By Sampson Iroabuchi Onwuka To establish any relationship between two languages in the world, there must be at least a set of verifiable words which outsiders can investigate on their own and arrive at the same conclusion. In many ways the glossary of words of two comparing languages should have some roots in each other in such a way that they can explain hidden meanings in their word composition. At least the issue of morpheme appearing at certa … Read More

via Igbohebrewdialectic's Blog

In Babylon, a record of patterns of world languages were recorded and arranged in straits in what was tablets of stones and in Papyrus. In Babylon much of the known world came to be known in literature and much of the alphabet cities of the world became known. Some of the places were noted only by the ship that travelled to the ports and others named after the ships were made more popular by the seaports Babylon and of Syria. The laws of the society of the area including the Hamurabi code was noted around the area and it had been argued more than once that his laws of Hamurabi of the 18th century were largely developed for the sake of traffic management and for issues concerning property in ownership Babylonian society. Hamurabi may be known as one of the oldest lawmakers in the world, and his rule compared to one of those in the course of human history that made civil responsibilities useful.

But Hamurabi in terms of African history, by which he is to be measured, Hamurabi was one of many powerful civil servant who successfully – albeit briefly – won his independence from Egypt. Africa is a continent that has come a long way and the world now copy Egypt as co-heirs making it seem that outside that world was Europe in particular sense of the world. The laws that Hamurabi supposedly enacted were effective and great, but in terms of Egyptian history of even the late 18th Dynasty, he was far away. By time of Pharoah Mernakhare and his collections of prosody called the ‘Instructions of Mernakhare’ to his sons and for providence, Africa was already in decay from millennia of brilliance and old aged. From the particulars of Egyptian history which at its beginning is located somewhere in the deeper part of Africa, nearly Sudan, from where they move forward to the first cataract and the Badarian division, then the war of 3100 Bce or thereabout led to the rise of Upper Egypt closer to the reach of Africa.

Instructions of Mernakhare was not the only book written by Egyptians, there were other books such as the story of Sinuhe, about a man who was expelled from Egypt to deeper ends of the world and his return. The Book of the Dead contains mystery of the dying and resurrection of the Re. The instructions of Mernekhare is a collection of teachings on how to deal with diplomats of the world and how to be a great pharaoh, a literature of highest order composed around 2100 bce – a century or so before the Great flood. Menakhare himself was troubled by the headache of invaders, an issue that came up from time to time in his long stay as Pharaoh. This was only a brief moment in the history of Egypt, a moment of uncertainty in the boundary penetration of Egypt.

Like many historians have said, America, France, Britain, China, Rome, Greece – Macedon, Assyria and so on, may for instance speak of their decades, perhaps their golden era comprising a century of their greatness in the world, but Egypt and their Africans speak in millennia, millennia of sustained intellectual brilliance. The water bearer for Egypt include Syria, Jordan, Babylon, all of which amount in many ways to Mesopotamia may equally stake their case as commanders of history, but it is only on the understanding of they where and where they pitch their ancestral home. This home is none other than Egypt and Africa.

The long lasting nature of Egyptian intellectual technology was due to many factors, one of which is the isolated environment and the other their code for language which they invented and which they used in conducting the affairs of the world through ports like Ugarit, Syria, Babylon, Iona, Ashur, Crete, and so on. This code of language of what is known in edited version as Rosetta stone helped the efficient functionary of Egyptian mining districts such as Mari, Ebla, Mycene, Uruk, Sidon & Tyre, Cyprus, the Sinai peninsula and the other ‘alphabet cities’ around Sinai and Asia, where the obsidian disk of great Pharaohs were found, Pharaohs such as Chefren of 2500 bce. To places that guarded its gates, both against their fellow Africans of the eastern gate such Nubia and then Punt of the North for the beginnings of their great civilization. So the code of language from its earliest point was the idea behind the degree of management involved in the exercise, an exercise that was developed through ranks for priest and mainly used by priest.

Through the traffic of people along the Transjordan and the Syria coast, which were drop off Zone for a host of countries of the world, Babylon was able to converse with the known world with a language pattern that was a mere imitation of Rosetta stone of Egypt. In Babylon, much of the Egyptian formulae for communication were fully enhanced and from Babylon we begin to see the link between Africa and European society. Yet it seems strange that the connection in itself may yet fail to determine the Roots of English, since Babylon is mother tongue of Akkadian by way of Akkad and Sargon I of Ashur of 2300 Bce, whose conquest reached Northern Greek in the twilight of his career.

Akkadian is one of the three dialects of Greek, but Akkadian like other dialects of Greek is rooted in Berber of Africa. The Berber language has being demonstrated as the structure of Arabic, Arabic the mother bed of Spanish and Spanish no less Latin is a company to English, the language altogether disconnected from Greek. But in common linguistic study, it is said that Greek in of itself, is not at all related to English in terms of structure, that English language merely and only copied from Greek what it needed. Enough cannot be said about English language which in many ways did not do anymore than copy some words from Greeks, in observation of the so called ‘law of Parsippany’ and the ‘dialect continuum’ of Syriac – Greek – Byzantine. This argument is made true on the context of the fact that Sanskrit has roots in what became Greek language and as such some words in Sanskrit, may be found in English.

There is no doubt that Greek is to be understood as three dialects which eventually proved itself in one dialect called the Akkadian. There is no doubt that Greeks are the hot bed of modern European offshoots, that is by influence, a language that it is claimed to have empowered the evolution of Runes of West and North German of Europe. Runes or Runic language has no depth in terms of history but Runic is the madness of the linguistic common world. No doubt that Greek is the comparative language of the time of Christ, in the Hellenistic era after the years of Alexander and in the era of translation from language to another, a process referred as the Targum. While the gap between German as we later understood and German as it never existed during the rise of Macedonians. But this is all common history.

Common sense for common people would lead us to accept that certain claims of common historians of the so called Germanic languages and tribes may have yielded much of what we know as English. Some of these historians and their linguistics also say that English and Germanic languages may have emerged from uncertain origins of Greek and Italian. That it emerged from such roots to become a new language of its own. From such form to such disputable degree of what is essentially Germanic language, much of current language now serves as the repository for English of the Middle ages where dictionaries of old English return time and through time to such bad bank of Old English. It is from the inks of the languages, Jutes, Frisian, Saxon that English was supposed to have emerged.

The claim that the Vedic Sanskrit such as the Greek language and much like Gothic, Visigothic, Pre-Caroligian, Merovingian, and other Indo –European languages, may have sought out their linguistic pathways from a certain origin, and continued in that pathway until they became a language of their own, is like spreading so slime a tar on so broad an avenue of the world that we can only see the link from one end to the other and not the tar, the main, the source.

Links however to Greek society and language away from Egypt is a gap – thousands of years apart – for we know that even the mathematics of Assyrians of late Bronze age and the study of the stars called Astrology were only perfected in Babylon, and the learning was only ‘retention’ in Iona – Greece, and with it a language of translation. Therefore the Babylonian languages like Emersal, where not to be missed as a particular of the Greek languages, probably the Akkadian. At some point in the history of linguistic study, there is a place called Sumer which many people argued had a collection of six different dialects, one which was the Emersal/Emersol, spoken in parts of Babylon. The rest of the dialects others have argued, was a vivification of the independent origins of the language of the people of Babylon, that Sumer shows departures in the language from its older stunt and to periods of departure. But not until lately were they indication of the false assumptions of these Sumerian language. In fact many of the historians missed entirely.

