The legacies of a legend: Eze Onyeama n'Eke King Onyeama of Eke

Eze Onyeama n'Eke

by: M. O. ENÉ

egbedaa@aol.com

AGBAJA

Eke was a town like every other town in Agbaja, present-day Udi, Ezeagu, Enugu North, and parts of Igbo-Etiti and Oji River local government areas of western Enugu State of southeastern Nigeria. Agbaja has given Igboland and Nigeria many great names: the first western-trained Igbo medical doctor, Dr. Simon E. Onwu (from Affa); the first Nigerian judge to the International Court of Justice at The Hague, Mr. Justice Charles Dadi Umeha Onyeama (Eke),
Supreme Court Justices Nnaemeka Agu (Obinagu) and Anthony Aniagolu (Eke), Igwe Elias Chime (Udi), Ohanaeze's former President General Justice Eze Ozobu (Owa), ex-Governor of old Anambra State, Chief C. C. Onoh, etc. However, the greatest son of Eke in living memory was Eze Onyeama n’Eke, Dadi Onyeama's dad.

The King of Agbaja, Onyeama n’Eke was the greatest king in northern Igboland [areas in Enugu, Nsukka and Abakaliki that form the present-day Enugu and Ebonyi states]. He was probably the greatest Igbo king in living memory. From his palace in Eke, Onyeama reigned over the entire Agbaja, from Oji River though Udi and Ezeagu to the present-day political capital of Igboland, Enugu, and even Nkanu and Ogui communities. With his Gestapo/Tonton Macoutes-like secret police called Ogwummiri (for they would reach their target and accomplish any goal come rain or shine), and backed by the colonial regime, Onyeama set out to establish a huge and dominant Agbaja kingdom. He was judge, jury, and jailer, an absolute king by any definition.

EARLY YEARS

Onyeama was born circa 1870s, the youngest of the ten children of Özö Omulu Onwusi, a polygamous titled man of means, and an only son of his mother – Chinazungwa Ijeonyeabo of nearby Ebe community. At 7, his father initiated him into the masquerade society. A puberty rite of passage, this showed the promise of the young man. Onyeama’s father passed thereafter. His mother also passed, probably killed for poisoning a man who had threatened her son Onyeama with violence.

Brought up by his half-brother, Amadiezeoha Nwankwo-Onwusi, Onyeama worked hard and made his mark in business. He traveled to famous Aro-controlled trading centers including Abiriba, Arochukwu, Arondizuogu, Bende, Oguta, Uburu, etc. When British rule reached Eke in 1908, Onyeama was rich enough to buy his way into the Ozo title society and to marry a local beauty, Afia Nwirediagu, and later Gwachi Ebue.

Slowly but surely, Onyeama got the colonists to award him the “Warrant Chiefdom” of Eke. He took power and defined it. Onyeama saw himself as an absolute ruler whose authority could not be easily flouted. But the King of Onitsha, Obi Okosi I, also reigned. No Igbo king questioned the might of the supreme monarch of Onitsha, let alone supposedly “lesser chiefs” from the north.

ALL HAIL THE CHIEF

Eze Onyeama n'Eke in his "warrant chief" regalia

Onyeama signaled quite early that the reign of the Obi of Onitsha was history turned upside down, because he considered the entire monarchy of Onitsha a sub-colonial setup of recent immigrants from the Benin Kingdom. If anything, he (Onyeama) was in the league of the Oba of Benin or Ooni of Ife, the Yoruba monarch. This set the stage for a looming showdown between the kings of the northeast Igbo (called the Wawa) and southwest Igbo (called the Ijekeebé).

And so it was that at the gathering of Igbo kings in 1928, all major kings and chiefs in the old Onitsha province (including Enugu) and beyond assembled in Enugu to welcome Captain W. Buchanan-Smith, the recently appointed lieutenant-governor of southern Nigeria provinces. The Obi naturally occupied the highest seat of honor reserved for the supposed traditional ruler of Igbo nation. When Onyeama came in later with his entourage of security men, chiefs andIgbanküda drummers, he was outraged by the Obi’s assumed position of supreme authority in his domain.

