FAMOUS FAMILIES: Meet the many Onyeamas of Enugu

When a particular family has the record of producing the first Nigerian judge at the International Court of Justice, the first Igbo man to visit England as a free man (in 1924), the first Igbo medical doctor, the first Igbo man to bring Catholicism to Northern Igboland, the first Igbo man to bring Islam to Northern Igboland, and many other firsts, then that family is by no mean feat one to be reckoned with. 

This is the story of the Onyeama family of Eke in Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State. A slave dealer, a known tyrant who tolerated no opposition, the late Paramount Chief Onyeama, established the Onyeama dynasty, which reigned for about 23 years with all its good, bad, and ugly sides – a dynasty from where Nigeria’s current Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama comes.

According to “THE STORY OF AN AFRICAN ‘GOD’ – Life and Times of Paramount Chief Onyeama,” a concise biography written by one of his many grandchildren, the Eton College-trained novelist Dillibe Onyeama, the paramount chief was born in Amankwo Eke at a time when births in Nigeria were not recorded. His father’s name was Ozo-Omulu Onwusi – a polygamist with 10 children (six boys and four girls) and Onyeama was the youngest of the children.  The chief’s age when he died in 1933 had been put at between 50 and 60. Before Chief Onyeama’s visit to Britain in April 1924, one N.C. Duncan, a District Officer at Enugu and a personal friend of Onyeama, interviewed the chief on his background and family history, and from the information supplied, he recorded in Onyeama’s passport the year of birth as being 1874.

The infant Onyeama was about 7 when he was initiated into the masquerade cult – an act that helped in shaping the future paramount ruler of Eke Kingdom. The initiation ceremony involved a test of toughness, endurance and courage during which the initiate is expected to swallow in one fell swoop a big lump of pounded yam and take several strokes of the cane without blinking an eye. Onyeama suffered bereavement early in life because he lost his parents before attaining the age of 10. In order to save him from being sold into slavery as was the order of the day at the time, his half-brother, Amadiezoha, a known slave trader and his partner, Okolorie Nwamadingam introduced him to the slave business since they saw in him the dedication, hard-heartedness, smartness and sturdiness needed in the trade.

During Onyeama’s apprenticeship in the slave trade mainly dominated by the Aros, said to be the originators of the trade in the entire Igboland, he travelled to popular trade markets at Bende, Uburu, Uzoakoli, Arochukwu, Ohafia, Oguta, Abiriba and Ndizuogu. Having spent about six years in apprenticeship, Onyeama was left by Amadiezoha to slug it out alone since he had come of age, and he (Amadiezeoha) on account of old age, retired to less stressful demands of farm work. 

When the British abolitionist movement against slavery was having impact on the business, it never mattered to Onyeama since he had earlier combined the trade with other lucrative commerce in ivory, tobacco, ornaments, cream for women, mirror, gin, cotton and other items.

Trading on his own for about a year, Onyeama attained an enviable height in financial status, and before the colonial masters came to Eke in 1908, he had acquired sufficient wealth to mark him out as one of the richest natives. At the time, Onyeama had taken the Ozo title and gotten married to his first wife, Afia Nwirediagu. He took a second wife called Gwachi (who was later christened Josephine) in 1910. 

According to Novelist Dillibe Onyeama, “Well, the original Onyeama was my grandfather. I heard his father’s name was Onwusi, but those days, people retained their own individual identity. His descendants are now answering Onyeama. He was essentially a slave dealer in those days, travelling to the coast, selling slaves and general business. So he had early contact with the Europeans in the coastal region.

“When the British colonialists took over Nigeria, having been exposed by trade to the Europeans, he found it easy to reach out to them because a military incursion was in progress in Igboland,” Dillibe told Daily Trust in an interview.

