₦airaland Forum

[quote author=Kilode?! link=topic=675773.msg8399713#msg8399713 date=1306438694]^^ I think there is a short reference to Dr. Obadiah Johnson in that bio, but I will see if I can get more later, You can also post bios if you find them.

@Alj Harem, the Igbo Nri leaders and their stories are quite intriguing, I enjoyed that, please post more if you can.[/quote]sure man, i would do if i find

[size=15pt]Adeyemi the founder of ikoyi/VI in Lagos (eko which means cassava farm) and the Onikoyi linage [/size]

The founder of Onikoyi family lived at Oke-Ipa on Ikoyi Island, named after his ancestral home, which was believed to have been in Old Oyo. Adeyemi a leader of the Oke-Ipa settlement married Efunluyi, daughter of Meku Armoire, who was believed to be the sixth title holder of the Aromire line. In honour of her deliverance of a son, called Muti, Chief Meku allocated to his daughter and son-in-law a plot of land near Iga Aromire "Aromire Court", on Lagos Island. The house built on that plot became Iga Onikoyi and Aromire's son-in-law the first holder of an Idejo title in Lagos, the Onikoyi title. All in all, four related Idejo chieftaincies came out of the Aromire line: armoire itself, Onitolo, Onitano, and Onikoyi.

The remaining four Idejo titles clearly came into existence after the invasion of Benin. If Ulsheimer's account is correct, then it appears that the daily gathering of Lagos governors was one of military commanders from Benin, and not heads of local settlement. Gradually, however, additions were made to that body. The vehicle via which accretion took place eventually was called Ose Iga a ceremonious meeting of Lagos held at the palace every seventeen days. The Osega was attended by a body of chiefs whose agenda was devoted to proposing and debating community policy. Before discussions at each meeting, sacrifices were performed. After each meeting the assembled chiefs were fed and entertained by the Oba. Rights to sit on his highest decision making body of the community were extended to all recognized chiefs. Indeed, the culmination of investiture ceremonies took place in the Ose chamber of the palace.

Until a chief was brought into Osega, he was effectively not a functioning part of the larger policy. It does appear, however, that leaders of surrounding villages who saw themselves as clients of the Oba could attend the Osega. Village settlement in and around Lagos Island were of several types: those powerful enough to be represented by their chiefs on the Osega; those that were clients (and the nature of the tie differed markedly among settlements. Ranging from complete dominance and overlordship to a loose control or dependency); and those that retained autonomy, foregoing the political and protective links that representation at the Lagos Osega could offer them. The number of chiefs with rights to attend the Osega grew slowly and fluctuated. Olumegbon, leader of the Idejo class was said to have been brought into Lagos and given a title by Ado, one of the early Bini rulers. The first Olumegbon came from Aja, east of Lagos toward the Lekki Lagoon.

The reasons for his inclusion among the chiefs who attend the Osega seem unknown. It is possible that the Benin warriors found him and his people located at a vital position on their east-west trade corridor and therefore wished to control that position themselves by alleviating its headman to a chieftaincy title in Lagos rather than subjugating him. It is also possible that he was originally a part of the Ido alliance and brought in as its senior representative. In any case, Olumegbon was allocated a plot for an Iga in the Iduntafa area of Lagos and thus within the portion of land originally allocated by Aromire to the Benin rulers.
http://lagosmegacityproject.com/historyoflagos.html

[quote author=isale_gan2 link=topic=675773.msg8399029#msg8399029 date=1306431005]Alhaji!  I'm glad you're back.  Give us some Igbo leaders as well, pretty please.  I'm serious.

Also, wanted to answer the naysayers:
The thread is about leaders who lived in the territory now called Nigeria - so it is not just about one tribe.  Get it?
The thread is not about looking only at the past - feel free to start another thread, maybe covering leaders from 1914 to the present.[/quote]thanks, i would see what i can do

[size=15pt]Eze Nri Ìfikuánim leader of the Nri kingdom[/size]
Eze Nri Ifikuanim was the first king of the Nri Kingdom. According to Igbo oral tradition, his reign started in 1043, although at least one historian puts Ìfikuánim's reign much later, around 1225 AD. He reign from 1043-1089 AD

Archaeological evidence suggests that Nri hegemony in Igboland may go back as far as the 9th century,[6] and royal burials have been unearthed dating to at least the 10th century. Eri, the god-like founder of Nri, is believed to have settled the region around 948, with other related Igbo cultures following after in the 13th century.[7][8] The first eze Nri (King of Nri), Ìfikuánim, follow directly after him. According to Igbo oral tradition, his reign started in 1043.[8] At least one historian puts Ìfikuánim's reign much later, around 1225 AD.[9]

In 1911, the names of 19 eze Nri were recorded, but the list is not easily converted into chronological terms because of long interregnums between installations.[3] Tradition held that at least seven years would pass upon the death of the eze Nri before a successor could be determined; the interregnum served as a period of divination of signs from the deceased eze Nri, who would communicate his choice of successor from beyond the grave in the seven or more years ensuing upon his death. Regardless of the actual date, this period marks the beginning of Nri kingship as a centralized institution.

