☼Ebee Ka Nd’Igbo Si Bịa? A Contention About The Origin Of Igbo Ethnic Kindred.. .

☼ Nke  a  bụ  nkenke  nrựgharị  okwu  n'ihe  Ọka-mmụta  Ogbukagụ  dere  n'akwụkwọ  ya (english  version)     Contention With The Riddles Of The Origin Of Ndi-Igbo   The writer (of The Igbo and Riddles of their Jewish Origins) alleged, or better, asserted that the Igbo (Nd'Igbo) were originally a Jewish Hebrew kindred.They migrated from the Middle East (Paletsine or Sinai) to their present settlement. He based  his stance  on  two  premises: socio-dynamic similarities between the two peoples and a purported "divine" revelation to a man named Okorie. True. Socio-culturally, the Igbo and the Jews have many similarities in their ways of living: worshipping; punishing vices; rewarding or celebrating virtues et cetera. They are commercially astute, and they are moneymongers, generally. Plus: they have been visited with attempted extermination which they survived resiliently. Good.   Certainly, Ndi-Igbo and Jews are extra-industrious peoples. The Igbo are aggressively, often insubordinately, enterprising; generally more venturous than their regional neighbours.        I do not share his faith in this Jewish origin. I am of the view that any genealogical link between Nd'Igbo and the Jews is in the context of the common ancestry of mankind. Igbo people might be older in origination than the Jews.   Nd'Igbo are Negroid; Jews are not. Jews went with their religion wherever they went; Yahwh or Yehovah, the central supernate of the Jewish religion and philosophy was unknown among Nd'Igbo before 1800. Even Christianism, which was originally an outgrowth of Judaism, took root in Igbo-land only in the second half of the nineteenth century. The Jews had always been a highly literate people ( the Bible, especially the Old Covenant is a great testimony to this); the Igbo had not always been, though they are intellectually extra-inquisitive. The Jews do not believe in re-incarnation, biblically (they recorded almost all events and conditions of their living = the Bible. None of them depicts a faith in the re-embodiment of dis-embodied entity).The Igbo do. The Jews had always had the 7-day week. Primordial Igbo week is of 4 days.  The Jews are (were) an emotional people ( the story of: the Crucixion; the execution of Stephan by stoning; the Golden Calf, are three of the many instances of Jews' emotional tendencies, in The Book). They reason. But they emote equally. The Igbo are an analytical, calculating, people. They exercise their rational faculties more than they do their emotional ones.        Ndi-Igbo and Jews have a custom of affixing phrases or words of divinity to the rootwords of individuals' names. Examples: In the name Chukwuemeka (the greater god has outperformed; that's, ...has outmatched expectation by performance), the basic moniker is Emeka (E meela karịa). In the name Onyinyechi (Donation of god), the   rootname  is  Onyinye. The Jewish name Obadiah (servant of Yah) is basically 'servant'. But the identificational emphases of the naming systems of the two peoples are actually different. The Igbo child bears the names of its biologic father or male guardian. The name identifies the individual as a person only. Examples: The name of Mr. Omenka's son, Emeka,  is  Emeka   Omenka; Emeka's child, Ojemba, is Ojemba  Emeka; the 'Emeka may be Nnaemeka, Ogoemeka, Alaemeka (Aniemeka),... Ojemba's daughter, Obianuju, remains Obianuju Ojemba till she married, thenceforth, the name of her husband or that of her father-in-law would become her surname. Among the Jews, a name is an identity as well as a qualification. It identifies the person and also declares some of his other attributes like town of origin or of residence. And the name of an adult often includes allusions of the character, occupation, authority, temperament…of the bearer; and even the reputation of his home town. Nabal (1 Samuel 25 : 2 – 3, 25). Joseph of Arimathea (Matthew 27 : 57). Yehudah Ish-Qerioth (Judah the man from Kerioth), translated Judas Iscariot (Matthew 26 : 14). Shaul (Paul) of Tarsus; et ceteris  sequentia. The people in Palestine now we call Israelis also bear kindred names rather than fathers' names.        Even  in  the  custom  of  circumcision, Jews  touched  not  females…Igbo  way  in  this  particular  custom  is  a  bit  different…          Before the advent of modern   day   global   experimentation   in nation-state democracy, the Jews were monarchy-inclined while Ndi-Igbo were natural, gerontocratic republicans. Although  Igbo chieftains had some prerogatives, they did not, in ordinary circumstances, arrogate supreme   political   power  to themselves, unlike   monarchs. They were more of aggregators than dictators of opinions.      In ancient Israel, the office of prophets was a recognized, integral part of the(ir) society. Among   Ndi-Igbo, there was no (never) such office. In fact, queer preternates,  mystical   individuals among them, by whom most of the wise sayings of Igbo culture were enacted, were largely regarded as aberrants; not listened to or obeyed with dignity befitting prophesy-bearers.          In linguistic congruity, Hausa and Tuareg are closer to the languages of Middle Easterners, Jews included, than Igbo is. In economic industry, surely the Igbo is extra-ordinary. They differ a bit from most of their regional neighbours.        Modernly, every   Jew   still   regards  other  Jews  as  members  of  his  or  her   family.  That   is: their   extended   family  sense  is  so  intensively  extended…  Something  akin  to  Fula  and  Tuareg… Among  NdịIgbo, the  informal  notion  of  extended  family  is  very  narrow.  Beyond  home-town  camaraderie, to  the  typical  igbo  person, other  igbo  people  are  mere  ethno-lingual  comrades (…propensity  partners); each  regarded  as  no  less  a  stranger  than  a  non-Igbo  stranger.            But Ogbukagu concentrated on the Igbo of South East Nigeria. There are other ethnic kindreds in the central Africa zone, just extending eastward of the Nigerian Igbo, who are similar. Bamu(n) is an indutrious, intellectually oriented people. Bamileke (of Bamenda region) can be regarded as a differentiated Igbo ethnicity. Their points of difference are mainly language, location, number (population), and the fact of Bamileke not having been genocidally  visited by external forces.   There other peoples too who have strong willpower and great love of individual independence.        Professor ogbukagu blundered a bit. He was inconsistent about the physique (especially complexion) of his proposed genetic forbears of Nd'Igbo. He said they were black people, and proceeded to describe the present Igbo as blackly (complexionally) different from their fair-complexioned (white) "Jewish" progenitors, due to climatic and intermarital influences.   I have one grouse here: this piece of work may become an intellectual mask, a source of cognitive delusion to the future generations who may see it as canon for an intellectual faith. There are many factors minimizing the acceptability of Ogbukagu's assertions.          This  psycho-propensity   to  force  jewhood  on  oneself  does  not  help  the  Igbo's  self-identity  or  self-confidence  (in  the  affaires  of  the  world).  And  it  has  no  meaning  in  the  facts, factors  and  arts of  living.  Has  it?           The Igbo is Negroid and African, proper. If they emanated  from somewhere  or some people, those were not the Jews…     ********