http://www.igbolandforum.com/index.php?topic=635.0

http://beegeagle./2010/05/01/indigenous-yoruba-and-igala-of-delta-northaniomaland/

Indigenous Yoruba and Igala of Delta North(Aniomaland)
Posted on May 1, 2010 by beegeagle
A Yoruba enclave in the heart of Igboland •
Story of Ugbodu, others in Delta State

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
Sunday, 24 October 2010
Written by Banji Aluko

Deep in the heart of the Igbo-speaking people in Aniocha North Local Government Area of Delta State are Ugbodu and three other communities where Oluku mi, a derivative of Yoruba language, is the language of the people. BANJI ALUKO, who visited the communities, examines how close Oluku mi actually is to the Yoruba language and traces how the people came about the language.

HELLO, this writer said, while knocking at the door, and a young lady, emerging from the building, replied, ta ni yen? When the writer heard the reply, he taught it was a mere coincidence or that his ears were deceiving him. Of course, he had every reason to be surprised since he was not anywhere near the Yoruba enclave where such a reply can only be anticipated. After all, he was more than 100 kilometres away from the nearest Yoruba community; he was in Ugbodu, a town in Aniocha North Local government Area of Delta State.

While trying to decipher why the lady gave such a reply, what further followed put the writer in a more confused position. A girl of about five appeared and said, “mo fe ra biscuit.” Perhaps, the people are part of the Yoruba community living in the town, the writer guessed as he tried to find out from the lady.

“Are you a Yoruba woman; what is the meaning of ta ni yen?” The writer asked the questions at once. Reluctantly, she answered, “I am not Yoruba o, I am just speaking my language.” Apparently, she was not unaware of the similarity between her language and Yoruba language. The lady refused to entertain any further question about her language and asked him to go to the king’s palace or to the elders if he wanted to know more about the language.

At the palace, the elders still would not talk about the similarity between their language and Yoruba. They asked the writer to wait for the arrival of the king, who they said can only speak on the people, their language and their history.

The period of waiting for the king afforded one time to listen to the conversation and the discovery was nonetheless remarkable. Following closely the conversation between some elderly men and with a deep knowledge of Yoruba, one could establish a nexus between their speech and actions. In fact, some words and expressions could be understood.

Following their conversation with rapt attention, expressions such as Gbemu wa—bring palm wine, me wa nani—I didn’t come yesterday, me ri e—I didn’t see you, mu beer oka wa—bring one beer etc could be heard, albeit with an intonation slightly different from that of the Yorubas.

Seeing the desire of this writer to follow their talk, one man finally volunteered to explain the similarity between their language and Yoruba. “I believe you are a Yoruba man,” he said. He continued: “We are Oluku mi speakers but we speak a language that is very similar to Yoruba.” This he demonstrated by pointing out some words and expressions in their language (Oluku mi) which denote the same meanings as Yoruba.

He gave some examples such as ita—pepper, ogede lila—plantain, ogede keke—banana; ku wu se—what are you doing; ule house; osa – market; oma—child; o dowuo—see you tomorrow, e bo—welcome. After explaining some similarities between the languages, he still refused to talk about how the people of Ugbodu, in the middle of other Igbo speaking neighbours, came about Oluku mi. Like others, he maintained that only the traditional ruler of the town can speak about how Oluku mi became their language.

But after waiting endlessly for the king, his brother, Prince Adebowale Ochei, who later arrived the scene, volunteered to speak on behalf of the king, H.R.M. Ayo Isinyemeze, the Oloza (Obi) of Ugbodu. According to him, history gave it that the Ugbodu Oluku mi speaking people migrated from Owo/Akure axis in the present Ondo State between 9th and 11th century AD to settle down in Benin during the reign of King Ogiso of Benin.

He continued: “At this period in the history of the Benin Kingdom, the most neglected of the wife of the Ogiso gave birth to the heir apparent to the throne. After the woman gave birth to the child, a male, the nobles consulted the oracle and said that the oracle told them that the child should be killed for peace to reign in Benin Kingdom. At the end, the child was not killed as it was said that the child was too handsome to be killed, so a fowl was killed in his place.”

According to Ochei, this was the reason the Ugbodu people left Benin. “They felt that if a crown prince could be ordered for execution just like that, they could do worse things to strangers in their midst. As a result, they left Benin and came to Ewohimi, an Ishan speaking community in Edo State. Due to intra-tribal wars, they later left the place to settle down here in Ugbodu which is a shortened form of Ugbodumila, which means bush saved me in English Language.”

He further pointed out differences between Oluku mi and Yoruba. He said one notable difference is the changing of letter “j” in Yoruba words to “s” in Oluku mi as seen in words like oloja or oja which are rendered as olosa or osa and joko as soko.

With the movement of the people was the consequent change in their language as shown in their names. According to records compiled by Prince Humphrey Ojeabu Ochei, the immediate Olihen of Ugbodu, the first six Olozas bore Yoruba names namely Adeola, Aderemi, Ariyo, Odofin, Adetunji and Oyetunde. These early kings bore typical Yoruba names years and decades after the establishment of the Ugbodu Kingdom.

