A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE IJAWS OF SOUTHERN NIGERIA
Ijaw-History-of-Southern-Nigeria
The English established their claim over what is now called Nigeria in the nineteenth century and thereafter Christian missionaries descended on Southern Nigeria and taught the natives how to read and write. By the mid twentieth century the natives were sufficiently proficient in the English language that some of them began to write down on paper what they believed were their histories. In the nature of things what they wrote regarding their contemporary history is probably more accurate than what they made up as their ancient history.
Human memory does not remember events that took place over thousands of years unless they were written down on paper. In as much as the Ijaw wrote only in the twentieth century what they wrote about their people that supposedly took place two or more thousand years ago is in the nature of fables, fairy tales, really.
There is no doubt that in the future archeological evidence would elicit the proper history of the Ijaw. In the meantime, the reader of supposed Ijaw history is best advised to approach what he reads as in the nature of wishful thinking than objective facts.
With that caveat in mind let us see what some Ijaw folks have written about their people’s history. Interestingly, the Ijaw have written very few scholarly books on their history! A search for scholarly books yielded only a couple of books. What seem to proliferate everywhere, especially on the Internet, are slipshod writings on Ijaw. This is a disappointment. Let me try to construct what any disinterestedly objective person could garner from perusing what passes for Ijaw history.
The books and articles, such as there are, generally begin by saying that there is considerable evidence that southern West Africa was peopled only recently, perhaps, no more than 5000 years ago, whereas northern West Africa probably was peopled about 10, 000 years ago.
Apparently, the various groups that came into West Africa from either East Africa or North Africa split into two main groups with one settling around the Lake Chad region and another at the Niger-Benue confluence. Later, some of those that settled around Lake Chad made their way to the Niger Delta whereas some of those who had settled on the Plateau region and produced Nok culture moved south and settled where Igbos now live (Nok culture an Igbo culture?).
These interesting conjectures continue thus. A group called Oru or Anu from the Nile Valley migrated to the Lake Chad area and later to the Niger Delta. S. K. Owonaru (1949) in his history of the Ijaw suggested that the Ijaw descended from the Oru, a people from the Nile Valley ( Egypt ) and met some other groups with whom they intermingled and fused to form present Ijaw people.
Apparently, the Oru originally settled at Benin and mixed with the Bini and what later became the Yoruba people. This settlement is said to have taken place around 500 AD. It is further claimed that with the Arab Muslim conquest of North Africa around 645 AD that some North Africans were displaced and moved south, initially settling around Lake Chad and thereafter at Benin. Apparently, a proto Beni-Yoruba- Ijaw group formed in the Benin area around 700 AD. Apparently, some sort of crisis at Benin led the groups to move, some north to Ile Ife (to form the Yoruba) and some south to the Niger Delta to form the Ijaw while some Oru (also called Kumoni) remained at Benin to form today’s Edo nation.
It is claimed that the Oru/Kumoni who left Benin and settled at the Niger Delta did so around 1200AD. Apparently, as other upheavals took place at either Benin or Ife Ife other Oru/Kumoni left and joined their cousins at the Niger Delta.
What all these incredible speculations leave us with is that somehow the Ijaw, Edo and Yoruba are related; how exactly they are related, we are not told!
In so far that there is any kind of corroborative evidences for this historical hagiography it is what early British colonial visitors to the Niger Delta wrote. Dr Baikie, an early British visitor to the Niger Delta, in 1854 applied the term Oru to the Ijaw West of Brass, from the mouth of the Nun River to Taylor Creek . Dr Baikie went on to elaborate that the people on both sides of the lower Niger are Ijo, for they spoke a related language though with different dialects.
It should be noted that whereas Dr Baikie employed the term Oru in reference to the Ijaw he did not explain how he came about that term. What is evident is that the Ijaw seized on that term and apply it to themselves. Some even claim that it is a contraction of the Egyptian term Horu, thus reinforcing their claim that the Ijaw came from the Nile valley.
