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THE 2000 AHỊAJỌKỤ LECTURE IGBO ENWE EZE: THE IGBO HAVE NO KINGS PROFESSOR CYRIL AGODI ONWUMECHILI, B.Sc
General ( Special (LONDON)
PhD (LONDON); C. Phys (UK) Hon. D.Sc (IFE) Hon. D.Sc (ESUT) BY SIR
FESTUS CHUKWUEMEKA EZE, BA; MA; MNIM FIAMN, CDA, FIMC; KCSJ, KGS FORMER
REGISTRAR, ASUTECH/ENUGU STATE UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY.
AND PRESENTLY HEAD OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES EBONYI STATE
UNIVERSITY ABAKALIKI. NOVEMBER,
2000 Ndu isi ọchịchị e kenee mụ ụnụ Ndu Eze ekene nụ Ndu Nze na Ndu Ọzọ ekene nụ Ọha na Eze e kenee mụ ụnụ 1. INTRODUCTION The legacies of the various cultures in a country tend to remain
ingrained as they are transmitted from generation to generation. In spite of
this, colonial and subsequent governments have grafted uniform governmental
structures on the different ethnic communities in Nigeria. That has helped to
legitimize the recognition of Ndu Eze even while discussing Igbo Enwe Eze (The Igbo have no kings). In fact,
the saying “Igbo Enwe Eze"
is a reference to the characteristic traits of the Igbo. It should not be taken literally as a
total denial that any king ever existed anywhere in the entire Igboland. There was at least one exception. The Nri people had pre-colonial kings. Nri is part of Northern Igbo, many of
whom were believed to have immigrated from Benin or Igola, and kept their tradition of chiefs
and kings. If this view is sustained, the very long eventful epic - Akụkọ
Eze Dba na Iduu – some of my age
mates or older learnt and recited as teenagers, may well have been the relics
of their exodus or odyssey. Despite this, most Igbo communities had no kings. The pre-colonial traditional government of the
Igbo without kings imbued in them the characteristic traits that prompt the
saying that “Igbo Enwe Eze”. It
appears that in recent times the phrase is sometimes used in
circumstances that suggest unwholesome connotation. Perhaps this is because the
traditional governments of certain other influential ethnic communities in
Nigeria had kings. Let us not disparage this legally without due consideration.
Our purpose here is to examine the legacies of
Igbo Enwe Eze in the light of
our times before pronouncing it a good or bad heritage of the Igbo. To provide
a contrast, we briefly outline the traditional governments of certain Nigerian
communities with kings and summarize their legacies. We then take a deeper look
at the traditional government of the Igbo without kings: its structures and
conduct, its religious and cultural setting, and its response to the external
threat of colonization before summarizing its major legacies. The role of
self-reliance in the fortunes of the Igbos is then examined because it appears
to because it appears to be salient among specific local examples are given
wherever possible. Finally, certain parallels are drawn between the legacies of
Igbo Enwe Eze and
scientific culture before reaching our conclusion. 2. SOME NIGERIAN TRADITIONAL GOVERNMENTS WITH
KINGS Hausa The Hausas had kings who were regarded as
sacred. A king owed his rulership to his aristocratic descent. Members of the
royal family assisted them in the affairs of the government. They appointed
district and village heads to administer parts of their kingdoms. Loyalty was a
major factor in the promotion of their appointees. Stride and Ifeka (1971 P.
109) stated: "One reflection of the cultural unity of the Hausa peoples
is the similarity of their systems of government. Early rulers were both
political and religious heads of their people, their authority being enhanced
by their sanctity, their key role in local religious ceremonies and their
traditional descent from the founder of the state". Benin The Oba of Benin was a King very much revered
by his people. But we learn from Elizabeth Isichei (1985 p. 91) that a certain
class of chiefs from noble families known as the Uzama, represented the government of Benin
before the foundation of the dynasty. Since the inception of the dynasty
"successive Obas undermined their powers as time went on, and added the
crown Prince, Edaiken, to their
number." They eventually became of less political importance. “All free
born Binis were theoretically the King's servants.” The Oba appointed two classes of chiefs that
formed the Council of State and advised the Oba. The palace chiefs undertook
various duties in the court including responsibility for the guilds. They
remained intensely subordinate to the king. The other class comprised the town
chiefs who had no palace duties. The only chief that had right to argue with or
even censure the Oba in public was a town chief, the Iyasere. But when the Iyasere died "his jawbone was sent to
the Oba to show that the jaw which had disputed with the Oba in life became the
Oba's in death." (Isichei
1985). Thus, it was affirmed that, the Iyasere not excepted, every Bini was the subject of the Oba. Yoruba The Yorubas had powerful kings. They lived in
