Leonard’s men watched their commander from around the campfire as he paced back and forth, his mind pondered things difficult to understand. How could communities of people exist without a leader? He had thought such practices disappeared with the Greco-Spartan city of old.
Unable to restrain his thoughts, he blurted out, “They must be the most disorganised people on the face of the earth!”
Scholars were generally agreed that the origins of democracy were to be found in the ancient Greco-Spartan practice where the people ruled themselves through eligible men, but Leonard’s surmise was that these Igbos who had no inkling of the monarchical system of government were also too primitive to have any knowledge of democratic systems.
He realised that bringing these autonomous communities toget
