A PARADIGM SHIFT IN IGBO IDENTITY AND PERSONHOOD SINCE BIAFRAN WAR ENDED

I waited for a quarter of a century to collate and synthesise this treatise. It has been a long solitary, patient, reflective and analytical wait. It has not come easy. I repudiate the common parlance of using the singular to identify a conglomeration of authentic and fake indigenes of a well-known warrior race. Readers are warned to disabuse their minds of borrowed Euro-American educational concepts, ideologies and idiosyncrasies while perusing this diatribe. You may need the services a superbly trained psychologist if you fail to heed this warning. …………………………Dr Jideofo Kenechukwu Danmbaezue, D.Sc.

                                                                                              

AN UNEDITED OVERVIEW FROM WESTERN ENCYCLOPAEDIAS

WHO WERE THE IGBOS BEFORE THE WAR OF SURVIVAL

I·bo [ b] (plural I·bo or I·bos) or Ig·bo [íg b] (plural Ig·bo or Ig·bos) noun 1. member of Nigerian people: a member of a people living in western Africa, especially in southeastern Nigeria. During the 1960s, the Ibo formed the breakaway state of Biafra. Fighting with Nigerian troops and severe famine led to enormous loss of life, and the Ibo capitulated in 1970. 2. language of Ibo: a language spoken in southern parts of Nigeria and in some areas of Niger, belonging to the Kwa group of Niger-Congo languages. 17 million. [Mid-18th century. < Ibo] This was how the Western nations understood us.

In south-eastern Nigeria, archaeological sites confirm sophisticated civilizations dating from at least ad 900, when fine bronze statues were crafted by predecessors of the modern-day Igbo people. These early peoples, who almost certainly had well-developed trade links, were followed by the Nri of northern Igboland. With these exceptions, Igboland did not have the large, centralized kingdoms that characterized other parts of Nigeria. A few clans maintained power, perhaps the strongest of which was the Aro; the Aro lived west of the Cross River, near present-day Nigeria’s southeastern border, and rose to prominence in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Aro were oracular priests for the region and used this role to secure large numbers of slaves. The slaves were sold in coastal ports controlled by other groups such as the Ijo.

