Ijaw (also known by the subgroups "Ijo " or "Izon " are a collection of peoples indigenous mostly to the forest regions of the Bayelsa , Delta , and Rivers States within the Niger Delta in Nigeria . Some are resident in Akwa- Ibom , Edo , and Ondo states also in Nigeria . Many are found as migrant fishermen in camps as far west as Sierra Leone and as far east as Gabon along the
Western Africa coastline and the Dakolo Family that migrated from Ghana notable from the family is Timi
Dakolo.
The Ijo population is estimated to be over 10 million people. They have long lived in locations near many sea trade routes, and they were well connected to other areas by trade as early as the 15th century. [2] The former President of Nigeria , Goodluck Jonathan , is an Ijaw.
Language
Main article: Ijaw languages
The Ijaw speak nine closely related Niger–Congo languages , all of which belong to the Ijoid branch of the Niger–Congo tree. The primary division between the Ijo languages is that between Eastern Ijo and Western Ijo, the most important of the former group of languages being Izon , which is spoken by about ten million people. There are two prominent groupings of the Izon language. The first, termed either Western or Central Izon (Ijaw) consists of Western Ijaw speakers: Ekeremor , Sagbama (Mein) , Bassan, Apoi , Arogbo, Boma (Bumo), Kabo (Kabuowei) , Ogboin, Tarakiri, and Kolokuma-Opokuma
( Yenagoa ). [ citation needed] Nembe , Brass and Akassa (Akaha) dialects represent Southeast Ijo (Izon). [citation needed ]. Buseni and Okordia dialects are considered Inland Ijo. [ citation needed ].
The other major Ijaw linguistic group is Kalabari. Kalabari is considered an Eastern Ijaw language but the term
"Eastern Ijaw" is not the normal nomenclature. Kalabari is the name of one of the Ijaw clans that reside on the
eastern side of the Niger-Delta (Abonnema, Buguma, Bakana, Degema etc.) who form a major group in Rivers
State, hence their involvement in the fight for greater oil control. Other "Eastern" Ijaw clans are the Okrika , Ibani (the
natives of Bonny, Finima and Opobo) and Nkoroo . They are neighbours to the Kalabari people in present-day
Rivers State , Nigeria .
Other related Ijaw subgroups which have distinct languages but very close kinship, cultural and territorial ties with
the rest of the Ijaw are the Epie-Atissa , Engenni (also known as Ẹgẹnẹ), and Degema (also called Udekama or
Udekaama). [3] These groups speak Delta Edoid languages . The Ogbia clan, Andoni people , as well as residents of
Bukuma and Abuloma ( Obulom) speak Cross River languages . [ citation needed ]
It was discovered in the 1980s that a nearly extinct Berbice Creole Dutch, spoken in Guyana, is partly based on Ijo
lexicon and grammar . Its nearest relative seems to be Eastern Ijo, most likely Kalabari (Kouwenberg 1994).
Origin
Their settlement in the delta was from the earliest of times. Unfortunately not much is known about this period, only
that traditionally it is said that these early ancestors “dropped from the sky” (i.e. to say the Orus were of divine
origin), and were devotees of a spiritual culture that made much use of the waters (hence the mermaid and water
people legends “Beni-Otu”) They were later to be joined by other ancestors “Kumoni-Orus” from about 400 CE, and
650 CE (AD), who, after settling first in the Nupe and Borgu regions, then the Ile-Ife region, moved to the Benin
region via Nupe, and Ife. [4]
In the Benin region they eventually settled and launched expeditions into the Niger Delta, where they came across
remote settlements of the Orus, whom they termed “ancient people”. But because they were also ultimately Oru,
from the beginning they established communities as one people. The Ijos were known by the two names of Kumoni
or Oru up till the time of the 19th century. European visitors noted the name Oru as a distinct term for Ijaw.
Likewise the compilers of the Izon/English dictionary noted that “to speak Kumoni is to speak pure Izon language”.
The term Ijo (Ijaw) or Izon evolved as the name of the whole ethnic nationality through time, even though as a
personal name it derived from one ancestor who was known as Ujo, whom as we have previously mentioned,
represents the time when the Ijos evolved as a distinct separate people from their neighbours. [4]
Tribes
The Ijaw ethnic group consists of 50 loosely affiliated clans. These clans are based along kinship lines and/or
shared cultural and religious traditions.
Name State Alternate Names
Akassa Bayelsa Akaha, Akasa
Andoni Rivers/Akwa Ibom Obolo
Apoi (Eastern) Bayelsa
