Meet the many Onyeamas of Enugu
When a particular family has the record of producing the first Nigerian judge at the International Court of Justice, the first Igbo man to visit England as a free man (in 1924), the first Igbo medical doctor, the first Igbo man to bring Catholicism to Northern Igboland, the first Igbo man to bring Islam to Northern Igboland, and many other firsts, then that family is by no mean feat one to be reckoned with.
This is the story of the Onyeama family of Eke in Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State. A slave dealer, a known tyrant who tolerated no opposition, the late Paramount Chief Onyeama, established the Onyeama dynasty, which reigned for about 23 years with all its good, bad, and ugly sides - a dynasty from where Nigeria’s current Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama comes.
According to “THE STORY OF AN AFRICAN ‘GOD’ - Life and Times of Paramount Chief Onyeama,” a concise biography written by one of his many grandchildren, the Eton College-trained novelist Dillibe Onyeama, the paramount chief was born in Amankwo Eke at a time when births in Nigeria were not recorded. His father’s name was Ozo-Omulu Onwusi - a polygamist with 10 children (six boys and four girls) and Onyeama was the youngest of the children. The chief’s age when he died in 1933 had been put at between 50 and 60. Before Chief Onyeama’s visit to Britain in April 1924, one N.C. Duncan, a District Officer at Enugu and a personal friend of Onyeama, interviewed the chief on his background and family history, and from the information supplied, he recorded in Onyeama’s passport the year of birth as being 1874.
The infant Onyeama was about 7 when he was initiated into the masquerade cult - an act that helped in shaping the future paramount ruler of Eke Kingdom. The initiation ceremony involved a test of toughness, endurance and courage during which the initiate is expected to swallow in one fell swoop a big lump of pounded yam and take several strokes of the cane without blinking an eye. Onyeama suffered bereavement early in life because he lost his parents before attaining the age of 10. In order to save him from being sold into slavery as was the order of the day at the time, his half-brother, Amadiezoha, a known slave trader and his partner, Okolorie Nwamadingam introduced him to the slave business since they saw in him the dedication, hard-heartedness, smartness and sturdiness needed in the trade.
During Onyeama’s apprenticeship in the slave trade mainly dominated by the Aros, said to be the originators of the trade in the entire Igboland, he travelled to popular trade markets at Bende, Uburu, Uzoakoli, Arochukwu, Ohafia, Oguta, Abiriba and Ndizuogu. Having spent about six years in apprenticeship, Onyeama was left by Amadiezoha to slug it out alone since he had come of age, and he (Amadiezeoha) on account of old age, retired to less stressful demands of farm work.
When the British abolitionist movement against slavery was having impact on the business, it never mattered to Onyeama since he had earlier combined the trade with other lucrative commerce in ivory, tobacco, ornaments, cream for women, mirror, gin, cotton and other items.
Trading on his own for about a year, Onyeama attained an enviable height in financial status, and before the colonial masters came to Eke in 1908, he had acquired sufficient wealth to mark him out as one of the richest natives. At the time, Onyeama had taken the Ozo title and gotten married to his first wife, Afia Nwirediagu. He took a second wife called Gwachi (who was later christened Josephine) in 1910.
According to Novelist Dillibe Onyeama, “Well, the original Onyeama was my grandfather. I heard his father’s name was Onwusi, but those days, people retained their own individual identity. His descendants are now answering Onyeama. He was essentially a slave dealer in those days, travelling to the coast, selling slaves and general business. So he had early contact with the Europeans in the coastal region.
“When the British colonialists took over Nigeria, having been exposed by trade to the Europeans, he found it easy to reach out to them because a military incursion was in progress in Igboland,” Dillibe told Daily Trust in an interview.
When the young Onyeama learnt of the arrival of white soldiers in Eke in 1908, he unlike the rest of the Igbo people, persuaded his Eke natives not to put up any resistance to the white people since they possessed superior fire power. In the neighbouring Aniocha and Oghe, the stories were that the white soldiers never spared those that challenged them. Onyeama’s influence and wisdom saved the Eke natives from confronting the white soldiers and, inevitably paying dearly for it.
“Not only did Onyeama subsequently become a regular companion to the white visitors, but took it upon himself to be their welfare officer. This receptiveness served to convey to the white visitors the impression of his status as some authorized representative of his people,” according to Dillibe, who added that “Onyeama became the most common black face in white assemblies, winning the confidence and trust of the future governors.”
With the introduction of the indirect rule system of government in Igboland, Onyeama was, therefore, appointed the Warrant Chief of Eke community 1910, and he did not waste timMe authority to rule over the Agbaja area. Soon, Onyeama set up the action wing of his secret service called Ogwumili, which comprised of about 20 able-bodied men who he used to instill fear in natives and forced them to pay taxes. The Ogwumili members were more like thugs and hangers-on who reportedly played the role of personal servants and tax collectors. Ogwumili literally means ‘one who is able to move in the rain and fish out the target once the order was given’. There were a series of allegations of crimes , including murders with impunity against the Ogwumili, but the British administrators never treated such