Ùlì

An Igbo girl from Nibo, present-day Anambra State, with ùlì designs on her skin. Photographed by Northcote Thomas c. 1911. MAA Cambridge.

Shrine to Agwụ̀

Titled elder Onyeso of Agukwu Nri washing hands for a rite before a shrine to Agwụ̀, a divinity of doctors (dibị̀à). Photographed by Northcote Thomas in 1911. MAA Cambridge.

Agwụ̀ is an entity of unconventionality and hence creativity that guides the dibị̀à. Agwụ̀ is related to strange occurrences and mishaps. Such occurrences are often signs to individuals that are destined to become doctors.

Government School, Owerri District, c. 1909

Government School, Owerri District, c. 1909.

Abiriba School – Mission Schools

Pole Vaulting, Abiriba School, today's Abia State, ca. 1930-1940. "Missionaries first entered Abiriba, an Igbo iron-working area, in the early twentieth century. Agwu Otisi, a priest of the witch-doctors’ society, was keen to set up a school in the village and to learn about the new faith of Christianity, eventually becoming a Church Elder. The school was under the charge of Rev. R Collins." USC Digital Library.

Ndị Ìgbò

An unidentified group portrait taken by a Royal Niger Company employee c. 1886 - 1895. Based on other photos, these could be people from the Asaba or Önïcha area. MAA Cambridge.

An Igbo Girl

An Igbo girl in the photo album of British colonial government anthropologist Northcote Thomas, taken c. 1910-11. MAA Cambridge.

Onicha Titled Elder

"A chief of Onicha [Onitsha] wearing a schako [hat] of the Royal Guard of England in which he has fixed bird feathers." Via the French Foreign Legion officer, Antoine Mattei, late 19th century. Gallica Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Igbo family

What is likely an Igbo family from Onicha (no known documentation left), photographed by William Henry Crosse, part of the Royal Niger Company, 1886 - 1895. MAA Cambridge.

Öka Smiths among the Western Igbo and Others

In Onicha Olona, a western Igbo town, two individuals in the courtyard of a house with what seems to be blacksmithing tools (tongs and hammers). Photographed by Northcote Thomas, 1912. MAA Cambridge.

Awka, ... is famous for its smithing skills. ... In fact, the men of one section of the town, Agulu, were Awka's principal blacksmiths. ... As itinerant journeymen, Agulu smiths ... [worked] in northern provinces of Igala and Idoma and over a broad belt of southern Nigeria, from Yoruba settlements in the west to the Cross River in the east. The orbit of Awka (Agulu) peregrinations was vast, limited only by the existence of rival smithing groups, such as the Hausa to the north of the Benue, and by the necessity to return to Awka annually. ...

Smiths of three Agulu villages worked the western side of the Niger, supplying iron hoes, machetes, spears, cooking stands and other useful items to Western Igbo, Urhobo, Isoko, Itsekiri and Ijo communities. They also used the lost-wax method in making bronze ofo for Western Igbo patrons.

– Nancy C. Neaher (1976). "Igbo Metalsmiths among the Southern Edo."

"The Demon Superstition"

Photo: Twins with their mothers, Nigeria, ca.1920-1940, C.M.S. Bookshop, Lagos.

[…] multiple births (umu ejime) were considered by Igbo-speaking peoples an abomination (nso ani) […] "In the 1980s, however, I heard stories relating to grandmothers and great-grandmothers who, fearing they would bear twins, would “go to the farm” […] returning with a single child. I also heard that midwives […] would ensure, for a fee, [...] women were not embarrassed by bearing living twins. Wealthier women might thus have been able to avoid the stigma of […] twins[.]

– Misty L. Bastian (2001). "“The Demon Superstition”: Abominable Twins and Mission Culture in Onitsha History." Ethnology. pp. 18–19.

The killing of twins was common in a few societies around the world, it was also practiced in Medieval Europe.

In medieval Europe, it was believed a woman could not conceive twice (simultaneously), so twins could not be from the same father. A woman might abandon twins to protect her reputation (Shahar 1990: 122). Mothers are unable to sustain two infants, especially where both are likely to be underweight. As Gray (1994: 73) notes, "even today, with the availability of western medical services it is difficult to maintain twins."

– David F. Lancy (2015). "The Anthropology of Childhood." p. 94.

Twin killing has a ‘practical’ origin; in the pre-industrial past twins were a burden on the mother and the community, strained resources would’ve been put under more pressure, other factors like superstition kept the tradition, in some societies it was believed twins couldn’t be from one father.

The most common reason twins were killed in Granzberg's research was that the society had insufficient facilities to properly rear two children at once and still allow the mother the ability to fulfill her other responsibilities.' As Dickeman pointed out, the maternal workload was so great that raising two infants at the same time was not feasible.'

– Larry Stephen Milner (2000). "Hardness of Heart/hardness of Life: The Stain of Human Infanticide." p. 462.

In these societies, and in Igboland, twins were often not killed, sometimes one was kept or one or more were secretly fostered; in Ohafia folklore, many of the matriarchs were abandoned due to fears of twin birth. Many women did however suffer the full brunt of bearing twins.

Within the context of imperial interest, the killing of twins was evidently sensationalised for a purpose; reports taken back to Britain were carefully made to allay any anxieties the population may have had pertaining to the purpose of the British imperial mission, these news reports and journals and other published works also served to silence any anti-imperial voices among the British people.

See: The British in Ezza-Igbo country, present day Ebonyi State, 1905.

Imperialism was presented as a moral altruistic mission, which included the stamping out of perceived barbarism among subjected peoples.

To give a clearer picture of the time period, as missionaries were combating twin killing in parts of southeastern, central, and southwestern Nigeria, infant mortality rates had only started to come down worldwide, surpassing 30% in areas. Infanticide was widespread even in Britain itself.