Compared with other parts of West Africa, Nigeria was slow to feel the penetration of Europe. Unlike in Ghana and Senegal, no European fortifications were built along the coast, and Europeans—mostly British—came ashore only briefly to trade weapons, alcohol, and other goods in return for slaves. It is not clear what portion of the vast number of slaves taken from West Africa (estimates range from about 10 to 30 million) came from Nigeria.
In 1807 Britain abolished the slave trade and enlisted other European nations to enforce the ban. Britain’s motivations were partly humanitarian—there was a reform movement at home—and partly economic: The British Empire no longer had American colonies whose economic growth depended on slaves, and moreover the rise of industrialization meant Britain needed Africa’s raw materials more than its people. Consequently, trade in products such as palm oil, which Europeans valued highly as an industrial lubricant, replaced the trade in humans. Most of Nigeria’s former slave-trading states were weakened by the loss of income. A few managed to continue a much-reduced contraband slave trade until the 1860s. Others used slave labor to farm plantations of oil palm.
British trading companies such as the United Africa Company took advantage of the weakened empires and established depots at Lagos and in the Niger Delta. Meanwhile, explorers such as Mungo Park and Hugh Clapperton of Scotland, John and Richard Lander of England, and Heinrich Barth of Germany charted the Niger River and its surroundings. The explorers, some of them funded by trading companies, laid the groundwork for the eventual expansion inland of the trading companies. Missionaries also facilitated the process of replacing the noxious slave trade with “Christian commerce.” Some inland peoples took advantage of new opportunities to produce goods for the Europeans, but most resisted and were forcibly subjugated.
Some pages omitted for brevity
Throughout the early 20th century, Nigerians found many ways to oppose foreign rule. Local armed revolts, concentrated in the middle belt, broke out sporadically and intensified during World War I (1914-1918). Workers in mines, railways, and public service often went on strike over poor wages and working conditions, including a large general action in 1945, when 30,000 workers stopped commerce for 37 days. Ire over taxation prompted other conflicts, including a battle in 1929 fought mainly by Igbo women in the Aba area. More common was passive resistance: avoiding being counted in the census, working at a slow pace, telling stories ridiculing colonists and colonialism. A few political groups also formed to campaign for independence, including the National Congress and the National Democratic Party, but their success was slight. In 1937 the growing movement was given a voice by Nnamdi Azikiwe, an Igbo nationalist, who founded the newspaper West African Pilot.
World War II (1939-1945), in which many Nigerians fought for or otherwise aided Britain, increased the pace of nationalism. The growing anticolonial feeling was most strongly articulated by two groups, the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), led by Azikiwe and supported mostly by Igbo and other easterners, and the Action Group, led by activist Obafemi Awolowo and supported mostly by Yoruba and other westerners. By the early 1950s, other parties had emerged, notably the Northern People’s Congress, a conservative northern group led by the Hausa-Fulani elite. The regional power bases of these parties foreshadowed the divisive regional politics that would follow colonialism.
Pressure for independence from within Nigeria was complemented by pressure from other nations, and from reformers in Britain and in other colonies. In 1947 the British responded by introducing a new constitution that divided Nigeria into three regions: the Northern Region, the Eastern Region, and the Western Region. The Northern Region was mainly Hausa-Fulani and Muslim; the Eastern Region, Igbo and Catholic; and the Western Region, Yoruba and mixed Muslim and Anglican. The regions each had their own legislative assemblies, with mainly appointed rather than elected members, and were overseen by a weak federal government. Although short-lived, the constitution had serious long-term impact through its encouragement of regional, ethnic-based politics.
The constitution failed on several counts, was abrogated in 1949, and was followed by other constitutions in 1951 and 1954, each of which had to contend with powerful ethnic forces. The Northern People’s Congress (NPC) argued that northerners, who made up half of Nigeria’s population, should have a large degree of autonomy from other regions and a large representation in any federal legislature. The NPC was especially concerned about respect for Islam and the economic dominance of the south. The western-based Action Group also wanted autonomy; they feared that their profitable western cocoa industries would be tapped to subsidize less wealthy areas. In the poorer east, the National Council for Nigeria and the Cameroons wanted a powerful central government and a redistribution of wealth—the very things feared by the Action Group.
The eventual compromise was the 1954 constitution, which made Nigeria a federation of three regions corresponding to the major ethnic nations. It differed from the 1947 constitution in that powers were more evenly split between the regional governments and the central government. The constitution also gave the regions the right to seek self-government, which the Western and Eastern regions achieved in 1956. The Northern Region, however, fearing that self-government (and thus British withdrawal) would leave it at the mercy of southerners, delayed the imposition until 1959. In December 1959, elections were held for a federal parliament. None of the three main parties won a majority, but the NPC, thanks to the size of the Northern Region, won the largest plurality. Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, head of the NPC, entered a coalition government with the eastern NCNC as prime minister. The new parliament was seated in January 1960.
 Regional and ethnic tensions escalated quickly. The censuses of 1962 and 1963 fueled bitter disputes, as did the trial and imprisonment of leading opposition politicians, whom Prime Minister Balewa accused dubiously of treason. In 1963 an eastern section of the Western Region that was ethnically non-Yoruba was split off into a new region, the Midwestern Region. Matters deteriorated during the violence-marred elections of 1964, from which the NPC emerged victorious. On January 15, 1966, junior army officers revolted and killed Balewa and several other politicians, including the prime ministers of the Northern and Western regions. Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, the commander of the army and an Igbo, emerged as the country’s new leader.
Ironsi immediately suspended the constitution, which did little to ease northern fears of southern domination. In late May 1966 Ironsi further angered the north with the announcement that many public services then controlled by the regions would henceforth be controlled by the federal government. On July 29 northern-backed army officers staged a countercoup, assassinating Ironsi and replacing him with Lieutenant Colonel Yakubu Gowon. The coup was followed by the massacre of thousands of Igbo in northern cities. Most of the surviving Igbo sought refuge in their crowded eastern homelands. In May 1967 Gowon announced the creation of a new 12-state structure. The Eastern Region, populated mostly by Igbo, would be divided into three states, two of them dominated by non-Igbo groups. The division would also sever the vast majority of Igbo from profitable coastal ports and rich oil fields that had recently been discovered in the Niger Delta (which until then was a part of the Eastern Region). The leaders of the Eastern Region, pushed to the brink of secession by the recent anti-Igbo attacks and the influx of Igbo refugees, saw this action as an official attempt to push the Igbo to the margins of Nigerian society and politics. On May 27, 1967, the region’s Igbo-dominated assembly authorized Lieutenant Colonel Odemegwu Ojukwu to declare independence as the Republic of Biafra. Ojukwu obliged three days later.  War broke out in July 1967 when Nigerian forces moved south and captured the university town of Nsukka. Biafran troops crossed the Niger River, pushing deep into the west in an attempt to attack Lagos, then the capital. Gowon’s forces repelled the invasion, imposed a naval blockade of the southeastern coast, and mounted a counterattack into northern Biafra. A bitter war of attrition followed, prolonged by France’s military support for the Biafrans. In January 1970 the better-equipped federal forces finally overcame the rebels, whereupon Gowon announced he would remain in power for six more years to ensure a peaceful transition to democracy.
Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

