AGBOR AND IGBO HAVE NO LINK IN HISTORY

By Basil Okoh

MaTaZ ArIsInG
Dallas, Texas

There has been an inundation of claims by social media historians of Agbor origin from Nri in Igboland. Adiele Afigbo, the most renowned Igbo historian and foremost researcher in Igbo history never mentioned any such connection of Agbor to Nri but he did generalize that people of the Western Niger share similar cultures and some like Ogwashi-Uku and Igbuzor directly migrated from Igboland. The truth in his writings are self evident.

Agbor has had no historical connection to Nri or anywhere in Igboland. Agbor was the dominant power from Ohiomu to Ohimi Rivers, located further west of Ohimi (River Niger).

Agbor is a far older civilization than Nri and any other settlement or community in Igboland. Nri was the place of a failed attempt at empire building in Igboland in the early sixteenth century. But it was all based on the efforts and magical powers of one man. It is now regarded by Igbo historians as the original place of ingathering of the Igbo. It also remains a historical reference as the source of dispersal of many Igbo sub-groups.

Long before AD 1270 when Ebonka seized power in Agbor and introduced hereditary monarchy, Agbor had a system of democratic government that was unique in world history. Ebonka, famously known as Dei was a professional fighter and an itinerant warlord, taking on wars and fights up to the Maghreb in North Africa, where his fighting prowess earned him the name Dei, the Latin word for God, for his fighting skills and invincibility in warfare. His moniker followed him home and his people called him Dein in the orthography of Agbor language.

Deins’ seizure of power happened after two long running dynasties in Agbor history; the Ogiso and the Ogele dynasties, each of which lasted over a thousand years.

Now according to settled historical accounts, Eri, the god-like founder of Nri settled in the region of Aguleri in 1500. This is thousands of years after the establishment of Agbor Kingdom and two hundred and thirty years after the founding of the presently reigning Dein dynasty and at least 200 years after the reign of Dein Ebonka who fought all the way to North Africa and back before seizing power and creating a throne that has lasted to the present King, Dein Keagborekuzi.

In clear contradiction, Angulu Onwuejeogwu, another Igbo historian, in 1981 named the successor to Eri to the leadership of Nri as Ifukuanim, son of Eri who reigned in 1225, while stating that the origin of Eri was in 1043, a time difference of nearly 200 years. Between the reigns of Eri and his son Ifukuanim, there is a time gap of 200 years and no one has offered any explanation for this discrepancy.

There is a bigger unresolved contradiction. While Thurston Shaw, the archaeologist who discovered the artefacts of Igbo-Ukwu carbon dated them to the 9th century AD and from that, projected the appearance of Eri of Nri to that period, later historians and archaeologist, including Angulu Onwuejeogwu placed the appearance of Eri of Nri firmly in the sixteenth century AD.

Whatever the dating of Eri and the appearance of the Nri civilization, Agbor predated the Nri phenomenon by thousands of years of settled history and agrarian civilization. Agbor cannot therefore by any stretch of historical imagination have it’s roots in Nri which was a more recent historical phenomenon.

Igbo-Ukwu was the headquarters of the Nri civilization. Charles Thurston Shaw then of the university of Ibadan, was the original archeologist who did the seminal work in discovering the artefacts of Igbo-Ukwu, particularly the very first “Igbo Isaiah”. He toured many universities to talk about his findings at Igbo-Ukwu. I listened to some of those lectures, asked questions and was later in a group visit to the sites.

Carbon Dating technology has put the dates of the Igbo-Ukwu artefacts at the 9th century but other archaeologists later disputed these dates, placing the works of art firmly in the 15th century, which makes them align with the emergence of Eri.

Whatever dates that are acceptable to the archaeology establishment, what is proven is that the Agbor Kingdom is far older than the Nri furtive attempt at empire building through magic and occult powers which Eri was claimed to possess.

By the turn of the first millinium, Agbor had a fully established civilization with a kingship system that had thrived for centuries and was in it’s second dynasty. Above all else, Agbor had developed a succession system that was ordered, peaceful and acceptable to it’s people. The apparatus of government and an ordered society was complete: an army with it’s own technology of defense and warfare, an agrarian system that was settled and self sustaining, a functional spiritual and religious system based on a cosmology founded on a self derived belief system.

Nri faded out of the consciousness of history less than two hundred years after the appearance of Eri and his magical powers. History records only two persons who occupied leadership positions in Nri; Eri and Ifukuanim, his claimed son. Some Igbo historians claim that there were nineteen others but cannot provide their names.

So the question should be asked of Social Media historians, how an old established kingdom as Agbor was, emerged from Nri, a settlement that emerged when Agbor had been long established and thriving for thousand years? Nri was no more than a historical flash in the pan and the only things of remembrance that still connects the world’s consciousness to it are the artefacts of Igbo-Ukwu.

Onitsha is a creation of an Agbor native, Kime, descendant of Dein, one time regent of Agbor Kingdom. Onitsha remains in custody of an “offor” from Agbor, taken away by the fugitive Kime, in his dogged refusal to relinquish the throne for his brothers son to ascend to his kingship. Igbo has no kingship traditions and they flaunt their avowal to the rejection of monarchy. “Igbo enwere eze” So Onitsha is the only historical monarchy in Igboland and it was inherited from Agbor. This matter comes up again to illustrate the deep historical, cultural and therefore anthropological difference between Agbor and Igbo which go to prove beyond any doubt that Agbor and Igbo have never shared any historical commonality.

