@PhysicsQED. Right. Thats too bad, because architectural artifacts would be really instrumental in retelling the stories of the ancient city, especially for Films and Television. It Would also be good, if someone or the department of tourism and heritage could rebuild a modern rendition of the ancient city and establish it as a museum. The pictures available could be few, but if they are put together, with some surviving structures and other visual blanks filled in, it could be achieved.

Anyway, thanks for the lot you've posted and If/when I do get that book (An Introduction to Nigerian Traditional Architcture) I'll make sure to copy It onto this thread.

Happy New Year. @PhysicsQED, you've done a great job on this thread, lots of images and book references. I have seen many of the bronze and ivory photos, but I would like to know, are there any books you can recommend on the Architecture of the ancient city?. There seems to be loads of bronze/ivory art available from authors, but not a lot of photos of the ancient architecture and I think really cool if there were, cos I have seem some and would love to see more.

Cheers mate & keep up the good work.

@chenenye Thanks for providing those screen shots, this isn't the first time I have come across that version of the Owa origin, but I have just gotten to know about the book by the Obi of Owa. I'll get a copy and maybe we can revisit that later. But we can both agree that the Owa origin story isn't shared by all the Ika clans.

@tpia @physicsQED - trust me, there are a select few and I have Edo friends who have little knowledge about the Edo-Yoruba link and seem to believe it when their Yoruba friends bring up the Oduduwa story. Some even know a bit about Edo history from their family, but may have never been told enough about the ogisos and Ekhaladeran.

honeric02:

First and foremost, there's nothing like Edo language, rather what we have is Bini language okay?

Answer to your question is : A child that does not hear word

A stubborn child

A disobedient child

Hope these help?

What do you mean? Where did you get your idea from?, the word Bini is a European term used to refer to the Edo people in the present Edo south district of Edo-state. We are simply Edo not Binis, if we should go in the direction of what is and what isn't.

ChinenyeN:

All this talk, yet the Obi of Owa authoritatively links Ika people mostly to Nri

Could you please provide a reference to a resource where the obi of Owa claimed the Owa people to have originated from Nri.

Andre Uweh:

N_Oviedo, this your epistle is too long and boring. You are a very partial observer. It seems you are too blind not to read what Ogbuefi1- an Ika son has been writing. You only read Agbontaen's because it pleases your bigoted mindset.
You mentioned Owa, yet you were too blind to read the part where the Obi of Owa claimed that they came from Nri.
I can't believe it took you so long to know that Edos are not Yorubas, yet you are Edo. You are a disgrace to the Edo community you come from. There is nothing at all that will suggest to any Edoman that he is Yoruba. I feel ashamed of you. Even the Edos born in far away land as in the U.K know whom they are.
Why do you have to come here to tell Ndigbo to leave Ikas alone without you warning Agbontaen to leave Ikas who are proud Igbo alone.
I think this is the last rubbish i will read this year in Nairaland. I don't know why people can be so biased and pathetic. It's a pity.

Nobody was born with information and it is not a crime not to know something, rather awareness of your lack of knowledge and being unwilling to learn is the crime, we all learnt whatever it is we know and Unlike you my friend, I do not make assumptions, I make statements based on personal research, and if I said I was made to believe a wrong history of the Edos in the past, it is simply a result of my lack of knowledge of the history at that time and not a reflection of my intellect at present.

As for my post being to long and boring, I am not here to entertain you, I simply posted to express an opinion about a topic and if you were someone who wanted to learn you would have simply read it and made reasonable comments and not spilling words of abuse.

I would also like you to explain why the Ika people and the Benin people share the same culture and many traditions if they weren't of a single origin?

As for me being biased and pathetic, I think you should take another read through your posts, you seem not to have taken in anything agbontaen, I and other People posted about the Ika and Benin links, you appear to be hellbent on forcing the Ikas into the Igbo group, I don't know what could be so biased.
My post was made to provide information for us all in this forum to come to a better understanding of the Ika people and their origin, but you seem to have turned everything into a slew of abusive words and verbally derogative statement.

