Owere Woman

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.

Uri Art, Bende

An ùrì drawing from Bende made by an uncredited Igbo woman artist (or group of women). Photographed by G. I. Jones, 1930s. MAA Cambridge.

The Poetics of Line: Seven Artists of the Nsukka Group

Igbo Speech

Photo: An Igbo notable and a meeting in his compound, late 19th century.

Indirect speech, multilayered and complex meanings and action is characteristic of Igbo communication, at least originally. The Igbo way of talking was/is often indirect, there was often the use of euphemisms and analogy not only to be polite or to show off oratory skills, but to take a non-combative stance, at least perceptively. The goal is always to seem rational and objective. This form of communication is also one in which a person strives to remain elusive; it has developed in a society ruled by debate and consensus based on perceived ration for hundreds of years. This form of communication includes the use of proverbs and in other cases indirect speech, like in the case of 'kam ga hụ nwanyị ahụ agwọ tara' when going to the toilet, it can also be seen in the lack of the verb for love, instead 'ịhụnayna', the meeting of the eyes, is used, the term alludes to the reciprocity of love, to the idea that it isn't simply one acting (loving) on the other. At first glance, 'let the day break' (kachibọọ) for goodnight, 'have you survived overnight?' (ịbọlachi) for good morning, and 'keep on working' (daarụ) or 'you have done it' (ịmẹla) for thank you, may seem distant, this however is the stoic nature of Igbo communication that honours and values objectivity, but contains a deep amount of meaning and emotion.

This way of communicating means that an action or a declaration may not be valued by its own but for its ultimate goal or for its intention given a wider perspective. This is somewhat like a verbal guerrilla strategy and one in which a person seemingly takes a step back only for them to take a better position. The question may be whether this art form still exists among the Igbo people, or whether things have been slowed down and can only be approached at face value, whether there still exists reflection and the ability to not rush into the most obvious paths and into pitfalls.

Ọ̀kọnkọ̀ masks, Opobo

"Play of late Chief Ogolo of Opobo - men dressed in ritual costumes." photographed by Arthur Tremearne, c. 1913. MAA Cambridge.

These appear to be Ọ̀kọnkọ̀ masks which is the Ekpe society over the eastern part of the delta including present-day Abia, Imo, and Rivers State. It was spread by the Aro people as a way of securing commercial ties on trade routes (including the slave trade). The mask on the extreme right is known in the Igbo hinterland as Ohu ebì meaning porcupine quills.

Ohu ebì, an Ọ̀kọnkọ̀ mask used throughout the south central and eastern part of the Igbo country and the delta.

Societies like Ọ̀kọnkọ̀ in the southern Igbo area are part of àbàràm̀àba, the different societies a man especially may enter to expand their knowledge, trading ties and prestige; knowledge, like that of Ekpe-related nsibiri, and titles had to be purchased. Ọ̀kọnkọ̀ acted as a judicial authority before colonial conquest in these areas where centralised authority like Eze or Obi were largely absent or symbolic like in case of the Aro. The name appears to have come from an Ekpe mask.

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With the Igbo east of the Niger, there's a rough split culturally between north and south, especially southeast. Towards the south some of the stereotypical cultural elements of Igbo people, mmanwu, Ikenga, Ozo na Nze (red caps), Ogene genre, etc. are faint or completely absent. It often means Umuahia groups for example can share a lot of culture with Opobo for instance that they do not with Onicha. The cultural continuum to the south blends into the delta areas (like Kalabari) with dialect, dance, dressing, music, etc.

One of the major differences is that the stratified system based on priests in some areas to the north like Nri, is completely absent in the south and is replaced by rich titled men and men's societies like Ekpe and Okonko which were borrowed from the Cross River. This is related to the two main areas of origin for most Igbo groups which is the Nri-Öka area and the Nkwere-Ölü area. With the solidification of pan-ethnic identity, and influence of colonial policy, you might now see monarchical systems like Eze to the south and people wearing red caps, but these things are not part of the core culture.

"In Nigeria It Is The Women Who Propound Laws"

By CAROLINE ISAACSON

One of the most precious gifts a kindly providence can bestow upon one, W. L. George, a popular writer in the early days of the century, but alas little read today, once declared in one of his books, is a sense of adventure. That sense that sends one questing and which invests even a tram journey with- a certain amount of excitement. I thought of this when recently I met Mrs Kenneth Ross

For we got into conversation, and I learnt that she had been in Australia but a very short time, ana had spent the greater part of her life in Nigeria. Her coming to this country was via Singapore, the same as so many other newcomers to these shores.

The name Ross and Nigeria instantly recalled to my mind a book Ik had once read by Sylvia Leith

Ross about that particular part of the Empire, and I was most interested to learn that Mrs Leith Ross and my travelling companion were not only sisters-in-law, but had spent some considerable time together in Nigeria whilst the investigations which form the basis of the book were being made.

