Among the Ibos of Nigeria/Chapter 2

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In 1900, Onitsha had not aspired to anything approaching its present importance, and it retained much of its primi­ tive simplicity. The commercial centre of the district was at Abutshi, two or three miles down-stream, and the administrative quarters, first of the Royal Niger Co., and later of the Government, were at Asapa, on the western side of the river. To the north of the town, following the left bank of the Nkissi stream, on the site now covered with Government buildings, a large coffee plantation was laid out. Of the surrounding country, even of that com­ paratively near the settlement, but little was known. The existing maps were useless as none contained reliable data, the names inserted being based upon reports and conjectures. Some names were curious e.g. “ Akpain ” and “ Nri.” The latter certainly is a name well known over a considerable portion of the Ibo country. It is the name of a small town which is the headquarters of a priestly cult whose special functions are connected with the coronation of kings, hence “nri” men (priests) being travellers, were met with frequently.. When asked whence they came the answer was a wave of the hand towards the east, and thus the name was given, in mistake, to the whole country lying east of Onitsha.

It is only during the last few years, i.e. since the British Government assumed the administration, that appreciable progress has been made in opening up the interior districts. At the time of my landing at Onitsha there was an attrac­ tive field for investigation in which the native could be studied in his primitive environment. The subsequent years have been equally interesting, but from another ​standpoint, viz,, that of a spectator watching a nation passing through a period of transition. The process still continues, and the people and the country are changing at an extraordinarily rapid rate. The old conditions and landmarks are disappearing and modern developments will soon obliterate all signs of ancient history.

The limits of the Ibo country have now been approxi­ mately defined, and the territory apportioned into dis­ tricts. A network of Government stations has been established, and trading and missionary interests shew evidence of vigorous prosperity. The Ibos are distributed over the greater part of the Central Province of the Pro­ tectorate and number about four millions, i.c., probably half the total population of Southern Nigeria.

In the Delta districts, and especially in the neighbour­ hood of Bonny and other coast towns, they arc not in­ digenous. They consist chiefly of slaves under the control of Heads of Houses.” These slaves often outnumber the original inhabitants, and their language is of such vitality that “ Bonny Ibo ” predominates over the other dialects of the district.

From the coastline of the Bight of Benin, the Ibo country skirts the Ibibio, Aro-Chuku and Efik territories. After that its eastern boundary is formed by the Cross River. On the southern and western sides it stretches to the borders of the Ijaw, Jekri, and Igabo and other tribes, and then spreads across the Niger to the confines of Benin. After passing 6° 31' N. Lat., it narrows in once more, and extends in wedge-like formation until its northernmost limits reach the boundary between southern and northern Algeria, where the Akpotos and Munshis are the nearest neighbours.

The area covered by the tribe being so extensive, it follows that there is wide divergence in the physical features of the country. In the Delta regions the land is very lowhmg. It is intersected by innumerable creeks and for a considerable portion of the year becomes a typical tropic swamp. The vegetation is rank, and the atmosphere humid and enervating. Clothes, if left exposed to the night air, even inside the houses, arc quite damp by morn​ing; rain falls in great quantities. As the sun sinks on a fine day banks of white mist roll up, enveloping every­ thing in their damp and chilly folds.

In the neighbourhood of Onitsha the prospect is more pleasing. For the traveller striking inland in an easterly direction, the scenery improves almost immediately, and charming hills and valleys open out on all sides. The vegetation consists chiefly of scrub and jungle-grass with big patches of moorland here and there. Extensive and picturesque clumps of trees are scattered about, indicating, as a rule, the presence of towns and villages, or marking the sizes of burial grounds.

On these higher levels, high only as compared with the Delta, the soil is reddish and sandy, and, except in certain hilly spots, singularly stoneless. One has often seen holes opened out to a considerable depth without a solitary pebble being unearthed. However deep one pene­ trates, the soil retains its colour, and the only difference is the presence of more or less clay. It is of poor quality for agricultural purposes, and much labour is involved for which there is frequently no adequate return. The giant elephant-grass, the shorter jungle-grass and a variety called “ Ata,” or spear grass, flourish. This last is very exasperating to farmers and to anyone else desirous of cleaning the ground, because every particle of root is capable of vigorous propagation.

