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The Dating of the Aro Chiefdom: A Synthesis of Correlated Genealogies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

A. O. Nwauwa
A. O. Nwauwa*
Affiliation:
Dalhousie University
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Extract

Precolonial African historiography has been plagued by historical reconstructions which remain in the realm of legend because events are suspended in almost timeless relativity.

Igbo history has not been adequately researched. Worse still, the little known about the people has not been dated. It might be suggested that the major reason which makes the study of the Igbo people unattractive to researchers has been the lack of a proper chronological structure. Igbo genealogies have not been collected. The often adduced reason has been that the Igbo did not evolve a centralized political system whereby authority revolved round an individual—king or chief—which would permit the collection of regnal lists. Regrettably, Nigerian historians appear to have ignored the methodology of dating kingless or chiefless societies developed and applied elsewhere such as in east Africa. In west African history generally, there has been an overdependence for dating on external sources in European languages or in Arabic, and combining these with the main regnal list of a kingdom. Even within kingdoms, genealogies of commoners and officials have rarely been collected or correlated with the regnal lists. Among the Igbo, the external sources are rare and the regnal lists few. Even the chiefdoms—Onitsha and Aboh, Oguta and Nri—were ignored for a long time after modern historiography had achieved major advances elsewhere. Arochukwu has been another neglected Igbo chiefdom. Most of these states with hereditary leadership were peripheral to the Igbo heartland. Nevertheless, they were important because of their interactions with the heartland and the possibility of dating interactive events from their genealogies.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 17 , January 1990 , pp. 227 - 245
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1990

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References

Notes

1. Sargent, R.A., “On the Methodology of Chronology: The Igala Core Dating Progression,” HA, 11 (1984), 269.Google Scholar

2. Shankland, T.M., “Intelligence Report on the Aro Clan, Arochukwu District, Calabar Province,” National Archives, Enugu, Arodiv. 20/1/15, 1933, p. 7.Google Scholar Also see Ilugu, E., “Inside Arochukwu,” Nigeria, no. 53 (1957), 100Google Scholar; Dike, K.O. and Ekejiuba, F.I., “The Aro State: A Case Study of State Formation in Southeastern Nigeria,” Journal of African Studies, 5 (1978), 273Google Scholar; and Mathews, H.F., “Discussion of Aro Origin and the Basis of the Widespread ‘Aro Influence’,” Intelligence Report, National Archives, Enugu, M.P. No. 24/1927/25; Arodiv. 20/1/15, 1927, p. 9.Google Scholar

3. Ilugu, “Inside Arochukwu;” Dike, and Ekejiuba, , ”Aro State,” 270–71.Google Scholar The infiltration of the Igbo into the Aro region has been explained in terms of the breakup of the Jukun empire, and the economic necessity caused by the great overpopulation of Owerri Province.

4. Aro traditions variously refer to the Igbo slave, who was said to have precipitated the Igbo-Ibibio hostilities, as Urunta, Agu, or Kakakpu. See Mathews', Report, 9–10.Google Scholar

5. The names Nachi and Okenachi have been used interchangeably in some of the people's traditions. See Mathews', Report, 10Google Scholar; Mathews', “Second Report on Aro,” Intelligence Report, National Archives, Enugu, Arodiv. 20/1/15, 1927, p. 3Google Scholar; and Sealey-King, Major I., “Aro Genealogical History of—,” Arodiv. 20/1/1, 1923, p. 2.Google Scholar

6. Specifically Mathews', “Discussion of Aro Origin…,” 14–18.Google Scholar

7. Sargent, , “Methodology,” 269–73.Google Scholar Also see Sargent, R.A., “Politics and Economics in the Benue Basin ca. 1300-1700,” Ph.D., Dalhousie University, 1984.Google Scholar, Kiwanuka, M.S.M., A History of Buganda, (London, 1971), 271–86Google Scholar; and Webster, J.B., ed. Chronology, Migration and Drought in Interlacustrine Africa, (New York, 1979), 2–3.Google Scholar This average is relevant for the Igbo. The phenomenon of late marriage persists among the Igbo today.

8. Isichei, Elizabeth, The Igbo People and the Europeans, (London, 1973), 35.Google Scholar

9. Mathews, , “Discussion,” 14–18.Google Scholar See p. 15, paragraph 47 in particular. The genealogy hardly extends back beyond five generations.

10. Webster, J.B., “Through the Palace Gates, Chiefs and Chronology: Developing Reliable Dating Structures” HA, vol. 11, 1984, pp. 345–347.Google Scholar In this study, Webster observed that almost a century of Awe-Jukun history was being forgotten as evident in the royal genealogies collected by the British colonial officials. Thirty-two commoner genealogies he collected produced a startling date, ca. 1679-1706 as against ca. 1776-1794.

