IGUARO NDIGBO – PROCLAMATION OF THE IGBO LUNAR CALENDAR
(Igbo 2020 New Year Lecture by Prince Chukwuemeka I. Onyesoh at Eze Nrienwelani II Palace at Nri, Anambra State, Nigeria on 15th February 2020)
Preamble - Definitions
1.1. Days of the Igbo Week: Iguaro is the ritual proclamation of Igbo lunar calendar by Eze Nri which Eze Nri performs yearly as the originator of Igbo days of Eke, Oye, Afo and Nkwo (all Deities) which determine the "Izu" (week) that add up to the "Onwa" (month) that yield the " Aro" (year) , another deity by itself, again controlled by Eze Nri. Aro has a shrine in Nri and it is taken care of my kindred (Ezekanmadu) high priest.
Onwuejeogwu’s “The Principles of Ethnogeneachronology: Dating Nri (Igbo) Oral Tradition,” 1997 in p. 47 and in page 2 of his 1987 Ahiajioku Lecture, “Evolutionary Trends in the History of the Development of the Igbo Civilisation in the Culture Theatre of Igboland in Southern Nigeria,” detailed how the four supernaturals (otherwise deities) of days, were revealed to Eze Nri who now controls them. The Igbo market days and Aro are thus, deities controlled by Eze Nri. Pages 114 & 115 of his 1997 “Afa Symbolism& Phenomenology in Nri Kingdom and Hegemony” contain elaborate details of this fact. Iguaro Eze Nri was the biggest festival in Igbo land performed in the palace of Eze Nri by Eze Nri, dating from 900AD. The Onitsha people in 1750 AD introduced Ofala, (a festival very similar to Nri yam festival of Onwasato), when Onitsha was founded. Fig. 7 in page 88 of “An Igbo Civilization Nri Kingdom and Hegemony” (1981) graphically shows the proclamation of Igbo New Year as one of the ten mystical powers of Eze Nri.
Eze Nri therefore encouraged trade all over Igbo land by establishing the four market days Eke, Oye, Afo and Nkwo and their “alusi” supernaturals. His Nri agents, serving as priests, travelled all over the length and breadth of Igbo land consecrating the markets and initiating people into Ozo. For example, Nri agents established the famous Nkwo market at Onitsha. They also used to initiate Onitsha people into the Ozo title, which Onitsha treated and continues to treat with utmost dignity.
Trading as an alternative to farming in a difficult ecology was one of the hall marks of the Nri economic system, in its efforts at diversification. Nri insisted on having a well-organized cycle of farming and trading among the Igbo. They created the peace that made these possible among hostile communities and towns.
Igbo people believed that any dead person went to the land of the dead (ani mmuo) through Nri. Thus Nri town became the center of Igbo pilgrimage until the British in 1911, instigated by the Missionaries, destroyed the system, and ordered all Igbo to avoid Nri. According to Northcote Thomas, the British colonial government anthropologist, who witnessed this event in 1911 and wrote in 1913 “He (Eze Nri) is the spiritual potentate over a large extent of the country and so great is the awe which he inspires that recently, when, probably for the first time in history, an Eze Nri entered the native court of Awka while it was sitting, the whole assembly rose and prepared to flee” (Anthropological Report on the Ibo Speaking Peoples of Nigeria, Law and Custom of the Ibo of the Awka Neighbourhood of S. Nigeria, 1913, p.48).
Above demonstrates the awe and respect Ndigbo had for Eze Nri. The early missionaries were solidly behind this colonial government move to destroy the institution to enable both of them achieve their respective missionary and colonial objectives. The destruction was only partially successful, because the Ozo/Eze forms continued all over Igbo land. Eze Nri continued installing leaders who are symbols of truth and peace and continued giving the Ofo Nri, the ritual symbol and staff of authority. Till this day, Ndi-Igbo, love to wear the red cap as the external symbol of the Ozo/Eze title, which they regard with pomp and dignity. Regardless of whether any one knows or accepts it, the red cap the Igbo chiefs wear, is admission of and submission to the supremacy of Nri culture, for EzeNri introduced the Ozo/Eze and the hierarchy of titles before and after Ozo.
