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I read this article written by a true Ijaw son and realised how we had and are still being used by other Nigerians.http://www.unitedijaw.com/analysis.htm

We actually have so much in common.balkanization,denial,divide and rule.we have rich inland oil while they own the oil rich shores.we traded in slaves together as well as salt,fish and oil palm.we inter-married.we are multidialectal and consist of several sub-groups(this forms part of our weakness but should have been our strength).

If only all igbos and ijaws could realize this,a lot could be achieved by both.

Constructive contribution from igbo and ijaw sons as well as their offshoots-kalabari,okrika,andoni,ibani,opobo,etche,ikwerre,anioma,ndoki,ogba,ndoni,egbema,ekpeye etc.

The essence of the meeting was to discuss the parameters by which these tribes will be recognised as a state if they win the war. The response the Igbos gave was that, the status quo remains the same, meaning that, if you were a minority in the former state (Nigeria) then, those tribes will still remain minorities. The Ijaws were not comfortable with the response. This led to the Ijaws pulling out of the Biafran state.



LMAO was that Ojukwus plan chei greedy man no wonder the Ijaws pulled out
but I think we shld, so the Ijaw and igbo voice will be heard, hopefully the relationship will be maintained 

Igbo and Ijaw, what is the real difference?

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What is this Arrow looking for here?. Tribalism is so old fashioned. Go and lay your tribal frustrations on your vibrator.

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Igbo and Ijaw, what is the real difference?[code][/code]

lmao theres a difference

Tpia and AlloyEmeka, I am beginning to suspect your fake fights o. . . you people should just hook up because I can sense the attraction. . .

Emeka weds Abeni

grafikdon:



Tpia and AlloyEmeka, I am beginning to suspect your fake fights o. . . you people should just hook up because I can sense the attraction. . .

Emeka weds Abeni

That is the inter-ethnic marriage we've been clamoring for.

grafikdon:



Tpia and AlloyEmeka, I am beginning to suspect your fake fights o. . . you people should just hook up because I can sense the attraction. . .

Emeka weds Abeni

so i wasn't the only one sensing a fatal attraction

Time for them to UNITE abeg. We also need all groups n da East to unite. We sure won't get far if we don't carry others along vice versa. Efik Ibibios Annang Oron gotta come around too.

@poster
I actually read the article by Sam-James Hedded. I'm not sure of the relationship between Ijaw people's association and MEND, but let me just say that while the article attempted to immortalize Adaka Boro, it did not go far enough to look back and make a critical analysis of the problems of the Igbos and their Ijaw cousins.
From all I know Adaka Boro betrayed his Eastern Nigerian brethren and joined forces with the Western and Northern Nigerians who later killed him. Ken saro-Wiwa did same thing too; and we all know his fate. The task before all of us is to make a critical and honest assesment of the circumstances surrounding the Eastern/igbo struggle in the 1960s vs what obtains today.
History will tell whether it was wise to join forces with outsiders to crush your brother simply because of natural and internal problems.

naijaking1:

@poster
I actually read the article by Sam-James Hedded. I'm not sure of the relationship between Ijaw people's association and MEND, but let me just say that while the article attempted to immortalize Adaka Boro, it did not go far enough to look back and make a critical analysis of the problems of the Igbos and their Ijaw cousins.
From all I know Adaka Boro betrayed his Eastern Nigerian brethren and joined forces with the Western and Northern Nigerians who later killed him. Ken saro-Wiwa did same thing too; and we all know his fate. The task before all of us is to make a critical and honest assesment of the circumstances surrounding the Eastern/igbo struggle in the 1960s vs what obtains today.
History will tell whether it was wise to join forces with outsiders to crush your brother simply because of natural and internal problems.

SO TRUE. We gotta get to da bottom of it all to then move forward.

both sides have wronged the other in many ways but what i still wonder is why we cant form a formidable socio-political force.Written and proven history shows the intimate pre-colonial relationship.okrika-mbaise,opobo-ndoki-orlu to mention but few.