Apoi (Western) Ondo
Arogbo Ondo
Bassan Bayelsa Basan
Bille Rivers Bile, Bili
Bumo Bayelsa Boma , Bomo
Bonny Rivers Ibani, Ubani
Buseni Bayelsa Biseni
Egbema Delta / Edo
Operemor Delta / Bayelsa Operemor,
Ekeremo,Ojobo
Ekpetiama Bayelsa
Engenni Rivers Ngeni
Epie-Atissa Bayelsa
Furupagha Edo
Gbaranmatu Delta Gbaranmatu
Gbaran Bayelsa Gbarain
Iduwini Delta
Isaba Delta
Kabo Delta Kabowei, Kabou
Kalabari Rivers
Kolokuma Bayelsa
Kula Rivers
Kumbo Delta Kumbowei
Mein Delta
Nembe Bayelsa
Nkoro Rivers Kala Kirika
Obotebe Delta
Odimodi Delta
Ogbe Delta Ogbe-Ijoh
Ogbia Bayelsa
Ogboin Bayelsa
Ogulagha Delta Ogula
Okordia Bayelsa Okodia, Akita
Okrika Rivers Wakirike
Olodiama (East) Bayelsa
Olodiama (West) Edo
Opobo Rivers
Opokuma Bayelsa
Oporoma Bayelsa Oporomo
Oruma Bayelsa Tugbene
Oyakiri Bayelsa Beni
Seimbiri Delta
Tarakiri (East) Bayelsa
Tarakiri (West) Delta
Tungbo Bayelsa
Tuomo Delta
Ukomu Edo
Zarama Bayelsa
Traditional occupations
The Ijaw were one of the first of Nigeria's peoples to have contact with
Westerners, and were active as go-betweens in the slave trade between
visiting Europeans and the peoples of the interior, particularly in the era
before the discovery of quinine, when West Africa was still known as the
"White Man's Graveyard" because of the endemic presence of malaria.
Some of the kin-based trading lineages that arose among the Ijaw
developed into substantial corporations which were known as "houses";
each house had an elected leader as well as a fleet of war canoes for use in
protecting trade and fighting rivals. The other main occupation common
among the Ijaw has traditionally been fishing and farming.
Being a maritime people, many Ijaws were employed in the merchant
shipping sector in the early and mid-20th century (pre-Nigerian
independence). With the advent of oil and gas exploration in their territory,
some are employed in that sector. Other main occupation are in the civil
service of the Nigerian states of Bayelsa and Rivers where they are
predominant.
Extensive state-government sponsored overseas scholarship programs in
the 1970s and 1980s have also led to a significant presence of Ijaw
professionals in Europe and North America (so-called Ijaw diaspora).
Another contributing factor to this human capital flight is the abject poverty in their homeland of the Niger Delta,
resulting from decades of neglect by the Nigerian government and oil companies in spite of continuous petroleum
prospecting in this region since the 1950s.
Lifestyle
The Ijaw people live by fishing supplemented by farming paddy- rice, plantains , yams , cocoyams, bananas and
other vegetables as well as tropical fruits such as guava, mangoes and pineapples ; and trading. Smoke-dried fish,
timber , palm oil and palm kernels are processed for export. While some clans (those to the east- Akassa , Nembe ,
Kalabari, Okrika and Bonny ) had powerful chiefs and a stratified society, other clans are believed not to have had
any centralized confederacies until the arrival of the British. However, owing to influence of the neighbouring
Kingdom of Benin individual communities even in the western Niger Delta also had chiefs and governments at the
village level.
Marriages are completed by the payment of a bridal dowry , which increases in size if the bride is from another
village (so as to make up for that village's loss of her children). Funeral ceremonies, particularly for those who have
accumulated wealth and respect, are often very dramatic. Traditional religious practices center around "Water
spirits" in the Niger river, and around tribute to ancestors .
Religion and cultural practices
Although the Ijaw are now primarily Christians (95% profess to be), with Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism being
the varieties of Christianity most prevalent among them, they also have elaborate traditional religious practices of
their own. Veneration of ancestors plays a central role in Ijaw traditional religion, while water spirits, known as
Owuamapu figure prominently in the Ijaw pantheon. In addition, the Ijaw practice a form of divination called Igbadai,
in which recently deceased individuals are interrogated on the causes of their death.
Ijaw religious beliefs hold that water spirits are like humans in having personal strengths and shortcomings, and
that humans dwell among the water spirits before being born. The role of prayer in the traditional Ijaw system of
belief is to maintain the living in the good graces of the water spirits among whom they dwelt before being born into