palaces in splendid ceremonials among their many wives, slaves; palace eunuchs,
court officials, drummers, and praise singers. They were regarded as sacred and
were deeply revered by their subjects (Isichei 1985 p.70). The ancestors of the
very powerful Obas were believed to be descendants of Oduduwa, the progenitor of all Yorubas, and
indeed of all human kind according to popular Yoruba legends. Such mighty Obas
had the right to wear beaded crowns as the symbol of their authority. A Yoruba king ruled with nobles. In all
important matters, decisions rested in the hands of the king and a minority of
nobles (Basil Davidson 1981 p. 123). This makes for quick decision and is
supposed to foster unity. In this regard, Akinjogbin (1966 p. 451) opined
"all these kingdoms believed in and practised the Ebi system of
government. Under this system, a kingdom was regarded as a larger version of a
family, and a country as a collection of kingdoms whose rulers look on one
another as relations. Seniority was based on the believed ages of the various
kingdoms." But disagreeing to some extent, Basil Davidson
(1981 p.123) states: "government by kings and nobles make it possible to
unite the people of each main town firmly together, but difficult or impossible
to unite the different towns. Each town's nobles tended to feel themselves in
rivalry with those of neighboring towns, even though the ebi family system, as mentioned above,
made all the towns part of the same big Yoruba family." According to Davidson (1981 p.123), the Yoruba
system of government mixed up politics with religion. Governance rested not
only on the political power of the rulers appointed from the leading ruling
families but also on their religious power. To illustrate, I was once told that
ancient Ile-Ife had 201 gods. The 201st of these gods was the Oni of Ife, the King of Ife himself. If this is
true, it must not be regarded as extraordinary. All the kings worldwide
reported as sacred or divine were believed to be gods by their subjects.
Outside Nigeria, some still exist in modern times. Indeed, it was an act of
moderation and humility if the people of ancient Ife ranked their King last
among their gods. The following quotation from Professor Bolagi
Idowu (1962) evinces the great impact the above governance model can have on
the life of the Yoruba: "The
real keynote of the life of the Yoruba is neither in their noble ancestry nor
in the past deeds of their heroes. The keynote of their life is in their
religion: In all things they are religious…As far as they are concerned, the
full responsibility of all the affairs of life belongs to the deity; their own
part in the matter is to do as they are ordered through the priests or diviners
whom they believe to be the interpreters of the will of the Deity..." We may summarize the major attributes of
traditional governments with kings
as follows: 1. The king owes his enthronement to the accident of his birth in a
royal family. 2. The king is regarded as a god by the citizens of his kingdom who
are all his subjects. He is deeply revered by his subjects. 3. The king wields both political and religious power. 4. The king rules with an advisory council of state consisting of
nobles who owe their positions to appointment by the king and/or to their
ancestry. They remain loyal to the King in order to retain their positions. 3. IGBO TRADITIONAL GOVERNMENT
WITHOUT KINGS Most Igbo governed themselves without giving
power to chiefs or kings. They organized themselves into many independent
village governments. Village councils and assemblies met periodically, and
could also be summoned as the need arose to discuss and take decisions on both
internal and external affairs of the village. The councils might be limited to
certain age grades but the assemblies were for all and sundry. Every man could
and did have his say on all matters under discussion. Nobody had any special
privilege because of ancestry. There are however some social structures in
the communities. The entire community is divided into age grades. Each grade
has its recognized rights, duties and responsibilities for the good of all. The
age grade of elders includes those that hold the Ọfọ stick. Each holder of the Ọfọ stick is regarded as the titular
“father” of an extended family group that originally descended from the same
ancestor or what may be called lineage. His privilege ends with the right to
keep and administer the Ọfọ stick as the need arises according to tradition. The Igbo have title societies open to all free
borns of the community. There are however certain qualifications. Depending on the
community, these may include: age, virtuous life style, contributions to
development of the community, dedication to truth, peace and service, prowess
in some human affairs, and of course sufficient wealth to pay the cost of
investiture of the title. The title holders carry respect, honour and prestige.
