₦airaland Forum

Commentor:
I know for sure the Akunyili clan wouldn't mind.

Be serious for once.

Which Akunyili clan?
I'm from Anambra, same state as Akunyili.
Akunyili is from Agulu in Anambra Central senatorial district, same as mine.

So which clan do you speak of?

Commentor:
Your people are already clamouring for it.

Let's see how badly things degenerate .

Which Igbo man is clamoring for it?
A fictitious faceless group?

Be serious for once.

gidgiddy.

What is is IPOB doing about issues raised here?

BKayy:
This is one thing they want IPOB to believe, which is that they are fighting Fulani Caliphate.
When one fails to recognise his enemy, he tends to move through circles.
Gowon never brought out any anti IPOB propaganda. Gowon and Nigeria then don't even know what it is. It is the same people that did it in 1966 that are doing it again. The real enemy IPOB is fighting.
Britain.
Every thing happening to IPOB today was used by Britain against IRA of Republic of Ireland.
Google it.
Lack of decisiveness brought IPOB into this situation and if they go for the Queen in this chess game, what they think the king is (Caliphate) becomes powerless because unlike the King(Caliphate), the Queen (Britain) cares about her reputation.

You are good bro.
Igbos have the brains.
We just lack the platform.

Boma in BBN said he is Kalabari and not Ijaw.
Ijaw people wanted to kill themselves.

Efewestern:
Your outburst was just not neccesary. Quite disappointed.

I never claimed that the Blacksmiths were Isobo's, only tried to reason out why everyone was called Isobo when the Isobo's weren't even part of the Eastern region.

I Went further to state that there could be a probability of them venturing into tools development because of their high population in this territory in the 1900's.

Nah.
What you tried to do was claim Igbo feat for your Isoko people or atleast try to water it down by attaching your Isoko people to it.
It's an evil thing to do.

The Isokos were never known for metallurgy in history, not at home, not abroad.

So how exactly could you link this article to Isoko, even when it was made obvious to you that the Yorubas referred to anyone East of Ondo who is not Edo as Isobo?
Are Igbos not East of Edo?

What you did wasn't cool. I'm sick of Nigerians always trying to diminish Igbo feats.

Efewestern:
Educative!

I knew we had few migration of igbos into Eastern Yoruboid territory in the 18000 & 19000's, but never knew they had impact like the Urhobos who dominated the economic space.

Also, It's hard to believe the Igbos were mistakenly called Isobo, the name was reserved for only the Isoko/Urhobo speaking people. It could be that majority of the Urhobos also ventured in weapon development.

What is wrong with people like you?

The text was unmistakable that Yorubas then referred to anything East of Edo as Isobo!
They didn't Know about Igbo.
And the name of Igbo blacksmiths involved were as well mentioned, and you still want to claim it for Urhobos?
You even saw an Igbo masquerade there photographed by the colonial officer in Okitipupa.

Are you okay at all?

Oka(Awka) blacksmiths went as far as Cameroon making weapons for local people there.
In Igueben Edo, they have IdumuOka who were descendants of Oka blacksmiths who brought their superior skills to the the area.

Urhobos were never known for metallurgy,
Ndiigbo were great with Metallurgy with multiple ancient iron ore minning sites to show for it. We have Igbo clans known for Metallurgy, Oka was the most popular, but there were Nkwere ( Opiaegbe) "the gun makers", Agbaja blacksmiths, Abriba people, etc. Stop the madness already.

Eastlink:
Great thread. Only that the thread revolves only on missionary activities. You might want to post about the Lander brothers when the landed in Aboh and were arrested by the Obi.

You can post those here.
That's why I invited you.

