₦airaland Forum

Ekealterego:
I know you are looking for just anything at all to discredit anything Igbo but just to correct you.

Not one soul doubted Equiano's account for 100s of years until an overzealous English man in 1999 by the name of Vincent Carretta, who is a closet slavery denier and sometimes apologist criticised and publish something related to Equiano's account because he claimed he saw a record of someone bearing a "similar birth name" in Virginia.

Pass11:
https:///1555385878035563/

https:///1653702151529177/

https:///byfnig/

Biafrarep:
I have been on nairaland since over 10 years but I must say that this thread is probably the most educative and expository thread I have ever seen on this forum. It's quite unfortunate that many people have believed a lie for years now without even making an effort to find out the truth.

Ijaws have absolutely no case in their landgrabbing attempts on Bonny and Opobo because these places have been proven beyond any reasonable doubt to be Igbo people since recorded history!!

We must keep this thread going while also bringing forth every material/exhibit we can lay our hands on. You're already doing that already, and we must take it from here and also intelligently go to Facebook groups of Bonny and Opobo people and present these facts to them. The reason is because many of them are unfortunately ignorant of these facts and their true heritage. The ijaws are now desperately exploiting this situation to impose a foreign language and culture on them. If the youths of Opobo and Bonny are made to know about these facts of their history, they would be more emboldened to challenge ijaw incursions into their land.

I bet you, there are many ijaw members of IYC and their other groups who are always alarmed and uncomfortable when their lies are exposed. Please if you have any link to Bonny and Opobo Facebook groups, you can share it here too so we can help to enlighten them.

Trying to force Bonny people to abandon the language of their forefathers and learn a foreign one is the height of desperation by the Ijaws and for them to even contemplate it shows the extent of brainwashing that has been going on.

Ekealterego:
in Opobo, an overwhelming number of them know the truth. In Bonny, the Ijaw preaching and propaganda have been there for years however, an overwhelming number of them know the truth.
I believe it is them that will do this mass healings and undoing of miseducations. However, theirs is a very simple case, you do not need too much effort and you do not have to fabricate history, because the records speak volumes.
Someone from Bonny actually explained the Biafran war incident and how they suffered and looking for help while Adaka Boro plundered their land with the federal forces.

Putindbutt:
I don't want to sound pedantic as you do. Why would he have to belabour us into assuming[b]his origin when he could have easily told us he was ibo?[/b]
What makes you think other sources are wrong?. what makes you think his Virginia origin was not true?

what makes you think his Benin origin was wrong?
What makes you think the claims from other Africa countries like Sierra Leone wasn't true?

Putindbutt:
I don't want to sound pedantic as you do. Why would he have to belabour us into assuming his origin when he could have easily told us he was ibo?
What makes you think other sources are wrong?. what makes you think his Virginia origin was not true?

what makes you think his Benin origin was wrong?
What makes you think the claims from other Africa countries like Sierra Leone wasn't true?

GreatBoss:
If Opobo are Ibo that means Bonny is Ibo or Ndoki is Ibo.
These three areas, due to the influx of Igbo people to do business, and they started speaking Ibo as language of trade now Igbo speaking is common in d area.
The new Central dialect being worked on by the Lovers of Ijaw Nation Organization in preparation for Ijaw Republic will settle that nonesense Ibo speaking.
Both Bonny Opobo and Aminadokiari (Ndoki) are all of the Ibani-Ijaw Subgroup.
Im from Bonny LGA myself.

Alabo7978:
Shut up motherfucker.
I was looking for you.
Ajayi crowther became the man the British had wanted for so long.
An intellectual BLACK MAN who can appeal to the locals to get the fact right not some white men looking to make money from tales from Africa.
That is why this report is the basis of every information.
That is why you can't find all of those contradictory stories from money/fame hungry white men.
For example;balkie called Nembe brass men(an offshoot of ijo)
Horton called Nembe Igbo.
Do you now see why all of those reports are very fake and unauthentic? Even the British crown realized that and binned all of those stupid reports under the command of Queen Victoria and she sent consuls to work with black men(crowther) to get reports.
Now Mr 10 years dumb land grabbing nairalander, explain why baikie and Horton are contradictory to themselves?

