anyi wo ofu. ofu nne,, ofu nna

ofu Umunna

Look. If you'd rather not say, then just say you'd rather not say. It shouldn't be so difficult.

Oh sorry for late reply.

I am an Ijaw

Where from Ijo? Which clan? Ibani, Wakirike, Nkoro, Kalabari, Nembe, etc.?

Bonny

Okay. That's interesting. Let me ask you, if you know, who is Opara Asimini?

@ ndu chucks


I just understood your comment about the streets.

Streets paved with hard stone are principally a Mediterranean thing (with the exception of Mesoamerica, where there was copious amounts of stone). Countries close to Greece and Rome, or who were colonized by Rome, adopted that practice, but it was not a worldwide practice. As for streets with smooth cement surfaces, that was not widespread until the technology was developed.

Are you claiming that streets without stone paving or cement surfaces were not streets? Then there were very few streets in many other 17th century kingdoms as well, so Benin was not behind that many people in this regard.

Also, there are two different quotes from European visitors (Legroing and Nyendael) which state that there is little stone in the country so the inhabitants of Benin build with earth. This is not entirely false. Large stone deposits can be found in parts of Edo north (Afenmai area), but in Edo south (Bini), it was much less plentiful so they built with earth and wood. If they had opted for stone, things might have turned out better as far as the preservation of the city, but building would have been much more time consuming and laborious because they would have to go searching long distances for stone and haul stone over large distances back to Benin. Without large stone deposits nearby, it didn't make sense to try and pave all of the streets with stone or to construct the buildings out of stone.

You don't have to have stone or cement to have a street.

Igbo is spoken widely in Bonny and Opobo because majority of the inhabitants are either Igbo or are mixed with the Igbo. If they weren't the language would have died. The tiny Ijo inhabitants and outsiders like Edwin Clark aka Igbo hater #1 of Ijo nation are the ones trying to cause trouble in Opobo.

ndu_chucks:


I'm not sure how one must not conclude that the above is nothing more than gross exaggeration. Dutch visitor said the streets in the city seemed to go on with out being able to see an ending  What vehicles plied these roads? Were these people talking about trekking paths or roads? abeg make una no make me laugh jare  Unending roads ko, unending paths to the bush ni  

Nigerians had fallen in love with unimaginable exaggerations. Track roads made due to series of beat downs from humans walking to the farms manifested into streets built by bulldozers powered by steam engine. 

Actually, there are European accounts of paved streets among many Nigerian groups including Benin. What is this? We don't think African ancestors can create streets? Plus were the streets in 1700 amsterdam built by bulldozers?

Okpara Asimini is not today's issue. that was the sibling of Alagbariye during the foundation of Bonny Kingdom

@ Ezeagu, I wasn't talking about streets paved with potsherd pavement like those in Ife which spread to Benin and Oyo. The potsherd pavement of Ife was artistic and creative, but I think ndu chuks was referring to something that looks like a stone paved street in England or a cement surface street (which is impossible for that time period.)

I have not read of stone or cement streets in Benin like the kind ndu chuks was clearly thinking of.





@ ndu chuks and Dede1

According to the logic that a street needs a particular sort of stone or cement aspect to be a street, most of Asia did not have streets at any point in history prior to the 20th century and any account that says that anybody was walking along a certain street in Asia before the 20th century is an exaggeration.

nasoeb:

Okpara Asimini is not today's issue. that was the sibling of Alagbariye during the foundation of Bonny Kingdom

I miebam. That's all I wanted to get out of you from that question. I am curious though. Who was their father?

@odezue
Igbos are found every where.

and i just told you why its very common to see the igbos living freely and easily fitted in Bonny and her sister kingdom Opobo.
1. Because we adopted igbo language as means of communication during the then slave transaction.
2. Because the Ijaw Man is relatively Peace Loving and very difficult to react

ChinenyeN:

Okay. That's interesting. Let me ask you, if you know, who is Opara Asimini?