1.2. The Concept of the Year deriving from 13 Lunar Months: Before the British liquidation in August 1911, Nri had developed its concept of Aro - the year. First, as already stated, Aro is a supernatural force revealed to Eze Nri in the past; then Nri transformed it into a cycle of one year. Aro is divided into thirteen segments, namely: Onwa Agumaro, fixed around mid February of the Gregorian calendar. This is the month for the proclamation beginning of the Igbo lunar calendar by Eze Nri for all Igbo. It is followed by Onwa Mbu, Onwa Abuo, On wa Ife Eke, Onwa Ano, Onwa Agwu, Onwa Ifejioku, Onwa Eliji, Onwa Ilommuo (Onwasato), Onwa Ana, Onwa Okike, Onwa Ajana na Edeaja, Onwa Uzo Alusi. A study of the year system, the genealogy of Onwa, the age grade, the kinship system resulted in working out Nri system of time, published by Prof. Onwuejeogwu in 1997 already referred to above as “The Principles of Ethnogeneachronology . . . The lunar system of calculating the year with a system of adjustment, were known to the Nri priests of Alusi Aro. Knowledge of the movement of the heavenly bodies was employed. Northcote Thomas (MA, FRAI) the government anthropologist in 1910, reported that he got “names for the following heavenly bodies at Agukwu: “Pleiades, Orion and Great Bera”. Nri elders had clear knowledge of these stars and others, which helped them in calculating the intervals between each lunar period and finding the directions during their sojourn from one Igbo-village to another in both the semi-forest and forest zones.
2. The Proclamation of the Igbo Lunar Calendar - Iguaro (New Year):
As previously stated, the annual proclamation of the Igbo lunar calendar is the exclusive function Eze Nri. Starting from the Igbo native week of four market days to ‘onwa’ made up of seven native weeks which amounts to 28 days and to Aro of 13 Onwa. ‘Onwa’ is a moon cycle tracked by observing the movement of the moon; thirteen of which make one Igbo lunar year. The proclamation is indeed the declaration of Igbo New Year which invariably falls mid-February of every year. This similar to the Chinese lunar/solar calendar for which the Chinese shut down for close to one month Every year. Every Igbo month represents an activity in Igbo life. Eze Nri therefore keeps account of each month by tracking the moon; and pronounces the event for the month. That way he arrives at when to proclaim the end and beginning of Igbo lunar calendar. Thus any Igbo traditional ruler who pretends to proclaim the Igbo Lunar Calendar very early in January is merely repeating or extending the January 1, Gregorian New Year celebrations, and definitely not the Igbo Lunar Calendar. He needs to explain to the Igbo world in which Aro deity shrine the necessary expiations, ablutions and sanctifications are performed before he commenced the process. And some of these pretenders of Iguaro are highly-placed consecrated Christian Church officials. Some even demean Igbo culture and tradition by summon the Igbo year in the altars of Churches. Only them know what tradition they wish to have other Nigerians and world believe Ndigbo came from; and what culture the Igbo had before the emergence of Christianity in the Igbo culture area in 1857.
During the Onwa Agumaro, Igbo representatives from far and wide congregated at Nri for the “announcing of the year.” This is a big ceremony, which all Ndigbo awaited with eagerness because of its ritual, economic and political importance. Till date Iguaro Ndigbo (Proclamation of the Igbo Lunar Calendar) by Eze Nri is still the most culturally significant of all Igbo Traditional Festivals.
First, it gave all those under Eze Nri ritualism protection and the spiritual energy to face the New Year. Secondly, representatives were given the Ogwu ji, the yam medicine, and thirdly, it gave them opportunity to express solidarity and oneness with the Eze Nri and the Levitical and ritual laws which they had willingly obeyed. Nri people developed a body of philosophy based on phenomenology which deals a distinctive African philosophy which seeks a linkage between past and present, and between present and future. The nature of this philosophy is the theme of the Onwuejeogwu’s 1997 book, earlier referred to, captioned “Afa symbolism and Phenomenology in Nri Kingdom and Hegemony. . .’
The Nri people were great innovators in rituals, diplomacy, economy, administration and the management of a segmented and decentralized system.
2.1The Yam Cult in Igbo Civilisation: Before the coming of the white man, yam used to be a determinant of a man’s success or failure in Igbo land. Everyone lived on the land and farmed. Yam was the lead crop.
Nri Menri, the founder of Nri, the first Son of Eri, was known to have introduced the yam culture in Igbo agricultural cycle. In Professor Elizabeth Isichei’s book, “A History of Nigeria” (1983), page 24, she related what elders told Dr. M. D. W. Jeffreys in the 1930s which Jeffreys published in 1956 titled “The Umundri Tradition of Origin,” in the African Studies Journal XV, pp. 122-3 and his 1934 Divine Umundri King of Igbo Land - his unpublished doctoral dissertation . It is important to note that in the 1930s, unlike now, there was no politicization of Igbo history by the elders. The elders told the truth as it was handed down by their forebears. This is unlike the present times in which people make wild and unsubstantiated claims merely for the convenience of their political goals. Jeffreys wrote:
“. . . while Eri was alive he and his dependants were fed by Chuku [God] and their food was azu igwe [back of the sky]. When Eri died this food supply ceased and Ndri at Aguleri complained to Chuku that there was no food. Chuku replied that if Ndri did as he was told he could obtain food. Ndri asked what it was he had to do and Chuku told him that he had to kill and bury his eldest son and daughter . . . . This killing of the eldest son and daughter was carried out, and the bodies buried in separate graves. Three native weeks later, shoots appeared out of the graves of these children. From the grave of his son, Ndri dug up a yam, cooked and ate it. . . . The next day Ndri dug up koko yams from his daughter’s grave. . . Ndri also had a male and female slave killed and buried and in three weeks there sprang from the grave of the male slave an oil-palm, and from the grave of the female slave, a bread-fruit tree.”
