Historical Truths about the Igbos in Diaspora: Facts and Fictions
A Text of a Lecture Delivered by Dr. Sam Amadi, Director of Abuja School of Social and Political Thought at the Forum of South-East Academic Doctors (FOSAD) Lecture Series 01 at the NUJ Media Center on Friday, September 20, 2024
Let me start with greetings. Umu nne m na Umu nna m, ndewo oo. Ututu oma oo. Y diri Nwoke nma, diri Nwanyi nma. Udo na Onyu. Ndu nmiri, ndu azu; nmiri atala, azu anwula.
It is also important to start this conversation with a song. The reason is that as one of the most famous Igbo diasporan, Gustavus Vassal, told the world, the Igbos are a people of songs. He put it this way:
“ We are almost a nation of dancers, musicians, and poets. Thus every great event, such as a triumphant return from battle, or other cause of public rejoicing is celebrated in public dances, which are accompanied with songs and music suited to the occasion. The assembly is separated into four divisions, which dance either apart or in succession, and each with a character peculiar to itself. The first division contains the married men, who in their dances frequently exhibit feats of arms, and the representation of a battle. To these succeed the married women, who dance in the second division. The young men occupy the third; and the maidens the fourth. Each represents some interesting scene of real life, such as a great achievement, domestic employment, a pathetic story, or some rural sport; and as the subject is generally founded on some recent event, it is therefore ever new. This gives our dances a spirit and variety which I have scarcely seen elsewhere”
Anyone who grew up in Igboland with a grandmother or a grandfather, or even with aged relatives, would realize that songs accompany every task. We sing when we are rejoicing, we sing when we are mourning, and we sing when deal with arduous tasks. If it is true as Chinua Achebe said, that amongst the Igbos words are eaten with proverbs, it is also true that amongst the Igbos, tasks are accomplished with songs. So let us begin this difficult conversation with a legendary song by the Gentleman, Mike Ejeagha. This song came out in the 1980s but modern technologies and the culture of social media have kindly brought it to the notice of the Generation Z.
Now, stand up and sing along with me.
Gwo gwo gwo ngwo
Ka ana kpo chairman
Gwo gwo gwo ngwo x3
Nna m Eze akpata m enyi x2
Nwa mbe isi ni kpata onye?
Asi m ani ya dube enyi chebe enyi
Nwa mbe isi ni kpata onye?
Asi m ani ya dube enyi chebe enyi
Odi ka asi n’kpata m onye x2
Akwa enyi ga abu isi oche x2
Enyi n’aga na anyi so gi n’azu x2
It is a thing of delight that the skit maker, Brain Jotter, has made this song to go viral such that people from foreign cultures in faraway places like Tokyo and Beijing are dancing to its tune. Gentleman Mike Ejeagha is a special breed. Like the legendary teacher, Chinua Achebe, Mike Ejeagha helps to preserve for future generation both the wisdom of the Igbos and the beauties and elegance of Igbo literature, including its repertoire of folklores. Sometimes, I mourn that my children do not have access to the tremendous wisdom of Igbo worldviews because they do not listen to the folklores and music of yesteryears. Now, social media and its culture of content creations will one way or another bring these folklores to the contemporary Igbos, born and bred in many communities outside Igbo land.
We danced to ‘Gwo Gwo Gwo’ not because it is trending. We danced to it because it encodes a veritable truth for today’s world, a truth that is very relevant to the topic of our conversation this morning. That truth is that we should always keep our eyes open and our minds acute to decode deceptions and avoid harm. Just as individuals are often in competitive situations with one another, ethnic groups and political societies are in competitive situations. In such situations, what you need to survive is a particular kind of wisdom that is rooted in memory and remembrance. As our wise forebears put it in the names they give to their children: ‘Echezona’, Ezefula, Elozona, etc. To say it bluntly, remembering is surviving. I was once invited to deliver a lecture in 2001 at the Holocaust Memorial Museum at Washington DC. The lecture examined what was described as ‘near-genocide’. Biafra was one of the identified case studies where mass violence against an ethnic group led to near-genocide. One of the interesting facts to me is that the names of those who died in Hitler’s attack against Jews are written on a memorial wall for all to see. It is important for the Jews to keep afresh in their memory the fact of the genocide and the details of the tragedy they suffered at the hands of the Nazis government. For me, it is a lesson on the importance of remembering for the survival of a nation. If a people do not remember their history and keep proper perspectives, they could easily forget who they are and who are their enemies. Forgetting is dying. Self-awareness and other awareness are the most important aspect of existing. When we forget the events and the meanings of the past, we expose ourselves to deception by our competitors and enemies.