Comparing European languages to Africa or even to Semitic languages (?) is like comparing the Thames to the English Channel, the English Channel to the Atlantic, and perhaps the Atlantic to the Water ways of the World. Need does not arise to prove that a language in Europe may easily find its Roots in Africa. Need however arises, when African language in its current form is measured in terms of Europe and in terms of Latin, for these European language is so junior to African languages that studies in current form may not be possible, linguistic studies may demote the languages of Africa as too ‘brutal’ for European throat, for the upper and lower column of their vocal cords.

African languages are in fact only languages in terms of Europe only by way of ethics and their more female side. For many linguistic, Greek has all they need to know, a fact buttressed by Sanskrit of Arian semi – demotic script, all of whom descent the so called Caucasus, which historians have said and demonstrated is nothing else as Cholchi of old, a people who willing celebrate their descent from Egypt and Africa. As such the Sanskrit which is spiritual hymn of the Vedic was supposed have origin elsewhere than Africa. I want to say that enough however exit today to re-assure that most Indian languages descended from Syria or parts of Syria, some of which are at home in the TransJordan. The Brahmi for instance and the Gupta were very early departures of the Indian language. But these two languages including Basra are related to Berber and to Neo Sinaitic inscription and to Aramaic in general. Sanskrit and the Java were however part of an earlier departure from quasi Greek. In fact Java is the same Jawan, close to Aswan, which are modern adoption of the word Iona. Aswan is perhaps a Hebrew mimesis of the same word Iona, a Greek tribe that was a particular of the dialects available.

If that is too much to swallow, imagine that Indian Sanskrit contain so many Igbo words in very vivid essence that you cannot fail to recognize a possible common origin of perhaps domestic Igbo words and high Sanskrit. Enough has been done to connect Sanskrit to Hebrew, and of some of which were done with some degree of success. But the relationship between Igbo and Sanskrit maybe accidental given the success of the fact that many languages of the word today came from perhaps the ranks of Syria, from around the area of Sinai which reach all the way to Africa.

For the sake of argument we compare three, six, seven, eight, of English numerals with Igbo and Sanskrit. At least for Indians, you should be able to find in Igbo, ato (three) ishi (six), asaa (seven), asato(eight), while Sanskrit has the following for tryas (three), sat (six), sapta (seven), and asta (eight). Jacob Grimms’ sound Shift will even compel a closer comparison of Hindu dwo, with words like duo, English dual, or Latin Febua (Febuari/Febuary), to Igbo abuo, ebua, for two. Isolate the F letter like our previous example has demonstrated and we can easily, very easily arrive at ebua, nothing less than two in Igbo; ebua, abua, abuo, a word that could not be any stranger to Latin and to indo European.

Even beyond English, the connection between the Sanskrit of the Vedic and Igbo of the Nigeria is even much closer. As revealing as the above facts would seem, I must say that there is at least a 100 of such conviviality of Igbo and of the Sanskrit. I hope also hope you did not miss six and seven in English as ishi and asaa in Igbo. Even the word ato and quarto, may be explicated in terms of the number of alphabets available in world history until lately.

Until the Moors from Africa introduced numbers and mathematics to Europe (and not the Hindu) numbers or arithmetic was also unknown to Europeans. The numbers 1-9, were the initial usage until sometime in the 14th century when the number 10 was introduced, also by an African Berber of what is Algeria. From 1 (one) so to speak in English to 9 (nine), English language could have only retained what it needed to and the changes in the Sanskrit was probably a very recent thing. Old English contain tehani as supposedly the last number in old English society and I think that tehani was possibly the nine, and most probably, nine simply emanated from nani, which without the t is probably a dialectal of English with leniency to Latin. As such the emendation to nine from nani, would mean that tehani was the sole purpose for that same word. That is to say that nani and tegheni were just the reference to the last number in old English.

This tehani is still now the last of the numbers in current English, but it is now ten – which is the latest of number invention. In Igbo, however, it does appear that the last of the numbers is or may have been 9, or at least may have been the number nine in prospective. This is just speculation and we can speculate on this since we know that Iteghete, no more different from the Igbo word teghete is for nine, a word that is no different from teghani or tehani of old Norman English, which is now altered as ten in current English. Unless we can demonstrate that teghete in Igbo which is nine per se does not exist anywhere in Old English or Old Latin or Old French, then we can only hope that we may have been right by probably existence of the original English numbers containing litre as 10. Iri is the word for ten in Igbo, no different from the English word litre, only on the account of the t letter and the teh, a case which we have made concerning the degree of relativity and separateness between English and Latin and between some European language and Nigerian Igbo.

In the course of previous articles, I eventually re-discovered that at some point in the course of many writings Verner (Verner’s law) made a comparative commentary of the presence of the fricative, t, in Germanic languages – anecdote for English – which he and his company demonstrated to have arisen out of voiceless environment of the wandering Germanic tribes. Much like muon, muo, old English for mouth current English. If you have so far followed my lecture on this, you will come to discover that something is wrong with the above English words for mouth, words like muon, muo, are no different from nuon, num(?), phonum which are closer to Latin in terms of spoken words and parts of speaking. Closer still is the above connection to these words, onu (mouth), onum(my mouth), na-onu (none, empty talk, mouthing?). The influence as I have argued is not only Germanic in terms of environment but also Greek, Syria Greek by way of Byzantine. Lire, it must be known is for the count of 10 in Latin, showing a structural affinity with Igbo.

The Latinate of language might stake its faith in Igbo on the condition which I have argued is Hebrew, perhaps related to Aramaic, perhaps Arabic is essence and most perhaps Berber in structure. But the bearers of that Berber language or whom we now tend to under of connection to old English and as Barbarian where not Greek outsiders pe se, but where the larger family of languages that might have given birth to Indo – European languages, Germanic for certain. The Berbers, ancient and modern are easily found in what is now Syria and are mainly located in Northern parts of Africa. Many of them today as partly Arabic, partly European, but largely the remaining few are largely ethnic African minority that are still suffering the sacrilege of invasion by the outsiders.

These people are also found around the Saharan belt, north and south. Syria, ancient and modern entertained civilizations from Europe and no singular country in the world has that much to offer the world beyond Syria, saving Egypt and their Africans. Babylon was probably on the same scale with Syria, perhaps Persia after. The relevance of Rome before the Greeks is not arguable, although some will entirely insist that Greece rank higher, but on the weight of Christianity, the Greeks are merely popular.

In it all, you are tempted to question a lot of things, as well translate them.

