Hello, good morning everyone. I've been reading a lot of topics about the Ijaw and have come across certain posts that say Ijaw originally came as European ship indentured servants from as far away as Ghana, Togo, India etc.

please I'd like someone to elaborate on this since I haven't read any true historical book that confirmed this. No insults, it's just arouses my curiousity.

Thanks in advance.

There are black Africans who did arrive with Europeans in the 19th century, but they were not Ijaw. As in, “Ijaw”, as an ethnic community, did not come to Nigeria as European indentured servants. Ijaw oral traditions suggest that they were just as established in Nigeria as other groups by the time Europeans arrived, and this can be corroborated with the oral traditions of other groups.

If I had to hazard a guess, it is most likely the case that this story of “arriving with Europeans” refers to the “Saro” people (Sierra Leoneans). They were actually returnees (formerly enslaved), and they came from different ethnic communities in Nigeria.

Many southern Nigeria communities have one story or another that refers to this returnee migration. I don’t know how it came to be associated with Ijaw, especially since there was known tension between Ijaw and some Saro returnees.

Long story short, it seems that people now use returnee migration to spite Ijaw people for whatever reason. At least, this is my interpretation. Perhaps someone who knows better might be able to clarify things or correct me where I may be mistaken.

ChinenyeN:
There are black Africans who did arrive with Europeans in the 19th century, but they were not Ijaw. As in, “Ijaw”, as an ethnic community, did not come to Nigeria as European indentured servants. Ijaw oral traditions suggest that they were just as established in Nigeria as other groups by the time Europeans arrived, and this can be corroborated with the oral traditions of other groups.

If I had to hazard a guess, it is most likely the case that this story of “arriving with Europeans” refers to the “Saro” people (Sierra Leoneans). They were actually returnees (formerly enslaved), and they came from different ethnic communities in Nigeria.

Many southern Nigeria communities have one story or another that refers to this returnee migration. I don’t know how it came to be associated with Ijaw, especially since there was known tension between Ijaw and some Saro returnees.

Long story short, it seems that people now use returnee migration to spite Ijaw people for whatever reason. At least, this is my interpretation. Perhaps someone who knows better might be able to clarify things or correct me where I may be mistaken.

Thanks again for another great submission. I know of the Saros and Krios though and that was the confusing thing about it. I was wondering how Ijo that had oral traditions of settling in the Nigerdelta now come with Europeans in ships , like how?

I have an unsubstantiated guess, but of course since it’s unsubstantiated, it means nothing.

But, based off some of the oral traditions I know, some Saro were known to have come upstream in smaller boats of their own in order to get to some of the more isolated communities in the Lower Niger. I know many of them also ended up just settling in the SS if they could not either pinpoint their communities, remember or trace back how they were captured.

If I remember correctly, there was a relatively large Saro community in Delta state that had such a story and one also in the border of Abia and Rivers.

So the means of transportation that was used was very “characteristically Ijaw”. Of course, this is a very simple unsubstantiated guess, so take it with a large grain of salt.

ChinenyeN:
I have an unsubstantiated guess, but of course since it’s unsubstantiated, it means nothing.

But, based off some of the oral traditions I know, some Saro were known to have come upstream in smaller boats of their own in order to get to some of the more isolated communities in the Lower Niger. I know many of them also ended up just settling in the SS if they could not either pinpoint their communities, remember or trace back how they were captured.

If I remember correctly, there was a relatively large Saro community in Delta state that had such a story and one also in the border of Abia and Rivers.

So the means of transportation that was used was very “characteristically Ijaw”. Of course, this is a very simple unsubstantiated guess, so take it with a large grain of salt.

My Dad tells me of his Grandfather being related to the Saro in Rivers State. There's a possibility of much of the Saro intermingling with Ijaw clans though as well as other Riverine people. So this may actually be a reason why people say they're descendants of this boat people.

Sinistami:
My Dad tells me of his Grandfather being related to the Saro in Rivers State. There's a possibility of much of the Saro intermingling with Ijaw clans though as well as other Riverine people. So this may actually be a reason why people say they're descendants of this boat people.

Yes, definitely. I know a few people from various places throughout the Lower Niger who can confirm that at least one of their grandparents were Saro. I also wouldn’t be surprised if there were a bit of higher concentration of Saro in the riverine parts of the Lower Niger. Compared to most other communities in Southern Nigeria (aside from Lagos), the Ijaw had well-known controversial relationship with the Saro as far as politics and governance.

We don’t hear anything about it now perhaps because the Saro in the area have been effectively absorbed into the local communities that they resettled in.

Ijaw language has great similarities with twi people of asante Ghana, so I might not doubt, since they usually migrate. Migrating through from Ghana, through Benin republic to Niger Delta is same sea route, not hard.....


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MICHASHERKOSTO:
Ijaw language has great similarities with twi people of
Asante Ghana, so I might not doubt, since they usually migrate. Migrating through from Ghana, through Benin republic to Niger Delta is same sea route, not hard.....


Follow @michasherkosto on IG

Yup!

The Ijaws and Ogoni people are definitely majorly fishermen migrants from Ghana.

