MrOjay1:
I've noticed the for a long time now that many Rivers state indigenes bear westernized surnames like Blankson, Douglas, Perricosta, Souza, Graham, Peterson, McColumbus, etc.

I have seen indigenes of Rivers who bear the above listed surnames alongside other ones too numerous to mention.Was there any kind of foreign culture influx in Rivers State that influenced these surnames?? Or have they just been bearing these kind of surnames right from inception?

I need opinions on this.

it goes like this, the present Niger Delta area was the first point of contact of the European and the people inhabiting the present geographical area know as Nigeria. This meai that the people of the Niger Delta were the first people in the pre colonial Nigeria got contact with the Europeans in the 16 C.
Remember also, that the African people then looked up to the whites as a demi God. They copied their culture and life style.
For the fact that the Europeans first, stayed in the coastal areas (Niger Delta) for long before moving into the hinder areas and eventually the other parts of the country, the cultural transfer is very common among the Niger Delta.
This is evident not just in their names but also, in their mode of dressing ( they used the white man hat), their alcoholic intake ( ogogoro) etc

dasparrow:


That is not something to be proud of. Wipe that smile off your face. With all the trading your people did with the white man, how has it benefitted your people in the long run? Are you now allowed to travel to portugal and britain without needing a visa? Do the portuguese and english people treat your people with any atom of respect now that your people have discarded their unique native names for european names?

Look at Dr (Mrs) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. She did not have to throw away her native names to be respected worldwide. Same can be said for Chimamanda Adichie. Your people have a conquered mind and are spinless that is why they had to change their identity just to trade rubbish with some oyibos.

It is part of our culture of to take the names of stangers who live well with us. There are many Igbo named communities in many parts of Ijaw land simply because in the olden days, many Igbos were sold to my ancestors.

So take your closed minded hate speech elsewhere. I'm proud of the hospitable nature of my people since time immemorial.

sesan85:


Okay, so Ago is also a Benin word? Ago Enibode ko, Ago Palace Way ni. Drooling werey!

Well, any half way smart person would verify from Benin people who are not on Nairaland what Ago, (pronounced Ahgor) means before posting anyhow. That is what someone who is not a raving Weyrey would do.

dasparrow:


So you had to change your entire identity, throw away your beautiful African native names with their beautiful meanings just so you can sell some fish to some melanin-deficient people who wandered uninvited into your land and geographical territory from europe? Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha! Laugh wan finish me!

Well, you got to roll with the punches.Stoop to xonquer

Besides most of the people that bear those names were mostly fathered by Europeans

AreaFada2:

Well, any half way smart person would verify from Benin people who are not on Nairaland what Ago, (pronounced Ahgor) means before posting anyhow. That is what someone who is not a raving Weyrey would do.

Oga swerve! The same Benin people who wants to steal Ogun, Eshu, Osun, Olokun, Ishango (Shango). Who takes you people serious.

Uncleodi:


Between these two names, which one is easier to pronounce?

Okonkwo

Obakponovwe

See Ijaw people needs to stop all these Name packaging because we ain't buying it any longer.
we are Nigerians abeg enough of all these slave master colonialism traits.
U guys should take off ur hat and name ur kids traditional names because its seriously annoying and irritating to want to date a South South girl and she ll be telling u her name is Ina Peters instead of pronouncing it Inabiriyai Peters all for the sexiness which is actually a turn off because it ain't posh but just colonial mentality.

Bhukkis:


The first Europeans to land in Nigeria were the slave traders who were not interested in investing here but to pack slaves for trading overseas. It was the greediness of the people in the south south which made them the first point of call and they sold their people out in droves. The Christian Missionary Society (CMS) came after and their point of entry was the south west. That's why you have the first school and the first story building right there

My ancestors didn't sell our people. Sadly people in the hinterlands we're the victims.

Slave trade is evil

sesan85:


Oga swerve! The same Benin people who wants to steal Ogun, Eshu, Osun, Olokun, Ishango (Shango). Who takes you people serious.

Hahahaha!

So juju is your worry now in 2020?

Nor worry, your jujus are safe. Nobody is coming from Benin to raid your shrines.

Customtest:


The first Anglican church in nigeria is st Stephens in grand bonny kingdom

Men of hinterlands know nothing
Always arguing blindly

The hinterland people have grown to become much better than you. So don't shame yourself by comparing next time. Thanks.

sesan85:


If Benin "conquered" Lagos Island (not Lagos), how come the monarchs own no land? The Idejo Awori chiefs own the lands on Lagos Island.

U quoted me five times to confidently spill rubbish... Where did I claim that Benin owned lagos...