Ekealterego:
Hmm! The Ijaw intellect!!!
Well, bro, it is a pity, If I need to start explaining map reading to you.
Everyone with an IQ above that of a monkey could see the bold highlights demarcating the boundaries.
It is a standard practice in mapping to show the boundaries to the west, East, North and South of the boundary in focus.

Do not be like this your brother recorded by Koell here in 1850s

9Pluto:
A lot of debates or arguments have been going on mainly between(igbos and ijaws) about the identity of Bonny and Opobo people. So much that lots of indigenes are confused about their own identity. The reason for this is not far fetched. The igbo language is an indigenous language in both places and while most inhabitants bear English names, some bear ijaw names and few still retain their igbo names. However, I will try to be as neutral as possible while I implore you to be a little objective as we embark on this historical fact check.
Most of the arguments in my opinion have been nothing more than mere conjectures. For instance, ijaw people claim the igbo language spoken in both places is foreign or creolized version while trying to force inhabitants to start learning an entirely new language different from their mother tongue. There are also claims that igbo language was the language of igbo slaves the ijaws were trading. It is surprising how this eventually became an indigenous language making it the first of such incidence on the African continent. Even Freetown in Sierra Leon didn't experience such change neither did Calabar another important slave port on the Gulf of guinea.

We have also seen both igbos and ijaws trying to make their own interpretations of what they think must have happened and as such both groups twist words to have meanings in their their own language.
For example:
Ndoki-ndoki/aminadokiari
Ibani-ubani/ibani/igbani
Ama-Ama
Amanyanabo-Ama onye nabo/
It might interest you to know that the title Amanyanabo use by ijaws originated from Bonny. The igbo interpretation means, “The town/community of 2 kings/persons”.
Bonny traditionally had 2 kings as documented by Captain Hugh and he was friends with both men who held him in high esteem.
King Pepple and King Holiday were both kings that reigned in Bonny at the same time.


To understand the reality of who Bonny and Opobo people are I would be rellying on the Memoirs of Captain Hugh Crow of Liverpool(1765-1829) and I implore any true son of Bonny or Opobo to consult this book or any other one written before it to really find out their identity. If you do not have much time, you can read from chapter 10, however reading the whole book gives a huge insight into slavery. It is important to note that while the author confirmed Eboes/igbos as natives of Bonny, there was no mention or acknowledgement of ijaws. But I am using my discretion to assume that the ijaws were the Brass people as the author asserts that they came from the Brass country which is located North West of Bonny.

Impotant dates:
Captain Hugh Crow of Liverpool(1765-1829)
King Jaja of Opobo 1821-1891
Technically King Jaja was born 12 years after slave trade was abolished.
Slave trade was abolished in 1809 by Sir Wilberforce.
Apart from being a popular slave merchant, Captain Crow(a.k.a Play man) was very popular with Kings and Natives of Bonny. He was so popular that he was invited to crown one of the Kings of Bonny at a time and he was regularly invited to help resolve palaver in the kingdom. He was captain of the last ship that left Bonny with slaves after slavery was abolished.

The author's memoir is insightful for many reasons:
It rendered a vivid account of what trans Atlantic slave trade looks like. In his assertions, slaves taken off the West African coast to America were better off than their countrymen left behind in Africa. During the period in review, whites were also slaves and most Britons including the author became prisoners of the French.

The author asserts that:
Bonny people are chiefly a mix of Eboe/Igbo and Brass/ijaw people.
He described/mentioned the igbo country in the hinterland and the brass country lying north-west of Bonny.
However, most of the details of daily living amongst the natives was more in tune with igbo lifestyle.
He talked about igbo native doctors he referred to as dibia and the enormous influence they wield in justice and health administration, even the kings respect them. He also described details of igbo marriage customs and funneral as observed in Bonny.
He talked about the use of elephant during the commemoration of King Pepple's father 10 years after the father's death. He mention the value of elephant tusk.
Contrary to conjectures that the name Pepple was European's attempt at pronouncing Perekule, the author asserts that Bonny people derived joy in bearing english names as he himself was responsible for crowning a King who he named after an English prince. An incident that excited the populace. He confirms that both King Pepple and King Holiday were igbos.
He described in detail the physique, including complexion and character of different tribes eboes, brass, appas, quaws, ottams etc

The author described one Chief Fubara who was an acquaintance of King Pepple. He asserts that Chief Fubara was not an indigene of Bonny but a stranger who migrated from his country during a crisis with a false claim that he was a warrior in his native country.

