Chukwu Uzu Igbo Eze [2]

[Egb...@aol.com]

IGBO: Who is Igbo?

I do not want to fall into the trap of defining who is and who is not Igbo.
What I insist on is that no one now has the right to declare anyone or
anything Igbo.

In a foreword to Obiwu's "Igbos of Northern Nigeria," Professor C.I.C.
Ogbonna of Unijos and Director of Igbo-Hebrew Genealogical Research Project
wrote:

"The Igbo in general are dynamic, a restless race of go-getters with very
strong family ties and high sense of honour. They are proud and arrogant,
dauntless, stubborn and adventurous. They are highly talented and easily
accommodating. They have no difficulty in learning any language and in mixing
with any other ethnic group. The Igbos are blessed with a supernatural energy
that baffles every other non-Igbo group mortal and they believe themselves to
be God's own chosen people. They are very peaceful, grossly misunderstood,
assimilate quite a lot without themselves being assimilated. They are always
the favourite scapegoat for the country's ills, a situation they have vowed
to stop."

I chose this passage from my collection of pages of stuff said and rumored to
be said about Ndiigbo. While it does not tell us who should or should not be
Igbo, I see Eze Onyeama n'Eke right there. You know whom I don't see: those
mere mortals mortified by the "supernatural energy" of such notable sons as
Onyeama nwa Ozo Onwusi n'Eke.

In case we were wondering, Onyeama was Igbo to his last breathe. Let's check
the seventh proposal of Igbo world by Uchendu (1995):

"Seventh, the Igbo live in a world of constant change and are socialized to
adapt to it where possible or take a courageous exit by suicide where society
or the forces do not permit individual dignity. The ethnographic history of
Igbo slaves in the various parts of the New World makes the point. In Haiti,
for instance, Melville J. Herskovits ....reported of:

Igbo tendency of despondency, noted in many parts of the New World, and a
tradition of suicide as a way out of difficulties has been remarked, as, for
example, in Haiti where the old saying 'Ibos pend cor a yo'.... "the [Igbo]
hand themselves is still current. (Herskovits, 1941:36)"

Liberty or dead, Onyeama went for his gun, retired quietly to this train
cabin and made a graceful exit ... for no man born of woman would humiliate
him. The same trait possessed the Igbo slaves in South Carolina in "Ibo
Landing." Of course we all know about Okonkwo in Achebe's Things Fall Apart.
For even the tradition abhors such acts, Ndiigbo still take to it. Shouldn't
those who don't like fellow Igbomen and who won't accommodate diversity find
the next bridge over troubled waters?

Check out Olaudah Equiano's views also [Just search the Internet; and $10.00
will get you a good copy of the book plus other slave narratives] You can
also try other contributions from the likes of President-in-waiting Obasanjo
to Sarduana Ahmadu Bello, etc. Get Achebe's "The Trouble with Nigeria." You
will begin to see why some people are touchy about being Igbo; why those who
wear it on their neck raise eyebrows. Are they Igbo or agent provocateurs? Is
the open door poolicy gone to far?

Now tell me, has anyone the right to declare who is Igbo? Not even the Hebrew
(from the negroid-nilotic Falashas to the blue-eyed blonde Caucasoid
Europeans) have dared to define who is Hebrew; Jewish, yes. I am amazed that
we avoid this issue. Really! Yet like a pack of wolves, we went after someone
who said he wasn't Igbo! Shouldn't we now be offering him an apology? Or is
"area" the issue here yet again? You tell me.

Okay, I am overreacting. Yeah right! Imagine someone saying that an elder of
your community is not Igbo, because he used his sword too many times or that
he became a chief without being crowned by the community! Do you call this
debate?

This is not about anything other than abhorring what is wrong. I do not even
have to flash any Igbo credentials to confirm that I am amazed by this issue,
and that I will do it regardless of who is involved and from what part of
Igboland the person comes. That I am Enugu 'bread and buttered,' it has also
an added impact -the same impact it had on my defense of Biafran heroes,
forgotten and unmourned, on my defense of Ikemba, the man and the legend, on
my defense of all that is good about our land; and even on my defense of
Kenneth Kaunda's right to be Zambian, even if born by Malawian parents. So
what? Do we really know through what route and how many of our forefathers
reached the theater of Igbo civilization?

Therefore, until someone shows me the proof that Onyeama in NOT Igbo, I don't
think we have the moral right to question the arrogance of Ndioru and
Ndionicha towards "Olammiriozu" and "Nwaonyeigbo" respectively; nor the basis
from which to tell the Ikwerre or Mmu Ika who they are. PERIOD!

It is situations like this that make many curse the deity that makes it
impossible for us to get a central authority - a fact you obviously cherished
in declaring that "Ndiigbo enweghi eze." Pray, is my area included in your
blanket assertion? Shouldn't we say: My area has no king? Is this not a
pervasive misconception of the heterogeneity of Igbo societies? So the Aro
(who have Eze Aro) and the Nri (who have Eze Nri) and the Onicha (who have an
Obi) and the Eke who had Eze Onyeama, and the Opobo who had Jaja, and the
Owere (who have Eze Ozuruigbo), etc. are no longer Igbo?

Someone please on the visa form.

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