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| Anayo Nwosu |
Unknown to many Nnewi people, it
was not Mary Slessor that stopped
killing of twins in Nnewi. We had a way around that wicked tradition. As early
as 1700s, Nnewi people had started questioning the propriety of throwing away
twins or babies of multiple births. Some families had perfected plans they used
to rig the awful tradition even before the very date the ancestors amended the
tradition through the intervention of the whiteman.
A typical case of not adhering to
the tradition of dumping of newly born twins happened right in the house of Obi
Udude (also known as Eze Ọnọọlụ) when his first son, Ezeagha was on the throne.
Udude succeeded Nnọfọ who succeeded Otolo the son of Digbo who succeeded
Nnewi. Ezeagha was the first Ọnụọra or
field marshal of Nnewi even as he doubled as the town’s traditional ruler.
The wife of Ezenwa, Obi Ezeagha’s
younger brother named Uduji, nwaọkpụ or native of Eziabụbọ Nnewichi, was due to
deliver after months of troublesome pregnancy. The size of her stomach worried
Ezenwa, her husband and the younger brother of Ezeagha, the Obi Otolo and
Nnewi. It was not her first pregnancy but her stomach was more protruding than
her previous pregnancies. This made everyone to suspect that Madam Uduji's
current pregnancy would yield more than one baby. Everyone was apprehensive
even as the thought of multiple births was a nightmare.
Madam Uduji, a very rich trader,
would not take any chances. She had a contingency plan. She would never accept
carrying a pregnancy for nine months and go empty handed. So, she chose her
trusted friend as midwife and ensured that women with salty tongues were not
near her delivery place. At that time, only women were allowed at a delivery
place which was usually a makeshift spot condoned off with wrappers. Not every
woman could deliver a pregnant woman. There were some skilled women that
undertook such tasks for a fee. This trait, like native medicine, was
transferred from mother to daughter or was learnt via apprenticeship. Just
after when the chicken had gone home to roost or as suspected, Madam Uduji was
delivered of two baby boys.
"Keep this one and take the
frail one to the evil forest; at agreed spot", Uduji directed her
accomplice matrons or "ndị na ana nwa" even at the pangs of pains.
And they took one of the boys to the ajọ ọfịa or evil forest with strict
instructions to cover him well. And a message was sent to the menfolk that
Uduji had been delivered of a male child and nothing more. But, Uduji's
husband, Ezenwa was in the loop. By nothing other than providence, the preferred
baby died a day after. And the "discarded" was brought back as a
replacement for the dead baby that got a secret burial. He was named Ifeluonye.
It was a palace secret to date and
ofeke like me is revealing it to the world. But the frail looking twin baby
grew into a lovely and hardworking boy. He was very intelligent and
compassionate, so loved by his uncle, Obi Ezeagha that he took him as his own
son and taught him fighting or war-waging skills. It then happened that when
one renegade warrior and a very deadly native doctor named Ezeakpọ who hailed
from Ezeikwuabo, inflicted the biological sons of Ezeagha with a condition that
made their father consider them unfit to succeed him, Ezeagha summoned the
elders and isi obis or first of the first sons of Nnewi and told them that
whenever he died that they should recognise Ifeluonye as the ruler or Obi of
Nnewi.
Only a ruler or an Obi in Nnewi
can anoint his successor who could be any of his sons or nephews otherwise, his
first son will naturally succeed his father as the Obi. It came to be that
Ifeluonye, that surviving twin, who later took the ọzọ title of Ezeoguine
(meaning a compassionate king or one), my father's great-great-great
grandfather was approved by the gods to mount the saddle of the Obi of Otolo
and ruler of Nnewi. Not only did Ezeoguine become the most successful Nnewi
ruler in history, he, too like his uncle Ezeagha, became an ọnụọra or a
military field marshal who expanded Nnewi’s boundaries beyond what he inherited
from Ezeagha.
So, about early 1700s, Ndị Nnewi
had seen through the Igbowide stupidity of killing or throwing twins into evil
forests hence many families took various measures to save their twin
children. At that time too, some
childless women roamed the evil forests in the town to scavenge for babies
dumped by not so smart families; this is the same thing some people do today at
motherless babies home.
By being smart, my matriarch,
Uduji from Abụbọ Nnewichi, ensured that my royal lineage and that of current
Igwe Kenneth Orizu came to be. Ezeoguine family that rules Otolo and Nnewi
today is because our mother, Uduji outsmarted an awful tradition.
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