Mozino007:
When i was in bonny island,i asked one of my friends named Bristowe d same question n answer he gave was dat in d olden days,bonny was used as center of slave trade.The Portugees took many of their forefathers as slave to western part of d world,d lucky ones who received western education was able to locate their origin back to Nigeria n b4 they left their colonial masters hav already gav them names...lik,pepple,halliday,bristow,brown...etc

That Bonny man doesn't know his history

zz

Iamgrey5:
So Yorubas never existed in Lagos(Aworis the true owners of Lagos Aka Aromire), Ilaje Land, Ishekiri or Port Novo to be involved in those trade?
Bini Kingdom is not a riveraine Kingdom.

How organised were Aworis? Poor organisation made Benin taking over the area easy. Benin brought the organisation, central administration long established in Benin to Eko. Even Eko that Benin gave the area stuck until Portuguese later came and named it Lagos for the lagoon.

Almost everywhere would have had aboriginal people, from America to Australia. Today date Ottawa, New York or Sidney were founded are not given as dates aborigines founded them, but when the organised Europeans arrived.

As Benin not being a riverine place, an important River in Delta State is still called Benin River. Ughoton or Gwatto River Port from where Oba Ovonramwen boarded a ship to exile to Calabar is near Benin.

Remember by this point in history, riverine people still considered the inland Oba as their father. Especially the Urhobo who left Benin area not quite 150 years earlier

MrOjay1:



i have always thought it was the yorubas(the ones living in Lagos) that first came in contact with the Europeans.

And the Europeans also lived long in YorubaLand(Lagos) before permeating other regions.

They stayed long enough in Lagos to establish the first mission school(Badagry and CMS)...so why weren't their surnames influenced?

History really needs to be reintroduced in our curriculum.

Firstly, there is no competition for who first had contact with Europeans. It is not a contest.

Secondly, CMS was extablished in 1859. Centuries after European contact so this is not a valid argument point.

If you have any Ijaw friend you will notice their traditional names are often hard to pronounce even for a Nigerian. Most white traders firstly Portuguese had early contact with them and had to use Alias's to name their partners which often stuck.

Lagos was one of the first regions to have European contact, so did the South south region and every costal region in West Africa that had something for them to steal. If the Yorubas didn't adopt British names and the South south people did then it's not a contest. Some yoruba's bear surnames like Williams too. It's not a contest

Iamgrey5:
There was a southern Nigeria that didn't include Most of Yoruba land as they were part of Lagos Colony..

Google is your friend.

as far as you doesn't include....that's okay

zz

oneeast3:
Europeans came to Onitsha and settled down long before going to Niger Delta. Europeans established so many premier colleges in Onitsha like DMGS, CKC, CRK, etc, before even looking to the direction of Rivers state, but it didn't make the Onitsha people that started having contacts with Europeans way back in 1500AD to threw away their origin.

Even the oldest missions in the old eastern region comprising of Rivers state were established by the British in Onitsha. It proves another point that they settled more in Onitsha than anywhere in the present day Niger delta, but still yet the people the British met in Onitsha never threw away their origin.

DMGS was established in 1925, CKC in 1933.
Do you know when the Portuguese first arrived Bini? It was in the 15th century.
I'm Igbo, but please let's not bring that bragging thing into this thread.

Kennydoc:


DMGS was established in 1925, CKC in 1933.
Do you know when the Portuguese first arrive Bini? It was in the 15th century.
I'm Igbo, but please let's not bring that bragging thing into this thread.

Show us the schools they established elsewhere outside Lagos that predated DMGS or CKC. Those establishments are the indicators of settlement in an area.

zz

It's cause most of the islands were created from slavery, the slaves adoped the dominant language in the area which was ijaw that they used for trading. That's why ijaw language is not d same

codemaniacs:


share pictures of good infrastruture in Port Harcourt, Kaduna, and Enugu in 1960 is prove and support this. the only college of that time was UI, UNN was built by igbos. how many hospitals and schools were there compared to year 2020.

My comment was to correct the impression you had that the colonial left us with nothing.

I have made the argument elsewhere on this site that Nigeria under independence built up more infrastructure than the colonials.

oneeast3:



Earlier exploers in the Niger Delta of Nigeria?

yes including Lagos then further inland to Benin and maybe Onitsha.

kikero:


My comment was to correct the impression you had that the colonial left us with nothing.

I have made the argument elsewhere on this site that Nigeria under independence built up more infrastructure than the colonials.

they left us with nothing that is the truth...

codemaniacs:


the Yorubas taught the binis everything they know today...

the british were not here to trade or any useless missionary work..

what did they have that the Africans did not already have

the british and their e:uropean friends came to Africa to steal, to kill and to destroy Africa and replace the indigenous population.

