The ijaw man and his history
- The Ijaw people, one of Nigeria's largest ethnic groups, are renowned for their vibrant culture, which is steeped in tradition and rich heritage. Recently, the Ijaw community came together to celebrate their cultural identity with a series of colorful festivals and customs.
The Ijaw culture is characterized by its strong emphasis on community, respect for elders, and a deep connection to the natural environment. The Ijaw people are predominantly found in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, where they have lived for centuries, developing a unique culture that is shaped by their history, mythology, and traditions.
One of the most significant Ijaw festivals is the "Owou-Aruese," which is celebrated annually to mark the beginning of the fishing season. During the festival, the Ijaw people gather at the riverbank to perform traditional dances, sing folk songs, and make offerings to the gods of the sea.
Another important aspect of Ijaw culture is the "Pere-Semighan" ceremony, which is performed to initiate young men into adulthood. The ceremony involves a series of rituals and tests, which are designed to prepare the young men for the responsibilities of leadership and manhood.
The Ijaw people are also known for their expertise in traditional crafts, such as woodcarving, basket-weaving, and textile production. Ijaw artisans are renowned for their beautiful and intricate designs, which are often inspired by the natural environment and the mythology of the Ijaw people.
In a statement, the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) praised the Ijaw people for their efforts to preserve their cultural heritage, despite the challenges posed by modernization and urbanization. "Our culture is our identity, and we must do everything possible to protect and promote it," said the IYC spokesperson.
The celebration of Ijaw culture is not limited to the Ijaw people alone; it is also an opportunity for people from other cultures to learn about and appreciate the rich heritage of the Ijaw nation. As one visitor noted, "The Ijaw culture is a treasure trove of traditions, customs, and values that are worth learning about and preserving."
ODUDUWA), that ORU Princes who derived ultimately from Nubia (ancient Sudan) established city states in the Southern Nigeria region. Their names have come down to us as the ancestors ADUMU, ASARA, UJO, IGODO, NANA, ALA-FUN. These city states gave birth to different ethnic nationalities through the process of fusion and ethnic intermarriage. This is reflected in the ancestral traditions of the Ijos.
The ancestor who is known as Ujo or Ijo is also known in traditional Ile-Ife history as Idekoseroake. He is also known by the titles “Kalasuo" and "Indo-Oru'. His identification as ORU, means that he was of the tribe of Oru. His identification as Kumoni, means that he was of the tribe of Kumoni (the section that hailed from Upper Egypt), therefore he was Kumoni-Oru. In Ife traditional history it is believed that he died before his father. It is also stated that he died at Ife, although it is not known for sure that he did. All that is known is that King Adumu (alias Oduduwa) lost the service of a number of powerful and warlike sons early on during his reign. Where they went or what happened to them has never been explained by contemporary accounts at Ife. On the other hand Ijo traditions maintain that Ujo (i.e. Idekoseroake) migrated from Ife along with some brothers and a large entourage. Since these traditions are accurate and can be corroborated in regards to the foundation of Benin and Ife , then we can take it that they are also true in regards to the origins of the ancestors of the Ijo people.
Ijwa Clan Ancestry / Tribes
The ancestor UJO, IJO (alias IDEKOSEROAKE), also known as UZON, IZON, IZONOWEI, KALASUO, ORU, INDO-ORU & OGULABIOWEI. THE FIRST PERE (RULER) and ancestor of the whole ethnic nationality.
The Ijaw ethnic group consists of 40 loosely affiliated tribes. These clans are based along kinship lines and/or shared cultural and religious traditions.
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 four million people.
There are two prominent groups in ijaw council .
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.
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). These groups speak Delta Edoid languages. The Ogbia clan, Andoni people, as well as residents of Bukuma and Abuloma (Obulom) speak Cross River languages.
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).
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.
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.
Political system
People in the eastern region of the delta traditionally lived in small villages and towns that were run by a system of chiefs who were family or clan heads. High status is normally awarded in accordance with elaborate hierarchical systems and often results only after payments have been made to those already holding titles. People from the western and central Delta regions acknowledged no central authorities until the British.
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
Owafiya (Beans Pottage)
— A pottage made with Beans, palm oil, fish or bushmeat, Yam or Plantain. Then taken with processed Cassava or Starch.
Geisha Soup
— This a kind of soup cooked from the geisha fish, with just adding, pepe, salt, water and Boiling it for some minutes.
Opuru-fulou — Also referred to as prawn soup, prepared mainly with prawn, Ogbono (Irvingia gabonensis seeds), dried fish, table salt, crayfish, onions, fresh pepper, and red palm oil. Onunu; made with pounded yams and boiled overripe plantains mostly enjoyed by the Okrikans
Kiri-igina
— Prepared without cooking on fire with Ogbono (Irvingia gabonensis seeds), dried fish, table salt, crayfish
Ignabeni — A watery soup prepared with either yam or plantain seasoned with teabush leaves, pepper, goat meat, and fish.
Marriage
There are two forms of marriage, both involving bride-wealth. In a small-dowry marriage, the groom must offer a payment to the wife’s family, which is typically cash. In this type of marriage, the children trace their line of inheritance through their mother to her family. This means that when they grow up the children have more choices as to where they can live: with their father’s or mother’s people.
The second type of marriage is a large-dowry marriage, which means that the children belong to the father’s family. These marriages are rare, and wives are not usually from the local community.
There is high rate of polygamy among the Ijaws. Most men have at least two wives. Each wife has her own bedroom and kitchen, usually in a single house. Ijo wives are not ranked, and ideally, each is treated equally and has equal access to her husband.
Ijaw Traditions
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.
