Murdering Women in Nigeria [Women's War]

The Crisis, May 1930, p. 164.

“Murdering Women in Nigeria” by Ben N. Azikiwe, better known as Nnamdi Azikiwe. This is a report concerning the Women’s War of 1929 against British taxation and the killings of women in Opobo by British forces. This was published in The Crisis, May 1930, a Black American journal for civil rights, history, politics, and culture founded by W.E.B. Du Bois as the official publication of the NAACP. The reference to the March 1930 issue is the single strip. Nnamdi Azikiwe was a key figure in Nigerian independence who later became the first indigenous Governor General of Nigeria on Nigeria’s independence in 1960 and the first president of Nigeria in 1963.

The Crisis, May 1930, p. 178.

The Crisis, March 1930, p. 98.

The Crisis, May 1930 [Google Books]
The Crisis, March 1930 [Google Books]

[Links Accessed September 19, 2018.]

The Ibo State Union

Endowment Fund. Ibo National High Schools. Ibo State Union Headquarters. 1954.

The Ibo State Union was the main pan-ethnic Igbo organisation from 1948-1966. It started out as the Ibo Federal Union founded in 1944 by the leaders of the Lagos Ibo Union.

In 1943, Dennis Chukude Osadebay, the general secretary of the Ibo Union in Lagos who represented the Asaba Union, launched a campaign to federate all Igbo unions throughout Nigeria resulting in the formation of the Ibo Federal Union in 1944 which later became the Ibo State Union.

The Ibo State Union's goal was for solidarity among the Igbo people as well as support for educational development. Formed by elite Igbo nationalists, the union also functioned as an anti-colonial and nation-building organisation and supported an agenda for Nigerian independence.

The Ibo Federal Union, once headed by Nnamdi Azikiwe and renamed the Ibo State Union in 1948, produced an Igbo national anthem and once planned for a national bank of Igboland. The union also made the 6th November 'Ibo National Day.' The union was close with the NCNC.

The Ibo Federal Union became the Ibo State Union at a 1948 pan-Igbo conference at Aba in order “to organize the Ibo linguistic group into a political unit in accordance with the NCNC Freedom Charter.”

The Ibo State Union was banned in 1966 along with other political parties by the Aguiyi-Ironsi regime through decree 34 of May 24. During its existence, the Ibo State Union was one of the most influential ethnic organisations in Nigeria.

The Wet Sahara: A Practical Approach to the Question of the ‘Origin of the Igbo people?’

Image: Ukpuru, referencing The Sahara Megalakes Project, King's College London.

[This is a short theory.]

Thousands of years ago, the Sahara was green with life and sported several lakes, Lake Chad was several times its size, and the Sahara was well populated as shown by petroglyphs (rock art) in the area dating from around the time of the fertile Sahara. The greening (and drying) of the Sahara is periodic, occurring every couple of thousand years (It'll be green again).

In southern Nigeria you have several traditions of people migrating from the north to civilise the south, mainly through agriculture as is explicitly detailed in the story of Eri among the Umueri-Umunri-Igbo. Speculatively, these traditions in southern Nigeria could be very old and recycled stories relating to the end of the last greening of the Sahara, otherwise known as the Neolithic Subpluvial. The finds at Nok, for instance, could possibly point to one of the last civilisations from that period when the Sahara desert, once lush with green, continued to dry out. With this development, people living in the then green Sahara, particularly people who were agriculturalists, would have clung onto fertile land where they could for their sustenance. Major civilisations around the world are known to have started near the banks of rivers, in Nigeria this is no exception where there are several cultures which sprang from near the banks of the Niger and Benue and other rivers. With the theory of expansion from the retreating green Sahara, these rivers would have served as crucial life-lines to the migrants searching for stable sources of water and reliable land.

Manda Guéli Cave in the Ennedi Mountains, northeastern Chad. Photo: David Stanley.

