"Until the lions produce their own historians, the story of the hunt will glorify only the hunter ".This saying lamented by Chinua Achebe, a renowned Igbo writer of internal acclaim , leads the direction of this carefully researched book about the connections of the Igbo people and culture to their verifiable ancestors, the Jews.Godwin Akubue tackles the various areas that connect the Igbo people of Nigeria---customs, beliefs, genealogy, etymology, etc.---to their long lost brethren of the past following the Diaspora, which drove ten out of the twelve Israeli tribes out of the holy land.In an unbiased manner, Akubue lays out every piece of evidence culled from archaeological , oral, biblical and other published sources believing that the Igbo of Nigeria are descendants of the Jews. Cow without Tail, by Godwin Boswell Akubue, is a treatise building the case of the lost tribe of Israel on their longed-for Jewry recognition.
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Biography
Godwin Boswell Akubue was born in 1958 in Kano, Nigeria , West Africa to
Igbo native parents. Due to the exigencies of the Biafran Civil War in Nigeria
between 1967 and 1970 , he had to grow up in Onitsha and Nimo respectively , in
Anambra State . Happily married with four lovely kids , his two science degrees
and peer-reviewed published papers in Biochemistry Journals and exploits in
Clinical Laboratory Sciences seemed to have conspired to prepare him for an
International Award in 2000 . This award, a travel grant, was extended to Mr.
Akubue by American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) in Washington , DC
. Before becoming a U.S citizen in 2010 , Mr. Akubue had earlier received his
greencard and those of his dependent family members in the category of an
Immigrant of Exceptional Ability in the areas of Arts and sciences( Eb3 ) from
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in 2005 and 2006
respectively . Subsequent years saw Godwin working as a Clinical Laboratory
Scientist , Pharmacy Technician and a Science Substitute-Teacher largely in
California . His passion for creative writing and having served as high school
editor of Students' Magazine , The Ladder, which earned him UNICEF award and
then his effervescent skills in doing series of inspiring cultural essays in
most interactive online groups overseas in his adult life metamorphosed into
his first published book , Cow Without Tail (CWT) Book 1 ,in 2013 . This
incisive new book title which is based largely on archeological ,biblical and
oral sources chronicles the many parallels that exist between the Igbo tribe of
Nigeria and Jews of Israel and elsewhere . It is a book that appears poised to
go places with time . Mr. Akubue's new book is currently receiving great
reviews from Jews and Gentiles around the world .
Paperback: 308 pages
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing
Co, Inc (June 2, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1434915395
ISBN-13: 978-1434915399
Product Dimensions: 1 x 6 x 9
inches
To the blessed memory
of Ben Gurion of Igboland - Ikemba Nnewi
About the Author
Godwin Boswell Akubue is an educated man in several areas of science,
including chemistry, laboratory science, and medical science. Fifty-four now,
he lives in Ukiah, California, with his wife, Monica, and his four children,
namely, Augusta, Justice, Hope, and Promise. Being part of community
organizations and clubs does not deprive him time for his hobbies like
listening to folk music, doing adventures, playing chess, and of course,
writing. He has written several cultural essays in local and international
journals, and this one is specially made to help define a true Igbo identity in
Nigeria .
The entriot, “God drives away flies that bother a cow without tail,” is
like the booming sound of Ikoro, that large wooden gong at the center of the
village, that bekoned on the Ndi ichie and community at large to deliberate on
issues that matter. That gong that established democratic sedation in Igbo land
every nation practice now or claim to have founded. When the gong booms, the community listens to
hear what is it, that would be spoken! The Hummimgbird has knitted a
provocative nest best described as, "Okuko bere n'ngige..."for he,
himself would not cease to dance as the world awaits, "Cow Without Taill
II" as a night guard waits on the morning.
In this historic presentation, “Cow Without Tail,” a mammoth author is
born with a clear vision like the eagle and an outlined mission like the lion
in the heart of the jungle.
Until the lions produce their own historians, the
story of the hunt will glorify only the hunter.
This saying lamented by Albert Achebe, a renowned Igbo
writer, leads the direction of this carefully researched book about the
connections of the Igbo people and culture to their assumed ancestors, the
Jews.
Godwin Akubue tackles the various areas that connect
the Igbo people of Nigeria---customs, beliefs, genealogy, etymology, etc.---to
their long lost brethren of the past following the Diaspora, which drove ten
out of the twelve Israeli tribes out of the holy land.
In an unbiased manner, Akubue lays out every piece of
evidence culled out from books, publications, speeches, and works of other
people believing that the Igbo of Nigeria are descendants of the Jews.
Cow without Tail, by Godwin Boswell Akubue, is a
treatise building the case of the lost tribe of Israel on their longed-for
Jewry recognition.
Our way of life, however, is our way of life today. It
is the present that matters, though the present does have its roots in the past
and already points to the future. The culture we are talking of is our culture
of today loaded, of course and heavy with thousand of years of history,
experience and evolution as a people, but all the same our culture of today.
I
i
Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel. The Fates of Human Societies, New
York London: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. p.18.