A SUMMATION OF THE PERSON FROM BIAFRA AS SEEN BY FOREIGNERS IS THEREFORE THIS; A STUBBORN REPUBLICAN WHO IS READY TO FIGHT FOR HIS FREEDOM TO ASSOCIATE WITH WHOEVER HE LIKES, FEND FOR HIS FAMILY, SOLVE THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY IN HIS IMMEDIATE ENVIRONMENT WITHOUT REFERENCE TO EXTERNAL AUTHORITIES THAT DO NOT SHARE HIS ANCESTRAL HERITAGE OF ACHIEVING ANY SOCIAL STATUS HE HAS WORKED SO HARD TO BESTOW ON HIMSELF

IN GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY PERSONALITY USUALLY REFERS TO THAT WHICH IS UNIQUE ABOUT A PERSON AND BY EXTRAPOLATION THE PERSOONHOOD OF THE IGBOS IS THE SUM TOTAL OF THOSE UNIQUE PERSONALITY TRAITS THAT SINGLES OUT THE PERSONALITY ATTRIBUTES OF AN IGBO INDIGENE WHEREVER HE IS FOUND AS DIFFERENT FROM ALL OR EVERY OTHER ETHNIC GROUPS WORLD WIDE

Personality is deeply ingrained and relatively enduring patterns of thought, feeling, and behaviour. Personality usually refers to that which is unique about a person, the characteristics that distinguish him or her from other people. Thought, emotion, and behaviour as such do not constitute a personality, which is, rather, the dispositions that underlie these elements. Personality implies predictability about how a person will act or react under different circumstances.

Theorists emphasize different aspects of personality and disagree about its organization, development, and manifestation in behaviour. One of the most influential theoretical systems is the psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud and his followers (see Psychoanalysis). Freud believed that unconscious processes direct a great part of a person’s behaviour. Although a person is unaware of these impulses and drives, they strive to assert themselves. Another influential theory of personality is derived from behaviourism (see Psychology). This view, represented by thinkers such as the American psychologist B. F. Skinner, places primary emphasis on learning. Skinner sees human behaviour as determined largely by its consequences. If rewarded, behaviour recurs; if punished, it is less likely to recur.

Heredity and environment interact to form personality. From the earliest age, infants differ widely because of variables that either are inherited or result from conditions of pregnancy and birth. Some infants are more attentive than others, for example, whereas some are more active. These differences can influence how parents respond to the infant—one illustration of how hereditary conditions affect environmental ones. Among the personality characteristics that are known to be at least partly determined by heredity are intelligence and temperament; some forms of psychopathology are also in part hereditary.

In addition to the influences of heredity, what happens to a developing child has a greater or lesser effect depending on when it happens. Many psychologists believe that critical periods exist in personality development. These are periods when an individual is more sensitive to a particular type of environmental event. During one period, for example, language ability changes most rapidly; during another, the capacity for guilt is most likely to be developing.

Most experts believe that a child’s experiences in the family are crucial for personality development. How well basic needs are met in infancy, along with later patterns of child rearing, can leave a permanent mark on personality. Children whose toilet training is started too early or carried out too rigidly, for example, may become defiant. Children learn behaviour appropriate to their sex by identifying with their same-sex parent; a warm relationship with that parent facilitates such learning. Children are also influenced by their siblings.

Some authorities emphasize the role of social and cultural traditions in personality development. In describing the behaviour of members of two New Guinea tribes, for example, the American anthropologist Margaret Mead demonstrated this cultural relationship. Although the tribes are of the same racial stock and live in the same area, one group is peaceful, friendly, and cooperative, whereas the other group is assertive, hostile, and competitive.

Traditionally, Clinical Psychologists now hold that the traits of an individual combine to form a personality, and that this personality shows great consistency over time.

Recently, however, many psychologists have argued that traits exist only in the eye of the beholder, and that a person’s personality varies with the situation.

