₦airaland Forum

Logan23:
No, Calabar has no connection to Kalabari. Below is my reply to Tonye Barcanista, AKA Ijawcitizen




Calabar, Just like lagos are 2 Portuguese words, Calabar in Portuguese means *Calm waters* and the Portuguese named the location called calabar to day by that name because wen they arrived, the water was calm. Calabar is also a name answered by portuguese people from ancient times, up till this day. I dont expect a treacherous Afonja to know this fact.

Quit the stupidity, kalabari has nothing to do with calabar.


If u are well read, u would have heard of the rascal free spirit called Domingos Fernandes Calabar, A Portuguese Man

TAO11:
Objective: To demonstrate with new evidence that my rag — that is, @gregyboy is one and the same person with the moniker @Edeyoung

Audience: Those who may have missed it when I did a similar thing some months ago with other evidence:

Cc: Ideadoctor, gomojam, macof, RedboneSmith, RuggedSniper, googi, scholes0, Newton85, Balogunodua, babtoundey, reallest, nisai, DenreleDave, SaintBeehot, Amujale, Afam4eva, Ofunwa111, Juliusmalema

Proof:
Edeyoung created a topic namely “The Title OBA Is Indigenous to Benins. See embedded screenshot below for evidence of this:
www.nairaland.com/attachments/12846307_98610ddff0e24fc496bd42b6a7eab4f1_jpeg_jpegf75cfc9d205394c0399ce34f2bc590e9

One of the first “Replies” he received on the thread is from a certain @Ayoemrys as seen in the embedded screenshot below:
www.nairaland.com/attachments/12846309_bdefc8c8cbf648848acd9cd2d68872bb_jpeg_jpeg512f12ba3df2e1addc6d05df83cdfc13

Following @Ayoemrys’ comment, another Nairalander (@Luckyheart) “Quoted” Edeyoung’s original post and inquired for the “Source” of his jibber-jabber.

Edeyoung replied [i.e. “Quoted”] @Luckyheart’s inquiry as shown in the embedded screenshot below:
www.nairaland.com/attachments/12846310_cf48e67f7e7648b190079b92d8f360a4_jpeg_jpegd3d7453bc98afdf591371dfba76dc41a

After replying to @Luckyheart’s inquiry, Edeyoung was now set to also reply @Ayoemrys’ comment. But something went awfully wrong this time.

Yes, Edeyoung was able to reply [i.e. “Quote”] @Ayoemrys’ comment. In fact, in his reply to @Ayoemrys, he proudly identified with his post while again naming the source of his inspiration — just as he had done in earlier his reply to @Luckyheart.

This time around however, he forgot that he had already logged out of the Edeyoung moniker, and that has now logged in with his alternative moniker namely gregyboy. See embedded image below:
www.nairaland.com/attachments/12846311_0e67502a10ef4aa49614467a45cac766_jpeg_jpegfd3f442e0186f6e9dd6b5c7aba2e4b3f

Q.E.D.


Summary:
Having multiple accounts is not a big deal, except if the intention is Ill and arises out of inferiority complex.

Cheers!

adadike:
thanks so much dear. My cousin ( onye okija) used to be a great story teller. He lived with us back then at ilorin he usually starts his story with , the usual ifo de,then he would say, ' I run o till I reach obodo idu na oba where the story am about to tell you emanate from'.
Am beginning to think that okija and my people from that side have a link with onicha people coz I am sure that the stories were also told to him by his fore fathers

WowSweetGuy:
Currently trending on social media are photos of a white man who has sparked reactions from Nigerians on social media after photos of him joining the Nigerian Police Force went viral.

It was learnt that the man married a Nigerian woman and relocated to the country several years ago. He is said to be the first white man to join the force.

He became a citizen after spending several years in Nigeria and welcomed two kids, a boy and a girl here as well.

Read more-https://www.lucipost.com/2020/12/white-man-sparks-reactions-on-social-media-after-photos-of-him-after-he-joined-the-nigerian-police-force-went-viral/amp/

samuk:
Let's look at the evidences provided.

