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Histria da
O povo Urhobo
do Delta do Níger
Other Books from Urhobo Historical Society
Ekeh, Peter P., editor (2004), Warri City & British Colonial Rule in Western
Niger Delta. Lagos, Nigeria: Urhobo Historical Society.
Ekeh, Peter P., editor (2005), Studies in Urhobo Culture. Lagos, Nigeria:
Urhobo Historical Society.
Urhobo Historical Society’s books are distributed in the United Kingdom and
Europe by
African Books Collective

P. O. Box 721
Oxford, OX1 9EN
UK
Tel:/Fax: +44(0)1869-349110
orders@africanbookscollective.com
www.africanbookscollective.com
In North America, they are distributed by
Michigan State University Press

1405 South Harrison Road, Suite 25
Manly Miles Building
East Lansing, MI - 48823-5245
Phone: 517/355-9543
FAX: USA 517/432-2611- International 800/678-2120
msupress@msu.edu
www.msupress.msu.edu
History of
The Urhobo People

of Niger Delta
Edited by
Peter P. Ekeh
©Urhobo Historical Society

Published by
Urhobo Historical Society
www.waado.org
Nigerian Contact Address:

P. O. Box 13675
Ikeja, Lagos
Telephone: 234-080-2309-3105
USA Address:
P. O. Box 1454
Buffalo, New York 14226
© Urhobo Historical Society 2007
ISBN: 978-978-077-288-8
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.
Cover Design by Anne Warner,

Wanner Design Graphics, USA
Preface
Knowledge of Urhobo history is considered by many students of Urhobo history and
culture to be inadequate at several levels. For instance, there are no standard texts on Urhobo
history, even at the stage of elementary and secondary school education. Years ago,
individual efforts produced locally manufactured pamphlets on topics that their authors
considered to be urgent. Such publications, some of which provided significant information
and analysis, usually had restricted circulation and poor life spans. Even that limited tradition
of what was sometimes unfairly labelled as “pamphleteering” has now gradually died away.
Happily, Professor Onigu Otite’s recent (2003) revision of his important and
pioneering volume, The Urhobo People, has met with widespread acclaim for providing
vital and usable information on Urhobo institutions and values. Needless to say, there is
pressing need for other volumes that will specifically address problems of historical
scholarship in Urhobo studies. In the view of many students of Urhobo history and culture,
there is now a critical shortage of reading material on significant events in Urhobo social
development, both ancient and recent.
It must not be imagined that Urhobo’s experience is unique in this matter of shortfall in
the histories of Nigerian peoples. During colonial times, the majority of books on Africa were
on ethnographic studies of African peoples, who were then tagged as tribes. African
nationalist sentiments questioned the value of those books. Moreover, dominant scholars of
modernization theory of the 1960s and 1970s chose to focus on the emerging states of Africa,
rather than on their ethnic fragments, as their preferred units of analysis. At the Nigerian
national level, there has been a silent policy which encourages the dissemination of historical
material that has Nigeria-wide significance, while it frowns on the genre of books that appear
to focus on local or ethnic histories. Less silent is a restrictive endorsement of what is
considered national. Only three of Nigeria’s ethnic groupings -- Hausa-Fulani, Igbo, and
Yoruba – now appear pre-qualified by public policies for inclusion in Nigerian national
history.
The net result of these downward trends in the study of smaller ethnic nationalities in
Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa is a critical shortage of material in the histories of numerous
peoples of the continent. Apart from their obvious value for local communities, whose
citizens yearn to be informed of their own histories, the historical experiences of these people
have great significance for a deeper understanding of national histories and for a more
balanced appreciation of the histories of international events and movements. It is therefore
the case that international scholarship, including particularly the discipline of history, is
poorly served by the loss of focus on the human experiences of vast numbers of ethnic
nationalities in Africa. Just as many of their languages are now endangered, so is the
historical retention of their valuable human experiences in danger of being lost.
We believe that the right way to advance the frontiers of learning in the histories of
Africa is to deal with local and regional problems that ultimately have human value. The
Western Niger Delta, whose hinterland is largely occupied by the Urhobo people, is a region
of Africa that poses many significant questions for the understanding of the human condition.
The conquest of its difficult rainforests and swamps in prehistoric times is of huge
significance for history, but it is basically unstudied. The continuing dilemmas that the Niger
Delta faces in these global times are defined by the regrettable fact that the world urgently
needs the petroleum oil that this difficult region has in abundance while the
History of Urhobo People of Niger Delta
international community and indeed Nigerian authorities fail to understand the history and
the people of the region.
Measured by the depth and length of experiences of the authors of the research papers
and essays assembled in this volume, this publication is liable to be unique in the amount
and quality of information that it provides. We are encouraged to hope that those who seek
to understand Nigerian history and British imperial history of the 19 thand 20 thcenturies will
find several of our authors’ essays illuminating. We also trust that those who seek to gain
insights into the local dimensions and consequences of the Atlantic world in the Niger Delta
will find this book rewarding. In addition, we are persuaded that the varied experiences of
our authors will please local readers of this volume for providing uncommon authority in
their scholarship.
The oldest of our authors was born in 1906, just about the time when British colonial
agents were pouring into Urhobo country. Like many in his generation, Chief T. E. A. Salubi
was therefore an eye-witness of British colonial rule in Urhoboland and Nigeria. Unlike his
age-mates, he alone in his generation of educated Urhobo men chronicled the history of the
coming of the white man. Two of Chief Salubi’s seminal accounts of Urhobo experiences
under colonial rule are republished in this volume. In addition, Chief Salubi faithfully
recorded the dramatic history of Urhobo College, which was founded in the 1940s by
Urhobo Progress Union for the development of education in Urhoboland. Chief Salubi was a
major actor in that memorable achievement that is cardinal in Urhobo history and in the
history of education in colonial Africa. We are pleased to publish that manuscript in this
volume.
We are also most pleased to publish from the remarkable contributions of Professor P. C.
Lloyd in his productive encounter with the Western Niger Delta in the 1950s. Lloyd’s
pioneering ethnographic and historical studies of the Itsekiri and their relations with the
Urhobo people have enduring value. They have been celebrated and cited in newspapers,
courtrooms, and university halls. We republish in this volume his sociological study of
Warri Township in the mid-1950s. It is a rare publication that was prescient in its
predictions. Now a grand old Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the University of
Sussex in England, Lloyd’s scholarship from his years at the University of Ibadan in the
1950s-60s will continue to inform studies of the Western Niger Delta.
Collectively, more than ten Urhobo and Isoko authors of chapters of this book share
more than two hundred years of teaching and research experiences in many universities
around the world. They have authored leading publications on the Western Niger Delta and
on Nigeria and Africa. These university professors approach the study of Urhobo history
from a unique perspective. Many of them have been participants or witnesses to the events
and historical problems that they seek to analyse in the chapters of this book. Their
scholarship has the value of benefiting our quest for understanding Urhobo history through
the employment of the canons of their individual disciples which they have wisely used to
aid the formulation of historical trends in Urhobo and the Niger Delta. Many of these
authors, already climbing into their seventies, have now retired from active university
teaching and research. Some of them have resettled into the demanding chores of living in
Urhoboland and the Western Niger Delta. We trust that their scholarship will continue to be
of benefit to the historical appreciation of the Urhobo past.
There are three Urhobo leaders in the world of business and community affairs who
have contributed to our efforts of offering an analysis of Urhobo history. Senator David
Dafinone and Olorogun Moses Taiga, both frontline international businessmen of enormous
capabilities, have fully participated with Urhobo Historical Society in advancing the
vi
understanding of Urhobo history. We are pleased to publish the wise lectures which they
gave at our previous conferences. In addition, Chief Daniel Obiomah has given a cogent
eye-witness account of British colonial era in Urhoboland in his short autobiographical
statement which we now publish here.
Lastly, we acknowledge with great pleasure the contributions of three of our authors
who have looked at the issues of Urhobo and Isoko history from the vantage point of
outsiders. First, Dr, Uyilawa Usuanlele is the founding Coordinator of Institute for Benin
Studies. His well-informed chapter on the fortunes and problems of Urhobo migrants in
Benin Division of colonial Nigeria is a spectacular demonstration of the benefits that will
flow from collaboration between Institute for Benin Studies and Urhobo Historical Society.
Second, we have an excellent piece on pre-modern Isoko-Urhobo cultures from Whutney
Foster, a dedicated member of President Kennedy-era Peace Corps Volunteers. Foster
employed his period of service at St. Michael’s College, Oleh, in the mid-1960s to research
the traditions of origins of the Isoko people, Urhobo’s not-so-distant kinsmen. Third, we
have from Professor Terisa Turner of Guelph University, Canada, an exciting and rare
account of two uprisings against the oil industry in the mid-1980s by provoked Urhobo
women of Oghara and Ekpan-Uvwie. These three unique studies have separately added
enormous value to the contents of this study of Urhobo history.
One more note of explanation about the first three chapters of the book is in order.
These three chapters by Peter Ekeh, Whitney Foster, and Onigu Otite, constitute the
introduction to this book. All three of them undertake the challenging task of assessing
Urhobo-Isoko history in pre-modern times when there were no contemporaneously written
records to cite in support of any claims made for the occurrence of events. It is a tricky
challenge. Yet it is one that needs to be met because without clearing that background,
modern Urhobo history will be formless. The remaining sections and chapters of this book,
beyond that introductory section and its three chapters, deal with events of the history of
Urhobo and the Niger Delta that followed from the arrival of British colonial rule – a period
for which there are more ample records.
***
It now remains for me to offer warm words of gratitude to several people who have
aided the work of putting this volume together for publication. First, I must thank two
individuals who have followed the planning of this book from its inception. Chief Simpson
Obruche, in London, United Kingdom, and Mr. Andrew Edevbie, Secretary of Urhobo
Historical Society, have been my constant companions in our common campaign to establish
a strong foundation for Urhobo history. Remarkably, we are in daily contact on matters
associated with Urhobo Historical Society but more especially on issues related to work on
the production of this book.
In Lagos, Nigeria, two busy Urhobo professionals working in very demanding
corporations have found space from their spare time to work on the affairs of Urhobo
Historical Society. We thank Mr. Peter Ishaka of Nigerian International Biographical Centre
and Mr. Atete Ighoyivwi of Oceanic Bank, Lagos, for their uncommon dedication to UHS
affairs. We have especially benefited enormously from Peter Ishaka’s knowledge of the book
industry in Nigeria. We must also thank two other individuals in Olorogun Moses Taiga’s
Excon Holdings Limited: We owe Mr. Ejiro Arigi and Miss Seyi Lahan enormous gratitude
for paying close attention to the affairs of Urhobo Historical Society within their
organization.
vii
Olorogun Moses Taiga’s generosity in the matter of producing this book cannot be
adequately described with mere words of gratitude. The truth of the matter is that he
encouraged us to work on the history of Urhobo on the firm assurance that he will pay for the
cost of producing the book. That assurance allowed us to be rather expansive in our planning
for the book. And he has carried out his full promise. Our gratitude to Olorogun Moses Taiga
as the Chief Patron of Urhobo Historical Society is deep. His help to the Society has been
widespread and substantial. We thank him for his large love of all matters Urhobo.
Our Annual Conferences have emerged to be important venues for expression of

support for activities undertaken by Urhobo Historical Society. In the 2005 Annual Con-
ference, we were most pleased by the tremendous support that Olorogun Oskar Ibru, Group
Executive Director, Ibru Organisation, offered to us as chief launcher of our 2005 publica-
tion, Studies in Urhobo Culture . At the same venue, Mr. Simeon Ohwofa, an enthusiastic
supporter of Urhobo Historical Society, launched our annual calendar. We thank both of
these businessmen for their goodwill towards Urhobo Historical Society. Their support has
helped us in many ways, including preparation for publishing this new volume on Urhobo
history.
We must, finally, thank the UHS family for its encouragement as the work on
producing this book continued. We thank members of the Society’s Editorial and Manage-
ment Committee. And we thank Chief Johnson Barovbe for his encouragement and for
looking after the affairs of Urhobo Historical Society in Nigeria.
Peter P. Ekeh
State University of New York at Buffalo, USA
August 8, 2006
Postscript
Books published by Urhobo Historical Society in Nigeria have been kindly

marketed by African Books Collective in Europe in partnership with Michigan State
University Press in North America. African Books Collective recently introduced Print-on-
Demand standards that required special imprints of books published in Africa for reissuing
of new editions in this format. I am immensely grateful to Justin Cox, of Michigan State
University Press and African Books Collective, for walking me through the new process
and for putting together this edition of History of The Urhobo People of Niger Delta.
Two professionals at the State University of New York at Buffalo helped me
enormously with meeting the requirements of this edition of the book. Thomas Slomka,
Managing Director for ETC Projects of University of Buffalo’s Teaching and Learning
Center, redesigned the page specification and patiently put me through the process of
reducing the Nigerian edition of nearly nine hundred pages to less that seven hundred
and forty pages for this edition. Glendora Johnson-Cooper, Social Sciences Librarian of
University Buffalo’s Undergraduate Library, helped to retrace the new pages of the book
to which indexed items refer. I am most grateful to both Tom Slomka and Glendora
Johnson-Cooper for their help.
Peter Ekeh
September 2, 2007
viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface ……………………………………………………………………………… v
Table of Contents …………………………………………………………………… ix
A Map of Western Niger Delta ……………………………………………………xiii
INTRODUCTION
1. Imperialism, Nigerian Historiography and
the Nature & Outline of Urhobo History ………………………….. 3
Peter P. Ekeh
2. Pre-Twentieth-Century Isoko: Its Foundation
and Later Growth …………………………………………………... 37
Whitney P. Foster
3. Development of Okpe as Exemplar of Urhobo History …………… 51
Onigu Otite
BEGINNINGS OF BRITISH COLONIAL RULE IN URHOBOLAND

The4.Establishment of British Administration in
Urhobo Country, 1891-1913 …………………………………………...
67 T.E.A. Salubi
5. British Treaties of Trade and Protection with
Urhobo Communities, 1880s-1890s ……………………………… 87
Compiled and Introduced by Peter P. Ekeh
6. The Origins of Sapele Township ………………………………… 103
T.E.A. Salubi
Document: Planning for the First School in Sapele:

Request for a Teacher from Great Britain, 1903 ………………… 119
ADVENT OF CHRISTIANITY IN URHOBOLAND

7. Beginnings of Christianity in Urhoboland and
Western Niger Delta ……………………………………………… 127
Samuel U. Erivwo
8. Establishment of Roman Catholic Mission and Other
(non-C.M.S.) Christian Missions in Urhobo and Isoko ………….. 159
Samuel U. Erivwo
9. The Catholic Church in Agbon-Urhobo, 1922-2004 ………………185
Imo Otite
10. Evolution of the Urhobo Bible and
Some Christian Liturgical Books ………………………………… 191
M.Y. Nabofa
Document: Historical Background to

Anglican (Communion) Diocese of Ughelli ……………………... 219
COLONIALISM AND THE SCRAMBLE FOR URHOBO LANDS
Introduction ………………………………………………………. 223

Peter P. Ekeh
11. Ownership of Pre-Colonial Warri ……………………………….. 233

Onoawarie Edevbie
12. Who Owns Colonial and Post-Colonial Warri? ………………….. 259
Onoawarie Edevbie
13. Judgement on Warri Land Case between
Itsekiri Claimants and Chief Daniel Okumagba
(for Urhobo-Okere Community in Warri) ……………………….. 305
Judgement of the Supreme Court of Nigeria
Delivered by Atanda Fatayi-Williams. J.S.C. on 8/10/1976
14. The Need for Peace in Warri ……………………………………... 317
Akindele Aiyetan
15. Itsekiri Land Claims in Sapele and the Jackson Judgement ……… 321
Judgement of the High Court of the Warri Judicial Division Delivered by
J. Jackson, A. J., on 5/5/1942
URHOBO PROGRESS UNION

AND THE QUEST FOR EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT
16. The Miracle of an Original Thought: A History of the
Origins of Urhobo College ……………………………………….. 331
T.E.A. Salubi
17. Chief Mukoro Mowoe: Leader of the Urhobo …………………… 361
Obaro Ikime
18. The Place of Urhobo College Effurun in Urhobo History ……….. 381
David A. Okpako
19. Mukoro Mowoe and Urhobo Destiny and History ………………. 393
Peter P. Ekeh
URHOBO AND ITS ETHNIC NEIGHBOURS

20. Ethnicity and the Structure of Inequality in Warri Town
in the Mid-1950s ………………………………………………….. 409
P.C. Lloyd
21. Thoughts on Isoko-Urhobo Relations ……………………………. 427
Obaro Ikime
22. Frank Ukoli’s Last Testament: I Can See Clearly Now ………….. 451
F.M.A. Ukoli
23. In Defence of Frank Ukoli’s Honour ……………………………... 461
Ajovi Scott-Emuakpor & Jackson Omene
x
A Poem: Death? Not Frank ………………………………………. 471

Ajovi Scott-Emuakpor
MODERN URHOBO MIGRATIONS AND THE URHOBO DIASPORA

24. Migrating Cultural Performances:
The Urhobo among the Ikale-Yoruba …………………………….. 475
Onigu Otite
25. Urhobos in Benin 1897-1945:
Changing Patterns of Relations under Colonial Rule ……………. 483
Uyilawa Usuanlele
OIL EXPLORATION AND ITS VICISSITUDES

26. Urhobo Women's Uprisings against the
Nigerian Oil Industry in the 1980s ……………………………….. 499
Terisa E. Turner
27. Petroleum Oil Fire Disasters in Urhoboland, 1998-2000 ………… 527
Compiled and Introduced by Peter P. Ekeh
28. Urhobo and the National Question:
Urhobo’s Environment and Natural Resources ………………….. 555
Bright U. Ekuerhare (for Urhobo Study Group, DELSU, Abraka)
29. Some Solutions to Water Problems in the Niger Delta …………... 563
A.B.M. Egborge
FRAGMENTS OF URHOBO HISTORY

