How My Ancestors Made Artifacts Thieves To Return Them

UCHE NWORAH Ph.D

No doubt several Igbo communities are going through ‘Things Fall Apart’ moments, as they struggle to strike a balance between modernity and tradition. Some family members out of overzealousness, and ignorance have bought into the thinking that African way of life, including African traditional religion is backward, fetish and should therefore be destroyed.

Many have therefore gone ahead to invite so-called Prophets and Pastors into their homes for ‘spiritual cleansing’ services (Olu ezi na Uno). These Prophets and Pastors have in the process destroyed and burnt family treasures and artefacts warehoused in the family’s Obu, including the family Ikenga, Arobunagu, Ogwugwu and so on.

While these destructions are going on in Igboland, similar artefacts are well prized and considered precious artworks in European and American museums. No wonder there is a thriving trade in ancient African artefacts in the global art market.

There is a need, for a ‘live and let live’ approach to be adopted. Let the modernists be, let the traditionalists be too. ‘Ndu mmiri, ndu Azu’. ‘Egbe bere Ugo bere’.

For example, my maternal uncles have been on a mission to preserve our family heritage including artefacts. Sometime in 2018, we assembled at
‘Nnukwu Obu’ Eduzor Nwadiuka at Avomimi village, Enugwu-Ukwu, Anambra state, to continue our discussions on how to actualise our preservation plans as people had started stealing some of the artefacts.

To our greatest surprise on arrival, as can be seen in the accompanying video, we discovered that some precious family artefacts belonging to the family’s patriarch including the family’s Ikenga (Arobunagu), Ngwu agiliga and other items dating over 200 years old which were stolen in 2016 had been mysteriously returned.

Eduzor Nwadiuka, my maternal Great Grand father was the first Whum in Enugwu-Ukwu and the father of late Chief Eduzor Ifeagwu, a powerful Warrant Chief in Enugwu-Ukwu in his days. My mother, Ukamaka is the daughter of the late Warrant Chief.

The Eduzor Ifeagwu family has tried as much as possible to preserve the ancestral Obu and the contents therein, as much as possible in their natural state without fencing the compound or providing extra security. These may have motivated the thieves to invade it, but still the ‘owners’ of the Obu, our ancestors, though no longer physically present, spiritually ensured that the items were returned 2 years later. This is why Ndigbo have a saying that, ‘Obu di ulu’ (belief in the potency and efficacy of Obu), and also, ‘Obu zoba onwe ya’ (Let Obu defend/protect itself).

My maternal family’s Obu is a rare heritage site. You can’t get many like that anymore in Igboland. This and other such sites that still exist in Igboland should be protected and preserved, using a community-based approach. The towns and states where they exist could adopt them as heritage sites and preserve them, just like they do in Europe and America. They could generate some revenue through tourist attractions, donor agency funding etc.

The experience of what may have happened, that led those who stole Eduzor Ifeagwu’s precious family artefacts, and returned them should serve as a warning to all those precious Igbo artefacts hunters who invade ancient shrines and people’s villages to steal their artefacts. Our ancestors are not sleeping.

The effrontery to invade a sacred Obu and cart away a man’s generational Ikenga through which he and the people before him had worshipped their Chi long before the ‘Whiteman’ brought his religion is baffling.

Who knows the heavy afflictions, pain and suffering our ancestors may have cast on those who attempted this? No wonder they chose to return the objects on their own.

Ndigbo should support the move to preserve our precious cultural heritage, artefacts and way of life.