Gwo gwo gwo is a warning against deception. It is an awakening to the reality of the world of competitive pressure where one’s neighbour could be one’s enemy. It calls for vigilance. It calls for navigational intelligence, the ability to get through the world of hostility and deviousness. It is in this context that the Igbos value ‘ako na uche’, the intelligence or smartness that is rooted in prudence, in paying attention to the true nature of things, not the way they appear, because the bitter cola is not as sweet as it sounds. We should bear this truth in mind as we proceed on this conversation.
I presume that the immediate context of this lecture is the inaugural lecture recently delivered at the Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto by a professor of history at the University, Professor Ahmed Bako. Professor Bako used the occasion of an inaugural to sell a false and dangerous narrative against Igbo people and their activities in Kano. The narrative is false because it is based on false facts and embellishments that are not backed by any historical evidence. Professor Bako’s narrative about Igbos in diaspora is not just false, it is also dangerous. Apparently, it was timed at a period like this when Igbos faced great distress and persecution in some parts of Nigeria because an Igbo contested the 2023 presidential election and won in many important states of Nigeria, in some cases, defeating a local titan. So, the purpose of the narrative would seem to be to expose the Igbos to more resentment and rejection by the neighbours, to make the Igbos collectively appear as menace to justify a possible final solution.
I guess, the reason the leadership of the Forum of South-East Academic Doctors (FOSAD) chose this topic for its inaugural public lecture is to counter such audacious and pernicious lies about Igbos and their activities outside Igbo land. I think it is good to robustly rebut the presumptions and falsehoods in Professor Bako’s inaugural lecture. Many able scholars and intellectuals, including Professor Moses Ochonu, Professor Chidi Odinkalu and Dr. Okey Anueyiagu, have done a good job of putting Professor Musa’s contrived narrative to where it belongs: dustbin of intellectual dishonesty and hatchery. I will not dwell much on it. I will rather focus on the truth about Igbos and their activities in the Diaspora which Professor Bako could not bear to accept.
Before I move away from Professor Bako’s falsehood, I will make a few comments about it. Professor Moses Ochonu concedes that Professor Bako has a long career as a historian such that his inaugural deserves considerable respect and attention. He has taught many historians such that we should presume that he clearly understands that the most fundamental attribute of a historian is the ability to pay attention to facts and subject sentiments to some kind of evidential review. Sadly, he failed this most basic approach to a historical analysis of something as complex as Igbos in diaspora. Professor Ochonu captures this failure in clear terms:
“Professor Bako is a great historian who is an authority on migrant quarters, or Sabon Garuruwa, in urban Northern Nigeria. I read his dissertation and papers on the Sabon Gari in Kano as an undergrad and was thoroughly enlightened. However, the senior colleague goofed in his inaugural lecture. What he stated is a staple, popular anti-Igbo political rhetoric in Northern Nigeria. It has been circulating in various iterations and with fluctuating degrees of reception since the late colonial period when Northern political elites feared Igbo domination more than anything else and proceeded to structure both their politics and policies around that fear. Aguiyi-Ironsi’s unitary decree only solidified the paranoia, and the Nzeogwu coup’s perception in the north as an Igbo coup and the killing of Ahmadu Bello and other prominent Northern politicians further cemented this popular Igbophobic narrative of Igbo domination or intent to dominate. The Professor’s professional “crime” is to repackage this popular narrative as a historical argument or thesis, and in an inaugural lecture no less. The other error is to not consider or critique the logic and facticity of the claim, which is what we’re trained to do as historians.”
Professor Chid Odinkalu was unsparing in his critique of Professor Musa’s gibberish of an inaugural lecture. He pointed out many grammatical errors and sloppy reasonings that challenge the mental stability and presence of mind of the professor when he rushed to peddle falsehoods. Professor Odiinkalu showed that notwithstanding whatever academic laurels Professor Bako’s may possess, the methodological and grammatical sordidness of his lectures speaks to a disorganised mind further unbalanced by hatred.
