₦airaland Forum

SlayerForever:
Introduction to Bonny history

Several literature have been penned about the origins and history of Bonny, situated on the Atlantic coast which attained its greatest heights of prosperity during the slave trade and the following palm oil trade era in the 18th and 19th century. During this period the great "city-state" (Dike 1956, p. 31)¹, would be the location of a major slave port where slavers would embark over 300,000 slaves over 2 centuries (Eltis et al, 1999)², until an end to slave trade was enforced around 1830 onwards.

In the modern era, several historians and scholars have written profusely about Bonny's history. Professor Onwuka Dike, acclaimed scholar and recognized Nigerian historian, writing about the founding of Bonny in 1956 reported, ". According to tradition, a famous chief and hunter, Alagbariye, on his regular hunting expeditions to the coast, came upon the site on which Bonny now stands" (p. 24)³. He goes further to hinge the founding of Bonny on movement of people from the Igbo interior looking to maximise profit in the slave trade.

Most published literature in the Nigeria academia pertaining to the origin of Bonny are also greatly reliant on the work of foremost writers E. A. Alagoa and A. Fombo (1972) who present that, "The progenitors of Bonny given as Opumakule and his brother Alagbariye, and Asikunuma popularly known as Okpara Asimini migrated from the central Delta, through Ndoki territory to where they now occupy along the southern Atlantic coast" (p.3-4)⁴. Alagoa and Fombo therefore proffer that the origin of Bonny lies in the Ijaw homeland of the central delta, from where they would migrate northwards into the Igbo interior at Ndoki, then southward again to the Atlantic coast where they now occupy.

A foremost academic in the person of Edward T. Bristol-Alagbariya, an Associate Dean, whilst borrowing from Alagoa and Fombo as well as other sources affirms thus on Bonny's origins, "The forenamed blood descendants of Ebeni, an Ijaw ancestor of Ebeni-toru area, migrated in two streams to found Ancient Bonny Kingdom on virgin lands and territories... The Priest-King Alagbariya Founding Group migrated from their ancestral homeland, Kolokuma, in present-day Kolokuma-Opokuma Local Government Area (LGA) of Bayelsa State"5 (Edward T. Bristol-Alagbariya, 2020).

The various postulations given above, though well carried around in academic circles have done little in providing satisfying answers. Hence the arguments continue.

For the scope of this work, the major sources would be solely based on first hand accounts from Bonny between the 18th century to the end of the 19th century (1700-1899). Sourcing directly from this era ensures the data is as little tainted and undistorted as possible. In several instances as will be observed in this work, the data has come from the highest places of authority, including the Pepple kings themselves.


Origin of Bonny
For the majority of human ethnicities there is usually but one origin. Whilst culture, language, settlements may merge, shift and re-form over time, origin does not. The origin remains a static. Hence in trying to find and appreciate the origin of a people it is only logical to go as far back as possible to the earliest documented history, for in trying to use the present to decipher the origin of a people one is likely to come up short and provide an erroneous conclusion due to shifting dynamics.

As an advantage to this work, Bonny as a kingdom and territory was a place of great interest and hence its historical interactions with the rest of the world are well preserved. And it is in one of these well preserved documents of antiquity that we find answers to the question of the origin of the Bonny people.

Famous explorer and voyager by name Captain Hugh Crow at the end of the 18th, and start of the 19th century, circa 1790-1807 would pen a detailed account of all his interactions with the people of Bonny. It further helps that the Captain was close friend and confidante of the reigning kings of his time, Pepple and Haliday.

Crow in speaking of the origin of the Bonny people provided the following information, "The king of New Calabar, in the neighbourhood, and Pepple, king of Bonny, were both of Eboe descent, of which also are the mass of the natives" (p. 198)6. Here, Crow provides an explicit description of the natives of Bonny kingdom. It is important that he stated the natives were Eboe. This is because Crow understood that Bonny being a centre of trade and commerce, was home to other nationalities who were not native to the island. He described this other people as the Brass people from the far northwest of Bonny (p. 197)6
Crow in continuing on the origins of the people writes, "The Bonnians being chiefly Eboes, or descended
from that tribe, speak their language, or probably a corruption of it, or an admixture with that of others" (p. 228)6. Here, Crow reaffirms the origin of the people as being Eboe.

Investigative:
copy and paste gossip
No link

SlayerForever:
A quick investigation of Ngwa names of similar pronunciation and form brings up the name Agbayi. Interestingly, the various forms of Agbayi/Agbai/Agbaye all exists across Ngwa, Ukwa-Ngwa (Ndoki), Bonny and Opobo areas till this day.