David Eze – the first male Christian convert from Umunede
David Eze was probably converted around 1902 or earlier. In 1905, he married Mumezia (baptised as Mary) sister to Obi Omorhusi, King of Idumuje-Ugboko, in the first Christian wedding seen in Idumuje-Ugboko. David and his wife were stationed in Egbu near Owerri, where they carried out missionary work.
You will remember that Egbu was where Archdeacon Dennis translated the Bible into Igbo (the Union Igbo Bible). David Eze was part of the translation team, along with Thomas Anyaegbunam and Alphonsus Onyeabo (who later became a Bishop), and some other Igbo evangelists. Thus, a son of Ikaland worked on one of the earliest Igbo translations of the Bible.
David sadly died in 1909, before the translation work could be completed.
~Picture: David Eze (far right), teaching his pupils to read the scriptures, at Egbu (near Owerri) in 1907. Taken from: https://www.idumujeugboko.com/

Alolo – the first Christian convert from Igbodo
In a town called Igbodo in West Africa, there is a large mud house, much grander than any other in the town. It was the dwelling place of a big medicine man (named Ofunani) when I first knew it. He was always ready to welcome us as his guests and give us ample room to stay while in the town. As we had to pass through Igbodo to reach other towns in our district, we often accepted his hospitality. He was known far and wide as a medicine man; he had several wives and a great position. He did not care about the Gospel. He seemed never to want to hear it, but he always received us kindly when we went. Let me tell you the story of his wife.
She was a young nice-looking woman – always clean, though most other women looked dirty; and instead of having the sleepy ‘I don’t care’ look usual among the women, her face was striking in its intelligence. Her name was Alolo. She had the usual medicine man’s charms and a small house of her own in which all her personal idols were kept. The Gospel was not quite new to Alolo. She had heard of the Lord Jesus from Yoruba and Sierra Leone traders, and she wanted to know more. From our first visit, she attached herself to us wherever we went. She was known and respected everywhere. The kings of the different towns would listen with some respect to what she said, and she always received the honour given to a medicine man or chief.
In 1905, God gave her another little son (she already had a son and a daughter). How proud and happy she was! She offered no sacrifice to thank her idols, and would not allow the little one’s face to be cut with the tribal marks. To God alone she gave thanks.
But alas! when her baby began to cut his teeth, he sickened and became very ill. She did all she could for him; she appealed for help to her fellow wives and her husband, but they were like stone. They told her it was because she had left her idols and their customs, and they would give her neither advice nor help. So she started out with her dear baby to come to me at Idumuje Ugboko for help. I was away and my house fastened up. There was nothing for it but to tramp the six miles back again. A kind woman called her in to rest, and as, by the flickering light of the palm oil lamp they together looked at the little face, they saw the child was dead. The pitying Saviour was with that poor woman as she carried her dear dead baby that night along the winding bush path through the forest to her home. She was met with the most cruel reproaches from her husband, and with mocking laughter from her fellow women. She went out into the bush and made a little grave there, and buried her bay herself.
About two months later, she came to me with the request that we would visit Igbodo soon, as she wished to destroy her idols. She said they had been nothing to her for many months. She grieved that she had given them a place in her house. She would have destroyed them privately, but thought it might teach some of the Igbodo people if they saw them burnt. A few days later we went. Her husband knew the reason for our visit and, when spoken to about it, said she had no control over Alolo; she always did as she pleased. He carefully absented himself early in the morning, and remained away till the deed was done. There was a remarkable collection of idols for a woman to possess, quite a heap all together in the yard of the house. A crowd of people gathered, and we sang a hymn, “Come to Jesus just now”, and spoke a few words to the crowd. Then Alolo got fire and set the heap alight.
I can only describe one other incident in her life.
Twins had always been thrown away in Igbodo as soon as born. Alone, single handed, Alolo fought against the custom. One day she heard of twins being born, and before the parents had a chance to get them away to the bush she was at the house, and amidst a storm of angry protest she carried the twins off to her house. Her husband was indignant. The other women tore their hair with anger and superstitious fear. The whole town gathered before her door, but she withstood them all. She was left at last, cut off from everyone, with the entrance to her house strewed with ‘medicine’ to cause her death. The babies had been treated too badly and she could not save them. Before many hours they were both dead. Then she was seized by a crowd and taken to a town some distance away where a Government official was staying while on a tour of his district. She was charged with upsetting the peace of the town, a charge which has sometimes been effectual in getting a Christian punished. But in this case the truth was found out.
Her husband died about four years ago, and she is now married to a Christian man and has been baptised together with her children. Without doubt Alolo has been the instrument used by God to bring into existence the Church which is in Igbodo.
~ Culled from Niger Dawn written by Frances Hensley (1954)
Picture and information were sourced here: https://www.idumujeugboko.com/