30. Urhobo Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow:
Where Do We Stand Now? ………………………………………. 569
David O. Dafinone
31. Political Reorganization as a Pre-Condition for
Economic Success in Urhoboland ………………………………... 577
Moses Taiga
32. Urhobo Religious Leaders and the Urhobo Nation ……………… 583
Samuel U. Erivwo
33. Urhobo Youth and the Urhobo Future …………………………… 595
Omafume F. Onoge
34. Fifty Years After Mukoro Mowoe ……………………………….. 613
Onigu Otite
35. Urhobo and the Nigerian Federation: Whither Nigeria? …………. 627
Peter P. Ekeh
36. The Place of the Elite in Urhobo Leadership …………………….. 647
F.M.A. Ukoli
37. An Autobiographical Statement ………………………………….. 657
By D.A. Obiomah
38. Understanding Urhobo History through Obituaries ……………….663
xi
Hope Eghagha. Oghenevware Evwode. Samson Eruvwavwe. David

Okpako. Daniel Obiomah. Dafe Omoko. Francis Daniel-Okumagba.
John Esangbedo. Urhobo Study Group. Peter Ekeh. Rev. Father
Patrick Otor.
Index ……………………………………………………………………… 693
Biographical Notes on Contributors ……………………………………... 707
About Urhobo Historical Society ………………………………………… 711
xii
Map of Western Niger Delta
Note: The location of Forcados River, which is in Ijaw territory, appears misplaced in this
Map. – Editor
INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1
Imperialism, Nigerian Historiography and the

Nature & Outline of Urhobo History
Peter P. Ekeh
European colonial rule in Africa left behind its reign a meaning of history that has
emphasized conquest and violence as the exclusive and legitimate realm of the academic
discipline of history. It is a tradition of historical scholarship that has been carried forward
into our own times, in the post-colonial era. Its tendencies are biased in favour of conquerors
and those who control the instruments of violence. It minimizes the role played by those who
struggle to survive in the face of the celebrated deeds of conquests and violence. In this
tradition of history, conventional morality is forsaken and replaced with adoration of violent
behaviour in the accounting of historical achievements. Subaltern status is despised while
wealth and privilege are defended.
Such a tradition of historical scholarship rules out numerous societies from the purview
of history. It cannot imagine history without the presence of great men. Kings and aristocratic
chieftains, especially those who participated in conquests and violence, are the core of this
tradition of history that we in Nigeria have inherited from the colonial experience.
We believe that such a perspective of history is defective. In this chapter, we will

expand the meaning of usable history to include collective acts of survival of particular
groups of men and women as well as their participation in the grander scheme of human
progress. Such a conception of history, which ranges beyond the boundaries of dominant
traditions of history in current Nigerian practices, makes room for all those societies that
have survived from major challenges in their past and now participate in the march of human
progress. It expands the meaning of history that is available to Urhobo and numerous other
African societies and ethnic nationalities that do not reckon their historical achievements in
terms of reigns of kings.
European Imperialism and the

Conduct of Historical Scholarship in Nigeria
During British colonial times, history was defined in Nigerian schools and universities
within a narrow gauge. Definitions of history offered by two influential English scholars
will illustrate the ideological biases that helped to reduce the meaning of history to acts of
conquests and violence in the course of European imperialism in Africa.
Hugh Trevor-Roper was a major historian of ancient Europe and of Hitler’s Germany.
He was, however, not engaged in recording the deeds of European conquests in Africa at the
turn of the nineteenth century. Even so, he used his enormous influence as Regius Professor
of History at England’s premier Oxford University to denounce as a piece of intellectual
heresy the notion that Africa had a history of its own. Trevor-Roper complained, thus:
Undergraduates, seduced … by … journalistic fashion, demand that they be

taught the history of black Africa. Perhaps, in the future, there will be some
African history to teach. But at present there is none, or very little: there is only
the history of the Europeans in Africa. The rest is largely darkness, like the
history of pre-European, pre-Columbian America … Please do not mis-
understand me. I do not deny that men existed even in dark countries and dark
centuries, nor that they had political life and culture, interesting to sociologists
and anthropologists; but history, I believe, is essentially a form of movement,
and purposive movement too (Trevor-Roper 1965: 9).
Trevor-Roper considered the African experience to be a proper subject matter for

sociology and social anthropology, but to be well beneath the higher calling of history which
he defined as “essentially a form of movement” in the greater achievements of purposive
enhancement of the human condition. He thought that European conquests in Africa might
qualify as some sort of history, obviously because he believed such conquests, and the
violence that they wrought, were for the higher purpose of bringing “civilization” to Africa.
In other words, in Trevor-Roper’s view, Europeans introduced history to Africa as a
consequence of their conquests of Africans.
Another English scholar of enormous influence on the understanding of African
history was J.D. Fage, who co-founded the celebrated Journal of African History . He has
contributed in many ways to the establishment of academic history in African universities. In
doing so, he sponsored a point of view that endorses violence as a leading construct of
history. He argued that the slave trade was a force for historical progress in Africa because its
underlying violence prompted violated communities to seek protection from the chronic
rampage of the slave trade. He believed that such protection was offered by African
chieftains, just as the peasantry sought protection obtainable from feudal lords in the face of
rampart violence in Medieval Europe (Fage 1974). Ignoring the destruction that the evil trade
brought to African communities, Fage nonetheless saw the outcome of the slave trade as
beneficial to Africans because it brought what he imagined to be “purposive” movement, in
1
the same sense as Trevor-Roper defined history.
Trevor-Roper’s and Fage’s views of history are ultimately ideological. That is to say,
they have provided definitions and doctrines of history that justify their nation’s violent
conquests of other nations’ lands. Conquering other people, far removed from one’s culture
and history, is an extremely violent affair. The British and other European nations offered
many justifications for Europe’s brutal imposition of foreign rule on African nations at the
turn of the nineteenth century. The notion that Africans benefited from colonialism because
1
Fage argued, thus: “On the whole it is probably true to say that the operation of the slave trade may have tended to integrate,
strengthen and develop unitary, territorial political authority, [and] to weaken or destroy more segmentary [i.e., kinship] societies.
Whether this was good or evil may be a nice point; historically it may be seen as purposive and perhaps as more or less inevitable
(Fage 1969: 402).” Fage saw the destruction of kinship as slave trade’s major achievement. Thus, he chided Walter Rodney (1966,
1972) for having “regarded as wholly bad what happened in Africa as a consequence ... of the trade with Europeans and the trade in
slaves in particular” (Fage 1989: 109-110). In Fage’s view, Rodney had “underestimated what Africans themselves were achieving in
West Africa through their imposition on small-scale kinship societies of the ever larger and more determinate economic, political,
military and bureaucratic structures that we call kingdoms and empires. As I see it, much of this was more or less inevitable as
horizons were opened up. It seems not unreasonable to think that what was happening in West Africa by the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries (if not in the nineteenth) was not at all different from what had happened rather earlier in western Europe (Fage
1989: 110).”
4
Imperialism, Nigerian Historiography….
they were thus introduced to the grace of history carries the false implication that before
Europeans arrived in Africa, history was absent from their culture.
History is larger than the space that imperialism assigned to it in the circumstances of
colonialism. What is left out of Trevor-Roper’s conception of history is the large expanse of
human activities and events that prepared the ground for the achievement of “purposive
movement,” that is, human progress, which he sees as the sole domain of history. Before
attaining such lofty heights, human communities must first survive challenges of varying
2
difficulties. Those challenges and their associated Toynbean responses, which human
communities orchestrate in order to overcome fundamental problems that threaten their
survival, are legitimate concerns of history.
Stripped of its imperial ideological underpinnings, the history of a people consists of
two main components: first, the narration of events that allowed elementary societies to
survive; and second, the recording and interpretation of events and processes that enable
such communities to participate in the march of human progress. Such a point of view
accepts the definition of history by the German philosopher G.W.F. Hegel and, later, Karl
Marx, namely, that all human communities – from simple and elementary societies to more
complex industrial nations – are linked together, albeit at different levels, in the great journey
3
of human progress which is the province of history.
Such a definition of history differs from the imperial notion of history, which we have
inherited in Nigeria, at two levels. First, imperialism’s definition of history does not leave
room for the occurrence of events that enable elementary societies to survive. Second,
imperialism discourages the view that African societies and European nations were conjoined
in a common platform of history in which all human communities have a stake.
African Reactions to Imperialism’s Ideologies

and to Its Methodology of History
There are two strains of Africans’ reactions to these intellectual strands of European
imperialism. First, there were those among African intellectuals who rejected the
methodology of imperial historiographies and sought to create their own approaches to
African history. Second, there were African historians who worked with the methodology of
imperial history but rejected its conclusions. Scholars in this latter group tended to
2
Arnold Toynbee, an English historian generally regarded as one of the greatest historians of the twentieth century, taught that
civilizations endure when their societies are able to organize adequate responses to challenges that confront them. Thus, see the
following essay on “Challenge and Response:” “Toynbee's research focused on questions of how civilizations were created and why
some flourished while others failed. Toynbee discovered that challenges (such as those of climate and foreign invasion) great enough
to cause extinction of culture if not met successfully, but not so severe that the culture could not respond creatively, was the ideal
condition in which great civilizations developed.” (Available from http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/ toynbee_challenge_and_
response.html).
3
In The End of History and the Last Man, Francis Fukuyama (1992) summarizes this point of view remarkably well: “History . . . is
. . . understood as a single, coherent, evolutionary process . . . [that takes] into account the experience of all peoples in all times.
This understanding of History was most closely associated with the great German philosopher G. W. F. Hegel. It was made part of our
daily intellectual atmosphere by Karl Marx, who borrowed this concept of History from Hegel, and is implicit in our use of words like
“primitive” or “advanced,” “traditional” or “modern,” when referring to different types of human societies. For both of these thinkers,
there was a coherent development of human societies from simple tribal ones based on slavery and subsistence agriculture, through
various theocracies, monarchies, and feudal aristocracies, up through modern liberal democracy and technologically driven
capitalism. This evolutionary process was neither random nor unintelligible, even if it did not proceed in a straight line, and even if it
was possible to question whether man was happier or better off as a result of historical ‘progress.’”
5
substitute African characters for European ones, thus creating African heroes where before
there were only European models.
The first type of reaction is manifested in the historical works of Cheika Anta Diop of
Senegal. Bearing the trade mark rejection of French claims of cultural superiority and
comprehensiveness that can be seen in other French-colonized intellectuals (thus see Senghor
1964, Fanon 1963, Cesaire 1955), Diop (e.g., 1955, 1981) embarked on a daring "project for
the restitution of the authentic history of Africa and the reconciliation of African civilizations
with history" (1981:2). Diop's bold mission was to demonstrate that:
Ancient Egypt was a Negro civilization. The history of Black Africa will remain
suspended in air and cannot be written correctly until African historians dare to
connect it with the history of Egypt... The African historian who evades the
problem of Egypt is neither modest nor objective, nor unruffled; he is ignorant,
cowardly and neurotic (Diop 1955:xiv).
Most recognized and influential African scholars of history largely ignored Diop’s
work. But it has gained greater respectability in international scholarship as his main
contention that Egyptian civilization is an integral part of African history becomes validated
(see Gray 1989; also see Bernal 1991), although, ironically, established schools of history
inside Africa remain untouched by the consequences of Diop’s arguments and discoveries.
The second style of African reactions to European imperial ideologies of history is
dramatically different from Diop’s scholarship. It virtually accepts imperial methodology of
history, but not its particular conclusions. The theme of this form of historiography is best
illustrated from its counterpart in the sphere of religious studies. Modern African theologians
have reacted to the insults from Europeanized Christianity in ways that parallel historians’
reactions to similar disparage from imperial history. Okot p'Bitek’s (1970:40-41)
characterization of African nationalist theologians is similar to the conduct of African
nationalist historical scholarship:
African nationalist [theologians] ... protest vigorously against any Western

scholar who describes African cultures and religions in disparaging terms.... They
attempt to show that the African peoples were as civilized as the Western peoples.
They dress up African deities with Hellenic robes and parade them before the
Western world.
Both nationalist historians and theologians adopted the methodologies sanctioned from
European imperial scholarship, using them for showing that Africans are as good as
Europeans and that African history and religions are as legitimate as Europe's. Okot p'Bitek
(1970:46-47) castigates this form of imitative scholarship, chiding Kenyetta (1953), Danquah
(1958), Abraham (1962), Idowu (1973) and Mbiti (1969, 1970) for parading African deities
in awkward Hellenic garments. In both history and theology, intellectual nationalism reacts to
Western dominance by replacing the contents of imperialist history and theology with
African images while adopting imperial methodologies that built up the models which have
informed the conclusions rejected by African scholars.
It is fair to add that much of academic scholarship is sheer imitation. Neither African
historians nor African theologians can be said to be alone in employing modes of scholarship
that are copied from existing methodologies. What may, however, be fairly said
6
about these African scholars’ works is that they ought not to claim – as historians and
theologians often do – that they have invented a new brand of historical or theological
scholarship for Africa.
What eventually emerged as the established profession of history, during colonialism
and in its aftermath in Africa, did contest European imperialism’s denial that Africa had its
own history. Scholars of the Ibadan School of History led the charge especially in vigorously
arguing that Africans had attained the level of human progress which Trevor- Roper thought
that Africa lacked. In many ways, 4African historians won that argument.
However, in so winning, they accepted the narrow limits in the definition of history that
European imperialism offered. Substantively, they substituted African kings for European
kings and African conquerors for European conquerors. More harmfully, the established
history profession in Africa accepted conquest and violence as necessary constructs and
virtues of history.
Nature and Problems of Urhobo History
In several senses, Urhobo can lay claim to offering an alternative approach to the
conventional methodology of Nigerian history as it has descended from European
imperialism and the Ibadan School of History. First, Urhobo lies in a region of the African
continent where survival occupies the thoughts and deeds of individuals and communities.
The Niger Delta is a tough region to survive in. As Whitney Foster shows in his chapter that
5
follows this one, the Niger Delta may well be imagined to be a refugee territory. In
important ways, Urhobo’s twenty-two cultural sub-units are defined by the degree to which
opportunities have arisen that enabled them to survive together as historical units. Each of
the twenty-two units is an historical entity that has conquered its territory and environment
as a people. Their deeds in doing so are the stuff from which authentic history is
constructed. Urhobo people tend to respond to challenges, Toynbean challenges if we may
so label them, in ways that will ensure their elementary survival in the circumstances of the
Niger Delta.
4
Thus, see Jacob Ajayi (1968), “In any long-term view of African history, European rule becomes just another episode. In relation to
wars and conflicts, the rise and fall of empires, linguistic, cultural and religious change and the cultivation of new ideas, and new
ways of life, new economic orientations ... in relation to all these, colonialism must be seen ... as one episode in the continuous flow
of African history.”
5
See Foster (Chapter 2 in this book): “What was it that this area [of the Niger Delta] possessed which drew the progenitors of the
Isoko to it? Certainly, though most were farmers, it was not its promise as a virgin farm area. Cornevin [1956: 43-45], in referring
to such uninviting topography, has coined the term “areas of refuge.” What he means by this is an area rugged and physically
unpromising enough to provide a refuge for those seeking to escape trouble in their homeland. Once there, the physical barriers seem
to have proven sufficient to provide the refugees with the independence they sought, both from each other and from their homelands.
Within a few generations the fear causing their flight probably had worn off, but by then the “area of refuge” had become a familiar,
if difficult, environment for the refugees’ descendants to live and multiply.
7
Figure 1.1
Michael Nabofa’s Geographical Display of Urhobo’s 22 Cultural Units
There is a second major sense in which Urhobo history does not accord with the
emphasis and accent that the Ibadan School of History has imprinted on its version of
historical scholarship. Urhobo people do not make kingship and aristocratic moorings the
center of their historical accounting. Despite the outbreak of claims of kingship in the last two
6
decades, eventuating in re-labelling Urhobo cultural units as “kingdoms,” the
6
The notation of “Kingdom” for each of Urhobo’s twenty-cultural units is a new convention whose beginning is attributed to the
influence of a book that the Ovie (King) of Ogor co-authored with A. Omokri in 1997. This is how Professor Frank Ukoli made this
crucial point in his informative essay “The Place of the Elite in Urhobo Leadership” (which is reproduced in this volume of essays).
“The Urhobo constitute an ethnic group, but there is great diversity in the origins of the various clans as well as diversity in their
culture. Indeed, the differences are so marked that H.R.H Adjara III and Omokri, in their recent book Urhobo Kingdoms, elevate the
22 clans which constitute the entire Urhobo tribe to the status of kingdoms.” Before then, these cultural units were referred to in
Urhobo language as ҽkpo r’ otӑ, which literarily means “land area,” a geographical denotation. British colonialism in the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries labeled these units as “clans,” apparently borrowing that usage from ancient Scottish practices. Remarkably,
leading scholars of Urhobo culture (such as Onigu Otite 2003 and Perkins Foss 2004) have not embraced this new terminology of
“kingdoms” which does not appear to be well thought out. For these cultural units, Otite uses the term “polities,” another term that
8
historical achievements of the Urhobo people are reckoned in the deeds of outstanding
individual leaders, not in terms of the reigns of kings and aristocratic families. This attribute
of Urhobo history is well articulated in the mission of Urhobo Historical Society which is
stated as follows in its Web site (at http://www.waado.org/ EditorialPolicy/Policy.html).
The supreme aim of Urhobo Historical Society is to create a movement that will
promote the preservation of historical records and the writing of diverse historical
experiences among the Urhobo. Unlike some of their neighbours, the Urhobo do
not record their histories in terms of the reigns and achievements of kings. The
Urhobo story is ultimately a record of multiplex achievements involving ordinary
people who have risen to make differences in the lives of their communities.
Recording such a history is a much greater undertaking than that involved in

chronicling the glories of kings and the great deeds of aristocratic families, which
we have inherited from the manners of imperial historiography. Imitation of such
alien European imperial methods of history-writing has led to the diminution of
the significance attached to the achievements by ordinary individuals in traditional
historiography in several African societies. To avoid such pitfalls, the
methodology of Urhobo history clearly calls for a more decentralized undertaking.
We accordingly seek to involve all grades of people in telling and recording the
Urhobo historical experience. It is a story that sometimes picks up local hues
reflecting the twenty-two subcultures of Urhoboland. We will honour those who
have shaped such local communities along with others who, like the great Mukoro
Mowoe, have had a pan-Urhobo impact.
Acts of community survival are legitimate matters for historical scholarship. The
meaning of heroes for the Urhobo has been reserved for instances in which individuals have
arisen to help Urhobo’s cultural units, individually or together, to device schemes for
overcoming major threats to their survival. Kingship has more often than not been
understood to be a reward for those who play significant roles in the survival of the
community. That is why Urhobos have had problems with inherited kingship, even though
the institution of primogeniture is well established in Urhobo’s inheritance traditions. In our
circumstances, kingship will only have a functional role if it helps the community to survive.
For as long as kingship is an act of inheritance, it will probably fail to garner adequate
legitimacy to make it a permanent feature of Urhobo history.
Traditional Urhobo Calendar and the