The more fanciful accounts of Ijaw history out rightly claim that they originated in ancient Egypt before migrating southwards, settling at Ife , Benin etc . Others claim that the Oru derive from Sudan, from Kush civilization, came south and formed the Diama society around Lake Chad and thereafter moved south to Benin and Ife and finally to the Niger Delta.
Another version of this story claims that the movement from the Chad region first led these people to the Nupe and Borgu regions and thereafter to Ife and Benin and finally the Niger Delta.
What is verifiable in this interesting attempt at reconstructed and revisionist history is that by the time the Portuguese came to the Niger Delta in the fifteenth century the Ijaw were already living there. That much is known for certain, the rest is probably the product of over heated imaginations.
Professor E. J. Alagoa (1972) gave a more descriptive picture of where the Ijaws are today and their state of affairs. He tells us that the Ijaw are found dispersed along the Nigerian coastlines, especially among the creeks and rivers of the Niger Delta. He tells us that the Ijaw settled far and wide: the Niger Delta, the eastern side of River Niger, the Western side of River Niger, among the Yoruba’s such as Ondo (the Apoi and Arogbo of Ondo state), at the lagoons of Lagos and as far West as Ghana and Liberia (the Kuru).
Professor Alagoa tells us that the Nkoro and Defaka of Opobo-Nkoro local government area of Rivers state “have lived so long in the Eastern extremity of the Niger Delta that their language is now believed to be the oldest living variety of Ijo”.
Professor Alagoa tells us that the Ijaw settled at many places on the West African Atlantic sea coast and that they generally maintained their language and culture even when they lived among different groups (the ijo who live among the Ibibio and Efik apparently retained their language and culture and the same applies to the Ijo that live among the Yoruba, Ondo).
Whereas, many Ijaw persons try to trace their root to ancient Egypt (Horu, Oru) and or Sudan (Kush, Kumoni), Professor Alagoa tells us that the average Ijaw person sees himself as having always been part of where he now lives. Indeed, he claims that the Ijaw probably predate their Igbo and Edo neighbors in their history of continuous settlement in their respective places of abode today.
Apparently Professor Alagoa recognizes that it is personal insecurity that motivates some African scholars to want to root their origin in ancient Egypt ; perhaps, hoping that in doing so they would wash away Africans supposed inferiority and lack of contribution to civilization; claiming that their ancestors built the ancient Egyptian civilization obviously boosts the African ego.
Professor Alagoa is probably correct in his reportage that his Ijo people have deep roots where they currently live, the Niger Delta. Their language (Ijow/Izon) is related to the languages of the people around them. The Ijo language, he believes, is probably a variant of a prototypal version of a language spoken by many West African groups.
Given the length of time it takes for languages to separate and become distinct from others, Professor Alagoa correctly speculates that the Ijo probably have lived where they currently live for over 5000 years(not the recent immigrants from Egypt the more hare brained Egypt origination claim). He claims that archeological research and findings at the archeological excavations at Agagbabou and Isomabou near Wilberforce Island , Koroma in Taylor Creek , Saikiripogu near Okpoama, and Onyoma near Nembe, Ke in Kalabari area and Ogoloma and Okochiri in Okrika seem to suggest that Ijo people have continuously lived in their present environs for at least three thousand years.
Apparently, when the Portuguese first encountered the Ijaw in the fifteenth century they called them Jos (some Ijaw call themselves Izon). However, the Portuguese, despite their extended trading with the Ijo, really did not leave us with any credible information about the Ijo.
In so far that we have credible and verifiable information on the Ijo it is from the nineteenth century, with the advent of British colonialism in Ijaw land. British colonialism has well documented papers on the activities of the Royal Niger Company, a British chartered company that was set up to trade with the people of Southern Nigeria in palm oil and palm kernel and other products. The Royal Niger Company was required to find replacement products for the Ijo the terminated business of Ijo selling Igbo-Africans to foreigners.
We know in great detail about the exploits of such Britons as Sir Goldie, Frederick Lugard and other British officials.
Contemporary Nigerian history teaches us how the British established their colonial capital at Calabar, their activities at the Niger Delta region, and along river Niger through Asaba and Lokoja.
