This brief survey introduces the Igbo people, traces the origin of the
Igbo people, and talks about why the Igbos must invest all their energy,
strength and resources to know who they are, and reconnect to their
source.
Presently the Igbos are a sub-Saharan African people
numbering up to 40 millions that are autochthonous/indigenous in the
territory that is currently called the South East of Nigeria. The term
‘South East’ is a political designation. The South East in Nigeria means
the area called the ‘core’ Igbo states. These are Abia, Anambra,
Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo. These states are also regarded, and referred to
as the Igbo heartland.
There are also Igbos that are autochthonous/ indigenous in Edo, Delta, and Rivers states of Nigeria.
The
Igbos are Igbos today, but what were they before they became Igbos? The
word ‘Igbo’ is helpful in the quest to answer the question.
The
tribal/national name of the people in discussion ‘Ibo; or ‘Igbo’ is
derived from Ibri. Interestingly a foreigner dropped the hint which
helped me to unravel the puzzle, in my opinion.
According to the
foreigner; one of the missionaries who worked in Igboland: ‘All my
attempts to trace the origin of the name Ibo have been unsuccessful. My
most reliable informants have been able to offer no other alternative
than that it is most probably an abbreviation of a longer name connected
with an ancestor long since forgotten.’3
Abraham is the ancestor of
Israel. And Abraham was specifically referred to as ‘Abram the Hebrew’
(Gen.14:13). Many Igbos have suggested that the word ‘Ibo’ which
virtually all non Igbos use to address the Igbos is a corruption of
‘Hebrew.’ I know that they mean Ibri or Ivri which are the Hebrew
language equivalents of Hebrew which itself is a Greek-Latin-English
translation of Ibri or Ivri.
If as Genesis 14:13 posited, Abram is
the Ibri. And his descendants from Isaac and Jacob went on to retain the
name ha-Ibri (the Hebrews), we do not have to go far to know where the
name/word ‘Igbo’ came from. The people known as the Jews today were
known as the Israelites, and also as ha Ibri (the Hebrews), after their
ancestors Israel and Abraham. All that we have seen in Igbo culture
indicate that the Igbos emanated from the twelve tribes of Israel. Logic
tells the rest of the story. It is a tradition for the Igbos to bear
the names of their ancestors. All Igbos are from one clan or the other,
and all the clans or most of them bear the names of their
ancestors/founders, or at least names formed from those of the founding
fathers or in a few cases mothers. One could ask; why won’t the Igbo
people as a whole assume the name of their ancestor- ha Ibri? Listening
to a modern Jew pronounce Ibri, you would conclude that he/she is saying
Igbo. With all the aforesaid we can say that the Igbos simply retained
the earliest name of/designation for the people of Israel, and the name
that all the tribes would feel comfortable with. Perceptive modern Jews
have observed that Igbos may feel more comfortable if identified as
Hebrews rather than as Jews, because they didn’t all descend from the
Jews (from the tribe of Judah). This deserves more talk though. The term
‘Jew’ is also used to represent the Israelites and the Hebrews
presently, just as England stands for Great Britain, and the United
Kingdom. And the U.S.A., and Russia respectively stand and stood for the
American continent, and the defunct U.S.S.R.
So the above having
been said and done with I repeat that the Igbos are of Hebraic descent.
99.9% of the Igbos know that the Igbos came from Israel. One would be
right to wonder about why 0.1 % of the Igbos would not know about their
origins. The explanations would be multifaceted. One could say that all
the Igbos know that the Igbos were Hebrews a few years ago, because the
knowledge of who the Igbos are was more in previous years, and in fact
it recedes year by year. Knowledgeable Igbo elders who did not have the
benefit of the European type education that became fashionable after the
British conquest and colonization of the Igbos knew that the Igbo
people are ha Ibri (Hebrews), because their fathers told them. I talked
with some of them at Nri clan, and preserved their testimonies for
posterity in the Igbo Israel Video Interview series. Today the knowledge
is receding because Igbo history as a subject of instruction has been
absent from the curricula of all the educational and religious
institutions that have ‘catered’ to the ‘needs’ of the Igbos, since the
Igbos were defeated and colonized. A close reading of the earlier works
of Chinua Achebe, John Munonye, Chukwuemeka Ike, and Remy
Chukwukaodinaka Ilona will reveal that the Igbo people began to develop
feelings of inferiority, and self-hate, after the colonial authorities
had intervened, and branded Igbo culture pagan.
The event or process
that I described above led to severe losses. The same can be said about
most of the mass media that have sold their products to the Igbo
people. Save the National Times newspaper, no newspaper in Nigeria talks
about Igbo history and culture. And Nollywood! The film industry which
was built up with Igbo sweat and money but which the Igbo builders have
virtually handed over to people from the competing peoples of Nigeria,
because the Igbo film marketers/producers as they are called want to
make money. Nollywood has excelled! It has excelled in distorting Igbo
history, and ridiculing the Igbos! Even though Omenana has room for
egalitarianism and republicanism only, Igbo film-makers specialize in
making ’Igbo films’, which portray this Igbos as corrupt feudalists with
still more corrupt monarchies. And interestingly as the film producers
stray they get more destructive. Presently they use non Igbo film actors
to play the roles of Igbo ‘kings’. So would anybody be surprised if a
few Igbos do not know that the Igbos are Israelites. And a great
majority of those that know that the Igbos are Israelites do not know
that Omenana 9Igbo culture) is Israelite culture, i.e, their knowledge
of their origins is not really meaningful, because they do not know what
Omenana is, and that the Hebrew Bible is extracted from Omenana.
