chukzyblingz:
it's funny when you people come out here to talk about names. Do you know the number percentage of Okay people that bear Edo names? I'm not saying Ika is Edo, but that's our origin. bearing Edo names doesn't make us Edo same way bearing Igbo names doesn't make us Igbo. for your information their is no chi in ika language what we believe in is ehi, and any true Ika name starts with ehi. Chukwu is sometimes used as God but it's borrowed from Igbo, Ika word for God is Oselobue

PabloAfricanus:


Cmon dude, dont be clever by half
You like so many before appear to be fixated on conveniently forgetting facts put before you
Lemme help you out there:
1. The first "Igbo" people whom the Europeans met were at Aboh and were identified by the Obi as living
on both sides of the Niger, with the Obi claiming suzerainity over "55 miles along both sides of the river".

2."Igbo" as a appelation for identifying people speaking "Igbo" dialects did not come into being with the Europeans,
rather people were bearing names like Igboanugo, Igbokwe, Igbo, Obigbo,Igboamaeze etc. then and now

3.All the Igbo speaking peoples knew what the appelation "Igbo" meant and understood it to be the "name of the people"
or the "name of the language" by which the "Igbo" people called themselves. It was corrupted to "Ibo" apparently cos the
whites could not vocalize the "gb" sound.

4.The first "Igbo" bible was written in Opobo dialect and was not called "Opobo" or "Bonny" bible, rather "Igbo" bible.
The Igbo appellation was neither invented nor was it strange sounding to the hinterlands when they heard it.

5. The first native Christian missionaries to the Igbo hinterlands came from Opobo, Aboh, Onitsha, Ndi Olu areas and did not find
it that difficult communicating in "Igbo" language to the more unexposed hinterland dwellers they preached to. All it took was acclimatization
to the dialectical differences.

6. To the best of my knowledge, no one needs you to be Igbo or accept the Igbo nomenclature.
It is the crass rejection/denial that makes the "other" Igbos either look funny, bad or foolish, given that this is coming from
a people who were the subjects of the first "Igbo" historical writings by the Europeans.
Moreso, when "geneologies" and "ancestral ties" are invented all in a bid to perpetuate a self inflicted identity crisis,
it only leads to tauntings, mockeries and yes a little disbelief at the foolishness of it all.


My 2 cents.

chukzyblingz:
Everybody has right to self determination. Same right to self determination that Igbos use for the agitation of Biafra is what the Aniomas have to proclaim their ethnicity. Igbos come here and insult Aniomas, calling their ancestors that handed down their history from many generations liars. That's the height of insolence. You come here and talk about shared history forgetting that majority of Anioma history is edoid. Do you want to use language as an only measure of determining ethnicity? do you people know what makes a language a language and what makes a language a dialect? Nobody has the right to tell another that your language is a dialect of my language. it's an insult. even linguists don't have any definite way of determining a language and a dialect. many of the Europeans languages that are regarded as a separate language are closer to themselves than Igbo and Anioma languages yet you call it Igbo dialect? because it's Africa? Chinese is regarded as language but the truth is the Chinese language is made up of many languages yet people see it as a language. If language determines ethnicity why does some language go extinct? language is dynamic and can change within a short period of time. you people should go and make a research on factors that can make a language go extinct or change, you'll see that this Anioma-Igbo relationship fits perfectly.

PabloAfricanus:



Thats where you are forcing it dude.
No one needs anyone to be under any umbrella they did not choose to be.
It is not obligatory or mandatory that the Aniomas, Ikwerres or any other so called Igbo speaking peoples join any pan Igbo
group or nation.
They are and have always been free to forge their own destiny, politically or economically.
If they decide to cast their lots with their Niger delta neighbours...good for them.
If they decide to take the Bini fixation to a logical conclusion...good for them.
If they decide to adopt Edo language as their national tongue tomorrow so they can finally get rid of the persky "Igbo"
question...it is their prerogative and not yours.
And as I noted...they owe you no apologies nor explanations.
So quit with the pan Igbo nonsense.

Infact if I were Igbo, I will be loath to accept into a pan Igbo fold peoples who denied their ancestry openly and vehemently for political expediency. If human nature is anything to go by, you can be rest assured the resentment and hatred will be lying latent and still on the surface.
You will be having willing fifth columnists and moles in your midst.
If you were a good student of history, you would know that since the Igbos have never had any pretensions to imperial status or statehood,
the drive should be for a confederation of clans under the Igbo umbrella.
Cos it does take conquest and force of arms to keep a people subjugated under a common political umbrella.
And you and I know, the republican Igbos find state politics or conquest an alien concept.
Infact it is more likely that the Aniomas will find a pan Igbo setting more disorganized and characterized by clear leadership hierarchies
which they are not accustomed to...that is in contrast to their monarchical systems where leadership was not found wanting.
A look at their pride in their Bini styled monarchical systems should tell you why they will eventually resent any pan Igbo stuff.
Methinks it boils down to the fact that the Igbos are new to state politics and have never had political leaders.

AjaanaOka:


Obeta has no Igbo meaning, as it is in fact a name borrowed from the Idoma people. The point I was trying to make when I highlighted your statement in the previous post was that the 'Igboness' or 'non-Igboness' of a surname cannot be used as a criterion for determining who should be called Igbo and who shouldn't be called Igbo.

People who live on ethnic frontiers always end up borrowing things (such as names, words, etc) from the people on the other side of the ethnic 'border'. The people who bear 'Obeta' in Nsukka (and I am close friends with a number of them) do not identify as anything else other than Nsukka and Igbo. They do not see themselves as alien elements co-habiting with "Igbo" aborigines. In fact, in Enugu-Ezike (a village-group in the Nsukka area) the incidence of non-Igbo last names may be as high or higher than 60%.

If we begin to apply the 'no Igbo last name, no Igbo identity' rule, that would probably mean that Enugu-Ezike is a predominantly non-Igbo town. It would also mean that some of my own kin (members of my umunna) whose last name is a borrowed Igala name are not Igbo.