By
Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe, PhD
Part Eight
I have read through another set of historical cacophony driven by paracosm of lies and ignorance laced in subjective ancestral arrogance by the duo of Charles Tabansi Udene and his uncle Augustine Tabansi Udene, and the question that readily comes to mind is why are the Tabansi Udene family particularly agitated by the superior primordial status of Adama-Nri?
In support of the many highfalutin falsehoods on Nri history, particularly as it relates to Adama-Nri by Charles Tabansi Udene, his intellectual midget-uncle Augustine Tabansi Udene verbosely stated as usual in capital letters:
“APT TO THE POINT UNEQUIVOCALLY VOID OF SENTIMENTS AND UNWARRANTED SECRECY SINCE KEEPING THINGS SACRED AND RESPECTFUL HAS TURNED TO SUPERIORITY AND CLAIMS LACED WITH FALACIES.”
Of course I totally agree with Augustine Tabansi Udene that we must always go the point devoid of “sentiments and unwarranted secrecy.” But before going further to the points without sentiments and unwarranted secrecy, let me remind Augustine Tabansi Udene that the secrets I know about Nri history he does not know, just as his nephew does not know as well, even though I am not from Nri but Ibusa in Delta State.
Let me further inform him that just as they are incongruously relying on such foreigners as Northcote W. Thomas and Michael Angulu Onwuejeogwu to prop up their plethora of lies and fabrications, so anybody or group has the equal audacity to consult me based on my professional expertise as a well-groomed student of Prof Adiele Afigbo Historical School, and which no professional Igbo historian living today can be in doubt.
Unfortunately for Charles Tabansi Udene and his uncle Augustine Tabansi Udene, I am not being sponsored by anybody but only defending the integrity of my historical research as the foremost Nri historian living today. The truth is that no person living today both in Akamkpisi-Nri and Agukwu-Ugbene, except Oba Emenike Ikegbune— former University of Nigeria Librarian knows me personally outside reading my works.
Speaking of my being paid, even though a laborer is worthy of his pay, my intellectual pedigree and precedents, if Charles Tabansi Udene and Augustine Tabansi Udene would care to investigate, will prove that I don’t write primarily for money nah fraudulent money, but for integrity and truth. University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where their Chief Justice Patrick Umeadi is currently serving as Visiting Professor, and my hometown Ibusa can attest to that.
In the last Presidential election, I wrote close to one hundred pro-Peter Obi articles without either meeting Peter Obi or collecting any dime from him or anybody related or connected to him. I don’t think any Igbo writer has yet equaled that sacrifice. I have defended the Igbo intellectually where others feared to thread. Recently, I frontally took on the spurious Fulani historian from Kano Prof. Ahmed Bako for denigrating the Igbo. Was I paid by anybody to do that? So it was indeed a case of self-condemnation for Augustine Tabansi Udene to have stated disgustingly:
“LETS USE OUR RESOURCES TO DEVELOP NRI INSTEAD OF PAYING HISTORIANS TO ACHIEVE UNACHIEVABLE SET GOALS.’
The ridiculous fact of the above statement is that it was indeed the Tabansi Udene family that paid Michael Angulu Onwuejeogwu to fabricate and popularize falsehoods as Nri history. I need not go into details for ignoramuses like Charles Tabansi Udene and Augustine Tabansi Udene who think in their wildest imagination that their questionable Eze-Nri royalty is a license to forgery and fabrication of Nri history, just as their father and senior brother Reuben Nwofor Tabansi Udene did with Prof. Michael Onwuejeogwu.
The same Augustine Tabansi Udene in his abject ignorance went further to state:
“WE SHOULD SHOVE AWAY ALL THESE LIES, HAVE A ROUND TABLE TALK AND ARRIVE AT CERTAIN CONCLUSIONS AND MOVE AHEAD. THIS IS WHY SOMETIMES TRUST IS SHOVED AWAY. AGREEING OR DISAGREEING OF REFERENCED HISTORICAL AND ARCHEOLOGICAL FACTS STATED LONG BEFORE SENTIMENTS IS BEATING ABOUT THE BUSH AND CAUSING UNWARRANTED LONG FACES.”