Part B

What is Christianity without the Jews and their Samarian Arabs? And who are these Jews and Arabs if not tribes of Africa? What is really Greek that is Greek without Africa? What is Babylon without Syria and Egypt? And what is Syria if not part of Africa? The question that will likely be asked is what may be called languages of the world given the newer facilities of the comparison between European languages and to African Atlantic languages and African Igbos? Is it really possible to call Germanic languages of English, French, Spanish, and so on, languages at all in the world. Are these languages not merely dialect continuum of African languages, a combination of Ancient and Medieval Latin by way of Berber and the Roman church, a pun on the Greek myriad overlay on the native German…if at all there is such a thing. There is possible non such. This is also a case with Hebrew and the Greek at the highest point in the fifth century.

Even at that, Greek society only reached its highest point in the 5th century where the likes of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle all graced the intellectual stage. It is only natural that the Greeks would have all of a sudden appeared, for it is clear to many historians that the East side of the Greece which Iona, were no surprisingly the major bearers of the intellectual culture given their opulence to migration. The immigrant population of Iona was mainly outsiders of very Greek, and could only have added their influence to the nearly democratic Greek states. Many of these immigrants were Egyptians and their African tribes, and many of whom were persecuted during the years of Cyrus, to the years of his son Cambyses as king of Babylon and Assyria, through the years of Darius I who eventually unified Babylon and Assyrian into Persia, all three leaders of Persian Empire of the fifth century. It has been said that Egyptian priests and scholars moved from Egypt (Africa) into many parts of their neighboring states like Syria and from such places they began to migrate into deeper reaches of Europe, to places such as Greece. Iona was essential part of that entrance and Iona retained in Greece these artists from Egypt and Near East, Iona allowed these priest, wise men, and women of Egypt who sort to free themselves from the control of Persians to nurture their ability. These priests sort to free themselves from the total domination of their land, and Persian authorities cited that their services were no longer required. They refused the authority Greece offered the brief protection.

No doubt that in that 5th century, these men without serious background in Greece, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, or their parents described as Greeks and it no coincidence that these men, all of a sudden showed from no way to change the thinking were part of that migration from Egypt and the near east into Greece. Before these people and their arrival, there were no Socrates by name, no Plato by name and not meaning with the name Aristotle. Many Greek and indeed the world began to adopt these names after the greats have left. Greek without priors reached intellectual pinnacle because of these immigrant, or so it seem for we know that Egypt and Africa was the Intellectual arcana of the world from very ancient times till the eve of the Arab invasion in 7th century AD. This was the case largely because of the written language which was made possible through alphabets and letters, an Egyptian prototype for writing and recording after their god of writing, Thoth.

Still at that, the intellectual pinnacle attained by Greeks in the 5th century was essentially nothing compared to what was obtainable in Babylon, compared to what was common wisdom in Africa and what was essentially wisdom obtainable as the sand of the sea like those of the Egyptian. It was Babylon that held that key to ancient wisdom and if Plato and company were Babylonians in lineage or from Near East Africa, their loyalty was essentially Egypt, a place that they returned from time and through the time, of their living years in Greece.

No doubt their loyalty to Darius I and II and the rest of them were not readily counted on and as such they had to make their living elsewhere. And it was only natural that the Academe that they initiated was a formal result of these unemployed immigrants, who conducted self-initiate project of reading, writing and professional life for their rich patron in Greece. But many of them opposed just about anything that mitigate against their line of profession. It is even said that Cambyses death by a poisoned arrow shot to his laps was arranged by the Priesthood of Egypt. From that 5th century Greek, the language of the Greeks began to change from one form to the more standard Greek. It was not the Greeks who inherited the direct thrust of civilization. It was the Babylonians who impacted on Assyrian such schools of learning beginning from the days of Tukulti -Ninurta II who thoroughly defeated Babylon and converted their learning to Assyria.

But Babylon completely owes its origin and its rich enhances of literature to Egypt. And they did for many centuries learn from them. Even the Greeks, who are the madness of our generation, cite Africa as home and in many case they cite Egypt. As such, cases involving Estrucans as rudimentary Egyptians, and places of history like Jordan which feature so much of the Bible is not that farfetched from Pre- dynastic Egypt and relatives of Africans. Phoenicians before them did not deny their leniency to Egypt and even more so the Babylonians who connect the ancient to the modern.

Babylonians rafted their wood from the sea called Adonis through to Syria into Egypt where the earliest civilizations are known. The first plays known to man were written in Africa, for instance the plays, ‘Coronation Drama’ and ‘Memphite Drama’ were all and mainly about the resurrection of Osiris. All the parts of the play were all about Africa at twilight of Pre-monarchic Egypt when the Pharaoh was still buried at Saqqara at around 3100 Bce. As such the plays about the Osiris and company were perhaps written a century or so after the death of Osiris by the hands of his brother, Seth. Manetho and Plutarch are usual sources of this legend, but there are other fragments of such liturgy about the rise of the great one Osiris from a seeming death. Osiris was cast into the casket and ran abroad through the River called Adonis, a river which got its name from Osiris. Adonis it must be said is mythologized in various forms throughout the world, but Plutarch’s Dionysus as Osiris Myth was supposedly the god of the Netherworld – that is the god of the grave and unknown world across the seas.

And when a person passes on in life, they put him or her on a boat and arrange a bouquet of flowers on the casket and the dry Raffia is placed to bear the burning fire. The boat sails into the Unknown world to be judged so to speak by Osiris, who was also called Adonii or Adonija by Egyptian. The world Nija or Niger, may have caught your attention, and may ease your speculative tickle given the definition Black lord, for we know that Adonija means Black Lord of the Nile but which also means lord of the unknown word, the Nether ‘dark and unknown’. In my view, Nether is possibly a mimesis of Niger/nija. Egyptian word nii is for Nile and the Egyptian word ado, means lord. That name Adonija is different from ‘Lord of the Nile’ which to Adoni/Adonay, a word discovered among the Hebrews to mean ‘lord’, which the Greek called Adonis, which are the two names of the Osiris.

Whatever maybe the interpretation of these appellations of Osiris and other lords of Egypt, it is not wrong to suggest that these were intended as a memorial to the times of Osiris and his death. The soul of dearly beloved in Egypt is often set into the sea and the buried are crouched in such a way that face the West in their dying scythe of eternity unknown. Even at that the Raffia in much older times is mainly expected to burn the remains. But the issue concerning burning to Ashes, a supposedly Greek practice has roots in Egypt. But the act of burning the body was not the only the way of burial even among the Greeks. Such act is however necessary since the rising of the Phoenix Bird is to prove itself as a soul in the trap of human body. So “when from Ashes…’’ must raise the soul, we absolve the Christians of this language on the crass of a legendary re – awakening of the Sun Bird after a seeming brief re-lapse into death, covered by the sands of time. This imitations of living dead, of this Bird that is thrown into the Fire to be burn and so to speak tried, only in the end shall the real bird arise from the Ashes. All part of the Osirian myth, all part of the Coronation Drama, all drama.

