₦airaland Forum

Let me clear up this confusion about SE/SS relations. Now, a large percentage of the SS is already Igbo (7 million plus in both Delta and Rivers). As for the other people, the Igbo have a special relationship with them.

Take the Ibibio/Efik for example. The relationship between Ibibio/Efik and Igbo is almost like that of he Hausa and Fulani. Since pre-colonial times, the Igbo (in certain places) have coexisted peacefully with the Ibibio and Efik. For example on my hometown, many people some Ibibio as a second language. Since precolonial times, we have been trading and intermarrying with them.

Personally, I have many friends who are Efik, and although they aren't Igbo, they visit Arochukwu with their parents. Most of these people are Efik and journey anually from Calabar and other towns in Cross-Rivers state. Just to try and get my message across, I'll use a personal account. I have a friend who visits from Calabar and despite the fact that he doesn't speak Igbo very well, he stated that he felt at home and safe in my town and in Igboland in general. When we speak to each other we use our native tongues and he would teach me his and I the same. Hopefully, this account will eliminate a consoderable amount of bickering and back to forth arguing about how the SS in general feel about SEerners.

Also, during the Biafran war, one side of my family fled to Ibibioland to avoid persecution. The Ibibio treated them like they were their own. They fed them, hid them in their homes and successfully taught them Ibibio. This is another supporting detail to the fact that only brotherly love exists between the Igbo and most of peoples that live in the SS. Why I say most is because their are no absolutes but from the best of my knowledge Igbomen, Efikmen/Ibibiomen, Ijawmen, Edomen, and Urhobomen are all brothers.

veritaaz:
Hello fellow igbo nigerian friends!
can someone please assist translate this into igbo language? i'm assisting my 7yr old with his school assignment on five sentences about Dogs. Thanks i await your response.

Dogs are the best companions a human could get on Earth
They are suitable to play with when bored.
They are loyal and will stay by your side.
They bark to alert of any stranger or strange actions
Dogs loves eating bones.

Hey Veritaaz, you came to the right place. Here you go

1. Onwero enyi ka nkita madu nwere ike inwe na uwa.
2. Ha di nma iji egwu egwuregwu mgbe i no nmanma.
3. Ha na asopujere madu yana ha ga ano gi na nko.
4. Ha na agboje ka ha kwuoro gi mgbe onye i maro biara mo owuru ha huru ihe di iche.
5. Ita okpukpu masiri nkita.

StarFlux:
Indeed. People in this thread are biased. Why is it that dwelling on this particular subject is so important? so if no be say you are all in love with Edo people, then why you dey fight so hard? maybe being Edo is trendy now. Regardless, I welcome it.

When somebody in this thread claim they are right, another person comes and call am fool, and then it will go on forever. You are all confused.

we ya tie ebe were, and come back when you know your stuff.

(hope i got that right, i am half Edo and just started to learn the language)

Good to see you again Starflux. It's nice to see that you went on to study Edo.

ekt_bear:
I am happy that this thread was started by an Igbo rather than a Yoruba.

Notice very well my people what happens when you try to claim another ethnic group too much?

These things must be done gently and in a more sophisticated manner than the ham-fisted, ogreish and crude approach of Obiagu1  

Oh please. No one is trying to claim anybody. All we are saying is that on the cultural scale, Edo leans closer to Igbo than it does to Yoruba. Besides, I've witnessed many people outrightly claim "Edo" land politically. For example, I'm sure you have seen Musiwa, becomrich and etc. post maps of "Oduduwa Republic" in which Edo state is incorporated. I've yet to see a map of Biafra that extends beyond Northern Delta.

Please, this thread is talking about cultural similarities not political tendencies.

ekt_bear:
So from edo.girl's two posts earlier on this thread:


She mentioned that they might see themselves as closer to someone from Asaba. But not someone from Owerri.

And she explicitly denied the possibility of any interest in any political alliances with Igbos. Yet claims that they would not be opposed to looking West.

And your conclusion after reading these two posts is that Edo is closer to Igbo than Yoruba?

And I am the one misreading posts, or selectively reading?

How much more do you want someone to deny you than to say her people want to have nothing to do with yours? 