The story of ancient legendary primogenitors usually entails a patriarch who migrated specifically from the north of the present homelands, and was said to have brought civilisation, specifically agriculture, and a political structure. The story usually goes that the man and his entourage met aboriginal people in the area who either took this founder as a leader and were incorporated into the new society or were conquered and sometimes expelled from the area.

One such story is that of Eri, the father and founder of the culture of the Umueri-Umunri-Igbo today in Anambra State, Nigeria. In short, Eri is said to have travelled from someplace north before reaching the Anambra area and settling with his children. Any group of people in the areas that are now desert would cling on to and follow the course of rivers as their lands became arid, which would explain the story of Eri coming to the confluence of the Omambala (Anambra) and Niger. Eri is said to have been taught agriculture from Chi, the four primordial spirits, Eke, Oye, Afo, Nkwo, gave him the knowledge of divination and the market (trading).

The other famous founding father is Oduduwa in the Yoruba-Benin story, who in the general story migrated from a northeast direction with religion and civilisation, the connection to the northeast may be linked to the Niger. The origin of Oduduwa is contested, possibly because the Oduduwa story of founding and civilising may be partly recycled from a more ancient story in the area; both the Yoruba and Benin are far older as a people than even the earliest time Oduduwa could have founded a dynasty. The story around Oduduwa also includes meeting a group of people already living in the area who were expelled, and some coming together to form a society.

The Oduduwa story also refers to the conquered or acculturated aboriginal people as either the Igbo or Ugbo, although the tradition claims that these people are unrelated to the present-day Igbo people (and that’s not being contested here), this word may have a particular meaning and words related to it may be significant to understanding the history of the area. The word comes up in a consistent and related manner in several southern Nigerian languages, for instance, igbo and ugbo alternatively mean hinterland, forest, farm, an ancient people or slave in several languages; ugboko is forest in Igbo, ugbo is farm, igbo is bush in Yoruba; even more speculation says the name 'Igbo' refers to hinterland farmers, as opposed to Oru, an ancient riverine people who are now mostly considered Igbo. Igbo is also used to refer to outsiders by some communities considered to be Igbo today, sometimes derogatorily.

The Igbo, Edo, Yoruba, Fon, and Ewe probably come from a similar migration that met a similar set of aboriginal communities, the igbo or ugbo words may be cognates that originally meant forest in these migrant's languages, this may have been extended to aboriginal people in the hinterland. Perhaps the make up of these societies can be likened to having a similar mother and father, the question is whether it’s the same father and different mother, or the same mother and different father; the Igbo/Ugbo, referring to the speculated aboriginal people, may represent the same mother who is the origin of the many cultural links, and specifically linguistic links, between these populations, and the migrating fathers provide some more remote cultural links from the supposed time in the wet Sahara.

The DNA tests done on Ancient Egyptian mummies such as that of Ramses III showing him to have a strong connection to populations in West Africa, in this theory, would come from the intermingling of populations in the Sahara before it was dried out leading to people fleeing to more reliable water sources. In this theory, the mass migrations from the encroaching desert could have sparked the Bantu migration which is estimated to have likely started around the central eastern part of present day Nigeria which is quite near the edge of the Sahara and between the forest and semi arid zones of West Africa. The population pressure from the migrations, with the supposition that the populations in the Sahara would have had agriculture on their side which made them look for fertile land, may have increased the competition for resources in the area leading to a push of migrants hunting for resources towards the south away from the competition, this may be related to the dense population of the area now known as Nigeria.

The area around Igboland is within the reach of the last bit of the African equatorial forest belt from Central Arfica, from the DNA evidence supposedly showing small amounts of Khoi-San-like ancestry in some Igbo people, it could be that this area shielded a very ancient population for a very long time before the coming of agriculturalists. The Igbo people are said to have migrated from two main regions, one around today's Anambra, and one in Imo, the two migrations formed what is sometimes termed the northern and southern Igbo. The southern Igbo are traced mostly to the Isu culture, while the northern Igbo are traced to the Nri-Ọka area. The Igbo to the west of the Niger migrated from both the northern and the southern Igbo. The high population density in Igboland, as well as the technical innovations found in the area such as with the iron finds at Lejja, Enugu State dating to roughly 2000 BC, may support the idea that this area was a ‘funnel’ made by the Niger and Cross River which drew in high competition from the Sahara as Robert D. Jackson supposes (1975). The intense competition and waves of migrants may also explain the supposed susceptibility of Igbo people to change and new ideas.

