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Itsekiri people

Yoruboid subgroup of Delta State, Nigeria From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Itsekiri people
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The Itsekiri (also called the Isekiri, Jekri, Itsekri and Ishekiri and historically as Warree and all its variant spellings),[3] are an ethnic group who mainly inhabit the western Niger Delta area in Edo and Delta states.[4] The Itsekiri speak a Yoruboid language and number around 1.1 million people,[2] concentrated mainly in the Warri South, Warri North and Warri South West local government districts of Delta State as well as the adjoining portions of Edo and Ondo on the Atlantic coast of Nigeria.[5] The Itsekiri ethnic homeland covers an area of around 3,836 km².

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Large Itsekiri indigenous communities and populations can also be found in seven other local government areas of Delta state outside the aforementioned places, namely in; Okpe, Uvwie, Udu, Sapele, Ethiope West, Ethiope East and Burutu areas in the Delta central and Delta south senatorial districts of Delta State, Nigeria.[6][7][8]

Other significant communities of migrated Itsekiris can be found resident in various Nigerian cities including; Lagos, Benin City, Port Harcourt and Abuja. Many people of Itsekiri descent also reside in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada. The Itsekiris are closely related to the Yoruba of South Western Nigeria and also close to the Urhobo and Edo peoples.[9] The Itsekiris traditionally refer to their land as the Kingdom of Warri or 'Iwere' as its proper name – which is geographically conterminous with the area covered by the three Warri local government districts. The area is a key centre of Nigeria's crude oil and natural gas production and petroleum refining and the main town of Warri (a multi-ethnic metropolis) forms the industrial and commercial nucleus of the Delta State region.[10]

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Ethnography

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An expository on the Itsekiri people by a chief (Ojoye) of the Warri Kingdom

The Itsekiri are a people of mixed ethnic origins who speak a language very closely related to the Yoruba of south western Nigeria and more remotely to the Igala language of central Nigeria.[11] They exhibit a blend of cultural practices from the Ilaje, Ijebu, Ife and Benin peoples. Historically, they engaged early with the Portuguese during the European Age of Discovery, leading to the infusion of portuguese trade terminologies. The Itsekiri were one of the first people in what is now Nigeria to establish contact with the Portuguese who were exploring the West African coast. More recently, they also established relations with the British/English. Although linguistically related to the Yoruba and Igala ethnic groups, modern day Itsekiris, through centuries of intermingling, are of mixed ethnic origins. They are most closely related to the Southeastern Yorubaland sub-groups, namely - Ijebu, Akure, Ikale, Ilaje, Ondo and Owo, the Edo people, the ife and the olukumi of Delta North. The Itsekiri today are mainly Christian (Protestant and Roman Catholic) by religion.[12]

Thus, having had six centuries of direct cultural exposure to Western Christianity and other African influences, contemporary Itsekiri language and culture has successfully evolved into what may be termed "a hybrid of the many cultures" that have influenced its history and development. Similarly, owing to the complex genetic mix of most Itsekiris over the centuries, many individuals self-identifying as Itsekiri would usually be a complex mix of any of the aforementioned ethnic and racial groups. Thus, modern day Itsekiris may be the only southern Nigerian ethnic group to be almost totally heterogeneous (mixed) in its genetic composition. The total absence of any dialectal variation in the Itsekiri language is also unique for the region and is most likely the result of the early coalescing of the Itsekiri people into a small and highly centralised nation state from the 15th century (1400s) onward.[13]

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History

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Early Origins

The Itsekiri people are an ethnic group with a rich history that dates back several centuries before the founding of the Kingdom of Warri. According to oral traditions and records from Itsekiri historians like J.O.S Ayomike, Itsekiris were formed by several groups of tribes who spoke Yoruba dialects and practiced Yoruba religion[3] which migrated in early antiquity into the western Niger delta region and established several communities, among them; Inorin, Ugborodo, Irigbo, Ureju and Omadino.[14] These Yoruba groups are remembered today and referred to as Umale or Egungun, spirits or mythical beings,[3][15] and the period as the Egungun or Umale period, since not much was documented in writing during this period of early Itsekiri history, making much of the recounting of their epoch semi-mythical in nature.[16][17]

