Itsekiri people

The Itsekiri' (also called the, Isekiri, Itsekri or Ishekiri or
Itsekhiri ) are an ethnic group of Nigeria 's Niger Delta area,
Delta State .The Itsekiri presently number under a
million people and live mainly in the Warri South, Warri North and Warri South West local government districts of Delta State on the Atlantic Coast of Nigeria . Significant
communities of Itsekiris can be found in parts of Edo and
Ondo states and in various other Nigerian cities including
Lagos, Sapele , Benin City, Port Harcourt and Abuja. Many
people of Itsekiri descent also reside in the United Kingdom,
the USA and Canada. The Itsekiris traditionally refer to their
land as the Kingdom of Warri or 'Iwerre' as its proper name – which is geographically contiguous to the area covered by the three Warri local government districts. The area is a key
centre of Nigeria's crude oil and natural gas production and
petroleum refining and the main town Warri (a multi-ethnic
metropolis) forms the industrial and commercial nucleus of
the Delta State region.

Ethnography
The Itsekiri are a people of very mixed ethnic origins who
speak a language very closely related to the Yoruba language of South Western Nigeria but which has also been
significantly influenced by other languages particularly
Portuguese, Edo (Benin), English . Although linguistically
related to the Yoruba ethnic group, however, through
centuries of intermingling modern day Itsekiris are of very
mixed ethnic origins (primarily of Yoruba (Ijebu, Ilaje,Ondo
and Owo), Edo, Urhobo, Ijo, Anglo-Scottish and Portuguese
descent) and are today mainly Christian (Protestant and
Roman Catholic) by religion. Thus having had six centuries of direct cultural exposure to Western Christianity and other
African influences, contemporary Itsekiri language and
culture has successfully evolved into a hybrid of the many
cultures that have influenced its development. Similarly
owing to the complex genetic mix of most Itsekiris over the
centuries, many individuals self-identifying as Itsekiri would
usually be a complex mix of any of the aforementioned ethnic and racial groups.

History
In the 15th century, the early Itsekiris adopted a prince
(Ginuwa) from the Kingdom of Benin as a monarch, and
quickly coalesced into a kingdom under his rule.
Traditionally fishermen and traders, the Itsekiri were among
the first in the region to make contact with Portuguese
traders. These interactions in the 16th century led the Itsekiri to become primarily Roman Catholic .The Itsekiri monarchy has continued to the present day, with the coronation of Ogiame Atuwatse II in 1987. The Itsekiri's historical capital is Ode-Itsekiri, though the monarch maintains a palace in Warri town the largest city in the area and home to diverse other communities including the Urhobos , Ijaws , Isoko and many other Nigerian and expatriate groups working in the oil and gas industry.

Itsekiris today
The Itsekiri, though a minority group within Nigeria, are
considered to be a highly educated and affluent ethnic group with a very high rate of literacy and a rich cultural
heritage .The Itsekiris have one of the oldest histories of western education in West Africa, and are noted for producing one of its earliest university graduates – the Itsekiri king Olu Antonio Dom Domingo a 17th-century graduate of Coimbra University in Portugal. Today, many Itsekiris can be found working in the professions particularly medicine,law and the academic professions and in business, trade and industry and were among the pioneers that led the development of the professions in Nigeria during the early-to-mid 20th century.

Culture and religion

The Itsekiris traditionally lived in a society that was governed by a monarchy (the Olu) and council of chiefs who form the nobility or aristocracy. Itsekiri society itself was organised along the lines of an upper class made up of the royal family and the aristocracy – the 'Oloyes and Olareajas' these were mainly drawn from noble houses including the Royal Houses and the Houses of Olgbotsere (Prime Minister or king maker) and Iyatsere (defence minister). The middle class or Omajaja were free-born Itsekiris or burghers. As a result of the institution of slavery and the slave trade there was a third class 'Oton-Eru' or those descended from the slave class whose ancestors had come from elsewhere and settled in Itsekiriland as indentured or slave labourers. In modern day Itsekiri society the slave class no longer exists as all are considered free-born.Traditionally, Itsekiri men wear a long sleeved shirt called a Kemeje, tie a George wrapper around their waist and wear a cap with a feather stuck to it. The women wear a blouse and also tie a George wrapper around their waist. They wear colourful head gears known as Nes (scarf) or coral beads.Itsekiris are also famed for their traditional fishing skills,melodious songs, gracefully fluid traditional dances and colourful masquerades and boat regattas.

Religion
Before the introduction of Christianity in the 16th
century, like many other African groups, the Itsekiris largely followed a traditional form of religion known as Ebura-tsitse (based on ancestral worship) which has become embedded in modern day traditional Itsekiri culture.Once the dominant form of western Christianity in Itsekiriland for centuries, only a minority of Itsekiris are Roman Catholics today whilst the majority are Protestants notably Baptist and Anglican .

