Scat, Eze Aro di ato. It is a Triumvirate. The word "Eze" does not mean king. Eze Aro is a conglomerate of the Aro trading or merchant houses; a sort of Mafiosi. There is Ezumah (Eze Umara), Captain of the Boats; and there are various Eze this or that from Obi Nkita to Amuvi� You Aro folks know that Mazi Okoro has no "kingdom." Arochukwu is no "ancient kingdom." If anything, it is a very old republic. A city state in the Athenian tradition. If only the Aro can remember that one of the great fights the illustrious Aro revolutionary leader, Eze Chima led in Idu was to end the monarchy in Benin and restore its ancient republic. Eze Chima and his followers fought Ozo Oluah's Army led by his war General Gbuwa Ala, to a standstill. Eze Chima led his followers, rather than endure further the tyranny of Kings, to return towards Aro Chukwu. He did not make it back physically. But many of those he led back settled at various stops and founded new habitations. The Aro themselves maintained one of the greatest Temples of Odinala Igbo: Ihu Chukwu n'Aro, also called "Ibini Ukpabi", which forbade the making of kings! Until 1906, the Aro had no Kings because it was anathema. The most powerful institution in Arochukwu was the High priest of Ihu Chioke Abiama. Not the merchant triumviracy called Eze Aro, who were just heads of the Aro trading aristocracy, and were at best, the Chief Advisers of the High priesthood of the Temple of Chukwu Abiama. The Aro must end this heresy, and stop celebrating a British imposed con game, which in itself marked the destruction of the power and significance of Arochukwu. How can people be so ignorant about themselves?

Does anyone have a contrary view?

The only thing I know for sure is that you all will be evicted from the land dubiously renamed Arochukwu and other lands which you stole from Ibibio/Annang people...it is a promise.

obza:
Does anyone have a contrary view?

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WHO THE AROs ARE.


By religious and ritual links we mean those provided by the Ibini Ukpabi oracle of the Aro, an institution known in many Cross River communities, especially among the Efik-Ibibio, as Ibritam. The Ibini Ukpabi itself was a typical product of the contact situation existing between the Igbo and the Ibibio. According to its social charter it was, in the beginning, a local god of an Ibibio group. Then it was captured by the Igbo slaves of this Ibibio group, who successfully rebelled against their servile status and sought to turn the table on their masters, who chose instead to flee the region. Under the control of these erstwhile Igbo slaves, the Ibini Ukpabi grew in influence to become, according to one authority, the most powerful oracle in West Africa by the nineteenth century.

Nigerian history, politics and affairs, Adiele Afigbo.

http://books.google.com/books?id=ez58Dwpa8JcC&pg=PA137.


ijawcitizen