From Felix Ikem, Nsukka
Prof Damian Opata, Emeritus Professor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), has said that the Igbo Landing of May 1803 at Dunbar Creek in the United States of America was a heroic affirmation of will over submission to slavery.
Opata said this in Nsukka on Thursday in a lead paper presentation during an International Conference to commemorate the 220th year of Igbo landing with the theme: “The Legacy of Research and Resilience in the Fight for Black Liberation: the concept of Healing and Restitution.”
He said that it was “ariri” (a state of hopelessness and helplessness) that led the 75 enslaved Igbos to drown themselves as they walked into the sea in a mass suicide at Dunbar Creek in Georgia, rather than submitting to slavery.
“The Igbo Landing is a once and for all event, not repeatable, not for emulation, it is irreversible and tragic, but a heroic affirmation of will over submission to slavery.
“Yes, suicide is conventionally an abomination in Igbo cosmology, but that cosmology never anticipated anything like the banality of the transatlantic slave trade,” he said.
Speaking further, the professor of English and Literary Studies said “Among the Igbos, “ariri” is a state of both hopelessness and helplessness in which a person facing a critical choice has no choice but a total surrender to circumstances facing him or her.
“It is a situation that leads to ‘onwu ariri’, which in turn presents death by suicide as a better option than living submitting to slavery.
“This is what led the 75 enslave Igbos to commit suicide rather than live a death-like condition,” he said.
Earlier in a Keynote speech titled “Historicizing the Essence of the Igbo in Africa and the Atlantic Diaspora, Prof. Chima Korieh of the Institute of African Studies, UNN said that Igbo was able to respond to slavery because of their culture, and republican nature.
“The Igbos were able to respond to the servitude because the republican nature of Igbo society and autonomy was quite a contrast to slavery where you have no freedom, no independence, and no self-determination,” he said.
In a remark, Dr. Ikechukwu Erojikwe, the convener of the conference and a lecturer in the Department of Theatre and Film Studies, UNN said that the conference was organized by Pentagram Pictures Media and Research Group UNN, in collaboration with Center for Memories, Enugu and African Studies Center, Michigan State University.
He thanked UNN management, the conference’s international collaborators, resource persons, and participants for their support and dedication to the success of the conference.
The convener noted that the Igbo landing is a project he was very passionate about given that it is the first black civil rights movement in human history, hence the need for the conference and documentation of the story of the heroic deeds of Igbo forebears 220 years ago.
He recalled that Igbo Landing was the first black civil rights movement in human history. When in 1803, 75 Igbos were captured by slave raiders in the Otuoch/Aguilera area of Anambra State, through the Omambala River to Calabar, and then to the United States of America. At Dunbar Creek in Georgia, the Igbo captive said no to slavery and walked into the sea in mass suicide.
The occasion which was chaired by Prof Uzodinma Nwala, President, Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF) had Prof. Uche Azikiwe, the wife of the first president of Nigeria, Nnamdi Azikiwe in attendance. While Prof. Nkuzi Nnam, Director of the Center for Igbo Studies, Dominican University, USA was among those that participated in the conference virtually.