Itsekiri language
Whilst genetically, the Itsekiris are a complex mixture of the
many different ethnicities and races that have settled in their area, however, the Itsekiri language is very closely related to the south-eastern and Ilaje Yoruba dialects and to the Igala .It has also been influenced significantly by the Bini,Portuguese and English languages due to centuries of
interaction with people from those nations. However, it
remains a key branch of the Yoruboid family of languages
even retaining archaic or lost elements of the proto Yoruba
language due to its relative isolation in the Niger-Delta where it developed away from the main cluster of Yoruba language dialects. Unlike nearly all key Nigerian Languages, the Itsekiri language does not have dialects and is uniformly
spoken with little or no variance in pronunciation apart from
the use of 'ch' for the regular 'ts' (sh) in the pronunciation of
some individual Itsekiris, e.g. Chekiri instead of the standard
Shekiri but these are individual pronunciation traits rather
than dialectal differences. This may be a relic of past
dialectal differences. The English language continues to exert a strong influence on the Itsekiri language both in influencing its development and in its widespread usage as a first language amongst the younger generation. Modern standard Yoruba (the variety spoken in Lagos) also appears to be influencing the Itsekiri language partly due to the similarity between both languages and the ease of absorbing colloquial Yoruba terms by the large Itsekiri population living in Western Nigerian cities. Itsekiri is now taught in local schools up to university degree level in Nigeria.There are a number of semi-autonomous Itsekiri
communities such as Ugborodo whose history predates the
15th-century establishment of the Warri Kingdom. The
Ugborodo community claims direct descent from the Ijebu a
major Yoruba sub-ethnic group.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itsekiri_people

About the EPZ controversy
I saw this online so i thought to share.Any thoughts Nlders?

I urge anyone interested in knowing the facts of this matter to see Vanguard of Wednesday July 30, 2014 and read the Ugborodo rejoinder to the issues being raised by Gbaramatu. Ijaws have no claim whatsoever in the Ogidigben EPZ. There are two projects in one: Gas City covering 2,560.89 hectares of land and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Jetty Project of 300 hectares.
The land Delta State Government acquired for the Nigerian Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) for the Gas City lies between Ogidigben and Ajudaibo. Notices of Revocation of the Rights of Occupancy as published respectively in The Pointer of Thursday, November 12, 2012 and Vanguard of Thursday, December 6, 2012 expressly show that the land is between Ajudaibo and Ogidigben, which are in Ugborodo Community. The 300 hectares NPA Jetty lies between Madangho and Kpokpo. Courts of competent jurisdictions have adjudged these lands part of Ugborodo in various suits.
Tendered receipts where Ijaws pay as customary tenants to Itsekiri were part of the facts that gave Itsekiri court victory in those suits. Certainly, Itsekiri have copies of these receipts and are verifiable public documents in the Courts!
Barring the debate on land ownership, the Ijaws are asking for their own Interface committee. They say in the days of EGTL which they acknowledge was solely on Ugborodo soil, the Ijaws and even Ilajes of Ondo had their own Interface Committees to negotiate their stakes as impacted communities.
It is good to hear they agreed that they don’t have land ownership claim to the EGTL. The Itsekiri people have made it clear that they recognize the presence of the Gbaramatu people settled in Itsekiri land and the Sokebolou Ogulaha people as their neighbours. Same goes for the Ilajes. For this reason Ijaws and Ilajes benefited from projects within Ugborodo Community like the EGP, EGTL etc. in the usual Itsekiri spirit of accommodation, magnanimity and hospitality.
For the EPZ, Itsekiris are prepared to accommodate these people again, not as of right or by falsehood and threat or violence but as a privileged to neighbours. They can have as many EPZ Interface Committees as they desire if and when the project come to their land. For now, the entire land (about 3, 000 hectares) acquired by government for the EPZ Project belongs to the Itsekiri. Let me add that EPZ is 3 times bigger than the gradually winding off EGTL. There is so much to go round not just for Itsekiris, Ijaws and Ilajes but Delta State and Nigeria as a whole.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/08/ijaws-claim-ogidigben-epz-eyengho/

1. How come Ijaws are settlers in itsekiri land when they met Ijaws in the land before the foundation of the so called itsekiri nation? 2. Do you agree that the founder of the so called itsekiri nation, Ginuwa the exiled prince from benin was a refugee who seeked asylum within the ijaws of the same area, and himself and his co-refugees (about 70 people, all men) were all given ijaw wives ie itsekiris are maternally ijaws? Other than God Almighty Himself, we ijaws created the itsekiri nation, we nursed it from the very begining. I really don't know if you're all just some cursed and wretched ingrates or just acting like one. Ijaws settling in itsekiri land indeed!

ijawcitizen:
1. How come Ijaws are settlers in itsekiri land when they met Ijaws in the land before the foundation of the so called itsekiri nation? 2. Do you agree that the founder of the so called itsekiri nation, Ginuwa the exiled prince from benin was a refugee who seeked asylum within the ijaws of the same area, and himself and his co-refugees (about 70 people, all men) were all given ijaw wives ie itsekiris are maternally ijaws? Other than God Almighty Himself, we ijaws created the itsekiri nation, we nursed it from the very begining. I really don't know if you're all just some cursed and wretched ingrates or just acting like one. Ijaws settling in itsekiri land indeed!