The author proved that ijaws were not selling igbo slaves as claimed in some quarters. According to him, everyone/every tribe was sold as slave. He described instances where some igbo chiefs set people up with their beautiful young wives and victims eventually pay a fine or become slaves. He explained the reason why more igbo slaves were sold. They were more relatable to Europeans than most other tribes.

Captain Hugh is credited with one of the earliest attempt to create an Eboe/igbo dictionary.
The author asserts that Opobo is an Igbo name for male children.
He also said that natives are often marked according to their origin and that Bonny natives often have short cupped perpendicular markings on both sides of their temple(this is consistent with the igbo tribal mark).

He confirmed the existence of Cannibalism, that Andoni was considered a dangerous place to venture, the fact that Calabar people eat dog meat,the fact that he planted coconut trees on one of the islands, the influence of Benin empire, that some Brass people were usually employed to make salt during dry season under the Benin empire amongst other things.

I was planning to post pages from his write up to buttress some points, unfortunately i cannot do so on this forum as it seems to permit posting only few images at a time. But i will post some.

CONCLUSION

Bonny and Opobo people are a mix of Eboe/Igbo and Brass/Ijaw people in origin. This document however asserts a more igbo origin or dorminance as most of his history of the ancient kingdom was about igbos(The word Brass appeared 14 times in the history of Bonny, while the word Eboe appeared 48 times). This perhaps explains the existence of the igbo language spoken there and the presence of igbo masqurades like nwaotam. Shalom

P.S: I am being challenged to prove that Brass people are Ijaw people, so I must state once more that this was an assumption on my part and it remains to be proven or disputed.

GreatBoss:
If Opobo are Ibo that means Bonny is Ibo or Ndoki is Ibo.
These three areas, due to the influx of Igbo people to do business, and they started speaking Ibo as language of trade now Igbo speaking is common in d area.
The new Central dialect being worked on by the Lovers of Ijaw Nation Organization in preparation for Ijaw Republic will settle that nonesense Ibo speaking.
Both Bonny Opobo and Aminadokiari (Ndoki) are all of the Ibani-Ijaw Subgroup.
Im from Bonny LGA myself.

Alabo7978:
Nigga like I mentioned,
The Dutch and the Portuguese long before the British dealt with the coastal people-my people, they bought cam wood and cotton in their numbers and their reports were more accurate than the confused English writers who only came in the 19th century.
Let me ask you a question, if you passed through the university.
Have you ever written a project work and you sourced for references only for it to be returned back saying it wasn't correct?
Perhaps you got them from 1970 project work and was wildly thought to be true but over the years it has been seem to be false.
That is how you bkayy, igboid, and the other clowns in your group chat seem.
Even the British has discarded those reports to be wrong but still you are masturbating to falsehood, and you claim you're an intellect?
It's a pity. And biafrarep wants to bring those to court?
It's like defending a thesis from wrong and outdated source.
Lol, major clowns.

Alabo7978:
Nigga like I mentioned,
The Dutch and the Portuguese long before the British dealt with the coastal people-my people, they bought cam wood and cotton in their numbers and their reports were more accurate than the confused English writers who only came in the 19th century.
Let me ask you a question, if you passed through the university.
Have you ever written a project work and you sourced for references only for it to be returned back saying it wasn't correct?
Perhaps you got them from 1970 project work and was wildly thought to be true but over the years it has been seem to be false.
That is how you bkayy, igboid, and the other clowns in your group chat seem.
Even the British has discarded those reports to be wrong but still you are masturbating to falsehood, and you claim you're an intellect?
It's a pity. And biafrarep wants to bring those to court?
It's like defending a thesis from wrong and outdated source.
Lol, major clowns.

