In other articles that will follow this, I shall draw attention to some of the abnormal things that happen in Arochukwu today that many consider should not happen at all with regard to the traditional practice in our town with regard to our cultural heritage, the customary and cultural norms of the people of Arochukwu as a town that has been known for and associated with the preservation and practice of the extant Igbo nation’s traditions in general as a typical Igbo town and as an acclaimed bastion and centre of Igbo culture. It is important to do this now.
So, all along, many people of Igbo extraction have always relied on the people of Arochukwu and her traditional institutions when it comes to and concerns traditional matters and general Igbo cultural heritage and practice. In fact, when it comes to traditional matters, one may not be mistaken to indicate that Arochukwu takes precedence over many other towns in Igbo land and beyond – in nearly every aspect of these pieces of cultural heritage. Yes.
Culture tells much of any people, and how any section of the people practise their cultural heritage often speaks volumes about such people. This is also true of Arochukwu. Under the late Mazi Kanu Oji, CFR, as the Eze Aro of Arochukwu, the then Okpamkpo Aro (that were at various times constituted by men of honour, cultural icons with high-level integrity and sound educational attainment-background), all aspects of the general traditional and cultural heritage and norms of the kingdom of Arochukwu were upheld, administered and maintained to the acquiescence, acceptance and mirthful admiration of the people at home and others, the rest in the Diaspora! Really, the people had enjoyed cultural values in the town as justice prevailed at all levels of authority.
Yes; in the right-thinking leadership of ‘the wisest man Arochukwu had produced’ in his time, Mazi Kanu Oji, ’Aru ulo mere Aro uzo, ebe Aru uzo mere Aru ulo,’ Eze Aro of Arochukwu had posited.
In his time, the various Ezeogo’s also toed the same line of leadership and thinking. Those Ezeogo’s and the triumvirate heads that made up the trado-cultural leadership of the town of Arochukwu remarkably added meaning to the general traditional ‘rulership’ and practice among the people of the town as the foot soldiers, who were literarily ‘fighting wars’ in their various villages and triumvirates with their cabinet members. In the area of trado-cultural rulership then, Arochukwu was among the best in Igbo land to the envy of other people.
The same convivial and equitable situation prevailed during the nearly ten-year interregnum in traditional leadership when the town of Arochukwu had a suit at the High Court of Ohafia judicial division because of the nasty dynastic feudal-conflict between some family members about who among them should succeed the late Eze Kanu Oji after his interment in a primogenitary arrangement; ditto under the early stages of the reign of the late Eze Aro VIII of Arochukwu, Mazi Vincent Ogbonnaya Okoro, CFR.
Really, in the past, the people of Arochukwu were very proud of the trado-cultural practice in their ancestral kingdom of Arochukwu and often bragged about the prevalent pieces of cultural heritage and traditional norms, good practices that were commonplace in the town then as such general practises were often done in the interest, benefit of the people and their well-being at all times.
But things have since changed for the worse in the traditional and cultural practice in the town of Arochukwu to the detriment of the people, permit me to observe, and this developmental oddity with regard to wilfully choosing to destroy what has held the people together for centuries because of personal desires, ego-centric actions, selfish interests and insatiable desire and greed for wealth-acquisition and riches is an aberrational suicide that must not be allowed to continue in the interest of the people of Arohukwu, the ‘Spear of God’ town! Oh yes!
We, the people, must not allow this for our own collective interest. We must individually and collectively unite to defend our cultural and traditional heritage because they make us what we are as a people and are what collectively ‘make Aro man thick.’
Let me give and start with one example of where things are falling apart in the traditional leadership in Arochukwu today. It is in the area of settling disputes and adjudicating conflicts, cases among the people at the village level. It is customary to do this as we had inherited from our ancestors; villages must be able to settle the disputes that arise within their village.
In the past and even till today, village heads handle such disputes that are brought before them by their subjects in peace-building, particularly those issues that bother on the traditional heritage of the people and other civil matters that pertain to land, marriage, sacrilegious acts, et cetera. At the town levels, the same situation obtains too throughout Igbo land; even at the kindred levels as what obtains in Arochukwu.
In handling issues brought to the village heads, kindred heads and the Eze Aro-in-Council, there are pieces of cultural values and practices that must be employed and followed in doing this, as those before us had practised and which had stood the taste of time. One of them is how the litigants approach and institute their suits before our traditional stools and what happens therein, and after. There are procedures in doing this and age-long heritage put in place in this regard.
First, the aggrieved litigant goes to his Ezeogo to institute his suit and depositing the prevailing amount of money therein. After that, the defendant is notified of the suit and subsequently summoned on the issue on a date when the suit will be heard; and told of the amount that he should bring while coming (usually equal the amount the claimant had deposited) when both parties would state their own parts of the dispute in the presence of the concerned Ezeogo and his cabinet members.
Finally, if the plaintiff wins the case after arbitration, his deposited money will be given back to him and the defendant’s deposit retained by the Ezeogo and his cabinet; the reverse could also be the case. This is what the ancestors in Igbo land have always bequeathed to their generations before dying and it is the custom of the people that is practised everywhere in Igbo land, including Arochukwu that is an integral part of the Igbo nation.
But is this age-long piece of cultural heritage-nicety practised now in Arochukwu at the compound, village, kindred and town levels in the ancient kingdom? The answer will be provided in the second part of this article with examples and references.
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