I is for Inyan Olugu (Women's Epics A to Z)

This year my theme for the A to Z Blogging Challenge is Women's Epics. My goal was to read 26 traditional epics from around the world that have women as their heroes. Because epics like this do exist, and they are fascinating! Read the intoduction post here.

Inyan Olugu
Igbo

This is an epic song collected from the Ohafia Igbo of the Cross River are of Nigeria. Officially it is categorized as a historical epic, to distinguish it from longer, more mythical romantic epics. The epic was collected from a master bard named Nna Kaalu Igirigiri in the 1970s. The translation is about 200 lines long.

I read the English translation and analysis of the epic in this book. There is more analysis about Igbo epics, and Inyan Olugu, in this dissertation available online (it also includes two shorter war songs about Inyan Olugu).

What is it about?

TL;DR: Inyan Olugu is shamed because her husband is a coward. So she goes out and takes some heads, intent on giving him the credit for bravery.

Inyan Olugu is married to a man named Itenta Ogbulopia. He is a coward; he refuses to go out on head-hunting raids like the other men (head-hunting is an integral part of this epic tradition; their people are at war with the neighboring Nkalu people, so raids are frequent from both sides). With this, he brings humiliation to himself and to his wife: Inyan Olugu is publicly shamed, and stripped of any valuable clothes and adornments.

Inyan Olugu tries to rectify the situation. She sends her husband out with some brave warriors, and pays them handsome money to take some heads and give them to Itenta Ogbulopia. All he has to do is poke some enemies with his machete, and the other warriors will do the actual head-chopping. But the husband is too afraid to do even that, so he returns with no heads at all, and his reputation as a coward solidified.

Inyan Olugu goes out to pick palm fruit one day - all the way to the forest in Nkalu territory, as if it is no big deal. There, she has an idea. She returns home and tells her husband that he should accompany her to pick palm fruit. Hearing that she is headed to the Nkalu forest, her husband vehemently refuses. Inyan Olugu gets angry, packs up her things, and leaves him. Without a wife to cook for him, Itenta Ogbulopia grows hungry; he begs food from people, but no one is willing to feed a coward. Finally he returns to Inyan Olugu. She gives him an ultimatum: if he accompanies her to pick palm fruit, she'll return to him.

Husband and wife arm themselves with a gun and machetes, and head to the Nkalu forest. Before Itenta climbs a palm tree, he hands the gun to Inyan Olugu, telling her that if she sees any enemies, she should fire it. At the sound of the gun, he promises, they will run for safety, to avoid being killed. Inyan Olugu sits and keeps watch under the palm tree.

The Nkalu people hear the sound of the cutting, and realize there are intruders in their forest. They set out to kill them. However, when they appear, Inyan Olugu shoots four of them, and then tells her husband the real reason for their trip: she was intent on winning some heads for him, so he can return to town victorious. Inyan Olugu wants him to take credit (and carries the basket of heads home for him on her head).

However, when they arrive home, and Itenta is greeted with respect and admiration, he tells the people they should honor Inyan Olugu instead, as "Killer-that-gave-the-honor-to-her-husbad." Inyan Olugu is celebrated as a hero.

The highlights

The moment where Inyan Olugu invities her husband along to the Nkalu forest is a crucial and interesting one: the husband accuses her of wishing for his death so she can marry someone else. He says "you will have to marry someone else in my lifetime", because he would very much rather keep on living.

In one of the war songs (which tell the story in a shorter version), Inyan Olugu kills five men, not four. Once she is done packing the heads in her basket, she calls to her husband "Will you please come down now, so we can go home?" In another war song, it is she alone who brings the gun and weapons along for the trip, instead of the husband handing them to her. But in all versions, it is made clear that she should be celebrated and not her husband.

FUN FACT: The same tradition also has another epic about another female hero, named Nne Mgbaafo. She is known for rescuing her captive husband from the enemy. I couldn't fit that story into this challenge, but it is worth reading.

EPICS CARRY THE VALUES AND TRADITIONS OF THE CULTURES THEY CAME FROM.

But they also carry emotions and human traits that are universal.

Do you see similarities to stories that you are familiar with?