Ekumeku, which means “Don’t speak about it,” speaks of the stealth and guerilla tactics with which the Igbos, in present-day Eastern Nigeria, infiltrated British camps and stations in their land, and murdered the European intruders gruesomely to pass to them the message of their not being welcomed in the land. The movement lasted for 31 years.
One inherent trait in the Igbos which was the driving force of their revolts, was the refusal to bow easily to the White man or any foreigner for that matter. The Igbos held their heads up high in dignity, choosing rather to be dead lions than living dogs.
In their experience with the Igbos, the British colonial army went from suppressing one resistance to facing another. The European slave traders had failed at many attempts to ship the Igbos to the Americas, while some of those they succeeded in shipping, poisoned the slave masters who bought them and resisted being put in bondage.
This article tells of several accounts of the Igbo’s resistance to British colonialism, slavery, injustice and marginalisation; a recurring characteristic of Igbo history since the 17th century.
The 1803 Igbo Landing
While the shipping of slaves to Europe and America prospered in many regions, it was met with fierce resistance by the Igbos. Many attempts at shipping the Africans overseas failed. One which particularly stands out is the Igbo Landing.
In 1803, a group of 75 Igbos were bought as slaves for $100 each by agents of two slave masters: Thomas Spalding and John Couper. The slaves were to be transported to St. Simons Island to be recruited into forced labour on plantation farms.
On the day the ship would set sail, the slaves were bound in chains and huddled below the deck of a small ship called the Schooner York. Midway through the voyage to the Island, the slave traders would have the shock of their lives, as the slaves revolted and seized the ship, throwing their captors overboard.
However, unable to navigate the ship further, the Africans got it grounded in Dunbar Creek. They alighted the ship and, led by their high chief, all 75 of them turned around and walked right back into the swampy waters of the creek, drowning themselves in the process. As they walked into the creek, they sang in unison in the Igbo dialect, a song translated thus: “The water spirit brought us, the water spirit will take us home.”
Some records about the story recount that about 10 to 12 of the slaves drowned, while some were captured by some whites present on the shores and sold to Couper and Spalding for $10 each. The bodies of the rest were not found, so whether they survived or not is unknown.
The Igbo landing at Dunbar Creek in Georgia remains a historic site to this day. Caught between the enslaving devils and the deep waters, the Igbos chose the latter and walked right into the deep.
The Ekumeku Movement (1883–1914)
The British gained entrance into Nigeria in the 1800s and gradually, their influence spread across the nation. In the 1870s, the Royal Niger Company (RNC) established by the British, sought an expansion from Lagos to the Eastern regions of Asaba and Onitsha. They particularly picked interest in these regions because of the abundance of the Oil Palm there, which was a lucrative commodity in the industrial world at the time.
Meanwhile, the predominant tribe in the Asaba hinterland, the Anioma tribe, had heard tales of how the white men disregarded black culture and introduced theirs to eradicate the existing traditions. Since they would have none of that, they determined to resist the British’s intrusion into the Delta region.
However, it was the British that first pulled the trigger in 1870, attacking Ndoni village, and then Onicha-Ado (present-day Onitsha) in 1897. The Igbos needed no further war horn to be blown.
The otu okorobia, which consisted of the youths from different communities in Asaba, came together to form the Ekumeku movement. The movement was a group of vigilantes sworn to an oath of secrecy, who fought and resisted the colonial masters to protect their people.
In strategising to resist the British, the Anioma people quickly came to two conclusions; they could not face the British in direct combat because their weapons were far inferior to that of the whites, and they needed more numbers to have any hope of defeating the newcomers.
This second conclusion led to the reconciliation and uniting of the Anioma people with the Igbuzo clan, settling their dispute which had lasted for decades and coming together to achieve a common goal — drive out the intruders. The Onitcha-Ado locals also joined this alliance. On the matter of combating the British, they resorted to using guerilla techniques of stealth and camouflage, attacking organised groups.
The history of Igbo resistance would be incomplete without telling of the war between Biafra and the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
This characterised the first phase of the Ekumeku movement, which lasted from 1883 to 1902. The attacks caught the British off guard and many officers were killed.
