okowa is an ika man ,and not an igbo man, so please dont cause confussion

1. you are avoiding the issue of translation , please mr igbo , translate that ika language for us the only word you know there is iwu , which can be likened to the igbo word ibu , but what is obolo and ozuor ? from which language did they come from ? please tell us ?
2. ika and asaba are not the same , we have different cultures and traditions, although because we live in same geo-political zone we share some things in common , and we are aniomas , thats the occomnality between ika and asaba?
3. ika has an ancient kingship starting from 12th century , asaba has a recent kingship , that is not to belittle the great kingdom of asaba .
4. ika has three levels of chiefs - town,palace and hereditory chiefs.
5. ika perfomes igue and ibiewere as the end of the year festival .
6. ika language is quite different from asaba language , ika language is called ika , while asaba speaks differently , although asaba language shares some semblance to ika but they are different and some ika people speak a different language called oza language .
7. as for your information get a book called a short history of benin , you will know what benins call ika people , they call us eka.
8. the benins have at a time in 1930 , laid claims to ika and we refused , then came the igos in 1967 , we also refused .
9. we dont need igbo people or any other person to tell us who we are , we are ika ethnic group and that is it .
10. ika is a great nation as you have seen our resilience in how we became governor of delta state , at a time , many people thought that delta north or an anioma cannot be governor .
11. an ika person is always proud of our heritage , of our royal blood , we are not subject to any body , even the great benin empire had lots of problems as our fore fatherswaged wars against them .
12. as of today we are ika ethnic group , different from igbo or benin.
13. the word igboid group , means languages that can be classified or related to that group, it does not mean ika is igbo. uhrobo and isoko are classified under edoid group of languages but it does not mean isoko is benin or edo , it only means their languages are some how similar to edo . itsekiri language can be classified as yoruboid , along with igala group but tsekiri and igala are different ethnic groups , different from yoruba .
14. the only places you will see some ika peolple who claim to be igbo are towards the borderline of ika in the eastern axis around igbodo and ekwuoma , but they will all claim to be from agbor , when you meet them outside of ika land , but you will never see a person from agbor, owa, umunede, abavo,akumazi, igbanke, idumu-esah, ute-okpu and others claiming to be igbo , they will tell you that they are ika people.that is why this minority could not sway our votes to support biafra during the civil war , as majority will always have their say .
finally , i advice any igbo person or their simpathysers not to come near ika with their igbo agenda as ika people are too independent for that none sense. ika is ika and igbo is igbo .

please Mr Igbo translate the ika language that i wrote in my article and from what you wrote iwu ozuor le obolo, that's what u are.
2. ika people know who they are and we have decided that long ago ,if you like continue to fool your self .
3. ika people have never claimed to be benins but we acknowledged our blood line with them and we also have blood line with igbos but i think many igbos are still suffering from i know it all syndrome and that is the reason why they always run into trouble with their neighbours and they also lack respect for others , or how can you sit in your villages or harmlet that Europeans helped to build and tell an ika man who his farher is ?
4. igbos should thank europeans for forming the igbo ethnicity , the igbo ethnic group did not exist 250 years ago ? and for your informAtion it was not formed by God but by british who brought some people together under igbo ethnicity.
5. rhe yorubas claim oduduwa as their ancestor please tell me who is the ancestor of the igbo? they dont have one ancestor , the only thing they have is ,it seems this town is speaking a close language then they are igbos ,what a sad situation , rhats why they speak with different voices on critical issues
6. igbos can pretend that they dont know that ika people bear benin names or what a nation filled with propaganda , let me tell you majority of ika people have benin surnames.even if an ika is ifeanyin okafor .if you trace his grand father or great grand farhers name it will be an edo name
7. are you not aware that the owner of zenith bank ,jim ovia is ika with a benin name ,? are you not aware that the owner of thisday newspaper is nduka obaigbena and obaugbena is an edo surname , while first name nduka is igbo ,are you not aware of ehiabor osaigbovour , or steven osagie the obi of akumazi is an ika with benin name or Dr emmanuel efeizomor is obi of owA.,he has a benin name .but it seems you can only see when an ika man is okafor ibe .that means you are blind to reality.
8. right now history is history and we are aware of how people migrated into ika from both edo and igbo areas but we are ika ethnic group ,different from igbo or benin.the igbo people should show maturity and respect ikas for who they are , instead of their dumb arguwment that ika is igbo.
itsekiri speak a language close to yoruba ,isoko is close to uhrobo language , ishan is close to benin language yet benins dont shout thar ishan is benin , neithet do yorubas shour that itsekiris are yorubas and uhrobos dont shout that isokos are uheobos just on the account that their languages are sumilar, i dont know why most igbos cant show this kind of matured attitude ?
finally mr igbo ,am still waiting for to translate ogen edei oku hun ri a ri. pls translate it , dont run away frim it and also tell me the words that are igbo and those that are not ?
?

