Oseloka Obaze*
Chikodi Añunobi
(ISBN: 10: 0-9767303-0-8 Zenith Publishers, LLC, POB 50386, Bellevue, WA, 2006, pp. 378; Price $19.95)
Available At: http://www.amazon.com & http://www.ZenithPublishers.com
Sunday 23 September 2007
Perhaps not since Chinua Achebe’s 1958 classic, Things Fall Apart, has any author or
work ventured to so efficiently, so painstakingly, and so authoritatively give the Igbo culture,
norms, and language a befitting flourish and its well-deserved place in history and literature.
Chikodi Añunobi’s Nri Warriors of Peace, a story of a once and a future king of Nri and other interconnected lives, begins with twin tragedies; death of Nwa-anyanwu Okoye, a prominent denizen of Nri from a rattlesnake bite and the murder of Oduenyi, the village bully, by Erike, a precocious lion-slaying youth who refused to be intimidated. It is also a story of the ancient but progressive Igbo nation, weaved deftly around the exploration of personal idiosyncrasies, and the countermanding values and blithe republicanism that is still believed to be the Achilles heels of the present-day Igbo nation. But more importantly, Nri Warriors of Peace is a commanding work of literature, intimately and tightly structured around the richness and vibrancy of the pacifist Nri culture. It was the duty of Nri “to spread the message of peace, fair play, and non-violence.”
Historically, Nri, one of the many, but lesser known African kingdoms, is the bastion and primordial cradle of the Igbo race, culture and civilization. The historical acclaim of Nri is awesomely accepted. Its ascendants’ pride of place along with the Aro in Igbo history and lore, is such, that no genuine Igbo person or descendant, even those with unbridled audacity, would venture to go through the traditional and quasi-religious rite of consecrating and breaking the kolanut in the presence of an Nri or Aro person. In sum, Nri is Igbo as Igbo is Nri. Unfortunately, the pacifist disposition of the Nri people, being lesser of a marshal tribe, may have contributed to the diminution and limited projection of its historical significance. “If one made peace and not war, one had no place in history.” But “Nri was the land of peaceful warriors” and it was its peacemaking credentials that set the denizens of the Nri kingdom apart from many well known kingdoms, mostly recognized historically, from having been conquered or for conquering other tribes. This novel traces the foundation, if not the genesis of such pacifism.
It is against this pacifist background that Chikodi Añunobi sets his debut novel, Nri Warriors of Peace. This historical novel is an engrossing work of historical fiction subsumed in facts, culture, pedigree and antecedents of an old, but very compelling, dynamic and still flourishing Igbo culture. The story is set in the 11th century, and in what is in the present-day Nigeria, the south-eastern geopolitical zone inhabited predominantly by the Igbo. The plot and scheme of this novel are in many ways reflective of the numerous contradictions that continue to bedevil the Igbo tribe. An ambitious youth, Okoye Nweri sets out become an Nze priest, with the sole aim of becoming upwardly mobile and sufficiently affluent to be well-regarded by his people. As the protagonist, Okoye is blunt, exuberant, ambitious, footloose, yet strait-laced and of common heritage. His aspiration was quite in contrast with those of his forebears, who had during more than thirteen generations and counting, aspired to the same priestly role and functions, not for personal aggrandizement, but to facilitate their becoming ambassadors, mediators of peace and agents of goodwill to the neighboring communities.
As in all similar situations, questions about Okoye's bona fides were soon matched the daunting challenges that confronted him soon after he became an Nze priest. Primarily, he is confronted with a task, which he could neither repudiate nor decline, when he is summoned along with his friend Erike Okolo, by the Igwe Nwadike, the beloved and very diplomatic Nri leader to become his assistants. Though this was a task Okoye could not justifiably object to, given his aspirations, it was however, one that did not tie into his scheme of becoming affluent and certainly one, which was not in tandem with the desires of his pro-business and progressive Ozo Oganiru kinsmen. Moreover, he was aware that declining to be in the service of the monarch was impolitic and non-career enhancing. Okoye accepted the task, well aware of its obvious downside and setbacks.
In the ensuing period, Okoye and Erike would become immersed on the Nri culture and especially, the teachings, rituals and practices of the Nze priesthood. But their respective interests in the customs were predicated on different motives. Both sought the rite of passage to the acquisition of the Otonsi Nri, a ceremonial spear and staff of manhood and of being a citizen-in-good-standing. The Otonsi was also a “staff of immunity and their passport to all Igbo Land….an instant guarantor of credit.” They also both came to the critical juncture of seeking the Otonsi, through different paths: Okoye through the untimely death of his father, and Erike due to an “unfortunate circumstance” – his relocation into exile after killing the village bully Oduenyi in self-defense. The “Otonsi would not only solidify his Nri citizenship, but it would give him something else – immunity to visit his birth village and see his mother without any harassment from the villagers.”
