“Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” in Matthew 22 is also said to mean to treat others the way you would treat yourself. That phrase is used 5 other times: Lev 19:18,34; Rom 13:9-10; Gal 5:13 and Jam 2:8 and their contexts are always about how to act kindly towards other.
As for the mention of self-love in other verses, I only know of 2 Tim 3:2-4 which talks of loving ourselves in a self-indulgent way, “2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent (without self-control), fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady (reckless), high minded (puffed up), lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away."
It's easy to conclude that those "lovers of their own selves" in twi were not lovers of God and hurt a great number of people, many of whom were so confused by their fake form of godliness and others thinking if it's okay for the big chiefs to act this way then it must be okay for me to do so as well.
It's very difficult to truly learn to love or experience love in a cult like twi.