Monday, January 26, 2009

Remy's new book and Igbo music!

Excerpts from Remy's latest book-published 2 weeks ago.

INTRODUCTION TO THE CHRONICLES OF IGBO-ISRAEL

And

The connections between the Afro-Americans and the Jews

Written by Remy Chukwukaodinaka Ilona

With contributions from Anthony Edwards


Excerpts Below!

[They worked very hard and played very hard. Their music, even in latter years could ‘wake’ the dead because of the intensity and the sweetness. In G.T. Basden’s words; ‘Whether the Ibo trace their ancestry back to Jubal-Cain it is not my purpose to discuss, but they certainly have inherited a fair share of the art originated by the “Father of Music”…..The more one listens to native music, the more one is conscious of its vital power. It touches the chords of man’s inmost being, and stirs his primal instincts. It demands the performers whole attention and so sways the individual as almost to divide asunder, for the time being, mind and body. It is intensely passionate, and no great effort of the imagination is required to realize that such music could only have originated from the son of Cain! Under its influence, and that of the accompanying dance, one has seen men and women pass into a completely dazed condition, oblivious and apparently unconscious of the world around them………it lifts men and women out of themselves’15

I felt the power of Igbo music in Show Promoter’s songs, and in Ozoemena Nsugbe’s Olaliputu].

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Pic by Daniel Lis-the author in the agbo akpu forest in his clan-Ozubulu. The tree groves like this one contained the sites where the ancestors of the Igbos worshipped God. In the forests the Igbos recreated places like the grove which contained the oak of Mamre, where Abraham worshipped the Lord. Only very few of such places have survived in Igboland, because contemporary Igbos, taught to be ignorant and afraid of their past, have also been convinced that the groves are idolatrous, and have cleared many. The groves are very beautiful, and have the potentials to become tourist attractions if they are developed. The Igbo Israel Union is preparing a proposal for the development of the agbo akpu grove



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