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The arrival of the maiden edition of Ekwe Oha, the IWA Newsletter at this time of the year may seem kind of out of the way, but does it really matter? The good side of it is that it offered the platform to review IWA activities of this year. Therefore join us to welcome EKWE - OHA, The gong of the people as it announces its emergence as the story teller, the griot of the activities of Igbo World Assembly, and her partners. In this edition the recently held IWA convention in Asaba Delta state of Nigeria, and the convention of the Council Igbo Communities in Europe held in Valentia Spain will be reviewed. In addition, we will delve in some details the up and coming retreat to be held at the Igbo Farm Village in Staunton West Virginia. This is a great event being hosted by the Council of Igbo States in America CISA, in collaboration with WATHET, a non profit organization, and IWA, Igbo World Assembly. Our feature of the month is ‘Ndigbo’ Valencia So, there is nothing more to do than relax and enjoy the sound of Ekwe Oha. Deemenu o!
In This Edition
IWA Convention 2012 - ASABA
Introduction to the Retreat on Refining the Igbo Agenda in the Igbo Farm Village at the Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia, USA By Ticha Akuma-Kalu Njoku
HOME COMING FOR OUR AMERICAN RELATIVES &
IWA Chairman Crowned ‘Ike Ndi Igbo’
The chairman of Igbo World Assembly, Dr Nwachukwu Anakwenze, Okaa Omee N’Abagana was recently feted with a traditional title of ‘Ike Igbo’ by the traditional ruler of Enugwu AguluEri. The event took place at Obu Gad, the palace of H.R.H Eze A. E. Chukwuemeka-Eri, Eze-Ora The 34TH.
FEATURES OF THE MONTH NDIGBO VALENCIA
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ASABA - 2012. IWA 5TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE
The conference opened at about 9 am on Tuesday the 26th of September, 2012. The opening speech was made by IWA chairman Dr, Nwachukwu Anakwenze, after which other protocols followed. The convention which has been under preparation for months, started gracefully with the attendance of IWA leaders from different countries; Hon. Kingsley Obi (The president Igbo Improvement Union-Spain), leaders from UK, NETHERLAND, SOUTH AFRICA ,USA among others. Also present was the first son of our late Hero Ojukwu in the person of Chief Debe Ojukwu, Special Adviser to the delta state Governor on community & cultural affairs, and Women leader “Ohaneze Ndigbo”, Traditional rulers, Prof. Ukwu I.Ukwu, Agu Ojukwu( Former Economic Adviser to the Abia State Government), Rev. Father Zigo; who lead a praise section, the youths of Delta State in masses and their leader Ifeanyi, Members of the Lower Niger Congress (LNC); the leader Tony Nnadi, Ngo Martins a famous lawyer in delta state, who also will launch one his books written for the Igbo’s; On the second day, the turn up was so encouraging beyond our expectations. All participant’s including invited guests from South-South regions where over 600 in number. There was also a big media presence to cover the event, among those present were; Delta Broadcasting Services (DBS), Punch, Tribune, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Pointer, Trans-world, etc. On the security aspect, the delta state commissioner of police Iyke Ayo Aduba, was present with his Deputy, PPRO and the Area commander. They mobilized more than 15 mobile police men to guard the venue and he also made an advisory speech to the youths and finally ended up saying all Igbo’s are one. IWA also used the opportunity to deliver the Igbo strategic blue print and the way forward that focused on Economic empowerment, Infrastructural Development, Good Governance, Political emancipation, Youth Development, Food security, among others. In conclusion, from our other experience of IWA convention hosted in Other States, the Asaba Convention 2012; was a “huge success”.
