native Rivers people please explain this

[sapphire]

MIP and Ariya can you all please quote your sources thanks!

[MIprincess]

People just wanted to state that the purpose for this thread was just to bring awareness to the diff groups that exist in Rivers state, because I think when people think Rivers, they think Ijaw, and that isnt the case.

@sapphire, sorry too many to list but if there's a particular one you want, I can post my article reference for that one.

[killayut]

Ijaws and Ikweres have never had any problem in history. The recent problems in Rivers state are caused by migrant Igbos and not Ikweres. The Igbos use Ikwere as the centere where as no Ikwere is actually involed. The original Ikwere towns are CHOBA, Ibaa, Aluu, Ogbakiri, Elele, Eneka, Ozuoba, Isiokpo, Emohua, Alikahia, Igrita... from this nomenclature its obvious theres nothing like rumu or umu as the names of umueme or rumueme or rumuola and co..

The biggest trading partners of the KALABARI ijaws who were the original neighbours of the Ikweres were not Igbos. the KALABARIS CALLED THEM Mbirin or Birin.. and called the Igbos OSUAMA people. At this time there was no port harcourt ( no Igwe ocha ) Okrika villages like abuloma, fimie, isaka and ogu and bolo were over there trying to get rout to the market at Ibaa and Choba.. the Kalabaris effectively blocked them and hence the Okrikas traded with the NGWAS AND NDOKIS. The choba and Ibaa and Igrita people would bring their market to the riverine places to sell to the Ijaws.. There were no UMUEME OR UMUBIAKANI settlements.

When Borokiri was taken by the white men as sold by the Amayanabo of okrika. It was the Kalabari chief Yellow of Bakana that stood as a witness and by 1912 PORT HARCOURT was officially named Port Harcourt cos the KALABARIS AND OKRIKAS would not agree on a name... NO Ikwere or Igbo was involved cos it was a riverine harbour of the BOROKIRI.

The Kalabaris and Okrikas would not work for the white man. so slaves from Igbo land were brought to work at the harbour. These slaves were given places ( hostels or yards ) to live which was built by the white men. These place was diobu...It was originally called Diebu and not Diobu.. corruption made it Diobu.. Diobu became the settlement for migrant workers. interestingly these migrants were mostly Igbos from Igbo land. and as more of them came to settle they started acquiring land... they then started calling acquired land as PROPERTY OF FAMILIES.. hence UMU-EME, UMU-BIAKANI... meaning for the family of eme and for the family of ubakani and so on..

There was no resistance since the Ijaws were busy doing teir fishing business and Ikweres were like 5 to 6 miles away from these areas.

Over the years Nigeria gained independence and these UMUBIAKANI AND UMUEME places remained as places were Nigerians live. ofcourse they were Nigerians and were not expected to go back to their ancestral homes.

Thats how Igbos became a part of Port Harcourt and that was the PORT HARCOURT.... THE TOWNSHIP AT BOROKIRI PLUS THE DIOBU QUARTERS...

AFTER THE CIVIL WAR the Rivers indigenes wanted a true rivers state that exclude the Igbos so they changed the names UMU TO RUMU to reflect Ikwere culture. Ikweres took advantage of that and acquired the places as Ikwere land... Prior to this time.. Igbos of the hinter land have started calling Port harcourt IGWE OCHA..A NICKNAME OF A SORT.

It was only the Okrikas and KALABARIS that fought over the true PORT HARCOURT AND MANY PEOPLE were killed.

Today its funny that Igbos lay claim to places they migrated to.. maybe one day Igbos would lay claim to accra in Ghana.

Port harcourt as can bee seen was not an ancestral home land but a forest land acquired by whites from the OKRIKA Ijaw.

Every other place out side the diobu and borikiri or borokiri areas are not PORT HARCOURT.. hence OMAGWA is Omagwa, choba is choba, Igrita is igrita ISAKA is isaka, ELELE IS ELELE.. pORT HARCOURT IS pORT HARCOURT


Tom.

[superlolo]

@ Killayut