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Re: The Eze Nris Of Nri Town by TerraCotta(m): 11:19pm On May 09, 2020
AjaanaOka:


LOL. Everyone has a lot of free time on their hands now. Trying to fill the boredom with stuff I enjoy, i.e., history.

Here is one piece on the research on Lake Bosomtwi (I murdered the name earlier because I was writing from memory) in Ghana:
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/07/20/486670144/an-archaeological-mystery-in-ghana-why-didn-t-past-droughts-spell-famine


We are all grateful for the time, and thanks for the link.

My dating is certainly closer to Chambers' than to Onwuejeogwu's. But I doubt he (Chambers) took 'dateable' ecological occurrences into consideration.

His estimation that Nri's formative period lies between 1225 and 1425 is certainly close to my suggestion of an upper limit for the beginning of the Nri system around 1100, with the 1300s being probably closer to the mark. On some other points on the chronology we disagree by a substantial amount.
That was my recollection too but I didn’t know if he, or anyone else, had published some updated material.


Ajaala (or in my own dialect, Ajaana) literally means 'Soil of the Earth', Aja being soil, and ana/ala being Earth. For my people, it is a more emphatic way of referring to Ana in a spiritual context, especially when one needs to make the distinction between the earth/soil of his own community/clan, and the earth/soil of other clans. Hence it is often followed with the name of the community, eg., Ajaana Oka (my moniker) = the Soil of the Earth of Awka. Not a very elegant translation, but you get it.

Semantically there is no relationship with Agbala


Ah, understood. A recent dictionary I have offers “agbala” as both a variant of “agbara” (as in spirit) and a specific ‘Agbala’ deity in the Nri-Oka area. Both seem to be pronounced with the same tones [high-low-low?] so just wondering how they fit into the broader understanding of “ala.”

As an aside, I thought this exhibition might interest you. The catalog is supposed to be published this year but I haven’t seen any updates on it. The curators have written some impressive work about Oka decades ago but one of them seemed to have taken a lengthy break from academia until recently.
Re: The Eze Nris Of Nri Town by TerraCotta(m): 11:23pm On May 09, 2020
letu:
Ajaala is the same as sand or ordinary ground but that's what it is to ordinary person, for someone who understands the mysticism within the Ajaala such person will be seeing the Ajaala as more than ordinary sand/ground.
Ajaala is an integral part of our Igbo culture, it plays a very important role in spiritual things when it comes to tradition, it is where spiritual things are done and that's where the drink offering are pour during prayer(when you're praying to your chi eg Agbara and also Chineke kere eluigwe la uwa la ojujuya) that's if you know how to do the Igbo traditional prayer, it can be used for ritual's eg Igba Afa, and don't be surprised for you will see some Bible verse that speak's about it eg the Bible Gen 35: 14,Num 28:7--8,Ex 29:41, lev23:13 and Ex 20: 24 etc .

Just seeing this—thank you for the description.
Re: The Eze Nris Of Nri Town by AjaanaOka(m): 12:57am On May 10, 2020
TerraCotta:



Ah, understood. A recent dictionary I have offers “agbala” as both a variant of “agbara” (as in spirit) and a specific ‘Agbala’ deity in the Nri-Oka area. Both seem to be pronounced with the same tones [high-low-low?] so just wondering how they fit into the broader understanding of “ala.”


Agbala/Agbara is quite a complex concept. I'm not even sure I can give a comprehensive explanation. It is (especially in Southern Igboland) often used in a generic sense to mean spirit-forces/deities.

In my axis (the north) it is used in narrower senses. Agbala is a fertility spirit for us. It is also one of the manifestations of Chukwu, which is why one of the compound names for the high god among us is Anyanwu-na-Agbala (translation may go something like "the sun and the source of all fertility). It is perhaps its connection to fertility that explains why women with progeny are referred to as Agbala Nwanyị. As Agbalanze, Agbala is also connected with titled men and title-taking. This connection I cannot explain.

If there was a semantic connection with Ala/Ana, one would expect that sound laws as regards the use of 'l' and 'n' or 'l' and 'r' in Igbo would apply.

One would expect my people who use Ana to call it Agbana. We call it Agbala however.

And one would expect Chinenye's people who use Ala to call it Agbala. They call it Agbara however.


As an aside, I thought

this exhibition might interest you. The catalog is supposed to be published this year but I haven’t seen any updates on it. The curators have written some impressive work about Oka decades ago but one of them seemed to have taken a lengthy break from academia until recently.

