Ozubulu - The town, its people, culture and religion

OZUBULU

The Town: Ozubulu
The History, The People, Their Culture, Their Beliefs, Their Aspirations.

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Ozubulu: 1906-1927

P R E F A C E

Context and Scope

This book is the fruit of a brisk research and arrangement of old materials, at short notice, in view of the celebration of the ninetieth anniversary of the official establishment of the Ozubulu Catholic Mission residence: 1908-1998.

The research spans a short but important period: it begins from the time of the arrival of the Holy Ghost Fathers in Igboland, concentrates on their first entry into Ozubulu in 1906, and follows the consolidation process up to the transfer of the mission headquarters to Ihiala in 1927.

Without prejudice to other towns equally favoured by this initial mission outreach (like Okija, Ihiala, Ihembosi, Ukpor, Uli), and without neglecting the fact that Nnewi was also being considered as another launching pad into another angle (Adazi, Urualla, etc.), this work is limited to Ozubulu alone, as the first Catholic mission outpost in Igbo heartland. It was a successful test case; it was an example of what was happening or about to take place on other mission fronts.

Since this is not a work on Igbo Christian theology, it carefully avoids, as much as possible, an evaluation of the process by which Christianity got integrated into the local system, together with the inherent questions. However, just like every story of primary evangelization and faith commitment, this work ends up being a distillate of experiential history: the experience of a people in search of their God, in their own way. Like every historical analysis, it remains only a perspective and therefore leaves room for the contributions and views of other historians. It opens a challenge to young writers who would wish to fill up the obvious gaps.

Aim

The aim of this work is to provide posterity with another perspective of the story of the entry of the Catholic Church into Igbo heartland, how it fell providentially on Ozubulu to be the first residential mission outpost in the interior, the success of the mission, its transfer to Ihiala due to administrative needs and the crisis that ensued. It is not the intention of this book to dramatize history nor to glorify Ozubulu Catholics. The work is merely an indirect call to Ozubulites to accept the challenges of the new era of evangelization.

The first part of the work is summarized in these words: "Ozubulu braces itself to embrace the Gospel message". It consists of an analysis of the history of the people of Ozubulu and how they girded themselves to encounter this new reality, Christianity. The second part examines how the Gospel took root and began to flourish in the area, how it became an "edifice of hope" and how the mission was moved down to Ihiala in 1927.

All through this historical analysis, the Catholic Church in Ozubulu, founded at the dawn of the missionary pioneering period in Igboland, will be the principal focus of attention. Just like many others, Ozubulu is an example of a missionary experience which began quite simply, and without any fanfare: the reserved people, cautious and curious; the missionary in the complex harmony of his fears, his uncertainties, his courage, his fixed ideas, his zeal and openness to the unexpected, his reassurance of being sheltered by the sense of awe and respect of the local people.

Very much cognizant of the danger of creating stereotypes, conscious of the tendency to generalize especially in a work like this, aware that there is a common temptation among missionaries to make assessments based on popular opinions, and without overlooking the inclination to exaggerate results, effort will be made to play down superfluity as much as possible, focusing on objectivity, and limiting attention to the religious and historical perspectives of missionary activity. In other words, it is going to be a portrayal of a contextual vision of historical events as a vehicle of divine revelation, as God’s intervention in human concerns.

Effort will be made therefore, to attempt a simple, but profound analysis of the cultural, religious sense of a people, distinct in origin and attitude, whose survival instinct has helped shape their history, their identity, their image, their growth and their spiritual destiny. It has always been a movement from the search for social distinction ending up in a spiritual fulfillment.

As the work will show, whether it is a survival instinct manifest through the desire for the support of a foreigner, an akanri, who by nature has spiritual powers, whether it is through the invitation of a foreign missionary, an influential priest, to counteract another foreign power, the dominant colonial authority, whether it is soliciting the support of the Aros and Orsus for security against the people of Ibolo and Irefi, their hostile neighbours, whether it is the installment of the Ndekwili forest as a bulwark against foreign invaders, whether it is setting up a village of ritual slaves as human shields against intruders, whether it is by yielding their firearms to the colonial administrators at the ntiji-egbe event, whether it is by taking advantage of the unfavourable turn of events against the cleverness of their ingenuous Nnewi neighbours by chorusing ekwusigo, in whatever form the instinct is manifested, invariably the story has always ended on the same note: an effort to survive by seeking an extraordinary external support and protection. It has constantly proved to be a defence mechanism with positive results, including the reversal of the destiny of a people. A perusal of the history itself will tell the story in greater details.