HERE COMES THE KING!

“Who do you think you are sitting in that seat?” Onyeama thundered and ordered the immediate removal of the powerful King of Onitsha. A scene ensued with the District Officer trying to placate Onyeama. Furiously, as legend has it, he uttered, “Wa” (the local lingo for “No”); for emphasis and as a mark of immutability, he stated: “Wa–wa!” [Never!] He turned and decreed to the colonial officers: “If that man is still occupying that seat when I come back, the leopard will eat him.” Onyeama got his way and prevailed as the greatest king in town!

Considered an upstart by those who have had longer socioeconomic intercourse with the British, Onyeama did not make himself many friends. A record would be waxed in the 30’s accusing him of burying an unfaithful wife alive! A court order forced the German company that waxed the slanderous record to withdraw it from circulation. This and other image-destructive stories of absolute tyranny, wife-snatching and even murder have never really removed from the legend of Onyeama. His people looked at him with mixture of awe and admiration. His secret police (made up of handpicked, local wrestling champions) struck so much fear into both chiefs and commoners that generations still respect the might of this great king.

Writes John .P. Jordan in Bishop Shanahan of Southern Nigeria (Dublin, 1971, p. 136): “This particular chief would deserve a history to himself; for he was probably the only Igbo ruler whose word was law.” Others say he was way way before his time.

THE LEGEND

It is interesting and intriguing that Onyeama operated within the confines of colonial legacy, picking his opponents apart in courts of law. Many of his opponents were chiefs from his immediate areas of control, from Udi, Ezeagu, Nkanu and Nsukka areas. Even though he openly desired no part of Christianity, he invited and encouraged church missionaries—to teach his people the ways of the white man. When the CMS would not teach English, but in Owere dialect of the Igbo language, Onyeama expelled them and brought in the Roman Catholics, on the condition that they teach in English and Latin and let his people speak their own dialect of Igbo! From his kingdom, the Catholic Church reached all parts of northern Igboland, Ogoja and Benue areas.

For those who wished to continue in the old ways and traveled to faraway Ilorin for oracular consultations, Onyeama imported Ilorin Muslim medicine men, which suggests that Onyeama indirectly introduced Islam into Igboland. He encouraged serious economic development, including mineral exploration and railway construction linking Enugu with Port Harcourt. Little wonder the first coal mine was named after him; and the first coal was presented to him by his driver before a cheering crowd of Africans and Europeans.

HOME & AWAY

King Onyeama of Eke in London

Onyeama’s influence extended beyond Enugu and environs. He attended the British Empire Exhibition in May 1924 and was invited to Buckingham Palace. His two-month sojourn so impressed him he vowed to prepare his people for the future through education and economic development. Onyeama invested in education, sending his own sons and others to institutions of higher learning in the country and abroad. Onyeama’s guidance and influence opened up northern Igboland of Nsukka and beyond for the Catholic Church and colonial governance. Thus he paved the way for the eventual establishment of Nigeria’s premier indigenous university at Nsukka.

Schools and churches and hospitals sprang up everyday. He formed a brass band that was the best in Nigeria. The Onyeama Eke Brass Band was booked to be the main attraction at the installation of Prince Godfrey Basimi Okoro Eweka Akenzua II as the Oba (King) of Benin. King Akenzua was the father of the present King of Benin, Omo N’Oba N’Edo, Uku Akpolor Akpolor, Oba Erediauwa II.

Onyeama was a stickler for the rule of law, and used his Ogwumiri to enforce his rules and colonial laws. It was this delicate balance that led to his abrupt fall of fledging Agbaja kingdom. Bent on appealing a case to the highest court in the land, Onyeama left for Lagos by rail through Kaduna. At Kafanchan, word reached him that the colonists would do a King-Jaja-of-Opopo number on him – exile him for life to a God-forsaken island, or that they were going to jail him on a false charge as they had done the King of Benin in 1897. He made a detour and headed for home. On April 5, 1933, at Mada station in the Northern Nigeria, word reached him again of an impending disaster. King Onyeama shot himself rather than “be alive and let any human being humiliate me!”