Mrs Kenneth Ross accompanied Mrs Leith Ross on many of her exploratory journeys. They travelled all over Nigeria, and the subsequent report on the life of the Ibos is considered one of the most comprehensive documentary research efforts compiled.

Life in Nigeria appears to be amusing as well as interesting. Marketing, for instance, Mrs Ross told me, she found not only a necessary but an exhilarating pastime. All the goods and foodstuffs are set out in the market in sections, and more by good luck than by good management lanes are somehow kept open between them. "It is true one had to pick out the needed pot from between 10 pairs of legs, and pull out the desired mat from under 20 garrulous women, and fowls were passed from hand to hand over the heads of the crowd until they reached the purchaser, and a sudden shriek would tell one a foot had inadvertently stepped into a cherished pot of pal oil; yet good temper reigned supreme, and even if a quarrel did arise it was quickly smothered by the laughter of the onlookers," was how she described a typical morn ing's shopping.

I was interested to learn that the Ibo women claim full equality with the men, and indeed Mrs Ross found them if anything the dominant partner. It is women's councils there who rule agricultural matters, and it is these which enact laws for the protection of crops, and enforce them by suitable penalties.

In so far as marriage is concerned, an Ibo girl becomes betrothed while still in infancy. The girl's dowry is paid on the instalment plan, and, what is more, the bridegroom has to pay a dowry to the bride's parents, and if he has not completed payments before 18 months after the first child arrives the parents can recall their daughter to their home, and the husband has no redress whatsoever!

Mrs Ross and I decided that although we Western women may pride ourselves on our enterprise and intelligence and perspicacity, there is still a great deal, it would seem—in comparison with the Ibos—we have to learn.

"In Nigeria It Is The Women Who Propound Laws— And Enforce Them" (1944, December 12). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 8. Retrieved March 8, 2019.

Smoking Pipe

A pipe from Afikpo taken between 1902 and 1909 by Captain James Harold Dyer during the colonial conquest of Arochukwu and what became southeastern Nigeria. Museum of Vancouver, Canada.

The Agbor Rising

Photo: "Mud figures of Chief and Attendants and Commissioner of Police. North Ika" – G. I. Jones, 1930s.

On 9 June 1906 the Ekumeku Society was in the news again, in connection with the killing of O.S. Crewe-Read [Iredi or Rédì], District Commissioner. Crewe-Read, together with an escort of fifty-three men, was on a visit to Uteh — a town in the Agbor district — and had halted for the day in Owa. [T]wo men, who were sent by Crewe-Read to summon the rest of the men of the town … returned late in the evening to report that the people refused to see him, … two policemen … sent to Agbor with telegrams … requesting assistance … were stopped … and the telegrams snatched from them. They barely escaped with their lives. With such a small force and no hope of immediate relief, Crewe-Read started back for Agbor on 9 June, but was ambushed at a place not far away from the town of Owa-Aliosimi. There he received two fatal gunshot wounds[.]

On receiving the news headquarters sent an army under Captain Rudkin to Agbor to ‘punish’ the killers, but in an encounter with the natives of Agbor, two European officers sustained serious wound, two soldiers were killed and twnety-six wounded. … A section of the column managed to reach Owa and did not encounter opposition immediately, and was therefore able to search for the body of Crewe-Read, which was found buried in the bush between the spot where he was killed and the town. It was exhumed and removed to Benin for burial. The battle that followed ended with the capture of the chiefs of Owa, Igbenoba, Inyibo, Ukute I, Ukute II, Ikaria, Ekuneme, Echenim, Tete and Ijioma. On 26 September 1906, these men were found guilty of murder and sentenced to execution by the judge of the supreme court of Nigeria, J.M.M. Dunlop.

– S. N. Nwabara (1978). “Iboland: a century of contact with Britain, 1860-1960”. p. 130–131.

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[E]vents show the lack of sympathy coupled with the resort to driving tactics which could characterise early British rule in new districts. ... It was Crewe- Read's practice too, according to Gilpin, to flog the boys of the different towns in Agbor 'for not turning up to work on the roads as a rule'. Crewe-Read's … end in the Agbor district was … foreshadowed by the events of the first quarer of 1906. When he was an acting District Commissioner, Benin City district, the poeple of Alidinma had refused to see him at Akuku while on tour to the area. … Crewe-Read was not pleased by [the British D. C. Asaba’s] letter in which the … officer expressed the view that it was ‘hard not to say cruel to take people away at this time of the year'. Without any special qualification for knowing the Agbor people better, Crewe-Read pompously asserted that he ‘was the best judge if it was hard and cruel.

– Philip A. Igbafe (1967). "The 'Benin Scare' of 1906". In: “The African Historian”. pp. 10–11.