The question is who telling lies here? Is it not outlandish that the same people who arrogantly walked out on the Anambra State Hon. Commissioner for Chieftaincy and Community Affairs when he summoned both sides for reconciliation should be preaching peaceful settlement at this stage of the dispute? Nobody is averse to the peaceful settlement of any dispute except that such settlement must be anchored on truth and factual traditions and not on leprous fabrications and morally limping forgeries woven in psychopathic arrogance. So let us continue to reveal the truth of Nri history first before coming to roundtable for peaceful resolution of the dispute.
But what baffled me most was the following statement in Agukkwu-Ugbene dialect which I don’t have the time and courtesy to interpret:
“VOGHEBENU IKE OKUKU, IYATA AFU IFE INA ACH0” “NAKWANU EKWE EGWU KA NDI NA AGU EGWU NA AGU EGWU MANA AYA AKABA ARU CHOZIA NDI YA AGBA NYA BU EGWU MAKANA EGWU AFUGWO AMA.”
Anyway at the end, we shall see whose “Ike Okuku” will be exposed. Mr. Augustine Tabansi Udene in his further semi-illiterate presumptuous ignorance stated:
“NORTHCOTE WHOM PROF M ANGULU ONWUEJEOGWU WAS ON HIS TUTELAGE ON HIS HISTORICAL AND ARCHEOLOGICAL FACT FINDING TRIP IN IGBO LAND.”
I want to inform Augustine Tabansi Udene that between Northcoe W. Thomas and Michael A. Onwuejeogwu we have had prominent researchers on Nri history, namely Percy Amoury Talbot in the 1020s, M. D. W. Jeffreys between 1930s and 1950s, and Richard N. Henderson in the early 1970s. Secondary, Northcote W. Thomas never engaged in any archaeological exploration or excavation but ethnographic investigations. So, one does not understand what Augustine Tabansi Udene meant by “archaeological fact finding trip in Igbo land.”
Northcote W. Thomas was a British Colonial ethnographer whose works spanned not only his two popular books on the Igbo but many intelligence reports on Awka District. Michael Onwuejeogwu on the other hand was an anthropologist originally employed to accompany Prof Thurstan Shaw to his archaeological excavations at Igbo-Ukwu as a follow-up anthropologist. But somehow he got swayed by the salivation huge amount of money offered by Reuben Nwofor Tabansi Udene to ridiculously change the course of his research from Igbo-Ukwu archaeological excavations to Agukwu-Ugbene Nri spurious history project.
Chimua Achebe our literary icon tells us that, “Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.” It is clear that the Lions defined in this instance as the Adama-Nri now have their own historians who are countering the forgeries of the hunters called Agukwu-Ugbene.
I have raised many pivotal questions regarding the superior position of Adama-Nri in Nri against the second-class status of Agukwu-Ugbene which in their pig-headed obstinacy in fabrications and falsehoods they have refused to accept. Let us begin with what the Apostle of Agukwu-Ugbene history, Prof Michael Onwuejeogwu said about the supremacy of Adama-Nri:
“Some of the most important palace officers of Eze-Nri are persons selected from Umudiana lineages. They vary in number from five to ten. Some of them are young boys who always remain naked. They carry the gong of Eze-Nri and cook for him… The adult officials of Umudiana lineages do not live in the palace. They live in their village which is part of Nri, about two miles from the present palace. But they attend the palace often especially during ceremonials. They are the personal advisers of Eze-Nri in matters of palace protocol and behaviour in public. They are also in- charge of the inner-chamber of the palace where the sacred royal objects are kept. They have the final say in what is taboo and what is not taboo with regard to Eze-Nri. They introduce visitors to Eze-Nri and handle his paraphernalia. The Eze-Nri speaks to the audience through one of them. They also can touch the Eze-Nri and his regalia, and they alone can perform the coronation and burial of an Eze.”