Ekealterego:
No influx at all bro.
It is there in old records

Igboid:
So you have no document to present to show where the colonials called Bonny or Opobo Ijaw?
Even when the Colonials compiled list of words used by all groups in Bonny for everyone to see if they mislabeled them by looking at the words each group used and compare them to today's equivalent, you still come up with the above thrash?
Are this intellectually challenged?

The colonials who were so meticulous that they could differentiate Igede from Idoma and even noted the existence of Idoma and Igala in the town called "Ette" in Enugu, could not tell the difference between Igbo and Ijaw, two languages that are worlds apart?

Are you really this dense?

Ekealterego:
I do not think he minced words when he said he was Igbo. He even stated the name of his village which can still be found in Delta state, present-day Anioma. He said "Benin Kingdom", meaning that Benin probably received royalties and tax from that area and therefore would be the right administrative term to explain the area. Let us assume he meant Benin. Are Igbo people not born outside of Igboland?

Eastlink:
@OP please make corrections to the bolded. I just went through it and saw the mistake.
The two Chiefs in that shared power then were Asimini & Halliday.
I’ll keep time to post a link here. It's actually a detailed history written by an English historian that will blow your minds away.

The topics covered were the following.

Kingship system.
Bonny practiced gentocracy - Okpara system where elders led the people. It was the British who introduced Kingship system in Bonny. This brought rivalry between houses and two leading figures began their rivalry from there. Chief Haliday vs Chief Asimini. Haliday was senior and was calm in disposition. Asimini on the other hand was rash and dictatorial.

Haliday began the systemic rise of Bonny who dwelled on salt trading and farm goods with Ndoki in the Imo river into deal in stuffs like slavery. However, during these period Bonny was at war with her neighbours like Kalabari and Andoni. They needed a strong leader and by virtue of his military might Asmini led victorious battles against Andoni and Kalabari.

On returning to Bonny he took power from Haliday and exiled him. It took the intervention of the British who appealed to Asimini to relax the banishment and bring him back home.

Asimini was the first true King of Bonny and reformed Bonny house system from an indigenous blood kindred system into a military system called Wari.

Ekealterego:
This is not what Ijaw ancestors were doing here though. Here they were stealing, doing piracy and disrupting civilised trades.

Why not upload the dutch documents let us see.

You cannot even read a simple map or even interpret English texts, now you understood what is in Dutch texts?

Ekealterego:
This is not what Ijaw ancestors were doing here though. Here they were stealing, doing piracy and disrupting civilised trades.

Why not upload the dutch documents let us see.

You cannot even read a simple map or even interpret English texts, now you understood what is in Dutch texts?

GreatBoss:
They are Ibani Ijaw people.
Ndoki was Aminadokiari meaning we were looking for our relations. The white couldn't pronounce it and called it Ndoki.
Today Ibani dialect will still say Waminadokiari. Meaning same thing.
The relations they had missed and we're looking for was Bonny people.

Eastlink:
@OP please make corrections to the bolded. I just went through it and saw the mistake.
The two Chiefs that shared power then were Asimini & Halliday.
I’ll keep time to post a link here. It's actually a detailed history written by an English historian that will blow your minds away.

The topics covered were the following.

Kingship system.
Bonny practiced gentocracy - Okpara system where elders led the people. It was the British who introduced Kingship system in Bonny. This brought rivalry between houses and two leading figures began their rivalry from there. Chief Haliday vs Chief Asimini. Haliday was senior and was calm in disposition. Asimini on the other hand was rash and dictatorial.

Haliday began the systemic rise of Bonny who dwelled on salt trading and farm goods with Ndoki in the Imo river into deal in stuffs like slavery. However, during these period Bonny was at war with her neighbours like Kalabari and Andoni. They needed a strong leader and by virtue of his military might Asmini led victorious battles against Andoni and Kalabari.

On returning to Bonny he took power from Haliday and exiled him. It took the intervention of the British who appealed to Asimini to relax the banishment and bring him back home.

