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If you are from the western part of Nigeria where the tribes people are know as the Yoruba or if you are familiar with the Yoruba language you would under stand what these words means “gudu gudu meje yaya mefa” , when to use them and how to use them. If you did something really impressive and a Yoruba tribes person wanted to praise you in those days they would often say that phrase. I was opportune to sit with an elder some months back who took his time to tell me the story of how this phrases originated from.
the story
He started the story like this…
During the colonial times before Nigeria became independent, in the year 1934. Most western parts of the then Nigeria was filled with a lot of colonial masters, some of these masters owned farm lands and gardens and so they loved to cultivate flowers or just plant crops for consumption and sometimes for commercial purposes.This particular master Mr west greens had a huge plot of farm land. He loved to cultivate tubers like yams and Cassava, few grains and a lot of cocoa. He had two daughters Emily and grace and his wife was a teacher at the ile-ekpo grammar school not very far from her husband’s farm. Mr west had a Nigerian friend, a Yoruba man Adedeji Akande who was a popular farmer and understood very little English. Adedeji was a servant under Mr west and had been serving him and his family for over a year now.
One day, Mr west wanted to cultivate a very large plot of land and so he needed extra hands, he needed strong men who could do the work for him and he was even ready to play them handsomely. He called Adedeji and told him about his plans and ask if he could provide him with labor.
“I would need at least 20 to 30 strong men for this job”.Mr west said
“Do not worry yourself I would help you find them easily” adedeji responded
The day marked for the cultivation came and as promised Adedeji provided 30 strong Yoruba young men who came and immediately went into work mode. The job would take at least 3 days to finish so they needed to get to work right way. On the first day Mr west west went around the farm as the men were working he was so impressed at their agility and speed, he would often stop and say ;
“Good good” while giving them a thumbs up, which often confused this men but they just kept on working. At other times he came around and did the same thing but this time he would say “yeah yeah”.
When the work was done after the third day and it was time to pay them . They called Adedeji out of concern to ask if the master was satisfied with the job they did and told him about how the white man would come around and just say words like “gudu gudu” meje would mean “good good” seven times and “ya ya” mefa which would mean “yeah yeah” 6 times. They weren’t really good at counting the smartest of them could only count to 7.
Adedeji laughed for a while and then assured them that “gudu gudu meje ati yaya mefa” would mean that they did a very good job and that they had nothing to be afraid of, if anything the master is quite impressed at the job you all did he relayed in Yoruba language.
After a while the master came out with money and gifts and settled the young men who soon disappeared into the wind and when to their various home spreading the phrase and using it when it they need to praise someone for an impressive deed.
Additional information
The Yoruba tribe is one of the major tribes in Nigeria, west Africa . Some of the states that speak Yoruba in Nigeria include oyo, ogun , osun , ekiti, Lagos among others . Some of the jobs done by typical native Yoruba men include ; farming , fishing , mat-making , hunting and trading . Common typical Yoruba names include : Ayodeji, oluwadamilola , tomilayo, Olumide, Akande , omojuwa amongst others.
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Thanks for the journey down history. I don't understand but it was a good read.