Being a lecture delivered by Prof Emeka Aniagolu on topical issues concerning Achebe’s legacy, Igbo culture and society at Sports Club, Enugu. The event was sponsored by FIT Consult.
Africans enslaved on the Island of Trinidad, even invented a miraculous musical instrument, which had it been invented by white people, would surely have been included as one of the wonders of the world: the Steel Drum.
The Steel Drum is a musical instrument made from discarded oil drum, which, with strategically placed bumps on its concave surface, is made to play every note on the musical scale! Today, Steel Drums are developed and institutionalized muscal instruments used to play everything from popular music to full orchestra performances of classical Western music: such as Beethoven’s celebrated 5th Symphony and others.
I do not have to go into a long epistle to remind everyone that the greatest athletes the United States has produced as a nation-state—have been Blacks—African Americans. Most of America’s greatest Heavy Weight boxers, field athletes, track-runners, American Football Players, Basketball Players, Baseball Players; have been Blacks—African Americans.
Even regarding American Democracy, African Americans, not only fought alongside white Americans in securing the United States as a republic from British colonial rule, in 1776; but gave America’s half-baked democracy, which allowed only white propertied males the right to vote; as well as institutionalized a system of racial discrimination against non-whites (especially
Blacks) called: “Jim Crow”—from the second decade of the end of the American Civil War (1870) to 1964, when the United States Congress finally passed the Civil Rights Act.
It was the Civil Rights Movement, instigated, organised and led by African Americans (especially, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.); that saw to the humanistic revalorization of America’s democracy.
And just before anyone goes thinking that the contributions I outline here are confined to the artistic, entertainment, sports and protest politics; let me assure you that the very same descendents of enslaved Africans in the Americas (especially in the United States of America), made prodigious contributions to the modern science and technology of the United States, despite the handicap of their second class, if not third class citizenship. FOUR (4) African American inventors and innovators stand out in bold relief in the realm of scientific and technological contributions to the modern industrialization and development of the United States: (1) Norbert Rillieux; (2) Lewis Howard Latimer; (3) Garrett Augustus Morgan; and (4) George Washington Carver.
Norbert Rillieux, a mechanical engineer by training, revolutionized the sugar industry throughout the world in the 1800s, with his patented invention called: the Multiple-Effect-Vacuum- Evaporator. Refined sugar is still made all over the world to this very day, using Rillieux process.
Lewis Howard Latimer, an electrical engineer by training, helped Thomas Edison with the invention of the incandescent electric bulb. Latimer wrote the first textbook on incandescent lighting in the world, invented and patented a process for making carbon filaments for light bulbs.
George Washington Carver, was a trained agricultural chemist, an ex-slave boy who escaped from his slave master; educated himself to university level, holding a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in agricultural chemistry from Iowa Agricultural College. George Washington Carver was a “Renaissance Man” in every sense of the word:
He introduced the growing of groundnuts into the agriculture of the South in the United States – in order to naturally replenish nitrogen in the soil, which had been depleted of nutrients from intensive cultivation of cotton. He derived 326 products from groundnuts alone. Came up with 108 uses of sweet potatoes.
Developed 75 products from pecans. And Developed 118 industrial applications from agricultural products.
In 1943, Carver’s homestead was incorporated into the George Washington Carver National Monument by the United States Government. And last, but no means least of my four examples of African American inventors, is: Garrett Augustus Morgan.
Garrett Morgan invented and patented a number of very useful gadgets, one of which people use every day and everywhere in the world, without even thinking about it, let alone thinking of a black man as its inventor: the Automatic Traffic Light! And what has all this that happened so far away and so long ago got to do with us here in Nigeria and in Igbo land? It was and still our genes—African genes—a great deal of which came from Nigeria and from Igbo stock; doing duty on the dancehall, the basketball court and the science lab in the Americas! So, what we did and still doing over there, we can also do over here!
In fact, we started to do just that over here, during the period of the Biafran War, before we were overwhelmed by the combined firepower of Nigerian, British, Russian and Egyptian armaments; and we finally capitulated in January of 1970, after a gallant and glorious 30-month war of resistance! No people should be prouder than us over what we were able to achieve in the face of the most daunting existential odds imaginable!
There are those who are of the view that what happens at the “Center” (meaning the capital, Abuja), is the primary if not the sole determinant of what happens in the “Region” (meaning the states). And one can be sympathetic to that point of view given the historical backdrop of 33 years of military rule, during which the governance of the country was highly centralized, not unlike the command and control structure of the military itself.
Moreover, the military-sponsored 1999 Constitution of Nigeria likewise centralized power, authority, revenue allocation and distribution at the “Center.” Still, in a post-military democratic dispensation, what happens in the “Region”—positive and/or negative—can also affect what
happens not only in the “Region” itself, but also at the “Center.” The power of positive or negative example has no geopolitical limits. It can emanate from and/or migrate to the East, West, North or South!
