ELSE WE WANDER INTO CONJECTURING LIKE ENUGWU-UKWU, IGBOUKWU & AGULERI.
I must commend Prince Charles Tabansi for his first posting on the Enugwu-ukwu imbroglio. As is consistent in my coming title on Nri, he inexorably dismisses Enugwu-ukwu pretences without breaking any bones.
I congratulate him.
But his Posting titled " *NRIBUISI IGBO"* seems to raise more historical controversies than it appears to answer. I will discuss four of them hereunder:
1. *Menri was the First Son of Eri, not the Last:*
Historical evidence says so. Onoja, Nwa Oboli, who founded the Igala dynasty, was the last son of Eri. Oboli was the last wife of Eri. We used to crack jokes during moonlight plays in the 1950s on Onoja Nwa Oboli's IQ.
MeNri has been shown by renowned historians & anthropologists as the first son of Eri.
Please refer to MDW Jeffreys, PhD, a Cambridge scholar of Anthropology. He put Nri ahead of all the other Eri sons as the one who took charge after the demise of Eri. Whilst Menri was still at Eriaka (Obuga), famine struck. Menri was reported to have appealed to Chiukwu for palliatives for the Igbo nation. Chiukwu directed him to make some sacrifices which he did. The sacrifice with his son resulted in the yam and its culture - Ifejioku etc - Refs. MDW Jeffreys: _"The Umunri Tradition of Origin_ ," African Studies XV, 1956, pp. 122-3.
Elizabeth Isichei repeated Jeffreys legend in her 1983 book, " _A History of Nigeria_ ," p. 24.
I reproduced this myth in pages 20-22 of my 2014 published Public Lecture titled " _IWA OJI IN IGBO COSMOLOGY_ " in ABIA State University Uturu, Centre for Igbo Studies (Obi Ikenga). Copies of the published lecture are available in the extant Eze Nri Palace of Nrienwelani II.
Furthermore, our own dear Onwuejeogwu, in page 26 of no. 2, September 1977 edition of ODINANI Journal seems to have impliedly validated this when he wrote as follows:
" _Eri was sent by CHUKWU (the creator) from the sky to rule mankind; he came down the Anambra, near the present site of Aguleri. His first wife bore Nri, the founder of Agukwu Nri; Agulu who founded Aguleri; Onogu, the founder of Igboariam; Ogbodudu, the founder of Amanuke; a daughter Iguedo who bore the founders of Nteje, Nando, Ogbunike, Umuleri and Awkuzu. His second wife bore Onoja who left for the upper Anambra near Ogulugu, and to found Igalaland._ "
Continuing, he further asserted:
" __Nri the son of Eri left the Anambra southwards into the forest. He lived first in Amanuke, then near the present Enugwu-ukwu, finally at Agukwu."__
Ownership of Obuga, as the first son of his father, was probably why Nrifikwuanim instructed and his sons returned and buried his body in Eriaka, now known as Aguleri. As I confirmed in my 2014 Lecture, Aguleri claims, published in Sunday Vanguard newspaper of August 10, 2014, pp.36-37 assert that the had identified Nri grave along with that of his father, Eri; but no news of that of Agulu. This further development from Aguleri further authenticates my position.
Again this probably is reason why every emerging Eze Nri, returns to Obuga, MeNri's inheritance, for some rituals before finally ascending the Eze Nri throne.
If renowned historians/anthropologists and other credible evidence have accorded Nri the first position, why should we go for the conjecture of the last.
If however there are reliable evidence by published authorities; that would be a different thing. Even then, we shall have subject such source to thorough verification.
