Ọ́jị́ Ìgbò

Image: Cola acuminata, Ọjị Igbo.

A three cotyledonous kolanut […] has been variously referred to as Ọjị Ikenga [cult object of achievement, advancement] […] Ọjị Dike (Kolanut of the strongman or strong kolanut). […] This kolanut is thought to bring good luck and progress to the breaker in any enterprise in which he may be involved. […] Four cotyledonous kolanut is the most preferred in Igboland. 'Four' and 'Eight' are sacred numbers amongst the Igbo. Only a four cotyledonous nut is used on purely religious occasions. […]

In Iwollo in Udi area of Enugu State, a four cotyledonous nut is said to represent the Igbo week i.e. the four market days, Eke, Orie, Afo and Nkwo. Five, six or seven cotyledonous kolanut is called Oji Ọmumu or Ụba Ọjị (Kolanut that brings increase in birth, wealth and abundance of everything.) When broken, the smallest cotyledon is called ubaa (plenty).

– Comfort O. Chukuezi & Anelechi B. Chukuezi. "Kolanut Hospitality in Igboland." Journal of Igbo Culture, 2002, (6) p. 67.

So in looking at Igbo cosmology in general, it would seem that there's the belief that in the beginning there wa one, Chi, and then Eke split out of Chi, and there was two, and then Eke divided the world into four and there was Eke, Orie, Afo and Nkwo, and these are split into big (ukwu), and small (nta), making an eight day week.

Òsú

Photo: "Alusi The same shrine with its priest (seated) and it’s osu (“juju slave”), Orsu, West Isuama [Igbo]" – G. I. Jones, 1930s.

[O]su, an Igbo caste system ... deemed some individuals and families to “belong” to particular deities. Forbidden all social contact with the regular community, these people lived by, and performed custodial services for, the shrines of the specific deities they supposedly belonged to. ... 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.

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.

The Twenty Years War

"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".

People of Bonny

"Groepsportret van inwoners van Bonny in Nigeria rond Chief Fred Pepple [Group portrait of people of Bonny in Nigeria around Chief Fred Pepple]" – J.A. da Cunha Moraes, 1870.

Background of the Movement for an Anioma State

The people of Benin Province were mostly Edos and people of Warri Province were mostly Urhobos. The Ibo-speaking people living in the area were put into two Administrative divisions namely, Asaba Division and Aboh Division. Asaba Division was put into Benin Province and Aboh Division was put into Warri Province. This exercise is an example of the old Roman practice of "Davide et Impera (divide and rule)". Naturally, this did not please the Ibo speaking people West of the River Niger and so early in the Nineteen-forties, some fifty years ago, they formed the Western Ibo Union with headquarters in Lagos to demand that Asaba and Aboh Divisions be taken out of Benin and Warri Province and constituted into their own province to be known as Western Ibo Province. The British paid no heed to this demand and the people went on agitating.

– Dennis Chukude Osadebay (1991). "History of the Demand for the Creation of Anioma State."

Agitation for a separate political identity for the West Igbo dates back to 1939 when a Western Ibo Union, following the division of the Southern Provinces into East and West, requested a merger of the Igbo-speaking communities on the west of the Niger with their kith and kin on the east. Although the colonial government recognized the demand, 'the exigencies of the Second World War made the necessary boundary adjustment impossible.' At a mammoth rally at Amai in August 1956 delegates from West Igbo areas of the former Western Region forwarded to the Colonial Secretary, Rt. Hon. Lennox Boyd, a resolution on the creation of a West Niger Province which would have given them 'a sense of belonging in the context of Nigeria,' and placed them 'on equal footing' with Benin and Delta Provinces.

– Ugbana Okpu (1986). "Genesis of the Anioma Movement" In: Asian and African Studies: Vol. 20, No. 3. pp. 338–340.

The Western Ibo Union has lately been very active in the propagation of the idea of a Mid-West State, and it has spent a considerable amount of money sending delegates to accompany Western Ibo politicians touring the Mid-West, in order to explain the necessity of voting solidly for the creation of a Mid-West State. Western Ibo land has been a traditional National Convention of Nigerian Citizens area, and most of the elite feel, justly or unjustly, that as a result of their political alignment, they had not, in the former Western Region, received their fair share of amenities.

– Chukwuka Okonjo (1967). "The Western Ibo" In: “The City of Ibadan.” p. 114.

An Igbo Girl with Nja

An Igbo girl photographed by British colonial government anthropologist Northcote Thomas, c. 1910-11. MAA Cambridge. Colourised from black and white, Ụ́kpụ́rụ́ 2019.

An Igbo Girl

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

Mbari

Urata-Igbo Mbari votive shrine. The buildings are built in honour of particular deities, most often Ala the Earth Mother, in what is now Imo State and Rivers State. The actual site is not used as a place of worship. Photo: Edward Chadwick, 1927-1943. British Museum.