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Enugwu-Agidi History - The Nri Connection
The town Enugwu-Agidi, as it is now called, is about 22
kilometer east of Onitsha. It
belongs to the Umu-Nri
(children of Nri) clan, made up of Nri, Enugwu-Ukwu, Nawfia,
Enugwu-Agidi, and Oruora, which no
longer exist. In
other words these towns belong to the
same ancestral root, the ancient divine kingship of Nri (Eze Nri). The
name and place of Nri in the
development of Igbo culture and tradition are at times confused with
those of Eri. Eri
is said to be the original legendary cultural head of
the Igbo people, just as ODUDUWA is to the Yoruba people. From
oral and recorded accounts, he is said to some down from the sky,
having been sent by God’.
Eri settled and established in the middle of
Anambra river
valley where he married two wives.
The first of the wives bore him five children.
The first was Agulu, the founder of Aguleri,
the second was Nri Ifikuanim, the founder of
Umunri, followed by Nri Onugu, the founder of Igbariam and Ogbodulu,
the founder of Amanuke. The
fifth one was a daughter called Iguedo, who is said to
have born the founders of Nteje, and Awkuzu. As one of the
children of Eri, Nri Ifikuanim
migrated from Aguleri, which was and still is, the ancestral temple of
the people, in search of a
place of settlement. He
found such a place and settled near the present Enugwu-Ukwu. A version of the oral
account mentioned Mkpume Onyilenyi as
the spot of the original settlement at Enugw-Ukwu.
It has to be mentioned here that
accounts given of developments from the period of this Enugwu-Ukwu
settlement is conflicting. And
one would suppose that this might be part of the reason
why some people in Enugwu-Ukwu claim headship of Nri.
One
of the accounts by Professor M.A. Onwuejeogwu holds that it was during
the period of Nri
Ifikuanim’s settlement at Enugwu-Ukwu area that he bore the
progenitor or ancestor of the
Enugwu-Ukwu, Nneofia and Enugwu-Agidi peoples.
And that
he later left that Enugwu-Ukwu site and came down the valley near the
lake to establish the town of
Agukwu. This
account leaves one to deduce that the
progenitor of Agukwu
was born later at the new
settlement or that he in fact, was born at the Enugwu-Ukwu site but
moved with father to the new
place of settlement.
The second
account confirms this second deduction. It holds
that the progenitor of Agukwu, called Ewelana, was not only born at the
Enugwu-Ukwu site, but also
was the first son of Nri Ifikuanim.
And that he
migrated to the new site with his father.
It is
difficult not to agree with this version of the story, since it is not
in keeping with the Igbo
tradition for a man to make such a migration without his first
son. It is at this Agukwu site
that Nri Ifikuanim established and became Eze Nri Ifikuanim, reigning
till 1152 A.D. From
written account, Nri Ifikuanim was not the first son of
Eri, and one is inclined to believe this, since he did not inherit the
father’s templeat Aguleri.
One is, because of this position, tempted to
ask why is it then that Nri
Ifikuanim was the most famous and influential of the children of Eri.
Prof. Onwuejeogwu’s written account
supplied the answer by confirming that Nri Ifikuanim
inherited a lot of qualities and powers from his father. The
account further stated that Eri revealed to Nri Ifikuanim the secrets
of the ‘mystical world’
and gave him two types of paraphernalia called NRIMERI.
One
of them comprised of two staffs, OFO NRI and ALO NRI, and the other
type comprised of objects of
bronze, iron, and clay.
Since the
reign of Nri Ifikuanim, which, according to
written account, stretched from 1042 to 1152 A.D., many other kings had
ascended the Ezenri throne
in an orderly succession. These
range from Nri Namoke
and Nribuife of the early period to the last of the three kings,
Nri-Obalike 188901936, Nri-Jiofo
II (Tabansi Udene) 1937-1987 and Nri-Enwelani II (Obidegwu
Onyeso) 1988-date.
It should
be noted that lineages and control of Nri
extended to major areas of Igbo land including Nsukka, Owerri, Asaba,
Okigwe, and Agbor etc. The
king successfully administered a great part of Igbo
towns with ritual systems and codes of abomination.
But
when the British arrived in Igbo-land in the first decade of the
twentieth century, they found this
traditional administrative technique of Ezenri very effective and a
challenge to their authority. The
Christian missionaries who accompanied the British
colonial authority also saw the existing ritual system of
administration, based on traditional
religious faith, as a barrier to the spread of their gospel. The result was that when
the British took over the administration of Igbo-land in
1907, the combined forces of colonial authority and the Christian
missionaries focused on the
destruction of the Nri traditional authority. Among the acts
designed to achieve this end was
forcing Eze Nri Obalike, against a long-standing tradition, to leave
Nri town to attend the native
at Awka. The
government anthropologist, Northcote
Thomas, confirmed that when Nri Obalike appeared in the court,
‘the whole assembly rose and
prepared to flee’. This
is because, that was the
first time an Ezenri was seen in person.
The final
act of destruction of Nri influence was in 1911
after the British introduced the warrant Chief system and summoned all
chiefs and community leaders
and forced them to denounce Eze Nri.
But before then,
Eze Nri Obalike was forced to abrogate all codes of taboo and
abomination still binding the towns to
Nri. It was as the result of this hostility that the ritual
influence of Nri got narrowed to
the nearest relations of the kingship, made up of
Nri(Agukwu,
Akamkpisi and Diodo), Enugwu-Ukwu, Nawfia, Enugwu-Agidi and Oruora
jointly referred to as Umunri.
The position nevertheless, is fast changing now.
