A Repudiation Of Wikipedia's Misleading Conjectures On The Anglicization Of The Name "igbuzo"

A repudiation of Wikipedia's misleading conjectures on the Anglicization of the name "Igbuzo"

"After the Nigerian–Biafran War, Igboland was devastated. Many hospitals, schools, and homes had been completely destroyed in the war. In addition to the loss of their savings, many Igbo people found themselves discriminated against by other ethnic groups and the new non-Igbo federal government. Some Igbo subgroups, such as the Ikwerre, started disassociating themselves with the larger Igbo population after the war.The post-war era saw the changing of names of both people and places to non-Igbo sounding words such as the changing of the name of the town of Igbuzo to the Anglicized Ibusa.

The above quotation extracted from the "Igbo People" topic of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia is very unfortunate for it has sympathetically, viciously and inhumanly tinted the proud and happy people of Ibusa as traitors who disassociated and disinherited their larger Igbo race for the reasons supposedly highlighted above and even extended to a change in name(s). It is very improper and untoward that arm-chair scholars who do not have any understanding of true events in the town would sit down in oversea countries and try to invent stories to fill in their empty imaginations. I am particularly worried that that the above quotation properly orchestrated to make the Ibusa people appear as betrayers could be visited on group of people often enforced with "Igboness" by the same people.

It is poignant and worrisome because in the first place, the above clearly buttresses that the crafters of the non-existent situation intend to achieve the unexpected. First, it is viewing the community of Ibusa as an Igbo town avoiding its ancestral heritage by changing the names of both people and the town as a whole. Second, the creators of the situation do not appreciate the roles played by the Ibusa and indeed the entire Anioma people during the Nigerian Civil War. And all together, the supposed "wikipedians" fail to realize that a rolling stone gathers no mud. Times are fast changing, cultures and traditions are no exceptions. In all the unapt and fallacious statement tells us that some people are more Igbo than the others, the real fear of the Ibusa people. It is dangerous when such allegations are leveled on a community that has produced eminent professors and great achievers in different fields.

The young and up-coming persons of the nativity of the community will surely ask questions which is why it is dangerous to showcase a statement like this to world. It is denigrating to allege what in the place never occurred. To set the record straight, I wish to disabuse the minds of all those who may have been misled by this injurious information cited on wikipedia that a change in the name of the town was never contemplated or concurred upon. There was never any event or set of events pointing to a period the people conferred to have the name of the community changed for whatever reason. Worse still, the change in the name of the town was gradual and never began after the civil war but before the Civil War.

The change of name was categorically effected by the British in the 19th century thus the reason for the use of the word "Anglicization" for the easy reference and pronunciation of the name by the early British traders and missionaries to the community located only a distance from the River Niger. The Ekumeku Wars championed by Ibusa against the British imperialism in the Anioma region was believed to have attracted the attention of the colonial power and in the end necessitated the change. How then could the people have decided to change the name of the community and people just because of loss of savings and discriminations from other ethnic groups as the group puts it? The change of name of the town came as a surprise to the people who did not know how the British came about this. This is the reason for lack of proper understanding of the actual period this occurred. The Ibusa by nature are serious and great warriors who committed abundant human materials to the Nigerian-Biafran War which ravaged the community consuming innumerable lives. The Ibusa people did not regret this except that this is passing unnoticed in the heart of the same Igbo.

For record purposes, the Ibusa people at one time or the other fiercely and intrepidly championed wars that are of necessity to defend their rights and those of others. The Nigerian Civil War may have only been part of it and indeed the last in recent times. Historians of Ibusa history are familiar with series of wars carried into other communities by the people or are it for nothing that the people are praised as "Isu Fulu Ogu Ju Nni" and "Isu Na Mba Ogu?

Now, it is apt to ask whether Anglicization of the names of communities was strange or even limited to Ibuzo. Available records show that Agbon was anglicized to "Agbor", Umuede (Umunede) Ahaba (Asaba) Issei-Uku (Issele-Uku) Ogwa-Nshi-Uku (Ogwashi-Uku) Alaa (Ilah) Okapam (Okpanam) Iduu or Bini (Benin or presently Edo) Ijon or Izon (Ijaw) Igara (Igala) Igbo (Ibo) Issei-Mkpitime (Issele-Mkpitime) Onicha-Mmili in Anambra State (Onitsha) all carried out by the British. Surprisingly, the Ibusa community has continued to preserve its name to "Igbuzo" so that the proper pronunciation of the word "Ibusa" has even over the time become Igbu-zo and not even Igbo-uzor.

It is noteworthy the whole lot of names the community was foisted on it by their neighbours and even the British and we have borne all of these names at one time other. The Asaba and Ogwashi-Uku of Anioma group nicknamed us "Ibuzo" in recognition of the early settlement of the community before others within present axis. It was the Igbo on the other side of the River Niger (Southeast) that christened the people "Igbo-Uzo" a name by which the town is known. And finally the British officially anglicized the name of the town as "Ibusa", a name that it is presently known.

It therefore amounts to an insulting error of opinion, lack of proper knowledge and historical fallacy to state that the people changed their names and that of the town to avoid discrimination from the other ethnic groups. Although, the early settlers undeniably have Nri and Isu ancestry which the community recognizes and appreciates, the town today belongs to the happy family of the Anioma group.