They have recognized rights, duties and responsibilities. Among the
Southeastern Igbo in the Cross River areas, there is also the Ekpe political association. Certain traditional duties and functions are
reserved for elders and/or title holders. These include: conducting funeral
rites, marriage ceremonies, libations, kola nut ceremonies; communing with
ancestors, etc. The traditional government also delegates certain powers to the
age grade of elders and/or title holders as appropriate. In such matters they
function like standing committees of the village assembly. These include:
determination of general policies, guidance and decisions on traditional
issues, handling of extremely abhorrent acts known as abominations such as iru
ala (defiling the earth);
adjudication of cases involving traditional rights, sharing of inheritance,
ownership of land and economic trees thereon, etc.; as well as settlement of
difficult and prolonged disputes referred to them. Sometimes, if serious
miscarriage of justice is feared their adjudication may be appealed to the
village council. It is noted that title holders are also members of their
appropriate age grades. But even within their age grades, they enjoy their
respect, honour and prestige. In the above ways, the elders and title holders
enjoyed greater participation in Igbo traditional government than others. Igbo traditional government often consisted of
two or more tiers. The lineages of all the people of a village are descendants
of the same ancestor. There are ancestral ahiajoku and ndu ichie shrines, and a holder of the
ancestral Ọfọ stick
for the village. The village government comprises the first tier. Secondly, in most
cases, the respective progenitors of a group of villages, in what we may call a
town, are believed to be the descendants of a common ancestor, the founder of
the town. The villages take their seniority from the seniority of their
progenitors. There is an ahiajoku
shrine and a holder of the Ọfọ stick for the town. In such a case there is a larger second
tier of government, the town government, for the group of villages making up
the town. There is a town council, a town assembly and all the structures described
at the village level. The only difference is that villages send representatives
to the town council except as may be otherwise stipulated. Quite often there is
a third tier of government where the progenitors of a group of towns, in what
may be called a clan, are believed to have a common ancestor. As in the second
case above, there is a clan ahiajoku shrine, a holder of the Ọfọ stick for the clan, a clan council
and a clan assembly. The towns elect representatives to the clan council. The
seniority of the towns follows the believed seniority of their progenitors. The kinship stories on the basis of which the
larger group of villages or towns affiliates are often uncertain. They may
appear purely legendary, lurid and tenuous. Sometimes, they appear like mere
rationalizations of names and sayings. Because the events are supposed to have
taken place at the inception of the communities in the great past, beyond the
reach of living memory, they can hardly ever be verified. Nevertheless, they
arouse strong emotions; they are passionately believed and their appeal is
sufficiently strong to bind the affiliated communities together. We may illustrate such kinship legends with
our case at lnyi clan. Inyi is a clan of
nine towns, namely: Umuome, Enugu, Obule, Amankwọ, Agbariji, Arum, Ụmụagụ,
Akwụ, and Nkwere. The founder of the clan was Inyi Omire and his wife
Ukagbantu. There are detailed lurid stories of where Inyi came from, his
childhood under foster parents, the fortune teller's prophecy that this brave child
had a great future, the two abominations associated with him, his banishments,
his means of survival and how he got his five sons. Following the history of Inyi I was taught in
primary my own research about 1940, my own research about 1950 and the account
given by Dr. Agwuna (1981), the first five towns listed above descended
directly from the five sons of Inyi in that order of seniority. Because the ahiajoku shrine of Inyi clan is Enugu, some
put Enugu first and explain that Enugu lost his birth right to Umuome by
insisting on choosing the bigger part of the chicken which is not the part for
the eldest son. It was believed that Arum descended from the daughter of
Agbariji, that Umuagu was picked in the bush where he was abandoned because of
some abomination as was the practice then; and that both Akwu and Nkwere were
the descendants of groups that escaped from communal upheavals at the
neighbouring towns of Akwu Achi and Nkwere Ubaha respectively. Indeed, some such kinship legends might have
originated because the Igbo knew the benefits of and desired large territorial
governments, or at least cherished acting together on matters of common
interest of all the components. But being essentially pacifists and lacking
large armies, they rejected empire building by conquest and looked for other
bases for common action. Indeed, there were other bases for further extensions
for common action beyond the kinship of the clan. There is the concept of iji
ala (having common
grounds). On this principle, clans that may not necessarily have common
boundaries cooperated with each other as if they were in a loose confederation.
Iji ala is the concept that associates
various clans that have common mores, regarded as the laws of the land. Even beyond the concept of iji ala, the Igbo had sometimes sought for
wider bases for association. One such basis is the invocation of natural
boundaries from geographical features. Such groupings include: Ndu Ọhaozara
(peoples of scrubland), Ndu ala ike (peoples of stony land), Igbo Ufesi Odo (Igbos around There should be no doubt that ultimately, all Igbo must have ancestral and
sociological affinities. This is evidenced by their common language and the
strong similarity of their
mores. Sociological and anthropological researches have continued in their
attempts to elucidate the
origins and relationships of the various Igbo peoples. One of the most comprehensive attempts so far is the work of Oriji (1990). He has woven together the
origins of practically all the
Igbo groups. "The early history of the Igbo people is
yet to be systematically reconstructed. Archeology will play an important part
in such a reconstruction.” (Alagoa 1985 p. 401). Indeed, Archeology is already
illuminating the history of the Igbo and elucidating its interpretation.
Excavations discovered at Ugwuele, near Okigwe, the stone axe factory site
dated about 500,000 years ago which was described as one of the largest in the
world. Exquisite 9th century bronze and clay artifacts were discovered at
Igboukwu (Shaw 1970). They were older, distinctive in quality, style and
material from the better-known bronzes of Ife and Benin, and therefore could
not be related to Benin and Ife. Doubtful attempts were made to relate them to
very far places like India, North Africa, and Middle East. But later
archeological finds in Igboland and the anthropological researches of
Onwuejeogwu (1972) appear to have now changed the interpretation of the
Igboukwu artifacts. It is now thought that the political organization responsible for
the bronzes was born at a place near Aguleri under a founder known as Eri. Some
of his descendants spread north into Igala, and some moved south and
established at Nri. Alagoa (1985) argues
that they could have got some of their materials from trade at the Niger Delta.