The question is which authority or role does Agukwu-Ugbene exercise on the person of the Eze-Nri above and beyond the functions and roles of the Adama-Nri? Can Charles Tabansi Udene and Augustine Tabansi Udene tell us what roles Agukwu-Ugbene people play in the office of the Eze-Nri if the Adama-Nri occupy the entirety of the official life of the Eze-Nri? Was there any traditional chieftaincy title around Eze-Nri occupied exclusively by any Agukwu-Ugbene person that is higher in traditional status than Adama-Nri? Are all those caricature traditional committees called Nzemabua and Oru Nze n’Ino not the creations of Tabansi Udene era?
In support of the above statement by the Agukwu-Ugbene most-revered scholar Prof Michael Angulu Onwuejeogwu, we want Charles Tabansi Udene and his uncle Augustine to take a closer look at the attached photo of Nri Jio II Tabansi Udene and tell us the identity of those people around him. We want to know if anybody from Agukwu-Ugbene was among the men around Eze-Nri Jiofo II Tabansi Udene outside members of Adama-Nri lineage in the attached photo.
It did not even end in his life, for even in death Adama-Umudiana has the final authority. This was what the often blindly quoted Northcote W. Thomas by Charles Tabansi Udene and Augustine Tabansi Udene said concerning what happens when the Eze-Nri dies:
“When the king is dead none of his family and no Agukwu man, except from the Adama quarter, may see him; his body is buried in the Onongo. There is frequently an interregnum of considerable length between successive kings. In the absence of a king the Adama people seem to take his place and sacrifice to Nri Menri, the Ndicie of the old kings.”
This was how an Adazi-Unukwu research informant named Nkechifotalu Albert Ezeagwuna presented the above scenario by Northcote W. Thomas:
“When Nri died, it was the attendant who informed one of his relations, who then informed the Adama of the death. The Adama then went to the house to arrange things. Agukwu people were compelled to hire labourers to bury him as none of them would see his body, having been buried previously. After the burial the Adama then took every property of the king. The Agukwu people then brought a ram to the Adama for Ikpu-alu (cleansing of abomination). The ram was used for the cleansing and carried away afterwards by the Adama to their home.”
In respect of Ikpu-Alu (cleansing of abomination), Northcote W. Thomas again proved the unquestionable superiority of Adama-Nri to Agukwu-Ugbene when he wrote:
“The sign manual, as it were of this right was the possession and use of Otonsi, a short wooden-halted iron spear. This spear is used by both men and women of Agukwu in cleansing of abomination. The women’s spear is smaller than that used by men which usually has on it a bundle of odds and ends through which the spear passes. By means of these Otonsi, abominations are removed in non- Umundri town. In Umundri towns abominations are removed by members of the Adama family. This usually occurs in Agukwu and Oraeri but in other Umundri towns the observance is less strict and its permissible for any Umundri man to remove abominations.”
Are Charles Tabansi Udene and Augustine Tabansi Udene also claiming the above facts on the superior status of Adama-Nri by both Northcote W. Thomas and Michael A. Onwuejeogwu as false, concocted or misinterpretation? Was it not for this reason that when two members of Tabansi Udene family committed incest by having sex with one another in 1991 and Agukwu-Ugbene decided to perform Ikpu-alu (cleansing of abomination) without the Adama-Nri, the cleansing was declared a nullity?
Still in relation to Adama-Nri superior position over the Eze-Nri in which only Children of Adama-Nri origin were permitted to perform the role of domestic servants to the Eze-Nri, Northcote W. Thomas stated:
“As servants the Eze-Nri has boys of the Adama quarters, who are called his wives; as soon as they are of age, they must tie on a loincloth and leave his service. The king is compelled to carry out the burial rites of any of his servants who died. A price is paid to a servant exactly as for a wife, and if the servant runs away the price is not repaid. Adama people are said to eat the property of Nri because they are bigger than the king.”
Does the foregoing description of relationship and roles not prove that even the Adama children serving Eze-Nri have authority to abandon their services without consequences even after the Eze-Nri had paid the price of their services as in bride price? This was the basis of the falsehood by some befuddled Agukwu-Ugbene fabricators led by Charles Tabansi Udene that the Adama-Nri are of female lineage. Let’s hear Charles Tabansi Udene:
“It is obvious that Northcote Thomas was writing literally what he was told, and there were not many then who could speak English well enough to explain propally what they meant. If you noticed at the end, I wrote in my own words that there is obviously a deeper relationship between the Eze and the Adama. I also wrote that in the palace, the waist (Ukwu ife) of every 4 legged animal that was killed was given to the Adama. I also said that in Nri, the same was given to women in general.”
