Who was the Ijaw leader that betrayed Biafra only to be murdered  like a common criminal by Nigerian troops.

betray what, what made you think Ken Saro Wiwa had allegiance to the Igbo, that's like an Egun man accused of betraying Yoruba people.  shit doesn't make sense.  I find it amusing most Biafra Apologists love to place the failure of Biafra on other southern groups as if most of these groups shouldn't look after their interests.

All the questionable historical facts about who and what is Ijaw make little sense given what we already know. This thread was started with a reference to Adaka Boro day celebration, but when you read the article, you find it difficult to pin-point any error or mistakes Boro might have made in his attempt to get even with the Igbos.

No Ijaw person has pointed out that Boro and his colleagues were very poor students of World history, because they should have known that from the Grecco-Roman period to Afonja and the Yoruba king in Illorin, betraying your own people to outsiders never pays off.

@Ibime and others, please address the itemized questions I raised on page 1 of this thread. That is more relevant that all these questionable historical and genetic facts you're suddenly releasing.

Of all the questions, the most burning one is: why did the Ijaws need any form of promise, agreement, or even settlement by other tribes in Eastern Nigeria before they could join in defense of their home land 100%?
Were the Ijaw people blind-sighted by sibling rivalry with their Igbo cousins? Why were they just so gaullible? The Hausa man came down from Kaduna and promised you that if you help him defeat your brother, he would compensate you with his houses and property in Port Harcourt, and they foolishly, gaullibly, and childishly fell for it! Meanwhile Igbo houses in Kaduna and Lagos were safely returned to their owners.

My father built a house in Port Harcourt with his sweat, tears and blood, after the war, the house was occupied by one of the laborers who was close to my father and who knew that he had came from the mainland. The most disheartening aspect was that this Ijaw man refused to release my father's house back to him, and he had the government of the Diette-Spiff for support.

Slavery, genetics, and history are important, but there're more current issues that show the difficulty in normalizing Igbo/Ijaw relationship.

The stupidity of the Efik idiot yarning dust is ridiculous. The fool even dey spit Igbo words like he or she is Igbo but yet wanna spew garbage about Igbos. LOL @ those who say Calabar will be new Onitsha. You see the stupidity extreme paranoia exhibited by our people in the East is the reason why you will continue to be slaves in ur dear country Nigeria. Stupid fools. If u say u will get ur own country cool now do u think that can be achieved by causing disunity and spreading hatred? Where were u loud mouths when over 500,000 Efiks from Bakassi were sold to Cameroon nna ntabi anya hence further balkanizing Efik/Ibibio, Oron ppl,? Why didn't u toothless dogs show Nigeria wat u got yet you have the guts to cast aspersions on Igbos who none of you can prove today or 2morow of oppressing and killing ur people be it Efik / Ijaw ppl. Nonsense I've never seen any Efik / Ibibio man show me any hatred whatsoever. The cultures are so similar. We even got Abiriba, Ohafia ppl who got link with em, many with Efik surnames and Igbo 1st names. Heck when I say I am Aro they quickly remind me of the link btwn Igbos and Ibibios there and the importance of the city to them. You'll think by the name, only Igbo give a hoot about Arochukwu but even Ibibios have high regards for the Kingdom. Hateful bigots like can hide all day long behind the internet making baseless statements but we know the real truth. I myself don't deny my Ibibio roots unlike fools in the Riverine area who will claim Igbo 2day when it suits them, claim Ijaw or Ibani, Lokoja, the next day when it suits them. You are all opportunists and I pity you. To deny who u are for a short term tells how much of a low life u are.

And please tell me what wahala Igbos got abeg u moronic slowpoke? I agree we all got issues include Oron, Igbo, Ogoni if not you will be perfect. Do u want us to bring eachother 's laundry and disgrace each other? Nonsense every time we try to come together you idiots rear up ur ugly heads to throw in confusion. There is progress being made regardless of what mindless ppl like you do. You don't represent da whole efik ppl so please fall back.

Lets not get upset people , that efik girl must have been only joking, dont take her seriously.
No riverine or efik/ibibio people can deny any relationship/links with the Igbos.
I have never denied it

Up till today south east and south south still have common fate in nigeria.this bauchi crisis is a good example.http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=136692

Igbo was the language of trade, hence most Ijaws learnt to speak it, plus there were many migrations.

Igbos shrek and Ijaws donkey about to embark on another whirlwind adventure

Ibime:

Igbo was the language of trade, hence most Ijaws learnt to speak it, plus there were many migrations.