Telescoping of Events in Urhobo History
Urhobo traditional calendar of dates and periods is significantly different from Western
and Christian calendars that European colonial experience superimposed on Urhobo
indigenous culture. Among several other differences, the Urhobo calendar is not
has been over-employed in recent Nigerian social science. Clearly, the correct terminology for Urhobo’s twenty-two cultural units is
far from settled. It is striking that none of the users of this new term of “kingdom” has attempted to translate it into Urhobo language.
9
overly deep. It is much shallower than the centuries and millennia which feature prominently
in Western historical accounts.
The sweep of Urhobo traditional calendar was ordered around the distinction between
Olden Times (Akpo r’Awaren in Urhobo language) and Modern Times (Akpo r’ Okenana) .
Issues and events of contemporary and recent experiences were folded into the aegis of
Modern Times. All previous eras were pushed into the bulky folder of Olden Times. The
meaning of Modern Times varied according to the dominant and overarching authorities that
were present in the contemporaneous public domain of Urhobo affairs. In pre-colonial
times, Modern Times were designated as Akpo r Oba, that is, era of Oba of Benin. In those
times, all previous history would be called Olden Times. Akpo r Oba was displaced at the
turn of the nineteenth century by Akpo r’ Oyinbo , or European Times. Urhobo designated
much of the twentieth century as European Times, while all previous eras were simply cast
into one omnibus fold of Olden Times.
Such traditional bifurcation of Urhobo historical eras made it difficult to reconcile
traditional Urhobo calendar with the Western calendar. The introduction of a foreign calendar
into Urhobo historical accounting created some confusion in dating practices. Olden Times
were never segmented into separate eras in Urhobo historical practices. The notion of
centuries was not native to Urhobo historical accounting. Yet the introduction of Western
calendar appeared to compel those who were engaged in accounting for events in Urhobo
history to resort to exact dating in terms of centuries and, in several instances, exact years of
their occurrence. Native scholars of Urhobo history and culture who would find it difficult to
indicate the actual years of their own births have not hesitated to claim to know the exact
years on the Western calendar in which their ancestors were said to have migrated in bygone
millennia and centuries!
One baneful consequence of such confusion is the general predisposition to telescope
historical records, by shortening the times of their occurrence to suit convenient appearances
of alleged other events. One such widespread distortion of Urhobo history has its origins in an
apparently careless suggestion by the native Benin historian Jacob Egharevba (1960: 14) that
there was a second wave of Urhobo emigration from Benin in 1370, during the reign of King
Egbeka. From my point of view, Egharevba had no way of knowing that King Egbeka was on
the throne in 1370. He could only guess at that possibility, reckoning backwards from the
year of Portuguese arrival in Benin City in 1485. Before then, Benin and other African
nations in the forest belt of West Africa had available to them neither the Julian Calendar
(named after Julius Caesar in 45 B.C.E.) nor the Gregorian Calendar (named for Pope
Gregory the Great) that replaced the Julian Calendar in 1582, both of which dominated dating
practices in European history. When Portuguese envoys arrived in Benin in 1485, Europe was
still using Julian Calendar. The switch to Gregorian Calendar took place just about a century
later in circumstances that were chaotic in Europe (see Ekeh 2005: 18-19). Egharevba’s guess
that King Egbeka was on the throne in 1370 could only have been a wild one. Yet he offered
it as if he had any evidence for it. But it is a piece of guess work that has done a lot of damage
to the practices of historical dating in our region of Africa.
Following Egharevba, many scholars of Urhobo migrations have accepted these vast
conclusions about the history of the Urhobo people even though they were based on the
flimsy ground of dates of events that Egharevba guessed centuries after their occurrence.
Egharevba was using Western Gregorian Calendar for events that took place when Julian
Calendar was in use in Europe. European historians duly adjusted for the differences
10
between the two calendars. It is, however, doubtful that Jacob Egharevba, the native Benin
historian, was ever aware of the two calendars and the differences between them. This is how
Professor Onigu Otite, a leading scholar of Urhobo culture, incorporated Egharevba’s
guesses into his own formulation of the history of Urhobo migrations:
The second major migration [of Urhobos from Benin] occurred after 1170 A.D.
during the second Benin dynasty. In particular, reference is made to the reign of
Egbeka at about 1370 A.D. when the Urhobo were said to have emigrated from
Benin (Egharevba 1960: 14). It was from this time that the
Urhobo referred to the Bini as people of AKA ( Ihwor’ Aka, following a short
form of Egbeka), or just AKA as a name for the people, their territory and
their language. Both Urhobo and Bini traditions support this event (Otite 2003:
26-27).
I suggest that Otite’s date of 1170 and Egharevba’s date of 1370 as periods of Urhobo
migration from the lands of the Benin are mere guesses that have very little probability of
being right. They are ultimately based on Egharevba’s attempt to account for the fact that
Urhobo’s name for Benin is Aka, which he imaginatively but incorrectly tied to the reign of
King Egbeka. As I have attempted to show elsewhere (see Ekeh 2005: 11-13), the term Aka
existed in Benin and Urhobo cultural usages long before King Egbeka was born. For
instance, Aka Stream was so named from time immemorial, probably before the rise of the
Ogisos, the kings of an earlier dynasty in Benin. Benins 7themselves do not relate the word
Aka in Benin language and culture to King Egbeka.
The imposition of dates from Western calendars on prehistoric events, such as the
migration of the Urhobo from the lands of the Ogisos, does indicate that there is a strong
impulse to give neat accounts of ancient events (or even non-events) whose occurrence could
only be imagined from probable evidence of language and cultural practices. It is indeed
doubtful that the alleged “second major” migration of Urhobo from Benin territory ever
occurred. At least no one has ever provided any evidence for it, other than Egharevba’s faulty
reasoning on the alleged coincidence between King Egbeka’s name and the name
Urhobo call Benin, which is Aka. What can be said about Urhobo migrations from the lands
of the Benins is that they were far more likely to have occurred during the clan-like
elementary conditions of the times of the Ogisos and far less likely during the much better
state organization under the Eweka dynasty. Once Benin, under the kings of the Eweka
dynasty, embarked on centralization of the kingdom and then, from the 1440s onwards, on
empire-building, the kings of Benin did everything to discourage emigration from the city or
from the core empire (see Ekeh 2000, 2002). Migrations to areas like Esan (Ishan) might
have been tolerated because they were like the periphery of Benin City, lying in the core of
the Benin Empire. But mass emigration to more distant lands like Urhobo country – across
rivers like Ologbo and Ethiope – was most likely discouraged and possibly severely
punished. The kingdom and empire needed manpower whose consolidation was hurt by
emigration of its citizens. It was for the same reason that Benin kingdom was averse to the
international slave trade, even though Benin had a robust internal culture of slavery.
7
The tern “Bini” is also used in place of Benins for the Benin people. However, Benin leaders, including the King of Benin, prefer
the use of “Benins” -- instead of “Bini” -- for the Benin people. In deference, I will not use the term “Bini” on my own in this
chapter, unless I quote it from another author or source.
11
To suggest that Urhobos embarked on emigration from Benin on a major scale in 1370
is to argue that much of Urhobo country was unoccupied a century before the Portuguese
arrived in the Western Niger Delta in the early 1480s. That implicit proposition appears to
me to be vastly mistaken. We do have a legitimate ground for proposing that Urhobo country
was long settled before the first arrival of the Portuguese in the Western Niger Delta in the
early 1480s. Internal evidence from Urhobo cultural history is clear on the fact that of its
twenty-two cultural sub-units, the last two to be settled were Idjerhe and Oghara on the
western side of River Ethiope. Agbarha-Ame (that is, Agbarha on Warri River), Idjerhe, and
Oghara are all ethnic fractions of ancient Agbarha, which is itself ensconced between Isoko,
Orogun, and Ughelli in the interior of Urhobo country. These three fractions of Agbarha --
namely, Agbarha-Ame, Idjerhe, and Oghara -- migrated from ancient Agbarha as a
consequence of civil upheaval. The first territory to result from this turbulence was
Agbarha-Ame. Those who fled there simply named themselves as Agbarha, in the same
sense in which the Americas were called the New World or New England was named after
Old England. The other two fractions named themselves after the Agbarha towns of Idjerhe
and Oghara – from where they apparently migrated.
The key question, though, is, when did the Agbarha civil strife take place and when
were the territories of Agbarha-Ame, Idjerhe, and Oghara settled? This is a difficult question
to answer in terms of dating on the Western calendar. But we know certain facts that will
help us to gain useful answers. First, it appears well established that these Agbarha fractions
chose their new territories long after the rest of Urhobo was settled. The Agbarha- Ame
people of Warri River chose a more difficult terrain closer to a river that was limited in the
lands bordering its banks than their older neighbours of Uvwie and Udu. Oghara and Idjerhe
made tougher choices. They had to cross the River Ethiope to its western side. Clearly, these
fractions of ancient Agbarha would have chosen territory elsewhere in interior Urhobo
country if it was still available.
We have further evidence that Ginuwa, who escaped from the high-stakes game of
Benin politics in the later half of the fifteenth century, was received by the people of Oghara,
probably some time between 1470 and 1480, a number of years before the arrival of the
Portuguese in the Western Niger Delta (see J.O.E. Sagay 1980). It was fairly certain that the
Oghara people had conquered their territory and environment long before Ginuwa came
across Ologbo River into their hands. They may well have been there for more than a century
before the events that drove Ginuwa out of Benin. Since the Oghara people are among the
last groups of Urhobos to settle in their lands, there is a strong probability that more ancient
Urhobo communities had long been settled before Ginuwa and the Portuguese arrived in the
8
Western Niger Delta in the early 1480s.
Stages of Urhobo History
For the purpose of understanding such problems and other issues of Urhobo history, it
is useful to divide the periods of Urhobo history into three stages: Ancient Times, Middle
Ages, and Modern Times. Needless to add, such an arrangement of the periods of Urhobo
8
Compare Otite’s (2003: 38) views on this point: “The consolidation of human settlements and the evolution of social systems and
kingship take years to accomplish. If by 1473 Oba Olua began his reign in Benin (Egharevba 1960: 22, Akenzua 1979: 14) and his
son, Iginuan (Ginuwa), passed [through] the territory of the settled Urhobo of Oghara (Ugharaki) between 1480 and 1485 to settle in
Ode-Itsekiri (Akenzua 1979: 14, Moore 1970: 17), Pereira’s 1505 observation of settled populous Urhobo societies lend support to
the Urhobo settlement in the area several hundreds of years earlier.”
12
history is borrowed from similar classifications in the histories of other regions of the world.
But it will serve good purpose in the case of Urhobo, because its history falls into three
historical time zones that are well represented by the distance between these stages.
Ancient Times in Urhobo History
Ancient Times in Urhobo history obviously constitute a period about which no one can
claim direct evidence. But we believe that there is credible indirect evidence of what Urhobo
was and looked like in those dark times. The indirect evidence for the events of ancient times
in Urhobo history comes largely from linguistic patterns as well as folkloric renditions of the
Urhobo people.
As far back as 1950s and 1960s, linguists (see Wolff 1959 and Wescott 1962) had
identified a group of closely related languages in southwestern Nigeria which they labeled as
Edoid. The current four-way classification of the Edoid languages was supplied by Ben
Elugbe (1979; also 1989). Two of these are in the present-day Edo State of Nigeria, that is,
in former Benin Province of colonial Nigeria. These were labeled as Northwestern Edoid
(including Ӑkpҽ, different from Okpҽ in Urhobo) and Northcentral Edoid (including
Benin). The remaining two of these closely related languages are in the Niger Delta. The
smallest of them is in the Rivers State, virtually ensconced in Ijaw territories. Elugbe calls it
Delta Edoid and includes Degema, Egene, and Epie-Atisa. The other remaining Edoid
group is called Southwestern Edoid and consists of five sub-linguistic groups: (a) Urhobo,
(b) Isoko, (c) Erohwa, (d) Okpe, and (e) Uvwie. Our attention will of course be focused on
this last group.
All these languages are ancient. If it was possible to determine at what point in
ancient times these languages were separated from each other or from Proto-Edoid, that is,
the parent language from which all these branches of Edoid got separated, then we would
have some indication of how ancient Urhobo language is. If there is one academic discipline
that has the implement and patience that will enable it to make such determination in the case
of these formerly non-literate languages, it would be linguistics. Unfortunately, not a great
deal of efforts has been put into the painstaking research that is required to ferret out the age
of the Edoid languages, including Urhobo. On the other hand, we are fortunate that the late
Kay Williamson, who did so much to attain the linguistic truth of our region, has left behind
some rudiments of beginning research on the dating of the Edoid languages. Building on
Williamson’s information, Onigu Otite makes a reasonable inference on the age of Urhobo
and other Edoid languages: He writes:
We speculate that the various Urhobo groups settled in their present separate
territories at different times ranging widely between 200 years and 2,000 years
ago. Kay Williamson’s time scale produced from her linguistic (glottochrono-
logical) approach to the history of the Niger Delta is relevant in this connection.
Williamson (1979) suggested that [proto-groups of the] Urhobo and Isoko,
among others, probably inhabited parts of the delta some 2,000 years ago (Otite:
2003: 38).
What the linguistic evidence from Kay Williamson points to is the probability that
Urhobo languages developed their primitive roots some two thousand years ago. Note how
far away this beginning date is from Jacob Egharevba’s grand assertions concerning the
13
dates of Urhobo migrations from Benin. Needless to add, Egharevba adduces no evidence of
any type for his ex-cathedra pronouncements of these vast historical occurrences. According
to Egharevba, the Ogiso era of Benin history began in 950 C.E., suggesting a span of five
centuries for the existence of the Ogiso dynasty. He does not say what society the Ogiso
kings rose from and how long that society had existed before kingship was established in its
culture. The alleged first Urhobo migration occurred in these Ogiso centuries under a
mythical man called “Uhobo.” Then, according to Egharevba, a second wave of Urhobo
migration occurred in 1370!
In my view, these assertions from Egharevba are not grounded on any informed
reasoning and are entirely imaginative guesses. As I see it, Egharevba’s assertions concerning
dates and characters of Urhobo history have been discredited and damaged beyond any
repair. The character called “Uhobo” is certainly bogus. It is a linguistic casualty of Benins’
difficulty in pronouncing the combined “rh” consonant, just as Urhobos find it hard to
9
pronounce the “l” consonant. Nor do I believe that the romantic attempts to
trace the origins of the Urhobo people to Egypt and Ile-Ife stand any chance of proof on the
grounds of linguistics or probabilities based on other cultural artefacts. Why Ife? Why
Egypt? Is it being imagined that all Africans or all West Africans originated from Egypt and
Ile-Ife? These far-fetched imaginative constructions are a distraction from the serious
business of building up credible Urhobo history based on good evidence or at least on sound
calculations of reasonable historical and cultural probabilities.
The linguistic evidence is promising in large part because it gives good and provable
grounds on which to lay the foundations of Urhobo historical scholarship. I will start with the
assumption that the vehicle for the separation of Urhobo language from proto-Edoid, the
original common Edoid language, is migration. Edoid languages were developed as a
consequence of the dispersal of the speakers of proto-Edoid language. In the case of Urhobo
these migrations are of three types. We assume that there was, first, a primary migration into
Urhoboland, some time during the clan-based Ogiso era in the lands that are now called
Benin. This wave of migration consolidated the foundation of Urhobo language and culture.
Second, there were secondary instances of immigration from other regions whose migrants
were absorbed into an existing Urhobo language and culture. Third, there was a considerable
amount of internal migration inside Urhobo country that helped to spread Urhobo culture and
language and that helped to conquer and develop the difficult lands and waters of the Western
Niger Delta. These are the tissues of Ancient Urhobo History whose outline we now seek to
establish.
Primary Migration from the Lands of the