Dr. Okey Anueyiagu feels personally hurt by Professor Bako’s mendacity with regards to activities of Igbos in Kano. His father lived and practiced journalism in Kano. He rose and became the editor of the Comet, one of the newspapers established by the great Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nigeria’s first president and its foremost nationalist. Dr Anueyiagu starts his review by noting that “ The cynicism imbedded in this Lecture, and the arrogance, or perhaps the ignorance of the facts in the history of that era, were grossly exposed in Bako’s lies and utter embellishment of half-truths in his widely advertised “academic work”, which embarrassingly, turned out to be a reprehensible tales-by-moonlight gloating of a revisionist with an imbued tribal sentimentalism, by a thorough-bred clannish apologist”. In his view, Professor’s lecture is a gross disservice to the academic profession and to the science of historical analysis. As he puts it, “ Professor Bako’s objective in writing and giving that Lecture must have been any thing other than to give the world a candid glimpse into the history of our country’s past; a past that is so checkered, and soaked in the blood of many of its citizens. Bako’s history had its story backward. He forgot that it is the duty, and the unequivocal right of Nigerians, historians or not, to investigate and interrogate his story, and to dissect what he has produced for the world to view as truths. Even as we must grant Bako his constitutional right of freedom of speech, this freedom does not warrant the telling and spreading of lies, as it constitutes as bad law and warped ethics to do so, and must worry us as being part of the unfortunate relic of the government dominated by Professor Bako’s kinsmen and allies who banned, banished and descended on the study of history in our schools after the rancid civil war”
These critiques should be enough to denounce and consign the gibberish by Professor Bako to the dustbin of history. It is not surprising that a scholar of such presumed pedigree could end up deliberately spreading pernicious falsehoods against fellow citizens. We have evidence throughout history of how academics and intellectual paved the way for racial slandering that ultimately led to massacres and genocides. It is noteworthy that racism was built on the false theories of evil minded scholars. Nothing new about scholars and prejudices, In my view, we should pay more attention to the lesson of the inaugural lecture and less to its falsification of historical facts. What lesson should we learn from the lecture? The lesson we should learn from the unfortunate lecture is the importance of narratives. Today, we hear a lot about misinformation and disinformation. Misinformation is different from false narrative and less damaging that it. Misinformation relates to a piece of fact. So, if a man shoots someone in Wuse Market and a newspaper reports the shooter as a woman, it is misinformation. But if a newspaper reports the incident to present woman in the Wuse District as more violent than men, it is more than misinformation. It is a false narrative.
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The entire objective of Professor Bako’s laboured peddling of falsehood about Igbo activities in Kano is not to spread false information. It is to peddle a false narrative. It is to paint Igbos in bad light as a people who are selfish, mindless and domineering and deserves to be despised and resisted. His lecture was titled “The Igbo factor in the History of Inter-Group Relations and Commerce in Kano”. But he ended up saying just one thing: mark the Igbos; they are about to dominate you. In the narrow prism of Professor Bako’s narrative, all forms of Igbo entrepreneurship and the remarkable Igbo love of and accomplishment in educational pursuits are nothing but strategic actions to dominate others.
Professor Bako has done great injury by his lecture. He did not just retail incomplete and untrue facts. He painted a false generalized narrative of a people. The conclusory nature of his lecture without rigorous review of social patterns and conducts are part of the strategy of peddling dangerous narratives. Igbos go to school because they want to dominate others. But how is it that in communities outside Nigeria where Igbos have no chance of dominance they are still one of the most educated foreign ethnic groups? Recently, a leading commentator in the UK noted that the Igbos are the most educated foreign ethnics in the society. Are Igbo parents sending their children to school just to dominate other peoples in the UK? And what is the nature of the dominance? Is it political, social or economic? How about Igbos at home who are still sending their children to school? How about Igbo communities competing amongst themselves on number of medical doctors, professors and lawyers from their communities? Are they doing all these because they are striving on who will first dominate Kano people? Does the fact that some rich Igbo merchants can pay sherlock rents that Hausa landlords fixed for their stores which some small Hausa traders cannot pay mean these Igbo traders are acting out a scrip delivered from Igbo land to dominate northerners? How about fellow Igbo traders who cannot pay the rent and also lose use of their stores to richer Igbo traders? We cannot make sense of the logic and evidence behind Professor Bako’s categorical conclusion about Igbo activities in the diaspora without any evidential backing except we understand the power of narratives.
Narrative are not always logical or evidence-based. Narratives are designed to present diversities in such simplicity that people buy into a message and get motivated to act according to such message without bordering to crosscheck the logic or the facts. As Anthea Roberts and Nicols Lamp argues in their book, Six Faces of Globalization: Who wins, Who Losses and What Does it Matter, “narratives provide the story lines through which we perceive and communicate our understanding of reality and express our values. Political Scientists and policy analysts have long recognized that narratives not only reflect and affect our understanding of reality but also shape our reality”. Narratives are so important that there is now a branch of economics or set of economic discourses that are aggregated under the rubric of ‘Narrative Economics’. This is actually the title of a recent book by Professor Robert Schiller, a Nobel-Prize winning economist. Shiller argues that ‘An economic narrative is a contagious story that has the potential to change how people make economic decisions, such as the decision to hire a worker or to wait for better times, to stick one’s neck out or to be cautious in business, or launch a business venture, or to invest in a volatile speculative asset”. These narratives defines how people respond to trends and events in the political and economic spheres. Political or social narratives are urban legends nurtured to constitute a filter through which people receive information about a people or any event and conditions how they respond. In an age of social media, narratives could be dangerously effective. Just as an example, the diatribes against Igbos in the name of a university inaugural lecture has filtered into an English Literature classroom discourse in Nasarawa State University in the forms of scholarly remarks about how domineering Igbos are in commerce and unbearable in social life.