The head of the Ogoni Traditional Council in Rivers State confirmed bluntly 3 or 4 years ago in a Saturday Punch interview that
Ogoni is a fusion of people from
Ghana and Ibibioland. He said
Ogoni language shares strong
similarities with languages
spoken in Ghana!

Sinistami:


Thanks again for another great submission. I know of the Saros and Krios though and that was the confusing thing about it. I was wondering how Ijo that had oral traditions of settling in the Nigerdelta now come with Europeans in ships, like how?

First off, it is the Kru men or people of Liberia that worked on European ships across West Africa. During the
Akassa raid in the late 1800s, a lot of white men and Krus were
captured, killed, and canibalized
by the Ijaws as contained in the history books.


A lot of the Saros were liberated Yoruba returnees who settled in
Yorubaland, on mainly Lagos
Island and Abeokuta in the 1800s. Some of them bought captured slave ships in the 1800s from the
British in Sierra Leone, and converted them into merchant ships which sailed up the River Niger from the Niger Delta region buying commodities and exporting to West Africa and Europe.
These men became very wealthy and are known in the history books as the "African Merchant Princes."
These rich men even sent their
children to school in top British universities before 1900.

Saros who were formerly slaves
of Efik and Ibo origins settled in
Calabar.


Hope this helps.

ChinenyeN:
There are black Africans who did arrive with Europeans in the 19th century, but they were not Ijaw. As in, “Ijaw”, as an ethnic community, did not come to Nigeria as European indentured servants. Ijaw oral traditions suggest that they were just as established in Nigeria as other groups by the time Europeans arrived, and this can be corroborated with the oral traditions of other groups.

If I had to hazard a guess, it is most likely the case that this story of “arriving with Europeans” refers to the “Saro” people (Sierra Leoneans). They were actually returnees (formerly enslaved), and they came from different ethnic communities in Nigeria.

Many southern Nigeria communities have one story or another that refers to this returnee migration. I don’t know how it came to be associated with Ijaw, especially since there was known tension between Ijaw and some Saro returnees.

Long story short, it seems that people now use returnee migration to spite Ijaw people for whatever reason. At least, this is my interpretation. Perhaps someone who knows better might be able to clarify things or correct me where I may be mistaken.

when the colonial white men came into Nigeria, the first people they meet with are the Ijaws in present day Facrados, in Delta State, show how come?

ChinenyeN:


Yes, definitely. I know a few people from various places throughout the Lower Niger who can confirm that at least one of their grandparents were Saro. I also wouldn’t be surprised if there were a bit of higher concentration of Saro in the riverine parts of the Lower Niger. Compared to most other communities in Southern Nigeria (aside from Lagos), the Ijaw had well-known controversial relationship with the Saro as far as politics and governance.

We don’t hear anything about it now perhaps because the Saro in the area have been effectively absorbed into the local communities that they resettled in.

if I may ask, who are the Saro'

Jetro033:
if I may ask, who are the Saro'

So when the British abolished the slave trade, there were still ships and slaves that were in transit. Some of them were resettled in Sierra Leone. They came back to Nigeria mostly in hopes of making it back to the communities they were stolen or sold from. Many couldn’t completely trace themselves back and they ended up settling in different pockets/areas in the southwest, southeast and south south Nigeria as close as they could find for their former communities. Those are the Saro.

They effectively integrated into the local communities that they settled around/beside.

ChinenyeN:


So when the British abolished the slave trade, there were still ships and slaves that were in transit. Some of them were resettled in Sierra Leone. They came back to Nigeria mostly in hopes of making it back to the communities they were stolen or sold from. Many couldn’t completely trace themselves back and they ended up settling in different pockets/areas in the southwest, southeast and south south Nigeria as close as they could find for their former communities. Those are the Saro.

They effectively integrated into the local communities that they settled around/beside.

Some were also returning free slaves or former slaves.
For instance, in Lagos, many Saros were from Brazil.. You could tell from their surnames. Like Dacosta, Dasilva.

While as you said some from Sierra Leone like the Coles.
Fela's grandparents were Saros from Sierra Leone I believe who returned to Abeokuta.

Konquest:

Yup!

The Ijaws and Ogoni people are definitely majorly fishermen migrants from Ghana.

The head of the Ogoni Traditional Council in Rivers State confirmed bluntly 3 or 4 years ago in a Saturday Punch interview that
Ogoni is a fusion of people from
Ghana and Ibibioland. He said
Ogoni language shares strong
similarities with languages
spoken in Ghana!

From the little study I did, I would say, the Ibibio, Efik, to Annang, ibeno, oro, obolo, andoni till Ogbia and Kugbo in Bayelsa state is a language cluster and maybe in some area a continuum.

I believe that Ogoni migration would rather come east from the Cameroons based on the direction rather than west.

Because of the length of their geographic spread and dispersal, the "purity" of the continuum would definitely be altered by the infusion of one culture or the other, while some are even extinct, cutting off the chain at some point in the continuum.
Ochichi for instance is functionally extinct (only spoken by one or two elders, they have merged with the Etches, an Igbo speaking group in Rivers state), therefore interupting the continuum at some point.

Also, because of years of migration, seperation by geographic elements (river mountains), drawing the map of that continuum physically might be hard but lingustically, one can see that it is there.