On the western side of the Niger the aspect is totally different. A large part of the country is covered with forest. It is on a lower level than the eastern side and is much more fertile. Great quantities of yams and other crops are raised and labour is richly rewarded. To pro­ vide sites for villages and land for agricultural purposes, clearings are made in the forest, and this has led to ruthless and wholesale destruction of valuable timber. The crea­ tion of a Forestry Department by the Government will, no doubt, do much to remedy this evil.

In porportion to what might be expected flowers are scarce. The most beautiful are the many varieties of lilies and orchids. Palms predominate amongst the trees, the oil-palm (Elcesis Guineensis) being of the greatest ​value. It flourishes in a greater or less degree, according to situation, throughout the Ibo country. The Baphia Vinifera and other varieties furnish the natives with copious supplies of palm wine. The cocoanut also abounds, together with many other species of palm. The uses to which the palm trees and their products are put by the natives are unlimited, every part being utilised in one form or another.

Compared with other parts of Africa, game is exceptionall} scarce. Guinea-fowl and partridges are few and wild ; uek of different varieties are to be secured occasionally as also buffalo. In some of the rivers and creeks the manitee flourishes. Hippopotami and crocodiles are common, though of late years they have exhibited a tendency to abandon the main river owing to the disturbance occasioned by the ever-increasing steamer traffic. Leopards are some­ times troublesome and there arc several smaller species of the cat family. In bygone days there was a thriving market for ivory, a fact clearly attested by the arm and leg ornaments worn by men and women, and the magnificent "horns" carried by chiefs as part of their insignia of office. Nowadays elephants are almost extinct in the Ibo country and ivory is a very expensive luxury.

This scarcity of game is due, no doubt, to the fact that or generations every man was equipped with a gun—from the old flint-lock pattern to the more modern Snider, and, until quite recently, there was no lack-of ammunition. The practice has been to kill bird and beast, without respect to age, sex or season. The people being well distributed., the result of this indiscriminate slaughter has been to denude the country of game. The hippopotami and the crocodiles fared better partly owing to the greater difficulties attendant upon hunting by water, but more particularly because the guns and ammunition were not of sufficient power to bring about any appreciable reduction in their numbers.

In appearance the people exhibit wide divergences due largely to local conditions. In the eastern districts they are inclined to be thin and scraggy. This may arise from a combination of causes. In the first place the cultivation ​of the land demands labour of a flesh-reducing character. Secondly, the yam crop is comparatively poor and meagre, and supplies must be eked out with cassava, beans, maize and other catcherops. The appearance of a crowd of carriers, with their spare frames, spindle-legs and cucumber calves, often prompts the thought that the men must have recently experienced a period of famine. On the western side this is not the case. There the people are shorter and are of a stocky, thick-set build. They are disposed to be lazy yet they are passionate, and of a rash and fiery temperament, the result probably of an over-abundant supply of rich food.

Colour variations are prevalent from light olive to deepest black, and albinos are common. These freaks of nature are of unprepossessing appearance. They are not, however, treated as monstrosities; indeed the mother of an albino is usually gratified with her offspring. They are termed by the people “ ndi-awcha,” i.e., white people. Skin disfigurements are very common, especially amongst the elder folk. These produce a pie-bald condi­ tion, the hands and feet being the parts chiefly affected. This is, I suppose, due to some form of disease which des­ troys the underlying pigment. I, personally, have seen but one certain case (and one other so reputed) of a child born with white patches on the skin.

The Ibo country lies within the recognised negro belt, and the people bear the main characteristics of that stock. Bridgelcss noses and wide open nostrils are striking features, likewise the thick protruding lips and the power­ ful jaws. The shape of the skull repeats itself with aston­ ishing regularity, this pecularity, perhaps, being accounted for by the process of moulding the shape of the head during infancy.

