Chuka Nwosu
The initial presentations of the two groundbreaking books written by Rev Canon Charles Amobi Ekweozor couldn’t hold due to circumstances beyond anybody’s control. The heavy rain and the attendant flood of that day made it impossible for the special guests and book lovers who were looking forward to the date, to be able to access the venue. It is in the light of this and the popular demand by history scholars and bibliophiles that the author has decided to represent the two books to a wider audience on the 4th of February, 2023.
One of the books titled, “The Origin of Ndigbo” focuses on the Igbo origin, culture, identity, philosophy, history, location, symbols and social constructs. The origins of Ndigbo have its uniqueness, which requires unique approaches and tools that enabled the author to unravel the roots of the Igbo people. On the strength of several ethnographic factors woven around the history of the Igbo, the author adopted multiple approaches in tracing the origins of the Ndigbo. The author’s approaches were drawn from both the theological and social methods in social sciences which hinged on qualitative and descriptive methods. These two methods involved the historical events methods, geographical and space feature-based approach, archeological findings and concept-based construction. The author also used linguistic based approach, ethnological approach, biblical narratives and exegetical analysis; oral, traditional, and literary approach and comparative analysis were used. The summation of these approaches enabled the author to arrive on his warrant of claims on the origins of the Ndigbo.
The author’s second book was primarily focused on the Igbo concept of land. Land is not just a piece of estate; land is much more than that. Land provides the Igbos the basis for the conception of Igbo concept of Omenani. Omenani through the Igbo concept of land defines the Igbo worldview. To the Igbos, land is the basis in understanding law, and order, religion, culture Igbo history, identity, and philosophy. Igbo social justice derives its meaning and purpose from Igbo concept of land. Land is a compendium of who an Igbo man is, this no doubt helps to define Igbo value system – by using the lens of Igbo concept of Omenani which is the corpus of Igbo moral and ethical codes (the unwritten law yet it is as old as the Igbo people).
he book on Omenani provides the Igbos with tools to understand the biblical concept of land and how human attitude can either negatively on positively affects land, human relationship with God and relationship with one another. The book further the provides the basis on how the Igbos understand and interpret their world using land theology. The Igbo concept of land has led author to ask one or two questions. What is land to the Igbo people and how did land come into existence, who owns the land, and how has land been programmed to act or respond to human attitude. These questions gave birth to what the Igbos conceived as either Omenani or Odinani. These two words though have been used inter-changeably but there are indications that their hermeneutic conception was devoid of deep biblical revelatory knowledge which have resulted to wrong application and definition of the two words. Odinani reflects the biblical account of the emergency of land and how land has been programmed by God to produce for the benefits of humanity and creation while Omenani is an attitudinal concept which suggests how one interprets and the cosmos, which could be right or wrong. Because the concept of Omenani is the product of the human mind. Thus, the study of Omenani has enabled the author to come up with replacement theology.
The author found through these two books there exist a gap between the Igbos of the old and the Igbos after the civil war (July 1967 – Jan 1970). Inclusion, the author notes that there seems to be a loss of transitory knowledge between the Igbo of the old and the contemporary Igbo. The author opines that gap, which exist between the two can be traced to loss of origin, history, identity and collapse of Igbo value system.
