.........Subsequent contributors to the debate have merely rehashed extant knowledge in fresh verbiage and yet arrived at the same destination as their predecessors. Two reasons explain this impasse. One is the absence of fresh evidence to permit a revisit of the status quo. The other is timidity or reluctance of younger people to challenge positions staked by older people assumed to be icons of Igbo studies. Humphrey Akaolisa has refused to be so "intimidated" and to swallow hook, line and sinker the established viewpoints. To be sure, this book is not per se a work of dissent.........