₦airaland Forum

aribisala0:
Are you literate at all? Do you know the meaning of the word : "EVIDENCE" ?

I doubt it what is the NATURE of your EVIDENCE
What is its SOURCE

All you have posted here is a narrative, a story . It means nothing . Why should we BELIEVE it? It is what gives it CREDENCE that establishes it as EVIDENCE and then also does it back up or buttress YOUR CLAIM

Let me remind you of your CLAIM that NRI priests travelled far and wide and were invited to witness or participate in coronations of Bini Obas?

Assuming all your verbiage is true it does not back your claim.

Your evidence falls into two categories
1. Dialogue by people who are still alive or recently died it is of little value and not relevant to your claims

2. The discussion of very recent(less than 50 years) excavation it does not say anything about Nri Priests and where they went or who invited them. It is all guesswork and vapor

In summary


Rubbish!!

aribisala0:
What is noteworthy is there is no documented account of this Nri story before 1960 ,WHY? The truth is you folk have no history and now resort to faking one

bigfrancis21:
Lol. You asked for evidence which I have provided, to your utter dismay, and you are still trying to save face. Oh well, let's see what next punchline you come up with.

Since Nri levitical laws and rituals abhor the spilling of human blood on mother earth, ana, in war or in peace, in violence or in play, the system proscribed military ways and militarism. This is unique. Nri system makes injunctions against the use of violence to achieve any human ends on earth. This was a society, though it developed an elaborate age-grade system and had over five thousand iron javelins and spear (alo and ngwuagiliga) and shields, yet ignored developing a military system. Its influence covered over 100,000 square kilometers of Igbo land where some settlements were warriors and ritual head-hunters and slavers. Killing was an abomination forbidden philosophically and practically. The spears and javelins were ritualized and used for status differentiation. It was not easy to instal this discipline on Ndigbo East and West of the Niger except through Nri levitical injunctions. Many obeyed and some disobeyed. Disobedience introduced new dimensions or relationship between disobedient settlements and Nri; such settlements were ostracized, until they repented; and non-repentance showered down physical mystical sufferings. Respect for human life was therefore sacrosanct.

Furthermore, Nri was dealing with a vast area which depended on small scale hoe culture specialized in yam cultivation. These areas were also threatened with soil erosion and leaching, yam blitz and insect (locust and beetle) menace. Eze Nri devised a means of helping areas under its hegemony by providing them with yam medicine and the ifejioku cult, thus enabling them control supernaturally the agony of this pestilence that would have led otherwise, to disaster of disease and hunger. The primitive technology based on iron culture was also controlled by Eze Nri through the black- smith agents of Awka men, for where there was an Nri agent there was an Awka man. Nri moved along with them to give them safety through Igbo village-groups that had extended diplomatic immunity to Nri men.

Eze Nri also encouraged trade by establishing the four market days Eke, Oye, Afo and Nkwo and their alusi -supernatural beings. They were Nri agents in Onitsha who established the famous Nkwo market at Onitsha and the ozo title, which Onitsha treats with dignity long before the arrival of the Europeans. Trading, as an alternative to farming in a difficult ecology was one of the hall marks of the Nri economic system, in its efforts at diversification. Nri insisted on having a well-organized cycle of farming and trading among the Igbo. They created the peace that made these possible among hostile communities and towns.

Igbo people believed that any dead person went to the land of the dead (ani mmuo) through Nri. Thus Nri town became the center of Igbo pilgrimage until the British in 1911 destroyed the system, and ordered all Igbo to avoid Nri. According to Northcote Thomas (1911) who witnessed this event and wrote “He (Eze Nri) is the spiritual potentate over a large extent of the country and so great is the awe which he inspires that recently, when, probably for the first time in history, an Eze Nri entered the native court of Awka while it was sitting, the whole assembly rose and prepared to flee.” This demonstrates the awe and respect Ndigbo had for Eze Nri. The early missionaries were solidly behind this move to destroy the institution to enable them achieve their colonial objectives. The destruction was only a farce, because the ozo/eze forms continued all over Igbo land. Eze Nri continued installing leaders who are symbols of truth and peace and continued giving the ofo Nri and alo Nri staff of authority and power respectively. Till this day, Igbo people, Ndi-Igbo, love to wear the red cap as the external symbol of the ozo/eze title, which they regard with pomp and dignity. Regardless of whether any one knows or accepts it, the red cap the Igbo chiefs wear, is admission of and submission to the supremacy of Nri culture.