Adonis was one of the Phoenician Patrons and so was his Istar, the supposed wife of Osiris, guild for the workers of Babylon, of Narmer and rebel party of Menes in the last monarchic years of Egypt in around 3100 Bce. Istar was supposed to have used her magical ability to discover (or recover) the body of Osiris clutched in its carcass and coffin, perhaps in perpetual coma on seeming death. All in all, the trick and nailing alive of Osiris was the art of the wicked designs of his brother Seth in years of their father Geb >Geblin, the last monarch of Egypt before the Dynastic era. Perhaps an earlier case of the movie Amadeus and its corollary influence. How the river Adonis helped to raft the wood from Babylon into Syria and through Syria into Egypt display the ingenuity of these Egyptians, an ingenuity that lives further than Africa. But this stop of zone and traffic areas were part of Syria and Jordan, and much of Canaan including Jericho was very fertile largely because of dregs from buffeting sea. Egypt also benefitted from these dregs of annual rise and over flowing of the rivers and in particular, the Nile.

Phoenicians and Babylonians imitate the Egyptian rituals for after life. They both believe in soul’s departure and so on, and the phoenix is the very departing soul in escapade. The Egyptian and funerary Architecture is all clearly Egyptian, so is their style in dressing. Phoenicians, done as masters of red valets, only had head priest called the ensi loyal mainly to the pharaoh of Egypt, a title that is only head and not king. Then ensi is not a god, and among the peoples of Middle East such as Mari and Ebla, is the presence of the head, the ensi, the esse, these Egyptian outpost in Sinai had linguistic function that enabled business to business to function. In all certainty, Ebla which means ‘White Rock’ and Mari referring to Rock were probably tribes of Egyptian workers, like the Fenkus of Babylon called ‘Wood Cutters’ like the Phoenician who are Sea and Globe trotters of Egypt. One of the patrons of these sea travelers and discoverers was Thoth, the god of writing, and his female partner was Seshat; a goddess of poetry.

The initial list of words that was found among them was only a form of communication device between them and whoever was wherewithal. But most of the cities once attributed to Greek or Greek gods like Ephesus, Corinth, and so on were probably founded Phoenicians. These places carried the connotation of fornication and merry making, very much like the Phoenicians who very really married. There are no serious records of marriage among the Egyptians either, nor do we have a common repository of marital status in Babylon. In fact the word fornication is a mere pun from Phoenicians, and to call an affair Corinthian is to spook a society where fornication without boundary was lifestyle. Sodom and Gomorra has not being linked to Phoenicians and Babylonian but they were Canaanites, perhaps an extreme case of such labor happy and drink till you drop lifestyle…’for the gods will care of themselves’.

Sodom and Gomorra bring in the face of a man who help our understanding of Hebrew history and by name Abraham. Abraham once said that a ‘wandering Aramean was my father’ in Genesis. The reason for the statement could not have that clear in terms of world history saving from the facts of the placed called Haran, which was eventually noted as Ur Chaldean by perhaps a later Redactor, as many Biblical archeologists do claim. But the Chaldean language has been demonstrated by many linguistic to be much the same with Afro Asiatic languages as they say. And we make due reference to Haran since it carries the strong motif of Abraham being original from Jordan area, perhaps at the outskates of Syria leading to Syria, through to perhaps Mari and Ebla which were mining and rock cutting district of rich patrons like the Pharaohs building their pyramids. Or perhaps the other way round as intend to argue. As such, Abraham’s wondering Aramean father, may have originated from around Jordan, and moved towards Syria from where they were displaced by the floods of 2000 – 1900 Bce.

But what we are honking on is the degree through which much of world history has been misunderstood and misinterpreted, especially when we now know that the genealogy of nations found in Genesis 10, relates a story of the world of a certain Shem as the father of Aram and the issue of Eber as the ancestor of Hebrew. But Abraham of the date 1800c before Christ called his father a wandering Aramean, no doubt his father was perhaps a scion of this house of Aram who pitched their tent in Haran. Taken together, these facts would suggest that the movement of these Aramean began somewhere around Ebla and around Mari in Syria, places I have demonstrated where not outside the influence of Egypt coming through Babylon. We take it that the ‘wandering’ Arameans who are not different in lineage from Phoenicians, or too different from the Arabs and Elam which means East of Babylon, are probably part of the Egyptian laborers or tribes gathered around the area of Mari working for rich patrons, which the Mari text of the ANET speak in drive by.

Egyptian chroniclers retain much of the work of literature in this Aramaic down to the fifth century of Cyrus the Great, Cambyses, and of Darius who gradually replaced old Egyptian language with what they call the Demotic script. Aramaic as a language has not been demonstrated as a language descended from Aram of the Abraham. But the point is that their home was between Egypt and Jordan and perhaps Syria. In fact, Syria was the hotbed of this Aramaic which was also spoken largely in the days of Christ. Christ himself spoke Aramaic and part of his spoken language may include parts of Hebrew. It is in our study of the degree of difference of the language, especially in terms of the Nabateans of later years who are considered Arabs (?) by modern scholars that we understand the degree of relatedness of Arabic and to Hebrew.

But Aramaic was perhaps the very language upon which several portions of the Bible were written. But Aramaic was a Jordan linguistic canvass. The root of the problem with Nabatean is that they were grouped as Arabic, not unlike African tribes such as Berber, the Dadene, the Qadene, the Midianites of Moses’ wife and the Sabeans of queen Sheba, who were just African tribes between Egypt and much of the Jordan. These tribes among others are called Desert dwellers, Bedouin, and among the initial 13 families of these Bedouins of Aram was the house of Abraham. But this area is 1800 years before Christ and these where wandering people on what is Arabian Desert, the former Eastern Desert. We shall encounter this Aramaic in future and its role in determining the forces that shaped East and the West and why Latin is of several versions and one. Their story begins somewhere around Canaan and around two thousand years before Christ in time of the great flood.

But after the Great Flood as according to Manetho, much of Ebla and Mari which are very close to the open waters of Mesopotamia went under the flood, a condition of history still misinterpreted as conquest by Giovanni. The rest of the laborers from these areas were displaced. Some perhaps freed themselves from the wretches of the Pharaohs or any labors to rich patron and others just heading home destined mainly to become wanderers in what is now Arabian history. But this is highly speculative and subject to larger treatment but what we can salvage from this is the fact that Aram was the son of Shem, and Shem according to the Bible – which a great repository of history and language translations over the years – was the son of Noah, Noah was the salvaged of the Great Flood. The history of the nations as described in the Bible Genesis 10 may be in respect to this flood that took place somewhere towards the end of 2010 BCE or thereabout?

As such Noah, in world history, may have existed about 2010 BCE and perhaps half a century later. But at this time of world history, the world has already aged and much of the African society may have seen great divisions among its languages including the ones that headed through parts of Nubia into the deeper reaches of Africa, a part referred to Hamito – Semitic. Other Semitic language will yield ever so grudgingly to the Northern parts of Middle East and assume a different meaning. In essence, the rest of the story we can ferret from the Bible in terms of Babylon and the destruction of the towers, are stories that existed before the Great Flood of 2000-2010 BCE. It goes to also indicate that Ham as the descendent of those of who speak the language in Africa is later day event, so is Shem, so Japhet and the seven sons of Noah. These sons who now occupy the ranks of our language today are from a time when the structure that held it together began to fall apart. Kings such as Shamshadad I, Zimrilin, and Hamurabi would all grace the world stage. These would be the contemporary of Abraham, perhaps the rise of Shamshadad I would be the tail end of the age of Abraham and the age of the ‘wandering Arameans’.

