This write up is inspired by the Nollywood veteran Kanayo O. Kanayo's allegation of Igbo denial by the Igbo speaking tribes of Delta State.

KOK as he is fondly referred as is one of the few Nollywood actors I respect because of his great interpretation of roles, his longevity and his constant reinvention of himself. A founding member of Nollywood, he is today a living legend in the Nigerian movie industry

A few weeks ago, appearing on the Honest Bunch Podcast, Mr Kanayo esq called out the Igbo speaking tribes of Delta State and Rivers State of Igbo denial and attributed this so called Igbo denial to the fear of retribution post 1967-1970 civil war, which the Biafra secessionists of Eastern Nigeria. As much as I respect the man KOK, I can emphatically say that he has fallen into the emotionally created narrative that has no logical basis

I will speak only for the Aboh speaking people of North Eastern Delta State but I believe most of my submissions here holds true for most of the other sorrounding Igbo speaking tribes of Delta State. I do not know much about the Ikwerres.

If we must go by Mr Kanayo's assertion, it means that before 1967, the Aboh people carried the Igbo identity. Since 1967 is not a very long time ago, Mr Kanayo and others who make their insulting claims which indirectly calls my people cowards, should come up with evidence to show that our people saw themselves as Igbos before 1967. On the contrary, evidences abound that the people of Aboh and it's sorroundings including Eastern Igbo speaking regions like Onitsha NEVER saw themselves as Igbos neither did they regard them as their Kith and kin. NEVER

The loudest argument of the Eastern Igbo speakers is how we can deny being Igbos even though we speak the Igbo language and bear Igbo names

Do we speak Igbo language? Yes our language is undoubtedly a dialect of Igbo. Do we bear Igbo names? Yes, since our language is Igboid, we surely bear names that are Igbo. Are we Igbos? An emphatic NO!

How the above is possible can only be understood if we go back to precolonial Igbo speaking area and what the concept of language and tribes was at the time. Before we get to that point in precolonial times, let us first take a look at how we view tribe and language today

clefstone:
Do we speak Igbo language? Yes our language is undoubtedly a dialect of Igbo. Do we bear Igbo names? Yes, since our language is Igboid, we surely bear names that are Igbo. Are we Igbos? An emphatic NO!

How the above is possible can only be understood if we go back to precolonial Igbo speaking area and what the concept of language and tribes was at the time. Before we get to that point in precolonial times, let us first take a look at how we view tribe and language today

Please post this on the politics section for more views

This kinda piece is very educational and essential too

Tribe: a group of people, often of related families, who live in the same area and share the same language, culture, and history.

-Cambridge dictionary

Tribe to us today in Nigeria is fixed such that once you are Igbo you remain Igbo forever no matter where you migrate to. A Yoruba that cannot speak Yoruba because his forebears lived in Kano for so long is a Yoruba man. Tribe to us now is pinned only to language, regardless of culture and history. This is how we view tribe and ethnicity today. However, it has not always been that way.

How it was in Precolonial times

Every major language groups in Nigeria has a history of inhomogeneity. The Abohs for example are made up of people of, in no particular order, Bini origin, Igala origin, Akarai who are likely of Igbo stock and a mixture of people of ex slave origin. These people today are considered as Aboh people and accorded full and equal right and respect. But this wouldn't be possible in today's Nigeria, especially Southern Nigeria as they would all be made to trace their way back to where they came from. The same history of inhomogeneity applies to the Hausa states, the Yorubas, the Nupes, the Kanuris etc.

Ethnicity was a fluid concept and constantly evolving idea pre colonialism. Language then was mainly a means of communication and nothing more. People then did not hold on to their language as we do today, and did not see language in tribal term. There were language groups spoken in different areas and once a group migrates and find themselves in any place, they gradually adopt the language and lose their original language. That is why the family names of people that migrated to other areas tend to be impossible to translate in the new language as seen in Aboh.

