Biafra Is Not Eri Kingdom

 Biafra Is Not Eri Kingdom In the recent months, a group of persons whose motives regarding the Biafra restoration struggle are not clear ha...

 Biafra Is Not Eri Kingdom

In the recent months, a group of persons whose motives regarding the Biafra restoration struggle are not clear have risen and have aggressively tried to counter everything that Biafra truely is or represents. These fellows have come up to misguidedly start claiming that the people of the old eastern region of Nigeria are wrongly addressed as Biafrans; claiming that the people of this region should rather be called " Eri Kingdom", as opposed to "the Biafran people" we are originally known to be.

This is why I prepared this article, in a bid to throw some light around this Biafra enemies's attempts to implant confusion. I sincerely desire to get any of the misinformed persons or those previously ignorant of the subject informed aright.

Now, Eri is the fifth son of Gad. Gad is the seventh son of Jacob who was chronicled to have left Egypt in search of greener pastures with many companions, right before the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt, thousands of years ago. This is distinctly recorded in (Genesis 46: 15-18 and Numbers 26: 16-18), books of the Holy Bible.

The Igbo origin in particular, has been a contest between two ancient communities--( Aguleri and Nri), both in Anambra state, in present day Nigeria. But the ancestry of these two communities (Aguleri and Nri) is never a debate. They are both direct descendants of Eri.

Also, Biafra is a name suggested by Francis Opigo(an ijaw man) for the new republic that existed between 1967 to 1970. However, people with poor historical background, especially the young and ignorant elders, may not know that Biafra existed before 1967 but lost her identity and sovereignty to colonialism. The great loss on the side of Biafrans was followed by a deliberate removal of history from school curriculums of Nigeria, in other to perfect the "divide and rule" tacticts of the colonialist, Britain. And this is the only certifiable excuse for failure in history among the citizens of the region as it stands now.

Early modern maps of 15 century – 19 century, drawn by the Europeans themselves, show that the original word was Biafara. Although, contrary to the lies told by these Europeans about how they discovered “River Niger”, the word Biafara and the people of the region already existed before the first European invaders(the Portuguese) stepped their slave-master heels on Biafara land. Therefore, the republic of Biafra, for those who know, was a protest for self preservation and identity restoration. It was supposed to set off a chain reaction that will, indeed, set the whole of Africa free.

The tokenization of the Biafra project as an Igbo-centric adventure is done by people dwelling and profiting in lies. It is mostly propagated by a section of the brown envelope media and their paid/recruited collaborators, forced to drink the kool-aid(sweet USA drink) of political geography called south-south, by monetary inducement. It is a pitfall, objectively placed to divide and conquer. Philip Effiong Jr. warned against Igbonization of the Biafra struggle. Historical facts show that as the Igbos traveled from Israel to Aguleri, they met other tribes from Ethiopia and along their travel route until they settled. Upon settling, they mingled and intermarried with other tribes. This cohabitation was based on mutual respect, brotherhood and shared common value. Even though Igbos were predominant, there was no domination leading to no language extinction as is the case elsewhere. The tribes that make up the Biafra republic are the same as the precolonial era. They include Igbo, Ijaw, Ibibio, Efik, to mention just a few. Therefore, Igbo alone(descendants of Eri) is not Biafra. Igbo is only one of the tribes that make up Biafra. And most certainly, Biafra Is not Eri Kingdom.

Written by Chibueze Daniel

Edited by Ogah C S Maduabuchi

For Family Writers Press International