oneeast3:
Europeans came to Onitsha and settled down long before settling in the Niger Delta. Europeans established so many premier colleges in Onitsha like DMGS, CKC, QRC etc,, 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.

You don't know history. It's not about what is established. Ijaw people traded with them long before any other tribe in the east knew about them.

Etinosa1234:


From where u talked abt, read it down

It says that the impression given by Lagos tradition which means the writer was trying to say what the Awori believed.. then the writer goes on to say that according to the traditional history of Benin which was corroborated by an eyewitness Josua Ulsheimer which said that Lagos was a war camp governed by the oba of Benin and it was just a base used to extend control over the area...

Quick question, if it was peaceful infiltration, tell me why Oba Akitoye would have referenced the Benin when he was writing his letter to The British?

And I don't care whether he owned any land there or not... The main issue there is he was a ruler of Lagos

Please, your recount of the history is dubious. Yes the Benin empire must have attacked and maybe successfully infiltrated Lagos. But claiming Lagos as a vassal of Benin is like saying Britain is a vassal of the Roman Empire. The Oba of Benin was not and still isnt the ruler of Lagos

Afam4eva:

Those name are common specifically with Ijaw people of Rivers and Bayelsa state.

Those names came with colonialism. Some ethnic groups tend to romanticize the colonialist more than others.

It predates colonialism. More to do with the mercantile era preceding colonial aspirations.

Those were the names of their trading partners. The Portuguese Dutch English and Scottish merchants that came to trade. Before gunboat diplomacy days.

Bolosiye:
" You should understand that the first set of Whites that arrived in Nigeria were only interested in trading especially on slaves." Posted above i am very certain you did not consult an authority or even manage to to carry out a simple research effort b4 putting this information hia. Now for the records, and i will make it simple and be direct.
The first set of white accidentally discovered Badagary enrout the atlantic to the indian ocean (asia) with the pure motive for trade on spices. It was in the this process that they found a new article of interest that they now establihed a trade with the yoruba and this article was coming from the far interlands. And guess what? It was palm oil that was need to make washing soap for their nascent industry. So let be known that it was first of a trade attraction that brought the white. Then it was later duing the 16th centuries that slave trade swept across europe, America and the united kingdom, because
of the need 4 forced labour in their plantations oversea's which later metamorphosed into the infamous trans atlantic slave trade.

I don't know what exactly you are driving at. I carefully said that the first set of Whites were interested in trading especially on slaves. That means it wasn't only slaves they traded on, and I did not in any way imply that the very first thing they traded on was slaves.

https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/history-of-slavery/west-africa

You can go through that link and get some more info. Pay attention to the quote below:

West Africans had traded with Europeans through merchants in North Africa for centuries. The first traders to sail down the West African coast were the Portuguese in the 15th century. Later the Dutch, British, French and Scandinavians followed. They were mainly interested in precious items such as gold, ivory and spices, particularly pepper.

From their first contacts, European traders kidnapped and bought Africans for sale in Europe. However, it was not until the 17th century, when plantation owners wanted more and more slaves to satisfy the increasing demand for sugar in Europe, that transatlantic slaving became the dominant trade.

Etinosa1234:


Lol... Obviously u've run out of steam so quickly

Hope u saw the keyword eyewitness in the excerpt meaning he was present and saw what happened

Lemme use ur analogy here, the British colonised Nigeria... Where are their lands now in Nigeria.. Or
Let me talk abt The Oyo Empire that ruled far west to close to Ghana.... Does the Alaafin of Oyo presently own lands in such region...
U tend to forget that as the British conquest happened.. the defeated kingdoms lost their empires e.g Benin Empire, Fulani Empire, The Dahomey... Should I go on?

Besides, as at the 1800s the British only recognised the oba of Lagos as the major ruler of the land, the rest were considered chiefs ...

Can u tell me abt the history of the elegushi oba ?

British never planned to stay in Nigeria forever hence they didn't acquire lands like they did in America, Australia, South Africa and Kenya where British and other Europeans own nearly 70% of Lands.

The Yorubas from the powerful Oyo Yoruba empire never imposed Obas on those kingdom in which they controlled. Those kingdom only payed tribute and no one claims those places belong to Yorubas today. E.g. Dahomey belongs to Fon.

However, you people from tiny Bini kingdom tried to stylishly expand your kingdom by imposing an Oba which the local rejected and are still rejecting until today.

You have no Land in Lagos as the land belongs to Aworis. Aworis don't practice Edo culture but the culture of the Yoruba people and pay homage to Ife more than tiny kingdom of Bini.