As the people gradually lost contact with their kinsmen back home, they began to gravitate towards the Benin and Edo communities. The resulting acculturative process gradually led to the adoption of Edo names among the people. Hence names such as Ogbomon, Ozolua, Izebuwa, Ogbelaka, Izedonwen, Osakpolor, Esigie Igbinadolor, Osaloua, Osamewamen and Ebor emerged as Olozas.

Since Ugbodu is surrounded by the Igbo-speaking Aniomas, it did not take much time before the Igbo Language started to interfere greatly on the people’s language. Accordingly, Igbo influence steadily and progressively made what has now become permanent inroad and considerable impact on the socio-cultural life as well as linguistic orientation of the Ugbodu people. With this, the Edo influence began to wane, resulting in the adoption of Igbo names in preference to Edo names. Thus from the middle of the 19th century, the general shift was from Edo to Igbo names. This can be seen in the names of Olozas, who ruled between the middle of the 19th century and late 20th century such as Dike, Ochei, Ezenweani and Isinyemeze.

Investigations conducted revealed that Ugbodu is not the only community where Oluku mi is spoken in Aniocha North Local Government as the language is also spoken in Ukwu-Nzu (Eko Efun), Ubulubu and Ogodo.

At Ukwu-Nzu, only few kilometres away from Ugbodu, the language is not also different. Although, the people are less emphatic about their history, nonetheless, the similarity between their language and Yoruba is evident in their names and greetings. “Oju e ma won ke,” meaning your face is scarce in Yoruba, was what a man said to his friend he accosted on the road. When Sunday Tribune approached the man, who gave his name as Ayo Oke, he shed light on his language and provided more examples between Oluku mi and Yoruba Language.

He said that “instead of saying e kaabo, we say e bo, meaning welcome and wa ni we yi, meaning come here;” He also gave example of words which virtually have the same meanings as the Yoruba language. Some of these include obe—stew; oni—today; ola—tomorrow; otunla—next tomorrow etc.

Another elder in the town, who spoke with Sunday Tribune, said that the name of Ukwu-Nzu before the Igbo Language “infiltrated” their language was Eko Efun (efun means chalk in Yoruba Language). He also attributed the efun in the name of their town to the rich prescence of white chalk in the town which he said the community was richly blessed with.

Presently, the biggest challenge for the people of Ugbodu and other Oluku mi-speaking communities is how to protect their language and culture in general. According to a native of Ugbodu, “the elders are more connected to the original Olukumi language than the youth. In fact, we have lost the real Oluku mi and what we have now is an Oluku mi that has been greatly altered by Igbo language. Most of the people who can really speak the language right now are the elders. Ordinarily, the real Oluku mi is like the Yoruba that is spoken in Owo in Ondo State. Someone from that place is expected to understand the language perfectly but right now someone from Owo might not be able to understand more than 50 per cent of our language. This language may die if care is not taken,” he said.

Another factor that also contributed to the decline of Olukumi, according to findings, is that there was a time in the past when an understanding of the Edo or Igbo language, was considered as a status symbol. According to an elder in the town, “An Oluku mi who spoke the two languages then was considered superior to others because it meant that he had travelled wide. This was the inferiority complex our people unwittingly created for themselves which we are trying to correct now.”

In protecting their language which is gradually being threatened, a revival process has been started. Part of this is that some of them now choose to give their children Oluku mi names and to sing and say prayers in Oluku mi. In some cases, some radical reformers and revivalists changed the names given to them by their parents from Igbo to Olukumi. The climax of the restoration process of their linguistic ethos and identity was the christening of the incumbent Oloza with an Olukumi name, Ayo.

Reacting to efforts aimed at protecting Oluku mi, Prince Adebowale said, “I am an Oluku mi man and I am proud of my language. I am not happy that Igbo language is interfering with our language. We are trying our best to correct the situation and part of that is what my brother (the Oloza) is doing by organising an Oluku mi reciting competition. We want to know the people who can speak the real Oluku mi without mixing it with Igbo or English.” As laudable as the task of protecting Oluku mi by the people of Ugbodu(mila) is, only time will tell how far they can go.

And Effiong is Jukun. Mchew

I have always had deep suspicion about the onitsha ado people. Their behaviours and cultures are very different from other igbos.
Like the Yorubas, they hate the rest of us.
Unlike igbos, you don't see them in business. They are mostly in white collar work like Yoruba.
Even zik's behaviour before during and after the war didn't sound like he had the interest of umu-igbo at heart.
Onitsha indigenes call others "nwa onye igbo". Meaning child of igbos. Onitsha people rarely identify with other igbos.
You won't find a shop in any of the major markets in onitsha owned by an onitsha indigene. Infact, they have been accused several times of setting fire to the markets. They treat other igbos in Onitsha as immigrants.
They are still fighting up till today with neighbouring Obosi and Nkpor over land ownership. They are accused of invading from across the river niger and taking over Obosi land, renaming it onitsha ado and are now reselling the plots back to igbos at exorbitant prices.
Their women are so promiscuous like the Yoruba ones.
Like the Yorubas, they practice incest and bury their dead chiefs with other humans.
They chased away igbos from onitsha when the federal troops were advancing and didn't join the igbo refugees nor partake in the war effort. Instead, they provided food, shelter and assistance to the Nigerian invading forces. Ifeajuna, an onitsha indigene, conived with banjo, a Yoruba backstabber, to betray the war effort in the west.
Maybe they are Yoruba afterall.