In December 1902, the British launched a pre-emptive attack on the locals, razing down villages and towns using heavy firearms and throwing their leaders into prison. The massive expedition which cost the Anioma Kingdom the loss of many lives and property was a blow to the Ekumeku and for the next two years, they went silent. The British were certain that they had extinguished the rebellion entirely. But they only knew so little of the nature of the Igbos.
To the shock of the British, the Ekumeku vigilantes resurfaced in 1904. But this time, no longer as a group. Instead, they were stationed at their respective towns to protect themselves from the British’s attacks. For the next decade, they managed to keep resisting the British forces, dealing repeated fatal blows to the imperial army.
The British forces sent in reinforcements from Lokoja and other areas where their forces were stationed and attacked with a single strategy: burn it all down. Their weaponry was no match for the local fighters and finally, in 1914, they succeeded in defeating the Ekumeku movement. They further went on to institute the Collective Punishment Ordinance (CPO), which was a directive for the punishment of any village suspected of harbouring the Ekumeku, to ensure the dreaded warriors who resisted them for 31 years did not return the third time.
The Aro Wars (1901–1902)
The annals of the Aro war recount another significant record of the rebellion of the Igbos against being enslaved. The war consisted of a series of battles between the Aro tribe and the British Empire, which spanned from December 1901 to March 1902. The Aro confederacy stood as a powerful religious empire that traded goods in large quantities from Old Calabar to the interior in the 19th century.
Being the ruling power of the southeastern Nigeria region, the encroachment of the British empire to the hinterland proved to be a threat to the Aro tribe. Likewise, the British who sought to expand their colonial rule beyond the southwestern part of Nigeria, knew they had to deal with the predominant Igbo tribe if they were going to make any progress.
The Igbos did not waste any time to resist the intruders. They conducted raids and invaded the settlements of the whites severally, opposing them at every opportunity and drumming it into the ears of the British that they were not welcomed. The straw that would break the camel’s back for the British forces was when the Aro soldiers led by Okoro Toti, attacked the town of Obegu which had agreed to be an ally with the British, and massacred 400 people. The enraged British forces counterattacked the Aro Confederacy and established their rule in the region.
The Aro expedition attacks began on November 28, 1901, at a location called Esu Itu, where the imperial soldiers led by Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Forbes Montanaro, advanced towards Arochukwu, the Aro capital, from four fronts: Oguta, Unwana, Akwete and Itu. The British deployed 1,550 soldiers under the command of 85 officers, along with 2,100 carriers.
The Igbo warriors of course would not go down without a fight as they resisted the advance of the white soldiers strongly. However, they were overpowered as their weapons were no match for the modern armoury the British forces attacked with. There were several confrontations in the space of a month and on December 24, 1901, the British army arrived at Arochukwu and invaded it.
The following day, some of the Igbo natives regrouped and attacked the British forces from the north, in the hope that more natives would join in time. The battle turned fierce and lasted four days in and around the capital. On December 28, the capital finally fell and the Ibini Ukpabi shrine of the Aro tribe was reportedly blown up with explosives.
The 1929 Women’s Protest
The British had seen several black rebellions in the past, but nothing would prepare them for one led by thousands of enraged African women in 1929. The preceding decade had seen them quell the Ekumeku rebellion, shortly before the First World War. Yet again, the Africans would not relent, but this time, it was the women’s turn to resist the colonial master.
As resistance to the colonial masters often ended, the streets of Abak and Opobo flowed with female black blood. But let us not get ahead of ourselves.
The genesis of the women’s grievances with the British government began in 1914 when the colonisers established a new form of government by appointing local representatives as leaders in various regions which they called Warrant Chiefs.
The appointments were in outright disregard for the existing native rulership, and because many Igbos were against the arrangement, those who availed themselves to the British to be appointed as warrant chiefs were raucous irresponsible young people.
This form of indirect rule instituted by the British to rule Nigeria would disannul the traditional leadership which constituted a group of elders and respected women included in governance. The Igbo culture held women in high esteem and the women often influenced decisions as they formed strong solidarity groups from market and kinship networks.
But with the appointment of the Warrant Chiefs, neither the opinions of the women nor the men mattered anymore, whatever the Warrant Chiefs decided was the law.
As time went by, the Warrant Chiefs began to oppress the people, with women suffering especially. Gifted power by the colonial masters, the Warrant Chiefs acted as they pleased, denied the natives basic rights, seized the property and profit of the market women, and forcefully took wives to themselves, against the native law that allowed women to consent or not to marriage.
