StaffofOrayan:
however, racial strategies were unsuited for the task at hand since a black majority with a united race consciousness would pose a threat to white minority control. European powers therefore turned towards a tribal strategy of creating and enforcing divisions in the majority. They entrenched the “tribe” as the basis of social, economic and political life through a policy known as indirect rule.

What do you think the British meant by division of the majority? Majority what?
Speaking English doesn't make you related to king Edward but you need a command of English to become a British citizen!
Every country is created on a myth and for the British its mythical dragons, Infact the British royalty would look you in the eyes and tell you they are descendants of dragons and Merlin was a real magician,

The creation of things like Niger Delta, North Central is the division they were talking about, people living in those regions are the biggest one Nigerians you can ever find.... It was designed that way, they have been cut off from their source

“Black race”, “Blacks”, “Negros” etc where wholesale a made up idea by Europeans. No such thing existed in the consciousness of the people pre-colonial times so it’s also a colonial invention.

The Igbo or Yoruba identity is more of a descriptor of a persons ethno linguistic group than say “Black”. “Black unity” has never been a thing and is just a phantom unrealistic idea that emerged from America

sage:


“Black race”, “Blacks”, “Negros” etc where wholesale a made up idea by Europeans. No such thing existed in the consciousness of the people pre-colonial times so it’s also a colonial invention.

The Igbo or Yoruba identity is more of a descriptor of a persons ethno linguistic group than say “Black”. “Black unity” has never been a thing and is just a phantom unrealistic idea that emerged from America

Bros 400 years of harvesting the so called negro for slave is bound to cause a lot of strife and mistrust, so the division has been going on for centuries , to say your forefathers were just senseless people who didn't know their history is pure madness!

Let me give an example, when the Fulanis were waging jihad on the Hausa and Yorubas you honestly think they didn't have any idea what they were doing or who they were fighting?

Pls use ur head!

Rosskiiku:


Are you out of your mind?

Regarding the highlighted, you clearly do not know your history.

If anything there was FAR MORE ''use of the mind, imagination, and one's mentality'' in PRE-COLONIAL Africa than there is today, in post-colonial Africa, when you've been trained by the white man to depend on him for everything you do, think, or say.
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Brief report about the great city of Benin, by the UK's Guardian newspaper:

Benin City, the mighty medieval capital now lost without trace

With its mathematical layout and earthworks longer than the Great Wall of China, Benin City was one of the best planned cities in the world when London was a place of ‘thievery and murder’.

This is the story of a lost medieval city you’ve probably never heard about. Benin City, originally known as Edo, was once the capital of a pre-colonial African empire located in what is now southern Nigeria. The Benin empire was one of the oldest and most highly developed states in west Africa, dating back to the 11th century.

The Guinness Book of Records (1974 edition) described the walls of Benin City and its surrounding kingdom as the world’s largest earthworks carried out prior to the mechanical era. According to estimates by the New Scientist’s Fred Pearce, Benin City’s walls were at one point “four times longer than the Great Wall of China, and consumed a hundred times more material than the Great Pyramid of Cheops”.

Situated on a plain, Benin City was enclosed by massive walls in the south and deep ditches in the north. Beyond the city walls, numerous further walls were erected that separated the surroundings of the capital into around 500 distinct villages.

Pearce writes that these walls “extended for some 16,000 km in all, in a mosaic of more than 500 interconnected settlement boundaries. They covered 6,500 sq km and were all dug by the Edo people … They took an estimated 150 million hours of digging to construct, and are perhaps the largest single archaeological phenomenon on the planet”

Benin City was also one of the first cities [on earth] to have a semblance of street lighting. Huge metal lamps, many feet high, were built and placed around the city, especially near the king’s palace. Fuelled by palm oil, their burning wicks were lit at night to provide illumination for traffic to and from the palace.

