THE HISTORY OF NNEWI BY GODSON O. MONEKE

A man must know his history to be able to guide and influence his future. There is a common saying that if you did not know when and where the rain started beating you, it would be difficult for you to know how long and where the rain stopped. Writing the history of Nnewi presented a needless problem because of deliberate distortions by those who know the truth and should be transparent about it. As much as I blame the custodians of the relics of Nnewi history for this pass, intellectual laziness of those who should know the importance of history in the life of any nation is the contributory factor to this morass. Because a vacuum was created (nature abhors a vacuum anyway) , opportunists and revisionists seized the centre stage to regale us with tales by moonlight embellished in odious references to suit their egos and selfish interests. Even when aphorisms are used, it is always better to be circumspect whenever serious issues are under our direct purview.

In the communique issued at the end of our four day group WhatsApp discussions on the structure, traditional institutions and communities held from Tuesday 19th -Friday 22nd May, 2020, we stated inter alia that the issue of Nnewi persona and its ramifications be subjected to further research and discussions. This thesis is in furtherance of that mandate and objective. There are basically four major schools of thought on this important subject namely ;
1) The Aguleri Angle (ObuGAD narrative),
2) The Godson Moneke Angle and
3) The Anayo Nwosu Angle.
4) The Alutu and other authors Angle

A brief interrogation of these positions threw up the following posers:
The Aguleri Angle—-This school posits that the Igbo race and ethnic group in Nigeria have their ancestry in ERI, ARODI and ARELI, their progenitors as children of GAD the 7th son of JACOB (Bible:Genesis).
ERI, ARODI and ARELI were the fifth, sixth and seventh sons of GAD respectively. The school believes that Nnewi was a child of the only female descendant of ERI, ADAMBU whose descendants are people like Nibo ,Neni, Nise, Nnokwa, Nnobi , Nnewi and other towns which began with the letter ‘N’. This school believes that the geographical expression called ‘Nnewi’ was inhabited by its aborigines before the arrivals of OTOLO from Arondizuogu, URUAGU from Oba, UMUDIM from Ojoto and NNEWI-ICHI from a hybrid of Ichi and others. OBA town, OJOTO town, ORA-IFITE town and ICHI towns are deemed to be descendants of OBA the 3rd son of ERI. ARONDIZUOGU was the 8th and last son of ARODI who settled in the place he named AROCHUKWU . From this narrative while the three communities of URUAGU-NNEWI, UMUDIM-NNEWI and NNEWI-ICHI NNEWI can trace their ancestry to ERI, OTOLO NNEWI can trace its own ancestry to ARODI the 6th son of GAD and direct progenitor of Arondizuogu from where Otolo migrated. The progenitors of all the four communities were however the children of GAD.
. b) The Godson Moneke Angle——-This angle posits that NNEWI was chosen by the four Confederating communities after the AgbaN’ano covenant when they decided on the UNION. The COVENANT took place at the place known as TRIANGLE and is today popularly called NKWO TRIANGLE. It believes that Nnewi was a corruption of NNA-EWII meaning the SEAL of the AGBAN’ANO COVENANT by the four different autonomous communities. This school believes that Nnewi is a euphemism for this sacred covenant. Overtime the pronunciation coincided with NNE- EWII which was the last place where the direct descendants of the only daughter of ERI settled before they were evicted by the Otolo invaders who migrated from Arondizuogu. Nnewi was not a human being but an allegory, (figure of speech).

c) The Anayo Nwosu Angle——- This angle posits that Nnewi has a genealogy thus; Agbaja (Ewimnga) to Ikenga to Nnewi to Otolo. According to Anayo Nwosu, only Otolo of all the four communities can lay claim to a consanguineous affinity to Nnewi. Other communities do not have such a privilege. This school was ominously silent on where Agbaja , Ikenga or Nnewi migrated from. EBEE KA HA MULU NWADIANA? EBEE KA HA JELU ALULO NMUO? Everybody has a root. The question is, how can we trace the genealogy of these men for cross checking and validation purposes. Anayo said that Nnewi had a central army and defense system led by ONUORA and fought joint wars on many occasions. However, he failed to name any of these wars. The Anayo’s Angle was like a personification of characters which are used in most fables. It suffers from the danger of a single story!!!!
d)The Alutu and other authors Angle: These angles took the viewpoint that the four communities share a common ancestry but this was neither supported by evidence nor tradition. The angles were devoid of research and thoroughness. The authors relied so much on Oral Tradition as the major source of their rendition. Generally, Oral Tradition is not a reliable source of history. They were simply products of not very thorough intellectual work. The reason the authors made a shoddy job of the attempt remains a puzzle yet to be solved . The works thus falls short in epistemic Authority.