I'm stil waiting for your take on why the Ijaws needed any form of agreement before fighting to defend their homeland. If Ijaws had visionary leaders, they would have known that the fight they wedge today could have been easier yeasterday.

As I have said before, the reason 90% of Ijaws in Rivers State aged 60 and over speak Igbo is trade. Not slavery and not because we are Igbos.

Igbo has always been the dominant language of trade in Southern Nigeria. When English superceded Igbo as the dominant language of trade, the Ijaws started dropping Igbo and English became the 2nd language of choice. Now, English is the mother-tongue of most Ijaws, and Ijaw language has been relegated to 2nd spot. My grandmother's generation speak more Igbo than Ijaw, however, they cannot be classed as Igbo's. Also, back in the day, there was no tribalism and there was more intermarriage. There was a lot of mixing with Igbo's. I would estimate that at least 30% of Ijaws in current Rivers State have at least one Igbo ancestor, if not more.

We must understand something - Igbo is not a tribe. It is a language and a sominant culture. There is no blood relation between many Igbo's. There are Oru-Igbo's, Eka-Igbo's, Ikwerre-Igbo's, Rebisi-Igbo's, Ndoni-Igbo's, Etche-Igbo's, Anioma-Igbos etc. None of these people are related by blood. They are related by language - a language that was the dominant language of trade.

Bonny contolled the two main waterways that lead to the sea, namely the Okrika River and the Imo River. Jaja of Opobo later seized control of the Imo River. Opobo people traded up and down the Imo River, and every Opobo man learnt to speak Igbo. They may have abviously intermarried with the Igbo. Infact, some Opobo people made their homes on the banks of the Imo River in Aba and are there till this day. However, they are nothing but indigenous Ijaws as Ibani culture and language is still dominant there.

When Ijaw girl talks about "Igbo slaves", infact, there is no such thing as a 'slave' in Ijaw culture. This is a modern-day corruption. I am 3 generations removed from an Igbo 'slave' who lived as a son in the house of an Okrika man. In Ijaw land, status is solely based on proficiency, not on bloodline. Our monarchy is not hereditary, neither is our class-structure. Jaja of Opobo was never a slave, but a son of Ana Pepple. He proved himself more proficient than indigenous Ibani's in his house and he was made leader of his house. Thats the way it is. There is no slavery within Southern Nigeria, except the slavery that the whiteman brought. Would you call Ikemefuna a 'slave' of Okonkwo or would you call him a son?

The Igbo migrants to Niger Delta far outnumber the 'slaves'. Would Igbo people be travelling to Ijawland if their brothers are being held in bondage. Thats like Nigerians going on holiday to America in the 1700's where they would most likely be captured and made slaves. It would never happen.

Whats all these noise of who is Igbo, who is not Ijaw and the unification of people who seem to hate and betray each other.

No be by force to become Igbo and definately not by force to unite with Ijaw.
For me, there no need for such. All nigerians need do is respect each other, no matter the tribe they claim, religion or color. If not. . . . .

@ RichyBlack,

Jaja was never a slave-trader, but a palm oil trader.

Arochukwu people used to capture Igbo's and bring them to rendezvous points where Ijaws picked them up and delivered them up the coast to the whiteman. In this respect, Arochukwu were the real slave traders of Southern Nigeria, Ijaws just took their cut off the top. 

To think all this noise about ijaws. They only became relevant in the last few years with their militancy and all this hoopla. Make una leave matter for Adaka hand abeg.

Ibime:

As I have said before, the reason 90% of Ijaws in Rivers State aged 60 and over speak Igbo is trade. Not slavery and not because we are Igbos.

Igbo has always been the dominant language of trade in Southern Nigeria. When English superceded Igbo as the dominant language of trade, the Ijaws started dropping Igbo and English became the 2nd language of choice. Now, English is the mother-tongue of most Ijaws, and Ijaw language has been relegated to 2nd spot. My grandmother's generation speak more Igbo than Ijaw, however, they cannot be classed as Igbo's. Also, back in the day, there was no tribalism and there was more intermarriage. There was a lot of mixing with Igbo's. I would estimate that at least 30% of Ijaws in current Rivers State have at least one Igbo ancestor, if not more.

We must understand something - Igbo is not a tribe. It is a language and a sominant culture. There is no blood relation between many Igbo's. There are Oru-Igbo's, Eka-Igbo's, Ikwerre-Igbo's, Remisi-Igbo's, Ndoni-Igbo's, Etche-Igbo's, Anioma-Igbos etc. None of these people are related by blood. They are related by language - a language that was the dominant language of trade.