As for Oba Elegushi history: follow the link below

https://m.guardian.ng/features/oba-elegushi-ten-years-on-the-throne-im-coming-out-with-a-new-style/amp/

Iamgrey5:
@ emboldened is fake history

It was ibadan that actually liberated Akure and most of Ekiti from you Binis.

What you forget about loyalty is once ingrained, it takes another generation at least to remove it. Of course Benin protected Eastern Yoruba from Oyo invasion for a long time. Many were grateful for it.

The so called Ibadan intervention has been totally embellished with Ibadan seeking to upstage in relevance due to Kwara and Afonja fiasco.

IgANephropathy:
Please, your recount of the history is dubious. Yes the Benin empire must have attacked and maybe successfully infiltrated Lagos. But claiming Lagos as a vassal of Benin is like saying Britain is a vassal of the Roman Empire. The Oba of Benin was not and still isnt the ruler of Lagos

Oba of Benin ruled Lagos indirectly, through their Oba

As at now, the Oba doesn't rule any place that is outside of edo state... He is now ceremonial, but there are historical reports that talks abt Benin ruling Lagos indirectly
Ist pic;This is a letter written by Oba Akitoye to the British
2nd pic: An excerpt from the Robert Smith book on the people of Lagos that talks abt when the oba of Lagos stopped paying tributes due to the British intervention

[color=#006600][/color]

Allen102:
Is it not your igbo brother odili who bring militants?

The person you mentioned is not igbo
I wonder why you lots find it easy to call anybody you disagree with igbo.

Bolosiye:
" You should understand that the first set of Whites that arrived in Nigeria were only interested in trading especially on slaves." Posted above i am very certain you did not consult an authority or even manage to to carry out a simple research effort b4 putting this information hia. Now for the records, and i will make it simple and be direct.
The first set of white accidentally discovered Badagary enrout the atlantic to the indian ocean (asia) with the pure motive for trade on spices. It was in the this process that they found a new article of interest that they now establihed a trade with the yoruba and this article was coming from the far interlands. And guess what? It was palm oil that was need to make washing soap for their nascent industry. So let be known that it was first of a trade attraction that brought the white. Then it was later duing the 16th centuries that slave trade swept across europe, America and the united kingdom, because
of the need 4 forced labour in their plantations oversea's which later metamorphosed into the infamous trans atlantic slave trade.

Looks at this article too:

https://rachelsruminations.com/badagry/
History of Badagry slave trade
The guide pointed out that most of the African part of the slave trade was actually carried out by Africans, not Europeans. Slavery was already part of the culture when the Europeans first arrived in the 1400s; slaves were captives after wars or they were criminals, enslaved as punishment. At first, the Europeans could just trade for existing slaves.

The increasing European demand was what spurred Africans to continue capturing and selling slaves, which didn’t end until well into the 1800s. A thriving slave auction arose in Badagry, where slaves were exchanged for weapons, alcohol, and other products from Europe.

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

You are still making the same mistake.


The arguments up there is where did the Europeans first make contact with, but some of you are using the establishment of the earliest schools as alibi to stain history.

European traders came in through the Niger Delta coastal regions and as such, settled and started doing business there in the 15th and 16th centuries. Now juxtapose that with when the missionaries came and when the earliest schools were built in Onitsha and Lagos.

AreaFada2:

What you forget about loyalty is once ingrained, it takes another generation at least to remove it. Of course Benin protected Eastern Yoruba from Oyo invasion for a long time. Many were grateful for it.

The so called Ibadan intervention has been totally embellished with Ibadan seeking to upstage in relevance due to Kwara and Afonja fiasco.

@ emboldened You protected them by killing the Deji of Akure because he wanted freedom from Bini kingdom?

By the way, no one in Ondo or Ekiti today feels affiliated to Edo more than Ife or Oyo empire.

Don't deceive yourself.

Iamgrey5:
1) British never planned to stay in Nigeria forever hence they didn't acquire lands like they did in America, Australia, South Africa and Kenya where British and other Europeans own nearly 70% of Lands.

2)The Yorubas from the powerful Oyo Yoruba empire never imposed Obas on those kingdom in which they controlled. Those kingdom only payed tribute and no one claims those places belong to Yorubas today. E.g. Dahomey belongs to Fon.

3)However, you people from tiny Bini kingdom tried to stylishly expand your kingdom by imposing an Oba which the local rejected and are still rejecting until today.

4)You have no Land in Lagos as the land belongs to Aworis. Aworis don't practice Edo culture but the culture of the Yoruba people and pay homage to Ife more than tiny kingdom of Bini.

