Opinion
KEDU! An Igbo Greeting That Makes One Lie
By Dr jalarth Uche Opara
A few days ago, I watched with rapt attention a brilliant discourse by Osita Chidoka, former Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps, on the seemingly ordinary Igbo greeting: KEDU?
His intellectual dissection of the word was fascinating. He drew a distinction between “Kedu?” and the two almost predetermined responses that ordinarily follow it: “Adị m mma” — I am fine — and “Ọ dị mma” — It is fine. The way he waved this word and the two responses of Odi mma and Adi m’ mma through his journey in life left me speechless.
For Chidoka, “Ọ dị mma” suggests a universal or situational alignment: things are fine. “Adị m mma”, on the other hand, speaks to personal alignment: I am fine.
But there is another dimension to KEDU that deserves interrogation. To the average Igbo person, KEDU? has gradually become less of a question and more of a social ritual. It is a greeting whose answer has already been written before the question is asked.
Kedu? — Adị m mma. Kedu? — Ọ dị mma.
Conversation is over! But is everything really fine? Perhaps this question becomes even more compelling when placed against the Nigerian reality.
KEDU?
How are you?
How is the family?
How is the business?
How is the salary surviving the month?
How is the pensioner coping?
How is the young graduate navigating a country where education does not always translate into opportunity?How is the trader coping with rising costs?How is the parent paying school fees?
How is the tenant facing rent?
How is the commuter surviving transportation costs?
How is the entrepreneur coping with electricity, taxation, insecurity and an unpredictable business environment? These are issues which the query “Kedu” would unburden, but no, they would be concealed with an off the cuff answer of odi mma or adim mma. Life goes on.
How is the average Nigerian supposed to answer KEDU when the environment itself appears to be asking the same question of everyone?
KEDU,? And perhaps this is where the conventional “Adị m mma” becomes inadequate. Because Nigeria’s reality has become too complicated to fit comfortably into three words.
A man may have eaten this morning but may not know what he will eat tomorrow. A woman may be employed but still be financially suffocating.
A family may have a roof over its head but be one emergency away from financial crisis. A young person may be educated but uncertain about the future.
Someone may be smiling at you while calculating how to pay a debt. Someone may tell you “Adị m mma” while silently wondering how to survive the next few weeks. And yet, when we meet:
“Kedu?”
“Adị m mma.”
Perhaps that response is not always a lie.
Sometimes it is resilience.Sometimes it is dignity. Sometimes it is privacy.Sometimes it is faith.And sometimes, perhaps, it is simply an unwillingness to explain one’s entire life to somebody who only intended to exchange greetings.
Nigeria’s circumstances should make us rethink the depth of the question.
KEDU is supposed to be an inquiry into condition. In today’s Nigeria, there is enough pressure around the average citizen to make that inquiry deserving of a genuine answer.
Maybe the appropriate response should sometimes be more than:“Adị m mma.”
Maybe:“I am trying.”
Maybe:“Things are difficult, but I am holding on.”Maybe:
“I am not fine, but I will be.”Maybe:
“Pray for me.”
Or perhaps even:
“Let us sit down; I need to talk.”
There is a difference between greeting somebody and actually asking about somebody.And this is the paradox of KEDU.
It is a question deep enough to accommodate the whole human condition, yet our culture has converted it into a predictable social exchange.
Kedu?
Adị m mma.
But Nigeria may have reached a point where we need to recover the question behind the greeting.
Kedu?
Not merely:
How are you?
But:How are you really?Because sometimes, behind “Adị m mma” is a person struggling to stay afloat.
And sometimes, behind “Ọ dị mma” is a nation that desperately needs to stay alive.
Next time some asks you KEDU? Please don’t be socially correct by concealing the true situation of things. Just try to be honest with your response.
And next time you ask someone Kedu, just don’t get irritated and impatient when they begin to reel out litany of their challenges. KEDU? Isn’t just a perfunctory question that demands a perfunctory answer. It is much more than a ritual greeting.
Jarlath Uche Opara
jarlathuche@gmail.com