Ibime:

How Forest people go dey yab Canoe people?. . . . we prefer to be called War Canoe people or Eleworukwo (Waterside people) like the Ikwerre call us. . . . 

Hmm. .

Ibime, I'm beginning to believe this story that you guys came with the Europeans.

Which one be "war canoe" again?

No be oyiba man come with war ship canoe? Which he used to raid slaves inland?

^^^

And if you throw in the cowboy hats, it suddenly starts to make sense!

Chineke me! Ibime!

Onlytruth:

No be oyiba man come with war ship canoe? Which he used to raid slaves inland?

Ask EzeUche. . . him and his Aro brothers should know more about raiding slaves inland. . .

Ibime:

Ask EzeUche. . . him and his Aro brothers should know more about raiding slaves inland. . .

You swear say your people no raid slave? You fit swear am?

That "war canoe" is a slave ship I swear.

^^^Of course my people raid small, but Aro and Kalabari are the Kings of raiding.

I recommend you ask EzeUche (Aro) or Ow11 (Kalabari).

C'mon Ibime, its no big deal really. Everybody sold slaves in the east that time. I'm only trying to understand the "war canoe".

My Nnewi people sold social deviants and miscreants. We didn't have jails or capital punishment then. So, we simply sold dangerous criminals. We used to banish them from our land when they were convicted. However, when the white man showed up with slavery, we found a symbiotic relationship. We made profits from offloading our criminals.

We've always been ingenious businessmen.  

^^^ Every man who wants to have a compound in Ijaw land must first raise a War Canoe House. The more people you have in your House, the more powerful and successful you are. The War Canoe is mostly used for trade, although in times of war, you must submit the members of your War Canoe House for war purpose. The War Canoe is simply an administrative structure to ensure that each Ijaw City state has a ready-made standing army to call on at any time. Back then, they fight wars with each other on monthly basis. 


Typical War Canoe seats 80 people. A War Canoe House can have fleet of these canoes. Ijaws would often raid Igbo lands to collect slaves to beef up their War Canoe house. Jaja of Opobo for example was sold to Anna Pepple War Canoe House and later became the head of the House.

Biri na ma pu!There is a beach called Kalabari beach in Oguta. That's where we used to go and pick Igbo people to sell. . . . . .

Initially, Igbo people say we are Igbos when they couldn't understand simple bo ye fe, they have changed to tone to 'they are canoe people that came with white men to steal our land'.Giving ridiculous names like Igwe Nga,Umu-Okrika and so on. .Please I want to see the Igbo equivalent for Buguma,Bakana,Abua,Ngo and Abonnema!

Btw,Kalabari and Okrika na the same thing. The only difference is that they organised marriage between male and female igbo slaves and inherited d children which is why you have many Okrika people with Igbo blood.

Ibime:

^^^ Every man who wants to have a compound in Ijaw land must first raise a War Canoe House. The more people you have in your House, the more powerful and successful you are. The War Canoe is mostly used for trade, although in times of war, you must submit the members of your War Canoe House for war purpose. The War Canoe is simply an administrative structure to ensure that each Ijaw City state has a ready-made standing army to call on at any time. Back then, they fight wars with each other on monthly basis. 


Typical War Canoe seats 80 people. A War Canoe House can have fleet of these canoes. Ijaws would often raid Igbo lands to collect slaves to beef up their War Canoe house. Jaja of Opobo for example was sold to Anna Pepple War Canoe House and later became the head of the House.

I'm sure they were raiding their Igbo neighbors like the Ikwerre and Ngwa. They never made it up river Niger.

Nobody raided Nnewi (Anaedo) from outside and got away with it. We had a very organized heredity based kingdom dating back to 17th kings. The British only met two Nnewi kings -Igwe Orizu II (Eze ugbo nya mba) and Igwe Orizu III (the current Igwe).

War canoe houses is not ijaw culture.it is a structure that started with european trade.most of those war canoe houses comprise traders of both igbo and ijaw with their slaves and household.I don't know the reason for twisting of simple truth.read up your history or ask your grandfather.

@ow11.you are a very insecure man.you keep acting like someone is interested in what you don't have.nobody has ever said kalabari or okrika is igbo.I am a very versatile man and might even be related to you.two families in buguma are directly from my lineage.don't ask me to mention names but they are doing it big there.

ow11:

Initially, Igbo people say we are Igbos when they couldn't understand simple bo ye fe, they have changed to tone to 'they are canoe people that came with white men to steal our land'.

