University of Massachusetts Boston

From the SelectedWorks of Chukwuma Azuonye

1999

The Meaning of the “Meaningless” Refrain in IgboFolksongs and Storytelling EventsChukwuma Azuonye, University of Massachusetts Boston

Available at: https://works.bepress.com/chukwuma_azuonye/72/

The Meaning of the"Meaningless" Refrainin Jgbo Folk Songs andStorytelling Events

Chukwuma Azuonye

Here Chukwuma Azuonye ponders the possiblemeanings of the "meaningless" refrains in Igbofolk songs that are sung during storytellingevents.

A Bird RefrainThe refrains in folk songs that are often sung inchorus by the audience in folk storytelling eventsoften have been described as "meaningless" or"nonsense" phrases largely because they com-prise strings of sounds that supposedly do nothave any current lexical status. But when one lis-tens between the lines of some of the texts inwhich such descriptions occur, one is often struckby the wide range of expressive value that the so-called meaningless refrains have been recognizedto carry. Indeed, when one closely examines theserefrains, one finds that they are not only the mostarchaic and meaningful elements of the folksongs but by far the most critical in defining thelyrical quality and musicality of the songs. IsidoreOkpewho (1992) comes more or less to theseconclusions after examining the refrain of the fol-lowing Igbo folk song, which he recalls from hischildhood:

Little bird, little birdTuluzamzam tuluzam

What are you doing there?Tuluzamzam tuluzam

I'm up there fetching woodTuluzamzam tuluzam

After fetching what will you do?Tuluzamzam tuluzam

After fetching I'll light a fireTuluzamzam tuluzam

Of the so-called nonsense phrase (Tuluzamzamtuluzam), Okpewho writes:

Such sounds are usually left untranslated-rightly, perhaps-because there is no obviousmeaning or function to them other than tocomplete the rhythmic beat of the song. But itis equally possible that those sounds have beenderived from a close observation of the habitsof little birds and are employed as a vivid pho-nological way of representing the "personal-ity" of the bird in this particular dialogue.

Okpewho concludes:

On a more serious level, it has been chargedthat these ideophones or nonsense sounds arefrequently found in "primitive" languages intheir infancy of development. Again, it couldbe argued that some of these sounds have longlost their currency and that we no longer knowtheir exact meanings because the language hasdeveloped well beyond them. On the whole,

41

42 Sub-Saharan Africa

however, it is safer to see ideophones and sim-ilar sound as proof of their users' sensitive feel-ing for language, a deep sensitive attachmentto sounds and their power of vivid suggestionor representation.

Later, in this article, we shall see that-not-withstanding the validity of Okpewho's argu-ment-the repeated phrase (Tuluzamzamtuluzam) in the song is not a case of a meaninglesssyllable, but a typical example of an onomato-poeic refrain, one that imitates sounds made bypeople, animals, and objects in the natural andcultural environment. Often other patterns ofmeaning in the folk song text (and in the largernarrative or liturgical text in which it is embed-ded) draw from, and are informed by, the funda-mental meaning contained in the refrain.

While these claims will be illustrated in thisarticle chiefly with reference to the folk songsand folktales of the Igbo people of southeasternNigeria, it is assumed throughout that the emer-gent paradigms will be applicable to the choricrefrain in other cultures, not only in Africa butelsewhere across the world as well. As T.V.F. Bro-gan and Laurence Perrine have noted in theircontribution on the subject to The New Prince-ton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, "the fullcomparative study of refrains remains to be writ-ten" (p. 1018).

In order to present the so-called meaningless re-frain in its proper perspective as part of a generalpattern of meanings, it is necessary to outline andexamine all the major categories of refrains thathave been observed in the Igbo folk song, includ-ing those with unmistakable meanings. Eight maincategories present themselves readily from thetexts of performances that are available to us.These may be described as follows: (a) apostrophicrefrains; (b) echo or parrot refrains; (c) comple-mentary refrains; (d) exclamatory words; (e)theme or topical refrains; (f) onomatopoeic re-frains; (g) ideophonic refrains; and (h) lyrical re-frains. As we shall see presently, it is within thedomain of ideophonic and lyrical refrains that thegreat majority of the so-called meaningless or non-sense phrases will be located.