this world, and each year the Ijaw hold celebrations in honor the spirits lasting for several days. Central to the
festivities is the role of masquerades, in which men wearing elaborate outfits and carved masks dance to the beat
of drums and manifest the influence of the water spirits through the quality and intensity of their dancing.
Particularly spectacular masqueraders are taken to actually be in the possession of the particular spirits on whose
behalf they are dancing.
The Ijaw are also known to practice ritual acculturation ( enculturation), whereby an individual from a different,
unrelated group undergoes rites to become Ijaw. An example of this is Jaja of Opobo, the Igbo slave who rose to
become a powerful Ibani (Bonny) chief in the 19th century.
There are also a small number of Converts to Islam the most notable being the founder of the Delta People
Volunteer Force , Mujahid Dokubo-Asari .
Food customs
Like many ethnic groups in Nigeria, the Ijaws have many local foods that are not widespread in Nigeria. Many of
these foods involve fish and other seafoods such as clams, oysters and periwinkles; yams and plantains. Some of
these foods are:
Polofiyai — A very rich soup made with yams and palm oil
Kekefiyai — A pottage made with chopped unripened (green) plantains, fish, other seafood or game meat
("bushmeat" and palm oil
Fried or roasted fish and plantain — Fish fried in palm oil and served with fried plantains
Gbe — The grub of the raffia-palm tree beetle that is eaten raw, dried, fried in groundnut oil or pickled in palm oil
Kalabari "sea-harvest" fulo— A rich mixed seafood soup or stew that is eaten with foofoo , rice or yams
Ethnic identity
Formerly organized into several loose clusters of villages ( confederacies ) which cooperated to defend themselves
against outsiders, the Ijaw increasingly view themselves as belonging to a single coherent nation, bound together
by ties of language and culture. This tendency has been encouraged in large part by what are considered to be
environmental degradations that have accompanied the exploitation of oil in the Niger delta region which the Ijaw
call home, as well as by a revenue sharing formula with the Nigerian Federal government that is viewed by the Ijaw
as manifestly unfair. The resulting sense of grievance has led to several high-profile clashes with the Nigerian
Federal authorities, including kidnappings and in the course of which many lives have been lost. The Ijaw people
are resilient are proud. Long before after the colonial era, the Ijaw people traveled by wooded boats and canoes to
Cameroun, Ghana and other West African countries. They traveled up the River Niger from River Nun.
Ijaw-Itsekiri conflicts
Main article: Warri Crisis
One manifestation of ethnic violence on the part of the Ijaw has been an increase in the number and severity of
clashes between Ijaw militants and those of Itsekiri origin, particularly in the town of Warri.
Deadly conflicts had rocked the South-South region, especially in Delta State, where intertribal killings had resulted
in death in both sides. [5] [6] In July 2013, local police discovered mutilated corpses of 13 Itsekiris killed by Ijaws,
over dispute over the candidate for a local council chairman. Several Itsekiri villages, including Gbokoda, Udo,
Ajamita, Obaghoro and Ayerode-Zion on the Benin river axis, were razed down while several Itsekiris lost their lives.
[7]
Oil conflict
Main article: Nigerian Oil Crisis
The December 1998 All Ijaw Youths Conference crystallized the struggle with the formation of the Ijaw Youth
Movement (IYM) and the issuing of the Kaiama Declaration. In it, long-held Ijaw concerns about the loss of control
of their homeland and their own lives to the oil companies were joined with a commitment to direct action. In the
declaration, and in a letter to the companies, the Ijaws called for oil companies to suspend operations and
withdraw from Ijaw territory. The IYM pledged “to struggle peacefully for freedom, self-determination and ecological
justice,” and prepared a campaign of celebration, prayer, and direct action 'Operation Climate Change ' beginning
December 28, 1998.
In December 1998, two warships and 10-15,000 Nigerian troops occupied Bayelsa and Delta states as the Ijaw
Youth Movement (IYM) mobilized for Operation Climate Change . Soldiers entering the Bayelsa state capital of
Yenagoa announced they had come to attack the youths trying to stop the oil companies. On the morning of
December 30, 1998, two thousand young people processed through Yenagoa, dressed in black, singing and