Ogisos into Urhobo Country
Urhobo collective folk memory holds strongly that the Urhobo as a people migrated
from the lands that are now called Benin, although the term Benin (or “Ubini”) does not exist
10
in Urhobo language and it most probably did not exist in the lands of proto-Edoids.
There is strong evidence, from both Urhobo and Benin traditions, that the name “Urhobo” is
ancient and was used by Urhobos themselves and by Benins before their separation. As part
of the evolution of Benin language from proto-Edoid, the letter “r” was dropped from
9
For my earlier attempt to refute the fallacy of the assertion of “Uhobo” as a character in Urhobo history, see Ekeh 2005: 6-13.
10
Urhobo call Benin Aka, a term that is ancient and that in all probability designated a clan of Edoid people in pre-Eweka times (see
Ekeh 2005: 11-13).
14
“Urhobo” in Benin language, just as “r” is deleted from numerous other Benin double
consonants containing the letter “r” in a development of Benin language that linguists have
labelled as rhotic (“r”) deletion (see Manfredi 2002). That is why Benins now call Urhobo
“Uhobo,” just as Benin language has “eha” for three and “ehi” for spirit, whereas Urhobo
language has “erha” and “erhi” for these same words with identical meanings in both
languages. And that is why it is right to say that the imaginative but mistaken invention by
Egharevba of “Uhobo” as the ancestor of the Urhobo people is ultimately a casualty of
differential evolution of Edoid languages. (See Ekeh 2005: 8-11).
We should assume that the Ogiso kings arose from a society that already had an
established culture and language. It is possible that some of the migrations away from that
society predated the rise of the Ogiso dynasty. For instance, it is entirely possible that
Erohwa language got separated from proto-Edoid before the Ogisos became dominant in
proto-Edoid. The notion that the Erohwa are an aboriginal people of the Western Niger Delta
would be difficult to uphold in the light of their inheritance of an Edoid language. However,
it would appear that their separation from the other fractions of the Edoid family of
languages probably occurred before the Urhobo departure from the land of the Ogisos.
Urhobo’s expression of their collective memory of those lands is through numerous stories of
the Ogiso kings.
It must not be imagined that the language and culture of the Ogiso lands, or of proto-
Edoid, are closer to those of modern Benin than those of modern Urhobo. As a matter of fact,
those fragments of a culture complex that move away from its core are more likely to retain
the essential elements of that culture than those that remain behind. That is the critical point
of Hartz’s thesis that argues that innovations occur more readily in fragments of a culture left
behind than those fractions that migrate (see Hartz 1964). Moreover, Benin experienced
major transformations under the kings of the Eweka dynasty, with dramatic impact on Benin
language and culture which became a lot more uniform than what they were before the
arrival of the Eweka kings. The clan nature of Urhobo and the numerous dialects in Urhobo
are probably closer to the nature and clan diversities of Ogiso social organization than the
uniformities that Benin has experienced in modern times under the transformations
engineered by the kings of the Eweka dynasty.
There were probably two major characteristics of the Urhobo primary migrations. First,
the migrants took with them whole fragments of proto-Edoid culture and language. Second,
those fragments were dominant in the new environments into which they settled. That is to
say, they were not absorbed into a pre-existing culture and language. It is entirely possible
that the primary migrants settled into virgin and unoccupied lands. If they did meet prior
settlers, they might have been absorbed by the new immigrants. There was also the
probability that they met bearers of an older Edoid culture, like the Erohwa, with whom the
new migrants co-existed.
There was a probability that the Urhobo primary migrants who settled in the Western
Niger Delta were undifferentiated as between being called (in modern times) Urhobo and
Isoko. It appears that the differentiation between Urhobo and Isoko occurred in the centuries,
possibly millennia, of settlement in the Western Niger Delta rather than before their conquest
11
of these lands. This probability is reinforced by the fact that the internal
11
Thus, Whtney Foster (chapter 2 in this book): “The conviction of the Bini that the Urhobo and Isoko are one is further supported by
the view of Dr. Obaro Ikime. He states that ‘over the centuries (the Urhobo and Isoko) culture and customs have become
sufficiently assimilated into a pattern that justifies their being generally classified as one people’ (Ikime 1965: 284) But his
15
migrations that conquered Urhobo country was launched from both Isoko and Urhobo
territories and that Isoko country was also developed by internal migration from Urhobo
territory.
Secondary Migrations into Urhobo Country
There is an ancient Urhobo adage that is based on a sense of geography held by the
ancient ancestors of the Urhobo people. It says “ Mi kp’ Aka, mi kp’ Igbo ” and literally
means “I have been to Benin and I have been to Igbo.” It metaphorically indicates the greatest
effort that one could possibly undertake in a given matter. It is an ancient saying because it
specified the lands that ancient ancestors of the Urhobo people considered to be distant in
Olden Times. In fact, both Benin and Igbo were also in the physical neighbourhood of Urhobo
lands. If the Western Niger Delta could be conquered by people from the lands of the Ogisos,
it was also available to the Igbo who probably faced greater dangers and pressures to
emigrate.
Various accounts of ancient times of Urhobo history do claim that such migrations
from the northeastern region into Isoko and Urhobo country occurred. For instance, Foster
(in chapter 2 of this book) and Michael Nabofa (2003) report claims by the Urhobo sub-
culture of Evwreni and by the Isoko sub-cultures of Igbide, Emede, and Enhwe that their
communities were founded by Igbo hunters. 12But these instances of immigration involved
settled communities receiving new comers. Foster (in chapter 2 of this book) gives the
following account of Igbo immigration:
The threat of elephants caused Iyede to hire some Igbo hunters and allow them to
settle on lyede land... It is significant to note that the [Igbo] hunters who settled
on Iyede land built the town of Evreni. It now borders on the Isoko- speaking
area. Its inhabitants speak Urhobo.
As Foster’s account intimates, this form of secondary immigration into the Western
Niger Delta was not threatening to the primary immigrants or to their culture and language.
On the contrary, secondary immigration into the densely forested Western Niger Delta was
needed to help the primary immigrants in the arduous conquest of its environment and in
fighting off its dangerous animal population. But the secondary immigrants apparently gave
up their native cultures and languages and assimilated into pre-existing Urhobo-Isoko culture
and languages. That they did so strongly suggests that Urhobo language and culture were
already well consolidated before the secondary immigrations took place. It is therefore a
mistake to indulge in Hubbard’s (1948) error in giving the impression that Urhobo language
and culture were randomly formed from motley immigrants from Benin, Ijo, and Igboland.
13
conclusion suggests the modification that the oneness which the Bini assert is a fairly recent development. The example of Iyede,
ostensibly, shows the assimilation process working in reverse. They started as ‘Sobo’, but are now classified as Isoko.”
12
See Nabofa (2003: 253): “The traditional story of the origin of Evwreni is intimately bound up with those of Igbede, Emede and
Enhwe. . . . the Evwreni . . . claim that they migrated from Igbo country.”
13
If the story of the founding of Avwraka (or Abraka, in modern parlance) by escaping immigrants from Benin during the Eweka
dynasty turns out to be true (see Otite 2003: 213-218), then this would be an instance of what I classify here as secondary
immigration. The Avwraka people would be moving into a settled culture and language complex into which they assimilated. That
the source of their migration was Benin would not change the status of their secondary migration. It would of course mean that the
16
Viewing those ancients from the advantages of the ample living in our modern world,
it may be difficult to imagine how tough their world was. The Western Niger Delta does not
have an environment that is easy to domesticate, even in our times. It is not anything close to
the kinder natural warmth of the savannah vegetation that has enabled much of Africa to be
quickly settled. In those circumstances of severe dangers, it was in the interest of the primary
immigrants, who dared the wilderness of the Western Niger Delta’s rainforest in the first
instance, to entice helpers in the conquest of their lands.
Internal Migration and the Conquest and

Settlement of Urhobo Country
Penetrating and conquering the rainforests of the Western Niger Delta needed much
more than the labours that the primary and secondary migrants into Urhobo country could
offer. The toughness of the physical environment of the Western Niger Delta required
internal migrants, from one region of Urhobo country to another, to conquer its hinterland. It
is easy to traverse the space of Urhobo country with modern motor vehicles and fail to
imagine what those who were in its environment a thousand plus years ago were confronted
with. They faced not just thickly forested regions but also numerous rivers and streams –
with a variety of dangerous animals. That these lands were successfully conquered owed
much of that achievement to internal migrations within Urhobo and Isoko country.
In geographical terms, most internal migrations in ancient Urhobo were north-
westward. The lands that were targeted for these internal migrations lay between two sets of
rivers – which in modern times are named as – Patani and Ase in the southeast and Ethiope
in the northwest of Urhoboland. The original primary migrants settled in the region of Patani
River and Ase River. Internal migrations mostly involved north-westward movement toward
River Ethiope.
These internal migrations were numerous. They fall broadly into two types. There
were, first, the internal migrations that created the twenty-two sub-cultures of Urhobo history
and the ten sub-cultures of Isoko. Second, there were the migrations that led to the founding
of numerous towns and villages within each of these sub-cultures.
Internal Migrations and the Creation of

Urhobo Sub-Cultures and Dialects
14
Each of Urhobo’s twenty-two sub-cultures and Isoko’s ten sub-cultures resulted from
15
a unique migration story, usually borne from immemorial times. Good accounts of
the probable relations among the various sub-cultures of Isoko and Urhobo have been given
by a number of established scholars (see Ikime 1969: 6-10, Erivwo 2003: 81-106, and
Nabofa 2003: 253-259). In these accounts, it becomes clear that those internal migrations
lands of those now called Benins were not only the source of primary migrations into Urhobo country, but also a secondary source of
immigration into a settled Urhobo country. Of course, I do not believe that the settlement of Avwraka was as late as the onset of
Eweka dynasty.
14
I use the term sub-cultures in place of clans, which the British employed, and in place of the more ponderous term of
“kingdoms,” which is popularly in use among modern politicians in Urhoboland.
15
Despite their separation in modern times, the migrations that led to the founding of the sub-cultures of Isoko and Urhobo bear
close associations and similarities. Indeed, the histories of Urhobo and Isoko sub-cultures are intricately intermeshed.
17
that resulted in the conquest and domestication of the Western Niger Delta were launched
from Isoko and Urhobo territories without distinction. Olomoro in Isoko was founded from
Olomu in Urhobo. Iyede, now in Isoko, was once regarded as one of the original and
principal sub-cultures of Urhobo. Agbon and Okpe, Urhobo’s most populous sub-cultures,
trace their beginnings to Irri and Okpe in Isoko. Evwreni, one of Urhobo’s most productive
sub-cultures, was founded by Igbo settlers of Uzere in Isoko. Two major languages in
Urhobo’s multiplex cultural configurations have their origins from Erohwa, clearly Isoko’s
oldest sub-culture whose language probably predates those of Urhobo and Isoko.
Three markers define these sub-cultures whose characteristics were firmed up from the
various internal migrations that were the staple of ancient Urhobo history. First, each of these
sub-cultures has its own territory which its ancestors conquered from brute nature and
settled. Most of these lands were virgin rainforests interspersed with rivers, streams and lakes
that were most probably pristine. Despite such costly disputes as that between Orogun and
Abraka in 1949, the boundaries between neighbouring sub-cultures are generally well
respected.
Figure 1.2
Traditional Capitals of Urhobo Sub-Cultural Units and
Their Modern Local Government Areas Traditional
Cultural Divisions
Capitals Local Govt. Areas
Agbarha-Ame Otovwodo-Agbarha Warri South
Agbarha Otor Agbarha-Otor Ughelli North
Agbarho Orho-Agbarho Ughelli North
Agbon Isiokolo Ethiope East
Arhavwarien Arhavwarien Ughelli South
Avwraka Otorho-Avwraka Ethiope East
Ephron Ephrontor Ughelli South
Evwreni Evwreni Ughelli North
Eghwu Otorho-Eghwu Ughelli South
Idjerhe Idjerhe Ethiope West
Oghara Oghareki Ethiope West
Ogor Otogor Ughelli North
Okere-Urhobo Okere Warri South
Okparebe Okparebe Ughelli South
Okpe Orerokpe Okpe and Sapele
Olomu Otorere-Olomu Ughelli South
Orogun Orogun Ughelli North
Udu Otor-Udu Udu
Ughelli Otovwodo Ughelli North
Ughievwen Otughievwen Ughelli South
Uvwie Effurun Uvwie
18
Ughwerun Ughwerun Ughelli North
Source: URHOBO WAADO, Web site of Urhobo Historical Society at