Speak of pathetic, it is you who is pathetic for not knowing a better and a more mature way of responding to someone you haven't even spoken with before,  as a matter of fact you seem to have established yourself on this post as a retard. Do you even know what pathetic or biased mean?

Please Andre if you can't respond as an adult, you shouldnt reply to my post or even be on this forum.


Thank you.

Lol, like I saying I once heard " when you dont know who you are, people will tell you lies about yourself".
I think the Igbo people in this thread should leave the Ika people alone, they are not Igbos like agbontan said.

I have been following this thread and people seem to want to impose on the Ika/Owa people something they are not, they are not Benins, not Igbos nor are they anything except what they are.

I know some Ika people believe themselves to be Igbos, this is simply because they don't know who they are, they have no idea about their history and their heritage and this is the main problem ( A few years ago, many people were able to deceive me that Benins were yorubas, this was because I didn't know ho I was then, but for the last 5 years I have gathered enough evidence to prove who I am and who my ancestors were and I now know we are not youruba, we simply share an history), I think any Ika person who claims Igbo heritage, should go and study their history in-depth before digging an hole for themselves and insulting their ancestors from whom they have inherited their lands.

As agbontaen previously stated, they Ikas are not Igbos and if they are anything besides Ika, they would be Binis, for the amount of culture and traditions they share together, but I know they are not Benins. And mind you, before 1897, Benin was known by all, as not a clan, but simpy an administrative centre for all who claim the single ancestry of igodomigo, and the city was a combination of all the tribes that made up the Edo nation( Urhobos, Ika, exam isoko, arbor), in order words a man in Benin ho claims to be Benin could have had ancestors who were once in the Urhobos or arbor parts but then granted a title in the boas palace in oredo, may have remigrated back to Benin. Therefore, Benin was not a tribe but a capital, just like Abuja is, hence the generalized name for the Old Benin kingdom was Edo and the capital was Edo( as every Edo man came from Edo(igodomigodo) the territories were named according).

The present people in Ika may be letting the Igbo influence make them forget who they are and losing their language, but the Ogua Ika is pure Edo and that proves everything Igbo imposers in this plac wrong. Therefore, if Ika are anything besides Ika, they are Edos ( not Benin, but Edo by ancestry and establishment).

Language isn't always an accurate way of categorising a group or tribe. My moms family speak Edo n'ekhue, which is a cross between Edo language and akure yoruba, they have a lot in common with the Yoruba akures, but still this does not make them yoruba but Edos who happen to speak a bit of yoruba. This tells a lot about them, makes them unique, as a group of their own within a nation.

A black man can spend his entire life in Europe, his fathers may have been born there and even died there, but this does not really make them Europeans, does it?, because they still know and Europeans still know they are not europeans, they are simply Africans who happen to speak good european and hold an EU passport. This example is laid bare by the UAE immigration, who till this day, do not grant people with ancestors from outside the UAE with the UAE passport, even if your fathers and grandfathers were born there, you speak Emirati-Arabic, you are still not an Emirati.

So I think the igbo Imposers in this thread should stop, because, they can't transform Ikas to Igbos, the monarch is an evidence of that, a strong tie is still being held between the Ika monarch, agbor monarch, Owa monarch and the Oba of Benin , because they are brothers. And I urge every Ika person to research their history to know who they are and chase the Igbo virus, trying to steal their lands and influence their language.

They are Ikas a unique group of their own, they only have language similarities with Igbos, but their true core and foundation and as a matter of fact the Ika people are simply Ika people.

FYI: The conquest of the Benin empire only aimed to unite all clans and settlements of Edo(igodomigodo) origin, it had no interest In imposing it's way of life or it's language on any people who weren't from igodomigodo. Thank you.

ISELOGBE.