The question here is what intellectual pedigree has Charles Tabansi Udene to consider any account by the same Northcote W. Thomas he has been relying upon as literally if what he meant was that Northcote W. Thomas was writing out of context? For the information of the ignorant Charles Tabansi Udene, every animal killed in Eze-Nri’s palace was slaughtered by the Adama-Nri and not Agukwu-Ugbene people; and the waist of the said slaughtered animal was given to the small Adama-Nri servants in Eze-Nri’s Palace.
If Charles Tabansi Udene and Augustine Tabansi Udene are well-informed of the ritual nature of the Eze-Nri then they should have known why even though the Eze-Nri was from Agukwu-Ugbene, he was created and owned by Adama-Nri. Onwuejeogwu described the status of the Eze-Nri in the following words:
“Earlier I pointed out that he is not called Isi or Onyeisi. He is called Eze Mmo or Eze Alusi, meaning the king of the spirits or the king of the spiritual forces and beings.”
To Agukwu-Ugbene, the person of Eze-Nri had died and buried according to Igbo customs and tradition. His wives had also mourned him according to Igbo customs and tradition. This explains why only children of Adama-Nri under puberty age were permitted to cook for him. This further explains why his final death and burial was only the responsibility of the Adama-Nri. You don’t bury a man two times. He had been transformed into a spirit.
To Agukwu-Ugbene people therefore, Eze-Nri only existed as a ghost. And since the living does not interact physically with the dead, it becomes taboo for any Agukwu-Ugbene person to have any direct dealing with the Eze-Nri, except through spiritual intermediaries known as the Adama-Nri. This is why the above accounts by Northcote W. Thomas are self-explanatory.
Charles Tabansi Udene further in his presumptuous ignorance wrote:
“They got their position by the decree of an Eze and can also lose that position by the decree of another Eze. They neither crown the Eze nor are they Kingmakers. The Eze is chosen by the spirits of Nrimenri of our land. They also don’t hold the offor na alo as that is always in the unongu also called uno nso (holy place). This can only move from the Unongu of a past Eze to the Unongu of a new Eze in an appointed time and by the Adama.”
The first question to Charles Tabansi Udene from the above statement is if the Eze-Nri officially speaks to members of public through the Adama-Nri, carries out all the sacrifices through the Adama-Nri, officiates the Igu-Aro (Marking of yearly calendar) through the Adama-Nri, and have the final authority over what is taboo and cleansing of abominations, from which source does the Eze-Nri derive his authority?
Charles Tabansi Udene tells us in his over-blown arrogance crowned in moronic ignorance that the Adama-Nri neither crowned the Eze-Nri nor are they the kingmakers. Who then crowns the Eze-Nri; Agukwu-Ugbene people or the Ata-Igala? Even the Oba of Benin and Ata of Igala have people who customarily crown them.
Alexander Pope tells us that, “He who tells a lie is not sensible of how great a task he undertakes; for he must be forced to invent twenty more to maintain that one.” So Charles Tabansi Udene must be prepared to tell us more lies than he has been telling.
If as Charles Tabansi Udene stated that the Adama do not have custody of the Ofo na Alo, does any Agukwu-Ugbene man possess the customary authority to either touch or sacrifice to the same Ofo na Alo except the Adama-Nri? Who removes the Ofo na Alo from the Unongo to another Unongo? May be Charles Tabansi Udene should as well add another lie by telling us the Agukwu-Ugbene person or family that is charged with the responsibility of removing the Ofo na Alo from the Unongo of dead Eze-Nri to that of his successor.
Charles Tabansi Udene further tells us that, “The Eze is chosen by the spirits of Nrimenri of our land.” The question is which spirit chose both Nri Mabuge Okpoko and Tabansi Udene when both men engaged in ferocious dispute over Eze-Nri until Tabansi Udene used his superior diabolical powers to eliminate Mebuge Okpoko? Which spirit chose both Nri Oba Alike and Nwankpo when both men engaged in brutal contest over the Eze-Nri throne until Oba Alike used his superior diabolical powers to eliminate Nwankpo; just in the same manner Obidiegwu Onyesoh used his superior diabolical powers to eliminate Chukwukadibia Ogbunmor?