1. 1875 missionary report by Bishop Crowder who was in Asaba in 1875. Crowder told us that as of 1875 Asaba people who were different in habits from Ibo/Igbo have already been amalgamated with Igbo people, which means Abasa people and Igbo people were leaving together as one. The account of Asaba people Crowder recorded says they migrated from the sovereign of the Oba of and still retained words and phrases from the Benin language as of 1875 and pays the Oba of Benin great veneration.

2. Bishop Ajayi Crowder was neither Benin nor Igbo and there is no evidence that he speaks Benin or Igbo. One can not see bias either way in his written records.

3. Your later reference claimed to have been written in 1879, 4 years after Crowder visit gave an oral account by an Igbo speaker. Hope you can spot the possible bias.

4. All your other subsequent accounts were given by those who lived amongst Igbo and spoke the Igbo language fluently.

In summary, we have two accounts.

1. From a truly independent eyewitness witness whose account is older being written in 1875.

2. From Igbo speakers irrespective of were they came from.

3. Before you argue that some of these guys were from Sierra Leone, may I quickly remind you that the earliest Yoruba historians like Samuel Johnson who wrote favourably about the Yoruba and Oyo was also from Sierra Leone.

4. Most of these people from Sierra Leone who were mostly freed slaves that found their ways to Nigeria wrote favourable about their adopted part of Nigeria. Though majority of them settled amongst the Yoruba, others found their ways to other parts of Nigeria including Benin City, settled and adopted those places.

It's left for others to read both accounts and draw their own conclusions.

samuk:
Did you read that document properly? Did you skip where it says that the Asaba people migrated to Asaba from the sovereign of the Oba of Benin due to wars?

Did you read where a clear distinction was made between Asaba people and Ibo/Igbo people of which they were amalgamated?

Did you read were it says Asaba people have different habits from Ibo/Igbo people?

Did you read the part it says the Asaba people still retained Benin words, phrases and habits in 1875?

Did TAO11 borrowed you her lenses?

samuk:
Did you read that document properly? Did you skip where it says that the Asaba people migrated to Asaba from the sovereign of the Oba of Benin due to wars?

Did you read where a clear distinction was made between Asaba people and Ibo/Igbo people of which they were amalgamated?

Did you read were it says Asaba people have different habits from Ibo/Igbo people?

Did you read the part it says the Asaba people still retained Benin words, phrases and habits in 1875?

Did TAO11 borrowed you her lenses?

samuk:
Did you read that document properly? Did you skip where it says that the Asaba people migrated to Asaba from the sovereign of the Oba of Benin due to wars?

Did you read where a clear distinction was made between Asaba people and Ibo/Igbo people of which they were amalgamated?

Did you read the part it says the Asaba people still retained Benin words, phrases and habits in 1875?

Did TAO11 borrowed you her lenses?

samuk:
cc: RedboneSmith

please provide your reference were Asaba claims affinity with Nteje in Eastern Nigeria and to a lesser extent with Igala.

I hope you will not come back next time to tell us that most tribes claiming Benin ancestry starting doing so recently.

samuk:
Anioma and Anambra were heavily influenced by Benin. There is a missionary documented eyewitness accounts by Ajayi Crowder written in 1875 were Asaba people claimed affinity with Benin.

BRIEF HISTORY OF ISSELE-UKU Delta state

https://www.nairaland.com/63004/brief-history-issele-uku#1249450

TAO11:
So far in the course of this thread, the following retar.ded claims have been devastatingly debunked:

(1) The retar.ded claim (by disgruntled Binis) that Yorubas began using the word “Oba” in the post-1930s.

This has been debunked with written evidence of Yoruba usage from 1899, from 1897, from c.1867, from 1845, et al.

(2) The retar.ded claim (by @samuk) that there exists some “600 years” old written evidence of Benin usage of the word “Oba”.

This retar.ded claim is yet to be substantiated (even with an atom of evidence) despite more than 10 days (and still counting) of their torturous search.

Instead, these disgruntled Binis were at best only able to demonstrate (from their own warped logic) that the Yorubas have an earlier written evidence — 1845 (Yoruba) Vs. 1867 (Bini).

——————————————————
But what does it really mean that I was able to produce an 1845 written evidence and the Binis weren’t able to come even close to that ??