Gratis:
When I was writing
my project, "The Significance and symbolism of Igbo in Igbo
Tradition," the first port of my inquiry/research was Nri, the ancestral
home of Igbo land. Igwe Onyeso, Eze Ndinri
CHAPTER ONE
NRI: THE MYTH OF
ORIGIN OF IGBO LAND
Myths are cultural reservoir of a people’s history in
the absence of writing tradition. Hence, they are veritable vehicle through
which the conveyance of unwritten history is made available to the grasp of
written history for documentary and reference sake. Hence, it is the special
creativity of myth that accords it a fundamental and yet a revelatory status in
understanding a community. Thus, “the history of a community’s experience is
determined by its mythology, that is to say, no community can disengage itself
from its myth nor can it by mere thought decide to invent another myth”.1
1 Onyesoh O. C., Nri the Cradle of Igbo
Culture and Civilization, Onitsha: Tabansi Press Limited, 2000, p. 28.
Myth encompasses the theory
of the traditional and ancient society, as well as a hypothesis concerning its
origin and the motives of its cultural forms. It reconstructs what is
historical into that which is notable. Moreover, of all the various views about
myths, it is workable in this context to accept that it (myth) is a highly
subjective account of objective events. “Myth in this view is cultural
tradition, a repository of ancient history or science”2 in which human self is relied upon as model
(Protagoras). Consequently, the origin of Ndiigbo as a people is subjugated to
a peculiar mythology which centered on Nri kingdom and hegemony – the centre of
Igbo culture.
2 Abraham, W.E. Sources of African
Identity, in Alwin Diemer (ed.) Africa and the Problem of its Identity,
Peter Lang Frankfurt, 1985. p. 21
The Igbo culture is linked with a remarkable similarity
with that of ancient Hebrew. Some scholars establish a common origin and argue
that the Igbo migrated from Israel.
The Nri people are the descendants of the
Levites/Kohanim…. Igbo studies can fill in all the gaps in the history of
Israel. In the Torah, Israel was asked not to molest the Levites when they
settled in any town/city in Israel. Nri men settled in most Igbo clans and,
custom was that they must not be molested. From the Levites, the priests were
drawn in ancient Israel. In Igbo land, if one committed suicide by hanging, as
the Bible stipulated, he had committed an abomination, as far as the Igbo were
concerned. Only Nri men could purify the land which he had desecrated.4
4 Ilona R., The Renewal of Israelite
Identify Among the Igbo People of West Africa. Summer, 2005 Series http://www.moreshetnet.com
It is the creation of this awareness
therefore, that this book "Cow without Tail" is set to do according
to the author.
Albert
Chinualumogu Achebe deeply lamented this needless waiting game in the following words: “Until the lions
produce its own historians, the story of the hunt will glorify only the hunter”.
Another writer of renown,Gikanki , while reviewing,'Things Fall Apart', suggests
it is a classic masterpiece that
actually “responds in the imaginary to the problems of genealogy and
cultural identity that have haunted Igbo culture” for far too long .
Unfortunately, no one seems to know how much longer some doubting Ndigbo may have
to wait on the wings of this whirlwind for a mysterious hummingbird
to drop a miracle storybook on
their laps with an impeccable account of
their genealogy! It is a dilemma that partly
explains why, beside Biafra ( a name said to have been derived
from a combination of the ancient Kingdom of Nubia and Jacob's grandson
, Efraim) , only very little seems to be known about the ancestral roots of Ndigbo.
And even the civil war stories of
Biafra's survivalist struggles
merely constitute only a tip off
this iceberg .
The response of Ambassador Noam Katz, an Israeli Envoy in Nigeria (Sun
News, Abuja, 2014) is a direct confirmation of the veracity/ authenticity of
the claims of this book. He said and I quote, “I am sure, Igbo are descendants
of the Jews. We have some traditions, culture and strong bonds that link us to
the Igbo people. It has been proved that theres unique bonds are helping in
creating ties between us”.
Igbo ancestors on their own part have also ensured that they left behind
long trails of cultural clues and
traditional hints on both parchments of Nshibidi scripts and some of their
cultural practices that criss-cross various parts of Igboland which only a
handful of discerning minds could figure out or piece together .
Igbo people are
very religious and often invoke the name
of God of Abraham (Chukwu Abiama ) in virtually all aspects of their lives
especially their choices of personal
names (Chukwuemeka, Chukwuma , Ifeanyi
Chukwu, Nebolisa ....
Yakov , a Hebrew word for Jacob or Israel , is still found in Igboland
as name of a community called Yako . Same goes for Eri , name of 5th son of
Gad, who in turn, is the 7th son of Jacob. As a matter of verifiable fact,
Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State
is one of the many direct descendants of Eri having come from a long line of people that
still pride themselves to this day as
Umueri , descendants of Eri . Similarly, Abba (father in Hebrew) refers to name
of communities in Igboland especially , Anambra and Imo States respectively .