Apostrophic RefrainsApostrophic refrains are the most elementaryand, presumably, the most archaic category ofrefrains. They range from simple interjections orexclamations that use all vowel sounds and na-

sals in the language (a! e! i! i! o! a! u! u! m! n!n!) to various patterns of combination and redu-plication of these same sounds. Most common isthe vocal exclamation, "O!" (Oh! Ou!), which,in Igbo, as in most other languages, is used tocall attention to oneself or to something, or toexpress emotions ranging from surprise and ad-miration to fear, doubt, disapproval, or excite-ment. This is illustrated in the following songfrom the popular tale of "Omalinze," in whichthe hated wife bears the king's only male off-spring. Here, the discovery of the king's un-known son, where he is being fostered by apauper, provokes a song of praise and rejoicingwith an apostrophic refrain:

Omalinze, Omalinze, Okoro oma0, Omalinze!

Omalinze, Omalinze, Okoro oma0, Omalinze! ...

Nwa nze, Nwa nze, Nwa nze,Okoro oma

0, Omalinze!

Omalinze, Omalinze, lovely manOh, Omalinze!

Omalinze, Omalinze, lovely manOh, Omalinze!

Lordly son, lordly son, lordly son,lovely man

Oh, Omalinze!

Often, for melodic effects and as a means ofmaintaining quantitative symmetry between thesolo and the refrain, the apostrophic phrase in-cludes melismata, or different notes sung to onesyllable, as in the following lines from the popularfolk ballad "Nwakadiukporo." This is a cumula-tive tale that recounts a linked chain of tragic hap-penings that ensue when a breadfruit falls andkills the beautiful village girl for whom the balladis named:

Giui, gini ga-emere m ukwa nu O!ii-i-e, Nwaakadiukporo!Cini, gini ga-emere m ukwa nu O!ii-i-e, Nwaakadiukporo!Ukwa mere gini?Ukwa kugburu Nwaakadiukporo,ii-i-e, Nwaakadiukporo!

What, O! what will happen to this breadfruit?ii-e-e, Nwaakadiukporo!

The Meaning of the "Meaningless" Refrain 43

What, O! what will happen to this breadfruit?E-e-e, Nwaakadiukporo!Breadfruit did what?Breadfruit that killed Nwaakadiukporo,E-e-e, Nwaakadiukporo!

One of the major theories of the origins of hu-man language suggests that interjections and ex-clamations, such as the above, that express a widerange of emotions-joy, grief, anger, excitement,fear, and love-lie at the very base of poetic com-munication. The idea of the lyrical impulse as theroot of the emergence of primitive song hasgrown out of the assumption that humankind hasan innate capacity to produce such emotion-toned sounds, which, in the course of time, crys-tallized in traditional form as codes for elegiacand rhapsodic song. Beyond simple exclamations(e.g., a!, e!, i!, o!, etc.) and their reduplications(e.g., a-a-a-a!, aa-aa!, a-aaa! aaa-a!, etc.) or mel-ismata (such as we have seen in the Ballad ofNwaakadiukporo) that involve lyrical variationsof the tones of a reduplicated sound (e.g., aaaaaa], etc.), apostrophic refrains, like their mani-festations in ordinary speech, are tonological ge-stalt tone-patterns with specific domains ofmeaning into which the singer or the speaker canfit in any vowel sound or nasal. Thus, for exam-ple, we can fit any vowel or nasal sound into thegestalt form (High-Low-High-Downstep) and theresultant sounds (e.g., aaaa!; eeee!; fiiil; 6066!;uuuii!) will always be connotative of a suddenflash of regret.

Exclamatory WordsIn addition to vocal exclamations and melismata,Igbo folksingers make use of a rich repertoire ofexclamatory words and phrases that have estab-lished themselves firmly, both in everyday speechand in formal religious and magical rituals, ascodes for expressing certain kinds of emotion.Like "Alas!" in English, the exclamatory wordsHaweel and Ewu! are interjections that expressgrief or regret that we find as refrains in funeraland satirical songs, either independently or aspart of apostrophes addressed to death itself or tothe dead. By the same token, interjections such asTuffa!, Ihaa!, and Isel function as a ritual formulawith specific connotations when used as refrainsin a folk song. Tuffa! is an interjection that con-notes spitting off something in disgust; Ihaa! ex-presses affirmation or a plea for affirmation (as inthe English "hear, hear!"); while Isel (literally

"five") connotes ritual power and features fre-quently in ritual chants as the equivalent of theJudeo-Christian "Amen."

