The pre-1940s history, indigenous culture, and heritage of Ìgbò through images.
Enwe Imoka, the mona, Porto-Novo, Benin. Photo: Okouneva Olga via Wikimedia Commons.
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.
"Water Side Assaba." The Oshimili (Niger River) at Asaba c. 1889. Pitt Rivers Museum.
At Ani Udo, Edini […] prospered. […] Oral historians believe that many of the Ogboli clans that dot Anioma today were formerly the inhabitants of the original Ogboli community that was founded by Edini in Ani Udo. They also believe that the Benin-Anioma wars played a major role in dispersing the original residents of the Ogboli community, forcing them to abandon their homes at Ani Udo. Some moved closer to Igbuzo, where their new settlement became known as Ogboli-Igbuzo. Some moved to Issele-Ukwu to occupy the Ogboli-Issele-Ukwu quarters. Many more moved to Atuma and Akwukwu, while a large party fled across the Niger river to settle in Ogboli-Onitsha.
– Don C. Ohadike (1994). “Anioma: A Social History of the Western Igbo People”. p. 17.
An ọ̀gwa, an ancestral meeting and reception shrine hall of household patriarchs photographed by P. Talbot around or before the mid-1920s in reference to Ogwashi Ukwu. Ogwa Nshi Ukwu means the great ọ̀gwa of founding Nri-Igbo migrants.
Photo: "Chief Okeke" photographed by Northcote Thomas in Agukwu Nri, c. 1911, this photo appears to be among a series including those taken of Eze Nri Obalike in March 1911).
The analysis above shows that at Nri, the ozo title and Nri title of kingship are closely interrelated. The first Eze Nri was the first man to take the ozo title and become the eze Nri; thereafter other men who took the title became eze ozo. This culture element associated with leadership diffused to other parts of Igbo land. ...
The decay of the essence of ozo title in Igbo land synchronizes with the decline of Nri hegemony. Nri title and ozo title symbolize leadership par excellence. The attack on Eze Nri and Ozo title by early British administrators and the Christian Churches was an attack on the basic structure of Igbo philosophy of political leadership. It was unfortunate and unwarranted as demonstrated in recent attempts of westernized Igbo elites to revive a system they still regard as primitive because it happens to be developed by their ancestors. The revived-ozo-title is not ozo title geared to leadership but bears the mark of conspicuous consumption and split political personality. ...
... The Igbo man of today is like a confused political animal, not sure of its political future, because neither the government nor the churches, nor the westernized elites are able to bridge the gap between the two trends of political ethics and values which though they believe are opposing yet could co-exist in the name of Cultural Revival.
– M. Angulu Onwuejeogwu (1979). "The Genesis, Diffusion, Structure and Significance of Ọzọ Title in Igbo Land". In: "Paideuma". p. 142.
A woman and child from Agukwu Nri, photographed by Northcote Thomas, 1910-11. Colourised Ukpuru 2018.
Prince Ben Okolo meeting the colourised photo of his grandfather Eze Nri Obalike.
Ben Okolo was born in 1926, a year prior to Obalike's 'long journey' - Prince Ben was told about the joy the Eze Nri Obalike felt when holding his grandson in his arms when a baby. Prince Ben hopes to erect a museum at the site of Obalike's Palace featuring N. W. Thomas's photographs to memorialise his grandfather.
– Paul Basu.
Nri Obalike, the Eze Nri from Uruoji who was the Eze Nri from 1889–1935. Nri Obalike was Eze Nri during the height of British colonial imposition into the north-central Igbo area, he was the Eze Nri who was made to abrogate the laws of Nri which went against British colonial interest, and also the first Eze Nri to leave Nri as he was compelled to do by the British. The Eze Nri is seen here around 1910-11, photographed by Northcote Thomas who spent some time studying the Igbo which was a job given to him by the colonial regime for the purpose of efficiently implementing indirect rule.
This photo is originally black and white and was digitally coloured by Ụ́kpụ́rụ́, 2018. (Northcote described the Eze Nri as wearing a blue gown, but this interpretation uses brown, although it's not unlikely that the gown pictured could be different.)
For more information see here.
An mgburuichi, an Igbo person with ichi marks associated with Nri. Northcote Thomas, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge. Igbo people were the largest group among people who had escaped enslavement on plantations in Jamaica, mgburuichi were known as 'Bruchee.'
"They were respected throughout Igboland. We have facial marks (ichi) that distinguish us from other Igbo people, and this served as a passport, enabling us to travel unharmed at a time when human beings were essential commodities. People with ichi marks were regarded as Nri men, and were not enslaved. It was probably because of this that some parts of Igboland started to wear ichi."
A 'runaway' advertisement from Jamaica, requesting the capture of escaped enslaved people for a reward in return, noted is an "Eboe man, with the Breeche cut on his forehead," this is an mgburuichi, an Igbo man with ichi marks likely from today's Anambra State. From a compilation of 18th century advertisements for escaped enslaved people in Jamaica. There are over 100 Igbo (Eboe) people listed.
The fact that Igbo "Breechee" show up in Jamaica among runaways from 1777-1793 is significant. It is a concrete sign that the trans-Atlantic slave trade had reached all the way to the Nri heartland in the Anambra valley of northern Igboland, and that by the 1770s (if not earlier) the social violence wrought by slaving and the agawhu (merchant-warlords) was violating even the ancient sacred authority—and the personal safety—of titled "Nri men," who no longer were preserved from capture or kidnapping and enslavement.– Douglas B. Chambers. "The Igbo Diaspora in the Era of the Slave Trade."
[Ichi] scarification is not a tribal mark, but a sign of status, rank, or nobility. It was taboo for persons thus marked to perform any menial task, such as to carry a load on the head; their persons were privileged and sacrosanct and they were never molested. It was also customary for the local native police, if sent to apprehend such a person, never to handcuff him.
In [ichi] scarification no attempt is made to raise keloid scars. The patient is placed supine on the ground and then, with a sharp-pointed, leaf-blade knife, strips of skin are gouged out, leaving long, raw furrows to heal. The operation is a severe test of courage and endurance and may take as long as an hour and a half to complete; it is sometimes followed by grave sepsis involving loss of sight and even of life. The victim, whether adult or child, must not wince or whimper or utter a sound.