Bonny contolled the two main waterways that lead to the sea, namely the Okrika River and the Imo River. Jaja of Opobo later seized control of the Imo River. Opobo people traded up and down the Imo River, and every Opobo man learnt to speak Igbo. They may have abviously intermarried with the Igbo. Infact, some Opobo people made their homes on the banks of the Imo River in Aba and are there till this day.

When Ijaw girl talks about "Igbo slaves", infact, there is no such thing as a 'slave' in Ijaw culture. This is a modern-day corruption. I am 3 generations removed from an Igbo 'slave' who lived as a son in the house of an Okrika man. In Ijaw land, status is solely based on proficiency, not on bloodline. Our monarchy is not hereditary, neither is our class-structure. Jaja of Opobo was never a slave, but a son of Ana Pepple. He proved himself more proficient than indigenous Ibani's in his house and he was made leader of his house. Thats the way it is. There is no slavery within Southern Nigeria, except the slavery that the whiteman brought. Would you call Ikemefuna a 'slave' of Okonkwo or would you call him a son?

The Igbo migrants to Niger Delta far outnumber the 'slaves'. Would Igbo people be travelling to Ijawland if their brothers are being held in bondage. Thats like Nigerians going on holiday to America in the 1700's where they would most likely be captured and made slaves. It would never happen.

Oga,
Since you have refused to discuss the contemporary Ijaw attitudes towards Igbos, maybe we can focus on the history you seem to care so much about. I agree that Igbo is not a tribe per say, but a language, coupled with culture and way of life. Ironically you described inheritance and ascencion to leadership position based on merit and not inheritance--- that's Igbo!

Igbo might not have been a pure tiribal entity before the civil war, but a collection of people who spoke the language and practiced Igbo customs. There was Mba-miri, the riverine people who were Igbos. After the war, Igbos became those who lost the war, and understandably, many people who spoke the language, and practiced the custom before the war simply sought to change their identities, tribal affliations, and even language---nobody wants to be seen as a looser. That's where many Igbo people in Rivers, Cross Rivers, Delta, and even Benue states belong.

The Igbos grouped and delineated as main Igbos today don't have the luxury of changing their identity as do their cousins in these outlying areas. My friend is from Delta, he speaks his mother tongue(Igbo) perfectly, he went to high school as an Igbo boy, worked in Enugu as Igboman, but once we were in college, he changed his profile to a Niger-Delta minority, because of bigger bursary package for students from the riverine areas. I could never do that(though I tried unsuccesfully), because I was from Enugu. Bye the way my friend with an Igbo last name has also passed for an Ijaw man whenever it's convinient for him.

You can't absolutely say that there is no blood relationship between Igbos, because in some cases particular Igbo groups can be identified as being culturally, genetically, and linguistically homogenous.

Onitsha people are known to derogatorily call mainland Igbos- Nwa-onye Igbo Implying a certain identity separation from other Igbos. Despite Ifeajuna's personal differences with Ojukwu during the civil war, he did not collaborate with other Onitsha people to side with the Hausa people like Adaka Boro and Saro-Wiwa did.

bawomolo:

betray what, what made you think Ken Saro Wiwa had allegiance to the Igbo, that's like an Egun man accused of betraying Yoruba people. shit doesn't make sense. I find it amusing most Biafra Apologists love to place the failure of Biafra on other southern groups as if most of these groups shouldn't look after their interests.

are we talking about the same man that came on his hands and knees to an ohaneze meeting before he was sent to the great beyond?
go and read

**osisi:

are we talking about the same man that came on his hands and knees to an ohaneze meeting before he was sent to the great beyond?
go and read

That's what beats me. Some people want to talk about unity without fully addressing, understanding(not really apologizing), and reviewing the past errors in our relationship with the Ijaw people.

Parading Adaka Boro and Ken Saro-Wiwa as role models is not the best way to talk about reconcilliation.
Our hope on reconcilliation might actually lie on some very objective, less selfish and very informed younger generation who would review tha past, understand the present and project to the future of eastern Nigerians.

naijaking1:

That's what beats me. Some people want to talk about unity without fully addressing, understanding(not really apologizing), and reviewing the past errors in our relationship with the Ijaw people.

Parading Adaka Boro and Ken Saro-Wiwa as role models is not the best way to talk about reconcilliation.
Our hope on reconcilliation might actually lie on some very objective, less selfish and very informed younger generation who would review tha past, understand the present and project to the future of eastern Nigerians.