Before the British liquidation in August 1911, Nri had developed its concept of aro- the year. First, aro is a supernatural force revealed to Eze Nri in the past; then Nri transformed it into a cycle of one year. Divided into thirteen segments, namely: Onwa Agumaro, fixed around mid February, this is the month for announcing the year by Eze Nri for all Igbo. It is followed by Onwa Mbu, Onwa Abuo, Onwa Ife Eke, Onwa Ano, Onwa Agwu, Onwa Ifejioku,Onwa Iliji, Onwa Ilommuo(Asato), Onwa Ana, Onwa Okike, Onwa Ajana na Edeaja, Onwa Uzo Alusi. A study of the year system, the genealogy of Onwa, the age grade, the kinship system resulted in working out Nri system of time, published as The Principles of Ethnogeneachronology. The lunar system of calculating the year with a system of adjustment, were known to the priests of Alusi Aro. Knowledge of the movement of the heavenly bodies was employed. Northcote Thomas (MA, FRAI) the government anthropologist in 1910, reported that he got “names for the following heavenly bodies at Agukwu: “Pleiades, Orion and Great Bera”. Nri elders had clear knowledge of these stars and others, which helped them in calculating the intervals between each lunar period and finding the directions during their sojourn from one Igbo-village to another in both the semi-forest and forest zones.

During the Onwa Agumaro, Igbo representatives from far and wide congregated at Nri for the “announcing of the year “. This is a big ceremony, which all Ndigbo awaited with eagerness because of its ritual, economic and political importance. Till date Iguaro Ndigbo ((Proclamation of the Igbo Lunar Calendar) by Eze Nri is still the most culturally significant of all Igbo Traditional Festivals.

First, it gave all those under Eze Nri ritualism protection and the spiritual energy to face the New Year. Secondly, representatives were given the Ogwu ji, the yam medicine, and thirdly, it gave them opportunity to express solidarity and oneness with the Eze Nri and the levitical and ritual laws which they had willingly obeyed. Nri people developed a body of philosophy based on phenomenology which deals a distinctive African philosophy which seeks a linkage between past and present, and between present and future. The nature of this philosophy is the theme of a book published by Onwuejeogwu captioned: Afa symbolism and Phenomenology. The Nri were great innovators in rituals, diplomacy, economy, administration and the management of a segmented and decentralized system.

The hegemony was a democratic system in which individual settlements became part of the system without physical force. The Eze Nri respected the individuality of Igbo segmentary system and so their political system. Eze interfered only when the peace of Nri was jeopardized. He interfered not with guns and bullets, not with shields and javelins and swords. He did so by ordering the withdrawal of Nri men from the settlement and by pronouncing ANATHEMA on the settlement. The market closed and no spiritual aid would come from Nri. This in those periods, connotes disaster for the inhabitants of the settlements. Normalcy could be restored after a peace visit to Eze Nri by the recalcitrant settlements; otherwise the settlement was abandoned by its inhabitants for fear of divine retribution such as hunger, death and pestilence.

Respecting the concept of peace udo and Igbo communal individualism, the Eze Nri, during the ceremony of announcing a year, close the Iguaro by saying, “Ora! Igbo! Go home and do your aro according to your custom, respecting the rules of nso ana, Udo, ofo, and alo”. All Igbo left fulfilled and ready to face a new year with faith, hard work and promised economic boom in trade and agriculture.

Nri town also gave refuge to run-away slaves, those oppressed and those who committed abomination and their life was endangered. Any one of these category of persons that set his or her feet in the palace of Eze Nri, gained freedom. Hence the palace of Eze Nri has no walls. His palace is accessible at any time.


All dwarfs and deformed children in Igbo land destined to be thrown away, were brought to Nri town by the order of Eze Nri. These included twins, children who first cut the upper teeth or bridged birth babies. They were all accepted as human beings; thus their fundamental human rights denied them by the Igbo communities where they were born, were restored to them. Some were trained to become medicine men and women and royal messengers. Those dwarfs are called aka Nri if a man, or ada Nri, if a woman. Humanitarianism was a primary feature of Nri civilization. It was a culture that did not accept slavery or slave trade or the caste system called osu, found in most Igbo towns. In 1823, Captain John Adam, a British Slaver, reported how Nri slaves caused revolt among the captured Igbo salves on the coast. The slavers did not wish to buy them. To the Nri, slave trade was abomination and degradation of human personality. Eze Nri (Enwenwelani – great grand-father of Prince Chukwuemeka Onyesoh) was one of the few African kings to ban and pronounce anathema on slave trade and slavers, like on such slavers as Okoli Ijeoma of Ndikelionwu, in the 19th century. This saved Oko community which would have been enslaved and colonized by Okoli Ijeoma. Ekwulobia and all communities around this axis, benefitted from this Eze Nrienwelani’s pronouncement of ANATHEMA.

