Today, we bring you excerpts from a write-up by the historian Mazi Obi Nwakanma in Vanguard that places an ancient connection between the legendary Kamalu a.k.a Amadioha and the invention of the atomic bomb. Read on below:
The Igbo themselves have the story of Kamalu, who took the impudent title “Amadioha” – and who destroyed the ancient world, and was himself blown to smithereens as he and his scientists experimented with “orisha-Akalum” or the “ore of the heavens,” or “Igwe” in his bid to create a powerful, all-conquering weapon of war.
Amadioha’s recklessness remains a cautionary tale among the Igbo to this day, and you often hear the Igbo say, “onye emena ihe Ike” (let no one mess with energy), or “Anyi maara dowe ike” (We know the secret laws of energy, we just sealed it that no one should use it).
That ancient secret was unraveled by Einstein, and thus the Atomic bomb.
Following Amadioha’s heresy, the Igbo abrogated the making of kings, forbade human sacrifice, and established a religion of peace.
They dispersed in great numbers from their ancient habitations by the Atlantic in search of new habitations. Obatala and his group settled in Ife. And the story of these great Igbo settlements traverse the world.
There are five sub-nations of the Igbo: the Agbaja, the Oru, the Isu, the Nri, and the Idu. That is why they say, “Isee!” or “Ihi aa!” at the end of the kolanut ritual that commemorates this filial unity, and its invocation of peace, and its summoning of the ancestral spirit.
The Idu, who call themselves Benin today, are part of the larger Igbo, and are possibly the bridge with the Yoruba.
The value of Ooni Enitan’s assertion is the necessity for strategic collaboration between these groups who must understand that the Igbo, Yoruba, Igala, Nupe, Jukun, and so many of the cultures in the West and Central West Africa have so much more in common, and must work together for their own security and prosperity. Of that, I endorse.
Do you agree with Mazi Obi Nwakanma? The Ooni of Ife recently said Igbos were the first in the world to discover wealth.
