A little bit of historical events occured recently which the world may have overlooked as they concentrate on the supposed more glamorous or the louder and more crass aspects of the occurences.
some months back, the queen of England died. While the Brish were going through the hypocricy of mourning, and half the world was smirking behind closed doors and the others were overtly apathetic to that occurence, one lady, an Igbo professor Uju Anya living in the United States of America came out blatantly and voiced what a greated percentage of the world was muttering behind closed doors. She looked the British in the eyes and called their dead monarch a murderer. She had said about the queen, that ‘She sat on a throne of blood’, insisting that the dead monarch wore a crown made of ‘blood diamonds’ and was directly responsible for Nigerian Civil War.
- Uju Anya, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania, celebrated the queen’s death last week
- ‘I heard the chief monarch of a thieving, raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating,’ she tweeted
- Anya, a Nigerian-born American-Trinidadian academic, said her hatred of the queen came from Britain’s support for Nigeria’s government during the civil war
- The 46-year-old said that she did not regret her remarks because they were intended to educate Americans about the monarchy
In that wise she went on and listed the atrocities that the woman commited during her life time including that metted out to her people of the Igboland, especially during the three years civil wars in Biafra. This is a war in which the complicity of the British was obvious and in which millions of Igbos died. The vile utterances ogf the Brish prime minister of that period, Mr Harold Wilson belays this assertion. He had said that the Dead bodies of half a million of Biafran people will not change UK government mind to help Biafra stand as a nation.
“Harold Wilson also said Biafra Nation cannot be allowed to stand because they don’t trust what we’ll become with our own resources.”
The British sensing the trap in the gay professor’s utterances wisely for a change kept their mute and therefore contrary to the expectations of the shocked world, heaven did not fall.
Now fast forward to last week that is dubbed the coronation week by the English or the British. Find it difficult to which is which. Is it a British monarchy or just an English royal system. On the 5th of May, Mr Ekweremadu, a highly placed Nigerian senator of Igbo origin was jailed in Britain for organ trafficking under the mordern day slavery law. The next day, his friend Prince Charles was crowned the King of England. if that is not an irony twisted by the machinization of man, now look at the real twister. Prominent in the coronation procession was another professor, also a woman and also of Igbo origin, bearing one of the objects of coronation, the golden orb. Its significance, is yet to be made known to us. Her name is Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu. A nurse, healthcare administrator, lecturer and emeritus professor of Nursing in the University of West London. When one looks at the resume of Professor Anionwu compared to that of the younger Uju, one does not have to be a seer to deduce what the coniving English are playing here. A desperate move to undermine or demystify Professor Uju who ridiculed their human deity.
What do the British have against the Igbos?
It is obvious that right from the European forceful entrance into the hinterlands of Africa, certain powerful traditional societies did not take their miscievous gifts at face value. The Igbos particularly discerned and interpreted their double facedness and treacherous intentions at the early stage and resisted them fiercely. There was the Aro wars of the early years of the last century. That this was when the drums of wars that became the Ist War of the Europeans that affected all other countries related or associated with them. A Wikkiepediea write up on that is presented hereunder. There the British claim that they won that war, but we know better. Then there was the in 1929, the uprising of the women, famously dubbed the Aba Womens Riot. and in 1949 it was the Enugu Coal Miners Revolt. Of course, like earlier said, these colonial upsets calculatedly occurred when Britain had their house of fire. That the Igbos were one of the peoples of their colony that colonialism tasteless and even bitter to the British has not always gone down well to their plebian bully mentality.
So these current shenanegans around the Igbos don’t mean anything to these very proud Africans.
Anglo-Aro War
The Ohafia Ipirikpe Ogu Warrior who fought for the Aros
The Anglo-Aro War (1901–1902) was a conflict between the Aro Confederacy in present-day Eastern Nigeria, and the British Empire. The war began after increasing tension between Aro leaders and the British after years of failed negotiations.
