Okonko Research: Igbo World :

DEMOGRAPHY

The Igbos have lived in their present location from the Neolithic period to the present day. Archaeological finds around the Ugwuele zone of Okigwe reveal that the proto Igboids used metal from the iron deposits there as far as 50,000 B.C. The deep-rooted similarities between the Igbo and Jewish cultural lives pose a great challenge to scholars in terms of a possibility of having a common origin.

The Igbo nation is a gift of the Niger in the sense that Egypt is said to be a gift of the Nile. The Igbo territory has one of the highest population densities in Afrịka. Ndi Igbo have a projected population of about 40 million people and the birth rate is always on the rise. The Igbos represent one of the most populous homogenous groups in Afrịka.

ECONOMY

A boisterous and dynamic economy helped maintain a high population density in the Igbo country. The people practiced effective subsistent agriculture for the whole land is fertile for growing assorted kinds of food. The land is blessed with natural resources like petroleum and other minerals. One can say that Igboland is flowing with milk and honey. The people have lived there and fed the teaming population without importation of food.

SOCIO-CULTURAL SYSTEM

One of the highlights of this Igbological project is the clarification on the question of tribe and ethnicity. Anthropologically speaking, the Igbo people have clans that make up the Igbo tribes which constitute the ethnic platform with a unifying language and common cultural patterns.

The Igbo socio-cultural pattern falls under the tribal system that has no centralized political authority. This phenomenon was responsible for the myriads of Igbo Kings in a decentralized socio-cultural system. It is within this context that the popular “Igbo Enwe Eze” proverb was born. Igbo Enwe Eze means that Ndi Igbo had Kings, but there was no central Igbo King. This condition will not last for ever because no condition is permanent.

IGBO LANGUAGE

Anthropological Linguistics helps illustrate the difference between a Grammarian and an Anthropologist. The Philosopher of Language and Anthropologist will join hands to furnish the Grammarian the materials to work with. Igbo language has grown and continues to grow under cultural conventions. The Igbo alphabet and its components, -the letters of the alphabet, belong to Ndi Igbo as a people and no one Igbo scholar or scholars can change or manipulate them at will. The use and application of the diacritics in Igbo Language constitute a turning point in terms of Science and Igbo Linguistic identity. Thus the use of these four symbols: Ị ị, Ọọ, Ññ, Ụụ, has something to do with Igbo linguistic identity via Igbo cosmic vision. With every due respect to intellectual freedom, one may recognize the differences between Igbo cultural orthodoxy and Igbo cultural apocrypha in the writing of Igbo Language. A word is enough for the wise because time heals all wounds.

IGBO RELIGION

The Ọkọnkọ Research aims at delivering a scientific account of Traditional Igbo Religion that Ndi Igbo practiced before the advent of Christianity. One of the major tasks that scholars of Igbology will resolve is the relationship between Igbo Traditional religion and Judaism/Christianity. Phenomenology of Religion shows that Igbo Traditional Religion and Judaism have much in common and that Christianity is not strange to the Igbo people. It may not be an overstatement to claim that the Old Testament has Afrịkan origin and is closer to Igbo Traditional Religion than it is to the European counterpart. It is not surprising that Moses, who is the founder of Judaism by the establishment of the ten commandments, was born in Afrịka and had Afrịkan education and training. Moreover, Moses never reached the promised land of Israel. Moses was an Afrịkan Jew.

Igbo Traditional Religion hinges on the Supreme Being God, called: Chi or Chi Ukwu or Chukwu or Chineke. Chukwu has unlimited attributes in Igbo religion and His aura permeates every fabric of Igbo cultural life. The Intermediary gods in Igbo religion are not to be confused with the Supreme Being who is God. Rather these Igbo gods serve as mere messengers to the Almighty God. Phenomenology of religion identifies these gods with the angels in the Judeo Christian world. One other dominant revelation is that Ndi Igbo do not worship our ancestors. The cult of Igbo ancestors is similar to the veneration of the Saints in Christianity. Ndi Igbo venerate our ancestors and there is no ancestor worship in Igbo Traditional Religion.