Concomitantly, both friends were also exposed to the dynamics of Nri politics and its time-honored traditional values clashing with imported ideas and personal ambitions. They were also exposed the idiosyncrasies of some priests, who in the name of progressiveness, gave primacy to personal advancement and accumulation of wealth, over communal service, the communal wellbeing and the underpinning primary role and mission of the Ozo and Nze priests as peacemakers. In this context, the Ozo Oganiru was pitted against the Ozo Mkputu factions, the latter holding on to more traditional views and value than the former. This self-motivated dichotomy results in inevitable conflicts and challenges, arising mostly where and where personal interests contend with communal interests and the search for due process, equity and justice clash with the quest for peace and stability.
Well before the story, which straddles several generations fully unfolds, the incumbent monarch, Eze Nri Igwe Nwadike, who had consolidated the powers of monarch by stripping the Ozo groups of certain roles, would interface with Okoye, during the tribe’s mandatory 28-day retreat for candidates into the Nze priesthood. Unknown to many of the candidate-priests, the retreat was a fortuitous interaction between a once and a future monarch, since Okoye, though a commoner, would become a monarch himself, after the death of the incumbent, Igwe Nwadike, and after having spent many years in trading and becoming a successful merchant.
This is a work of immense sociological value. As per cultural dictates, there were missionary duties for the Nze priests, Gbata Oso- the compassionate mission; Ifu-Ije - the peace mission. The former was of an emergency nature, and undertaken during bereavement or calamity of sorts, and the latter, more altruistic, humanitarian, routine and of extended duration, during which the Nze priests would “perform various services before moving on to the next village”. Such missions promoted amity between neighbors. Chores performed, ranged from the mystic to the mundane -- cleansing the impure, scarification rites and settling marital squabbles included.
Nri Warriors of Peace is also replete with traditional challenges, emotionalism and a surfeit of values the ancient Igbo held dear. “[I]f you do not speak up and expose evil, you are as guilty as the evildoers themselves. If you do not speak up for the earth then you do not have the right to blessings from the earth. We must speak the truth at all times even when no one is watching. Truthfulness is the foundation of a good person and, therefore, the foundation of a good community. A community that does not speak the truth will not survive….. We must promote rights and responsibilities and develop the ties between the two. We must embrace our responsibilities because that is the only guaranteed avenue for obtaining our own rights. Rights are never free. There is always a corresponding responsibility attached to them.”
Skillfully, Añunobi also uses this work to explore several Igbo mores. One instance is how Nri (the Igbo) dealt with the unbetrothed and unmarried female and the extension of a closed lineage. In the case of Ijego, she was told that “It is not good for a grown-up woman to live in isolation”. To address her extended spinsterhood situation and allow her to partake in activities with the women of Agu-Nri, certain acts had to be performed that would allow her to take over the lands and livestock of a deceased Nri man. “A full marriage ceremony will be performed in his name. After that you (Ijego) can socialize fully with Nri-Agu women. You can have children in his name. If you cannot have children there are other things we do.” The package also included the right for Ijego to marry a young wife for herself, in the name of the deceased man. This young wife could bear children for Ijego and her deceased notional spouse. In this way his lineage will continue.
If there is one overarching social issue on this book, it is making peace, which in turn, called for requisite due process and the delivery of justice. But communally attaining such lofty goals were not always without challenges. Whatever the personal challenges or experiences were, Okoye took them in strides even when “caught between the ideal and the practical,” until he was called to serve after Igwe Nwadikes’ death. With his new role came new and more pressing challenges, including that of trust, loyalty and personal privacy. Accepting the Igweship meant not doing the things he enjoyed the most. As Igwe, Okoye was supposed to show his subjects “how to make peace and speak the truth” and was expected to be “a symbol of a perfect human being.” As far as taboos went, he could not shake hands, see dead bodies, and masquerades, or leave his compound unaccompanied. This led Okoye to lament, “My life will be over.”
Igwe Okoye’s biggest test and defining moment arrived when a complaint was filed before him against Okeke Ubaka, the Ezu Nri, with whom he had a close personal relationship. Aside from his being one of the most powerful men in Nri, Okoye had learned trading under Ezu’s tutelage. But Ezu, his business mentor and some of the progressive priests in the Ozo Oganiru group had devised means of colluding with Uwa men (confident tricksters) in ripping off unsuspecting fellow Nri traders. This was unknown, until a victim, Okozo Akaluka, a.k.a. Osundu, spilled the beans by filing a complaint with Igwe Okoye.
After a thorough investigation of the complaint, “What they found broke Okoye’s heart,” leaving him no option but to summon an unrepentant Ezu, to ascertain the facts. The contentious encounter would become the defining and testing moment of his monarchy and for Nri. The choice before Okoye was clear; this was a major scandal and an outrage, which Ezu elected to treat with utter levity and indifference, thus leaving Okoye no option than to subject him a full panel of Ozo council, mindful of the diverseness and restiveness it could elicit in Nri. In dismissing Ezu, who had treated him with unhidden condescension, Okoye speaking through his court interpreter said, “Tell our man that Eze Nri can no longer speak directly with him until this whole issue has been resolved to my satisfaction by the full Ozo council meeting. Remind him that Eze Nri does not speak directly to strangers.”