The important thing about narratives is that they may go against the weight of logic and evidence, just as Professor Bako’s lecture, yet successful in setting off major actions. The genocide against Igbos were procured, justified or supported by urban legends about Igbos selfishness and dominance. It is true as Roberts and Lamp argue that “Narratives are often resistant to change, even in the face of contradictory empirical evidence, because of their intuitive plausibility, the force of their metaphors, the emotions they provoke and channel, and the way they stabilize assumptions for decision-making. Accordingly, whether or not we think a narrative is factually correct, we need to understand its power in public discourse and in policy formulation”. The only effective action against a false narrative is to counter it with a true narrative. Pietistic silence or intellectual indifference would not deal with. In Nigeria’s street wisdom, you meet false narrative ‘bumper-to-bumper’.
If Igbo intellectuals would ordinarily dismiss the false and dangerous narrative of Professor Bako because of its lack of intellectual merits, they should consider the danger this narrative poses to the survival of Igbos in Nigeria and the Diaspora. We need to counter this sort of narrative. It is important to recall the boastful words of Winston Churchill that history will be kind to him because he intend to write it. Those who write history actually make history. We need to write the true history of Igbo activities in the Diaspora. Thankfully, we do not need to be academic historians to shape narratives. We are all able to remember and articulate. We can all tell stories. So, we should all be in the business of pushing he right narratives about Igbos in the Diaspora.
This paper is about historical truths about Igbos in Diaspora? I argue that we can sketch the history of Igbos in the Diaspora by recounting the lives notable Igbos who lived in the Diaspora. History is a record of past events. One of the best ways to know history is to observe the lives of people. This is the reason journalists and novelists have often offered good lens to know history. The lives of prominent Igbo diasporans are a good binoculars to perceive the truths about how Igbos have impacted their diaspora societies.
It should be pointed out that Igbos are a people who seem to be made for Diaspora. Igbos are at home wherever they live. Such adaptability has become a problem to economic and social development in the homeland that the most important catchphrase today in Igbo land is ‘Aku ruo ulo’ which translates to a command to bring the wealth home. Aku ruo ulo amara onye kpara ya. It is only when your wealth is established at home that we give your credence as a wealthy man. Under this economic thought we are witnessing many Igbo businessmen and women changing their focus and establishing important commercial and industrial projects in Ala Igbo. The currency and persuasion of this new economic think derive from the recent events that suggest that Nigeria outside Ala Igbo is becoming hostile to Igbo enterprise.
But Igbos continue to invest outside Igbo land notwithstanding growing negative narratives about them. Why is the average Igbo so adaptive to foreign lands that sometimes they do not sense the danger signal? Why are Igbos so unrelenting in their investment of finance, time and emotion outside their homeland, even in places that have proved in the past inhospitable to them? The answer is in the Igbo worldview. Igbos are universalists. Note that I did not say that Igbos are globalists. Igbos do not disregard cultural differences. They do not scheme to take over leadership of other places. They recognise diversities of political organizations and cultures. They are oftentimes inattentive to politics and unconcerned about how and how power is exercised to an extent that is not good for trading people. Igbos are not globalist who want to unify all human societies under their leadership. But they are universalists who acknowledge universal principles of morality and rights. Igbos have faith in human reason and common good. They can afford to live in any part of the world because they believe the principles of hard work, the application of common sense and the morality of self respect and freedom for all will apply. Even when this idealism fails, they continue to hope that the moral and social order that is founded on the concept of common good will be reestablished.
Equipped with the fundamental ideas of human dignity, freedom and reason, Igbos make everywhere they found themselves home and do their best to improve themselves and their immediate society. Someone once said that it is the Igbo who would decorate a rented with flowers and ornate it as if it belong to him. Well, the Igbo believes that it belongs to him as well because, ‘e be onye be ka o na awachi’, wherever a man lives he protects. May be it has something to do with the biblical injunction that counsels the people of God to pray for the good of their Diaspora community because it is in the good of the community that their own good will come forth. Diaspora Igbos are faithful to these text. They are able to strike a balance between the pursuit of self interest and the common good. Interestingly, they understand that unless we aim big we will neither serve our interests nor those of our communities. If we improve ourselves we can improve our community. When we improve our community, we improve ourselves more. We will encounter this pragmatic reasoning in the actions of one of the most famous Igbo Diasporans who campaigned for the abolition of slavery in Great Britain.
