The pre-1940s history, indigenous culture, and heritage of the Ìgbò and their neighbours.
A woman of Ügwüta, Òru area, early 20th century. Internet Archive. Òru, riverine Igbo around the Niger, were known for their markets by waterways, the highways of trade. Wealthy traders made up exclusive title societies and wore ivory armlets and anklets. The ivory was traded long-distance.
An Ekpe masquerader in Uzuakoli, present-day Abia State. Photographed by G. I. Jones, 1930s. MAA Cambridge.
Ọ̀kọ̀nkọ̀ members controlled important roads in the eastern Igbo area. British imperial interests ran against this system.
Passing by Abruki, which had, however, to be " dashed " in the usual way, we arrived in the evening at Omo-pra [Ụmụ̀ọpara?], the last mile or two into the town being more like an avenue in England, shaded by splendid trees, than a wild roadway in Africa. […] Under a lowering sky, and in a, slight drizzle of rain, we left Omo-pra early the next morning[.]
"A Famous Were-Leopard". Percy Amaury Talbot. Internet Archive.
The power of metamorphosis is generally termed Uworraw-Ukponn, corresponding to the Ibo word Ehihi, and is sometimes inherited, sometimes bought. Since many believe that it is only used for evil purposes, the faculty is not often boasted of, or admitted, by its possessor. Nearly all " strong " animals in the bush, such as leopards, elephants, etc., are credited with being were-beasts, but such can only be recognised by hunters, who, unless bad men, would not shoot them, since their death would entail that of their affinity.
"Prince Tshúkuma [Chukwuma]" of Abö, illustration from an 1854 voyage by William Baikie. Internet Archive.
[At Abö] we learnt that King Obí [Osai] had been dead for nearly nine years, and that since that time there had been no regular king. At Abó, the chief power is elective, and after the death of Obí two parties sprung up, one of which supported the claims of his son, while the other advanced as their candidate an influential person named Orísa. The two sections were respectively entitled the king's people and the Oshiodápara party. Obí's friends were unanimous in their selection of Obí's second son, named Ajé, an active, intelligent, young man ; and this was acquiesced in by his less energetic and more peaceful brother Okúrobi or Tshúkuma.
"Rich Women. Onitsha. (church members.)" G. F. Packer, 1880s. Pitt Rivers Museum.
These women are likely part of the Ndị Ọdụ, Òtù Enyi, or Òtù Ọdụ society, the ivory society, the elite women’s socio-political and economic organisation of the Önïcha (Onitsha) ministate made up of wealthy members who either bought the rights to the title or whose relatives bought the rights to either wear ọdụ aka, ivory bracelets, or ọdụ ụkwụ, ivory anklets, or both.
An elder in Ila (Illah) holding an abani or eben sword, present-day Delta State. Photographed by Northcote Thomas, c. 1912. MAA Cambridge.
Illah is said to have been founded by Ala[.] […] One of the traditions holds that Ala’s father, lka, came from Nteje (some informants say he came from Nri) and the mother, Ejini, came from lgalaland. […] While at Omorka, the Anam/Nzam people from the east of the Niger frequently harassed the Illah. Through the assistance of a later immigrant, an Edaiken (Oba's first son) from Benin, the Illah contained the Anam's menace. […] The Asaba and Illah traditions seem to indicate a fusion of Igbo and Igala migrants, and emphasize the age-long relationship between them and the Igala in the north and the Igbo in the east.
– Adiele Afigbo (1992). "Groundwork of Igbo history." p. 335.
Are You a Mason? A Member of the Egbo, A Nigerian Secret Society, In Costume.
The most important and widespread of the secret societies in Nigeria is the Egbo society, which…may almost be compared to Freemasonry in England. The dress worn by the lowest-grade members is something like a diver’s suit. The man has fringes of black and red grass round his ankles, and, covering his face, is a mask of wood painted white. (p. 774)
– 1909. “At the Sign of St. Pauls.” The Illustrated London News, Vol. 134, No. 3658. Ross Archive of African Images (RAAI).