The interesting accounts of the influence of Nri people over a large area of
Igboland and their pacifism are relevant to our topic. Onwuejeogwu (1972) described how the Nri
People spread their religious and ritual power and authority over a large area
of Igboland. The Nri were constant visitors to Inyi but they did not confer
political, social ritual nor religious titles or authority to Inyi people as
Onwuejeogwu (1972) suggested. They did not invest the Ọfọ stick nor the staff of office. They
could remove abomination, but in Inyi, after the necessary propitiation this
can be done by any man from any village outside those believed to have common
mores (iji ala) with Inyi. However,
Alozie and Uchendu (with fully tattooed faces signifying their title of ichi) regularly visited Inyi from Nri
during the season of iru nkpu (which
early Europeans called fattening). In addition to selling copper and bronze
anklets (nja), and whistles, they
tattooed a line of design (mbubu)
from the neck, through the chest to the waist of rich and brave girls. Meanwhile, we now turn to the influence or
religion in Igbo traditional government and life. In the first place there is
no equivalent of the king elsewhere who combined political and religious
powers. "The village society had its social norms and a strict sense of
what was lawful and just. Its members allowed their daily lives to be governed
and guided by such norms and concepts. Above all, the strong belief of the
Igbos in the Supreme deity they called Chukwu gave remarkable religious colour to the life and work of every
Igbo. All this helped to create effective government at the village or local
level which adequately met the day to day needs of Igbo people" (Osae and
Odunsi 1973 p.97). In addition to the Supreme deity, Chukwu Okuke (God the creator), the Igbos had
some spiritual forces to whom they also prayed. In Inyi clan, for example, Aja
ala (earth force) was
influential. An elderly man had a shrine for Ndu ichie (Spirits of ancestors) and a shrine
for ahiajoku (Yam
force). An elderly woman had a shrine for Chukwu Okuke, who gives children to mothers. The
intercession with the minor spirits and forces is like Christians praying to
angels and saints but there is no doubt in either belief system that these are
inferior to the supreme deity. When a woman died, her father's relations who
came to bury or permit her burial destroyed her Chukwu Okuke shrine after receiving
the traditionally-codified accompaniments. When a man died, his male children
maintained his shrines. As his descendants increased, they strove to maintain
the shrines of their ancestor. Ultimately, the shrines of a lineage progenitor
were maintained by the whole lineage. The remarkable influence of Igbo oracles that
spread widely far beyond Igboland has attracted the interest of historians from
the early ones like G. Jones (1939) to the later ones like Alagoa (1985).
Oracles provided avenues for appealing cases to a god. After offering sacrifice
at the shrine, the judgment of the god was pronounced by the priest who was the
god's mouthpiece. The oracles could also bestow the blessing of fertility to a
childless woman. The oracle could kill those disobeying its verdict and
disputants who invoked it falsely. For fear of the latter, most litigants told
the truth. The nationally famous oracles of Igboland
widely believed to give impartial verdicts were: the Ibini Ukpabi of Arọchukwu, the Igwe-ka-Ala of Umunneọha,
the Agbara of Awka, the Amaduọha
of Ọzụzụ, the Ojukwu of Diobu, and the Onojo Oboni of Ogurugu. The influence of Ibini
Ukpabi covered most of the
Igbo hinterland and stretched through the Cross River and the Niger Delta and
beyond to Urhobo, Idah and Idoma. The influence of Onojo Oboni covered Igala outside Igboland and
their royal house at ldah consulted this oracle. The influence of an oracle was spread by its
agents who traveled widely. This factor made Ibini Ukpabi pre-eminent. The Arọ who acted
as its agents maintained thriving trade activities and organized settlements at
all important centres in Igboland, the Niger Delta and the Cross River areas,
especially along the main trade routes. There was a kind of symbiotic
arrangement between them and the oracle operators. They were respected and no
one dared harm them for fear of
the oracle. This enabled them to procure and channel slaves and their
merchandise to the Delta markets without impediment. In the name of lbini
Ukpabi tracking down wrong
doers, they used mercenaries from Abam, Edda, Ọhaọfịa and Abrịba
to ravage communities as in the case of Ogeni at Enugu Inyi, looting properties
and capturing people to sell as slaves. The Ogeni community was surrounded and
completely wiped out. They also used mercenaries against their trade rivals. Although the Arọ had the religious power
of lbini Ukpabi and the
military might of the mercenaries available to them, they never attempted to
build an empire by force. This again points to the pacifistic nature of the
Igbo. Nevertheless, the British then in the Niger Delta feared the dominating
influence of the Arọ and believed that an Arọ empire virtually
existed. This was regarded as a threat to the British empire-building strategy.