The interview, a widely used method of personality assessment, is a means of eliciting from the subject a report of past, present, and anticipated future responses. Most interviews are unstructured, but some use set questions asked in a given sequence. Skilled interviewers pay attention to what is said and notice how responses relate to nonverbal cues such as posture and facial expressions.

Direct observations are made either in a natural setting or in a laboratory. In naturalistic observations, the assessor notes reactions to everyday situations, typical responses to people, and expressive behaviour. In the laboratory, the investigator experimentally manipulates situations and observes the subject’s behaviour under these controlled conditions. The personality assessor might also rely on the reports of others who have observed the subject in the past.

Personality tests are of two general types—self-report inventories and projective tests. Self-report inventories, such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, pose questions about personal habits, attitudes, beliefs, and fantasies. In projective testing, the subject’s responses to ambiguous or unstructured situations are assumed to reflect inner reality. The Rorschach test, for example, is a projective test consisting of a series of inkblots, about which the subject reports his or her perceptions; the assessor subsequently interprets these responses. See Psychological Testing.

Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

ALL THESE HISTORICAL AND ACADEMIC PREAMBLES HAVE BEEN DELIBERATELY CHRONICLED TO PERMIT MY READERS WHO HAD NEVER SUFFERED THE VAGARIES OF ETHNIC CLEANSING TO IMAGINE WHAT MUST HAVE TRANSPIRED IN THE MINDS OF IGBOS WHO EVENTUALLY ENDURED THE EMOTIONAL AND PHYSICAL PAIN AND STILL SURVIVED THE WAR. THAT THERE HAS BEEN A SHIFT IN ALL THESE IGBO IDENTITY CRISES SINCE THE CIVIL WAR ENED CAN BE SEEN BY COMPARING AND CONTRASTING WHAT WAS ON THE GROUND BEFORE THE BIAFRAN WAR OF SURVIVAL AND WHAT NOW OBTAINS AS THE PERSONHOOD OF POST-WAR SURVIVORS WHO NOW SUFFER FROM DEPERSONALISATION SYNDROMES WHO NOW BEHAVE AS LOSERS OF THE PRE-WAR AUTHENTIC IDENTITY. LET US SEE A FEW EXAMPLES.

THE PERSONHOOD AND IDENTITY OF THE IGBOS IS BASED ON HIS THEORIES & PRACTICES OF “NSO ANI”

A literal ‘word-for-word’ translation of the concept is ‘reverence earth’, whose real import implies; “Total Reverence for the Prescriptions of the Sacred Earth Goddess and Avoidance of her Proscriptions.” This was the sum total of all the pre-western religiosity in Igbo land when community life was all embracive.

Although the pre-scientific metaphysics of the people of Biafra will definitely need updating, their Pristine Social Ethics will never need any existential change despite the whirlwind of foreign religions raging all around them! This is not only the opinion of this author but that of many intellectuals who affirm that the corrupting influence of both Western Education and Foreign Religions will never erase the adoration, loyalty and respect,  NSO ANI still enjoys in the hearts of enlightened souls, liberated intellectuals and self-actualised indigenes of the Igbo land! Authentic natives still live by NSO ANI in their private lives and transmit its mores and norms to their children by words and deeds!

To date, when all other religious abracadabra fail to heal an erring son or daughter of Biafra, resort is made to “ikpu-aru rituals” the sacred and pristine modes of cleansing the individual of the guilt he or she had incurred by desecrating any of the natural laws to appease the ‘Earth Goddess’. No amount of religious imperialism or psychosocial politicisation of Igbo traditional religion can ever successfully replace the respect that NSO ANI enjoys in Biafra. 

The author took his two sons to participate in the ANAMBRA CULTURAL DAY CELEBRATIONS at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium in 1995 for their first exposure to fully traditional dances and masquerade festival. They enjoyed it!

WHAT IS ‘NSO ANI’ IN PRACTICAL TERMS

In one phrase; it is TOTAL OBEDIENCE TO NATURAL LAWS. This was, has been and will ever remain the authentic social ethics of past, present and future indigenes of our land and the genuine religion of true children of CHI-NEKE, CHI-UKWU, OBASI-BI-N’ELU or THE ALMIGHTY CREATOR!

To date, AMADIOHA, the disciplinarian god of thunder & lightning still carries out the punishment of ANY violations of NSO ANI in the entire height, length and breath of Igbo land of Biafra, whether it be Christianised or Islamised!

