Amansiology

By

Obododimma Oha

Some Christian gospel singers in Nigeria could get on your nerves by behaving like that wasp referred to as “ọmụ nwa onye ọzọ” (that which makes the other's child its own), taking over the songs previously composed by other singers, cutting them into bits, and creating their boring lyrics out of the lot. If you raise an objection, you are told that the song originally belonged to the same holy spirit which is now re-using it. Does that mean that the holy spirit is self-plagiarizing, cloning an earlier song because it has run out of ideas? Is this tendency to justify the unjustifiable not a typical character of those who can no longer tell their right from their left in a shithole?

But some Christian gospel singers in Nigeria can still make you sit up with experiments they perform in language. Some of them interestingly signify the importance that Christian evangelization attaches to language and Nigeria's linguistic hybridity by playing with words, inventing new ones, and rhetorically re-using English and indigenous Nigerian languages in a unique way.

Bro. Paul Chigbo is a notable Igbo Christian gospel singer. One thing unique about his gospel music is his use of Igbo proverbs! Another is that he is very critical of corrupt and false church leaders and pastors. But generally, he uses Igbo in his songs, often exhibiting tendencies of biliniguality, especially interference phenomena and coinage. It was from him that I learnt the word, “amansiology” and I am now blogging it out "amansiologically"!

“Amansiology,” a reflection of the linguistic hybridity hinted earlier, is morphological invention from the Igbo word, “amansi” (charm, mesmerism, magic) and the ancient Greek “logos” (word, sign), just the same way that words like “genealogy,” “biology,” audiology,” etc have been formed. “Amansi” is a sign or indication of superior presence some people may be looking for to solve their existential problems, instead of “miracles” or proper healing offered by the divine entity. Thus “amansiology” as a false performance of magic as miracle represents the in-betweenness and neither-here-nor-there of the spectacle and sheer superstition that Chigbo is criticizing. He is clearly marking the boundary between genuine Christianity occasioning miracles and the false Christianity masquerading a “show business” as a religion.

The word, itself amusing as it stands in between English and Igbo, is a form of the playfulness with English in the Outer Circle where Nigeria is classified. “Amansiology” is the linguistic form of humour found in Engligbo (Ingligbo) in which English and Igbo meet and mate, just like such funny inventions like “njakiriography,” “njakiriology,” “nwokeness,” etc. Although some would view Engligbo, the blending of English and Igbo as Igbo linguistic production, as being pernicious to the survival and growth of Igbo, its unique playfulness shows us that, in spite of the discomfort, there could be something worth exploring in cultural productions where English is in big trouble on the lips of people like Chigbo. Further, the playfulness is art engaging language and is interesting. Is English itself not being de-robed, its “amansiology” removed gently from the descendants of Oduche who have learnt to imprison the language in a box and not the royal python?