Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post provides information about Hip Hop rapper and songwriter Kendrick Lamar. This post also includes quotes from internet articles and comments about Kendrick Lamar's 2015 song "King Kunta" with special attention to the meaning/s of the word "yams" in this Hip Hop track.
Partial lyrics* to Kendrick Lamar's "King Kunta" are included in this post along with a link to a YouTube video of "King Kunta".
*This blog only provides partial spelling for profanity and a form of what is commonly referred to as "the n word".
The content of this post is presented for cultural purposes.
All rights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Kendrick Lamar for his musical legacy. Thanks to each of the composers of this Hip Hop song and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
****
INFORMATION ABOUT KENDRICK LAMAR
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kendrick_Lamar
"Kendrick Lamar Duckworth (born June 17, 1987) is an American rapper and songwriter. He embarked on his musical career as a teenager under the stage name K-Dot, releasing a mixtape that garnered local attention and led to his signing with indie record label Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE)...
Lamar won his first Grammy Award for "i", lead single from his critical acclaimed third album To Pimp a Butterfly (2015). The album drew on free jazz, funk, soul, and spoken word, debuted atop the charts in the U.S. and the UK, and won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album at the 58th ceremony...
Lamar has received a number of accolades over the course of his career, including seven Grammy Awards. In early 2013, MTV named Lamar the number one "Hottest MC in the Game", on their annual list.[1] Time named Lamar one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2016.[2] Aside from his solo career, Lamar is also known as a member of the West Coast hip hop supergroup Black Hippy, alongside his TDE label-mates and fellow South Los Angeles-based rappers Ab-Soul, Jay Rock and Schoolboy Q.[3]"...
****
INFORMATION ABOUT KENDRICK LAMAR'S "KING KUNTA"
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Kunta
"King Kunta" is a song by American hip hop recording artist Kendrick Lamar, taken from his third album, To Pimp a Butterfly (2015). It was released as the album's third single on March 9, 2015....
Writing and composition
"King Kunta" is a reference to the archetypal rebellious slave Kunta Kinte,[2] the basis of the main character from the Alex Haley novel, Roots: The Saga of an American Family. The song contains an interpolation of "Get Nekkid" (2000), written by Johnny Burns and performed by Mausberg; resung lyrics from "Smooth Criminal" (1987), written and performed by Michael Jackson; elements of the 1974 James Brown song "The Payback", written by Brown, Fred Wesley, and John Starks; and a sample from the 1994 song "We Want the Funk", written and performed by Ahmad Lewis.[3] Background vocals are provided by Whitney Alford.
Critical reception
"King Kunta" was placed at number seven on Rolling Stone's "50 Best Songs of 2015" list, with the editors commenting, "The fiercest and most funkadelic track on To Pimp a Butterfly takes aim at everything from Lamar's haters to "the power that be." We already knew Kendrick was a great lyricist; turns out he's kind of a badass, too."...
****
[PARTIAL] LYRICS: KING KUNTA
(Written By Ahmad, Redfoo, Johnny Burns, Thundercat & Kendrick Lamar)
[Hook]
B&tch*, where you when I was walkin'?
Now I run the game, got the whole world talkin'
King Kunta
Everybody wanna cut the legs off him
(King) Kunta
Black man taking no losses, oh yeah
B&tch*, where you when I was walkin'?
Now I run the game, got the whole world talkin'
King Kunta
Everybody wanna cut the legs off him
When you got the yams—(What's the yams?)
[Verse 1]
The yam is the power that be
You can smell it when I'm walkin' down the street
(Oh yes, we can, oh yes, we can)
I can dig rappin', but a rapper with a ghost writer?
What the f&&k* happened? (Oh no!)
I swore I wouldn't tell, but most of y'all sharing bars
Like you got the bottom bunk in a two-man cell
(A two man cell)
Something's in the water (something's in the water)
And if I gotta brown-nose for some gold
Then I'd rather be a bum than a motherf___n'* baller
[Hook]
[Verse 2]
The yam brought it out of Richard Pryor
Manipulated Bill Clinton with desires
24/7, 365 days times two
I was contemplatin' gettin' on stage
Just to go back to the hood, see my enemy, and say… (oh yeah)
[...]