Onye Ọcha mask, Igbo parody of a white man during the colonial era from Amobia, part of a larger play. Apart from more serious ritual masks, a key part of many Igbo masquerading festivals are comedic and satirical masks. G. I. Jones, 1930s. MAA Cambridge. [Consider the photographer.]
Ghost policemen masks, symbols of colonial powers, part of the same masquerade play as the Oyibo or Onye Ọcha mask from Amobia. G. I. Jones, 1930s. MAA Cambridge.
"At the Akquete [Akwete] Market" by Jonathan Adagogo Green, an Ibani (Bonny) photographer, 1895-1905. British Museum. The Ndoki (which Akwete is a part), Asa, and Omuma area is collectively referred to as Ụ̀kwà, which apparently means wealth.
Before the 20th century, this area was a major market area including the Ohambele, Ohanku, Azumini, and Akwete markets that served as meeting points for Igbo groups and coastal middlemen, especially the Ubani or Ibani (of Bonny Island) who brought up European goods to be traded.
Duties of the (Igbo) second burial (ịkwa ozu?) according to the European source, early 20th century. This is probably for a very prominent person. The photograph is also likely from today's Anambra State.
"Assay Chief & wife." P A Mc C. British Museum. Ase is an Ndị Osimili settlement on the Ase River which connects to the Niger River, now in Delta State. It is an Igbo-speaking settlement with a mixture of Isoko and Ijo ancestry as it is near the border of these three cultural areas. In the late 19th century, British traders established a trading post in Ase, such posts were used for imperial expansion, as in the case of the bombardment of Patani in 1882 for its attack on the National African Company's factory in Ase.
In Assay village (Ejaw) some of the women were busy making fishing nets, whilst others were engaged in preparing the evening meal. Many of the girls had heavy bands of ivory around their ankles and wrists. They seemed to serve the same purpose as the bracelets of our English girls. As it was the dry season the river was very low, many sand banks being visible. On a number of these, fishermen had pitched their grass huts. I could not help thinking of them as Arabs in the desert resting by the wayside. Pitched on the golden sand in the middle of the river, they looked most picturesque.
– R. Hope (1906). “With Pen and Camera in Nigeria.” In: “Journal of the Manchester Geographical Society.” p. 130.
"Rich Women. Onitsha. (church members.)" G. F. Packer, 1880s. Pitt Rivers Museum.
These women are likely part of the Ndị Ọdụ or Otu Ọdụ society which is a women’s socio-political and economic organisation in Onicha (Onitsha) made up of wealthy members who either bought the rights to the title or whose relatives bought the rights to either wear ọdụ aka, ivory bracelets, or ọdụ ụkwụ, ivory anklets, or both.
Before the 1890s, the Ọmụ Ọnicha, the female counterpart to the Obi, the overall leader of Onicha, the last being Ọmụ Nwagboka, who was also the head of commerce and trade, wielded great power over most women and the Otu Ọdụ society. Ọmụ Nwagboka, initially resistant to Christianity and the church, later became a catalyst for the growth of church attendance among women after encouraging them to attend services which brought many women, including quite influential ones, to the Anglican mission.
Ọmụ Nwagboka was initially a traditional practitioner before converting to Christianity, at least, formally. Her change in attitude to the religion may have been due to pressure from missionaries and her European trade partners who worked as two arms of European imperialism in the area, traders later becoming invaders and subsequently forming a colonial government. Indeed this may have been the case for other women traders, the most successful of whom would have no doubt been Ndị Ọdụ.
Pressure to convert also came from their children trained in mission schools; although older generations may have been resistant towards conversion, the mission school attenders eventually came to take the position at the top of society in politics, in the courts, and in what was termed ọrụ or ọlụ bekee or ọrụ oyibo, civil service and other jobs introduced by the British Empire that formed a decade after the last Ọmụ Ọnịcha. While there hasn’t been a woman appointed by the Obi Ọnịcha to the position of Ọmụ for well over a century now, the Otu Ọdụ society is still quite prominent.