Ah. Thanks for this.

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Re: The Eze Nris Of Nri Town by ChinenyeN(m): 4:21am On May 10, 2020
Alright, I'm back. Sorry it took some time to get back. I had to finish some client work.

I do enjoy these moments of eureka, when corroborating information comes to light. Thank you very much for the brief overview of the Little Ice Age/West African Dry Period (LIA/WADP... I'll go with WADP). I will jot this down in my notes and do some more research for myself later on. It seems reasonable and relatively safe to speculate that notable periods of dryness in other regions in West Africa would occur just the same for areas in Igboland that are also prone to dryness. Oh, how I wish we took archeology seriously at home. There is probably much that Ala still wants to share with us.

Truthfully, I am surprised by the fact that the Igbo academia casually glosses over climate change when painting a picture of the migratory and cultural dynamics in pre-colonial times. Much of what I've read has given substantially more weight to population pressure and secondarily to the effects of the slave trade. However, reading what you've written now and reflecting on some known details, I certainly believe climate change should be given a bit more consideration, at least.

For instance, even without corroborating against climate change, we can provide some relatively (speculatively) accurate dating for some known events. Consider the Igwe ka Ala oracle in Umunneoha. We are already relatively certain that it would have been established at least by the 17th century. We know this, because we know it is associated with a period of intense slave trading and that it predates Aro's movement in the area. Numbers don't lie, and based off recorded numbers for slaves during that 1625 - 1651 period, it seems reasonable to say that Igwe ka Ala and Amadioha Ozuzu (along with other Amadioha and non-Amadioha oracles) were responsible/highly active.

Now, I believe nuance can be a beautiful thing, because it shows us that details matter. Since I was young, there is one thing I had always wondered about. Throughout the southern Igbo axis, the satellite shrines for Amadioha are all generally called "Amadioha". Even moving northward, we see that the Amadioha shrines there even retain the name, granted as "Amadiora". It is only the one at Umunneoha that is different, and I've always wondered why. Why in the world would the sky have supremacy over the land, knowing fully well that Ala is at the apex of the pantheon? I believe this knowledge of the WADP might answer that question for me. It seems highly plausible that the priest of Amadioha (responsible for the founding of Umunneoha) might have found himself lucky enough to have been established in the area just in time to capitalize on the WADP's wet interlude. With Amadioha's domain being the sky and it having command over the elements, that wet period might have earned it "Igwe ka Ala" as an epithet. Supposedly, it could have taken credit for the relief from the dryness in Owerre/Isu axis, and the "Igwe ka Ala" epithet stuck with it in the region. This then sets up Igwe ka Ala to be a well-acknowledged juju by the time the dry period returns, allowing it to become heavily involved in the slave trade. Igwe ka Ala might very well have been established in the late 1500s/early 1600s then.

This certainly provides an entirely new angle that I had not previously considered. Much of what I have read from the Igbo academia and Igbo historians truly does not reflect on climate change as a factor for socio-cultural change/development.

Granted this is speculative, but it gives me some sense of new insight which might help in interpreting some of the traditions in the region. Sigh. It's always nice to stimulate the mind like this.
Re: The Eze Nris Of Nri Town by ChinenyeN(m): 6:55am On May 10, 2020
Regarding migrations. It seems the academia really only cares about the infamous Isuama migration, probably because the current prevailing "Igbo Heartland" hypothesis. Not much about migrations gets mentioned beyond that, so it is as though they're treating it as a single migratory event (as a result of population pressure). They don't really focus any attention on possible formative movements before or after this.

However, the evidence does suggest that migrations southward would have been ongoing throughout that period. When exactly those migrations hit communities such as Uratta, Echie, Mbaise and Ngwa, and whether or not we can determine a time for a single massive (or if the infamous Isuama migration is actually several large spurts close together) is a different question. I guess in a way, this clears up a number of things, but still leaves room for many more unanswered questions. That said, I'm becoming more convinced that much of what we think of as Igbo culture and language (including economics) is indeed recent and owed to the cultural changes brought on by the WADP.

Thanks for that bit about Umudioka and your explanation of your thoughts on the Eze Nri system's timeline. Do you also happen to know which Eze Nri (whether one, or across multiple reigns) the Nze/Ozo system is attributed to?

I still suspect the infamous Isuama migration (or series of migrations) harmonized Igbo culture and language after a notable amount of influence from the Nri hegemony. That said, I'll just keep that at the back of my mind for the time being.
Re: The Eze Nris Of Nri Town by AjaanaOka(m): 9:42am On May 10, 2020
ChinenyeN:
Alright, I'm back. Sorry it took some time to get back. I had to finish some client work.