The Igbos endured the affliction for a decade and then it went haywire from there, albeit not unprovoked. The British ordered a census of all men in the region and all they owned. Although they denied the suspicion that the record was to be used to tax the natives, a few months after, the payment of taxes by all men was instituted.
In 1929, an economic depression fell on the market, yet they had to pay the original tax in full. The levies were so burdensome that the women had to support their husbands in paying them up. If the matter ended at that, the Igbo women would have endured it. In addition, rumours began to fly around that the women would begin to be taxed soon as well.
Emotions began to rise among the women, but their leaders decided against a demonstration until the rumours were confirmed.
In October of that year, in the city of Oloko, a Warrant Chief entered an elderly woman’s house and ordered her to count her property and family members. The woman refused the order and a heated confrontation ensued. Storming out of her house, the woman went to report the incident to the women’s network.
Presuming that their suspicion about women being taxed was confirmed, the women decided to act fast before things went out of hand. So, they sent and passed palm leaves to other women in Oloko, a coded signal for them to assemble at the District Administration office to campaign against being taxed.
In November 1929, the first mass protest was conducted, with over 10,000 women participating. They gathered around the district office for many days, demonstrating towards one end — that they should be given a written surety that the women of Oloko would not be taxed.
The Warrant Chief ignored them and refused their demand, but the protest only intensified. The British masters on their part were taken by surprise by the women’s actions. They had always had to deal with the men and had relegated the women as almost non-existent. But as the protest kept growing, they ordered the Warrant Chief to give them the written surety. The women hit a note of victory in this wise, to have had the British officers yield to their demand.
The Warrant Chief, however, enraged that he had to give the note, did so quite alright, but arrested and harassed some women afterwards. In reaction to their harassment, instead of the protest dying down, it got more massive, and the women got even bolder, having received their first demand. This time, they demanded that the Warrant Chief be removed. To his utmost shock and the glee of the Igbo women of Oloko town, he was not only removed by the British masters two days later but was also imprisoned for two years.
As news of the women’s victory in Oloko spread, it sparked similar protests in other towns and cities. The women came out en-masse, demanding a written guarantee that they would not be taxed, and in addition, the removal of corrupt and oppressive Warrant Chiefs in their regions or else, the exit of the colonial government altogether. They called their protest Ogu Umunwanye, which translates to The Women’s War.
They dressed as though going for battle, clad with only loincloths around their waists, fern leaves about their heads and their faces smeared with paint. They gathered around district offices, chanting their native war songs and carrying sticks with palm leaves around them, symbolising their calling for the spirits of their ancestors to fight with them. They also burned down several district offices and courthouses, vandalised imperial property, cut telegraph wires, locked down factories, blocked train tracks and went as far as storming prisons and releasing prisoners.
At this point, the British resorted to violence, concluding that the women were erratic and raucous, more so, for reasons unknown to them. They dispersed officers with shooting orders and many women were killed in the towns of Opobo, Abak, and Utu Etim Ekpo. The British warned that the protests be brought to a halt with immediate effect, or they would not hesitate to shoot at protesters.
Thus, the women were forced to end the protests, but with remarkable success to take with them. Many Warrant Chiefs had either resigned or been displaced as of then and most of the regions in all of Igboland had received the written guarantee that they would not be taxed.
Furthermore, the British went on to dissolve the entire Warrant Chief system of Indirect Rule in 1933, replacing it with a system called Massed Benches. This consisted of selected people by the Igbo natives themselves who would serve as judges in their regions albeit subject to the colonial government.
In essence, the 1929 women’s protest returned some form of self-rule to the Igboland, as it had been before the British arrived. It also motivated the people to conduct other protests such as the Tax Protests carried out in 1938, the Oil Mill demonstrations conducted the following decade and the Tax Revolt of 1956.
The Biafran War (1967-1970)
The Igbos have not only confronted oppression without, but within as well. They have centuries-long accounts of resisting the white man, but the history of Igbo resistance would be incomplete without telling of the war between Biafra and the Federal Republic of Nigeria — a wildfire that burned through the nation, whose flames could be seen across the world and whose embers still softly smoke to this day.