Interjections such as these occur frequently inIgbo ritual and satiric songs. In ballads and othertypes of folk songs, they serve as formulae tohighlight the ritual seriousness of certain kinds ofaction. Thus, in a popular folktale, a group of an-imals going for a hunt discover a tree full of ripeberries but agree not to touch the fruits until afterthe hunt. But as is his wont, Mbe (Tortoise) thetrickster would not leave the fruits alone. On thepretext of going to toilet, he returned to the treeand ate up most of the fruits (without pluckingthem from the tree) and managed to fill them allwith feces. When the animals returned to the treeat the end of the hunt and discovered the outrage,they agreed that each and everyone of themshould swear an oath to clear himself. The oath isin the form of a song:

Umu njeee, umu njeee, jere nta,Hii-i-hii!Umu njeee, umu njeee, jere nta,Hii-i-hii!Ake m kpatukwa utu, okpa m

kpatukwa utu chara acha,Hii-i-hii!Mmm, Omenuko ha alachaaJa

Travelers, Travelers that went a-hunting,Hii-i-hii!

Travelers, Travelers that went a-hunting,Hii-i-hii!

If my hands touched the fruits, if my legstouched the fruits that have ripened,

Hii-i-hii!Mmm, Omenuko and others have all gone

home!

At the end of the song, each animal mustjump over a pit. The culprit alone would betrapped by the charm placed in the pit. The re-frain here (" Hii-i-hii") is a variation of the ritualinterjection, "Ihaa" which is frequently heard inoath-taking rituals as a code of acquiescence tothe terms of the oath. (The significance of thelast line is rather obscure, but it may be men-tioned in passing that Omenuko is the hero of anIgbo historical novel by Pita Nwana [1933]. Thenovel tells the story of a poor village boy whobecomes a wealthy merchant. He must go intoexile after he commits the outrage of selling his

44 Sub-Saharan Africa

apprentices into slavery to make up for the losseshe incurred when his goods fell into the rapids ofa river when the bridge on which they werecrossing collapsed.)

Echo or Parrot RefrainsEcho or parrot refrains are meaningful unitswhich simply reecho, by repetition or parallelism,either the actual words or the meaning of the pre-ceding solo lines. Refrains of this type range fromsingle words and phrases to whole lines to versesof two or more lines. In the following song, an op-pressed orphan, aided by his dead mother, con-jures his magic palm tree to grow shorter so thathe might harvest the fruits:

Nwa nkwu m sughu sughu ...Sughu sughu!Nwa nkwu m sughu sughu ...Sughu sughu!

My little palm tree, grow shorter, grow shorterGrow shorter, grow shorter!My little palm tree, grow shorter, grow shorterGrow shorter, grow shorter!

When verses are involved, we have instances ofthe traditional "shout" that was carried over tothe New World.

Onomatopoeic RefrainsOnomatopoeic refrains are of the order of soundimages. They are always complementary rhyth-mic units that add color and vividness to the songthrough the verbal imitation of sounds in the nat-ural and cultural environment. In some cases,what may appear to the outsider as mere gibber-ish may indeed be a whole song comprising ono-matopoeic patterns that reenact the sound ofmusic and the thumping of dancing feet as in thefollowing:

Tiiii-ro tiroEgwu na-agba n 'obodo agu:Tijam jam!

Tiiii-ro tiroA dance is grinding in leopardstown:Tijamjam!

Tiiii-ro tiroEgwu na-agba n 'obodo agu:Tijam jam!

Tiiii-ro tiroA dance is grinding in leopardstown:Tijamjam!

Similarly, we can hear the sound made by the drumof plenty in the refrain of the following verse:

Kwam putu kpam putu!lgbs nri na oEe!Kwam putu kpam putu!lgbe nri na oEe!

Kwam putu kpam putu!Drum of food and soup!Kwam putu kpam putu!Drum of food and soup!

