Emeka Maduewesia
As a kid growing up in Nnewi, I don't know of any family that did not have a Kolanut tree. My family had more than one nut-bearing tree.
For any Igbo ready to learn, please read this.
To the general Igbo population, there are two species of Kolanut in Nigeria. One is known as Ọji Hausa or Gworo, and the other is Ọji Igbo.
While Ọji Hausa is not native to Igboland, Ọji Igbo is native, and as I already mentioned, almost every family had a tree close to, or within, the compound.
While Ọji Hausa is generally two-lobed, ivory colored and bigger in size, Ọji Igbo is pinkish purple, smaller-sized, with two or more lobes.
When Ọji Igbo is ivory colored, it is called Ọji Ugo, and higher priced.
In Igbo markets, Ọji Igbo is more expensive because it's the acceptable specie for Igbo prayers and other rituals. When you are required to bring Ọjị as a fine or for ritual purposes, Gworo is unacceptable.
Ọji Igbo speaks. After prayers or other rituals that involve the breaking of Kolanut, the number of lobes of the nut used is significant. Four lobes is fullness, because each lobe represents one Igbo market day. Five lobes is prosperity. A lobless nut is dumb and never eaten.
Back to the tree, women are prohibited from harvesting Kolanut or even picking a fallen pod from the ground. She must ask a male, even a one-year old boy, to pick up the pods for her. Those of us who grew in in the village performed this role for our Mom's and other women, "Nnaa, biko tụ́ talụm ọjị a" they would ask.
With profound respect, His Royal Majesty the Ooni doesn't seems to know much about Igbo people. We share no religious rituals with the Yoruba. We do not use Ọjị Hausa, which grows in Yoruba land, for prayers and rituals.
While Yoruba religion is Egyptian, Igbo religion, known as Omenana (what you do in the land) is Israelite.
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