14/03/2022
EZE AND KINGSHIP IN IGBOLAND BEFORE THE INCURSION OF THE BRITISH
To say that Igbo has no King is somewhat correct, But to say that Igbo enweghi Eze is actually wrong as there are many Ezes littered all over Igbo land. C0nfused right?
That is because Eze does not mean King, at least not in the literal sense, maybe contextually, prior to the entrance of the British into Igbo History, the concept of Kingship or a sole monarchical authority was foreign to Igbo world view and culture.
Therefore it is important to understand that an Eze is a priest or an intermediary between the gods and the oha (society), before anything the Eze is first and fore most a chief Priest! Igbo society was a theocracy and hence the priests held political power therefore were known in modern literature as priest-Kings, a typical example found in Arochukwu and Nri therefore Eze could be understood to be a chief in the functional sense but it does not mean King.
The traditional igbo society had cardinal deities in charge of nature or the principal aspects of life...
They were: Agwu (the Divine Spirit)
Amadi (the principle of justice)
Ala (the principal deity of the igbo personifying the earth goddess)
Igwe (Heaven)
Ajoku (deity of yam and agriculture)
Ngene (spirit of the forest)
The Ezes were chiefs in charge of these deities and acted as intermediaries, they were the principal priests, thus the chief diviner was known as Ezeagwu or Ezemmuo, an Ajoku priest could be called Ezeji, the chief priest of Ala was called Ezeala, Ezeagu was the intermediary with the Forest spirits, while the priest of Igwe (the sky god) was called Ezeigwe, Ezechukwu was a priest over chi shrines, I’ve also read that in some places there was an Eze Ekwensu,
As Igbo society was thus governed by priests, this gave the priests political power as well, this priestly office was handed from father to son through the sacred offor/owhor system, since the Igbo practiced primogeniture it usually handed down to the first son, the over all Eze over any community, clan or village group is the one to him the offor of the founder has passed down to through direct lineage, and he is the representative of that community to the principal deity and he serves the deity on behalf of the community, the Eze is the one who makes all the taboos, spiritual laws and presided over all the rituals and sacrifices in the community, he is the principal guardian of the omenaala, the Eze is the Chief Priest of the community, he’s not a King in the real understanding of the word
The Eze is above all a spiritual position of authority, if only these modern warrant chiefs parading themselves as Eze all over Igbo land understood this (especially in imo and Abia states) they would all drop that stolen title and the Eze-ship would stop being a politically contested seat like a cheap election, the real Eze is the one to whom the Offor is rightfully meant to pass down to.
the Ezeala is always the principal chief of most village groups amongst the Southern igbo groups such as Omoku (the Eze Ogba is an Ezeali), Egbema, Owerri and in Ngwa axis, exceptions included Nri whose Head the Eze Nri was an Ezeanyanwu(some believe the ichi scarification marks symbolize the rays of the sun) the Eze Aro was an Ezechukwu(the only of his kind and thus wielded enormous power and fear over Southern Igbo )
The Principal Eze of Oguta is the Ezeigwe,
Eze in igbo society was the priest, the clan head, the Patriarch and the judge of the community, this Eze was also the Ojiofor thus the Ojiofor in every community, clan or kindred was an Eze,
One colonist who visited Asaba in the early 1900s noted the presence of many titled chiefs in the town who carried the title Eze, Asaba had hundreds of Eze's but only one Obi, this has confused many modern readers today who are not well informed of Igbo culture because they misinterpreted it to mean King.
This system of priestly governance was practiced by all the proto kwa people such as the Yoruba at Ife and Ogiso of old Edo (Ogiso has the same meaning as Ezeigwe) before they all evolved and adopted more centralized autocratic monarchial systems. The Ewe of Ghana still practice it.
Most of the people currently parading themselves as Kings in Igbo communities are warrant chiefs, they are products of the artificial warrant chief system founded by the British in the 1900s, many of them have no actual legitimacy in the people's culture, except in those places who have maintained the direct line through which the offor has been passed down and in unity.
The opinions piece acted out by Nollywood as royal movies are more or less British royalty acted out in Igbo setting, it doesn’t reflect the reality of the royal(sacred in our case) families in Igbo land.. (Note as well that dibia is a doctor and not a priest)
I have always contemplated on the origin of the word Eze, it appears to have the same root as Nze, the Eze was guided by so many taboos, rituals and regulations, thus it could mean one who abstains or avoids, and one whom is abstained from or avoided (in a sacred sense) it is similar to the meaning of “nso”
Igbo history.TV
