Aro Confederacy Rejection of British Colonialism

Collaboration with DebbiGee debbigee.deviantart.com/


Aro Confederacy>ikechi1.deviantart.com/art/Aro…

The History piece here is using the Hetalia format, using individuals to represent nations, kingdoms and tribes.

This piece represents another part of colonial history of Nigeria...well before Nigeria existed. Some things to explain here. On the left is the Aro Confederacy, a sub group of the Igbo People that split off from the Kingdom of Nri centuries ago. They founded their own kingdom and were great warriors and held their traditions high and often acted as a mercenary force to defend the sister Kingdom of Nri. The Arochukwu as they called themselves were very traditionalist in their religions and when the English came to try and trade, the Aro initially accepted. However the leaders were wary of the British influence and were slowly seeing the British take over the lands close to them and especially try to convert the Aro to Christianity and telling them that the Ibini Ukpabi (their religious leader, title literally means Drum of the Creator God) was nothing more than a false prophet and that they were worshiping the wrong deities.

In the 1890s the British in order to show some of the methods of conversion began introducing a plant called a rosemary. Rosemary was both a medicinal plant and is seen as the plant of the Virgin Mary the British Empire thought that medicine would make easier converts as the idea of being cured by the plant of the Virgin Mary would sway the Aro-Igbo to become part of the British Empire. The Ibini Ukpabi caught wind of this and ordered the burning of the rosemary to tell the British that they were no longer welcome, trade would no longer be acceptable and that they would never convert to Christianity. Infuriated by this the British would use slander and propaganda to instigate what would come a decade later, the Anglo-Aro war.

The image in the middle is the flag of the Aro Confederacy. The uniform that England is wearing is that of an 1890s British colonial officer's uniform.