When the Portuguese first “discovered” the city in 1485, they were stunned to find this vast kingdom made of hundreds of interlocked cities and villages in the middle of the African jungle. They called it the “Great City of Benin”, at a time when there were hardly any other places in Africa the Europeans acknowledged as a city. Indeed, they classified Benin City as one of the most beautiful and best planned cities in the world.

In 1691, the Portuguese ship captain Lourenco Pinto observed: “Great Benin, where the king resides, is larger than Lisbon; all the streets run straight and as far as the eye can see. The houses are large, especially that of the king, which is richly decorated and has fine columns. The city is wealthy and industrious. It is so well governed that theft is unknown and the people live in such security that they have no doors to their houses.”

In contrast, London at the same time is described by Bruce Holsinger, professor of English at the University of Virginia, as being a city of “thievery, prostitution, murder, bribery and a thriving black market made the medieval city ripe for exploitation by those with a skill for the quick blade or picking a pocket”.

African fractals

Benin City’s planning and design was done according to careful rules of symmetry, proportionality and repetition now known as fractal design. The mathematician Ron Eglash, author of African Fractals – which examines the patterns underpinning architecture, art and design in many parts of Africa – notes that the city and its surrounding villages were purposely laid out to form perfect fractals, with similar shapes repeated in the rooms of each house, and the house itself, and the clusters of houses in the village in mathematically predictable patterns.

As he puts it: “When Europeans first came to Africa, they considered the architecture very disorganised and thus primitive. It never occurred to them that the Africans might have been using a form of mathematics that they hadn’t even discovered yet.”


At the centre of the city stood the king’s court, from which extended 30 very straight, broad streets, each about 120-ft wide. These main streets, which ran at right angles to each other, had underground drainage made of a sunken impluvium with an outlet to carry away storm water. Many narrower side and intersecting streets extended off them. In the middle of the streets were turf on which animals fed.

“Houses are built alongside the streets in good order, the one close to the other,” writes the 17th-century Dutch visitor Olfert Dapper. “Adorned with gables and steps … they are usually broad with long galleries inside, especially so in the case of the houses of the nobility, and divided into many rooms which are separated by walls made of red clay, very well erected.”

Dapper adds that wealthy residents kept these walls “as shiny and smooth by washing and rubbing as any wall in Holland can be made with chalk, and they are like mirrors. The upper storeys are made of the same sort of clay. Moreover, every house is provided with a well for the supply of fresh water”.

At the height of its greatness in the 12th century – well before the start of the European Renaissance – the kings and nobles of Benin City patronised craftsmen and lavished them with gifts and wealth, in return for their depiction of the kings’ and dignitaries’ great exploits in intricate bronze sculptures.

“These works from Benin are equal to the very finest examples of European casting technique,” wrote Professor Felix von Luschan, formerly of the Berlin Ethnological Museum. “Benvenuto Celini could not have cast them better, nor could anyone else before or after him. Technically, these bronzes represent the very highest possible achievement.”

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/18/story-of-cities-5-benin-city-edo-nigeria-mighty-medieval-capital-lost-without-trace
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Still think your ancestors ''did not use their minds and imagination''?

You should APOLOGISE for that comment.

Not to me, but to them, before they do you harm!

ETHNICITY was not language-based. It was based on ancestry and lineage. And THAT had NOTHING to do with ''undeveloped minds'' and ''poor imaginations'', but with absolute REALITY, of which THEY were aware, and YOU today are not, because of the colonial influence on YOUR ''mind''.

You clearly don't understand my point, just re-read this.
ETHNICITY was not language-based. It was based on ancestry and lineage.
What more are you trying to prove?.

StaffofOrayan:


Bros 400 years of harvesting the so called negro for slave is bound to cause a lot of strife and mistrust, so the division has been going on for centuries , to say your forefathers were just senseless people who didn't know their history is pure madness!