Abagworo:

both sides have wronged the other in many ways but what i still wonder is why we cant form a formidable socio-political force.Written and proven history shows the intimate pre-colonial relationship.okrika-mbaise,opobo-ndoki-orlu to mention but few.

The last I heard- M.T Mbu was leading a reconciliation effort around the former eastern Nigeria, I hope something will come out of it, that all people of eastern Nigeria will be their brothers keepers one more time since we've all learnt from our mistakes.

ijaw_girl:

The essence of the meeting was to discuss the parameters by which these tribes will be recognised as a state if they win the war. The response the Igbos gave was that, the status quo remains the same, meaning that, if you were a minority in the former state (Nigeria) then, those tribes will still remain minorities. The Ijaws were not comfortable with the response. This led to the Ijaws pulling out of the Biafran state.



LMAO was that Ojukwus plan chei greedy man
but I think we shld, so the Ijaw and igbo voice will be heard, hopefully the relationship will be maintained 

I'm sure u prefer it now, abi?

I'm sure u prefer it now, abi?

 lol I dont blame my people for pulling out,  I guess everybody has learnt their lesson from the past/experience.
Ojukwu's plan was the same as the Hausas, he decided to make the ethnic groups in the south south minorities, the only difference was Ojukwu said it before time while the hausa's were just deceiving us. If we accepted Ojukwu's plan and we ended up being oppressed, there you go, Its still the same situation

After the war we have all seen our mistakes, each ethnic group has become stronger and want equal rights. The Ijaw people are becoming stronger and more united everyday, the same for the ogoni and efik people. If Biafra should happen again, I guess everybody will know their limits, everybody is equal, no ethnic group is a minority no matter the size of the tribe.

only time will tell, I cant predict,

I don't know why being a minority is such a bad label. Democracy is the doing the will of the majority and respecting the rights of the minority. Attributes defining a mjority vs minority seems to change over time, so a majority today could as well be a minority tomorrow, depending on the issue in question.

Ijaws and Igbos are cousins, going back centuries. Many clans within present day Igboland migrated from Ijawland and vice-versa. Mbiri and parts of Okrika are just some examples of this.

This is not a diss to anyone and I hope no one will take it as such.

Igbos were not diplomatic in their dealing with us, thats why we pulled out.

No blame is to be attached to the Igbos for this. They themselves were a newly founded empire, lacking the structures of an established empire with all its diplomatic machinations. Prior to the 1900's, they all had seperate villages and clans with no central structure of command. The Hausa's on the other have been running an empire for centuries and understand how to relate to other groups diplomatically (even when they are lying). A bit more diplomacy on the part of the Igbo and Ijaw would have fought tooth and nail for them, because every Ijaw man would rather live with his cousins than foreigners. However, the series of meetings held between Ijaw leaders and the Igbo only served to ignite the ire of the Ijaw leaders, because the Igbo's were lacking in diplomacy.

You have to remember the history of our part of the world. Up until the 1900's, the Ijaws and Igbos were equal trade partners. They produced Palm Oil, we travel up the river to get it, and we deliver it to the British. They were not allowed to use the river to deliver their own produce, and we generally did not enter into their land to farm for it. To turn around 60 years later and tell us that we will live as a minority under them was disrespectful to us. Hence the fallout.

Now, regardless of this, saying Ijaws fought against Igbos is a fallacy of the highest order. Ijaw land was split. Some fought for Biafra and never came home. Some fought for Naija and mostly came home. It is not like Ijaws fought en masse for Nigeria.

The Ibibios on the other hand are generally looked down upon by their Efik brothers. Fighting with the Igbo's gave them a chance to change that status-quo. This is why Ibibio's are today counted as the only true allies of the Igbo during the Biafran war.

Let's not forget that the Eastern Nigeria comprised many tribes/semi-tribes: Efiks, Kwa-Ibos, Ibibios, Igbos, Ijaws, etc. Where one tribe ended and another began remains controversial. Sometimes these differences made a difference, sometimes it did not.