The Nri culture, though well represented in hundreds of archaeological finds of bronze and other objects, dated before AD 900, and well documented from the time of Equiano, a liberated Igbo slave in 1775 to now, is still confused and under- played by some Igbo, because the British did not exalt it as they did Ife or Sokoto. The British was looking for a system that unified the Igbo with violence and pageantry of despotic monarchy like their European types, and failed to see it in Nri. What they found was a democratic monarchy using religious sanctions to bring the Igbo together. At first, they did not see sense in it but by 1931, the British saw sense in Nri system but it was too late. The British colonial government and the missionaries had stifled the system by 1911. Hence in 1931, the Government anthropologist M.K. Meek mourned that a system abandoned twenty years ago would be difficult to re-instate.

But the Nri system continues, re-instated by the British or not. Nri levitical rules and its ozo/eze, the oral traditions of Igbo, where they are not mutilated or denied or fabricated; the British intelligence reports of 1885 to 1955 and above all, the indisputable hundreds of archaeological findings dated before AD 900, will always remind the Igbo and the world that the fountain of Igbo cultures and Igbo morality, as once loudly and bravely pronounced in 1956 by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, in the Eastern House of Assembly, is Nri.

Evidence before us show that during the long centuries, Nri developed a system of expansion into territories of other communities in what they call Ipu-ije which is a peaceful, non-aggressive method of occupying foreign communities without generating conflict. After 1914, other Igbo began similar movements into the territories of other Nigerians. This movement later generated conflict between Ndigbo and those host communities. There is therefore a difference between Nri non-aggressive migratory habits and the habit adopted by other Igbo. Aggressive migrations create conflict while non-aggressive migrations do not. The Nri diplomacy is based on the ideology of: Ojemba enwe ilo which means a migratory person should not make enemies. How does he not make enemies? The Nri ideology says that he must not be boastful; he must not make his host uncomfortable and suspicious of his intentions. There are quite a lot to learn from Nri inter-ethnic ideology, which may be useful today in solving the problem of inter-ethnic relationship in Nigeria and elsewhere.
Nri system was like the system now employed by the United Nations in seeking for peace. But it is more morally advanced than the United Nations system because in its levitical rules, it abhors violence and killing even in self-dense. The system needs to be studied more. We hereby draw the attention of Nigeria, the O.A.U. and UN to have a look into a system that tried to achieve in small scale for up to a millennium what they now are trying to achieve in a large scale since 1945 in a more complex world. They may have a lesson to learn. This is why some Igbo are proud to be associated with Nri and this is why some still associate themselves with Nri.

Nri is the glory of Igbo past and present. It is not romanticization. It is solid, and verifiable, historical and sociological facts of the past and present. A past that is still relevant to Igbo ethical personality of today and hence relevant to the future in building the concepts of peace-culture and a political moral-culture which are today additional pre-occupations. Nri peace-culture had been established and it has flourished in Nri for over a millennium. The modern global peace-culture cannot be understood if few societies with peace-cultures are not understood. This will be the importance of Nri in the present dispensation that has projected the ideology of a peace-culture. This is a summary of some of the things taught and written on Nri (Igbo) culture and civilization.

2.5 Evidence emerging from findings of scholars in other disciplines:

The study of Nri (Igbo) has been an inter-disciplinary affair. Many scholars other than anthropologists and archaeologists have contributed to the understanding of Nri cultural and historical phenomena in the Igbo culture area by sharing common scientificly accepted knowledge, information and findings. These scholars come more from the disciplines of history, linguistics and theology. All arrive at one solid conclusion that Igbo culture and civilization have one focus that needs to be emphasized and projected and that is Nri.