THE FIRST INDIGENOUS WEST AFRICAN CATHOLIC PRIEST – FR PAUL OBODOECHINE EMECHETE

Paul Obodoechine Emechete was a native of Ezi. He was born around 1888. In the late 19th century, the Prefecture of the Upper Niger spread to his hometown of Ezi, and he was among the first converts there. He was later married in the Catholic Church and then became a teacher and a catechist. When his wife died, Paul decided to join the priesthood, under the mentorship of the famous Italian missionary Monisgnor Carlo Zappa.

In 1917, Paul received the Minor Orders at Lagos. And on 6th January, 1920 Paul Emechete was ordained a priest at St. Joseph’s Pro-Cathedral, Asaba by Bishop Thomas Broderick. The first native of British West Africa to become a Catholic priest.

[John Cross Anyogu of Onitsha became a priest in 1930, ten years after Father Emechete. But, strangely, in many circles, John Anyogu, rather than Paul Emechete is ascribed the honour of being the first Igbo Catholic priest. Both men came from Ezechime-descent towns.]

How often do we hear Igboid speaking but Igbo denying groups in SS claim that their use of Igbo language as mother tongue was caused by the colonial missionaries and Early church using Igbo language to preach the gospel in those areas by employing preachers from Igboland.

Well. This thread seek to burst that Myth and infact establish the fact that the gospel of Christianity first got to the Igbo speaking people in SS ( IKa, Enuani, Bonny, Opobo, Aboh(Ukwuani) ) before they could penetrate Igbo hinterland called SE today. And that it was among those Igbos in modern SS that the European missionaries employed first preachers in Igbo language from the native converts there, to take the gospel to Igbo hinterland.
Infact, the first Igbo Bible was written in Bonny Igbo language.

So you see. It was the SS Igbo groups that brought the Gospel of Christianity to hinterland Igbos and not the other way around.
For example, one in Bonny Igbo is "Oli". So in modern Igbo Bible, that version of Igbo was preserved as a relic in expressions like : " Ma oli" meaning " not even one".

Reserved space

Early Igbo Sojourners in Eastern Yorubaland.

The attached pictures depict people at a masquerade dance. The masquerade is the famous Mgbedike masquerade, popular in the Nri-Ọka area. In Picture 1, a man can be seen wearing a hat, with ichi marks on his face.

But these pictures were not taken in Igboland. They were taken in the village of Okitipupa, in the Ondo area of eastern Yorubaland in the 1940s by British colonial officer Edward Harland Duckworth. Who were these people and what was Mgbedike doing in Yorubaland in the '40s?

Ọka tradition relates that their itinerant blacksmiths had penetrated into Yorubaland at some undetermined time in the past. Professor O. N. Njoku says this happened sometime between the 1890s and 1904. But it was in the Colonial Period, from the 1930s, that they began to appear there in significant numbers for Yoruba tradition to take notice of their presence.

It was their skill in gun-smithing that enabled the Ọka to penetrate Yorubaland. While Yoruba gunsmiths used nails and riveted their gun parts, Ọka smiths used screws. Ọka guns could thus be taken apart, cleaned and re-assembled.

The best-known of the Ọka smiths in Yorubaland in the 1930s was one Godwin Okafọ who settled in Igede Ekiti. Ekiti people didn't even know his name and simply called him Ọka. He brought innovations and enriched the smithing tradition of Igede, just as his fellow Ọka craftsworkers were changing the face of the profession in other towns in Ekiti.

This is what an elder from Igede, Chief Akande, had to say about Godwin and his 'brothers':

"These Isobos [a name originally referring to Urhobos, but extended to anyone from the Eastern Region] came and began to make heavy duty guns that could kill 2 or 3 animals at once. They were the first to seriously start producing knives, cutlasses hoes and others in large quantity for sale. Look at Awka [i.e., Godwin Okafọ], he is small in stature but stronger than many around us. He was the person who first started producing short, rather than the usual long, guns here. Not only that, these Awka people performed their smithing activity by producing, for the first time, double-barrel guns that could kill a whole district if there is war..."