The most prominent and important of these Diasporans is a man who is officially known as Gustavus Vasal but whose real name is Olaudah Equiano. This man was sold to slavery at the young age of 11 or 12. He rose to prominence and became the earliest black writers of note. His autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vasal, The African was one of the most informative and respected chronicle of slavery in English language literature. One of the most interesting facts about the book is that Equiano notes in the book that it was written by himself, not ghost-written. The story of Olaudah Equiano is romantic and is part of the heritage of English literature. Many read it and marvel at the resilience and courage of human spirit. Equiano wrote the book to support the crusade to abolish slave trade.
I do not intend to rehash the interesting narrative of Olaudah Equiano. I want to use the life of this remarkable Igbo man to illustrate the truth about Igbos in Diaspora. Part of the allegation in Professor Bako’s jaundiced inaugural is that Igbo are domineering and their quest for self improvement is actually a quest for dominance. This is patently false. It was not true in the 16th Century when Olaudah Equiano lived. It is not true in the 21st Century we live. The truth is that the success of Igbos at home and in the Diaspora is a reflection of the cultural values and social capital of Igbo society. There is really nothing significantly different in how Igbos conduct their affairs at home and how they do in the Diaspora. You see the same dynamism and commitment to personal excellence and individual and group success.
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There are so many documentary evidence of Igbo success in business, technology, art and culture that we can take it for granted that the Igbos are one the most successful ethnic groups in Africa. It is already noted that the Igbos are one of the most educated ethnic groups in the US and European countries. Igbo parents made investment to affording their children the best possible education. This quest for education as a bridge to good life has nothing to do with domination of other people. It is about an overwhelming sense of self actualization. It is part of a scheme of values and beliefs that define the Igbo worldview.
Olaudah Equiano moved from being a slave to becoming a foremost abolitionist who wrote his famous book to support the cause of abolition of slavery, not because of the quest to dominate other slaves or to dominate the former slave owners. He wrote the book, in his own words, as an appeal to members of the parliament of the Great Britain to “ excite in your august assemblies a sense of compassion for the miseries which the Slave-Trade has entailed on my unfortunate countrymen”. This noble Igbo man had won his own freedom from slavery. He could walk away and enjoy his good fortune. By dint of hard work, good character and intelligence he had secured for himself a path to the life of a gentleman. But he took up the challenge to free other slaves. Equiano has every reason to mind his business. In his letter to the Lords temporal and spiritual of the House of Common, he noted that “ By the horrors of that trade was I first torn away from all the tender connexions that were naturally dear to my heart; but these, through the mysterious ways of Providence, I ought to regard as infinitely more than compensated by the introduction I have thence obtained to the knowledge of the Christian religion, and of a nation which, by its liberal sentiments, its humanity, the glorious freedom of its government, and its proficiency in arts and sciences, has exalted the dignity of human nature”. Why was he embarking on the arduous task of chronicling the evils of slave trade in the story of his life? He provides the answer: “ I am sensible I ought to entreat your pardon for addressing to you a work so wholly devoid of literary merit; but, as the production of an unlettered African, who is actuated by the hope of becoming an instrument towards the relief of his suffering countrymen, I trust that such a man, pleading in such a cause, will be acquitted of boldness and presumption”.
i have dwelt on the motivation of Olaudah Equiano’s action in devoting himself to a write a book that was instrumental to ending slavery in Great Britain to underline the fact that this illustrious Igbo who won his freedom through one of the most persistent display of character and capability cared so much for freedom that he was prepared to pay additional costs to procure it for others. If you read the book you will be amazed at how many times Olaudah tried to secure his freedom and how many times he failed. He never relented. He wanted freedom by all means and was ready to endure any thing that would secure freedom for him.
There is an interesting analysis of Olaudah Equiano’s narrative by British scholar, Professor P Edward of University of Edinburg on a BBC channel. Professor Edward argues that Olaudah’s beliefs that made him endure the indignity and torture of slavery and rise to greatness in life derive from his Igbo society where he was uprooted from early childhood. Olaudah himself wrote that he believed in providence. His tireless efforts to secure his freedom was based on two notions. The first notion is the fundamentality of freedom. The second is the belief that providence will aid his quest for freedom. Professor Matthew notes that the Igbos have seemingly contradictory notions of providence. In one breath, the Igbos believe that everyone has his personal ‘chi’, the god essence or the inner force, that determines his or her life. Your life is guided by your personal chi. In this sense, you cannot wrestle with your personal ‘chi’. You can only wish your chi has willed great things for you. Chinua Achebe captured the essence of the overriding role of providence when the elder in the village meeting had to rebuke Okonkwo for neglecting to show respect to other less illustrious members of the community by noting that “Those whose palm kernels were cracked for them by a benevolent spirit should not forget to be humble”. The key point is that the nut was cracked by a benevolent spirit. At the same time, the Igbos argue that when a man says yes, his personal chi says yes. Yes, our fate may be determined by our personal chi. But with wisdom and right actions we can sway our personal chi to endorse our actions. Our faith can change our fate.