Egbesu is the god of warfare and the spiritual foundation for combating evil. He can can only be invoked in defence or to correct an injustice by people who are in tune with the universe.Recently, members of the cult, known as the Egbesu Boys, have been fighting against authorities in the Niger Delta in response to environmental and economic problems caused by oil exploitation. Young men who have joined the cult undergo initiations which impart the powers of Egbesu. The initiation involves being etched with scars on some hidden part of the body. Followers often believe the charms and the cult initiations make them bulletproof.
Religion
Although the Ijaw are now primarily Christians (95% profess to be), with Catholicism and Anglicanism being the varieties of Christianity most prevalent among them. The Ijaw 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.
Myths (Creation)
“There was a once a large field,and in this field stood an enormous Iroko tree with large buttresses. At the sides of the field appeared pairs of men and women, each woman holding a broom and each man a bag. As the women swept the field the men collected the dirt into their bags. And the dirt was manilas [wealth]. Some collected ten or more manillas, others none, and when the field was swept clean they disappeared back into the edges of the field, two by two. The sky darkened, and there descended on the field a large table, a large chair, and an immense ‘Creation Stone’, and on the table was large quantity of earth. Then there was lightning and thunder; and Woyingi descended. She seated herself on the chair and placed her feet on the ‘Creation Stone’.
Out of the earth, on the table Woyingi moulded human beings. But they had no life and were neither man nor woman, and Woyingi, embracing them one by one, breathed her breath into them, and they became living beings. But they were still neither men nor women, and so Woyingi asked them one by one to choose to be man or woman, each according to their choice. Next Woyingi asked them, one by one, what manner of life
each should like to lead on earth. Some asked for riches, some for children, some for short lives, and all manner of things. And these Woyingi bestowed on them one by one, each according to their wish. Then Woyingi asked them one by one by which manner of death they would return to her. And out of the diseases that afflict the earth they chose each a disease. To all these wishes Woyingi said, ‘So be it’.
Cultural material (art, music, games)
The most famous of the Ijaw art is definately the traditional river masks made from carved wood, which embody water spirits (owuamapu). Mostly these are depictions of human heads built up of geometric shapes and combined with animal and abstracting qualities.
Musically, the Ijaw have traditionally used drums, percussion planks and other idiophones. These are still used during cultural festivals to accompany dances such as the Fisherman’s Dance, the Egbelegbele Sei and the Wind and Trees Dance in addition to horns and other contemporary instruments.
New types of music have popped up over the years as well, including a genre of gospel which sounds a bit more like reggae or ska, making much use of trumpets and other horns, than American gospel. Popular music of the Ijaw seems to hold to this emphasis on horn, percussion, and steady, slow beats as well.
Another art form the Ijo are famous for is the memorial screen, which is a carved plank of wood depicting the deceased. They were made when members of trading families died and were kept in the trading house and given offerings of food and drink.
Death and afterlife beliefs
It is believed that one is always being watched by the spirit of his ancestors and must show appreciation to the dead and pray to them for future well being. Before each meal, one offers a bit of their food to the ancestors by tossing it to the ground and calling out the names of his ancestors, and every eight days, food and drink are set out specifically for them. Every seven years a goat’s blood is sprinkled in front of images or pillars representative of the ancestors. It is against tribal law to speak badly of a spirit. If someone does speak ill of the dead and refuses to apologize, the insulted family retaliates by speaking against his dead family. When apologies are made, they all perform an atonement ceremony.
One can also pray to the spirits at special shrines to ask for help in emergencies. Everyone has two souls - the eternal ego and the life force that dies with the body. Both souls leave the body with the last breath, but the life force can also leave before death at times of great fear. If this soul does not return, the body dies. The eternal soul leaves the body on the last breath and takes the form of a ghost, shadow, or reflection, so it’s considered dangerous to step on a shadow. Mirrors are often used so evil spirits will strike the image of the soul reflected in the mirror and not the actual soul.
As in many religions across the world, there is a Ghost King, Nduen-Ama; and a ghost messenger, Ffe,who appears as a skeleton and brings death upon a person by striking him at the base of the skull with a large staff; a ferryman, Asasaba, who brings good souls across the river of death to be reincarnated into trees, animals or other living things.Although different ethnic groups believe in different forms of reincarnation for good and bad souls, all believe in karma. For example, in one tribe, a good soul could become a cow, elephant, or leopard; in another tribe, good people may be reborn as trees, whereas in a third tribe, only evil people become plants after they die.
Ijaws give respect their ancestors. Ancestors are revered and loved. To speak ill of them, though, is taboo.
Adornment
Women braid their hair or crop it close and wear it under a head cloth. Men crop their hair short. Both men and women of all ages wear necklaces of huge coral beads on formal occasions. Beads are also made of ivory, but only the rich wear these.
The day to day wears of the Ijaw man is a shirt and trouser made of a wax material. While the ceremonial dress of the Bayelsa man is a big long-sleeved shirt worn over a long piece of wrapper tied from the waist down to the ankle and most times thrown over the shoulder.
A blouse is worn over a wrap tied from the waist to just below the knee for young girls and unmarried women, while married women wear a wrap from waist to ankle and the blouse worn on top with a wrap tied over it from waist to knee. The ceremonial dress for women is the same pattern, but with higher quality fabric and worn with a head tie and beads. Women of royal blood may wear the two wraps without the blouse, as can maidens during wedding ceremonies.
In conclusion, the Ijaw people's celebration of their cultural heritage is a testament to the enduring power of tradition and community. As the Ijaw nation continues to evolve and grow, it is clear that their rich cultural heritage will remain an integral part of their identity and a source of pride for generations to come.
Composed by. Eric Azibataram
Email us @ericazibataram24@gmail.com