When the young Onyeama learnt of the arrival of white soldiers in Eke in 1908, he unlike the rest of the Igbo people, persuaded his Eke natives not to put up any resistance to the white people since they possessed superior fire power. In the neighbouring Aniocha and Oghe, the stories were that the white soldiers never spared those that challenged them. Onyeama’s influence and wisdom saved the Eke natives from confronting the white soldiers and, inevitably paying dearly for it.

“Not only did Onyeama subsequently become a regular companion to the white visitors, but took it upon himself to be their welfare officer.  This receptiveness served to convey to the white visitors the impression of his status as some authorized representative of his people,” according to Dillibe, who added that “Onyeama became the most common black face in white assemblies, winning the confidence and trust of the future governors.”

With the introduction of the indirect rule system of government in Igboland, Onyeama was, therefore, appointed the Warrant Chief of Eke community 1910, and he did not waste time in asserting his totalitarian authority to rule over the Agbaja area. Soon, Onyeama set up the action wing of his secret service called Ogwumili, which comprised of about 20 able-bodied men who he used to instill fear in natives and forced them to pay taxes. The Ogwumili members were more like thugs and hangers-on who reportedly played the role of personal servants and tax collectors. Ogwumili literally means ‘one who is able to move in the rain and fish out the target once the order was given’. There were a series of allegations of crimes , including murders with impunity against the Ogwumili, but the British administrators  never treated such complaints with seriousness throughout the large area called Agbaja.

Again, author Dillibe provides further insight into the executive administration of Onyeama as a Warrant Chief who quickly turned a dictator of Adolf Hitler’s type. “He was a power monger; a ruthless one. And he deployed his power without looking back. He curried the favour of the white man and was able to establish peace in those areas where he held sway. So while other parts of Igboland were resisting the Europeans incursion, the fear of Onyeama kept people in quickness of service.

“There was no trouble in the area he ruled at all. That suited the British well. They kept him in power for 23 years and he used the power and placed emphasis on education. He was able to influence his entire subjects to go to school and to Church.

“In fact, it was he who brought the Catholics into power in Igboland. Eke was the centre of Catholicism in Igboland – extending to Ogoja; the whole of the area, through Onyeama’s influence. They gave him Ugwu Di Nso; his land there. He entrenched Catholicism in Enugu State. 

“He was a no-nonsense man; he didn’t want to hear that you are not doing your work; you are lazy. He used to be very, very punitive. And he used to apply corporal punishments if anybody played truancy. He kept his whole family in check and he was able to pay for the education of the first Igbo medical doctor. And after him, my father, Dadi Umahi Onyeama became a judge of the International Court.”

Alhaji Mohammed Abas Onyeama, a legal practitioner in Enugu, is one of the grand children of the paramount ruler. His father, Alhaji Sulieman Onyeama, was among the famous five sons of the native ruler. Mohammed told Daily Trust that the name Onyeama evokes feeling of greatness once it is mentioned, although he added that it could also inspire a feeling of dislike or fear to some others depending on one’s standing.

Mohammed said:  “My grandfather, the Okwuruoha of Agbaje was a great personality, an enigmatic colossus. He didn’t go to school, which is hard to believe for most people, but he had the highest respect and regard for education. Not many people who didn’t go to school appreciated education the way he did. And he trained a lot of people, his children and even people who were not his children, from other towns and villages. He made sure that they got sound education and he kept on hammering that as soon as you come out of school, you had to train other people. That was his greatest legacy.

“He accepted the Roman Catholic system because of their educational possibilities. As a matter  of fact, he was the one that brought Roman Catholic to Northern Igboland and spread it up to the Middle-Belt; because I recall that St Peter and Paul Parish in Eke was controlling up to Roman Catholic Church in Mada and elsewhere in the Middle-Belt. That is a very colossal achievement for a man of his character.

“As the traditional ruler of Wawa land in those days, people had mixed feelings about him. Some people say he didn’t do well; he was terrible. Some people say he was nice; he brought civilization. And I think that he actually brought civilization to Northern Igboland.