Source: https://genius.com/Kendrick-lamar-king-kunta-lyrics
-snip-
The complete lyrics to this song are given on that page.
*These words are completely spelled out on that page.
Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRK7PVJFbS8 for a YouTube video of this song (WARNING: Includes profanity and a form of "the n word".)
****
ANALYSIS OF KENDRICK LAMAR'S "KING KUNTA" (With Special Attention To The Meaning Of "Yams" In That Song)
These excerpts are given in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purposes only
Excerpt #1:
https://genius.com/Kendrick-lamar-king-kunta-lyrics
About the lyrics to this song, Created by UBOOBOO, 2015
"Kunta Kinte, a fictional 18th-century slave, is the main character of the novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley. Kinte is known for having his right foot cut off because of his attempts to escape his plantation.
Kendrick presents Kunta Kinte’s name as a “King Kunta” to contrast the lowest and highest levels of society, and provide a feeling of empowerment similar to ‘i’*. In addition, the sentiment illustrates Kendrick’s personal growth from being in the hood, to the present day as a major voice in hip hop. He further explained the influences behind writing this song to NME". [video blocked in the USA]
-snip-
*From the Wikipedia page quoted above: [Kendrick] "Lamar won his first Grammy Award for "i", lead single from his critical acclaimed third album To Pimp a Butterfly (2015)".
-snip-
The lyrics ..."where you when I was walkin'?" refers to the times when Kendrick Lamar was struggling to make it in life (or specifically, in Hip Hop) in contrast to him now being chauffeured around in expensive cars because he is so successful.
****
Excerpt #2:
From http://justrandomthings.com/2015/03/14/kendrick-lamar-releases-new-single-king-kunta-analysis-and-meaning/ KENDRICK LAMAR RELEASES NEW SINGLE “KING KUNTA” (ANALYSIS AND MEANING)
by Adam@JRT, March 14, 2015
"Make way Hip Hop, King Kendrick is back. And he is very clear about it in his latest single “King Kunta” from his upcoming album ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’. Like his previous single “The Blacker The Berry“, Kendrick addresses Black oppression in “King Kunta”. Looks like the new album is going to be single-themed. Alongside the rich meaning behind the song, it is also a musical beauty, as K Dot spits some fiery lines on some stripped down beats
[...]
Verse 1 has Kendrick talking about ‘yams’ which is a slang for cocaine. He speaks about the drugs issues in the world, as has he done in “The Blacker The Berry” too. He says how openly (freely) the drug trades are carried out in the streets–often protected by powerful hands who are there to stop them. “Oh yes we can” scream is a drug seller’s confidence as to what he does.
[...]
-snip-
Selected comments from this article:
1. Grant, 2015
"Yams is not exclusively drugs but is more generally power. It comes from the novel "Things fall apart" where the power of a man was determined by the amount of yams they were able to harvest. Yams can be anything that gives someone power."
**
2. DK, 2015
"I agree with Grant. He's referencing a power structure - the powers that be, the industry or something bigger."...
**
3. Trader Joe, 2015
"I'll give you something else to consider about "yam".
yam is the chant if you will of the heart chakra.
heartz of men by Tupac is also in reference to this chakra and contains a sample of Richard Pryor throughout the song."...
-snip-
Regarding that article's reference to Kendrick Lamar and "The Blacker The Berry", in African American vernacular culture the complete, often used saying is "The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice".
Here's some information about Kendrick Lamar's use of that saying from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blacker_the_Berry_(song):
" "The Blacker the Berry" is a song by American rapper Kendrick Lamar. It was released on February 9, 2015 as the second single from his third studio album, To Pimp a Butterfly.[1] The song features vocals from Jamaican artist Assassin. It shares its title with the novel The Blacker the Berry by American author Wallace Thurman, which deals with similar themes of racism. The album version of the song also features additional vocals from neo soul singer Lalah Hathaway."
