The British-Igbo War That Lasted For 31 Years - The Ekumeku Movement
October 06, 2020 2134
Share this:
The resolutions of the Berlin
conference of 1804-1805, gave European nations the rights to lay claims to lands
and resources in Africa.
Britain, who had engaged in the trade
with coastal cities before and during the 19th century, made bold their
intentions to covet resources and rule over indigenous nations all over Africa.
They came with guns and preachers.
Many African indigenous nations resisted the British invaders, and this led to protracted
wars. Many African indigenous nations put up a great fight against the superior firepower
of the suppressive British.
One such indigenous nations are the Igbo
people of ancient Biafra, who are now one of the three major indigenous nations in Nigeria.
The Ekuemeku Movement was the name of
Igbo army, that held the British at bay and fought them for 31 years.
The Ekumeku movement consisted of a
great number of attacks and uprising by the Anioma people of Igbo land, against the
British, from 1893-1914.
The Ekumeku warriors were bound by a secrete oath, and meticulously utilized guerrilla tactics to attack the British Royal company, who were determined to penetrate Igbo land.
The Ekumeku warriors
were drawn from thousands of Anioma youth from all parts of Anioma land. As the
war raged on, the Ekumeku warriors defended their rights to live peacefully
without foreign interjection, while the British used heavy armaments. The British destroyed homes, farms, and roads, by bombardment.
The British invaded Ndoni in 1870 and bombarded Onicha-Ado (Onicha) on November 2nd, 1897, from River Niger. This set the tempo for the rest of the war.
The Royal Niger Company was commanded by
Major Festing. They engaged the Anioma people of Ibusa in 1898. The battle was
so severe in 0wa/Okwunzu, in 1894, that the commander W.E.B Crawford requested
for more arms from the British headquarters to crush the Western Anioma
communities. The people of Owa again in 1906 engaged the British in a gruesome
battle that consumed the life of the British commander S. O. Crewe.
Ogwashi-Ukwu faced the British on the
2nd of November 1909, and dealt a heavy blow to the British, who sustained many
casualties, with the death of H. C. Chapman.
The Ekumeku became a formidable force
in Igbo land and was a great source of nationalism for the Anioma people. It
also served as a uniting cord that held together various towns that were independent
of each other in the past. The Igbo were a republican people and each town had
a leadership that was drawn from its oldest of men and families.
The war would have lasted longer, and
possibly ended in a British defeat, if the Anioma people had equivalent firepower, and had more allies from other great Igbo kingdoms and towns. But even
at that point, other indigenous Igbo towns, and villages were facing the British on their own.
After almost 20 years of battle, Britain decided
to strike with great force. And in December of 1902, they sent a powerful
expedition to the Anioma kingdom. A great number of towns were destroyed.
Civilians and soldiers alike were killed. And their leaders were arrested and
imprisoned.
After this, the British were sure
that they had suppressed the Ekumeku military cult, and that victory was
theirs. The British officers boasted: "the Ekumeku and other secret
societies have been completely broken."
To their greatest surprise, two years later, in 1904, the fearless Ekumeku rose again.
The Igbo are proud and
egalitarian people. They don’t go down that easily.
When the Ekumeku started their renewed
campaign, they changed tactics and abandoned the guerrilla warfare style of
1989, for the individual defense of each town.
The last battle began in 1909. There
was a succession dispute in Ogwashi-ukwu, and the British tried to remove the
rightful king and enthrone someone else. One of the heirs to the throne,
Nzekwe, the son of the last Obi, sensed the plot of the British and went to war
with them to fight for his inheritance.
On November 2nd, 1909, the British sent an expedition to Ogwashi-ukwu to capture him, but they failed. No amount of firepower at that point could defeat or quench the sympathy and dedication of the people towards the Ekumeku.
In Asaba, the sympathy for the Ekumeku was
so high that the people had the disposition to throw off the already British
government in certain parts.
At the time, the acting Lieutenant-governor
of the Southern provinces sent an agitated telegram to Lagos. It read:
"Whole country is above are... is the state of rebellion."
After this, reinforcements were sent
from Lokoja, for another confrontation at Akegbe. The war raged on, till 1914 when the Ekumeku movement was defeated. That was the same year, the Northern
and Southern protectorates of Nigeria were joined as one country.
Some of the heroes of that 31-year
war included Dunwku Isus of Onicha-Olona, Nwabuzo Iyogolo of Ogwashi-Ukwu,
Awuno Ugbo, Obi of Akumazi, Aggbambu Oshue of Igbuzo, the Idabor of
Issele-Ukwu, Ochei Aghaeze of Onicha-olona, Abuzu of Idumuje-Unor, Idegwu
Otokpoike of Ubulu-Ukwu. These men are remembered in Anioma land to date.
The Ekumeku have long been defeated,
and that kingdom is now part of the greater Igbo land, in today's Nigeria. But
no matter how far we travel in time, history always remembers that a brave
people defended their ancestry, heritage, and legacy against the tyranny of Wilberforce.
To date, in Nigeria, the Igbo remains one of the few indigenous nations that still resist British rule over them and their resources. It can be said that these sentiments were at play when the British supplied weapons to the Northern and Western part of Nigeria to commit genocide against the Igbo between 1967-1970.