Well, it just simply means that the Binis weren’t able to come close to the Yorubas, despite their own bogus claim of wRiTteN eViDeNcE. Nothing more, nothing less! [I know I’m being too nice now].

To put the same question in other words:
Does the comparative written evidence already provided really mean that the Binis began using this word only in the year 1867 — because that’s all they could provide ??

Funny enough, this line of warped reasoning is what the disgruntled Binis have been trailing. Should I play their game along with them? No, I’m Yoruba!

To every sound and logically mind, such conclusion (based on available writing) is too obvious as a flawed reasoning and logical fallacy — even though I could have forced their own flawed reasoning down their throats.

Such particular logical fallacy is know in analytical logic specifically by the name: argumentum ex silentio.

————————————————————
Having debunked their deluded claim of 1930s [see (1)]; having exposed @samuk’s fraud of “600 years” old writing [see (2)]; having exposed their inability to produce anything close to (let alone earlier than) the Yorubas’ [see (2)]; having debunked their warped logic of arguing from earlier written usage (despite the fact that it favours me); I now turn, at this point, to discussing the actual objective evidence for determining the indigenous ownership of a word — that is, the linguistic evidence.

——————————————————————
The Argument:
(I) If a word is in use in a particular language, but its literal meaning can not be meaningfully analyzed within that language; then such word does not originally belong to that language. Gbam!

(II) The word “Ọba” (as used by the Binis for their monarch) does not have any literal meaning in the language of the Binis.

(III) In conclusion, the word “Ọba” (as used by the Binis for their monarch) does not belong originally to the Bini language — In other words, it is a loanword.

————————————————————
The Evidence:
An objective source of evidence for the meanings of Bini words is obviously and undoubtedly an authoritative dictionary of the Bini language itself.

[This is not to be confused with a dictionary of the English language which simply features a paltry number of non-English words of widespread, global, popular usage — such as: “fufu”, “agbada”, “oba”, et al.]

As such, recourse will now be made to a Bini-English Lexicon. This is so that the English readers here can access the written meanings which are attributed to the actual Bini words.

One such example of an authoritative material for this purpose is the work entitled: “A Concise Dictionary of The Bini Language of Southern Nigeria” compiled by the professor of African Phonetics and Linguistics, Hans Melzian.

———————————————————
Under the entry “Ọba” (for which Professor Melzian used “ɔ” to represent “ọ“, in order to distinguish /o/ as in odd from /o/ as in old ); the following are some interesting observations from this Bini dictionary.

(A) Unlike what the author did with virtually all other Bini words within the same dictionary, he did not give a literal meaning to this word — as I have expected.

Rather, he simply describes the person whom the Binis refer to by this word. Interesting, isn’t it?! See embedded image below:

www.nairaland.com/attachments/12754901_bb7fcaad09fc479498aedbb24cb57370_jpeg_jpeg80dbd02cb7ce1db81e998db7e161c38e

(B) But more than that, the author (in fact) let the cat out of the bag. He revealed why this word could not have had a literal meaning in a dictionary of Bini language.

Before I reveal his reason, it is important that one is acquainted with a few notations and abbreviations which he define in his work.

Two examples of these are relevant to my discourse here, and they are: “Yor.” and “cf.” which he defines as: “Yoruba” and “etymological reference” respectively.

See embedded image below:

www.nairaland.com/attachments/12754902_541f22648c37485488282bea682c0e27_jpeg_jpegf272ec9b7e8de333789df15c524980aa

In the light of this background, let’s then see what reason the author indicates as to why this word could have appeared without a literal meaning in the Bini dictionary.

See embedded image below as highlighted on the top-right corner in continuation of the bottom-left corner.

www.nairaland.com/attachments/12754903_7e31a3d03b7c407ab60e863fbf8fb4c2_jpeg_jpegfba5de93eebde69a9ef00beabf7a605c

In the light of his foregoing definition of abbreviations, what we have here in the phrase “cf. Yor. ɔba” then becomes extremely clear and straightforward.

In other words, the word “Ọba” [ɔba] (used by the Binis for their monarch) has its ”etymology” [cf.] (aka. ”origin”) in the Yoruba language [Yor.].

Quod Erat Demonstrandum!