Acknowledgements

Very many people participated, each in his/her own way towards the production of this work. I owe them my profound expression of gratitude: Cardinal F.A. Arinze, His Grace Archbishop A.K. Obiefuna, Fr. Denis Chidi Isizoh, Fr. Christopher Ejizu, Msgr. Gabriel Onuorah, the late Fr. Vincent Nwosu, Fr. Celestine Obi for the documentary from the various Spiritan archives, Chief Jerome Udoji, the Holy Ghost Fathers in Trinidad especially Archbishop Anthony G. Pantin, Rev. Fathers Sydney Chang, CSSp., Kevin Power, CSSp., Michel de Verteuil, CSSp. I should not forget to thank Archbishop Eugenio Sbarbaro, Fr. Paschal Tiernan, OP, Fr. Martin Umunnakwe, CSSp. (the present parish priest of Ihiala), Mrs. Yvonne Wong. To the people of Ozubulu, I wish God’s choicest blessings.

I warmly remember the following who have passed away into eternity. Many years ago, they told me nice stories about the work of the early missionaries and thus sparked off the interest which is now bearing fruit: my dad Mr. Paul U. Okolo, Mr. William J. Okonkwo, sr, Mr. Daniel Adike, Ezenyimulu Arinze, Mr. Augustine Unigwe, Mr. Anthony Okoye (former catechist), the Anglican Archdeacon Rev. B.C.E. Nwosu.