Ogbodo Enyi Female Maskers, A Twist of Tradition

It is extremely rare, unheard of and possibly, barring this instance, virtually impossible to find a masking tradition in west Africa that features a ‘heavy’ aggressive mask that is headed by women. A twist of tradition happened in the Izzi (northeastern Igbo) village group of Nkaliki in 1975 when the community oracle, Uke, asked Nkaliki women to organise and dance Ogbodo Enyi in honour of its work saving them from child-killing evil spirits. A woman in this picture is one of the women maskers of Nkaliki shot by Herbert Cole in 1983 dancing an Ogbodo Enyi mask amidst her female supporters. The mask is originally a men’s mask representing leadership and takes on aspects of an elephant (ogbodo enyi meaning ‘elephant spirit’) and is somewhat aggressive when worn by men.

The Ogbodo Enyi of the women’s society, although aesthetically similar to its male counterpart, is considered to be different from that of the male and the male and female maskers never appear in the same context. The female Ogbodo Enyi is embraced by the women of the community and it is worn by a woman who is selected by the ogbodo, like her male counterparts, through divination and a mask is commissioned by the women. Although a few younger men of the community do not acknowledge it, the female Ogbodo Enyi is well respected by the elders of the community and the male Ogbodo Enyi masker acknowledges female maskers during the males performance, a special occurrence since masks are usually separated from women. This is the only documented existence of a masking tradition headed by women in Igbo culture and probably Nigeria where masking traditions are usually exclusively male privileges from which women are largely barred. — Information summarised from Herbert Cole, Chike Aniakor (1984).

King Oputa of "Ogbekin"

An illustration of King Oputa of "Ogbekin", an Igbo settlement noted to be near the Oshimiri (Niger River) from the book Niger et Bénoué (1880) by the Belgian explorer Adolphe Burdo.

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.

Igbo women and girls and their hairstyles, 1900-1930.

The crested hairstyle ojongo was popular until the mid-20th century, it is a distinctive feature of Igbo arts depicting women. Women used ornaments like thread, feathers, shells, bone, wood, beads, Igbo currency, coins, or cloth; mud containing colourful ores, yellow and red camwood powder or paste and palm oil and charcoal were also used for style. Isi/Ishi owu, a threaded hairstyle is still popular among married women in rural areas.

Textile Trading on the Atlantic

Internal trading, that is, trading among Africans, may also have brought about the distribution of [textiles]. [...]

Photo: Akwete (top) and Ijebu Ode (bottom) cloths compared. British Museum.

[...] One could navigate canoes from the Volta River as far east as the Calabar River in southeastern Nigeria. The Popos [Grand Popo and Aného in Togo] were transporting goods along this channel, at least as far as [...]

Photo: "Ferry at Grand-Popo. Dahomey." 1936, British Museum.

[...] Whydah (Kea 1969:39-40) and possibly to Lagos. From either of these two points, [...]

Image: "Canoe on the Yoruba River [sic]." [Ogun River] BMArchives.

[...] Ijebu Yoruba merchants would then have carried them by canoe to the eastern side of the delta, as the literature tells us they had done with other textiles.

— Lisa Aronson (1982), Popo Weaving.