(Prof. Mervyn David Waldegrave (1890-1975), a former District Officer in Nigeria and Cameroon; later a Cambridge scholar and Anthropologist; and finally Professor of Anthropology, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa).
2.1.1. Ifejioku: Prof. Elizabeth Isichei had also related another version of the primacy of Nri among the sons of Eri in page 7 of her 1976, 303-page title “A History of the Igbo People,” the Macmillan Press Ltd, London.
Jeffreys and Isichei further revealed the source of yam reverence among the Igbo – the sacrifice Menri made before yam came into Igbo life. The essence of Ifejioku, Ihejioku or Ahiajoku, as it is variously called, in Igbo life, is explained by the sacrifice. Theft yam is a grievous offence; to uproot growing yam seedling, ranks almost pari passu with murder in original Igbo jurisprudence.
2.1.2.Ofo Nri: In my yet unpublished manuscript, “Dreams of My Ancestors” I defined Ofo as “ an Igbo Ritual Symbol and Staff which epitomizes Truth, Justice, Authority, Wholeness and Moral Innocence which is used by Kings, lineage heads, titled men, diviners and priests of shrines to communicate with God through ancestors in prayers and sacrifices.” Ofo has its origin from the pacifist, and humanistic purity of Nri traditional system of worship and that explains why Igbo political, business and traditional leaders go nowhere else for Ofo Igbo other than to Nri.
Starting from Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe (premier Eastern Region of Nigeria (1954-1959) to Dr. Michael I. Okpara, Premier Eastern Region 1959-1966), Lt. Col. Odumegwu-Ojukwu (Military governor Eastern Region 1966/67 and Head of state of Biafra 1967-1970, Dr. Chuba Wilberforce Okadigbo (Nigerian Senate President 1999-2000) to Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani, Governor of Enugu State (1999-2007) and hundreds of other Igbo political and cultural leaders, all visited and still visit Nri for bestowal of Ofo Nri. In 1996, for example, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Ikemba Nnewi, struggled to visit Nri for another Ofo Nri for the sake of crowning himself, spurious Eze Igbo Gburugburu. He insisted against the explanation that having bestowed Ofo Nri on him as Military Governor in 1966, he cannot be given a fresh one. Instead the former Ofo, lost or not, can be ritually replaced or reactivated, as the priests might deem necessary. Stopped by Nri people, through Anambra government and the Police, from visiting Nri on a date he chose, he preferred to invite a former Eze Nri Palace servant (Adama) to Enugu, to award him a fake Ofo Nri. Ikemba Nnewi (M.A, History, Oxford University, England), after Eze Nri turned him down for a second Ofo, he insisted because he knows as an Oxford trained historian that Nri is the only place in Igbo land to get Ofo.
3. Perceptions of non-Igbo Nigerian Scholars on Kingship in Igbo Land
Other Nigerians, including scholars, for reasons best known to them, had resolved that prior to British colonial governance, the Igbo nation had no centrally organized system of governance. While researching the 300-page manuscript, ‘Dirt on White Spectrum - the Travails of Sacred Throne of Nri - The Custodian of Igbo Culture/Tradition and Nigeria’s oldest Kingship Institution,” (in process of publication) I found that other Nigerians commonly regard the Igbo people as having no form of central coordination of their life. In Professor Akin Mabogunje 1971 book, The History of West Africa Vol.1, “The Land and Peoples of West Africa,” Longman, London, edited by Profs. J.F. Ade Ajayi and Michael Crowder, the three scholars agreed that:
“Of the six important groups mentioned above as occupying the eastern forest area, only the Ibo had no centralized political organisation above the level of the local head man and council of elders. . . . Some form of supra communal religio-political organisation was provided through the agents of the Aro-Chukwu Oracle, which was the final arbiter for all inter-tribal strife.