Habbakuk is a very simply Hebrew to interprete and one of the most profound in essence. The book is possibly post-exilic written by returnees to Jerusalem or thereabout, following Nebuchadnezzer enslavement of Judeans, in 586 Bc.

Our immediate concern is the meaning of the name in Igbo, but its meaning in Hebrew might suggest that Habbakuk was perhaps a record of a prophet’s oracles. In essence, Habakkuk was intended as an address of some sort. In that word Habbakuk, we recognise the presence of two words; one, Habba, sourthern Israeli for Abba meaning ‘father’ and the other, Kuku or Kuk in Hebrew, reffering to the ‘greater one’.

This is clearly Igbo since we can easily adjust the play in terms of conversion, for we know that Uku in Igbo is simply exact in meaning as ‘exalted’ or ‘great one’. In Igbo,’Nke Uku’ is an extented version of the word Uku, Nkuku which makes no mistakes about the ‘great one’ the ‘exalted one’, chime exactly with Hebrew’s kuku/kuk.

This is hardly the end, yet no demonstration is entirely needed to check mate Habbakuku as the equivalent of Igbos Abba Nkuku, meaning the more ‘exalted father’. It mirrors in my perspective the degree to which Igbos or Hebrews, or anyone group might become ennui with ’new found’ glossary when the know the frame of the existing words in both Hebrew and Igbo languages are still under trial.  

Some Igbos might argue that Abba as  ‘father’ is not universally accepted as Igbo word for ‘father .  Such position is very short in view and playing naive. It is still okay to argue about such thing, but we now know that there is a word called Okoro Abba(Okocha Abba), meaning in Igbo ‘Young daddy’ or a ‘male widow’ and we know that Okorocha or Kocha (OKosha)  is Igbo for ‘young star’ ”young upstart’or ‘fair young fellow’, the word ‘Abba’ easily accedes to our appreciation as ’father’ or as a form of Dad.

The Igbo words Abba and Uku, easily come together as Abba Ukwu. C/C Nnayi-Ukwu, Papa-Ukwu, and so on, all meaning ’great father’ . To however say, Nna Nkuku might refer to a father not entirely human. This in my opinion is why the  Hebrew word Kuku might have been the inspiration for ‘holy father’.

Iroabuchi Onwuka

1, the people itself,

2, the community of elders

3, the male population

4, the settlement including children and women

5, the Jewish congregation both in and out of the community

From all probability, Edda may have represented a community of Israel priest that has helped to hold the Israel together in times of trouble. Israelites has witnessed over 49 expulsions from different parts of the world and as such found in every civilization, from Yugoslavia  to Nigeria. 

They are usually called ‘Children of Abraham’, in Igbo Ababana, Ababani or Ani Bani. They also refer to Yako as a primordial ancestor which in Igbo would come off as Yako. Hence ‘Oji/oggi Yako…would mean “the tree of Jakob” respectively in Igbo. Yako is Yakob and is Jacob. The root word within the word is ’ako’…like Jakob; the trickster.  

From my personal research, all Eddas have 72 villages, which are supposed to represent a selection from the original 72 house of Levi…appointed shepherds of the household of Israel or Yisaa. They are descended from the time of Exodus when God told Moses to appoint 70 elders to help shoulder his burden of religious responsibility.

In KJV Numbers 11;16-30 where Moses nominated seventy people in addition to Aaron and Himself, drawing the conclusion to 72. These were the Septuagint…the translators of Hebrew New Testament into Greek. In that version Eldad and Medad stayed behind during the consecration but the spirit of the lord fell upon them.

Edda is a village in Nigeria of made up of 72 subvillages believed to have descended from 72 priests who arrived in Ebonim/Ebonyim in some distant past. Unlike other Igbo villages in Nigeria, Edda is one the few villages with the names of thier ancestors in intact.

It is in Edda that you find names like Libo, Libolo, Owutu, Ama mini, Nguzi or Nguzu, Ama Ngwu, Iweta, and so on were supposed to be part of the names of these settlers. The meaning of these names are not found in Igbo but can be traced to Hebrew language.

For instance the name Libo gives away the fact that a Russian by name Libo -weitze is probably a mixture of two names. The spiritual decline of the people is not without refference to the influence of human wisdom in interpreting religious lores, especially matters on Tora, but that aspect of Idol worship that is still extant in that village is seriously disaffected to Judaism. They can give away such practice

There is however a great presence of Jewish practice in Eddas of Igbo society. For instance, every male child is circumcised after 8 days and there is a compulsory separation of women at a time of birth and during certain other periods, and certain creatures like pigs are not allowed or eaten by the priests and by many Igbo villages. There is also the issue of bitter leaves.

While the Jewish Eddas are believed to have come to an end during the Spanish expulsion of 1492, there is nothing that speak on thier probable destination and homestead. The past European years of European Jewry is characterised by extreme prejudice, which may or may not have generally forced them into a lifestyle completely devoid of ordinary life.

The number of priest 72 who officiated thier daily ceremony provided the number of days for Jewish life. The 72 priests are divided into several groups called courses like Zedekiah in New testament was from the course of Abia when his turn for officiating arrived.

There are at least 18 priests in a one major course line, usually 4 in all. These four courses had leaders…who were known by thier duties. For instance, the Oriejis in Hebrew refer to those “with the guardians” of Jewish people or thier visionary, and the Moyes in Hebrew are called the “Teachers”. The word Moye can be tracked down in Igbo as Woye given the incongruity of M for W in Hebrew English dialectic. This word Woye simply refer to the Nwoyes of Nigerian Igbo.

This group may be related to Orieji because of the presence of the word orie or ore in both words. In Igbo Oriejis are never head of the village but are king makers and can actually hold powers on behalf of the people. To be born Nwoye or Nworie is to be born on that Orie day; the second of the four day recircle. The iconclasts is okay becuase the idea of translating a people in terms of thier priesthood can be quite trying.    

The first Igbo day is Eke and in Igbo Ekeji or Ekeoha refers to holders of the community. The reps of the state in matters of power. Eke families are usually the head of Igbo villages. That is to say that the ceremonial heads of the Igbo societies are Eke priesthood. They are called the Ezes, the kings but perhaps the king of  peace or high priest after solution concerning other priest.

The word Eze is Hebrew ‘crown’ while Igwe is used as a hononary title. The Ekeji in Hebrew refers to the ‘rulers’ or ‘with administrators’, chiefly concerned with Sunago/Synagogue administration. Eke is the first day of Igbo society.

The word Nomojis  is equally an instrument of help in this dialectic. It is important because of the light it can throw to our discourse. There is no Igbo day called Nomoji but it is an Igbo name. This name Nomoji in Hebrew will refer to the priests who functions include the laws. That is, those “with Law makers or Judges”. They may be related to Eke group on the condition of the law and the temple.

