By Emeka Maduewesi
The Igbo and the Trauma from Genocides: PART 1 - Of Hebrews and Builders
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When an Igbo adult who was circumcised on the 8-day of his birth puts on the red cap, Chukwu (Chi Ukwu) Okike (Supreme God the Creator) sees him as His tabernacle, a covenant child. The Igbo have no king except Chukwu. In those days, the Igbo were accountable to no one except Chukwu. The Igbo have always been eminently resourceful and upwardly mobile, and were never restrained by fear of any man or wild beast.
Before the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade (TAST), Ndi Igbo traversed the length and breadth of what is now called Nigeria and the Cameroons, plying their trade as blacksmiths, bronze casters, wood and ivory carvers, and priests. They could be described as the engineers and technologists of those days. Many settled in those places but never lost the knowledge of the Igbo language and customs.
With the red cap on their head and a belled-staff (oji) in his hand, the Igbo were highly respected and were never in danger anywhere. In fact, the Igbo were seen as symbols of justice and truth, held in awe as if they were super humans, wherever they settled. It seemed there were some mystic powers that protected the Igbo, making them fearless.
On the West bank of the River Niger, they established towns and villages without fighting any wars. There would not have been Ile Ife, Benin, Igala, without the Igbo. You may ask, “Who was Oduduwa? Who was Obatala?” Those who are familiar with the story of Paul and Barnabas in Acts 14:11-12 will not fail to notice the similarity with the Oduduwa and Obatala story.
The first Attah of Igala was a fearless woman named Ebele Jaunu (or Obele Jonu). History records that she was of Jukun ancestry. Her husband, who was the first Achadu, was Ahaga Okpoluwa. Read that last name again - Okpoluwa. Igala people never claimed Okpoluwa fell from heaven. History records he was Igbo. The Ikelike people of Ogwashi-Ukwu and Ibusa (Igbo Uzo) are not claiming that Odaigbo and Edini respectively fell from heaven. History records that they were Igbo from Agukwu Nri. Was Oduduwa of Yorubaland just another Igbo migrant like Okpoluwa of Igalaland, or Nebisi of Ahaba, or Odaigbo of Ogwashi-Ukwu? You be the judge!
The Igbo were kingdom builders who never aspired to set up one for themselves. Like the Hebrews Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, the Igbo were courted by leading men and women where they sojourned, whom they helped to establish kingdoms. In the palaces of the monarchs in Ile-Ife, Benin, and Idah, are the spirits of Igbo ancestors. And the stories always ended the same way; suspicion, maltreatment, slavery, expulsion, and retreat to home.
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