Guy what are you saying. I’m saying that race as a concept was invented by Europeans in the 1700’s. Our forefathers were never a Negro race or a black race till Europeans labeled them such. There was no such thing as “black unity” in a continent with thousands of languages, customs, traditions, religions and diversity

Europeans invented the idea of a Caucasian and Negro race. No such thing ever existed and is just made up nonsense

sage:


Guy what are you saying. I’m saying that race as a concept was invented by Europeans in the 1700’s. Our forefathers were never a Negro race or a black race till Europeans labeled them such. There was no such thing as “black unity” in a continent with thousands of languages, customs, traditions, religions and diversity

Europeans invented the idea of a Caucasian and Negro race. No such thing ever existed and is just made up nonsense

You ignored the rest of my comment, I asked you a simple question:
When the fulani were waging their Jihad on the Hausa and the Yoruba, they didn't know what they were doing or they didn't know they were Fulani people themselves? or the people resisting them didn't know who they were fighting?

What the Europeans created was division! DID YOU EVEN READ WHAT THE GUY POSTED!!! In order for minority white rule to be possible, they had to create divisions, why else do you think Nigeria would never succeed? Because the British merged different 'races' together,

The British did not create races dude! are you crazy? there are races in the Bible and Quran and way older manuscripts!

Damn!!!

gaddafe:


Oga please writing was discovered by black Africans. Nobody is disputing this. We read this way back in school. Please if you have any source that claim otherwise quote it here. Numbers started as a result of the trade between Egyptians (black Egyptians) and Sumerians (Arabs). Record keeping started in Egypt. There is nobody disputing these facts. These are common knowledge for those that studied history and library science

Absolutely correct. For those in doubt, here is a little known papyrus, called the Papyrus of Maiherpri, from Ancient Egypt, dated to circa 3000 BC, ie over 5,000 years ago.

Note that the first known literate white civilization was Greece, which arose around 800 BC, ie 2,800 years ago, which suggests that black Africans used writing more than 2,000 years before Europeans did.

Papyrus of Maiherpri
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maiherpri

DFOmobolla:


You clearly don't understand my point, just re-read this.
ETHNICITY was not language-based. It was based on ancestry and lineage.
What more are you trying to prove?.

I agree, bro.

In fact I will explain this further in a way that will be quite jarring to us today.

SCENARIO 1:

Let us assume you are in the year 1750, long before colonialism.

You were born in Awka. You speak the Igbo language.

One day, you decide to travel with your wife to the west, ie Yoruba-speaking territory, say Ijebu-Ode, to settle, and maybe raise a family.

You learn the Yoruba language after a few years there. Then you have kids.

Since you had no concept of being ''an Igbo man'' (merely a man from Awka), you would happily give them the names used by people in that region, eg Olusegun, Afolabi, Adedoyin, etc.

They will be speaking the Yoruba language etc.

Guess what?

You have BECOME an Ijebu family.

What we would call today ''a Yoruba family.''

You and your kids can even be made chiefs and leaders, and elders there.

But COLONIALISM changed that.

It created what I call ''language-derived ethnic permanence''.

TODAY, if the same trip occurred, you would be regarded in Ijebu-Ode as ''that Igbo man who can speak Yoruba, but is not a Yoruba man''.

Your children would be called 'Omo Igbo' even if they speak Yoruba as fluently as anyone in Ijebu.

You see, under SCENARIO 1, the colonialists felt MOST UNCOMFORTABLE, because such social fluidity they saw as very dangerous for their occupation, as the 'Nigerians' could UNITE based on their underlying unity to drive them out.

So they created SCENARIO 2, ie ''language-derived ethnic permanence'', which stipulated that ONCE you 'hail from' Igbo-speaking territory, you remained an ''IGBO MAN'' for life, plus your entire succeeding generations, EVEN IF you migrate elsewhere in Nigeria.

This meant you could not be allowed to partake of major leadership roles in your 'Yoruba' abode, and would always be identified (and self identify) as ''Igbo'', and regarded as an 'outsider'.

