klonboi:
It is Only in Nigeria and Africa in general that you will see were humans are dumped in a certain area and tagged a name out of their will or without plebiscite.

@Op this is the origin of your confusion.

If proper referendum were conducted an individual's in communities decides where they want to belong to all this problem wouldn't have come up

odigbosky:

samuk:


The king we now know as Obi of Obolukwu was known in Benin as Ogie Oboro, if the title Obi existed then, Benin would have known and call him Obi Oboro.

samuk:


It's almost impossible for you to use your present day observations to explain events of 300 years ago let alone 500 years ago. The world was a complete different place then. Your writeup is ridden with you think, you think....you will probably also think that the present king of England is of English ancestry because he speaks English and he is the king of England. The world doesn't or didn't work like that.

You need to read more and do more research if you really want to learn instead of formulating your own theories using limited knowledge from your today's observations.

In 1875 for example, Samuel Ajayi Crowder visited Asaba and documented that there were large Igbo migrating to Asaba and the indigene were fast loosing their Edo language, although few Edo words were still being used. This is 1875 and you are trying to think and formulate theories about what happened during the reign of Oba Ewuare more than 500 years ago. During the reign of Oba Ewuare, that entire area and beyond were mostly populated by Edo people before they were overwhelmed by other migrants.

The above reference is a eye witness historical account of someone that was on ground in Asaba in 1875 and wrote what he saw, not what he thought. Although you will read Igbo writers that wrote in the 1900s claiming Asaba as original Igbo town.

There are people that still claim Benin ancestry all over the South South to the middle belt, in comparison, Delta North was just another Benin empire towns and villages. The king we now know as Obi of Obolukwu was known in Benin as Ogie Oboro, if the title Obi existed then, Benin would have known and call him Obi Oboro. Perhaps you should ask yourself why the current king of Agbor changed his title from Obi of Agbor to Dein of Agbor and what was the title during Oba Ewuare, 500 years ago.

samuk:


It's almost impossible for you to use your present day observations to explain events of 300 years ago let alone 500 years ago. The world was a complete different place then. Your writeup is ridden with you think, you think....you will probably also think that the present king of England is of English ancestry because he speaks English and he is the king of England. The world doesn't or didn't work like that.

You need to read more and do more research if you really want to learn instead of formulating your own theories using limited knowledge from your today's observations.

In 1875 for example, Samuel Ajayi Crowder visited Asaba and documented that there were large Igbo migrating to Asaba and the indigene were fast loosing their Edo language, although few Edo words were still being used. This is 1875 and you are trying to think and formulate theories about what happened during the reign of Oba Ewuare more than 500 years ago. During the reign of Oba Ewuare, that entire area and beyond were mostly populated by Edo people before they were overwhelmed by other migrants.

The above reference is a eye witness historical account of someone that was on ground in Asaba in 1875 and wrote what he saw, not what he thought. Although you will read Igbo writers that wrote in the 1900s claiming Asaba as original Igbo town.

There are people that still claim Benin ancestry all over the South South to the middle belt, in comparison, Delta North was just another Benin empire towns and villages. The king we now know as Obi of Obolukwu was known in Benin as Ogie Oboro, if the title Obi existed then, Benin would have known and call him Obi Oboro. Perhaps you should ask yourself why the current king of Agbor changed his title from Obi of Agbor to Dein of Agbor and what was the title during Oba Ewuare, 500 years ago.

odigbosky:



You have a point. It is very valid but i still believe Edo was not a major language in places like Asaba. There are other writings that classified these people as igboid.

bigfrancis21:


Interesting. Can you share the link to the book or article about Ajayi’s visit to Asaba in 1875 and his comment on their Edo history?

bigfrancis21:


Interesting. Can you share the link to the book or article about Ajayi’s visit to Asaba in 1875 and his comment on their Edo history?

samuk:
...