Educate yourself better. To avoid embarrassment publicly. The Portuguese initially had no interest in colonialism or slavery in Africa.

America that later needed slaves to work plantations was not discovered yet.

The British only reached Benin in 1553. It was their surprise at the organisation and superb administration that they penned it down as Benin City.
No Yoruba town had anything close around that time.

When Benin had an Embassy in Lisbon, produced a priest trained in Lisbon, the prince who later as king founded Eko, was trained as a priest too, Navigator/sailor at the Royal Military Academy in Portugal.

CMS founder of Yoruba schools was not even founded yet in UK yet, let alone reaching Yorubaland to bring Education.

MrOjay1:



But how come the first mission school in Nigeria was establishes in Badagry?

... If dey did not have a long stay in yoruba how come they established a colony in the 1860's at Eko, which eventally became the modern day lagos?

stonemasonn:
yes including Lagos then further inland to Benin and maybe Onitsha.

Why are niger Deltans not bearing portugese names since they came before the British in that region.

oneeast3:



Show us the schools they established elsewhere outside Lagos that predated DMGS or CKC. Those establishments are the indicators of settlement in an area.

So are you saying the Europeans arrived the South East in the 20th century, since their first schools were built around that time? If they arrived much earlier, what were they doing till the 20th century?

AreaFada2:


How organised were Aworis? Poor organisation made Benin taking over the area easy. Benin brought the organisation, central administration long established in Benin to Eko. Even Eko that Benin gave the area stuck until Portuguese later came and name it Lagos for the lagoon.

Almost everywhere would have had aboriginal people, from America to Australia. Today date Ottawa, New York or Sidney were founded are not given as dated aborigines founded them, but when the organised Europeans gave them.

As Benin not being a riverine place, an important River in Delta State is still called Benin River. Ughoton or Gwatto River Port frim where Oba Ovonramwen boarded a ship to exile to Calabar was is near Benin.

Remember by this point in history, riverine people still considered the inland Oba as their father. Especially the Urhobo who left Benin area not quite 150 years earlier

Oba of Lagos has no Land of his own in Lagos outside where his palace is situated. Bini didn't actually conquer the Aworis, the Aworis welcome Bini with open hand because of Oba of Bini affinity to Ife.

Same thing happened in Ibeju area of Lagos


By the way, same thing happened to the ishekiris.

etibaba:
Rivers and Bayelsa state have really funny names and surnames sha. Heineken, lyon, Manager, Suffernomore, Inspector, Advantage, not forgetting the chairman of a political party "Secondus".

I was shocked to see Police, Nurse, as names. Ijaw people in my school. I used to think they were picked from the street and decided to have such funny names

Zandesher:


Even the capital of Rivers State - Port Harcourt is westernized. Bayelsa is also not far behind.

So is Lagos

zz

Even since the oppressors realized that an Average African is willing to offer his brothers and sisters in exchange for a few lenght of cloths and reflective mirrors, they realized how cheap we were and have offered us various baits uptill today to ensure we will never take control of our destinies.
First it was African slave trade which use our African youths as cheap method of powering their nascent industries. When they realized that such cheap labor could also expose them to overpopulation of Africans that could in future take over the land they stole from American Indigenous tribes (indigenous tribes that also made the same mistakes as Africans) their Thinkers came up with the idea of colonization.
To make colonization easier they set their religious bodies out to soften the ground. By accepting their religion and education, we became disoriented and they achieved what Achebe described thus:*They put a knife to what held us together, and we no longer act as one. * You see it goes, they give us their religion, give us their education and their language and we thought they love us. Alas, it was a decoy. It is called ' giving before taking'.
When Colonialism no longer yield the desired dividend, they changed to Neo colonialism and the to engender their sham democracy. We were
granted fake independence and we thought we have come of age not knowing that one form of slavery have given way to another. In Democracy particular is an important political thought they used in conning us. According to them Democracy is Government of the people, by the people, for the people. Those who knew that Democracy is deception. The truth is nobody elects anyone except they the oppressors are behind the so called elected. For instance, in 2015 we had an election but only few was aware that the opposition defeated the incumbent only the because the opposition was the choice of the oppressor. If it was the elected him, why did he not work for the people? Why is he working for the imperialists?, Democracy is sham.
Until we return to African root, until we jettison their education and reinvent ours, until drop their religion and beg our Creator to forgive us, until we return to the medicines of our forefathers and yawn for the African cuisine that maintained good health for ages,. Until we teach our children the African morals and return to the economy which sustained our heritage for millions of years, Africa will continue to grope in the dark.