Asaba is Western Igbo so it applies to this situation unlike Owerre which is Eastern Igbo. This isn't a thread about political alliances rather it is one about cultural connections. Although the influence of the Edo is not strong on the Igbo ethnic group as a whole, its presence is felt in certain (not all) communities in Western influence. In turn Igbo influence is also felt in certain Edo communities in Delta and Edo state.

It's not a question of "claims" but of reality. You can claim whatever you like but your history is your history.

edo.girl
Posts: 153

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Re: Are Edo People Culturally & Politically Closer To Yorubas Or Igbos?
« #3 on: February 04, 2012, 01:40 PM »
there's historical connection with binis, but in honesty, today, an average edo can't understand a word of yoruba, and i would agree that the average edo person sees himself as closer in many ways than one, to some1 from warri, sapele, or even asaba than someone from oshogbo.  whether you can stretch it further & say an edo person feels close to someone from owerri than a yoruba person, i doubt, but i coould be wrong. ofcourse, there are people in edo state, other than binis, who feel closer to igbos. yoruba language degradation amongst hitherto 'yoruba' folks is edo state is a key factor. not sure if it was ogbemudia or someone wlse who 'banned' the teaching of yoruba language in those parts in the 70s. the result is that only the elderly & those born before that era can speak yoruba. the younger ones now speak the local dialect and pidgin only.

ekt_bear:
Why are you even responding to Obiagu1? Don't you notice that no one else is paying him any attention on his own thread?

If he choses to ignore the words of almost every single Edo person who has posted on this thread and denied an Igbo connection, that is his own choice.

I've yet to see any. Physics, Edogirl and co have elaborated on the Edo-Western Igbo connection.

ChinenyeN:
Majority of slaves that came from "Igboland" came from the central/northern areas. Those communities were hardest hit (devastated, if I were to be so liberal with my words) by the slave trade during Arochukwu involvement.

Where are you getting the bolded from? As for the underlined, which "fringes" are you talking about?

I think I get what you're saying. You're directly implying that in precolonial times, there was the idea of a sense of "Igbohood" that encompassed the area called "Igboland".

Yes, you understand me. This type of thinking is still active today. If you go to a village in Igboland and ask someone "what are you?" they won't tell you, I'm an Igbo. They will say I am from so so so and so community.

In addition, back then, most Igbo people called the language which they spoke "Igbo". I'ts not likely that anyone said "I na asu Owerre?" or "I na asu Idemilli?"

By "fringes" i mean the extremes of Igboland for example the Cross River basin. Since there were many ethnicities along that basin, if you asked an Igboman what ethnicity he was, he would for tell you "I am an Igbo" followed by his subgroup as opossed to let's say an Mbaise man who would say "I am an Ezhitte" or etc.

^^
Did you hear that anyone was killed?

ekt_bear:
Odumchi, some of your towns/villages in northern Anambra were even founded by Igala ancestors. Yet today are populated by people who call themselves Igbo (despite the fact that their ancestors may not have been Igbo.)

Is this not true?

I don't know anything about that. In fact, this is the first time in my life that I'm hearing that.

Also to add to what I wrote, someone like Olaudah Equiano would have identified himself as Igbo because he was aware of the various ethnicities and peoples that existed. However, had he not been captured, he would have identified himself based on his hometown.

ChinenyeN:
Is what he said (at least, the part you bolded) incorrect?

Well, it's not totally wrong. Back then, being Igbo wasn't a totally uniting factor. In the olden days, people identified themselves based on subgroups. For example if I asked you:
"Chinenye, what are you?"
You would tell me "I am from so so so and so town in Ngwaland"
While in the back of my head, I knew you were Igbo but that was irrelevant since almost everyone around us was Igbo. Back then the world was a very small place so saying "Igbo" as one's identity is the modern equivalent of saying "I'm from Africa"

People only identified as "Igbo" in the fringes of Igboland where there were many different peoples. I hope you understand what I'm saying.

ekt_bear:
Nope, there are some Igbos in northern Anambra who are related to Igala. Or so I have read, at least.

Perhaps ACM10 is one of these, hence his denial of the Igala-Yoruba connection

Those people you are talking about aren't ethnically related to the Igala. Although the Igala occupy a small sliver of territory in north-western Anambra, they share no ancestral or blood ties with the Igbo living in the rest of the state. Unless, of course, you mean through marriage.

Anyway, back to the topic.