As a result, a punitive British expedition arrived at Arọchukwu on 24
December 1901, destroyed the shrine of
lbini Ukpabi and hanged some Arọ chiefs in 1902 (Crowder
1968 p.129). 4. CONFLICTS OF COLONIAL AND TRADITIONAL
GOVERNMENTS Historians have often drawn attention to the
military weakness of segmentary governments like those of the Igbo. On the other
hand, large kingdoms can raise strong armies. Possibly, the realization of
their military limitations contributed to the pacifist tendencies of the Igbo
to which attention has already been drawn. In the light of this, it is relevant
to briefly outline the conflicts between colonial and traditional governments
in the period of the establishment of colonial rule. The British began the establishment of their
rule over Nigeria by negotiating, persuading and signing treaties of protection
with the big kings and chiefs holding sway over large areas and peoples. They
believed that the protectorates treaties transferred the sovereignty of the
areas to them, even if the people were not consulted by their traditional
rulers. Later: they preferred the swifter method of military conquest taking
advantage of their superior weapons and technology. In southern Nigeria, the
British swiftly imposed their rule by overthrowing King Jaja of Opobo in 1887,
and easily conquering Ijebu in 1892, Nana of Itsekiri in 1894, Benin and Ilorin
in 1897. The events were similar in Northern Nigeria. Sir Frederick Lugard
easily captured Bida and Kontagora in 1901, Bauchi in 1902, Kano and Sokoto in
1903. In Eastern Nigeria there was no single state or power whose defeat would put the whole region or any large
part of it into British hands. Although Arọchukwu was captured in
1901-02, it was not until about 1920, after 20 years, that the whole of
Igboland was subdued in a series of small military expeditions (Afigbo 1984). Michael Crowder (1971) edited a book on the
West African resistance to the establishment of European colonial rule. The
following is cited from page 15 of his overview: "The
nine case studies in this volume are concerned with the confrontation of
African and European armies, and as such do not cover the resistance of the
segmentary societies or peoples divided into numerous petty chiefdoms which had
no coordinated military organization beyond the level of the village.
Nevertheless, such societies in particular the Benue peoples of the Benue
valley in Nigeria and the peoples of Southern Ivory Coast - provided some of
the stiffest resistance the colonial forces of occupation experienced. Since
each village offered its resistance, there was no identifiable army to defeat among
the Igbo as there was, say, among the Tukulor, the Emirates of Nigeria or
Samori's Mandingo empire. Each village or federation of hamlets had its own war
leader. These societies conducted what was in effect guerilla warfare against
the invading armies, quite the best tactic that could have been adopted in the
circumstances. Unfortunately no detailed study has yet been made of the
military resistance offered by these societies to colonial occupation." In view of his last sentence we briefly
outline the encounter between the British and Inyi community. After taking the
neighbouring clan of Ufuma, the British delayed attacking Inyi probably because
an article in the National Geographic in about 1908 cautioned special preparations before attacking
the warlike peoples of "Inyis and Ishielus". On the other hand Inyi
people were planning to attack and loot the British and sent reconnaissance
groups to study their outlines. Eventually, benefiting from the information of
their spies, the British attacked at noon on Nkwo Abia day when the Ọzọ title investiture ceremony of Alfred
Obika was at its peak, merry makers crowded the market and the Inyi clan was
engrossed in festivities. Their firing from afar from the direction of Amankwo
Inyi tore down twigs and branches of trees in the market They exploited the
resulting pandemonium. With some research this event can be accurately timed
because Nkwo Abia is
always on the Nkwo day
nearest to the 24th day of the third lunar month after the Aja
Ala lnyi festival which
takes place on the first full moon in October of each year. The British attack swept through Inyi against
unplanned and ill-equipped resistance. Maduekesi Ekwele, the third member of
his family to become the leader of Inyi in succession, came out of his shelter
in the double-face cave at Awla to surrender to the British with a cow,
although his son was killed in the battle. The British settled on the outskirts
of Amankwo and ordered the surrender of guns. All attempts to remove them by
juju power and guerilla tactics failed. There was a second invasion and burning
of houses associated with a certain McGregor. The exact cause of the second
invasion was not clear from investigation but it was probably a reprisal for
the continued harassment of the British. Later, the British asked Maduekesi to nominate
one of his sons to replace him as Inyi leader. Maduekesi suggested Ọhaka to the council but had to present his other son
Ezechukwu, preferred by the clan council. Ezechukwu was made the first Warrant
Chief of Inyi. The leaders of the British were identified as a certain Ọgba
aji aka (one with hairy
arms) and a ruthless Major. In the 1950s, I read a book, Juju and Justice in
Nigeria, by Frank Hives. He
recorded that the natives called him Agbajaka because of his hairy arms. I therefore believe that Frank Hives
was the man Inyi people called Ọgba aji aka. The above has outlined the military resistance
related to the establishment of colonial rule. The introduction of taxation
engendered another series of widespread insurrections. Indeed, the British