And in the following, the solo imitates the beatingof wooden drums (ekwe) while the choric refrainimitates the sound of the accompanying pot drum(udu) and maracas (oyo):

Kpom kpororom, kpom kpororom,Dum uyom uyom dum uyom!Kpom kpororom, kpom kpororom,Dum uyom uyom dum uyom!

Kpom kpororom, kpom kpororom,Dum uyom uyom dum uyom!Kpom kpororom, kpom kpororom,Dum uyom uyom dum uyom!

Ewu tara akara ike adighi yaDum uyom uyom dum uyom!

A goat that has eaten beancakes has nostrength,

Dum uyom uyom dum uyom!

By the same token, the guttural sound made byspirits is evident in the refrain ("Hioro hioro") thatwe hear in several songs through which one fiendor another threatens his human would-be victim.

Birds, both domestic and wild, figure fre-quently in Igbo songs and are often apostro-phized. In such lyrics, onomatopoeic refrains thatimitate the characteristic cries or other noisesmade by the animals that are being addressed helpto underline the mood of the song. In the follow-ing lyric, the contrast is between the noisy gnaw-ing of the squirrel and the death of its mother:

Osa na-ata akwu a!

The Meaning of the "Meaningless" Refrain 45

Charatam chatamfOsa na-ata akwu ofCharatam chatam!I na-ata akwu o?E gbuo ha nne gi ofCharatam chatam!

Squirrel that is eating palm fruits,Charatam chatamfSquirrel that is eating palm fruitsCharatam chatamfAre you eating palm fruits?They have killed your mother!Charatam chatamf

Onomatopoeic refrains are not limited to the re-production of sounds produced by people, ani-mals, and objects in the natural and culturalenvironment. They also function as myth-creativedevices that enable the singer to evoke an eerie at-mosphere through the creation of imaginativepatterns of sounds that suggest other realms ofexistence, such as the spirit world. In the follow-ing, the strangeness of the sound made by thehorn of life and death that is blown by a spirit-woman who is pursuing two brothers fleeingfrom her ravenous claws is evoked by the refrain(ndofuro ro-ro-ro-ro-ro):

Opi ukwu, opi ntaBiko hwugbuoro umu nne abo na omiko,Ndofuro to-to-ro ro-ro, ndofurofJi mmam ha rikwere,Ndofuro to-to-to to-ro, ndofurofEde mmam ha rikwere,Ndofuro to-ro-ro ro-ro, ndofurof

Big horn, small horn,Pray, have mercy, blow to death two brothersNdofuro to-to-ro ro-ro, ndofuro!Spirit yam, they ate,Ndofuro ro-ro-ro ro-ro, ndofuro!Spirit cocoyam, they ate.Ndofuro ro-ro-ro ro-ro, ndofurof

Similarly, in the refrain of another song, the hornof a fierce spirit pursuing his human victim hasthe menacing sound, Temu lemu gene ntumulugene tumu! And in the hero tale of the great wres-tler, Ojaadili, who throws spirits in a wrestlingmatch in their own land, the refrain onomatopoe-ically reenacts the sound of the wrestling drums:Ngoro ngoro didi ngoro!

Ideophonic RefrainsInasmuch as onomatopoeia is sometimes con-fused with ideophones, onomatopoeic refrainsare apt to be confused with their very close rela-tive, ideophonic refrains. But whereas onomato-poeia is a verbal pattern that imitates specifictypes of sounds, ideophones are gestalt soundpatterns that provide subtle suggestions of thequality, duration, and intensity of phenomena.Thus, a steady flicker of light from the distance ona dark night would be described with the soundkeri keri; the speedy movement of a stalwart go-ing to war or a wrestling match is described asviam viam viam viam viam! or flam flam flamflam flam!; the smoothness of a shiny object is de-scribed as muru muru. By the same token, vuruuudescribes the agility with which a fierce lion orleopard pounces upon his prey, while jijiji orkwekwekwe describes the suddenness of the bodyof a frightened actant shaking in the face of dan-ger. A whole class of refrains in Igbo folk songsare of the order of this class of phonoaesthetic de-vice. In one refrain, the wicked laughter of aheartless co-wife when her frightened rivalknocks persistently at her closed door is describedas mgbafiri kotoo mgba mgba; in another, the cal-lousness with which a monstrous vulture swal-lowed the hero's mother together with her marketcommodities is depicted as chafuru kpoto mkpo!;and in variants of the story of the oppressed or-phan, the hero's persistent and desperate weepingas he performs his tedious chores is evokedthrough the ideophonic refrains, milize lizenze orzeezee1ize Nwoye 0 zeze ze e1ize! Similarly, whenthe king's lost son in the tale of "Omalinze"makes a revealing contact with his father's dog,his weeping is rendered as Ntiyee, nyaako! Ideo-phonic refrains are the so-called "meaningless"refrains par excellence; the popular assumptionthat they are meaningless derives from the factthat the verbal patterns involved are usually notlexical entities but are ideophones.

