This is the period dating 1.2million years to 3000BC , the era of homo-erectus found within the areas of ugwuele uturu following the discovery of Archeolean hand axes and stone tools in caves.
Clay pots dating 3000BC were recovered at Afikpo and Opi iron slags . Details of this era is buried in archeology .
EARLY HISTORY:
8th-9 th AD : Kingdom of Nri begins with Eze Nri Ìfikuánim. 1434 AD: Portuguese explorers make contact with the Igbo.
1630 AD : The Aro-Ibibio Wars start.
1690AD: The Aro Confederacy is established1745AD : Olaudah Equiano is born in Essaka, but later kidnapped and shipped to Barbados and sold as a slave in 1765.
1797AD : Olaudah Equiano dies in England as a freed slave.
1807 AD : The Slave Trade Act 1807 is passed (on 25 March) helping in stopping the transportation of enslaved Africans, including Igbo people, to the Americas.
Atlantic slave trade exports an estimated total of 1.4 million Igbo people across the Middle Passage
1830 AD : European explorers explore the course of the Lower Niger and meet the Northern Igbo.
1835 AD: Africanus Horton is born to Igbo ex-slaves in Sierra Leone
1855 AD: William Balfour Baikie a Scottish naval physician, reaches Niger Igboland.
MODERN HISTORY: 1880–1905:
Southern Nigeria is conquered by the British, including Igboland.
1885–1906: Christian missionary presence in Igboland.
1891: King Ja Ja of Opobo dies in exile, but his corpse is brought back to Nigeria for burial.
1896–1906: Around 6,000 Igbo children attend mission schools.
1901–1902: The Aro Confederacy declines after the Anglo-Aro war.
1902: The Aro-Ibibio Wars end.
1906: Igboland becomes part of Southern Nigeria (the beginning of our problem)
1914: Northern Nigeria and Southern Nigeria are amalgamated to form Nigeria. (escalation of our problem)
1929: Igbo Women’s War (first Nigerian feminist movement) of 1929 in Aba.
1953: November Anti Igbo riots (killing over 50 Igbos in Kano) of 1953 in Kano
1960: October 1 Nigeria gains independence from Britain; Tafawa Balewa becomes Prime Minister, and Nnamdi Azikiwe becomes President.
1966: January 16 A coup by junior military officers takes over government and assassinated some country leaders. The Federal Military Government is formed, with General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi as the Head of State and Supreme Commander of the Federal Republic.
1966: July 29 A counter-coup by military officers of northern extraction, deposes the Federal Military Government; General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi is assassinated along with Adekunle Fajuyi, Military Governor of Western Region. General Yakubu Gowon becomes Head of State.
1967: Ethnoreligious violence between Igbo Christians, and Hausa/Fulani Muslims in Eastern and Northern Nigeria, triggers a migration of the Igbo back to the East.
1967: May 30 General Emeka Ojukwu, Military Governor of Eastern Nigeria, declares his province an independent republic called Biafra, and the Nigerian Civil War or Nigerian-Biafran War ensues.
1970: January 8 General Emeka Ojukwu flees into exile; His deputy Philip Effiong becomes acting President of Biafra.
1970: January 15 Acting President of Biafra Philip Effiong surrenders to Nigerian forces through future President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, and Biafra is reintegrated into Nigeria.
References:
Understanding ‘Things Fall Apart’ by Kalu Ogbaa
WikipediaImage Credit: Ukpuru, Pinterest