We have all seen how personal egos of Ojukwu, Adaka Boro, Ifeajuna, Nzeogwu, and others affected their policies. Another tragedy is that these personal attributes have often times been used to describe the wish of their own people. Igbo people never elected Ojukwu as governor, Igbo people never sent Nzeogwu to plan a coup, or kill anybody, yet today; the actions of these men have been used to describe a whole tribe! When Hausa people were killing easterners, they did not discriminate between Igbo, Efik, Edo, Ibibio, and Ijaw, and yet none of these tribes sent Nzeogwu to plan a coup.

Politics at the old eastern Nigeria was not smooth, right from NCNC days when Zik/Okpara felt that Calabar people were not giving them enough votes- they retaliated in very unsual ways; probably acceptable in their own time. However, for the Ijaw people led by Boro, Diette-Spiff, and Saro-Wiwa to join forces with Hausa/Fulani, and Yoruba people to destroy the house of their own eastern Nigeria was just unbelievable.

Looking back, I can say that despite the very high regard accorded the leaders of the Ijaw people, they lacked simple knowledge of World history. The Grecco-Roman period showed the result of betraying ones's own house with outsiders, the American civil war showed how 29 counties of North-western Virginia collabrated with the Federal troops against southerners, and later formed West Virginia, thereby destroying centuries old relations. Right here in Nigeria, anybody that attended high school would have read how the King of Yoruba sent one of his Baloguns(army generals) named Afonja to defend Illorin from invaders. Afonja got to Illorin, and betrayed his own King by joing forces with Fulanis who later seized control of his power.

My point? It may seem necessary to betray your brother for short term and selfish reasons, but on the long run, most historical accounts have shown that such behaviour does backfire, and educated Ijaw leaders like the Clarks, Saro-Wiwas, and Boros ought to have known better, but for their own selfish reasons.

naijaking1:

However, for the Ijaw people led by Boro, Diette-Spiff, and Saro-Wiwa to join forces with Hausa/Fulani, and Yoruba people to destroy the house of their own eastern Nigeria was just unbelievable. 

naijaking1:

We have all seen how personal egos of Ojukwu, Adaka Boro, Ifeajuna, Nzeogwu, and others affected their policies. Another tragedy is that these personal attributes have often times been used to describe the wish of their own people. Igbo people never elected Ojukwu as governor, Igbo people never sent Nzeogwu to plan a coup, or kill anybody, yet today; the actions of these men have been used to describe a whole tribe!

These two statements are contradictory.

First of all, just like the Igbo, the Ijaw suffer from the problem of fragmentation. There is no centralised government, hence the actions of Boro, Clarke etc do not define the wishes of the Ijaw people.

Like I have said before, the Igbo's refusal to draw up a concrete plan as to the derivation of oil wealth in the Niger Delta led to resistance, not only from Ijaws, but Ikwerre's and Ogoni's as well. This is the diplomatic angle that was lacking in the Biafran movement. Before anyone joins you in war, you have to tell them whats in it for them.

Instead of mentioning Clarke, Adaka Boro etc, why not mention the Ijaw commanders who fought for Biafra? Was it not an Ijaw man, Frank Opugo who coined the term "Biafra"?

My father had a group of friends. Three went off to fight for Biafra, others for Naija. The Biafrans never came home.

In the latter stages of the war, Biafran soldiers were holed up in Ijaw towns whilst Nigerian Soldiers sieged the towns. The leaders of the towns, such as the late Amanyanabo of Okrika sent a letter to the Biafran soldiers and told them to leave in order to minimise civilian casualties in a war which was already lost, not because they were in opposition to Biafra, but because they didn't want their innocent civilians slaughtered on the dying embers of Biafran resistance.

Factor in all these, and we have this myth propagated that Naija-Deltans were against the creation of Biafra. This is a myth! Growing up in PH, I never met a Naija Deltan who was not in favour of secession. The question is what did the Igbo's offer to incentivise the Ijaws but a continuation of the same Land and Petroleum policies of the Nigerian Government? The Biafran dream was to be funded by Niger Delta oil (and the Igbos made no concessions in that regard), just like the Nigerian nightmare is propagated on the back of Niger Delta oil.

