She's wearing Odu anklets which is worn by titled Igbo women of the Otu Odu society.
Outside Onitsha & Asaba, it is known as the Iyom title.
As a descendant of Mmaku, father of Ikenga and grandfather of Nnewi the founding ancestor of my hometown Nnewi (North), I have a special love for Ndoni.
Our original dialect (before assimilation into Anambra Igbo dialect) is based on Ndoni Igbo dialect because some of my ancestors came from the Ndoni area and settled in Anambra around the 15th century.
Our central Deity is Ezemewi, husband of our central goddess Edo Agbaja (The popular bank road which connects their shrines is still known as Edo-Ezemewi road while Nnewi is also known as Anaedo in honour of Edo, the goddess).
Ezemewi is known by the elders as Ugili nwa onye olu i.e. Ugili child of Olu people.
Olu/Oru refer to riverine Igbos and Ndoni is in the Niger Delta.
Religious shrines do contain the history of those who worship in it. In other words, our church archives will be used by future generations to gain knowledge of their past history whilst our ancestral shrines can inform us about our ancestral history.
For instance; when travelling to a far away land, our ancestors would take a chalk (Nzu) from the shrine of their central deity.
They then deposited this chalk and built a shrine in their new settlement. The new deity was usually named after the original one. So if the Original one is Agbala or Ogwugwu, the new one will be Nwa-Agbala or Nwangwu. Igbo mythology also includes details of the ‘lives’ of deities for instance I know Nnewi is considered an Edo Agbaja town because Edo was once married to a deity from Agbaja in Abatete.
So, when we go around destroying the holy places of our ancestors, we are also erasing our own history! We have to preserve them for future generations! O di mkpa!
Preserving them doesn't imply leaving your Christian shrine to worship at an Odinani shrine.
It means respecting and protecting them in the same way European Christians protect & preserve the shrines of their ancestors (some of them such as Stonehenge is a major tourist attraction). There’s no contradiction in this, unless you’re foolish.
Ndi Ndoni ekenem unu!
#Nnewi Kwenu!
Igbo history.TV
IGBO HISTORY.TV...GROUP (SINCE 3000BC)
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