That leave us with Ala. With the earlier stated presence of the Brass people in Bonny as captured by Crow a hundred years before, we can identify the Ala in the name as the Brass word for Chief, in recognition of Agbayi's authority. This name-title cojoininment for very ancient names is a regular phenomenon observed by scholars when investigating oral traditions. Hence the hitherto unusual name can now be recognized for its true nature which is Ala for Chief and Agbayi as the name of the progenitor of the Bonny people.

ChinenyeN:
If you’re going to share my etymological analysis, at least quote/credit me on it.

Ofodirinwa:
Bonny was settled in the 1500s by a group of settles from the Northern Igbo hinterland who named the land Okoloma after the Okolo which was abundant there and still is. If you don't know what Okolo is, or Okoloma means you don't know Bonny history.

Prior it was unsettled because there was no need to live there until the arrival of europeans as it proved to be a valuable access route to markets of the west through slavery, ivory and oil trade. Before the opening of the atlantic, there was nobody to trade with in that area

SlayerForever:
Is that so. Where?

Deltagiant:
I Googled and found this piece on Ngwa-Bonny relations by ChinenyeN. Very interesting.

According to Ngwa traditions, an Ngwa man remembered as Okobo had two sons, recollected as Agba (said to be short for Agbayiegbe) and Okwuleze. Agba was a known hunter, and it is said that one day he headed toward the coast, on a hunting expedition. He returned days later to report that he came across a place with lots of birds, most notably curlew (Igoro-omirima, Igoloma, Ugoloma, depending on where in Ngwa/Ndoki one is from). Agba and some members of his family and some of his kinsmen later on then decided to migrate over and settle there. Some of Agba's family members though (being some sons, his brother [Okwuleze] and his [Okwuleze's] family), and other kinsmen didn't migrate, and instead remained where they were, at what is now known as Umuagbayi (Umu Abayi in Rivers State). Ijo people though, say Alagbariye was from Central Delta and that his name is Ijo. *shrug*

Now, here are some interesting things to note (and also infer)

#1. Umuagbayi traditions are silent about Ijo contact. They don't speak of any Ijo migration.

#2. G.I. Jones, the European man who did the most thorough work on the various groups/clans in the area, also notes similar, by stating: Both Ijo and Ibo traditions are silent about any contact between the two groups, apart from the Azuogo Ndokki, and Kalabari legends. - Trading States of the Oil Rivers

#3. Bonny traditions on migration route admit to Ijo coming in contact with already established Ngwa (Igbo) in what is now Ndoki, some of whom they then traveled with to Bonny.

#4. Referencing #'s 2 & 3 above, and in correlating Ijo and Ngwa accounts, we can see that Ijo migrants likely came in contact with Agba [Agbayiegbe] and co. (who were likely already en route toward the place with lots of curlew [Igoro-omirima] birds) and likewise joined them.

#5. No one seems to know the meaning of Alagbariye (or if they know, they aren't saying), but one thing that's interesting to note is that in Bonny/Ijo traditions, Alagbariye is said to be a prominent hunter (confirmation to Umuagbayi-Ngwa traditions) and a chief, and interestingly enough, "chief" in Ijo is ala (chief/leader).

#6. Seeing as to how the meaning or history behind Alagbariye's name is more or less unknown to the Ijo, and noting that the Ijo expression for "chief/leader" is ala, we can likely infer that the Ijo, in coming into contact with Agbayiegbe and co., must have referred to Agbayiegbe as Ala Agbayiegbe (chief/leader Agbayiegbe), as he is indeed the one who was leading the migration toward Bonny (as oral traditions recount), and as Bonny and Ngwa oral traditions further state, he became the chief/clan-head once the migrants settled at Bonny; the founder.

#7. Overtime, there maybe could have been either a corruption in speech (as there typically tends to be in things like this) and/or some error in transcription when Europeans recorded the oral accounts of the natives (as we are all familiar with, i.e. Sirie [Siriye], Onitsha [Onicha], Okrika [Wakrike], Bonny [Ubani/Ibani], etc.), which is likely responsible for Ala Agbayiegbe (chief/leader Agbayiegbe) being either eventually spoken as Ala-Agbariye and/or eventually recorded variously by Europeans as Alagbariye, Alagbara, Alagba-n-ye. Both [the speech corruption and the European transcriptions] seem equally likely.