“The cession of the coal mine to the English men, the stories of that abound; if you read the literature, you see what happened on that occasion.   And he wasn’t doing those things because he was thinking personally or selfishly, the construction of the Milikin Hill Road, which he did singlehandedly; he was  not doing it because he alone was going to use the road. He was doing it because it opened the frontiers of his people to actually get exposed to civilization. And a host of other things that he actually did.”

Does the name Onyeama open doors for members of the family? Mohammed believes there is no reason it should not open doors, though depending on where the individual wants the doors to open.

“Well, yes, depending on whom you are dealing with, as I said earlier on. If you meet intellectuals, doors are opened with very high expectations. And some people, when you meet them, you meet frustration because they are thinking that somehow, may be one of Onyeama’s activities or actions has inhibited them; I don’t know how that would have been possible – but these are human feelings. Basically, the good, the bad and the ugly of it all will affect you, but generally, his children, too, actually had a lot of reasons to make the name open doors.

“Take Justice Dadi Onyeama, for instance. These children projected the name to the point where it should be able to open doors. Having risen up to the World Court, there is no reason why if you identified with him, you won’t have doors opening. Then my own father, Alhaji Suleiman Onyeama, just like their father who brought Roman Catholic faith, my father brought Islam to Northern Igboland. As a matter of fact, yes, he spread Islam up to the old East Central states, and he rose to become Vice President of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs for Eastern Zone. He was a member of the World Muslim League. To that extent, depending on whom you are talking to, for instance, you still have doors opening. But I also think that doors opening has a lot to do with individual disposition, and where you are actually looking for the doors to open.”

But Warrant Chief Onyeama’s style of ruthless and dictatorial administration appears to be hunting his children many decades after he passed on. Dillibe confided to our reporter that there is an anti-Onyeama feeling to the extent that there is a sort of government policy, especially by the Enugu State government, to completely exclude anything Onyeama from what it is doing.

Several times the federal government had tried to give appointments or national recognition in form of post-humous national honours to few of the Onyeama family members, but the attempts were scuttled by “those who feel they should decide the fate of Enugu State.”

In the booklet produced by the Enugu State government during the Centenary celebration of Enugu under the then Governor Sullivan Chime, the name Onyeama was never mentioned anywhere. “And it was deliberate,” remarked Dillibe sadly. “How can you ignore the name that produced the first Nigerian judge to be called to the International Court?” he asked. 

“And then when my brother Jeff Onyeama got a position through his friend – Chief of Staff, you saw the volcano it erupted. You saw the trouble everywhere, the infightings,” said Dillibe, who also added that when his father’s name, Justice Dadi Onyeama, was nominated for a national post-humous (CFR) honour, “the person who thought he had power over anything that happened in Enugu State at the time, after reading it, tore the list into shreds because it contained the name Onyeama.”

There has always been a rumour that Onyeama had 78 children but Dillibe said:  “I think it was more like 64 identified. He had many wives, 56 wives. It’s a big family; the biggest compound in Igbo land. And I was told that he was the first Igbo man to go to England as a free man; not as a slave.”

Could it be that people are still afraid of Onyeama or they want to visit the sin of the father on the coming generations? Dillibe replied: “Chief Onyeama wielded power and he destroyed many powerful people. He cracked so many heads. He sent many to jail, many of them. We have enemies. We have enemies all round.”

One of the regrets Mohammed has about the Onyeama saga is that “the war really caused a lot of confusion in the family. First of all, it made members of the family to turn to Europe and America. A lot of them went there. There are some of my uncles I’ve never set eyes on over a long period of time – who are in the United States or United Kingdom – and they have forgotten about this place; may be, they are scared about the system here. The family is suffering from such kind of negative tendencies.

“And then the next thing one may want to talk about is that in a densely polygamous family like that, with the sudden demise of the king, a lot of ugly things happened which we have accepted as civilized persons to forget about.  When the chief left, it was impossible for any single person to control the family as he did. So it introduced a lot of idiosyncrasies.”