All I said was that Benin ruled indirectly

Read this EXCERPT and another BREAKDOWN of how the oba of Lagos ruled ur people with the same idejo u tend to make noise abt and stop crying on my mentions

U'll still reply as a sign of lack of Understanding but don't expect my reply...

I don't reply to unintelligent people

dasparrow:


That is not something to be proud of. Wipe that smile off your face. With all the trading your people did with the white man, how has it benefitted your people in the long run? Are you now allowed to travel to portugal and britain without needing a visa? Do the portuguese and english people treat your people with any atom of respect now that your people have discarded their unique native names for european names?

Look at Dr (Mrs) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. She did not have to throw away her native names to be respected worldwide. Same can be said for Chimamanda Adichie. Your people have a conquered mind and are spinless that is why they had to change their identity just to trade rubbish with some oyibos.

He and his people don't know anything. He was even using it to brag. Slave.

Emotionss:
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The person you mentioned is not igbo
I wonder why you lots find it easy to call anybody you disagree with igbo.

Custodian of Igbo affairs.

Village champion everywhere.

Deban:

The fact that the Europeans settled in European Quarters in Port Harcourt and named the new city of Port Harcourt after Lewis Harcourt should be an indication that they settled in that area long before they ventured to Onitsha.
Bonny Island has existed as Bonny Island since the 1400s. The name was Okoloma founded by Ibani people but was named Bonny people by the European trading partners who could not pronounce Ibani. Opubo was called Opobo. King Pepple of Bonny had Europeans who were under his employ way back in the 1800, way before the amalgamation of Nigeria before they ventured into Onitsha.. King Jaja of Opobo had European secretaries or aides. This was long before he was abducted and sent on exile before missionaries came to Onitsha.
You guys in the hinterlands need to travel down south, to the Ijaw Islands and get first hand knowledge of your surrounding before basing your facts to only what you know being schools in Onitsha of yesterday.

There is nothing to see in ijawland with this fabricated tales from Creek.

The reason for the foreign is simple and that because those names are mostly slaves. Given those names for easy identification.

Inferority complexe is worrying them,thé one that lossed élection yo thé current Bayelsa state governor is called Lyon,they have Liverpool as names, Briggs,

cluewebhost:



Missionaries and traders first landed here and locals would usually take their names as a sign of friendship (I wonder why Europeans didn't take the names of the locals).

You'd notice the same in some Lagos names too.

Foreign names in Lagos came with slaves. Returning slaves from the new world and Sierra Leone came back with the new names their slave masters gave them.

Etinosa1234:


U quoted me five times to confidently spill rubbish... Where did I claim that Benin owned lagos...

All I said was that Benin ruled indirectly

Read this EXCERPT and another BREAKDOWN of how the oba of Lagos ruled ur people with the same idejo u tend to make noise abt and stop crying on my mentions

U'll still reply as a sign of lack of Understanding but don't expect my reply...

I don't reply to unintelligent people

Ill-educated slowpoke, your Oba did not "rule" Lagos Island. Emphasis on LAGOSa ISLAND, not Lagos.

Etinosa1234:


U quoted me five times to confidently spill rubbish... Where did I claim that Benin owned lagos...

All I said was that Benin ruled indirectly

Read this EXCERPT and another BREAKDOWN of how the oba of Lagos ruled ur people with the same idejo u tend to make noise abt and stop crying on my mentions

U'll still reply as a sign of lack of Understanding but don't expect my reply...

I don't reply to unintelligent people

The Idejo chiefs were not subjected to any nonsensical Oba of Benin. They own the lands of Lagos Island. Take your codeine-influenced revisionism back to your Benin. Rule ko, ruler ni.

sesan85:


The Idejo chiefs were not subjected to any nonsensical Oba of Benin. They own the lands of Lagos Island. Take your codeine-influenced revisionism back to your Benin. Rule ko, ruler ni.

Go back to secondary school and take classes on indirect rule

Clearly u skipped that

Etinosa1234:

Go back to secondary school and take classes on indirect rule

Clearly u skipped that

But I thought you vowed not to reply me again? Couldn't resist, huh. Fraudulent revisionists like Erediauwa who had to wait for Egharevba's death in the 80s before falsifying history about some fictitious Ekala-whatever! Greet your Yoruba descended king Ewuare II for me, "Abieyuwa N' Ovbi Odua N'uhe."

My Mom's originated from Briggs Compound, Abonnema, Rivers State and her surname is Briggs. Briggs is what everyone in that compound bears as surname.

There are compounds that bears Black-Duke, Bob-Manuel, Jack, Pedro etc.

Other Kalabari towns like Buguma bears West, David-West Pedro, MacDonald etc.

However, the aforementioned surnames also serves as their various compound names which are large to an extent.