A CRITIQUE OF THESE VIEWPOINTS .
The Aguleri angle presents a lot of gaps especially with the ERI descendants that migrated west to Benin up to ILE-IFE. How do you juxtapose this with the claim by eminent Yoruba historians that the race descended from ODUDUWA whom they call their progenitor. The ascendancy to the throne of the OBA of BENIN is by the principle of primogeniture, so the first son of a reigning Oba of Benin knows that he is the next in line. The claim that the BINIS must perform a ‘ secret ‘ ritual in Aguleri before an Oba is crowned has no evidential value. If the Ile-Ife people do not perform this ritual why would the Binis do so. That claim is at best bogus. This school also postulates that Nnewi descended from the only daughter of ERI, ADAMBU. In fact, it claimed that towns like Nise, Nnokwa, Nnobi and Nnewi share a common ancestry. But who was the husband of that woman? Was she unmarried? How many children did she have and how come these towns never VAUNT this relationship? Many questions!!!!. A more detailed study of the history of the Igbos would reveal that they had three ANCESTORS who were the last three sons of GAD namely; ERI, ARODI and ALERI.
However, we can believe that names like Nise, Nnokwa, Nnobi and Nnewi as they are pronounced today are mere allegories used by the founders of the settlements to signify important events or actions. The word “NNE” signified their feminine color.

The Godson Moneke angle believes that the four autonomous communities which had their different turfs clearly marked out for them came together to enter into what they call AgbaN’ano covenant. Something like IGBA-NDU to watch each other’s back and not to harm one another on the basis of mutual respect for each other’s sovereignty. The covenant covered other areas like custom, tradition, culture, political, social and religious interests of the parties. Words like EWIIM AND EGWIIM are freely used in NNEWI DIALECT to denote CONSUMMATION or WHERE ONE HAS FREELY DECIDED TO STAY. Thus Nnewi is a corruption of the word NNA-EWII as a SEAL TO MARK THE AGBA’NANO COVENANT. The four autonomous communities who took part in the AgbaN’ano pact were Otolo which had its ancestry in Arondizuogu, Uruagu which ancestors were traceable to Oba, Umudim which had its ancestry in Ojoto and Nnewi-Ichi which ancestors were largely traceable to Ichi and other groups. The pact was consummated at the place which today we know as NKWO TRIANGLE. That piece of land is jointly and equally owned by the four communities. The name NNA-EWII and NNE-EWII though of different origin, later became the name of a town. NNEWI later became the ADOPTED NAME OF THE UNION OF THESE FOUR AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITIES.

The Anayo Nwosu angle argues that Agbaja (Ewimnga) gave birth to Ikenga who gave birth to Nnewi who in turn gave birth to Otolo that we know today. But who was Agbaja and where did he come from? This was not disclosed. Did he fall from the sky or sprout from the ground? Everybody has a root. We must know his root so we can verify the genealogy. Where did Nnewi come from and who were his brothers and sisters. We need to know so we can verify. Was Otolo the only child of Nnewi? Where are the brothers and sisters? This is important because genealogy is a ‘two-way traffic ‘ and easily verifiable. Anayo NWOSU’s angle is a recent development because he claims to have been told so by his father. He has a duty to let us into this by answering the above questions so that we can verify the claims with a view to validating same or otherwise. The temptation to elevate a folklore to a reality is always there especially for master storytellers. As I said earlier, this angle made excellent use of personification in transmuting what this writer considers a fable into a real story. We want the true verifiable history of NNEWI. The fact that the story failed to state how and why UMUNNEALAM, URU, EDOJI, EZEOBUO, ABUBOR ETC left their former settlements and relocated to their current abodes left some gaps in the whole tale. Anayo labored unsuccessfully to project a supposed history of Otolo as the history of Nnewi. In trying to do this he fell into the fallacies of composition and generalization. You would notice that almost all the dramatis personae listed in his narration were from Otolo, his native community. Also since the four communities by public admission confirmed their respective ancestry to be different, it would be difficult to impose a common ancestry on them.