Let us take some important ones to buttress the point:

I. The historian Prof. A.E. Afrigbo writing in 1971 in the CONC, made the point clear while reviewing Thurstan Shaw's Igbo-Ukwu (1978). Since then in his two major works on Igbo namely: Ropes of Sand (1981) and Igbo and their neighbours (1987) he has also maintained his 1971, position on Nri, Afigbo (1971) wrote:

“Another great contribution of Professors Shaw’s work at Igbo-Ukwu is that it has helped to focus attention on the key position which the Nri culture complex occupies in the study of early Igbo history, a job which Major A. G. Leonard has sought to accomplish in his book "The lower Niger and its Tribes". According to Major Leonard who made one of the earliest efforts, amongst our erstwhile European masters, to study the traditions of origins of many Igbo clans, most of the Isuama Igbo claimed descent from Nri or Nshi. Considering these claims of descent from Nri, the reverence in which the Nri were held throughout Igboland, the fact that they were widely known as “King-makers” and enjoyed the sole right of removing ritual pollution in Igboland, Leonard came to the view that:

“It is in certain measure evident that some were in the locality of Isuama, in which the purest Ibo is said to be spoken, is to be found the heart of the Ibo nationality; consequently it is quite reasonable to look among its people for the original fountain head from which all the other clans have sprung”.

“The researches of M r. Onwuejeogwu, (now Prof. Onwuejeogwu) are also revealing that the detailed archaeological, ethnographic, linguistic and historical study of the Nri culture complex may light up the remote past of the Igbo. There is an Igbo belief that all the souls of their dead pass through Nri in their journey to the land of the blessed. Recording this tradition in 1906 Major Leonard wrote:”

“The street of the Nri family is the street of the gods, through which all who die in other parts of Igbo land pass to the land of spirits.

One may now and that it is probably through the corridors of Nri history that the Igbo will come to occupy their proper place in the majestic story of the rise of Negro civilization.”

Again, in 1987 in Igbo and their neighbours Afigbo wrote:

“In other words I am suggesting that a study of Igbo- Benin relations should not continue to be conceived narrowly as the impact of the Benin Empire on the West Niger Igbo. The impact of Igbo culture on Benin is the other side of that equation and till date it has been neglected. Yet there are suggestions in some surviving traditions of Benin’s contact with Nri, the heartland of Igbo culture, which at one time would appear to have been ahead of Benin in the race for the evolution of advanced civilization in these parts. True, Nri’s influence was ritual and artistic, informal and quiet - that is unaccompanied by the rolling of martial drums. Furthermore, it is known that Benin was aware of the existence of Arochukwu as a center of dreaded occult powers and wide- ranging commerce.”

In another part of this same work, he continued to write thus:

“If, as has been suggested, Nri theocratic sway could be identified with the culture whose material symbols Shaw recovered in his Igbo-Ukwu excavations, then that factor must be dated to between the 9th and 11th century A.D. or indeed earlier. In that case, Nri influence would be much older than the political and military hegemony centered around Benin and Idah. It may indeed have contributed something to their rise. There are suggestions of this in the tradition, found not only amongst the Nri but also amongst the Bini and the Igala that Nri ritual priests had important parts to play in ceremonies connected with the coronation of the Oba of Benin and the Attah of Igala. Both Jeffreys and Lawton, administrative officers, unearthed evidence to this effect. Thus, it would appear, Nri activities linked much of Igbo-land with the West Niger region up to Benin, and with the region occupied by the Igala and perhaps it also linked Igboland with Idoma land. Many of these links survived, at least, until the 1930s and may still be there in form of the activities of Nri and related traditional medicine man.”

It is worthy of note that Prof. Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe, who is at the centre of Igboukwu controversial struggle for relevance in Igbo cultural history, was indeed taught by this same Prof. Adiele Afigbo at undergraduate and graduate schools in the University of Nigeria Nsukka.

II. It was Professor K.O. Dike’s work: Trade and Politics in Niger Delta 1830-1885, (1956) and Shaw’s work: Igbo-Ukwu (1971) that generated a renewed interest in Nri studies which Onwuejeogwu works (1972/1981 and others) vigorously addressed.

In 1990 the joint work and publication of two Professors: Dike, a historian, and Ekejiuba, an anthropologist, appeared under the title The Aro of South-Eastern Nigeria, 1650-1980. (1990); they conspicuously featured Nri in this work:

“…Nri, however, show that this capital was supported by immense wealth and complex organization as early as the ninth through to the fifteenth centuries AD. The Nri spread from their original home in the Anambra village of the River Niger to the Awka upland. Their success in extending their influence to many Igbo groups derived from the fact that they set themselves up as the chief representatives of powerful spiritual force, especially the key agricultural deities of the Igbo…” (P 109)

“…Nri system was a dynamic agent for the development and spread of new crops. The fragmented size of the village groups, the wide spread claim by many Igbo group that they originated from the Nri, and the vestiges of Nri influence which still survive, are evidence that the rule of the Nri was accepted without much physical coercion.” (page 113).