A very ignorant comment.

You cannot conclude from a few individuals discussing historical events within their capable but limited knowledge base, that an entire ethnic group is making a statement. This kind of reasoning exposes deep-seated prejudice. Rubbish!

Ibime:

Ijaws would often raid Igbo lands to collect slaves to beef up their War Canoe house. Jaja of Opobo for example was sold to Anna Pepple War Canoe House and later became the head of the House.

Abagworo:

War canoe houses is not ijaw culture.it is a structure that started with european trade.

Can you people provide sources? When was Jaja Opobo captured by Ijaw raiders? When did Europeans create war canoe houses?

^^^I said Jaja was [b]sold [/b]to Anna Pepple house. Everyone knows Aro captured Jaja.

Ibime:

^^^I said Jaja was [b]sold [/b]to Anna Pepple house. Everyone knows Aro captured Jaja.

So how did Ijaw war canoes capture 'landlocked Igbo'?

It seems you wish to have an argument with yourself. Even the landlocked Swizz have rivers you know.

Ibime:

^^^I said Jaja was sold to Anna Pepple house. Everyone knows Aro captured Jaja.

You see the European connection?

Last time I checked, there was NO African name like that except slaves or whites.
Ibime, una people came with Oyibo. QED.  

Ibime:

It seems you wish to have an argument with yourself. Even the landlocked Swizz have rivers you know.

All you had to tell me was through rivers, no need getting irritable. Anyway, what rivers did they use and which communities did they target, do you have a source, I'm just asking to make sure the information you're putting out is correct.

Ibime:

^^^I said Jaja was sold [/b]to Anna Pepple house. Everyone [b]knows Aro captured Jaja.

Objection. Aro never captured anyone and hence did not capture Jaja.
Arochukwu people were mere traders. They were not involved in raiding communities for slaves. Their role was to buy slaves and other commodities which they later resold. They were mere business men. The Abam were reknown for plundering villages for slaves and not Aros.

Andre Uweh:

The Abam were reknown for plundering villages for slaves and not Aros.

Which Abam? Are they related to Abam House in Okrika?

Ibime:

Which Abam? Are they related to Abam House in Okrika?

No I thought Abam is the Ohafia. Could be wrong though.

Abam were the Cross River Igbo warriors of the Aro confedracy.

Onlytruth:

No I thought Abam is the Ohafia. Could be wrong though.

Presently, Abam is under Ohafia local council.

Ibime:

Which Abam? Are they related to Abam House in Okrika?

No. Abam is an Igbo group of old Bende division.

If the Abam are both in Okrika and Ohafia; the Okrika are both in Rivers and in Imo State (Umu Okrika) that means the Igbos and Ijaws are very close indeed.

Abam (near Abiriba and Item) were the real war people in Old Bende . They did war for a living and were often hired as mercenaries.

The link below is a brief history of King Jaja (a little bit long and may be a spambot victim).

http://biography.yourdictionary.com/ja-ja-of-opobo

Quite interesting to find that the two prominent canoe houses were led by Igbo people. By the time Jaja was "dashed" to the Anna Pepple House, Madu was the head of that house while  Oko Jumbo (another igbo) was the head of manilla Pepple House.

Madu died and his son (Alali) took over the leadership of Anna house. Alali died and left the house indebted to trade partners to the tune of £10000-£15,000.

Jaja, who had become an astute business person stepped up and took leadership of the house, paid off the debt in two years and prospered even more to the displeasure Jumbo , his arch rival.

A fire mishap which gutted Bonny, left Jaja in a vulnerable position and Jumbo attacked him then. Jaja left Bonny with his followers, accepted defeat very quickly and retreated to a virgin land which he called Opobo in Honour of erstwhile King Opubu.

Within two years, he declared independence, cut off Bonny from major trade and 14 other houses in Bonny moved over to Opobo in subservience to him. Bonny was finished. Jaja continued his march to prosperity until the British betrayed and sent him on exile from which he never returned alive.

That Igbo is widely spoken by natives in Opobo, is no coincidence. The founder (Jaja)was Igbo and took many Igbo along with him. That Igbo is also widely spoken in Bonny is also not a coincidence. Is it not curious that the two houses, who played a major role in shaping Bonny had Igbo leaders ? The other houses were not major players in the local politics, if not, their leaders would have been known as well and it won't be surprising to find that a good number of them were Igbo as well.