dancing. Soldiers opened fire with rifles, machine guns, and tear gas, killing at least three protesters and arresting
twenty-five more. After a march demanding the release of those detained was turned back by soldiers, three more
protesters were shot dead including Nwashuku Okeri, Ghadafi Ezeifile and Onwinkron Ibe. The head of Yenagoa
rebels- Chief Onwinkron Ibe- was burned alive in his mansion on December 28, 1998. Amongst his family members
to flee the premises before complete ruins was his only son, Desmond Ibe. The military declared a state of
emergency throughout Bayelsa state, imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew, and banned meetings. At military
roadblocks, local residents were severely beaten or detained. At night, soldiers invaded private homes, terrorizing
residents with beatings and women and girls with rape.
On January 4, 1999 about one hundred soldiers from the military base at Chevron ’s Escravos facility attacked Opia
and Ikiyan , two Ijaw communities in Delta State. Bright Pablogba, the traditional leader of Ikiyan, who came to the
river to negotiate with the soldiers, was shot along with a seven-year-old girl and possibly dozens of others. Of the
approximately 1,000 people living in the two villages, four people were found dead and sixty-two were still missing
months after the attack. The same soldiers set the villages ablaze, destroyed canoes and fishing equipment, killed
livestock, and destroyed churches and religious shrines.
Nonetheless, Operation Climate Change continued, and disrupted Nigerian oil supplies through much of 1999 by
turning off valves through Ijaw territory. In the context of high conflict between the Ijaw and the Nigerian Federal
Government (and its police and army), the military carried out the Odi massacre , killing scores if not hundreds of
Ijaws.
Recent actions by Ijaws against the oil industry have included both renewed efforts at nonviolent action and
militarized attacks on oil installations but with no human casualties to foreign oil workers despite hostage-takings.
These attacks are usually in response to non-fulfilment by oil companies of memoranda of understanding with their
host communities.
Ijaw organizations
Andoni Forum USA (AFUSA)
Ijaw Youth Council
Ijaw National Congress
Ijaw Elders Forum
Ijaw Youth Congress
Congress of Niger Delta Youths
National Union of Izon-Ebe Students
Sagbama Youth Movement
Ekine Sekiapu Ogbo
Bomadi Decides
References
1. ^ "Ijaw People" . Ijawfoundation.org. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
2. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20060206090831/http://www.uiowa.edu:80/~africart/toc/people/Ijo.html .
Archived from the original on February 6, 2006. Retrieved April 15, 2006. Missing or empty |title= ( help )
3. ^ Kari 2004
4. ^ a b "INAA - Ijaw National Alliance of the Americas" . Ijaw-naa.org . Retrieved 2016-02-09.
5. ^ "Communal Clash Causes Tension In Delta As Ijaw Youths Kill Four Itsekiri | INFORMATION NIGERIA" .
Informationng.com. 2013-07-03. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
6. ^ "Brother against brother: Reigniting Itsekiri, Ijaw tensions - The Nation Nigeria" . Thenationonlineng.net.
2014-11-23. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
7. ^ "Ijaw/Itsekiri Crisis: Police Recover Gory Corpses Of Slain Uduaghan Kinsmen" . Sahara Reporters.
2013-07-09. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
Other sources
Human Rights Watch, “Delta Crackdown,” May 1999
Ijaw Youth Movement, letter to “All Managing Directors and Chief Executives of transnational oil companies
operating in Ijawland,” December 18, 1998
Project Underground, "Visit the World of Chevron: Niger Delta", 1999
Kari, Ethelbert Emmanuel. 2004. A reference grammar of Degema. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
Hlaváčová, Anna: Three Points of View of Masquerades among the Ijo of the Niger River Delta.In: Playful
Performers: African Children's Masquerades. Ottenberg, S.- Binkley, D. (Eds.)
External links
Nigeria portal
Ijaw Foundation
The Ijaw Language Dictionary Online
Ethnologue: Ijaw Linguistic Tree
Ijo People
American Museum of Natural History: The Art of the Kalabari Masquerade
The Warri Crisis: Fueling Violence - Human Rights Watch Report, November 2003
The Adaka Boro Centre
"Blood Oil" by Sebastian Junger in Vanity Fair , February 2007 (accessed 28/1/2007), deals partly with the
Ijaw
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Ijaw people
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Regions with significant populations
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ijaw_people