Odeziaku: Poet, pederast and palm-oil merchant

John Moray Stuart-Young (1881–1939) was an English 'Uranian' poet, memoirist, novelist and merchant trader who was born into poverty in the slums of Manchester and eventually found his way to Onitsha where he later became a wealthy merchant palm-oil trader under the British colonial machine. Ostracised by the white colonial upper class in the British west African colonies, Stuart-Young was embraced by the people of Onitsha who nicknamed him Odeziaku. He grew famous in Onitsha for his stores and his 'strange ways' as well as for his lack of interest in women and his apparently unmarried status. His 'strange ways' were really his 'Uranian' tendencies, John Stuart-Young was a 'boy-lover' who took a few [very young] Onitsha boys under his wing over the years, sponsoring them and their families and leaving much of his wealth to them on his death. John Stuart-Young's perceived 'effeminate' demeanour earned him the names Eke Young and Mami Wata's Wife by the Onitsha people, names he detested, preferring Odeziaku ('writer of wealth', originally a misspelling of Odoziaku, 'treasurer'). His weird shopfronts in Onitsha town, some of the shops including 'Ye Little Wonder Shop', Half Way to Bush' (his dwelling called 'The Little House of No Regrets'), with distorting mirrors in his largest store, had his stores nicknamed Mami Wata's shrine and further linked his 'unconventional' ways with the water spirit, a figure that was largely born out of the contact between west Africans and Europeans on the coast.

As a writer Stuart-Young assumed names such as "Jack O'Dazi" and "O. Dazi Aku", carrying on from his consciously manufactured identity in Onitsha, a place far from the slums of Manchester. His articles and poems were highly regarded and printed in several African-edited newspapers which had him hailed as "West Africa's Poet Laureate". John Stuart-Young died from throat cancer in Port Harcourt on 28 May, 1939. The ceremony for his mourning lasted up to four days and was attended by 10,000 Igbo mourners; a newspaper suggested his grave should become a national shrine.

John Stuart-Young's story highlights many things about Africans and Europeans in the colonial period and the relations between them, one of the largest take aways is the unveiling of the breadth of exploitation of Africans by European colonial agents. Stuart-Young's story shows the extent to which a European could be embraced in an African society and how different identities were dealt with in Igbo society in particular.

John Stuart-Young's life and implications surrounding his identity has been expounded upon in The Forger's Tale: the Search for Odeziaku by Stephanie Newell.

The Account of the Phoenix, A Slave Ship Stopped by Africans from Trading in the Bonny River, 1757

“Paquito de Cabo Verdo Portuguese Slave Brig captured by the Boats of HMS Scout on the 11th Jany 1837 in the Bonny River. She had mounted 2 18 Prs with a Crew of 35 men and 576 slaves on board.” – National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London.

“Captain Bailie, commander of the slave-ship Carter, writing to his owners in Liverpool from the River Bonny, Africa, on January 31st, 1757, reveals the method sometimes resorted to by slave-captains to compel the native chiefs to trade with them. He says:—

"We arrived here the 6th of December, and found the Hector, with about 100 slaves on board, also the Marquis of Lothian, of Bristol, Capt. Jones (by whom I now write), who was half slaved, and then paying 50 Barrs, notwithstanding he had been there 3 months before our arrival. I have only yet purchased 15 slaves at 30 and 35 Barrs; but as soon as the bearer sails, I propose giving more; for at present there is a dozen of our people sick, besides the two mates, some of whom are very bad, and I have been for these last 8 days in a strong fever, and frequently insensible. Yesterday morning I buried Thomas Hodge, and on the 13th James Barton. Capt. Nobler of the Phoenix arrived here the 3d, and on the 19th our trade was stopt (as it had often been before) ; upon which we all marched on shore to know the reason and applied to the King thrice, though he constantly ordered himself to be denied, and wou’d not admit us. However, we heard his voice in doors, and as he used us so ill, we went on board, and determined (after having held a Council), to fire upon the town next morning, which we accordingly did, in order to bring them to reason, but found that our shot had little effect from the river, upon which we agreed that the Phoenix and the Hector shou’d go into the Creek, it being nigher the town, whilst Captain Jones and I fired from the river. The Phoenix being the head-most vessel went in, and the Hector followed about a cable’s length astern. The Phoenix had scarce entered the Creek before they received a volley of small arms from the bushes, which were about 20 yards distant from the ship, and at the same time several shot from the town went through him, upon which they came to anchor, and plied their carriage guns for some time ; but finding there was no possibility of standing the decks, or saving the ship, he struck his colours, but that did not avail, for they kept a continued fire upon him, both of great and small arms. His people were thrown into the utmost confusion, some went down below, whilst others jumpt into the yaul which lay under the ship’s quarter, who (on seeing a number of canoes coming down to board them) desired Capt. Nobler to come down to them, which he at last did, as he found the vessel in such a shattered condition, and that it was impossible for him to get her out of the Creek before the next ebb tide, in case he cou’d keep the canoes from boarding him. With much difficulty they got on board the Hector, but not without receiving a number of shot into the boat. The natives soon after boarded the Phoenix, cut her cables, and let her drive opposite the town, when they began to cut her up, and get out her loading, which they accomplished in a very short time. But at night in drawing off some brandy, they set her on fire, by which accident a great many of them perished in the flames. The Phoenix’s hands are distributed amongst the other three ships, and all things are made up, and trade open, but very slow, and provisions scarce and dear.” The Marquis of Lothian was afterwards taken and carried into Martinico.“

