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Telling Our-Story not His-Story – The Igbo Story “Connecting the Dots” Maazi Nnaemeka M Onumonu-Uzoaru onumonu@hotmail.com
The growing trend by black nations in Africa to tell their story is an authentication of the saying of the Igbo, Mara onwe gi – know thyself, a saying that is thousands of years old. The Igbo story is relevant to the Black History Month since at least 75% of Africans1 in the Americas or the New World have Igbo blood in them and to understand the African American story it is important we institute and involve ourselves in the research of the Igbo story, an ongoing work in progress! One of the sayings left the Igbo by their fore-parents is that “it is impossible to tell the Igbo story”, but although an impossibility posterity demands that we at least attempt to tell this most important story.
Who are the Igbo also known as the Egbo, Ibo, Ebo, Hebo, Hebow, Hebrew, Ndi Gboo (the ancient people), Ndi Mbu2 (the first people), Umu Chukwu (the children of God), etc?
The mention of Igbo names, or spiritual, cultural, or philosophical views abound in all continents of the world and is as old as time, what is the explanation?
Enochi3 is the Biblical figure known as Enoch in the Bible who never saw death, the Solar and Lunar Calendar ascribed to him is no different from the Igbo Calendar with a four-day week, 28-day month and 13-month year. R. Abba Ben Ibo, known as Arikha (219 C.E.) was the father of the Babylonia Talmud.4 Nathan Ezobi was a Liturgical poet who lived at Perpignan in the thirteenth century. He was the author of the following three liturgical poems, the first on the Feast of Pentecost, the second on the ten martyrs under Hadrian, and the third a selihah.5 Olaudah Equino (1745 – 1797) also known as Gustavus Vassa was a merchant seaman and writer who lived in British American colonies and in Britain and was a leading influence in the abolition of slavery.6 Sojourner Truth (1797 – 1883) was an Abolitionist, Minister, Ex-Slave, and Woman's Rights Activist.7 Edward Wilmont Blyden (1832 – 1912) who was born in St. Thomas, the Virgin Islands laid the foundation of the West African Nationalism and Pan Africanism8 James Africanus Horton (1835 – 1883) was not only a doctor and a soldier but also a scientist and a political activist, and as an author he wrote on a variety of topics including medicine, geology and politics.9 Marcus Garvey (1887 – 1912) was a black nationalist leader who created the “Back to Africa” movement in the United States.10 Paul Robeson (1898 – 1976) was a multi-lingual actor, athlete, bass-baritone concert singer, civil rights activist, Spingarn Medal winner and Lenin Peace Prize laureate.11 The sun in ancient Egypt12 is known as the Eye of Horus, no different from the Igbo word for sun, Anyawu (the eye that never closes or dies) and its scientific meaning is unmistakable, for if the eye closes or dies the earth as we know it will seize to exist. In Japan12 and China12 the word Chi means ‘the life energy’, no different from the more complex Igbo word Chi. “The Igbo believe that man is different from lower animals only in one primary sense: God left in every man a portion of his breath. When this element leaves the edifice called man, the residue is a mere matter. From this belief we derive our idea of personal gods, called Chi in Ibo (Igbo) language. There are as many Chi as there are personalities. No one Chi is like another, because no two persons are identical. A rich man’s Chi is rich and a poor man’s Chi is poor. A man’s Chi is masculine while a woman’s Chi is feminine. A man’s Chi is equal to that man. This personal god does not leave its master until death. It is a personal guard to which God entrusted every human being”13. Furthermore the Collective CHI or the sum total of the individual Chi is Chi Ukwu (God) but not equal to Chukwu (God). Odi be ndi - Respect for the way of life of other nations; Nku di namba na eyelu mba nri - The solid foundation of any functioning society is built on the culture, tradition, philosophy and history of the people, and Egbe bele Ugo belu – The inalienable right of both the weak and strong to exist and prosper in peace; are just a few of the philosophical statements that even after thousands of years the world continue to grapple with.
