Book: Proudly UKWUANI: A History and Culture
Author: Barrister Ozah Michael Ozah
Publishers: Canal Paper Converters,
Lagos, 248 pages
Year of Publication: 2010
Reviewer: Onwukamike Nwachukwu

By Onwukamike Nwachukwu

This review will attempt to investigate how Ozah as a post colonial narrator has faithfully or unfaithfully  re- writes, what his book, purports as  misrepresentations of some aspects of Ukwuani history

Taking cue from the Foreword, which Dr Ikenna   Kamalu provides for Ozah Michael Ozah’s book, Proudly Ukwuani: History and Culture, which attempts to locate, what would have amounted to a more brilliant and significant contribution to an aspect of Nigeria’s post colonial narrative; and in particular, to the history of what late Professor Onwuejiogwu described as “ history of Igbo cultural areas” but failed to do so by deviating to scheme his own theory of history of origin and culture for the Ukwuani sub-group of the Igbo tribe.This review will attempt to investigate how Ozah as a post colonial narrator has faithfully or unfaithfully  re- writes, what his book, purports as  misrepresentations of some aspects of Ukwuani history .

In all  post colonial narratives, what writers do is to re-write history to balance or correct whatever misrepresentations that foreign chroniclers of history have purposely or inadvertently constructed around the history of the previously colonised colonies.

The essence of this exercise is to restore or reclaim the denied or banalised identity of that “geographical expression” and its people, which historical rapists and usurpers of truth have shifted to the margins of global configuration.

Going by this ideological commitment, Ozah Michael Ozah, would at a surface reading be seen as factoring into this laudable project, but at a deeper probing, one notices that he fails in achieving this feat as he deviates entirely from the engagement of historical reconstruction to inventing a new social, cultural, linguistic and geographical theories with the intent of creating a melchizedekian empire.

In the well produced 248 page book from the stable of Canal Paper Converters Limited, a subsidiary of Vanguard Media Limited, Ozah Michael Ozah sets out to challenge, whatever theory of origin of connection between the Ukwuani sub-culture with any other ethnic formation; and especially with the Igbo people of South East.

The author does this by introducing any such theories only to deflate them with his own counter arguments. In his writing about the history of origin of the Ukwuani, the author, a legal practitioner, introduces two theories of thought that hold sway about the origin of Ukwuani. These theories according to him are theories of Benin Migration and the theory of Igbo connection, which from oral, geographical, cultural and historical evidences appear more plausible to believe.

He dismisses the 15th century Benin theory of origin, which establishes Benin connection with the Agbor through Umunede to Onitsha Olona down to Onitsha across the other side of the River Niger by arguing that the Ukwuani lingua-political cultures do not in any way have any semblance of the Benin culture and tradition.
According to him: “ If two of the three waves of migration identified were of Edo origin, how come Ukwuani and Ndosumili peoples do not show much of Benin traits in language, system of administration and general culture?” Also dismissing the Igbo theory of connection: a place and people, which Ukwuani shares a lot of similarities with, in political structure, religion, language and social culture, the author argues, quoting an earlier author, that “Ukwuani is a language and Ukwuani language spoken in Utagba-uno and all Ndokwa areas and the Igbo language have a common ancestry like the various European languages that have Latin ancestry often referred to as Romance language.”

Continuing he added that “The average Ukwuani man has never seen nor identified himself as Igbo. Neither did he understand the Igbo language. In fact, Igbo land was distant territory until colonialism and globalisation resulted in increased contact and interaction between both peoples.”

For the author, the Ukwuani did not come from anywhere to stay in their present place of abode. Through the exploitation of his own version of historical lores and interpretation of linguistic claims, he theorizes about his Melchizedekian empire, that  does not seem to have any antecedents or kins.

“Oral accounts rooted in antiquity say that Ukwuani means the foot or foundation of the earth, an indication that humans first set foot on earth in this part of the world. Creation or the beginning of human existence first took place here. It is the root or seat of existence… the initial appearance of homo-sapiens on planet earth must have occurred here. There is a strong indication from these accounts that the Ukwuani are a pre-historic people.” He said.

