By
Obododimma Oha
One Igbo proverb warns: "Okirikiri ka a na-agba ukwu ose; a naghị arịa ya elu" ( "One only goes round and round the pepper plant. One does not climb it"). Yes, wisdom supports it. The pepper plant is small and cannot carry heavy things but it is mighty and full of hot fruits. Only the tough-skinned lizard eats the fruits and doesn't ask for a cup of water. Tough things for those with tough skin!
The lizard must have a lot of raw courage to go near the plant! And even climb. Is it looking for fire? Ingesting this fire!
Who dares climb a heap of hot life? Round and round the pepper plant. Whoever chooses to climb it, sorry. The weak has some strength hidden somewhere. Strength in weakness, strength! Is it surprising to find abundant strength in weakness?
How does one travel round waiting-trouble without considering the distance between risk and courage? Round and round the headache. Round and round, forever.
In Igbo, it is actually round "ukwu ose," literally "the waist of the pepper plant." The metaphor is instructive: the waist is the source and is very hot. It looks vulnerable but ushers in to doom.
Like many book people, let us just say it refers to the "foot" of the terrible tree. Foot? So, this tree even walks? Ok, it walks, as we walk round it. The walking tree with burning fruits!
Round and round. Is one bewitched? One is eternally walking and this is the foot of the tree with burning fruits.
Beware, Adam. I hear you accept fruits from your wife and just eat! I hope the fruit does not burn. Because this time, you won't just be driven out. Your inside would be on fire!
The saying concerning the pepper plant is figurative quite alright, but it will remain a fiction, mere imagination, if we have never had anything to do with the plant and if we prefer to buy the fruit from the market. Also, we are only traveling round the imagery in discourse, not in reality. The plant and the fruit can say different things. We need to know the plant to know what it is saying.
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