Kennydoc:


So are you saying the Europeans arrived the South East in the 20th century, since their first schools were built around that time? If they arrived much earlier, what were they doing till the 20th century?

Show me any school in Rivers state that are older than DMGS and CKC, both in Onitsha, since the British first settled in Rivers state, according to you.

MrOjay1:
I've noticed the for a long time now that many Rivers state indigenes bear westernized surnames like Blankson, Douglas, Perricosta, Souza, Graham, Peterson, McColumbus, etc.

I have seen indigenes of Rivers who bear the above listed surnames alongside other ones too numerous to mention.Was there any kind of foreign culture influx in Rivers State that influenced these surnames?? Or have they just been bearing these kind of surnames right from inception?

I need opinions on this.

Bob-manuel, Young, Green etc

codemaniacs:


they do not born any benin king, queen or person well to take over lagos due to the large population of Yorubas in that area.

note that people in the country benin republic are also yorubas. any attack on any yoruba village or town in that era will have resulted in the surrounding villages taking revenge and yorubas in that era had the strongest military force in west Africa.

Yoruba is where you see educated people but not enlightened. They assume they know better and thereby rush into arguments.

At that point there was no Yoruba identity in 16th century. It was Awori, Ijebu, Egba, Oyo, Owo, Ekiti, Ife, etc. Hausa people later called the above group of people Ya.riba, meaning traitors, untrustworthy.

Go to Idugaran and find out about history of Lagos.

LASG might the have the history on its website. It had it during Fashola regime.

MrOjay1:


OK.Why didn't this happen amongst other tribes too?Because i know the Europeans also had a hard time pronuncing their names

what's the capital of Rivers state? Answers your question?

RedboneSmith:


These names are as a result of very extensive contact with European traders, from the 16th century on. The European traders had a hard time pronouncing the native names of their Ijaw and Efik trade partners. So they either Europreanised their native names or gave them pure European aliases which stuck. Yellowe for instance was Europeanised from Iyala; Horsfall from Osifolo. Henshaw, Ephraim, Duke, Hogan, Cobham, etc all have native Efik equivalents which I don't remember offhand.

Yellowewest, is this true?

See what the exclusion of History as a subject has caused? Too much distorted information. Even me sef, I'm an ignoramus in the history of Nigeria.

E no go better for Nigerian politicians.

oneeast3:



Show me any school in Rivers state that are older than DMGS and CKC, both in Onitsha, since the British first settled in Rivers state, according to you.

You should understand that the first set of Whites that arrived in Nigeria were only interested in trading especially on slaves. They had absolutely no interest in the civilization of Nigeria. Western civilization began when the missionaries arrived, and that's why the first schools were established by the missionaries.
The missionaries first arrived Nigeria through Lagos, and their first port of call in the old Eastern Region was Onitsha. This explains why the oldest schools in Nigeria are in Lagos and the oldest in the South East and South South are in Onitsha.

I didn't say the British first arrived Rivers State. I wasn't the one who made that statement. I said the Portuguese first arrived Benin in the 15th century. As at then, Igbo land had not yet had any contact with the Whites.

stanisbaratheon:


All are missionary schools na. They have been trying to convinced you people that the missionaries came much more later after the traders but you guys just wouldn't understand.

And you think it was the traders that established the schools? Missionaries brought education not traders

They are Saros or descendants of Portuguese traders, missionaries and freed slaves.

codemaniacs:


if all this is true then binis will be speaking portuguese. so it is a big lie to make you guys have a false and fake sense of history.

all African towns had organized villages and huts... the same portuguese that enslaved black brazilians in that era would have enslaved the binis if they ever had contact with the binis. every european was interested in the slavery and colonialism of black people especially in that era..

Oh actually Benin elite people spoke Potuguese pidgin until late 19th century.

How do you think a word like sabi or over sabi came into pidgin English? Why do you think Niger Delta still shape pidgin? Because pidgin European languages have a long history there.

Sabi comes from Portuguese saber, which is "to know". From old Latin that today is Saber in Spanish, savoir in French and Sabere in Italian.

Many of us don't just speak pidgin in SS. The words were known to our ancestors hundreds of years back. Of course English later displaced Portuguese. Until 1918, end of First World War, Togo, and much of Cameroon spoke German as German colonies. French has since displaced German.

I write my epistle not for those who argue blindly but for reasonable people silently reading.