Arụ̀ Women

Aro women photographed by Rev. William T. Weir, in The Women's Missionary Magazine of the United Free Church of Scotland, 1904. Google digitisation.

Aro Sword

Double edged sword with a fluted blade from Arochukwu, c. 1932 or earlier. Pitt Rivers Museum [+].

The Okoli Ijeoma Ada War: Agha Ìbenne

Gịnị mè ndị Ọka jì à sọ ènwè?

Enwe Imoka, the mona, Porto-Novo, Benin. Photo: Okouneva Olga via Wikimedia Commons.

Background

Okoli Ijeoma was a 19th-century merchant warlord of the Aro settlement of Ndikelionwu in today’s Anambra State. He was notorious for his recruitment of the militaristic Ada people of the Cross River area for wars against his enemies or for the services of those who paid him. He was the grandson of Ikelionwu who founded Ndikelionwu in the 18th century.

"Inokon"

"The Inokon Society, Creek Town, Calabar." Postcard from c. 1910s-20s. Ụ́kpụ́rụ́ Collection.

Inokon or Inokun may be related to Okon, a founding figure in the history of Arochukwu. It is the name the Aro people are known by in the Cross River area.

The Aros are often called Inokuns. Authorities disagree as to the difference between these names. It is stated that the Aros are the aristocratic or freeborn caste of the Inokun tribe, that there are sixteen Aro towns, each presided over by a chief of its own, and that these chiefs in united council used to govern the whole Inokun tribe. Of these sixteen towns, all in the near neighbourhood of the "Long Juju," the principal is Ibum [Ibom]. The Assistant District Commissioner used to live down in the town itself, but it was found to be damp and unhealthy, so the station was moved to the top of a hill about one and a half miles outside, previously occupied as an outlying farm of the township. Ibum is marked "Aro Chuku'' on the map, and the Government residence stands about midway between Aro Chuku and Obagu. From this hill one looks down upon the Aro towns, indicated in the densely wooded valley by the columns of blue smoke overhanging them.

A View of the Arọ̀ from Igbere

Before the Europeans came, the Arọs […] main interest in their trade was the purchase of slaves. […] Some of them came as medicine men, […] traders […] agents of Ibìna Ụ̀kpaàbị̀. We called them Ọbụ̄ Arọ̀ bụrụ Ìgbò (He is Arọ as well as Igbo), […] Arọ̀ Oke-Ìgbò, […] Inokun. […]

The Twenty Years War

"Aro natives making road for us by order outside Bendi [Bende] Cutting bush with matchets" during the 'Aro Punitive Expedition', or Anglo-Aro war, 1901. British Museum.

Far from willingly conceding their territory to the military patrols, the people of Southeastern Nigeria opposed the British advance in more than three hundred pitched battles over a twenty year period, suffering at least ten thousand casualties. [...] Although violent resistance could not halt the British advance, it was effective in moderating and speed and thoroughness of that advance and in enabling Southeastern Nigerians to retain a measure of self-determination over the rate at which they absorbed technological and other changes.

– Robert D. Jackson (1975). "The Twenty Years War, Invasion and Resistance in Southeastern Nigeria 1900-1919".

Arochukwu, Shifting from the Slave Trade?

Photo: People at a dance in Ibom, Arochukwu, April 23, 1903 [a year or so after the British invasion.] Charles Partridge. British Museum.

The first Europeans to visit Arochukwu, in 1901, noted with some surprise--since it contradicted what they had been led to expect by their superiors--that the Aro trade in "factory goods" was no less than their trade in slaves, and that in fact "Palm oil seems to be the main export." [W.J. Venour, "The Aro Country in Southern Nigeria," Geographical Journal, 1902] Even Sir Ralph Moor, the chief creator of the myth that the Aro were solely slave traders and brigands, was compelled to admit that "the individual profits of the slave traffic, owing to the heavy tolls exacted on the roads [trade routes in the Igbo area were often tolled by the communities they ran through], together with other market tolls, have not really been great."

— Robert D. Jackson (1975). The Twenty Years War. pp. 32–33.

Arochukwu, 'Punitive Expedition', Progress

Image: "Burning Arochuku" Charles Partridge, 1902.

During the year 1902 the Protectorate was freed for ever from the evils of slave-raiding and slave-dealing on an organised scale. On April 1st, 1901, ‘The Slave Dealing Proclamation’ was published, and on the 26th November, 1901, the provisions of that law, making slave-dealing in all its forms a penal offence, were applied by Order to all parts of the Protectorate, but it was not until the termination, in April, 1902, of the successful military operations in the Aro country, that the system of tribal warfare, for the purpose of making slaves, could be accurately regarded as an evil of the past.... Slave-raiding had been repressed for many years previous to 1902 in the delta country and in all the hinterland, except that part of the latter which lies between the Niger and the Cross River (a distance of 100 miles), and it was throughout this region that the Aro influence was predominant.