approach to taxation was indicative of double standards. One of the causes of
the unrest that led to King John granting the Magna Carta to the British people
on 12 June 1215 was taxation. The British are proud of that event and also
cherish that John Hampden resisted the tax imposed by King Charles I because
neither the people directly nor their representatives were consulted to discuss
and approve the taxation. In spite of these 'precedents', the British imposed
taxation on Nigerian communities without the necessary consultation. There were numerous riots in Nigeria, indeed all over West
Africa against the introduction of taxation by European colonial rulers (Afigbo
1984 and Crowder 1968). After rationalizing why West Africans reacted so
strongly against taxation, Afigbo (1984 p.480) recorded: "The last and most famous riot against such imposition (of
taxation) was the women's (Aba) riot of 1929-30 in Eastern Nigeria during which
the women, among other things, asked the British to leave the country so that
the people would run their own affair as they had done in the days of
yore" The introduction of taxation in Inyi clan has an interesting story. According to
Inyi oral historians, the British gave the directive in about 1928 that all
male adults be registered for the
purpose of utu ala (contribution
for the land). Arising from a
serious misinterpretation of English
into Igbo, it was believed that according to tradition the British would offer oji
ala (land rent normally
paid for using another person's land) to be shared by those being registered.
Adolescent males reaching the age of puberty were enthusiastically registered. When it transpired that the people were to make
the contributions, there was a commotion. A delegation was sent formally
requesting the British to pay land rent for occupying the people's land. When
that failed and the tax had to be paid, the reverse argument was made that the
age of puberty was no indication that the young male had an independent
livelihood. My investigations in the 1950s through oral history could not
establish how the misunderstanding of the age of liability was resolved, but
the taxes were eventually paid under duress. 5. THE LEGACIES OF IGBO ENWE EZE From the above review we note the major legacies of Igbo Enwe
Eze as follows:
Indeed, Davidson (1981 p.113) posed the very
fundamental question at the core of our topic. "Does it mean that peoples without chiefs
or kings were less successful than the peoples who formed themselves into
states with central government?" He answered emphatically as follows: "Far from it. Some of these people
without kings were to be among the most go-ahead of all the peoples of West
Africa: very active in trade, very skillful in politics, very shrewd in dealing
with their neighbours. Prominent among them were the Igbo who have lived since
times beyond the reach of history, in the fertile land to the east of the lower
part of the Niger. Most Igbo have governed themselves without giving power to
chiefs." 6. LEGACY OF
SELF-RELIANCE Perhaps we should say more about self-reliance,
which is strongly influenced by the legacies of Igbo Enwe Eze. It is clear from our review that
the Igbo were among the last Nigerians to come under British colonial
administration. Very soon there was no disguising their appetite for the
trappings of Western civilization. Indeed, there was a local song glamourizing
Western civilization. Their competitive spirit emerged in education as the
vehicle for the acquisition of the good things of Western civilization. Within 10 to 15 years of the last Igbo village
being subjugated by the British, some Igbo were already working and settling in
various parts of Nigeria. The Igbo took their destiny in their own hands. All
over Nigeria, they were very active in the public and private sectors mainly as
clerks, teachers, members of the security forces, artisans, petty traders and
domestic servants to foreigners. Even without their kindred in high positions
to act as godfathers, they began to improve their positions by dint of hard
work. But their rapid progress did not go unnoticed. Indeed, it later
contributed to ethnic rivalry in Nigeria. The Igbo in the cities organized their
traditional assemblies of people from the same village, town or clan, and often
one person belonged to the movements at these levels. The assemblies at home
and "abroad" (away from the clan) rendered mutual help to their
members, promoted development in their clans of origin and often awarded
scholarships to their sons and daughters. The various clan assemblies in a city
federated to become an Igbo city union especially in cities outside Igboland.
Some of the unions built Igbo schools in the cities of their abode such as in
Kano: As time went on, individuals and assemblies mustered enough resources to
build private schools in Igboland but the demand for education still appeared
insatiable. In 1943 the Igbo State Union, a federation of the Igbo city unions,
was created and its first assembly met at Aba. It had an anthem and an
ambitious programme including the building of five secondary schools. However, this was not unique. The lbibio
National Union was already in existence. Some other ethnic groups with
segmentary traditional governments like the Urhobo and the Tiv also
experimented with national unions (Webster 1984 p.573). In 1948 the Yoruba joined
the others with the formation of Egbe Omo Oduduwa. With limited success (Webster 1984), this was followed by the Egbe
Omo Olofin. The regionalization
of Nigeria introduced by the MacPherson Constitution in 1951 acerbated the
ethnic rivalries and bitter disunity in the nationalist movements in Nigeria.