The effort of Efiks, Edo, Ibibios, Qua-Ibos, and Igbos during the struggle really ought to be celebrated. When Ojukwu cowardly ran away to Ivory Coast, it was Effiong who stood bye to bite the bullet. Even as Ojukwu goes around today burnishing up his public image with all sorts of titles, most Igbo people believe Effiong was their real hero.
@Ibime
The mistake you're making is that you imply that Igbos refused to grant Ijaws conditions for joing them fight the war. You went further to allude that the war and the new republic was to be funded by oil from the area.
1. The Ijaws owed that war as much as the Igbos, the Edo, the Efiks, and the Ibibios--- there was no need to negotiate with them to defend their own home land.
2. If tribal boundaries are not clear today, could you imagine how unclear it must have been 40 years ago?
3. While the whole Igbo people was never consulted about the Ijaw demand, because there was no mechanism for that, it would be wrong to insist that some Ijaw people betrayed their brothers because the few Igbo leaders at the time did not give them any sort of guarrantees for Independence.
4. A lot of people did not know about this Ijaw demand, but based on your statement, it seems tracherous for a brother to start making very difficlut or impossible demands at such a critical time when an invader was about to attack both men.
5. Some people would even describe such an inopportune demand as blackmail. I say they were gaullible.
6. Remember that what we have today as Igboland could have been drawn by the victorious side to include or exclude any part of the old eastern Nigeria. It could have excluded Onitsha, Oguta, Nsukka, Abakiliki, or any other boader-town. It might have included Port Harcourt, Uyo, even Ikot-Ekpene, etc if oil was not there.
7. So, don't look back at the way Ijaws have been treated by Hausa/Yoruba and automatically assume that Igbos---or whatever you may call the majority tribe in an Easyern Nigerian nation would have treated the Ijaws and other tribes. For one thing Ijaws share boundaries, rivers, forests, air, and natural environment with Igbos.

Ojukwus deeds were aimed at defending his people from massacre and not to fight the ijaws whom he was also defending.the ijaw and igbo masses can never really know what transpired btw ojukwu and ijaw leaders but i think it might not be unconnected with state creation.what i'm trying to put up is that we should drop all accusations,blames and suspicions and embrace as brothers that we really are.biafra was not an igbo affair but it has now been made synonymous with igbo.i personally believe that even if the biafra was successful there would have been a civil war in biafra.

What language do people of Opobo speak?

dey speak ibani - ijoid/ijaw language

Stop the lies. How not google Ijaw history. They claim they are from Ile ife. from adumu(oduduwa).

So now Ijaw ppl are Yoruba?? lol

The Ibibios on the other hand are generally looked down upon by their Efik brothers. Fighting with the Igbo's gave them a chance to change that status-quo. This is why Ibibio's are today counted as the only true allies of the Igbo during the Biafran war.

Truedat. Ibibios and Efiks really helped igbos a lot during the Bifran war and every igbo person will attest to that. No argument here.

becomerich prove them wrong. show them the satellite maps from 500 AD

becomerich prove them wrong. show them the satellite maps from 500 AD

Becomerich, don't mind these people. They don't know their history.


Ijaw people do have association with Yorubas, but not necessarily the present-day Yorubas. In relation to todays Yorubas' the  connection is but a drop in bucket-sized gene pool.  That is why we do not speak Yoruba words like the Itsekiri (who are half-Ijaw, half-Yoruba), but the original Oru language. In particular, Prince Ujo (Oduduwas son) is regarded as the first significant leader of the Western Ijaw. He was sent by Oduduwa to settle land along the Niger-Delta and did so from Benin to Warri where he and his people merged with Oru (Ijaw) people. Thats why to this day dau-Wari means 'my fathers house' in Ijaw language. However, genetically, Ujo and his followers blood have been diluted into a much wider gene pool of the Oru's, and our language and customs remain that of the original Oru people (especially Eastern Ijaw) who migrated to Naija from Sudan, through Lake Chad. However, we may still be closer to Oduduwa than present-day Yorubas because Yoruba Kingdom as we know it today has swallowed a lot of tribes with no relation to the original Oduduwa.

The first British explorers identified us as Oru's and our language is littered with Oru terminology - Pioru (Masquerade), Oru (Nembe God) etc.