Jude Thaddeus Okolo

August 15, 1998

OZUBULU - BETWEEN HISTORY AND MYTHOLOGY: N’OGE AFU Ozubulu, just like Nteje, Nri, Nnewi, Ihiala, Adazi, was one of the first towns which attracted the attention of early missionary work. An insight into the origins, the attitude and tendencies of its people would surely provide an appreciation of the success of the missions in their midst. Any writer of the history of the origins of the people of Ozubulu is naturally faced with a major obstacle: the lack of accurately written historical records about the town. Most of what is readily available is presented in the form of oral tradition. Since the custodians of this unique source are gradually passing away, a reliable and coordinated form of transition from oral tradition to the written word is absolutely necessary. Recently written records have to be revised, updated and compiled in order to elicit credibility. Like in many parts of Igboland, almost everything about the past history of Ozubulu is enmeshed in and transmitted through this oral genre. Moreover, very little archeological data is available for piecing together loose forms in order to construct a mosaic, no matter how obscure and imprecise. The inroads made by Western civilization, the influence of Christianity, the passing away of the elders who were the custodians of ancient oral tradition have diminished the authenticity of the data transferred through it. The integrity of its formal narrative structure and the credibility of its historical content have been jeopardized, especially by the lack of interest which modern youths show in this area. Among the present generation of Igbos, reliance on human memory has diminished to the extent that the pieces of evidence given sometimes seem to be mere conjectures. In Igboland particularly, during this epoch, the oral tradition of historical transmission is being threatened by historical blankness. The researcher is therefore left with scattered materials preserved only in oral forms and couched in mythical forms. It is this enveloping myth which presents the greatest difficulty because of its extraordinary form. In mythology, there is the obvious perplexity, the unavoidable dilemma between fact, fiction and distortion. Although these difficulties should not lessen the reliability or value of oral tradition which remains the privileged vessel of pre-literary history of any people, uncouth as it is, the fact remains that it allows much vital information to be lost or impaired. It encourages mutilation and the inaccurate transfer of information. The Ozubulu historian, and in fact, any historian of ethnology, is therefore compelled to be careful in any tendency towards conjectural emendations of divergent evidence, to be cautious in making assumptions, even in any form of professional etiological reconstruction. The story, therefore, which will occupy the attention of the reader in the next few pages of this work, is one that is typical in form, but short in presentation. It is about the origins of a people, their struggles for survival, and how the experiences of their Founding Fathers have shaped their spiritual destiny. It is about the people known today as Ndi-Ozubulu (the people of Ozubulu) and the place popularly referred to as Ana-Akpu. An inquiry into the association between Ozubulu and Akpu takes the reader back to "n’oge afu" (at that time), an imprecise time, uncertain, unclear. It leads the individual to a time when certain dramatic events unfolded themselves. It leads the reader into the realm of mythology. When was that time? Any precise dates? Where did the event take place? Who was there when those events took place? What of the names attributed to the principal characters in these events, are they fictitious? In other words, do the names represent the true characters in those events of long ago? All these are clouded in myth. The expression "at that time" seems to give the story teller the right to be imprecise, the right to delve into the realm of mythology, the right to ‘create myth’ or rather the permission not to demythologize. In the mythology of oral history, a past event or situation is renewed in a sacred form and respect is conferred on the event. Myth is not meant to replace or explain away a people’s history. Rather, it is meant to situate history concretely. Its language is not as scientific and logical as the language of history, although it is part of history. It is derived from history; it has meaning only within history. Outside the realm of history, myth is mere fairy tale. The attempt at a ‘rational’ "explanation of myths and legends often make greater demands upon credulity than the original stories themselves". Historical myth does not take off from nothing but from concrete reality. It refers to a reality which actually took place. It is a time-bound process but whose language is dramatic. It is a language of action, and the action is that of persons: persons who were alive and active, of whom very little is known. It is obvious that mythical ideas can become far removed from an original narrative setting, however, they trace themselves back to some particular concrete event, from which they originate. Myth, to have meaning and credibility, must be situated. In the Ozubulu context, as will be shown shortly, Akpu tree, the akanri, the river Niger, the children of Eri, all help to concretize the Ubulu myth. In fact, any mythical history worth its content, must be situated within some defined structure of time, place and related to concrete things. Even if undefined, neither its historical nature nor its credibility is completely imperiled or compromised. In its narrative form and dramatic frame, the language of myth has several levels and so its meaning must not to be interpreted superficially. Feeling and action pervade the words, and its richness is derived from its evocative connotations. Images rather than concepts are illustrated and reflected through verbal forms. Any effort at a logical analysis dislodges and disintegrates the unity of its evocative and exciting forms. Typically, myth is exciting. It has its own logic and only within that logic can it be understood and appreciated. That is precisely why the study of the Ana-Akpu myth challenges any systematic method of examination. Its analysis, like that of any myth, is like peeling an onion. The further the peeling, the more the substance is lost; at the end, nothing remains. Time, space, place, context, interests and the changing faces of tradition may modify mythical conceptions. Their contents constitute the unique information available. From one narrator to another, the basic contents are not expected to change; only the evocative forms. As will be shown, if the Ana-Akpu myth is rejected as baseless and as a mere fairy tale, there is no other historical evidence available to Ozubulu to justify its origin. And in fact, no one has the right to reject the content of mythology because myth, in the context of scientific history, does not mean non-truth. It means another way of presenting reality. The fact is that there was a