These umale people are believed in Itsekiri society to be the owners of the blue coris beads. Some of them refused to submit to the authority of Olu Iginuwa by paying tribute, and are said to have gotten into canoes and 'disappeared' into the creeks, never to return or be seen again. Others, such as Itsekiri himself (after whom the country was named, and who was also part of the pre-Ginuwa Umale group) chose to remain and accept the lordship.[18] These oral traditions are likely allegorical accounts describing the complex inter-group relations between the incoming royal group and the aboriginal group of Yoruba stock already 'on ground', but with no centralized kingship structure.

The Yoruba tribes that made up the Itsekiri people were primarily from the Ijebu, Mahin, Ugbo, Owo (Ọ̀ghọ̀), Igala and Ile-Ife regions. These groups were collectively known by the ethnonym "Olukumi", with "Olukumi" translating to mean "my friend" in the itsekiri language. This name was used to refer to the Yoruba people for centuries.[19]

The Yoruba connection of the Itsekiri was noted and recorded by several historians and European scholars of the exploratory and colonial period.

The ethnologist Henry Ling Roth, in his work Great Benin: Its Customs, Art and Horrors (1903), observed:

It is curious that though the Jekri chiefs were undoubtedly of Benin origin, and of the royal line, the Jekri people are evidently more Yoruba than Benin.[20]

A British Parliamentary report from 1893 similarly stated:

The Jakri tribe occupies the lower part of the Benin River, extending to the Forcados to the southward, and to the Mahin country to the northward. The tribe is distinct from the Benin and Sobo people, but is said to be connected with the Yorubas.[21]

Likewise, Captain H. L. Gallwey, British Vice-Consul in the Niger Coast Protectorate, wrote in 1893:

First we come to the Jakris, who are connected in race and language with the Yoruba people, extending from the Mahin country on the west to the Forcados on the east, and inland about as far as Sapele.[22]

Formation of the Warri Kingdom

Main article: Warri Kingdom

A significant event in Itsekiri history occurred sometime before the year 1480 when Olu Ginuwa left the Kingdom of Benin due to a royal imbroglio within the palace, to found the Kingdom of Warri in the creeks of the western Niger river delta and was able to successfully coalesce the different pre-existing communities into a single kingdom with the capital at Okotomu Irigbo, later renamed Ode-Itsekiri. Shortly after this time, some Benin people who were chasing after Olu Ginuwa joined the pre-existing aboriginal Yoruba group in the area and founded the settlement of Okere.[23]

The Kingdom of Warri has continued on to the present day with the Olu, Ogiame Atuwatse III currently ruling as the king of Warri Kingdom. The Warri Kingdom's historical capital is Ode-Itsekiri (also called "Big Warri" or "Ale Iwerre"), although the monarch's main palace is in the main tonship of Warri.[24]

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Itsekiris and the Europeans

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The Itsekiri people were among the first ethnic groups in present-day Nigeria to come into contact with Europeans. Their earliest recorded interaction occurred along the Benin River, which the Itsekiri call Odo-Okun. The first Itsekiri settlement to be documented was Tebu, around the year 1500, by the Portuguese explorer Duarte Pacheco Pereira. In his work Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis, Pereira wrote:

By this channel towards the sea is a village called Teebuu and on the other side are some more villages.

— Duarte Pacheco Pereira, Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis

[25]

The Itsekiri acted as middlemen between European traders and the various communities of the hinterland. This role brought them significant wealth and influence, and many European visitors remarked on their intelligence, trade skill, and sophistication.

The British explorer Mary Henrietta Kingsley described the Itsekiri (whom she referred to as the "Jakri") in highly favorable terms:

The Jakri tribe are, without doubt, one of the finest in the Niger Coast Protectorate; many of their present chiefs are very honest and intelligent men, also excellent traders. Their women are noted as being the finest and best looking for miles round. The Jakri women have already made great strides towards their complete emancipation from the low state in which the women of neighbouring tribes still find themselves, many of them being very rich and great traders.

