BLOQUEOS ASOCIADOS A LA DISCAPACIDAD

The question of Igbo origin is the most complex among scholars of Igbo history. No particular scholar has a clear answer to this question: “Where did the Igbo come from?” It is not however, the task of this study to answer this question, rather this study seeks to support efforts of past and present scholars of Igbo history to respond to the question of origin of the Igbo people.

13 Nsibidi was a pre-colonial sign writing developed among the Igbo and her neighbours. It was mainly used by secret cults to preserve their valuable communications and also by the travelling smiths and could not easily spread rapidly because of its secrecy and not open to the commoners or public to learn.

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Since the dawn of human history, according to Isichei (1976: 19-20) people have lived on the Igbo territory for the past 5000 years before the advent of colonialism. The heartland of the Igbo, which includes the old Okigwe-Owerri and Orlu divisions, was the first area to be settled. This claim of Igbo identity is also mirrored in proverbs such as Igbo enweghi eze, ‘the Igbo had no King or crown no King’. This is true according to Achebe (1958: 135) “…but the villagers told them that there was no king. We have men of high title and the chief priests and the elders…”. These men of honour and respect lead the people. This contradicts the Riverain Onitsha and Arochukwu who at the time had kings ruling among them. Isichei (1976: 23) observed that Onitsha and Arochukwu were said to have emigrated from neighbouring Benin Kingdom and Delta respectively. She wrote:

A few Igbo states such as Aboh and Onitsha, which had a tradition of origin from elsewhere were ruled by kings. These kings were regarded as sacred, and lived in ritual seclusion. But they were not absolute, and took decisions in conjunction with titled men, and representatives of other groups. Their decisions could be challenged and then persons deposed.

Quoting Nwahiri, Isichei (1976: 3) noted a statement made by a 90 year old Mbaise (in the old Okigwe-Owerri-Orlu divisions) Igbo man made while responding to the question where do the Igbo come from? “We did not come from anywhere and anyone who tells you we came from anywhere is a liar; write it down”. It is in expressions like this that she noted that Igbo scholars must embody the essential historical truth of Igbo origin. Igbo began to diverge from other related languages, such as Edo and Yoruba, perhaps 4000 years ago while still in its present day location.

In another view of Igbo settlement, Ifemesia (2002: 29) points out that Nri¹⁴ right up to the end of nineteenth century, acquires the reputation in parts of Igbo land as conferrers of high titles and cleansers of abominations. Major A. G. Leonard, a British political officer, noted that within the neighbourhood of Nri, was to be found “the heart of the Ibo nationality”. Nri-Awka, Ifemesia claims belongs to the area that is described as the traditional Igbo heartland, which

14 Nri is the hometown of a priestly cult known as nri priests, whose particular services was connected with the coronation of kings and purification ceremonies. These priests had travelled so widely that they became well known all over Igbo territory. Nri remains the Awka area of Igbo land who were the first to come in contact with the European visitors own to the fact and presence of the River-Niger by which they came to Igbo land.

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became the area by which the people earlier migrated to other parts of the Igbo country where they are found today.

Using archaeological data to determine the age long of a particular excavation by applying the radiocarbon date was the means employed by historians to reconstruct the Igbo past of the above concerns. Excavations made in some Igbo old sites have opened this window of distant the past. These include those of Ezi-Ukwu Ukpa Rock Shelter, which produced stone tools and pottery shreds dated 2935 B.C. – 15 A.D. Similar artefacts of the Late Stone Age have also been recovered in the Isi-Ugwu Obukpa Rock Shelter and on the University Agricultural Farm Site, both in the Nsukka area (Ifemesia 2002: 17-18).

All these were said to be the earliest found artefacts in the Nigeria area of research. Yet, the Igboukwu excavations found in the Njikoka (Awka) division of today’s Anambra State consist of the most detailed information to date on the Igbo society. The storehouse or shrine, burial chamber, clay pit, bronze objects, iron weapons and implements have been radiocarbon dated to the ninth century A.D. (Ifemesia, 2002: 18). These facts are evidence of two or three millennia the Igbo had spent in their present day location before the Christian era (Afigbo, 1981: 5).

In another observation, Afigbo (1981: 5) noted that it is likely that the Igbo may have lost all memory of their migration into the area they now occupy. This is also the case of Nri of the Northern Igbo who evolved an elaborate and highly ritualised priest-kingship tradition. Yet, in the present time Nri cannot produce documents with respect to migrations from outside Igbo land. The loss of memory, Afigbo said, has led to the myth of their having been created where the Igbo are now found (Basden, 1966: 115).

Finally, some scholars have developed comparable theory in which the Igbo society has been associated with the Hebrew society. Some have even said ‘Igbo’ is actually an adulterated form of writing and naming of the word, “Hebrew”. Onwurah (1984: 23-25) noted that modern Igbo scholars have suggested that the Igbo might have been the biblical lost tribe of Israel who, after contact with ancient Egypt, were pushed southwards as a result of the Arab invasion of

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North Africa. While linking the Igbo to ancient Egypt, practices like mummification, early child circumcision, incision, tattooing, and sun worship are noticeable in the traditional Igbo society. Because of this conclusion, Afigbo (1981: 6) called it an ‘oriental mirage’.

The important point in this section of our study is the fact that the Igbo inhabited their present place of abode from time immemorial and long before the Christian era. But not all the Igbo can be held in this regard. Recently the people of the east and west of the Niger had migrated from different locations. The Onitsha in the east came from Benin while Ibuzo in the west came from Isuofia, all of Igbo mainland (heartland) neighbours as noted by Onwurah (1984:

24). Although one may notice this difference in history, the Igbo people remain united as Onwurah (1984: 25) observes:

…Though separated by the Niger, both east and west Igbo have retained their cultural as well as their psychic unity. …Their attitude toward political questions and their identification with what they regard as their own leaders reveal the solidarity between the Igbo on both sides. One would have thought that lack of unity under any single political authority would have created an enormous diversity in custom, tradition, and institution among the Igbo. Rather there have been similarity and uniformity. There may be some differences, but the general outline is basically the same. This confirms that the Igbo were from the same stalk and not people welded together by British political power. The institutions are the same everywhere, though they may go by different names in different Igbo locations, but what is significant is that the underlying principles and practices are the same.