But how true or correct is Ozah’s  claims? Is he in his arguments faithfully re-writing history to correct mis-representation about his great people or is he playing to the gallery or cooking up new theories to further alienate the dynamic sub-culture of Ukwuani from the larger pan-Igbo or Benin histro-cultural cultures, which its identification with, will guarantee a more meaningful political, cultural and social cohesion? But going by other written historical and oral accounts provided by writers from other climes, who are the Ukwuanis? What is the connection between Ukwuani and Igbo for instance?

According   to G.T. Basden’s book titled; Among the Ibos of Nigeria published in 1921,” From the coastline of the Bight of Benin, the Ibo country skirts the Ibibio, Arochukwu and Efik territories. After that eastern boundary is formed by the Cross River. On the South western sides, it stretches to the borders of the Ijaw, Jekri and Igbabo and then spreads to across the Niger to the confines of Benin.”

Continuing the book says about the Igbo that “ The area covered by the tribe being so extensive, it follows that there is a wide divergence in the physical features of the country. In the Delta regions, the land is very low lying. It is intersected by innumerable creeks…”

In his own account of Ukwuani, an Igbo sub-culture group in the Delta, Ozah confirms this claim, when he writes that : “ The entire area is relatively low lying, below 100 metres above sea level and swampy except the northwestern ridge axis…”

Let us, also go to hear what the late Rt. Honourable Nnamdi Azikiwe, a renowned anthropological scholar and first Civilian President of Independent Nigeria has to say about the Benin migratory connection with the Ontisha people of the Igbo:
In his autobiography titled; My Odyssey, Zik   narrated that: “ I continued to belabour my grandmother to tell me more about the history and origin of Ontisha people. She narrated that many, many years ego, there lived in at Idu (Benin) a great Oba, who had many children. Due to power struggle regarding the right of precedence among the Princes of the blood and altercations, there was a civil war in Benin.

“… in the attempt to penalise them, Chima, the Ultimate founder of the Ontisha city State, a Prince of the blood in his own right, led the recalcitrants against his Uncle, Gbumwala. This intensified the civil war which rent the kingdom in two and led to the founding of Onitsha Ado N’Idu.”

According to Zik’s grandmother in the narrative, “ As the great trek from Benin progressed, some did not have the stout heart of the pioneer warrior, and decided to settle at different places, known today as Onitsha-Ugbo, Onitsha-Olona, Onitsha-Mili, Obior, Issele Ukwu, Ossomari, Aboh etc.”

Going by this account, is it possible to dismiss entirely the claim of the Benin migration theory, which connects the Ukwuani neigbours of above mentioned towns  by Zik’s grandmother narrator?

Is it also by coincidence that both Ukwuani dialect of the Igbo language and Igbo mother tongue of the pan-Igbo cultural areas face possible extinctions in the next fifty years going by UNESCO prediction? Chukwumezie V. Nnamdi in his book; Igbo: the People, Power and Politics  writes that” the problem facing the Igbo language is enormous. UNESCO predicts that in the next fifty years, Igbo language will be extinct if nothing is done to salvage the situation.”

In his own account, Ozah also corroborates this prediction when he observed that” the present trend of near total extinction in the usage of our indigenous language calls for great concern…the degree of adulteration or outright abandonment of Ukwuani language poses a clear and present danger to the survival of our collective heritage.

“When the head is afflicted so is the tail, so they say in Igbo proverb.” And that is just precisely the picture of the extinction threat faced by the Igbo and its variant dialects spoken among the Kwale (Ukwuani) linguistic groups and the Ikwere areas of River State.

However, despite the maverick-writing and reconstruction of history, the author, Ozah attempts in this engaging book, he however, through this effort records some significant mileages by successfully documenting in one single collection the rich cultural and socio political paraphernalia of his Ukwuani people such as administrative system, administration of justice, land tenure system and festivals among other things.

The book also demonstrates in a very special way, the author’s own deep grounding in critical scholarship going by the way he reviews referred historical and existing or surviving oral accounts, even when he ostensibly intends to miscarry their validities.

Proudly UKWUANI, despite the author’s  seemingly disparaging of hitherto known historical claims, should, to borrow from the words of Ikenna Kamalu “provoke Ukwuani scholars and historians” and of course, the larger Igbo and Nigerian historians and critics to rising to challenge or verify the claims made in this book by unearthing more historical facts about the Ukwuani and other ethnic connections.

The book makes an interesting reading what with the author’s graphic style of writing and attention for details.