HISTORY OF EZEAGU

OFO (SACRED SYMBOL OF TRUTH, PIETY, POWER, AND AUTHORITY)   The Ofo holy stick is from a tree known as DETARIUM ELASTICA, the material and mystical symbol of truth, purity, justice and authority. It was introduced by Igbo forbearers as a symbol of the spirituality of the Igbo nation; and as a mark of sincerity and truthfulness, hence not everybody held the Ofo in the olden days. From immemorial, Igbo people had a close relationship with the God head, the Supreme God, Chukwu Abiama. Each Igbo group had a symbol that connects them with the spirit of their ancestors and with the God head. That is the Ofo. Ofo, the holy stick, an insignia for truthfulness, justice and sincerity is always in the custody of the eldest person in a clan during adjudication to demonstrate that the bearer would not thwart justice. It was the exclusive right of the oldest person in the clan or community; thus people across Igbo communities accepted the judgment from an Ofo bearer as the truth and ...

                        AFA IN IGBO                      (IFA IN YORUBA) An extract from the book ‘Oghe Peoples and Culture’: By Chief (Hon) Ndu Oliver Kanayo (Ezedinaobi). The Afa, (Igbo) and Ifa (Yoruba) divination system is a set of divination acts of seeking after knowledge of the future or hidden things by a Dibia (Igbo) and Babalawo (Yoruba) to create and make use of set of rules to communicate with the gods so as to solve people's problems. Afa in Igboland, and particularly in Oghe is a system of enquiry into the land of the unknown; of looking into the future to see which seed will grow and which will not. Through ‘igba-afa’, the Dibia could find out the solution to man’s problems, and find out the root cause of an action or an undesirable situation. In Igboland, and Oghe in particular, the dibia mediate between the people and the gods, and therefore are consulted i...