 

To-date our traditional dress codes are still transmitted to our children as they grow and our youths proudly wear these regalia during feasts.

NSO-ANI IN IGBO RELIGION IS OBEDIENCE TO ALL NATURAL LAWS

Avoidance of Violating the Laws of the Earth Goddess ODINANI

Here, permit me to cite only one entry by an Igbo scholar in the Diaspora who had benefited from western education I found in WIKIPEDIA, the free encyclopaedia;

Ọdinanilt, whichis also spelt; ‘Ọdinala, Omenala,Omenana, Odinana or Ọmenani’ is

THE TRADITIONAL CULTURAL BELIEFS AND PRACTISES OF THE IGBO PEOPLE^[1] of West Africa. These terms, as used here in the Igbo language, are synonymous with the traditional Igbo "religious system" which was not considered separate from the social norms of ancient or traditional Igbo societies. 

Afulezy, Uju "On Odinani, the Igbo Religion", Niger Delta Congress, Nigeria, April 03, 2010

Original Igbo Religion now being updated to RENASCENT IGBO RELIGION was, is and will ever remain Theocentric in nature, for spirituality played a central role in every activity of the indigenes from waing up to going to sleep of their everyday lives. Although it has largely been supplanted by Christianity, the indigenous belief system remains in strong effect among therural and village populations of the Igbo, where it has at times influenced the colonial religions. Odinani is a panentheistic faith, having a strong central deity at its head. All things spring from this deity. Although a semi-pantheon exists in the belief system, as it does in many indigenous African and Eastern religions, the lesser deities prevalent in Odinani expressly serve as elements of Chukwu or Chukouuee the central deity.^[2]

M. O. Ené "The fundamentals of Odinani", KWENU: Our Culture, Our Future, April 03, 2010

THE PERSONHOOD OF EVERY YOUTH IS STRENGTHENED BY THE KNOWLEDGE THAT SOCIAL MOBILITY IN IGBO LAND WAS BY PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENT AND THIS IN TURN INSPIRES HARD WORK AND MOTIVATES YOUTHS TO SUCCESS IN LIFE

 

THE CHOICE OF A CEREMONIAL LEADER IS DEPENDENT ON THE SOCIAL LADDER ONE HAD SUCCESSFULLY CLIMBED OR ACHIEVED IN LIFE APPROVED FOR KEEPING NSO ANI FROM CHILDHOOD, BEING AN HONEST HARDWORKING MAN OR WOMAN WHO HAS BEEN PURE, CHASTE AND DILIGENT BEFORE AND AFTER MARRIAGE TILL THE COMMUNITY RECOGNISES AND RESPECTS ONE’S INDIVIDUAL MERIT TO LEAD. IT HAS NEVER BEEN BY INHERITANCE BEFORE THE ARRIVAL OF WHITE MEN ON OUR SHORES! TODAY ALL THAT HAS CHANGED!

  

TO EVALUATE ANY PEOPLE AND THEIR RELIANCE OF IDENTIFYING WITH THEIR CULTURAL HERITAGE ONE ONLY NEEDS TO EXAMINE THER FAMILY LIFE AND MARRIAGE LAWS AND RELIGIOUS RITUALS THAT CONFERS THIS PERSONHOOD