By referring to Ezu as a stranger, Okoye had set the stage for an inevitable conflict that was bound to have agonizing reprisals for the culprits, and reverberate with profound implications for Nri. Either way, there was bound to be a painful outcome; but Okoye unlike his diplomatic predecessor, had handled the matter how he knew best; “He liked to solve problems from root causes.” Also “Okoye knew that somewhere within the Oganiru circle was the lowest end of Nri morality”, and that some “Ozo men, mostly Oganiru, were prepared to protect Ezu at all cost”. Of the multiple charges against Ezu, the most egregious was not just dealing with criminals, but breaking the Ozo code of willful non-disclosure of fact that could bring dishonor to Nri – a conduct unbecoming of an Ozo man. The verdict passed on the Ezu and his cohorts was most severe, and rather than solve the conflict, it exacerbated it further. Ezu’s impenitent reaction to the sanction was deemed an “open challenge to all Nri people, a tense moment in Nri”. But what was more challenging, was whether Nri, the home of peacemakers could ever recover from the crisis and remain intact. The key was the uncertainty, if an Nri that willy-nilly made peace among other communities was capable of making peace with itself?
Effortlessly
and with acute novelistic impulse, Añunobi takes the reader on an introspective
soul-travel into and across the deep recess of Igbo olden times and custom. He
leads the reader on an introspective odyssey across the vastness of Igbo history
and tradition. But the story as a reflection of human interaction and idealism
is one that will resonate with all comers and every reader regardless of their
ethnicity or background. Hence the author’s declaration about the grounding of
his work is most understandable. As he notes; “This
is more than an Igbo story or an African story. This is a human story, for there
is something inherent in a human being that propels him to reach for the
ideal—to manifest God—the ultimate goodness. Nri civilization did not build a
large empire like other famous civilizations that we know about. They did not
build great pyramids like the Egyptians or the Mayans. …But they did have what
those civilizations had: a desire to be ideal human beings and to inspire the
rest of the world around them. One could argue that technology does not make a
civilization, but discipline of the mind does.”
Besides dealing extensively with the core issue of Nri and therefore, Igbo social justice delivery system, this book draws additional value from several other critical elements, language being one. Añunobi is true to his native Igbo language. His vast repertoire, full grasp of its nuances and usage, enriches the book. Igbo idiomatic expressions and proverbs such as, “My eyes have seen my ears”; “No one sends a query to God” are routinely interjected throughout the book. Indeed, what will a book about Nri amount to, without such enabling and oftentimes, anecdotal proverbs and symbolic gestures? The place of fetish is also explored. However, the most critical added value of Nri Warriors of Peace is that it reveals in an unambiguous and incontestable way, the often-ignored and unacknowledged entrenchment of the Igbo culture, well before the foray of the white man into Africa. Secondly, the parallels between the inter-personal and intra-communal tendencies of ancient Nri, and prevailing political realities in Igbo Land, makes this book almost a true story or at least, a biography of sorts, masquerading as a novel. As regards Nri politics and governance issues, there is a remarkable parallel in the activities documented in this book, the dramatis personae, erosion of values and even the corrupting tendencies exhibited by some individuals and the conduct and disposition of some present-day Igbo politicians and business men.
Finally, perhaps not since Chinua Achebe’s 1958 classic, Things Fall Apart, has any author or work ventured to so efficiently, so painstakingly, and so authoritatively give the Igbo culture, norms, and language a befitting flourish and its well-deserved place in history and literature. Añunobi, certainly, could not have accomplished such a feat but for the his in-depth research, firsthand knowledge of folktales and norms, as well as personal knowledge, evidently acquired from oral history and from being himself and Nri descendant. Despite its copious volume, Nri Warriors of Peace is a book that is hard to put down. It is riveting, enchanting, educative, and a striking interpretation of a definitive period in ancient Igbo history.
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Mr. Oseloka Obaze, an aspiring writer, is a founding member of the Kwenu.com Book Review Forum, which is dedicated to the promotion of books with Igbo and Afrocentric themes. He is also a supporting Member of the African Writers Endowment (AWE). From 1999 to 2005 he served on the editorial board of INYEAKA, the journal of Songhai Charities, Inc., a New Jersey community-based charity founded and run by Nigerians based in New York Tri-state area in the United States, first as its founding Publisher and later as the Editor-At-Large. He is also on the editorial board of The Amaka Gazette, the journal of the Christ the King College, Onitsha Alumni Association in America. His collection of poems, “Regarscent Past: A Collection of Poems” was among the top three finalists in the poetry category in the African Writers Endowment Publishing Grant Program for 2004. His novel, “Happy Eulogy” will be published in 2007.
He reviews books and arts strictly as a hobby.
© Copyright 23 September 2007.