SUMMARY
This study has discussed the role of the indigenous collaborators during the Anglo-Ekumekuconflict of 1898-1911 and showed that Ekumekuwas one of the greatest resistance movements the British colonial government had encountered in colonized parts of sub-Saharan Africa. With the advent of colonialism, Western Igbo people, at the outset, resisted the British colonial government. In the course of the struggle, local traders, liberated slaves, Christian converts, prominent chiefs, former Ekumekuwarriors and ordinary persons became dissenters and collaborated with the British to subdue their own people.1 This ambivalent display of loyalty to the Ekumekumovement, and later to the agents of the Royal Niger Company and British colonial government, was due to the precarious situation in which the people found themselves at that time. As beneficiaries of the British colonial administration, the collaborators were used to lay the foundation for the British colonization of the area. The local collaborators were appointed as warrant chiefs, court interpreters, messengers and others were recruited as soldiers, spies and porters, and even Prince Aiguobasimwin, who the British helped to the throne of Benin Kingdom, while the uncompromising, hostile Ekumekuwarriors and chiefs were either arrested, killed, or jailed.2
This research has demonstrated that despite the British arms superiority, the role of the indigenous collaborators was crucial in the defeat of the Ekumekuand subsequent subjugation of the people. It was not the lack of unity among the people as espoused by some historians and scholars. Knowing the Ekumekuwarriors operated under local leaders/commanders in their respective communities and towns buttresses the fact that the people actually succeeded in overcoming their primordial loyalties and collectively engaged the British colonial forces. Despite the defeat of the Ekumekuby the British forces, the Western Igbo people still cherish their bravery and patriotic fervour. Isichei articulated the resilience of the Ekumeku movement when she opined that “the Ekumekufailed, but the Western lgbo treasure their memory as an imperishable legacy.”3Isichei further asserted that “the Western lbo continue to cherish the memory of the Ekumeku, of those select men, brave, courageous, with military prowess; such as DunkwuIsusu of Onicha-Olona, and Nwadiojo of IsseleMkpitime.”
Similarly, Talbot captured the gallantry and heroic exploits of Ekumekuwarriors in this way: “the dogged resistance of Ekumekumade it to be the stoutest warriors in the course of the British occupation of Nigeria area.”The Ekumekuremains the earliest and greatest traditional resistance movement in Igboland, which the British colonialists found difficult to subdue despite a series of punitive expeditions, incessant persecutions, and imprisonment by the Native Courts that spanned over a decade. It was from the Ekumekuresistance movement that other Nigerian and African states such as the Aro in Eastern Igboland, the Mau Mau of Kenya in East Africa, and others drew their inspiration to ferociously and collectively resist the British colonialists at the turn of the twentieth century.4
