₦airaland Forum

See excuse.

Dem are very wikedness. Why cant dem giving you second and a third chance? Do they thinking inglish is a fery simple sometin? They going to the extreeme end to send you out away from school. Telling your mother so that she can angry and vex for them. They didint doing the right thing.

But why are people this desperate? Hevshouldvyave given them shit to eat and they will chew and swallow without qualms

Na jacking cause the hair to fall off? This is a very strong ihian o

Ok. Magik tinz.

Its all good. When will Naija beat china? I know it can happen.

ijawcitizen:
My apologies if you feel I'm lashing at you brother,
At least you got my point.

Its all good. I never claim to know it for certain. I know what I know from what my dad said while he was with us. I made that fact clear too. Eh, one love Iyinbere.

Who will sit?:Na to slap both cheeks and zap before you even realize what happened

Yes. Justice for all the innocent lives lost.

Well, he can still kéep it a secret or tell them he decided to change his course of study cos he liked the new course

ijawcitizen:
It is okay to be ignorant, but you are not permitted to display ignorance.

What has that got to do with anything brother? To lash at someone just hungry you?

This must be douglas market

Commendable. She try

Women shoes

What is with all these fighters, they dont waste time to kill.

Its a shame that Nigerians dont take care of their own. Even the so called Niger Delta fighters are more greedy and selfish than those they are fighting against now.

Arrest every one that has sabotaged Nigeria. All of them. Even those under GMB who were thieves while in power before switching to APC

Key note. Do Not Leave Tampoon in for more than 3 hours.

See what ashawo man cause?

kiwi992:
Hi Ow11,


Tell you the truth, I thought the write-up was much too long so I didn't bother to read all of it.  I decided to skim through the rest, after noticing a significant error under 'SETTING'.  There, the writer mentions 'canoe house'. 

Be rest assured that there is no such thing as a 'canoe house' in Kalabari kingdom.  Most definitely not!  Take it from me - I originate from Bakana and if I don't know my own history then I might as well give up and not bother knowing anything about other people and their cultures.

Any Kalabari would tell you that we have family compounds (polo).  Such compounds as Princewill polo, Erekeosima polo (Buguma) Bob Manuel polo, Briggs polo (Abonnema), Iyalla (Yellowe) polo, Braide polo, Davies polo (Bakana), and so on, in all the thirty three towns and villages that make up Kalabari kingdom.  Those are NOT 'canoe houses' as the writer seemed to imply.  Surely, they are compounds, stupid!  What a plonker - he's got his history mixed-up!

The compounds are a grouping of related family members, their wives (both Kalabari and non-Kalabari), subjects, workers, ex-slaves (who got automatically assimilated into the Kalabari society through various native ceremonies and change of name to a Kalabari one) - by the way we don't call anybody a 'slave' (omoni bo), never!  It is a derogatory term in Kalabari society.

In ancient times, each compound in every town was required, in times of war, to bring forth an armada of boats (omu aru), armed with canons (kurusu), guns (alagba), gun powder and so on.  By the way, we got our arms and ammunition from the Europeans as a result of trading with them, being that the peoples of the Niger Delta were the first to come in contact with them.  The boats in the armada were usually manned by strong and fearless male warriors.  Each warrior wore a bandana on his forehead, with a white feather stuck through the bandana, immediately above his right ear.  The warriors rowed the boats frantically but in a synchronised manner, accompanied by a frenzied beating of the traditional drums (akwa) as well as other musical instruments such as nkuro, kuku, and so on.  The atmosphere in the boat was highly charged, the warriors all hyped up, and fearless of death because they were going to war inorder to protect the Kalabari kingdom.   At the helm of the armada was the coxswain (pronounced 'kok-sin') - or 'commodore' in modern military terms.  He was the one in-charge of his own armada of war boats, their steering and direction.  He was the one who would be standing up all the while in the leading boat, and pouring incantation into the river with the local gin (akamiri) and calling out the names of our ancestors, the water spirits, as well as the goddess of the Kalabari people (Awomine Akaso - a female whose shrine still stands today in Elem Kalabari, otherwise known as Elem Ama) and so on, for safety and protection.  Each boat in the armada had buntings and raffia dorned all over it and most of all, flew the flag of its compound to signify its origin. 

The armada was a common war effort by every compound making up a Kalabari town or village, inorder to maintain the integrity of the Kalabari kingdom i.e. to protect its people, land and rivers as well as fight its enemies.  If an aggressor attacked a Kalabari town or village, that meant that the one attacked ALL of the Kalabari towns and villages and would be faced by the combined Kalabari forces.

The war boats would usually rendezvous at strategic points along the banks of the various rivers in Kalabari - for example along the New Calabar River (Bakana), River Sombreiro (Abonnema), Asari Toru (Buguma), the rivers in Tombia, Elem Kalabari, Kula (which is right at the tip of the Atlantic Ocean), Ke, Degema, Obuama (Harry's Town) and so on.

Having an armada was a necessity for us because Elem Kalabari (Old Kalabari) was frequently attacked by its neighbours in ancient times.  It was for this reason that the Kalabari chiefs took the strategic decision to split Elem Kalabari into three main towns and thirty smaller towns and villages, so as to re-locate the Kalabari people in various key areas of the Niger Delta, inorder to forestall any attack from unfriendly neighbours and Europeans invading from the sea.  This was a movement of the Kalabari people, many hundreds of years ago and long before the slave trade ever started, with Paramount Chief Iyalla (Pina Pina Inai), his chiefs and people moving first, to found Bakana, then Abonnema and lastly Buguma (the capital of Kalabari kingdom and where the ama nyana bo - king, resides), followed by the rest of the towns and villages.  Good thinking on their part if, you ask me.