1. why are igbo people so propagadish , they wont let the ika people be ? ika has rejected igbo long ago and i dont know why they are just bodering themselves , during the civil war , when igbos claimed ika was part of igbo , the ika people rejected them , and so if the chips are down ,majority of ika people know where they belong to and they know they are not igbo .
2. ika people have two languages that is ika -which is a hybrid of edo and igbo with some yoruba and indigenous words added to it , and ozara which is edoid.
3. ika language is dinstinct from igbo , and benin , its is not standard igbo nor is it standard benin , it is a language with 6 to seven dialects . that is why by next year the college of education in agbor will start a department called ika language department, the new testament has been concluded using ika language and the ika dictionary will soon be out .
4. ika ancestors came from several places including benin, ishan, ora, igbo, ndokwa, oshimili, and other areas .
5. ika people sometimes have both first and surnames being benin names such as -------
a. osabor idunorba
b. ikpanmiose igbedion
c. olaye- owabor
and we also have ika people with igbo names as first name and benin names as surnames such as ---------
a. nduka obaigbena
b. nduka irabor
c. ifeanyi eboigbe and others ,
and we also have ika people with english first names and edo surnames such ---
a. steve iwerebor
b. steve omojafor
c. tony omordia .
so that settles the name issue but i bet you that ika people have majority with edo surnames . so are they now edos or because some of them have igbo names , then they are now igbos ? the truth is that we are ika people , we are neither benin nor igbos .
4. in 1930 , bennis told the british that ika people are benins , but we rejected and told the british that ika is not part of any ethnic group in nigeria . and in 1967 , igbos claimed ika and we still rejected and set it right .so there is no way ika can be igbo ,
5. as for culture , ika culture is predominantly edoic , with little part that is from igbo land ,let me give you a list of some of our culture and then you can tell us whether it is igbo or edo culture?-------------------
a. our kingship is from father to son with edaiken as crown prince and we use the uselu style in crwoning our kings .
b. we have three levels of chiefs ,1. palace chiefs, 2. town chiefs and 3. hereditory chiefs.
c. our villages are divided into ebon, idumu and ogbe.
d. our ancestors believed in oselobue as supreme God and ehi as guardian spirit of man .
e. we believe that olokun is the son of God .
f. if a man dies he goes to orinmin -the heavenly world .
g. we believe there are many gods who asisst oselobue such as idigun-god of iron, ohunmweeden, ovia, aja, mkpitimen-god of thunder, araba-god of peace , ali, ikpai and others .
h. we believe that idinwina spirits assist in maintaining other amongst the women folks and forces of nature .
i. we believed in satan called ojuwu and ighionghai as evil spirit.
j. we beieved that our kings are semi-divine and descendants of olokun .
k. we as ika people believed that igue and ibiewere festival is done every year to signify the end of the year and the obi is greeted --- iselogbe .
l. we also perform the iwagi festival to celebrate new yam .

6. the chieftancy titles in ika mostly go by edo names but we also have few that are along the igbo lines and they are recent titles and they dont carry much significance , while the important titles are from the edo lines .