They are accommodating

Nice one

Good job. We shall decide how our resources are used someday.

Apoooo! Me Wey be correct ijaw girl sef no fit read the article finish. Thanks for sharing though but try and arrange it easier to read

dollyjoy:
They are accommodating

Too accommodating sometimes

Ijaws have always been nice people until marginalisation turned some of us into violent restive people...

A great people. A brave nation.

Hitherto very peaceful and accommodating till decades of marginalisation and exploitation turned some of us into very violent and hardened men and women.

The current agitation, though probably misused and abused by some opportunists amongst us, is a quest for recognition, economic freedom and ultimate survival.

Proudly Izon.

God bless the Izon people.

God bless all those who seek to subdue oppression.

God bless all the courageous people on the Earth.

Ahhhhh Izon !

We're are the Igbos who claimed ijaw are their brothers. This will disappoint a lot of them. Thesame ijaw they claimed to be their brothers is even closer to the western part Nigeria than the eastern part. Food for thought! !!

sammyj:
We're are the Igbos who claimed ijaw are their brothers. This will disappoint a lot of them. Thesame ijaw they claimed to be their brothers is even closer to the western part Nigeria than the eastern part. Food for thought! !!

U r looking for Igbos head now o, eh hmmmm. Pls don't say I witnessed it o

dimieprincess:

U r looking for Igbos head now o, eh hmmmm. Pls don't say I witnessed it o

Obviously you want to destroy this beautiful thread with your disparaging remarks.
Leave the Igbos alone.
Wisdom. Wisdom, my princess.

dearpreye:


Obviously you want to destroy this beautiful thread with your disparaging remarks.
Leave the Igbos alone.
Wisdom. Wisdom, my princess.