Is Igbo a language, an ethnic group or both

This question has different answers depending on the time in history. However, one thing is constant and that is the fact the Igbo has always been a language spoken among people of the lower Niger tribes, though of varied dialects.
On the other hand Igbo was not an ethnic group before colonialism. The various Igbo speaking tribes at that time were of different origins, had different culture and did not have any central authority. The Aboh man and the Owerri man was as good as the Aboh man and Yoruba man except for language. The Abohs and their immediate Igbo speaking neighbours during this precolonial times regarded the hinterland Igbo speakers as Igbos. The situation is different today, in that most Igbo speakers East of the Niger have by the process of ethnogenesis, triggered by factors such as colonialism and the Civil war become Igbos. However, not all Igbo speaking tribes were influenced by those factors to become Igbos, chief among those is Aboh.

Who owns the Igbo language and what is the origin of the Language

Nobody owns the Igbo language and it's impossible to know where it originated from. It's also impossible to know when it originated. My personal postulation is that it originated from along the banks of the lower Niger. The reason for my assertion is that the hinterland Igbo speakers depended more on the riverine Igbos than the other way around as trade in those days was along the River, it therefore is only logical to assume that the language spread from along the banks of the Niger River with the various dialects influenced by the language of their neighbours

clefstone:
Do we speak Igbo language? Yes our language is undoubtedly a dialect of Igbo. Do we bear Igbo names? Yes, since our language is Igboid, we surely bear names that are Igbo. Are we Igbos? An emphatic NO!

Interesting take. So you would have no problem with Ukwuani-Aboh being described as "Igbo-speaking people". What you reject is being called "Igbo people".

RedboneSmith:


Interesting take. So you would have no problem with Ukwuani-Aboh being described as "Igbo-speaking people". What you reject is being called "Igbo people".

Interesting indeed.

Clefstone, Nwanne Wesley. The man who prefers to be seen as Aboh and not Igbo. Bad ? Nope. I just wonder how he explains and tries to convince other ethnic groups or tribes, why they (Aboh’s ) are not Igbo’s but have Igbo names, culture and also speak the language. It must really be hard.

P.s. Wesley doesn’t mind being called an Igbo man.

RedboneSmith:


Interesting take. So you would have no problem with Ukwuani-Aboh being described as "Igbo-speaking people". What you reject is being called "Igbo people".

💯

Sizwezi:
Clefstone, Nwanne Wesley. The man who prefers to be seen as Aboh and not Igbo. Bad ? Nope. I just wonder how he explains and tries to convince other ethnic groups or tribes, why they (Aboh’s ) are not Igbo’s but have Igbo names, culture and also speak the language. It must really be hard.

P.s. Wesley doesn’t mind being called an Igbo man.

We do not have Igbo culture as many of the Igbo practices are strange to us. Our marriage rite is different, our political system is different, our burial custom is different, and most importantly, our value system is different. On our names and language, read my position in my previous posts under this thread

clefstone:
We do not have Igbo culture as many of the Igbo practices are strange to us. Our marriage rite is different, our political system is different, our burial custom is different, and most importantly, our value system is different. On our names and language, read my position in my previous posts under this thread

Run me through your marriage and burial rites briefly, I just want to confirm something. Like I said in my earlier post, how you choose to be identified , I do not have a problem with it.

Sizwezi:


Run me through your marriage and burial rites briefly, I just want to confirm something. Like I said in my earlier post, how you choose to be identified , I do not have a problem with it.

It is not how I choose to be identified, it is the truth about who we are.
One common theme in Igbo marriage is the bride giving palm wine to the groom, that is alien to me. We also do not have the culture of the child is not yours if you haven't paid the bride price. We have very liberal marriage rite and tend to mostly marry outside our tribe.

clefstone:
It is not how I choose to be identified, it is the truth about who we are.
One common theme in Igbo marriage is the bride giving palm wine to the groom, that is alien to me. We also do not have the culture of the child is not yours if you haven't paid the bride price. We have very liberal marriage rite and tend to mostly marry outside our tribe.

About the bolded:

The practising of the bride giving palm wine to the groom is one of those things that only became pan-Igbo in recent decades. I have spoken to Igbo people from all across the Southeast who have told me that it wasn't part of their old marriage practices.

In my own town of Awka I know for a fact that it wasn't part of our marriage rites. The crucial part of marriage rites in my town was the presentation of a fowl by the groom's family to be sacrificed to the spirit of the bride. Our term for 'traditional' marriage was thus "Igbu Ọkụkụ Onye Ụwa" (i.e., Killing a fowl for a girl's Reincarnating Spirit). But nowadays we have adopted the pan-Igbo term "Ịgba Nkwụ", along with the whole wine-carrying ceremony.