AreaFada2:


Samuk, the way history has been rewritten by those tribes that the British favoured after 1897 and benefitted initially from 1914 amalgamation and post-independence, is beginning to miseducate some Edo people. Say around 1986, if I greeted elderly people "Lamogun or La'Umogun", they will recite the "oriki", uwaenmwen or praise of Umogun descendants. I would have to politely wait for them to finish before proceeding on my merry way. My experience as a young chap. Edohen, Ero, Elawure, Ezomo and other descendants also have their oriki. A chap who greets Lamogun today might even get a reply in Pidgin English from the elder.

Kids today may not even know that there is something like oriki.
Edo people brought up in Lagos are helping to spread the myth that Edo people come from Yoruba. That is how their "accommodating" hosts educated them.

For anyone to use languages or dialects spoken today in various districts of former Benin Empire to decide or conjure up what the origins or demographics of those areas were around 1440-1473 when Oba Ewuare I reigned, is an abysmal disservice to scholarship and common sense.

But at least the guy has enough fantasy and attempted to think, albeit being misguided.

samuk:


This is why sometimes I reply these guys to set the record straight. Education in Nigeria is currently nothing to write home about. We Edo people are also not doing enough, what stop each family from writing their own family history for a start, a project which I am already helping to finance within my own family. Our ancestors who came into contact with the Europeans as early as the 1400s didn't see the need to learn the art of writing, we are just lucky that early foreigners wrote aspects of our history, we can already see how those whose ancestors learn how to read and write starting from late 1800s are rewriting our history and mis-educating our people about our history. The Op even claim to be Edo.

AreaFada2:


Let me tell you the truth about the bolded. I began such an effort 6 years ago. It didn't go anywhere. Please let me not talk about how much I wasted on it. I gave it up. Look, most people are interested in money share. One big mistake is to try to involve too many people. Of course the idea is to get as much input as possible. Which in normal countries, would be the right thing. But some generations of 9ja people have got too used to embezzling and sharing money. Only few know the value of history. When you bring that idea, their impression is that you have too much money.

If they can't get get their hands on they money, some will just constitute an obstacle for no reason. Elderly well educated people I am talking about.

The best way is to get young intellectuals with a passion for history. They see things with keen, innovative digital eyes, not corrupt analogue eyes. I had to find an alternative. Not writing anymore, as side-lining them going ahead would have caused offence to many.

The only people I see showing genuine great passion for Edo history on social media are young people. Such as GBD. That tells you that only the youth can rescue the situation.

samuk:


Bishop Crowder on the Niger mission, 1875, page 538.

bigfrancis21:


Thanks for sharing the article. I wanted to see the original article to understand your original statement about: ‘Asaba fast loosing their edo language’. Your earlier statement does not appear induced nor insinuated in Ajayi’s writing that you referenced. Understood, a few words and cultural practices may have been borrowed from the Edo, plus maybe some later Edo migrants may have settled in Asaba, however it remains unlikely that the entire Asaba people originated from Edo.

samuk:

bigfrancis21:


Thanks for sharing the article. I wanted to see the original article to understand your original statement about: ‘Asaba fast loosing their edo language’. Your earlier statement does not appear induced nor insinuated in Ajayi’s writing that you referenced. Understood, a few words and cultural practices may have been borrowed from the Edo, plus maybe some later Edo migrants may have settled in Asaba, however it remains unlikely that the entire Asaba people originated from Edo.

RedboneSmith:


His conclusions from Crowther's writings are over-reaching. Crowther writes about a migration from areas under Benin's sovereignty. There's nothing there about the ethnicity or linguistic pedigree of these migrants. Not every area under Benin's political sphere of influence was Edo, as every scholar of Benin history already knows.

Asaba traditions actually speak of one of the pre-Nnebisi ancestors as Eze Anyanwu, who was connected to the royal line of Eze Chima. This 'Eze Anyanwu' is doubtless the embodiment of this migration from 'under Benin sovereignty' mentioned in Crowther's writings.

