Umu Gwuanyi Oyi · Amama
What to ask, before it goes
A lineage can be rebuilt from documents and from anybody who remembers. But the way one particular old man says one particular proverb exists nowhere else. When he goes, it is gone.
Print this. Sit beside him, ask him these, and let the phone record. Afterwards, carry the recording to the archive of what the elders say.
The questions for any elder
In the order a conversation actually goes: start with his own life, which he is glad to talk about, and reach the harder things once he is talking.
Who cleared the ground where this compound stands, and who did he come with?
Onye kpọchara ala ebe ezi a guzo, onye ha na ya bịara?
Why were you given your name? Who chose it, and what did they want it to say?
Gịnị mere e ji gụọ gị aha gị? Onye họọrọ ya, gịnị ka ha chọrọ ka ọ kwuo?
What did your father do for a living, and his father before him?
Olee ọrụ nna gị rụrụ, na nna ya n’ihu ya?
Tell me a proverb your father used, and what he meant by it.
Tụọrọ m ilu nna gị na-atụ, gwakwa m ihe o ji ya na-ekwu.
Ask for the proverb in his own voice, not the meaning first. The meaning can be written down later; the saying has to be heard.
How is a child named here? Who speaks, who pours, and on what day?
Olee otú e si agụ nwa aha n’ébé a? Onye na-ekwu okwu, onye na-awụsa, n’ụbọchị ole?
How is a wife brought into this family? What is carried, and who carries it?
Olee otú e si akpọbata nwunye n’ezinaụlọ a? Gịnị ka a na-ebu, onye na-ebu ya?
When somebody dies here, what is done first, and what must never be done?
Mgbe mmadụ nwụrụ n’ébé a, gịnị ka e bu ụzọ mee, gịnịkwa ka a na-agaghị eme ma ọlị?
What is the second burial for, and what happens if it is not done?
Gịnị ka ikwa ozu bụ, gịnị na-emekwa ma e meghị ya?
Which land belongs to whom, and who settled it when there was a quarrel?
Ala ole bụ nke onye, onye dozikwara ya mgbe esemokwu dịrị?
What happened here during the war?
Gịnị mere n’ébé a n’oge agha ahụ?
Ask it once and then be quiet. This is the question that most often turns out to be the reason the whole recording mattered.
Which of our people went away and never came back? Where did they go?
Onye n’ime ndị be anyị pụrụ ma ghara ịlaghachi? Ebee ka ha gara?
What do the young people no longer know that you were taught?
Gịnị ka ụmụ okorobịa na-amaghịzi nke a kụziiri gị?
There are more questions the record wants, naming living people and who should be asked. Only the family sees those. Sign in