Tag: biafra

Imu ahia/ (Ímù Ólú/Oru) – The Igbo Apprenticeship System

By okwuid on 19 February, 2020 • ( Leave a comment )

Imu Ahia /Ímù Ólú/Oru

How the Igbo Apprenticeship helped heal the wounds of Biafra.

In 1967 Nigeria declared war on the secessionist state of Biafra (formally Eastern Nigeria predominantly of the Igbo ethnic group, alongside many of their neighbours like the Ibibio, Efik and Ekoi).

What followed was one of Africa’s most brutal and genocidal conflicts where an estimated 1-3 million Biafrans died.

The carnage of the Biafran war left Igbo people socially and economically devastated whilst simultaneously fueling ethnic tensions which still plague Nigeria till this day.

Despite these major setbacks if you visit Nigeria today Igbo people are the economic heartbeat of Nigeria and are a visible (often dominating) presence in every major trading hub in Nigeria.

But how have Igbo people recovered from the devastation of Biafra in order to impose such an economic presence in modern Nigeria?

One of the answers is… Imu Ahia (The Igbo Apprenticeship system).

Imu Ahia

The Igbo apprenticeship system is a practice where an established Igbo businessman (occasionally women) foster a young person (often from a less privileged family) in order to train and rear them in the practical and economic elements of their trade.

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5 INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE BIAFRA-NIGERIA WAR

By okwuid on 9 June, 2019 • ( Leave a comment )

5 THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT THE BIAFRA-NIGERIA WAR

60s Rock-Legend Jimi Hendrix at the height of his career in 1968 performed at a Biafra war benefit show in Manhattan along with 60s folk singer Joan Baez. Both artists performed free of charge in order to raise money for refugees of the Biafra-Nigeria Civil war. Photo Joan Baez and Jimi Hendrix chat between acts at a Biafran Relief Benefit. https://www.theguardian.com

The Biafran side largely engineered and manufactured their own weaponry. They received only non-political Joint Church Aid assistance. Nigeria, on the other hand was aided by both Russia (then the Soviet Union), and the North-Atlantic Alliance (particularly Nigeria’s former colonial master, Britain)—as well as by much of Muslim North Africa, with Egyptian pilots flying Russian-made MIGs against the breakaway enclave which had no air force of its own.
https://www.jstor.org/

During the war between 500,000 3,000,000 refugees fled the county.

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Where to Learn Igbo, Twi, Yoruba and Swahili In London

By okwuid on 12 February, 2019 • ( Leave a comment )

WHERE TO LEARN AFRICAN LANGUAGES IN LONDON
It’s often said that “Language is the road map of a culture”.
When you learn a language, you learn the essence of a people. Tonal languages in particular (which many African languages are) require you to have a nuanced and astute approach to receiving and sharing sounds.

As the world continues to globalise, in the coming decades many of the over 6000 languages currently spoken will be rendered extinct. As a language enthusiast and a lover of cultures I find this terrifying. Language is not only a person’s tool to communicate, it’s the code to a long history of a people’s experiences, emotions and understandings, which holds in it an abundance of knowledge and a unique interpretation of the world.

With that said, below is a short directory of establishments that offer different African language courses in London.