The sprinkling of Passover blood
of sacrificial animals at the corners of family altars as was the
practice in olden or ancient biblical times is still commmon practice among in
the Igbo version of Judaism ( Omenani )
at their family tents of meeting
or bethels better known as Obu or Obi .
Also, the priestly tribe of Levi is known in Igboland as Umunri Clan to this day and
they still peform priestly duties as was
the case in ancient Israel . The wooden symbol of Ikenga which is still with
the Igbo tribe of Nigeria aptly captures the victorious King David holding the
sword retrieved from an uncircumcised Philistine Giant (Goliath ) on his right
hand ( the hand of righteousness - Aka Ikenga) and the chopped head of Goliath on his
left hand. The mandatory circumcision of
Igbo males at birth on the 8th day
(Ibeugwu) by native Mohels remains a practice handed down to them from
ancient times . How about the echo of
'Yah' (short for Yahweh) commonly
heard at Igbo public gatherings ? Or better still, what about the biblical Feast of Firstfruits (Iwaji) and the
pervasive Hebraic symbolisms of seven (7) , three(3) ,palm trees and
carved faces of the Lion of Judah that adorn
royal palaces of Igbo traditional rulers
to this day ? We can read a lot more about the rest of other exciting
clues including the Igbo Ukwu finds on
the pages of this book .
No wonder then each time typical or knowledgeable Igbo elders sit
together to re-tell the story of
their lost golden era as a people
whose “...origins are from old
or the ancient times...” (
Nahum 2 :1) , some of the quick checklist of words or their variants that
frequently pop up in their conversations are as follows :
* Ndi Mbu - first
generation
*Ndigboo (Ndigbo, for short) - ancient people
*Mgbe gboo - ancient times
*Mgbe Ezi di n'ukwu ukwa - good old days
*Mgbe enu bu ana ợsa - good old days
*Mgbe Ochie – ancient times
*Nna Ochie – ancient father
*Nne Ochie - ancient
mother.....
The claim of being of ancient origin , the first , the head of even
the human race is
reflected in their native dialectical spellings, pronunciations and
meanings of 'Isi, Ishi ' as
found in Nsibidi ,Nshibiri, Ishibiri, Isimbido, Isimbu ,Isiala, Ihiala,
et cetra , all ofwhich refer largely to the head , source , first or origin
. By the way, 1 Chronicles 4:42 tells us that Ishi happens to be one of the heads of
the families of Manasseh , presumed ancestor of present-day Amanshi clan of Igbo land. This is why
it is no longer a big surprise that the word, Genesis, when taken literally in Igbo language simply means the same thing as Ga nisisi , Je nishishi - “go
back to the origin ”. Igbo names such as
Ndubisi , Isimbu, Isiguzoro , Isiadinso,
Isiala , Isikala and so many other
variants of the above terminologies are all suggestive of headship , just as in Jehovah Nisi ( God-head in Hebrew ) .
The truth is that wherever Igbo people go, they go with
their culture and traditions. For
instance, The annual Feast of Firstfruits ( known as Iwaji ) is
celebrated both in Nigeria and wherever Igbo people are found .
“Israel came
out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from apeople of foreign tongue (Psalm 114)... and ... in
the midst of many peoples like dew from the Most High” (Nahum 5 : 7 ) . it remains to be seen if the
remnant of Nsude pyramids or mounds do
not point present generation of Ndigbo to the influence of Egypt on their culture through their
forefathers , then the ancient priestly burial chambers of Igbo-Ukwu
probablywill . And if the account of Prophet Ezekiel 48:28 does not Igbo people
about Gad , atleast it does show them or
this reader the following biblical passage : "And adjoining the
territory of Gad to the south ,the boundary shall run from Tamar to the waters
of Meribath-Ka'desh , thence along the brook of Egypt to the Great Sea
." In actuality, it is this
past intercourse with ' peoples of foreign tongues 'during those slavery years as captive Jews in the land of
Egypt (Goshen, Kermet) that seem to be driving the insistence of
surviving Igbo ancestors and cultural revivalists today on return to the golden era of cultural purity (Mgbe enu bu ana ọsa, Mgbe ezi di na n'ukwu ukwa ) . It would
seem as though Prophet Jeremiah had Igbo
in mind when he asked : “O remnant on
the plain, how long will you cut
yourselves ?” (Jeremiah 47 :6).
The
foregoing thread of insistence and claim of the Igbo of the headship of
people of the ancient is still
driving to this day their theory
that present Hebrews are actually descendants of Igbo ethnic group , Heeboes , and not
the other way round . But the likes of
Ambassador Noam Katz would argue that Igbo are
descendants of Jews . But the fact that
both cousins tend to agree on a
possible common thread of origin makes most of the reading materials factored
into this storybook a compelling read for all and sundry
The late part of Chapter 1
Once again, are Igbo really ancient Hebrews ?
Considering their culture ,rituals and
supportive archaeological findings in Igbo land , it is safe to claim
that perhaps, all these traits may have been
derived from the ancient religion and customs of Jews and the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel who
may have come to Nigeria as early as 9
A.D .