— Mary H. Kingsley, West African Studies

[26]

Also, Major Arthur Glyn Leonard, a British soldier and ethnographer who visited the Niger Delta in the early 1900s, wrote:

On the Warri and Benin rivers we find the Jekri middle-men, who are not only the most intelligent and tractable, but quite the best mannered of all the tribes.

— Arthur Glyn Leonard, The Lower Niger and Its Tribes

[27]

Another European traveler and scholar, Sir Harry Hamilton Johnston, also commented on the Itsekiri in his account The Niger Delta:

The people of the Jekri country are in some respects superior in local indigenous civilisation to the inhabitants of the rest of the delta, and have a considerable show of wealth, which is manifested especially upon their persons…. they wear the most magnificent silks, which are specially ordered for them from Europe, and they are also especially fond of coral.

— H. H. Johnston, The Niger Delta

[28]

Trade

The early trade between the Itsekiri people and the Europeans brought several cultural and economic influences to the kingdom of warri. Among these was a transformation in dressing styles and the introduction of new agricultural products such as cassava. The Europeans are credited with teaching the Itsekiri methods of processing cassava into products like starch and garri. In turn, the Itsekiri traded cassava and its derivatives with neighboring tribes across southern Nigeria. Through these exchanges, cassava gradually spread across other parts of the country.[29]

Documentation of cassava cultivation in the Itsekiri region dates back to the 17th century. The Dutch geographer Olfert Dapper recorded the presence and use of cassava in 1668 in his work Description of Africa, noting that:

The inhabitants also cultivate Mandihoka [manioc] (cassava) from which they make flour in order to bake bread.

— Olfert Dapper, Description of Africa, 1668

[30]

John (Jean) Barbot likewise recorded cassava among local products, writing:

They have store of palm-trees, lemons, oranges and Guinea pepper, or maleguetta, and an infinite number of banana trees, as also of magnoc bushes, which they call Mandi-boka in their language, of which they make the Cassava, or Farinha de Pao, that is in Portuguese wood-meal, which is the bread they commonly feed on.

— John Barbot, A Description of the Coasts of North and South-Guinea; and of Ethiopia Inferior, vulgarly Angola, London, 1732

[31]

These early European records highlight the role of the Itsekiri in the spread and trade of cassava and its products within the Niger Delta and beyond.

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Itsekiris today

The Itsekiri, though a minority group within Nigeria, have one of the oldest histories of western education in West Africa, and the Itsekiri in particular have a sense of pride associated with western education. In the Warri Kingdom, one the earliest instances of the pursuit of a western education by a Nigerian was by an Itsekiri prince in 1600.[32] and are noted for producing one of its earliest university graduates – the Olu of Warri Kingdom, Olu Atuwatse I, Dom Domingo[33] who graduated from Coimbra University, Portugal in the year 1611.[3]

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Culture

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The Itsekiris traditionally lived in a society that was governed by a monarch (the Olu) and a council of chiefs (the Ojoyes)[34] who form the nobility or aristocracy. Itsekiri society itself was organised along the lines of an upper class made up of the royal family and the aristocracy – the 'Oloye and Olare-Aja'. These were mainly drawn from noble houses including the Royal houses and the houses of Olgbotsere (traditional Prime minister or 'King maker') and Iyatsere (Defence or war minister). The middle class or Omajaja were free-born Itsekiris or burghers. As a result of the institution of slavery and the slave trade there was a third class 'Oton-Eru' or those descended from the slave class whose ancestors had come from elsewhere and settled in Itsekiriland as indentured or slave labourers.[35] In modern-day Itsekiri society the slave class no longer exists as all are considered free-born. In line with this evolution, the use of the term Omajaja was also formally abolished from the Itsekiri vocabulary by the Olu of Warri, Olu Atuwatse III CFR.[36][37]

Traditionally, Itsekiri men wear a long sleeved shirt called a Kemeje, tie a George wrapper around their waist and wear a hat with a feather stuck onto it. The women wear a blouse and also tie a George wrapper around their waist. They wear colourful head gears known as 'Nes' (scarf) or coral beads. Itsekiris are also famed for their traditional fishing skills, melodious songs, gracefully fluid traditional dances and colourful masquerades and boat regattas.[38] Annual Itsekiri festivals include; Awankere or Umale Okere and Ghigho Aghofen (Palace watch).