With
political independence, growth of nationalism and cultural
consciousness, there is a growing
tendency among Igbo elites to reestablish their Nri cultural root and
re-accord recognition to Eze
Nri as the spiritual and cultural head of the Igbo people.Though the
five towns mentioned above are
said to belong to Umu-Nri
Clan, they are not direct
descendants of Nri Ifikuanim. Oral
tradition has it that their father was OKPALANAKA
. He
was said to have three
wives, one of whose name , according to one version of the oral source,
is Ariam. The other
version holds that the name of that woman was
Okpalariam. Derived
from these two versions, are two different compound names; OKPALANAKA
NA
ARIAM and OKPALANAKA NA OKPALARIAM.
With this
conflicting account, the more probable position is that the
woman’s name was ‘Ariam’ since in
Igbo tradition the prefix ‘Okpala’ denotes
masculine gender.Ariam was the first wife of
Okpalanaka and the mother of the progenitor of Agukwu (Nri). The man’s second
wife begot the progenitors of Enugwu-Ukwu and Nawfia, while
the third wife had the progenitors of Enugwu-Agidi and Oruora.
Of these five offspring of the children of
Okpalanaka, only four can today be found at
established positions. They
are in order of seniority,
Agukwu (Nri), Enugwu-Ukwu, Nawfia and Enugwu-Agidi.
Oruora,
the last of the five, no longer exists.
Why? You
will know in the later paragraph.It is said that the positions of the
settlement of the towns as they are found today, are arranged in order
of seniority: Agukwu as the
eldest son occupying, as of right, the original domain and the temple
of their father, and
inheriting the ritual right and (Ofo na Alo).
Next to
Agukwu is Enugwu-Ukwu, followed by Nawfia, Enugwu-agidi and lastly
Oruora. With the
extinction of
Oruuora,
Enugwu-Agidi now occupies the last position.
Mention has
to be made here of the scared staff (Ofo) held
by Normu village, the cultural head of Enugwu-Agidi.
This
is called Ofo ‘Okpalanaka Na Ariam’ or Ofo
‘Okpalanaka Na Okpalariam’, whichever is the
correct version. One
would wonder why the Ofo is so
named since the Enugwu-Agidi is not the first son of Okpalanaka. The
explanation from oral tradition
is that Okpalanaka sent off all his sons each with a token gift, which
included a sacred staff (Ofo). The
gifts were didtributed as follows: Agukwu -A
long cane basket (Ukpa) and a sacred staff
for traveling (Ofo
ije) Enugwu-Ukwu -The same as Agukwu
above. Nawfia
- A clay dish for cocoyam (Oku Ifeijioku) and
Ofo. Enugwu-Agidi
-A clay dish for cocoyam (Oku-ede)
and Ofo. It is this Ofo held
by every member of the Umunri Clan that is called, in Enugwu-Agidi Ofo
NNE NA NNA or Ofo Okpalanaka
na Ariam after the names of great grand parents of the clan. This
name has been contracted to ‘Okpalariam’ to serve
as the official alias for a recognized
traditional ruler of Enugwu-Agidi.
It is also
learnt that until recently, there exists at
Ora-Ofia Enugwu-Ukwu, a collective shrine or temple which served as a
symbol that binds the towns of
Umunri clan to a common ancestor. That shrine which was named after
Okpalanaka na Ariam was in the
form of a little square enclosing a big tree.
It was
confirmed that representatives of Umunri clan jointly performed certain
rites and offered sacrifices
at this shrine, which, owing to the disruptive influences of the
Christian Culture, has been
abandoned. But a recent account seems to conflict with the above
holding that the said square at
Enugw-Ukwu was the spot of the town’s original settlement
(Isi-ani). Just as Enugwu-Agidi has at
Normu village. It also exists at Nawfia. In the past, any member of
Umunri clan taking Ozo title
must visit all these Isi-ano spots in all the Umunri towns as part of
the title-taking ceremony or
ritual. Oruora, as
stated earlier, is extinct. The people fled their
town, northeast of Enugwu-Agidi as a result of a wicked cunning trick
dramatically hatched by a
two-man clique. The brain behind the trick was said to be one ANYAKORA
from Iruobieli village in
Enugwu-Agidi. His dubious companion called AGWUNENU from Isu assisted
him. As the aim of
the trick was to drive the people of Oruora out of their town, it was
said that Anyakora first tried
to incite the peoples of Enugwu-Agidi and Isu to take-up arms against
Oruora. When that plan failed,
he went direct to Oruora people and told them that Enugwu-Agidi and Isu
had completed plans to
attack them. He
told them that the attack would take
the form of setting fire on their on their houses and looting their
belongings. A day to the D-day,
these notorious gangsters made up heads of dry yam sticks and twigs
somewhere at the outskirts of
Oruora town, and early the following morning, they set the heaps on
fire, adding war song to
complete the false scare. Thus frightened out of their wits, the people
of Oruora deserted
their town abandoning most of their belongings.
They took refuge in the neighboring towns. Some migrated to Isu, Ukwulu
and Nawgwu, while others
made for Enugwu-Agidi. It is said that there is today a village at
Ukwulu bearing the name Oruora
because it is made up of descendants of immigrants from the deserted
town. From today’s
changed position resulting from social and political advancement, one
is tempted at this stage, to
reflect on the justification of still regarding people who were forced
out of their original domain
during our unsettled past as strangers (mbumbu) at their present place
of abode. For
example the government of Oruora fitted into the uncivilized and
brutish pattern of life in that
dark past when fratricidal war was the order of the day. Many more
instances of migration resulting
from such internecine conflict will be read in the later chapters.
Indeed movement of population was
so common a feature of our unsettled past that one can hardly find any
Igbo rural community in which
such movement cannot be traced. It is therefore becoming increasingly
difficult, in the light of
todays level of enlightenment, to agree with those who still regard
brothers and sisters who are in
their present positions as a result of such movement as strangers.
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