Perhaps they are the keepers of the Torah…in terms of property. In Igbo, there are families with this Nomoji as name but among the Eddas this name is now popularly displaced to Omoji. It is possible that two words Omoji and Nomoji are not the same. The word Nomo is found in Spanish as Nomes, which in English is Norm. Among these group is a name called Alake, a name that cannot be any different from Halakhic, a school eminiently dedicated to interpreting the Torah.

In Igbo however, Omoji is supposed to be the opposite of Osuji, which is sometimes confused with Osusuji. I, for one, have come Jewish names as Osuji but never used in meaning. The only disembarkation of the name Osuji that I ventured in refference to foreigners, not the ‘Ette’ as the Jewish Ladino will call gentiles, but something in the neighbourhood of the word Sojourner. In Igbo, and according to Chinua Achebe, Osu refers to the outsider who was probably chased away for one thing or another and it was a forbidden to marry such persons.

 In fact some Igbos believe that Osuji means that the husband came from elsewhere. We can now say that this is not entirely the case. There is some sensibility in Osu as an outsider but it does not follow the interpretation of Chinua Achebe. The Igbos of Ngor Okpala, Mbano and Mbaise have this names even among thier head of the society.

Osuji, in my opinion refers perhaps to sojourners from a different Igbo society who decided to adopt the name in memory of their families journey or migration. In essence Osuji simply put is “the sojourner/ with the sojourners” and may not necessary refer to immigration like certain Mbaise people who arrived thier current homeland from among the Igbos of Benin Isha, but can refer to all our journey through life as in Psalms 39 where journey’s end.     

Susuji on the other hand is Hebrew for spoken Tora, which makes no bolds about Nomoji as written Tora. My conclusion is therefore simple that Omoji refers to natives in Igbo and Osuji possibly refer to immigration of Igbos within Igbo society. Osusu which is Igbo root word for Osusuji refers to conscience of the God’s law while Nomoji is the Hebrew dialectic opposite as Tora, the Norms. ‘Susu’ sounds  funny in Igbo as Asusu as in language.

 There other groups but there is no mistake in the fact that the 4 days of Igbo society is seriously relevant to 4 priestly course of Israel. Far more important is that a division of the 72 by 4 will yield 18. It will apppear that Igbo days of 4 instead of 7 simply recircled around their priestly function of four major household who had the right to select which family to officiate an occassion within thier day.

This will be an eager interpretation of the reason why Igbos had no kings, and will play to suggest that thier heads of society were priests who normalised their role in the society. It will also highlight the probable fact that the market days found in the bible during the passover when the prebends where sold. 

For instance, during the time of Christ, money changers were forced out of  the Synagogue. Those special days in Jewish societies were holy days and were market days whose needed exceded the daily routine.

A redaction to this explanation is that Igbos who were found with 4 days holy days and markets were perhaps a finishing torch of the older religion. Perhaps thier ‘spiritual decline’ began with the deaths of the slave trade era and much perhaps with the forgetfulness that accompany an attempt to normalise a once spiritual day.  For here in these days, goods are exchanged and goods are bought like the Jews in Newyork, all without money.

On Eke day;the chief market day in Igbo, the horns are sounded before the goods for such an occasion goes into auctioning. I can hear now the gongs which modernity used as a replacement for the horns, but they all refer to the Shovas of today…all before the annuniation for the day to begin.

The word Market is English for the more Hebrew word Marke which is Latin for  Markus. The word Market is described as a ‘trading square’ which cannot be mistaken as Hebrew’s Marke’ and Igbo Amaeke. The idea of the prebend is not explanation of the stockmarket, a root interpretation of the lifestyle that is lesser in common to Moors than it is of Jews of Spain.

The meaning of this name Amaeke in Igbo society and the connecting tread with Judaism will be the theme of our next lecture.

Iroabuchi Onwuka

Bernard Comrie edited a book on “world major languages” which was a serenade of writers  from various parts of the world on various languages of the world. The converging theme of the book is the relative history of these languages and how they relate to the wider world. In all these relative history of languages, the Igbo language was not found. Igbo language was not considered a language on the condition that it is probably an aggregate of other languages of West Africa. The formal basis of claim is set in order of Joseph Greenberg who made significant contribution to the languages of the world. The main event for me in the book is the work of a man called Robert Hetzron who did the work on Hebrew.

Robert HetzronIn his opening letter he mentioned that “it is futile to ask whether Moderrn Hebrew is the same language as the idiom of the Hebrew Bible. Clearly, the difference between them is great enough to make it impossible for the person who knows one to understand  the other without effort”. This is singularly important because of the nature of Igbo language that fall into a category that refer to Medieval Hebrew, which is Hebrew spoken by the Eddas, that is the 72 priesthood of Israel before thier departure from Spain. The above statement by Heztron is equally necessary since it might help to cast enough light on the poverty Modern Hebrew in revealing its relationship to Nigerian Igbo language. I had to fully engage myself in these two languages, in order to have this kind of chance.

In essence, the possibility that Igbo language is Hebrew language does not exist with Modern Hebrew since it only existed in relationship to the older version of Hebrew.  This goes to demonstrate the great pain involved in drawing aside the relationship between Igbo and Hebrew and how a thousand words in Igbo language were hidding their meaning in various  degree  in Hebrew language. That I succeeded in that effor meant that I had to look elsewhere…perhaps to the version of Qumran script, which by many estimate of history seem the forebearer of the Hebrew version spoken through the Eastern desert and into Syria, through Syria into Italy and Spain and then ownwards to other parts of Europe.

Modern Hebrew  and the standard writing of the Hebrew letters called cuneiform was fully remastered in Odessa Poland. As such the version of Hebrew that is play to today came from Eastern Europeans who were far fetched from recurrent changes in Hebrew that took place in Spain. This is called the Masoretic and in the name of Sarno Nahum, it was simply defined as the right pronunciation og the language. Original Hebrew, at least its compact form was lost after the fall of Bar choba in the 2nd century.  The remaining Jews of Jerusalem were scattered all over the world, and gone with them were the very exact nature of the language. The language which began to receive attention today, is merely an attempt to fully uncover the past based on currencies in spoken and then written Hebrew.

The LXX or the Septuagint had been of help Hebrew/Greek, so has the Syrian peshita and the Lucian Hebrew translation. This is all due to the provobial fact that the people learning these languages were not the original ‘guardian’ of Hebrew Tradition. The 72 original Eddas were believed to have perished during the harsh expulsion and eventually massacre of Jews in Spain. Yes, eventually those left behind were not easily protected. Spanish sources said that the society was becoming a society of mad men, lunatics killing with no reason. Perhaps for the fun of it. But it was not just in Spain and Portugal but all over Europe. In fact, it is said that by late 16 centuries and early part of the 17th century there was no remaining Jew in France, England, Spain, Portugal. Germany had a very misused few Jews, some dodging thier identity, but many European countries simply overturned thier Jews population. When these Jews were found, they were restrained to Ghettos through Europe. This continued till the French revolution and Napoleon who I was surprised to learn, ended European Jewish ghetto.  