This delicately balanced contradiction defines Igbo life. The Igbos believe in dualism. Where something stands, something else stands besides it. Where providence stands, enterprise stands besides it. Olaudah conveys this much in his narrative. He shows his faith in providence as he prays and wishes that God will endorse his dream of freedom. There is no way to know how providence will play out. But one thing is clear. He has to continue to make the best efforts to see if he can turn his fortunes around.
In his commentary, Professor Edward makes the point that Olaudah Equiano believed that what he learnt in his childhood as an Igbo was fundamental to his success. What are those things he learnt that made the difference? They are his religious belief that emphasized providence and his faith in the possibility of changing one’s station in life through smart work. Fatalism is different from providentialism. The Igbo religious worldview is akin to Calvinism to which Olaudah converted from Anglicanism. Like Igbos, Calvinists believe in providence. But they believe that we can reshape our destiny through piety and positive actions. Another character that helped Olaudah to secure his freedom from slavery is that his masters were pleased with him. Professor Edward notes that amongst Igbos, the word ‘master’ does not always convey a bad meaning. A master could be considered a father. One does not need to see his master as a wicked enemy. You could see him as a father, a guide. This paternalism helped Olaudah to serve his masters well and earn the right to be allowed to go to school, which was his overriding desire.
This positive spirit makes the difference between one who will succeed or fail. It is part of what Edmund Phelp, a Nobel-Prize winner in economics in 2006, called ‘dynamism’. A positive attitude enables us to look at the opportunities that open to us instead of being trapped in the seeming helplessness. The truth is that a belief that one can always move providence to your side through intelligent actions will always open one those opportunities to reverse one’s fortune that others do not see. In Olaudah’s case, he saw the opportunity to improve himself through petty trading.
Igbos have been falsely and widely accused of so-called love of money. This is a mischaracterization. Igbos do not love money excessively or negatively. They are entrepreneurial and therefore engaged in wealth creation. The spirit of commerce is not mammon. The real meaning of enterprise is a determination to find opportunity for value addition. The spirit of providing values to others is the source of enterprise. We owe it to Adams Smith, the father of modern economics for this insight. In his classic, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of The Wealth of Nations, Smith argues that the real source of wealth is the nurturing of the commerce involved in providing what others need. He argues that commerce is not only a product of altruism. It is also the product of selfishness, we can call it ‘bounded selfishness’, the desire to improve our live by improving that of another person. In Smith’s memorable statement, the man who provides our bread every day does not do so because he loves us. He does so because he is seeking for his daily bread. But by so doing, he also caters for our needs. In his much quoted words, Smith argues that ‘It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner but from their regard for their own self-interest. We address ourselves not to their humanity but to their self love, and never talk to them of our own necessities, but of their advantages”.
Enterprising people try to serve their legitimate interests. In so doing, they improve the life of others. Unenterprising people do not work to improve their lives. By so doing, they impoverish the life of others. Olaudah wanted to be a free man, a gentleman, a man whose life will count for some dignity. He does not need to become angry and violent. He looked around at what he could do to change his condition. Professor Edwards reports that Gustavus saw the opportunity in petty trading. He was a pragmatic and practical man. He was not illusory and grandiose. He knew he was a slave and did not have much to trade. He started with selling empty tumblers. He added to these tumblers some gin and started to sell gin in tumbler. His Quaker’s owner found him enterprising and afforded him the desire of his heart, going to school.
Professor Bako could see an ancient example of a young Igbo slave, doing everything, including unusual enterprise, to gain education. Olaudah did not think out of the box and take all the pains and sacrifices for good education because he desired to dominate fellow slaves or his slave masters. That is preposterous. This enterprise is the result of a culture of dynamism characterised by what the economist Edmund Phelp listed as ‘individualism, vitalism and self expression’. An Igbo slave began petty trading to earn some money to go to school so he would become a free man. This could be the story of any illustrious Igbo Diasporan.
There is no doubt that the spirit of enterprise cannot abide in a culture that does not value freedom, not the freedom of a community, but the freedom of individuals in a community. As an Igbo, Olaudah desired freedom badly. He had to purchase his freedom through his enterprise and entreaties to providence through good character. That is the Igbo religious and cultural worldview. This sounds similar to a man called King Jaja of Opobo, who rose from being a slave to become a King and a founder of an empire. It is notable that King Jaja of Opobo was a diasporan, His quest for freedom saw him build tremendous wealth and become a King. It was the same quest for freedom and the spirit of vitalism that made him to refuse to accept an undignified oppression by the British colonist that resulted in his trials, persecution, imprisonment and death in exile. Jaja refused to accept the indignity of fate. He died defying his fate. That could also be the story of countless Igbos in ancient and modern times who have purchased their freedom through diverse forms of enterprise and have flourished and excelled.