“…The concentration of rich art objects at Igbo-Ukwu, the new material of which appears to have been brought in from afar, indicate that the security provided by Nri rule was sufficient for regional trade to flourish and to enable foreign contacts to be expanded. Indeed the ring of regional markets, which still survives till the present day within six to ten miles of the Nri metropolitan capital, leads me to speculate that these markets were either set up to flourish under the supervision and patronage of the Nri… two specialist crafts groups were closely associated with them… the Umudioka physicians who cicatrized the members of the Ozo title societies and the Awka blacksmiths and carvers.” (P. 113).

Using these few extracts, it is clear that Dike’s and Ekejiuba’s work, positively replicates the findings of Onwuejeogwu, quoted above. Such replication in social science, gives validity and reliability to facts. In referring to replication, it is here necessary to mention some recent works done on Igbo (Nri) that confer extra validity and reliability on Professor Onwuejeogwu’s work.

First, is G. Webb’s work “Title Societies and Personhood Attainment among the Awka Igbo” (1985). This work demonstrates how pervasive Ozo title is in Awka, a relatively large community with a population of 48,725 (1963 Census), now the capital of Anambra State, about ten kilometers to Nri town. Webb quoting and referring to early writers and researchers like Leonard (1906), Thomas (1913), Talbot (1926), Henderson (1972), Onwuejeogwu (1972, 1981), demonstrated from his field work, the importance of Ozo in Igbo society and the role of Eze Nri in its Custodianship (1985; pp. 103-131). Webb wrote:

“The role that Nri men played in the installation of Awka men as Ozo title-holders consisted of three distinctive ritual services. The first of these was to present a ritual staff (ofo Ozo) to an Awka man seriously contemplating an attempt to secure the Ozo title…

The Nri man who presented the Awka aspirants their Ofo Ozo, and who hereafter acted as in Eze initiations, provide a heightened aura of sanctity for the ozo initiation rites. They were regarded as representatives of the Nri divine being (Eze Nri) himself”.

Secondly, in 1990, an anthropologist from Germany named Hanney Hahn Waandens published an independent study of eze-ship captioned: Eze Institution in Igboland: A study of an Igbo Political System in Social Change. She selected Nkpologwu in Aguata. What are her findings? She found a structure similar to Nri and the people refer to their Nri root in respect to the Ozo title. She argued that old values were re-enacted and new ones imposed by the Roman Catholic Church, were accepted in the coronation of the new Obi of Nkpologwu. She concluded thus:

“It has been established that the kingship institution has been known for more than a thousand years. The existence of the priest kings of Nri, living on in the oral tradition, can be proven at least since the finds of Igbo-Ukwu, dated to the 9th century A.D.

The ruling structure, described by Onwuejeogwu as “theocratic hegemony”, by Shaw as ‘sacred King ship’, whereas Isichie talks of the priestly kings of Nri, has certainly not merely religious character… the Eze Nri also had great political power by which he controlled all of the present day Igboland. Newly created ezeship were often members of the ozo societies founded by the Nri priests.”

Another important replication of Onwuejeogwu’s work was done through archaeology. Adigwe Oguagha and Ikechukwu Okpoko (1984) in the interpretation of their archaeological excavation of the Anambra valley based on the history and Ethnoarchaeology in Eastern Nigeria, confirmed the findings of Onwuejeogwu that the ozo/eze title was a dominant Nri culture complex which pervaded the whole of Anambra area, into Igala country and the whole of Nsukka. They showed how Nri influence through the ozo/eze system influenced a large portion of Western Igbo and certain portions of Southern Igbo. They charted the fluctuating relationship between Igbo - Igala in time and space and came to same conclusion which reads:

“… It has been shown that along the Niger and Anambra rivers the slave trade greatly enhanced the political influence of Aboh, Osomari, Idah and Ogurugu. On the other hand, the peaceful cooexistence of the Igbo and the Igala was, in the face of such aggression that the older Nri theocracy whose influence extended to the Igala country declined… the older centers were dependent on religion and political organization, the new ones were based on wealth and force” (p. 297).