Now lets take a look at the Igbo reflection on worldview: “The ancient Igbo contemplated this phenomenon of worldview and concluded that there is no universal worldview. Uwa Awughi Otu! Different men, different worldviews! One man, one worldview! Those who claim to share God’s view on the world would be considered mad and allowed to be by the ancient Igbo. The Igbo do not trust the individual mind, which they hold, is subject to illusion ‘agwo otu onye huru n’agho eke!’ Based on this profound conclusion, ancient Igbo civilization had granted man such far-reaching fundamental freedoms that still appears strange or incredible to many other peoples. Freedom to be, ONYENANKEYA! Freedom to a world-frame, ONYENUWAYA! Freedom of thought, ONYENUCHEYA! Freedom of religion, ONYENACHIYA! Etc.”14
The way a society treats the weaker sex determines how civilized the people are, Africanus Horton gives us an insight on how ancient Igbo viewed their women: “Among the Egboes, women hold a superior rank in the social scale; they are not regarded, as among other tribes, as inferior creation and doomed to perpetual degradation, but occupy their 'rightful status in society15”.
Igbo have a saying, “Igbo bu mmuo – Igbo are spirits”. This is in line with one of their folklores that tell us that Igbo are spirits who came to earth for commerce but were overtaken by nightfall which prevented them from returning home. They were hence forced to settle and intermarry with the indigenes. The belief of the Igbo in reincarnation and that both the physical and spiritual are one and the same is not far removed from the Eastern Religions and did in fact influence these religions. Thus, according to Maazi Mbonu, “Buddhism did not exert any direct influence on Igbo religious thought and practices, but there is a notable parallel between the Buddhism of India and the Omenanism of Igbo: both stress the need of thinking, speaking, and doing right things. Rather, Igbo religion (spirituality) affected distant lands in the days of old. Buddhas of India as shown in Siam are Negroid. The statues at Nagpoor near Benares are Negroid. The Japanese earlier gods were represented with woolly, Negroid hair. Thus, in religion, Igbo seems to have influenced the whole Asiatic world”13. The Igbo are a nation that have always believed in One God, Ama Ama Amasi Amasi – The Unknowable and Unfathomable One, and that both the physical and spiritual are one and the same.
The Igbo form of government Ohacracy (government of the people, for the people and by the people of which democracy is a subset) is thousands of years old.16 “IN IGBO SOCIETY POWER BELONGS TO THE PEOPLE. Ndi Igbo elect their own leaders and tell their leaders what to do and how to lead them. Ndi Igbo have never accepted "rulers", not even when the British imposed warrant chiefs on them.”16 Africanus Horton expanded on the independent nature of the Igbo, “They would not, as a rule, allow anyone to act superior over, nor sway their conscience, by coercion, to the performance of any act, whether good or bad, when they have not the inclination to do so; hence there is not that unity among them that is found among other tribes; in fact everyone likes to be his own master15”. Elizabeth Isichei aptly described the Igbo “Collective form of Servant-Leadership17” model of government, “these spring largely from the fact that Iboland was not a centralized state, but consisted of a very large number of independent and relatively small polities. Their number makes the scientific study and collation of their traditions difficult, and their complicated and democratic systems of government were not particularly conducive to the systematic preservation of knowledge about the past.”18
Consider the concepts of international law on neutrality of nations, a concept that the Igbo practiced for thousands of years, “It is a peculiar law among the Ibos, that when the inhabitants of one town are at war with another, and one part or division of the town will not join in the war, they can, without molestation, visit their relatives in the town which is at war with a division of their own, whether men or women, no person touching them. Strangers living in the country might visit the belligerent towns freely, without apprehension, because they are said not to have a hand in their quarrels. Should there be an intermediate town between the two contending towns, neither the one nor the other can step over the intermediate one to attack his enemies without a due notice and permission from the intermediate one, unless they beat their way in a roundabout direction to affect their purpose15”.
