Awka Museum Foundation

I received this minute book in January when I became the Secretary of my kinsmen.

When i carefully studied it, i found out this is not just an ordinary old book. This book has passed through the hands of several generations of our people before it eventually found its way into my hands. You can see it has minutes from 41 years ago (private information was blurred out).

Inside these pages are records of meetings, decisions, agreements, contributions and events that happened decades before I was born & necessitated the development of the land i call home.

Things that could easily have been forgotten if somebody, at some point, had not taken the time to write them down.

I have now started the process of converting this book & other documents that accompanied it into a modern e-book, because I understand what it could mean to a young person from our family or community 50, 100 or even 200 years from now.

They will open that digital archive and see the handwriting, decisions and activities of their forefathers. And someday, I too will become one of those forefathers whose actions & contributions they will read about.

This is why I keep talking about documenting our ancestral journey as Ndị Igbo.

It is not only about telling stories.

Document your minute books.
Document your family trees and lineages.
Preserve old photographs and letters.
Record oral histories.
Preserve traditional artifacts.
Document ancestral homes and monumental sites.
Record our customs, festivals, titles, institutions and important community decisions.

A people without records are forced to depend on memories. And memories fade, people die, and stories can become distorted with time.

But when we document, we leave our descendants something more powerful than stories, we leave them evidence.

One day our future generations will ask, “What did our forefathers do?”Let us make sure they won’t have to guess.

Ihe e dere n’akwụkwọ anaghị anwụ anwụ.

… and God’s handmaids from Immaculate Heart Sisters, Mater Christi Human Development Center: Amawbia visited the museum today Tuesday 23rd June 2026