OkpaNsukkaisBae: I should say the most influential traditional ruler in SE. Eze Eri might be the eldest/oldest in regards to their Stool or Kingdom but he's not famous nor is he influential.
You have some points here. But again it depends on what degree of influence you are referring to...cultural, religious, political etc...as well as amount of information at your disposal.
He may not be the most politically influential in this present dispensation because the British and oligarchy own and control the political landscape of the entity and that's how they want it to be.
Internationally however, he wades an astronomical amount of influence. If you recall, he was all over the news recently when a highly esteem jewish scholar all the way from Israel visited with his team to present him a significant and symbolic torah in recognition of his political and spiritual influence as the leader and prognator of Ndi Igbo ( see image below)
Some food for thought. Do you know there is a special day in recognition of His Majesty, Eze Chukwuemeka Eri, Eze Eri, Eze di gbo, Ezeora 34th in far away United States of America ( see image below).
Bendeco02: Oga don't say what you don't know. Obi of Onitsha is recognized highest ranking traditional ruler in Igbo land
The word "Onitsha" with accompanying fallacy that Obi Onicha is the highest ranking traditional official in Igbo land is the falsehood the British and the oligarchy want you to believe.
Contact me privately if you need facts. I don't engage in frivolity. With due respect, I only engage genuine seekers of true Igbo Identity that are open minded and coachable.
OkpaNsukkaisBae: The highest ranking traditional ruler in Igboland hosting Wike.
Shamelessness.
Obi Onicha is not the highest ranking traditional ruler in Igboland. Eze Eri, Ezeora 34th, aka ji ofo Igbo is the highest ranking Igbo monarch as well as the custodian of Igbo tradition and culture.
This pictures below of in the most of other traditional rulers, depicts his sagacity and majesty
This is a strategy and decoy by SW APC towards securing the president ticket. In reality, Osinbajo would never pitch tent towards his benefactor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Efewestern: The vice president of the federal republic of Nigeria, Prof Yemi Osinbajo paid a courtesy visit to the Ovie of Uvwie Kingdom, HRM. Dr. Emmanuel E. Sideso Abe1 (OON,JP) in Effurun last weekend.
He was accompanied by the Deputy Governor of Delta State, His Excellency Barr. Kingsley Burutu Otuaro, The President Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Olumide Akpata & The Executive Chairman Uvwie Local Government Area, Delta State, Mr. Ramson Onoyake.
ProudDick: Evil keep befalling your race because you always think evil of the Yorubas. You enter watch yourself before you wreck yourself because of your hatred.
I would like to know your thoughts now based on the link above.
Btw, my thought for every race or tribe is for good and prosperity. But each tribe/race have to work out their respective salvation. Genuine repentance and restitution is an option
Alabo7978: Over the modern years, the people of Bonny (okoloama) has grown from strength to strength, the oil rich city state has etched it’s name in the annals of European and African history; from it’s first contact with the Portuguese/ Brits and the start of the slave trade, to the industrial revolution and the export of palm oil which was in high demand for the lubrication of industrial engines and the making of soap and margarines. The sandbank and marshy land known traditionally as Okolo-ama (curlew town) was named after the first settlers discovered a large number of the okolo(curlew) but if anyone would have told them how great their marshy land will turn out in hundreds of years time, they probably would have doubted because the delta in those days were naturally swampy and filled with death hence the reason for the name “white man's graveyard” but still it’s tall mangroves was the pride of the ancient Oru people who settled in Hamlets traditionally known as (Ama or Biri) HOW DID THE COASTAL DWELLERS OF BONNY FARE PRIOR TO THE SLAVE TRADE? Trading canoes were of utmost importance and it was with trading canoes the coastal dwellers moored up stream towards the hinterlands to buy the crops grown in the Igbo country as noted by Dr Köller a German doctor who worked as a physician in Bonny in the beginning of the 19th century. In his work he noted that “There is where most of the Bonny canoes go to purchase provisions including smelted weapons for the coastal dwellers… They call Igbo land IGBINNI, it lies at the source of the delta and is full of great forests and mighty trees. It is very rich in natural products such as maize, rice, oil palms, cotton, dye woods” Owing to the death and wildness of the swamps and mangroves, the people of the hinterlands never brought their goods to the coastal dwellers including the Benins who also recorded the Deltas as a wasteland, the coastal dwellers had no other option than to navigate the waters and creeks with dried fish and salt(cooked from the ocean) to batter with their neighbors.
