THE FOUNDATION OF THEOSOPHISM IN IGBO LAND - Onyeji Nnaji

Copied from the Book, Reminiscence, by Oyeji Nnaji

“In a single day and night of misfortune, the Ireland of Atlantis disappeared into the Atlantic and was seen no more” (Plato 365 BC).

Legends wrote about the lost city and the disappearance of the first ever civilization the world had before the flood. This civilization overtook the entire glob, and was the first in the human history. Sumerian tablets maintain that the civilization had its take off point at the city of Eridu. Invariably, the theosophical structure was headed and overseen by Eri and Idu the overhead figures whose names gave birth to the coinage that stood for the civilization; Eridu. The Theosophism comprised the following:

(i) Eri (the theosophist).

          (ii) Idu (the custodian of nature law: a god-man from Umudiala; the                          kingmakers).

(iii) Dioka (a technocrat, artist, engraver and scribe from Awka).

(iv) Eze-Adama (the figure that stood for the created man).

The renowned anthropologist who carried out a research on the ancient Nri kingdom, Northrop, related that there was a figure which stood which stood tor Adama in the court of Eze Nri.  Plato and other legends lamented that the civilization was lost to the Atlantic Ocean. The beauty of this research work and its contribution towards the recovery of the culture of the lost civilization lied on the revelation which the reserved arts of this ancient civilization could bring to minds. This, of course, remains one of the unquantifiable contributions of Dioka, the body that bore art and literature as a part of the then society superstructure. These arts were found in the present day Igbo Ukwu land. One of these most survived of Dioka arts is the earth pot which revealed the shape of the world before scientific predictions. 

The view revealed via the earth pot is the fact that creation was sourced outside the earth. That is why the pot can be viewed from the outside, not the inside. It inferred another eternal imagery to the occasion that began creation. The Igbo spoke of creation as beginning from the anthill. To show this, the pot had to be neatly and carefully placed on a mound. Egypt and Israel hold to this same view in her mythology. They believed that God started the work of creation with a raised earth or mound. On this mound, God stood while He embarked on the business of creation. Israel celebrates this idea by raising mounds. We found on the pot an opening at the top, signifying the position of the connection between the earth and the sun. Igbo astronomical scientists maintained that there is a rope let down every day which connects the earth to the sola man. See detailed explanation of this idea in the Aspects of the Ancient African Metaphysics.   

The connection between the Igbo, Egypt and Israel in the manner revealed above clearly shows that they have a same source of history. It further highlights the lamentation of Ottenberg that,

considering the size and importance of the Igbo, very little research and publication has been undertaken on them, not only in history but in anthropology and other fields, compared to, say, the Yoruba or Ashanti  (p. 120).

It also appears that even when tentative attempts were made in the past to study the hegemonies of Igbo culture and historical origin, the resulting works were either tainted with typical western epistemic notions or straddle with betraying the usual lack of depth that characterizes ungrounded ethnographic accounts. As a result, we have incomplete history to present to the future generation.

Eridu art was further revealed in her system of writing. Ancient Igbo scholars hold to the view that the first form of writing was “Akala”, marks. Akala appeared in two main forms before the more complex ones. Simple Akala appeared as vertica lines and other in horizontal lines. They were written on ancient walls and rocks using various art colours as Ufie, Nzu, Odo, Uli and other art colours. Each line stroked on the wall or stone stood for a significant meaning. To some ancient scribes, the art colours were used for different forms of writing. In some cases, Akala were engraved on walls and rocks. Complex Akala hold different metaphysical valued and informed the expedience of Igbo geometrical shapes. The scribe of the ancient Eridu had shapes like triangle, quadrangle and others as parts of their writing. The different forms of Akala that survived to the present day are shown below.

Round about the earth pot shown in the previous page are seen different forms of Akala, both complex and simple ones as explained above. The pot shows another form designed in corrugated style to reflect the brilliance of serpents. The house above shows more other complex forms of the ancient writing marks. The walls were designed with art colours and Uli. Clear enough, Uli is seen on the body and face of the girls above. Akala became more interesting in the decay part of Eridu when it became picturesque. The development of picturesque Akala led to a change of the form of writing to the later system known as Nsibidi. Nsibidi remains the surviving legacy of Eridu civilization till the era of the colonial masters. Some of its pattern was borrowed to form cuneiform by the survivors of the Noah flood.

The short expressed by Gregory, when he witnessed a court procession in the eastern Nigeria with the court secretary documenting the proceedings, was a clear indication that he never believed inner Africa had a system of writing different from the hieroglyphics of the Egyptian civilization. Of course, in the book, Before the Pyramids, it was clear that the hieroglyphics which was the writing style of the ancient Egyptian civilization was derived from a system of writing which the civilizers brought with them. The system of writing, as the book could explain, was dully picturesque. “It should be older than Hieroglyphics”. The same writing was used to describe the origin of the first pyramid in Egypt (stepped pyramid in Saqqara), see pages 101-102.     