-snip-
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/02/kendrick-lamars-grammy-2016-performance.html for the pancocojams post "Kendrick Lamar's Grammy 2016 Performance (Songs: "Blacker The Berry" & "Alright").
****
Excerpt #3:
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRK7PVJFbS8
2017
1. Andrew Erickson
"What are these "yams" he is referring to?"
**
Reply
2. Ghazi
"Andrew Erickson This line includes an allusion to Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man; the unnamed narrator is walking down the streets of New York City when he smells yams, triggering memories of his hometown in the South. The yam is used as a symbol of authenticity; the protagonist famously declares, “I yam what I am.” Here Kendrick is declaring his own authenticity, unlike the rappers he disses in the rest of the verse.
Yams are a key ingredient in African cuisine and have significance in some parts of Africa as a sign of social status. In his novel Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe begins by documenting how a man’s worth in Igbo society was largely determined by his yearly yam yield. When Kendrick says he “got the yams,” he means he has attained money, power and prestige.
Big butts on healthy ladies and balloons filled with drugs (particularly heroin) are also colloquially known as “yams”."
**
Reply
3. Andrew Erickson
"soooooooo.... What is up with the throne?"
**
Reply
4. Harmen Luth
"If you haven't heard of it yet, genius.com is a great lyric site, the community and sometimes even the artists annotate lyrics to explain their meaning or references.
The throne here is obviously there to state that he is the king of the game at this time, 'now i run the game, got the whole world talkin'.
Kunta, by the way, was a slave in a novel by Alex Haley whose foot was cut off ('Everybody wanna cut the legs off him') because he tried to escape his owners. By calling himself King Kunta we can see the meaning of a lot of Kendricks work - the slave (growing up in a poor family and bad neighbourhood) became the king (of the rap scene).
Basically, King Kunta is a contradictio[n] in term[s], and so is Kendrick."
**
Reply
5. Donger Ino
"Yams also is an innuendo for testicles, which is why he talks about Richard Pryor, (who had 7 wives and children) and Bill Clinton (who got impeached after scandals about his affair with his wife, Hillary Clinton)"
**
6. Glambylitabe
"sneek diss on drake"
**
Reply
7. Dep99_#5
"Glambylitabe pretty sure he's dissing ghost writers in general, not just directly at Drake""
**
2015
C D
8. "Yams? Everyone knows Jeezy hide yams at his aunty house."
**
Reply
9. mrsuns10
"Akon Weezy Jeezy holding down New Jersey"
**
Reply
10. ShadowJin
"had me laughing"
**
Reply
Kickz&Chicks
11. "+Chris D And Then what?? Lol"
**
Reply
12. ThunderNick
"Can someone explain I feel stupid for not getting it. I know who Jeezy is like I just don't understand the joke."
**
Reply
13. Lyon Hart
"+ThunderNick Jeezy track off thugmotivation101 he says hid the yams in my auntie house on the hook #AndThenWhat"
**
Reply
14. Tyler
"+Chris D He's* referring to the yams that the African civilization in Achebe's book Things Fall Apart used as a form of currency. The story told of a black civilization being destroyed by white men forcing their culture on black civilizations through missionary efforts."
-snip-
*He" in this comment refers to Kendrick Lamar and not "Jeezy".
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Jeezy
"Jay Wayne Jenkins (born September 28, 1977),[2] better known by his stage name Young Jeezy (or simply Jeezy), is an American rap artist from Atlanta, Georgia."
-snip-
In Jeezy's above mentioned song, I'm assuming that "yams" referred to drugs.
****
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Showing posts with label Chinua Achebe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chinua Achebe. Show all posts
Saturday, April 1, 2017
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
What Is The Meaning Of These Sentences In Chapter 16 Of Chinua Achebe's Novel "Things Fall Apart"
Edited by Azizi Powell
In researching the various vernacular English use of the word "ass" as an intensifier*, I happened upon two comments about Chapter 16 of Chinua Achebe's 1958 novel which appear to me to provide different explanations for villagers saying that a man who spoke a dialect of Ibo (Igbo) said "my buttocks" for "myself".