DEMISE

The exact details of what happened exist in the realm of conjecture. Onyeama’s many enemies were closing in with calculated campaigns against Onyeama. From Coal Camp, Enugu, “Chief Lawrence” Onwudiwe of Ogbunike secured the alliance of such prominent Waawa chiefs as Chief Ozobu of Owa (Onyeama’s father-in-law) and Chief Nwodo of Ukehe, plus professional petition writers! Onyeama was probably a victim of mischief, misinformation, and money politics.

Many interests group wanted to neutralize Onyeama’s grip on Enugu. The Anglican Church had not forgotten that he stopped them and put the Catholics ahead. He was at a time so strong that colonial district officers he did not like were immediately sent back to England. At this juncture, the colonial administration looked the other way for too long, in keeping with British divide-and-conquer tactics. Onyeama’s many enemies managed to forge a vast conspiratorial network of deceit designed to push the well-known suicidal impulses and morbid curiosity of King Onyeama.

Love him or loath him, no king in Igboland has since wielded such enormous political, religious and judicial powers as Eze Onyeama, Okwuluoha Agbaja (senior advocate/speaker of Agbaja). King Onyeama might have been a big inspiration to the powerful Eze nwa Iboko, the King of Abakaliki, whom the British colonists executed in Enugu, and the Nwodos of Ukehe (the Kennedys of modern Igbo politics).

Onyeama had over 50 wives, some of whom were just court enhancements in diplomatic marriages that were never consumed. He fathered about 60 children, mostly females. Prominent among his sons were Henry Onyeama, Chief Michael Onyeama, Okwuluoha of Eke, Justice Dadi Onyeama of the World Court, Sam Ekwueme Onyeama, Chief Inspector of Police James Onyeama, Justice Byron Onyeama, Alhaji Suleiman Onyeama, etc. Among his many grandchildren are Dillibe Onyeama, first African at the exclusive Eton College, England (author of Chief Onyeama: The Story of an African God) and Victor Akpu of New Jersey, USA. Even though he was not his son, it must be noted that Onyeama gave Ndiigbo their first Western-trained medical doctor, Dr. Simeon Onwu.

THE LEGACY CONTINUES

King Onyeama’s greatness lies mostly in his unapologetic and forceful exposition of Wawa pride, in reaction to what he considered the disrespect of his people by others. The momentum of this unbridled pride was later pushed into pure political arena by Chief Christian Chukwuma (C.C.) Onoh, Aninaefungwu, the Okaaomee of Ngwo, former governor of Anambra State (now Enugu, Anambra and partly Ebonyi states). C. C. Onoh, whose father Chief Gabriel Onoh worked for Onyeama and whose wife is of the Onyeama kindred in Eke, is the father-in-law of the leader of the heroic Biafra revolution, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu.

The legacy of Onyeama lives on in and around Enugu, so much so that Eke is as Catholic as Rome, with the exception of the Islamic Center introduced by his son Suleiman – the most prominent Igbo Muslim. Onyeama brought a sense of oneness to Agbaja people, despite the acrimony precipitated by his tyranny. To Waawa people, he instilled a profound pride in their cultural and historical heritage. He took whatever he could from the European colonists to better the life of his people.

Onyeama bequeathed on Ndiigbo a political capital, the Coal City of Enugu, where everyone should and must live and thrive, free from ugly hands of distant and divisive lords. Without his intervention, Enugu could never have developed so rapidly into a multicultural metropolis. To Nigeria and the world, King Onyeama left indelible marks that are beyond the scope of this short profile.

And he was just in his 50s!

For more on Onyeama, please read:

Chief Onyeama: The Story of an African God; A Biography by Dillibe Onyeama (Delta Publications, Nigeria, Limited, Enugu, Nigeria, 1982)

A History of the Igbo People by Elizabeth Isichei (Macmillan Press, 1976)

* Oral traditional history is also a good source of stories about this legend: many of those who lived during his reign are still alive!

First published in KWENU, Spring 1999