Alụsị with its priest and its ritual iron belled staff, Ösü (Orsu), West Isuama Igbo. Photo by G. I. Jones, 1930s. MAA Cambridge.
The attitude towards what are termed alụsị / arụsị, etc. varies among Igbo people. Generally, the nature spirits are handled by dibia and by family heads. They were set up in order to protect the community or provide for some need of the community, like fertility, or were temporarily used like in times of war; in that case, the etymology of alụsị / arụsị may point towards the Igbo view of these entities, where arụ [work] sị [emphasis] may refer to a spirit that has been built up into the community through dibia work.
In most cases, just as how arụsị have been 'built up' is also how many can be taken down since many do not necessarily represent a fundamental part of worship in various Igbo communities.
Some entities referred to as alụsị or agbara, etc., depending on the Igbo community may be a focal point of worship, speculatively some of these entities may be stand-ins for the fundamental elements of the universe in Igbo worldview such as Anyanwụ and Ala, it does not appear that a fundamental entity like Ala can be taken down.
A woman from Owere (Owerri) photographed by Northcote Thomas, c. 1912-13. Her name (or at least an approximation) may have been recorded in Northcote Thomas' photographic register. MAA Cambridge. Her wrapper is similar to Akwete textile designs.
Photo: "Alusi The same shrine with its priest (seated) and it’s osu (“juju slave”), Orsu, West Isuama Igbo". G. I. Jones, 1930s. Jones Archive, Southern Illinois University.
Osu has been described as a ritual outcast or caste system. People who are deemed osu are discriminated against in terms of who they can marry, political representation, and they are restricted from particular spaces.
Osu were people who 'belong' to certain divinities. They performed certain rights and services in shrines where they usually lived. The osu received part of the sacrifices to the shrine. Under the protection of the divinity, the osu were secluded from the rest of the community.
The extent to which people considered osu were protected by a divinity, and their ritual role in shrines may point towards an older concept of osu as more of a priestly role, rather than a ritual slave one.
The osu responsibility for tending shrines supports the suggestion that the institution represented a priestly function before the Atlantic slave trade, but that the trade changed its character[.] […] Every market had a priest who was also called osu, after the name of the market that he served. Thus, there were Osueke (for the Eke market), Osuawho (Awho market), Osunkwo (Nkwo market), and Osuoye (Oye Market). In other words, Aro people used the term osu to designate the priest.
– G. Ugo Nwokeji (2010). The Slave Trade and Culture in the Bight of Biafra. p. 198.
There's a history of people who were not considered osu living near or incorporating those considered osu. It appears the protection osu gained from a divinity also protected them from being sold into slavery. So, the Atlantic slave trade may have a hand in bringing about or making worse the discrimination against osu. People fleeing oppression or those marked as committing a crime sought protection by becoming osu, particularly during the slave trade because osu were exempt from enslavement and were also exempt from being charged for certain crimes and social duties.
It is on record that the "Osu" was not threatened for paying tax or community development levies; not because they were not well-off to pay but because they were neither asked to pay nor disturbed for failure to do so, since there was nobody that dared make such demand.' It is this immunity that the "Osu" enjoyed that gave them the courage sometimes to tamper with peoples' property and go free.
Henry Chukwudi Okeke (2020). The Spirituality of the Igbo People of Nigeria…. p. 87.
It may have been the case that the influx of people fleeing persecution into osu singled out osu as a discriminated or outcast group. An example of how some attitudes towards people deemed osu may have been different:
Thus, the Aro embraced a group which central Igbo people rejected. Why then did the institution emerge in Arondizuogu toward the end of the century?
