Perhaps,
this year’s new yam festival in Obowu, one of the largest communities
in Igbo heartland, was the grandest. The festival which began on August
16 with an intellectual feast ended on the 17th with the new yam cut and
eaten by all in the large square.
New
yam festival is important to the Igbo. It celebrates their lives. They
use it as a thanksgiving to God for a good harvest, and for articulating
their people’s lives and realities.
Held
at Otoko Obowu, the two-day event organized by the Obowo Development
Association (ODA Federated), a socio-cultural umbrella body of all Obowu
citizens in Imo state and elsewhere, was attended by the Imo state
governor, Rochas Okorocha represented by Speaker of the Imo State House
of Assembly,
Mrs Victoria Mbakwe, wife of the late charismatic governor
of old Imo state, Sam Mbakwe, members of the National Assembly such as
Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Emeka Ihedioha,
Senator Matthew Nwagwu, Prof. Chudi Uwazurike, immediate past senator of
the Okigwe zone, Chief. SN Anyanwu, former secretary to the Imo state
government, Chris Okewulonu, Celestine Ngaobiwu, Deacon Okafor, Prof.
Anthony Anwuka, SSG to the Imo government, political leaders, scholars,
monarchs, hundreds of cultural and political groups, among many others.
But
what caught the attention of the over 5000 delegates to the venue was
the event’s lecture topic: Igbo identity crises. This did not only point
at the reason why denials of origins and identity problems persist in
Igboland, it explained in detail how the well known Aba Women’s Riots
split Obowu and Igboland.
The
topic was timely, coinciding with the Igbo women’s national meetings
known as August meetings. August Meetings are held in all Igbo towns and
villages by the women for the development of their land. Incidentally,
late Chief Sam Mbakwe’s wife, Victoria, leads the women of Obowu in that
capability. And she was present.
Two
scholars were picked to talk on this topic. Prince Keke C. Chima of
Ihitte, a former Permanent Secretary and Prof. Chidi Osuagwu of Obowu of
the Federal university of technology were asked to discuss the Ikenga
and Ihitte Factors in the Archeology of Obowu Cultural Displays, Iwaji
by Autonomous Communities.
The
Igbo identity crisis started in 1929, Osuagwu began. The British had
just introduced the warrant chief system to enhance their colonial
administration in Eastern Nigeria. In the North and West, the monarchs
made the system work. But the East had no monarchy with such
overwhelming powers as in the other two. They therefore created warrant
chiefs for that purpose. This is the root of the presence of many
traditional rulers and autonomous communities in Igboland, with their
attendant boundary and chieftaincy violence as Chima noted.
This
was what led to one of the biggest protests against colonial rule, The
Aba Women’s Riot of 1929 in Nigeria and the British Empire in general.
But
the Aba Women’s Riot played a major role in the Igbo identity crisis,
he alleged. The revolt began when a woman named Nwanyereuwa confronted
one Mark Emereuwa, a census official in Oloko, in Bende area controlled
by a Warrant chief, Okugo on taxation. The women there mobilised nearly
10,000 women who protested at the office of Warrants across Igboland,
Calabar and Opobo. During the two months “war” at least 25,000 Igbo
women were involved in protests against British officials. About 50 were
killed.
The
policy was dropped. But the set up panels in Eastern Nigeria on the
cause of the riots. Assistant District Officer NAPG Mackenzie studied
Obowu. With maps, historical details and Igbo philosophy, Osuagwu
identified three reasons why the Obowu clans split. The first was the
demand for a separate court by the Ihitte chiefs in order to have more
warrant-chiefs. The next was the struggle to fill the warrant chief
stool of Onwunali Obasi of Amuzi deposed by the women. The process
polarized support along the sub-clan lines,”
Hence the vehemence with
which Ihitte demanded a separate court three years later.”
The
third, Osuagwu said, was the banditry of the Obowu against colonialism.
The people, in reaction to Britain’s punitive measures, attacked
government establishments, bringing embarrassment to Obowu youth abroad.
Then, the Methodist Church established a Bookshop at Umuahia, and this
news stirred the region. But an Ihitte-Obowu young man went into the
Bookshop and stole some. The Zik Group of Newspapers carried the story,
saying the man could not read and did not know what to do with the
books. This story embarrassed Obowu youth, who were jeered at, in the
colonial townships. They decided to act.
“Obowu
youth decided that Ikenga-Obowu should excise Obowu from the name and
answer Ikenga; Ihitte was to do same and answer Ihitte. In desperation,
Obowu youth had decided to abolish their proper names and answer
adjectives.
Richard
Onyeneho, of Umuariam, led the youth to inform Ikenga-Obowu of the new
development in clan nomenclature, while David Epeagba led the youth to
inform Ihitte-Obowu. The warrant-chiefs having created the framework for
an easy-sale in Ihitte, the idea was adopted. It failed in Ikenga
because of the intervention of a patriot Obowu people had better come to
know better; Biringa Odiotu of Umunachi Obowu,” Osuagwu told the
perplexed gathering.
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READ MORE: http://news.naij.com/48370.html
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