It requires a prim mind to understand Plato’s Timaeus and clearly identify the setting of Atlantis’ saga. It is for this reason that Sergio, in Legends of Atlantis, remarked that Plato, “in the Timeaus,” had written to show “how little he truly knew, not only of the history of his own people, but of the history of Egypt, and of the world.” Plato’s confusion started from with his involvement of the unnamed Egyptian priest whom Solon visited to learn Greek history. If the priest should have a better history of the Atlantians, then it is apparent that the history concerning the lost city of the sun was not part of the Greek history. Greece, of course, may be considered as remnants of the Atlantians because they descended from the generation of men that survived the flood in the Noah’s ark. Turning back to history, the matter became clearer as we can read in the succeeding paragraphs.

Plato's Timaeus relates the true story of how one Solon (638-559 BC), a famous “Athenian traveler, poet, and lawgiver”, in the district of Sais, near the Nile Delta in Lower Egypt. He had gone there as a cultural ambassador to converse with the leaders of the Egyptians about Greek history and culture, seeking to impress them with the accomplishments of the Greeks, as well as to gain similar knowledge from them about the history of Egypt, and of the world. One of the only two known dialogues of Plato that mention Atlantis is Timeaus and Criteas, these works comprise the only records of Atlantis handed down from antiquity. In his ensuring speech on Atlantis and ancient Athens, the priest was to rebuke Solon, and all of the Greeks, for having forgotten their own history, particularly the epic story of how valiant Athens had once defeated mighty Atlantis in ancient times and saved the world from slavery.

 To the Egyptians, the Greeks were relative newcomers to the world stage, Greece in any form having been in existence for only a few centuries by the time Solon visited Egypt (around 600 BC). Moreover, the Greek confederation was fairly unstable and subject to sudden change, a situation not conducive to the growth of such luxuries as philosophy and learning. Egypt, on the other hand, had by that time been in existence as a coherent political entity for roughly 2,500 years as reckoned from the uniting of Upper and Lower Egypt by Narmer, more commonly known as “King Scorpion,” and had only experienced three significant political upheavals during that whole time. The time includes:  

- The Old Kingdom (2700-2200 BC),

- The Middle Kingdom (2050-1786 BC), and

 - The New Kingdom (1560-1087 BC).

Now, it is apparent from the visit of Solon to Egypt that even the Greek has a little information about their own history. To be cleared, the Greek had to depend on the Egyptian priests. As was noted above, Greece was among the survivors of the great Atlantis because they belong to the bloodline of those who survived the Noah flood in the ark. It is even clearer from the analysis of Plato’s Timaeus that the city of Atlantis was inhabited by the gods and headed by one of the gods who served as their king.

And the god himself greatly beautified the island he had created in the middle to make it a dwelling suitable for a god. Because he was a god, he did this with little effort. He drew up two subterranean streams into springs. One gushed out in a warm fountain and the other in a cold fountain. And from the earth he produced all varieties of crops that were sufficient to his island (Plato Complete Work 1330).

Again, there is no aspect of the Greek history that insists that Athens had a deluge that destroyed the brave spatters civilization of the Greece Empire. The world all over, recorded one and only deluge which was at the time of Noah. And every history book that discussed issues connected to the deluge had always stated categorically that the human population were concentrated in the east (the place of the rising sun). Or was Plato suggesting that Greek civilization exceeded the Babylonia civilization? Such information is completely contrary to every historical claim. Such claim and many others compelled George G. M. James, to entitle his book, Stolen Legacy, for he argued that the Greek Philosophy was the stolen Egyptian Philosophy. Sergio supported this view in the following statement:

However, it was one deluge in particular that was an integral part of the story that was about to unfold, a destruction by water that was awesome in its scope and effect upon the ancient world. The story of the Great Flood, as it is commonly called, has been found in the literature of almost every major cultural tradition, and most minor ones. In the Bible, the Great Flood was said to have destroyed all land-based life on earth, save Noah and his family, and the animals that were saved on the ark. The story of the Great Flood is not just from the Bible. Variations of that ancient tradition can be found on every continent in one form or another. It was this Great Flood, which the priest referred to as “the great deluge”,  (Legend 2-3).

The lost city of the Sun remains one of the viable proofs Africa has to truly speak of their relationship. This is because, various civilization in Africa of the post deluge adopted different names for one and the same ancient civilization that was lost to the dust of time. Sharing in this consanguinity are the Benin, Yoruba and Egypt. The respective ancient cities refer to the lost city as Uhe, Ife and Heliopolis. Each addressed the city as the city of light. The name Eridu was given to the city by the survivors of the Noah flood. By this they did not address the city by its name rather the personalities who shouldered the responsibility of the Theosophism.

We have taken time to examine the situation of the flood and the causes of the destruction of the world of old in the succeeding sub-title in the later part of this chapter.