— Gomer Williams (1897). History of the Liverpool privateers and letters of marque with an account of the Liverpool slave trade. pp. 481–482.

Igbo Water Divinities

River gods and goddesses are found wherever a significant river or waterbody is found in Igboland, some of the more powerful cults cover larger areas and command more respect and followers by the importance of the waterbodies. Often of fluid gender, the water spirits are powerful ‘images’ of sexuality, fertility, beauty, and wealth and power. The most powerful water spirits are listed.

Ńjābá

Ńjābá is so powerful among southern and specifically southwestern Igbo communities that he outranks Àlà, the Earth Mother, in these communities. Ńjābá is usually male and is the guardian of the river of the same name that is a major tributary of Ụ́gwụ́tá (Oguta) Lake in Imo State, Nigeria. Éké, the royal python, is sacred to Ńjābá and surrounding communities consider them messengers and manifestations of Ńjābá and somewhat of a totem animal of which it is forbidden to harm or eat; serious fines and the responsibility of funding a human-sized burial for the snakes befalls anyone who harms pythons.

Ímò Ḿmírí

Ímò Ḿmírí is the spirit of the Imo River [pictured] which runs between present day Imo State (which is named after the river) and Abia State and runs into the Atlantic between a section of Rivers State and Akwa Ibom State in Nigeria. She is usually feminine and was associated with the Ibinukpabi oracle or “Long Juju” of Arochukwu, the most powerful oracle in southeastern Nigeria during the Atlantic Slave Trade, and she is considered as its female counterpart. Ímò Ḿmírí is a largely benevolent fertility spirit. In myth, the Imo is the river that rushed between the Ngwa people of Abia State and their relatives in Imo State creating a permanent cut-off between them.

Óshìmírí

Also: Ósìmírí / Órìmílí / Órìmírí / Ósìmílí - the female spirit of the Niger River which is named after her in Igbo. As is usual to feminine water spirits she is a fertility goddess. Èzù nà Ómáḿbálá, the confluence of the Anambra and Niger Rivers, is the site where Èrì’s band, the primogenitor of the Umuleri and Umunri Igbo people, migrated from the north to and settled.

Ìdèmílí

Ìdèmílí is the female spirit of the river of the same name that runs through the local government area of the same name in Anambra State, Nigeria. Ìdèmílí means ‘the pillar of waters’ referring to the spiritual force of the water spirit preventing rain-clouds in the sky from falling [ídè also means flood, and water spirit forces are known to punish through floods or other sorts of water-logging]. Like most water spirits Ìdèmílí is a fertility goddess. Éké, royal pythons, are also sacred to Ìdèmílí and to communities that depend on her and are also known as Éké Ìdèmílí. Ìdèmílí’s story also involves appearing to mortals as a maiden.