There are written records of twentieth century British colonial history in Nigeria and for our present purposes in Ijawland that is not controversial.
For the record the British pacified the lower Niger , that is, stopped the people from trading in slaves, and tried to offer them a different trade, trade on palm oil, palm kernel etc.
We know about the establishment of the Southern Nigerian Protectorate in 1906 and the subsequent amalgamation of Southern and Northern Nigerian Protectorates in 1914 into what is now called Nigeria .
We know for certain about Nigerian nationalists struggle to liberate Nigeria from British colonial rule. The activities of the NCNC and Action Group Parties and other fighters for independence are well documented.
Nigeria won her independence in 1960. Ijaw land was part of what was then called Eastern Nigeria, head quartered at Enugu .
Right from the get go of Nigeria ’s independence the Ijaw felt dominated by the Igbos of Eastern Nigeria and sought a way out. We know that one of the things they did was to align themselves with Northern Nigerians during the Nigerian civil war (1967-1970). Upon the conclusion of that war in 1970 the Ijo was in a separate state, Rivers state; they were no longer under the control of Igbos.
Alas, they were subjected to a different type of domination. Nigeria gave up interest in doing what had hitherto produced wealth for her (agricultural crops, such as cotton, groundnuts, palm oil, palm kernel, cocoa etc) and focused primarily on generating revenue from petroleum.
Much of Nigeria ’s oil comes from the Niger Delta. That made the Niger Delta a place of interest to the rulers of Nigeria . Thus, the Hausa-Fulani- Yoruba rulers of Nigeria established an occupation army in the Delta region and to the present essentially derives most of their revenues from the delta.
We know the rest of the story: how the delta Ijo folk feel resentful that money coming from their region goes to developing other parts of Nigeria .
Ijaw land is pretty much devastated by the activities of oil extracting companies, with oil flares reducing their lands to wastelands. The creeks on which the Ijo depend for fishing are polluted and the fishes are poisoned. The Ijaw are left holding an empty bucket.
They formed militant groups to fight for justice, including getting the lion’s share of the oil revenue coming from their region (at present they get 13% share of the revenue from oil but are agitating for 100% share of it; if they were to succeed the Nigerian parasitical state that depends on money from the Delta would no longer have the resources to run its affairs and would die; clearly, to avoid death the Nigerian state is not about to oblige Ijaw militants demands).
The Nigerian state has control of that oil revenue, and monthly shares it among the so-called thirty six states of Nigeria . The Ijaw generally gets a little more than other states. But because this is largely unearned income the rulers of Ijaw land steal them; like other Nigerian politicians, their politicians essentially steal whatever money is given to the Ijaw by the federal government leavings the bulk of Ijaw as impoverished as ever.
The Ijaws are probably one of the poorest groups in Nigeria . Their youth find occupation in joining the various militant groups waging wars against the Nigerian state.
Apparently, self help efforts are not part of Ijaw behavior repertoire. Their Igbo neighbors though defeated at war and their properties appropriated by their neighbors had a history of self help; Igbos do not wait for governments to do anything for them; they send their children to schools and today essentially dominate Nigerian literacy.
The Ijaw, apparently, wait for some government to give them scholarships to go to universities and the result is massive lack of education in Ijaw land. And those with what education there are waiting for the governments and oil companies to offer them jobs, apparently, not aware that they could create jobs for themselves and their people.
Since there are only so many government jobs available, a people lacking entrepreneurial skills necessarily end up largely unemployed. The Ijaw rate of unemployment is very high; these people wait for their corrupt governments to give them handouts and it is not going to happen. Thus, Ijaw land is filled with complaints against whomever Ijaw folk could complain about: Nigerians, Igbos, oil companies and so on.
These people see themselves as the eternal victims; they need to learn how to take their lives into their hands and do what they have to do to survive rather than wait for manna to fall from heaven and feed them.
The world is a place where people, like all animals, struggle for survival and the fittest survive and the weak die out. It remains to be seen if the Ijaw can survive when oil money runs out, as surely oil wells will sooner or later dry up.