TheLionofLasigi:
I've noticed that most of the individuals on this platform since I started actively using it this year are igbos(not all) who either spread falsehood or ignorance, they seem to be hypocritical bitter sets of people who blame all their problems on:
1. Yoruba's.
2. Muslim Yoruba's
3. Tinubu
4. Awolowo.
5. Civil War(which most of them never even fought in)
6. Tinubu
7. Tinubu
8. Tinubu
9. Northerners

They usually start with:
1. Insults: E.g Afonja
2. Stating outrightly false facts and conspiracy theories to back up their baseless claims
3. When they are countered with verifiable facts they resort to
3.1: faulting it as Yoruba media news.
3.2: spamming with insultive/slur
memes.
3.3: trying to divert the argument: E.g
making it a Yoruba Vs Hausa issue.
3.4: Sharing out of context news to suit
the narrative.
4. When you finally give them a taste of
their own medicine, they start crying
and calling you a tribal bigot after
which they finally shot up.

Note that you can't caution an average Igbo because it hurts their ego and you would be met with insults, thus they find it hard to hold their highly corrupt leaders accountable.

Even in the real world, while doing my Msc in Cyprus living in an apartment with 3 other Nigerians (2 were Igbo, the other was Edo and I being yoruba) It was always the Igbo boys who brought trouble home; they where either blasting highlife music in the mornings causing our lebanese neighbors to report us on multiple occasions or moving with shady characters and either transacting one thing or the other or outrightly getting into fights with the locals and when it backfired they would be the first to scream racism, The last straw was when the police visited us with a drug search warrant, nothing was found but I knew my Igbo brothers must have been up to something dirty, had to move out for them the next day, In Benin Republic were I visited for sometime, it was always the landlords complaining of the Nigerians (obviously Igbo) who would rent houses use it anyhow or just outrightly faulting house rules, Ghana, South Africa, Malaysia...these people seem to invite trouble anywhere they go that even their south south cousins are having issues with them.

This obviously doesn't apply to all igbos, there are those who are reasonable and intelligent, but usually you'll find that they're probably of the middle class born and raised in lagos. Such can't be said for the rest. Maybe it's a new tactic to irritate everyone they meet until they get Biafra.

God save us all.

samuk:
Guy, why are you trying to deny Olaudah Equiano his Igbo heritage because he said that Benin rule over Igbo land was nominal. What would you have done if you had come from eastern Yoruba that had it worst, are you not aware that several of their traditional rulers got beheaded by Benin army, sometimes for minor infractions as disrespecting a Benin citizen? TAO11 Ijebu even got it terribly bad, the reason she has devoted herself to always rubbish Benin history whenever she can't twist and steal it for the Yoruba.

Benin lord it all over everyone, from east, west to middle belt, it's nothing to be ashamed about. They were a formidable force of their time. All that are history now.

Etinosa1234:
Lol... Eze Chima is not the only story...... Besides ur main question was to prove to u that Benin ruled The Igbos... And I've shown u already... Ezechima story along with Azikiwe all showed that the Igbo people was once under the Benin kingdom.

U are diverting from the topic... Ur first claim was to prove that Benin ruled Igbos.. Ezechima as an Igbo migrated to onicha from Benin is more than proof that Benin had Igbos under their Kingdom .. Lemme use this analogy for u,... A Nigerian migrates out of the country and settles in Europe.. and becomes a citizen there... But even tho he's a citizen of that place.. He knows that he originated from or was born in Nigeria and was ruled by Nigerians even tho he's no longer there.. That was what ezechima did... He migrated from Benin to onicha and became a citizen there but his origin is clearly Benin.

lol... Even tho onicha wasn't exclusively under Benin kingdom, some parts of South East was and that was what Olaudah Equaino specified on his biography

Very hilarious... Why don't u venture into comedy?... According to his memoir, he stated he was born in Essaka and kidnapped into slavery... If he was born in South Carolina according to some third party claims, then tell me how he was able to know that he was being captured into slavery
Given the time he lived and the way information was not common, how was he able to write in his memoir that he was born in Essaka(an unknown town)in the kingdom of Benin
How was he able to write in his own autobiography that he was kidnapped when the adults went to farm?