Asimini was the first true King of Bonny and reformed Bonny house system from an indigenous blood kindred system into a military system called Wari. Asimini borrowed q lot of cultural system from Kalabari who were the strongest clan then. It was Asimini who began the idea of using slaves to fight in battle with freeborns. He was the first to free slaves who proved themselves worthy in battle and gave them a war canoe house of theirs.

Religious system
Bonny practiced the same religious system as those in Igboland. The Iguana cult similar to that in Aboh and sourcing divination from Aro priest who visited Bonny occasionally for cleansing.

fideliaudemmadu:
GreatBoss:


You are foolish.
How is Ndoki an Igbo name??


Oga, go and tell Adolphus Wabara, an Ndoki man and a former senate president that he is ijaw. Nonsense

Alabo7978:
So you posted this stuff and your clown liked them.
Y'all are not smart at all.
Those people are robbers, it doesn't mean all of them robbed.
Most times some dubious men usually Rob trading boats of other clans.
It also happened between Nembe and kalabari which resulted in the Nembe-kalabari war of 1862(but market rights were the main issue though)
And consul Hopkins judged it, so my dear, in every civilizations, nation, country, there has always been robbery sect, this doesn't hold water at all.
Throw that away.

BKayy:
I think that should be in another thread.
A thread created to explain how Bonny current monarchy came about and also the confusion of the name "Amayanabo"

Such beautiful topic shouldn't be hidden in between a long thread like this because it explains the origin of this insanity.

Ekealterego:
So, at least 5-10 different writers had the same description of ijo men specifically and all of them did not know what they saw?

This is another person again in the 1800s, compare it to how Igbos were described in the same century by Johnston.

Ekealterego:
So, at least 5-10 different writers had the same description of ijo men specifically and all of them did not know what they saw?

This is another person again in the 1800s, compare it to how Igbos were described in the same century by Johnston.

Eastlink:
You are right. I’ll keep time later to find the Google book links.

Eastlink:
@OP please make corrections to the bolded. I just went through it and saw the mistake.
The two Chiefs that shared power then were Asimini & Halliday.
I’ll keep time to post a link here. It's actually a detailed history written by an English historian that will blow your minds away.

The topics covered were the following.

Kingship system.
Bonny practiced gentocracy - Okpara system where elders led the people. Any wonder why Ndoli the first leader of Okoloma was called Okpara Ndoli. It was the British who introduced Kingship system in Bonny. This brought rivalry between houses and two leading figures began their rivalry from there. Chief Haliday vs Chief Asimini. Haliday was senior and was calm in disposition. Asimini on the other hand was rash and dictatorial.

Haliday began the systemic rise of Bonny who dwelled on salt trading and farm goods with Ndoki in the Imo river into deal in stuffs like slavery. However, during these period Bonny was at war with her neighbours like Kalabari and Andoni. They needed a strong leader and by virtue of his military might Asmini led victorious battles against Andoni and Kalabari.

On returning to Bonny he took power from Haliday and exiled him. It took the intervention of the British who appealed to Asimini to relax the banishment and bring him back home.

Asimini was the first true King of Bonny and reformed Bonny house system from an indigenous blood kindred system into a military system called Wari. Asimini borrowed q lot of cultural system from Kalabari who were the strongest clan then. It was Asimini who began the idea of using slaves to fight in battle with freeborns. He was the first to free slaves who proved themselves worthy in battle and gave them a war canoe house of theirs.

Religious system
Bonny practiced the same religious system as those in Igboland. The Iguana cult similar to that in Aboh and sourcing divination from Aro priest who visited Bonny occasionally for cleansing.

Blood Relation
Bonny had two blood relations. The Ndoki their hinterland kinsmen who they shared origin, culture and trade links by virtue of the Imo river and the Brass people with whom they had a blood Convenant with for warfare against their enemies. Brass themselves are linked with Aboh. Any wonder why their lingua-franca is Igbo.

GreatBoss:
They are Ibani Ijaw people.
Ndoki was Aminadokiari meaning we were looking for our relations. The white couldn't pronounce it and called it Ndoki.
Today Ibani dialect will still say Waminadokiari. Meaning same thing.
The relations they had missed and we're looking for was Bonny people.