(" Economic History of Ekiti People in Nigeria, 1900 - 1960" by Jumoke Oloidi PhD. Thesis, UNN)

#Nonso Uche Nnajide

cc: Bkayy, Eastlink, Sufferingboy, Slayerforever, AnambraIstson

theTranscriber:
I posted almost 6 sources and it's a blog you see to give to me?

the link is even censored

you guys are a big joke

The joke is on you.
There are no Oba in Odiani, what we have is Obi's, the people are part and parcel of Enuani,an Igbo clan.

theTranscriber:
can i get a source?

olùkùmi is what people know

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/the-history-of-the-olukumi-people-in-nigeria

They are unique in every sense. Surrounded by predominantly Ibo-speaking tribes, they speak a variant of the Yoruba language, which surprising is yet to be subsumed by those of their dominant neighbours. How they came to inhabit their present abode has been a subject of varied folklores. One of these concludes that when the OLUKUMiS arrived at their present place of domicile in the Far North of present-day Delta State, the Edo (Ancient Benin) émigrés and Ibos from the East of the River Niger had been on ground for a minimum of three centuries. Unable to communicate with the hostile people all around them, they courtesied all and sundry who they came into contact with "OLUKUMi", a word in the Akoko dialect of Yoruba language which means "my friend".
Further evidence has emerged to dispute this variation of their history. There is documentary evidence to suggest that the OLUKUMiS occupied their present abode long before their Ibo speaking neighbours (including the Asabas) arrived the vicinity.
However, to this day, the variant of Yoruba language spoken by these people is called Olukumi by neighbouring communities!
Due to the small size of this unique community and the threat of its culture and heritage being submerged into that of its dominant neighbours,the need to preserve its culture through published material has arisen so as to ensure that accounts of knowledgeable indigenes are preserved before they all pass away. Prior to now, the history had been transferred through oral means from Elders to their children.
The writer, Chief G B Nkemnacho, has over the past forty years, put pen to paper and documented the history of his people (the OLUKUMIS) as told by earlier generations. As has been said severally, no one can tell a history better than the people who actually lived through it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulukwumi_language

https://zims-en.kiwix.campusafrica.gos.orange.com/wikipedia_en_all_nopic/A/Olukumi_people


http://www.tellafrica.com.ng/culture/2797/

http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2224-00392020000100017

tao11

http://ugboduanioma..com/?m=1

Nope.
They are called Odiani people. That's what the people and the rest of Igbos (Enuani) call them.

And nope. They didn't meet the land dry, they met indigenous Igbo speaking people on ground which is why their Yoruboid language is dying .
The owner of the site I posted is from the Town of Ugbodu, he has Facebook page too, you can visit it.

kmcutez:
Lol

I'm sure your Isoko trouble causing people in Ndokwa East fall into that category.

theTranscriber:
Grammer
zero8zero is olùkùmi and he doesn't agree with your "history" without a source

The history was actually written by an Odiani (yes that's their real name) person.

Whatever Yoruba presence in Odiani clan met indigenous Igbo tribes there who welcomed and subsequently assimilated them into Igbo culture and language since they were the overwhelming majority.

This is the history of many towns in Anioma area.
Aboriginal Igbo peace loving people who welcome Yoruba,Isoko, Bini, Igala people running away from trouble in their homeland and assimilating them into Igbo culture and language.

Rather than show gratitude to these Igbo people who accommodated them, descendants of these non Igbos go about trying to de-Igbonize their host communities by fabricating ridiculous stories of SEners forcing Igbo language on them, while the aboriginal Igbo native families who constitute the majority in these places maintain painful silence which irks those of us in SE.

In case of Odiani (Olukumi) though, the aboriginal Igbo natives there are doing a good job keeping the non Igbo migrants contained.

Easternblood:
Mumu, A bum ezigbo nwaafo Igbo kajara akaja. Onye nke amuru n'ala Igbo, a mughi m na mba dika unu

Bororo man. I'm glad you learnt Igbo language.