I think it is important in conversations like this to underline the fact that a homogenous Igbo culture, even for the Southeast, is a mirage. Some practices have acquired a real or imagined pan-Igbo spread (for example the New Yam Festival, which my own people also do not practice - though we have a feast called Ịra Otite, which we now say is our own New Yam Festival.) But there are still marked differences in customs and traditions from one part of Igboland to the other.

AjaanaOka:


About the bolded:

The practising of the bride giving palm wine to the groom is one of those things that only became pan-Igbo in recent decades. I have spoken to Igbo people from all across the Southeast who have told me that it wasn't part of their old marriage practices.

In my own town of Awka I know for a fact that it wasn't part of our marriage rites. The crucial part of marriage rites in my town was the presentation of a fowl by the groom's family to be sacrificed to the spirit of the bride. Our term for 'traditional' marriage was thus "Igbu Ọkụkụ Onye Ụwa" (i.e., Killing a fowl for a girl's Reincarnating Spirit). But nowadays we have adopted the pan-Igbo term "Ịgba Nkwụ", along with the whole wine-carrying ceremony.

I think it is important in conversations like this to underline the fact that a homogenous Igbo culture, even for the Southeast, is a mirage. Some practices have acquired a real or imagined pan-Igbo spread (for example the New Yam Festival, which my own people also do not practice - though we have a feast called Ịra Otite, which we now say is our own New Yam Festival.) But there are still marked differences in customs and traditions from one part of Igboland to the other.

Thanks for your comment above which just goes to buttress most of what I tried to explain. The Igbo ethnic self-identity is a recent and evolving phenomenon particularly among the Igbo speakers East of the Niger. It is resulting in the adoption of certain customs such as the wine carrying and New Yam festival among these people.

Do you agree with me that there was nothing like Igbo ethnic group pre colonialism, that what we had was various tribes that spoke the Igbo language before the White men came to influence the region?

clefstone:


Do you agree with me that there was nothing like Igbo ethnic group pre colonialism, that what we had was various tribes that spoke the Igbo language before the White men came to influence the region?

Of course. This is well-known and well-acknowledged in academic circles.

What I will add is that the phenomenon where different groups speaking related dialects or lects coalesced into one ethnic group under European/Colonial influence is not restricted to the Ìgbò speakers. Many modern African ethnic groups were formed in a similar fashion.

AjaanaOka:


Of course. This is well-known and well-acknowledged in academic circles.

What I will add is that the phenomenon where different groups speaking related dialects or lects coalesced into one ethnic group under European/Colonial influence is not restricted to the Ìgbò speakers. Many modern African ethnic groups were formed in a similar fashion.

Again, I agree with you and I alluded to that in my original post where I wrote that all major Nigerian ethnic groups are inhomogeneous.


Another question for you: is it possible to be an Igbo speaking tribe and not be Igbo?(Igbo defined as an ethnic group today)

clefstone:


Another question for you: is it possible to be an Igbo speaking tribe and not be Igbo?(Igbo defined as an ethnic group today)

Well, "group-consciousness" is one of the criteria for belonging to an ethnic group. If there are a group of people who share a "language" with another group of people, but do not share a sense of kinship or group consciousness with each other, then they are essentially two distinct groups and not one group. More often than not, they will not even perceive their common "language" as being one language.

If we apply this principle to the Ìgbò situation, I will say that yes, I understand the idea of a group speaking an Ìgbò lect but rejecting the Ìgbò ethnicity tag.