.

Logic Mind: I have always had deep suspicion about the onitsha ado people. Their behaviours and cultures are very different from other igbos.
Like the Yorubas, they hate the rest of us.
Unlike igbos, you don't see them in business. They are mostly in white collar work like Yoruba.
Even zik's behaviour before during and after the war didn't sound like he had the interest of umu-igbo at heart.
Onitsha indigenes call others "nwa onye igbo". Meaning child of igbos. Onitsha people rarely identify with other igbos.
You won't find a shop in any of the major markets in onitsha owned by an onitsha indigene. Infact, they have been accused several times of setting fire to the markets. They treat other igbos in Onitsha as immigrants.
They are still fighting up till today with neighbouring Obosi and Nkpor over land ownership. They are accused of invading from across the river niger and taking over Obosi land, renaming it onitsha ado and are now reselling the plots back to igbos at exorbitant prices.
Their women are so promiscuous like the Yoruba ones.
Like the Yorubas, they practice incest and bury their dead chiefs with other humans.
They chased away igbos from onitsha when the federal troops were advancing and didn't join the igbo refugees nor partake in the war effort. Instead, they provided food, shelter and assistance to the Nigerian invading forces. Ifeajuna, an onitsha indigene, conived with banjo, a Yoruba backstabber, to betray the war effort in the west.
Maybe they are Yoruba afterall.

I won't even bother addressing all the other insult and lie you just descended to your fellow Igbo. This is just sad!!! Taa Tufiakwa

I'll just address the bolded: The Onitsha is nothing like what you speak. There isn’t any Onitsha on NL so they do not have the access to defend themselves against the accusation brought upon them on NL but I used to live in their community and I can attest, they do not hate other Igbo. They are very proud and I literally mean too proud of their Igbo identity, more proud than any Igbo group I’ve seen in my life, they are very ego-centric about it even, stay in ontisha for a week or two and you'll see that. Any Onitsha denying being Igbo is pretty much in a low percent, very low. Even Phillip Emegawali did not deny being Igbo neither did he say Onitsha are Yoruba (the title is very misleading, try reading the article first), he said I'm Yoruba by birth (gave definition of what he meant: Yoruba by birth because he was born in SW) and Igbo by heritage thus I ask you did he deny being Igbo? He followed the political term of today’s heritage. We have Nigerians that call themselves Nigerian-American, British-Nigerian, Canadian-Nigerian, etc. When asked what they meant they’ll reply I’m American, British, Canadian, etc. by birth but Nigerian by heritage. Do those kids deny being Nigerian of whatever ethnicity? I’ve seen Igbo kids that will tell you I’m Igbo-American and when asked they say my parents are Igbo thus I’m Igbo by heritage but I was born and raised in America therefore I’m American.

Have you ever been to Phillip Emegwali website before? He speaks of Igbo history, Igbo culture, Igbo descent, etc. a lot and the man is an Ex-Biafra solider (a child then so he was a cook). Una should try researching before jumping to conclusion. Also, try to travel and live within the group, the way umu ndi-Igbo believe the lie and divide and conquer tactics used on them is starting to scare me.

Yeske!:
.

why did they hide your post?

I could have sworn you wrote something before.

alj_harem:

i think that is a bad anology

if u talk of england, a least they acknolege they are english people but with german or what ever linage

ema said he is yoruba and acknologe his igbo linage

born and breed in akure

Dude STFU

If you do not understand what the man say, then shut up

Stop displaying your ignorance.

And a lot of Yoruba towns and vilages are added igbo to their names,why?

One_Naira:

I won't even bother addressing all the other insult and lie you just descended to your fellow Igbo. This is just sad!!! Taa Tufiakwa

I'll just address the bolded: The Onitsha is nothing like what you speak. There isn’t any Onitsha on NL so they do not have the access to defend themselves against the accusation brought upon them on NL but I used to live in their community and I can attest, they do not hate other Igbo. They are very proud and I literally mean too proud of their Igbo identity, more proud than any Igbo group I’ve seen in my life, they are very ego-centric about it even, stay in ontisha for a week or two and you'll see that. Any Onitsha denying being Igbo is pretty much in a low percent, very low. Even Phillip Emegawali did not deny being Igbo neither did he say Onitsha are Yoruba (the title is very misleading, try reading the article first), he said I'm Yoruba by birth (gave definition of what he meant: Yoruba by birth because he was born in SW) and Igbo by heritage thus I ask you did he deny being Igbo? He followed the political term of today’s heritage. We have Nigerians that call themselves Nigerian-American, British-Nigerian, Canadian-Nigerian, etc. When asked what they meant they’ll reply I’m American, British, Canadian, etc. by birth but Nigerian by heritage. Do those kids deny being Nigerian of whatever ethnicity? I’ve seen Igbo kids that will tell you I’m Igbo-American and when asked they say my parents are Igbo thus I’m Igbo by heritage but I was born and raised in America therefore I’m American.