This anthropological replication of findings of Onwuejeogwu (1972, 1982) by historians, anthropologists and archaeologists will continue to remain compelling and interesting. If a contemporary European scholars thousand of miles away, could come here and replicate positively such findings, it beats our imagination that any one should doubt the place of Nri and Eze Nri as the center around which the Igbo world revolves. Such doubts (like that of Prof Nwaewzeigwe, even though it is obvious that his motif is other than scholarship), of course, can only emanate from lack of understanding of how a political system works through religious injunctions only; and how religious injunctions can be pervasive and powerful. In any case, we completely agree with Hahn Waandens that:

“the Igbos are not acephalous… Modern ezeship which has grown out of traditional roots and adjusted to modern, ethnopolitical realities with the Nigerian Igbo is evidently an integral and effective part of modern Nigerian constitution”… (P.137-138)

Then comes an important work by the present Cardinal Arinze, F., who in his work Sacrifice in Igbo Religion (1970) made it abundantly clear that Nri is the Center of Igbo Religion. Other versions are ramifications and innovations, hence Nri acceptability’s all over Igbo land.
[b]3.0 THE LEGACIES OF NRI CIVILIZATION:
To sum up, from the foregoing it is obvious that following are the legacies which Nri civilization bequeathed to Ndigbo:

i. The present day commercial and ritual activity of the four market days- Eke, Oye, Afor and Nkwo. Nri priests established the shrines in most parts of Igboland;

ii. The Igbo Luna Calendar- the concept of Aro (year) was introduced to Igbo life by Eze Nri who till date, proclaims from year to year, the Igbo Lunar Calendar;

iii. Agriculture- Eze Nri introduced new varieties of yam, coco-yam and other food crops into Igbo agriculture cycle and spread the use of iron technology. It is significant to note that the much-celebrated Ifejioku is a symbolization of the supreme sacrifice Eze Nri made with his first son to initiate the yam culture in Igbo land. Imo State Government knowingly celebrates this sacrifice in its annual Ahiajoku lecture series;

iv. Title taking- “Ozo” tile and kingship were brought into Igbo life by Eze Nri. His agents travelled all over Igboland initiating people into ozo and kingship. The ubiquitous red cap of all Igbo titled personalities, derives from ozo introduced by Nri into Igbo life.

v. Pacifist Traditional Worship and monotheistic system: Eze Nri through his agents- Nri men– brought into Igbo life a pacifist traditional worship system of one Supreme Being that placed the utmost premium on the sanctity of life. Nri men traveled all over Igbo land proclaiming taboos and cleansing abominations - nso, alu.

vi. Respect for human life: Nri condemned the slave trade and all inhuman treatment of any human. The concept of Fundamental Human Right was introduced into the affairs of humans by Eze Nri

vii. Nri attempted to unify the Igbo in a hegemony, which the, slave trade, imperialism and colonialism eroded. But the core values of the hegemony exists

viii. Nri developed the concept of Chukwu Okike (God), kind, just and peaceful as against the concept of a violent Chukwu that encouraged wars, slave-trade, blood-shed and human suffering in some Igbo areas under other influence.

ix. Nri introduced and unified the age - grade system among the Igbo. The system became a political and economic structure for a more effective social organization.

x. Nri introduced the concept of democratized monarchial system of rulership in Igbo culture. The representatives of the 12 families of Agukwu Nri in the Eze Nri cabinet who, most of the time, took decisions for Eze Nri in meetings, were chosen independently by each family according to established hierarchy of titles.
[/b]
4.0 Placing Nri Kingship in a Comparative Analysis with 14 Other Kingship Institutions in Nigeria:

To appreciate the place of Nri among Ndigbo, nay Nigeria, I have selected fifteen Nigerian kingdoms for comparative study. The distribution of the kingdoms are as follows:

Seven Igbo kingdoms since the issue under discussion is about Igbo Kings and kingdoms; one Igala; kingdom since there has been much confucion of Igbo/Igala relationship in terms of antecedent ( Prof. Nwezeigwe would want to dispatch Nri people to Igala land so that his sponsors would assume the role of Nri in Igbo land); and three Yoruba kingdoms selected in terms of age - the oldest and the newest. Then two Hausa kingdoms- the first and the most famous. The last and not the least, is the only Kanuri kingdom. These kingdoms have been fairly studied and recorded by various writers of some maturity. It is therefore easy to cross- check one's facts against the other and reach some fair and tentative conclusions whilst research on each kingdom continues.