Zenith and fall

Colonization and expansion of the kingdom of Nri was achieved by sending mbùríchi, or converts, to other settlements. Allegiance to the eze Nri was obtained not by military force but through ritual oath. Religious authority was vested in the local king, and ties were maintained by traveling mbùríchi. By the 14th century, Nri influence extended well beyond the nuclear northern Igbo region to Igbo settements on the west bank of the Niger and communities affected by the Benin Empire.[6] There is strong evidence to indicate Nri influence well beyond the Igbo region to Benin and Southern Igala areas like Idah. At its height, the kingdom of Nri had influence over roughly most of Igboland and beyond. It reached its furthest extent between 1100 and 1400.[3]
Nri's hegemony over much of Igboland lasted from the reigns of the fourth eze Nri to that of the ninth. After that, patterns of conflict emerged that existed from the tenth to the fourteenth reigns, which probably reflected the monetary importance of the slave trade.[7] Outside-world influence was not going to be halted by native religious doctrine in the face of the slave trade's economic opportunities. Nri hegemony declined after the start of the 18th century.[10] Still, it survived in a much-reduced, and weakened form until 1911. In 1911, British troops forced the reigning eze Nri to renounce the ritual power of the religious cult known as the ìkénga, ending the kingdom of Nri as a political power.[10]

Government

Nearly all communities in Igboland were organized according to a title system. Igbo west of the Niger River and on its east bank developed kingship, governing states such as Aboh, onitsha and oguta, their title Obi.[11][12] The Igbo of Nri, on the other hand, developed a state system sustained by ritual power.[6]

The Kingdom of Nri was a religio-polity, a sort of theocratic state, that developed in the central heartland of the Igbo region.[7] The Nri had a taboo symbolic code with six types. These included human (such as twins), animal, object, temporal, behavioral, speech and place taboos. The rules regarding these taboos were used to educate and govern Nri's subjects. This meant that, while certain Igbo may have lived under different formal administration, all followers of the Igbo religion had to abide by the rules of the faith and obey its representative on earth, the eze Nri.[13]

An important symbol among the Nri religion was the omu, a tender palm frond, used to sacralize and restrain. It was used as protection for traveling delegations or safeguarding certain objects; a person or object carrying an omu twig was considered protected.[13] The influence of these symbols and institutions extended well beyond Nri, and this unique Igbo socio-political system proved capable of controlling areas wider than villages or towns.[11]

For many centuries, the people within the Nri hegemony were committed to peace. This religious pacifism was rooted in a belief that violence was an abomination which polluted the earth.[3] Instead, the eze Nri could declare a form of excommunication from the odinani Nri against those who violated specific taboos. Members of the Ikénga could isolate entire communities via this form of ritual siege.[10]

Eze Nri

The eze Nri was the title of the ruler of Nri with ritual and mystic (but not military) power.[11] He was a ritual figure rather than a king in the traditional sense. The eze Nri was chosen after an interregnum period while the electors waited for supernatural powers to manifest in the new eze Nri. He was installed after a symbolic journey to Aguleri on the Anambra River.[3] There, he would supposedly use magical powers to collect stones from under the water, undergo a symbolic burial and exhumation, then finally be anointed with white clay, a symbol of purity. Upon his death, he was buried seated in a wood-lined chamber.[3] The eze Nri was in all aspects a divine ruler.

Ìkénga Cult

While the eze Nri lived relatively secluded from his followers, he employed a group of Jesuit-like officials called ndi Nri.[14] These were ritual specialists, easily identifiable by facial scarifications or ichi,[14] who traveled with ritual staffs of peace in order to purify the earth from human crimes.[3] The ndi Nri exercised authority over wide areas of Igboland and had the power to install the next eze Nri.[11]
Areas under Nri influence, called Odinani Nri, were open to Ndi Nri traveling within them to perform rituals and ensure bountiful harvest or restore harmony in local affairs.[7] Local men within the odinani Nri could represent the eze Nri and share his moral authority by purchasing a series of ranked titles called Ozo and Nze. Men with these titles were known as mbùríchi and became an extension of the Nri's religio-political system. They controlled the means for agriculture and determined guilt or innocence in disputes.[10]

Both the Ndi Nri priests and mbùríchi nobility belonged to the Ikénga, the cult of the right hand. The Ìkénga god was one dedicated to achievement and power, both of which were associated with the right hand.[3]

Economy

Nri maintained its vast authority well into the 16th century.[2] The peace mandated by the Nri religion and enforced by the presence of the mbùríchi allowed trade to flourish. Items such as horses, which did not survive in tsetse fly-infested Nri, and seashells, which would have to be transported long ways due to Nri's distance from the coast, have been found depicted in Nri's bronze. A Nri dignitary was unearthed with ivory, also indicating a wealth in trade existed among the Nri.[3] Another source of income would have been the income brought back by traveling mbùríchi.[11]
Unlike in many African economies of the period, Nri did not practice slave ownership or trade. Certain parts of the Nri domain, like Agukwu, did not recognize slavery and served as a sanctuary. After the selection of the tenth eze Nri, any slave who stepped foot on Nri soil was considered free.[10]