The Jews of  Europe who survived through those years, were kept in strictest obscurity and their livestyle took a much timid form given the closed off culture. The Hebrew language suffered the most, it could not have survived without adapting itself to neighbouring languages and without the ‘Jewish Guide’ called ‘Orieji Uda’. Even for those who migrated into Russia through Odessa, and into kiev were not saved from adaptation to langauge. For this the language changed overtime, which affected Jews of Odessa, who despite thier confounding to very hostile Republic had to develop several means of communication. It is not surprising that the reborn of the language known to Ashkeniz…after the town, that survived several ‘epynoms degrees of incarnation’  is central to the Odessa. But by late 18 century when Hezol or co began to make amend to the language, they were already techinical glitches. Then there was intermarriage between the Jews and Whiter Eastern Europeans, the kind that led to thier ruin in 1945.

The chain between the past and the present is an ode to the Eddas of Spain. These were the original Septuagint whose arrival was celebrated in Spain around 6th century. There were not the Kassaites, neither were they part of Talmudic…who were part of the Babylonian Iranian group. I mean both groups, Kassaite and Talmudic where both descended from Babylon, but the Septuagint/the Eddas of 72 priestly Rabbis, rescended from Egypt into and through the Syrian Desert in about 4th century. This was after the Earthquake in Alexandre, Egypt that sank the entire city.

 It was in the Desert that the Sofo became  popular. Sofor was the unwritten Tora, explicated version of the Tora, the divinity of conscience based on the Torah. The Torah of the heart. The word Sofor is written in Arabic as Safar (Sufir), but in current world affairs, Sofor is knwon to us as Sephar. Sofordic or Sephardic simply refer to Spanish Jews, but there is a mistake in the interpretation of the word, Sephar is created in the imagination of people as Spanish rebuttal of an older era. The recent revision on that clever but wrong interpretation, opens a better world of appreciation of Jewish survival stories in the desert. It also marks out in plain, the nature of transformation of Judaism and the religious awakening that followed. 

In currenct Igbo language, the divinity of conscience is bound up in a tradition called Nsofor, which is really two words, Nso and ofo. The name survived the condensation of traditional worship, which given the  phenominal psychology of Africa, remained derisory.  Nsofor in terms of idol worship was carelessly used . The tragedy of Igbo society is to me possible in terms like this, since it is now clear that Igbo practices are not just a mere immitation of Judaism, but the very incarnation of the religion that could not survive without direction, like the easterners and their languages, Judaism in Igbo society adapted to human interpretaiton and consequently, Satanic influences.

In respect to the acquired interpretation of Kaufmann Yezekel Judaism, there is always a thin line between Judaism and Paganism and this is evidently the case with Igbo society.

 The missing link between the past and present Judaism, between Ancient and Modern Hebrew is Nigerian Igbos, not just the people but thier language also called Igbo langauge. For here, the original version of Hebrew is easily at home. For here, all our meaning as both Christians and Jews is fully understood. In spite of the generative transformation of the Nigerian Igbo language over these 500 years, inspite of the changes that accompany new found lands…(Onovo Onuwa) in Igbo, there is a connection to ancient Hebrew in that language, a backbone of the very exercised version of the language retained aggresively in the names of Igbo villages and families that now speak very clearly to us. These names are possible because the village names in its archaic spelling were already existing before the arrival of Britain to Nigeria. It all began to fall apart after their arrival, but it the English presence in Nigeria and the return of Christianity to Igbo would be a prolegmona to that revealed embrace of Igbo past.      

Modern Hebrew  word ’Bayit’ is ‘house’, but you can tell that Bayit is an immitation of an Older Hebrew. For instance, in Igbo Bayit is not necessarily extant rather we have ‘Bayi’ in Igbo pronounced clearly ‘Ebe ayi’, meaning ‘our home’ ”our house’. You see Bayit does mean house in of itself, rather house which means Ulo in Igbo can be transcribed as Ulo ayi, not that Ebe now means a ‘house’, you see ‘Ebe’ in Igbo and in Hebrew refers to a place, a place which will become transitioned from place to house, or home, assuming we put Ebe ayi. Ebe anyi in Igbo language is easily domesticated as Bayi, yielding the dependent clause ’our place’ to the natural meaning.  The same is ‘Emet’ in Hebrew, which refers to the ‘act of doing’ but in Igbo you don’t need the T per say, the derivative ‘Eme’ is Igbo sustained in ’act of doing’. The last demonstrable example is ‘Husot’  modern Hebrew as derived from ancient Hebrew ’Usot’ meaning ‘street’ or ‘roadway’ which is alternately ‘Uzo’ in Igbo. You see Uzo in Igbo refers to ‘roadway’ or ‘street’ but in Igbo verison of the word, the letter Z in the middle of the word  replaces the polar consonant in either versions of Hebrew dialectic. Uzo is without doubt the better version of Hebrew, the exercised version of Hebrew word for street.

The translation of  clause “the nasi ha Edda” was like a bad Igbo grammar to my ears, despite the fact Eisenman was meant to be speaking in Hebrew not in Igbo. The unassailable social familiarity with such incomplete  sentence, can be explained in the degree of that familiarity with an antiquated African language called Nigerian Igbo. The line “nasi ha Edda” is Hebrew but bad Nigerian Igbo for “Ndi Nachi Edda” and really mean “leaders of the community/Village called Edda” . Edda is a Nigerian Igbo village in the south east of Nigeria, a village, or community of 72 priest, descended from Yako and Ezzraa. The Yako village and Ezraa are two huge Igbo villages at the riverine choke end on what is now Ebonim or Ebo-nyim States of Nigeria. Ebo-anyim is the name of the  river that subtends at Yako, the river channel is  feed from the Atlantic Main on the bight of Biafra.

The difference between Eisenman’s Hebrew  ”the nasi ha Edda” and Igbo “Ndi nachi Edda” is the presence of the imprecative “ha”. To an outsider they are very the same, but to an Igbo Nigerian, there is something wrong with that translation. In proper Igbo language ‘ha’ which is a definite article meaning ‘of’  is not at all necessary to make even meaning to verb ‘nachi’ as a verb before Edda. This is all due to another imprecative ‘na’ before Edda, so ‘ha’ and ‘na’ in the same process of a sentence is like a repetition.

Secondly, the word ‘si’ in Igbo is much the same as ‘shi’ and can be used as ‘Chi’ depending on what you intend to achieve; in terms of verb and noun. The degree to which these things matter is best described in the verb use of the word ‘si’ used as a doing word, for instance the dependent clause ‘nachi Edda’  is much the same as ‘nasi Edda’ in Hebrew and may be used in describing a certain form of leadership. The second part of Chi is a noun used for ’God’ or in adoration of ’lord’ .

You see Robert Eisenman is also a master in Hebrew language, especially Biblical Hebrew. Like our introdcution, Eisenman Robert is in fact a professor Emeritus of ancient history with enabled emphasis on Ancient Jewish studies and history. Yet his translation of this short aspect of Hebrew language falls shy of standard Hebrew property from Nigerian Igbo scale of measure. You can see that he  translated the clause “leaders of community” word for word, which is why the ‘ha’ was stuck in middle of the sentence when it is not necessary. The ‘nachi Edda’  is the exercised version of the Hebrew dialectic.