The rituals and ceremonies surrounding marriage in most cultures are associated primarily with fecundity and validate the importance of reproductive marriage for the continuation of a clan, people or society. We do not marry for pleasure. The various religious rituals assert ancient familial world-view and reinforce communal approval of the mutual choice. It confers on couples the insight into marital vows, which infuses an understanding of the difficulties and sacrifices involved in making what is considered a lifelong commitment to their spouses and responsibility for the welfare of all the children and the clan resulting from conjugal love.
Marriage ceremonies include symbolic rites, often sanctified by a religious order, which are thought to confer good fortune on the couple. Chief priests exist in all communities and they are the mediators between the dead and the living. Because economic considerations play an essential role in the success of child rearing, the offerings of gifts, both real and symbolic, to the spirits of dead ancestors supplicating blessings on the newly married couple, their parents and close relatives are considered significant parts of the marriage rituals. Where the exchange of goods is extensive, either from the bride's family to the bridegroom's or vice versa, this usually indicates that the freedom to choose one's marital partner has been limited and determined by the families of the betrothed.
FERTILITY RITES IN PRE-LITERATE SOCIETIES
Rites intended to ensure a fruitful marriage exist in some form in all ceremonies. Some of the oldest rituals still in contemporary ceremonies include the prominent display of fruits or of cereal grains that may be sprinkled over the couple or on their nuptial bed, the accompaniment of a small child with the bride, and the breaking of an object or food to ensure a successful consummation of the marriage and an easy childbirth. In Umuezeawala and surrounding towns, the bride is given a female goat used in the fecundity ritual that accompanies her to the husband’s house.
The import is that as the she-goat delivers her likes, the new bride will likewise be fruitful in her new home. The most universal ritual is the one that symbolizes a sacred union that may be expressed by the joining of hands, tasting of ground pepper, bitter leaf, salt and oil and finally the tying of nuptial knots with strands of their wedding garments before they dance to the admiration of their kith and kin. These traditions are, to a certain extent, shaped by the religious beliefs and practices found in societies throughout the world. In the African Traditional Religion (ATR) weddings are highly elaborate affairs that last for weeks, involving several prescribed rituals that must be performed at shrines or altars located at both the bride’s and groom’s homesteads. Marriages rituals obey certain rules such as the native week and the actual date of the ceremony. This is determined by local priests or wise elders who carefully select the market days permitted in the community, based on lunar months or astrological calculations.
In our traditional societies in which the African extended family system remains the basic unit, marriages are usually arranged by elders in each concerned family unit. The assumption is that love between the partners comes after marriage and more thought is given to the socioeconomic advantages accruing to the larger family from the marriage than romantic love. By contrast, in modern societies that have accepted western lifestyles where Christianity and nuclear family predominates, educated young adults now opt to choose their own mates. It is assumed that love determines proper marriage, and less thought is normally given to the socioeconomic aspects of the match. However, this has increased divorce rates due to misconceptions of the traditional values attached to the pre-literate marriage customs that ensured the longevity of marriages.
Get a complete copy of the Bible and read all the chapters of the great philosophical books of Job, Psalms and Proverbs for inner reflection and peace of mind when contemplating canonical marriage. Then search for and read every sentence in the Book of the Wisdom of King Solomon and finally those in the Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach, also known in other Bibles as Ecclesiasticus, for family and social skills acquisition! The last reference book is more relevant and attuned to practical family counselling and therapeutics than all the others, so read chapters 37, 38 and 39 for an appetiser before reading selected passages in other chapters as they appeal to you.
It does not matter whether you profess any religion at all or not. Just read and drink in the wisdom therein and learn from the greatest minds that ever reflected on various aspects of human affairs and family problems to enrich yourself and prepare you for the battle ahead. You can have a blissful marital relationship if and only if you heed the warnings in this paper or pay for your foolhardiness in neglecting the instructions and wise counsels we proffer here by landing yourself in social crises and therefore stuck in the murky waters of separation or divorce. Choose!

IGBO MARRIAGE TABOOS AND RELIGIOUS RITUALS IN EZEAWARA KINGDOM BEFORE WESTERNISATION

Marriage is part of a society’s kinship system, which defines the bonds and linkages between people. The kinship system also dictates who may or may not marry depending on those bonds. The prohibitions are called taboos; (plural), and taboo (singular).  “AWARIKES” are the bona-fide indigenes of Umuezeawala town, made up of four clans who are direct descendants of the ancient warrior; “Eze Awara”.

In some cultures people may only marry partners who are members of the same clan—that is, people who trace their ancestry back to a common ancestor. This practice of marrying within one’s group is called endogamy. Exogamy, on the other hand, refers to the practice of marrying outside of one’s group—for example, marrying outside one’s clan or religion. This is what obtains in Umuezeawala town.

One rule shared by virtually all societies is the social prohibition against incest—sexual relations between two closely related individuals. Definitions of which relationships are close enough to trigger this taboo vary a great deal, depending on the society. In most cases the prohibition applies to relationships within the biological nuclear family: mother and son, father and daughter, or brother and sister. In Igbo land it extends to all paternal and maternal uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews and nieces.

In many cultures, the taboo applies to relationships created by divorce and remarriage (step relationships) as well as to those based on biology. The prohibitions on incest and the rules for marriage do not necessarily coincide. For example, step-relatives are not allowed to marry one another, but sexual relations between them are not legally forbidden. A few societies constitute exceptions to the general rule against incest. In ancient Babylon, Britain, Egypt, Israel and some others, brother-sister marriages and sexual intimacy was permitted in the royal family, probably to maintain the “purity” of the royal lineages and retain the ‘blue-bloodlines of royalty’. This does not apply to the Awarikes, since it is a taboo, what we term; Nso-Ala, which is the dialectical equivalent of ‘Taboo’. The world-view and social ethics of our forefathers abhor and forbid such consanguineous relationships of any shade including those between adopted children.

