwu só ibeya agba mmanu

The birds of the same feathers they say flock together, like begets like and opposites they also say attracts one another.

There is a natural law in creation that homogeneous types must attract each other while heterogeneous types will always repel themselves.
The saying: “show me your friends and I would tell you who are” is a sharp characterization of this law.

People of like nature will always convene together. “Aekwu so’ ibeya agba mmanu” in Okunano dialect also conveys the understanding of the happenings around us even as we read this post.

Gossipers will always find fellow gossipers; drunkards will find and flock around fellow drunkards, trouble-makers will find that they are surrounded by troubles and trouble-makers, Murderers will also in accordance with this law be born amongst people who share the same proclivity.

Take a good look around you or take stock of yourself, study yourself. Which group do you belong to? This law sharply separates the different types of people in any given human society of the world.

The Okunano Osagwede Osawuwa clan projects a common homogeneity which is the reason why we are traceable to a common origin;

The expression in Okunano dialect “Aekwu so’ ibeya agba mmanu” is definitive of the natural law of attraction of homogeneous types in creation. This suggests that we share something in common either for good or for bad.

There are different types of “Aekwu”(Palm-fruits) for instance and there are namely “Osukwu” “Okprukpu” “Ipa” “Nsude’” etc. what they have in common is that they all are processed to produce palm oil.

To produce oil in our traditional manner, no woman who in processing her oil palm-fruits will separate the various types of “Aekwu” named above to make her oil rather she puts them all together to get an even better oil produce.

Nor will she add “aku-oyibo” (cocoa-nut) enhance her palm oil produce.
The Okunano people drove the saying: “ Aekwu so ibeya agba mmanu ” from the above knowledge.

There are other relative connotations of the same expression like: “ekpiri d’ na anu bu anu”, “ka nkenu du bu ka nkenu du” “ka ene du bu ka ene du” and so on.

To prop up the purpose of this post, it is not by accident that you are created and born of Okunano origin, born to your immediate communities and respective kindred and families in Okunano Osagwede clan.

You are an important fraction of a whole and you are expected to contribute your quota to the progress and development of all your different homogeneous type within the clan.

It’s no use dodging your responsibility, denying your identity as an Okunano indigene because in your very myopic mindset you think that you are way too classy, sensational, sophisticated or skilled and intelligent to be associated with us.

Or maybe you are repelled by the horror and filthy stories you were told about Okunano people. I tell you what?

The biggest bang to hit you is the denial of your identity. "Onye na amaho ebe mmiri bidoru mma wae, oga ama ebe okwushiru?"

The answer to the above question is NO.

Many of us have derailed. We have got it wrong by first failing to identify our individuality, our personality and someone called it your “unique selling point”

I call it character, the law of nature says your “homogeneous kind” the word homogeneity can simply be defined as “identical” .

Failing to find who we are and where we belong, we have adopted a destructive herd mentality that is now threatening to annihilate us.

Especially the youths in Okunano these days, through their failings give credence to the fact that Cowards die before their real deaths. “Aegwu bu onye ishzi onwu”. Out fear we are stampeded into taking dangerous and irrational risks.

Whoever taught you that money is everything and that life should revolve around material acquisition and avarice obviously did you a great disservice.

Please don’t get me wrong, money is important, very important. But how much money is enough money? How much are you worth?

If you cannot answer these questions like I am very sure that you wouldn’t even dare to,

Why then are you selling your conscience and individuality for nibbles of food and droplets of drinks that lasts but only for a moment?

Or is it for relevance amongst your peers? You kill your character and accept another one alien to you?

Our elders will say “omeru onwe eya ariakwa”

Imitation is suicide. Let us learn to vibrate in our own identity. Let us express the ingenuity akin to every known Okunano Osagwede Osawuwa blood.
It is a known fact that in
Okunano: àékwu n’ soru’ ibeya agba mmanu.

Why then do we encourage and support our offspring not to identify with their blood?

Why do we support them to go far away and die in Malaysia or become drug barons?

Why have we become cultists right in the front of our offspring?

Why have our daughters been given away disgracefully into marriages to quench our hunger?

Why do we associate with clubs and societies that offer us no values or endearing legacies but a coven to witch-hunt ourselves?

The repercussions of these material calculations and more will continue to weigh heavily on us all.

But why do we have to carry such a weight? Is it worth it? …. To be cont’d.

© Chiegeonu Aga, July 27th 2019.