http://www.waado.org/CulturalUnits/Capitals_LGAs.html
Second, each of Urhobo’s and Isoko’s sub-cultures has an ancestral capital. This is
generally regarded as the first point of settlement by the founding ancestor of the sub-
culture. An ancestral shrine is found in such a capital. An annual, or at least an occasional,
veneration of the ancestor is held in such headquarters at which it is usual to acknowledge
relationships with related sub-cultures or the lands from which the worshipping sub-culture
was deemed to originate. Urhobos have very high regard for these capitals, even if they are
not the most prominent towns in the physical space of these sub-cultures. Thus, the Okpe
regard Orerokpe as their spiritual home and the people of Agbon exercise enormous pride
and respect for Isiokolo, Agbon’s ritual headquarters.
Third, perhaps the most outstanding diacritical mark of each sub-culture is its distinct
dialect or language. Urhobo is a land of immense variations in dialects and linguistic accents.
These distinctions of the Urhobo language are the sole attributes of the sub- cultures. Most
speakers of Urhobo will quickly tell the sub-culture from which a speaker of the Urhobo
language hails.
In respect of variability in Urhobo language, the cultural history of two of Urhobo’s
sub-cultures, Okpe and Uvwie, is rather dramatic. Okpe has provable linguistic and cultural
ties with two older “Okpe” versions in Isoko and Urhobo territories. Okpe in northwestern
Urhobo is the home of a people whose ancestors first lived in Okpe in Erohwa territory in
present-day Isoko. Despite assertions by Professor Onigu Otite (2003: 197) of pre-Erohwa
consciousness as Okpe people, it is most probable that the first formation of an Okpe identity
16
was forged in the rugged territory of Erohwa. A fragment of Okpe-Erohwa people
migrated to Olomu and founded a new settlement there that was called Okpe, obviously in
honour of their ancestral homeland, Okpe-Erohwa. Still another fragment of Okpe-Olomu
founded a new territory that they called Okpe. What is culturally dramatic in this series of
migrations is that the Okpe people in their new abode speak a language that is akin to Erohwa
while their older relatives in Okpe-Olomu have shed Erohwa and now speak a standard
Urhobo language. What accounts for the continuity of the Okpe-Erohwa language among
those who migrated to the new Okpe and the disappearance of this language in Olomu is a
puzzle that deserves the attention of linguists.
There is a similar drama with respect to Uvwie language. Uvwie (or Ephron) has a
language that is also akin to Erohwa. Like Okpe, the Uvwie were said to have first settled
among the Erohwa. Whether this means that they joined with the Erohwa or whether they
16
Otite (2003: 197) writes: “There are two main traditions of origin regarding [the Okpe]. One of these states that Okpe ancestors
and predecessors were descendants of a man called Uhobo. The other tradition claims that the Okpe are descendants of an ancient
ruler in Ife, hence they, like the Bini and other Edo-speaking people, came from Ife. . . . These two traditions could well be
integrated. As descendants of Urhobo it was possible that they lived in some kind of a political kingdom before the Edo-group
separated from the Yoruba and other Kwa-speaking peoples. But it would be exceptional for memory and oral tradition to recall
events of 3,000 to 5,000 years ago.” That last sentence points to the truth and the rest of Professor Otite’s argument is liable to be
mistaken. Neither linguistic evidence nor any cultural survivals lend support to the existence of “Uhobo” or to an Ife ancestral
linkage for the Okpe people.
19
17
were a fraction that grew from within Erohwa culture is unclear. What is clear is that the
Uvwie speak a language that is related to Erohwa. The greatest likelihood is that, like the
Okpe, the Uvwie gained their first identity within Erohwa culture. In any case, that is what
the linguistic evidence points to. That fragment of Erohwa that was called Uvwie migrated
and settled in a place that the migrants called Ephron-Otor. A18fragment of Ephron-Oto
then migrated to the present territory where the Uvwie now reside. The linguistic puzzle is
that the Uvwie speak a language that is akin to ancient Erohwa whereas their older relatives
in Ephron-Oto have shed Erohwa and now speak standard Urhobo.
Internal Migration and the Peopling of Urhobo Towns and Villages
A remarkable feature of Urhobo culture and its society is the multitude of its towns and
villages. Unlike its culturally powerful neighbour of Benin whose greatest achievement is
probably the building of a world-famous city, the Urhobo have never looked to a single city
as their sole city. There is cultural pressure to develop each of the twenty-two sub- cultural
units of Urhobo. The impetus and organization for doing so reside within the sub- cultures
themselves.
The boundaries among Urhobo’s sub-cultures have been settled for a long time
now. In the case of the more ancient portions of Urhoboland, it is probable that these sub-
cultures have been established for up to two millennia, certainly for a thousand plus years.
In the case of the youngest sub-cultures of Oghara and Idjerhe, that time range will be less
distant from our times.
Perhaps we should revisit Otite’s (2003: 38) estimate “that the various Urhobo groups
settled in their present separate territories at different times ranging widely between 200
years and 2,000 years ago.” We would have no quarrel with the older estimate, especially
since it is based on preliminary linguistic evidence. But the later date of 200 years appears to
me to be overly shallow. Otite was writing in 2003. 200 years before then would give a date
of 1803! And yet the Oghara and Idjerhe people were well in their places by the time the
Portuguese arrived in the 1480s, more than 500 years ago. Our conservative estimate is that
interior Urhobo, which lies between River Patani and River Ethiope, had been settled for
more than 1000 years before the Portuguese arrived in the 1480s but that the newest
settlements of Idjerhe and Oghara on the eastern bank of River Ethiope probably occurred
within a century of the arrival of the Portuguese.
While such ancient calculations would apply to the making of Urhobo’s sub-cultures,
the story of the founding and building of towns and villages within the sub-cultural units is
more complex. This is so because while it is true that some of these towns are old, founding
new towns and villages is a continuing process of development in the Urhobo cultural
experience. Proximity to farming and fishing resources appeared to be the main attraction
17
Professor Onigu Otite (2003: 189) also asserts Ife ancestry for the Uvwie: “The founder of Uvwie is believed to be a man, called
Uvwie, who lived in Ife, and later migrated eastwards. He settled near the Ijo village of Erugbo (or Arogbo) in the creeks of Ondo
State, later passed Patani Creek and settled subsequently in a territory in which Erohwa now situates. The Uvwie left Erohwa and
settled in Ephron-Oto from where they migrated to their present territory.”
The linguistic evidence for an Ife connection in the case of Uvwie is even weaker than that for Okpe. Yoruba language is
incapable of handling the uniquely Edoid linguistic construction of the combined consonant “vw.” Yoruba-speaking persons cannot
pronounce “Uvwie” and would not give such a name to one of their own.
18
Professor Michael Nabofa uses the term Ephron for Uvwie while he calls the other people who go by the same name in the Urhobo
hinterland Ephron-Otor (meaning Ephron in the hinterland). The main town of the Uvwie people is called Ephron, corrupted
to Effurun in its British colonial rendering. (See Figure 1.1 in this chapter for Nabofa’s display of Urhobo’s sub-cultures.)
20
for founding new towns and villages within the sub-cultures. The larger sub-cultures of
Okpe, Ughelli, and Agbon have numerous towns and villages, although security concerns in
the post-civil war era in Nigeria seem to have halted the growth of isolated villages.
Urhobo towns do not simply represent physical space. They also bear cultural
meanings, with each town serving as headquarters for its satellite sub-towns and villages.
These satellite towns and villages were founded from the towns and owe allegiance to the
main towns in political and spiritual matters. But there is a cultural dynamism that sometimes
overwhelms such relationships between the main town and subordinate satellite towns. A
major example of such rupture is the successful secession of Ovu from Okpara in 1945. A
dispute had arisen when Ovu leaders refused to accept the ruling from Okpara that the eldest
person in Okpara must reside in the main town of Okpara. The ruling was that if the eldest
person happened to reside in a satellite town or village, he must be relocated to the main town
in order to assume the heavy responsibilities and the concomitant privileges that that rare
status confers in Okpara’s culture. Ovu leaders refused to allow the oldest person who hailed
from Ovu to be relocated to the main town of Okpara, leading to the invocation of sanctions
from Okpara. The dispute was taken by Ovu leaders to British colonial officers who ruled in
their favour and recognized their separate autonomy as a town in 1945. Ovu then attained a
direct link with Agbon’s headquarters in Isiokolo, instead of being represented by Okpara.
It may be said that the final conquest and settlement of the jungles of the Western
Niger hinterland owes to these small-scale internal migrations from the main towns. The
process of this form of internal migration is cascading. From the capitals of the sub-cultures
are migrations that develop its new branch towns. In Agbon, for instance, these were Okpara,
Uhwokori, Orhoakpor, Eku, (and later) Igun, and Ovu. Each of these branch towns of the
sub-cultures then develops its own satellite towns and villages. It is this dynamism that
constitutes the development of Urhoboland and that finally resulted in the conquest of the
rainforests of the Western Niger Delta.
The Middle Ages of Urhobo History, c1450-1891
The ancient history of Urhobo in those dark centuries was one of survival. In effect,
some migrants dared the environmental inhospitality of the Western Niger Delta and
gradually conquered its territory. The size of the pioneering immigrants, who challenged the
wild and the unknown of the Western Niger Delta hinterland, was likely to be small. The
notion that a team of men, women, and children left some comfortable kingdom in Benin and
escaped as a large convoy of happy émigrés into the untested jungle and streams and rivers of
the Western Niger Delta was most probably not the case. It was more likely that long
distance hunters surveyed the new territory and that hardened teams of adventurers prepared
these unknown territories for receiving women and younger members of families. In any
case, the conquest of one of the most difficult regions of Africa, namely, the hinterland of the
Western Niger Delta, was a major accomplishment that is worthy of the careful attention of
historical scholarship.
A major feature of ancient Urhobo was that it was isolated. In other words, whatever
contact was made with its outside world was at the initiative of ancient Urhobos. Urhobo
culture of ancient times was most probably shaped by trends and events that were internal to
the region of the Western Niger Delta. Politically, no authorities from the outside sought to
reach Urhobo territory for its political control until the rise of the Benin Empire in the
21
1440s. The operations of the Benin Empire in Urhoboland and elsewhere were rapidly
followed in the 1480s by the arrival of Europeans in our shores, leading to several centuries
of the regime of international trade that implicated the Urhobo people. These centuries
constitute the era that has been labelled by historians as the Atlantic world. Urhobo’s destiny
was shaped by the dynamics of the Atlantic World in a major way.
These two historical forces – of the Benin Empire and the Atlantic World – broke up
the isolation of ancient Urhobo and ushered Urhobo country and the Urhobo people into a
new era that we have called the Middle Ages of Urhobo history. We seek to characterize the
main features of this era that had to be baffling to those who lived through its pains.
The Rise of Benin Empire
Urhobo folk stories repeatedly tell us that the regime from which ancestral Urhobos
departed in pre-historic times was elementary and disorganized. Urhobo’s famous
traditional sessions of night-time story-telling (called osia in Urhobo language) were
centred on King Ogiso. No one ever said how many Ogiso kings existed, although strange
figures are nowadays repeated by some Urhobo historians from those that some imaginative
Benin “oral” historians have ventured. What exists in Urhobo collective memory is a
composite picture of a bumbling king.
The Ogiso kings of Urhobo folk memory were quarrelsome. They quarrelled often
with their chiefs and especially with their wives. The quarrels between King Ogiso and his
first wife, Inarhe, were legendary and public. Ogiso worried a great deal about the conduct of
his wives. King Ogiso spent more time with diviners on domestic issues than with
counsellors on the affairs of state. But somehow the Ogiso of Urhobo folk stories was a
likeable fellow – at least among the Urhobo who get excited when the osia night-time story-
telling sessions draw close to Ogiso’s turn.
But Ogiso has not fared so well among Benins. The truth is that they know very little
about him. That is largely because the new kings that Benins brought in – after the eternal
departure of the Ogisos and long after Urhobos left for the wilds of the Western Niger Delta
– these new kings would not even allow Benins to say good things about their predecessors.
Ogiso’s persona in Benin folk imagination is a miserable one indeed. Amongst the Urhobo,
there is much friendship and warmth for the memories of their beloved Ogiso. Among the
Benin, Ogiso’s shades cast a lonely lot. In Benin folktales, the Ogiso is despised. I imagine
19
that if any of the Ogisos were to return to this Earth, to Benin
soil, he would probably be told to pack his bag and baggage and follow the Urhobo into the
wilds of the Western Niger Delta.
As far as Benins are concerned, their new kings have done splendidly well. They
cleansed up the mess that the Ogisos left behind and did much more than what they were
brought in to achieve. The Eweka dynasty of kings, who replaced the native Ogisos, turned
out to be no nonsense kings. They went straight to the business of ruling Benins, made their
state the envy of their neighbourhood, and then turned it into an empire. They achieved these
deeds in two stages that impinge on Urhobo history.
19
Isidore Okpewho narrates the following humbling Benin folktale concerning the diminished status of the Ogiso vis-à-vis the
exalted achievements of the House of Eweka whose kings bear the title of Oba: “Ogiso goes back on his word. Whereupon heaven
and earth threaten to convulse the nation, forcing the Ogiso to capitulate. [His rival] became the Oba, and the Ogiso became his
sword-bearer.” (Okpewho 1998: 67).
22
First, the Eweka kings reorganized the kingdom that they took over from the Ogisos.
Ogiso society was in all probability clan-based. In Ogiso times, Benins probably had as
many clans as Urhobos had. There were notable dialects of the degree of variation that is
now typical of Urhobo culture. There were several towns of competing importance and
cultural significance in Benin kingdom of pre-Eweka times – as it is the case in present-day
Urhobo society and culture. Eweka reforms changed all of these attributes of the Ogiso era of
Benin history and society.
The Eweka kings embarked on the centralization of Benin kingdom quite early in their
ascendancy to power. A new city was built that was called Benin. The names “Bini”
(changed to Benin afterwards) and Edo were given by the Eweka kings to their reformed
kingdom. The construction of Benin City – with its wide roads, surrounding moats and
ramparts, and its sheer size of comprehensiveness – entailed a measure of centralization and
organization that are astonishing. The centralization measures also touched on cultural
matters. Crushing resistance from various areas to the reforms of the kingdom, the Eweka
kings were able to bring about a centralized Bini language freed from the weight of myriad
dialects. These developments made Benin a transformation from the lands and culture and
society that the Ogisos left behind. They also made Benin and Benins remarkably different
from the Edoid fragment of Urhobo that had now settled in the rainforests and swamps of the
Western Niger Delta.
The impact of the reformation of Benin kingdom could not have spread to Urhobo
country and other neighbours of Benin immediately in any rapid order of time. What did
touch them directly was the subsequent transformation of the strengthened Benin kingdom
into an outstanding empire. From various accounts that rely on calendar calculations based
on the time of arrival of Europeans in the African mid-Atlantic coast in the 1480s (see, e.g.,
Egharevba 1934, Ryder 1969, Ohadike 1994, Ekeh 2002), there are clear indications that the
Benin Empire was launched some time in the 1440s.
In his Anioma : A Social History of the Western Igbo People, Don Ohadike has given
one of the most insightful analysis of the rise of the Benin Empire. Ohadike estimates,
correctly in my view, that Benin kingdom expanded into a fearsome empire during the reigns
of five enterprising kings spanning from about 1440 to 1606. Before then, Ohadike notes
with some pain, Benin was no more distinguished than other ethnic groups in its region. He
writes: “until Ewuare the Great ascended the throne about 1440, Benin remained a small
political unit, embracing no more than the capital – Benin City – and a few scattered villages
within a radius of about fifteen miles. It was only about 1440 that the Obas of Benin
embarked upon a career of territorial expansion – by warfare” (Ohadike 1994: 44). The
consecutive reigns of five of Benin’s most imperialistic and aggressive kings – Ewuare the
Great, Ozolua, Esigie, Orhogbua, and Ehengbuda – transformed Benin from a local kingdom
into a formidable regional power.
Before the 1440s, Benin political power was probably not appreciably greater than
what Urhobo clans collectively commanded. It was doubtful that any agents of Benin kings
reached the difficult terrain of Urhoboland before the rise of Benin Empire in the 1440s. It
was even probably doubtful that Urhobos were aware of the dramatic changes in Benin or
that they ever heard that the new kings of Benin had a new title of “Oba”, different from
Ogiso. How did Benin power spread to Urhobo country?
Ohadike is only partially right when he asserts that Benin Empire was acquired by way
of brute warfare. Benin fought wars at great cost – in treasure and blood – in order to acquire
its Western Igbo empire. That these wars were bitter can be imagined from their
23
acidic characterization by Ohadike (1994: 40:) almost a hundred years after the downfall of
the Benin Empire: “The people of Anioma [sic] 20as a whole battled the Bini for more than
three hundred years during which some of them ... retraced their steps toward the Igbo
heartland ... in Onitsha, Ogbaru, Ukwuani, and Aboh.” Two of these wars – Benin-Ubulu-
Ukwu (1750) and Benin-Agbor (1577) – were legendary for their destructiveness. Benin also
fought similar wars in its Yoruba provinces.
However, a major achievement of the Eweka kings was that they exploited olden
Edoid connections and sentiments, whose origins dated back to Ogiso times, to acquire
influences in Urhoboland and other Edoid fragments without waging wars. If Benin imperial
forces had had to employ as great resources for fighting wars of occupation against the
Urhobo and other Edoid peoples as they did elsewhere in Western Igbo and its Yoruba
provinces, the achievements of the Benin Empire would have been a lot less. Benin presence
in Urhobo country was significant but remarkably different from the hostilities it faced in its
Western Igbo province. Urhobo aristocrats coveted recognition from the King of Benin,
usually by traveling to Benin to pay homage to the King. But there were no menacing and
marauding Benin forces in Urhoboland such as those that are now bitterly recalled in Igbo
folk lore (see Okpewho 1998). Ikime offers what appears to be a good summary of the nature
of the relationships between Urhobo clans and the Benin Empire in the following informative
passage:
That Benin exerted some influence over the Urhobo, and that contact with
Benin was, in certain respects, maintained, is not denied. The main reason
why the Benin connexion was maintained was because Benin was regarded
as a repository of power. The Oba of Benin was a powerful ruler who was
regarded with deep veneration as a near-deity. Those Urhobo clans which
possessed the office of Ovie (a type of priest-king) used to send the
prospective candidate for the office to Benin to be confirmed there by the
Oba. This involved presents both before and after the ceremonies which went
with the visit. Failure to get the Oba to confirm the title tended to make the
bearer of it less worthy in the eyes of his people. . . . the Oba used to send
soldiers occasionally into the Urhobo area. It would appear as if these
soldiers were sent out as a matter of routine. They did not interfere with the
local government, but it was customary to entertain them lavishly or face
condign punishment like burning down of an entire village. It would
further appear that the Oba regarded the conferring of the title of Ovie as his
prerogative. An Oba is said, on one occasion, to have sent troops against
Ewu because this clan set up an Ovie whose title had not been approved by
Benin. Ewu was partially burnt down. The soldiers then withdrew and the
Ewu people rebuilt their capital without sending their Ovie to the Oba to be
confirmed. Oddly enough, the Oba did not attempt thereafter to force the
Ewu people to acknowledge his right to confer the title. Such then was the
nature of Urhobo relations with Benin. It is not known when these connexions
were finally discontinued. On the whole the Urhobo seemed to have enjoyed a
great deal of independence of action (Ikime 1969: 13-14).
20
The term Anioma was invented in the 1980s during the campaign for the creation of a separate state for the people of Western
Igboland, including Ukwuani.
24
It is noteworthy that by the late 1880s and in the 1890s, Benin imperial presence in
Urhoboland had virtually faded. Nana Olomu and other Itsekiri mercantile chieftains
21
operated freely on the waterways of Urhobo country, under British tutelage, apparently
without fear of reprisal from Benin. There were no reports of conflict with Benin forces from
the Royal Niger Company in this period while it operated in the waterways of Urhoboland.
On the other hand, Benin exercised a firm grip on its Igbo colonial territories in Ukwuani and
Western Igbo well up to 1897 when British imperial forces attacked Benin
City and arrested the mighty King of Benin. 22
The news of the downfall of Benin and its King was received with confusion and
sadness in Urhoboland. A mournful folk poem, which was song in the Urhobo countryside as
the news of the king’s disgrace spread, captured the mood of the Urhobo people. It has been
translated into English by Chief Daniel Obiomah as follows:
Shall I run, Shall I walk,

Will I yet catch up with the Oba?
Shall I run, or shall I walk?
The tale is all abroad that the
Whiteman's taken captive
Even the Oba of Benin;
And they are deporting him.
Shall I run, shall I walk?
Can I catch a glimpse, O! What a tale!
Europeans’ Arrival in the Niger Delta and the

Rise of the Atlantic World
For millennia, the societies and cultures of the forest belt of western Africa were
isolated from the rest of the world, including indeed much of Africa (see, e.g., Connah 1987:
Chapter 6). That isolation was broken when Portuguese sailors arrived on mid- African
Atlantic shores in the 1480s. Of the numerous cultural communities that thrived in the forest
belt of western Africa, Urhobo country was probably more isolated than most. It remained so
for centuries, probably millennia, until Benin imperial agents encroached into its affairs some
time during or after the 1440s. Then in a matter of decades following the rise of the Benin
Empire, Portuguese sailors arrived on the shores of the Western Niger Delta in the early
1480s. These two powerful forces of history broke up Urhobo’s innocence in international
affairs.
At about the same time, but far away across the Atlantic Ocean, the exploits and
explorations that Christopher Columbus’s encounter with the Americas instigated were
rapidly conjoined with developments in the Western Niger Delta and other regions of the
African Atlantic. A European regime of tri-continental international trade ensued --
21
In 1884, the British signed a treaty of “protection” with the Itsekiri. They had signed a similar trade treaty in 1851. It is fair to
assume that the Benin authorities were well aware of British commitment to protect the Itsekiri in Urhobo waterways.
22
In his hand-written report of a maiden British journey into Ukwuani country in 1896, Hugh Lecky mentioned Benin imperial
presence among the Ukwuani as a constant problem (see
http://www.waado.org/UrhoboHistory/NigerDelta/ColonialRule/Ukwuani/EditorIntroduction.html).
25
connecting Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Arising from these numerous contacts and
developments, there eventually emerged what historians now celebrate as the Atlantic world
(see Thornton 1992, Ekeh 2005: 41-43).
The elements of the Atlantic world were varied and complex. As far as the Niger Delta
is concerned, the following developments resulting from the Atlantic world are noteworthy:
(a) International Trade on African Agricultural Products and European

Manufactured Goods . An expansive regime of international trade was
developed in which agricultural and raw products from Africa and manufactured
and industrial goods from Europe were traded. Among the agricultural products
were pepper and palm oil from Urhoboland.
(b) Exchange of Plants and Roots between the African Tropic and the American
Tropic. One of the most exciting developments in the evolution of the Atlantic
World was a regime of exchange of plants and roots between tropical Africa and
tropical America. Such native West African plants and roots as plantain and yams
were taken by the Portuguese from tropical Africa to tropical America. In return,
the Portuguese introduced such American agricultural products as cassava and
cocoa-yam into tropical Africa. Urhobo gained immensely from this exchange.
Cassava, introduced from tropical America early in the fifteenth century, became
a staple of Urhobo food culture.
(c) International Slave Trade . A major ill-consequence of the Atlantic World was
its development of the international slave trade. The European occupation and
development of the Caribbean Islands and the two American continents had led
to the decimation of their native populations. The demand for labour to satisfy
the needs of development of the Americas could not be satisfied with the impor-
tation of indentured servants from Europe. Forced importation of African labour
led to a vast international slave trade in which captives from Africa, particularly
West Africa, were taken to the Caribbean and the Americas for sale into labour
markets that serviced their plantation economies. The Niger Delta was a heavy
source of the slave trade. However, because the Benin Empire was averse to the
international slave trade, Urhobo and other national communities in the Western
Niger Delta were not as heavily affected by its depredation as the eastern Niger
Delta (see Ekeh 2000).
(d) Creation of Efik and Kalabari Coastal States and of Itsekiri Society and State
with Help from the Europeans . The Atlantic world was ultimately a trading
network. The major indigenous states in the region of the western African forest
belt were far away from the Atlantic coast and lay in the hinterland. Therefore,
quite early in their contacts with coastal fishermen, the Portuguese sought to
convert fishing communities into trading partners. They successfully converted
two of these in the eastern Niger Delta into trading states by supplying them with
arms and other requirements of statehood. Thus helped by the Europeans, both
the Efik and Kalabari became trading states in the eastern Niger Delta. In the
Western Niger Delta, following a rupture in 1538-9 of the commercial and
26
diplomatic relations between the Portuguese and the King of Benin, the
Portuguese helped the surviving sons of a fugitive Benin prince named Ginuwa to
string together several fishing communities which they named Itsekiri. (Kenny
1983; but see Kenny 2006a-b for relevant excerpts).
(e) Encasement of Urhobo, Igbo, and Ibibio in the Hinterland of the Niger Delta .
One consequence of the creation of the coastal states and societies in the Niger
Delta as part of the evolution of the Atlantic world was to bar the hinterland
communities of the Niger Delta from direct contacts with Europeans. For four
centuries, c1500-1891, barring the Ibibio, the Igbo, and Urhobo from direct
contacts with European traders became a policy of the neighbouring coastal states
that invested a lot of their resources in ensuring that their European partners
would help them to guarantee that their strategies for monopolizing the
international trade from the Niger Delta were successful. That policy collapsed
when the British created the Niger Coast Protectorate in 1891 and thereafter
pushed into the hinterland for the colonization of the Niger basin and the
hinterland regions of the Niger Delta
Of these five elements of the Atlantic world the last two are the least understood in Nigerian
history. They are also the ones that had the most impact on the history of the period that I
have branded as the Middle Ages of Urhobo history. They therefore deserve further
elaboration.
Creation of Coastal States and Societies and

