Omonigho: Child Versus Money In Esanland
(Interrogating The Past And Confronting The Present)
The gift of children is a secured future investment
that thieves cannot break in and steal, and moth cannot consume. Children are
the future of Esanland not money.
By Williams Ehizuwa Orukpe
Dept of History and International Studies University of Benin
Today, there is an apparent ideological shift in the
Esan world view of children from Omonigho to Ighonomo
as it were: a psychological recognition of the child that has made money as the
arguable Omono (real child). However, for a better grasp of this emerging
yet silent socio-cultural phenomenon in Esanland, an interrogation of Esan past
is germane to enable us to confront the present cankerous cultural
disorientation plaguing a people found 85km North-East of Benin City in
South-South Nigeria. In pre-colonial Esan, the centrality of children to the
political economy of the forest people informed their elevated philosophical
world view of children captured in Omonigho meaning “children are better
than money”. During the period, the family “egbele”
in Esan language was the key to the sustenance and continuity of the
thirty-five communities that make up Esan. Put simply, the family was the pivot
on which the entire existence and civilization of the Esan people revolved.
The family was the building block of communalism
in pre-colonial Esanland. Esan families during the period were close knit and
compact. The strong bond within the Esan family system dovetailed into their
communal life to produce strong communities. Hence, economic resources in
pre-colonial Esan such as land and other economic forest trees became communal
properties held in trust for the people by the Odionwele (oldest man)
at the family level and the Onojie (King) at the communal level.
Little wonder access to them, use and exploitation of the resources of Esan was
communally regulated for the benefit of all. In the circumstance, critical
factors of production such as land and labour essentially became family and
communal assets. The family supplied labour for farm work and communal projects
such as road construction; and manpower for the defence of the territorial
integrity of Esanland from external aggression and reproach. And children
(youths) were central to the sustenance and continuity of all of these.
Therefore, in pre-colonial Esan, children were
valued not only because of the joy having them as gifts from Jehovah brings;
but most importantly because of their political and socioeconomic relevance to
the continued survival of Esanland. They were the eyes of their parents and
elders and the walking stick with which they walk. They were the active force
of the Esan gerontocrats (ruling elders) of the Esan communities without whom
they were politically invalid. Understandably, it was the pre-colonial Esan
world view of children as Omonigho. And economically, this is
appropriately so because children are themselves the means through which money
is made in pre-colonial Esan. Consequently, before 1906, they were highly
revered and valued across Esanland.
The Fall of Benin in 1897 to the British paved
the way for Anglo-Esan military relations geared towards the conquest and
subjugation of the Esan people. When the dust of the war finally settled in
1906, Esanland stood conquered and a British territory effectively occupied and
integrated into the colonial administration as the Esan Division of Benin
Province.
In time, colonialism opened the door for Western civilization to
penetrate and filter into the region. With this is the consequent degradation
and displacement of Esan traditional world view of children. To the colonial
authorities, money and the economic development of the British metropolis were
more paramount than the people. Hence, the British valued the output of
colonialism (money) more than the input, the means of producing the money. Along
this line, the colonial authorities introduced new currencies into Esanland
(paper money and coins) and encouraged the pursuit of money through her
numerous economic policies such as taxation and the introduction and promotion
of cash crop cultivation in Esan. The cumulative effect of this development is
the disorientation of the Esan traditional orientation and world view of
children. It monetized the consciences and psychology of the peoples of Esan
than was the case under the Cowrie system in Esanland: where the child
continued to be prioritized over money.
Resultantly, the centrality of money above all
else in Esanland has fuelled massive rural-urban migration in search for money;
and the unending waves of illegal trans-border migration and human trafficking
of young Esans through the dangerous Libya and Morocco routes en-route Europe
despite its negative demographic and economic implications for Esanland. (Up to 150 feared dead as boats capsize off Libya)
Parents are also increasingly abdicating their
parental responsibilities towards their children and prioritizing money over
them by encouraging their exodus to Europe, and even sponsoring it in some
cases, because they obviously no longer subscribe to the Omonigho philosophy of the pre-colonial Esan socio-cultural
value system in the twenty-first century. Omonigho
in modern Esan has been reduced to a mere name with no cultural
significance and weight. For instance, an Esan man with lots of money easily
attracts honour and praise to himself and celebrated; while an average Esan
family blessed with but without money is looked down upon and converted into
the laughing stock of the society; and used as a warning example to others. The
Omonigho philosophy that
hitherto encourage large family size has today been clipped by family planning
aimed at the effective maximization of the family economy and encourage capital
formulation. More so, Omonigho
the ideological framework for communalism in pre-colonial Esan has been
permanently displaced in post-colonial Esanland by Western individualistic
style of living gaining ground in Nigeria and elsewhere.
Accordingly, things are fast falling apart in
Esanland socio-culturally speaking because the pivotal traditional
philosophical framework and value system such as Omonigho the centre holding marriage and family together in
Esan no longer and can no longer hold Esan societies together because of the
love of, and preference for money. Hence, we insist that for a complete
socio-cultural redemption of Esanland, the value placed on children in
pre-colonial Esan should be restored to its proper place in post-colonial Esan.
Granted money is needed for the purchase of essential products needed for
family sustenance and for the settlement of disputes; but it does equate a
child. Therefore, Esans by their thoughts and actions should guard against
allowing the love of money to technically and attitudinally replace Omonigho with Ighonomo. Because possessing
money in abundance without children begets misery and pain; while the gift of
children is a secured future investment that thieves cannot break in and steal,
and moth cannot consume.
Children are the future of Esanland not money. Hence,
Esans at home and in the diaspora must work in partnership to promote and
defend the interest of the Esan child by prioritizing them over money; and by
inculcating in them traditional Esan values that will reboot their
self-confidence, identity and dignity as human beings. This will create a new
generation of hardworking young Esans determined to stay away from social
deviant and anomie; and contribute positively to the development of Esanland
and Nigeria in general. And demonstrate beyond any reasonable doubt that ‘omo’ (children) is
indeed better than ‘igho’
(money) as the people above all else are both the means and ends of development
in any society.
Williams Ehizuwa Orukpe
Department of History and International Studies
University of Benin, Nigeria
williams.orukpe@uniben.edu