concrete reality of which the present generation was not an eyewitness. This concrete reality, symbolized in mythical language, can no longer be re-lived in the real world. It is non repeatable in its basic forms. The details are no longer available. History is a record of what happened in time. In the same way, in myth, there is mythical time. Cyclic time, time systematically computed in ordinary chronology, is different from mythical time, a primordial time which is computed in the historic past. It has its own originality in the sense that no other time existed before it. The expression "at that time" immediately excludes any other time. It evokes a time which came into existence all at once. That is how it situates itself. Since mythical time has no consistent and systematic chronology, it takes a lot for granted. It sometimes flouts the law of sequence and the order of natural events. And, of course, everyone is expected to believe it. That is the "order" of mythology. It sometimes seems not to consider the real natural situation of affairs. One of such situations in the Ana-Akpu myth is the idea of crossing the river Niger with the Akpu tree trunk serving as a bridge. Some, to lessen the impact of the surprise at the bizarre event, suggest that the tree trunk was utilized to help a migrant people wade across the river Niger. However the story handed down did not say so, and therefore the suggestion is not acceptable to the community. No one has the right to change the content of a mythical narration for the sake of convenience. As will be seen further in the Akpu myth, there is a paradigmatic value and function in the genesis of a reality - the mythical time within which the reality made its first appearance. It is almost equivalent to its initial origin, its "creation" - "n’oge afu". From that moment, it comes into being. A typical example is found, although in a completely different context, in the opening sentence of the biblical book of Genesis "In the beginning" - imprecise time. It is now obvious that in "primordial realities", just like in the case of mythical time, festivals, totems, taboos, sacred places and sacred persons emanate as if from nowhere around this imprecise, sacred time. They are ritualized by the circumstances. This is a special feature of myth: ritualizing realities. Thus ritualized, they assume a remoteness which is covered with a sense of mystery and a tinge of the sacred. Myth does not speak of what happened twenty or thirty years ago. It goes back to a period that is fading into oblivion - "n’oge afu, n’oge enu di na ana osa", at that time when earthly realities were completely different. The narrator never infers the non-existence of such an epoch, but that concepts have to be transferred in order to perceive and appreciate the features of that reality. Even in narrating recent history, it is not rare to notice among the people of Ozubulu the tendency to go into the realm of myth. Addressing Archbishop Charles Heerey during the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the coming of the Church in Ozubulu in 1958, the people tried to describe the first arrival of the fathers fifty years before. Instead of giving the precise dates, they read: "… one Eke afternoon…" Very strange affirmation indeed! In every Igbo month, there are seven Eke days. In one Igbo year, there are eighty-four Eke days. Which one? Due to habit with oral forms of narration in myth, the people are hardly aware of this lack of precision. When asked the date of their birth, the older people go into a long story of the events which took place when they were born. When they get stuck, they associate themselves with their age-grades. So, for a closed community like the Igbo ethnic group to which Ozubulu belongs, it is easy to comprehend how the story in mythology, through oral tradition, passes from hand to hand down to the present, always within a clan or closely knit community. It is "produced" and preserved within the particular local community. It has meaning within and for that same community. Anyone foreign to the clan has to accept and respect it as such. It enhances the identity of the community and every member is expected to be conversant with it. By preserving the tradition, the society preserves itself. It is their history; it is their identity. A defined group without a history has no identity. The movement into mythology is a solemn one. It is preceded by an invitation into a completely different realm of perception, of vision, of thought, of understanding, of acceptance, of existence. The audience without criticism readily listens, does not criticize the veracity of the account - it is accepted as it is, as long as it corresponds to the version current in the community. The narrator, leading its audience into this mythical time, announces: "K’anyi naa n’obodo Iduu na Oba". (Let’s venture back into a mythical setting, into the lands of Iduu and Oba). Most stories would begin with this introduction. No one objects; everyone becomes excited and gets tuned in, almost like a one-dimensional orientation. It is an invitation into the unknown, a distant land, where events took place, and where those events are being eternally replayed vividly like tales. After this invitation which, in a way serves as a franchise, the narrator spins off. There are many other realities affected by myth in primordial history: the location of the places mentioned in the narration, the exact reference to personalities whose identities have been lost through oral transfer, the nature of their heroic acts distorted through exaggeration, the logical sequence of events which took place, etc. The personalities in myth are generally cultural men or woman of exceptional and admirable exploits, whose deeds remain mysterious. In Igbo myths, rarely are women brought forward as mythical heroic figures. When they appear, they are accepted as such and duly respected in their roles. Normally, the hero is an important founder of a tribe, a historical personality, a prestigious stranger, a hunter or a war leader. To him would be attributed unusual ultra-human power, because, as a founder of a dynasty or a tribe, he must be super-human, a sort of sub-divinity. Since the Ozubulu society is evolving, unfolding and detaching itself from the patterns of traditional religion and culture into a pragmatic, modern society, will the evidence of mythology have the same meaning for the people? Posterity will give the answer. Meanwhile, since there is no other alternative history of this people on which to lay hands, it becomes the only acceptable deposit. It has either to find its own place or get itself incorporated within the rigours of modern history.

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This Website is an effort to leave to posterity a version of the History of the People of Ozubulu (Anambra State - Nigeria). The site will be updated constantly. Feedbacks are invited, especially from all Ozubulu sons and daughters. The site is managed and edited by Jude Thaddeus Okolo.

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