Have you ever been to Phillip Emegwali website before? He speaks of Igbo history, Igbo culture, Igbo descent, etc. a lot and the man is an Ex-Biafra solider (a child then so he was a cook). Una should try researching before jumping to conclusion. Also, try to travel and live within the group, the way umu ndi-Igbo believe the lie and divide and conquer tactics used on them is starting to scare me.

I agree with everything you said.
It is just that I have a different experience with Onitsha people. I used to date an onitsha girl and I won't even go into what her family (and mine) said about each other. The hatred was palpable. That was when I decided to do research and ask questions and things started coming up. Let us not hide our heads in the sand because we all speak igbo language. I gave specific examples which you haven't denied. I will list them.

1. No Onitsha indigene lives in fegge but they lease all fegge lands.
2. No onitsha indigene has a shop in main market nor head bridge.
3. Onitsha and Obosi still fight over land. (If you buy a plot in Onitsha, upper, expect to pay twice)
4. Onitsha and Nkpor still fight over land. (If you buy a plot in Onitsha, Awada side, etc expect to pay twice)

I do not deny that onitsha people fought in the biafran army. I mentioned ifeajuna who was from onitsha. However, tales from people that were actually in the war showed that Onitsha acts and sympathies during the way lay with Nigeria. I tend to believe those first hand tales, especially with things happening in Onitsha than naive unity propaganda.

Like you, I want all igbos to unite and if I didn't ask around I would never have realised the things that are brushed under the carpet. Please do a little research. I will give you a starting point: Ask MASSOB how many Onitsha indigenes are their members?

the first time i read those nonsense from Emeagwali, i laughed so hard because many people tear him apart even his onitsha brothers called him fool. read it from his website and see.

pls brother's stop debating a no issue,

do you know how many onicha clan we have in igboland? example "onicha mili, onicha olona, onicha ngwa, onicha uboma and a whole lot of others"
they corrupt the real writing of "ONICHA" which have meaning, into " ONITSHA" which has no meaning in what ever language.

i was born brought up in enu-onitsha ofcourse am more onitsha than emeagwali. i know a lot of their history than the efuluefu man.

so many people don't ask question's b/4 speaking in the public,
we should have ask "why is onitsha,obosi and atani culturaly similar to delta igbo brother's"
because they are all returnee from benin empire after the great benin war? they are all igbo's who migrated to benin empire,
and when war broke they fought the war and many returned but not to their real father land but to other fertile lands along delta region.

from Ebonyi,enugu,anambara,imo and abia there are onicha clan all over there with real igbo culture.

Logic Mind:

I agree with everything you said.
It is just that I have a different experience with Onitsha people. I used to date an onitsha girl and I won't even go into what her family (and mine) said about each other. The hatred was palpable. That was when I decided to do research and ask questions and things started coming up. Let us not hide our heads in the sand because we all speak igbo language. I gave specific examples which you haven't denied. I will list them.

1. No Onitsha indigene lives in fegge but they lease all fegge lands.
2. No onitsha indigene has a shop in main market nor head bridge.
3. Onitsha and Obosi still fight over land. (If you buy a plot in Onitsha, upper, expect to pay twice)
4. Onitsha and Nkpor still fight over land. (If you buy a plot in Onitsha, Awada side, etc expect to pay twice)

I do not deny that onitsha people fought in the biafran army. I mentioned ifeajuna who was from onitsha. However, tales from people that were actually in the war showed that Onitsha acts and sympathies during the way lay with Nigeria. I tend to believe those first hand tales, especially with things happening in Onitsha than naive unity propaganda.

Like you, I want all igbos to unite and if I didn't ask around I would never have realised the things that are brushed under the carpet. Please do a little research. I will give you a starting point: Ask MASSOB how many Onitsha indigenes are their members?

I did not address your other accusation because I'm not one of them, neither can I speak on what is going on within their community and their neighbors. I do not have the inside story so I cannot say in confidence. I felt a high need to correct you against one of your accusation that I’m confident enough to speak against (delta Igbo and Onitsha indigenous are pretty much in the same shoe. We both get accused of denying our Igbo heritage and hating Igbo people without anyone bothering to check if such claim is true or not). Such statement isn't true for those of us that’ve seen and lived with them for a while thus it is something I can confidently address, everything else, only an Onitsha person can speak on their behalf.

