He is standing on the line where the world's time begins — and he still
gets his sister's hour wrong.
In this episode of Igbo Daily Drops, you'll learn 3 phrases for asking and
telling the time: what time is it there, it's four o'clock here, it's five
o'clock there — and why one small question can hold a family together.
Michael Ndụbụisi Hart was born in Woolwich in 1961 to an English mother and
an Igbo father he never met. At sixty-five, a DNA test finds his sister,
Ụgọmma, a market trader in Nkwerre, Imo State. The episode documents the
Igbo habit of locating a person in their day before talking your matter,
the Angelus ringing over a Nkwerre market, and the quiet labour of
children of absence reclaiming an endangered language late in life. It is
intangible cultural heritage, offered in a spirit of cultural understanding
and an African heritage renaissance.
Michael and Ụgọmma are fictional; their world is documented.
Research in this episode draws on Ola Uduku, University of Strathclyde,
2002 — the grandchildren of Igbo settlers abroad are often totally
assimilated, yet occasionally look for their roots.
📖 Today's proverb: Mgbe onye tetara bụ ụtụtụ ya — Whenever a person wakes
up is their morning.
🗣️ Sentences practised today:
1. Gịnị na-akụ ebe ahụ? — What time is it there?
2. Elekere anọ na-akụ ebe a. — It's four o'clock here.
3. N'ebe ahụ, ọ bụ elekere ise. — There, it's five o'clock.
📥 Free Speaking Workbook: learnigbonow.com
🏛️ By every measure UNESCO uses to assess a language's vitality —
intergenerational transmission, community attitudes, government support — Igbo is
vulnerable. This podcast documents Igbo intangible cultural heritage — oral
traditions, social practices, rituals, and knowledge systems — while teaching
conversational Igbo to diaspora learners worldwide. Every episode is part of the
Igbo Daily Drops Living Archive.
Hosted by Yvonne Chioma Mbanefo — Heritage Futurist and Daughter of the soil.
▶️ Watch the visual version on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LearnIgbo/podcasts
🎧 Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/iddspot
🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/iddapple
🌐 learnigbonow.com
Every sentence you learn is a drop. Every drop feeds Oké Osimiri Mmụta Igbo —
the Ocean of Igbo Knowledge.
This has been Igbo Daily Drops with Yvonne Mbanefo.
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Our Mission: Raise 10,000 more next-generation Igbo speakers by next year.
Be one of them. Every sentence you learn is a drop.
And every drop feeds Oké Osimiri Mmụta Igbo — the Ocean of Igbo Knowledge. Subscribe now. Foundation episodes begin today.
