Igbos Didn’t Migrate From Ile-Ife— Mazi Okoro Replies Ooni Of Ife

My Response to His Royal Majesty, Ooni of Ife About His Speech that the Igbo Race Migrated from Ile-Ife.

I am Maazị Ogbonnaya Okoro, an Igbo linguist and cultural advocate. I read from the Vanguard News published on 8th October, 2023 about the Ooni’s speech on history, with a claim that the Igbo race migrated from Ile-Ife. It is a good attempt to speak about the correlation between the Igbo and Yoruba which the verifiable evidence could be traced to the fact that both have linguistic similarities and features to an extent, and belong to the same language family which is proto-kwa, grouped under Niger-Congo phylum.

First and foremost, the Igbo race is diverse. The Igbo were sojourners and travelers who lived in different places for years and contributed to the economic development of any place they found themselves.

I understand that angle he is coming from as regard the Ife case. In Igbo Studies, it’s called Igbo recoil. The Igbo who lived in different parts, especially the western part of today’s Nigeria, trying to move back home. Some had a stop at Benin. Some continued their journeys and stopped at different places, down to Ọnịcha Ado and other Igbo hinterland. The case of Eze Chima who moved out from the Benin and founded many places in Anịọma and present Ọnịcha Ado is related to the same Ife story.

Now, about the Igbo race, they didn’t migrate from Ife in its entirety and settle where they are now. Some sojourners who still travel till date always return home, some don’t at all, they live there and multiply. This is why the argument about Ile-Igbo as Ooni posited as evidence to prove Igbo rootedness in Ile-Ife is not enough to show the Igbo race migrated from there.

Let’s start with some historical and archeological facts about the Igbo.

Smelting of iron in Igbo land for instance began prehistorically. From the artefacts found in Leja in Nsụka, smelting of iron in that place was backdated 2000 BC. The first recorded iron smelting site in the world. This was even long before Europeans knew about iron smelting. The Igbo have seen road and existed in Igbo land.

Apart from Leja, other places known for iron smelting prehistorically include: Opi, Akụ, Obimo, Ọbụkpa, Owere Elu etc. These communities are in Nsụka only. We are yet to talk about other areas.

The historic nature of the Igbo wowed the western world in that they have to try everything possible to hide some information. Archeologists have dug out various artifacts regarding the Igbo in various places and I see no reason to doubt those who say that ndị Igbo bụ ndị gboo. Meaning the Igbo are the ancient people.

Talk about Nsude pyramid in Udi that backdated the Egyptian pyramid.

Talk about blacksmithing of Nkwere and Ọka. Nkwere makes gun which earned them the motto and slogan: “Nkwere Ọpiegbe”. With blacksmith, Ọka produced gun known as “Awka made” by some persons. The Igbo used it for hunting not for killling.

Is it pot making? Ishiagụ are known for pottery that’s why they are called Ishiagụ Ọkpụite. Is it the textile industry? The artefacts in Uturu will wow you to see that they had been existing in their land and still traveled out for more adventure and business. Are we talking about the Okpoto in the present day Ebọnyị State that believed to be an ancient spiritual people in Igbo land?

Igbo is deep and wide. There were aboriginals and those you refer to as migrants were travelers who returned home.

Let me get back to the argument: Ooni said and I quote him verbatim: “We have good evidence to believe that Igbo race has its roots here in Ile-Ife. There is Ile-Igbo here in the palace which was not a recent creation but has been existing here for decades.”

If going by this statement, it means that some ndị Igbo were amongst the early inhabitants and founders of Ile-Ife. Since he said there is Ile-Igbo in the palace which proves his point that the Igbo had a root in Ife, it shows the Igbo were part of the early traditional leadership of the Ife.

Just as he said in his last statement and I quote: “For this and many other reasons, I believe we need proper documentation of our history.”.

I agree with him. While we document our history properly it’s important we take note of the influence of the Igbo in Ile-Ife as he posited. The entire Igbo race had no common Ife ancestry as the point indirectly portrayed. While some sojourned and founded some places, some were still home, doing their blacksmithing, farming, hunting and other businesses.

To buttress my point, the attached pictures below are the Igbo masquerades in Yoruba land reported by Professor Jumoke Oloidi, a yoruba man and a Professor of History at the University of Nigeria, Nsụka.

In his PhD Thesis entitled: Economic History of Ekiti People in Nigeria, he highlights the

Early Igbo Sojourners in Eastern Yorubaland and how the Igbo blacksmiths took their craft to the Yoruba land.

The masquerade here is the famous Mgbedike masquerade known in the Nri-Ọka part of Igbo land. You could see ichi. British Colonial officer known as Harland Duckworth took the picture at a village in Okitipupa area of the present day Ondo State in the 40s.

The blacksmithing of the Ọka penetrated the Yorubaland and according to Professor O.N. Njọkụ in his book:” Economic History of Nigeria: 19th and 20th Centuries”, he states that it happened sometime between 1890s and 1904. But it was in the Colonial era that they began to appear significantly in numbers, around the 1930s for the Yoruba tradition to take notice of their presence.

It was their skill in gun-smithing that enabled the Ọka to penetrate Yorubaland. While Yoruba gunsmiths used nails and riveted their gun parts, Ọka smiths used screws. Ọka guns could thus be taken apart, cleaned and re-assembled.

The best-known of the Ọka smiths in Yorubaland in the 1930s was a certain man called Godwin Okafọ, who settled in Igede Ekiti. Ekiti people didn’t even know his name and simply called him Ọka. He brought innovations and enriched the smithing tradition of Igede, just as his fellow Ọka craftsworkers were changing the face of the profession in other towns in Ekiti and beyond.

An Igede Ekiti man called Chief Akande, had this to say about Godwin Okafọ and his ‘brothers’:

“These Isobos [a name originally referring to Urhobos, but extended to anyone from the Eastern Region] came and began to make heavy duty guns that could kîll 2 or 3 animals at once. They were the first to seriously start producing knives, cutlasses hoes and others in large quantity for sale. Look at Awka [i.e., Godwin Okafọ], he is small in stature but stronger than many around us. He was the person who first started producing short, rather than the usual long, guns here. Not only that, these Awka people performed their smithing activity by producing, for the first time, double-barrel guns that could kîll a whole district if there is war…” (Jumoke Oloidi)

In a nutshell, the Igbo race didn’t migrate from Ile-Ife, instead there some Igbo who lived and multiplied in different parts of the country as we have it today. Some returned home. And before colonialism, people lived anywhere they found themselves and contribute to both economic, traditional and political development of the area. The Igbo had great influence because of their nature as sojourners.

References:
1. Economic History of Ekiti People in Nigeria, 1900 – 1960″ by Jumoke Oloidi . Thesis, UNN)

2. Economic History of Nigeria: 19th and 20th Centuries.

© Maazị Ogbonnaya Okoro
Linguist, author, historian and cultural advocate.