These ijaw people are indeed trouble makers and land terrorist as someone rightly said.You settled in someone's land,next thing you wanna claim the land to be yours cos you think you have power or what? Ya'll are fund of this.You can do well to educate yourself,there is link in the post where you can find different reference materials to help you understand what you are saying.Dont do a beer parlour 'na-us-get-am' kind of argument,provide links to back your arguments.

Nice read @OP

ijawcitizen:
1. How come Ijaws are settlers in itsekiri land when they met Ijaws in the land before the foundation of the so called itsekiri nation? 2. Do you agree that the founder of the so called itsekiri nation, Ginuwa the exiled prince from benin was a refugee who seeked asylum within the ijaws of the same area, and himself and his co-refugees (about 70 people, all men) were all given ijaw wives ie itsekiris are maternally ijaws? Other than God Almighty Himself, we ijaws created the itsekiri nation, we nursed it from the very begining. I really don't know if you're all just some cursed and wretched ingrates or just acting like one. Ijaws settling in itsekiri land indeed!

Isn't this funny? On another thread where people were discussing the form of Igbo spoken in Bonny/Opobo and other issues pertaining to Eastern-Ijaw/Igbo relations, you showed up to berate the 'land grabbers' and 'identity thieves'.

Now, here you are claiming the land of the Itsekiri people as well as the people themselves.

It's amazing that people don't see in themselves what they see in others.

Wulfruna:


Isn't this funny? On another thread where people were discussing the form of Igbo spoken in Bonny/Opobo and other issues pertaining to Eastern-Ijaw/Igbo relations, you showed up to berate the 'land grabbers' and 'identity thieves'.

Now, here you are claiming the land of the Itsekiri people as well as the people themselves.

It's amazing that people don't see in themselves what they see in others.

Thank you my sis.Can you imagine the guts.

Seun and the mods can we please have this on the frontpage,more people need to know about the itsekiri heritage.

Nice thread. I actually enjoyed that Ijawcitizen's post, i like hearing the two sides of a story.

Ijo man hahahaha pelee, ndoo, sorryoo eeyaah.

What is good for Bola is also good for eBola

ijawcitizen:
1. How come Ijaws are settlers in itsekiri land when they met Ijaws in the land before the foundation of the so called itsekiri nation? 2. Do you agree that the founder of the so called itsekiri nation, Ginuwa the exiled prince from benin was a refugee who seeked asylum within the ijaws of the same area, and himself and his co-refugees (about 70 people, all men) were all given ijaw wives ie itsekiris are maternally ijaws? Other than God Almighty Himself, we ijaws created the itsekiri nation, we nursed it from the very begining. I really don't know if you're all just some cursed and wretched ingrates or just acting like one. Ijaws settling in itsekiri land indeed!

ijawcitizen:
1. How come Ijaws are settlers in itsekiri land when they met Ijaws in the land before the foundation of the so called itsekiri nation? 2. Do you agree that the founder of the so called itsekiri nation, Ginuwa the exiled prince from benin was a refugee who seeked asylum within the ijaws of the same area, and himself and his co-refugees (about 70 people, all men) were all given ijaw wives ie itsekiris are maternally ijaws? Other than God Almighty Himself, we ijaws created the itsekiri nation, we nursed it from the very begining. I really don't know if you're all just some cursed and wretched ingrates or just acting like one. Ijaws settling in itsekiri land indeed!

While Ijaw are known to be of an old culture, probably the least undiluted in southern Nigeria..Yorubas and Edos have been walking through the delta for centuries, the Ijebu explorers who first settled there might have met Ijaw people around but at the coming of Ginuwa from Bini and later formation of Itsekiri kingdom didn't see Itsekiri take land from ijaw, there's no ijaw clan that claims ownership to the land the Itsekiri hold, which makes me think Ijaws never settled there

@DJicemob this was a nice culture thread before u derailed it by urself with that EPZ post and ijawcitizen came in scatterd the thread

1shortblackboy:
@DJicemob this was a nice culture thread before u derailed it by urself with that EPZ post and ijawcitizen came in scatterd the thread

That is why the header stated "About the itsekiris of delta state" The EPZ post was to throw more light on recent happening concerning the itsekiris,it is not an history thread,everything goes as related to the itsekiris.I just hope you catch my drift.

'Itshekiri', noble people. But their inter-ethnic copulations is way too alarming.. Well most niger-delta groups inter-marry among themselves a lot, they're all the same people.

Nice thread, God bless you bro, @ OP

Jbossrymes:
Nice thread, God bless you bro, @ OP

I see you my brother

Djicemob:
I see you my brother

Omeremi Toghan, one love we shall conquer by the grace of God