Igwe Israel Eloebo Iweka was born in 1879 and died in 1934. In the course of his existence, he happened to accomplish a lot of things.
In 1922, Iweka wrote the first ever history of the Igbo people. This history was written in Igbo language and then translated into English (he did this by himself). This book was made up of 261 pages. The University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in the early 1990’s, was said to have honoured this book as “the first history of the Igbo land, published by an Igbo man”.
Israel Iweka was one of Nigeria’s early Civil Engineers who built the massive Iweka Road, Onitsha in 1924. It is believed that he was the first ‘Igbo Engineer’. In 1932, he was made the warrant Chief of Obosi. It was said that, around the year 1914, he had single handedly built several roads Obosi and Onitsha. It is believed that some of these roads still exist till now. In 1932, Iweka was made the warrant Chief of Obosi.
Igwe Israel Eloebo Iweka was a good example to all especially to his children. His eldest son (Isaac Iweka), born in 1911 and died in 1996 happened to follow his good footsteps. Isaac Iweka was the first Igbo to have a degree in Civil Engineering from the Imperial College, London in 1939.