Nri had a network of internal and external trade of which it's economy was partly based on. Other aspects of Nri's economy were hunting and agriculture.[15] Eri, the sky being, was the first to 'count' the days by their names, eke, oye, afor and nkwo which were the names of their four governing spirits. Eri revealed the opportunity of time to the Igbo who would use the days for exchanging goods and knowledge.[16]

Culture

Art

Igbo-Ukwu, a part of the kingdom about nine miles from Nri itself, practiced bronze casting techniques using elephant-head motifs.[6][3] The bronzes of Igbo-Ukwu are often compared to those of Ife and Benin, but they come from a different tradition and are associated with the eze Nri.[11] In fact, the earliest body of Nigerian bronzes has been unearthed in Igbo territory to the east of the Niger River at a site dated to the 9th century, making it (and, by extension, Nri) older than Ife.[17]

It appears that Nri had an artistic as well as religious influence on the lower Niger. Sculptures found there are bronze like those at Igbo-Ukwu. The great sculptures of the Benin Empire, by contrast, were almost always brass with, over time, increasingly greater percentages of zinc added.[6]

The bronzes of Igbo-Ukwu pay special attention to detail depicting birds, snails, chameleon's, and other natural aspects of the world such as a hatching bird. Other pieces include gourds and vessels which were often given handle's. The pieces are so fine that small insects were included on the surfaces of some while others have what looks like bronze wires decorated around them. None of these extra details were made separately; the bronzes were all one piece. Igbo-Ukwu gave the evidence of an early bronze casting tradition in Nri.[18]

Religion

Earth cults were central to the Kingdom of Nri.[19] Nri oral tradition states that a bounty of yams and cocoyams could be given to the eze Nri, while blessings were given in return.[3] It was believed that Nri's influence and bountiful amount of food was a reward for the ruler's blessings.[3] Above all, Nri was a holy land for those Igbo who followed its edicts. It served as a place where sins and taboos could be absolved just by entering it. Even Igbo living far from the center of power would send abnormal children to Nri for ritual cleansing rather than having them killed, as was sometimes the case for dwarfs or children who cut their top teeth before their lower teeth.[20]

Nri people believed that the sun was the dwelling place of Anyanwu (Light) and Agbala (Fertility). Agbala was the collective spirit of all holy beings (human and nonhuman). Agbala was the perfect agent of Chukwu or Chineke (the Creator God) and chose its human and nonhuman agents only by their merit; it knew no politics. It transcended religion, culture and gender, and worked with the humble and the truthful. They believed Anyanwu, The Light, to be the symbol of human perfection that all must seek and Agbala was entrusted to lead man there.[21]

Tradition

Nri tradition was based on the concept of peace, truth and harmony.[22] It spread this ideology through the ritualistic Ozo traders who maintained Nri influence by traveling and spreading Nri practices such as the Ikenga cult to other communities. These men were identified through the ritual facial scarification's they had undergone. Nri believed in cleansing and purifying the earth (a supernatural force to Nri called Ana and Ajana)[22] of human abominations and crimes.[3]
Year counting ceremony

The Igu Aro festival (counting of the year)[23] was a royal festival the eze Nri used to maintain his influence over the communities under his authority. Each of these communities sent representatives to pay tribute during the ceremony to show their loyalty. At the end the Eze Nri would give the representatives a yam medicine and a blessing of fertility for their communities.[24] The festival was seen as a day of peace and certain activities were prohibited such as the planting of crops before the day of the ceremony, the splitting of wood and unnecessary noise.[23] Igu Aro was a regular event that gave an opportunity for the eze to speak directly to all the communities under him.
Nri Scarification

Ritual scarification in Nri was known as Ichi of which there are two styles; the Nri style, and the Agbaja style. In the Nri style, the carved line ran from the center of the forehead down to the chin. A second line ran across the face, from the right cheek to the left. This was repeated to obtain a pattern meant to imitate the rays of the sun. In the Agbaja style, circles and semicircular patterns are added to the initial incisions to represent the moon. These scarification's were given to the representatives of the eze Nri; the mbùríchi.[26] The scarification's were Nri's way of honoring the sun that they worshiped and was a form of ritual purification.[27]

Scarification had its origins in Nri mythology. Nri, the son of Eri who established the town of Nri, was said to have pleaded to Chukwu (the Great God) because of hunger. Chukwu then ordered him to cut off his first son's and daughter's heads and plant them, creating a 'blood bond' between the Igbo and the earth deity, Ana. Before doing so, Nri was ordered to mark ichi onto their two foreheads. Coco yam, a crop managed by females, sprang from his daughter's head, and yam, the Igbo peoples' staple crop, sprung from his son's head; Chukwu had taught Nri plant domestication. From this, the eze Nri's first son and daughter were required to undergo scarification's seven days after birth, with the eze Nri's daughter being the only female to receive ichi.[28] Nri, the son of Eri, also gained knowledge of the yam medicine (ogwu ji). People from other Igbo communities made pilgrimages to Nri in order to receive this knowledge received in exchange for annual

http://kingdom-of-nri.co.tv/

[size=15pt]Tsoede the leader of the Nupe kingdom and the fulani conquest of Nupe and Illorin
[/size]