Encasement of Igbo, Ibibio, and Urhobo, c1500-1891
The trading relations that evolved from European contacts with the Niger Delta in the
fifteenth through the nineteenth centuries thoroughly reshaped the contours of states and
societies in the Niger Delta. Their impact on three sets of fishing communities – Efik,
Kalabari-Ijo, and Itsekiri, who lived on the Atlantic coasts of the Niger Delta and the Cross
River estuary -- was transformational. The force of these international relations on three
heavy population centres – of Ibibio, Igbo, and Urhobo -- in the hinterland of the Niger Delta
and Niger basin was no less profound. Although their stories vary significantly, their
experiences are joined by a common theme. It is this: for four centuries, these tiny coastal
states and societies, which European traders helped to create, monopolized the international
trade from the Niger Delta, keeping the heavily populated hinterland peoples from directly
trading with the Europeans. For those centuries, the three hinterland peoples, to varying
degrees, were either the victims of the slave trade or else they produced the agricultural
goods, especially palm oil, which were directly sold to European traders by the self- imposed
coastal middlemen in the Atlantic trade.
The Efik are a fraction of the Ibibio who moved to the Cross River estuary some time
in the fifteenth or early sixteenth century, engaging in fishing as their main occupation (see
Latham 1973: 9-13).. They made early contacts with the Portuguese and quickly became the
notorious middlemen of the slave trade. As Forde wryly put it, they "found their opportunity
in the slave-trade. Their communities grew and multiplied during the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries with [sic] the success of this traffic" (Forde 1968: vii). The Efik named
their capital Calabar, most probably in honour of a Portuguese sailor of that
27
name. 23 The main victims of their participation in the slave trade were Igbo and Ibibio
captives, although they were notorious for taking any captives that came their way. The
Efik traders invested plenty of armaments and wealth, which they gained from the slave
trade, in ensuring a monopoly of the trade and in making sure that their more populous
hinterland neighbours, the Ibibio, had no access to the European traders.
On the abolition of the slave trade, the Efik rapidly adapted to the era of legitimate
trade. Although the bulk of the palm oil so traded came from the Ibibio hinterland, the Efik
"successfully kept the European [traders] from the hinterland, and the hinterland people from
the Europeans" (Latham 1973: 90). When finally in the 1890s, the British moved into Ibibio
country and brought trade directly to the Ibibio people, Ibibio pent-up resentments broke
loose. As early as 1895, Ibibio nationalists from Use and Edidep ransacked a colony of Efik
traders at Itu (see Nair 1972: 241-2).
The story of the Ijo trading states and the history of their relations with the Igbo
hinterland were more complicated than Ibibio-Efik relations. Five Ijo trading states grew on
the back of the slave trade from about the sixteenth century (see Jones 1963; Horton 1969;
Cookey 1974). 24The victims of the Ijo participation in the slave trade were mostly Igbo and
Ibibio. The Aro, an Igbo fraction, did much of the capturing of these victims, although they
25
did not have contact with European traders. In addition to their role in the international
slave trade, the Ijo trading states augmented their population by recruiting domestic slaves
into their ranks, with some of them rising to high prominence.
In the era of legitimate trade, the Ijo trading states continued to exclude the hinterland
Igbo from direct participation in the international trade between Europeans and the coastal
peoples. Until British colonizers pushed into the Igbo hinterland in the 1890s, the encasement
of the Igbo and their exclusion from direct participation in the trade between Europeans and
Africans was near total. When finally the Europeans arrived in their territory, the Igbo clearly
were not unhappy that the Ijo states’ monopoly had been broken.
23
Simmons (1956: 4) offers a more complicated explanation: "The word Calabar is not of Efik origin; it is believed to have been
first applied [by European traders] to the New Calabar River, farther to the West, so-called from the villages of the Kalabari Ijaw
who lived along its banks. Through error the name came to be used for the Cross River Estuary area, which in turn was later called
`Old' Calabar to distinguish it from `New' Calabar, a town situated on the Niger River near Bonny, and now known as Degema."
The point is that both Calabar and Kalabari are derived from Portuguese roots. Calabar was the name of a Portuguese sailor, while
Kalabari was its corruption.
24
These Ijo trading states -- New Calabar (Elem Kalabari), Bonny, Brass (Nembe), Okrika, and Opobo (this last one having been
developed much later in the 1870s) -- are the best, and probably the most, studied of all precolonial states and societies in southern
Nigeria, thanks in large part to the elaborate reactions to Kenneth Dike's (1956) pioneering Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta. Of
the significant differences among the organizations of their societies may be mentioned the one highlighted by Alagoa and Fombo
(1972: viii): "One difference ... between Elem Kalabari [that is, New Calabar] and Bonny is that whereas Elem Kalabari insisted on
the complete acculturation of slaves to be integrated into the House system, Bonny does not seem to have required full acculturation.
Thus, although both states took part in the slave trade and absorbed large numbers of Ibo slaves into their communities, the Kalabari
have preserved their language and culture, while Bonny has become bilingual in Ibo and Ibani." It is remarkable that Jaja, the
secessionist Ibo ex-slave trader, grew up in the more liberal Bonny. The Ijo trading states also appeared to have differed significantly
from the Efik's Old Calabar trading state in one important respect: The Ijo slave traders appeared to have been more discriminating in
the procurement of their victims, respecting other Ijo communities, whereas the Efik turned on their own and the Ibibio, their
not-too-distant kinsmen, for the evil trade: "The Efik enslaved those of their own people who were guilty of theft or adultery, and also
captured or purchased slaves from neighboring [ethnic groups]" (Simmons 1956: 7).
25
See Cookey (1973: 7): "The long-distance network [in the eastern Niger Delta] was firmly under the control of a single Igbo group,
the Aro....The Aro established settlements or colonies at strategic places throughout Eastern Nigeria and these became focal
points for the spread of Aro influence and relay centers for Aro entrepreneurs. Aro expansionism was stimulated by the internal
demand for domestic slaves in the region and by the rise of the transatlantic slave trade. The slaves were sold ... to the Niger Delta
traders by the Aro, who in turn bought from their customers clothes, hardware, ornaments, tobacco, spirits, and firearms, the control
of which further enhanced Aro importance in the hinterland economy."
28
Nor was their resentment against their former oppressors hidden. In a telling passage in his
famous book Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta , Kenneth Dike pens the following
striking sentences concerning Jaja’s successful secession from the Ijo trading state of Bonny
in September 1869: "Since he was Ibo, the predominant tribe in the east, Ja Ja had the
goodwill of the majority and was served by the best talents in Iboland.... Ja Ja gathered
around him at Opobo the illustrious Ibo of his generation" (Dike 1956:196-7).
These two instances of problematic relations between dominant coastal minorities and
dominated hinterland major populations of Ibibio and Igbo in pre-colonial times are useful
for understanding the history of the celebrated difficulties between the coastal Itsekiri and
26
the hinterland Urhobo in Western Niger Delta in roughly the same centuries. Of course,
there are unique circumstances that differenttiated Itsekiri-Urhobo relations from Ijo-Igbo
and Efik-Ibibio relations. First, the presence of the Benin Empire was important in the
Western Niger Delta. It had no parallel in the eastern Niger Delta. For instance, the
moderation of the slave trade in the Western Niger Delta was a consequence of the aversion
of the Benin Empire to the international slave trade, owing to chronic problems of under-
population in Benin kingdom (see Ekeh 2002). Second, Itsekiri as a society was much
younger than the Ijo trading states or the Efik. Up until the late 1530s, when the Portuguese
still had commercial and diplomatic ties to Benin, there was nothing like Itsekiri. Itsekiri
resulted from the efforts of the Portuguese to help the surviving sons of Ginuwa to build a
trading state. Ginuwa’s sons and the Portuguese succeeded brilliantly and a new nationality
called Itsekiri was born some time in the sixteenth century (see Ekeh 2004: 9-15). The
Itsekiri supplied the middlemen in the trade that developed in the Western Niger Delta in
which agricultural products from Urhobo country in the hinterland were sold to Europeans
who brought manufactured goods from Europe to the Western Niger Delta.
Such differences notwithstanding, Urhobo-Itsekiri relations in the Western Niger Delta
do have striking similarities with Igbo-Ijo and Ibibio-Efik relations in the eastern Niger
Delta. First, Urhobo country was encased in the hinterland of the Western Niger Delta for
several centuries and excluded from any access to European traders until the late 1880s when
the Royal Niger Company breached the Itsekiri monopoly. Itsekiri mercantile chieftains
invested an inordinate amount of armaments and violence to ensure that the Urhobo were
kept away from direct contact with the Europeans. According to Salubi’s account, the
Europeans desired to reach Urhobo country, but they were thwarted in that ambition by the
Itsekiri middlemen. This is how Salubi phrases it (in chapter 4 of this book):
For many years, European traders on the coast wanted to reach the interior people
who were the oil producers, but the African middlemen who were natives of the
coast, did not permit them. It was a part of the middlemen's design deliberately to
malign or blackmail the interior people to the Europeans, and the
Europeans, to the interior people. [ Salubi then adds this eye-witness account :
When I was a boy, there was a story that the white men who made the clothes
we wore were fairies with tails living in tree-holes in a far away bush where a
kind of dumb barter or silent trade with them took place.]
26
For a fuller statement of my arguments in respect of dominant minorities in Nigerian history, including an assessment of the
aristocratic Fulani, see Ekeh 1996.
29
The total exclusion of the European traders from any contact with the hinterland
people suited the middlemen's purpose eminently well. As agents between the
interior and the coast, many of them had become very wealthy and influential, a
position which they very jealously guarded. The jealousy was based on the fears
of losing their powerful advantageous position.
When finally, it appeared that these efforts were failing in the 1890s, the most
prominent Itsekiri mercantile chieftain, Nana Olomu, resorted to brute intimidation and
violence in efforts aimed at disrupting the developing contacts between Urhobo and the
British. Urhobo retaliated with trade boycott. The British intervened with force, defeating
Nana Olomu in 1894, and opening Urhobo country fully to European contacts for the first
time, breaking an encasement that had lasted for almost four centuries.
Second, as in the east of the Niger, Urhobos suffered from Itsekiri slave practices,
although not on the same scale. Unlike the situation of the Atlantic trade in the eastern Niger
Delta and the Cross River estuary, the Itsekiri did not gain their dominance over the Urhobo
through the Atlantic slave trade. In fact, Ikime (1969: 52-7) reports that in the years of the
slave trade the Itsekiri, in spite of some export trade in slaves, were generally poor. Their
greater opportunity came with the expansion of the palm oil trade with the Urhobo interior,
following European demands.. Two aspects of that trade led to the steady deterioration of the
relations between the Itsekiri and the Urhobo. First, the Itsekiri merchants needed a huge
27
slave population to man their trading operations and for meeting
28
the hostilities in which they were transacted. These led to incessant raids for captives,
from which the Urhobo suffered the most. Second, the Itsekiri methods of trade included a
particularly pernicious credit system which compelled a trader on the Urhobo side to give up
a child until he paid back his trade advances to the Itsekiri creditor -- a clear source of distrust
and contention between the two ethnic groups in pre-colonial times. The depredations by
Itsekiri merchants attained a stage of state terrorism during the ten tense years (1884-1894) of
Nana Olomu's reign as "Governor of Benin River", a post created at the instance of the British
to enforce trade relations between the Itsekiri middlemen and British traders.
Two other aspects of Urhobo-Itsekiri relations do have comparative value across the
Niger. The first concerns the contrasting structures of authority among the Itsekiri and
Urhobo. Obaro Ikime (1969: 39-43) has emphasized that the Itsekiri system of centralized
political authority helped the Itsekiri in dealing with the Europeans and with their more
27.
. See Lloyd (1957: 196): "The Itsekiri chiefs and traders had many domestic slaves.... All slaves were non-Itsekiri, being mainly
Urhobo, Yoruba, and Benin" (also see Ikime 1969:36, 40). The further point made by Lloyd that the Itsekiri "never raided for
slaves" must be understood in the substantive terms of the exception which Ikime allows: "except, of course, such raids as were the
product of trade disputes, for it was an accepted way of settling a debt, especially in the nineteenth century [emphasis added], to
seize the slaves of the debtor" (1969: 49-50). But the extensive accounts given by Ikime in his important documentation of the trade
relations between the two peoples included several instances where individuals were forcibly removed by sheer force of arms in well
organized raids. The immediate reason -- Ikime (1969: 121) labels it an excuse -- for the British embargo on Nana's trading operations
on the River Ethiope included the fact that Urhobo had stopped trade because Nana's men of violence had seized captives in raids at
Eku on the Ethiope River. Nor should it be forgotten that the abnormal practice of seizing men in lieu of debts developed with the
Atlantic trade in the nineteenth century and could only be enforced by those who enjoyed the monopoly of imported firearms.
28.
. Throughout his admirable account of the turbulent trade relations between the Urhobo and the Itsekiri, Obaro Ikime uses the term
"slaves" for the victims of these unconventional trade practices. For a more discriminating conception of the human component of
the slave trade, that prefers the term "captives" for those so forcibly removed from their homes in brutal raids and other acts of
warfare, see Basil Davidson's (1971) sensitive essay which rightly rejects the use of the term "slave" for its abusive connotation in
respect of war victims who deserve more respect from at least historians.
30
fragmented mainland Urhobo neighbours. Ikime's important point deserves to be highlighted

and placed in a comparative context. If there is anything that differentiated the three
majority groups (Igbo, Ibibio, and Urhobo) from their dominating minority neighbours, it
was kinship. All three majority groups had strong patrilineal systems of kinship which
limited their range of political action to narrow segments, excluding other members of their
ethnic groups. Thus, they could not deal with their minority neighbours on common
platforms. On the other hand, the three minorities had flexible kinship systems that allowed
them to range beyond immediate kinsmen in their moral definitions of their political
environment. Thus, the units of each of the minorities could act as a whole if their common
interests required it, whereas only kinship fractions of the majority Igbo, Ibibio, and Urhobo
could act together against the consolidated minorities. While the intensity of kinship ties
could be enormous, its range was limited. On the other hand, the generalization of such
intensity of kinship bonds in later colonial circumstances helped all three majority groups in
overcoming their historic handicap.
It needs to be added, however, that it was possible that these differences were created
by the circumstances of the Atlantic world and the violence of the slave trade. I have argued
elsewhere that the slave trade and its violence regime were responsible for the rampart
kinship in areas affected by the slave trade in Africa (see Ekeh 1990). The centralized
authority experienced by the Efik, Ijo trading states, and the Itsekiri was more likely to be a
consequence of the need to organize trading functions. The fragmented kinship structures
among the Ibibio, Igbo, and Urhobo could arguably have arisen, or at least consolidated,
from the absence of occupations and circumstances that needed centralized authority.
A second aspect of Itsekiri-Urhobo relations that can be genralized across the Niger
was the fact that the Itsekiri used propaganda to secure their middlemen status in the
monopoly trade of the Western Niger Delta. They represented the Europeans to Urhobos as
difficult people with whom they could not deal. On the other hand, they represented the
Urhobo and other hinterland peoples to the Europeans as savages with whom they could not
deal directly. As Salubi’s (1958) documentation of the beginnings of British colonialism in
Urhoboland intimates, both the British and Urhobo were surprised that they could get along
without the intervention of the Itsekiri. When in 1896 Hugh Lecky, a British officer, paid a
maiden visit to Ukwuani country, north of Urhobo country, both sides were surprised at the
amount of hospitality and friendship that they instantly displayed towards each other.
29
Salubi’s (1958) sentimental description of this visit is worth quoting here:
What was perhaps a singularly warm demonstration of friendliness by the people