There are certain customs which rather point to Levitic influence at a more or less remote period. This is sug­ gested in the underlying ideas concerning sacrifice and in the practice of circumcision. The language also bears several interesting parallels with the Hebrew idiom. On the left bank of the Niger society is chiefly based on patriarchal lines. Every town, and, incidentally, ​every family or household, stands by itself. There is no combination between town and town. Although speaking the same language, and in times of peace intermarrying with one another, the nearest neighbours are still rcgarde as strangers, e.g., the people of Onitsha and those of Opusi do not reckon themselves as of one tribe, though a distance of less than five miles separates the two towns. With the exception of the king of Onitsha there are no kings in these parts. The solitary instance, tradition states, owes its origin to Benin. It is alleged that the kings of Onitsha were subject to the king of Benin and that recent holders of the title have been of Bini royal stock. On the opposite side of the river native rule was maintained by king y authority. {Vide Chap. XXIV.)

It can be generally accepted, though not without reser­ vations, that under native law land cannot be alienate from the family, the head acting as trustee of the pro­ perty. Permission is freely given to others to cultivate land, or even to build upon it, but the “ Head, and ns successors, can always claim its restoration at will. The claim imposed is merely one of proprietary right. The occupier is seldom disturbed so long as he is prepared to acknowledge the ground landlord. Rent is not usually demanded, the tenancy being confirmed by the offciing and acceptance of “ojji”¹ at the time permission to occupy the land is granted, and on more or less regular occasions subsequently. Amongst the people themselves land is sometimes sold, and in thickly populated centres parcels of land are owned outright by private individuals, in con­ tradistinction to the more widely prevailing law which stipulates that all land is the property, not of private persons, but of the community. Even in the latter case, however, land is appropriated definitely for the use of recognised holders.

Personal property, including the wives and slaves, descends to the eldest son as heir, or failing a son, to the eldest brother or male relative. A wife ordinarily has no rights, either over herself or her possessions, not excluding her children, She is part and parcel of her husband's property. ​ ​As a rule, when left to their own resources, the Ibos are a sober race. They manufacture no intoxicating liquor. The nearest approach is palm wine, which is allowed to ferment by natural processes. Palm wine is frequently heavily adulterated with water. When fermentation has reached a certain stage the wine is too much like vinegar to be enjoyable; even the old takers make wry faces when drinking it. It is almost a physical impossibility to get drunk on fresh palm wine. Men certainly drink themselves into a fuddled state, but this is probably as much due to the enormous quantities consumed at a carousal as to the amount of alcohol taken. To consume a similar quantity of tea would produce more serious consequences.

No method of distilling is practised; the Ibos have no knowledge whatever of this process. Drunkenness un­ fortunately, is on the increase, brought about entirely by the importation of foreign spirits. But for this traffic the Ibos would be second to none for sobriety. The open­ ing up of interior districts affords opportunities for the expansion of the traffic, and the square green bottles are in evidence at all the markets. The introduction of spirituous liquors is a distinctly foreign feature. In many places it has already destroyed some quaint old customs. To be offered whisky, or German beer, when paying a call upon a native chief, is an innovation greatly to be de­ plored, especially when compared with the old ceremony of sealing friendships by sharing the kola nut. All the sentiment has departed, and, with it, the touch of reality that graced the ancient institution. This is denation­ alisation in one of its most pernicious forms.

Where water is plentiful the people are of cleanly habits, the women more so than the men. It is the women’s business to fetch the household supply of water, and the visit to the stream provides an opportunity to bathe. The men are usually satisfied with a moderate amount of ablutionary effort, proportional to the supply of water at their disposal; the number of those who will exert them­ selves sufficiently to go to the stream solely for bathing purposes is not large.

Of sanitary ideas there is none, nor is there any sense of ​modesty as the European understands the term. As regards sanitation, however, it must be remembered that the sun is a powerful purifying agent, otherwise the con- ditions would, in many places, be unendurable.

