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According to Elizabeth Isichei, “no Nigerian people resisted coĺonialism more tenaciously than the Igbo. The great Emirates of the north, once conquered, supported the Britìsh, with the minor exception of the Satiru rising.”
“The conquest of Igboland took over twenty years of constant military action,” she said.
Isichei further said that Ndigbo “fought with cap gůns, Dane gůns, or mātchets, and the occasional rìfle, and suffered from a chronic shortage of ammůnition. The British fought with rìfles and machine gŭns and unlimited supplies of ammŭnition.”
“What is astonishing” according to Isichei “is not that Igbo resistance was unsuccessful, BUT THAT THE IGBO, IN THE TEETH OF ALL THESE DIFFICULTIES, RESISTED AT ALL.”
That Igbo resistance is the origin of Britìsh hātred for Ndigbo that was handed over to their foot soldiers, which has endured till date.
Remember that the Britìsh g0vernment was known in all their colonies for the divide and rule or divide and c0nquer game? Or were you not taught that in your secondary school? No wonder they have removed history from our school curriculum.
The division you see today among Ndigbo at all levels was planted to weaken them so as to perpetually keep them down.
Check the whole of Nigeria; have you ever heard of “I no be Hausa,” “I no be Yoruba,” “I no be Fulani,” Tiv, etc., but “I no be Igbo” has become an anthem. If you are Igbo, use your brain.
Ref:
Elizabeth Isichei, A History of the Igbo people (London: Macmillan, 1977), 119 – 122.
