Notify me of follow-up comments by email. This outline illustrates some of the structural and political factors that make for diversity in Igala oral tradition. It is part of our tradition that is recognized by the society and passed down from one generation to another. The Agatu, Idoma, and Bassa people use Igala for primary school. This argument led to fighting, and to so much killing that the junior brother said ‘If this goes on, my father’s people will wipe each other out and the family will perish for the sake of a title. Retelling and re-voicing the historical legacy of the Igala people is my way of waging a war against social and historical amnesia. The kingdom was ruled by nine high officials called the ‘’Igala Mela’’ who were the custodians ofthe sacred earth shrine. Who are we? Eri, the sky god had children who started out communities like Aguleri, Umuleri and Ega-Eri which was the Igala territory. But Swedish culture is much more – food, music, fashion, film, gaming and sports. Instead it takes a synoptic view of the past, compressing events and developments that must have covered many centuries into single reigns. Similarly, Ebulejonu is treated by Clifford as an actual historical figure, whereas in fact the account of her reign contains mythological allusions to the marriage between the Achadu and Ebulejonu, the female Ata. But this argument that most of the Igala believe in a Jukun origin for their royal house gives an entirely false impression of unanimity and agreement in the oral traditions. The communities founded by hunters are those which have introduced a new factor into the static situation created by the opposition of royal to non-royal descent. This is tied to the mystery of the number 9 among the Igala. It is unfortunate here that one of the few articles that has appeared in print on this subject takes a rather extreme view of this question of origins. IF we assume, as we surely can, that the Niger and Benue rivers played an even more strategic role in the Nigerian past than they do today, then it is clear that the Igala area holds the key to an important chapter of Nigerian history, a chapter which particularly concerns the problem of interrelations between different groups in Nigeria. that have contributed to the development of the Igala kingdom. Igala is divided into clans, and its political structure is based on a system in which clans perform political functions at either the central level, in the capital, or at the provincial level or at the local level in the districts. Many of us believe the two concepts are so similar that they can be used interchangeably. What does it take to form a sense of an Igala self? Myth and history are ultimately equally, concerned with reality, but with reality under different aspects. They act as kingmakers in the political system, and also control an earth cult which symbolizes the fertility and benevolence of the land throughout the Igala kingdom. This is the article by Miles Clifford, a former District Officer who was strongly influenced by Sir Richmond Palmer’s idea that kingship diffused into Nigeria from the east down the Benue valley. While presenting Igala Land, Language and her people as a true portrayal of African identity, we pilot program for developing indigenous Nigerian languages and also teach how to speak the Igala language. To compare Ayegba with the later Igala kings is like comparing King Arthur, or the popular image of William the Conqueror, with the later kings and queens in English history, or Oduduwa with the present Oni of Ife. Tradition vs. Culture: Why The Japanese Remove Their Shoes Around 2,300 years ago , Japanese people began to wear shoes to aid in rice cultivation. The name Igala is said to have beencoined from a Yoruba name for antelope (Igala) by some scholars. Igala is related to Yoruba. Yoruboid is a megagroup of the Niger-Congo language family of about 14 related dialect/language clades. The Yoruba word “Igala” means Antelope which is Ọchachakolo in … According to the elders of Igala tribe, black and yellow colours means a lot to the history of Igala Kingdom. Black and yellow colors symbolize fertility of a couple. Those living at home said that it would fall on the senior brother, but the other party refused, on the grounds that the younger brother had been given the insignia of office, and still had them in his possession. The Yoruba, Benin, and Jukun traditions manage to co-exist because they refer to a period which is indistinct from a strictly historical point of view. The Oba commented ‘God has indeed given my brother the senior position’, and from that time onwards the seniority of the Ata over the Oba has been accepted. For this reason I begin with a brief sketch of the Igala political system, and try to show how this inevitably brings diversity into the body of oral tradition. The Eri-Igala connection is one promising area of research needing a more robust interrogation. As in the Yoruba kingdoms, a strong ruler could improve his position against that of the provincial chiefs. The culture of Los Angeles is rich with arts and ethnically diverse. (Pt2), Ukomu Igala decry rising insecurity in Igala land, Ębo moji ji, ęnwu ma ñō gō gę? The provincial chiefs were relatively autonomous in their provincial capitals, and were only subject to the king in certain sovereign matters such as the payment of tribute. But this kind of chronological reconstruction makes an assumption, which seems to be false in the Igala case, though I would not argue that it is false in all cases. Today, I outline broadly for our consideration, the various traditions of Igala origin. These scholarsbelieve that there were many antelopes during the early migration of the Igalasinto the land; hence the name. The table of rulers given here provides exact dates from 1834 onwards, and shows that between 1834 and 1956 there were ten rulers. A socio-cultural group, the UKOMU Igala in The Diaspora has called on Igala ruling houses to ensure seamless process in selection of successor … Similarly Ayegba’s reign uses the conventional idiom of one king’s achievements to illustrate the. The confluence area, like Poland in Europe, seems to have been pulled in different directions at different periods. To simplify these problems for discussion, this paper concentrates on internal problems of development, on the influences that contributed to the development and growth of the Igala political and social system. A tradition is a belief or behavior passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. Among them all, Urdu is the national language with a huge portion of speakers at 75%. As my friend, Atayi Babs projects, our aim in contemporary Nigerian discourse is to raise the intellectual tone of the Igala society, cultivate the public mind, purify the Igala taste while supplying true principles to popular enthusiasms and fixed aims to popular aspirations as well as giving enlargement and sobriety to the ideals of Igala renaissance. Igala, also spelled Igara, a largely Muslim people of Nigeria, living on the left bank of the Niger River below its junction with the Benue River.Their language belongs to the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo family. The best thing I can do to prevent this is to go away and leave the matter to be settled by God.’ So he went away, and was followed by the Bini who are the ancestors of the people in the country opposite Idah, right up to Asaba (Achaba) and Kukuruku (Ingele). Myth is. Send post to email address, comma separated for multiple emails. Where do we want to be? The Igala Ata ruled over a loosely federated kingdom in which the major provinces were organized and behaved like petty kingdoms. But to regard this development as the achievement of a single person, accomplished within one reign, is a good example of the fallacy of misplaced concreteness applied to historical thinking. This would take Abutu Eje and Ebulejonu back to the early I6oos, as suggested by Clifford and by the other administrative officers who have worked on this problem. The vast range of contact between Igala and other peoples creates many problems for historical analysis, since so many threads have gone into the fabric of Igala culture, and Igala culture itself spreads outwards beyond the boundaries of the kingdom. First there is the problem of variants in the traditions, and particularly the problem of divergence on the question of origins. Where are we? Green is a traditional color not only for Igala people but also for the whole Africa. From this … By paying special attention to the Jukun tradition of origin, Clifford gives the impression that other traditions of origin for the Igala kingship were either non-existent or else of no importance. In the Igala case these are three in number. The formation of the ideas, celebrations and notions that comprise today’s quintessential British lifestyle started centuries ago, giving importance and meaning to the people’s existence. For the most part, the mas… Ayegba, for example, ranks as the founder of the dynasty in the sense that he forms the apical ancestor of the royal house, and in the sense that he is said to have fought a war which freed Igala from Junkun control. British culture, customs and traditions vary from the weird to the wonderful, from the traditional to the popular, and from the simple to the grand. The royal dynasty in Igala is an immigrant one. So says, Jonathan Sacks, the prolific British rabbi. Igala traditional attire The predominant colors of the traditional marriage in Igala Land are yellow, black, green and white. IGALA HISTORY, CULTURE AND TRADITION DEBATE has 13,395 members Jump to Sections of this page Accessibility Help Press alt + / to open this menu Facebook Email or Phone Password Forgot account? Dialects include Ebu, Idah, Imane, Ankpa, Dekina, Ogugu, Ibaji and Ife. History is about facts; memory is about identity. It has approximately 61 million inhabitants, 96% of whom are Italians. When the Onu died, the followers of the two brothers heard the news and began to discuss the succession. Those that grew tired on the way stopped wherever they liked and were left behind. The indigenous population of Igala is represented politically, and in the oral traditions, by a group of clans called the Igala Mela, who are supposed to have occupied Idah from the beginning. The remaining 4% of residents include North Africans, Italo-Albanians, Albanians, Germans, Austrians and other European groups. Hence, the origin of the Igala is Igala. Stone age, iron age…. Igala kingship has also been connected by tradition with Yoruba, and the explorers who ascended the Niger in the nineteenth century were given various explanations of this connexion.5 Unlike Clifford, we should take all these different claims seriously as forming a set of divergent views about the origin of Igala kingship. Shortly afterwards one of her co-wives also delivered a male child, and immediately went with it to the chief. The third problem is the problem of separating the political facets of the traditions from their historical functions. To anticipate an Igala nation that is once again culturally rich, globally aware, technologically advanced and politically smart, we need looking back to our origin, the rich past and boldly work towards an exciting Igala future, where we can competently participate in the ongoing global trends. But Ayagba also is a stereotypical figure, a founder and creator in the same kind of tradition and historical idiom as Oduduwa among the Yoruba, or Nyikang among the Shilluk. The indigenous population of Igala is represented politically, and in the oral traditions, by a group of clans called the Igala Mela, who are supposed to have occupied Idah from the beginning. So the Onu took all the insignia of his title, even down to the hat that the chief wore, and had all these things placed in a neighbouring town for the second child, who later on became chief of that place. Let us go on to examine this diversity in more detail, concentrating in particular on the problems surrounding the origin and introduction of the kingship. Igala-mela, Ojogwu b’ela, Egwu Ata mela…. The federated type of kingdom probably tends to have a higher degree of diversity in its oral traditions than kingdoms of the centralized type, since each provincial centre of government is also a centre for oral tradition, and the tradition of the royal group itself does not have the same kind of overwhelming authority that royal tradition has in a kingdom like Benin. Doing that is tantamount to the desecration of the whole essence of Igala culture and tradition. Myth constructs its own examples according to its own laws. CULTURE, TRADITION, CUSTOM, LAW AND GENDER EQUALITY MJ Maluleke* Culture is like an umbrella under which some people like to hide from rain, and also to shade themselves from the sun. 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