FROM SETTLEMENTS/FISHING CAMPS TO WEALTHY CITY STATES. The settlements at the Advent of the Europeans grew rapidly in strength and wealth following the years that came with the slave trade, more notable ijo city states like Bonny, Nembe, kalabari and okrika became wealthy and powerful owing to rifles and cannons gotten from the white men for whom they sourced slaves for from the hinterlands. The trade on human cargoes by the coastal dwellers who were go-betweeners made the city states of Nembe, new calabar(kalabari) and more especially Bonny the wealthiest of the IJO city states. Owing to their wealth and Autonomous position including their rise to prominence, these city states were suddenly distanced from there kinsmen in other less prominent coastal clans of the ancient Oru people.
THE FOUNDATION OF THE KINGSHIP AND THE HOUSE(WARI) SYSTEM King Asimini was the first crowned king of okoloama(Bonny) and was the first to arrange the housing system known traditionally as ‘Wari’. The current house (Wari) system which consist of 34 chieftaincy group is directly descended from the King Asimini and Alagbiriye the Ikuba priest who is known with the title ‘okoloamakoromabo’
THE LINK TO THE HINTERLANDS Owing to the need of the coastal dwellers to have easy access to the cash crops grown in the thick forests of the Igbo country, Edemini the son and successor to Asimini wedded his daughter Kambasa to Opoli of Azuogu and influential man of the Ndoki clan of the Igbo country to Foster easy trade with the Ndoki’s who depended on the goods from up the imo river(including human cargoes) in Ndoki land; further throwing light to Dr koeller who revealed that “most of the people who were not born in Bonny are either slaves from the Igbo country or were at least brought here(Bonny) by the ibos from the interior” Kambasa while married was barely liberated and hindered greatly. She returned to Bonny when king Edimini was on his sickbed and stayed by his side till his death. Upon his death, she seized upon the mantle of leadership and was crowned Queen. Kambasa who later took a lover named Biriye became the great grand mother to king Perekule I
WHO ARE THE OWNERS OF BONNY? Following the morphing of a swampy settlement traditionally known and called 'okoloama' named after the curlew bird known by many Oru(ijoid) clan as okolo or okolain, ama (town) in English curlew town, no other tribe from the hinterlands or the west came to dwell owing to the nature of the area. Dr Köller noted that “THE BONNY LANGUAGE IS THE MOTHER TONGUE OF ONLY A SECTION OF THE BONNY PEOPLE; for others, it is only AN ADOPTED LANGUAGE, for the large part of the coastal people especially at Bonny consist of slaves who are purchased or seized by other tribes, sometimes from great distance. MOST OF THE PEOPLE WHO WERE NOT BORN IN BONNY WERE EITHER SLAVES FROM IGBO LAND OR ATLEAST BROUGHT HERE BY THE IBOS FROM THE INTERIOR” Note: Köler's work 1842-43 are reprinted as Köler 1848.
CAPTAIN HUGH CROW; the misconception Captain Crow nicknamed playman, a renowned slave trader and Marauder of the Atlantic in his journals collected information that was the beginning of the misconception only to a few uniformed ibos from the interior. Crow collected words from slaves who were either bound for the Atlantic voyage as slave captains were mostly anchored at the coast, leaving local rulers to source for slaves. As a result of this, vocabularies collected by Captain Hugh Crow were not vocabularies associated with the Bonny dialect. The research on coastal vocabularies by Dr Balfour Baikie, Sir Edwin Norris who was the assistant secretary of the royal Asiatic society began by collecting Numerals in the Bonny dialect, and not forgetting the enigmatic british missionary John Clarke who in 1848 began to group the ijoid Languages. Although the journal of Captain Hugh Crow is still accessible as an E-journal on the sole reason of it being a personal journal, but it isn’t found, referenced or cited in reputable information sources like Encyclopedia BRITANNICA or Wikipedia.