Much of what passes as the history of the Ijaws is made up, make belief history. The real history of the Ijaws beyond the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is unclear. Hopefully, more serious Ijaw scholars will undertake the difficult task of discovering their history and taking the Ijaw out of the realm of anthropological studies
(Western anthropologists study preliterate African societies with no written history and from their case studies we get to know a little bit about the people they studied; anthropology is not needed in a literate society; at present one would say that the reader who truly wants to understand the Ijo is probably best served if he read anthropological studies of Ijaw rather than read the amusing poem that passes as Ijaw history!).
In conclusion I can state without equivocation that no one has understood Ijo history, not yet. There are a whole lot of unsubstantiated claims by Ijaws. Some Ijaws even claim to be one of the largest ethnic groups in Nigeria ! They put their population at fourteen million! And how did they come up with that number? From Nigerian census figures? We know for certain that Nigeria has never had a credible census in its fifty years history. Nigerian government officials manipulate census figures to give folks from their areas exaggerated numbers so as to guarantee their continued governance. Perhaps a more realistic figure is that the Ijo is probably about four million persons?
The Ijaw, like most of their Nigerian neighbors, are playing with efforts to understand their history and by all means should do so; hopefully, in the future they would get it right. At present one concludes that beyond contemporary Ijo history, which is not germane for this paper, we do not know what constitutes Ijo history
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE IJAWS OF SOUTHERN NIGERIA
Dave Asei
According to Ozodi Thomas
Osuji, the Ijaw did not develop the art of writing and, therefore, did not
leave written records of their history. In so far that they have written
history it is post English colonization of Ijaw land.
The English established their claim over what is now called Nigeria in the nineteenth century and thereafter Christian missionaries descended on Southern Nigeria and taught the natives how to read and write. By the mid twentieth century the natives were sufficiently proficient in the English language that some of them began to write down on paper what they believed were their histories. In the nature of things what they wrote regarding their contemporary history is probably more accurate than what they made up as their ancient history.
Human memory does not remember events that took place over thousands of years unless they were written down on paper. In as much as the Ijaw wrote only in the twentieth century what they wrote about their people that supposedly took place two or more thousand years ago is in the nature of fables, fairy tales, really.
There is no doubt that in the future archeological evidence would elicit the proper history of the Ijaw. In the meantime, the reader of supposed Ijaw history is best advised to approach what he reads as in the nature of wishful thinking than objective facts.
With that caveat in mind let us see what some Ijaw folks have written about their people’s history. Interestingly, the Ijaw have written very few scholarly books on their history! A search for scholarly books yielded only a couple of books. What seem to proliferate everywhere, especially on the Internet, are slipshod writings on Ijaw. This is a disappointment. Let me try to construct what any disinterestedly objective person could garner from perusing what passes for Ijaw history.
The books and articles, such as there are, generally begin by saying that there is considerable evidence that southern West Africa was peopled only recently, perhaps, no more than 5000 years ago, whereas northern West Africa probably was peopled about 10, 000 years ago.
They suggest that the first
peoples that settled in West Africa came from either East Africa or from North
Africa .
We are told that we can infer the settlement of the Ijaws in Southern Nigeria by studying their language and its origin. Ijaw belongs to what is generally referred to as Niger-Congo groups of languages. Those groups of languages are divided into Kordofanian and Congo-Mande. The later groups are further divided into Volta- Congo and Benue- Kwa. The later is further divided into Kwa and Benue . The Volta-Congo groups are further divided into such subgroups as the Ijaw and Defaka and the Kwa-Benue subdivided into such modern languages as Yoruba, Igbo, Edo , and Igala etc.
We are told that we can infer the settlement of the Ijaws in Southern Nigeria by studying their language and its origin. Ijaw belongs to what is generally referred to as Niger-Congo groups of languages. Those groups of languages are divided into Kordofanian and Congo-Mande. The later groups are further divided into Volta- Congo and Benue- Kwa. The later is further divided into Kwa and Benue . The Volta-Congo groups are further divided into such subgroups as the Ijaw and Defaka and the Kwa-Benue subdivided into such modern languages as Yoruba, Igbo, Edo , and Igala etc.