Keraxes:

Lol idiotic fool. My own forefathers from Ibadan killed so many Benin slaves including your bastard weak wretched grandfather. So definitely not my forefathers

Lol � Ibadan lazy touts and meat seller everywhere in Lagos. Ogun go kill you there. Your ancestors are slaves and you will always be slave to me. Weakling tribe.

RedboneSmith:


These names are as a result of very extensive contact with European traders, from the 16th century on. The European traders had a hard time pronouncing the native names of their Ijaw and Efik trade partners. So they either Europreanised their native names or gave them pure European aliases which stuck. Yellowe for instance was Europeanised from Iyala; Horsfall from Osifolo. Henshaw, Ephraim, Duke, Hogan, Cobham, etc all have native Efik equivalents which I don't remember offhand.

The fact that Governor Wike's name stands 'gidigba' like the rock of Gibraltar without undergoing any Europeanisation shows your claim is FAKE.

BornRicch:


What year did the ijaw traded with the Europeans and what were they trading? Listen, the first Europeans to arrived Nigeria are the Portuguese and the kingdom they went to was the Benin Kingdom though they met other coastal tribes. Ijaw history is not known anywhere in Nigeria �� I have never watch an ijaw history on TV. You guys should be grateful of oil in your swampy wooden houses areas.

Once again, you don't know history.

EdmundChidera:
You could have said ijaw tribes because Rivers state indigenes mostly use Igbo names.

That is mostly on the uplands , ikwerres, opobo, Bonny,etche

EM123:
rivers indigenes don't bear dat name , only people from ijaw dat answer such names , have u not heard of names like , office , governor , goverment , chairman , president , council, easter , christmas , councilor , senator , commissioner and other names . Am from rivers state and i bear igbo surname.

who told you Rivers State indigenes don't bear that name... Seems you are from the hinterland (Upland) and don't have riverine friends from the state..

AwkaFinest:



Mumu. Do Ikwerres bear these names or the Riverine people?

Thank you my brother

BornRicch:


Lol � Ibadan lazy touts and meat seller everywhere in Lagos. Ogun go kill you there. Your ancestors are slaves and you will always be slave to me. Weakling tribe.

Edo lazy and weak youths. Useless youths who only think of cultism when other youths are thinking of making money, an average Edo youth is thinking of which cult group to join. Omo Irankiran olofo didan oloribu omo mashanfani

Dalil8:
It's common with the ijaws too

Names like Perez, Forcados etc

Oga is Peres not Perez....

EM123:
[s]rivers indigenes don't bear dat name , only people from ijaw dat answer such names , have u not heard of names like , office , governor , goverment , chairman , president , council, easter , christmas , councilor , senator , commissioner and other names . Am from rivers state and i bear igbo surname.[/s]

With this kind of ignorance you are definitely not from Rivers.
Go ask your parents where you are from, because they lied to you.

Deban:

The fact that the Europeans settled in European Quarters in Port Harcourt and named the new city of Port Harcourt after Lewis Harcourt should be an indication that they settled in that area long before they ventured to Onitsha.
Bonny Island has existed as Bonny Island since the 1400s. The name was Okoloma founded by Ibani people but was named Bonny people by the European trading partners who could not pronounce Ibani. Opubo was called Opobo. King Pepple of Bonny had Europeans who were under his employ way back in the 1800, way before the amalgamation of Nigeria before they ventured into Onitsha.. King Jaja of Opobo had European secretaries or aides. This was long before he was abducted and sent on exile before missionaries came to Onitsha.
You guys in the hinterlands need to travel down south, to the Ijaw Islands and get first hand knowledge of your surrounding before basing your facts to only what you know being schools in Onitsha of yesterday.

You have time for that Onitsha guy.

oneeast3:
Europeans came to Onitsha and settled down long before settling in the Niger Delta. Europeans established so many premier colleges in Onitsha like DMGS, CKC, QRC etc,, but it didn't make the Onitsha people that started having contacts with Europeans way back in 1500AD to threw away their origin.

Even the oldest missions in the old eastern region comprising of Rivers state were established by the British in Onitsha. It proves another point that they settled more in Onitsha than anywhere in the present day Niger delta, but still yet the people the British met in Onitsha never threw away their origin.

Rivers people are in the habit of denying their people/origin in other to gain favor.. take for instance Ikwerre people, they denied being igbo in other to save their worthless lives during the civil war

Ayatullah:


The fact that Governor Wike's name stands 'gidigba' like the rock of Gibraltar without undergoing any Europeanisation shows your claim is FAKE.

Governor wike is from the Ikwerri part and has no connection with the Ijaw (Riverine part of the state) We are referring to the Ijaw people.. please learn more about Rivers State