JOHN CLARKE; the subsequent expedition In the 1840’S Clarke a British missionary along with his Afro-American colleague Merrick on quest to identify the languages to address the coastal dwellers stumbled on the ijoid dialects and looked into it extensively. “Merrick collected his wordlists in an unsystematic way” as stated by British BIBLIOGRAPHER (Paul hair 1967) Clarke was the first to began grouping the ijoid Languages when he listed kalabari and the Bonny dialect under the ijo or Oru language. in 1848 he added two more dialects; numbe(Nembe) and Akrika(Okrika)
DR William BALFOUR BAIKIE; The 1854 Voyage From the Rio Formoso to the Nun, including all the western portion of the Delta, the natives speak Orú or Ejó, and to the westward of Abó a distinct dialect is used, namely the Sóbo. NÍMBE or BRASS IS VERY NEARLY RELATED TO THE ORÚ… BUT HERE THE DIALECT CLOSELY APPROACHES THAT OF NEW KALABAR (KALABARI) _ (Baikie 1856:419) The numerals 1-10 in bonny which he collected personally from King Perekule (nicknamed pepple) with an extra 6 wordlist of six items all from the Bonny dialect.
The compilation of the Polyglotta Africana in 1850 published in 1854 by German scholar Sigismund Koelle (not Dr Köler) who worked for the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in Freetown Sierra Leone was a systematic collection of African Collection of vocabularies of African languages, compiled by interviewing the freed slaves who had been resettled in Freetown. Koelle used a standard wordlist of about three hundred items and added notes on his Informants and their homelands, from which he was able to draw a map which is remarkably accurate for a Period when no European knew the interior of West Africa. His vocabularies are grouped according to genetic relationship in so far as he could trace it from the wordlists. He has two wordlists of Ịjọ, grouped together as V.C., the group which conjoins Igboid and Edoid. The first list, ´Okulōma, is a wordlist of bonny, Named for the town Ókólómá, although Koelle’s informant was from Orupiri (órúpírí) Koelle (1854: refers to Obā́ne as the name for these people given by the Ibos and Kerekas [Okrika]. Williamson (1966) discusses Koelle’s Ịjọ lists in detail. In the case of bonny, she shows that some 73% of Koelle’s forms were accurate and also yield much interesting information about lexical and phonological change in the language. The final voyage by Samuel Crowther. For the British crown in his missionary travel will further correct any misconception held by the hinterland neighbors. And it reads; “TERMINOLOGY FROM KING PEPPLE, Bonny is called OKOLOMA by themselves Bonny is called okoloBA, obani or ibani by the ibos Bonny is called Osiminikun by the Aboh tribe of ibo King Pepple said that Bonny is CHIEFLY PEOPLED by the IBO SLAVES though they speak the OKOLOMA or Bonny dialect which is also the language of new Calabar (kalabari) I remain Rev and Dear sir Your obedient humble servant; Samuel crowther” All of these researches relegated the journals of Captain Hugh crow to just a personal journal or a family relic for its posterity, reason it is never referenced or cited in reputable information sources such as Encyclopedia BRITANNICA or Wikipedia.
THE EMANCIPATION OF SLAVES IN BONNY; the rise of Igbo chiefs and the Genesis of the great misconception by the hinterLANDERS. Owing to the rivalry with new calabar (kalabari) both kingdoms were always at loggerheads with each other, King Perekule I became the first king to employ the services of slaves to serve as comrades of battle with the promise of emancipation and a possible promotion of the high position of chieftaincy if valor is shown in battle. These new batches of house began with Chief Allison Nwaoju(of the Allison Nwaoju Major house) these new batches of houses are distinct from the original traditional royal houses known as 'duawari' (reason Jaja was never qualified to be AMAYANABO despite being enculturated and heading the Anna pepple house) The chiefs of the Duawari houses were known as 'Aseme-alapu' which translates to (high chiefs of royal blood) In summary, it is well known that the Ndoki dialect of the Igbo ethnic group is well spoken in Bonny but only as a second language. The Bonny Language alongside other coastal dialects has been studied extensively by dutch linguist Gerrit Dimmendaal who first mentioned that the ijoid Languages though of the niger-congo in a larger concept is more distinct and stands more alone from the niger-congo. British linguists Williamson and Blench (2000) classified the ijoid dialect into (WEST-CENTRAL, INLAND, EASTERN ijoid dialect; of which the Bonny clan falls into)
Alabo, make you relax and "gear brake"!
Deliquate these words of wisdom with some fresh served fisherman's soup.
Something within me tells me you are a well natured person. I strongly believe you know the truth but choose to distort facts and postulate false narratives for some reasons best known to you.