For instance, even without corroborating against climate change, we can provide some relatively (speculatively) accurate dating for some known events. Consider the Igwe ka Ala oracle in Umunneoha. We are already relatively certain that it would have been established at least by the 17th century. We know this, because we know it is associated with a period of intense slave trading and that it predates Aro's movement in the area. Numbers don't lie, and based off recorded numbers for slaves during that 1625 - 1651 period, it seems reasonable to say that Igwe ka Ala and Amadioha Ozuzu (along with other Amadioha and non-Amadioha oracles) were responsible/highly active.

Now, I believe nuance can be a beautiful thing, because it shows us that details matter. Since I was young, there is one thing I had always wondered about. Throughout the southern Igbo axis, the satellite shrines for Amadioha are all generally called "Amadioha". Even moving northward, we see that the Amadioha shrines there even retain the name, granted as "Amadiora". It is only the one at Umunneoha that is different, and I've always wondered why. Why in the world would the sky have supremacy over the land, knowing fully well that Ala is at the apex of the pantheon? I believe this knowledge of the WADP might answer that question for me. It seems highly plausible that the priest of Amadioha (responsible for the founding of Umunneoha) might have found himself lucky enough to have been established in the area just in time to capitalize on the WADP's wet interlude. With Amadioha's domain being the sky and it having command over the elements, that wet period might have earned it "Igwe ka Ala" as an epithet. Supposedly, it could have taken credit for the relief from the dryness in Owerre/Isu axis, and the "Igwe ka Ala" epithet stuck with it in the region. This then sets up Igwe ka Ala to be a well-acknowledged juju by the time the dry period returns, allowing it to become heavily involved in the slave trade. Igwe ka Ala might very well have been established in the late 1500s/early 1600s then.

Brilliant. You know, I didn't quite consider that the 1625-1651 big spike could also be related to the pre-eminence of Igwe-Ka-Ala Umunoha and Amadioha Ozuzu. Don't know why I didn't think in that direction, especially as I have always believed they rose to prominence before Ibini Ukpabi. For people who still hold the view that the Aro people established the Amadioha oracle at Ozuzu, well, here's another strong counter-argument from numbers that pre-date (at least by general academic consensus) Aro expansion into the region.

Something else: The supply of slaves during this spike period (1625-1651) and the next period (the 1650s to the 1670s) most likely came largely from southern Igboland: Isuama, Uratta and Ngwa. The north didn't come fully within the sphere of slave 'recruitment' until the next century with the coming of the Aro: that much is clear from the traditions and also from written records from the West, where the first mention of an 'Ibo' slave with ichi marks dates from the mid-18th century. If Isuama, etc, was shedding off 33,500 slaves in the 1620s to the 1650 (up from 2,900, in the preceding 25-year period) and then went up to shedding 80,700 in the 1650s - 1670s, I think we have to make the argument for a fairly densely settled (by pre-industrial standards) southern Igboland by the mid-17th century.

I think this is important in considering Isu migrations into Southern Igboland. I think the big movements and the main cultural outlines of Southern Igbo society had occurred/been drawn before the 17th century, and the demographic map fairly set and close to what the European travellers described from the 1890s on. Smaller movements of course continued to happen down to the beginning of the last century.
Re: The Eze Nris Of Nri Town by AjaanaOka(m): 10:56am On May 10, 2020
ChinenyeN:
Regarding migrations. It seems the academia really only cares about the infamous Isuama migration, probably because the current prevailing "Igbo Heartland" hypothesis. Not much about migrations gets mentioned beyond that, so it is as though they're treating it as a single migratory event (as a result of population pressure). They don't really focus any attention on possible formative movements before or after this.

However, the evidence does suggest that migrations southward would have been ongoing throughout that period. When exactly those migrations hit communities such as Uratta, Echie, Mbaise and Ngwa, and whether or not we can determine a time for a single massive (or if the infamous Isuama migration is actually several large spurts close together) is a different question. I guess in a way, this clears up a number of things, but still leaves room for many more unanswered questions. That said, I'm becoming more convinced that much of what we think of as Igbo culture and language (including economics) is indeed recent and owed to the cultural changes brought on by the WADP.

Now that I can look at my notes, let me say just a little bit more here about what I think about the West African climate periods, and their implications for the southward migrations of groups particularly the Isu.