If the Atlantic slave trade changed the character of the institution in other parts of Igboland, it was the ending of the trade that generated these changes in Arondizuogu. […] One free family, running away from their creditor, sought refuge in the Haba deity in another lineage-group. At the destination deity, the refugee would say the ritual:” Arusi, mbaa!” (Shrine, I submit myself to your protection).
– G. Ugo Nwokeji (2010). The Slave Trade and Culture in the Bight of Biafra. p. 199.
In Igbo names the use of osu as in a devotee of a deity comes up in names such as Osuala and Osunjoku. The stereotypes associated with people deemed osu, including luck, wealth, beauty, etc., supposedly brought about by the protection of their divinity, do not seem to fit with people treated as a low-caste or outcast group. It seems, in some communities at least, that the slave trade may have changed the attitudes towards the osu institution.
The avoidance of osu, and their ritual death or sacrifice to a deity is reminiscent of or similar to that of some Igbo titles such as eze. The two roles ritually limited both classes of people in a similar way. The Eze Nri, for instance, goes through a ritual death, was, for the most part, confined to an area, could only die from approval of authority holders, and was generally avoided.
The status of an osu as a sacrifice meant that they were avoided as ritually 'dead' people who the 'living' should avoid.
This is why, when the life of an "Osu" was spared, he was still considered dead in all aspects of social life, so much so that anyone interacting with him, was believed to incur a ritual impurity which bears a consequent social contamination. In this belief then, he could not intermingle with the 'living', and thus could not attend the assembly of free-born.
Henry Chukwudi Okeke (2020). The Spirituality of the Igbo People of Nigeria…. p. 88.
The general treatment of osu was quite different from titled people, however. The osu, for example, were not given proper burials in some communities at least due to the belief that they were disconnected from a lineage and therefore an afterlife. Titled wealthy people had large funerals and were the icons of their lineages.
The following is a description of osu initiation.
The actual sacrifice of an Osu may be preceded by the sacrifice of a cow or a goat, especially when the sacrifice is being made on behalf of the community. The following are the major steps:
(i) Before the shrine of the deity, the designated Osu is asked to open his mouth. A piece of chalk (nzu) taken from the shrine, is put into his mouth.
(ii) The ear of the victim is split with a razor and blood is drawn and smeared on the divinity. Blood symbolizes the essence of a being: to offer the blood of an animal therefore, is to offer the whole animal.
(iii) He is next carried on both limbs and dropped gently seven times before the shrine.
(iv) The officiating priest takes the ofo [In notes: The ofo is the Igbo traditional system of justice and truth. It occupies a prominent place in Igbo traditional religion.] stick and hits him on the head.
(v) The oil-palm frond (omu-nkwu) or any other object or shrub taken from the shrine, may be tied on him.
(vi) Finally, he is completely shaven. During all these ceremonies, the victim generally makes no resistance, for resistance is useless. If he tried to escape by force, he could be killed. In any case, if he were to escape, he generally would not know where to go.
– S. N. Ezeanya (1967). The Osu (Cult-Slave) System in Igbo Land.
Whatever the historical treatment of those considered osu, the fact remains that in recent times, at least, their treatment is discriminatory, as those of people barred from main society. The height of people becoming osu was during the Atlantic slave trade due to the influx of people seeking refuge from slavery. This factor may reveal the extent to which the current function of (or need for) a group of people seen as osu is a legacy of that particular era.
"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".
An Mbari house at "Omo Dim" [Umudim?] which is known as "Mbari Njokku" according to P. A. Talbot who says it was built in honour of an elder named "Njokku and his wife Mbafor." P. A. Talbot (1927). "Some Nigerian Fertility Cults."
"Chief Efuome of Ezi Awka," photographed by Northcote Thomas and assistants, 1910-11. In the elder's hand is ngwụ agịlịga and elili Ọzọ (or owu Ọzọ) on his ankles which is for ndị Nze (titled men). In the elder's hat are probably ugo (fish eagle) feathers.
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.