I very much agree with you. We need to have a Truth and Reconciliation Committee on the human rights abuses surrounding the Biafran War.

Ibime:

@ RichyBlack,

Jaja was never a slave-trader, but a palm oil trader.

Arochukwu people used to capture Igbo's and bring them to rendezvous points where Ijaws picked them up and delivered them up the coast to the whiteman. In this respect, Arochukwu were the real slave traders of Southern Nigeria, Ijaws just took their cut off the top. 

@Ibime,

You're right he wasn't a "slave trader" but he was a "slave profiteer" (what I wrote). The difference, within the context of this discourse, is that "slave traders" made profit through buying and selling slaves, while "slave profiteers" made profit by using slaves in their business.

Jaja's house, the Anna Pepple House, like most houses in the Delta at the period, had slaves within their labor force. The trade he established with the British could not have been kept running without slave labor. An excerpt on the description of a typical house:

The Delta society was organized in Canoe Houses. A Canoe House was the pivot of social organization and also, notes K.O. Dike, "a cooperative trading unit and a local government institution." It was usually composed of a wealthy merchant (its founder), his family, and numerous slaves owned by him. A prosperous house could comprise several thousand members, both free and bonded, owning hundreds of trade canoes. In this intensely competitive society, leadership by merit - not by birth or ascriptions - was necessary if a house was to make headway in the turbulent, cut-throat competition that existed between houses. Any person with the charisma and proven ability, even if of servile birth, could rise to the leadership of a house, but could never become king. Ja Ja would achieve this, and much more.

I agree the context it was used created a possibility for misinterpretation, but I hope this clarifies things.

Source: Jaja of Opobo
With references at the end of the article on "Further Reading".

naijaking1:

All the questionable historical facts about who and what is Ijaw make little sense given what we already know. This thread was started with a reference to Adaka Boro day celebration, but when you read the article, you find it difficult to pin-point any error or mistakes Boro might have made in his attempt to get even with the Igbos.

No Ijaw person has pointed out that Boro and his colleagues were very poor students of World history, because they should have known that from the Grecco-Roman period to Afonja and the Yoruba king in Illorin, betraying your own people to outsiders never pays off.

@Ibime and others, please address the itemized questions I raised on page 1 of this thread. That is more relevant that all these questionable historical and genetic facts you're suddenly releasing.

Of all the questions, the most burning one is: why did the Ijaws need any form of promise, agreement, or even settlement by other tribes in Eastern Nigeria before they could join in defense of their home land 100%?
Were the Ijaw people blind-sighted by sibling rivalry with their Igbo cousins? Why were they just so gaullible? The Hausa man came down from Kaduna and promised you that if you help him defeat your brother, he would compensate you with his houses and property in Port Harcourt, and they foolishly, gaullibly, and childishly fell for it! Meanwhile Igbo houses in Kaduna and Lagos were safely returned to their owners.

My father built a house in Port Harcourt with his sweat, tears and blood, after the war, the house was occupied by one of the laborers who was close to my father and who knew that he had came from the mainland. The most disheartening aspect was that this Ijaw man refused to release my father's house back to him, and he had the government of the Diette-Spiff for support.

Slavery, genetics, and history are important, but there're more current issues that show the difficulty in normalizing Igbo/Ijaw relationship.

The guy Isaac Boro was an Ijaw hero and a  big fool at the same time.
Here was a student at Nsukka who sought to liberate the Niger Delta and fought against federal forces and was overpowered,a brave man obviously.
Yet during the Nigerian/Biafran war he was stupid enough to have been convinced by the Hausas and Yorubas to fight against his own cousins (Igbos) in a batallion led by Adekunle and the same adekunle and his men murdered him in cold blood.

Back to the abandoned property.
My dad said that before the war,most of the homes in PH were owned by Igbos,everyone spoke Igbo there and that Ijaws worked mainly as labourers and maiguards.
But they were just too glad to betray Igbos with the promise of acquiring Igbo properties if the war was lost by Biafra.
How foolish.
Most,  if not all Ijaws have some Igbo blood in them from intermarriage from way back.
It's not uncommon that any Ijaw man you meet today will tell you his mother, grandma  or great grandma or pa was Igbo.
Greed is a horrible thing.

Igbos themselves are not even united.

Crude Oil:

Igbos themselves are not even united.

Which group is united then?

So, someone tell me, the Igbos are without blemish, when it comes to the war, or where Nigeria is concerned. Hausas, Yorubas, Ijaws. . . .all bastards. Igbos. . . . .celestial.