URU was the first to notice the threat posed by the Otolo and absconded ahead of UMUNNEALAM . He was received by DIMAGU who welcomed him and gave him all the rights and privileges of any bonafide son of DIMAGU because he was a son of the only daughter(ADAMBU) of ERI. That is why today URU takes the second position after the RULING FAMILY IN UMUDIM. UMUNNEALAM sought refuge with DIMAGU later but not after he had been humiliated and chased away by the Otolo and his kith and kin from Arondizuogu . His life was spared because he was DIOKPALA and they did not want to sell him into slavery like they did to lesser mortals. He was again welcomed and received by DIMAGU who did not give him the same rights and privileges that were earlier given to URU. This was because, being the first son of his own father, DIMAGU could not bring him close to his throne as he did with URU, he had to settle him farther away from his throne at the place where his offsprings presently reside. He left with the OFFO of their forefathers which his descendants retain till this day. This explains why they still retain the titular position of OKPALA NNE-EWII(NNEWI) though they are not in the line of succession for OBISHIP of any of the four communities.

The ruling houses in the four communities are those who conquered the respective lands when they arrived . It did not suggest that people were not living there before them. For example, not everybody who answers Otolo Nnewi today came from Arondizuogu. Some were living there already like descendants of the daughter of ERI who settled in the place called NNE-EWII, meaning the eventual settlement of their mother. Others came from Nnobi, Nnokwa, Nise etc who were of the same ancestry with the people that settled at NNE-EWII. In similar vein, not everybody who answers Umudim today is a child of DIMAGU. The same thing applies to Uruagu and Nnewi-Ichi. NNE-EWII and NNA-EWII were thus an ALLEGORY. Nnewi never fought a joint war and had no central command. Each community had its own military formation and fought its own wars mostly about territorial expansion. Examples of such wars were Otolo-Awkaetiti war, Uruagu-Oraifite war, Umudim-Oraifite war and Umudim-Ozubulu war. Apart from full blown wars there were numerous skirmishes between the individual communities and their neighbors over territorial boundaries.

We shall not use the inordinate ambition of a powerful few to revise the true history of Nnewi and the journey so far. Everybody came from somewhere and we should be proud of our heritage because it defines who we are. It is obvious to any discerning observer that the ruling family in Otolo shares the same common traits and characteristics that run in all people of ARO extraction.
EDOJI faced similar threats and migrated to URUAGU and was welcomed and sheltered because URUAGU and his mother were direct descendants of ERI. EZEOBUO, ABUBOR, ETC joined some people from Ichi and founded what is today called NNEWI-ICHI corrupted from NNE-EWII-ICHI. You would notice that there are more ARO people living in one of the four communities than in any other community in Nnewi. Why is this so? If the AROs were just mercenaries, why is it that it was only one particular community they assisted? Why did they always fight on the side of this particular community against all opponents? What is the NEXUS between this community and AROs. The LONG JUJU OF AROCHUKWU was the epicenter of SLAVE TRADE IN IGBO LAND. The AROs were expansionist and predatory in nature. The Ruling Houses in Ajalli, Ndiowu, Ndikelionwu and some towns in Anambra State today are AROs like OTOLO. It may surprise you to know that EZE CHIMA, the founder of ONITSHA KINGDOM in today’s Anambra State was a descendant of ARODI. So, he was an ARO man. I will not regale you with the details in order to avoid a distraction. This version is the most credible and enjoys endorsement of this writer.