There is no actual report that he was born in achaka in delta state... Stop bringing beer parlour talk here... Most historians say he was born in present day isseke... Can those who claim achaka be brave enough to prove it?
Using ur logic, there are still some people that believe that Trump won the US election. Should we now say they are correct even when they can't prove it... I actually wonder how u reason... I don't know abt Achebe report on isseke.. but there are reports of where he was born being called isseke... See the pic below

Lastly so according to you, someone who was present in the 18th century is lying abt his history but you That is born prolly late last century or early this century is Correct... Wel done ooo OmniKnowest ...Its u that

Well since u think that Olaudah is lieing, I dare u to bring a contradictory account that says that part of South East wasn't under Benin as at 18th century?

The pic below is a work from P Edwards who scrutinised and concluded that Essaka was actually isseke... Stop bringing beer parlour talks here

Etinosa1234:
1)If u know who olaudah was, u won't be making this kind of statement... Olaudah was a bright guy who fought for abolition of slavery. He was born in 1745... He knows the state of the World as that time... The people born presently may have no idea of Benin kingdom except they read about it. He spent more than 10 years in Africa.. isn't he supposed to be old enough to know the land which he stays and the ruler of his country... Even a 7 year old boy knows that he was born in Nigeria and his state (prolly Anambra ) is a part of the country Nigeria not to talk of. The present political awareness and the fact that Igbo is a major tribe makes them deny Benin past imperialism over them forgetting that they became one tribe after the amalgamation of Nigeria

2)This is a silly excuse.. Pls tell me, who wants to influence Olaudah in the white man land to say he was not born in the kingdom of Benin... ?
So are u saying that an 11 year old in ur state does not know his left from the right.. No wonder ipob have large following in the South east .. Even my cousin of 5 years knows where he was born and where he is from not to talk of a 11 year old whose knowledge will be more advanced... So are u saying that, in ur state, an 11 year old can't come out bravely to say the country he lives in without showing signs of brain malfunctioning... No wonder the number of dull people in Southeast keeps rising... No wonder only Nnamdi Kanu does the thinking for u and u guys follow like a sheep to the slaughter

3)This is what happens when u don't read to understand... Even Nnamdi Azikiwe who is from Onitsha stated in his Odyssey that he descended from royal line of the Oba of Benin.. ur Igbo historian have written books to say that Ezechima migrated from Benin... There is even a possibility that Nnamdi Azikiwe didn't know about Olaudah Equaino but somehow their history both correlate... Coincidence or not?

4)Its quite amazing that u are giving me command on what to post and what not to post on this forum... It seems like the truth hurts and u can't believe that ur big tribe was once under subjugation by a minority tribe... Take heart bro...

5) Lmao... Olaudah biography is not sound because he didn't write what u wanted u hear as at the 18th century... Lol u make me laugh... Read abt Olaudah and know why he was highly respected then... Even Nnamdi Azikiwe wrote his own biography and said the same thing.. I guess two people can be lieing 200 years apart


Well having answered ur questions, can u show me with any scholarly written work or an eyewitness account that contradicts the story of Olaudah Equaino as at the 18th century...?

Gregyboy
Samuk
Redbonesmith
Areafada2

Etinosa1234:
Lol

1)Unfortunately that’s not the only reference . Your people also wrote stories about Benin influences on the south east
Below is a link from an Igbo website that says ezechima came from Benin
https://www.google.com/amp/s/ukpuru.tumblr.com/post/124264146737/amp
This is another [url]https://books.google.com.ng/books?id=sWwuAQAAIAAJ&q=Benin&source=gbs_word_cloud_r&cad=3done[b]work[/b][/url] done by an Igbo historian stating the same
Also azikiwe traced his lineage to Benin... all their stories are coincidentally almost alike

There are many more that I could post for u.

2)Lol.. u want to compare personal knowledge or lemme say knowledge abt his own early life to the one of borders and locations of kingdoms. That he made the mistake in what borders the Benin kingdom doesn’t mean that the entire story is false especially given that there were less info abt other parts of the world as at that period... U can’t say his own biography is incorrect all because he made a mistake in locations of a kingdom. Thats plain stupidity .. Even as at now, there are some Nigerians who think America is located in Europe... but if they write their biography, will u trash it all because they made a mistake on what they’re less informed or will u saying they are lying in their biography all because they made a mistake there?