Kam juo gi, I na enwetu obele skosko mgbe ufodu, ka amulu gi one anuwa idi kita?

nengibo:
Opobo(Anglicized word for Opubo ama) is not a town but a kingdom, and saying Ibani is foriegn is just stupid and that's puting it lightly, Ibani is not just a language, its the people and Identity of Bonny and Opobo kingdoms, how many times do we have to tell you we don't want to Igbo na by force?

Who is "we" ?

Bayelsa people like you?

Ofodirinwa:
They are traditionally smiths and carvers (wa = to cut). So some of the groups in Enugu and Ebonyi are called that even if they're not themselves because that's where smithing came from (check Lejja, and Opi Iron sites from the time of the Egyptians).


Awka people are also wawa, but there are many Awka people on this website calling ppl wawa as an insult because they're not raised at home and are effectively not even Igbo people anymore.

Awka is not Wawa. But they are closely related with Wawa people being their neighbors since creation. So there is lots of interchange of words and culture between both groups.

By the way. Like someone already explained.
"Mba" has three meanings in Igboll language.

1. Nation/people/clan.

2. Stranger

3. No

In the first usage you see it used to name towns like "Mbaise" (five nations), Mbano(four nations), Mbaitolu(Nine nations), Mbaukwu(Great nation).
You see it also in names. Like Mbazuluike= let the people rest.
Mbakwe( when the people agrees). Mbanaso- This is actually the original name of Jaja of Opobo.
It is from this first rendition of Mba that we named the riverine areas, Mba mili. Simply meaning a nation of people who live on water.

In the second use. You use this to refer to a stranger.
" Obu onye mba", means he is a stranger.
Somehow I feel this use of "mba" is abridged.
I think the full word should be "mba ozo" meaning "another nation".

Lastly is "Mba" for No.
And this is not universal in Igboland.
Owerri people say "Oloo" for No, Enugu and Ebonyi say "Waawa" .
It's mainly parts of Anambra, Enuani and Abia that use "Mba" for No.

SlayerForever:
If Igbo culture is Ibani culture then we are saying the same thing.

Igbo culture is not Ibani culture.

nengibo:
You should laugh at your insinuation Ibani is foreign to Ibani people.

Ibani is foreign in Opobo. It has never been native to Opobo.
Maybe to places like Finima. But never Opobo town itself.

OP.
What about the flooding in Western Germany and Belgium? Were those caused by poor drainage too?

I am not a fan of Tinubu. But I think Marina flooding is part of the global event of climate change,which is manifesting as rise in sea levels with its resultant flooding of coastal areas lying below sea level.

If the Whites are this helpless as we saw on TV recently and can't stop this flooding, what chance do we stand over here with our limited knowledge and funds?

mbaise1000:
Hope this ruudvan...... is not igbo, I don't want to see igbos been insulted for what doesn't concern them here

Lol!
It doesn't matter.
Soon a Bororo man will come here claiming Igbo while bashing Tinubu.
Then same Bororo man will log into his Yoruba moniker and bash his Igbo moniker.
And before you know it, many unsuspecting people will be drawn into the brawl.

This repeated attention giving to Ikwerre people by my Igbo people is becoming embarrassing.
OP. Ikwerre is not Igbo and really have nothing to offer Ndiigbo that we don't already have.
Move on.

CSTRR:
If you don't want Nigeria to break up, it is very simple.

Give up your undue privileges and make the union more fairer.

Concede to a restructuring and electoral reforms.

They're only tolerating you infidels because of those undue privileges.
If you remove those privileges, then there is no point of them being in same country with you.

Nwanyiogwashi:
Those Godforsaken fishermen and fisherwomen there will never stop showing their hate on that page. seriously I always feel like killing those ipob guys that call those Godforsaken lazy human beings brother.
If you visit urhobo Facebook pages you will understand the level of hate they have for igbos.

Yes!
I'm on those platforms too,the Urhobo ones.

IPOB no try at all. Maka chi.

Gambit23:


Ika are IGBOs from Edo state

Who dash them Igbo tag?