Apparently, the various groups that came into West Africa from either East Africa or North Africa split into two main groups with one settling around the Lake Chad region and another at the Niger-Benue confluence. Later, some of those that settled around Lake Chad made their way to the Niger Delta whereas some of those who had settled on the Plateau region and produced Nok culture moved south and settled where Igbos now live (Nok culture an Igbo culture?).
These interesting conjectures continue thus. A group called Oru or Anu from the Nile Valley migrated to the Lake Chad area and later to the Niger Delta. S. K. Owonaru (1949) in his history of the Ijaw suggested that the Ijaw descended from the Oru, a people from the Nile Valley ( Egypt ) and met some other groups with whom they intermingled and fused to form present Ijaw people.
Apparently, the Oru originally settled at Benin and mixed with the Bini and what later became the Yoruba people. This settlement is said to have taken place around 500 AD. It is further claimed that with the Arab Muslim conquest of North Africa around 645 AD that some North Africans were displaced and moved south, initially settling around Lake Chad and thereafter at Benin. Apparently, a proto Beni-Yoruba- Ijaw group formed in the Benin area around 700 AD. Apparently, some sort of crisis at Benin led the groups to move, some north to Ile Ife (to form the Yoruba) and some south to the Niger Delta to form the Ijaw while some Oru (also called Kumoni) remained at Benin to form today’s Edo nation.
It is claimed that the Oru/Kumoni who left Benin and settled at the Niger Delta did so around 1200AD. Apparently, as other upheavals took place at either Benin or Ife Ife other Oru/Kumoni left and joined their cousins at the Niger Delta.
What all these incredible speculations leave us with is that somehow the Ijaw, Edo and Yoruba are related; how exactly they are related, we are not told!
In so far that there is any kind of corroborative evidences for this historical hagiography it is what early British colonial visitors to the Niger Delta wrote. Dr Baikie, an early British visitor to the Niger Delta, in 1854 applied the term Oru to the Ijaw West of Brass, from the mouth of the Nun River to Taylor Creek . Dr Baikie went on to elaborate that the people on both sides of the lower Niger are Ijo, for they spoke a related language though with different dialects.
It should be noted that whereas Dr Baikie employed the term Oru in reference to the Ijaw he did not explain how he came about that term. What is evident is that the Ijaw seized on that term and apply it to themselves. Some even claim that it is a contraction of the Egyptian term Horu, thus reinforcing their claim that the Ijaw came from the Nile valley.
The more fanciful accounts of Ijaw history out rightly claim that they originated in ancient Egypt before migrating southwards, settling at Ife , Benin etc . Others claim that the Oru derive from Sudan, from Kush civilization, came south and formed the Diama society around Lake Chad and thereafter moved south to Benin and Ife and finally to the Niger Delta.
Another version of this story claims that the movement from the Chad region first led these people to the Nupe and Borgu regions and thereafter to Ife and Benin and finally the Niger Delta.
What is verifiable in this interesting attempt at reconstructed and revisionist history is that by the time the Portuguese came to the Niger Delta in the fifteenth century the Ijaw were already living there. That much is known for certain, the rest is probably the product of over heated imaginations.
Professor E. J. Alagoa (1972) gave a more descriptive picture of where the Ijaws are today and their state of affairs. He tells us that the Ijaw are found dispersed along the Nigerian coastlines, especially among the creeks and rivers of the Niger Delta. He tells us that the Ijaw settled far and wide: the Niger Delta, the eastern side of River Niger, the Western side of River Niger, among the Yoruba’s such as Ondo (the Apoi and Arogbo of Ondo state), at the lagoons of Lagos and as far West as Ghana and Liberia (the Kuru).
Professor Alagoa tells us that the Nkoro and Defaka of Opobo-Nkoro local government area of Rivers state “have lived so long in the Eastern extremity of the Niger Delta that their language is now believed to be the oldest living variety of Ijo”.