Lol, simply a reason of corrupt community "leadership" and a fed-up populace. People like that are given hundreds of thousands of naira by the Local government to oversee the welfare of the community but they end up squandering it.

ekt_bear:
So someone still doesn't believe that this word "Yoruboid" exists?

And ACM10 also doesn't believe that there is a connection between Igala and Yoruba?

Maybe he is one of those Igbos with Igala ancestry, so doesn't want to believe

Igbo are related to Idoma not Igala.

^^^
Egwu a di uto, kama wo gara ime ya ka o ditu ogologo karia aga onhu odi.
Na agbenyegi ihe a, egwu ohu di nma.

alj harem:
smdh

are we not saying the same thing

I clearly stated that there was a civilization much older than others in Igboland and I know of Igbo ukwu infact I have posted the topic here before. They ( the people) were not known as Igbos

they were known as Aro, ngwa, etc

There was nothing like yoruba before

I said it was named as omo odudua which the bini answered to back in the days

or Nago

How am I a lair ?

Say only what you know.

Kwuo so so ihe i mara.

How'd you come to that conclusion? Geographically, Nigeria is West African. Culturally, it's still west African since Cameroon is mostly Bantu.

Man, Owerre is beautiful. The whole time, I was enjoying that Sunny Bobo song they were playing. . .

Owurukwa ndi Owerre wo asi 'ihe oma ri nma' 

amor4ce:
Since those ruling in Israel today are fake jews, what then is the probability that Messiah is actually translated as Anointed? Perhaps we should ask our priests and historians what actions were taken in our kingdoms and communities that signified when a man had been chosen to serve as a royal father.Can you tell us why "Onye e tere mmanu" in Igbo is equivalent to 'the anointed'?

The literal translation of anointed in Igbo is "onye etere nmanu" meaning the one who oil was applied upon. Another less literal translation is "onye agoziri agozi" meaning one who is blessed.

Urhobo!!

Last time I checked, beauty was in the hands of the beholder? Anyway, lets get back to the main topic: Are the Edo closer to the Igbo or the Yoruba?

shymmex:
Moderator

Is nairaland ALLERGIC to "fullstop" My "fullstop" keeos showing as commas

It's always been that way. The system won't allow you to put three periods consecutively. We value or punctuation.  

alj harem:
Nope

Women are fulani/hausa girl

men are yoruba/bendel men
get your facts right.

LOL. That says something about you Alj.  

sleekman:
Obi of Onitsha is a direct descendant of d Oba of Benin so also is d Obi of Agbor, all Enogies in Edo state, Owo of Owo, Oba of Akure, Oba of Lagos, Ooni of Ife, Rulers of Igbira, Atuwase of Warri, ruler of Uhrobo. One of d reasons adduced for d Bini empire not expanding much was that d Binis were very wicked. So much atrocities were commited by them. So u see just like in Europe most people in d south that's SW, SE, SS and part of d middle belt are closely related. Various Oba's intermarried amongst eachothers tribes as peace treaties.

The Obis of Agbor and Onitsha are from Nri.

exotik:
as if yoruba and igbo are not full of dialects that have variants for words.  

orisakwe is an igbo name meaning god-agrees. and i actually saw an igbo person wit dat name here on NL posted abagworo a proper igboman.

Orisakwe is a variant of Olisakwe or Osawke which are derived from Osebuluwa meaning God who carries the world. This has no connection with the Yoruba goddess Orisha. Besides "Orisa" in Yoruba is pronounced "Oh-ree-sha" while "Olisa" is pronounced "Oh-ri-sa" or "Oh-li-sa". Howvwer, you're right, there are dialectal differences.

andrewozed:
Afam stop concluding in the light of your reasoning always look at the fact and know that it is possible that you might be wrong. Are you an expert on history? am from edo, igbanke is in edo, the speak the same language with abgor in delta state because they share almost the same landmass. The akoko edos are yoruba settlement, the igalas speak yoruba fluently that's why they bear yoruba names, they wouldn't just give their children yoruba name if they don't know the meaning. Go and read about the history of great bini empire in the 15th century before posting a thread ignorantly and even bragging with it.