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Introduction to the Retreat on Refining the Igbo Agenda in the Why Igbo Farm Village in Virginia, U.S.A.? Igbo Farm Village at the Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia, During the transatlantic slave trade, thousands of enslaved Igbo people came directUSA By Ticha Akuma-Kalu Njoku The Igbo leaders of thought, presidents and chairpersons of Igbo Unions, Hometown, and Country Associations will have a retreat to refine an Igbo Agenda, on March 22 and 23, 2013. All those in charge of Youth and Culture Committees of their Organizations are encouraged to attend. Ticha Akuma-Kalu Njoku will facilitate thoughtful deliberations on and creative responses to Igbo Cultural Agenda focusing on:
1. Making Igbo Mkpa (Service) the Igbo Purpose: In the rapidly increasing Igbo Diaspora making Service (Igbo Mkpa) should be our mandate. 2. Making Ogu the Guiding principle of Igbo moral life) 3. An inclusive sense of diasporic Igbo Peoplehood, home and territory 4. Making maximum professional and vocational commitments to Igbo Diaspora communities and to the greater Alaigbo 5. Discovering new Igbolands outside our primordial Igbolands where we will prosper by rendering service and in turn use our prosperity to prosper Alaigbo in the areas of community, health, religion, economy, politics, education, and recreation 6. Establishing and settling New Igbolands (Aniigbo Ohuu) in the Igbo Diaspora. This we must thoughtfully and vigorously pursue in Europe, North America, and Africa. 7. Forming organizations to carter for the anticipated Igbo massive immigration to newly discovered Igbolands should be one of the major undertakings of Igbo communities in the Diaspora. 8. Establishing Igbo Immigration Centers that will provide contexts and programs for acculturating new Igbo immigrants and assisting them to gain citizenship must be a part of the Igbo strategies of survival and success. 9. Making heritage education the basis of advanced knowledge in such a way that balancing cultural reasoning with critical thinking will become our lifelong mandate. Diaspora Igbo should make strategic uses of the Igbo Village in Staunton, VA and the Igbo Studies Center at Howard University in Washington to train new generation of Igbo leaders versed in Igbo cultural traditions as well as formal education. The summer cultural immersion classes and weekend institutes that are already taking place at the Igbo Village must continue to provide the kind of heritage education that will take Igbo children from their families to their greater Igbo communities, camps, colleges, primordial homeland, jobs, marriage, home acquisition (Alabi Estates), and professional commitments to Alaigbo as Odenigbos.
ly to Virginia via shipping ports in Calabar and Bonny. Igboland was the principal source of the labor force in the tobacco plantation in Virginia in 1740s. At a point, they outnumbered and eventually replaced their Irish indentured counterparts. The Igbo laborers produced the tobacco that became the mainstay of the Virginian economy. The Igbo also provided the labor in the Black Belt that made cotton king. And they continued to contribute to nation building and the to the development of the frontier culture in the United States. Thus the Igbo were among the first effective settlers Anglo-America, and among the first groups to cross the Cumberland Gap to open the gateway for the territorial expansion of the United States. Thus the building of the Igbo Farm Village in Staunton, Virginia, like the English, German, and Irish Farmsteads, built by American Frontier Culture Foundation, is a tangible recognition of the contribution of the Igbo people to the first English permanent settlement of Virginia, to American nation building in the United States, and to the development the greater American frontier culture. In 2002, while I was on sabbatical retracing the hinterland routes of Igbo slave journeys, I established a direct link between a Cave Temple Complex in Arochukwu and major markets along the trade routes to Calabar and Bonny from where the enslaved traveled to the United States. I then self-consciously developed a trail that leads from Arocukwu to Bonny via the Blue River in Azumini, Abia State. Inspired by the tourism potential of my project, I sought and received the approval of the Abia State Government to work with the staff of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to document the Arochukwu cave and other sites and monuments in Abia. In 2003, I presented a paper on the Folklore and Material Culture of Igbo Slave Journeys to the United States at an annual conference of the American Folklore Association. John Vlach, a distinguished American folklorist, after hearing my paper, recommended me to American Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia. The Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton of Virginia, at that time was planning a West African exhibit to complement the English Farm, Irish Farm, German Farm, and American Colonial Farm already in existence. I became a member of the advisory board and later as the principal consultant for the Igbo Farm Village project. In March 2006, I traveled together with American Frontier Culture Museum staff to Nigeria to research Igbo traditional architecture. Our team collaborated with staff of Nigerian National Commission for Museums, and Monuments. Mrs. Umebe Onyejekwe, a retired curator with the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments served as the Museum’s primary contact and consultant in Nigeria. She helped the Frontier Culture Museum to purchase the Igbo building materials suitable for the construction of a farmstead in Virginia. In the summer of 2008, I opened discussions in the Igbo community in the United States. Through these discussions, I recruited Reverend Dr. Stanislaus Maduawuchi Ogbonna, a man with traditional building expertise to assist with the construction of the buildings and Dr. Kanayo Odeluga to mobilize and coordinate volunteers. Igbo men, women, children, and numerous families enthusiastically responded. They came from the greater Washington, D.C. area, Chicago, Atlanta, Florida, Houston, Michigan, Kentucky, New York, New Jersey, California, etc. The Museum hired a group of footballers from area secondary schools to help with the construction of the Igbo Farm Village.