One more thing, I feel you are trying to make the Onitsha the villain and not bothering to give them a fighting chance. You are basing all your accusation on a hearsay plus you jumped into conclusion without even bothering to get Onitsha indigenous side of the story thus the way we belittle our own brother is starting to scare me sha. We'll damage ourselves before we can able to fix ourselves. I suppose if an Ezza provides me a story behind the Ezza-Ezillo disagreement, I should jump into the conclusion it is Ezillo without bothering to get Ezillo's version of the story. SMH

Last thing: They allowed and even arranged a Massob's march in their community once no be so? If they were against Massob or ndi-igbo as you accuse them wouldn't they have chased them out of their street?

Stop believing hearsay, forget that one experience you had from that one family and go live within their community for just 3 weeks highest, you’ll understand them a lot more and your opinion of them would change dramatically if you live within their community in just those three weeks. Na my own.

One_Naira:


I did not address your other accusation because I'm not one of them, neither can I speak on what is going on within their community and their neighbors. I do not have the inside story so I cannot say in confidence. I felt a high need to correct you against one of your accusation that I’m confident enough to speak against (delta Igbo and Onitsha indigenous are pretty much in the same shoe. We both get accused of denying our Igbo heritage and hate Igbo people without anyone bothering to check if such claim is true or not). Such statement isn't true for those of us what’ve seen and lived with them for a while thus it is something I can confidently address, everything else, only an Onitsha person can speak on their behalf.

One more thing, I feel you are trying to make the Onitsha the villain and not bothering to give them a fighting chance. You are basing all your accusation on a hearsay plus you jumped into conclusion without even bothering to get Onitsha indigenous side of the story thus the way we belittle our own brother is starting to scare me sha. We'll damage ourselves before we can able to fix ourselves. I suppose if an Ezza provides me a story behind the Ezza-Ezillo disagreement, I should jump into the conclusion it is Ezillo without bothering to get Ezillo's version of the story. SMH

Last thing: They allowed and even arranged a Massob's match in their community once no be so? If they were against Massob or ndi-igbo as you accuse them wouldn't they have chased them out of their street?

Stop believing hearsay, forget that one experience you had from that one family and go live within their community for just 3 weeks highest, you’ll understand them a lot more and your opinion of them would change dramatically if you live within their community in just those three weeks. Na my own.

My brother thank you for a round and complete analysis of the truth.
I had thought that with more education and analytical thinking, our people would get past these narrow highly subjective conclusions about our reality.
Let me tell you, my town Nnewi has been in the same land disputes with ALL our neigbors -Awka etiti, ukpor, utu, Oraifite, Nnobi and even Ichi and Ojoto.
The story is usually the same when you have a big urbanising town enchroaching into surrounding towns. It is the same in ALL PART OF NIGERIA.
We also discriminate inside when marriage issues are concerned, based on old tales of who did what to who. Even INSIDE Nnewi town, there are two villages that avoid inter marriage due to the same old tales. None of these ever changes the fact that we are all Igbo, living inside Igboland.
I don't even want to go into some fallacious claims about Onitsha and MASSOB, and about Onithsa indigenes and business ownership in Onitsha.
I simply marvel that anyone would even dare to make such intractable claims.
Well, we are all entitled to our opinions. All the rest of us can ever do is to correct as much disinformation as possible.

Onitsha (town and people) is at the heart beat of Igboland.

OK. Maybe I'm wrong. Time will tell.
Igbos might try to present a united front in nairaland but the truth is that there are very deep and raw divisions amongs us and until we address those, all these false indignations at hearing stuff will not get us anywhere.
Onlytruth, the best thing to do to fallacy is to disprove it which you haven't.

One_Naira, I lived in Onitsha, Went to school with Onitsha people, Had a shop in Onitsha, dated an Onitsha girl, Have gone to and slept in ogbe a lot of times. Helped two relations buy plots in Onitsha. I know Onitsha. We spoke to each other and we knew each other.
If you knew odoakpu, in fact from odoakpu upwards is considered as obosi town. Our seniors used to tell us that the Ede of Obosi used to live in odoakpu and that was his hometown before Onitsha people used their education and their relatioship with the clueless colonialists to claim those lands as theirs.

Please people ask around and prove me wrong. I want to be wrong on this issue. Really.