Please stop encouraging the revisionists by stating Opara Asimiri. It was Opara Azumiri (fish of water or fish in the river). It is a fact the people of the era in discuss were fond of taking names after certain animals. For example, Ikiri, Ediabali, Edimiri, Odum, Agu, Ugo, etc.

Dede1:

Please stop encouraging the revisionists by stating Opara Asimiri. It was Opara Azumiri (fish of water or fish in the river). It is a fact the people of the era discuss were fond of taking names after certain animals. For example, Ikiri, Ediabali, Edimiri, Odum, Agu, Ugo, etc.

Dede, I know what I want to get out of him. Don't worry.

why you speak ibani

hmmmm you are ngwa.

am happy you can speak that

they were all the children of Kolokuma / Opukoma in central Delta.


No more dissecting it here.

if you want more of it, hit me on my id

@Dede1

If you are drunk na you sabi

My Clan has absolute Nothing to do with yours, stop attracting us together. there is nothing binding us together (Except selling your people as slaves). we share NOTHING with you. na by force.

carry your own go one place

nasoeb:

@odezue
Igbos are found every where.

and i just told you why its very common to see the igbos living freely and easily fitted in Bonny and her sister kingdom Opobo.
1. Because we adopted igbo language as means of communication during the then slave transaction.
2. Because the Ijaw Man is relatively Peace Loving and very difficult to react

Please give us Ijo name of Opu Obu and Ubani. Do not try Ibani because it is a fraud.

PhysicsQED:

@ ndu chucks


I just understood your comment about the streets.

Streets paved with hard stone are principally a Mediterranean thing. Countries close to Greece and Rome, or who were colonized by Rome, adopted that practice, but it was not a worldwide practice. As for streets with smooth cement surfaces, that was not widespread until the technology was developed.

Are you claiming that streets without stone paving or cement surfaces were not streets? Then there were very few streets in many other 17th century kingdoms as well, so Benin was not behind that many people in this regard.

Also, there are two different quotes from European visitors which state that there is little stone in the country so the inhabitants of Benin build with earth. This is not entirely false. Large stone deposits can be found in parts of Edo north (Afenmai area), but in Edo south (Bini), it was much less plentiful so they built with earth and wood. If they had opted for stone, things might have turned out better as far as the preservation of the city, but building would have been much more time consuming and laborious because they would have to go searching long distances for stone and hauling stone over large distances back to Benin. Without large stone deposits nearby, it didn't make sense to try and pave all of the streets with stone or to construct the buildings out of stone.

Context, context, context.

Until we Africans get the importance of Historical, geographical and cultural context, we will continue to swallow every foolish one-sided analysis from illiterate, ignorant Europeans.

To many foolish Africans, civilization is wholly dependent on the interpretations given by Europeans, that is why many of them see everything uniquely African as primitive, even when it makes no iota of sense to have those things in Africa.

I.e Africans didn't have horses: so? How many wild horses have you seen in a rain forest?

Sub Sahara Africans didn't pave: so? At least they understand the concept of road path, it is by force to pave with stone?

Africans wore little clothing: So how many people do you see with a fur coat at a hot tropical beach?


Context matters, it is not great because whitie did it, it is great because it addressed local needs.

Funny thing is Europeans rarely treat their own "primitive" worldviews and practices in that manner. But of course we know why.

They name everything after their primitive "gods" from scientific discoveries to psychological phenomena, but they turn around to refer to our own worldview, gods and practices as pagan, animist or backward. Yet some of us brainwashed idiots swallow it and refuse to learn context!

Thank you PhysicsQED.