It remains to be proven that this Eze Anyanwu, just like Ezechima, was ethnically Edo. The names would suggest not. And like Ezechima, it is much more likely that the migration was from more westerly parts of the [b]Igboid-speaking Anioma area.

gregyboy:



Nice one I learnt something its been a while i read something like this pertaining to edo history

samuk:


Are you really serious right now? There is no likely or maybe, forget you wishful thinking and go back to the page, it clearly states that Benin word for salutation and other phrases were still in use in 1875 Asaba by Asabans who claimed they migrated under the sovereign of the oba of Benin.

No matter how you try to spin it, Ajayi Crowder who was the linguistic that help the Igbo language a great deal knew who was Ibo and who was not in 1875, and according to him, the Asaba people of 1875 were not Ibo, they were people who were still using Benin word and phrases and whose habits were different from that of the Ibos.

Whoever you wish Asabans of 1875 to be, they were not Ibos according to Ajayi Crowder. Unless you can produce an eyewitness historical evidence that was written earlier than 1875 to support your position on this matter, you have no case.

History is not guess work or wishful thinking, you have to supply material evidences to support your position and at this point none of you have any material to counter my Ajayi Crowder 1875 eyewitness historical accounts and evidence. All you have so far are, maybe, more likely, I think or I believe.

In summary according to Ajayi Crowder 1875

1. Asabans were not Ibo
2. Asabans have habits that were different from Ibos
3. Asabans traditions says they migrated from the sovereign of the Oba of Benin
4. Asabans still used Benin word and phrases.

Who was Samuel Ajayi Crowder?

He was a linguistic giant who helped standardised the Yoruba and Igbo languages, his work help in the translation of the Bible in both yoruba and Igbo languages, so linguistically speaking, Ajayi knew who was Ibo and who was not in 1875.

Side Note:

The Ibo move in large numbers from their heartland of the south east to dominate Delta North and start to rewrite the history of the area, this was exactly what the Sadauna feared and spoke about in the 1950s that made him pursue his Northernization policy that put the North and her interests first to the exclusion of the Igbo who migrated to the North in large numbers. Igbo military boys eventually killed him and made Nigeria a unitary system under Ironsi, which later backfired.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6coimsqIyw

bigfrancis21:


Thanks for sharing the article. I wanted to see the original article to understand your original statement about: ‘Asaba fast loosing their edo language’. Your earlier statement does not appear induced nor insinuated in Ajayi’s writing that you referenced. Understood, a few words and cultural practices may have been borrowed from the Edo, plus maybe some later Edo migrants may have settled in Asaba, however it remains unlikely that the entire Asaba people originated from Edo.

Igboid:
Edos(Bini) should understand and accept that their small empire era is gone and never coming back forever.
Anioma is Igbo and has never been Edo. This should be common sense.
Anioma will only aggravate towards SE as time goes on.
Brothers will always settle differences and reunite.
Bini should make peace with their few LGAs in Edo stateand their people there and maybe try to reach out to their Edoid brothers like Esan, Etsako, Urhobo, Isoko, Epie-Etissa (Bayelsa), Engenni (Rivers State), Degema ( Rivers State), etc.

Maybe in time we could out of magnanimity give them back Ozanogogo (those are the only Edo people in Anioma) in exchange for Igbanke in Edo state.

Udo.

Probz:


Agreed. I’d say Asaba-people migrated from Nri more than anywhere-else (ditto for Iselle-and-Ogwashi-Ukwu folk). The whole Edoid-origin fixation wanes the closer you get to the nuclear Enuani-Igbo area (compared-to Bendel/Ika folk). Whatever more-westerly origins they have (unless they’re of the Olukunmi stock) hold no-more mmili in that sense than Igala does to good chunks of Anambra or Ibibio/Annang to Ohafia/Ngwa.