One_Naira:

I won't even bother addressing all the other insult and lie you just descended to your fellow Igbo. This is just sad!!! Taa Tufiakwa

I'll just address the bolded: The Onitsha is nothing like what you speak. There isn’t any Onitsha on NL so they do not have the access to defend themselves against the accusation brought upon them on NL but I used to live in their community and I can attest, they do not hate other Igbo. They are very proud and I literally mean too proud of their Igbo identity, more proud than any Igbo group I’ve seen in my life, they are very ego-centric about it even, stay in ontisha for a week or two and you'll see that. Any Onitsha denying being Igbo is pretty much in a low percent, very low. Even Phillip Emegawali did not deny being Igbo neither did he say Onitsha are Yoruba (the title is very misleading, try reading the article first), he said I'm Yoruba by birth (gave definition of what he meant: Yoruba by birth because he was born in SW) and Igbo by heritage thus I ask you did he deny being Igbo? He followed the political term of today’s heritage. We have Nigerians that call themselves Nigerian-American, British-Nigerian, Canadian-Nigerian, etc. When asked what they meant they’ll reply I’m American, British, Canadian, etc. by birth but Nigerian by heritage. Do those kids deny being Nigerian of whatever ethnicity? I’ve seen Igbo kids that will tell you I’m Igbo-American and when asked they say my parents are Igbo thus I’m Igbo by heritage but I was born and raised in America therefore I’m American.

Have you ever been to Phillip Emegwali website before? He speaks of Igbo history, Igbo culture, Igbo descent, etc. a lot and the man is an Ex-Biafra solider (a child then so he was a cook). Una should try researching before jumping to conclusion. Also, try to travel and live within the group, the way umu ndi-Igbo believe the lie and divide and conquer tactics used on them is starting to scare me.

You have this sick tendency of coming out with really wacky tales.
Where doth ye get your crazy schemes from ladette
Lol!

CHAI! See what computer and over reading has turned my brother to. but wait ohh! I tink say this guy na scienst, which time he com join history. Very soon he go say ashanti's are 4rm kaduna or kano.

Logic Mind: OK. Maybe I'm wrong. Time will tell.
Igbos might try to present a united front in nairaland but the truth is that there are very deep and raw divisions amongs us and until we address those, all these false indignations at hearing stuff will not get us anywhere.
Onlytruth, the best thing to do to fallacy is to disprove it which you haven't.

One_Naira, I lived in Onitsha, Went to school with Onitsha people, Had a shop in Onitsha, dated an Onitsha girl, Have gone to and slept in ogbe a lot of times. Helped two relations buy plots in Onitsha. I know Onitsha. We spoke to each other and we knew each other.
If you knew odoakpu, in fact from odoakpu upwards is considered as obosi town. Our seniors used to tell us that the Ede of Obosi used to live in odoakpu and that was his hometown before Onitsha people used their education and their relatioship with the clueless colonialists to claim those lands as theirs.

Please people ask around and prove me wrong. I want to be wrong on this issue. Really.

You lived, schooled and dated in Ontisha but yet you couldn't muster a chance to ask an Ontisha their version of the story? I do not think I need anyone to inform me there is a lie among the midst.

As Onlytruth stated land dispute is common in every Nigerian group. Even in my community we have land dispute with our neighbors, but not once has anyone used those dispute as claim of hatred towards Igbo or other groups. No dude, you do not want to be wrong on this issue. You've already made up your mind and no amount of words and advice given to you will change that.

Carry on with your hatred towards Onitsha.

Ufeolorun:
You have this sick tendency of coming out with really wacky tales.
Where doth ye get your crazy schemes from ladette
Lol!

This concern Yoruba how? E

Abeg waka commot, una always drag una big head into sh1t that no concern una but when sh1t blows, una will be the first to start crying and claiming Igbo started it.

See door, go through it.

Onlytruth:

My brother thank you for a round and complete analysis of the truth.
I had thought that with more education and analytical thinking, our people would get past these narrow highly subjective conclusions about our reality.
Let me tell you, my town Nnewi has been in the same land disputes with ALL our neigbors -Awka etiti, ukpor, utu, Oraifite, Nnobi and even Ichi and Ojoto.
The story is usually the same when you have a big urbanising town enchroaching into surrounding towns. It is the same in ALL PART OF NIGERIA.
We also discriminate inside when marriage issues are concerned, based on old tales of who did what to who. Even INSIDE Nnewi town, there are two villages that avoid inter marriage due to the same old tales. None of these ever changes the fact that we are all Igbo, living inside Igboland.
I don't even want to go into some fallacious claims about Onitsha and MASSOB, and about Onithsa indigenes and business ownership in Onitsha.
I simply marvel that anyone would even dare to make such intractable claims.
Well, we are all entitled to our opinions. All the rest of us can ever do is to correct as much disinformation as possible.

Onitsha (town and people) is at the heart beat of Igboland.

GBAM!!!!!

One_Naira:

This concern Yoruba how? E

Abeg waka commot, una always drag una big head into sh1t that no concern una but when sh1t blows, una will be the first to start crying and claiming Igbo started it.

See door, go through it.

No seriously,I don't engage in those tribal-fest of double/triple ids but you as one of the veterans of the the double/triple ids tribal-fest,I admire the ways you pull stories out of the tin air.

One_Naira:

You lived, schooled and dated in Ontisha but yet you couldn't muster a chance to ask an Ontisha their version of the story? I do not think I need anyone to inform me there is a lie among the midst.

As Onlytruth stated land dispute is common in every Nigerian group. Even in my community we have land dispute with our neighbors, but not once has anyone used those dispute as claim of hatred towards Igbo or other groups. No dude, you do not want to be wrong on this issue. You've already made up your mind and no amount of words and advice given to you will change that.