Before quoting those comments, in the interest of "sussing" out the meaning of those sentences, here's an excerpt of that chapter.
*Here's a link to the pancocojams post that I was working on when I found those comments about "my buttocks" in Chinua Achebe's novel: http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/06/comments-examples-about-ass-as.html Comments & Examples About "Ass" As An Intensifier
****
CHAPTER 16: "THINGS FALL APART"*
(Chinua Achebe; (Heinemann Educational Books, Ltd, London, originally published 1958, reprint 1968; pages 131-133)
Page 131
"The arrival of the missionaries had caused a considerable stir in the village of Mbanta. There were six of them and one was a white man. Every man and woman came out to see the white man. Stories about these strange men had grown since one of them had been killed in Abame and his iron horse tied to the sacred silk-cotton tree. And so everybody came to see the white man. It was the time of the year when everybody was home. The harvest was over.
When they had all gathered, the white man began to speak to them. He spoke through an interpreter who was an Ibo man, though his dialect was different and harsh to the ears of Mbanta. Many people laughed at his dialect and the way he used words strangely. Instead of saying 'myself' he always said 'my buttocks'. But he was a man of commanding presence and the clansmen listened to him. He said he was one of them, as they could see from his colour and his language. The other four black men were also their brothers, although one of them did not speak Ibo. The White man was also their brother because they were all sons of God. And he told them about this new God, the Creator of all the world and all the men and women. He told them that they worshipped false gods, gods of wood and stone. A deep murmur
page 132
went through the crowd when he said this. He told them that the true God lived on high and that all men when they died went before Him for judgment. Evil men and all the heathen who in their blindness bowed to wood and stone were thrown into a fire that burned like palm-oil. But good men who worshipped the true God lived for ever in His happy kingdom. "We have been sent by this great God to ask you to leave your wicked ways and false gods and turn to Him that you may be saved when you die," he said.
"Your buttocks understand our language," said someone light-heartedly and the crowd laughed...
At this point an old man said he had a question. "Which is this god of yours, " he asked, "the goddess of the earth, the god of the sky, Amadiora of the thunderbokt, or what?"
The interpreter spoke to the white man and he immediately gave this answer. "All the gods you have named are not gods at all. They are gods of deceit who tell you to kill your fellows and destroy innocent children."
There is only
Page 133
one true God and He has the earth, the sky, you and me and all of us."
"If we leave our gods and follow your god" asked another man, "who will protect us from the anger of our neglected gods and ancestors?"
"Your gods are not alive and cannot do you any harm," replied the white man. "They are pieces of wood and stone."
When this was interpreted to the men of Mbanta they broke into derisive laughter. These men must be mad, they said to themselves. How else could they say that Ani and Amadiora were harmless. And Idmili and Ogwugwu too? And some began to go away.
Then the missionaries burst into song. It was one of those gay and rollicking tunes of evangelism which had the power of plucking at silent and dusty chords in the heart of an Ibo man. The interpreter explained each verse to the audience, some of whom now stood enthralled....
After the singing the interpreter spoke about the Son of God whose name was Jesu Kristi. Okonkwo, whoonly stayed in the hope that it might come to chasing the men out of the village or whipping them, now said:
"You told us with your own mouth that there was only one god. Now you talk about his song. He must have a wife, then." The crowd agreed.
"I did not say He had a wife," said the interpreter, somewhat lamely.
"Your buttocks said he had a son," said the joker. "So he must have a wife and all of them must have buttocks."
The missionary ignored him and went on to talk about the
page 134
Holy Trinity. At the end of it Okonkwo was fully convinced that the man was mad. He shrugged his shoulders and went away to tap his afternoon palm wine."...
****
EXPLANATION QUOTES
These quotes are given in no particular order.