Wow. Although the Igala language is related to Yoruba, it doesn't mean that they speak Yoruba. Igala is Igala and nothing more. What you're saying is like saying since the French answer "Henri" and th Englis "Henry", then Frenchmen speak English.

exotik:
the cultural myth is that yoruba is not close to igbo.

stone/rock
yoruba - okuta
igbo - okute

masquerade
yoruba - ekpo
igbo - ekpo

money
yoruba - ogho
igbo - ego

amen
yoruba - ase
igbo - ise

orisha is a diety in both yoruba and igbo, and they both had bronze/brass casting.

and dat was just from the top of my head and im not an expert. so imagine if  experts in language and customs are to probe further, the results would be astonishing and you will find out these two noise makers in south of nigeria are actually one and same people formerly known as yorugbo

Masquerade in general Igbo is "nmanwu". Only a few communities say "ekpo". The word for stone also varies in dialects. Nri-Awka says "okute", my people say "nkuma". Money is also various. Everyone says "ego" but some say "ikpeghe or okpogho". By the way, money in Edo is "ikpogho".

And how did you arrive at the bolded?

This is an interesting topic. Judging from the comments, I think it would be immture to say that the Edo people are related to the Yoruba or Igbo. I've even noticed some characters saying that "Edo" is a Yoruboid ethnic group.  
But first, let me start by saying that Edo is not a singular "tribe". The Edo nation is made up of many ethnic groups which are the Edo, Esan, Urhobo, Etsako, and Isoko. These people live in the swath of territory from the Southern tip of Delta state to some parts of Ondo and north into Edo state and Kogi state.

Linguisticaly, the Edo are closer (not related but closer) to the Igbo. For example in Edo "Oselugbua" means God and it is the same in Igbo. "Ohimwin" (If I'm correct) means "river" in Edo and it also resembles the Igbo "oshimili". There are also many other words and linguistic concepts shared by the two languages and communities mixed with Edo and Igbo populations do exist in present day Edo State. One community that is a great example of this relationship is the Igbanke people. Although Igbo, the Igbanke (who reside in Edo state) speak a dialect which might sound sound like Edo but is still distinct enough to be called Igbo. Culturally, the Edo people might also seem to be closer to the Igbo than they are to the Yoruba. The Edo nation also maintains a four day week c3ycle much similar to that of the Igbo.

In addition to this, many early technologies were shared among the Igbo and the Edo. These technologie were later introduced to the Yoruba by means of Edo interaction and conquests. This quote from Christopher Ehret's Civilizations of Africa talks about this in greater detail.

"This figure form the kingdom of Benin is a fine example of the tradition of scultping in brass, using the lost-wax method, which was known at least as early as the ninth century (Igbo Ukwu) in the regions on both sides of the Niger River."

In pre-colonial times, the Niger River was an important trade avenue between the Igbos on both banks of the river and the Urhobos to the South and the Edos farther in-land. However, most of the contact that occurred between the Yourba and Edo was limited since there were no main water-routes to Edoland via Yorubaland. However, most of the "similarities" that we see today occurred after Edo military conquest. So in short, I'd like to say that the smiliarites between Igbo and Edo aren't much but they are greater than the simlarities between the Edo and Yoruba.

Negro_Ntns:
. . . . confirmation that ibo was civilized by its neighbors. they never had kings in their history and explains also why they never conquered anyone or anyland. Without a king to lead an expansion campaign they remained unknown to the West African civilizations and Imperial societies. Now that they have been taught by the Binis and the Igalas . . . they since became aggressive trying to assert their uncivilized culture in parity with that of their colonizers - the Binis and Igalas.

It's interesting how you came about this.

alj harem:
negro nts

is this silly thread necessary. all it would cause is another unproductive discussion. infact wetin concern u with osu ?

You sucked the words right out of my mouth.

rabzy:
I don't understand, a modern version as in, it happened like this to someone you know, that would be quite interesting.

My great-grand dad was a stubborn man. During the civil war when he was in his 80's. Biafran Soldiers came to our village to wait for the Nigerian Army. The old man had long flowing white beards, so the soldiers said he was a Hausa man and that he should cut his beards if he is not from the north or else he would be killed.
The man told them he is not a northerner and that he has had his beards before anyone of them was born and he was going to his graves with his beards. Everybody was begging him to cut it, but he bluntly refused. The Soldiers eventually left him alone.

Interesting story. Seems like your great grandfather was an interesting character.