8 Historical Facts About The Ijaws You’ve Never Heard

Over the years, historians have been able to convince us to believe the fact that most of the ethnic groups in Nigeria did not exist as we now know them to be now because most of the groups are a fusion of ancient people.

One of such ethnic groups we’ll talk about today is the Ijaw people of Southern Nigeria. I’ve compiled a list of facts including the history of the Ijaw nation, Ijaw religion, Ijaw language and culture as well as Ijaw names and the unending Ijaw-Itsekiri crisis.

Below is a list of 10 things you may not have heard about the Ijaws…The first ancestral name of the Ijaws was ORU. In colonial documents, they were referred to as the ORU people.

8 Historical Facts About The Ijaws

1. The Ijaw people have some sort of ancestral links with the Yorubas and the Benin people as shown by an examination and comparison of ancestral names by some researchers. Names such as ADUMU, OGU (Ogun) and OGBOGBODIRI who were said to be the first three kings of the Ife dynasty and IGODO, ERE and KALADIRAN who are believed to be the first two and the last Ogisos of the Benin kingdom is still borne by Ijaw individuals but not by the Benin people or the Yorubas.
2. The oldest living variety of the Ijaw language is spoken by the people who inhabit Nkoro and Defaka of Opobo-Nkoro local government area of Rivers state. This is because these people have been living for a very long time at the Eastern extremity of the Niger Delta.
3. The Ijaws are believed to be the original inhabitants of Lagos as given by the fact that in the history of the Yorubas, there was no mention of their inhabiting of a coastal region. The argument can be found here
4. Ijaw tribes include the following according to Wikipedia, and their locations.
5. Ijaws are believed to be one of the first Nigerian ethnic groups to have contact with the Westerners, and they played a very important and active role during the era of slave trades.
6. The Ijaw people are mainly farmers and fishermen. The Nigerian government has failed to tap into the swimming prowess of the Ijaw people, hence, Nigeria’s inability to win any swimming event.
7. The Ijaw people are mainly Christians with Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism predominant in the region. They still revere their culture which they showcase in their boat festivals.
8. One major event which is always mentioned in the history of the Ijaw people is their conflict with their neighbors, often referred to as the Ijaw-Itsekiri crisis.

Phew!

Be sincere, did you know these historical facts about the Ijaws before?