[b]We present the kingships/kingdoms in a chronological order of age from 900AD to date, along with authorities who studied them:

1st Nri kingdom 900AD (date established by carbon -14) by Northcote Thomas (1913), MDW Jeffreys (1934) and Prof. M.A. OnwuejKogwu (1974 and 1981)

2nd Kanuri Kingdom: about 900AD by Abdullahi Smith (1971), Smith (1971) and Onwuejeogwu (2000)

3rd Kano kingdom 950AD by J. Hunwick (1971), R.A. Adeleye (1971) and Onwuejeogwu (2000)

4th Agbor kingship 950AD by Chief Iduwe (1985)

5th Daura Kingdom 950AD by J. Hunwick (1971), Dr. R.A. Adeleye (1971) and Onwuejeogwu (2000)

6th Ife Kingdom (Yoruba) 1045AD by Dr. R. Smith (1969) F. Willet (1960) and Johnson (1921)

7th Ijebu Ode Kingdom 1080AD by Dr. R. Smith 1969, Prof. E.A. Ayandele (1992) and Johnson (1921)

8th Old Oyo Kingdom 1145AD by Dr. R. Smith (1969) Dr. P.M Williams (1967) Johnson (1921)

9th Benin Kingdom 1140AD by Chief Egharevba (1934 and (1968) and Dr. R.E. Brandbury (1957)

10th Ubulu-Ukwu Kingship 1280AD by Mr. E.A. Ikemefuna and Obi Anene (1985)

11th Owa Kingship (Off-shoot of Nri) 1280AD by Obi Efeizomor II (1994)

12th Igala Kingdom 1450AD by Dr. J.S. Boston (1962)

13th Ogwashi-Ukwu Kingship (Offshoot of Nri) 1500AD by Mr. Ben Nwabua (1998)

14th Aro Kingdom 1650AD by Prof. Kenneth Dike and Prof. J. Ekejiuba (1990)

15th Onitsha Kingship 1750AD by R.N. Henderson (1972) Prof Ikenna Nzimiro (1972)

Sokoto Sultanate was established barely 341 years ago, about 1670AD.
[/b]
The table in the next page which gives a pictorial view of this comparative analysis is lifted from Prof. Michael A. Onwuejeogwu Iguaro Igbo Heritage Inaugural Lecture 2001 sponsored by the Front for Defence of Igbo Heritage (FDIH) – an NGO founded and chairmaned by Prince Onyesoh.

bigfrancis21:
There are tons of them. Please read the evidence I have provided and educate yourself.

By the way, you are not Igbo. Why do Igbo discussions of possible Hebrew connections BOTHER you this much up to the point that you are very emotional on the internet about it?

aribisala0:
quit the diversion and deal with the issue. DO youu have any eviddence to back up your claim that Nri priests were invited to witness coronations in Benin?

I am very familiar with the publications of Onwuejogwu . If you scroll up you will find I mentioned his name earlier than you and have debated his work even here on Nairaland years ago REFER
So I am a student of history and cannot be bamboozled. There is no evidence for any of the ridiculous claims you made

Actually, the oldest continuous "kingdom" in what is called Nigeria today is the Nri. It is part theocracy and part monarchy. The priest-king of Nri was the spiritual anchor of the Idu up till the last of the 38th Ogiso. The Eweka dynasty, which began with the returnee Prince Orayan's child with the Idu woman possibly created the first kink in that relationship. From Nri anthropology, and according to one of Nigeria's greatest anthropologists, the late Angulu Onwuejiogu, there was no Ogiso who became Ogiso without taking the "Ofo na Alo" from EzeNri, whose representative always handed it. In one of the documents of Benin in Lisbon (to which Nowa Omogui has refered), there is an account of Portuguese visitors to the palace of the Benin in the 16th C. observing men whom the Benin courtiers described as the "sacred men from the East" describing astronomical systems to the King of the Idu. They were travelers and bearers of the instruments of peace. These were the Ozo emissaries of the Nri. As the excarvations at Igboukwu artefacts reveal Nri is a much more older culture than either Benin or Ife. But the more intriguing and exciting is what is yet to be talked about and older than the Nri hegemony: the union and dispersal of the five cognate entities that make up the ancient and dissapeared world before Kamalu's/Amadioha's heresy: the Agbaja, the Isu, the Oru, the Idu, and the Nri. What we call Benin today, or the Idu, was part of the Igbo world.

bigfrancis21:
Nobody is 'bamboozling' (nice jab at trying to speak big grammar) you the least but educating you on what you should have known since 'you are a student of history'. Well, I suppose the very mention of these two words 'Igbo' and 'Hebrew' gives you an emotional breakdown. I don't know why but sorry to burst your bubble, the discourse is still very much around.

