THE MISSION OF THE NRI PEOPLE

"It is their first duty to accept anybody who walks into the Nri community seeking to have a new life. It does not matter if their former communities rejected them or if they willingly left their communities as long as those immigrants respect Nri laws. He said that the second duty Nri people owe to their environment is to actively spread the message of peace, tolerance, fair play, and non-violence as Agbala (God -- The Perfect Spirit) and Aja-Ana (Earth Goddess, Mother Earth) had shown them. He reminded them that the third duty of the Nri community to their environment is to prescribe and interpret moral laws according to Aja-Ana (the Earth Goddess) and to cleanse whoever had offended Aja-Ana..the fourth duty Nri owe to the earth is to continue to explore what it means to be a perfect human being and, therefore, a perfect society and then make those discoveries a reality in the world." P. 115-116. ^top

BELIEF IN THE SUN

"Nri people believed that the sun was the dwelling place of Anyanwu (The God of Light) and Agbala (The Holy Spirit). They believed Agbala to be the collective spirit of all holy beings (human and nonhuman). The Holy Spirit was the perfect agent of Chi-Ukwu or Chineke (the big God or the Creator God). The Holy Spirit chose its human and nonhuman agents only by their merit. It knew no politics. It transcended religion and culture and, of course, gender. It worked with the humble and the truthful. They believed Anyanwu, the Light, to be the symbol of human perfection that all must seek. Anyanwu was perfection and Agbala was entrusted to lead us there. Since both Anyanwu and Agbala dwelt in the sun, they worshipped the sun." P. 207 ^top

LEADERSHIP

"It had been said that Nri people did not think with their heads but with their hearts. And nowhere was that saying revealed more than in the way they described leadership. The male quarters, which was also the leadership center of the family, was referred to as the heart (obu or obi) of the compound. To Nri people, one used one's head to survive and one's heart to live a life of purpose and of service and fulfillment. The rest of the body did not serve the heart. Rather, the heart served the rest of the body with life-saving blood. It was the heart that recycled and cleansed any polluted blood and made it usable again. The heart understood how much blood was needed and where and when to send it. To Nri people, a leader must be ruled by the heart..To the Nri, a leader who could not feel with his heart was not worthy of leadership." P.103 ^top

YEAR COUNTING CEREMONY

"Igu Aro (the year-counting and -keeping ceremony) was one of the ties that bound Eze Nri [the king] and Igbo families and solidified his influence over their communities. Based on the official years recordings of Ezi Nri and his officials, Igbo people observed special days and communal events. In return, they sent representatives to pay tribute during the year-counting ceremony to show their loyalty and to receive blessings on behalf of their people. It was one of the rare services that Ezi Nri personally performed rather than one of his Ozo or Nze emissaries. It was one, if not the only, regular event at which he could speak directly to all Igbo people. He took this time to reflect on the end of the year or the century, as the case may be, and to count blessings from the past, to reaffirm the Igbo mission and philosophy, and to share his new vision or any spiritual messages he had received." P. 139 ^top

SCARIFICATION

"In a standard Nri scarification, the artist would carve the first line to run from the center of the forehead down to the center of the chin. They would then carve a second line to run across the face, from the right cheek to the left. The second line met the first at the center of the nose, making it a perfect cross. The second cross was drawn with one line running from the left side of the forehead down to the right side of the chin and another line running the opposite direction. This sequence and pattern was repeated until the pattern looked like the rays of the sun. Altogether it took sixteen straight lines, eight crosses, for a full-face scarification that mirrored the rays of the sun. It was their way of honoring the sun that they worshipped. But it was more than that. It was the face of service and another way of losing one's facial personality." P. 200-201 ^top

NICKNAMES

"In Igbo land, people's salutation names or nicknames, which they chose as adults, summed up their personal philosophies about life. They showed how life had affected them or what was important to them. Their regular first and last names were just names. At best, they reflected their parents' philosophy or thinking. But the salutation name was what an individual consciously chose as an adult. They could always change it if their thinking changed, though that rarely happened. So when Igbo men or women told another that they liked their salutation name, they didn't mean that they liked the sound of it, but that they liked their philosophy." P. 252 ^top

DEATH

"The burial, funeral, and mourning for the dead were very serious business in Nri and all of Igbo land, especially if the deceased was a well-established family man or woman. The funeral rites and official mourning for the dead lasted up to seven market weeks, twenty-eight days. Then family members and close relatives would try to ease themselves back into their regular routines." P. 12 ^top