of the Urhobo and the Ukwuani countries, was shown to Mr. Hugh Lecky,
Assistant District Commissioner, Sapele, and his party on their first visit to
Ukwuani in 1896. The people did not only bring him presents but also organized
all the children in the town to entertain him with a dance. At the meeting that
followed, the people willingly signed a Treaty, as they were very pleased to see
the white man. Handing over to them a copy of the Treaty with an accompanying
present, the people said they were ashamed to take the present as to see the white
man was enough for them; and when going away, they gave a big cheer for which
in return Mr. Lecky and his party gave a general salute.
29
Chief T. E. A. Salubi’s valuable documentation is published as chapter 4 in this book.
31
But this alone was not enough. In the afternoon, all the head women gave a goat
as a present and staged a big dance of all the women in the town in honor of the
visit. One very old woman believed to be the widow of a big Chief invited Lecky
and his party to her house and said how pleased every one was that the Consul
had come to see them at last. The Chiefs asked Lecky and party to come often
30
and said that they would do anything they were told. [Salubi adds:] Is it
not surprising that a people vilified for years as savages should act like that!
Was such propaganda also employed in the eastern Niger Delta? What is
demonstrable is that the Urhobo and other hinterland people of the Western Niger Delta were
eager, perhaps also curious, to receive the Europeans about whom they had heard so much
through the Itsekiri. That is why Salubi’s (1958) witnessing account is important. The usual
characterization of a resistance to colonial rule in Nigerian historiography did not occur in the
Western Niger Delta. The Urhobo probably knew that Modern Times and European Times
had arrived and that their centuries of unsolicited encasement in the hinterland of the Western
Niger Delta were finally over.
Conclusion: Modern Times of Urhobo History
The onrush of Modern Times arrived in Urhobo country in the 1890s. The Urhobo
people had eagerly awaited their advent. But they could not have anticipated the huge
problems that lay in their future.
The old world in which the Urhobo people operated had the structures of the clan as
the utmost authority for dealing with either the Benin Empire or the distant problems of the
Atlantic world. These new European Times called for coordination of these clans under a
common platform. Revising Urhobo social thought to meet these new exigencies was the
intellectual problem that confronted an age of Urhobo pioneers, of the 1920s through the
1950s, who tried hard to understand these European Times.
It did not take long before the Urhobo people understood that they were not as well
prepared for the competition that colonialism called for as many other nations in Southern
Nigeria or even Nigeria and that they could be left behind if they failed to act together and in
their own self interest. Thus was born the era of Urhobo Progress Union.
The rest of this book is organized to reveal the outline of Modern Times in Urhobo
history. Its sections and chapters range from the arrival of colonialism and Western Christian
missions through the era of Urhobo Progress Union to the crisis of oil exploration. For these
we are all living witnesses. There is no particular need to introduce the message of the
research papers and essays that are in the later sections and chapters of this book. They are all
about various aspects of Modern Times of Urhobo History.
Therefore, my introduction to this book ends here.
30
Sir Ralph Moor's Dispatch No. 58 of 18.7.1896 to the Foreign Office. F.O. 2/101, pp. 180-187.
32
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36
Chapter 2
Pre-Twentieth-Century Isoko:
Its Foundation and Later Growth 1
Whitney P. Foster 2
Washington, D.C.
The objective of this chapter is to establish a basis for a better understanding of a pre-
twentieth-century period within a specific geographic area in the lower Niger Delta. Toward
that end I have first attempted to discuss several factors relating to the populating of Isoko. 3
Into what kind of an area did the different migrant groups come? Where did they come from
and why? And did they encounter anyone along the way or at their point of settlement?
These are key points that must be understood in order to establish what went into the makeup
of the Isoko by the end of the nineteenth century.
After an investigation of the founding process and several related themes, a quick
transition will be made. The focus of discussion shifts to the product of the migrations in the
nineteenth century. What had the disparate migrant groups become over the passage of 200
to 400 years? Were they beginning to cohere, and, if so, what factors were serving to draw
them together?
The analysis is admittedly brief and incomplete. Nowhere are final answers offered.
Until further research is pursued on the core areas – in this case the Bini and Itsekiri – the
studies of lesser-known peoples will continue to be obscure, or at best clearly limited. This
seems to be the nature of African historiography, where oral tradition serves as the main
source of evidence. The history of the less centrally organized groups will be the subject of
much conjecture and hypothesis – but little fact – until the past of the more highly centralized
peoples is put together with a valid chronology.
1
Reprinted from African Historical Studies 2(2): 289-305, 1969, with kind permission of the author.
2
This paper would not have been possible without the assistance of Professor R. Griffeth of the University of California, Los
Angeles, and my students at St. Michaels Teacher Training College, Oleh, Midwest, Nigeria.
3
The word Isoko in this paper has two meanings. It is used here to refer to the geographic area where the Isoko-speaking clans live in
the Niger Delta. It is also used to refer to the people who speak the Isoko dialect of the Edo language group.
Figure 2.1
Isoko and the Lower Niger Delta
4
At the start of the twentieth century there were ten Isoko clans, dispersed among
numerous villages located in an area of the Niger Delta between longitudes 6° and 6°60' east
and latitudes 4°10' and 5°10' north. About 750 square miles served as the living space for
5
approximately 34, 000 people. With only forty feet marking its highest point above sea
level, the territory inhabited by the Isoko must be recognized as being profoundly influenced
by water. The apparently low population density (roughly 45 people per square mile) is
explained by the fact that half the total area is either uninhabitable swamp or under water.
During the wet season, which lasts from April to December with a break in August, Isoko
receives an average of over 100 inches of rain, thus isolating or flooding still more of the
area. The end of the rainy season coincides with the height of the Niger flood coming from
6
the river’s source.
Not only is a large portion of the Niger Delta under water or menaced by floods much
of the year, but recent research has revealed that the soil of the area is very sandy and porous
7
and therefore quite infertile. As a result crop yields are poor, and the Delta
cultivator, who practices shifting cultivation, must leave the land fallow for long period or
run the risk of further impoverishing the soil. With such a limited amount of arable land the
competition for the more fertile land is great, and a man trying to make a living in such an
area must constantly invest a great deal of effort in land clearance.
4
In the Appendix I have divided my definition of clan into two categories – pre- and post – 1900. The former is characterized by a
common ancestor, language, customs, and culture. The latter is characterized by these factors/and/or common experience under
English colonial rule in the sense, of being empowered to act as an individual administrative unit.
5
Southern, Assessment Report on the Isoko Sub-Tribe in the Ase Sub-District of Warri: Division of Warri Province , Ughelli District
Council Records for 1929. James Welsh, “Isoko Clans of the Niger Delta” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of London,
1929), said there were 50,000 “Isoko,” while J.W. Hubbard, The Sobo of the Niger Delta (Zaria, 1948), 63, said that territorially the
Isoko inhabited about 300 square miles.
6
James Welsh, “The Isoko Tribe,” Africa, VII, 2 (April 1934), 63.
7
Niger Delta Development Board, Report of the Niger Delta Development Board Research Scheme (Ibadan, 1964).
38
Pre-Twentieth-Century Isoko: Its Foundation…
Such environmental conditions as infertile soil and serious flooding would seem
sufficient to dissuade people from moving into the Delta. Yet many came, including those
who, as some if their descendants attest today, were not “people of the water.” 8 Some of the
early immigrants did settle by the Ase and Forcados banks. It9 has been carefully pointed out,
however, that those who first settled by the water soon moved into the more protected,
forested areas to escape the annual flooding and the Ijaw slave raids. It was not until the
Christian persecutions in 1916 and 1917 that any Isoko group again sought to establish itself
10
along the unfamiliar and inhospitable waterside.
The pre-twentieth-century Isoko economy was based mainly on the produce of the land
rather than the water. Plantain, yam, cassava, and maize were the main food crops. What
fishing the Iskoko did was in the backwater areas where the receding floods usually left a
readily obtainable supply of fish. To supplement their essentially agricultural economy, the
Isoko engaged in some highly localized trade, concentrating first on barter among
neighboring family groups and later with nearby clans. Initially, there was also a good deal of
hunting. The threat of elephants caused Iyede to hire some Igbo hunters and allow them to
11
settle on lyede land. Several other towns were settled as a result of hunters
having found satisfactory sites in their wanderings. 12
The scale of trade and external contact seems to have increased somewhat in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries under the influence of the slave raids and of trading
initiated by Europeans along the coast. By the mid-nineteenth century at least one clan,
Olomoro, appeared to have had rather extensive slaving contacts with the Itsekiri, Ijaw, and
their intermediaries. They recounted that, after a successful foray against Owhe, some of
those who were caught were taken to “Warri side” while others were sold at Onya. It is
doubtful, though, that many material gains came to the Isoko as a result of the slave trade;
they were more often the exploited than the exploiter in this particular trading relationship.
This position was substantially reversed with the gradual decline of the slave trade and
the increasing pursuit of “legitimate” trade in palm produce. By the early twentieth century
there were several European firms in direct contact with the Isoko at Ivrogbo, Asaba Ase,
Ase, and Patani. Essential to13this paper is the fact that until that time the Isoko
were not only living in a difficult physical environment, but also were rather thoroughly
isolated, not only from contact with the outside world, but, to a lesser degree, from each
other.
What was it that this area possessed which drew the progenitors of the Isoko to it?
Certainly, though most were farmers, it was not its promise as a virgin farm area. Cornevin,
in referring to such uninviting topography, has coined the term “areas of refuge.” 14What he
8
Hubbard, Sobo, 9. This was also repeated several times in my own interviews.
9
Erohwa, Uzere, Aviara, and Okpe clans note initial settlement by the water before moving inland. Eru, the founder of Igbide, was
the one exception to this rule. He was a fisherman and seems to have migrated from the east at least in part in search of better
fishing.
10
The one exception to this is the town of Odi on the Nun branch of the Niger. Though Odi is an Ijaw-speaking town today, the
Uzere people claim that it was settled by a brother of their founder. Their becoming Ijaw speakers serves only to prove the thesis
developed here.
11
It is significant to note that the hunters who settled on Iyede land built the town of Evreni. It now borders on the Isoko-speaking
area. Its inhabitants speak Urhobo.
12
Iri was settled as a result of one of Omode’s hunting expeditions from Uzere.
13
The history of John Holt, United Africa Company, and several other European (i.e., French and German as well as English) firms
in this area is highly complex and yet to be recounted.
14
R. Cornevin, Histoire de L’Afrique des Origines a nos Jours (Paris, 1956), 43-45.
39
means by this is an area rugged and physically unpromising enough to provide a refuge for
those seeking to escape trouble in their homeland. Once there, the physical barriers seem to
have proven sufficient to provide the refugees with the independence they sought, both from
each other and from their homelands. Within a few generations the fear causing their flight
probably had worn off, but by then the “area of refuge” had become a familiar, if difficult,
environment for the refugees’ descendants to live and multiply.
Certainly the dominant theme of the traditions today passed on within the Isoko clan
pertaining to the reasons why a particular individual or group came to the Niger Delta would
15
agree with the refuge theory. The geographic factor must therefore be prominent in
an analysis of the Isoko as they w ere to be found in the early twentieth century.
Social Formation of Isoko
Today the Isoko are bounded by the Igbo on the northeast and east, the Ijaw on the
south, the Bini on the north, and the Urhobo on the west. The earliest record, from 1505, of
the lower Delta area speaks of the “Jo” (Ijaw) along the coast and river banks and of the
16
“Subou” to the interior. Other accounts speak of the “Jekri” (Itsekiri), “Mahin” and 17
“Jebu” (Ijebu Yoruba) to the west, and the “Kalabari” (Ijaw) plus “Eboe” (Igbo) to 19the
18
East. There are numerous records dealing with the Bini, who live to the north of the Delta.
Nothing, however, is again noted of the Delta interior in the European records until the
nineteenth century, and these sources indicate that the present-day pattern of settlement certainly
existed by the late eighteenth century.
Use of the oral traditions of the local inhabitants should further assist in clarifying the
pattern of settlement which resulted in “Isoko.” The historian of the Itsekiri, William Moore,
writes that a group known as the “Sobo” was the most populous in the Delta when Ginuwa,
the Itsekiri founder, arrived from Benin in 1480. These Sobo were divided into four clans,
20
one of which was called “Iyede.”
Jacob Egharevba, the Bini historian, also refers to the Sobo. 21When questioned on his
use of this term, he suggested that the two groups, the Urhobo and Isoko, came from
different quarters in Benin. Still he refers to them with one term, “Sobo.” Certainly that is
not very different from Pereira’s use of the term almost 400 years earlier.22
The question then is: are the Isoko and Urhobo of today the same people about whom
Moore, Egharevba, and Pereira speak? Egharevba’s unwillingness to differentiate between
15
This contention coincides with the reason for migration of Iyede, Olomoro, Owhe, Enwhe, Igbide, and Uzere. For the others:
Erohwa – unknown, Aviara – hunting, Umeh – unknown. Also Eblegberi Joe Alagoa, The Small Brave City – State (Ibadan, 1964)
at page 48 says, “The Delta served as a refuge for people who sought to escape the power of Benin.”
16
Pacheco Pereira, Esmeralda in Situ Orbis, Raymond Mauny, trans. (Bissau, 1956), 139.
17
W. A. Moore, The History of the Itsekiri (London, 1936), 13.
18
James Coleman, Nigeria: Background to Nationalism (Berkeley, 1958), 25.
19
G. I. Jones, The Trading States of the Oil Rivers (London, 1963), 20-26.
20
Moore, Itsekiri, 13, 16.
21
Jacob Egharevba, A Short History of Benin (Ibadan, 1960), 14. I am assuming the following discussion along with Egharevba that
Sobo at some point became Urhobo.
22
The first indication I have found of an observer looking upon the Isoko and Urhobos as different was written in 1908. A. G.
Leonard, The Lower Niger and its Tribes (London, 1936), 18, wrote, “to the North of the Jekri are the Sobo, and to the eastward are
the Igabo.” Later he notes the Sobo and Igabo are dialectically different yet “are practically one.” “Igabo” is the Kwale Igbo
derogatory term for the “Isoko.”
40
the Urhobo and Isoko today could have many meanings. One possibility is that, from his
historical point of view, there is no difference between them, or, if there is any, it is of little
significance.
Today one of the Isoko clans is Iyede. Yet Moore noted that Iyede was one of the four
Sobo clans in the Delta prior to Ginuwa’s arrival. 23 Upon questioning two different groups
of Iyede elders, two very difference stories were obtained. One version can be immediately
rejected because of its political overtones. The other states that the god, which they still
worship today at the site of their first stop in Isoko, was also worshipped by Ogo, Agbaza,
and Oghele. These three names refer to the other three of the original four clans referred to
by Moore. 24Here, certainly, is a good indication that at least one of the Isoko clans of today
was an Sobo clan at the time Pereira wrote.
The conviction of the Bini that the Urhobo and Isoko are one is further supported by
the view of Dr. Obaro Ikime. He states that “over the centuries (the Urhobo and Isoko)
culture and customs have become sufficiently assimilated into a pattern that justifies their
25
being generally classified as one people.” But his conclusion suggests the modification
that the oneness which the Bini assert is a fairly recent development. The example of Iyede,
ostensibly, shows the assimilation process working in reverse. They started as Sobo, but are
now classified as “Isoko.”
The final word on the issue, at this point, is provided by the Urhobo. An informant 26
in the Urhobo town of Ughelli stressed repeatedly that Iyede was Isoko. The Iyede were
also, he said, one of the four original Urhobo clans. With the previous points in mind, it now
seems that what he was trying to say was that the other clans and towns now termed Isoko
27
are really later arrivals in relation to Iyede and the three Urhobo clans.
There are few points upon which all the Isoko clans agree when questioned. One of
those rarities is that the Erohwa were in the lower Delta area prior to any other groups now
termed “Isoko.” Only the Iyede clan qualified this; and they do so only to the extent of
saying that Aviara and Erohwa were brothers (with the latter as the senior). Thus, they
suggest that the two came into the Delta at about the same time, but the younger Aviara
recognizes Erohwa’s seniority.
Another factor supporting Erohwa’s claim to initial settlement is that no one – from
among the Isoko, Urhobo, Ijaw, Igbo, or Bini – can understand the language. 28The Erohwa,
when questioned, maintained that they were from Ife and produced some bronzes purporting
29
to prove their contention. Yet the District Officer who interviewed the Erohwa
23
An interview with one of Iyede’s neighbors as well as one of the larger Urhobo-speaking clans, Ughele, brought forth the
contention that Iyede was not one of the original four clans which Ginuwa, the Itsekiri leader, would have met.
24
Obviously this could be fiction also. But there were strong political pressures at that time, pressures that would have dissuaded
almost anyone from making a statement tying the Isoko to the Urhobo.
25
Obaro Ikime, “Traditional Systems of Government and Justice among the Urhobo and Isoko of Delta Province, Nigeria,”
Nigerian Journal of Economic and Social Studies, 7, 3 (Nov. 1965), 284.
26
Chief Monije was at the time this material was collected a hospital attendant and police officer in Ughelli.
27
A linguistic study could at this point provide much crucial information to clarify at least one aspect of the Isoko –Urhobo
relationship.
28
No linguistic study has been done in this problem either. One of the key questions relating to the history of the Delta, i.e., the
relationship of the Erohwa to the surrounding peoples, should be clarified when a detailed study of Erohwa is made.
29
William Fagg, after viewing some slides of these bronzes, said they could be of either Ife or Benin origin. The one side of some
object shown indicated no bee-shaped pattern, which meant one of two things to him. Either t he object, a bell, had no patterning
and was therefore of Bini design, or else the pattern was on the opposite side, suggesting Ife origin or influence.
41
30
in 1928 maintained that they “knew nothing of their past.” Relevant also is the fact that the
Erohwa were once settled where the present Ijaw town of Patani is. Proof is provided by the
fact that the major god of the Erohwa, Okiale, is still worshipped there. Finally, the Erohwa
31
state that while they were living at this first site, cassava was non-existent.
Assuming this to be the same cassava as that which the Portuguese transported from Brazil,
a safe estimate would place the Erohwa on the Forcados branch of the Niger before the mid-
sixteenth century. 32
Judging from Pereira’s previously noted observation that the “Subou” lived in the
interior prior to 1505, it can be further stated that the Erohwa were established much earlier
than 1550. If all the “Isoku” clans agree that the Erohwa were there on their arrival, then the
Isoko must be non-“Subou.” And, if they were “Subou,” the Erohwa settlement can be
placed earlier than 1505. At the very least this is the case for Iyede.
A second slim body of oral testimony is applicable at this point. Bini tradition states
