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Speech by Chief Onyeso of Agukwu Nri

Audio Historical Lore
Re-recording of Chief Onyeso's speech translated into standard Central Igbo, based on transcriptions by Northcote Thomas.

An audio recording featuring a re-recording of a speech by Chief Onyeso of Agukwu Nri, translated into standard Central Igbo by Yvonne Mbanefo and read by Oba Kosi Nwoba. The original recording was made by Northcote Thomas during his 1910-11 anthropological survey of the Awka District. Onyeso, the son of the previous Eze Nri, Enweleana, and a regent during the interregnum before Eze Nri Obalike, asserts the ritual and political primacy of the Nri people as the head of the entire Igbo land. He details the duties of the nwa eze (son of the king) as a peace-maker and provides first-hand accounts of traditional rituals, including the requirement for royal infants to receive ichi facial scarification marks before cutting teeth to avoid the traditional practice of infanticide. The speech is characterized by a defiant tone toward the British colonial government, which Onyeso argues undermined the traditional order and authority of Nri.

Community Notes

Onyeka Nwokike

Sep 14, 2026

Chief Onyeso operated as a powerful secular leader, a role that contrasted with the spiritual leadership of the Eze Nri. This distinction was critical because the Eze Nri was traditionally forbidden from traveling outside the royal town of Nri after coronation. As explained in It is I who come, Onyeso, the nwa eze (son of the king) filled this gap by traveling to surrounding towns to quell disturbances and maintain peace across the Nri hegemony.

Onyeka Nwokike

Sep 14, 2026

The ritual requirements for royal infants included specific precautions against traditional beliefs regarding dental development. While the ichi marks were meant to prevent infanticide, It is I who come, Onyeso specifies that a baby who cut their upper teeth first was traditionally considered an abomination. To prevent the child from being left in the forest, sons of the king had to receive their facial scarification marks before their teeth emerged.

Onyeka Nwokike

Sep 14, 2026

The current audio is a re-recording based on transcriptions in Northcote Thomas's Anthropological Report on the Ibo-speaking Peoples of Nigeria, as the original wax cylinder recording appears to have been lost. This effort to preserve the voice of the Nri aristocracy is connected to the family's ongoing legacy, with Prince Ikenna Onyesoh, the current Regent of Nri, identified as Onyeso's great-grandson in the Agukwu Nri Archives.

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