Apologies for the off topic reply 

@nasoeb, so no name of an actual father? Just that they came from Kolokuma/Opokuma region?

well its simple

Go and ask those from opu obu or ubani maybe they can answer you as i am simply not from any of that

nasoeb:

@odezue
Igbos are found every where.

and i just told you why its very common to see the igbos living freely and easily fitted in Bonny and her sister kingdom Opobo.
1. Because we adopted igbo language as means of communication during the then slave transaction.
2. Because the Ijaw Man is relatively Peace Loving and very difficult to react

could the same not be said of igbo, I mean in terms of Ndoki people

could the same not be said of bini (gelegele)

could the same not be said of yorubas in ondo that gave ijaw land

so why are ijaws claiming every land from lagos to awka ibom

do you not think that is a recipe for disaster to come

Ok take a look at lagos and ajegunle. were ijaws indigenes of the place

what is the meaning of ajegule in Ijaw/izon language ?

were they not given the land just few years ago until they pushed OPC

so what are you talking about here

if ijaws are claiming ondo etc as the land they gave others, then others can claim their land as well such as itsekiri, urhobo, igbos

but the reverse is not the case

you people are pushing people off their land and claim u gave them land and claiming even the land that was given to u people by other groups

---------------------------------------------------------

Lastly WHAT IS IJAW

This is a fraud of the century that needs to be revisited. I was hearing an Ijaw man the other day claiming that ilaje people of lagos are Ijaw.

Well Ilaje and they can never ever be called ijaw. Why u ask ?

Because they have not language sharing with them and there is no way that ilaje people can be called ijaw all in the name of costal people.

can a typical Kalabari man understand an apoi ijaw (apoi ijaw are not ijaw but recently added ijaw to there name because ijaws claim their ancestors started from that land)  speak ?

can an okirika man understand a typical delta ijaw.

etc No so what is all this fraud that you people call ijaw. izon nation

Instend of joining up to igbos, you are here forming a different ethnic that is surely less than 10 million where as the yorubas are 40 million and igbos 30-35 million. and still growing

I find this very disgusting and sad

1 Ijaws against Ilajes in Ondo State

2 Ijaws against Binis in Edo State

3 Ijaws against Itsekiris in Delta State

4 Ijaws against Urhobos (Ogbe Ijo, Gbarigolo, Olota, Okweagbe etc.),all in Delta State

5 Ijaws against Ekwerres in Rivers State

6 Ijaws against Ogonis in Rivers State

7 Ijaws against Ibibios in Akwa Ibom State

8 Ijaws against Yorubas in Ajegunle; Lagos State

this so call south south is already a dead dream

nasoeb:

@Dede1

If you are drunk na you sabi

My Clan has absolute Nothing to do with yours, stop attracting us together. there is nothing binding us together (Except selling your people as slaves). we share NOTHING with you. na by force.

carry your own go one place

You are probably a great-grandson of a slave. Most of the porters who later became the boat people were slaves the Europeans brought along with them from Gold Coast. Ndigbo sold their fellow men into slavery not Ijo. The ruling houses in the so-called Ijo land were founded by Ndigbo and good numbers of them were slaves.

You can not have anything with a royal blood.

this is what Ijaw caused in the so called Niger-delta republic.

[size=13pt]Ogonis are not Niger Deltans and we want our own state out of Rivers State — MOSOP[/size]

BY GEORGE ONAH

THE Ogoni people of Rivers State do not want to be addressed as Niger Delta people because “we are not”. They also want political autonomy, which translates to having their own state. Sunday Vanguard travelled to Teyork, Khana Local Government of Rivers State to speak with the new leader of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, MOSOP, Mr. Goodluck Diigbo.

He recalled his association with the late leader of the movement, Ken Saro Wiwa, his electrified cell, their last moments together, before Ken was hanged. Diigbo spoke about the many attempts on his own life, escape to Ghana and the two attempts to kill him there. Central to all these was the MOSOP non-violent struggle and well as the Ogoni Bill of Rights, NDDC, MOSOP’s recent elections and controversy about the location of UNDP and UNEP offices to tackle environmental problems there.