Quote #1
From http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/t/things-fall-apart/critical-essays/use-of-language-in-things-fall-apart Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
Critical Essays Use of Language in Things Fall Apart
..."In a 1966 essay reprinted in his book Morning Yet on Creation Day, he [Igbo (Nigerian) novelist Chinua Achebe] says that, by using English, he presents "a new voice coming out of Africa, speaking of African experience in a world-wide language." He recommends that the African writer use English "in a way that brings out his message best without altering the language to the extent that its value as a medium of international exchange will be lost. [The writer] should aim at fashioning out an English which is at once universal and able to carry his peculiar experience." Achebe accomplishes this goal by innovatively introducing Igbo language, proverbs, metaphors, speech rhythms, and ideas into a novel written in English...
Pronunciation of Igbo Names and Words
Like Chinese, the Igbo language is a tonal one; that is, differences in the actual voice pitch and the rise or fall of a word or phrase can produce different meanings. In Chapter 16, for example, Achebe describes how the missionary's translator, though an Igbo, can not pronounce the Mbanto Igbo dialect: "Instead of saying 'myself' he always said 'my buttocks.'" (The form k means strength while k means buttocks.)”...
-snip-
My understanding of that quote is that the interpreter thought that he was saying "myself" but the way he pronounced those words in his dialect of Igbo, the Mbanto (Mbanta) villagers heard the words "my buttocks".
****
Quote #2
From Google Books edition of "Yo Mama!: New Raps, Toasts, Dozens, Jokes, and Children's Rhymes from Urban Black America" by Onwuchekwa Jemie (Temple University Press, 2003), page 20 (introduction)
"Closely allied to "shit" is "ass". These two words rank ahead of all others as the omnibus word, the word-of-all-works in all Ebonics. "Get your ass over here. Set your black ass down. I’ma beat your black ass. Being Captain’s good while it last/But if you can’t swim, that’s your ass. Money good but money don’t last/Shine gotta save his own black ass... They drug his ass out of the sun and laid him in the shade/The animals walked by a viewed his ass like GIs on parade."
page 21
the Delta Igbos use the term the term ike-mu (my buttocks/my ass) and instead of gi (you), they say ike-gi (your ass):
Ike-gi na-akakari anya! Ike-mu na ike-gi anyi bu ogbo? You are very bold and disrespectful! Do you think you are my equal? (lit. [literally] Your ass is very bold and disrespectful. My ass and your ass, are they age mates?)
Among the Igbos, these usages are greeted with laughter, especially by those hearing them for the first time, and speakers of that dialect are teased continually. Chinua Achebe, the great novelist and scholar of Igbo culture captures the fun in Things Fall Apart. A white missionary has arrived at the village of Mbanta, bringing an Igbo interpreter from the Delta:
Then the interpreter spoke of “Jesu Kristi”, who he said was the “Son of God”. A villager queries him:
How did this laughable exception on the mother continent become the rule in settlements across the ocean? How did this lowly part of the anatomy, elevated in personhood in a comical synecdoche in a remote corner of Igboland, come to usurp the African-American kingdom? The Delta was the corridor through which virtually all the Igbo captives passed into the Middle Passage. The Delta dialect was, as it were, the last word they heard on the Motherland. Was it also the word they best remembered?”...
-snip-
The words in italics were written that way in that passage.
Onwuchekwa Jemie identifies the Igbo interpreter who spoke a different form of Igbo as being from the Delta State of Nigeria. Jemie is also from that same part of Nigeria:
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onwuchekwa_Jemie
"Onwuchekwa Jemie is a Nigerian scholar, poet, journalist, and professor. He was born in Abia State, Nigeria".
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abia_State
"Abia is a state in the south eastern part of Nigeria.[4] The capital is Umuahia and the major commercial city is Aba. The commercial hub, Aba was formerly a British colonial government outpost in the region. Abia state was created in 1991 from part of Imo State.[5] It is one of the constituent states of the Niger Delta region."
-snip-
Does Jemie mean that the interpreter actually meant to say the words "my buttocks"? Do Delta State Igbos really use "my buttocks" the same way that African Americans (and by extension other Americans) use "my ass" i.e. "Get your ass over here.", Set your black ass down" etc.? Is Onwuchewka Jemie correct that the Delta State Igbos' use of "my buttocks" is the source of African Americans' use of the word "ass" to represent a person's entire body? Or is it the Delta State Igbos' use of "my buttocks" one of the sources of one of the vernacular ways that African Americans use the word "ass"?