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Self improvement is the credo of the typical Igbo. Onye kwe Chi ya kwe (when a man says yes, his God says yes) can lead to nothing than a certain form of continuous self-improvement. This unrelenting self-improvement is the reason Igbos generally have a higher per capita income than their contemporaries, whether at home or in the Diaspora. A people who want to improve their lives through enterprise will always have some who will stray into immoral actions, especially in a morally bankrupt society. The urge to make it, and the social prestige of economic success can generate perverse incentive towards crimes and immoralities. This is how to understand some Igbos whose negative enterprise have driven them to illicit drug peddling and other criminal or immoral actions. There will always be unintended but predictable consequences of breakdown of social order and the veneration of wealth without enterprise that characterise the contemporary Nigerian society. Truly, this is not an Igbo problem. It is a Nigerian problem. Even if it is now an ‘Igbo’ problem, it has nothing to with Igbo culture and the way of life that sustained Olaudah on the path of excellence of heart and mind.
The life of Olaudah is typical of Igbos in Diaspora. There is a strong quest for self-improvement. At the heart of this quest is the desire for freedom. The Igbo is an individualist in the sense that he or she does not disregard his or her own essence. The Igbo is a communitarian in the sense that he or she emphasizes ‘Igwe bu ike’, ‘Onye aghala nwa nne ya’. But Igbos are individualists to the extent that they recognize the equality of all lives. All lives matter equally. Therefore, everyone has a right and a duty to preserve his or her life. Because the Igbos do not believe that a life without dignity and freedom is worthy living, everyone has an obligation to make his or her life worthwhile. ‘onye kwe chi ya ekwe’ is a summon to individual actions to better one’s life. The Igbos are also materialist or pragmatist. They are religious in their belief in a God that is benevolent and just. But they are materialists to the extend that they see their salvation as earthly. It is how we live their life on earth that determines our salvation. Igbo religious sense is less mystical and more philosophical. A people who feel a duty to make their lives better though social and material improvement would love schooling, and ultimately be more successful in creating wealth.
Everyone knows Igbo like to travel. They are diasporan mostly because of this endless hunger for success. The reason many Igbos travel far and wide is largely to see if they can find better opportunity to make their life better. It is not to dominate others. In the early days of the founding of the United States, the expression was ‘go west’. The Igbos are always going west. The main impulse behind these migrations is the idea of trying something new, of seeking out the other unknown places, places where we may be luckier than we are now. Economists argue that one indicator of economic growth is mobility, social, economic and occupational. Where people are willing to move, they are more likely to be more prosperous. The impulse for mobility is related to the impulse for exchange, for trading. It is about looking for value and creating value. It is about self-improvement. It is a sign of vitalism, which Phelp considers one of the determinants of sustained economic growth.
Professor Edmund Phelps of Columbia has studied why and how some countries become wealth and others do not. In his two books, Mass Flourishing: How Grassroots Innovation Created Jobs, Challenges and Change (2013) and Dynamics: The Values that Drive Innovation, Job Satisfaction and Economic Growth (2020), he argues that economic growth results from something he calls ‘high level of dynamism’. In the September 2024 edition of the IMF’s Finance and Development magazine, he describes this as ‘the desires and capabilities of the nation’s people to innovate”. What then accounts for this ‘high level of dynamism’? He ascribes high level of dynamism to three modern values, namely, individualism, vitalism and the desire for self expression. For him, individualism is not selfishness. It is “ the desire to have some independence and to make one’s own way. It can be traced back to the Renaissance. In the15th century, the Italian philosopher Giovanni Pico della Mirandola argued that if human beings were created by God in his image, then they must share to some degree God’s capacity for creativity. In other words, Pico foresaw a sense of individualism in which people carved out their own development. Martin Luther spread the spirit of individualism during the Reformation with his demand that people read and interpret the Bible for themselves. Other thinkers that championed individualism were Ralph Waldo Emerson, with his concept of self-reliance, and George Eliot, who embodied the spirit of breaking with convention” Unfortunately, Phelps does not realise that ancient Igbos had the same ideas and values.