The boats never ever, formed the basis of a family unit - what the writer calls 'canoe house'  I'm most surprised that the writer, a Kalabari, doesn't know that!  Any Kalabari child would tell you that.

If you look at Google Earth or a map of the Rivers/Bayelsa States, you would see the strategic location of the various Kalabari towns and villages.  An example being Bakana, located nearest to Port Harcourt, to forestall any attack from Okrika, Bonny and Opobo, then Buguma - located where it is, to forestall any attack coming from Iwo Fe and sorrounding areas (the Ikwerres never waged any war against the Kalabari people in the olden days, so we never saw them as a threat, still we had to be prepared, just in case), whilst Abonnema was strategically located to fend off any attack from the Ijaws (Nembe, Brass and so on).  So are the other towns and villages - Tombia, Kula (to ward off any attack coming from the Atlantic Ocean, UNTIL help arrived from all the other Kalabari towns and villages.

The Ibos never waged any war against the Kalabari people in the olden days because that would have meant their having to cross the rivers to invade us, which they couldn't, simply because they are an upland people that didn't know the topology of the riverine area or indeed, how to swim, for that matter.  Rather, we waged wars against them (sadly), for our own selfish reasons, mainly to fuel the slave trade.  They still hate us up 'til today for that and I don't blame them for it. 

In view of our first contact with the Europeans, we (the peoples of the Niger Delta) were the first to trade with the rest of the world as well as being heavily involved in the shameful slave trade.  In Kalabari, we have a collection of traditional clothing called 'india', 'madras' 'njiri', jewellery, artifacts and so on, that were procured as a result of this.  These are never sold, instead, they remain in the family heirloom and have done so for centuries.  They are used to dress up the bed on which the departed is laid (only if the one died very old as opposed to dying young), and such special occasions as weddings, to dress up a woman on her emergence from the fattening room (iria) and so on.

Going by the names of some of our traditional clothings as mentioned above, I'm of the strong opinion that the Kalabari people must have had strong trading links with the Indians in the olden days.  Other than that, I couldn't figure out as to how traditional clothings that are centuries old could have been given Indian names by our forefathers.   

Talking about independence and self-reliance, I was taught to be independent by my dad at a very young age and that has helped me a lot in my adulthood.  If that runs through the Kalabari people, then that's all well and good.  However, I can not vouch for the rest 'cos I don't live at home.  One thing though, I know that the Kalabaris are a fiercely proud people.  Much too proud if you ask me and tend to look down on other neighbouring tribes.  That's surely something with which I don't agree, especially, after having faced racism living in the West.  The Kalabaris would never wish to do anything to tarnish the family name either.   

Lastly, I feel the writer made too complex a thing of the so-called 'counterfoil' choice scenario.  I didn't quite like his use of the word 'counterfoil' either.  There are much better words that would have clearly imparted the idea he was trying to convey.  Again, the scenario should have been made a lot simpler.  That said, I understand that he was writing from the Nigerian perspective and way of self-expression.  The rest of the discourse seems to be too long-winded for my liking.  Too much waffling, if you ask me and not straight to the point.  However, the facts are essentially true except the major error that I pointed out.

Oh yeah, the English anthropologist, Dr Hutton immersed himself in Kalabari culture and tradition and was made a Kalabari chief.  He spoke the language much better than most of us as kids whilst I was at home.  I remember that he used to call us up and correct our Kalabari grammar!  He actually wrote a book about the Kalabari language with a family member of mine - the late Dr C.I Berepiki.      



kiwi992.


NB:

Without wishing to stir up things and with all goodwill in the world, I honestly feel that the Federal Government of Nigeria should engage in genuine dialogue with MEND because, going by the history of the people there, they know the riverine area like they know the back of their palms, as shown here.  It would be nigh impossible to defeat them simply for that reason.  If anyone thinks that military action is the only solution to the problems there, then, the one needs to have the one's head examined.

The peoples of the Niger Delta have been fighting wars from time immemorial.  They had been engaged in wars with the European slave traders that came from the sea (under the pretext of Christianity), hostile neighbours, and so on.  It must be noted that we were never conquered by the European slave traders, despite their guns and ammunition.  Rather, we were their trading partners in the illicit trade involving human beings.  I can, but only attribute this military success to our sound military strategy.  That experience had taught us how to engage in a military theatre.  The military strategy that's involved in all of this is all too self-evident, even in this little write-up of mine.

Hope you can see my point because I don't condone violence of any sort.  Dialogue and fair play is what would win the hearts and minds of the peoples of the Niger Delta.

Now, lets get talking seriously and unite Nigeria once again.  Let's start re-building the country and cast out the corrupt politicians by throwing them to the sharks to feed upon.

This man, you know a lot.

All my life I was told the kalabari people are related to the ijaws. Though my dad never called himself an Ijaw man. He called himself kalabari man. The Ijaws to him were the Riverine people of the then Bendel state, people from Now Bayelsa state . Even those from Bendel now delta were sometimes called Izon.

Biko, can someone tell me the story behind wayingi and Akaso? I am very much interested. Though I am Kalabari Abonnema to be precise, I do not know much about them.

Na small, small dem take catch una monkey.

Ok. We don hear

Begging in the midst of plenty. After ,we complain about white man trying to destroy us yet we cant improve our own lives without looking for handouts from them. Of course who evervpays the piper dictates the tune.....go figure

She has tried. All the best to her.

efemenaslectura:
you don't have to

Ok. No yawa

Naija police, I hail oooo! So they cant handle case of a man beating a child? Na wa.

following

She dey sell market

It swallowed something. OP well done.

They are not naive andbsimple, they are downright greedy and wicked. Many of them dont care about their neighbour. Its what is in it for me rather than whats in it for the society.

OP, wey pishure?