****
ADDENDUM- INFORMATION ABOUT THE IGBO LANGUAGE [Added June 13, 2016 4:19 PM)
From http://wikitravel.org/en/Igbo_phrasebook
Igbo phrasebook; Igbo Nsibidi.png
"Igbo (Igbo: Ásụ̀sụ̀ Ìgbò) is a Niger-Congo language spoken primarily in Nigeria. There are between 18-25 million Igbo speakers living primarily in southeastern Nigeria in an area known as Igboland. Igbo is a national language of Nigeria and is also recognised in Equatorial Guinea. Igbo is made up of many different dialects which aren't mutually intelligible to other Igbo speakers at times...
Through the transatlantic slave trade, the Igbo language has influenced many creole languages in the Americas, especially in the former British Caribbean, including islands such as Jamaica, Barbados, Dominica, and Trinidad and Tobago. Variations of Igbo known as Suámo can be found in Cuba. Igbo is spoken by a significant number of people on Bioko island in Equatorial Guinea, formerly known as Fernando Po, and in micro-communities in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, and it is also spoken by recent migrants of Igbo descent all over the world.”
****
LINK TO A RELATED PANCOCOJAMS POST
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/06/excerpts-from-nairalandcom-nigerian.html for a related post about Delta State Igbos.
Pancocojams posts about "Shine And The Titanic" and about "The Signifying Monkey" (parts of which were quoted in the first paragraph of Onwuchekwa Jemie's passage) can also be found by clicking the tags below or by using the blog's internal search engine.
****
The content of this post is presented for folkloric and cultural purpose.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor are comments welcome.
In researching the various vernacular English use of the word "ass" as an intensifier*, I happened upon two comments about Chapter 16 of Chinua Achebe's 1958 novel which appear to me to provide different explanations for villagers saying that a man who spoke a dialect of Ibo (Igbo) said "my buttocks" for "myself".
Before quoting those comments, in the interest of "sussing" out the meaning of those sentences, here's an excerpt of that chapter.
*Here's a link to the pancocojams post that I was working on when I found those comments about "my buttocks" in Chinua Achebe's novel: http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/06/comments-examples-about-ass-as.html Comments & Examples About "Ass" As An Intensifier
****
CHAPTER 16: "THINGS FALL APART"*
(Chinua Achebe; (Heinemann Educational Books, Ltd, London, originally published 1958, reprint 1968; pages 131-133)
Page 131
"The arrival of the missionaries had caused a considerable stir in the village of Mbanta. There were six of them and one was a white man. Every man and woman came out to see the white man. Stories about these strange men had grown since one of them had been killed in Abame and his iron horse tied to the sacred silk-cotton tree. And so everybody came to see the white man. It was the time of the year when everybody was home. The harvest was over.
When they had all gathered, the white man began to speak to them. He spoke through an interpreter who was an Ibo man, though his dialect was different and harsh to the ears of Mbanta. Many people laughed at his dialect and the way he used words strangely. Instead of saying 'myself' he always said 'my buttocks'. But he was a man of commanding presence and the clansmen listened to him. He said he was one of them, as they could see from his colour and his language. The other four black men were also their brothers, although one of them did not speak Ibo. The White man was also their brother because they were all sons of God. And he told them about this new God, the Creator of all the world and all the men and women. He told them that they worshipped false gods, gods of wood and stone. A deep murmur
page 132
went through the crowd when he said this. He told them that the true God lived on high and that all men when they died went before Him for judgment. Evil men and all the heathen who in their blindness bowed to wood and stone were thrown into a fire that burned like palm-oil. But good men who worshipped the true God lived for ever in His happy kingdom. "We have been sent by this great God to ask you to leave your wicked ways and false gods and turn to Him that you may be saved when you die," he said.
"Your buttocks understand our language," said someone light-heartedly and the crowd laughed...
At this point an old man said he had a question. "Which is this god of yours, " he asked, "the goddess of the earth, the god of the sky, Amadiora of the thunderbokt, or what?"