What makes this slightly complicated for me is the fact that there exists within Aboh, Enuani, etc vocal minorities who assert that they are in fact, Ìgbò.

clefstone:
Is Igbo a language, an ethnic group or both

This question has different answers depending on the time in history. However, one thing is constant and that is the fact the Igbo has always been a language spoken among people of the lower Niger tribes, though of varied dialects.
On the other hand Igbo was not an ethnic group before colonialism. The various Igbo speaking tribes at that time were of different origins, had different culture and did not have any central authority. The Aboh man and the Owerri man was as good as the Aboh man and Yoruba man except for language. The Abohs and their immediate Igbo speaking neighbours during this precolonial times regarded the hinterland Igbo speakers as Igbos. The situation is different today, in that most Igbo speakers East of the Niger have by the process of ethnogenesis, triggered by factors such as colonialism and the Civil war become Igbos. However, not all Igbo speaking tribes were influenced by those factors to become Igbos, chief among those is Aboh.

y'all just keep deceiving yourselves. The reason why igbos didn't have a sense of togetherness before colonialism was because we didn't have large kingdoms like the binis or the Yoruba or the fulanis but we're living in small villages dozens of kilometers apart from each other so it unlikely an obosi man would know another man from ukwani unless he was one of the traders who travel a lot . The western igbos and the 'ikwerres'only started denying being Igbo during the civil war to avoid the Nigerian army. They changed the name of their towns like in Rivers where umuokoro became rumuokoro and obigbo became oyigbo. They lied so much that they began believing their own lies probably because they forgot to teach their children the actual truth. Ibanis in Bonny and opobo do not deny being ijaws, nor the oron in bakassi and Cameroon deny being of the same tribe as their fellows in akwa ibom. Even the Taiwanese still claim their han Chinese heritage. 'Ikwerres' and the 'delta igbos' are just being silly clowns. It gets even worse when they claim to be of descendants of bini empire.😂😂

Interesting

victory36:
y'all just keep deceiving yourselves. The reason why igbos didn't have a sense of togetherness before colonialism was because we didn't have large kingdoms like the binis or the Yoruba or the fulanis but we're living in small villages dozens of kilometers apart from each other so it unlikely an obosi man would know another man from ukwani unless he was one of the traders who travel a lot . The western igbos and the 'ikwerres'only started denying being Igbo during the civil war to avoid the Nigerian army. They changed the name of their towns like in Rivers where umuokoro became rumuokoro and obigbo became oyigbo. They lied so much that they began believing their own lies probably because they forgot to teach their children the actual truth. Ibanis in Bonny and opobo do not deny being ijaws, nor the oron in bakassi and Cameroon deny being of the same tribe as their fellows in akwa ibom. Even the Taiwanese still claim their han Chinese heritage. 'Ikwerres' and the 'delta igbos' are just being silly clowns. It gets even worse when they claim to be of descendants of bini empire.😂😂

your claims here are uneducated and are at best based on similar things you were told but did not bother to research.

Explain to me why the Onitsha people did not see themselves as Igbo as late as the 1960s( just before the Civil war). Were they also scared to be called Igbos then because of retribution? Or are you not aware that before the Civil war, the people of Onitsha did not accept being called Igbos

More

clefstone:
your claims here are uneducated and are at best based on similar things you were told but did not bother to research.

Explain to me why the Onitsha people did not see themselves as Igbo as late as the 1960s( just before the Civil war). Were they also scared to be called Igbos then because of retribution? Or are you not aware that before the Civil war, the people of Onitsha did not accept being called Igbos

lies. The same onitsha my mother comes from?

victory36:
lies. The same onitsha my mother comes from?

you have lost the debate already, move on or provide evidence to counter me. "Onitsha that my mother comes from" is very very weak

clefstone:
you have lost the debate already, move on or provide evidence to counter me. "Onitsha that my mother comes from" is very very weak

whatever makes you feel better bro

clefstone:
Again, I agree with you and I alluded to that in my original post where I wrote that all major Nigerian ethnic groups are inhomogeneous.


Another question for you: is it possible to be an Igbo speaking tribe and not be Igbo?(Igbo defined as an ethnic group today)

it will be a hard sell because how ethnic groups are defined in Today's Nigeria is straight forward and it's consistent in a lot of groups. The only group that doesn't seem to necessary follow this template are the Igboid/Igboid tribes.

I remember years ago where you said you have no problem being in an ethnic group with the Igbos. You even suggest a new name for "Bia" speaking people. Your problem then was that you didn't want to be called IGBO.

Is that still your thought process or has it changed?

Afam4eva:

it will be a hard sell because how ethnic groups are defined in Today's Nigeria is straight forward and it's consistent in a lot of groups. The only group that doesn't seem to necessary follow this template are the Igboid/Igboid tribes.

