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Raphael Uzor Mar 2014
Step by step it flows
Unleashing trapped desires
Edifying body and soul
Unifying humankind in entire.

Reaching within depths untold
Possessing, with grooves so bold
With rhythmic waves and strides
Varying from tribe to tribe.

Dancing is a rite
Not a mere reaction to music
Dancing is a language
Spoken in the voice of the body

As music transpires with bodies
Bodies of beautiful maidens
Bodies- voluptuous, with sweat
Leaving our warriors gasping!

Dancing to the beats
Dancing to the rhythm
Dancing in the heat
Like horses never ridden

Dancing is a bond unbroken
An expression of feelings unspoken
Well spoken by the untrained
Well grasped by the unlearned

Birthing in the cries of Ogene
Riding on the waves of Udu
Floating on the wings of Ekwe
Gliding in the ripples of Oja

It is the essence of our tradition
Passed from generations of old
We express it proudly
As we answer the call of Igba.

© Raphael Uzor
Inspired by traditional Igbo dancers.
Ogene, Udu, Ekwe and Igba are Igbo percussion  instruments. Oja is an Igbo flute.
Raphael Uzor May 2014
She said she was Ibo
And spoke with a fake accent
Wanna’s and gonna’s
Littered her speech
Not a trace of Igbo, in her exotic accent.

She smirked boldly
As I answered my phone
Greeting my friend natively
In a lavish of deep expressions
So deep, only Ndi Igbo can share.

With a ****** passport
She spoke better than most Britons
She was born in her village
Yet all she knows is “bia”
She thinks she’s cool, I think she’s lost!

The whole point of wooing her
An “mgbe-eke” from the east
Was so we could regularly, take a break
From all formalities and English
And bask in mother tongues…

I might as well be yoked
With a foreign damsel
For the whole purpose of looking within
Is defeated if your tongue is white
And we can only commune in “oyibo”

Call me tribalistic
Call me uncivilized
Call me superficial if you will
But what you call vernacular
The same is my root. I am proudly Igbo!


© Raphael Uzor
Its Igbo NOT Ibo.
Bia means come (in Igbo)
Ndi Igbo means Igbo people
Mgbe-eke means village girl (literally)
Oyibo means English (can also mean white, as in white person)

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