Lastly -- [url=http://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&tbo=1&q=ngwa+ibani&btnG=Search+Books#sclient=psy&hl=en&tbo=1&tbm=bks&source=hp&q=ngwa+bonny+alagbara&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=efa74fedee4c96d0]GoogleBooks Search: ngwa bonny alagbara[/url] :: [url=http://www.google.com/search?sclient=psy&hl=en&tbo=1&tbm=bks&source=hp&q=ngwa+14th+century&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&ech=1&psi=-I-tTcWfBInqgAeLnOmFDA130323113637019&emsg=NCSR&noj=1&ei=w5GtTZLPN8GM0QHCofCuCw]GoogleBooks Search: ngwa 14th century[/url]

So, basically, attempts to match Bonny/Ijo and Ngwa oral traditions seems to indicate that Alagbariye (Ala-Agbayiegbe) was an Ngwa man, as Bonny oral tradition says.
https://www.nairaland.com/500126/true-extent-alaigbo-igboland/62

ChinenyeN:
I’m sorry, Northern Igbo hinterland? You’ll have to explain more.

Ofodirinwa:
I don't know what part to explain, but if you's 'north', north is a direction and north of Bonny is (more) Igboland, south of Bonny is ocean. Hope that's the answer you're looking for?

ChinenyeN:
I could quote myself, but I’ll instead quote someone who quoted/cited me. You can then have the pleasure of drilling your way to the original thread and perusing it at your leisure.

SlayerForever:
Your proposition and mine while tending to the same conclusion are not one and the same.
The empirical analysis leading to your result is more reliant on oral traditions. Traditions I know nothing about, and which of course I don't include. Instead I go with a more simpler approach of observing names. Nowhere in your work do you mention Agbaye, which I came to observe in Opobo. You suggested a distortion of an original Agbayiegbe and to Agbariye instead.

SlayerForever:
Your proposition and mine while tending to the same conclusion are not one and the same.
The empirical analysis leading to your result is more reliant on oral traditions. Traditions I know nothing about, and which of course I don't include. Instead I go with a more simpler approach of observing names. Nowhere in your work do you mention Agbaye, which I came to observe in Opobo. You suggested a distortion of an original Agbayiegbe to Agbariye instead.

I do however concede that deciphering and recognising Ala- from the full word as a non Igbo word was from you. If you have that derivation in print I will reference it immediately.

ChinenyeN:
No, it isn’t something in print. It is the result of ongoing research that I have not yet published. I simply shared it uniquely and exclusively on Nairaland to aid ongoing discussion. An academic reference is unnecessary. Rather a simple acknowledgment will suffice. After all, it’s very disingenuous for Igbo people here on NL to use my decades-long contributions on NL as support for arguments in favor of Igbo, yet attempt to deny me of my Igboness.

Anyhow, it’s interesting that you would base your analysis on the presence of “Agbaye” in Opobo for a number of reasons.

1. Unless I’m mistaken, Agbayi/Agbai and Agbaye are not the same name.

2. The Alagbariye founding house still exists and Alagbariye is commonly borne as a last name associating a potential member of that house. Agbayi (to the best of my knowledge) is not a known branch family of the Alagbariye house. In other words, it is not a name associated with the Alagbariye house.

3. It is well-established that Opobo was founded later in Bonny history, after the cultural and political shift in Bonny history.

All of this makes it difficult to see how one could make the connection between Agbayi/Agbai in Opobo and the tradition of Alagbariye without some prior knowledge, since both Agbayi and Alagbariye seemingly exist independently in Bonny houses and branches.

I’d be interested in learning more about the “eureka moment” you might have had connecting Agbayi/Agbai/Agbaye with Alagbariye. Perhaps there may be something more to research there that I myself might have been unaware of. This might actually go a long way in further understanding the social, cultural and language dynamics that occurred in Bonny from its founding days to the period of political shift in the 18th century and afterwards. I’m very interested in such information.

ChinenyeN:
No, it isn’t. It the context of Igbo ethnographic discussion, the expression “northern Igbo hinterland” means something specific, or are you unaware of that?

SlayerForever:
How did an Ngwa ancestor who was wholly and completely Igbo in existence go from Alagbanye in 1800s to Alagbariye 200 years later?

SlayerForever:
What is the difference between Agbayi in Ngwa today and Agbaye in Opobo today?