If you consider that Efik, Ibibio and Annang are close enough that many will consider them to be a dialect continuum, or that Urhobo and Isoko of the Southern Edoid branch also share similar closeness and are also on a continuum, or that the Itsekiri is quite simply the Southeastern extention of Yoruba, and is still mutually intelligible with many Yoruba dialects of Ondo State.... If you consider all these, then you'll appreciate that the Igbo/Igboid tribes are not the only ones who don't necessarily follow that template.

RedboneSmith:


If you consider that Efik, Ibibio and Annang are close enough that many will consider them to be a dialect continuum, or that Urhobo and Isoko of the Southern Edoid branch also share similar closeness and are also on a continuum, or that the Itsekiri is quite simply the Southeastern extention of Yoruba, and is still mutually intelligible with many Yoruba dialects of Ondo State.... If you consider all these, then you'll appreciate that the Igbo/Igboid tribes are not the only ones who don't necessarily follow that template.

My bad actually. I think it might be a problem with tribes in the old eastern/delta region.

RedboneSmith:


If you consider that Efik, Ibibio and Annang are close enough that many will consider them to be a dialect continuum, or that Urhobo and Isoko of the Southern Edoid branch also share similar closeness and are also on a continuum, or that the Itsekiri is quite simply the Southeastern extention of Yoruba, and is still mutually intelligible with many Yoruba dialects of Ondo State.... If you consider all these, then you'll appreciate that the Igbo/Igboid tribes are not the only ones who don't necessarily follow that template.

Too many examples.

Nupe (Niger) / Bassa Nge, Kakanda (Kogi) / Kupa (Kogi, Niger) / Koro (FCT)
Idoma (Benue) / Alago (Nassarawa) / Agatu (Nassarawa, Benue) / Yala (Cross River) / Igede (Benue)
Ebira (Kogi Central) / Igbira (Kogi, Kogi East, Nassarawa) / Etuno (Edo)
Atyap (Kaduna, Plateau) / Bajju (Kaduna) / Agworok (Kaduna)

The Ijoid groups like the Kalabari, Okrika, Izon, are somewhere in-between both positions and have sucessfully been able to consolidate. Infact, their effort at consolidation has been so successful that they have been able to bring in so many non Ijaw groups into their union.

On the other end, the Ogoni subgroups of Tai, Eleme and Gokana seem to be doing the opposite. Previously consolidated but beginning to move or drift apart over time due to whatever reasons.

Afam4eva:

it will be a hard sell because how ethnic groups are defined in Today's Nigeria is straight forward and it's consistent in a lot of groups. The only group that doesn't seem to necessary follow this template are the Igboid/Igboid tribes.

I remember years ago where you said you have no problem being in an ethnic group with the Igbos. You even suggest a new name for "Bia" speaking people. Your problem then was that you didn't want to be called IGBO.

Is that still your thought process or has it changed?

So I should identify as Igbo because that is what Nigeria wants even though neither I nor my ancestors feel/felt Igbo.

Your last paragraph is not me, you are mistaking me for someone else

RedboneSmith:


If you consider that Efik, Ibibio and Annang are close enough that many will consider them to be a dialect continuum, or that Urhobo and Isoko of the Southern Edoid branch also share similar closeness and are also on a continuum, or that the Itsekiri is quite simply the Southeastern extention of Yoruba, and is still mutually intelligible with many Yoruba dialects of Ondo State.... If you consider all these, then you'll appreciate that the Igbo/Igboid tribes are not the only ones who don't necessarily follow that template.

thank you

clefstone:
Do we speak Igbo language? Yes our language is undoubtedly a dialect of Igbo. Do we bear Igbo names? Yes, since our language is Igboid, we surely bear names that are Igbo. Are we Igbos? An emphatic NO!

How the above is possible can only be understood if we go back to precolonial Igbo speaking area and what the concept of language and tribes was at the time. Before we get to that point in precolonial times, let us first take a look at how we view tribe and language today

Who is the we? Speak for yourself. How can it be that you speak a people's language, bear their names, share their kingship systems and deities, marriage, dressing and 99% of their customs and traditions yet you want to make the claim that you have nothing to do with them.

The joke is on you.