Igbo Proverbs in Praise of Soil

Abstract

Igbo people, one of the three major tribes of Nigeria, recognise the place of soil in life and have stylishly and uniquely deployed soil to speak in proverbs that depicts maturity, wisdom, identity, environmental management and good home-training. Such strategy for an enduring communication has gone global and should be preserved. The substance of soil resource for food security, human health, fertility and plant Nutrition, poverty alleviation, land use planning, sustainable development and degradation control, remediation and reclamation, land use change, history, philosophy, and sociology of soil science, justified the declaration of the International Year of Soils by the United Nations in their Sixty-eighth General Assembly of December 20th, 2013, where they also recognized December 5th as World Soil Day. The author pays tribute to the phenomenal role of the soil resource in the social, behavioural, agricultural, and environmental life sciences. Some of the Igbo proverbs show-casing relevance and diverse application of soil are discussed.