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Religion

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Before the introduction of Christianity in the 16th century,[39] like many other African groups, the Itsekiris largely followed a traditional form of religion known as Ebura-tsitse (spirit and ancestor worship) which has become embedded in modern-day traditional Itsekiri culture. They believe in an omnipotent but aloof supreme being or 'God' called Oritse,[15] while some of the most prominent deities include; Umale Okun, the deity of the sea and owner of wealth and prosperity whose main centre of worship is in the village of Ogheye by the sea;[15] Ife (Ifa), the all-knowing oracle whose corpus is divided into 256 Esen (verses); Ogun or Àdá, the deity of war and hunting associated with Ire,[15][40] and whose symbol is a sword. Ogun is believed to have paved the path for the other gods; Alẹ, the earth god associated with the literal ground; the Ebura, which are legendary beings, creatures and entities; the Umale which are ancestral spirits and primordial forces;[3][15] and Origho or Ori, literally meaning 'head' which is the personal or family deity of every Itsekiri individual.[41]

Roman Catholicism, though the earliest and dominant form of western Christianity in Itsekiriland for centuries,[3][42] is practised by only a minority of Itsekiris today with the majority being Protestants notably Baptists and Anglicans.

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Itsekiri language

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Quick facts Yoruboid, Geographic distribution ...
Main article: Itsekiri language

Whilst the modern Itsekiris are a complex mixture of the many different ethnicities and races that have settled in their area over time, the Itsekiri language is very closely related to the Ilaje and other south-eastern Yoruba dialects and more remotely to the Igala.[43] It has also been influenced significantly by the Bini, Portuguese and English languages due to centuries of interaction with people from those nations. However, it remains a key branch of the Yoruboid family of languages,[44] even retaining some archaic or lost elements of Yoruba from the Proto-Yoruba language period due to its relative isolation in the Niger-Delta where it developed away from the main cluster of Yoruba language dialects.[citation needed]

Unlike nearly all key Nigerian Languages, the Itsekiri language does not have dialects and is uniformly spoken with little or no variance in pronunciation apart from the use of 'ch' in place of the regular 'ts' (sh) in the Idiolect (personal pronunciation nuances) of some individual Itsekiris, e.g. iCHekiri instead of the standard iSHekiri (the name of the ethnic group) or CHaninomi instead of the standard SHaninomi (an Itsekiri name meaning 'have mercy on me'). However, these are individual pronunciation traits rather than any wide reaching dialectal differences. This may or may not be a relic of past dialectal differences during the period before consolidation of the various Yoruba groups into one (Ethnogenesis of the Itsekiri), for instance, the particular trait (Use of [CH] in place of [SH]) is a key feature in the dialect of the Owo Yoruba group. In modern times, both the English language and Nigerian Pidgin continue to exert strong influences on the Itsekiri language, both influencing its development and in their widespread usage as first languages amongst the younger generation, leading to gradual language loss.[45] Modern standard Yoruba (the variety spoken in urban western Nigeria) also appears to be influencing the Itsekiri language partly due to the similarity between both languages and the ease of absorbing colloquial Yoruba terms by the large Itsekiri population living in Western Nigerian cities. Itsekiri is now taught in local schools up to university degree level in Nigeria.[3]

There are a number of semi-autonomous Itsekiri communities such as Ugborodo, Koko, Omadino and Obodo whose history predates the 15th-century establishment of the Warri Kingdom. The Ugborodo community claims direct descent from the Ijebu a major Yoruba sub-ethnic group.[46]

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Notable people

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References

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