That Igbo is widely spoken by natives in Opobo, is no coincidence. The founder (Jaja)was Igbo and took many Igbo along with him. That Igbo is also widely spoken in Bonny is also not a coincidence. Is it not curious that the two houses, who played a major role in shaping Bonny had Igbo leaders ? The other houses were not major players in the local politics, if not, their leaders would have been known as well and it won't be surprising to find that a good number of them were Igbo as well.

FACE thanks for that exposition.

komando.:

If the Abam are both in Okrika and Ohafia; the Okrika are both in Rivers and in Imo State (Umu Okrika) that means the Igbo.  and Ijaws are very close indeed.

May GOD forbid!

Igbos can never be related to backstabbers. Say Umu-Okrika are Ijo people who Igbonized.

igbo nature is keeping to agreements.

Andre Uweh:

Objection. Aro never captured anyone and hence did not capture Jaja.
Arochukwu people were mere traders. They were not involved in raiding communities for slaves. Their role was to buy slaves and other commodities which they later resold. They were mere business men. The Abam were reknown for plundering villages for slaves and not Aros.

Andre, you're not serious. The raids were all Aro-initiated. It was all an Arochukwu operation. Arochukwu people were also present during raids. So, you cannot justly reduce the Aro to 'mere traders'. They captured people. The simple truth.

Stop whitewashing history; trying to exonerate Aro of something it is clearly guilty of.

@Face, you are right. Abam were mercenaries and bulk of slaves sold in the Bight of Biafra were captured by Abam warriors, then sold to Aros and then to Europeans stationed at the coast.
Arochukwu people have a very unique and long history. At the palace of Eze Aro, you will still find archives of markets and stations where Aro people acquired their slaves and other comodities that were sold to the Europeans. Some Aros who escorted slaves to the new world kept records of Aro activities as well.
Please any one interested in Aro history should visit the palace of Eze Aro and Arochukwu as well.

Furthermore, it is very strange that original inhabitants would lose their language entirely, to slaves or few strangers.

Not even a brutal occupying force is always able to annihilate the culture and language of the occupied territory, worse case scenario is the establishment of a bilingual society or the absorption of the occupying force.

Look at Fulani conquest with all their ferocity, they adopted Hausa as their official language, even though they were in charge.

The Romans walked the face of Britain for 400 years and English survived.

The German/Brits enslaved South Africa for God knows how long and the best they came up with was Afrikaans.

Arab, the "take no prisoner" of them all colonised the Arab world, yet their local languages survived.

Hm mm, na wa.

ChinenyeN:

Andre, you're not serious. The raids were all Aro-initiated. It was all an Arochukwu operation. Arochukwu people were also present during raids. So, you cannot justly reduce the Aro to 'mere traders'. They captured people. The simple truth.

Stop whitewashing history; trying to exonerate Aro of something it is clearly guilty of.

Objection. Aros were not present during slave raids. Aros might have been involved indirectly by the use of Abam mercenaries, but were never physically engaged in slave raids. Never.

BTW, Jaja's real name is Mbanaso. . . Jubo Jubogha is his slave name. . .


Interesting story about Abam, Umuebulu, Bonny and Okrika. . . looks like the Abam guys were some cold blooded mercenaries. . .


Okrika traders used the Imo River which rises from Mbaise hills in Imo State, forming a confluence with Otamini river at Umuebulu where they purchased palm oil and kernel. According to Diebo Fiberesima, born at Umuebulu in 1944, the Umuebulu reported that they had previously given Bonny people a portion of their land as trading post. It was alleged that the Bonny traders later assisted Abam people in Abriba of the present Abia State to behead Umuebulu people for rituals and festivals. The Okrika traders settled this matter through the District Officer at Bonny. They refunded to the Bonny traders the sum of 15,028 manilas, being the sum they had paid for the land. The Okrika traders, on their part, assisted to ward-off the intrusion of Abam head-hunters in Umuebulu. For this reason, the Umuebulu people compensated them with more lands. From this time the Okrika settlers are said to have lived in peace with their host, except for minor disputes on land boundaries. According to Diebo (2006), negotiations began in 1888 and agreement was reached in 1911.


http://ijawhistory.com/Ami%20Pro%20-%20CHAPT25.pdf