Aguleri the pivot of Bani-Isra’al (The Igbos in Nigeria)

The origin of the lgbo is still a subject of controversy among scholars especially historians of Igbo history and so remains a vexed question among the latter. This is mainly so because the main stages of evolution of Igbo society and culture are yet to be explored. Moreover, the archaeological, ethnographic, linguistic and other data from which Igbo origin and history can be distilled are yet to be adequately collected, collated, analyzed and interpreted.
The Igbo have several traditions of origin. Some Igbo people claim they are autochthonous in the area of their present habitation and had occupied the land from the beginning of the world. Allied to this claim to autochthony is another claim by some Igbo, mainly from Igbo heartland area of NRI-AWKA-ORLU axes that their ancestors emerged from the ground and consequently took possession of the land of their present territory from time immemorial. Some Igbo scholars also believe that the possible origin of the lgbo would be traced to Benin or around the area of the Niger-Benue confluence in Nigeria.
However, there is a strong theory which claims that the Igbo have a tradition which traces their origin to the East in which the lgbo claim Egyptian or Isra’al descent, the latter particularly to one or more of the lost tribes of Isra’al, For instance, G. T. Basden, M. D. W. Jeffreys, Sir Herbert Richmond Palmer (The former Lieutenant Governor of the Northern province of Nigeria 1925- 30), Olaudah Equiano, an Igbo ex-slave who wrote in 1789, one Ike Akwaelumo as well as Professors O, Alaezi` and lk. N. T. Ogbukagu respectively, have all made such assertions. Some Igbo scholars and renowned, however, regard this oriental hypothesis of Igbo origin as being suspect. Be that as it may, there are strong indications and pointers to the fact that lgbo have verifiable connections to ancient Isra’al.