The interpreter spoke to the white man and he immediately gave this answer. "All the gods you have named are not gods at all. They are gods of deceit who tell you to kill your fellows and destroy innocent children."
There is only
Page 133
one true God and He has the earth, the sky, you and me and all of us."
"If we leave our gods and follow your god" asked another man, "who will protect us from the anger of our neglected gods and ancestors?"
"Your gods are not alive and cannot do you any harm," replied the white man. "They are pieces of wood and stone."
When this was interpreted to the men of Mbanta they broke into derisive laughter. These men must be mad, they said to themselves. How else could they say that Ani and Amadiora were harmless. And Idmili and Ogwugwu too? And some began to go away.
Then the missionaries burst into song. It was one of those gay and rollicking tunes of evangelism which had the power of plucking at silent and dusty chords in the heart of an Ibo man. The interpreter explained each verse to the audience, some of whom now stood enthralled....
After the singing the interpreter spoke about the Son of God whose name was Jesu Kristi. Okonkwo, whoonly stayed in the hope that it might come to chasing the men out of the village or whipping them, now said:
"You told us with your own mouth that there was only one god. Now you talk about his song. He must have a wife, then." The crowd agreed.
"I did not say He had a wife," said the interpreter, somewhat lamely.
"Your buttocks said he had a son," said the joker. "So he must have a wife and all of them must have buttocks."
The missionary ignored him and went on to talk about the
page 134
Holy Trinity. At the end of it Okonkwo was fully convinced that the man was mad. He shrugged his shoulders and went away to tap his afternoon palm wine."...
****
EXPLANATION QUOTES
These quotes are given in no particular order.
Quote #1
From http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/t/things-fall-apart/critical-essays/use-of-language-in-things-fall-apart Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
Critical Essays Use of Language in Things Fall Apart
..."In a 1966 essay reprinted in his book Morning Yet on Creation Day, he [Igbo (Nigerian) novelist Chinua Achebe] says that, by using English, he presents "a new voice coming out of Africa, speaking of African experience in a world-wide language." He recommends that the African writer use English "in a way that brings out his message best without altering the language to the extent that its value as a medium of international exchange will be lost. [The writer] should aim at fashioning out an English which is at once universal and able to carry his peculiar experience." Achebe accomplishes this goal by innovatively introducing Igbo language, proverbs, metaphors, speech rhythms, and ideas into a novel written in English...
Pronunciation of Igbo Names and Words
Like Chinese, the Igbo language is a tonal one; that is, differences in the actual voice pitch and the rise or fall of a word or phrase can produce different meanings. In Chapter 16, for example, Achebe describes how the missionary's translator, though an Igbo, can not pronounce the Mbanto Igbo dialect: "Instead of saying 'myself' he always said 'my buttocks.'" (The form k means strength while k means buttocks.)”...
-snip-
My understanding of that quote is that the interpreter thought that he was saying "myself" but the way he pronounced those words in his dialect of Igbo, the Mbanto (Mbanta) villagers heard the words "my buttocks".
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Quote #2
From Google Books edition of "Yo Mama!: New Raps, Toasts, Dozens, Jokes, and Children's Rhymes from Urban Black America" by Onwuchekwa Jemie (Temple University Press, 2003), page 20 (introduction)
"Closely allied to "shit" is "ass". These two words rank ahead of all others as the omnibus word, the word-of-all-works in all Ebonics. "Get your ass over here. Set your black ass down. I’ma beat your black ass. Being Captain’s good while it last/But if you can’t swim, that’s your ass. Money good but money don’t last/Shine gotta save his own black ass... They drug his ass out of the sun and laid him in the shade/The animals walked by a viewed his ass like GIs on parade."
page 21
the Delta Igbos use the term the term ike-mu (my buttocks/my ass) and instead of gi (you), they say ike-gi (your ass):
Ike-gi na-akakari anya! Ike-mu na ike-gi anyi bu ogbo? You are very bold and disrespectful! Do you think you are my equal? (lit. [literally] Your ass is very bold and disrespectful. My ass and your ass, are they age mates?)
