Delta State of the federal republic of
Nigeria is made up of 25 Local
Government Areas (LGAS) and like
every other state, it is represented in
the Nigerian senate by three senators;
Delta Central, Delta South and Delta North. Delta Central comprises eight LGAS
and is inhabited by the Urhobos while
Delta Stouth also comprises eight
LGAS and is home to the ethnic Ijaw,
Isoko and Itsekiri while Delta North is
home to the Ika, Enuani, Ukwuani sub- groups who are spread across nine
LGAS. The principal towns of Delta North are
Agbor, Asaba (the Delta State capital)
Ogwashi-Uku, Issele-Ukiu, Ibusa,
Ubulu-Uku, Obiaruku, Kwale, Ashaka,
among others. Its peoples are
predominantly farmers, fisherfolk, businessmen, academic, bureaucrats
and members of the defense and
security forces. It is on record that at
the dawn of Nigerian Independence on
1st October 1960, nine (9) of the fifty-
eight (58) Indigenous commissioned officers of the Nigerian Army were
from Delta North alone. Most famous
of these was major Chukwuma
Kaduna Nzeogwu who led the first
military coupd’ etat in Nigeria in 1966. As of April 2010, the Chief of Defence
Staff of the Nigerian Armed forces and
the Comptroller General of the
Nigerian Immigration Service both hail
from Amiodia North LGA of the said
Delta North. It is also on record that the Ekumku
peasant rebellion against white
domination (akin to the mau mau
rebllion in Kenya) mounted by the
people of Delta North under Agbogidi
Oligbo, the Issele Uku monarch and against the British colonialist ensured
that Aniomaland was arguably the last
part of Nigeria to be completely
subjugated by the British colonialists.
The Ekumeku war spanned the period
between 1898 and 1929. Even the Sokoto empire fell in 1903, the defiant
people of Delta North were still at the
barricades. Today, the predominant speaking
language in the area is a hybricized
dialect of Ibo but the people somehow
do not refer to themselves as Igbo for
the simple fact that over eighty –five
percent (85%) of Anioma people are said to have emigrated from Bini
empire during the 14th and 15th
century reigns of Obas (Kings)
Ozolua, Ewuare and Esigie of the
Benin empire which lies immediately to
the west of Aniomaland. The festivals language, kinship systems of the
people of Delta North appear to bear
testimony to this fact even to this day.
Possibly they may have lost their
mastery of Edo Language on account
of loud separation from the Benin Empire and became subsumed in the
dominant Igbo culture as a result of
the fact of greater proximity to
Igboland.
Delta North also, has albeit
unbelievably, an indigenous and living community of Yoruba and Igala
speaker. Aniocha North Local Government Area
is the smallest, most northerly and
most rural in the Delta state. It
consists of 16 communities grouped
into the three clans of Ezechima
Odiani and Idumuje. Odiani clan comprises 8 communities
which are said to have historically
emigrated from the Akoko area of
Yoruba during the wars which raged in
that part of precoloncoil African, during
the 18th century when they arrived at their present day Delta State, the
Yoruba Edo (Benin) émigrés and Ibos
from the east of the Niger river had
been on ground for a minimum of three
centuries. Unable to communicate with
the hostile people all around them, they courtesied all had Sunder who
they came into contact with “Olukumi”
a word in the Akoko of Yorba language
which means “my friend”. To this day, the variant of Yoruba
Language spoken by my people is
called Olukumi by neighbouring
communities further east at Ebu, a
migrant community of Igala who came
from central Nigeria in search of prime fishing grounds had developed and to
this day, the people of Ebu still speak
Igala Language. 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 Olukumi, a derivatiue of Yourba
language is the language of the people. BANJI Aluko, who visited the
communities, examines how close
Olukumi actually is to the Yoruba
language and traces how the people
came about the language. While knocking at the door, a young
lady, emerging from the building
replied, ta niyen? 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
kilometer away from the nearest
Yoruba community He was in Ubodu
town in Aniocha North Local
Government Area of Delta state. While trying to decipher why the lady
gave such a reply a young girl of about
five appeared and said “mofera
biscuit”. Perhaps, the people are part
of the Yoruba community living in the
town, the writer guessed he tries to find out from the lady and was
reluctantly directed to the palace for
further explantion as she didn’t have
the right to answer any of such
questions. 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 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. It was discovered that the Olukumi
speak similar language with the
Yorubas.
History give it that the Ugbode
Olukumi 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.
It was 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 in
Ugbodu which is a shortened form of
Ugbodumila means bush saved me in English language”. With the movement of the people,
there was a consequent change in
their language as shown in their
names. According to records compiled
by Prince Humphrey Ojeabu Ochei,
the immediate Olihen of Ughodu, the first six Olozas bore Yoruba names
namely Adeoda, Aderemi, Ariyo,
Odofin, Adetunji and Oyetunde. These
early kings bore typical yourba 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,
Izeedonwen, 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 and considerably 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 Olukumi is spoken in Aniocha
North Local Government as the
language is also spoken in Ukwu-Nzu
(Eko Efun) Ubulubu and Ogodo.

We don hear.

NIGHTMAREOO7:
We don hear.

haters,are you pained?

Baddestman:
haters,are you pained?

Emeagali, the computer wiz told this story a long time ago.

I am surprised that the son of the king that escape being killed was not Ekadelerha, the one that escape to become fake invented Oduduwa.

I just wonder how many Oduduwa escaped from Benin. Ile ibinu conquered by Oranmiyan when some disgruntled elements went against his invitation.

The lies of Benin novel history are coming apart everyday.

googi:
Emeagali, the computer wiz told this story a long time ago.

I am surprised that the son of the king that escape being killed was not Ekadelerha, the one that escape to become fake invented Oduduwa.

I just wonder how many Oduduwa escaped from Benin. Ile ibinu conquered by Oranmiyan when some disgruntled elements went against his invitation.

The lies of Benin novel history are coming apart everyday.

Hahaha, the worse thing that can happen to any man is self deciet

[[s]quote author=googi post=58835251]Emeagali, the 1 wiz told this story a long time ago.

I am surprised that the son of the king that escape being killed was not Ekadelerha, the one that escape to become fake invented Oduduwa.

I just wonder how many Oduduwa escaped from Benin. Ile ibinu conquered by Oranmiyan when some disgruntled elements went against his invitation.

The lies of Benin novel history are coming apart everyday. [/quote][/s]


Better Shut Up...... We know who conquered whom...... You will end up disgracing ur people here Ozour