SHALL we talk about the Ogonis in the Niger Delta region

Listen, I want us to know one thing, the Ogonis are not Niger Deltans, we are just neighbours with the Niger Delta people. There is documentation on how Ogonis and people in the Niger Delta became a province. It was not Niger Delta and it is clearly stated in those documents that those in the Niger Delta and some sub-groups were joining them and the Ogonis were one of those sub-groups. This Niger Delta thing has been used to over shadow our non-violence struggle and our demands. People have just been lumped together and they said they created the Niger Delta Development Commission to address the Niger Delta problem. The NDDC has not addressed any problem of the Ogonis.


Are you suggesting that the NDDC has not impacted on the lives of the Ogoni people?
It is simply no impact at all. When I travel to other communities in the region I see signpost indicating projects by NDDC, but here, there is nothing of the sort, no road, just nothing. But I must quickly say that the Federal Government has been very supportive when this land was deserted for four years because of community clashes. Today, up till date, the state government has not asked about what has happened to the people that used to be known as Teyor Kaani, now Teyork community.

The MOSOP elections have come and gone but we are hearing some bickerings, what is it about?
Yes, about the elections and the new leadership. It is like the old leadership has not come to terms with the fact that a new leadership has emerged in MOSOP

I want to say that we are moving on and we are not dissipating energy on what those who lost out in the elections are saying. We are just moving on with our very critical programmes. Our focus now is no longer on the election but on the agenda of the new leadership

What was your position in the days of Ken Saro Wiwa?
It is a long history; I was involved from the scratch from Ogoni Central Union until it metamorphosed into MOSOP

What was this Ogoni central union all about?
Well, it was a political union founded by the foremost Ogoni nationalist Hon. Paul Timothy Birabi. The organisation was later disbanded but we reactivated it.

Let us recall the days of yore in Ogoniland. Now were you able to escape from the military when Ken and others were picked up?

All that is contained in my book that was supposed to have been released in New York last week. However, it was God’s will. I survived five attempts on my life here in Nigeria in the course of my hiding. You see, it is rather emotional. There were also two attempts on my life in Ghana and that brings the attempts to seven. These were difficult moments but I managed to walk across the border all the way to Accra.

Let’s go a little backward, down memory lane. How did you feel the day you heard that Ken had been hanged?
I was in this country; I was here in Nigeria because I did not want to go. I was in communication with Ken until that last moment and until his cell was electrified with barbed wire and the purpose was for any unauthorised person who went near or touched the cell to be electrocuted. He had insisted that I should leave the country. He had also spoken to Prof. Claude Ake (of blessed memory) to persuade me to leave but I said I was not going to leave unless they were released. Of course that was a very difficult principled position.

Even to leave Port Harcourt for Lagos, I said I was not leaving. I, however, had a premonition that if I left for Lagos I would have been arrested anyway. So I stayed here until six weeks after the execution. I was virtually the last key person to leave here.

I was here when Ledum Mitee was released from detention, I communicated with him but that almost led me into danger and I don’t want to talk about that now. I had to leave when it became difficult for people around who were crying day and night that I would be killed and I also became unwanted in the place that I was hiding.

Ken would always say that you can kill the messenger but you cannot kill the message. On the day Ken was hanged, did you see the fire in you go off or did you think that the struggle was over?
No, definitely not. Rather, I thought that the struggle was just beginning. I was quite aware that he had pre-warned me about 153 times on the basis of person-to-person and it’s in my diary while talking about his death. He knew death was coming and he was very clear on what should be done when he is finally killed.

Ken visited me on the night of November 9 and that was the day before he was hanged. I sat on a couch and he sat by my side. I turned and tried to touch him but the place was void, there was no one there.

Couldn’t this have been some kind of dream while you were sleeping or some sort of hallucination?
No, I was not dreaming and I was not sleeping, I said I was seated on a couch and people around me know the story. I started weeping and throughout that night I could not sleep because he came back again when I slept to lie by my side. Finally, he went into some kind of a river and left and said I should go back and that was on the 9th of November. I wept all day and all night and so on the 10th when I now learnt that he had been hanged, I couldn’t cry again. I just took the story as if nothing happened.

