11/06/2023
The Igbos are uniquely recognized for maintaining defined patrilineal kinship. Other peoples form their social units based on residence in a state or district, or existence under one king. That gives them scattered bloodlines and the tendency to normalize in**st marriages. Many of such people do not have any particular name in their language for their social unit. But the Igbos have a name for theirs: ụmụnna.
There is nothing wrong about those other peoples. Different strokes for different folks. But there is something special about the Igbos having an ụmụnna:
1. With ụmụnna, blood relationship is clearly defined and in**st is a taboo with natural consequences.
2. With ụmụnna, an individual is hardly deserted. Even if you fail as a person, or your parents and family fail, there are still people who are naturally obliged to look after you.
3. With ụmụnna, there is no need to run to outside authorities like the police to settle problems with your relatives. Active ụmụnna actually place a law against this. And one ụmụnna can mediate with another ụmụnna over issues joining two individuals or families of different ụmụnna.
4. With ụmụnna, you clearly know where charity should begin. Ụmụnna is home.
5. Ụmụnna sets the rules of living. They have sanctions such as compulsory apology, mandated instruction, community labour, fine, cajoling and ostracism.
There is an important implication from all this. If your ụmụnna has failed, sorry, you have lost your root. A bad ụmụnna is more dangerous than a cobra. You will never get justice in a town where the ụmụnna is led by bribe takers. A failed ụmụnna will so certainly have a lot of young people with poor values, who deal in crime and social vices and those who make money through evil means.
Strong signs of a failed ụmụnna include the following:
1. The individual's desperate recourse to ụmụnne and ikwunne.
2. The tendency of individuals not visiting their hometown in many years.
3. Whenever one person wins a case against an ụmụnna, look closely, that ụmụnna is gone.
If your ụmụnna is strong, you will never fail. A meeting can be called, inviting all home and abroad based offsprings, just to discuss why Okeeke has not succeeded after ten years of living in Lagos or Kano. With a strong ụmụnna, there is hardly a wretched individual; scholarship to the university is as normal as eating breakfast. These are actually a way of ensuring the cycle of help, because the beneficiary today is an obliged benefactor tomorrow.
Nwannem, build your ụmụnna. Help yourself and your children after your life. Ofu osisi adị eme ọhịa.
Igbo History, Arts, Culture and Unification.