I want to remind you however, that those who walked simlar path in time past never ended well. Go figure!
Relatedly, I realized you've been able to establish ( through independent research) that the biblical Eri is the progenitor of the Igbos.
In case you are unaware, Eri's descendants prides themselves with a foreign policy formulation of " egbe bere ugo bere nke si ibe ya ebene nku kwaa ya". Meaning we are peaceful, tolerant and not territoral expansionists.
I am sure you are also familiar with the quote below and the context in which it was made... “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
In light of the above, if I were you, I'd reconsider my steps and chose the part of greatness rather than damnation. It's never to late.
izac82: as if we are kids here. The hate campaign currently going on against igbos is what? In 2015 you threatened to drown Igbos in Lagoon... wetin come out from the presidency ya all want to kill Igbos for? Shift go wan side abeg.
He thinks we don't know their gameplay and the individual/ entity bankrolling him and others
Idiko1: Nobody balkanized so-called Ijaw. What became Ijaw were British porters mainly from Akwapim-Togo region. From Ghana to Nigeria, British did not have another territory in-between. What you have misrepresented as balkanization was actually another British tricks of leaving their porters as beacons along the route.
horsepower102: The Ijaws added the whole coast of awka Ibom to their fantasy republic. You people have been sleeping. It’s only the igbos and the Edos that have challenged them about their claim. You Akwa Ibom people kept quiet and watch them lay claims you your lands and oil.
Please ignore this moniker trying to disorient you and create division. He's most likely Afonja
zmoni: The most powerful and influential races are two--the Aku and the Ibo. The Akus [Footnote: This is a nickname from the national salutation, 'Aku, ku, ku?' ('How d'ye do?')] or Egbas of Yoruba, the region behind Lagos, the Eyeos of the old writers, so called from their chief town, 'Oyo,' are known by their long necklaces of tattoo. They are termed the Jews of Western Africa; they are perfect in their combination, and they poison with a remarkable readiness. The system of Egba 'clanship' is a favourite, sometimes an engrossing, topic for invective with the local press, who characterise this worst species of 'trades-union,' founded upon intimidation and something worse, as the 'Aku tyranny' and the 'Aku Inquisition.' The national proverb speaks the national sentiment clearly enough: '_Okàn kau lè ase ibi, ikoko li asi ìmolle bi atoju ìmolle taù, ke atoju ibi pella, bi aba kû ara enni ni isni 'ni'_ ('A man must openly practise the duties of kinship, even though he may privately belong to a (secret) club; when he has attended the club he must also attend to the duties of kinship, because when he dies his kith and kin are those who bury him').
The Ibos, or 'Eboes' of American tales, are even more divided; still they feel and act upon the principle 'Union is strength.' This large and savage tribe, whose headquarters are at Abo, about the head of the Nigerian delta, musters strong at Sá Leone; here they are the Swiss of the community; the Kruboys, and further south the Kabenda-men being the 'Paddies.' It is popularly said that while the Aku will do anything for money, the Ibo will do anything for revenge. Both races are astute in the extreme and intelligent enough to work harm. Unhappily, their talents rarely take the other direction. In former days they had faction-fights: the second eastern district witnessed the last serious disturbance in 1834. Now they do battle under the shadow of the law. 'Aku constables will not, unless in extreme cases, take up their delinquent countrymen, nor will an Ebo constable apprehend an Ebo thief; and so on through all the different tribes,' says the lady 'Resident of Sierra Leone.' If the majority of the jury be Akus, they will unhesitatingly find the worst of Aku criminals innocent, and the most innocent of whites, Ibos, or Timnis guilty. The Government has done its best to weld all those races into one, and has failed. Many, however, are becoming Moslems, as at Lagos, and this change may have a happier effect by introducing the civilisation of El-Islam.