Lyrical RefrainsClosely related to, and, perhaps, substantiallymuch the same as ideophonic refrains are lyricalrefrains, a distinct class of refrains that make useof special lyrical formulae or codes, all of whichare restricted to lyrical poetry and which we mayaptly describe as lyremes. These archaic expres-sions generally invoke mood and atmosphere.Analysis of the contexts of their use reveal thateach refrain belongs to a special mood category,

46 Sub-Saharan Africa

such as elegiac, rhapsodic, or apostrophic. Theyhave become an intrinsic part of the vocabulary ofthe song. The following are among the most com-mon of these lyrical refrains that we find in Igboelegiac songs=-songs in which the atmosphere ispredominantly one of grief, regret, or desperation:Nda (Ndawere nda; Ndawerere werere nda); Une(Inine; Ineene; Une, unembeJe une); Shamala (orSamala; Samara; Ramala); Mbele (Mbene; Ajam-belei; Mbeneke (Bene; Tumbeneke; Tungenene);Awanjenje (Awandegele); Nturuzam (Turuzizi;Turuzi; Turuzanza; Tuzanza); Kparanuma(Kpalanuma); and Zamiriza (Zamirize; Nzami-riza; Awanzamirinza). While there are no knownlexical glosses to any of these sounds, it seemsrather clear that each of them, like regular wordsin the lexicon, has dialectal and even idiolectalvariants (the items in parentheses). It thereforeseems right to assign them the meanings that seemclearly defined by the contexts in which they areused, for example, as lyrical codes for grief.

There is a whole class of lyremes in which thematrix of the apparently meaningless pattern ofsounds is in fact a word that denotes a specificemotion (pity, fear, excitement, etc.) or describesa specific type of action or situation (movementthrough a forest, slow movement, etc.). Thus, inthe refrain ndo rima rima ndo rima (Ugonna,1980) and its many variants, such as ndogh-orighioma and ndo ndoo-o ndo ndo, the matrix isthe word ndo (denoting pity or sorrow). By thesame token, awa njenje or its variant (awa nje)contains two meaningful matrices, namely awafrom -wa- (to wade through a forest) and nje from-je- (to be on a journey). The Iyreme thus literallymeans "wading through a forest, journeying andjourneying." Not surprisingly this lyreme almostinvariably occurs in songs that evoke the idea ofan adventurous journey through a thick forest. Inother significant instances, the matrix awa (wad-ing through a forest) combines with such lyremesas nzamiriza (connoting harrowing and tear-provoking confrontations) to evoke the idea of anadventurous journey that takes the hero throughharrowing, tearful confrontations such as en-counters with dreadful many-headed spirits. Itmay be possible in the future to undertake a moredetailed analysis of other lyremes that at presentseem to defy such analysis.

Complementary RefrainsComplementary refrains may be regarded as half-lines that serve to complete the sense or meaning

of the first half-line of a solo. Such complemen-tary half-lines may be variable or fixed. In the fol-lowing game song, the complementary refrain isfixed. It focuses on the overriding theme of thedispensable and replaceable abominable child,who must be thrown away or sold into slavery:

Tufuonu nwa mere aru of ...E ru echi amuta ozofRefuonu nwa mere aru of ...E ru echi amuta ozo of

Throwaway the abominable child! ...Tomorrow another will be born!Sell away the thieving child! ...Tomorrow another will be born!

But, in another example, a lullaby, the comple-mentary refrain is variable. Each new variantstresses a new strategy for lulling or coaxing thechild to sleep:

Nwata m ku na-aka Of ...Rahuru m urafNwata m ku na-aka Of ...Rahuru m urafo buru ji gi 0 .