The most noteworthy fact brought to light by the military operations in the last stronghold of slavery above described, was that the Aros were not a military race, and that their influence was due to their relatively great intelligence, as compared with other native tribes. The strength of this influence was such, that not only was it paramount in the Aro country, but was also felt in many places in the delta region between the Niger and the Cross River, and also to the east of the latter. Whenever a tribe attempted to avoid acting in accordance with the Aro policy, it was fought by warlike tribes under the direction of the Aros, who recompensed such mercenaries by allowing them to loot the conquered tribe and to seize and sell as slaves those who survived the conflict. Within the area of the direct Aro influence, no important dispute could be settled save by reference to the oracle in the Juju or sacred grove, situated in a ravine near Ibum (Aro Chuku). Each of the contending parties attempted to propitiate this oracle by large offerings, and the party against whom judgment was pronounced, was believed by his tribes to have been destroyed by the hidden power, while, in reality, he was almost invariably sold secretly into slavery. As the tribe supposed to be specially favoured by this oracle, the Aros were able to gain wealth in the shape both of propitiatory offerings and of slaves. In addition to being a constant source of wealth, the Juju oracle also afforded the Aros a means whereby anyone opposing or supposed to be desirous of opposing their authority could be easily removed, as they could at any time contrive that a charge should be made against the rebel, thus forcing him to appeal to the oracle and then, on his arrival at Ibum, he would either be made powerless through parting with all his wealth as an offering, or, if his gifts were insufficient, his doom would be pronounced by Aro priests hidden in a concealed cave in the sacred ravine, and thereafter the Aro opponent became the Aro slave. The Aros do not appear to have resorted to trial by ordeal.

The military operations which were brought to a successful close in 1902 destroyed the system of slave-making above described, and the dreaded Juju oracle ceased for ever to exercise its baneful influence. The Aros themselves, however, were not destroyed, but, on the contrary, immediately gave further proof of their intelligence by adapting themselves to the new conditions of life. It had been their practice to prevent tribes within their influence from attempting to do a direct trade with the delta country, and thus they alone had experience in trade. They at once began to utilise this experience, they readily learnt to appreciate the superior value of English currency, as compared with the native mediums of barter, manillas, brass rods, etc., and, by their activity, showed that for many years they would be probably the principal gainers in any increased trade which might result from their country having been thrown open to the delta traders.

— Mr. Probyn, Acting High Commissioner, in the preface to his Report on Southern Nigeria for 1902.

24 Feb 1905. Ikot-ekpende. [Aro-Igbo] bride and her mother. [In Ibibio territory where the Aro (originally from Arochukwu from what is now Abia State Nigeria, but settled all over eastern Nigeria) were known as Inokun, now Akwa-Ibom State, Nigeria]

— Charles Partridge
Location: Ikot Ekpende | Date: 24 February, 1905 | Credit: Charles Partridge

Ibini Ukpabi

The approach to the Long Ju-Ju is through dense bush, which gradually becomes thicker and thicker until one arrives at the entrance of a deep oval-shaped pit, seventy feet deep, sixty yards long, and fifty yards wide. One then climbs down the precipitous sides of the rock into a narrow gorge and into running water, up which one wades, passing under two fences, until one finally comes to a place where the water comes out of the solid rock in two big streams, which unite below a small island, on which are two altars, one made of many trade guns, stuck muzzle downwards into the ground and topped with skulls, the other being of wood and supporting more skulls, bones, feathers, blood, eggs, and other votive offerings to the Ju-Ju, including the head of the last victim. Over the rock, where is the source of the water, is a roof of human skulls with a curtain, the top part of which is composed of clothes and the lower part of native matting, screening the rock and hanging just short of the water's edge. The lower portions of the rock composing the other side of this crater are draped with mats only. On the left of the entrance, centrally situated, and opposite the island, has been hewn out of the rock a flat-topped ledge for sacrificial purposes. The water, about twelve inches deep, is full of tame grey-coloured fish, about two feet in length, with long suckers and glaring yellow eyes, which have a most bizarre appearance as they glide noiselessly through the clear water in the dim light of this charnel-house of fetish lore, which is roofed with densely intertwined creepers. These fish are regarded as sacred. On the left of the exit lies another pile of human skulls and other relics of Ju-Ju rites, and on the left the last sacrifice--a white goat, trussed up in the branches of a palm tree and starving to death. The conducting of a visitor to the Ju-Ju is usually a somewhat lengthy process, and when he arrives in its proximity he is led by a circuitous route and finally marched in backwards. It would seem to be a fair estimate to put the number of pilgrims down at about five hundred annually, all of whom pay dearly for the advice or decree which is vouchsafed to them. Probably the number of human sacrifices does not reach a total of fifty per annum, while about 200 people are sold into slavery, and the remainder are allowed to go away free.

— Reuter, Daily Graphic

Location: Ibini Ukpabi, Arochukwu, Aro, Alaigbo | Date: 1902 | Credit: Reuter from a member of the Aro Field Force