THE IGBOS AND THEIR CLAIMS OF JEWISH ORIGIN

The Igbos and the JEWISH ORIGIN

Some Igbos has always claimed to be descendants of the present Jews.

The igbo tribe natively called ndi igbo are a meta ethnicity native to the present day south central and southeastern Nigeria and also Equatorial Guinea. Geographically the igbo homeland is divided into two unequal sections by the Niger River into an eastern and a western part, the igbo people are one of the largest ethnic group in Africa.

The igbo culture is synonymous with those of the Jews like the valuing of virginity before marriage. In the good old days an unmarried young lady prides her virginity as her best gift to her husband, a maiden not found a virgin on her wedding night is seen as a disgrace to her family while in the Jewish tradition, it is a taboo for an unmarried lady to be found not to be a virgin on her wedding night by her husband, the virginity of their maidens are valued such that the parents of the bride keeps the wrapper containing the blood stains from the broken hymen.

In terms of circumcision, both tribes value the circumcision of their male babies such that every male child till date is circumcised on the eighth day after birth. The child is circumcised as a traditional ritual. For the Jews as a commemoration of the covenant between Abraham and God since Abraham is their ancestral father.

The traditional burial ceremony of the Igbo bear resemblance to that of the Jews, our purification of abomination system called aru and ikpu aru bears close resemblance with that of the Jews hence the clamour that the Igbos were exiled Jews that left during the invasion of the northern kingdom of isreal around 8B.C

The Israelites has been marginalized and troubled since time immemorial and they have survived, from the captivity in Egypt to the Nazi’s massacre. The Igbos have enjoyed marginalization as a right and suppression and oppression as their heritage in the present day Nigeria and the genocide of 1967 cannot be easily forgotten

The umueri in igbo tribe claimed that they descended directly from Gad the seventh son of Jacob and that he was the ancestral father of Nri, Aguleri, Umuleri etc

But genetically there hasn’t been much evidence of close ties between the two tribes, even evolution teaches that the most primitive man originated from Africa and then migrated to the other part of the world and that we are the closest relative of our brothers the chimpanzee so it becomes kind of confusing because science has not lent it assertive voice on this ongoing arguments and claims that the igbos originated from the Isreali tribe.

Or do we call it a beautiful coincidence that two tribes practice the same thing unknown to each though with a little disparity or does it mean that the Igbos left after the confusion at the tower of babel or that there is an unsolved and unresolved mystery of the relationship between the Igbo tribe and the isrealites.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed and await scientific Judgments

BY AKUBUO CHIGAEMEZU