Even going through the Agukwu-Ugbene historical Bible called “Nri Kingdom and Hegemony” by their prophet of Nri History Prof Michael Angulu Onwuejeogwu, the tenth Eze-Nri in his king-list is made up of two Eze-Nri named Nri Alike and Nri Apia. In other words, both men reigned as Eze-Nri concurrently. The question to Charles Tabansi Udene is which spirit directed both men to declare themselves Eze-Nri and reigned at the same time? Or is Charles Tabansi Udene questioning the audacity of truth in Onwuejeogwu’s accounts this time?
The truth is that Agukwu-Ugbene is more in population today than Akamkpisi-Nri because of the influx of many people from other Igbo communities who committed irredeemable abominations among their people and were consequently banished. And since it was the Adama-Nri that possessed the irrevocable legitimate customary right to declare such abominations nullified, most of these people found their ways to Adama-Nri for the absolution of their abominations, with Adama-Nri subsequently sending them to settle among the Agukwu-Ugbene.
In other words, most of the people claiming Agukwu-Ugbene origin today belong to the descendants of these people ritually redeemed by Adama-Nri. Tabansi Udene family appears to be one of these banished families rescued by Adama-Nri. Their forefather was said to have been banished from the neighboring town of Nimo for the heinous crime of Iku-Nsi (Act of killing one’s kinsmen by diabolical means). So historically, Nri Jiofo II Tabansi Udene was from Nimo.
When he sought refuge before the Adama-Nri, he was sent to live in Agbadana Village in Agukwu-Ugbene after his ritual cleansing by Adama-Nri. However, none of the five kindred in Agbadana, namely Umuebedike, Umuagu, Uruanuta, Umunechi and Umunri initially accepted to accommodate him, until Adama-Nri used their veto powers to force Umunri Jiofo Kindred to accept him. That was how Tabansi Udene family found themselves in the present Umunri kindred of Obeagu Village in Agukwu-Ugbene.
This is also explained by the etymology of the two names: “Tabansi” and “Udene.” Tabansi etymologically stands for somebody who revels in poisoning people; while Udene means vulture which allegorically translates to a person treated as spiritually unclean yet cannot be harmed. May be Charles Tabansi Udene and Augustine Tabansi Udene in their consummate proclivity to historical fabrications and falsehoods can tell us another meanings to their surnames.
It was alleged that the native doctor employed by Nri Jiofo II Tabansi Udene to eliminate his rivals to the throne—Metuge Okpoko and one other person from his Umunri Kindred was from Nimo. Indeed, it was for the reason of Tabansi Udene’s Nimo origin that Okpoko accused Adama-Nri of bias for their refusal to announce that Tabansi Udene was not qualified to be Eze-Nri being that he was from Nimo.
It was also for this reason of Nimo ancestry that Igwe Osita Agwuna of Enugwu-Ukwu was able to convince the Nawfia and Enugwu-Agidi (Osunagidi) candidates to vote for him as the Clan Head of Umunri Clan in 1958 against Nri Jiofo II Tabansi Udene. In fact, Chief Onyesoh who represented Nri in that election was clearly informed that if he were the Eze-Nri, Osita Agwuna would not have difficulties stepping down for him. But to allow a Nimo man to be the Clan Head of Umunri was unacceptable.
Moreover, many Nri people were equally aware that a powerful delegation from Nimo paid a Condolence visit to Tabansi Udene family after his death in 1979. So if Charles Tabansi Udene and Augustine Tabansi Udene are not aware of their Nimo origin many Nri people are aware. Not only that many people are aware, they are now properly informed, so that a proper roundtable meeting can be constituted to settle the raging dispute over the Eze-Nri throne by real Nri indigenes and not strangers who became princes by accident of history.