Mu enye gi yaf .o buru ede gi o .Mu enye gi ya ofRahu ura ma oke

anyui gi nsi n 'anya of ...Rahuru m uraf

o Child I'm carrying in my arms ...Sleep for me!o Child I'm carrying in my arms ...Sleep for me!If it's your yam ...I'll give it to you!If it's your coco yam ...I'll give it to you!Sleep, lest a rat shits into your eyes ...Sleep for me!

Theme or Topical RefrainsTheme or topical refrains are equivalent to the"Burden" in European folk songs. In this cate-gory of refrains, the main theme or subject matterof the song is reiterated throughout its perfor-mance. In the folk ballad or narrative folk song,the theme refrain is usually the name of the heroor heroine. Two examples that come readily to

The Meaning of the "Meaningless" Refrain 47

mind are the ballads of Nwaakadiukporo andOmalinze (Omalungwo or Omaraugo). Theformer is a cumulative or incremental ballad thatbegins with an apostrophe to the breadfruit treewhose fruit falls and kills the heroine:

Gini, gini ga-emere m ukwa nu O!E-e-e, Nwaakadiukporo!Gini, gini ga-emere m ukwa nu O!E-e-e, Nwaakadiukporo!Ukwa mere gini?Ukwa kugburu Nwaakadiukporo!E-e-e, Nwaakadiukporo!Gini, gini ga-emere m mkpo nu O!E-e-e, Nwaakadiukporo!Gini, gini ga-emere m mkpo nu O!E-e-e, Nwaakadiukporo!Mkpo mere gini?Mkpo mawara ukwa!Ukwa mere gini?Ukwa kugburu Nwaakadiukporo,E-e-e, Nwaakadiukporo!

What, oh what will happen to this breadfruit?E-e-e, Nwaakadiukporo!What, oh what will happen to this breadfruit?s-e« Nwaakadiukporo!Breadfruit that did what?Breadfruit that killed Nwaakadiukporo,E-e-e, Nwaakadiukporo!What, oh what will happen to this stake?E-e-e, Nwaakadiukporo!What, oh what will happen to this stake?E-e-e, Nwaakadiukporo!Stake that did what?Stake that split the breadfruit.Breadfruit that did what?Breadfruit that killed Nwaakadiukporo,k-e-s, Nwaakadiukporo!

There is no space to consider further examples.The material considered so far seems to show

quite clearly that no refrain in the Igbo traditionon which we have focused can rightly be de-scribed as "meaningless." Every single sound thatforms part of the idiom of the folk song seems tohave some connotation, specific meaning, or sym-bolic value, no matter how unrelated they mayseem to be to words in current language. Needlessto say, further in-depth investigation of compara-ble manifestations of this important but hithertoneglected area of the expressive use of language infolk songs and storytelling events may yieldmeaningful results.

Further ReadingEgudu, Romanus, and Donatus L Nwoga,

comps., Poetic Heritage: Igbo TraditionalVerse, Enugu, Nigeria: Nwankwo-Ifejika,1971; also published as Igbo TraditionalVerse, London: Heinemann, 1973

Ndiot, Innocent, The Role of the Chorus in IgboFolksongs and Folktales with SpecialReference to Osisioma Ngwa (Bachelor's longessay, University of Nigeria), 1983

Ogbalu, F. Chidozie, Mbem na Egwu Igbo [IgboSongs and Poems], Yaba Lagos: Macmillan,1978

--, Onitsha Province Nursery Rhymes ...Shamara, University Publishing, n.d.

--, Western Igbo Nursery Rhymes: Nda,University Publishing, n.d.

--, Zamiriza: A Collection of Igbo TraditionalPoems, University Publishing, n.d.

Okpewho, Isidore, African Oral Literature:Backgrounds, Character, and Continuity,Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992

Ugochukwu, CN., T. Meniru, and P. Oguine,Omalinze: A Book of Igbo Folk-tales, editedby E.N. Emenanjo, New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 1977

Ugonna, Nnabuenyi, ed., Abu na EgwuregwuOdinala Igbo, Ikeja: Longman Nigeria, 1980

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