The earliest history of Nupe centered around the figure of Tsoede or Edagi, the culture hero and mythical founder of Nupe Kingdom.  The genealogies of Nupe kings which are preserved in many places in Nupe country, and which have also found their way into the earliest written records of Nupe history which were compiled by Mohammedan Scholars and court historians, place his birth in the middle of the fifteenth century.  At that time, the Nupe people were tributary to the Alfas (King) of the Gara at Eda (Idah) for down the Niger. he tribute was paid in slaves and every family head had annually to contribute one male member of his house.  These slaves, as tradition has it, were always sister’s sons.  It so happened that the son of Alfa Gara came hunting to Nku in Nupe country. Here he met the daughter of the chief of Nku a young widow, fell in love with her and lived with her for sometime.  When the death of his father recalled him to his country to succeed to the throne of the Gara, this woman was pregnant.  He left her a charm and a ring to give to their child when it was born.  This child was Tsoede.  Then the old chief of Nku died, his son became chief, and when Tsoede was 30 years of age the new chief sent him as his sister’s son, as slave to Eda.  The Alfa Gara recognized his son in the new slave by the charm and ring which he was wearing and kept him near his person, treating him almost like his legitimate sons.  Tsoede stayed for thirty years at his father’s court. Once the king fell victim of a mysterious illness which nobody could cure. The court diviner prophesied that only a fruit from a very high oil palm outside the town, plucked by one man, would cure the king.  All his legitimate sons tried in vain to obtain the precious fruit.  Finally Tsoede made the attempt and succeeded. But in this attempt he cut his lip so badly that he looked almost like a man born with a split lip.  From this time – and this still holds true today – all hare-lipped boys born in Nupe are named Edegi.


Tsoede’s achievement, which made him still more beloved by his father and honoured by the court, evoked the jealousy of his half brothers.  Thus when Alfa felt his death coming he advised his son to flee, and to return to his own country, the rule of which he bestowed on him as a parting gift.  He assisted him in his flight, he gave him riches of all kinds and bestowed on him various insignia of kingship: a bronze canoe ‘as only kings have’, manned with twelve Nupe slaves; the bronze kakati (the long trumpets) which are still the insignia of kings in the whole of Northern Nigeria; state drums hung with brass belts; and the heavy iron chains and felters which, endowed with strong magic; have become the emblems of the king'’ judicial power, and are known today as Egba Tsoede (chain of Tsoede).


Now comes the story of Tsoede’s adventurous flight from Eda, travelling up-river, hotly pursued by his half-brothers and their men.  On the way he was helped by two men, whom he later rewarded by making them chief and second-in-command of the Kyedye tribe.  When he reached the Kaduna river, he turned into a Creek called Ega, and lies there in hiding till his pursuers, tired of the fruitless search, returned to Eda.  Tsoede and his men left the canoe and sank it in the river; the people of Ega still perform an annual sacrifice on the spot.

Tsoede then went to Nupeko, a village nearby, killed the chief and made himself chief of the place.  He conquered Nku, the town of his maternal uncle, made himself the ruler of all Beni, and assumed the title Etsu, King.  He made the twelve men who accompanied him from Eda the chiefs of the twelve towns of Beni and bestowed on them the sacred insignia of chieftainship, brass bangles and magic chains.  The present chiefs of Beni, claim descent from these twelve men and still treasure bangles or chains as insignia of chieftainship.  Tsoede carried out big and victorious wars against many tribes and kingdoms from south and north.  He resided first in Nupeko, which name means Great Nupe for eight years and when Nupeko grew, he built the new capital at Gbara on the Kaduna which was to remain the ezi-‘tsu, (the king’s town), till the Fulani conquest.  At that time his residence is said to have counted 5,555 horses, so many in fact that there was no room for them in Gbara, and one of Tsoede’s sons, Abdu who was in charge of the horses, crossed the Kaduna and founded on the opposite bank a place which is still known by the name Dokomba, (horse place).

For sixty years he reigned in Gbara.  He died, 120 years old, on one of his military expeditions to the north near Gbagede.  Some of his belongings: two stirrups and his sword, are still kept as almost sacred treasure by the people of Gbagede (who are Kamberi, not Nupe).  At the time of Tsoede’s death the Kingdom of Nupe was expanding towards the north and his four sons who succeeded him as kings of Nupe, one after the other, are said to have founded Mokwa, in the north-west corner of Nupe, as their temporary capital.

The fifteenth king after Tsoede, Jibiri, who reigned according to Nupe genealogies about 1770, was the first Nupe king to become Mohammedan.  He was deposed by his son and died in exile in Kutigi, where his grave can still be seen.  Under Etsu Ma’azu, the nineteenth king of Nupe, Nupe kingdom reached its greatest power.  During his reign, about 1810, Mallam Dendo also called Manko, “Great Mallam”, a Fulani from Kebbi, who was destined to change the whole fate of the Nupe kingdom is said to have first appeared in Nupe country as an itinerant preacher, diviner, and seller of charms.  The death of Etsu Ma’azu is recorded by one of the first European Visitors to Nupe as having occurred in 1818.

THE FULANI CONQUEST
We enter now a period of Nupe history which is illuminated by the light of real history.  It is described with many details in the written records of Nupe court historians, the earliest of whom was a certain abduramani, a Mohammedan scholar who seems to have lived in Raba in the early days of Fulani rule.  It was during this period that European travellers first penetrated Nupe.