Every now and again, as an opening gambit for my students, when I used to teach at the university in the United States; I would ask them to name any one of the fabulously wealthy so-called “Merchants of Venice” in Florentine Italy. And, of course, my question will be met with blank stares and deafening silence. But if I ask if they know the following individuals: Leonardo Fibonacci, Leoardo da Vinci, Marco Polo and Michael Angelo; all of whom came from the very same Florentine Italy; their eyes light up with excitement and recognition and their hands shoot up into the air.
I wish to suggest that there was cultural nobility and pride, moral certitude and philosophical clarity, that was imbued and ensued in Igbo culture and society; that manifested itself in an ethos of self-appropriation and proper public conduct.
That cultural nobility and pride, moral certitude and philosophical clarity; was what made possible the creation by Ndigbo of the only “meritocratic-aristocracy” in the history of the African continent, and perhaps, the world: the Ozo-Title.
Here was an institution, nobility and aristocracy attainable only through a system of meritocracy; a nobility that could not be inherited through bloodlines. The individual members of each and every generation must give a meritocratic account of their own capabilities, achievements and credentials; in order to gain admission into the ranks of that exalted aristocracy. Hence, an Okonkwo, in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, could rise from being the son of an indolent and indigent father, to become one of the Lords of Umuofia; based solely on his individual achievement.
It was what prompted me to write a historical novel in 2005, titled: Ozo: A Story of an African Knighthood. Truth, honor, integrity, courage, self-edification and dignity; were the watchwords of that incredible institution. It could not be bought or sold; and having all the money in the world, especially, if it were ill-gotten; would not qualify you for entry into its exalted ranks. An
Ozo’s word was his bond. Honor meant everything to him. He would rather die than lie, steal or cheat!
It was that traditional theosophical value system of Igbo society (later, interspersed with Christian morality and piety), that brought forth men like: Nnamdi Azikiwe, M.I. Okpara, Akanu Ibiam, Sir Louis Mbanefo, Charles Dadi Onyeama, Anthony Nnaemezie Aniagolu, Pius Okigbo,
Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Chinua Achebe, Cyprian Ekwensi, Chukwuemeka Ike, and so many others too numerous to mention here.
Wither is gone that remarkable institution with its accompanying sociopolitical ethos in Igbo land? Instead of our marshaling our truly remarkable cast of characters—at the cusp of Nigeria’s independence and later still—to do duty for us all, by heralding the brilliance of their professional careers; the moral fiber of their lives; the unassailable legacies they left behind for posterity; we consign them to the shadows, muttering under our breaths, as though we want our youth to forget them, to wallow in the illusion that they are reinventing the wheel!
If you ask most Enugu State citizens—young and old—the history of how Enugu State was created, most would not have the slightest idea. The older ones among them might have a vague notion that the late Chief C.C. Onoh had something to do with it, and that would, most likely, be the extent of their “knowledge.”
Similarly, if you ask most Igbo youth—thirty years or younger—about the history of the Nigeria-Biafra War; a war in which Ndigbo lost an estimated 3 million human beings, they will likely give you vague generalities or sometimes, startling counter-intuitive, not to speak of
counterfactual commentaries, that have little or no basis in historical facts.
But the fault is not theirs. Where are our Great War Memorials, Museums, Monuments and Citadels of knowledge and information on that single greatest peril Ndigbo faced as a nation of people? The answer is little or nothing! Except for the “Civil War Museum” in Umuahia, which, with all due respect, is a national joke compared to similar places around the world; there is nothing to show, memorializing – in brick and mortar – in penned letters and erudite expression, that monumental suffering and sacrifice in Igbo historical experience.
➢ We can cite the historical example of the Pyramids in Ancient Egypt – built some 10,000 years ago;
➢ We can cite China’s ‘Forbidden City,’ constructed between: 1407-1420 AD (or CECommon Era), not to speak of the Great Wall of China;
➢ We can cite St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome (whose construction began in 1506 and was completed in 1626 AD (or CE – Common Era); And
➢ We can cite India’s Taj Mahal – a monument to the great love an Indian king had for his queen (whose construction began in 1632 and was completed in 1648); to name a few examples.
What is the consequence of that self-imposed historical lacuna; that self-imposed historical illiteracy and vacuum in iconic symbolic monuments and architectural buildings? Impassioned youth motivated by a myriad of economic hardships and frustrations, half-baked truths and jingoistic leadership, goaded into self-serving, messianic, cult-like organizations that leave them vulnerable to exploitation, abuse and even death!
