THE Kola nut is a central feature in all Igbo land. I
have never understood why this is so except to
guess that if people speak the same language there
must be a single symbol that united them; and for
the Igbos, it is the Kola nut. It appeals to the individual soul, to the collective
soul, to the unseen spirits that capriciously rule or
ruin our lives; it is a symbol of welcome, a drama
stage to concentrate all thoughts. It is non-threatening - a simple nut to be divided
according to divination, speech, manners and
conduct. It is never rejected, except to declare war.
(But the above can also be said of the Kola among
the Urhobos, the Isokos, etc.) The closest and best
answer to why the Kola is that central is that the eating and breaking of Kola is a near eschatological
experience. I think that we tend to underestimate the extensive
influence of contact for many years. Some symbols
are easier to assimilate than others. The Ijaws, for
example, have no Kola culture, yet they have been
close to the Igbos for over 500 years. Among the Igbos, there are other spiritual places in
Ogbunike, etc. But, as I have said, many do not
push these new tourist resorts beyond Nri which
itself is problematic for an acephalous people. The
Igbos live in a family homestead surrounded by the
family farm which may be large or small depending on the number of people in that family. Thereafter, another family has its plot of land and
farm and so on. There are few Igbo urban centres.
This small cluster will live near a stream for water
and there are market days where goods and
services are exchanged. There are four important
market days and these market days are used as calendars for when one thing or the other is to be
done. But again, Onitsha, however, is a large native
Igbo town. There is a village square for meetings,
announcement, etc. But the nearer the Igbos are to
people of other or even similar culture, the villagers
become bigger (i.e. they are more urbanised than
the Igbos). The Yorubas live more together in villages and go
sometimes far distances to their farms. The social
structures of the Igbos are based on Age Grades,
especially in the bigger conurbation or cities, such
as Onitsha, Awka, etc. The Igbos have always been
a clever people, and took very quickly to missionary education and other aspects of
Westernisation. The Onitsha Igbo The Onitsha Igbo are made up of
three ethnic groups - the Igala who followed the
River Niger downstream from Lokoja to Onitsha, the
Edo who came from Benin and the Igbo who lived
in villages surrounding Onitsha. The amalgam of
these three ethnic groups made up Onitsha which itself had off shoots in Obosi and environs. Because
of early European contact, the Onitsha Igbo went to
school early and embraced Christianity - Protestant
and Catholics. Onitsha is still a major education hub in the East of
Nigeria with many prominent schools - the most
famous Dennis Memorial Grammar School, Christ the
King College, Holy Rosary Girls School, Christian
seminaries and teachers training colleges. This early introduction to education and commerce
stood the Onitsha Igbo head above other Igbos,
first Igbo doctors, lawyers, professors etc. The
colonial service employed Onitsha Igbo - leading to
their dominance in the professions, judiciary,
politics, etc. It is, therefore, no accident that Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe,
Justice Anyeagbunam, Chuba Ikpeazu, Ofodile,
Prof. Chike Obi, Aje Asika, Sir Lious Mbanefo and a
host of others were from Onitsha. So dominant
were they that, at one time, the upper echelons of
the civil service, permanent secretaries, and leaders in the profession in Eastern Nigeria, etc were all
Onitsha people. There was a backlash when other Igbo people
thought the dominance was too pervasive and
started asking for Onitsha Igbo to move out of
positions. It took a long time to get some in Eastern
Nigeria balances. The Onitsha Igbo discriminated against other Igbo
as uncouth and unpolished people and would not
associate with them preferring their daughters to
marry any one else except their non-Onitsha Igbo. As a child, I often heard Onitsha Igbo drive away
other Igbo children who came to play with their
own children (sa, nwa onye igbo pu a eba - get
away you child of an Igbo man), the Yorubas of
Lagos have the same feeling for so called ara oke -
Yoruba from the hills), the Saros of Freetown for people from the hinterland - (up-country people)
the Parisians for all those outsiders not from Paris,
etc. Apprentice system Today, the Igbo have perfected
the apprenticeship system. A successful car dealer,
motor spare dealer, or mechanic, or trader in
electronics, drugs - medicines and other
pharmaceutical goods, or transport owner, etc.,
would have young boys, sometimes as young as 10 years, who have been to school for a few years. The young boys are apprenticed to such car spare
parts dealer, or a patent medicine shop owner, or a
transporter. The apprentice is supposed in the 10
-12 years he works for his boss to know every
spare part in an automobile (3000) the name and
use of every drug sold in the patent medicine store, etc. After a long time, the owner of the store or
transporter would give a substantial amount of
money to the apprentice to start his own business
in electronics, spare parts, medicines etc. else
where. This is the classic way the Igbos do
business; and it has benefited them well. They are able to easily beat competitors because of
superior knowledge of the product, accessibility
and a burning desire to succeed quickly. Today,
there is a virtual Igbo monopoly of spare parts
trade (usually Nnewi people) local "pharmacies",
and transportation. The young man who used to be an apprentice bus attendant would soon grow
to own a fleet of buses which will need spare parts,
etc. The intercity luxury bus business is 70% in
Igbo hands. They are also transporters for goods
and small vehicle transporters. The car hire
business is perhaps 60% in the hands of Igbos. - To be continued tomorrow. - Dr. Cole (OFR) is Nigeria's former Ambassador to
Brazil. The Guardian, 1st April 2015.

Let's rename Nairaland to IgboLand ASAP