Same applied, of course, to other 'ethnicities' across Nigeria.

Now of course this radically new way of seeing ourselves did not all happen overnight.

Language based ethnic permanence was legally enforced by the colonialists, and it entrenched itself in our society over several decades, to the point we are today, where we actually see it as the way it's always been.

NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH.

It wasn't always...like this.

Rosskiiku:


I agree, bro.

In fact I will explain this further in a way that will be quite jarring to us today.

SCENARIO 1:

Let us assume you are in the year 1750, long before colonialism.

You were born in Awka. You speak the Igbo language.

One day, you decide to travel with your wife to the west, ie Yoruba-speaking territory, say Ijebu-Ode, to settle, and maybe raise a family.

You learn the Yoruba language after a few years there. Then you have kids.

Since you had no concept of being ''an Igbo man'' (merely a man from Awka), you would happily give them the names used by people in that region, eg Olusegun, Afolabi, Adedoyin, etc.

They will be speaking the Yoruba language etc.

Guess what?

You have BECOME an Ijebu family.

What we would call today ''a Yoruba family.''

You and your kids can even be made chiefs and leaders, and elders there.

But COLONIALISM changed that.

It created what I call ''language-derived ethnic permanence''.

TODAY, if the same trip occurred, you would be regarded in Ijebu-Ode as ''that Igbo man who can speak Yoruba, but is not a Yoruba man''.

Your children would be called 'Omo Igbo' even if they speak Yoruba as fluently as anyone in Ijebu.

You see, under SCENARIO 1, the colonialists felt MOST UNCOMFORTABLE, because such social fluidity they saw as very dangerous for their occupation, as the 'Nigerians' could UNITE based on their underlying unity to drive them out.

So they created SCENARIO 2, ie ''language-derived ethnic permanence'', which stipulated that ONCE you 'hail from' Igbo-speaking territory, you remained an ''IGBO MAN'' for life, plus your entire succeeding generations, EVEN IF you migrate elsewhere in Nigeria.

This meant you could not be allowed to partake of major leadership roles in your 'Yoruba' abode, and would always be identified (and self identify) as ''Igbo'', and regarded as an 'outsider'.

Same applied, of course, to other 'ethnicities' across Nigeria.

Now of course this radically new way of seeing ourselves did not all happen overnight.

Language based ethnic permanence was legally enforced by the colonialists, and it entrenched itself in our society over several decades, to the point we are today, where we actually see it as the way it's always been.

NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH.

It wasn't always...like this.

I am even surprised people are arguing with the OP on this issue. This was something I found out since 2008. It was even placed in the Edo state website then where they tried explaining why there were various languages in Edo state. We seriously need to wake up

gaddafe:


I am even surprised people are arguing with the OP on this issue. This was something I found out since 2008. It was even placed in the Edo state website then where they tried explaining why there were various languages in Edo state. We seriously need to wake up

Good stuff.

Rosskiiku:


The 'assertions' are not mine alone as you can read from the various scholarly research I posted in support.

Can you locate any studies which argue against those findings?

Nope...



It will cause bad blood between families, but it would not lead to all out war, or a demand for a virgin and a young man to kill as recompense.

That is the action of independent, sovereign nations, NOT ''blood brothers''.

It is similar to what would happen TODAY if Ghanaians killed a Nigerian unjustly and Nigeria demanded compensation on threat of war. In fact Nigeria wouldn't go that far. So if anything we feel more related to Ghana than your Igbo-speaking ancestral villages felt to one another.



Africans travelled around and migrated aplenty in precolonial times.

We are not saying they did not know about each other. They just did not regard themselves as belonging to a single 'Igbo' or 'Yoruba' ethnicity etc.

It's like how we travel today. I go to Kano, Kaduna, Lagos, Jos, Aba, Abuja etc for business and pleasure. It doesn't mean I think I belong to a singe ethnic group as the people in those places.




