Proverb #434

“Ndụ mmiri! Ndụ azụ! Mmiri atala! Ma azụ anwụla!”

The foregoing is an expression you are likely to hear from a chief, elder or fellow Igbo man 'in address'. Here he speaks a benediction when he says 'Life to water as fish take to it; May the waters never run dry and let the Fish who are so sustained by it, live. '

From prayer and activity in churches, mosques or synagogues, we have become accustomed to the speaking of blessings at the end of a service or some other function. This phrase is spoken however by Igbo men usually at the beginnings of occasions, where the speaker delivers this prayer and speaks this metaphorical blessing in a lifted voice and some simulated drama !
He greets his fellows, expressing a wish that all find sustenance in that which sustains and like the proverbial fish, he prays that none perishes in that which he allows.

Benediction is a compound word - which comes to us, across from two cultures ... Bene (from the French word Bien denoting wellness, the same sense Bon in English) and diction (an English word denoting speech, speaking or the sound of one's voice) ... hence benediction - a speaking of good things.  
I have often wondered why blessings precede the actual ritual and rendition of speech in this way.  Perhaps the speakers wish to cast a light spell over the content of their message(s) and by this, charm the audience or listeners into their own beatitudes ...

A famous man once gave a famous speech beginning with a series of phrases - 'Blessed are the ...'

Perhaps it is a model of speech everywhere to begin speeches with blessings and the Igbos kinda figured this. 

The image is of course that of a beached fish in drying out and receding water
 and it is a place holder till someone provides something more appropriate. 

Proverb contributed By Aikay Ebirim.
Angles and Shades: By Kelechi Isiodu, Umunjam Mbieri , etc

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© ifont 2011, as it appears here.

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