Mabogunje (88 years old) is a University of Ibadan Professor of Geography and Nigeria’s first Professor of Geography; 1st African president of the International Geographical Union. Prof. Ajayi, Jacob Festus Adeniyi (1929-2014), who edited the work, was a Nigerian historian, Professor of History, of Universities of Ibadan and Lagos with several works on African History. He was Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos 1972-1978. Ajayi was a member of Ibadan School of Historical Research led by late Prof. Kenneth Dike in the 1960s, which introduced African perspectives to African History and caused African history to focus on the internal historical forces that shaped African lives. His co-editor of Mabogunje’s 1971 work, Prof. Michael Crowther, was also a distinguished historian and a foreign associate of Ibadan Historical Research School. Prof. Michael Crowther, (1934-1988), co-editor with Prof. Ajayi of Mabogunje’s work , was a British historian and author, notable for his books on the history of Africa, particularly, West Africa and from 1968-1978, variously Professor of History at Universities of Ife and Lagos, and Ahmadu Bello, University. That means that these were in the Nigerian University system by 1959 when Prof. Shaw, through the University of Ibadan commenced the excavations at Igboukwu and were there in 1966 when the Institute of African Studies of UI commissioned Onwuejeogwu to do the anthropological studies of the Igboukwu excavations whose reports were all deposited in UI. The centrality of Nri to Igbo civilisation was made very clear by those UI projects, in addition to previous works of colonial historians dating from the 19th century.
A 2010 report of a study on traditional rule and the evolution of democratic governance in each of the six geo-political zones of Nigeria since her independence in 1960, funded by the Embassy of The Kingdom of The Netherlands in Abuja, titled, Traditional Rulers in Nigeria, depict the general impression and attitude of Nigerians, even among scholars, on kingship in Igbo land. Led by the historian, Prof. S.J.S. Cookey, the group included Profs Akin Oyebode (International Law, University of Lagos), A.D Yahaya (Political Science, Kano), Etannibi Alemika (Criminology and Sociology of Law, University of Jos), Elo Amucheazi is a Professor of Political Science and Pro-Chancellor, Anambra State University. They dismissed the entire South-East as having no king whose influence affected more than a community, in following sweeping statement:
Even though there was ethnic homogeneity, the zone lacked mega states with centralised monarchies. Instead, what prevailed was small scale, village-based polities, anchored on agnatic kingship principles.
It therefore did not surprise informed opinions in Igbo land when in 2008 Otunba Olugbenga Daniel, Governor of Ogun State invited by the chairman of the year’s Igbo Day Celebrations Committee and former Enugu State Governor, Dr. Okwesileze Nwodo, to present a paper as the guest lecturer at Ohanaeze Ndigbo Igbo Day celebrations of 2008, took his time to regurgitate the same opinions of non-Igbo Nigerian scholars. In his lecture of 28th Sept. 2008, titled, Equity, Justice & Fairness as Tool for Political Equilibrium he openly assaulted the sensibilities of Igbo elite gathered to celebrate Igbo greats and mourn those lost in Igbo epic struggle for liberation, by declaring that there were no substantial Igbo oral traditions to account for a history of any Igbo kingship and therefore the Igbo had no central organisation. He therefore declared:
“Unlike the Yoruba, the Edo, the Hausa, Jukun and Kanuri, the Igbo did not develop monarchial forms of government. This is the background to the saying, “Ndi Igbo Echi Eze” (the Igbo make no kings). In addition to this difference in the form of government, the Igbo did not develop large political units as their neighbours did. The nucleus of their political and social unit was the lineage.”
Nothing can be further away from the truth than the above conclusions by non-Igbo scholars on kingship in Igbo land.
The Urgent Need to Restore Focus to Igbo Culture, Tradition and Civilisation
The late Rt. Honorable Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, first Premier of Eastern Regional Government of Nigeria, also first President of the Nigerian Senate, first indigenous Governor-General and later, President, was one of the earliest Igbo elites to be convinced about the need to give focus to Igbo Culture, Tradition and Civilization when on Wednesday, 29th March 1956, as the Premier of Eastern Nigeria, he moved the second reading of a Bill titled “The Recognition of Chiefs Law 1957.” Amongst other things he declared as follows:-
“Thirty years ago, Dr. P. Amoury Talbot gave a lot of reliable information about the Aro theocracy and the spiritual potentates of Agukwu Nri whose civil supremacy was acknowledged in Awka and Udi Divisions and which was a holy city that was comparable to Ile-Ife in its hey days.
From this remarkable ethnographer, we gleaned authoritative data about kings and chiefs who exercised spiritual and temporal power throughout the Eastern Nigeria just as their opposite numbers did in the North and West.