So, before the Dry Period (c. 1100 to c. 1860) there was an 'Era of Plentiful Rainfall' between c. 300 and c. 1100. The Northern Igbo Plateau probably attracted large numbers of settlers in this wet period. In wet periods, highlands tend to offer more attraction to settlers than lowlands. They are less swampy, less prone to malarial and other diseases that spread fast in humidity, and the land is easier to clear and cultivate using the primitive tools of the period. I cannot remember where I read a historian's or a paleobotanist's view that the clearing of the primeval rain-forest around Owerri was probably followed by widespread malaria, and that when people could they stayed on higher drier land.

So, probably, northern Igboland was more settled between c.300 and c.1100 than southern Igboland.

Then came the Dry Phase, which 'trapped' this fairly dense (by the pre-industrial standards) population on an increasingly non-cooperating soil. Colonial geographers in Igboland found it puzzling that a dense rural population (the most dense in the region, if I remember correctly) should cluster together on the infertile lands of the Awka-Orlu uplands and the Udi highlands. I believe this was a 'trapped' population, who had built up sentimental and cultural ties with their land between c.300 and c.1100, and couldn't just up and leave. (It is something worth noting that when traditions did talk of emigration, it was often the emigration of people with no strong ties to the earth--- hunters, blacksmiths and dibias. If it wasn't hunters and dibias, it was someone who had committed an abomination against the earth and had to flee, or a social/political dissenter; farmers are hardly ever presented in the traditions of the northern Igbo as emigrating in search of arable land.)

Afigbo writes that craftsworking (in ivory, in wood, in metal) and long distance travelling for the purposes of trading and ritual services provision were more highly developed on the Northern Igbo Plateau than on the low-lying region around it, and attributes this to the poor soil [a state of affairs we're now linking to a Dry Period, starting in the 1100s] which necessitated the search for alternate means of livelihood.

The Nri would appear to be one (and by far the most successful) of the ritual services providers that arose in this Dry Period (c. 1100 to c. 1860). The Isu, too would appear to have begun their southward drift in this same period, running into southern groups like the Uratta and the Ngwa, before the 17th century. You said something about them carrying Nri culture or influence with them. Yes, they could have. Presently, I feel it's safer to just say they carried ideas and practices that were Northern Igbo (not specifically Nri.) I say this partly because some of the things that up until recently were thought to be strictly Nri innovations seem to be reflected in Igbo-Ukwu culture, a Northern Igbo high culture, which historians now think is older than and antecedent to the Nri System.

Thanks for that bit about Umudioka and your explanation of your thoughts on the Eze Nri system's timeline. Do you also happen to know which Eze Nri (whether one, or across multiple reigns) the Nze/Ozo system is attributed to?

The Ozo system is explicitly attributed to Nrifikuanim. In the kinglist I presented here, I haven't listed him seperately [I only mentioned him in connection with the Nri Namokes] because fitting him in the chronology is very problematic. Dr Nwaezeigwe noted the same problem. He seems to have established a parallel 'Ezenriship' at Agukwu during the Nri Namoke period, i.e., the formative period of the Nri System.

I still suspect the infamous Isuama migration (or series of migrations) harmonized Igbo culture and language after a notable amount of influence from the Nri hegemony. That said, I'll just keep that at the back of my mind for the time being.

I agree on the harmonizing. "After a notable amount of influence from the Nri hegemony", however? Possibly. My opinion on that is in one of the responses above.

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Re: The Eze Nris Of Nri Town by AjaanaOka(m): 11:08am On May 10, 2020
The fullest descriptions of the climate periods for West Africa and attempts to build up a schema for West African history based on them that I have seen were the works of George Brooks written in the 1980s.

I'm dropping some links here, just in case you hadn't run into his works while doing your own research.

Again, his focus was the northerly regions of West Africa, but broadly the schema (I believe) works for the whole subregion.

https://www.persee.fr/doc/cea_0008-0055_1986_num_26_101_2164

https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2022/287/Western_Brooks.pdf?sequence=1
Re: The Eze Nris Of Nri Town by ChinenyeN(m): 10:01pm On May 12, 2020
AjaanaOka:
The fullest descriptions of the climate periods for West Africa and attempts to build up a schema for West African history based on them that I have seen were the works of George Brooks written in the 1980s.

I'm dropping some links here, just in case you hadn't run into his works while doing your own research.

