“Nkịta anaghị ata ọkpụkpụ ọnya nʻolu.”
Contributed By Kelechi Una Isiodu, Umunjam, Mbieri.
for iFaT at ifont@groups.facebook.com
© ifont 2011, as it appears here.
They are in our homes and have been described as 'Man's best friend'. We tried very hard to find an appropriate hunter's dog to take a photo, but when we couldn't find one, we settled for a European 'German Shepherd'. The rich and famous in present day, Igbo land sometimes get these dogs as guard dogs. What you found in the old days was that a hunter usually bored a hole in an old bone and hung it around his dog to secure a little bell. The toll of this bell became an elaborate communications system between the hunter and his dog. The bell told the hunter the direction and position of the dog as they stalked prey together. Everyone knows that dogs are fond of bones, but a strange thing happened once a bone formed part of a 'collar' around the dog's neck. The dog somehow became compliant and did not try to play with or feed on the marrow from the bone around its neck. The dog seemed to realise intuitively what the bone was for ...That inspired this proverb among Ibos, literally: 'The Dog does not eat the bone hung around its neck' - I think Ibos 'abstract' from this behaviour of dogs, the idea of responsibility. When one is given a responsibility, the proper behaviour is to rise to it and to discharge it properly. If only we all behaved like the elders or their dogs ...
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