Among the Igbos, these usages are greeted with laughter, especially by those hearing them for the first time, and speakers of that dialect are teased continually. Chinua Achebe, the great novelist and scholar of Igbo culture captures the fun in Things Fall Apart. A white missionary has arrived at the village of Mbanta, bringing an Igbo interpreter from the Delta:
But he was a man of commanding presence and the clansmen listened to him...
“Your buttocks understands our language” said someone lightheartedly and the crowd laughed. (Achebe, Things, 134-135
Then the interpreter spoke of “Jesu Kristi”, who he said was the “Son of God”. A villager queries him:
You told us with your own mouth that there was only one god. Now you talk of his son. He must have a wife, then.” The crowd agreed.
“I did not say He had a wife,” said the interpreter somewhat lamely.
“Your buttocks said he had a son,” said the joker. So he must have a wife and all of them must have buttocks”. (Achebe, Things, 136-137
How did this laughable exception on the mother continent become the rule in settlements across the ocean? How did this lowly part of the anatomy, elevated in personhood in a comical synecdoche in a remote corner of Igboland, come to usurp the African-American kingdom? The Delta was the corridor through which virtually all the Igbo captives passed into the Middle Passage. The Delta dialect was, as it were, the last word they heard on the Motherland. Was it also the word they best remembered?”...
-snip-
The words in italics were written that way in that passage.
Onwuchekwa Jemie identifies the Igbo interpreter who spoke a different form of Igbo as being from the Delta State of Nigeria. Jemie is also from that same part of Nigeria:
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onwuchekwa_Jemie
"Onwuchekwa Jemie is a Nigerian scholar, poet, journalist, and professor. He was born in Abia State, Nigeria".
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abia_State
"Abia is a state in the south eastern part of Nigeria.[4] The capital is Umuahia and the major commercial city is Aba. The commercial hub, Aba was formerly a British colonial government outpost in the region. Abia state was created in 1991 from part of Imo State.[5] It is one of the constituent states of the Niger Delta region."
-snip-
Does Jemie mean that the interpreter actually meant to say the words "my buttocks"? Do Delta State Igbos really use "my buttocks" the same way that African Americans (and by extension other Americans) use "my ass" i.e. "Get your ass over here.", Set your black ass down" etc.? Is Onwuchewka Jemie correct that the Delta State Igbos' use of "my buttocks" is the source of African Americans' use of the word "ass" to represent a person's entire body? Or is it the Delta State Igbos' use of "my buttocks" one of the sources of one of the vernacular ways that African Americans use the word "ass"?
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ADDENDUM- INFORMATION ABOUT THE IGBO LANGUAGE [Added June 13, 2016 4:19 PM)
From http://wikitravel.org/en/Igbo_phrasebook
Igbo phrasebook; Igbo Nsibidi.png
"Igbo (Igbo: Ásụ̀sụ̀ Ìgbò) is a Niger-Congo language spoken primarily in Nigeria. There are between 18-25 million Igbo speakers living primarily in southeastern Nigeria in an area known as Igboland. Igbo is a national language of Nigeria and is also recognised in Equatorial Guinea. Igbo is made up of many different dialects which aren't mutually intelligible to other Igbo speakers at times...
Through the transatlantic slave trade, the Igbo language has influenced many creole languages in the Americas, especially in the former British Caribbean, including islands such as Jamaica, Barbados, Dominica, and Trinidad and Tobago. Variations of Igbo known as Suámo can be found in Cuba. Igbo is spoken by a significant number of people on Bioko island in Equatorial Guinea, formerly known as Fernando Po, and in micro-communities in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, and it is also spoken by recent migrants of Igbo descent all over the world.”
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LINK TO A RELATED PANCOCOJAMS POST
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/06/excerpts-from-nairalandcom-nigerian.html for a related post about Delta State Igbos.
Pancocojams posts about "Shine And The Titanic" and about "The Signifying Monkey" (parts of which were quoted in the first paragraph of Onwuchekwa Jemie's passage) can also be found by clicking the tags below or by using the blog's internal search engine.
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