Also I havent seen any scholar claim that essaka was in delta instead.. all claim that the essaka(isseke) is a town in anambra state

3)There are many evidences abt that like the four days a week and ur market days but present political awareness have led some igbos to overturn it to claim Igbo influence over benin when it was otherwise

Thanks

Etinosa1234:
Abt this... Dont be so confident... Parts of present day South East was under Benin..

How do I know?

Olaudah Equaino born 1745 in his autobiography mentioned that he was born in Essaka(now isseke) which was part of the Benin kingdom
See his autobiography below... (For the use of the oba... I'm busy lately... I'll definitely get it)

PS: the work was written in the 18th century... Some of the f word u see there is actually s

JanSnow:
You entered an igbo thread to cause trouble amongst igbos then involved yoruba. You derailed the thread and now you are saying nonsense, nobody should saty at any sidelines this is public space

samuk:
You should have read from the sidelines. It still doesn't change the fact that your people were under the old Benin empire whatever the king was called.

samuk:
So the Benin must have bribed the oyibos. Don't Igbos have centuries old folktales about the Oba of Benin? Was Yoruba not existing when the white people listed the word as being Edo in origin?

Your madam lecturer can fool you but not those white people that have been visiting Africa for close to 1000 years. They know who is who. You can't choose when to quote them and when to argue and disagree with them because you don't like what they wrote.

You are happy when they say the Yoruba used the word Oba in late 1800s but not happy when they say it's Edo in origin, what double standards.

samuk:
Keep exposing yourself thinking others can't access the dictionary themselves to seen what it says.

The word Oba was first listed 1900-5 not 1998 as stated by madam lecturer and if it was that recent as 1998, it simply means the oyibos that list the word as Edo in origin isn't fooled by your falsehood.

Anyone can check dictionary online for what it says about the word.

The word is Edo in origin that the Yorubas share with the Benins.

Afam4eva:
I also want to know what other traditional rulers in Edo state apart from the oba of Benin are called.

TAO11:
I’m glad you robbed it on his face. I was still there typing.

He must be so delusional to think everyone else has a pea-sized, 1 kilo-byte brain like he does.

I have stopped engaging him directly since I became convinced on my job of exposing him as a clownish empty-headed dullard.

https://www.nairaland.com/6234931/why-ikwerres-not-igbo-logic/4#96257036

——
The second Bini clown-in-Chief has attached dictionary.com’s definition of “oba” as his proof. Wonderful!?

Can someone remind me again what year this online dictionary wrote that definition of “oba”?

I’m beginning to think that brainlessness is actually real in a literal sense. Haha!

samuk:
Argue with those that listed the word Oba as a Benin word with Edo origin in the international dictionary. I feel your pain, the Benin are always a thorn in the flesh of those that want to shove their Igboness or Yorubaness down the throat of everyone else. So it's understandable when Igbo and Yoruba collaborate against Benin because just like most parts of Yoruba land Igbo was also under the old Benin empire. History is what it is. It's not our fault.

The compilation of the English dictionary didn't start recently, if the word Oba had a Yoruba origin, the dictionary would have say so. You guys see everything from the prism of population. In your logic, it has to be a Yoruba word because they are more in population. You call yourself historian and don't know that Benin is much more older than Yoruba, what sort of skewed tribal historian are you.

samuk:
Argue with those that listed the word Oba as a Benin word with Edo origin in the international dictionary. I feel your pain, the Benin are always a thorn in the flesh of those that want to shove their Igboness or Yorubaness down the throat of everyone else. So it's understandable when Igbo and Yoruba collaborate against Benin because just like most parts of Yoruba land Igbo was also under the old Benin empire. History is what it is. It's not our fault.

samuk:
The dictionary went further to say the origin of the word is Edo.

If they are not up to mischief, how is it possible that Benin whose written history began in the 1400s is the one that will copy the word Oba from Yoruba whose written history began in the 1800s. It's a good thing the dictionary is not written by Nigerians. Wonder shall never end.