10/07/2024
WHO IS A BIAFRAN?
*Epilogue & Aro Migrations*
- Part 8
I hope the drive through my literary highway will help enlighten you more. There is need to put the records straight. As usual, history repeats either positively or negatively.
Believe It or not, some of us were born for this great project. "Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it", so said by Franz Fanon. Our generation will not be found wanting in restoring the unification, dignity, progress of our people and ultimate glory of the creator, Chukwu Okike.
Biafrans are spiritual. As ancient people, they are gifted beyond imagination and understanding of their neighbours. The Igbo nation which pride itself as ancient people is very spiritual in culture. Early European adventurers were fascinated and curious about aspects of the Igbo culture and behaviour. They even saw rituals and demands of the bible's old testament in full practice within the Igbo Odinala. As I mentioned earlier, Olaudah Equino, who described few observation when comparing what he saw and the ways of his people, made his story intensify the curiosity of Europeans on the Igbos (Heebows). I will not navigate beyond the scope of this short thesis. Search for some of my writings and lectures on issues related to Identity Crisis among our people. Todays Christians should read their Bible well. Who was sold into slavery? There are many deep questions the bible answered yet folks are bamboozled with Church dogma on a daily basis. Your identity is part of this continuous onslaught on you. Who are you? Why do you love God yet cannot fulfill his commandments? Why are some Biafrans, particularly Igbos denying their identity?
Even though the Igbo republican attitude may have contributed a little in this identity issue, some believe that the matter is prophetic and spiritual. This school of thought makes reference to related biblical account of hebraic dispersal, suffering and eventual reunion as foretold.
However ancient and aboriginal the Igbo may be in their primary abode, the fact is there were internal waves of migration before the commencement of transatlantic slave trade.
Before I continue with the Arochukwu example, it is important to understand the religious world view of the Igbos and their kith and kin, who are now separated by colonial interests of the European since the 19th century. Igbos believe in the supreme being whose abode is in heaven, and also recognize lesser deities that run erands for the supreme. This supreme being is called CHUKWU. The reverence for spirituality played a role in wherever Igbos arrive today.
Understanding fully, the republican nature of the Igbo is good as well. Clans are fiercely independent and competitive of each other. Out of hundreds of Igbo clans, Aro emerged and formed a Confederacy with Ohafia, Abam, Abiriba, Afikpo and Ekoi. Such partnership also depended on the trade routes of the lucrative slave trade. These communities provided military support, logistics and personnel to control new trade routes like the Enyong and Cross Rivers and many others that cut across Igbo hinterland.
The cult of the Ibiniukpabi worked highly on the deity being influential in Arochukwu and the clans within today's Ibibio, Akpa and environs. From the begining of 17th century, the influential cult groups controling the deity Ibiniukpabi, had entered into alliance with notable warrior communities to provide muscle work in enforcing strategic decisions of the deity. A glimpse of the mechanism of Ibiniukpabi can be seen today in the patterns of the Igwekala Umunoha, whose cult and social stratification have survived till today.
As the oracle's cult and adherents raised its influence, many in the hinterland and beyond the Oke Oshimiri [Ocean] believed it to be a Judge for the Igbo supreme deity [Chukwu]. More so, the growth of Aro military power established by alliances quickly made the Aro Confederacy a regional economic and military power. However, it is important to inform that the Aro were more interested in economic prosperity. Understanding the political philosophy of Igbos, they embarked on their economic and oracular pursuit tactically.
The rise of Aro Confederacy provided opportunity to an economic oligarch during the trans Atlantic slave trade. At the height of the oracle during the era, it was consulted, venerated and adored as if it were Chukwu. The Aro and children of their allies were respected and feared, that they were regarded as UMU CHUKWU, children of the Igbo supreme deity. The deity combined religious and judicious functions to mitigate and arbitrate in inter and intra ethnic conflicts. It even went beyond community vs community conflicts to families and more.
From the 18th century, mass migrations by several Aro business families and opportunists started into the Igbo hinterland, and it deepened the spread and strength of the oracle. With the confederate military might and presence of the new Aro settlers who now worked covertly as ears on ground, the status quo was maintained until the begining of the 20th century. According to oral accounts from elders, and such is even practiced in some Igbo communities today, new Aro migrants place 'ọmụ', the new palm fronts at the doors of feuding parties, either brothers or not, inviting them to Ibiniukpabi shrine to settle their case. And the penalty for losing a case before the oracle were fines ranging from enslavement to other items. In the case of an affluent loser, a slave could replace.
Discussing Aro migrations and settlements is a vast topic altogether as the lucrative trans Atlantic slave trade that spanned over 300 years of activity for Ibiniukpabi and its agents, gave rise to new patterns of movements. Some priests and individuals moved and integrated into host communities whereas others moved in groups, fought and carved out kingdoms. There were also roving business men or middlemen who took slaves from the source and in return, bring in exotic goods from the coast, and they still go back to Arochukwu.
Ajalli, Arondizuogu, Ndikelionwu, and Igbene Kingdoms were the most powerful Aro settler-states in the Confederacy while Ozizza, Afikpo, Amasiri, Izombe, Awa, Nkwere, Umunoha etc had settlers influencing their expansion. There are over 250 Aro settlements in British empire's Niger Area alone, without looking at those across in Cameroon and Bioko in the Equatorial Guinea. Some settlements were founded and named after commanders and chiefs who led such migrations like slave dealer Izuogu Mgbokpo and Iheme who led Aro/Abam forces to conquer Ikpa Ora and founded Arondizuogu. Many villages in hundreds of Igbo clans trace their origin to Aro migrations while others concealed their identities due to the backlash after the abolition of slavery and advent of Christianity. Many coastal clans battling identity crisis have Aro settlements. Individual migrants assimilated easily into their host communities, and the British colonial expansion in the beginning of the 20th century dislocated most connections with the homefront and all trade routes controlled by the Aro.
The new colonial interest in the late 19th century fostered Anglo-Aro animosity. The Aro Confederacy, which reigned over trade routes from the southeast end shores of the Atlantic into the Igbo hinterland, was challenged in the last decades of the 19th century by increasing British colonial occupation. There were negotiations that ended in futility. Aro leaders knew that colonialism and the arrival of Christianity would threaten their monopoly and destroy Aro economic rule. These tensions finally led to the Anglo-Arochukwu war between 1900–1902. The war resulted in the partial destruction of the Ibiniukpabi shrine, demystified it and dismantled the age-long Aro dominance in the region.
*Ukachukwu Okorie*