The title IGWE NNEWI was unknown in the four communities that make up Nnewi until 1956 when the four communities conferred it on Obi Otolo to adorn it and represent Nnewi in the Eastern Nigeria House of Chiefs in Enugu at that time. It was for the purpose of representing Nnewi comprising four communities and nothing more. Nobody attempted to use the title Obi Nnewi because that was non-existent. It is important to state that the CHIEFTAINCY LAWS OF ANAMBRA STATE ALLOWS FOR THE INTERCHANGEABLE USE OF THE TITLE IGWE AND OBI. The meaning attached to the two titles by the State Government is different from the CUSTOMARY MEANING IN NNEWI. Whereas OBI in NNEWI connotes COMMON ANCESTRY , IGWE connotes PRIMUS INTER PERES, the State Government use the two words as the same and interchangeable. The attempt by the Obi Otolo to use this MAZE OF CONFUSION TO ASSUME THE TITLE OBI NNEWI is central to the CRISIS IN NNEWI today because the OBIS OF THE OTHER THREE COMMUNITIES WOULD NOT ALLOW THAT because they know the implications. The larger implication is that these communities are conquered territories of Otolo. IT IS IMPORTANT TO STATE THAT OTOLO NEVER CONQUERED THE TERRITORIES OF ANY OF THE OTHER THREE COMMUNITIES. The stoking of the crisis is needless because we all know who we are.
The controversial title of OBI NNEWI was FIRST USED BY THE CURRENT OBI OTOLO KNO ORIZU III. It was flatly rejected by the OBIs OF THE OTHER THREE COMMUNITIES because it undermined the autonomy of their respective communities and their SUZERAINTY as the respective HEADS.

There was no celebration of what is today called OFALA which was not an Nnewi festival/celebration until the current Obi Otolo assumed the position of his forefathers . His father and grandfathers before him never celebrated that. The decisions to award CHIEFTAINCY TITLES to illustrious and deserving Children of Nnewi and others was taken jointly by the four communities and that explained why their respective SIGNATURES were appended to the CERTIFICATES given to the initial awardees as recent as the 1970s. How come that all current beneficiaries hold certificates signed by one Obi, OBI OTOLO. What changed ? Was the 1956 letter recommending the late CHIEF JOSIAH ORIZU II to represent Nnewi as a government recognized chief in the then EASTERN NIGERIA HOUSE OF CHIEFS a MORTAL MISTAKE? It is obvious that the four communities do not share a common ancestry. Why the opposition to their respective RECOGNITION BY GOVERNMENT from a group of people in Nnewi. WHY ? WHY? WHY? Even if they share a common ancestry which they do not, WHAT IS WRONG IN RECOGNIZING THE ADULTHOOD OF YOUR YOUNGER BROTHERS? After all the young shall grow talk-less when you don’t share a common ancestry. It may interest all to note that this precolonial structure and traditional setting was recognized by the WHITE MAN who gave the Obis of the four communities WARRANTS in their own respective rights. This equality was again CONFIRMED when the CHAIRMANSHIP OF THE NNEWI CUSTOMARY COURT WAS ROTATED AMONG THE OBIS OF THE FOUR COMMUNITIES WITH EQUAL TENURES.

Today , for any decision to be called an NNEWI DECISION it must be approved by each of the four communities. Thus each of the four communities wields a VETO POWER in all Nnewi decisions. This is similar to the Veto Powers held by PERMANENT MEMBERS OF THE UNITED NATIONS.

The history of Nnewi is problematic and has not been helped by attempts by some revisionists to present the history from the story told them by their fathers and grandfathers as if they are sacrosanct. Oral Tradition, though an important source of history is the most unreliable source as a result of; value judgement of the narrator, passage of time, memory challenges etc. There are many versions of Nnewi history and it is left to the reader to determine the credibility of each version. What is important is that Nnewi has come to stay as envisaged by the founding four communities. All the four must be given government recognition as done to the one hundred and eighty others by the Anambra State Government. THIS RECOGNITION IS LONG OVERDUE.

My sources are varied ranging from oral tradition, documentary evidence to readings (both electronic and books) which I used my formal education in the social sciences, arts and humanities to reconstruct in order to present a credible history of Nnewi. Views expressed here should not be seen as being pejorative of any community, persons or groups, they are borne out of my earnest desire to promote peace, justice and truth in our social milieu. Disagreements and further interrogations of this thesis are welcome and those who have superior versions can bring them on board. TO KEEP TO THE TERMS OF AN AGREEMENT IS A MARK OF HONOR. INTEGRITY is the greatest legacy we can leave for posterity !!!!!!!!. THAT DEFINES WHO WE REALLY ARE AND NOT WHAT PEOPLE THINK WE ARE. WE OWE HUMANITY THE TRUTH.