Cause of the war
The Aro Confederacy, whose powers extended across Eastern Nigeria and beyond, was challenged in the last decades of the 19th century by increasing British colonial penetration of the hinterland. The Aro people and their allies resisted the British penetration due to a combination of factors, included economic, political and religious concerns.
Reasons for the war advanced by Sir Ralph Moor, the British High Commissioner of the Nigerian Coast Protectorate, included:
To put a stop to slave dealing and the slave trade generally with a view to the Slave Dealing Proclamation No. 5 of 1901 being enforced throughout the entire territories as from first of January next; to abolish the Juju hierarchy of the Aro tribe, which by superstition and fraud causes much injustice among the coast tribes generally and is opposed to the establishment of Government. The power of the priesthood is also employed in obtaining natives for sale as slaves and it is essential to finally break it; to open up the country of the entire Aro to civilization; to induce the natives to engage in legitimate trade; to introduce a currency in lieu of slaves, brass rods, and other forms of native currency and to facilitate trade transactions; to eventually establish a labour market as a substitute to the present system of slavery.[1][2]
According to American scholar Jeffrey Ian Ross, the Aro peoples usage of divinatory practices in shrines dedicated to the god Ibin Ukpabi was a critical element in their slavery practises, which was one of the factors that led to the outbreak of the Anglo-Aro War.[3]
Aro opposition
The Aros had long opposed British colonial penetration in the hinterland, with such opposition being motivated in part by economic concern. They also opposed the efforts of British missionaries to introduce Christianity, which threatened their religious influence through their oracle Ibini Ukpabi. The Aro led raids and invasions on communities were conducted in order to undermine British colonial penetration since the 1890s. While the British prepared for the invasion of Arochukwu in November 1901, the Aro launched their last major offensive before the Aro Expedition by British forces. Aro forces led by Okoro Toti sacked Obegu (a British ally) which resulted in 400 people dying. This attack quickened British preparation for their offensive.
Aro expedition
Sir Ralph Moor and the Royal Niger Company had planned the attack on the Aros and the Ibini Ukpabi oracle since September 1899 but due to lack of necessary manpower, it was delayed until November 1901. On November 28, Lt. Col. Arthur Forbes Montanaro led 87 officers, 1,550 soldiers and 2,100 carriers in four axes of advance to Arochukwu from Oguta, Akwete, Unwana and Itu on a counter-insurgency campaign. As expected, Aro forces resisted all axes strongly, although they lacked modern weapons. However, Arochukwu was captured on December 28 after four days of fierce battles in and around the city. As a result, the Ibini Ukpabi shrine was allegedly blown up. Battles between British and Aro forces continued throughout the region until spring 1902 when Aro forces were defeated in the last major battle at Bende. The Aro Expedition ended three weeks later.
Result of the war
Some of the Aro leaders, like Okoro Toti, were arrested, tried by tribunals, and hanged. The power hitherto held by the Aro Confederacy quickly evaporated and Eze Kanu Okoro (king of Arochukwu), went into hiding but was later arrested. Although Aro dominance crumbled in March 1902, many Aros took part in guerilla campaigns against the British in the region such as in Afikpo (1902–1903), Ezza (1905), and other areas where the Aro had a particularly significant presence. The defeat of the Aro did help the British to open up the interior, but serious opposition to British colonial penetration in Igboland clearly did not end with the Anglo-Aro War. In the years that followed, the British had to deal with many other conflicts and wars in various parts of Igboland such as the Nri Conflict (1905–1911), Ekumeku War (1883–1914), Igbo Women’s War (1929), etc.
Major battles[edit]
- Battles in the Oguta/Owerri area (November 1901)
- Battles of Esu Itu (December 1901)
- Battles of Arochukwu (December 1901)
- Battle of Edimma (January 1902)
- Battle of Ikotobo (January 1902)
- Battle of Ikorodaka (February 1902)
- Battle of Bende (March 1902)