Professor Alagoa tells us that the Ijaw settled at many places on the West African Atlantic sea coast and that they generally maintained their language and culture even when they lived among different groups (the ijo who live among the Ibibio and Efik apparently retained their language and culture and the same applies to the Ijo that live among the Yoruba, Ondo).
Whereas, many Ijaw persons try to trace their root to ancient Egypt (Horu, Oru) and or Sudan (Kush, Kumoni), Professor Alagoa tells us that the average Ijaw person sees himself as having always been part of where he now lives. Indeed, he claims that the Ijaw probably predate their Igbo and Edo neighbors in their history of continuous settlement in their respective places of abode today.
Apparently Professor Alagoa recognizes that it is personal insecurity that motivates some African scholars to want to root their origin in ancient Egypt ; perhaps, hoping that in doing so they would wash away Africans supposed inferiority and lack of contribution to civilization; claiming that their ancestors built the ancient Egyptian civilization obviously boosts the African ego.
Professor Alagoa is probably correct in his reportage that his Ijo people have deep roots where they currently live, the Niger Delta. Their language (Ijow/Izon) is related to the languages of the people around them. The Ijo language, he believes, is probably a variant of a prototypal version of a language spoken by many West African groups.
Given the length of time it takes for languages to separate and become distinct from others, Professor Alagoa correctly speculates that the Ijo probably have lived where they currently live for over 5000 years(not the recent immigrants from Egypt the more hare brained Egypt origination claim). He claims that archeological research and findings at the archeological excavations at Agagbabou and Isomabou near Wilberforce Island , Koroma in Taylor Creek , Saikiripogu near Okpoama, and Onyoma near Nembe, Ke in Kalabari area and Ogoloma and Okochiri in Okrika seem to suggest that Ijo people have continuously lived in their present environs for at least three thousand years.
Apparently, when the Portuguese first encountered the Ijaw in the fifteenth century they called them Jos (some Ijaw call themselves Izon). However, the Portuguese, despite their extended trading with the Ijo, really did not leave us with any credible information about the Ijo.
In so far that we have credible and verifiable information on the Ijo it is from the nineteenth century, with the advent of British colonialism in Ijaw land. British colonialism has well documented papers on the activities of the Royal Niger Company, a British chartered company that was set up to trade with the people of Southern Nigeria in palm oil and palm kernel and other products. The Royal Niger Company was required to find replacement products for the Ijo the terminated business of Ijo selling Igbo-Africans to foreigners.
We know in great detail about the exploits of such Britons as Sir Goldie, Frederick Lugard and other British officials.
Contemporary Nigerian history teaches us how the British established their colonial capital at Calabar, their activities at the Niger Delta region, and along river Niger through Asaba and Lokoja.
There are written records of twentieth century British colonial history in Nigeria and for our present purposes in Ijawland that is not controversial.
For the record the British pacified the lower Niger , that is, stopped the people from trading in slaves, and tried to offer them a different trade, trade on palm oil, palm kernel etc.
We know about the establishment of the Southern Nigerian Protectorate in 1906 and the subsequent amalgamation of Southern and Northern Nigerian Protectorates in 1914 into what is now called Nigeria .
We know for certain about Nigerian nationalists struggle to liberate Nigeria from British colonial rule. The activities of the NCNC and Action Group Parties and other fighters for independence are well documented.
Nigeria won her independence in 1960. Ijaw land was part of what was then called Eastern Nigeria, head quartered at Enugu .
Right from the get go of Nigeria ’s independence the Ijaw felt dominated by the Igbos of Eastern Nigeria and sought a way out. We know that one of the things they did was to align themselves with Northern Nigerians during the Nigerian civil war (1967-1970). Upon the conclusion of that war in 1970 the Ijo was in a separate state, Rivers state; they were no longer under the control of Igbos.
Alas, they were subjected to a different type of domination. Nigeria gave up interest in doing what had hitherto produced wealth for her (agricultural crops, such as cotton, groundnuts, palm oil, palm kernel, cocoa etc) and focused primarily on generating revenue from petroleum.