The question then is, what superior pedigree do members of Tabansi Udene family have in the present Nri historical setting that makes them think they can derail the course of the true history of Nri by mere relying, albeit discordantly on Michael Onwuejeogwu and Northcote W. Thomas?
Often incongruously quoting Michael Onwuejeogwu and Northcote W. Thomas without any underpinning historical interpretative intelligibility, Charles Tabansi Udene in particular often forgets that research in Nri history did not begin and end with Northcote Thomas and Michael Onwuejeogwu. The study of history is not fable or the art of storytelling but a systematic body of knowledge founded on circumstantial analysis of extant body of evidence.
Let me begin by asking Charles and Augustine Tabansi in all their cacophony of verbose historical incongruity, who owns the institution of Ikpu-Alu (Cleansing of Abomination), the customary identity of Umunri in Igboland? Is it the Agukwu-Ugbene or Adama-Nri? Who owns the Otonsi (The ritual instrument of cleansing abominations)? Is it the Agukwu-Ugbene or Adama-Nri? These are the activities and insignia of office that qualifies anybody to be called Nwa Nri or Umunri in relation to the group in Igboland.
The first Nri man outside Umudiana Kindred to take Ozo title in Nri town was Nze Okpobe whose descendants form the present Umuokpobe kindred of the present Uruofolo Village in Akamkpisi-Nri, whose Ozo title-name “Uru Ofo na Alo” gave Uruofolo their present name. Nze Okpobe was initiated into Ozo tile with Ofo-Ozo Adama-Nri of Umudiana. Which people initiated him into the Ozo title? Were they the Adama of Umudiana kindred or Agukwu-Ugbene? Are Agukwu-Ugbene the custodians of original Ofo-Ozo of Nri?
The major insignia of Ozo title are “Alo” and “Ngoagiliga”, both of which were supplied by Awka Blacksmiths. Initiation into Ichi title was undertaken by Umudioka people of the present Dunukofia Local Government Area of Anambra State or their satellite settlements in the present Awka, Neni or Awkuzu. The traditional Priesthood of Idemili Deity is customarily bestowed on Umunsekpe Kindred of Diodo Village. Which of these ritual activities and related insignia was originated by Agukwu-Ugbene people?
It is indeed a mark of pig-headed ignorance for Agukwu-Ugbene to always make reference to Ezikanebo as the founder of the present Adama-Nri kindred. For the information of Augustine Tabansi, Charles Tabansi and other Agukwu-Ugbene intellectual Lilliputs, Ezikanebo only became popular among the Igala immigrants after the marriage of one of his daughters to Mkpume-Onyilenyi—the present Enugwu-Ukwu whose descendants constitute the present Urunebo Village in Enugwu-Ukwu.
The present Umudiana kindred is made up of two major kindred— Umuezikanebo and Umuemeki. Their tradition states that Dim was their progenitor who begot Adama, and Adama begot Ireme who in turn begot Ezikanebo and Emeki. Umuezikanebo include the following lineages—Umuezikaneboji, Umuezekwem, Umundukaukwatu, Umuagbagu, Umundukaenwe and Umudim; while Umuemeki include Umuemekiji, Umuobodoakammadu, and Umubosiogu. Only the Umuezikanebo represent the Okpala or Adama lineage.
Once again, we have to remind ourselves that the name “Adama” means first-born in Igala and it was the title given to the first son of Dim by Diodo people. For those familiar with Afa divination, Adama means the same thing with Okakwu which is another Igala term for Okpala or Ndichie.
Like the case of Nri town, the Umudiana of Adazi-Nnukwu who share common boundary with Umudiana of Nri consists of three lineages. These are Umukuta, Umuebo and Iruozuzu. Of these three, only the Umukuta and Umuebo constitute the Adama or Okpala group like Umuezikanebo. The Adama group possesses the right of cleansing abominations, conferring Ozo title on people, and plays a principal role in the coronation of Eze-Nri of Nri town.
Percy Armory Talbot who followed Northcote W. Thomas in the study of the Nri and whose research spanned the 1920s, informs us that one of the taboos associated with the Eze-Nri is that he must not cross any river after coronation. According to him the last river the Eze-Nri crosses from Adazi-Nnukwu before the final stage of coronation in Umudiana Nri is what he called Adama River, which is in fact the Nnemili (Idemili River separating both Umudiana kindred of Nri and Adazi-Nnukwu.