EKWE OHA IWA NEWSLETTER
HOME COMING FOR OUR AMERICAN RELATIVES
A trip by a group of African Americans of Igbo ancestry to Ala-Igbo took place in November . This was a first of its kind. African Americans have been undertaking return trips to Africa, the land of their ancestors sold away into slavery many years ago.These our brothers attach great importance to this home coming trips as it provides for them the missing link in their lives. Most of the popular destinations for such return trips are found in West Africa where the bulk of the transatlantic slave trade took place. Some of these places are Goree in Senegal, St Georges Castle, also known as Elmina in Ghana, Ouidah in Togo, and Badagrey in Western Nigeria. This trip to Igboland marked the possibility of opening a new destination for a host of African American’s wishing to experience where their ancestors came from. DNA technology have even made the quest for visiting the exact place of origin more attractive. The set of the first 10 African Americans to make the trip to Igboland proved to be of Igbo ancestry through DNA test. The trip took them to Enugwu Eri where they were put through the Igbo traditional ritual of ‘Ichu-Alu’ cleansing ceremony which was carried out by HRH Eze Chukwuemeka Eri, Aka Jiofo Igbo’ at the Omambala a river in Umu-Ezeora Enugwu Aguleri.The trip was initiated through the help of a renowned Ada Igbo, a world renowned authority in African studies, a researcher per excelence, Professor Catherine Acholonu who later seeked the involvement of Igbo World Assembly, a partnership that enhanced the sucsess of the venture. The Chairman of Igbo World Assembly, Dr Nwachukwu Anakwenze led the group from the USA to Nigeria. Also during the exercise, Dr Anakwenze and some other prominent sons of Igboland were conferred with traditional titles. He got the title of ‘Ike Ndigbo’. Other important Igbo landmarks visited by the group were the palace of Eze Nri , and the Igbo -Ukwu museum, among others. They were also hosted by the Enugu State government as they attended the State annual cultural event. It is hoped that this first visit will open the gateway for more in the future, and that this will become a new form of tuorism and cultural exchange with our brothers in America.
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NDIGBO VALENCIA Valencia, the third largest city in Spain is located on the banks of the Turia river on the eastern coast of the Iberian
peninsula and the western coast of the Mediteranean sea. It has become home for over a thousand Igbo people in recent years. The IWA DSG for Media and Publicity Institute, Chief Ike Ude-Chime recently paid an official visit to Ndigbo in Valencia. He used the opportunity to interact with Igbo leaders, and a cross section of Ndigbo resident in that beautiful city. IWA Media and Publicity Institute recently initiated a project to document the activities, structure, and lifestyle of various Igbo communities in the Diaspora. The expected outcome of this extensive project will be a documentary material that will be of benefit to the younger generation, and other people interested in knowing about the Igbo people living abroad. Many Igbo leaders were interviewed during the trip, and many of the achievements of the Igbo people in Spain in general, and Valencia in particular were recorded. For instance, Ndigbo in Valencia have acquired a house of their own, ‘Obi Ndigbo’ which presently serves as a meeting venue for all the Igbo groups. The venue which is still under renovation and expansion will by the end of the work be used as a learning center for Igbo language and culture, as well as Catalan language and culture. This will be a project supported by the City authority. The able leadership of Hon. Kingsley Obi and his cabinet made all these possible. It is hoped that other Igbo communities around the globe will emulate this good practice of Ndigbo in Valencia, for the benefit of their communities.
Obi Ndigbo Valentia