Much of Nigeria ’s oil comes from the Niger Delta. That made the Niger Delta a place of interest to the rulers of Nigeria . Thus, the Hausa-Fulani- Yoruba rulers of Nigeria established an occupation army in the Delta region and to the present essentially derives most of their revenues from the delta.
We know the rest of the story: how the delta Ijo folk feel resentful that money coming from their region goes to developing other parts of Nigeria .
Ijaw land is pretty much devastated by the activities of oil extracting companies, with oil flares reducing their lands to wastelands. The creeks on which the Ijo depend for fishing are polluted and the fishes are poisoned. The Ijaw are left holding an empty bucket.
They formed militant groups to fight for justice, including getting the lion’s share of the oil revenue coming from their region (at present they get 13% share of the revenue from oil but are agitating for 100% share of it; if they were to succeed the Nigerian parasitical state that depends on money from the Delta would no longer have the resources to run its affairs and would die; clearly, to avoid death the Nigerian state is not about to oblige Ijaw militants demands).
The Nigerian state has control of that oil revenue, and monthly shares it among the so-called thirty six states of Nigeria . The Ijaw generally gets a little more than other states. But because this is largely unearned income the rulers of Ijaw land steal them; like other Nigerian politicians, their politicians essentially steal whatever money is given to the Ijaw by the federal government leavings the bulk of Ijaw as impoverished as ever.
The Ijaws are probably one of the poorest groups in Nigeria . Their youth find occupation in joining the various militant groups waging wars against the Nigerian state.
Apparently, self help efforts are not part of Ijaw behavior repertoire. Their Igbo neighbors though defeated at war and their properties appropriated by their neighbors had a history of self help; Igbos do not wait for governments to do anything for them; they send their children to schools and today essentially dominate Nigerian literacy.
The Ijaw, apparently, wait for some government to give them scholarships to go to universities and the result is massive lack of education in Ijaw land. And those with what education there are waiting for the governments and oil companies to offer them jobs, apparently, not aware that they could create jobs for themselves and their people.
Since there are only so many government jobs available, a people lacking entrepreneurial skills necessarily end up largely unemployed. The Ijaw rate of unemployment is very high; these people wait for their corrupt governments to give them handouts and it is not going to happen. Thus, Ijaw land is filled with complaints against whomever Ijaw folk could complain about: Nigerians, Igbos, oil companies and so on.
These people see themselves as the eternal victims; they need to learn how to take their lives into their hands and do what they have to do to survive rather than wait for manna to fall from heaven and feed them.
The world is a place where people, like all animals, struggle for survival and the fittest survive and the weak die out. It remains to be seen if the Ijaw can survive when oil money runs out, as surely oil wells will sooner or later dry up.
Much of what passes as the history of the Ijaws is made up, make belief history. The real history of the Ijaws beyond the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is unclear. Hopefully, more serious Ijaw scholars will undertake the difficult task of discovering their history and taking the Ijaw out of the realm of anthropological studies
(Western anthropologists study preliterate African societies with no written history and from their case studies we get to know a little bit about the people they studied; anthropology is not needed in a literate society; at present one would say that the reader who truly wants to understand the Ijo is probably best served if he read anthropological studies of Ijaw rather than read the amusing poem that passes as Ijaw history!).
In conclusion I can state without equivocation that no one has understood Ijo history, not yet. There are a whole lot of unsubstantiated claims by Ijaws. Some Ijaws even claim to be one of the largest ethnic groups in Nigeria ! They put their population at fourteen million! And how did they come up with that number? From Nigerian census figures? We know for certain that Nigeria has never had a credible census in its fifty years history. Nigerian government officials manipulate census figures to give folks from their areas exaggerated numbers so as to guarantee their continued governance. Perhaps a more realistic figure is that the Ijo is probably about four million persons?
The Ijaw, like most of their Nigerian neighbors, are playing with efforts to understand their history and by all means should do so; hopefully, in the future they would get it right. At present one concludes that beyond contemporary Ijo history, which is not germane for this paper, we do not know what constitutes Ijo history
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