Don't be ridiculous. They moved to the nearest safe locale, and THAT would not have been a Yoruba speaking region




None of what you've typed obviates the ''fierce independence'' of each of those clans.

THAT is the crux of the matter.

''Fierce independence''.

'Fierce independence' is the language of people who do not share a common lineage, and know it.

Common lineage tends towards consolidation and centralisation of authority, NOT fragmentation and splintering into autonomous chiefdoms.

Cold blooded murder of your sister by your cousin will only cause bad blood and that is it. No repercussions to avoid such trend becoming a norm in your culture?
Guy you are probably from the north. Our culture abhors blood shed biko. You do the crime you do the time simple!


Second, Urualla in present day Imo state knows and acknowledge that they came from Achina in present day Anambra state. Arondizuogu in Imo state migrated from Arochukwu in present day Abia state. And so many other Igbo clans share common migration history, each clan knew where they come from.

We all share common ancestry and culture but can never be under a centralised authority. Republican system is just an Igbo world view, common ancestry or not, no one wants another to dictate or lord it over them. We like our independence like that and enjoyed it.

Yet we accord the clan we migrated from their due regard and respect which could be seen during traditional rites and other things. But if an Achina person for example decided to kill a daughter of Urualla unprovoked, Urualla will not let it go like that. In most cases instead of going to war, they might ask for compensation from Achina. That compensation in most cases has to be human(something that will pain the clan to serve as a deterrent to others) because in Igbo cosmology life is sacred.

The people whom their daughter was murdered in cold blood do not require compensation for their own gain but to appease the land goddess whom they know will seek revenge for the blood of a daughter of the land spilled. When this revenge of the gods comes, it might affect everyone. So they must do something to be safe from the blames of the gods of their land.

Do you get it now?

Rossupti:
There Were No 'Tribes' In Nigeria Before Colonialism. Discuss.

Before the British interruption of our existence, there was no concept of belonging to a 'tribe' or an 'ethnic group' in Nigeria.

The idea that speaking Igbo made you an 'Igbo man' was non-existent.

The idea that speaking Yoruba made you a 'Yoruba man' was non-existent.

The idea that speaking Hausa made you a 'Hausa man' was non-existent.

What identified you was your ancestry.

NOT the language you spoke.

An Egba man did not regard himself as being of one group as an Ijebu man, or a man from Kwara, even though they all spoke the Yoruba language.

Likewise an Arochukwu man did not consider himself of the same ''Igbo tribe'' as a man from Okigwe or Onitsha.

This was why in the pre-colonial era, we had many WARS within those groups.

They did NOT regard themselves as single, united entities with shared ancestry. Because they were not.

It was the BRITISH who invented the idea that all those who spoke one language belonged to one ''tribe'' OR ''ethnic group''.

They did this in order to create BLOCS OF DIVISION among previously integrated, fluid peoples. (Divide and rule)

Sociologically and anthropologically, the language-based 'tribe' concept made no sense, because there was so much migration in precolonial times that one group of Igbo speakers could migrate to an area peopled by Yoruba speakers, and within a generation or two, they would turn Yoruba speakers themselves, and forget all about the Igbo language, and vice versa. This happened ALL OVER 'Nigeria' countless times over many centuries.

There are many people today who consider themselves 'Yoruba', who actually have their true ancestry traceable to Eastern Nigeria.

Just as there are many who call themselves 'Igbo' today, whose ancestors migrated from Yoruba speaking territories, less than 200 or 300 years ago.

It is time we DITCH the COLONIAL INVENTION called ''tribe''.

IT IS COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY MEANINGLESS, AND A FRAUDULENT COLONIAL IMPOSITION.

Rubbish Argument

It's just like saying that there is no River in Nigeria before the white man came, that it was Europeans that created rivers in Nigeria.

What the whites brought was civilization, with it the called River Niger a River.

And called Igbo for example a tribe.