RESURRECTION OF AGBOR HISTORY: Late chief Iduwe’s “History of Greater Agbor” posted online by Professor Manfredi

The work of
the illustrious son and historian of Agbor Kingdom, chief Iduwe, now available
for all Agbor people and historians online in PDF version.

Professor
Victor Manfredi, currently a visiting professor at Boston University, has
released the original manuscript of late chief Iduwe’s History of Agbor titled “History
of Greater Agbor”. This manuscript can be found on the website of Boston
University.

Every Agbor
historian or enthusiast who has heard about Iduwe’s book now has the
opportunity to download this manuscript in pdf here http://people.bu.edu/manfredi/Iduuwe.History.pdf
 or at http://Ikaworld.com/books/Iduwe.History.pdf
and read the undiluted words of chief Iduwe.

In the preface,
Iduwe stated that this was the first written and printed Agbor history completely
revised from his earlier draft. He goes further to state that he was driven to
fearlessly and urgently pursue the project of writing this book because of the
death of some of his comrades like J.K Nosieri , Charles E. Osaje and J.E Okogi
who had the unfulfilled aspiration to do the same. In his own words:

 “After such unfortunate losses, I decided to pursue
fearlessly the writing of the History inasmuch as we could wait no longer for a
historian or an anthropologist to do it. Furthermore, our older men and women
who can tell us the stories of the dim past are passing away.  The little I have endeavoured to write may be
a stepping-stone for our children and students 
toward further research on the culture and language of this famous place
of ours. Like others, we live in the footprint of our fathers and have our own
place to find in Nigerian history. Agbor is rich in oral tradition and
literature, so rule out stories told by idiots. ”

Without the
dedication of professor Victor Manfredi, then a young linguist and research who
was introduced to Chief Iduwe and became a beloved family friend of the iduwes,
to whom Iduwe entrusted the original manuscript this manuscript would not be
present today. In Manfredi’s note to the manuscript in 2012, he stated the manuscript
was entrusted to him by Iduwe 30 years ago after they edited it together and had
the plan further clarify the pronunciations of some names but this perhaps was
not to be with the passing of Iduwe. Professor Manfredi, in explaining his
reason for posting the manuscript online stated that:

“I’m taking
sole responsibility to post it to the internet as it is. I do so in respectful
memory of the author—a wise, courageous and kindhearted man.” He respectfully
ended his note with greeting to the Great chief Iduwe: Máà, Bà!DOWNLOAD IDUWE’S BOOK HERE!