AWARIKES DO NOT MARRY WAR CAPTIVES

Like I had stated earlier, my people did not swallow any shade of insults before westernisation overtook us. We fought to retain our customs. We were a proud race that cherished their ancestral heritage of mores and norms we considered edifying and totally sacrosanct. We were soldiers who fought injustice with all human and supernatural tools at our disposal. Modern religions, the pre-independence colonial administration and the post-independence constitutions have emasculated us and mellowed down our belligerent traits for the good of weaklings. However, the taboo against marrying captured women, descendants of those dedicated to shrines and soldiers captured during wars hold sway to date. We do not marry the progeny of murderers or those who committed suicide. They could inter marry among themselves while still being house helps or freed slaves in our community. Their progeny are still disdained and regarded as slaves or untouchables despite our current pretences at being Christians. This is one of the sore points in our culture that modern evangelism has to find an appropriate solution! 

AWARIKES EXCLUDE TERMINAL DISEASES

We have earlier discussed the Pre-Marital Counselling of the Igbos in general. Now, let us see the genetically inherited diseases that our clan abhorred and investigated properly before approving marriages. Top on the long list are; mental illness, tuberculosis, epilepsy, leprosy, sickle-cell anaemia, leukaemia, kleptomania and congenital promiscuity. Marriage is long drawn ceremony that lasts more than twelve months. The time interval between the first visit and the second must exceed nine months. This is to allow proper research into the family histories of the intending couple to obviate these diseases. Our people had no medical laboratories, but they are accurate in this area of genetically important research. The list is not exhaustive as the author was born long after Christianity had overtaken his grandparents. Variations to these listed taboos exist in differing communities with gradations that differ from Umuezeawala.

BANISHMENT FOR GRAVE SEXUAL SCANDALS

No one who has been convicted of rape lives in my community. If the legal system of the elders finds one guilty, such a one is dispatched to the ancestors before daybreak. No rapist escapes the eager hands of the youth, the police of the council of the traditional ruler and the titled chiefs and wise elders, now known as “Igwe-in Council”. The best he or she can get is self-exile. The family that produced such a criminal suffers social discrimination permanently.

The reason for this is that in my community, there is hardly any reason for rape. The wayward and unmarried ladies are always available for occasional comfort. These are those “who lost their virginity and so were discarded in the husband market”. Besides, the concubines of wealthy men are waiting in the wings for lover boys! “Widows need youthful blood to last longer” is a veiled axiom among my people! A trespassing housewife need only name her lover and she extracts seven big tubers of yam and a live cock for apologies and the religious cleansing ceremony from the aggrieved husband. Every family head is a priest, has a family altar and performs the ritual in his compound. The Chief Priest for the whole town performs at the town level and this is done at the community’s shrine. Such public rituals had deterrent effects on the youth of yesteryears.

In some cases, the erring man might be lucky that he receives the flirtatious housewife as a rejected gift, if the aggrieved man is rich and can afford a new wife. The lover boy gets a second hand wife as an unsolicited bargain! Awarikes have ‘No qualms, No victors, No vanquished’ over such trivial issues. You can say that our pre-colonial days never saw men fighting over non-virgins. But, they fought to the death for virgin brides!

Today, due to the decline of morality in our society corrupted by westernisation of education as well as  aping the culture of white men and their dress codes since the arrival and dominance of imported religions, there is hardly a single virgin bride in all the bastardised Christian denominations that parade as agents of Judaeo-Christian conversion of the pre-literate African religious culture that the missionaries met on arrival. Thus, white weddings are deceitful, false and hypocritical. However, they are currently condoned as there no alternatives.

 

MRS. ALICE N. C DANMBAEZUE IN 2007 ATTENDED ONE SUCH CHRISTAIN WEDDING AND TOASTED SUCH A NEW COUPLE

PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS TO THE SOCIAL MALAISE IN OUR YOUTH CULTURE BASTARDISED BY A FOREIGN CONCEPTS AND WESTERNISATION THAT BREEDS ADULT DELINQUENCY IN NIGERIA IS A PROGRAMMED RE-EDUCATION OF OUR YOUTHS BEFORE MARRIAGE

The youth restiveness in Nigeria is the result of fall in standards of education, morality and employment in our communities. The youth deride parental controls, as the unwritten code now is GET RICH AT ALL COSTS! The kidnapping, militancy and other nefarious youth behaviour now is the quest TO MAKE THE MILLIONS SOMEHOW, ANYTIME, ANYHOW, ANYWHERE & EVERYWHERE.