The word "morality" has no significance in the Ibo vocabulary. On the other hand, where the natives have remained untouched by outside influence there is nothing exactly corresponding to the "social evil" of European life. The Tbos, as might be expected, are not patterns of morality, but in their primitive state they are at least free from artificial vice and its attendant evils.

In the majority of Ibo towns a very clearly defined ende of morals exist theoretically. Infringements of these laws may lead to severe penalties being inflicted, and cases are not unknown where infidelity on the part of a wife has been punished by the torture and death of both offenders. Extreme measures, however, were resorted to only when the aggrieved husband proved inexorable and rejected every offer of reparation. Instead of capital punishment the guilty wife was usually banished and her accomplice condemned to pay a fine which, in some in- stances, meant his being financially crippled for life.

The weather conditions of the Ibo country are very similar to those of the West Coast generally. They pos- sess the merit, at least, of being regular. The dry season begins early in November, the rains concluding with a few heavy showers. Towards the end of December or in early January some slight rain will fall, ushering in the harmattan. This is a period of excessive dryness. A dull haze, caused by minute particles of dust, obscures the sun. The dry heat sets up irritation of the skin and nostrils and sometimes causes the lips to crack. During the day it is very hot and this great heat is succeeded at night hy a very low temperature. Europeans find the weather distinctly chilly at night, and it is much too cold for the comfort of the natives. These conditions last from two to five weeks.

The harmattan is succeeded by the hot season proper, and the heat grows more and more oppressive until the end of March. The breaking up of the dry season is ​heralded by terrific tornadoes ; wind, rain, thunder and lightning all being of extremely violent character. May and June arc sometimes termed the “ Little dries,” i.e., the weather is mostly fine with heavy downpours of rain at intervals. At the beginning of July the wet season starts in earnest. A huge rainfall is registered between the beginning of July and the middle of October, from which date the rains gradually slacken, and the wet season ends as it began with a series of tornadoes ; these being much less severe than those which prevail at the break up of the hot season. As regards climate, the Ibo country shares the unenviable reputation of the West Coast of Africa. In the past it has maintained its evil reputation and fully justified its claim to rank as part of the “white man’s grave.” Under modern conditions health statistics among Europeans have improved wonderfully. The great increase in the number of doctors, the judicious use of quinine as part of the daily rations, the wider know­ ledge of hygiene, and the short service system, have all conduced to a more satisfactory state of affairs. The climate itself is pleasant or the reverse according to a man’s own temperament. One prefers the wet season, another the dry; both have their merits. The former is cooler but the conditions for travelling are frequently abomin­ able. Rain falls in torrents, roads and tracks arc converted into sluices, and one lives in a state of perpetual damp­ ness. Outside the rain beats down mercilessly; indoors one must search for a sheltered spot, for few native roofs can resist the downpours. To retire to bed protected by a macintosh and a bath towel, and even by an umbrella, as one has had to do on occasions, is very amusing in the retrospect but very uncomfortable in actual experience. There is nothing more irritating, and no more effectual preventive to sleep, than the drip, drip, drip of water upon one’s face or body.

In the dry season one is free from these discomforts, and camp can be made safely anywhere, but the sun and heat are liable to tax some constitutions rather severely.

The spell of the coast, whether it be exercised by the country, the climate or the people, is apt to weave itself ​closely into the life of the average European. Whilst in the West Coast he roundly abuses country and climate, he is never amiss in his calculations concerning the date of his furlough. When on leave, immediately the novelty of the home-coming has worn off, his mind involuntarily wanders coastwards once more. It is the “West Coast feeling,” whatever be the causes w’hich produce it.

There are, of course, unpleasant conditions to be en­ dured by the resident in Nigeria, but only two that need be mentioned, viz., the violent tornadoes which sweep across the country with such destructive force, and, greatest of all nuisances, the insect pest. Mosquitoes, sand-flies, driver and white ants are positive plagues. In addition there are innumerable varieties of other insects which are increasingly active in their venomous attacks on man and beast.

These minor trials and afflictions, however, are not sufficient to counteract the fascination that draws the European so persistently back to the Ibo country.