Ụ̀háḿmírí

Also: Ụ̀hámírí - The ambivalent feminine spirit of Ụ́gwụ́tá Lake of which she owns, she is paired with Ńjābá and she is also known as Ògbúìdè meaning ‘deep floodwater’ and her husband is Okita. Ụ̀háḿmírí roughly translates from Igbo as ‘the shining beauty of the waters’; Ụ̀háḿmírí is beautiful and wealthy and happy and childless. She is a powerful spirit among women in Ụ́gwụ́tá and is considered as somewhat of a spirit of achievement among women; successful women in Ụ́gwụ́tá especially were said to mostly be devotees of Ụ̀háḿmírí.

Ụ́ràshị̀

Also: Ụ́làsị̀ / Ụ́ràsị̀ - The spirit of the Ụ́ràshị̀ (Orashi) River which runs through Imo State and Rivers State. A male, Ụ́ràshị̀’s sacred grove, like Ògbúìdè’s, was marked primarily by the red and white pieces of cloth.

Ọ́máḿbárá

Also: Ọ́máḿbálá - The spirit of the Ọ́máḿbárá (Anambra) River which runs through northern Anambra State in Anam-Igbo land and then into the Niger River.

Ọ̀tá Ḿmírí

Of the Ọ̀tá Ḿmírí (Otamiri) River which runs through Imo State and particularly Ụ́ràtà-Igbo communities where the Ḿbárí votive shrines are dedicated to his mother, Àlà the Earth Mother, and where he plays a significant role.

The Origin of Red Bones

Creole Boy with a Moth, 1835, by Julien Hudson (American, 1811–1844); oil on canvas; 29 x 23 inches.

‘Red Bone’, referring to an ethnic group in Louisiana and a black American term for people with fair skin, has strong ties to peoples in what is now eastern Nigeria. Originating from 18th century chattel slavery in the West Indies, the term ‘red bone’ takes from the creole term ‘red Ibo’ referring to fairer skinned black people. The term derived from observations of fair skin among some members of the Igbo ethnic group (and some other peoples lumped in from eastern Nigeria) whose numbers in slavery ratcheted up in the 18th century due to internal conflict in Igboland. European slavers and plantation owners often made observations and generalisations about various ethnic groups since different Africans were targeted for their knowledge, education and skills; a hefty amount of stereotyping and dehumanising was subsequently placed on various ethnic groups found in large numbers in slavery. One recurrent observation was the relatively higher prevalence of fair skinned people from the Igbo area, known then in the Atlantic as the ‘Eboe Country’. The fairer skin was demonised by planters as ‘sickly’ and the Igbo were characterised as weak because of this. This also meant their ‘price’ dropped and poorer planters in places like Virginia took many Igbo leading to a saturation of Igbo people there. The disdain, however, may have been fuelled somewhat by the fact that enslaved Igbo people weren’t unknown for their defiance of slavery, immortalised in the folktale of Ebo landing; they were also involved in a number of slave revolts all over the Caribbean, including in Haiti.

Ultimately, this characteristic was taken in as a negative one and the term ‘red’ was combined with ‘Ibo’ (Igbo) as a pejorative used by black people in the British West Indies for people who were black but with fair skin as opposed to mixed people who were just ‘red’ or ‘brown’ thus suggesting a hierarchy of phenotypes and hair types. Some creole linguists trace the term to Louisiana where it was heard as ‘reddy bone’, leading to the understanding of the term as ‘red bone’ with a less negative connotation as it is still used in AAVE today.

The term red bone is interesting as it seems to be a word that’s linked to a particular experience of an ethnic group in slavery. The word itself carries a lot of historical weight in terms of what it meant for one group of Africans in that era. (Kniffen, Gregory and Stokes 1987; Don C. Marler 1997, 2000; Winer (2009). Dictionary of the English/Creole of Trinidad & Tobago. pg. 754.; [Louisiana, Where Music is King, PBS.])