Igbo History Hebrew Exiles of Eri. Omabala Aguleri
are usually pursued: the theory of permanentism or creationist theory and the theory of evolution.
The theory of permanentism or creationist theory is fully demonstrated from two sources: the traditional ethnometa-physical sources as stored up in the oral tradition of African peoples. The other source of origin is the documented creationist theory in the Bible or Koran or other sacred books. Many Igbo scholars who read the Bible have tried to link up with the lost tribe of Israel. Some argue that Igbo culture has some remarkable similarities with that of ancient Hebrew. On the basis of such similarity the scholars establish common origin and argue that the Igbo broke away and migrated southwards. This is of course a version of the Semitic theory. Using the Bible genealogy of Jesus, from Adam to Jesus...”
The evolutionary theory seems to have a scientific edge over the creationist theory which is based on metaphysical speculation and faith. The logic of evolution is attested through several empirical observations and analysis of fossil and artifacts accidentally found or archaeologically excavated the distribution of such finds, their diffusion and relationship with other finds and the possibility of dating the finds with techniques such as relative stratigraphy, potassium argon, carbon 14, uranium helium and dendrochronology. Where possible these dating systems are correlated with the solar or lunar dating system like the type based on the Christian and Muslim calendars respectively.
I wish to emphasize that the evolutionary history of Igbo culture and civilizations can only be fully understood in the context of the cultures and civilizations of the African continent. For the early beginnings of man’s existence in the theatre of Igboland, we rely on archaeological, anthropological, and linguistic evidences of man’s activities in Igboland.
Four of the archaeological finds in Igboland become very relevant: the Ugwuele, Afikpo, Nsukka and Igbo-Ukwu. These four sites have produced abundant and irrevocable evidence of the fact that at least between 100, 000 B.C and 5000 B.C man has started his cultural drama in what I refer to as the theatre of Igboland. The problem is: are they Igbo as we know them today? Professor Onwuejeogu sought to answer to this question by applying the anthropological-linguistic evidence based on grotto chronology, which puts the date of the emergence of Igbo Language from the Proto-Niger languages of about 6000 B.C., and lexicostatistics, which suggests the relative degree of difference of verities of Igbo languages spoken today. He went on to say that using grotto chronology one can say that by 6000 B.C. the Igbo man had emerged ready to be transformed to what is today.
Archaeological Evidence
Professor Onwuejeogu said that archaeological evidence shows that the Igbo man of today has undergone cultural evolution transformations from the African late Stone Age through the Neolithic and Metal Age to contemporary Modern time. In discussing the four archaeological finds in Igboland mentioned above, he quoted Anozie 1981 as analyzing the Ugwuele culture as being dominantly a handaxe culture which can only be understood within the context of the evolution of man, the tool maker in Africa. He further said: According to geographers and geologists most of Africa was once the heart of a vast super-continent called Gondwana Land. About 250 million years ago much of this super-continent was glaciated. During the Cretaceous Period (about 200 million years ago) Gondwana Land started to break apart, and the continent began to take its present shape; and the African coast came into existence. More recent geological activity occurred creating the basic topographic division of high and low Africa. This is evident in the major river basins in the continent; namely, Niger Basin, the Chad Basin, the Congo Basin, the Nile Basin and the Zambezi-Kalahari (Basin Stamp 1976; Kimble 1962).
Life form began to evolve on parts of the earth which were favourable. According to Paleontologists, by the Palaeocene Era, 63 million years ago, the primates had begun to evolve from some unknown insectivores, and by the Pilocene, between one million and thirteen million years ago, the first proto-man (more ape-like than man-like) had appeared.
From all existing evidence, it appears that man’s ancestor first became differentiated from the Primates in Africa. Recent archaeological finds in Omo Valley of Ethiopia suggest that this occurred at least 3 million years ago. Evidence from the wooden savannah areas of East Africa puts homo sapiens, the forerunner of present man, at about two million years ago. Homo sapiens are all that remains of the Hominid time today. Multineal evolutionary process had taken place producing the earliest Hominids which died away because they were overspecialized. The less specialized ones evolved into Homo sapiens. Some of African hominids are as follows (Howell 1955, Graham 1955, Leakey, 1967 and 1971)
(i)Australopithecus africanus – very early hominid which probably were omnivorous. They were small, lightly built and adapted to open country. They possibly were tools users.
(ii)Australopithecus robustus: These were larger and robust and very ape-like. They were probably vegetarians and adapted to forest environment.
(iii)Zinjanthropus: This is another form of robustus that flourished in East Africa.
(iv)Homo habalis (found by Leakey in Olduvai George in Tanzania) existed side by side with Zinjanthropus nearly two million years ago and was probably the earliest tool maker.
(v)Homo erectus: This was represented by Pithecanthropus and existed around 500, 000 years ago in Africa. They evolved the Acheulian hand-ace culture near lakeshores and rivers. Some of their remains were found in Algeria, Morocco, Chad, Tanzania, Indonesia and China. The Asian examples were younger. Homo erectus gave rise to many offspring’s such as Rhodesia man, (a Neanderthal type) and to Homo sapiens around 35, 000 years ago
Having discussed the early material culture in Africa let us look at the earliest human society.
Garden of Eden
Hominid evolution took over 3 million years. Early forms have been found in China, conclusion all existing evidence points to the conclusion that Africa particularly, East Africa, was the major centre of the physical and technological development of man. East Africa was the Garden of Eden of mankind and from there, the spread started.
Homo sapiens
Early Hominid spread into different environments and by the end of the Pleistocene era, Homo sapiens (occupying both the old and new worlds Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands) had been sufficiently differentiated into six major races: the Australoid, the Caucasoid, the Mongoloid, the Negroid the Pymoid and the Sanoid. Each race is a human population that is sufficiently in-bred to have a distinctive genetic composition shown in a distinctive combination of physical traits. Racial differences were a result of man occupying different environments and adapting to the new situation. Adaptation was made possible by gene mutation, natural selection, genetic drift and population mixing of hybridization.
The Sangonans of West Africa
Cultural differentiation in Africa can be reconstructed from the archaeological evidence available. Early Acheulian hand-axe culture might have spread all over Africa, including West Africa.
Thus, about 50, 000 years ago the heavy browed Sangonans spread across most of Africa, south of the Sahara. They had learnt to make fire, lived in caves or rock shelters and were equipped with better tools consisting of choppers and scrappers.
The Sangonans were forest dwellers, occupying the great lakes of Central Africa, the present day Congo and Angola and around the Zambezi River. They probably spread into different areas of the forest zone of West Africa to give more impetus to Acheulian culture. This results in the development of variants of stone cultures found in West Africa of different ages as shown in the archaeological findings in Ugwuele 55, 000 B.C (Anozie 1980), Nsukka 2555 B.C. (Hartle 1967), Ukpa Rock Shelter 2935 B.C. (Hartle 1967 and 1972) Iwo Eleru 9250 (Shaw 1965, and sites in Ghana and Sierra Leone (Wai Ogodsu Anday BW 1973 and 1979)
The other folks that developed another stone culture in East Africa which was contemporaneous with the Sangonans are called Fouresmith culture. They were developed in a more open grassland and lightly wooded terrain of the Plateau regions to the south. The hand-axes were almond in shape and mostly made of gray shell found in the region. They made more use