From that time Nupe history is linked indissolubly with the fate of the Fulani conquerors of Nigeria who had made themselves rulers of 9the main Hausa states in the beginning of the nineteenth century.  The Fulani established their sovereignty over Northern Nigeria in a loosely organized decentralized dual empire, the western part under the supremacy of the Sarkin Musulmi of Sokoto and the eastern under the Emir or Gwandu.

Nupe kingdom fell to Gwandu’s share.  The Fulani conquest was achieved in two phases and by two methods: a gradual infiltration of the foreign country by Mohammedan Fulani, and then ultimately a military conquest.  The same policy was adopted in Nupe.  Mallam Dendo was one of those Mohammedan preachers and emissaries to “heathen countries” who was to collect an every-increasing group of followers as the nucleus of future conquest.  His followers seem to have included men of all stations; cattle Fulani to whom in their semi-nomadic life Nupe had become a second home, Fulani and Hausa mercenary soldiers who took service in Nupe armies; merchants from all northern towns; and Mohammedan priest and missionaries; their number was estimated at that time of conquest at about 1,000 to 1,500.  When Mallam Dendo became strong enough to venture the decisive blow, he applied to the Emir of Gwandu, his overlord for military help and for a tuta (flag) which signified his official recognition as a leader and accepted feudal chief of the Fulani empire.

The opportunity for the Fulani to make themselves masters of the country soon came.  Almost immediately after Etsu Ma’azu’s death, internal trouble broke out.  The claim of Ma’azu’s son Jimada, the legitimate heir to the throne was disputed by his father’s brother’s son, Majiya II.  According to some accounts, Jimada was Majiya’s father’s sister’s son who had been appointed regent for the boy-king, Majiya.  Later when Majiya grew up and demanded his kingdom, Jimada refused. Majiya claimed the throne by the right of general Nupe succession, being the elder brother’s eldest son.  Jimadas however was regarded as the legitimate heir according to the ancient Nupe rules of royal inheritance which decreed that the son born in the purple should become king.  This led to a temporary division of Nupe kingdom into a western and eastern half.  Jimada reigned in Gbara, the ancient capital of Nupe and Majiya built himself a capital in Raba on the Niger.  Majiya gained the friendship of Mallam Dendo and the Fulani group in Nupe and with them on his side he became by far more powerful and soon snatched the other half of Nupe kingdom from his rival.  He defeated Jimada in the war, killed him at Ragada, near Jengi and thus made himself the undisputed king of Nupe, about 1820.  Idirisu, Jimada’s son, fled with the rest of his followers to Labozi, and later across the river to Egga where he stayed on exile and fugitive, powerless against Majiya’s army.

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Majiya, as the king of Nupe, had learned of the fame of Manko as a preacher and Mohammedan scholar and diviner. He invited him to his court and installed him there in the influential position of his private counsellor and diviner.  He rewarded him magnificently, gave him money, slaves, horses.  He took Mallam Dendo’s youngest son Masaba into his house as his foster son, as the Nupe do with sons of friends.  More and more of Mallam Dendo’s kin and fellow countrymen came to Raba to take service under him or under the king, till at last Manko’s power and influence were more than equal to that of the king himself.  Majiya now thought it high time to rid himself of the dangerous rival.  He drove Mallam Dendo and all his followers from Raba, and chased them from his territory across the Niger, into Ilorin country.

Here, another Fulani emissary, Mallam Alimi, had already been established for some time as being over the Yoruba of Ilorin.  He now gave protection to the Fulani refugees from Nupe.  But Etsu Majiya, desirous of uprooting for ever the power of his dangerous vassals, decided to attack Ilorin and to conquer this southern stronghold of the Fulani invaders.  He attacked Ilorin with 4,000 horsemen and 10,000 foot soldiers. He marched 9for two days from Raba to Ilorin, and halted his army at the gates of the town.  The victory seemed his.  This war of Majiya against the Fulani of Ilorin, as it is told in Nupe, is a magnificent epic.  There were five Fulani emissaries in Ilorin at that time.  Mallam Baba who had fled with Dendo from Raba and later became the first Emir of Agaie; Mallam Dendo himself; Mallam Musa, another fugitive from Raba; Mallam Maliki who had resided in another Nupe town Lafiagi and had been driven from there by Majiya; and Mallam Alimi, the Emir of Ilorin.  Dendo was the youngest of the five, but his keen intelligence made him at once their leader.  He first sent word to Idrisu, Jimada’s exiled son, asking for his support in this fight against Majiya, the murderer of his father.  Then Dendo prepared his most powerful asiri (‘secret’, that is supernatural power/charm).  Two brave men were sent out at night to steal into the enemy’s camp and to bring back some earth.  Dendo dug a large pit, and covered its mouth with grass.  On Friday morning he entered the pit, taking with him fourteen dates.  He stayed there till the hour of evening prayer, but what he did in the pit, what secret magic he performed, no one knows.  When he reappeared, he called again the two men who had brought the earth the previous night, and ordered them to scatter it by night all round the town walls.  Next morning Majiya attacked.  A thick mist had fallen over the country.  Majiya’s troops were enable to move in the mist.  Then a sand-storm sprang up, blinding men and horses.  The horses bolted, and Majiya’s Calvary, placed (in accordance with Nupe military principles) behind the infantry, trampled down their own men.  When the small army of Ilorin sallied forth from the gates of the town, it met an enemy already half defeated.  Majiya was beaten, he fled across the Niger, back to the protected Raba with only 1,000 horses and 1,070 men left of his huge army.  This was not the end.  Idirisu and his followers joined forces with Mallam Dendo.  Together they pursued Majiya’s troops, marching their men up the Niger as far as Gbajibo, fifty miles north of Raba, where they were able to cross the river unmolested.  Here, Mallam Dendo is said to have used a clever ruse. For a week he collected horse-dung, and then threw it into the water, drifting down the river.  It reached Raba and the Nupe who had hardly recovered from their defeat at Ilorin thought that an enormous army of horsemen was approaching Raba and had already crossed the river.  Majiya fled into the interior to Zuguma, leaving Raba unprotected, an easy prey to the Fulani army.

