Igbo Heritage Month: Onwa Odibendi Igbo

KWENU! Our culture, our future

Igbo Heritage Month

Onwa Odibendi Igbo

AFO, Saturday, May 1 - EKE, Monday, May 31, 2004

M. O. Ené

Saturday, May 1, 2004

Since I proposed an annual Igbo Heritage Month in May 1997 to incorporate the Nigeria-Biafra War Memorial Lecture series, some Igbo communities around the world have been celebrating May as Igbo Heritage Month. Many Igbo folk contended then that this was a tall order, but the million-mile journey always starts with one step. Therefore, on Thursday, May 1, 1997, the first-ever Igbo Heritage Month kicked off with the inaugural kolanut communion at "Obi Igbo" in Orange, NJ, USA. It became a fait accompli -- a sign of the desire of many Igbo people to begin the much-needed coming-together. The success of this premier event surprised everyone. But success was not the issue: the issue is advancement of Igbo legacy. It is a long walk, but the word is out. Whatever anyone or any group wants to do should be geared toward the advancement of Igbo legacy.

Highlights of events, which could be tailored to local situations, include:

May 1: Kolanut Communion

Igbo Uzo Lecture: A lecture highlighting the achievements and failures of Ndiigbo abroad.

Friendship Day: This is a day set aside for messages of goodwill to non-Igbo persons who have helped in the advancement of Igbo legacy. A "Friendship Lecture" was instituted in 1998.

"Uka Nne" [Mothers Day]: This should be celebrated as is the custom wherever Ndiigbo live because everyday in Igboland in "Mother's Day."

History Week: This is dedicated to Olaudah Equiano (a.k.a. Gustavus Vassa): an Igbo man, a foremost antislavery activists, in words and in deed, and the father of American autobiography. "I am Eboe" [Abu m onye Igbo], he wrote in The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa the African. Even though he was 10 when they kidnapped and carried him away and given another name, this Igbo son of neither a king nor a pauper, hanged on to his Igbo names. He remembered enough about Igbo culture and, most importantly, he put it down in writing and devoted his entire life fighting slavery. He is with our ancestors.

Diaspora Day: A day of remembrance of all those who came this way, by force or by choice, by air or by sea, but never found the way back. This one is dedicated to King Jaja of Opobo, Eze Jubuno Jibuoha. Like Equiano, Jubuno was kidnapped from his Igbo heartland by coastal cretins and bloody brutes whom the British slavers had fed enough gin and armed with mirrors and trashy trinkets. But unlike Olaudah, Jubuno did not board that ship. Like Olaudah, he paid his dues and bought his freedom. He prospered and powered himself with enough wealth never to fall prey to money mongers. The irony of Jubuno's life is that the British dealt him two dirty hands. First they enslaved him. He paid his dues and escaped bondage. He now had a kingdom of his own at Opobo. The rules changed. The British moved the post: They had stopped shipping slaves; now they wanted Africans enslaved in Africa. They wanted to colonize the lands and turn into European plantations and markets for finished goods.

King Jaja refused.

The colonists tricked him out to Accra, Goal Coast (Ghana) for "talks." In Accra, they set him up and tried him in a kangaroo court [where the Brits would try another Igbo man a century later, Owele Nnamdi (Zik of Africa) Azikiwe for daring to ask for Ghana's independence.] Obviously convicted, they exiled him to West Indies. And the spirit of Olaudah was there, but Jaja never saw his kingdom again. Sick and dying, mischievous British colonists let him go. He died on his way back to Opobo.

Cultural Weekend: The Memorial Day weekend is usually reserved for various conventions and cultural events. Any established local event in any community should metamorphose into an all-Igbo affair.

Nigeria-Biafra Memorial: May 30: The day should be marked with prayers and a lecture by a prominent person. On this date, no matter the day of the week, all peace-loving people who abhor pogrom, ethnic cleansing, holocaust, hunger, war, and oppression everywhere should choose for themselves to do something so that the souls of those senselessly slaughtered could rest in peace; so that their supreme sacrifices may NEVER again be demanded of any people. These include but not limited to:

Fast from dawn to dusk;
Avoid alcohol from 6 A.M. to 6 P.M.;
Give up cigarettes for the day;
AVOID meat like it was Good Friday;
Say a prayer for the repose of souls;
Do good to a total stranger'
Read a book about Biafra, and
Reflect on the tragedy and the lessons of Biafra.

Wall of Unity/Martyrs Memorial:

Another highlight of the first Igbo Heritage Month was establishment of the Wall of Unity Foundation. The foundation did not intend to launch an appeal fund for the building of a physical monument for fallen Biafran colleagues. This too must be done; we owe it to our heroes to build a Martyrs Memorial, not to "unknown soldiers" but a tribute to known heroes who died so others might live. We know our comrades who died. They had mothers and fathers. They were fathers and mothers, our sons and our daughters. They were brethren. They had names, forms, and souls. We intend to honor these brethren now and forever.

We have begun to heal so that from the bloodshed on earth the golden sun shall again rise, rise to comfort us all, rise to make us all whole again, rise to help us live together, loving each other in a community of decent people. Biafra has taught us to reach out to our neighbors and coexist constructively for the advancement of humankind in Africa. This much we owe those who gave their all for so many.

Do the much you can to help.

Deeme nu.

Ndeewo nu.

Kaa nu.

Kwenu: ñuo nu, rie nu, zuo nu!!!