Again, his focus was the northerly regions of West Africa, but broadly the schema (I believe) works for the whole subregion.

https://www.persee.fr/doc/cea_0008-0055_1986_num_26_101_2164

https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2022/287/Western_Brooks.pdf?sequence=1


Thank you very much for this. I will definitely read through it. In the meantime, I'm wondering if I can get your thoughts on this topic: https://www.nairaland.com/5723796/trying-peek-into-ethnoreligious-history
Re: The Eze Nris Of Nri Town by ChinenyeN(m): 12:27am On May 13, 2020
Concerning your thoughts on the climate and its implications on movement from the Isu complex, I definitely find it more than sensible. I guess part of what hindered this line of reasoning for me was the implications of Nri in all of this. I generally did not see sense in how Nri could have been responsible for Igbo culture. However, as a conservative measure, I decided to see if I could reconcile the migratory movements with respect to Nri's influence.

If historians now think that the Igbo Ukwu artifacts predate the rise of the Nri culture, then that loosens things up and makes far more sense. I can definitely find the argument for pre-17th century contact agreeable. So certainly the effects of climate change were indeed severe enough to prompt movement sooner.

Southern Igbo generally considers the Isu to be more or less strangers in the area, so we tend to think of their movement as being recent. However, for the Echie to have knowingly diffused northwards in about the 16th century and forcibly establish Umunneoha within Isu enclaves says a lot. This is great. This is the first time since I've been pondering the topic that much of this has made sense. I will need to consider this when building out my speculative chronology.

AjaanaOka:
The Ozo system is explicitly attributed to Nrifikuanim. In the kinglist I presented here, I haven't listed him seperately [I only mentioned him in connection with the Nri Namokes] because fitting him in the chronology is very problematic. Dr Nwaezeigwe noted the same problem. He seems to have established a parallel 'Ezenriship' at Agukwu during the Nri Namoke period, i.e., the formative period of the Nri System.

I see. Wow. You have your work cut out for you in this respect. I'd be interested in hearing more about what you discover or the various conclusions you may arrive at. I was interested in knowing the hows/whens so that I may better understand the Eze/Duru relationship with respect to Nze/Ozo.

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Re: The Eze Nris Of Nri Town by AjaanaOka(m): 10:18pm On May 13, 2020
ChinenyeN:


Thank you very much for this. I will definitely read through it. In the meantime, I'm wondering if I can get your thoughts on this topic: https://www.nairaland.com/5723796/trying-peek-into-ethnoreligious-history

Anyanwu worship is rather obscure, at least in my neck of the woods. But I've dropped my scraps and bits. cheesy

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Re: The Eze Nris Of Nri Town by AjaanaOka(m): 2:26pm On May 20, 2020
ChinenyeN:


With Amadioha's domain being the sky and it having command over the elements, that wet period might have earned it "Igwe ka Ala" as an epithet. Supposedly, it could have taken credit for the relief from the dryness in Owerre/Isu axis, and the "Igwe ka Ala" epithet stuck with it in the region.


By the way, this comment about what role a sky-based elements-commanding deity could have played in the cycle of dryness and wetness has offered me a potentially-rewarding perspective from which to review Nri origin myths. I appreciate (and benefit immensely) from our exchanges here.

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Re: The Eze Nris Of Nri Town by IDENNAA(m): 1:48am On Feb 12, 2021
Still reading
Re: The Eze Nris Of Nri Town by IDENNAA(m): 6:47pm On Feb 12, 2021
AjaanaOka:


Agbala/Agbara is quite a complex concept. I'm not even sure I can give a comprehensive explanation. It is (especially in Southern Igboland) often used in a generic sense to mean spirit-forces/deities.

In my axis (the north) it is used in narrower senses. Agbala is a fertility spirit for us. It is also one of the manifestations of Chukwu, which is why one of the compound names for the high god among us is Anyanwu-na-Agbala (translation may go something like "the sun and the source of all fertility). It is perhaps its connection to fertility that explains why women with progeny are referred to as Agbala Nwanyị. As Agbalanze, Agbala is also connected with titled men and title-taking. This connection I cannot explain.

If there was a semantic connection with Ala/Ana, one would expect that sound laws as regards the use of 'l' and 'n' or 'l' and 'r' in Igbo would apply.

One would expect my people who use Ana to call it Agbana. We call it Agbala however.

And one would expect Chinenye's people who use Ala to call it Agbala. They call it Agbara however.




Ah. Thanks for this.


Agbalanze means an ideal/model nze na ozo man. In Umuoji there is only one in each village/ebo.

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