• 5,000 indigenes celebrate culture in Minnesota, USA
From Magnus Eze, Enugu
Series of activities stamping Igbo exploits in the United States of America are slated for this week. No fewer than 5,000 Igbo indigenes in Nigeria and the Diaspora, as well as friends and well wishers are expected to participate in the two-day Igbo cultural festival holding in Minnesota, United States, tomorrow and Friday.
Another grand fiesta comes up on Friday and Saturday at Igbo Landing, St. Simons Island, Georgia. The events are expected to provide opportunities to market the culture, food, language, music and other uniqueness of the Igbo who are predominantly in South East Nigeria but with significant and impressive spread and presence across Nigeria and beyond.
The Council of Igbo States in Americas (CISA) is focusing this year’s edition of its World Festival of Igbo Arts and Culture on “Igbo Landing: Memorialising Our Ancestors who Refused to be Enslaved.”
President General, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, is already in the US where he has been meeting with Americans of Igbo origin. He had on assumption of office in May declared his determination to ensure integration of thousands of Americans of Igbo descent who had expressed their desire to be part of the apex Igbo body.
Last week, one of the best computer wizards of global acclaim, the African American who developed the .com code for the internet emails, Dr. Emmitt McHenry, finally reconnected with his Igbo ancestry.
The Chairman/CEO, Defence Manufacturing, was inducted at an emotion laden ceremony at the Smithsonian Institute of African Museum in Washington DC, USA. It was organised by the Coordinating Chairman of Ohanaeze Ndigbo in the Diaspora, Chief Sam Obaji.
Iwuanyanwu presided the event, which also witnessed the induction of Gen. William Ward (rtd), first commander of the U.S. Africa Command in Stuttgart, Germany, in 2007.
About 400 years ago, thousands of Blacks were shipped out of the continent through slavery. Precisely, 220 years ago, 75 Igbo were captured by slave raiders in the Otuocha/Aguleri area of present-day Anambra State, ferried through the Omambala River to Calabar and then to the USA. At Dunbar Creek in Georgia, the Igbo captives said no to slavery and walked into the sea in mass suicide. Where that historic incident happened has come to be known as Igbo Landing. It was the first Black civil rights movement in human history.
Over the years, the black population in the USA and the Caribbean have grown into millions. Some of the African-Americans passed the information of their ethnic origin to their children before they passed on; and the strong message has transcended generations to the present day.
Information made available by the publicity unit of Ohanaeze, said the great-great-great-great grandfathers of McHenry passed the message of their Igbo origin to his father who in turn told him and his siblings.
Daily Sun learnt that the internet wizard has validated the epistle from the fore-fathers with a DNA test and his Igboness became most manifest and wholesome.
At the event, Iwuanyanwu emphasised with joy that the Igbo ingenuity, audacity, resilience and the unique capacity to turn adversities into diverse opportunities have remained irrepressible. He enthused that the exemplary adventurous and entrepreneurial spirit of the Igbo was making positive impacts in all parts of the globe.
He applauded the willingness of the inductees to key into the current visionary dynamic of Ohanaeze Ndigbo in its effort to attain a glorious and enviable pedestal through transformative and innovative policies and programmes in Igbo land.
For him, the inductees have made the Igbo proud. The PG then appointed McHenry, General Ward and Dr. Nwachukwu Anakwenze of Igbo World Assembly (IWA), as members of the Presidential Advisory Council of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide.
Adorned in the popular Igbo attire (Isiagu), McHenry and Ward could not withhold their joy for resolving an age-long poser as they received their certificates of Igbo ancestry from the Igbo leader.
Professor Kingsley Muoghalu who delivered the keynote address urged the Igbo to look inwards for economic development. The event featured masquerades and cultural dances.