However there is a minority that retain the knowledge that the Igbos are
Jews, as the modern Hebrew is more regularly addressed, in a meaningful
way, i.e, they know that the Igbos are Jewish, and that that sets them
apart as people of God, and gives them the responsibility to live
differently from their neighbours; i.e, demands that they live according
to the dictates of the Written and Oral Laws of God (the Hebrew Bible,
the Talmud, the Mishna and the Gemarra). This minority is the
Igbo-Israel.
This minority is working to heal the Igbo people, and rebuild Igbo intellectual, spiritual, and material heritage.
I
have been privileged to work with this section of the Igbos. That the
Igbo people are in trouble is the best kept secret in the world. In
Nigeria the catch-phrases for the Igbos today is ‘Igbo problem’, and
‘marginalization’. Where the Igbos live in exile the story is not
different. The situation is bad to the extent that it prompted an Igbo
intellectual, one of the most productive minds of the Igbos; who lives
in the United States to write the following missive:
“Anybody who
sees the Igbo situation in simple linear perspectiveeither is ignorant
of the profound realities or dishonest. The Igbohas entered an emergency
phase, and it requires good old political andsocial organizing to
restore it. One of the most critical problems inAla-Igbo today is the
nature of its human and ecological environment:social instability - that
is, difficulties in the prospects ofsettling has made it impossible for
Igbo young men and women now tomarry at the natural age - between
25-35. Young men now marry at theaverage age of 40 years. Many Igbo
women are without prospects ofmarriage, having crossed certain
thresholds. The implication is that45% of Igbo people are not
reproducing a new generation. Those who getmarried are suffering from
curious stages of infertility as a resultof environmental degradation
and chemical pollution- through oilexploration activities and
groundwater toxification. Anepidemiological survey carried out in the
whole of Igbo land todaywill reveal a most deadly truth: a huge number
of the Igbo are dyingfrom AIDS, new forms of Cancer, and Diabetes - from
poor nutrition.These are issues that we must address holistically
because they flowfrom the nature of the relationship between the PEOPLE
and theirgovernment. The Igbo themselves have not sat down to confront
theirelected representatives with an action plan, and with suggestions
ofthe means to carry it out, and a timeline and oversight. The problemof
insecurity occasioned by new waves of kidnapping only complicatesthis:
but to put this simply, our greatest problem is not the problemof this
new wave of selective and directed terrorism. It is that theIgbo as a
people have learnt to be DEPENDENT on some external factor orfigure whom
they expect to solve their problems. I have said thisbefore, WE ARE
ALL GUILTY - either by silence, inaction, or directcomplicity.All those
who wish to participate in the restoration and rebuilding ofIgbo land
must begin to re-think our relationships with that land.Anaghi ano uti
agba ntele ukwu. We must get active”.
The situation is as bad, or
even worse than as portrayed in the missive above, but only some
elements among the Igbo-Israel have really seen the handwriting on the
wall. That there is danger! That there is no time to waste! The
generality of the Igbos feel helpless, because they are helpless.
Disarmed by ignorance, and illiteracy in Igbo studies, Igbos with even
post-graduate degrees do not know what to say or do to stem the decline
of the Igbo nation. Fortunately Igbo-Israel is growing!
In
recognition of the above problems, and inspired by the action plan and
road map laid out in books: The Igbos: Jews In Africa-With Solutions To
The Most Critical Igbo Problems and Introduction To The Chronicles Of
Igbo Israel-And The Connections Between The Afro Americans and the Jews,
a group of Igbo scholars, professionals, businessmen, artistes, and
bureaucrats have come together as The Igbo Origin and Culture Research
Society to contribute to the positive growth and development of the Igbo
people, and Igboland. The Society will very likely present its
programmes to the Igbo people in the month of October, in 2010. It will
use the opportunity to present some of the afore-mentioned books and
premiere the Igbo-Israel Video Interview to the Igbo, Jewish and general
public. It is also organizing an Igbo summit where solutions would be
found to many of the ills that plague ndi Igbo today; such as brother
kidnapping of brother which is alien to Igbo culture. In addition it
will also appraise ndi Igbo about some programmes that it is working on;
such as the preservation of the Igbo migration story in film. And the
Igbo-Israel International Music Festival, an initiative of Moore Black
Chi Mmadike, an Igbo reggae artiste, and Vice President (International)
Igbo-Israel Union (Society), who is based in Australia.
Hundreds of thousands have been displaced because of the Boko Haram insurgency
The Nigerian army has recently captured military vehicles used by Boko Haram
