This lullaby reveals the seminal development of a child coming from a third party, the babysitter. The babysitter cares for a crying child and tries to communicate to the child the reason why their parents were absent. She tells the child that her mother went to the market to buy akara (a dough made from ground black eye beans). She also tells the child that her father went to the farm to pluck corn for her.
She pleads with the child to stop crying and to keep quiet. Here’s the full lullaby:
Nwa n’eku nwa. Awanze!
Nwa n’eku nwa, Awanze!
Ụjụ akwa nwa! Awanze!
Nne ya gara ahịa. Awanze!
Ị zụta akara nwa. Awanze!
Nna ya gara ugbo. Awanze!
Ịghọta ọka nwa. Awanze!
Biko kwụsị akwa. Awanze!
Biko mechie ọnụ. Awanze!
The babysitter in the lullaby treats the child like a grown-up person to reason with. She confers a relatively rational power on the child through the lullaby. It is quite different from someone speaking to objects like trees, or bushes, or talking to themselves. In such a situation, the person speaking to trees, or bushes does not expect any response from them, so is the person talking to themselves, or self-talkers.
Here, the babysitter sings rationally to the child and indirectly inculcates the basic concepts of cause and effect. Hence, the lullaby emphasizes:
The parents’ absence means that some other person would
look after the child.
If the father does not farm, there would not be food to eat.
If the mother does not sell stuff at the market, there would not be money at
home.
The babysitter is indirectly imparting the parents’ lived experiences to the child and the child indirectly is observing and learning from the babysitter.