11. Mathews, , “Discussion,” 14.Google Scholar In another account by Okorafor, Solomon U.et. al. “Chieftaincy of Aro,” dd 4/9/1945, National Archives, Arodiv. 3/1/55, pp. 2¬3Google Scholar, Okpo was recorded as the name of the slave who impregnated Nachi's wife.

12. Mathews, , ”Discussion, 14Google Scholar; Okorafor, et al., ”Chieftaincy.”

13. Onicho, Oti Nwa, “Account of Aro Origin,” dd 4/8/22, National Archives, Enugu, Arodiv. 20/1/1, 1922, p. 4Google Scholar; Sealey-King, , “Aro Genealogical History,” 5Google Scholar; and Mathews, , “Discussion on Aro Origin,” 12.Google Scholar

14. Umo, R. Kanu, History of Aro Settlements, (Yaba, nd), 10–11.Google Scholar From the various dates quoted in Umo's book it would appear that the work was published about 1945.

15. Latham, A.J.H., Old Calabar, 1600-1891, (Oxford, 1973), 18.Google Scholar

16. Umo, Kanu, ”History,” 33.Google Scholar Both Atani and Isimkpu Aro towns were founded by Ezejaka, captive of a hunting party.

17. Ibid.. Okpareke II's son also murdered Onyekwere's son, fearing the latter's revenge for his father's assassination. Onyekwere's lineage was thus extirpated.

18. Ibid., 29, 32.

19. The Aro have often been misdated. Talbot, P.A., The Peoples of Southern Nigeria, (London, 1926) 1:182Google Scholar, has put the foundation of the chiefdom ca. 1300-1400. He had no basis for these dates other than that this was the period of the preponderance of the Portuguese on the coast of Nigeria. Sargent, , ”Politics and Economics,” 99–152Google Scholar, was also caught up in the same problem. He refers to the two Igbo priests employed by Oba Ewuare of Benin as Aro. Oba Ewuare reigned ca. 1455-1482. Sargent also contends that it was the Aro-Benin alliance under Aji-Attah which sacked the Okpoto dynasty of Idah, ca. 1509-1536. These suggest that the Aro chiefdom was founded before ca. 1455-1482. Sargent's problem is understandable because he merely followed the usual tendency whereby scholars consider every Igbo-related involvement in southern Nigerian history as essentially an Aro action. The evidence at my disposal discredits such proclivity, and remote dating.

20. Shankland, , “Intelligence Report,” 9Google Scholar; Ekejiuba, F. Ifeoma, “The Aro System of Trade in the Nineteenth Century,” Ikenga, 1 (1972), 13.Google Scholar

21. Shankland, “Intelligence Report;” Isichei, Elizabeth, A History of the Igbo People, (London, 1976), 58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The remains of two of these weapons are still preserved while the rest are said to have been destroyed during the Aro Expedition of 1901-02. Shankland preferred to refer to the “Akpa” as “Okoyong” because he believed their original home was Akankpa, Okoyong clan in Calabar Division.

22. Northrup, David, Trade Without Rulers, (Oxford, 1978), 36.Google Scholar

23. Ibid.

24. Mathews, , “Second Report on Aro,” 5–6Google Scholar; Shankland, “Intelligence Report;” Forde, Daryll and Jones, G.I., The Ibo and Ibibio-Speaking Peoples of Southeastern Nigeria, (London, 1950), 85.Google Scholar

25. Dike, K.O. and Ekejiuba, F.I., “The Aro State,” 277.Google Scholar This fieldwork was conducted in 1963/64, 1965/66, and 1970.

26. Latham, , Old Calabar, 24, 27.Google Scholar

27. Snelgrave, William, A New Account of Some Parts of Guinea, and the Slave Trade, (London, 1732)Google Scholar, as culled from Latham, , Old Calabar, 24.Google Scholar

28. Isichei, Elizabeth, A History of Nigeria, (London, 1983), 164Google Scholar; Isichei, , Igbo People, 59Google Scholar; Ukwu, Ukwu I., “The Development of Trade and Marketing in Iboland,” Journal of the Historial Society of Nigeria, 3/4 (1967), 656.Google Scholar

29. Jones, G.I., The Trading States of the Oil Rivers, (London, 1963), 45–46.Google Scholar

30. Latham, , Old Calabar, 26Google Scholar; Northrup, , Trade Without Rulers, 35Google Scholar; and Ilugu, “Inside Arochukwu.”

31. Northrup, , Trade Without Rulers, 39–40.Google Scholar