2. *UNION WITH AKAMKPISI & DIODO*
It is true that Eze Nribuife unified the thrones of Nri and Diodo during his reign 1159 - 1252 AD and as Onwuejeogwu wrote that _"was crucial to the process of the unification of the three settlements. . ."_ But as Onwuejeogwu also admits, that was the beginning of the process " _each unit still maintains its autonomy in several ways."_ Those several ways, however included the most critical aspect of unification of thrones - homage to the unified throne. Onwuejeogwu further admits " _that Diodo and AKAMKPISI sections must never pay tribute to Eze Nri."_
However in page 24 of Onwuejeogwu's 1981 book, " _An Igbo Civilisation, Nri Kingdom & Hegemony_ " he committed a faux pas by suggesting that Nzemabua, the Kingmakers of Nri, included four Ozo men from Diodo & AKAMKPISI. Till date this never happened. Onwuejeogwu could be excused for misunderstanding what our elders told him because at the time, he was indeed battling with more thorough grasp of Igbo language as his third language after Hausa and English. He admitted this much severally to me on Igbo language.
The unification under Nribuife can, at best, be regarded as superficial in most because the two settlements did not seem to have subjected themselves to Eze Nri Palace until the reign of Eze Nrijiofor II. There was no meeting point for the three units which continued to operate separately until later.
The amalgamation into a federation in actuality appeared to have commenced sometimes in the late 1940s. under my father, Prince JBN Onyesoh, as the founding PG of NPU in 1947. He was reported to have foreseen the present acrimonies from that amalgamation and expressed very serious reservations.
There was no OruNzenaino before EzeNrijofo II. It was founded under His Majesty during the amalgamation. My father, as one of the very tiny percentage of literate members of that Nzemabua, was overruled in his objection to according Akamkpisi/Diodo 12-man membership of the 24-man Ruling Council, despite their making less than 20% of the population of the Union. Till date, this disproportionately equating 20-26% to 74% has created very serious problems for the present generation, which is yet to muster the guts to resolve the obvious inequity.
Uruoji village alone constitutes 31% of amalgamated Nri!
Akamkpisi as we grew up in the late 1940s and 1950s, used to celebrate its Agwu, Onwasato and such other big festivals on their own separate dates, weeks apart, from Nri.
Initiation into their Ozo, till date is a different kettle of fish.
Agukwu shares no shrine with AKAMKPISI. It, instead, shares with Enugwu-ukwu.
3. *Nri Bu Is Omenani Igbo* : Above assertion is more plausible than "Nri Bu Isi Igbo. " If Nri as Menri or as Nrifikwuanim bu Isi Igbo, what was his father?
The over ten legacies of Nri puts Nri above & over all other Igbo Communities, as the Custodian of Igbo Culture & Tradition/ Ancestral Homeland.
Besides Diodo, Akamkpisi, Eriaka, it is common ground that Amanuke, Ugbene, Osili and a host of other Igbo Communities, also existed before Nri.
It thus seems to make more sense to define Nri supremacy by asserting it as follows: *Nri Bu Isi Omenani Igbo*
4. *History has two major sources*: First, Primary Sources, also called original sources; and secondly, Secondary. Sources.
Primary Sources are artefacts. documents, diaries, manuscripts, autobiographies, recordings or any other source of information that was created at the time under study by witnesses or participants to the event.
Secondary sources are generally *scholarly* books and articles, which invariably interpret and analyse primary sources and may contain pictures, quotes or graphics of primary sources.
Anything outside these, is mere conjecture or wishful thinking like Enugwu-ukwu, Igboukwu and Aguleri, do.
All articulate citizens of Nri of today are 20th Century children, including my humble self. Therefore to be more credible,
writers are advised to write without reference, only on what they witnessed. If they wish to go beyond that, the source of such information should be disclosed.
Let us learn to show superiority over Enugwu-ukwu, Igboukwu and Aguleri's wild claims and assertions.
The truth and nothing else, but the verifiable truth, is what puts Nri over and above all the other communities.
Igboukwu seems to have been put to rest. And so shall the rest eventually be.
Emeka Onyesoh,
Oba Agbalanze,
Obeagu Village,
Agukwu, Nri. 2nd June 2020.
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