..It is remarkable that while the Ooni if Ife was recognized as the spiritual head of the Yoruba-speaking people; and the Sultan of Sokoto was highly respected among Muslims of the North, the role of the Eze Nri was not only minimized but was officially ignored.
…Therefore, the present government cannot be blamed for snubbing the chiefs of the East...”
‘'…The saving grace is that we are now engaged in the Herculean task of restoring the prestige and dignity of our chiefs, wherever such tradition exists, and we hope that we shall be given a fair chance to find a satisfactory solution.”1
Zik was an anthropologist by training and knew the implications of every word he spoke on this matter of chiefs and kings of the East.
In supporting Dr. P. Amoury Talbot, Zik was trying to give cultural focus to Ndigbo. Dr. Talbot was a learned scholar of Igbo culture who wrote several remarkable books on Igbo in the twenties: The peoples of Southern Nigeria, Volumes 1 & V. In his books he emphasized on what he saw, heard and read about the centrality of Igbo culture located at Nri town before the British and Missionaries from August 1911 deployed massive resources in an effort to destroy it.
Certainly Ndigbo require a reconstruction of their past to move forward. But that reconstruction must be based on solid facts derived from sustainable research and not mere conjecture or various bogus claims by charlatans in Igbo history who now seem dominate the newspaper and air space.
If Zik in 1956-57 was unable to restore the Igbo focus/center, if Professor Afigbo’s committee in 1976 was unable to do so too, Ndigbo in 2019 have no excuse to fail having gone through the harrowing experiences of lack of cultural center/focus imposed on the Igbo by the British and Christian Missionaries since 1911 and thereafter by Igbo politicians like Dr.Azikiwe; making it difficult for Ndigbo to have a clearing house for conflicts and their resolutions, on account of the devaluation of Igbo value system by modern forces and factors. The classification of Obi of Onitsha as first class chief whilst Eze Nri was ranked below him or not ranked at all, in 1957 by the Azikiwe’s regional government in Enugu, even after the above quote, which helped in no small way in convincing the Eastern Regional Colonial Governor, Clement J. Pleas, to establish the Eastern House of Chiefs, was a devastating blow on the effort to refocus the Igbo.
The need to write this plea might not have arisen if Dr. Azikiwe had not succumbed to primordial pressures of nepotism; and implemented the noble intentions of that 29th March 1956 address to the Eastern House of Assembly.
The compelling evidence derived from research on the Igbo is that Nri and Eze Nri historically and unchallengeably constitute the centre/citadel of Igbo culture, history and civilization; the destruction done by British imperialism and Christian Missionaries from August 1911, and the benign neglect and parochialism of Igbo politicians since 1957, notwithstanding.
The Legacies of Nri Civilization
Twelve legacies of Nri Civilisation speak for themselves and even before Nri mortal enemies, convincingly place Nri and Eze Nri, both in the Agukwu location, before any other community and kingship in Igbo land south-East, South-South and North-Central as the centre/citadel on which Igbo culture, history and civilization revolve. From the works of renowned scholars in cultural history including Prof. Onwuejeogwu, it has been distilled that the following legacies were bequeathed by Eze Nri/Nri civilization to the Igbo nation.
(i)The Igbo Market Days – Eke, Oye, Afo, and Nkwo; (ii) Igbo Lunar Calendar - 13 lunar months under the deity Aro; (iii) Agricultural cycle and crops – the yam culture (Ifejioku) and other food crops; (iv) Title taking – Ozo and Eze; (v) Pacifist Traditional Worship in Monotheism; (vi) Human Rights -upholding and protecting the Sanctity of human life and the Dignity of the Human Person; (vii) Unification of most of Igbo land under a Hegemony; (viii) The Concept of All-Kind and Merciful God; (ix) Unified Age-grade System for community development; (x) Democratized Monarchial System of Governance – rare in the world; (xi) Non-violence/peace philosophy in governance and (xii) Eze Nri kingship is the oldest kingship tradition in Nigeria – Details in APPENDIX II, titled “Placing Nri Kingship in a Dating Comparative Analysis with 14 Other Major Kingship Institutions in Nigeria.”
These bequeathals are what entitle Nri to the appellation: Isi Omenani Igbo - Custodians of Igbo Culture and tradition. More Details on these 12 bequests are available as APPENDIX I.
APPENDIX I
The Legacies of Nri Civilization
1. The Igbo Market Days: The present day commercial and ritual activity of the four market days- Eke, Oye, Afo and Nkwo. Nri priests established the shrines in most parts of Igbo land. The Bini market days of Aho (Agbado), Eken, Orrie (Edekioba), and Okuo (Eken’aka) are probable diffusions of the Igbo market days, the Benin kingship and civilisation having been established as dating 250 years after Nri, probably under Nri influence. Igala market days of Eke, Ede, Afor, and Ukwo probably emerged from the same Igbo source since Igala kingship (Atta) started only some 500 years after Eze Nri. Onoja Nwoboli, a son of the same father Nri (Eri), is known to have brought a lot of influence to bear on the founding of the Igala kingdom.
