I have noticed a certain trend among igbos outside the "core" ( whatever that means ) eastern states never wanting to be called igbo.Their names, culture and even language are obviously igbo and yet when you ask them what is your tribe, they say i am Delta Igbo, Rivers Igbo and all what not. Could someone pls explain this to me.

Many do. What planet are u in?

Identity crisis

Because they are myopic and thinks it suits their imaginary political ambitions,nevertheless,some of them dont deny their igboness because are wise.

Q

P

Actually, it's not all of them in the SS that do so. We have quite a number of them that are proud of being Igbo, even here on NL. Chyz, Adabada, and a hosts of them.

Funny enough, there are some that are sitting on the fence. They are Igbo when it suits them.

excanny:

Actually, it's not all of them in the SS that do so. We have quite a number of them that are proud of being Igbo, even here on NL. Chyz, Adabada, and a hosts of them. 

Funny enough, there are some that are sitting on the fence. They are Igbo when it suits them.

Abadaba is a delta man? And I didn't know there were undecideds, here on NL. Who are these 'on-the-fence' people?

ChinenyeN:

Abadaba is a delta man?

He's from Rivers.

ChinenyeN:

And I didn't know there were undecideds, here on NL. Who are these 'on-the-fence' people?

I'm really not in the know of folks from the Etche clan disclaiming Igbo until i saw a dude here that posted he's  Etche but not Igbo. This is the kind of incident i was referring  to as sitting on the fence. I never saw it coming.

excanny:

He's from Rivers.

Oh really? Where from Rivers?

excanny:

I'm really not in the know of folks from the Etche clan disclaiming Igbo until i saw a dude here that posted he's  Etche but not Igbo. This is the kind of incident i was referring  to as sitting on the fence. I never saw it coming.

From my interactions, folks from Etche don't really disclaim Igbo like that, but they also aren't too keen on carrying that outright "Igbo" label, like that. That isn't to say though that there don't exist a few who outrightly disclaim "Igbo".

ChinenyeN:

Oh really? Where from Rivers?

Ahoada

ChinenyeN:


From my interactions, folks from Etche don't really disclaim Igbo like that, but they also aren't too keen on carrying that outright "Igbo" label, like that. That isn't to say though that there don't exist a few who outrightly disclaim "Igbo".

Exactly my thoughts. They are not assertive in their denial like the Ikwerres, neither are they so keen on claiming an Igbo identity like the South-eastern Igbos. From my observations, i think there are quite a good number of such Igboid neutrals like that in Rivers state. They seem to have been very diplomatic with their identity by not pleasing or offending any of these 2 extreme groups.

Oh, so Abadaba is Ekpeye? Interesting. How come he rarely speaks of it?

excanny:

Exactly my thoughts. They are not assertive in their denial like the Ikwerres, neither are they so keen on claiming an Igbo identity like the South-eastern Igbos. From my observations, i think there are quite a good number of such Igboid neutrals like that in Rivers state. They seem to have been very diplomatic with their identity by not pleasing or offending any of these 2 extreme groups.

I've always liked the Echee (Etche) people's approach to this whole identity issue, but I guess that could be because I can relate most to that kind of understanding.

@OP,why make a mushroom cloud out of a molehill?
The Igbos that have and do "identify" have enough problems already.Why wud anyone force down something like ethnicity on anyone?If someone is not comfortable as being addressed as Igbo,why shld anyone lose sleep over that

^^^

Well, the truth kinda be told sometimes for the future generation to know.

Anyone in the world is free to claim what he wants, but people still need to know the fact. Falsehood is dangerous.

i think it's a reaction to discriminiation from the south-eatern igbos. a fight back mechanism. this is not a generalisation though. there have been instances where a south-eastern igbo refers to non south-eastern igbo derogatively as not being real igbo. one instance comes to mind when an elder of the ohaneze ndigbo, one hypolite ogboko disputed the igboness of prof. pat utomi in 2007.

^^yeah. You are quite correct. It used to be a bad practice by some south-eastern igbos in the past. I also grew up seeing some of my old folks referring to our ukwuani neighbours as 'fake' igbo. But i think that trend has been on the decline as the day goes by. Our parents may have misunderstood each other, but we must avoid doing the same mistake in this age when the world has become a global village.

it's time we discard the foolishness of our fathers(with all due respects), repair the damaged but not lost relationships with our brothers & reunite the family. an igbo man is an igbo man , whereever he is, south-east or no south-east. period.

Denial of Igbo identity is dying. Fast.

Are there indigenious igbo people in benue,akwaibom and cross river states

vicenzo:

Are there indigenious igbo people in benue,akwaibom and cross river states

Old news.

vicenzo:

Are there indigenious igbo people in benue,akwaibom and cross river states

Yes

vicenzo:

Are there indigenious igbo people in benue,akwaibom and cross river states

I think the question should be if they also see themselves as Igbos.

There are Igbo people of Ndoki extraction in Etim Ekpo LGA of Akwa Ibom.
Personally, I have met a company rep. in London who is Igbo from Benue state. His surname is Okolobia.
I do not know about Igbo in Cross River, though all those communities on the Abakiliki-Ogoja road do speak Igbo. Ndigbo do not claim them as Igbo neither has Ohanaeze requested them to join the apex-Igbo body.

@andre.Thanks for the exposition,that was what i expected from ezeagu.

how about Kogi Igbos
Eg Mercy Johnson Ozioma

saintneo:

how about Kogi Igbos
Eg Mercy Johnson Ozioma

Her mum is Igbo.

Andre Uweh:

There are Igbo people of Ndoki extraction in Etim Ekpo LGA of Akwa Ibom.
Personally, I have met a company rep. in London who is Igbo from Benue state. His surname is Okolobia.
I do not know about Igbo in Cross River, though all those communities on the Abakiliki-Ogoja road do speak Igbo. Ndigbo do not claim them as Igbo neither has Ohanaeze requested them to join the apex-Igbo body.

Sunny Neji is igbo, from Ogoja Cross-River state

okeyxyz:

Sunny Neji is igbo, from Ogoja Cross-River state

Ogoja is not Igbo and the people in Ogoja do not speak Igbo as their first language.

I've also noticed that some Anioma Igbos (especially those around the Usele-ukwu axis) hold the south-eastern Igbos in high esteem. More like the kind of respect African American have for Africans.

I wonder why this is so.

excanny:

I've also noticed that some Anioma Igbos (especially those around the Usele-ukwu axis) hold the south-eastern Igbos in high esteem. More like the kind of respect African American have for Africans.

I wonder why this is so.

IN those areas you mentioned and in fact the entire Oshimili/Aniocha areas, they do not question their Igboness. Their dialects are also similar to Igbo dialects in Anambra state.

na wa, nigerians, to much trouble, even within

@ op

there are a lot of igbo who do not deny there igboness

but some do because they are sometimes discriminated as osu

but all in all, it is a very small fraction that do that


@Andre Uweh

very mature answer