The Igbo call themselves, Ndi Gboo – the ancient people or Ndi Mbu – the first people. They call humans, “MMA NDU - the crown of creation, the beauty of life, and the glory of creation. Conceiving humans in this highly romanticized way, the Igbo granted them the greatest possible right to autonomous existence. Hence the Igbo concept of the self is ONWE, a contraction of two words "ONYE NWE” The (own) possessor "OWN LORDSHIP”. The Igbo sees a given human being as "ONWE YA" a lord unto himself/herself. To lose freedom to the proper Igbo is, therefore, a logical equivalent of death. And he/she would prefer the death option, under situations of un-freedom, as history shows” – Ebo Landing in USA, Ibo lele in Haiti, or Palmares1 in Brazil, where the Igbo gave up their lives by walking into the sea and drowning or by jumping to their death from a cliff rather than continue as slaves; as freedom fighters, the Moroons in Jamaica, or in Haiti where the Haitian revolution took root at a place known as BWA KAYIMA a corrupted form of the Igbo sentence BIA KA ANYI MA (come let us understand, discus and plan); or the part played by the Igbo in the continued fight for the abolition of slavery in the Americas. “To understand the Igbo or the Igbo worldview is to empathize with these ideas. To the Igbo FREEDOM IS LIFE . To be enslaved, to be owned by another is to not be. To become a living dead - O di ndu onwu ka mma! A society in which individuals are granted such far-reaching freedom would be chaotic, pure anarchy, unless there is a counter-balancing force. This force is TRUTH. The Igbo conceive of Truth as analogous to ORDER and falsehood as analogous to CHAOS. This conception, which marries the hearts of philosophy and modern science, allowed the Igbo to make an equation between truth and life - EZIOKWU BU NDU! Because truth equals life, which is the supreme value and because man is granted freedom for being the crown-of-creation, the ancient Igbo held the values of i. LIFE, ii. TRUTH iii. and FREEDOM extremely dear and do not subject them to compromise”.14
Today, the Igbo nation is a traumatized nation. In 1966 between 50,000 to 500,000 innocent Igbo (and their neighbors) children, women and men were slaughtered all over Nigeria, more than two million refugees fled home and were re-absorbed by the Igbo nation without help from any foreign organization or government, a feat that no modern nation has ever accomplished. Because of this inhumane act of genocide and holocaust against the Igbo and their neighbors, they opted out of Nigeria for a separate independent nation Biafra. This led to a civil war, in which the atrocities and brutality of the Nigerian victors remain unequaled in modern history, in fact, this set the stage for other genocides that continue in Africa. By the end of the war, more than three million Igbo had lost their lives. Even as of now Igbo remains a slave nation that the Nigerian victors continue to torment and marginalize. The solution to this crisis of monumental proportion and to nations that have nothing in common (the Igbo, the Yoruba and the Hausa-Fulani, etc.,) is a peaceful separation. The mistake made by the Colonial masters in Africa in bringing des-similar nations together must be rectified. "The African 'nation-state’ has now run the course of its bloody trail in history. The greatest challenge facing Africans in the new millennium is to dismantle this state and create new state forms based on Africa's critical re-engagement with its rich cultural heritage." Clearly, the author calls for an extensive decentralisation of the African political landscape "away from the murderous over-centralising ethos of the present 'nation-state.'" In such an outcome of Africa-wide "decentring of existing socio-economic life," Ekwe-Ekwe continetalises the validity of Biafranism as localised, grassroots/community empowerment and democracy across Africa. These new state forms, imbued with an organic sensibility that replaces the widespread alienation of the present, is better placed to build an "advanced civilisation for the people" -- to feed, clothe, educate, house and provide peace and security, and create the enabling environment for the development and enhancement of the human potential19.” True African nations must re-emerge and Africans in the Americas must take the led in the implementation of this peaceful change. May God bless Africa and all the emerging real African countries including Biafara, a nation of more than 50 million.
Maazi Nnaemeka M. Onumonu-Uzoaru onumonu@hotmail.com Member Ekwe Nche Research Institute/Organization (a not for profit 501(c)(3) organization) P. O. Box 408250 Chicago, IL 60640 web-site: www.ekwenche.org E-mail: ekwenche@hotmail.com
Posts: 166 | From: chicago | Registered: Jun 2003
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