2. The Igbo Lunar Calendar - the concept of Aro (year) was introduced to Igbo life by Eze Nri who till date, proclaims, from year to year, the Igbo Lunar Calendar. The annual proclamation of the Igbo lunar calendar is the exclusive function Eze Nri. Starting from the Igbo native week of four market days of Eke, Oye, Afo and Nkwo to ‘onwa’ (month) made up of seven native weeks which amounts to 28 days. ‘Onwa’ is a moon cycle tracked by observing the movement of the moon. Thirteen moon cycles make one Igbo lunar year. The proclamation invariably falls into mid-February of every year in the Gregorian calendar, just like the Chinese lunar calendar for which the Chinese shut down for close to one month. Aro has a shrine in Nri. Every month represents an activity in Igbo life. Eze therefore keeps account of each month by tracking the moon; and pronounces the event for the month. That way he arrives at when to proclaim the end and beginning of Igbo lunar calendar.
Before the British attempted liquidation of Nri in August 1911, Nri had developed its concept of “aro”- the year. First, “aro” is a supernatural force revealed to Eze Nri in the past; then Nri transformed it into a cycle of one year. Divided into thirteen segments, namely: Onwa Agumaro(new year proclamation month), fixed around mid February, this is the month for announcing the year by Eze Nri for all Igbo. It is followed by Onwa Mbu (1st month), Onwa Abuo (2nd month), Onwa Ife Eke (Eke Market month), Onwa Ano (4th month), Onwa Agwu(month of Agwu {melancholy} month), Onwa Ifejioku (yam cult month),Onwa Eliji(New Yam month), Onwa Ilommuo(Thanks Giving Month), Onwa Ana(Land Deity Month, Onwa Okike(Okike Deity month), Onwa Ajana na Edeaja(Ajana Deity month), Onwa Uzo Alusi (All other Deity month).A study of the year system, the genealogy of Onwa, the age grade, the kinship system resulted in working out Nri system of time, published as The Principles of Ethnogeneachronology: Dating of Nri (Igbo) Oral Tradition by Prof. M.A. Onwuejeogwu, Ethiope Publishing Corporation, Benin, 1997. The lunar system of calculating the year with a system of adjustment, were known to the priests of Alusi Aro. Knowledge of the movement of the heavenly bodies was employed. Northcote Thomas (MA, FRAI) the government anthropologist in 1910, reported that he got “names for the following heavenly bodies at Agukwu (Nri): “Pleiades, Orion and Great Bera”. Nri elders had clear knowledge of these stars and others, which helped them in calculating the intervals between each lunar period and finding the directions during their sojourn from one Igbo-village to another in both the semi-forest and forest zones. Nri astronomical and psychological knowledge were researched and published later the same year by Ethiope Publishing Corporation, Benin, Nigeria, titled "Afa symbolism and Phenomenology In Nri Kingdom and Hegemony: An African Philosophy of Social Action."
During the Onwa Agumaro, Igbo representatives from far and wide congregated at Nri for the “announcing of the year “. This is a big ceremony, which all Ndigbo awaited with eagerness because of its ritual, economic and political importance. Till date Iguaro Ndigbo ((Proclamation of the Igbo Lunar Calendar) by Eze Nri is still the most culturally significant of all Igbo Traditional Festivals.
First, it gave all those under Eze Nri ritualism protection and the spiritual energy to face the New Year. Secondly, representatives were given the Ogwu ji (yam medicine), the yam medicine, and thirdly, it gave them opportunity to express solidarity and oneness with the Eze Nri and the levitical and ritual laws which they had willingly obeyed. Nri people developed a body of philosophy based on phenomenology which deals a distinctive African philosophy which seeks a linkage between past and present, and between present and future. The nature of this philosophy is the theme of Onwuejeogwu’s 1997, Afa Symbolism and Phenomenology in Nri Kingdom and Hegemony . . .