7. let me say that ika language is a distinct language in that , its a hybrid of both edo and igbo languages and as such it would be very absurd for igbos to claim ika is igbo language , even if it is listed as igboid language , it is still different from igbo , it is an ethnicity and language of its own , just like itsekiri can sometimes be said to be yoruboid , but itsekiiri is a seperate ethnic group and language , isoko, uhrobo are said to be edoid , but they are different tribes from benin and they are also distinct languages .but i wonder why igbos cannot exercise the same maturity yorubas and benins use , while not shouting that this is edo and this is this ?
8. ogen edei oku hun ri ari , oku hun le oselobue ri , oku ahun wu ukpe ihian ile ,ukpe ni bia da shia eri banyeni oselobue ,uwe ile , nu eri ukpe ni , ke wen utormin le ndun itebite. this is an example of the ika spoken in owa , we have many other ika dialect , I WILL LIKE AN IGBO PERSON TO INTERPRETE THIS INTO ENGLISH , LETS SEE HOW MUCH YOU KNOW OF IKA ?
finally ika has never in history been an appendage of any tribe whether igbo or benin , we are just ika ethnic group and we will like to be respected like that .and that is why up till date , there is no prominent ika person in ohaneze ndigbo but ika people belong to ogua/onu ika. we acknowledge the migrations of both edo and igbo and others into ika , but as of today we are ika people

1. ika is ika and it is different from the igbo nation , and i dont know what igbo people want to gain from trying to conscript ika people into igbo, i am ika and i dont ever want to be igbo , but if an igbo guy loves ika so much and all igbos want to be ika , then they are welcome.
2. the way igbo people talk about their tribe , is just a spark of ignorance , they talk as if igbo as an etrhnicity was formed by God , they do not even know that igbo ethnicity was put together by the british , just like any tribe is an amalgamation of people who think they share a common ethnicity and want to protect themselves politically . as for the ika people we cannot benefit any thing from an igbo union , and our fore fathers were never in any union with the igbos , we have resisted both the benins claim to own ika in 1930 and the igbo claims to ika in 1967 , during the civil war and that has ended the story .
3. ika people declared in 1930 to the british that ika is different ethnic group , different from any other in nigeria , end of story .and out of this resolve majority of ika people atleast about 98 percent of ika people believe in their ika ethnicity and so we have our onu-ika/ogua-ika as the highest socio-political organisation speaking for ika nation , just as ohaneze ndigbo speaks for igbo people.
4. ika is at the boundary of two major ethnicities which are edo and igbo , and as such is influenced by these two both in language and culture and this gave ika nation , its uniqueness.
5. our names , culture , tradition , beliefs , and language set us apart from the others or how else can you imagine that when the oba of benin is doing igue festival , the kings of agbor , owa , umunede and other ika areas are also performing same festival , when ikaba, ovia , idigun , idinwina and olokun is worshipped in benin , ika people two are bussy doing theirs ? then we also perform ikenga and do new yam festival of iwagi , but we also perform ogbanigbe and osiezi which is only performed by ika people , our kingship and titles are patterned after benin.
6. ika also retains some igbo culture like ikenga , new yam festival and worship of ali , these sets ika apart from others .
7. our people bear both igbo and benin names , but the benin names are usually our family names like osagie, omojie, omigie , osahon, obaigbena ,. irabor and the rest .we also bear ikenchuku , ifeanyi and the rest .
8. the oba of benin visits ika land quite often because the spiritual and ethnic link between ika and benin is still strong , the oba visited owa in 1992 , 1998 , 2009 , to perform some rites .owa kings still visit benin up till dates .
9. there are still some titles in agbor that you have to go to benin to get the chalk before you are given the title in agbor like ugbasogun of agbor title .
10. the reality today is that ika is a seperate ethnic group of its own and any body still dreaming of ika as being igbo is just performing an academic exercise which is wasteful , as of today there is not ika prominent person that belongs to ohaneze ndigbo meeting or speaks for or on behalf of igbos , but they speak for ika , even at the national conference ika was represented there .

IKA LANGUAGE AS STRINGED , THIS IS OWA DIALECT OF IKA /

1. KI wu owan ? what is this
2. ki hobo men i ? what did this person do to you?
3. irehun reh menmen i ? are you sick?
4. watan ni gi ikpa ki nedi i , ka kwan nmani - this child that beat his father will later regret it .
5. okpohoni lala ni gi,,ayiya jenkor da yantutu mary
6. okenyeni dodo gbodon ni m idoboro le uya
7. egilegbeshi ro ni jonathan , e e woni ozegbe imen election ni ?
8. wehe ni m agara ni ri akpa ogbara ogbe uwaya .
9. i gogosome gun , ye wuzo ,ibaka ni
10. edei ,oku ri a ri , oku ahun le oselobue ri , oku hun wu oselobue ,owen okenyen ohu , oselobue zihe , efan wu john ,obiada sha osheri bayeni , ukpe hun,ukpe hun e ghun imen shin ,kani isihn asaneka kwondon e , ukpe hun a ghun idemizi gha itebite deru itebite .
11. irubor wu ohaimen , owen inyenmen ke demedon ihian ile don won,ihian kor wu, mani owu odafe, akaile kor gia tor , kor gia won inyenmen

