Nkuzi: The Igbo Pillars of Education

World Teachers' Day series: Nkuzi: The Igbo Pillars of Education
Happy Teachers' Day from all of us at Nkuzify.

Nkuzify draws on the Igbo idea of nkuzi, teaching. Nkuzi is the Igbo word for teaching, and Nkuzify, our platform, takes its name from it. This post is about the tradition itself, not the platform, which is why it is called Nkuzi and not Nkuzify. So it is right that we give Igbo contributions to education their full place.

The pillars

• Alvan Ikoku: founded Aggrey Memorial College in 1931, led the Nigeria Union of Teachers and argued for free primary education.
• Kenneth Dike: historian and university leader. He was the first Nigerian Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan (1962 to 1967).
• Eni Njoku: botanist who became a university vice-chancellor. He was the first Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos, and later led the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, from 1966.
• Chike Obi: mathematician who urged Nigerians to take up mathematics. In 1950 he became the first Nigerian to earn a doctorate in mathematics.
• Noel Alumona, from Udenu, Enugu State: shortlisted for the 100,000 dollar Global Student Prize. He founded Hope for African Children in Abuja in October 2013 and ran it until 2018, mentoring vulnerable children and running teacher development programmes.

The Igbo apprenticeship system

For generations, young people in Igbo land have learned trades and business by living and working with a master, then being set up to start their own. It is one of the largest skills-training systems in Africa, and it is education in the fullest sense. In Igbo this is called igba-boi. A young person lives and works with a master, often for several years, learning the trade and the habits of business. When the time is up, the master settles the apprentice, giving them capital or stock to start on their own, and the cycle begins again with a new apprentice

Igba-boi is a long-standing Igbo legacy. It has launched business owners, billionaires among them, and in some cases it has produced success that classroom education alone did not. It needs no lecture hall. It runs on trust between a master and a learner. This Teachers' Day, we dedicate this post to every master who ever taught a young person a trade, and to every apprentice who stayed to learn it.

Happy Teachers' Day to every master, mentor and teacher who passed it on.

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