“There is a high level of migration to the North, and there are more Igbo Muslims in the North than in the entire South East
will suffer an existential struggle. He will be denied on many fronts. Many say no real Igbo man can be a Muslim. Meanwhile you will be struggling to tell them that you are Igbo. If you speak Igbo to them, they will tell you that you just learnt it, but that your father can’t be Igbo.” Life keeps getting more and more complex for the Igbo Muslim.
‘They say we are Hausa’
The Igbo Muslim has many rivers to cross. Iheakaram, who is also Chairman, Abia State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board explains, “Our people have the belief that if you are a Muslim Igbo man, you are seen to be Hausa. We are not too bothered about this, because it is the mindset. We are Muslims but we are seen as a different species, and that is the challenge. It is rare to go to any part of the East and find a Muslim civil servant of Igbo extraction. It is very difficult throughout the South East, and it is a very bad omen. We have no other place, no other home. If you go to the Western Region, you will see Muslims and Christians being employed. In the North the same thing applies, but here in the South East, it is a very big challenge.”
Incessant attacks
Quite a number of mosques have come under attack over a number of years. “The people of the South East feel Islam is a religion of a particular ethnic group or region. The religion got to the Northern part before reaching our part of the country. Our people see it as a Hausa religion. The main problems here in Orlu are the incessant attacks. If there is a little problem in the state, community or local government, the first target will be to go to the mosque and destroy it,” explains Naseer Akubuo at the Orlu Central Mosque.
‘You caused it’
Suleiman Ukandu, Commissioner for Lands, Survey and Urban Planning, Abia State, argues for wide ranging reforms among the Igbo Muslims, which revolve around culture and identity: “The only challenge we have here initially is that, maybe based on your character, people will see you as a Hausa man. You are the person that caused it, it’s seen in the way you present yourself. If I am a Muslim and I don’t allow my immediate community to understand me. I do not understand the language of my people, and I cannot teach you Islam, based on the language of my people, why will they not think you are a Hausa man. If you open the Qur’an, the Lord made it clear that he sends not a messenger, except with the language of his people. Igbo Muslims resemble the Hausa Muslims, and that is part of the challenge we are facing here.”
Object of ridicule
Arabic as a course of study becomes the basis for mockery, exclusion and profiling, just as Hausa is used to segregate and stigmatise. “Once when I was an undergraduate, I introduced myself as a student of Arabic language to a group made up largely of Igbo youths. Somebody began to laugh at me saying I want to specialise in begging. After graduation you will become a beggar,” says Dr Iliyasu Usman, a specialist in Arabic who lectures at the Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Nasarawa State.
“From that point I knew there was a serious problem. There is much discrimination against Igbo Muslims, both at home and abroad. We are not given our rights and we are seen as objects of ridicule in the East. When you meet your brothers, they say you are a traitor, and that you are supposed to be a Christian or a pagan. You left your indigenous religion to join Islam. They always look at us as traitors, rather than as brothers. Some of our brothers were killed in our communities during the civil war on the ground that they were Muslims. Many indigenous Muslims were killed. There are many Igbo Muslims who left the East to settle in the North.”
Igbo phobia
Igbo speaking Hausa may face a peculiar type of problem when they travel to the North. Isiaka Adamu is the Chief Imam, Ogara Central Mosque, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, and he is one of such. Adamu, who is of Hausa extraction, was born in Abakaliki.
His words: “When we go to our state in the North, they call us Igbo. They say we have come to the North with ‘Igbo sense’. Our people call us Igbo, and while resident here in the East, we are not given jobs by the local Igbo. In the North they say we behave like Igbo, and so they refer to us as Igbo. This is a big challenge for us. On the other hand when the Igbo see Igbo Muslims, they call them Hausa, which means that they don’t like Hausa.”
Emetumah: Muslim king in Imo
Though a Muslim king all the prayers uttered in his palace during ceremonies are done in the Christian fashion. He is the Grand Imam of Igbo land. Well-read and well-travelled, his knowledge of the bible is encyclopaedic. He draws easily from the Qur’an and global developments to back up his points. A visit to his palace is like being in the university all over again. There are several other Muslim kings in Imo State, Emetumah mentions.
“Even as a Muslim King, when I pray for Muslims I end it with the words ‘Through