Carry on with your hatred towards Onitsha.

I did bros, I did. They all claim to be Igbo. Some say they are Igala but just a minority. When I deal with them I have no doubt they are Igbo. But, and this is a big but, they don't do things with the rest of us as per the examples I gave. Why?
I don't hate them. I'm just saying what I heard and saw and only wish to be enlightened further.
My girl's my called me "nwa onye igbo" in my face FFS. How do you want me to interprete that?

The problem with us Igbos is that we don't want to know our history. We just condemn anything we don't like and pretend it doesn't exist instead of calling it out and tackling it head front. We hope that if we ignore it, it will go away. Well, it doesn't. Our problems remain until we face them.

I have asked questions of/from both sides. Have you?

WE ARE ALL ONE IN THIS AFRICA...BY DNA TRACE..OK PHILIP IS RIGHT..BUT HE SHOULD WAKE UP ..I BEG..THAT WAS THEN THIS IS NOW...HE SHOULD STOP CLAIMING..YORUBA...O..HE BE AN IGBO..OK..WEL I LIKE PEOLE LIKE HIM..THAT SPEAKS THE TRUTH....

Logic Mind:

I did bros, I did. They all claim to be Igbo. Some say they are Igala but just a minority. When I deal with them I have no doubt they are Igbo. But, and this is a big but, they don't do things with the rest of us as per the examples I gave. Why?
I don't hate them. I'm just saying what I heard and saw and only wish to be enlightened further.
My girl's my called me "nwa onye igbo" in my face FFS. How do you want me to interprete that?

The problem with us Igbos is that we don't want to know our history. We just condemn anything we don't like and pretend it doesn't exist instead of calling it out and tackling it head front. We hope that if we ignore it, it will go away. Well, it doesn't. Our problems remain until we face them.

I have asked questions of/from both sides. Have you?

My brother, I also grew up in Onitsha and spent an overwhelming majority of my life so far in Onitsha. That town is like my second home.
In fact I can call myself an Onitsha boy, 'cos I know that town like the back of my hand. The indigenes of Onitsha are perhaps the most accomodating Igbo in Igboland. Those people are simply awesome!
They carry on with their customs, even in the midst of what others may call a stampede of their land. Enu Onicha has almost become sucked into the main market, odo akpu and ochanja markets, yet, on a day when they would do their traditional festivities, they still do it with grace and cheer.

Nwanne, ndi Onicha di nma o. I won't say more than that.

All the other things you raised, like the name calling, happen in all parts of Igboland. My Nnewi neigborly towns call us "agbaja", and we call them "ndi enu oha".
So, if Onicha indigenes call others names, it is not new in Igboland.

Eziokwu my brother, if there is anything we Ndigbo do badly, it is that we tend to emphasize our differences (like you are doing now) rather pessimistically, while Hausa for instance would call other northerners "Banza bokwai" but still hold them in the deepest "northern brotherhood". For Hausa, it all ends in the name. That is why they are able to rule Nigeria as a very powerful political block.
For some of us, the names now form opinions about why we should not unite! You see my point?
That is why I try my best, at every turn and in every circumstance, to educate our people about the REAL FACTS of unity.
Let us not make mountains out of mole hills of our little differences, which other tribes have since surmounted, even though theirs were GULFS.

Ufeolorun:
No seriously,I don't engage in those tribal-fest of double/triple ids but you as one of the veterans of the the double/triple ids tribal-fest,I admire the ways you pull stories out of the tin air.

Nigg@ wat the fu2k are you talking about? Apart from being an attention seeking whorr, wat sense did u think you are making here? I give anyway permission to answer this, what sense is this man or woman trying to make?

Go sit you attention seeking @ss down until someone decides to engage in a conversation with you. Don't turn the attention towards you by saying words that in no way correlates or even addresses what you quoted, followed by pulling some impotent accusation that anyone with half a brain whom reads my comment and kno my stands on thing and my behavior from yesterday when I was banned would knock that accusation out of water without I even engaging in it. Thus making yourself look.like that village mad man people avoid.

Go sit your attention seeking @ss down, commot for road. If you are that desparate to talk to someone, look in the mirror and talk to yourself.

^^^ Is N@gga your middle name?
Dumbazz black people calling themselves names their white masters gave them.

Yorubas are everywhere in large numbers, leave these quiet ppl alone. Not like noise-making clowns who like to claim 90% of every region with no substantial economic evidence to back it up.

Phillip can claim Yoruba if he wants. He was brought up in Yoruba land, educated in Yoruba land, survived in Yoruba land. Most of these Igbos in high places today benefitted from Awo's free education.

Logic Mind:

I did bros, I did. They all claim to be Igbo. Some say they are Igala but just a minority. When I deal with them I have no doubt they are Igbo. But, and this is a big but, they don't do things with the rest of us as per the examples I gave. Why?
I don't hate them. I'm just saying what I heard and saw and only wish to be enlightened further.
My girl's my called me "nwa onye igbo" in my face FFS. How do you want me to interprete that?

