By HILARY AKALUGWU

Prof. Damian Opata, Emeritus professor of the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), has said that the Igbo Landing of May 1803 at Dunbar Creek in the United States of America (USA) was a heroic affirmation of will over barbaric capitalism.

Opata said this in Nsukka on Thursday during an International Conference to commemorate the 220th year of Igbos landing in the USA, with the theme: “The Legacy of Research and Resilience in the Fight For Black Liberation: The concept of Healing and Restitution”.

He said that it was a state of hopelessness and helplessness that led the 75 enslaved Igbos to drown themselves as they walked into the sea in a mass suicide at Dunbar Creek in Georgia, rather than submit to slavery.

“The Igbo Landing is once-and-for-all event, not repeatable, not for emulation, it is irreversible and tragic, but a heroic affirmation of will over submission to slavery.

“Yes, suicide is conventionally an abomination in Igbo cosmology, but that cosmology never anticipated anything like the banality of the transatlantic slave trade,” he said.

Speaking further, the professor of English and Literary Studies, said that the 75 slaves faced a critical condition that made them resort to suicide.

“They saw suicide as a better option than living a life of slavery.

“This is what led the 75 enslaved Igbos to take their lives rather than live in servitude,” he said.

Speaking, Prof. Chima Korieh of the Institute of African Studies, UNN, said in a keynote speech, that Igbos were able to respond to slavery because of their culture and republican nature.

“The Igbos were able to resist servitude because of the republican nature of the Igbo society as well as its autonomy.

“That was quite a contrast to slavery where you have no freedom, no independence, and no self-determination,” he said.

In a remark, Dr. Ikechukwu Erojikwe, the convener of the conference and a lecturer in the Department of Theatre and Film Studies, UNN, said that the conference was organised by Pentagram Pictures Media and Research Group UNN, in collaboration with Centre for Memories, Enugu, and African Studies Centre, Michigan State University.

He thanked UNN management, the conference international collaborators, resource persons, and participants for their support and dedication to the success of the conference.

The convener noted that the Igbo landing was a project many Igbos were passionate about, given that it was the first black civil rights movement in human history.

“There is every need for the conference and documentation of the story of the heroic deeds of our forebears 220 years ago.”

He recalled that in 1803, 75 Igbos were captured by slave raiders in the Otuocha/Aguleri area of Anambra State, and through the Omambala River to Calabar, and then to the United States of America, but at Dunbar Creek in Georgia, the Igbo captives said no to slavery and walked into the sea in a mass suicide.

Prof Nkuzi Nnam, Director, Centre for Igbo Studies, Dominican University, USA, were among resource persons who joined the conference virtually.

NAN reports that the occasion was chaired by Prof Uzodinma Nwala, President, Alaigbo Development Foundation.

Prof. Uche Azikiwe, the wife of late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, the First President of Nigeria, was among dignitaries that attended the conference. (NAN)

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