Mallam Dendo repaid Idirisu’s help badly.  He let him remain a puppet king of Nupe exiled to Egga while he installed himself in the capital Raba as the real ruler.  Dendo and his people collected taxes and tribute; they had the command of the larger part of the army; they began to dispense justice and generally to direct the affairs of the Kingdom.  A revolt of Idirisu ended in his being killed by Mallam Dendo’s troops, where upon Dendo ‘true Fulani’, turned back to Majiya, previously his enemy, offering him friendship and recognition as king of Nupe  - another puppet king, in far away little Zuguma.  Two years after this unification of Nupe in 1833, the year when Oldfield and Lander visited Raba, Mallam Dendo died.  He left four sons (two having died before their father) and two daughters, its sons being Abdu Gboya, Usman Zaki, Mamudu Gwogi and Masaba (Mamasaba).  The daughters Gogo Sabaci and Gogo Wadiko.

During Mallam Dendo’s lifetime, Mallam Baba one of his comparisons on the flight to Ilorin set out to conquer a kingdom for himself. Following Dendo’s advice, he took twelve men, crossed three rivers, travelling by night and hiding by day from the Nupe troops who might intercept his party.  The small troop raided the country and growing as it marched, finally reached Agaie, which Mallam Baba made the capital of another (much smaller) Fulani Emirate in Nupe country.  Revolts of the Nupe of that part and attacks of Majiya, whose sovereignty had extended over Agaie, were in the end defeated and soon Mallam Baba could enlarge his small kingdom by new victories.  Over part of the Bataci tribe on the river; over Kacha, which subsequently fell to Bida and over the Gbari of Payi which became later the independent emirate (again under Fulani) of Lapai.

Mallam Dendo is said to have advised his sons not to seek after his death, official secular power but to remain what he had been.  The uncrowned king, nominally only an emissary of Islam and the spiritual head of the Country. But the division into real and nominal, spiritual and secular rulership did not work.  Two years after Majiya’s death (1835), Tsado, his son, like him puppet king of Nupe in Zuguma, revolted again against the hated Fulani. He was defeated and killed by one of the Fulani generals near Egbako.  His son Dzurugi (The Red One), returned to Zuguma.  But now Usman Zaki, the second son of Dendo himself adopted the title Etsu Nupe, demanding the ancient regalia from the exiled shadow king in Zuguma and making Raba again the official capital of the kingdom. From this time the legitimate dynasty of Nupe abandoned all legal claim to the rulership over the country and the new Fulani dynasty assumed full powers.  Of the other descendants of Mallam Dendo, Abdu Gboya, Usman Zaki’s elder brother, whose learnings were more scholarly than warlike, became Alkali (Judge) of the kingdom and Mamudu Gwogi, Usman’s younger brother, Shaba (heir presumptive).

From this time the history of Nupe kingdom is the history of constant intrigues, fights, wars and rebellions. Fight between the sons of Mallam Dendo, wars against other tribes and against factions in Nupe and rebellions of the descendants of the old Nupe dynasty who did not give up hope of recovering the throne from the Fulani or rebellions of powerful generals of mercenary troops who claimed the rulership for themselves and often rebellious of both one using the other as a pawn in this game for the throne of Nupe.

Masaba, the ambitious and most popular youngest son of Mallam Dendo, born of a Nupe mother and educated at the court of the Nupe Etsu Majiya, claimed the throne on the grounds that he was a real Nupe not, like Usman Zaki, a Fulani by descent.  He won the support of Tsado in Zuguma and Idirisu in Egga, the two shadow kings of Nupe, and finally even the support of the Emir of Gwandu, the spiritual head of the Eastern Fulani empire.  Masaba led two revolts against Usman Zaki, the first from Rabi, shortly after the latter had assumed power, and the second, from exile in Lade, south of the Niger in 1841.  It was successful and forced Usman Zaki to leave Nupe kingdom together with Umaru, the son of his eldest brother Majiya and to return to the home of his ancestors, Gwandu.  Masaba became king of Nupe.

http://www.nyscbida.5u.com/nupe-history.htm

[size=15pt]Mai Dunama Dabbalemi[/size]

