The history of Ukwa/Ngwa people Volume 1 represents the ultimate in-depth data of Ukwa/Ngwa people long walk to freedom nay, to capture political power in their political space. A factual inside account of the events and circumstances which had made this journey a tortuous one and brought it to scorn and despise mostly in its citadel commercial town of Aba. This is rendered in a vivid detail by the author blazing a trail which would, sooner or later, provoke reactions conveying confirmation, disputation, clarification or expansion of information as contained herein. In the potpourri of endless books written on Ukwa/Ngwa history, this book is no doubt unique in its most illuminating treatment of privileged information recapturing the historical genesis of the Ukwa/Ngwa origin, long trek to Aba and its attendant development which had elicited disproportionate feelings among sojourners.
Let My People Live reengages the narrative of Exodus through a critical, life-affirming Africana hermeneutic that seeks to create and sustain a vision of not just the survival but the thriving of Black communities. While the field of biblical studies has habitually divided "objective" interpretations from culturally informed ones, Kenneth Ngwa argues that doing interpretive work through an activist, culturally grounded lens rightly recognizes how communities of readers actively shape the priorities of any biblical interpretation. In the Africana context, communities whose identities were made disposable by the forces of empire and colonialism—both in Africa and in the African diaspora across the globe—likewise suffered the stripping away of the right to interpretation, of both sacred texts and of themselves. Ngwa shows how an Africana approach to the biblical text can intervene in this narrative of breakage, as a mode of resistance. By emphasizing the irreducible life force and resources nurtured in the Africana community, which have always preceded colonial oppression, the Africana hermeneutic is able to stretch from the past into the future to sustain and support generations to come. Ngwa reimagines the Exodus story through this framework, elaborating the motifs of the narrative as they are shaped by Africana interpretative values and approaches that identify three animating threats in the story: erasure (undermining the community's very existence), alienation (separating from the space of home and from the ecosystem), and singularity (holding up the individual over the collective). He argues that what he calls "badass womanism"—an intergenerational and interregional life force and epistemology of the people embodied in the midwives, Miriam, the Egyptian princess, and other female figures in the story—have challenged these threats. He shows how badass womanist triple consciousness creates, and is informed by, communal approaches to hermeneutics that emphasize survival over erasure, integration over alienation, and multiplicity over singularity. This triple consciousness surfaces throughout the Exodus narrative and informs the narrative portraits of other characters, including Moses and Yahweh. As the Hebrew people navigate the exodus journey, Ngwa investigates how these forces of oppression and resistance shift and take new shapes across the geographies of Egypt, the wilderness, and the mountain area preceding their passage into the promised land. For Africana, these geographies also represent colonial, global, and imperial sites where new subjectivities and epistemologies develop.
This is a book about Olokoro, our community. The account is not comprehensive, but it forms an important beginning (as other accounts before it) in the formal and permanent documentation of the history, culture, and the way of life of our people and their achievements. The community has grown from a point where its government has transformed from a mere disparate village organization to a level where a unified election dominates the process. The community is made up of diverse population with different ideological orientations that should be harnessed for the development of the community. His Royal Highness Eze J. J. Ogbulafor, Uvuoma 1 of Olokoro, took development of the community seriously as well as extolled the culture. The present dispensation of having many Ezes in Olokoro will lead to progress if properly harnessed by all and sundry. My vision for Olokoro in this regard is articulated in my autobiography (Nwaogu 2015.175). Olokoro community belongs to us all, and denizens should feel free to contribute ideas that will move our community forward. Perceptive readers are welcome, and this includes sharing of comments, suggestions, insights that will broaden our minds toward the achievement of a unified, progressive, and respectable community.
This book introduces readers to the rich and fascinating history of West Africa, stretching all the way back to the stone age, and right up to the modern day. Over the course of twenty seven short and engaging chapters, the book delves into the social, cultural, economic and political history of West Africa, through prehistory, revolutions, ancient empires, thriving trade networks, religious traditions, and then the devastating impact of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and subsequent colonial rule. The book reflects on the struggle for independence and investigates how politics and economics developed in the post-colonial period. By the end of the book, readers will have a detailed understanding of the fascinating and diverse range of cultures to be found in West Africa, and of how the region relates to the rest of the world. Drawing on decades of teaching and research experience, this book will serve as an excellent textbook for entry-level History and African Studies courses, as well as providing a perfect general introduction to anyone interested in finding out about West Africa.
The Slave Trade and Culture in the Bight of Biafra dissects and explains the structure, dramatic expansion, and manifold effects of the slave trade in the Bight of Biafra. By showing that the rise of the Aro merchant group was the key factor in trade expansion, G. Ugo Nwokeji reinterprets why and how such large-scale commerce developed in the absence of large-scale centralized states. The result is the first study to link the structure and trajectory of the slave trade in a major exporting region to the expansion of a specific African merchant group - among other fresh insights into Atlantic Africa's involvement in the trade - and the most comprehensive treatment of Atlantic slave trade in the Bight of Biafra. The fundamental role of culture in the organization of trade is highlighted, transcending the usual economic explanations in a way that complicates traditional generalizations about work, domestic slavery, and gender in pre-colonial Africa.
This s an Igbo History book that has the first time told of how the people of the South East and the South South Zones are Igbo. These are the Edo, the Itsekiri, the Urhobo, the Ijaw, the Ogoni, the Ika, the Opobo, the Efik, the Anang, the Ibibio, the Ogoja the Obubra, the Owerri, the Anambra, the Udi, the Ezeagu, the Nkanu, the Nsukka, the Akpoto, the Izza the Izzi, the Ikwo, the Ngwa, the Andoni, the Ikwerre, the Ndokki and others are all Igbo. Every family in the South East and South South owe it a duty to book for copies of this book for their children at home and abroad.
