Glossary of Things Fall Apart

A GLOSSARY OF IBO WORDS AND PHRASES

agadi-nwayi: old woman.

Agbala: woman; also used of a man who has taken no title.

Chi: personal god.

 efukfu: worthless man.

 egwugwu: a masquerader who impersonates one of the ancestral spirits of the village.

 ekwe: a musical instrument; a type of drum made from wood. 

eneke-nti-oba: a kind of bird. 

eze-agadi-nwayi: the teeth of an old woman. 

iba: fever. 

ilo: the village green, where assemblies for sports, discussions, etc., take place. 

inyanga: showing off, bragging. 

isa-ifi: a ceremony. If a wife had been separated from her husband for some time and were then to be re-united with him, this ceremony would be held to ascertain that she had not been unfaithful to him during the time of their separation.

iyi-uwa: a special kind of stone which forms the link between an ogbanje and the spirit world. Only if the iyi-uwa were discovered and destroyed would the child not die. 

jigida: a string of waist beads. 

kotma: court messenger. The word is not of Ibo origin but is a corruption of "court messenger." 

kwenu: a shout of approval and greeting. 

ndichie: elders. 

nna ayi: our father. 

nno: welcome. 

nso-ani: a religious offence of a kind abhorred by everyone, literally earth's taboo. 

nza: a very small bird. 

obi: the large living quarters of the head of the family. 

obodo dike: the land of the brave. 

ochu: murder or manslaughter. 

ogbanje: a changeling,- a child who repeatedly dies and returns to its mother to be reborn. It is almost impossible to bring up an ogbanje child without it dying, unless its iyiuwa is first found and destroyed.  ogene: a musical instrument; a kind of gong. 

oji odu achu-ijiji-o: (cow i. e., the one that uses its tail to drive flies away).  osu: outcast. Having been dedicated to a god, the osu was taboo and was not allowed to mix with the freeborn in any way.

Oye: the name of one of the four market days. 

ozo: the name of one of the titles or ranks. 

tufia: a curse or oath. 

udu: a musical instrument; a type of drum made from pottery.

 uli: a dye used by women for drawing patterns on the skin. 

umuada: a family gathering of daughters, for which the female kinsfolk return to their village of origin. 

umunna-: a wide group of kinsmen (the masculine form of the word umuada).

Uri: part of the betrothal ceremony when the dowry is paid