Ofodirinwa:
You're talking about Nigeria where the English language died. I'm talking about the English language. North is a direction. I don't think this is something you and I can debate because if you don't want to google it I'll google it for you and show you. Northern Igbo Hinterland, in english means 'part of Igboland that's at a higher latitude than the part I'm referencing'.

I'm not trying to fight you, just listen. North is a direction like left and right. Please don't say north isn't a direction in public.

ChinenyeN:
While I certainly don't mind engaging in discussion and answering questions, I too have questions of my own that I would like answered pursuant to a healthy discussion. Kindly endeavor to not ignore them.



It is not uncommon for bi/multi-lingual communities to develop emergent speech patterns. In that way, it is not uncommon for slight adaptations in names to occur which may over the years (at a casual glance) make it difficult to associate with its original pronunciation without further insight into cultural and linguistic changes. For instance, "Andoni" is the effect of centuries of multi-lingual shifts as "Idoni" (the Ijaw ethnonym for Obolo people) disseminated from one speech community to the next. Likewise, a little over 100 years of colonial indirect rule and post-colonial interaction has passed, and an Ngwa name like "Abanguwa" was eventually transformed to "Abengowe" by British speakers and later adopted within Ngwaland. Now many families go by Abengowe in Ngwaland. This is very much a common phenomenon, and is sometimes known in English as a "time-worn name".



Well, to begin with, Opobo is a predominantly Igbo-speaking community, yet nothing I've noted has so far shown Opobo community to treat Agbayi and Agbaye as synonyms in speech. I've not heard any Opobo person refer to Agbaye Fubara House, for example, as "Agbayi Fubara". If you do know instances of such interchangeability (not necessarily with Agbaye Fubara, but with any name in general), please share, but ultimately for now, nothing suggests that they are interchangeable within Opobo community, suggesting they may not be the same name. By extension, without a reference point I find it difficult to see a basis by which Agbayi in Ngwa can be equated with Agbaye in Opobo. That said, I cannot claim to know Opobo more than Opobo people. There is always the chance of an edge case that I may not be aware of.

Liebermantic:
You have done what Our Igbo professors of post war failed to do..
It starts with us now.I have begun making research on Bonny and Opobo.
Opobo man I met in person told me ""My village ikwata used to be called ukwunwata before the war,it means big child".
Ijawnization carried out by Federal Government to punish Ndigbo made these Purely Igbo names sound foreign

SlayerForever:
Andoni is not a time worn derivative of Idoni.

SlayerForever:
The ancestors of the Bonny people were from Igbo land. He bore an Igbo name. Alagbanye was forwarded to Glyn as well as Opobo as likely ancestors circa 1880.

SlayerForever:
In light of forehand knowledge Alagbanye is open to be broken down or explained sort of by any scholar or writer approaching the subject using whatever type of analysis of choice. Nobody alive now was there when the ancestors came, so there's a degree of freedom of interpretation one has in deciphering the name.

ChinenyeN:
While I certainly don't mind engaging in discussion and answering questions, I too have questions of my own that I would like answered pursuant to a healthy discussion. Kindly endeavor to not ignore them.



It is not uncommon for bi/multi-lingual communities to develop emergent speech patterns. In that way, it is not uncommon for slight adaptations in names to occur which may over the years (at a casual glance) make it difficult to associate with its original pronunciation without further insight into cultural and linguistic changes. For instance, "Andoni" is the effect of centuries of multi-lingual shifts as "Idoni" (the Ijaw ethnonym for Obolo people) disseminated from one speech community to the next. Likewise, a little over 100 years of colonial indirect rule and post-colonial interaction has passed, and an Ngwa name like "Abanguwa" was eventually transformed to "Abengowe" by British speakers and later adopted within Ngwaland. Now many families go by Abengowe in Ngwaland. This is very much a common phenomenon, and is sometimes known in English as a "time-worn name".



Well, to begin with, Opobo is a predominantly Igbo-speaking community, yet nothing I've noted has so far shown Opobo community to treat Agbayi and Agbaye as synonyms in speech. I've not heard any Opobo person refer to Agbaye Fubara House, for example, as "Agbayi Fubara". If you do know instances of such interchangeability (not necessarily with Agbaye Fubara, but with any name in general), please share, but ultimately for now, nothing suggests that they are interchangeable within Opobo community, suggesting they may not be the same name. By extension, without a reference point I find it difficult to see a basis by which Agbayi in Ngwa can be equated with Agbaye in Opobo. That said, I cannot claim to know Opobo more than Opobo people. There is always the chance of an edge case that I may not be aware of.