The other modern value that ‘drive the desire and capability of the people of the nation to innovate’ is vitalism. What is vitalism? Phelps defined vitalism as “the notion that we feel alive when we are taking the initiative to “act on the world,” to use the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s terminology, relishing discovery and ventures into the unknown”. He notes that such spirit swept through Europe during the age of discovery, from the 12th to the 17th century. One can say such spirit sweeps through Igbo land and amongst Igbos in Diaspora. The last modern value that Phelps valorises as the secret of successful economies is the desire for self expression. According to him, “self-expression is the gratification that comes from making use of our imagination and creativity—voicing our thoughts or showing our talents. In being inspired to imagine and create a new way or new thing, people may reveal a part of who they are”.
Pay attention to three core modern values at the heart of economic growth: individualism, vitality and desire for self expression. Aren’t these values what have defined any successful Igbo you see? Aren’t they the same values that some Nigerians find problematic with Igbo. Oftentimes, we hear our neighbours deplore our excessive individualism. They will tell you that the reasons Igbos have not made much progress in the struggle for political power in Nigeria is because of this trait of individualism. But the same individualism is the reason a young Igbo will travel to Kano with a backpack and open a shop and soon becomes successful. The same individualism is that reason many Igbo parents are working hard to make sure their children attend the best schools in Europe and America. The same reason that in the past communities pulled resources together to send their brightest son to overseas to acquire good education. They did not do so to dominate people in Kano and Lagos. They did so because they want to be able to survive in a changing world. They want to be like the other communities that have sent their children overseas to learn the ways of the white man.
There are interesting stories in Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God and No Longer at Ease that cast great light on the quest for education amongst Igbos. Professor Bako wrongly and mischievously attributes the quest of Igbos to send their children to school as a quest for domination of their neighbours. May be if he read these two books, he would have come to a better understanding of Igbo love and quest for education. The Igbos are a pragmatic people. They are also a philosophical people. As pragmatists, they know that ‘Anoyi ano ofu ebe eti nmanwu’. You need to move around to see a masquerade well. Things change. Reality changes. When things change, we change with them. You cannot master a thing until you learn it. In Arrow of God, the wise one reasoned that since the white man’s religion was growing in strength, it would be wise to send one of his children to learn the new ways. It is adaptation. We need to keep moving to get a better view of the masquerade. He sent his son to join the white man so as to learn the secret of the new religion so that if the white man’s worldview prevails, he and his household will not lose out. That is the philosophic and the pragmatic mind at work.
In No Longer at Ease, Umuofia had to sacrifice to send its bright son, Obi Okonkwo, overseas to study so that they can be dignified in the comity of communities. If other communities have their children overseas to study the white man’s mystery, Umuofia must also have its own son there. It is competition for dignity. This is one reason the Igbo State Union encouraged and sponsored many Igbos to go to school. It is the quest for human capital. The world is changing. No one, individual or community, wants to be left behind. It is about self-improvement of self and community. Listen to the lamentation of the elders of Umuofia on the day Obi Okonkwo, the son they sacrificed to send overseas for university education was imprisoned for bribery. The people lamented that what other communities got their own had spoilt. They felt bad because the community has lost its investment, and investment that makes them feel dignified in the comity of communities. It is about competition. It is about self improvement. It is never about dominating others. It is about individualism and vitality. It is about striving for a life of dignity, freedom and prosperity.
We can return to Olaudah. He got his freedom. But he committed it to helping end slavery. It is noteworthy that it was Olaudah who reported the terrible loss of life in the slave ships as part of his efforts to rouse the Christian conscience of Britain to abolish slavery. He employed his wisdom to make an argument that improving the life of slaves instead of treating them with brutality would improve the economic value of slaves. Gustavus looked for win-win. Slave owners would gain a lot if they treated their slaves humanely and allowed them education and proper care. For Olaudah, his self-improvement and freedom helped him to improve others. The same can be said of King Jaja Opobo. He was strong, ambitious, courageous and enterprising. His entrepreneurial exploits improved the lives of his community. When he resisted the monopoly of the British, it was not just for his own good. It was also for the good of other African merchants who were shortchanged by British colonial traders.
Those Igbos managing spare parts stores in Kano, those Igbos establishing entertainment centres in Lagos, they are individualists pushed by the spirit of vitalism to improve their lives. Because of their possession of modern values of individualism, vitality and the desire for self expression, they have the capacity to innovate, to create values. By so doing, they improve their lives and the community.
Those entrepreneurs are not driven by animus to dominate. If their motivation is dominance, they would focus more on politics rather than on commerce. It is notable that despite their enormous wealth and economic networks, Igbos in the Nigerian Diaspora have not made any serious and concerted effort to control political power anywhere outside Igbo land. As Shakespeare said, ambition should be made of sterner stuff. These Igbos have been rather focused on self improvement. Their self improvement has always been a blessing to their communities. Only a very dumb professor will fail to notice this obvious fact.