Ihuomadinihu:
Mercy Johnson is an Ebira. Sometime ago,she said her native name was Ozioma which is an Igbo name. Since Ozioma is not a mainsteam Ebira word or name,it's not wrong to say Ebiras probably adopted or borrowed certain Igbo words arising from their interactions with Igbo people.

Joavid:
there is no correlation between Igbo language and ebira language abeg.

what nonsense!!!!

Brother I know but how come ebira has igbo elements in it, are they closer culturally to the igbos than other ethnic groups?

Brother I know but how come ebira has igbo elements in it, are they closer culturally to the igbos than other ethnic groups?

visita:
I'm Ebira. The only two words I've come across are Ozioma and Ejima. I can literally translate Ozioma to mean 'a child is born', dunno it's meaning in igbo, and ejima simply means twins, which I'm sure it's the same in igbo.

visita:
I'm Ebira. The only two words I've come across are Ozioma and Ejima. I can literally translate Ozioma to mean 'a child is born', dunno it's meaning in igbo, and ejima simply means twins, which I'm sure it's the same in igbo.

Joavid:
you're right.

I think the Benue people use ejima to describe twins too.

looking at the history of ebira/egbira people, we have nothing in common with Igbos.

although i know Igala's do. not Ebiras

mercy Johnson dad is ebira(ihima), the mom I think is Igbo. they probably thought it's good to give her a name with similar spelling, a slightly different pronunciation but different meanings....I assume.

aribisala0:
You say 4 Igbo market days what makes them Igbo How do we know Igbos did not borrow them? Nri Priests know to travel far and wide? KNOWN how? by whom? How far? How wide? What evidence do you have for this? What evidence is there that there was anything like Igbo or Edo in 2500 BC ? The fact that there were people in Nsukka does not mean they were Igbo people or indeed that any of their descendants are around today. After all Jews were kicked out of Israel for centuries. You make too many assertions and assumptions without evidence. Even among modern Igbos there is no evidence that they share common ancestors what they share is customs and languages even Achebe said as much . It is very conceivable that you had hundreds of groups in Iboland and their languages and identity replaced by a bigger and more dominant culture this does not imply common ancestry just like how after 100 years of living together there is now such a thing as a "NIGERIAN" accent.

What do mean by NRI civilization? What are its ingredients because this is just made up stuff?
Can you give us a few named individuals
How did they bury their dead
How did they marry
Did they circumcise their men? Their women.? You are just guessing

SUNNYsparkle:
You have attempted woefully to disprove NRI and rewrite your own history. How come people left NRI for far away Ogwashi uku, today most of Delta North, speak a language very similar to those of Anambra and Enugu. What happened? If NRI people didn't travel that far, So also Edo never ventured into the eastern part of Nigeria as well. The fact remains that Igboid, Igala, Idomoid, Edoid, Ebira, Nupoid, Yoruboid were all members of one Family group, The Kwa language Family. It is believed that they spread out from the confluence of the Rivers Niger and Benue, probably around the present Ebira areas. Also a fact, is that both Igbo, Edo, Ebira, Igala, Idoma, Yoruba, Nupe etc. borrowed one others culture and also the culture of the ancient people they met at their present locations, The six groups interacted with each other and intermarried. There were migrations, cross migrations, counter migrations, wars, conquests, colonization, resistance, flights for safety, search for farm (ugbo/Igbo) etc. Also all the fairy tales and folklores about the origins of people as those of someone falling from sky and having 7sons as exemplified by Oduduwa and other funny stories are all lies

hamzasaidu975:
If you talks about Ebira the majority elements was extracted from Hausa language due to religion that combine the two citizenship

Ezemust:
when I entered okene I thought I was in Igbo land. majority of them are fair skinned just like the IGBOS

aribisala0:
So majority of Igbos are fair skinned?
Is that myth or reality? If one enters Igboland the place is full of fair skinned people?

It is really necessary to examine why our minds work the way they do.

victorels:
Apart from the fulanis that migrated from somewhere into Nigeria, Every ethic group in Nigeria was one before civilization. Environment and challenges changed everything.

I do not know any ebira person to quiz but we are all connected.

akpasubi777:
Do you have any source for this?

Chilug:
True! Stay in Okene 1 month and watch your skin colour change naturally. But ebira girls love tuning cream like their life depend on it. Especially hot movate or something

ezugegere:
The only word I know that has the same meaning in Ebira and Igbo languages is 'ejima'. Ejima means twins in both languages.

ezugegere:
The only word I know that has the same meaning in Ebira and Igbo languages is 'ejima'. Ejima means twins in both languages.