As for Oba Elegushi history: follow the link below

https://m.guardian.ng/features/oba-elegushi-ten-years-on-the-throne-im-coming-out-with-a-new-style/amp/

1)The Benin also never planned to acquire land outside .The main reason of their conquest was for trade..

2)Lol Take a reference at Oba Akitoye letter once again

3) Lmaoooooooooooo are u that pained abt Benin history that u can't have a civil debate without insults

4)I never said that we owned Lagos... I said Lagos was a vassal of Benin kingdom ... The written history is there for u to see or u can quietly shift... The Yorubas from Ilorin still pay homage to Ife but still doesn't change the fact that the Fulani are the one still ruling there

5)I never knew that ur obas are historian

Etinosa1234:

Oba of Benin ruled Lagos indirectly, through their Oba

As at now, the Oba doesn't rule any place that is outside of edo state... He is now ceremonial, but there are historical reports that talks abt Benin ruling Lagos indirectly
Ist pic;This is a letter written by Oba Akitoye to the British
2nd pic: An excerpt from the Robert Smith book on the people of Lagos that talks abt when the oba of Lagos stopped paying tributes due to the British intervention

The current statement should be Oba of Bini ruled a very small area of Eko not to be confused with modern Lagos state.

However, the Oba of Bini or Oba of Lagos does not have a single land in Lagos.

Thunderblasts:
My student's Surname that year was fynface and she actually had a fine face. God help those people!
They seem lost.

. You that is not lost, who u epp? Tell me any Southerner without an English middle name. Don't call a whole people lost just cause of Choice of names. Those that answer John, Mikel, Joshua, Gideon, Mathew,etc, na u original name? Just make ur point and don't raise unnecessary dust

Etinosa1234:


1)The Benin also never planned to acquire land outside .The main reason of their conquest was for trade..

2)Lol Take a reference at Oba Akitoye letter once again

3) Lmaoooooooooooo are u that pained abt Benin history that u can't have a civil debate without insults

4)I never said that we owned Lagos... I said Lagos was a vassal of Benin kingdom ... The written history is there for u to see or u can quietly shift... The Yorubas from Ilorin still pay homage to Ife but still doesn't change the fact that the Fulani are the one still ruling there

5)

@ emboldened

How many Binis have ruled Lagos?

Even the likes of Kosoko, Ggbadsmosi and Obanikoro whose name clearly give them away prefer to identify as Yorubas.

Even Oba of Lagos bears a purely Yoruba name.

Iamgrey5:
The current statement should be Oba of Bini ruled a very small area of Eko not to be confused with modern Lagos state.

However, the Oba of Bini or Oba of Lagos does not have a single land in Lagos.

Oh ... Now it's no longer Benin ruled eko... Its now Benin ruled a small area of Eko..
Nice attempt at shifting goalposts... U are doing well

Oya...I've searched the internet and I can't find it... I want u to show written history abt the people of elegushi pre1900... Just any thing abt them

PS: Obas are no historians

codemaniacs:


now you have reduced yourself to insults because you have not proof or points..

during that era there was an OYO identity.

the term Yoruba or Yaruba comes from the Yoruba deity Oya. Yoruba is a combination of Ayo/Oya and oru and Oba.

it means the Joy of God/Goddess/Kings/queens.
it also mean the work of God/Goddess/Kings/queens.

Yorubas always combine words and they existed in the Oyo empire which had many kingdoms within it.

"Oba" was never a yoruba language. Oba is a Benin language, yoruba just adopt it.

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?

Yes we have Yoruba people with names like Pierce, Young, Preston, Cole, Coker, etc in Lagos too

uBuNiT:

"Oba" was never a yoruba language. Oba is a Benin language, yoruba just adopt it.

Hey oba is yoruba language. When will you guys stop lying for God’s sake? Oba is a Yoruba language and we even bear it in our names. It’s Benin who borrowed the language

Iamgrey5:
@ emboldened

How many Bini have ruled Lagos?

Even the likes of Kosoko, Ggbadsmosi and Obanikoro whose name clearly give them away prefer to identify as Yorubas.

Even Oba of Lagos bears a purely Yoruba name.

Why can't u just stay one place?