1. for your information , ika people dont dress like igbo , and we also have our names too , so it was british education and christianity that made many ika people to bear igbo names today , and we change them quickly , if we want , go back some 200, years ago or even 100 years ago , the number of ika people having igbo names were few .
we have names such as
1. ehiabor - gods blessing, instead of ngozi
2. ehima
3. erunmuh
4. ukpeose
5. efose
6. esose
7. ominken
8. ighogho- happiness
9. oyo- joy
10. oghose
11. uwaya
13. ehiyemofe
14/ osebor
15. agbobu
16. igboba
17. gbenoba
18. ihogbe
19. akanwe
20. ehioma
21. erikume
23. uyamasi
24. ehikogbe
25. ugbebor
26. ebonma
27. ebonka
28. olgboshere
29. jazunehi
30. kpnmiose
etc, what affected and eroded ika culture was nearness to some of our naighbouring towns and the ika people are now poised to recover our language and culture

1. i am ika and i have no apology to any one , ika is an ethnic group that is not bound to any major ethnic group in nigeria and this statement have been made by our fathers even in 1930 . though we acknowledge the migration and imput of many groups scuh as benin,ishan ,igbo,ora, ndokwa, aniocha and even yorubas , who all migrated into ika area and had one form of imput into building of ika nation . ika is not igbo or benin,but from most of the available history the first migrants were the edos or benins , later others followed .the ika language spoken today also bears a testimony as a hybrid of edo and igbo cum indigenous language .however there are some ika people that speak oza language , while some speak both ika and benin or ika and ishan .
2. what sets ika as a seperate ethnic entity is our world view which is clearly ika .
3. let me take on one of the contributors on this page on base words in ika , like i said ika shares some words with igbo , while some are edo and even yoruba words ,such as
1. basket------------- ukpali
2. bicycle- ikeke
3. plate- okpan
4. needle- oloden
5. police- ulakpa
6. king- ogiso is original ika word later changed to obi or dein
7. umbrella- ihiara
8. skirt is ubuluku
9. village- idumu
10. town - ogbe
11. family - agbon or ugbe-
12. road - uwaya
13. red- ododo
14. chain- egan
15. bottle- ogorh
16. nail- ise
17. grandchildren- sakpamaghori
18. okpoho= woman
19. okpoho-oba- old woman
20. idigun- iron deity
21. ohenren- priest
22. ekete- stool
23. okhue- parrot
24. aza- bank
25. adza- bell
26. giant- adhuaran
27. valley - iyere
28. lake- odhigiri
29. hill - oke
30. ehi- guardian spirit
31. oselobue or osenobue- God
32. orinmin- spirit world
33. eben- scimitar
34. omuada- holder of kings cutlass
35. ibiegua- royal guard
36. igbon -slave
37. knife- oghele or ebeke
38. grandmother- odede
39. old man -edionma
40. chief- ohaimen
42. beads - ikpehwe
43. parlour -
imughe
44. dodo- i plead or please
45. laiwe- good morning
46. kada- greeting at meals
47. lakpoma- after meals greetings ,thank sir./ma
48. round- oroghodo
49. thank you- ikpanmin or kpanmin
50. safe journey/ gods protection- iyare
51. fame- usi
53, disapperar- ifori or fori
54. air- ufere
55. hapinness- ighogho
56. joy- oyo
57. progress- oghai oghai
58. light- ukpe
59. bolt- olaye
60. outside- isere
61. plain ground- aradan
62. pokpenkpen- shelf
63. grave- ikpekpe
64- shirt/cloth- ewuru
this are all edo related words .
65- small- ekere
66. underground water is uroro amin

we also have igbo related words .
1. hand- eka
2. sit- dino
3. go- lama
4. another word for ground is akpakali




with this i have give you a little base word of ika language , ika is a language that has 6 dialects spoken by different ika groups .




5. bring- wehe
6. mouth - onu
7. nose- imin
8. water is minin

4. many people think that the word igbo has been existing since ancient times, not knowing its is a british classification ,so if you people like ika so much ,why not call every igbo person ika