The regional governments provided focus for the major ethnic groups. The
Eastern region controlled by the National Convention of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) was dominated by the Igbo; the Western
region controlled by the Action Group (AG) was dominated by the Yoruba; and the
Northern region controlled by the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) was dominated
by the Hausa and Fulani. As full political independence and withdrawal
of the British was becoming imminent, fears of domination of one ethnic group
by the other began to loom. The Northern region had suspicion and deep fear of
domination by the more educationally and economically advanced South. The
Southern regions talked of the threats of the Fulani either to continue their
interrupted march to dip the Quoran in the sea or to withdraw from the Nigerian
Federation (Aluko 1984 p. 639). The Yoruba were becoming uneasy about the fast
rise of the Igbo into prominence. Indeed, there were the allegations of threatened
Igbo domination of the Yoruba (Coleman 1958 p.312; and Enahoro 1965 p.98). P.28 In the circumstance, when the British
virtually offered self-government to the people of Nigeria "on a platter
of gold", the Nort1len region refused to accept self government until they
declared their readiness for it. The attempt by the Action Group to force the
pace of self government against their wish precipitated the Kano riots of May
1953 in which at least 36 persons were killed and 240 were wounded (Aluko 1984
p.640). The Northern region seriously considered secession from the Nigerian
federation. True to their legacy, the Igbo embraced the slogan of "One
Nation, One Country, One destiny" and worked very hard to keep the
Nigerian federation together. The NCNC wanted the Northern region "to be
given time to decide on the date for independence and were anxious that no step
should be taken on the issue which might push them towards secession"
(Aluko 1984 p.641). We may continue this sketch because it
provides the background to an event that fully tested the self-reliance of the
Igbo. In 1957 the Northern region declared its readiness to accept full
internal self government by 1959 and Nigeria became an independent country
under the British Commonwealth on 1st October, 1960. Ominously, this provided
potent weapons to the defeated distrust among the regions and ethnic groups.
The spiral of events that inexorably changed the course of Nigerian history
from democracy to cycles of military rule began with a split among the leaders
of the Action Group in the Western region. The split led to the breakdown of law and
order in the Western region. The Federal Government intervened with the
appointment of a sole administrator for the region. The use of soldiers to
control the ugly events in the Western Region introduced them into Nigerian
politics. A military coup occurred in 1966, ostensibly to engender a Nigerian
federation more peaceful than the one ruled by the politicians. Ironically, the
effect was exactly the opposite. Before the military rulers fully settled down,
unprecedented riots occurred all over the Northern Region and parts of Western
Region. Northern Nigerians wantonly massacred thousands of men, women and
children of Eastern Nigeria origin in all walks of life and asked them to go
home. In its wake, the second military coup occurred and eventually the civil
war of 1967-1970 followed, as the Eastern Region declared secession as the
State of Biafra. The Biafran war tested the self-reliance of
Eastern Nigerians, especially the Igbo, to its limit. The small Biafra was
totally and effectively blockaded. Britain comprehensively armed Nigeria with
modern and heavy weapons of attack by land, sea, and air. Initially, armed with
machetes, and small fire arms, the hopelessly outnumbered and ill-equipped
Biafrans faced the awesome armaments of Nigeria with great courage and
determination. Then Biafran scientists and engineers began to fabricate
grenades, mines, bombs, mortars, rockets, pontoons, plated vehicles etc. The
contributions of these scientists and engineers were severely limited by lack
of materials, tools and workshops but they greatly boosted morale. Perhaps the most difficult problem was hunger.
There was campaign for growing food crops everywhere in whatever land was left
in Biafra that was being squeezed almost to a point as Nigerian forces
advanced. People were urged to eat wild vegetation pronounced safe by
scientists. Despite that and massive relief by the international charitable
organizations, Kwashiokor was
widespread and many people died of starvation. These was exploited by the
powerful Biafran propaganda. The Research and Production (RAP) wing of the
defense effort built mini-refineries which together with the widespread
home-made boiler refineries kept the vehicles going on Biafran roads. The RAP
units manufactured salt, soap, soft arid hot drinks, perfumes and so on. Telex
links with the outside world and Radio Biafra station, which were constantly re-located, were effectively
maintained throughout the war. Thus the self-reliant efforts of Biafrans kept
them going for about 30 months of the war against fearful odds. The BBC (1995) Time
Watch television and video
documentary titled, "Biafra
Fighting a war without guns” shows only a glimpse of the heroic
Biafran epic. The self-reliant efforts of village
assemblies, their improvement and development unions that quickly projected the
Igbo into the front line of Nigerian affairs, saw them through the dreadful
civil war and the reconstruction thereafter, have continued ever since. As the
improvement and development of rural communities progressed, these village
development unions mustered greater resources for bigger projects like the
establishment of secondary schools that was earlier tackled by the entire Igbo
State Union. Again, I illustrate with examples nearer home.
