Nigerian singer Di’ja has been heavily criticized for using “Inyamuri” – a term used by Northerners to refer to Igbo people that is seen as derogatory – as the title of her new song.
One social media user lectured the Mavin Records signee on why the term Inyamuri is the wrongest choice for a song title.
The person wrote:
“The word Inyamuri came into existence during the civil war when badly starved Igbo children would beg the Nigerian soldiers (mostly Hausa)for water saying “Nye’m mmiri”. It was then used to refer to the Ibos. INYAMURI has no Igbo meaning, ABOKI literally means MY FRIEND in Hausa.”
Another person admitted the lyrics of the song did not ridicule any tribe but said the “historical background” of the term “Inyamuri” made it a wrong choice for a song title.
the origin of the word iyamuri is not in dispute, every northern igbo know the meaning and every hausa/fulani and hundreds of other northern tribes know fully well the origin.
as an iyamuri myself, i have seen that name phrase metamorphose over the years. in the 1990, i can remember when called iyamiri in minna, i would resent to it because of the way i was being raised to view the word, people who call me that too, you could sense the scorn and demeaning tone too. from the jos/kaduna crisis of early 2000 up to 2010, i notice that the name started to take on a different meaning. i dint realise from when exactly, but i know that for more than 15 years now, northern igbos have rallied around that name and taken ownership of it.
most igbos born and raised in the north like me will proudly tell you that they are iyamuri /iyamiri. i am iyamuri and i think deja has done nothing wrong.
the recent clamor from the east for biafra has further boost this confidence, as if in a bid to carve out our own identity different from our eastern brothers.
my friends call me iyamiri not out of scorn but as an endearing name. when i speak hausa so well, peope tend to use the word to emphasis their amasement.
in a nutshell, the word is used now in the north to differentiate the igbos in the north from those in the east and the northern igbos have embraced it, non igbo northerners including hausa/fulani use it now to show that these are igbos but more like ours, there is a comradely tone to it now.
people from the south and east should stop complaining on our behalf and deja should not apologize for it. its even good that this could spark up a conversation on this issue and the growing rift between the igbos that are in the north and see the north as home and those in the east…. and our desire to carve up our own unique identity, because we are very different.
charles nwadozie, born and from minna/writing from tokyo.