Premium
EZE MMIRI DI EGWU , THE WATER MONARCH IS AWESOME
Author(s) -
JELLBAHLSEN SABINE
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1997.tb48126.x
Subject(s) - igbo , geography , socioeconomics , agriculture , fish <actinopterygii> , ethnology , ancient history , history , sociology , archaeology , fishery , biology , philosophy , linguistics
About 20 million Igbo (Ibo) live in southeastern Nigeria, a country of approximately 100 million people. Their language belongs to the Kwa‐Niger group and has several sub‐dialects. The group on which my study is based is mostly limited to the Oru‐Igbo. The Oru live in a group of hierarchically related towns along the Oguta (Ugwuta) Lake and the Njaba, Urash and other tributaries of the Niger River. They refer to themselves as riverine Igbo. Oguta is their administrative center, today, the biggest and most well‐known town. Orsu‐Obodo is their most senior town. The precolonial economy of the Oru was based primarily on farming, fishing and trading. The staples are still yam and cassava and the diet is supplemented by plantains, rice, a variety of beans, vegetables, palm oil, fish, small game, goats, sheep, poultry and cow meat. Waterways are an important means of local transportation for people, materials, produce, and trade. Oru society, like other subgroups of Igbo is patrilineal, but in precolonial times, there were parallel male and female institutions. The patri‐lineages own the land and run the towns' external and internal affairs. Today there are a number of other groups, secret societies, trade associations, Mammy Water societies, and traditional age‐grades. The Oru trace their origin to Benin, having migrated over 10 generations ago. The Obi bears the title of Eze Igwe, sometimes translated as “divine king.” However, his office is quite different from that of the Oba of Benin, the Oru being an essentially egalitarian society (Jell‐Bahlsen 1980).