CULTURAL GOVERNMENT

This project will render a scientific form of Igbo cultural organization that has kept the people going in the midst of political confusion and corruption. There is a very sharp division between Igbo Civil government and Igbo Cultural government. The Igbo nation lost its Civil independence in 1914 after the British government invaded the nation and forced Ndi Igbo to belong to Nigeria. The Igbo nation maintained its Cultural independence through the Traditional Rulers till today. One can comfortably talk of the Igbo Cultural Empire at home and in the Diaspora. One of the major assignments of Igbology is to identify the Igbo Cultural elements in the Diaspora and thereafter build a solid cultural bridge between the Igbo Diaspora and Homeland Igbo people.

Human governance has always been a conventional affair. The political structures all over the world are products of upgraded social systems. It may not be surprising to learn that the Igbo Enwe Eze dictum has become a thing of the past. The survival of the Igbo nation depends much on the viability of both Civil and Cultural arms of Igbo government.

PRE-COLONIAL IGBO CITIZENS

We can easily identify some Igbo citizens who excelled in the Diaspora despite their servitude and dehumanization. Some of these Igbo celebrities include Ọlaụdah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa the Afrịkan, James Africanus Beale Horton and King Jaja of Opobo.

These pre-colonial Igbo citizens are sometimes and erroneously called Nigerians. They were born as Igbo citizens and they lived and died as Igbo citizens before the idea of Nigeria was ever conceived. Regard for intellectual honesty and academic excellence obliges us to recognize them for who they were and still are in the annals of history.

The spirits of these great Igbo ancestors cannot accept to be called or addressed as Nigerians because they were never Nigerians. James Africanus Beale Horton is known as the Father of Igbo nationalism. Someone has to speak on their behalf and right the wrongs of the past. God created the Igbo nation as a natural entity. God never created Nigeria and therefore Nigerian is man-made and is not natural. The idea of Nigeria was first conceived in the year 1897 when Lady Lugard spoke of “Niger area”. This dream became a reality when Nigeria was born in 1914 by the Amalgamation of the peoples of the South and the North.

IGBO HOLOCAUST: Major Events

· Slavery: Between the 16^th century and 19^th century, millions of Igbo citizens and other Afrịkans were forcefully taken away from their homeland and sold into slavery where they lost all human rights. This human exodus decimated the Igbo population.

· Igbo Landing: In the month of May, 1803 some Igbo citizens who were sold into slavery drowned at the port of entry at the St. Simons Island near the coast of Georgia. They preferred death to slavery. There are many different accounts of this historic episode.

· The Ekumeku Movement: (1883-1914): The Western Igbo had an organized and massive resistance to the British conquest of the Igbo nation. Every Igbo town fought and resisted the British conquest and were finally defeated after 31 years of fierce battles. The resistance by the Western Igbo was more pronounced.

· Colonization: The Igbo people lost their civil independence in 1914 and were politically exiled in the newly created country called Nigeria. The British ruled Nigeria from 1914 to 1960 when Nigeria got her independence from Britain. The 1960 independence was not complete insofar as the Igbo people never regained their civil status as it was before 1914.

· Igbo Womens’ War of 1929: The Igbo women have special place in the Igbo society and they are freer than any other women around. The British allegedly imposed personal tax per person, i.e., both men and women. The Igbo women organized a protest against the British tax policy on them and demanded that the colonialists leave Igboland. The revolt started at Aba and reached to other places. The British army killed a lot of the protesting women.

· War of Genocide: 1967 – 1970: The political crisis and military coup of January 15, 1966 led to massacre of thousands of Igbos and people of Eastern Nigeria origin who lived in other parts of Nigeria. By this very act of barbarism against Ndi Igbo and their neighbors, Nigerians expelled the Igbos from Nigeria that was no more safe for them. The eventual secession and bloody war cost the lives of over 3 million Bịafrans. It was a genocidal war and the Bịafrans fought to defend themselves from Nigerian aggressors and their foreign allies. Nigeria used hunger and starvation as weapons of war against Bịafra.