The annual proclamation of the Igbo lunar calendar is the exclusive function Eze Nri. Starting from the Igbo native week of four market days of Eke, Oye, Afo and Nkwo to ‘onwa’ (month) made up of seven native weeks which amounts to 28 days. ‘Onwa’ is a moon cycle tracked by observing the movement of the moon. Thirteen moon cycles make one Igbo lunar year. The proclamation invariably falls into mid-February of every year in the Gregorian calendar, just like the Chinese lunar calendar for which the Chinese shut down for close to one month. ‘Aro’ (year), the supernatural has a shrine in Nri, incidentally looked after by my kindred. Every month represents an activity in Igbo life. Eze Nri therefore keeps account for the Igbo nation, of each month by tracking the moon; and pronounces the event for the month. That way he arrives at when to proclaim the end and beginning of Igbo lunar calendar. Thus any Igbo traditional ruler who pretends to proclaim the Igbo Lunar Calendar early in January is merely repeating or extending the January 1, Gregorian New Year celebrations and not the Igbo Lunar Calendar. He needs to explain to the Igbo world in which Aro deity shrine the necessary expiations, ablutions and sanctifications are performed before he commenced the process.
The Nri were great innovators in rituals, diplomacy, economy, administration and the management of a segmented and decentralized system.
3. The Igbo Agricultural Cycle- Eze Nri introduced new varieties of yam, coco-yam and other food crops into Igbo agricultural cycle and spread the use of iron technology. It is significant to note that the much-celebrated Ifejioku is a symbolization of the supreme sacrifice Eze Nri made with his first son which initiated the yam culture in Igbo land. Imo State Government knowingly celebrates this sacrifice in its annual Ahiajioku lecture series. Unfortunately it is not on any record that Imo State Government has ever invited formally invited Eze Nri to this lecture series in recognition of this sacrifice which is being memorialized by this worthy lecture series. I have twice on my own attended two of the lecture and was duly recognized as a Prince of Nri;
4. Title taking - “Ozo” tile and kingship were brought into Igbo life by Eze Nri. His agents travelled all over Igbo land initiating people into ozo and kingship. The ubiquitous red cap of all Igbo titled personalities wear since after the Civil War (1967-70) emblemizes ‘Ozo,' introduced into Igbo life by Eze Nri. As one moves East, West, North or South of Nri ramifications of Ozo are encountered under different names like Okonko.
5. Pacifist Traditional Worship in a Monotheistic System: Eze Nri through his agents- Nri priests – brought into Igbo life a pacifist traditional worship system of one Supreme Being that places the utmost premium on the sanctity of human life and the dignity of the human person. Nri priests travelled all over Igbo land and beyond, proclaiming taboos and cleansing abominations – nso n’alu. The Churches branded it ancestral and deity worship and could not understand that the ancestors/deities represent in the Nri system what the Saints and Angels represent in Christianity. Acting with the Colonial powers from 1911 they descended on Eze Nri and Nri to extinguish what they termed they termed “the citadel of Satan and the headquarters of juju and voodoo and pagan priesthood for the whole Igbo tribe” (Father Duhaze 1906).
6. Sanctity of human life and Respect for the Dignity of the Human Person: Nri condemned all forms of human sacrifice, the slave trade and all inhuman treatment of any human. Killing or throwing away of twins, babies that cut the upper teeth first, those from bridged birth, dwarfs all ill- treatment of any human were forbidden by Nri. Those encountered alive, were indeed rescued and given full citizenship by Nri. The concept of Fundamental Human Rights was introduced into the affairs of men by Eze Nri, as early as 1043 A.D, long before the UN 10th of October 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
7. Unification of Igbo land under Hegemony: Nri attempted to unify the Igbo in a hegemony, which the slave trade, imperialism and colonialism eroded. But the core values of the hegemony still exist, hence most Nri legacies to Ndigbo survived even when the origin is little known and most Igbos and other Nigerians have not given thought as to how, when and why these bequeathals are pervasive.
8. The Concept of All-Kind and Merciful God: Nri developed the concept of Chukwu Okike(God), kind, just and peaceful as against the concept of a violent Chukwu that encouraged wars, slave-trade, blood-shed and human suffering in some Igbo areas under other influence.
9. Unified Age-grade System: Nri introduced and unified the age - grade system among the Igbo and it became a political and economic structure for a more effective social organization.
10. Democratized Monarchial System of Governance: Nri introduced the concept of democratized monarchial system of rulership in Igbo culture. The representatives of the twelve families of Agukwu Nri in the Eze Nri cabinet (Nzemabua) who, most of the time, took decisions for Eze Nri in meetings, were chosen independently by each kindred according to established hierarchy of titles.
11. Non-Violence and Peace as Mantra in Governance and Justice to Society
Eze Nri institution has survived as the oldest kingship institution in Igboland and, indeed Nigeria, without no army and any record of fighting any war. Long before the non-violence as espoused by Mahatma Gandhi of India and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. of USA, all of the 20th Century Eze Nri from 10th Century AD, has kept a record of non-violence in governance, relying solely on myth, divination, piety and spirituality as means of keeping society in balance, whilst dispensing justice to all members of society regardless of rank. This poses a challenge to 21st century peace studies.