The problem with us Igbos is that we don't want to know our history. We just condemn anything we don't like and pretend it doesn't exist instead of calling it out and tackling it head front. We hope that if we ignore it, it will go away. Well, it doesn't. Our problems remain until we face them.

I have asked questions of/from both sides. Have you?

you still not getting me: going by what you've provided thus far you asked them on their view of heritage but you never asked them their version of the land dispute which seem to be the only thing driving your cause of attack against them. Im pretty much going to assume your community is among the community you mentioned had a land dispute with onitsha based on the our seniors comment thus im not all that suprised. This is between you and them.

in regard to asking I to defend them against the land dispute, I think I addressed this before, since im neither onitsha nor anambra, thus I do not have access to land dispute within each community thereforr I cannot defend nor fight against accusation brought upon them based on the land dispute. Even then, you have not giving anything that backs up the claim that they hate other igbo people nor see themselves different from the rest of us. Land dispute is pretty much in every igbo community, as for the "nwa onye igbo", during my stay in onitsha ive never heard of that nor called that.

we can agree to disagree.

Ileke-IdI:
^^^ Is N@gga your middle name?
Dumbazz black people calling themselves names their white masters gave them.

The one dollar ashawo just landed. Welcome how was ur job today?

I guess you've locked yourself out of the world that you now claim you've never heard the saying "there are nigg@ and there are black. Both are different "

Pick up a dictionary and kno the definiton of nigg@. A Nigg@ are ignorant blacks thus lowest of the black race thus different from the rest of the black race thus yes, you and other guy are nigg@s

mumu why you no come clem onitsha[color=#990000][/color] [b][/b][b][/b]

THE GUY JUST COPIED ZIK AND I THINK HE SHOULD DO RESEARCH ON THE HISTORY OF IGBOS BEFORE WRITING TRASH

ALTHOUGH THERE ARE EZECHIMA CLAN IN ONITCHA WHO ARE FROM EDO THE KINGSHIP REST WITH THE OTHER CLAN WHO TRACE THIER ORIGIN TO NRI,IT IS A KNOWN FACT THAT IGBOS DONT TRACE ORIGIN TO ONE PLACE NNSUKA TRACE THIER ORIGIN TO IGALA WHILE ENUGWU EZIKE TRACE THIERS TO YORUBA LAND ,I DONT THINK THAT ORIGIN OF IGBOLAND REALY MATTER

jason123: History

The history of Onitsha began with the migration of its people from the Benin Empire towards the end of early part of the Sixteenth Century AD. The migration was as a result of a wave of unrest, war and displacement unleashed by the Islamic movement from North Africa.

It was during their passage through the outskirts of Ile-Ife that they acquired the name Onitsha - a corruption of the Yoruba word Orisha and Udo, the famous shrine worshiped by the people. As time went on, the combination of the two words, Onitsha for Orisha and Ado for Udo culminated in the present name , Onitsha Ado.

The people of Onitsha left the out skirts of Ile-Ife and resettled in the Benin Kingdom and soon established themselves as one of the clans in the Benin Kingdom exercising all the rights and privileges attached thereon.

As a result of a long process of acculturation in Benin, the Onitsha people jealously guarded their acquired rights particularly with regard to their revered Shrine Udo.

It was suggested that the reason why the Onitsha people quarreled with Oba Esigie, (1404-1550), of Benin was because of the slight, the Oba gave their shrine-Udo. It was customary for newly installed Oba to pay homage to all important Shrines in the Benin Kingdom by slaughtering a cow in the shrines enclave. Oba Esigie failed to do this at the Onitsha people's Udo-Shrine, hence the quarrel.

It took the Onitsha people several years before they got to Obior and Ilah and finally crossed the River Niger and established Onitsha Ado. They stopped at several places in the then Mid-West now called Delta State, places like Agbor, Issele-Uku, etc. This explains the affinity with the inhabitants of Delta State like Ilah, Issele-Uku, Obbaamkpa, Onitsha-Olona, Onitsha Ugbo, Agbo, Obior, Onitsha Ukwu and so on.

Another version hold that the people of Onitsha were part of the Edo tribe. It is for this reason that Onitsha people fondly call their town "Onitsha Ado N'Idu" meaning Onitsha of Edo Origin. It is also believed that the emigrants were nicknamed "Onitsha" only after their exodus from Benin by people whose territories they marched through, ravaging all that stood in their way. The name Onitsha has also been translated to mean dispenser. It reflects the manner the emigrants dealt with obstacles placed on their route by adjourning towns and villages.
http://nigerianwiki.com/wiki/Onitsha

Ok! I agree.
oya, oparetion OMG (Onitsha Must Go)
Mr.Peter Obi, send all onitsha indigens back to Benin and Lagos. time for revenge.
Deportation tinz