Onitsha is the only community with a kingship system in the entire Igboland and the system was transferred by Kime descendant of the House of Dein of Agbor to Onitsha. Every other king in Igboland was issued a “warrant” by the British colonial government to become a king or Chief. “Igbo enwere eze” was the initial response of the Igbo to the appointment of these warrant chiefs.

Agbor has used the institution of the monarchy as it’s means of social organization and governance for thousand years of history. Even today, with all the modern liberal tendencies and the pulls of republicanism, Agbor is strongly reliant on its system of monarchy for social cohesion and as a platform for embracing and engaging the world.

When you hear the youth of Agbor in strident criticism of their King, it is not because they want to abolish the monarchy but that they demand from their king the immersion of the monarchy in the beloved traditions of Agbor. The youth demand that the king fulfill traditional obligations and stay the course of promoting Agbor heritage. This youth agitation flies in the face of youth concerns everywhere else as youth would want to abolish tradition and embrace new and libertarian practices.

The absence of kingship traditions in Igboland strongly proves that Agbor and Igbo don’t share any congruence in origins and culture.

Furthermore, the Igbo religion and belief system is fundamentally different from Agbor and this underlines a fundamental cultural difference arising from a different historical experience. These differences impact on the two people’s perception of the world and their responses to life’s interventions.

Agbor believes in Osolobue, Ose for short, who created the world at Oza. Ose owns the land and everything in and on it. The different deities are messengers or “angels” of Ose serving different purposes and the different needs of human life. Olokun for example is the goddess of the waters from the shallow springs to the deepest seas and ensures the interconnectedness of the waters of the world, from the cup you drink to water in the skies falling as rain and to the deep seas, water sustains life and everything on earth.

The deities help to uphold truth and justice in the communities. Their responses to oaths and pleas for justice can be swift and devastating. God in Agbor cosmology has no abode but is everywhere, all the time. It is for this reason that our king goes to “Igbosē” in Oza, our mythical place of creation, at the beginning of every year to perform the rites of reconciliation and renewal between God and the land of Agbor and to reaffirm God’s supremacy over creation. After this rite of annual renewal, the Igue festival is performed.

Igboland has Chiukwu or Chineke (The God who creates). Chiukwu owns the land “ala or “ani” and the people keep it in trust for Chiukwu. The traditions and precepts associated with the ownership of the land are called ama’la. Chiukwu also owns everything in creation but all are held in trust by the people who use them.

Chiukwu or Supreme God has an abode, a sacred shrine located in a town which bears the name Arochukwu, the abode of God. The shrine itself is in a cave located in a sacred Grove in Arochukwu. From his abode in Arochukwu, Chiukwu adjudicates on every matter brought before him by priests and appointed agents from everywhere in Igboland.

The accused or disputants are taken to Arochukwu where their cases are judged and the guilty punished by fines and in grievous cases by decapitation. In the early days, those found guilty for crimes requiring capital punishment were killed but with the coming of slave trade, they were smuggled out through back channels and sold into slavery to the coastal people.

Over time, this intermediary role of agents and priests of Chiukwu began to be abused and when the Atlantic Slave Trade came into bloom in the Eastern shores, Arochukwu became a conduit for securing slaves for sale to traders from the Coast. The coastal people then sold these Igbo slaves to White traders in the burgeoning Atlantic slave trade.

Agents prowled all over Igboland looking for people in dispute and then carting them off to Arochukwu where they are condemned and sold to slavery. This practice ballooned to crisis proportions to the point that even little misdemeanors were taken to Aro and the people condemned and sold to slavery.

The result of all these was that Igboland contributed willingly, the largest number of slaves to the Atlantic Slave Trade along the West African Coast. Igbo slave traders of Arochukwu wouldn’t stop until the 1930’s.

Agbor never had the tradition of selling their own people as slaves to anyone. But make no mistake, people who committed grievous crimes in Agbor were hung on trees. For sacrifices in Agbor, raids were made into Igboland for “igbon”. The Agbor have a saying which touches on the very belief of the sacredness of Agbor lives: “Wea ara gi nwa alli mē nmō”. A child of the land is never used for sacrifice.

There is nowhere the cultural and historical difference between Agbor and Igbo is more evident than their land use and farming systems. Traditionally, the Igbo live on their farms, surrounded by their crops and other agricultural and economic investments. This is the reason why their communities are so dispersed with no communal forests. The Idoma, Tiv and some other Middle Belt communities live the same way.

Agbor have for thousands of years designed their farming and land use systems to live together in close communities called “idumu” or” Ogbe”. Agbor for centuries developed the culture which separates homesteads from farms and other economic engagements. They live together and commune together and most times farm together in “Otu-Ugbo”.

The Agbor practice is to have at least two farms. Ugbo-nta is nearer home and generally smaller in size and density of crops. Ugbo-Uku is more further afield, bigger and taking the more valued crops such as the yellow yam. The farms are allotted to the wives and some beloved sisters to plant market crops and sell for their own gain.

Agbor and Igbo have lived in two historically different worlds and never shared historical concurrence or cultural affinity any more than we have had with other black African communities across Sub-Saharan Africa. We are no culturally closer to the Igbo than we are to the Bini or Yoruba or any other in the kwa language group of West Africa. We share racial traits with Igbo just as we do with the Zulu or Ndebele of Southern Africa or the Nilotic tribes of Southern Sudan.
@basilokoh

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