ii nde Nmogho la ijhimbe. . . Anyway, I remember being told stories of that Obegu incident; none of them pretty. Yet, the Aro remain proud of the handiwork of their great great great grandfathers. . . and people wonder why old Aba and old Bende don't get along.

Andre, you must be unfamiliar with this aspect of history to be saying all that.

EzeUche:

My Igbo brother, why must some Igbo clans be jealous of the history of another Igbo clan? You must be from one of the Igbo clans that resisted Aro control. Everyone knows that Aro raids led to great upheaval throughout the East. Many Igbo villages were displaced by Aro raids. Yes, other Igbo clans assisted the Aro such as Bende and the warriors of Ohafia. They made up the Aro confederacy.

My dear brother, nobody is jealous of the history of the Aros, provided you don't misinform the public. I feel a need to counter your claims that the Aros, at a point in Igbo history, controlled many other Igbo subgroups. Such thing never existed!

FACTS ABOUT THE AROS
In Igbo-land, there are certain class segregation that exists to date, among which is the 'the Aros'. Others are Osu, Umeh and Ohu (Oru). While the Osus are believed to be people sacrificed to gods; Umehs are people whose parents committed abominable acts which warranted severance from the rest of the community; the Ohus are regarded as slaves; the Aros are known to be SETTLERS.

These settlers are usually migrants from same or different localities. Igbos have a saying: Onye biara abia adighi aka onye nwe ala (that is: A stranger or settler cannot exercise control over the bonafide landowner)! This is true! It will therefore be an aberration for anyone to think that ARO SETTLERS controlled their host communities at any point in time. To further buttress my point, besides Arochukwu (which is believed to be the ancestral home of most Aros) and Arondizuogu, there is no other place that the Aros dominated their landlords. Examples abound. There are Aro communities in in Oguta and Okigwe both in Imo State, Amorka in Ihiala L.G., Anambra State, Ezeagu in Enugu State, etc. In all these places, they are treated like second class citizens (no offense meant please).

MORE ABOUT THE AROS
Igbo see them as Oje-ozi (Messengers). Little wonder, in certain Igbo gathering, it is usually an Aro person or people that are called upon to carry out certain detestable assignments. Needless to add that the Aros carry out these duties judiciously and enthusiastically.

As OJE-OZI (MESSENGERS), the Aros were made to fight and resist British invasion, on behalf of their host communities and Igbo land by extension. Me think, this should not be something to brag about.

As OJE-OZI (MESSENGERS), they were allowed to carry out slave-trading. Mind you, they were not the slave owners but mere traders.

I hope to come back with more facts.

NB: This goes out to all my Aro friends in the house. Please forgive me if my post appears offensive. It is never intended. I was only trying to put the record straight. I love all people especially my Igbo brethren (not minding where you come from). Let's endeavour to speak with one voice and avoid excavating and distorting histories in our favour, which which may eventually turn out ugly. Peace!

[size=5pt]All grammatical errors are highly regretted.[/size]

Aro Control - Uvuvu l'Ezi. Stop twisting history.

Katsumoto:

It is obvious you are not as familiar with that history as you think you are. When did Aro sons turn to arabs that they were sellers of slaves? When did the British buy slaves from Aro sons?

Also stop trying to rationalise slave trading by telling us that other Aro sons were nationalists who fought for independence. They are mutually exclusive ideas. Its like arguing that a man who commits murder should be freed because his father is a judge.

I do not justify Aro enslavement of her neighbours. My point is, Aro were business men who traded in slaves and other articles. The Aro bought the slaves from slave owners and village heads. The village heads sold prisoners of wars and criminals who were meant to be sacrificed to the gods.
Most importantly, Abam people sold most of their slaves to Aros. Aros were mere middle men.
Nothwithstandingly, slave trade was evil.

can someone tell me why the Aro flag has a gun and a sword on it? lol

Those are the tools of the Aro trade, simple Slave-raiding/trading, armed robbery, almost the same thing lol

@ sjeezy
bcuz the Aros were to Easter Igbos what Oyo was to you Yerobas: an empire

@ ziddy, kindly shut -up you silly old skunk.

Andre, serious question: where are you getting your information from?

basktmout, are you Aro?

ChinenyeN:

Andre, serious question: where are you getting your information from?

At the 2009 Ahiajoku lecture, one Delta Igbo chap called Tony Nwaezeigwe delivered a lecture on the role of the ''Aros and the enslavement of Ndigbo''. I have a copy of that lecture.
But since then, Aro intellectuals have written rebuttals to Nwaezeigwe's presentation. I have as well stored copies of those rebuttals. Any one interested in Igbo culture should look forward to Ahiajoku lectures, Odenigbo lectures, Ohanaeze Ndigbo's Igbo day's celebration, World Igbo congress conventions and lots more.