We spearheaded the founding of Inyi Welfare Association (IWA) in 1952 and Enugu
Community Union (ECU) in 1968. These development unions have been responsible
for expanding the main market and building market stalls, road improvement,
building a post office and a town hall, facilitating village health clinic,
promoting pottery industry, giving scholarship, establishing a secondary school
and so on. These were projects selected by the town and the clan, as the case
may be, as most important to them at the time. The projects were achieved
through the self-reliant contributions of the communities. Most other
development projects after these have been sponsored by the Government. Federal government policy has articulated the
need to develop rural communities at the grassroots level. So far, this has
been pursued through the enhanced funding of local governments. Unfortunately,
there has been little evidence of its impact at the village level. It should be
possible to link the efforts of these development unions with the local
governments through some cost-sharing arrangement for mutually approved
projects. Hopefully, this may also promote greater accountability. 7. SCIENTIFIC CULTURE AND IGBO ENWE EZE We find some parallels between scientific culture and the
legacies of Igbo Enwe Eze. Scientific
culture recognizes no kings and chiefs with divine knowledge. The tests of
demonstrability and conformability are applied to the views of all scientists.
The ancestry, country of origin and position in society do not confer any
privilege on the discoveries and views of a scientist. The long-standing
researchers and great achievers in a field of science may be respected and may
be invited to write or review
progress in the field but there is no servility to their views. Thus like the
Igbos, science has no kings. Scientific culture does not recognize any
priest who speaks as the mouthpiece of nature. Views of the established
religions and their interests are not allowed to influence the course of
scientific enquiry. The celebrated case in history is the discovery by
Copernicus in the 16th century that the Earth revolves round the Sun. The
Church was greatly displeased and vehemently opposed it. It would have been a
monumental set back if the discovery had been hidden or abandoned in deference
to the Church. Science thrives through open discussion in
seminars, symposia and assemblies. Everyone has a right to attend and to speak
at the scientific assemblies. Treaties on the freedom of movement of scientists
are sought to ensure that the host country admits participants from all
countries including those currently in conflict with the host. Life in Igbo
traditional government, kinship among scientific disciplines is invoked to
widen the fields covered and to enrich the intellectual and data resources
available to the scientific associations and their assemblies. The scientific
associations are also structured like the Igbo development unions. They
federate from town to national and then to continental and world scientific
unions. Scientific culture encourages competition in scientific investigation.
It honours hard work and excellence. Like in Igbo legacy, promotion is by
achievement and service to the scientific and the general community. Indeed, a
systematic procedure is in place for assessing the achievements of those to be
elected for awards of fellowships and prizes. Scientific inquiry develops self-confidence
in its practitioners. Scientists are always ready to
deal with new problems and to seek their solution. They have the propensity to
question conventional wisdom and are easily adaptable to new situations in
accordance with the latest discoveries. These are very much akin to Davison's
(1981) conclusions on the legacies of Igbo Enwe Eze. 8. CONCLUSION We have reviewed the traditional governments
of the Igbo without kings. We have briefly outlined the contrasting traditional
governments of certain communities in Nigeria with kings. Attention has been
drawn to the major legacies of Igbo Enwe Eze, and their endorsements by historians. Certain relevant
experiences of the Igbo have been discussed in the light of the legacies of Igbo
Enwe Eze. At appropriate
junctures, specific local events have been used as illustrations to provide the
flesh of reality to the bones of the generalizations of history. The legacies
of Igbo Enwe Eze are
found to accord with modem trends and scientific culture. Our conclusion is that the implications of Igbo
Enwe Eze are democratic.
self-reliant, scientific, modern and in tune with the best traditions of human
kind. Indeed, in modern times, nations that have kings have been divesting them
of political and religious powers that used to be their royal prerogatives Ọha na eze Let us proclaim Igbo enwe eze Let us
say it loudly Let us say it proudly E Kenee mu unu A CITATION ON
AHIAJOKU LECTURE & FESTIVAL 2000 BY PROFESSOR A. E. AFIGBO (NNOM) Ahiajoku is about Igboness. Igboness is about those things
that distinguish us from other Nigerians, and indeed from other peoples
worldwide. Igboness cannot be defined in terms either of gene pools or of
spiritual qualities. At the genetic level we are the same with all peoples
classified as Negroid. At the spiritual level we are the same with all mankind
being, as the holy books of the world put it, all breaths of God. Igboness is
defined, and can be defined, only in terms of culture, that is in terms of certain
mentifactual, sociofactual and artifactual aggregates which in turn define and
constitute the way we are born, live, die and are buried - our culture and
civilization. A second fundamental point that should be made is that none of Ndi Igbo can claim that by himself or herself he or she decided to be Igbo. The decision was made by a being higher than any, or indeed all, of us: a being we call Chineke< |