Trial by jury has proved the reverse of a blessing to most non-English lands; in Africa it is simply a curse. The model institution becomes here, as in the United States, a better machine for tyranny than any tyrant, except a free people, ever invented. The British Constitution determines that a man shall be tried by his peers. Half a dozen of his peers at Sá Leone may be full-blooded blacks, liberated slaves, half-reformed fetish-worshippers, sometimes with a sneaking fondness for Shángo, the Egba god of fire; and, if not criminals and convicts in their own country, at best paupers clad in dishclouts and palm-oil. The excuse is that a white jury cannot be collected among the forty or fifty eligibles in Freetown. It is vain to 'challenge,' for other negroes will surely take the place of those objected to. No one raises the constitutional question, 'Are these half-reclaimed savages my peers?' And if he did, Justice would sternly reply, 'Yes.' The witnesses will forswear themselves, not, like our 'posters,' for half a crown, but gratis, because the plaintiff or defendant is a fellow-tribesman. The judge may be 'touched with a tar-brush;' but, be he white as milk, he must pass judgment according to verdict. This state of things recalls to mind the Ireland of the early nineteenth century, when the judges were prefects armed with a penal code,
OfoIgbo: For months now, I have been writing that Ibani that Ijaws like to claim, was just a mispronunciation of UBANI, which is why UBANI has a meaning in Igbo, but IBANI has no meaning in either Ijaw or Kalabari
Ekealterego: Some know, some do not. They lived under a government that demonised being Igbo for long when Ijaws were in charge of that state. Even if they know, they were forced to suppress it. Secondly, they supported the Biafran struggle and were punished for it.
Again, the media and everything were in the hands of the government of that day. The false propaganda that their language was the language of the slaves, rather the language of the slave and the king as well have been shouted down their ears for long. History hidden from them. However, many of them know the truth.
From local accounts and findings, the subjugation, suppression and systemic brainwashing of the aboriginal igbos in these coastal communities including Opobo and Bonny, started by the colonial invaders.
At the greatest height of colonization, the divide and rule tactic was spearheaded by the - Royal Dutch Company - their trading arm. They used the "divide and rule" tactics on the Igbos in the coastal regions as a punishment for the stiff opposition by their Igbo brothers in the hinterland ( our ancestors).
In continuation of the divide and rule tactics, their fellow conspirators -the Nigerian state spearheaded by the fulani's - with the support and advise rendered to them by the British consolidated the conquest duing the Biafra civil war by carving out a region ( Rivers State) out of the Igbo territory naming it's port after Lewis Vernon Harcourt - the former colonial administration of the colony - in his honor.
Let it also be on record, that our ancestors in these coastal communities opposed and fought the invaders with all their resources but finally gave in to superior firepower and conspiracy. The current descendants have been through systematic and pepetual divide and rule tactic of brainwashing and propaganda.
The current and fraudulent ijo political franchise are only willing agents used to perpetuate the continuous game of subjugation and suppression.
This is contrary to the common notion that the Igbos of Opobo or Bonny extraction are ignorant of their origin and history or wants to do nothing about it.
10:01 min mark: "When people want to speak the bring out idioms, like palm oil, like Chinua Achebe says 'parables are the palm oil which words are eaten"
Common Greeting Edi Ka = How are you
I've been consistent with my claim that all the coastal communities from Nembe all the way to Opubo even the neighboring islands across the Atlantic ocean up to Equatorial Guinea belong to the Igbos
Ijo's are foreigners to this communities. Forget all the noise, schemes and deceits.
This video clip is a validation to my claim. Many more of these to come.
Igboid: Nope. It wasn't. Linguists had long studied all the Languages in Nigeria.
Epie-Atissa is an Edoid language. Degema (Udekeme) is Edoid Engenni is Edoid (Burna boy is from this ethnic group)
Ogbia (GEJ ethnic group) is Ibibiod (Cross-River language group) Abureni is Ibibiod Abuloma (Obulom) is Ibibiod Andoni is Ibibiod Odual/Abua is Ibibiod.
All these groups are not Ijaw people.
Enough of the Ijaw fraudulent Political franchising of independent groups in riverine SS.
It has gone on for too long unchallenged. This fraud cannot be tolerated any more.
OfoIgbo: A king can refer to his subjects as THEY or THEM.
But I want you to even show us where he clearly stated that he is Ijaw
This people are old and strategic in this game of deception. Did anyone notice how the fox of an interviewer clearly avoided asking the King a direct question to clarify his origin or background ?He rather attempted deceiving him into classifying himself as "ijo" of which the wise Igbo King ( true to his father) clearly and intentionally avoided.
Politics › Re: 2023: Keep Off Southeast – IPOB Warns Wike by EzeCanada: 4:18pm On Apr 27, 2022*. Modified: 10:25pm On Apr 27, 2022
refers to Obā́ne as the name for these people given by the Ibos and Kerekas [Okrika].