Crude Oil:

Igbos themselves are not even united.

Can you furnish us with a definition, even a rough one, of the word "united" in the context you used it? Thanks.

dangermous:

So, someone tell me, the Igbos are without blemish, when it comes to the war, or where Nigeria is concerned. Hausas, Yorubas, Ijaws. . . .all bastards. Igbos. . . . .celestial.

Do you know the immediate cause of the war?

RichyBlacK:

I very much agree with you. We need to have a Truth and Reconciliation Committee on the human rights abuses surrounding the Biafran War.

Would this committee talk about the Biafran invasion of the Midwestern region? What about the murder of Hausa traders in the Midwestern region.  This thread seems to be centered around Igbo's being victims while the Ijaws should come and beg for forgiveness.

**osisi:

are we talking about the same man that came on his hands and knees to an ohaneze meeting before he was sent to the great beyond?
go and read

There actions centered around what they thought was best for their people.  I won't argue with that.  They gambled and lost just like Ojukwu. Selfish yes but it wasn't betrayal.  The invasion of the Midwestern region knowing there were no hausa soldiers in the region and the region's neutrality is an ACT OF BETRAYAL

Crude Oil:

Igbos themselves are not even united.

I wonder what that means?
Is there a united tribe anywhere and what are the signs of unity?

RichyBlacK:

Do you know the immediate cause of the war?

Sectarian violence and Ethnic Rivalry?

RichyBlacK:

Jaja's house, the Anna Pepple House, like most houses in the Delta at the period, had slaves within their labor force. The trade he established with the British could not have been kept running without slave labor. An excerpt on the description of a typical house:

The Delta society was organized in Canoe Houses. A Canoe House was the pivot of social organization and also, notes K.O. Dike, "a cooperative trading unit and a local government institution." It was usually composed of a wealthy merchant (its founder), his family, and numerous slaves owned by him. A prosperous house could comprise several thousand members, both free and bonded, owning hundreds of trade canoes. In this intensely competitive society, leadership by merit - not by birth or ascriptions - was necessary if a house was to make headway in the turbulent, cut-throat competition that existed between houses. Any person with the charisma and proven ability, even if of servile birth, could rise to the leadership of a house, but could never become king. Ja Ja would achieve this, and much more.

Source: Jaja of Opobo
With references at the end of the article on "Further Reading".

I agree the context it was used created a possibility for misinterpretation, but I hope this clarifies things.

This post implies that Ijaws kept slaves in bondage. I disagree. If there was such a slavery-system, we would have a 'slave' class of people today (and I would be one of them), but we don't - Ijaw land is a classless society.

The writer of this blog does not know what he is talking about. Jaja may have captured some tribes in war (as was natural in Naija Delta those days), but conjuring up these images of bonded slavery is wholly inappropriate. Yes, slaves belonged to their masters, but were never treated as anything but members of the house.

The writer is also not talking about Ijaw culture when he says people of servile birth can never be King. Maybe it applies in Ibani land, but definitely not Okrika. My grandmothers brother was the last Amanyanabo of Okrika and his father was of servile birth. Yet, the Kingmaker chose him as Amanyanabo because he was proficient and because he was a Tuboniju (a group of villages from which Kings are chosen).

.

bawomolo:

Would this committee talk about the Biafran invasion of the Midwestern region? What about the murder of Hausa traders in the Midwestern region.  This thread seems to be centered around Igbo's being victims while the Ijaws should come and beg for forgiveness.

There actions centered around what they thought was best for their people.  I won't argue with that.  They gambled and lost just like Ojukwu. Selfish yes but it wasn't betrayal.  The invasion of the Midwestern region knowing there were no hausa soldiers in the region and region's neutrality is an ACT OF BETRAYAL

You are going way off tangent here.
Someone started a thread on Igbo and Ijaw reuniting and we're saying that the actions of Ijaws up to stolen property has to be addressed for that to take place.
If doing what was best for them is agreeing to take over property belonging to their hard working cousins as compensation then I believe they're now reaping the fruits.

tpia:

let me post here so aloy emekraze can contribute.

Im no go show face unless he sees tpia posting on Igbo thread.

This girl you have to admit that you're crazy about emeka.

RichyBlacK:

I very much agree with you. We need to have a Truth and Reconciliation Committee on the human rights abuses surrounding the Biafran War.

Another Oputa panel??

~Sauron~:

Another Oputa panel??

So Charly Boy was given a panel too