ONYE OBODO!

Ọ di nnọọ interesting how slangs move around us, a living breathing part of our culture, our oral culture, our communication. They're not per se correct ways of talking na ị approachie a language from the angle of the official way esi ede ma na asụ ya, but ị approachie ya in it's truest form, as a tool of the streets, ifu very colourful ways, very changing ways of saying things that grow rather mundane with time.

Some years ago, "Alobam" ma ọ bụ "aloba", depending on how, you're using it, on onye ị na-e use ya and on where you're using, mee some more old fashioned ways of referring to a bro or a friend like "nwanne m" or "onye nke mụ" to be dropped on the tracks of the street. To make matters even more serious, Phyno, one of our favourites bịakwu jiri ya tie egwu. With egwu ahụ, a simple slang bidoro in the parks and ghettos of Aba became accepted and even normal in informal spaces.

Enwego mụ the discussion a lot of times and with each one I am more convinced that my elder brother and all older people who told me while I was growing up that na Igbo bụ a dead language because na ọ diro eme evolve either lied or didn't have their facts right. Yes, any language refuseru ime evolve dies off in time ọsọgodi ka usage ya continue o like in the case of Latin. Mana Igbo akwụsịbe ịme evolve.

Today na Enugu, the cordial way of referring to your G, onye nke gị, aloba gị or any guy at all ịchọ ị hail bụ itu ya "onye obodo!" I can't give you etymology si gị na o bidoro ebe a ma ọ bụ ebe a but m ga agwanwu gị na ịkpọ your guy onye obodo in public in an informal setting, you won't be off.

Slangs bụ the lifeline of every language. Ya na its way of coming to us in italics and overtime sitting comfortably to power our speech so na one of the amazing things about language. Another amazing part of it all bụ how seamlessly it moves like water or like American democracy before Trump - moving smoothly, handing over smoothly, from past to present to future. Yesterday it was aloba, today it is onye obodo, tomorrow something even more colourful and true to us. We might not speak a lot of ilu in our discussions today, but when you come to the streets, the language ka dị true to the people.

PS for the picture ya na post a so, enwete mụ ya from Google images and ọ onye protesti ka mụ na afụ as onye obodo.