Kanem's expansion peaked during the long and energetic reign of Mai Dunama Dabbalemi (ca. 1221–1259), also of the Sayfawa dynasty. Dabbalemi initiated diplomatic exchanges with sultans in North Africa and apparently arranged for the establishment of a special hostel in Cairo to facilitate pilgrimages to Mecca. During his reign, he declared jihad against the surrounding tribes and initiated an extended period of conquest. After consolidating their territory around Lake Chad the Fezzan region (in present-day Libya) fell under Kanem's authority, and the empire's influence extended westward to Kano (in present-day Nigeria), eastward to Ouaddaï, and southward to the Adamawa grasslands (in present-day Cameroon). Portraying these boundaries on maps can be misleading, however, because the degree of control extended in ever-weakening gradations from the core of the empire around Njimi to remote peripheries, from which allegiance and tribute were usually only symbolic. Moreover, cartographic lines are static and misrepresent the mobility inherent in nomadism and migration, which were common. The loyalty of peoples and their leaders was more important in governance than the physical control of territory.
Dabbalemi devised a system to reward military commanders with authority over the people they conquered. This system, however, tempted military officers to pass their positions to their sons, thus transforming the office from one based on achievement and loyalty to the mai into one based on hereditary nobility. Dabbalemi was able to suppress this tendency, but after his death, dissension among his sons weakened the Sayfawa Dynasty. Dynastic feuds degenerated into civil war, and Kanem's outlying peoples soon ceased paying tribute.

By the end of the 14th century, internal struggles and external attacks had torn Kanem apart. Between 1376 and 1400, six mais reigned, but Bulala invaders (from the area around Lake Fitri to the east) killed five of them. This proliferation of mais resulted in numerous claimants to the throne and led to a series of internecine wars. Finally, around 1396 the Bulala forced Mai Umar Idrismi to abandon Njimi and move the Kanembu people to Bornu on the western edge of Lake Chad. Over time, the intermarriage of the Kanembu and Bornu peoples created a new people and language, the Kanuri.
But even in Bornu, the Sayfawa Dynasty's troubles persisted. During the first three-quarters of the 15th century, for example, fifteen mais occupied the throne. Then, around 1472 Mai Ali Dunamami defeated his rivals and began the consolidation of Bornu. He built a fortified capital at Ngazargamu, to the west of Lake Chad (in present-day Niger), the first permanent home a Sayfawa mai had enjoyed in a century. So successful was the Sayfawa rejuvenation that by the early 16th century Mai Ali Gaji (1497–1515) was able to defeat the Bulala and retake Njimi, the former capital. The empire's leaders, however, remained at Ngazargamu because its lands were more productive agriculturally and better suited to the raising of cattle.
Kanem-Bornu peaked during the reign of the outstanding statesman Mai Idris Aluma (c. 1571–1603). Aluma is remembered for his military skills, administrative reforms, and Islamic piety. His main adversaries were the Hausa to the west, the Tuareg and Toubou to the north, and the Bulala to the east. One epic poem extols his victories in 330 wars and more than 1,000 battles. His innovations included the employment of fixed military camps (with walls); permanent sieges and "scorched earth" tactics, where soldiers burned everything in their path; armored horses and riders; and the use of Berber camelry, Kotoko boatmen, and iron-helmeted musketeers trained by Turkish military advisers. His active diplomacy featured relations with Tripoli, Egypt, and the Ottoman Empire, which sent a 200-member ambassadorial party across the desert to Aluma's court at Ngazargamu. Aluma also signed what was probably the first written treaty or cease-fire in Chadian history (like many cease-fires negotiated in the 1970s and 1980s, it was promptly broken).
Aluma introduced a number of legal and administrative reforms based on his religious beliefs and Islamic law (sharia). He sponsored the construction of numerous mosques and made a pilgrimage to Mecca, where he arranged for the establishment of a hostel to be used by pilgrims from his empire. As with other dynamic politicians, Aluma's reformist goals led him to seek loyal and competent advisers and allies, and he frequently relied on slaves who had been educated in noble homes. Aluma regularly sought advice from a council composed of heads of the most important clans. He required major political figures to live at the court, and he reinforced political alliances through appropriate marriages (Aluma himself was the son of a Kanuri father and a Bulala mother).
Kanem-Bornu under Aluma was strong and wealthy. Government revenue came from tribute (or booty, if the recalcitrant people had to be conquered), sales of slaves, and duties on and participation in trans-Saharan trade. Unlike West Africa, the Chadian region did not have gold. Still, it was central to one of the most convenient trans-Saharan routes. Between Lake Chad and Fezzan lay a sequence of well-spaced wells and oases, and from Fezzan there were easy connections to North Africa and the Mediterranean Sea. Many products were sent north, including natron (sodium carbonate), cotton, kola nuts, ivory, ostrich feathers, perfume, wax, and hides, but the most important of all were slaves. Imports included salt, horses, silks, glass, muskets, and copper.
Aluma took a keen interest in trade and other economic matters. He is credited with having the roads cleared, designing better boats for Lake Chad, introducing standard units of measure for grain, and moving farmers into new lands. In addition, he improved the ease and security of transit through the empire with the goal of making it so safe that "a lone woman clad in gold might walk with none to fear but God."