Pls my dear Igbos forgive me o, was joking o

dimieprincess:

Pls my dear Igbos forgive me o, was joking o

That was a very needless but purile joke.

By the way, I'm your Izon brother.

This thread is about the Izon people.

Thanks bro for the advise. One love !!!

Udmaster:
are you not tired of tribalistic ranting all the time?
Igbo and ijaws were neighbours just like Yorubas and Benins were neighbours.
Almost all tribes in southern Nigeria were neighbours to atleast three or four other tribes. So whats ur fuss now?
Or are you still angered by Igbos solidarity support for GEJ an Ijaw man?
Thats Maturity and A result of Our Egalitarian nature.
Stop this ur way and grow a new leaf.
Hatred put you in a cage.

No way will i read all those crap up there. Terrible write-up, jam-packed like a thrash-can.

The only thing i noticed about the ijaws is: they are too restive and mostly uneducated. Though their elites are to be blamed for this, men SaroWiwa described as "political vultures".

God bless the ND and Nigeria.

waxxydude:
No way will i read all those crap up there. Terrible write-up, jam-packed like a thrash-can.

The only thing i noticed about the ijaws is: they are too restive and mostly uneducated. Though their elites are to be blamed for this, men SaroWiwa described as "political vultures".

God bless the ND and Nigeria.

I guess u r from the West or Middle Belt or East or else u better shut up because there is no tribe in the Niger Delta u can compare to the Ijaws in terms of education. Name your tribe let us start from Justices of Supreme Court to High Court, Professors etcetera

Udmaster:
you opened an educative thread and just messed it up with a tribalistic jibe.

Can't someone joke again? abbah, I even apologised

dearpreye:
A great people. A brave nation.

Hitherto very peaceful and accommodating till decades of marginalisation and exploitation turned some of us into very violent and hardened men and women.

The current agitation, though probably misused and abused by some opportunists amongst us, is a quest for recognition, economic freedom and ultimate survival.

Proudly Izon.

God bless the Izon people.

God bless all those who seek to subdue oppression.

God bless all the courageous people on the Earth.

tubara mina? ?....

Na wayo structure of the country Don turn us to irked people oo...

Izonpikin:
tubara mina? ?....

Na wayo structure of the country Don turn us to irked people oo...

You can't push a man and then tell him where to fall.

Op, how is Ijaw 10million, pls kindly breakdown the distribution of figures.

HopeAtHand:
Op, how is Ijaw 10million, pls kindly breakdown the distribution of figures.

Ikwerre wanna be u don come again, leave Ijaw thread for Ijaw naa...

dollyjoy:
They are accommodating

Confess now.

Which of us accommodated you?

AnakinSkywalker:

Confess now.
Which of us accommodated you?

"You"

Paka ye goye goye

O dein na gborubu ke si me!

O na te?

Moni ama apu? Nde omini? O ko kpain wereh?

Ibiba o na teh.

HopeAtHand:
Op, how is Ijaw 10million, pls kindly breakdown the distribution of figures.

First of all, Ijaws are more than 10m people; the article says more than 10m.
Secondly, you don't know who is Ijaw or where they are found so u better keep shut.
For your information, 40% of the indigenous people of Rivers are Ijaw people

No paragraph?

...

After a march demanding the release of those detained was turned back by soldiers, three more
protesters were shot dead including Nwashuku Okeri, Ghadafi Ezeifile and Onwinkron Ibe. The head of Yenagoa
rebels- Chief Onwinkron Ibe- was burned alive in his mansion on December 28, 1998. Amongst his family members
to flee the premises before complete ruins was his only son, Desmond Ibe.




Are you see what I am sawing?

Any explanation for the highlighted? The Ijaws truly interacted with Ndiigbo alot in the pre colonial and colonial days.

What happened to our once peaceful and happy co existence
Nice thread, OP. Atleast I couldn't dictate any iota of Igbophobia from the entire lengthy write up.