It is possible that ‘leaders of the community’ would across to us like sounds from its old cursive form, and would be represented first in English, before its meaning in Hebrew. It is now clear to me that Robert Eisenman, who I thank God for, probably translated those Qumran scripts based on words that he knew and do know well. He does not seem to be a recent speaker of the Qumran Hebrew, which in all estimate was the intellectual Hebrew of Spanish Jewry and is believed to have been lost after 1492. 

This is where Igbo language as a language falls into and if enough emphasis is placed on the language, Nigerian Igbo language can be found to be useful in helping to further the translation of the Qumran script. That will go a long way to eliminate the duplicity in translation of the kind discovered in the Eisenman sentence.  A more accurate form of Hebrew is not fully possible without Igbo language.

There is what we might Sukkat in Hebrew which refers to ‘camp’, but in Igbo we have Nsukka as a village outside what is now Enugu, on the boundary  with  Anambra. There is no mistake in the name since we know that Nsukka in Igbo was a military camp from time to time, especially in the trespasses of Muslim Fulani heading East.

In Eisenman’s translation of certain different clause “Arisei gu>o” , we begin to undertstand what is lies beneath his trademark interpretation, on the condition that he loosely translated “Arisei O gu> as “violents ones to the gentiles”. The translation from cursive form to worded form of Hebrew was conducted backwards, in essence, Eisenman could not have easily avoided the presence of words that make sense as part of a statement, words whose meaning is part of the whole and not of thier essence. These words are Okay under normal language circumstances but in terms of expression these words like ‘ha’, which are no more than definite articles are given a new meaning on thier own. 

The old Hebrew is written right to left but the order of its presentation of speech is understood left to right. This singular infraction is the reason why Hebrew language is difficult to capture in its actual form and would be treated in my upcoming book. The Igbo language can now be written and understood left to right but this is not naturally so, it is only due to very proactive impressions of German Bible society’s approach to African langauges in 1880-1888 to Igbo. Thier formulars if anything to go by were set to accomodate the changing dynamics of a spoken language entering a written world.

The reason why current Igbo language is any different from that of thier ancestors is because of this translation from oral form to written form, where some words in Igbo were given the (a,e,i,o,u) vowels in its front, used to engineer the Gloithis of thier deep voice. But this is not a permanent situation since some Igbo words do really begin with a vowel, but most Igbo words begin with a consonant not a vowel. For instance, “Arisa Ogu ro Arisa Ogwu” in history was a warrior from Nkporo who founded Nkpolo-ogwu. But from Eisenman’s translation we can say, that “Arisa Ogwu” referred to Merceneries from Nkporo possibly fighting for Igbo people of what is now Anambra state. Arisa Ogwu cannot be a human being rather a coalition led by Nkporo people of Abia. 

Still speaking of Nkporo, there are villages called Nkafa and Amuda. The N can be isolated to produce a more popular Jewish name, Kafa. But Amuda would be split in two…as ‘Ama and Uda’ to appreciate its full meaning. We can only demonstrate that ‘Ama’ means ‘square’ in both Igbo and Hebrew,  but it becomes difficult to suggest demonstrate that ‘Uda’ in Igbo is the right element of the word Yuda in Hebrew.

 So Yuda which is Hebrew for Juda is lost in translation as Uda. They all mean the same thing…they all mean praises.  In translation, the Igbo word Ama-Uda will simply mean ‘Jewish square/Yuda’s Square’  if properly translated…right to left, as opposed to the second probable interpretation “square of praises/square of Juda” if translated left to right.

The same can be found in Yoruba since it was the same Bible society of Germany that recorded Yoruba language from sound form to written form. If you can undertand what I just hinted at, then you might be closer to fact that Eisenman was doing the opposite; from written words to spoken translations 

Iroabuchi Onwuka

In Africa, the Guardian Nigerian newspaper ran news concerning the man who most Nigerians concluded is kin. The man was however born American and his ancestral roots hails from Kenya in Africa.  The attention a name like Obama can bring, can explain the nature of bais and prejudice.  The degree to which we judge and accept others is usually in respect to our affection with them.    

My attention in this essay is to begin to demonstrate that something is probably wrong with a theory about African languages. This is the theory propounded by an American man called Joseph Greenberg, who lumped many African language together, including Igbo language designated as part of Benue Congo Kwa. As we shall see, this thoery is probably a mistake.

The word Barak is a form ‘blessing’ in Hebrew, and in Arabic language, Baraka is the exact equivalent. The two words were emasculated from Abul’ Ubaka, which means in Arabic “the blessed one” or  “the blessed oneric of God” . The significant root of the word Babka is from ‘Ubaka’ in Abubaka. This is ultimately the case since Hebrew from about 12th century and struggled to gain its position against Arabic. This was not entirely achieved, until a hundred years before thier farewell from Spain in 1492. 

Ubaka in Igbo, means ‘blessing’ . In actual sense, the difference between Bar’ ka that is Hebrew and Ubaka that is Igbo and Abul’ baka/Abu-ukaka, is that U is evident in the opening letters of the Igbo etymon Ubaka. This U and sometimes O, is the reason why words which are Igbo and essentially Hebrew are not treated as the same. For instance Obama or Ubama in Igbo refers to a ‘land extention’  which is no different from the Hebrew equivalent ’Bama’ meaning ‘high place’.

The part of Kenya that Barak Obama hails from also interprete his name as a ‘forgotten place’, some interpretation call it a Obama a ‘wilderness’, where perhaps in my opinion goats are roved. The theme of  ‘high place’ is not entirely misplaced in the whole translation, suggesting a common stock of some significance within the three peoples.

 In keeping to the claims of Lembas of Kenya and Igbos of Nigeria to be of Hebrew descendants, adds to the meaning and significance of Obama. The letter U and sometimes O in front of the three languages ply a whole of difference in meaning within the three language. They are part of the same onomasticon as Bama but the African dialectic to Hebrew is not entirely possible, given the healthy culture of prejudice. The U or O can be understood.

For instance, the Hebrew word Koha-nim or Koha-thite refers to ‘priesthood’ .  On the surface this word has nothing in common with the Igbo word Ukoha, but closer, we can see that U in front of the word Ukoha is doing too much to its meaning. U-koha, might be a suited interpretation of  the said name, and this is only due the nature of Hebrew language that bear out M and W, and ’IM’ as ‘IW’ and both as inflection to Koha. In sound, IW is incandescent as U, and from this conversion the rule of ‘right to left’ called metathesis is applied.

The word obama is no different from Bama, a Hebrew word reffering to ’highplace’ as we said, which does not mean anything to many people. Bama is above all an high point in Jewish altar where Torah is placed.  The very possibility that Obama  portends to Moses and mount Sinai, offends the encomastic torching a hidden history.

 The history concerns a certain people of Kenya and Obama, whose    existence were threatened by invading muslims and whose story of hope, resilence and courage is evident in Barak Obama, but now elevated to perhaps greater level by his years in America.  A native is a son or as Igbos of Nigeria will say, Ani bani. Oops, that’s Hebrew too.

Iroabuchi Onwuka