Although there has been dispute over the actual boundary between the Adama-Nri and Adama- Adazi Nnukwu, with Adazi-Nnukwu laying claims to portions of land across the river, but this is outside the purview of this essay. The most important revelation here is that both Umudiana and Adama of Nri and Adazi-Nnukwu towns agree that they are related.
According to the Councilor then representing Akamkpisi-Nri Ward Hon. Onwubugha Dom Ozumba:
“The Umudiana Adazi-Nnukwu migrated from here, Umudiana Nri. During my father’s lifetime, there were certain occasions, in the year when the Umudiana Adazi people used to come here. These people including those in Mbaukwu and Neni left during the nine-year war (Ogu-Aro Teghete). Our boundary with Adazi is the stream and lake separating us.”
In accepting the fact of common origin but contradicting the claim that Umudiana Adazi-Nnukwu migrated from Umudiana Nri, the then Odu of Adazi Nnukwu, Chief Emmanuel Ezekwe stated:
“The Umudiana of Akamkpisi was founded by Adazi people. That was when our people were at war with Umuori people. The Umuori invited Ohafia warriors who invaded our people one evening and nearly exterminated the villages of Amaide and Umudiana to the extent that only about four families of Amaide now survive. As a result of this, part of Umudiana which also constitute part of the Adama stock crossed the Idemili river and settled in the present Akamkpisi.”
Although the above contest of origins between the two Adama lineages is outside the purview of the present debate, the question however is, are Charles Tabansi Udene and Augustine Tabansi Udene also claiming Adama-Umudiana of Adazi Nnukwu as part of the product of their Ezikanebo-Agukwu Ugbene marriage contract?
The present Eze-Nri dynasty of Oraeri traces its origin directly to Nri Namoke of Diodo Akamkpisi-Nri and not Ifikuanim of Agukwu-Ugbene; which means Eze-Nri Oraeri has no connection whatsoever with either Ifikuanim or Agukwu-Ugbene. The following are Rev. Fr. Prof Emmanuel I. Ifesieh’s comments on the status of Adama-Nri in Oraeri in his book “Religion at the Grassroots”:
“At Oraeri, Adama’s ritual and traditional position appeared definitely stronger. Right from the early beginning, he was the ritualist closest to Eze-Nri and an authorized associate of Eze-Nri. It was from the beginning publicly recognised office and Oraeri tradition has it that Adama had his Ofo called Ofo Adama and Otonsi which he and his descendants possessed as something special to their office.”
Are Charles Tabansi Udene and Augustine Tabansi Udene also saying that the Adama-Nri of Umuokpala Village of Oraeri were created by Agukwu-Ugbene marriage alliance with Ezikanebo?
Indeed I cannot still understand why Agukwu-Ugbene cannot accept the fact that they are stranger-elements in the present Nri town with no defined customary, ritual, ceremonial and historical primacy over both Adama-Nri and the rest Akamkpisi-Nri. Agukwu-Ugbene people have been proven by incontrovertible historical evidence that they migrated from Igala, and so are Igala by ancestral ethnic origin. This is without prejudice to the Nimo ancestral origin of Nri Jiofo II Tabansi Udene.
So far, none of the presumptuous braggart trio of Augustine Tabansi Udene, Charles Tabansi Udene and Chukwuemeka Onyesoh attempted to rebut the fact of Agukwu-Ugbene Igala origin through their often spineless references to Prof Michael Onwuejeogwu and Northcote W. Thomas. They are keeping mute while still contesting primacy with the aboriginal Adama-Nri. What an intellectual foolery?
Only strangers who devoted their time, energy and knowledge to the study of other people’s history can confidently tell the people their history, not indolent braggart strangers among the people like the Tabansi family. You cannot claim primacy of traditional status in a town where you don’t lay claim to any of the customary and ritual instruments of traditional authority.
Odogwu NT Nwaezeigwe, Metro-Manila, Philippine, Ashia Uka Eke, Sunday December 8, 2024