Nigeria gained independence from the British on October 1, 1960, and three years later, it became a republic. The multicultural nation was laden with the task of catering for 45 million people from 300 ethnic groups. In no short time, tensions began to rise from regions which were marginalised or neglected, one of which was the Igbo community. In addition, there was stiff competition for political and economic advantage between the major ethnic groups: Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo.
On January 15, 1966, some junior army officers, mainly Igbos, organised a coup and overthrew the civilian government, assassinating the Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa in the process. However, the coup failed and the General Officer Commanding the Nigerian Army, Major-General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi took over the reins of the country and consequently became the Head of State on January 16, 1966.
About the same period, Lieutenant-Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu was appointed as the military governor of the Eastern region. On July 29, 1966, just six months later, another coup ensued, and Ironsi was killed and buried in a shallow grave. For three days, Nigeria had no Head of State, until Ironsi’s Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-Colonel Yakubu Gowon, became the new Head of State on August 1, 1966.
Up in the North, the Igbos domiciled in that region were being massacred and killed in a gruesome manner. About 10,000 to 30,000 Igbos, half of whom were children, would lose their lives within four months. By October 1966, about one million Igbos had been displaced in the North and would flee the region to the East where they originated from.
In a bid to arrest the situation quickly, Ojukwu (representing the East) and Gowon (representing Nigeria) met in Aburi, Ghana, to sign the Aburi accord following a series of negotiations. The consensus reached was that Nigeria would operate a less rigid federation. However, Gowon stalled in declaring the announcement officially and eventually cancelled the agreement. To further break the unity of the Eastern states, Gowon announced the breaking up of Nigeria into 12 states on May 27, 1967, in which the Eastern region was broken up into three.
Ojukwu’s disapproval of Gowon’s unfaithfulness to the Aburi agreement and the development of the East being split into three was as clear as glass. Three days later, on May 30, 1967, he went on to declare the independence of the Eastern region from Nigeria, naming the seceded state the Republic of Biafra.
Following this declaration, Gowon immediately ordered a blockade around the region to cut them off from supplies and provisions. However, for the next 30 days, nothing significant happened. On July 2, 1967, Gowon declared a “Police action” in the East. Four days later, on July 6, 1967, the Nigerian army marched into the Igbo-dominated territory, fired the first shot and the war began. Both camps mobilised thousands of soldiers in the following months and a back-and-forth attacking spree ensued.
In October, the Nigerian army succeeded in capturing Enugu, the Biafran capital, with Ojukwu barely escaping. He relocated to Umuahia and set up the new capital there. Gowon’s army kept advancing but the federal troops were met with fierce resistance in some regions. However, Ojukwu’s army, although supported by France, could not match the heavy artillery delivered by the Nigerian government’s allies – Great Britain and Russia.
The Biafran war, which lasted for 30 months, led to the death and displacement of about five hundred thousand to three million Biafrans, mainly Igbos, and more people, mostly children, died of starvation than of bullets or bombs, as a result of the blockade.
Eventually, in January 1970, seeing no way of winning the war anymore, Ojukwu fled Nigeria in his private jet and sought asylum in Ivory Coast.
On January 15, 1970, Biafra officially surrendered to the Nigerian Army, and Ojukwu’s deputy, Philip Effiong, announced the end of Biafra as a sovereign nation.
Igbo Resistance Today
After the Biafran War and the subsequent reintegration into Nigeria, the Igbos were marginalised and given just £20 regardless of how much they had in their bank accounts before the war. Gowon’s Nigerianisation scheme had excluded the Igbos. However, the Igbos, with their resilient spirit, started from scratch and prospered, greatly recovering from the losses they suffered, and gaining wealth for themselves.
As regards the civil war, the Nigerian government has tried endlessly to wipe the memory of it off the records. However, the Igbos have not forgotten and, in fact, some of them have not abandoned their quest for an independent Biafra.
In 1999, at the dawn of the Fourth Republic, Ralph Uwazuruike founded the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) intending to form the Biafra nation as a separate state. He was arrested in 2005 on the grounds of treason and was not released until after two years.
In 2012, Nnamdi Kanu established another separatist movement called the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), seeking to achieve the same goal. However, he, like Uwazuruike, was arrested in 2015 and rearrested in 2021 for treason as well, and he is currently in detention.
There have been clashes between the Nigerian government and the IPOB separationists leading to many casualties. However, the Igbo resistance, which started in the era of the transatlantic slave trade, continues.
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