Infanticide persisted in western Europe during the Middle Ages; although in some cases it was defined as a crime, prosecutions were rare and penalties were mild. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it reached epidemic proportions in England and France: many dead infants were found in the sewers of Paris, and in England infants' corpses were found in streets, ditches, and parks and floating in the river Thames. Historians usually attribute this to oppressive social conditions—female domestic servants and factor), workers were often sexually exploited by their male employers and saw no option but to dispose of their illegitimate infants. England eventually addressed infanticide in 1922, when it passed the Infanticide Act; this was replaced by a new act in 1939 (Bourget and Labelle, 1992; Lyon, 1985).

– Margaret Abraham (2004). "Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women." Routledge. p. 1135.

In Igbo societies, children weren’t named until some time after birth, this probably originally had to do with infant mortality, which later would have been enshrined in the belief of a child becoming a full human member of the umunna (patrilineage) usually after two Igbo weeks (8 days) after which they can be circumcised and a naming ceremony could take place.

Agukwu Nri

A woman and child from Agukwu Nri, photographed by Northcote Thomas, 1910-11. Colourised Ukpuru 2018.

Agukwu Smiles

This is a woman and child from Agukwu Nri taken in 1910-11. The colonial appointed anthropologist Northcote Thomas made several volumes on the colonial examination of Igbo society. Among anthropological work, the 'side' material were outtakes like this which didn't make it to publishing.

These are three separate photos, MAA Cambridge. This is the photo that was published in Northcote Thomas' Anthropological Report on the Ibo-speaking Peoples of Nigeria, vol. I.

The woman's name and the child's name may have been recorded by Thomas, but it has not been made public yet. For more information see: [Re:]Entanglements: N. W. Thomas – an accidental artist? and [Re:]Entanglements: Who was N. W. Thomas?

You can see how the 'no-smiling' convention of old photography plays here, it may also have further connotations considering this is a colonial work made primarily for colonial dissection. There are many other example like this. In addition to that, many of the candid-looking photos taken outside of the makeshift studios were planned and staged ahead of Northcote Thomas (and hence other colonial-era photographers) taking photographs.

How does the contrast between these 'outtakes' and the published image come across, what is the reaction to seeing both and possibly realising how manipulated colonial images can be?

A Child and a Crocodile, Enugwu Ukwu

A child and a crocodile photographed by Northcote Thomas in Enugwu Ukwu, 1910-11. MAA Cambridge.

19th Century Igbo Blacksmiths

Blacksmiths "from the Onitsha area" according to G. I. Jones, photographed by William Henry Crosse, part of the Royal Niger Company, 1886 - 1895. MAA Cambridge.

Boy of Mgbakwu

A boy of Mgbakwu, p.d. Anambra State, photographed by British government anthropologist Northcote Thomas between 1910 and 1911. The pictures were taken as part of colonial studies on African people in order to find the best way to rule over them, a crucial study for the implementation of indirect rule. MAA Cambridge. (The original picture is black and white, this is a digitally coloured copy by Ụ́kpụ́rụ́, 2018).

To see this picture is to see one of the first ‘Nigerians.’ Aged around 7 or 8 maybe, with this photo taken between 1910 and 1911, presuming that he lived a long life past his 70’s, this doe-eyed boy of Mgbakwu may have seen the invasion of his town by the British Empire’s West African Frontier Force. Igbo settlements were still fighting back imperialism at this time. His whole world, or at least, that of his parents are about to change forever. He may have heard the word ‘Nigeria’ for the first time around the time this picture was taken. He would have gone from simply an onye Mgbakwu to a ‘Nigerian.’ Just three or four years after this picture was taken was WWI, and the amalgamation of the Northern Protectorate with the Southern Protectorate, where his home is. He may have been one of the first people in his family to be Christened, he may have gone to a mission school. He may have been given a European name. He would have seen the rise of warrant chiefs, the other invasion of ‘native authority’, that is the rise of ‘His Royal Majesty’s’ and ‘His Royal Highness’s.’ He may have eventually heard about the Women’s War of 1929 and heard about and witnessed some of the terrorism which occurred under the colonial regime. Eventually, he may have even casted a vote for a man named Nnamdi Azikiwe, his age mate. He would have gained greater knowledge of peoples far across the Niger and a river named Benue, people who had also ‘become’ Nigerian like him and by no choice of theirs now had linked destinies, he may have even travelled to live amongst them. If he lived long enough, he would have seen the independence of Nigeria. He may have seen the war.

Onitsha people, 1905-11

People of Onitsha shot by Robert Mcwhirter, 1905-11.

Boy from Umuahia

A boy with chalk patterns on his body, Umuahia, Eastern Nigeria, ca. 1925. Shot by Emily Godfrey. USC Digital Library.

Aboh Child, 1840s

Son of Onnese Obi Osai Inside front cover of the medical and surgical journal of His Majesty’s Steam Ship Albert by J. O. McWilliam, MD, Surgeon with the picture of a son of the Obi of the Igbo town of Aboh. The Albert travelled the course of the Niger River from 1841.

‘One of the sons of Onnese Obi Osai chief of Aboh, River Niger’, drawn by John Duncan. The illustration appears to have been cut from a published source and pasted inside the journal. Beneath it is a written note 'Ali Hare came on board accompanied by a dozen little boys, who seemed to be nearly coeval [the same age]. These were sons of the Obi.

— The National Archives, UK.

Girl with beads

Igbo girl wearing neck-beads

Location: ?Unknown? | Date: 1880-1939 | Credit: J Stöcker

Woman and child of [Agukwu]

Location: Agukwu Nri, Nri, Alaigbo | Date: ?Unsure?, Before 1921 | Credit: Thomas.