A very bold statement of Nri as non-violent peace-maker is the case of Awka and Ugwuoba – two brothers who were killing themselves in battle until Nri intervened to separate them. Nri, otherwise originally pronounced and known as “Nshi” those days, intervened by settling between the two communities after settling their issues in dispute. The Nri settlers became known as Ama Nshi (community of Nshi). The English have no consonant diagraph in their alphabets and worst of all, found it a bit difficult to pronounce. They easily simplified the writing and pronunciation to Amansea. Itinerant Nri priests have a not-so-good record of getting back home once they find a comfortable settlement far or near the home, base unlike the Aro. Today UmuNri communities as far away as in Kogi, Delta and Edo states, even Ife in Osun State, are virtually lost to the Igbo nation. They got so completely assimilated that their Igbo language either became extinct for lack of use, or got so polluted that central Igbo people of today are unable to understand such hybrid Igbo language.
12. Nri Kingship is the oldest Kingship Institution in Nigeria
From a dating comparative analysis of the oldest known kingships in Nigeria, the Eze Nri kingship institution is the oldest kingship institution in Nigeria, probably of the same age with Kanuri kingdom whose age is merely estimated, and therefore could be merely second to Nri. The details are annexed as APPENDIX II.
APPENDIX II
PLACING NRI KINGSHIP IN A DATING COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS WITH 14 OTHER MAJORKINGSHIP INSTITUTIONS IN NIGERIA
The distribution of 15 kingdoms chosen for the dating comparative study, are as follows: Seven Igbo kingdoms; one Igala kingdom on account of the confession of Igbo/Igala relationship in terms of antecedents, Bini for similar reasons as Igala, and three Yoruba kingdoms selected in terms of age - the oldest and the newest; then two Hausa kingdoms - the first and the most famous. The last and not the least, is the only Kanuri kingdom. These kingdoms/kingships are presented hereunder in a chronological order of age from 900AD to date, along with authorities who studied them, have been fairly studied and recorded by various writers of some maturity whose works are easily verifiable.
1st Nri kingdom 900AD (date established by carbon 14) by Northcote Thomas (1913), MDW Jeffrey (1934) and Prof. M.A. Onwuejeogwu (1974 and 1981).
2nd Kanuri Kingdom: about 900AD (estimate) by Abdullahi Smith (1971), Smith (1971) and Onwuejeogwu (2000).
3rd Kano kingdom 950AD by J. Hunwick (1971), R.A. Adeleye (1971); and Onwuejeogwu (2000).
4th Agbor Kingship 950AD by Chief Iduwe (1985).
5th Daura Kingdom 950AD by J. Hunwick (1971), Dr. R.A. Adeleye (1971), and Onwuejeogwu (2000).
6th Ife Kingdom (Yoruba) 1045AD by Dr. R. Smith (1969), F. Willet (1960), and Johnson (1921).
7th Ijebu Ode Kingdom 1080AD by Dr. R. Smith 1969, Prof. E.A. Ayandele (1992) and Johnson (1921).
8th Old Oyo Kingdom 1145AD by Dr. R. Smith (1969) Dr. P.M Williams (1967) Johnson (1921).
9th Benin Kingdom 1140AD by Chief Egharevba (1934 and (1968) and Dr. R.E. Bradbury (1957).
10th Ubulu-Ukwu Kingship 1280AD by Mr. E.A. Ikemefuna and Obi Anene (1985).
11th Owa Kingship (Off-shoot of Nri) 1280AD by Obi E. Efeizomor II (1994).
12th Igala Kingdom 1450AD by Dr. J.S. Boston (1962).
13th Ogwashi-uku Kingship (Offshoot of Nri) 1500AD by Mr. Ben Nwabua (1998).
14th Aro Kingdom 1650AD by Prof. Kenneth Dike and Prof. J. Ekejiuba (1990).
15th Onitsha Kingship 1750AD by R.N. Henderson (1972) Prof Ikenna Nzimiro (1972).
Sokoto Sultanate was established barely 349 years ago, about 1670AD. It came into prominence with the successful over-running of Hausa kingdoms by the Fulanis in the Othman Dan Fodio’s successful Jihad of 1804-1808.
Above comparative analysis confirms a hidden fact that kingship was firmly established in Igbo life long before most of the much-talked of kingdoms in Nigeria.
All Rights to this document is hereby reserved to the writer Prince Chukwuemeka I. Onyesoh
NRI, Anambra State, Nigeria.
15th February, 2020
