Nri

Who rules

Name

Buife (Eze Nri Buife), in Onwuejeogwu's reconstruction, which gives him 1159-1259; the hundred-year span shows that these dates are generation estimates, not a reign. In Chambers's dating (2005) the first Eze Nri, Ifikuanim, belongs about 1225, so on 1 January 1200 no Eze Nri would yet reign and the ritual leadership would lie with the elders of Eri's descendants.

Title

Eze Nri (the priest-king of Nri)

Since

1159 in Onwuejeogwu's reconstruction (a generation estimate)

Family

The Umunri, descendants of Nri son of Eri, the sky-sent ancestor of the Umueri clans; the succession passed among the lineages after a long interregnum in which the dead king was held to show his choice

Confidence

low

Onwuejeogwu (1981), king list via Wikipedia; Chambers (2005) cited in Wikipedia

What the realm holds

• Nri and its quarters
• a ritual primacy over the Umueri clan towns
• ritual service (cleansing, peace-making, title-making) in other Igbo towns where its agents are received

How it was acquired

By the descent from Eri and Nri in the tradition; Onwuejeogwu dates Eri's settlement to the tenth century (948 in the king list).

Allies and rivals

The Umueri towns; the Igbo village groups that receive ndi Nri; Aguleri as senior in descent but junior in ritual power (a lasting tension in the later tradition). No war is part of Nri's way: violence was an abomination that polluted the earth.

The realm that morning

In Onwuejeogwu's frame the Eze Nri Buife reigns at Nri and the ritual network is young; in Chambers's frame the line has not begun. Either way Nri commands no soldiers and rules no towns but its own.

Wealth

Fees and gifts for ritual services, title-taking and cleansing; farming; the yam cult. Igbo-Ukwu shows access in the ninth or tenth century to copper, lead and tin worked into bronze (from ores of the Benue trough, by recent metal analysis) and to glass beads from far away; trade in salt from the Uburu and Okposi lakes and in iron from the Nsukka and Awka smiths passed through the region.

Military

None. The Eze Nri's weapon was ritual sanction (ostracism, the 'ritual siege' of an offending town).

Threats

• Disputes over the selection of a new Eze Nri during the interregnums
• Towns refusing Nri's agents

Ruler and court

The Eze Nri, secluded, bound by many taboos, with the elders and ritual specialists of the Umunri lineages. Wives and heirs: not known. The office passed by selection after an interregnum of several years in the later practice.

Ministers and officers

The ndi Nri (ritual agents) and the holders of the ozo title (mburichi) who shared the Eze Nri's moral authority, controlled agricultural rites and judged guilt or innocence; the earth priests of each town.

Great families

The Umunri lineages of Nri; the Aguleri lineages (Eri's direct heirs, holders of the ofo collected on the Eze Nri's installation journey); the other Umueri towns (Umuleri, Nando, Igbariam, Awkuzu and others in the later tradition).

Towns and castles

Nri; Aguleri on the Anambra (Eri's seat); Igbo-Ukwu (ancient shrine and burial site); Oreri, Nri's sister town in the later tradition. No fortifications.

Religion

The Igbo cult of the earth (Ala), the high god (Chukwu), the yam spirit and the ancestors; Nri as the ritual purifier.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1200 (not pinned)No dated event. On Onwuejeogwu's reconstruction Buife continues to reign; on Chambers's dating the first Eze Nri, Ifikuanim, is installed about 1225.Depends on: Which reconstruction is right. Stopped by: Not applicable.

Places of note

• Igbo-Ukwu: Shrine, burial and bronze cache of about the ninth and tenth centuries (see the town record).

Where the sources disagree

• Onwuejeogwu's list gives the third Eze Nri, Buife, a reign of a hundred years (1159-1259): the dates come from counting generations and must not be read as years.
• Wikipedia's Kingdom of Nri gives Ifikuanim 1043-1089 in the infobox but cites Chambers for 'around 1225 CE' in the text; other writers place Eri's settlement as late as the sixteenth century.

Evidence: Oral tradition and a reconstructed king list (Onwuejeogwu 1981), with the Igbo-Ukwu excavations (Shaw, 1959-1964) showing an older ritual centre nearby. Nothing is dated to 1200.

On the map: Nri's sway was ritual and personal; drawing a block overstates it, but these towns were its home ground.

Primary sources for this realm

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Ife, Benin, Nri, the Yoruba towns and the Akan: archaeology and recorded tradition (no contemporary text; traditions written down from the 1890s). No text of any kind exists for the forest belt in 1200.