Obviously if u read a little bit of history, u'll know that Benin ruled indirectly.. the same way u said that Oyo never installed obas but collected tributes from the conquered territory
..
So how many Yoruba have ruled Dahomey

Or how many Yoruba People ruled The nupe tribe

RedboneSmith:


The first people who come in long and sustained contact with white people in most non-European countries always end up bearing the largest burden of cultural erosion from white people.

they had minority thinking

codemaniacs:


colonial mentality and self hate is what caused it.

just like MelesZenawi has said, they threw away their native names.

it has nothing to do with trade, as the br:itish were more interested in wiping off and subjugating the indigenous populations rather than helping them.



for lagos names, the british brought black brazilians and other people of African descent from the American continent to replace the indigenous lagos population. it could be the same with the ijaw, igbos and some people from south south.

even Samuel Ajayi Crowther was not Yoruba, the british just added ajayi to deceive the yorubas in lagos.

I will very much appreciate if you can explain this

Etinosa1234:


Oh ... Now it's no longer Benin ruled eko... Its now Benin ruled a small area of Eko..
Nice attempt at shifting goalposts... U are doing well

Oya...I've searched the internet and I can't find it... I want u to show written history abt the people of elegushi pre1900... Just any thing abt them

PS: Obas are no historians

Something is seriously wrong with you

So Elegushi a son Of Aromire Olofin of Ikate kingdom doesn't have history

So they just happen to control the Land your Oba cannot control in Lagos without a history

Search for Ikate Elegushi history

Etinosa1234:


Why can't u just stay one place?

Obviously if u read a little bit of history, u'll know that Benin ruled indirectly.. the same way u said that Oyo never installed obas but collected tributes from the conquered territory
..
So how many Yoruba have ruled Dahomey

Or how many Yoruba People ruled The nupe tribe

Have you ever seen any Yoruba claim Dahomey or Bariba territories as no man's land.

Tiny Bini kingdom were longing to establish a Lagos where they controlled everything but failed

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.

Very common especially with the Kalabari's. Foreign names like Jack, Bob-manuel, Briggs, Captain, Robertrshaun, Wilcox etc. It is obviously due to prolong contacts with the early European voyagers and missionaries.

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.

I know a Horsfall from Calabari

Iamgrey5:
Something is seriously wrong with you

So Elegushi a son Of Aromire Olofin of Ikate kingdom doesn't have history

So they just happen to control the Land your Oba cannot control in Lagos without a history

Search for Ikate Elegushi history

Stop being in pain... If the British had come in contact with any set of people called "elegushi" don't u think it would have been documented or they just hate u guys

Why can't u show me the history of the elegushi pre 1900 ? Why are u referring me to recent history written by the oba himself and u think it won't be void of bias?

History has already documented Benin ruling over Lagos but a pained nairaland in the year 2020 doesn't want to believe n

AreaFada2:

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 sabir, 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.

God bless you for this reply. Some people are very difficult to reason with. It's much more difficult to unlearn than it is to learn

uBuNiT:

"Oba" was never a yoruba language. Oba is a Benin language, yoruba just adopt it.

Please don't even try to say the word 'Oba' is from Benin...

Yoruba people has Oyo, Ondo, Lagos, Osun, Ekiti, Kwara and Kogi states with proudly Yoruba's...Yoruba tribes in Republic of Benin have Obas who know they are of Yoruba roots and they are proud of it..

The ancestors of Edo Bini knows that they can't claim that Oba word at all.

We need history back in our classes abeg.. All these Confucian people self

Summary: Those families were owned by slave masters.


MrOjay1, I don't know if anyone has told you this but Rivers state used to be an export centre for slaves from West Africa. Most of the towns in the riverine communities were founded as a result of slave trade for example, Opobo town. The average Rivers indigene would deny the hell out of this but the history is there in his surname.

When these slaves were paid for, awaiting export to there new owners home, the buyer NAMES them in a similar fashion to livestock owners branding their cattle after payment. Some of these slaves were physically branded too. It was terrible.

Those saying it was as a result of extensive contact with the white man are saying half truths. Were other tribes in Northern Nigeria not in contact with the colonizers? Do the Rivers people think they were more intimately in contact with these foreigners than the Hausa tribe in the North (whom they clandestinely handed over management of the company country to after independence)? Why do those tribes not have English surnames?

All these would not have happened if our forefathers refused to sell their kinsmen to foreigners as slaves. That is why all over the world, till tomorrow, black people are seen as subhumans and it shows, check my signature.

Iamgrey5:
Have you ever seen any Yoruba claim Dahomey or Bariba territories as no man's land.

Tiny Bini kingdom were longing to establish a Lagos where they controlled everything but failed

Obviously u've already lost the argument... Kindly refer me to when I claimed that Lagos was a no man's land...

Its not my fault that history is not ur calling

AreaFada2:

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 sabir, 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.

Even the word boku is of Portuguese origin