None of what I quote here can be classified as 'fact', but they are generally accepted by historians:


http://www.earthrights.net/nigeria/history.html


Prince Ujo’s instructions were to go to the Niger Delta, and establish a strategic base from which to defend the coastal region. Clearly his father King Adumu (Oduduwa), regarded the whole southern region as a virgin territory which he would bring under his direct control. Prince Ujo proceeded to the central Niger Delta with his followers and came across isolated communities of ORU in remote settlements. Together with these people they formed viable communities in the central delta originally based on the City-state formation. This was birth of the Ijo people.


Some argue that Ijaws are more closely related to the original founders of Ile-Ife than present-day Yoruba's:

An examination and comparison of the names ADUMU (Oduduwas real name), OGU (OGUN) & OGBOGBODIRI the first 3 kings of dynastic Ife, IGODO, ERE & KALADIRAN the first 2 and last Ogisos of Benin with the Ijo language, reveals that these names are still being borne by Ijo individuals up till today, but the present day Yoruba and Edo do not bear these names. What does this suggest? It suggests that the dynastic founders of Ife and Benin were ethnically related to the present day Ijo people as emphasised by ancestral tradition



http://www.shvoong.com/humanities/h_history/1728509-ijaw-history/

"The early British explorers applied the curious name "ORU" to the Ijo west of Brass from the Nun entrance to Taylor creek, Dr Baikie said of them in 1854. ''From the mouth of the river (NUN) up to this point (TAYLOR CREEK), the country on either side is named ORU. The people are of the same tribe as who inhabit the tract of country up to the Rio Formoso where however they are called EJO or OJO by which name they are known at Abo, at Brass and even Bonny, by English palm oil traders.  

, "The Oru occupy the tract of country on each side of the Nun branch of the Niger and along the coastline between it and the Ramos river. Then in the triangle formed by the Nun and the Gana-Gana, also outside it, to a small extent, both eastward and westward, dwell the Ijo the most important tribe in the lower Delta, and indeed after the Ibo in the whole of Southern Nigeria, "<1> “, About three hours from Sunday Island, we came to inhabited villages; we induced two canoes to come off, from who we learnt that the people between Brass and Aboh are called Oru…”<2> “….July 2:…Some of the neighbouring chiefs of Oru came off, with whom we had conversation about legal trade…”<3> “…November 3: weighed early this morning, and anchored of Agberi, the first Oru village below the Aboh district…”<4> “…The Oru or Ijo or Udso of Koelle are identical with Brass, at the mouth of the Nun on the coast, otherwise called Hebu or Nempe by their Ibo neighbours. This language is spoken to the extent of 100 miles from the mouth of the Nun, to the boundary of Abo territory: how far inland towards Benin, on the right and towards the Ibo country on the left is yet unknown…”<5> The original collective names for the ancestors of the Ijos were “Kumoni” and “Oru”, survivals of the ancient terms of “Khem-Anu” or “Khem-Onu”, and “Horu” of the ancient Nile valley civilisations of Khem or Kemetu (ancient Egypt) and Kush (ancient Sudan).

The Kumoni-oru derived from ancient Egypt via Ife, while the Oru derived from ancient Sudan. Now the earliest ancestors of the Ijos, the “Orus” or “Tobu-Otu”, migrated from the lake Chad aquatic civilisation of Daima region (c 5000-2000 BCE). Their settlement in the delta was from the earliest of times. Unfortunately not much is known about this period, only that traditionally it is said that these early ancestors “dropped from the sky” (i.e. to say the Orus were of divine origin), and were devotees of spiritual culture that made much use of the waters (hence the mermaid and water people legends “Beni-Otu”) They were later to be joined by other ancestors “Kumoni-Orus” from about 400 CE, and 650 CE (AD), who, after settling first in the Nupe and Borgu regions, then the Ile-Ife region, moved to the Benin region via Nupe, and Ife. In the Benin region they eventually settled and launched expeditions into the Niger Delta, where they came acrosremote settlements of the Orus, whom they termed “ancient people”. But because they were also ultimately Oru, from the beginning they established communities as one people. "