But why didn’t you want to leave?
Actually, I stayed back to see how we could regroup and resist. But you see our people were deceived by the reaction of the international community to pacify our people, which I think was good. Of course, we were still vowing to be non-violent, but I think the pacification by the reaction of the international community turned around to what has killed MOSOP now. The action of the international community gave a lot of hope or high expectations to our people on what would happen. A number of others (Ogoni people) left for overseas and to be overseas as refugees was not something easy.

What exactly are you asking for?
We are not just asking for those basic amenities that we can provide for ourselves. Up till today Ogoni land has not been connected to the national grid, just look around, there is no electricity.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2009/06/ogonis-are-not-niger-deltans-and-we-want-our-own-state-out-of-rivers-state-%E2%80%94-mosop/

alj_harem:

Ok take a look at lagos and ajegunle. were ijaws indigenes of the place

what is the meaning of ajegule in Ijaw/izon language ?

were they not given the land just few years ago until they pushed OPC

so what are you talking about here

if ijaws are claiming ondo etc as the land they gave others, then others can claim their land as well such as itsekiri, urhobo, igbos

but the reverse is not the case

you people are pushing people off their land and claim u gave them land and claiming even the land that was given to u people by other groups

---------------------------------------------------------

Lastly WHAT IS IJAW

This is a fraud of the century that needs to be revisited. I was hearing an Ijaw man the other day claiming that ilaje people of lagos are Ijaw.

Well Ilaje and they can never ever be called ijaw. Why u ask ?

Because they have not language sharing with them and there is no way that ilaje people can be called ijaw all in the name of costal people.

the ijaws actually believe they own all the coastal line from rivers state(south-south) to lagos(south west).
i don't know how that's possible but that is their belief.

@ chinenye
I am a proud Ijaw man and know where i came from and where i am going.

If you are eager to know more about my clan i can give you the privilege only by confide means. i wont come out to an open forum and dissect all my history to anyone. NO WAY. whats my Dignity if i do such.

I will give you more facts and link and refer you to books to read.

But am far more mature to argue with the likes of Dede over my OWN HISTORY. talking to such figures only belittle me as i would not partake in such blind and filthy foolish argument.

when you stop replying to fools, they will will surely stop being foolish.

i need only reasonable people who are mature and can construct facts maturely

thanks Chinenye

Dede1:

Please stop encouraging the revisionists by stating Opara Asimiri. It was Opara Azumiri (fish of water or fish in the river). It is a fact the people of the era in discuss were fond of taking names after certain animals. For example, Ikiri, Ediabali, Edimiri, Odum, Agu, Ugo, etc.    

I thought the Azumiri places were pronounced Àzú mmiri = back waters, not Ázụ mmiri.

coogar:

the ijaws actually believe they own all the coastal line from rivers state(south-south) to lagos(south west).
i don't know how that's possible but that is their belief.

exactly. you see why i call it an ethnic fraud that needs to be revisited fast

surely, they are going to have a face-off with with OPC one way or the other

who wins is a different matter, but thousands of people will surly die for a matter that is very avoidable

alj_harem:

exactly. you see why i call it an ethnic fraud that needs to be revisited fast

surely, they are going to have a face-off with with OPC one way or the other

who wins is a different matter, but thousands of people will surly die for a matter that is very avoidable

they had one before in the late 90s or early 2000s.
opc vs ijaw youths in ajegunle area. . . . .

@nasoeb. . you are Bonny, and I am Ngwa. I'd very much like to talk discuss. I mielamam.

@ezeagu, Azumiri (actually the river Aza which connects to Imo) got it's name from the community [Azumiri], which got it's name from being positioned "behind the river", since the community is the most eastward compared to most other communities and it is on the other size of the Aza river (i.e. to the back of everyone else)