Biafra has not yet even happened we are seeing refugees running to Nigeria. God save Africans and Classism.

basktmout:

@ sjeezy
bcuz the Aros were to Easter Igbos what Oyo was to you Yerobas: an empire

Do you know the meaning of the word empire? look it up if don't and while you are it, read up on history.

No, I am not; I just hate it when elstupido's like Ziddy open their rotten mouths to blab oafs about Ndigbo.

@Dudu
I don't need to pick a history book when the dictionary is by my side.the Áros were the Oyo people of the Eastern Igbos. If they are not an empire then Oyo was not an empire.

rethink:

Biafra has not yet even happened we are seeing refugees running to Nigeria. God save Africans and Classism.

What does the above mean?. Answer me speedily before I destroy with only two lines.

basktmout, okay. So you're an Igbo loyalist. Where from Igbo are you from? Also, the Aro were not an empire.

Andre, hmm. . . ok, but that tid bit that you posted previously seems like an oversimplified, twisted summary.

basktmout:

@Dudu
I don't need to pick a history book when the dictionary is by my side.the Áros were the Oyo people of the Eastern Igbos. If they are not an empire then Oyo was not an empire.

I guess if a cat calls itself a lion, then it really must be a lion.

Katsumoto:

I guess if a cat calls itself a lion, then it really must be a lion.

Flawed logic!

A lion is a cat (familiy: felidae; colloquially called felines). Hence, a cat (a large family of carnivores) can be a lion.

Please apply tighter logic next time.

Cohomology, that is laughable. This is not biology class.

^^^^
casketmouth is a mongol born to osu parents.
i love this arochuku thread. very educative. now we know why biafra is an exercise in futility.

Cohomology:

Flawed logic!

A lion is a cat (familiy: felidae; colloquially called felines). Hence, a cat (a large family of carnivores) can be a lion.

Please apply tighter logic next time.

Do you realise how pointless your post is? All lions are cats but are all cats lions? Quit being a pedant.

Please, let us not turn this into another "Biafra" thread, ziddy.

ChinenyeN,

No wonder I don't like you. The Ngwa, you all joined forces to defeat a fellow Igbo clan. Have your people no shame?

^^^ And there goes the kid again.

asha 80:

^^^ And there goes the kid again.

Nkita tabiekwa gi amu!

EzeUchenna:

Nkita tabiekwa gi amu!

Enjoy urself kid

asha 80:

Enjoy urself kid

Ikwikwi ka ibu. . .

Katsumoto:

I guess if a cat calls itself a lion, then it really must be a lion. 

Cohomology:

Flawed logic!

A lion is a cat (familiy: felidae; colloquially called felines). Hence, a cat (a large family of carnivores) can be a lion.

Please apply tighter logic next time.

Katsumoto:

Do you realise how pointless your post is? All lions are cats but are all cats lions? Quit being a pedant.

You seem to be off your manageable okay reasoning level today.

The point is that a cat can be a lion.

Your snide comment made it seem like it is impossible for a cat to be a lion.

Cohomology:


You seem to be off your manageable okay reasoning level today.

The point is that a cat can be a lion.

Your snide comment made it seem like it is impossible for a cat to be a lion.

Since you want to be pedantic, lets go there. How can a cat be a lion? Will the cat turn into a lion. A lion is born a cat; a cat CAN not be a lion. It is either already a lion or it isn't. When I made my initial comment, you knew fully well that I was referring to a domesticated cat, yet you tried to be clever by going down the route of the possibility of a cat being a lion. In my initial post, did I make reference to a cat or to any member of the cat family?

How do you mean by manageable okay reasoning level? Manageable by what standards? By what is usually displayed on these forums, including standards maintained by posters such as yourself. Your remark was condescending.

EzeUchenna:

ChinenyeN,

No wonder I don't like you. The Ngwa, you all joined forces to defeat a fellow Igbo clan. Have your people no shame? 

Come now, Uchenna. It was the Aros who instigated war with the Ngwa by mistaking our ancestors for weak Northern Igbo tribes. I think yours must have become so swollen with pride, knocking down those weak Northern communities, they forgot that when the first Ngwa clans came down from Mbaise, they marched only with Ala (the land) and Ekwensu (war and bargains) as their gods.

We couldn't let our neighbors carry on with such a fatal mistake, now, could we?

ikenwan, gbahnuo ya onu l'uka na.