The religious tradition of our ancestors has been overthrown by imported versions, which have been so bastardised that our youths disregard them or pay lip service to. It seems the adult population is corrupting the youth! There must be real EDUCATION IN FAMILY VALUES to change the tide and avert a lawless society that our nation is turning into. 

There are no role models for the youth; neither among the money seeking evangelists nor among the corrupt political class. THAT IS THE GENESIS OF YOUTH RESTIVENESS. To correct the anomaly, a Consultant Research Scientist and his team of interdisciplinary colleagues conducted a 25-year-old research on the restoration of social ethics through improving family love and morals. You are privileged to be to be one of the sponsors in the implementation of the results of this twenty-five-year existential research results.

The business of laying the right foundation for a happy and self-fulfilling married life starts from the day of birth. One’s parents, brothers and sisters are the first teachers of the novel subject. They model a happy home or a sad one. You may have learnt the wrong attitudes, norms and mores from them! This handbook is designed to drill you in making the right choices now that you are a youth! You have the opportunity to correct your mistakes! Learn from the masters now to win the race of life! 

The Comprehensive Textbook entitled PSYCHOMETRIC FAMILY COUNSELLING proffers all the solutions to marital crises and details pre-marital counselling approaches that exclude incompatibility of marriage partners. It has seven psychological tests that prevent marital crises, depression and divorce in addition to fifty coloured photos of the medical perspectives on the anatomy and physiology of husband and wife in procreative activities. In short, all one needs to know on the Theory and Practice of Family Life to enshrine a healthy, successful and happy home is well documented in the scientific book that has 654 pages and 165 references. 

It was written over twenty-five years of research by Dr. J. K. Danmbaezue, a sixty-three year old research scientist privately employed as an existential therapist with an outfit South East of Nigeria. He treats people with personality disorders and counsels young adults about to wed by administering objective and standardised psychological tests, thereafter he utilises the results to counsel prospective couples, re-direct incompatible couples and conduct group therapeutic sessions for married couples. This is the best prophylactic approach to correcting the wrong values our youths imbibe these days, from peer group pressure and the electronic media, especially the pornographic websites.

ANAMBRA OF MY DREAM IS A LAND OF ACHIEVERS

Ours is not a land flowing with milk and honey. We have the milk in terms of physical cash but there is little honey in terms of being our brothers’ keepers. That must be changed to create a conducive environment for our intelligent and ambitious children. God has given us children, but do we give them love and life? What have we as a people done to ensure that their tomorrow is better than our today? The Anambra of my dream is a land flowing with wisdom, good neighbourliness and investment in the human capital. The family remains the bedrock of a civil and buoyant society. Our teeming population of the fathers and mothers of tomorrow need sound education to avert adult delinquency in the future. They need role models they can look up to. We must secure their tomorrow. I have done so for my kids. It is now time I did so for all the youths in Anambra State.
Every child has a father and a mother and the human potentials of our youth have not been tapped.

This is where I intend to start from and reorient them for the if you agree with my analyses of our waterlo. We have professors and doctors in almost every profession worldwide, but we have none in EDUCATION IN HUMAN VALUES. That is our waterloo! I am qualified to lead everyone who agrees with me that we must seek the Anambra where our lovely children shall live freely and compete with their peers in any other part of the first and second world countries. The time to rescue Anambrarians is now. Join me and my staunch admirers to give our children a new lease of life to demonstrate their potentials to the full. They need fresh air to explore their innate talents and acquire the industrial skills that can turn our state into the Japan of Africa! We can become the new broom that sweeps Anambra clean! With your support by voting me in, WE CAN ACHIEVE IT!

For More Info VIEW     or  Contact:

Rev. Prof. J. J. Kenez, D. Sc.

The Humble Vessel of the Holy Spirit of the Almighty Creator of the Entire Universe 

Phone: 0803-9097614, 0805-1764999 or 0809-6765365,

Visit this website; www.happyfamilynetwork.hpage.com

Email: agunabu1948@gmail.com OR saintkenez@yahoo.co.uk