eddy1977:
Only nigerians come up with these kinds of sterile delusional researches.

the more i stick around this website,the more i understand the nigerian mindset.
it seems like the whole world revolves around yoroubas and igbos.
its as if the garden of eden was in yorubaland or igboland.

it also seems like all the black people who were sold as slaves in the west originated from nigeria.

i hear some ridiculous and nonsensical arguments about phenotypes.this african american celebrity looks like yorouba or igbo.

seriously,how many nigerians know anything beyond the borders of nigeria?
i am very serious. i have met nigerians who were highly educated and still exhibited the same characteristic.

the answer to all this ancestry crap is very easy.
we black people as a whole have but illusions. the white man keeps his history in books and documents them.you can trace the british people all the way to the first century.with names and dates.we on the other hand have to rely on tales to trace our ancestry.or we have to call on the white man to tell us of our ancestry.

can u stop that nonsense, it is only igbos

they originated from isreal

they orignated from egypt

they orignated from nri

etc

i think they are delusional

[quote author=[WilyWily link=topic=676167.msg8398151#msg8398151 date=1306423514]Having sexual intercourse with minors are Yorubamen way of life.
Yorubamen are expert in impregnating their daughters, they even boast on how they had SEX with Mad women, for them having sexual intercourse with mad women is a joyous thing worth celebrating, they believed it will help them become Rich quick[/quote]how is ur mother's puccy

i gave the ride of a life time the last time we meant

ask ur okoro papa

rhino rhino

i no sabi watin u write o

exotik:
@abagworo,  i usually dont get into all the politicking and yapping on the internet because most times it does not reflect what is on ground and how the "real people" feel in real life. the "igbos" fought a war, they lost. so what u do is u either learn not to fight again or u re-group and fight again. but i hate people who play the victim card as if everyone plus god and devil is against them.  i live in benin, truth be told igbos mostly delta stock are everywhere here and seem to get along fine with people. so for iguefi start branding the binis as people who were out to kill igbos and eliminate them, yet they should be the most non-indigenous people in benin who find it very easy, in fact way too easy for them to settle in, is wrong even if he is posting it on the internet. i actually doubt he delta igbo stock though, but if he is he is a rare type. iguefi comments were just out of place and that was why i joined the yapping.

very good

tell them as it is

God bless you

This is the first thread yorubas and igbos are actually laughing together

well nice 1 dem_people

rhino, good one as well

offa man jarus, orisirisi se le ni nairaland

ileke-idi, nice one as well

@dem_people, since u leave in kent, we should meet one of this days i deg go london next week

@beaf, please be objective and stop being myopic next time

Obiagu1:
The Hausa/Fulani in Sudan can't be 10 million in a country of 45 million.

i just have to comment

why not

as some of your know already on this forum, i am half educated but i know what am doing.

my name is Abdulharem Ciroma Uche born in lagos bred in borno

some think i am a bigots well sorry

to those i have annoyed well i am glad because i have said the truth and it shall set u free only if u open ur heart to hear it

to those i have made happy well good, i am glad i did.

Now this are the words i would like to leave u with to those that are thinking among u all

1.)What type of country do we have in nigeria, is it a country were some elites pick and chose or where we vote based on ethnic or religious lines

2.)What kind of relationship do we have in Nigeria. Are we together because the white man said we should or we are together because we love each other or maybe it is the oil that have made our elites to ignore this issue.

3.)Why is wales, ireland, scoland and england allowed to have federalism but Nigeria, it is a no no suitation

4.) With all the resources we have from water, oil, gold even human, we are lacking as a country. is it because we can not look beyond ethic lines and do the right thing

5.) This last question is for the intelligent ones among u all

WHY can't Nigeria be divide since each major culture has nothing that binds them together.

goodluck to u all, may God (ALLAH) bless Nigeria

Andre Uweh:
Until you or someone else explains to me why Ijebu or Ekiti are Yoruba, Katsina and Zaria are Hausa while Ika is not Igbo.
Once again shame to them. I will still write it again and again and you can't stop me from doing it.

the reason is that the yoruba and hausa HAD an empire and this groups were there

the igbo never had an empire, but a kingdom which was agurablly not a really kingdom as the nri people were more or less like nomads

if aro had conquequed the east then, maybe they will all bear igbo but that is not the case

i hope u understand brother

good one

at last lets here something good about nigeria today

Beaf:
Yes, Buhari is to blame. He and the other uniformed armed robbers stole our sovreignty and held the entire population hostage at gunpoint; they traumatised the country to the extent that the average person is slightly mad. They imbued mentally suspect, smelly, dirty, illiterate, uniformed goons like themselves with the belief that, gun in hand, they were above God and law. It is that psychotic attitude that has expressed itself in the needless deaths of 11 Nigerians and countless bereaved.

i hope u are just being sarcastic for the sake of sanity

there no way an igbo man will be in aso rock,

na only God fit do am

me i will never vote a SE person for presidency after the last election

not now not ever

another igbo iddeiot trying to tell us fashola is not trying

the SE AND SS gets the most in FG alocation yet ur leaders keep raping ur state

op u are a goat ewu