Igbo people and Money

Photo credit: balochistanvoices.com

There are some conversations I try to avoid but when the person keeps pushing me I just never know how not to push back. 

If my fat semi yellow face and igbotic stature do not tell you that I'm Igbo then my name surely must.  I go by my Igbo name, Amaka and the only reason I've not discarded my English name is because of its beautiful meaning and the story behind the name. 

You cannot keep me standing while saying meaningless things about my people to me. "Igbo people and money",  how we are too loud in everything, we love shine shine furniture,  shine shine shoes, this and that. Then how you can never trust an Igbo person with money and how you should first kill an Igbo man before you kill the snake in your house. 

Every tribe has all sorts of silly stereotypes. How would you feel if I told you that Yorubas have often been tagged as dirty people yet the neatest people I know and near OCDs are Yorubas. They are called ofe mmanu meaning they can't cook and every food of theirs is filled with mmanu(oil) yet I've dined in Yoruba homes and had the best of delicacies. 

We the Igbos find cleaning of bum with water very irritating but it doesn't change who a person is. They think we are dirty for not washing up with water so it's 1-1. Also, the ofe mmanu (oilly soup) has become one of my favourites. 

Hausa people - baa kwomi, the dundees of Nigeria as some people believe, the poorest, highest number of illiterates yet they have ruled you and I the longest.  

Edo people fly during the day and night in our minds,  they come first in illegal migration. Haven't we seen a lot of good come from this region? 

Can we ever really achieve one Nigeria with this very myopic attitude?

If we take people for who they are rather than where they come from life would indeed be better and there would be so much peace in our nation. 

This person tickled my fancy today but by the time I was done speaking she was silent. I'm not sure why though. 

If I'm bad it's not because I'm Igbo. Do not generalise please. It's also interesting how it's only the negatives that are generalised.  

Very dirty people are in Igbo land and same can be found in Yoruba, Hausa and Ijaw lands. Is there anyone who hates money?

Evil is not peculiar to any group and neither is good peculiar to any tribe. We were all created by the same God. And for those who believe in evolution, it's the same monkey. 

If we have to make a headway in Nigeria then we have to say no to stereotype.