that during the reign of Oba Egbeka there was a series of civil disturbances. As a result, “it is
said that during his reign the Sobos migrated from Benin and became the founders of Abraka
and other towns.” The date33Egharevba gives for these developments is around
1370. Abraka today is a town north and west of the Isoko region at the head of the Ethiope
River. Following an explanation to be developed shortly, it would seem that these early
refugees followed a route first to the east of Benin and then south along one of the streams
draining this area. Unfortunately with that single statement the traditions Egharevba has
collected cease to be directly applicable to Isoko. There are several other possibilities, but
these will be discussed in relation to the relevant traditions of the individual Isoko clans.
J.W. Hubbard, in his effort to put together Isoko history, suggested that in the fifteenth
century, at the same time the “Sobos” were migrating east and south toward Abraka, the
34
Erohwa were spreading northward. There is some support, though tenuous,
for his contention. The earliest clans to settle in Isoko were those of Uzere, Okpe, Aviara,
and Iyede. 35The relevant proof offered here is that the founders of Uzere and Aviara admit
36
to finding others termed Erohwa or Akra already there when they arrived. The Okpe, in
their rather obvious effort to inflate the testimony, stated that Erohwa, Okpe, and Edo were
established at the same time. 37This seems open to wide interpretation, considering the fact
that “Edo” refers to Benin. The most likely possibility, based on other related factors, seems
30
Southern, Report. He was in the process of trying to collect the necessary data for taxation rolls to introduce the first direct tax in
Isoko, a step greeted with hostility and suspicion among many of the Isoko clans.
31
G.P. Murdock, Africa –Its Peoples and Their Culture History (New York, 1959), 23, 245-246.
32
This allows a maximum of fifty years for the technique of growing maize and manioc to spread to an area quite close to the
Portuguese points of contact in the Delta –“Gwato” and Warri.
33
Egharevba, Benin, 24,
34
Hubbard, Sobo, 171.
35
My reasons are: only Okpe of the four lack an ovie as well as extensive ovie lists. The Okpe say they had one once but abolished
the title. Uzere and Iyede have stories of their people going to Benin for the ovieship, and paying homage to the Oba. Uzere, Okpe,
and Aviara all have a tradition of waterside settlement before moving into the interior. Uzere and Iyede have a very rich set of stories
of their past, which other clans lacked. Finally, the origin of a large number of Isoko and Urhobo towns can be traced to one of the
four.
36
The Erohwa speak of groups of their own people migrating up Ase Creek and the Niger. The Okpe who settled first along the
waterside speak of the Akra as meeting Okpe on their arrival in Isoko. One possibility is that the Akra and Erohwa are the same
people.
37
They introduced their testimony by tracing their origin from Egypt via Ife to Okpe.
42
that the Okpe are trying to assure outsiders of their antiquity. The key point is that Erohwa,
among all the neighboring clans, was the one to which Okpe was willing to grant equality.
On the basis of currently available evidence it is impossible to establish which of these
four clans was the first to migrate into the lower Delta. Each of them, as well as the other six,
was the product of a separate migration. Thus, each must be analyzed separately and only
then can a valid pattern be discerned. To avoid dwelling too much on the hypothetical, an
account of the establishment of one of the clans (Uzere) about which a good deal has been
gathered should prove more useful.
Uzee 38left Benin as a result of the havoc then being wrought by a very powerful warrior
named Oguara. Hubbard39suggests that he left Benin during the reign of
Ehengbuda (1578-1606). 40Although it is easy to dispute this date in light of Hubbard’s
41
calculations and the Pereira statements, a substitute is far more difficult to find. Oguara
might very possibly have been the great Bini warrior, Prince Aruanran, noted by Egharevba
to have lived during the reigns of Obas Ozolua and Esegie (1481-1550). 42He fought many
successful battles under his father Ozolua, but, when the Oba died, Aruanran was passed
over for one who tradition maintains was his younger brother. Thus, from the first years, of
Esigie’s reign Aruanran precipitated a series of bloody struggles in and around Benin.43
Whether or not Uzee left Benin as a result of the mighty warrior’s exploits, it seems
reasonable to suggest that his departure occurred sometime around 1500. 44He moved in an
easterly direction, probably because most of Aruanran’s ravaging was going on to the west
and north of Benin. Also, there was little Bini settlement to the east of the capital, although
Uzee had probably heard of some others who had migrated in this direction not long before.
45
Traveling with Uzee was a very important figure, known as Eni. The nearest
translation in English to the Isoko reference for Eni, edjorame, is “water spirit.” For Uzee,
Eni served as a type of guiding spirit. After a time, Uzee settled among the Igbo of Isele-
Uku. 46The tradition maintains that, because there was not sufficient water in which Eni could
live, the spirit urged Uzee to move on. Whether or not there was an underlying cause
of tension on cultural or personal lines, the fact is that Uzee moved on. Because of Eni’s wish,
it seems that from then on travel and settlement had to be by or near water.
38
In recounting the establishment and growth of the Uzere clan, I will be drawing on four separate versions: Hubbard, Sobo’
Chadwick, Ughelli District Council Records for 1932; O. Ikime, Itsekiri Urhobo Relations and European Enterprise 1884-1936
(London, 1969); and my own materials.
39
The elders of Uzere explained his awesome character by describing him as having two heads, crossed hands, and double feet.
40
Hubbard, Sobo, 218.
41
Ibid., 149-161. The results of his calculations, though intriguing, demand a good deal of latitude for interpretation.
42
Professor Ben-Amos (personal communication) agrees with this possibility based on the description the Uzere elders have of
Oguara.
43
Egharevba, Benin, 26-30.
44
It is assumed that he also had with him his wives, children, and some relatives.
45
Hubbard, Sobo, 191. The people referred to were Bini migrants who settled Onitsha on the Niger.
46
The Igbo migration had already pushed across the Niger by 1500.
43
Moving east from Isele-Uku, the groups soon reached Ase Creek or the Niger. 47Then
Uzee turned south, and not long after passed the newly established town of Aboh (Igbo)
founded by Ogwezi. 48Continuing south, they came to a junction with another creek. Here 49
Uzee encountered the Erohwa and requested that he and his followers be allowed to travel up
a nearby stream. Due to other recent settlements a little farther south, the Erohwa initially
50
refused. Later Uzee and Egbragbra, the Erohwa leader, became friends, and the
travellers were allowed to settle at a place known as Oruhe, along the banks of the Niger.
Satisfied that they were finally settled, Uzee decided to legitimize his claim to the land
51
by taking title to it in the traditional manner. Because of his advanced age, however,
he decided to send his son, Okugbo, to perform the necessary ceremonies before the Oba and
52
his court in Benin. Okugbo dutifully went to Benin and fulfilled the obligations
requisite to obtaining the full title of ovie. Thus, Okugbo now became the Oba’s official
representative in his home area as the ritual guardian of the land and medium for ancestral
communication.
On returning from Benin, Okugbo stopped at Aboh where he was royally feted by his
host, the Obi of Aboh. 53After Okugbo had departed, the obi found out that he had secretly
slept with one of his wives. Angered by this disrespectful behavior, the Aboh leader
determined to have revenge. An exchange of attacks took place which resulted in Okugbo’s
death and the total defeat of the Uzere forces. 54Fearing the Aboh greatly, the Uzere people
55
under the leadership of Okugbo’s three sons moved into the interior. They also use this
fear to justify why no ovie from that time forward ever went to Benin to be properly
installed.
It has already been noted that the Okpe, Iyede, and Aviara clans, with Uzere, were,
after the Erohwa, the early Isoko settlers. Okpe and Iyede, like Uzere, were settled by groups
coming from Benin, while the founders of Aviara introduced the second major cultural
influence into Isoko – the Igbo. It was mentioned in discussing the travels of Uzee, that in
his southeasterly movement to Isoko he came in contact with, and in fact fought with, some
56
Igbo settlers. These were, no doubt, the predecessors of Ozue, one of the
founders of Aviara who migrated from Atani, twelve miles south of Onitsha. The mixing of
47
Chadwick in t he 1932 Ughelli Record, and Hubbard, Sobo, 219, say that Uzee got to the Niger and went south. In the testimony
obtained, the elders said that due to Eni, Uzee “stayed near the water.” Ase Creek parallels the Niger, and seems a possible route
into the area Uzee settled.
48
Hubbard, Sobo, 201. Aboh could have been passed if they had followed either the Niger or Ase Creek.
49
If they were descending the Niger, the junction would have been with the Ase Creek. If they were descending the Ase, it would
have been Erohwa Creek. Thus, unless the riverbeds have changed, the Ase route seems more probable.
50
Hubbard, Sobo, 219. He refers to these new settlers as the Oproza and Ondo. The testimony I received referred to them as Ibraza
and Ondo.
51
There is a three-year period with attendant ceremonies which must be passed in the Oba’s court in Benin. Because he is the ritual
tie to the ancestors, it is only he who can give out land or control over it on their behalf.
52
Uzee had probably died by this time. In fact, it would take several generations for those living and working there to amass the
considerable amount of wealth necessary to buy an ovie title.
53
In most Igbo villages the o bi is the head of a family compound. In this case, under the centralizing Bini-Onitsha experience, the
obi had become somewhat more powerful than an ovie.
54
The story is told in Uzere that Ini had said that Uzere should prepare for war by “digging their feet into the ground.” The people
took his suggestion literally and were slaughtered.
55
The names of the three now refer to the quarters of Uzere – Uhel, Ezede, and Uvbeye.
56
Ozue is supposed to be one of the two sons of the founder of Onitsha, Ezechima. This suggests that the Aviara founders were
already a product of the Igbo-Bini merging then occurring farther north.
44
Ozue’s people with some “later” immigrants from Benin occurred not long after he moved
from his initial village of Ase into the interior. 57This mixing process is a key to our under-
standing of who the Isoko were to become prior to their encounter with the English at the
beginning of the twentieth century. 58
By the late seventeenth century the larger migrations of Bini and Igbo into Isoko had
tapered off. 59New segments were soon to begin breaking away from their parent towns
from much the same reason that they had left their original homes to the east and north of the
Delta. Gradually the territorial gaps between the early settlers began to narrow as the
villages spread. Igbo speakers from the east settled near Bini speakers, who came first from
the north and later indirectly from the west as Sobo. The fusion of these culturally diverse
groups with the Erohwa laid the basis for what became known as the “Biotu” to the Ijaw, 60
the “Igabo” to the Aboh Igbo, 61probably part of the “Sobo” to the Bini, and most recently the
“Isoko.” Over the succeeding two hundred years the processes associated with population
growth and expansion took place within the context of the cultures brought into the area and
the physical conditions encountered there. The attention of this paper, however, is on some
of the succeeding events.
The amount of land available per person had obviously decreased as the population
grew. The older clans had had little initial concern for boundaries; where there were too
many mouths in the village to live off the adjacent lands, a part of a village, and sometimes a
62
whole quarter, would simply leave and find their own land. There was plenty available;
all it took was willingness to do a bit of pioneering. Thus, for example, Owhe and Emevor
were established from Iyede; Akiewe, Uruovo, and Illue Ologbo from Owhe; Ellu from
Akiewe; and Araya and Ovrode from Ellu. This process of segmenting lineages in response to
the need for new land was determined in large part by the total amount that was available. By
the late nineteenth century the amount of available arable land was approaching its limit.
Isoko in the nineteenth century experienced many conflicts over land. An Iyede village,
Ibrede, had pushed its way between two previously established Okpe villages – Ofagbe and
63
Ozoro. As a result, fighting went on between Ofagbe and Ibrede
throughout much of the second half of that century.
Scarcity of land was not the only factor causing tension and conflict within Isoko
society. Control of the fish ponds was another, as evidenced by the Igbide-Umeh fight,
started by the encroachment of one on the water rights of the other. There were also personal
and clan enmities, which could, like the land and water disputes, flare out into open combat.
57
The one account I have at present stresses Ozue’s prior settlement to the coming of several Bini groups. An analysis of the
seniority of the Aviara quarter and their respective founders should solve the problem here. There are four quarters; two are Igbo
and two Bini.
58
One intriguing example of the mixing that has taken place has occurred in Uzere. As already noted, this clan was settled from
Benin. They have no record of Igbo migrants joining them, yet when one greets the Ovie of Usere, the former priest of Eni today,
one says “eh debe” there times; dibia in Igbo is a medicine man or powerful priest. Such is the Ovie’s role in Uzere.
59
Whatever the causes for this, the fact is that the clan traditions indicate a good deal of internal movement within Isoko and some
within Urhobo. But no more significant groups are noted entering from outside.
60
Welsh, “Isoko Clans.”
61
See footnote 22.
62
Of course population pressure was not the only reason people left a village. Oyode was founded by a man who had stolen his
brother’s wife from their home in Iri. Iri was founded by a man from Uzere who liked the hunting better in Iri.
63
This was not the only group which sought to settle in this area, which was the most fertile and elevated part of Isoko.
45
But this heterogeneous grouping of Igbo, Bini, Erohwa, and possibly other cultures had
evolved a means of settling problems without resorting to violence. With the introductory
understanding of the formation of “Isoko,” it is now also necessary to examine some of the
elements which drew the various migrant groups closer together.
Integration of Isoko 64
The clan unit served as the final authority in the decision-making process while the
villages constituted the more virile local government unit. Within each of these units as well
as in their constituent parts, the separate judicial, executive, and legislative functions
delineated in Western government were handled together. 65 The authority to execute these
functions was vested in a hierarchy of elders, working collectively at the higher levels and
individually lower down. Crowning the hierarchy was a clan council mostly made up of
men known as edio. They came from the odio society, which was open for membership to
66
any male who paid the fixed fee and performed the necessary ceremonies. Because most
males could thus join the odio society, it was broken by ages into the edio-ilogbo and the
edio-itebe; the former being the older group, and, therefore, the one which participated in
clan council decisions. Some clans had a fixed number for this group – Aviara and Igbide
had nine. The head of the society was the most senior odio or odio-ologbo. His position was
based on the fact of entrance into the society earlier than any living clan member. The
osewo was the eldest male in the clan. He was a member of the clan council whether he was
a member of the edio society or not. Also on the council were a few others known as
ekpako-igheghe who had not had sufficient wealth to become edio.
The head of the clan council could be, depending upon the practice of a particular
clan, the odio-ologbo, the osewo, or the ovie. 67 The latter title tended to be hereditary within
a single or a few families. Seldom was the ovie the odio-ologbo, although he was important
because of his religious function. The age factor was a basic determinant. In Erohwa,
Aviara, Uzere, and Igbide the ovie normally did not attend clan council meetings, sending
his personal representative in his stead. The problem as to who served as the council head
was usually settled by the simple fact that the osewo and odio-ologbo were the same person.
If not, then in theory the osewo was head, with the council meetings always held in his
compound.
The other major figures connected with the council were the otota, the olotu-ologbo,
and the iko. The otota was usually a dynamic younger member of the edio society, who
served as the spokesman for and chief assistant to, the head of the iletu, the warrior leaders.
Finally, the iko were the clan council messengers and the policemen during large
gatherings. In some clans there was also an awowo who served to keep the clan men and
women aware of coming events.
This structure was copied to a lesser degree at the village, quarter, and lineage levels.
While it was at the clan council that major decisions were taken the actual day-to-day process
of ordering the lives of the local inhabitants was left to the lower levels of government.
64
By “integration” I mean quite simply a process which is serving to break down social, cultural, and political barriers between
different people.
65
The basis for this discussion is found in Ikime, “Traditional Systems,” 291-299.
66
In Bini society the edio served much the same purpose as those in Isoko. Odio is the singular of edio in both Bini and Isoko. R. E.
Bradbury, The Benin Kingdom and the Edo-Speaking Peoples of South Western Nigeria (London, 1957), 32.
67
Aviara, Igbide, Usere, Okpe, Erohwa, and Iyede have ivie (pl. of ovie). Others, like Ozoro, which is a village of Okpe, and
Enhwe, have created ivie in recent years.
46
Crosscutting and complementing the clan, village, quarter, and family government
units were the activities and rules of the various male and female age groups, ite. Briefly the
otu imitete was comprised of young boys up to the age of about fifteen. Their communal
function was to keep the village streets clean. Above them were the otu ovrawa . They
supplied the manual labor for the clan, such as road and bridge building as well as the
construction of the communal center. The iko for the town and clan were chosen from this
group. Through their own council representation to the otota, the young men could express
before the clan council their collective wishes on any matter affecting them. The executive
and military group, known as the otu iletu , was directly responsible for seeing that the
ovrawa got their work done properly. They were to execute clan council decisions, and be
prepared for military action. They could also try minor cases within the village, sending any
appeal to the ekpako through the oletu-ologbo. The final group, the ekpako, were the elders,
who could, at their advanced age, lay the burden of farm work aside and turn to the problems
of government within the clan.
The women were organized along similar lines. The most women’s otu, named the
eweya, was extremely powerful in village affairs. Their separate council became a strong
weapon which influenced the decisions of the ekpako. Dr. Ikime suggests that on rare
occasions the women would threaten to leave the village en masse if their views were not
accepted. 68The effect of such an act would obviously be both economically and socially
disruptive.
As stated above, these units within the clan, villages, and quarters, also had judicial
functions. In theory, Isoko law was looked upon as a body of absolutes. Dr. Ikime makes this
point very clear when he states, “the law of the clan was regarded as having been declared
69
once and for all by the ancestors.” Thus, there could be no new laws. Yet legal
theory must be put into practice. It was the duty of the Isoko leaders to apply the immutable
law of the ancestors to the particular case. Two general categories of offenses were observed
– crime against an individual and crime against the community. But these should be
recognized as degrees of the same thing, due to the nature of any response within a lineage
group toward insult or injury to a member. The family and quarter units, which were bound
by some degree of kinship, would seek to settle the personal disputes of their members. The
village courts would try cases on appeal and minor group disputes. For the more serious
offenses, they would make a preliminary investigation and refer to the clan council for final
decision.
In cases of interclan dispute, the settlement followed a long period of negotiation and
ritual, as in the struggle between Uzere and Emede, in which, after an extensive exchange
of representatives, it was agreed to seal the decision by a ritual swearing over the ovo sticks
70
of the two towns involved. A slave would then be sacrificed, and71the conflict would
officially terminate. Such was the sanctity of this act that a number of unviolated alliances
grew out of this type of conflict settlement. 72
68
Ikime, “Traditional Systems,” 292.
69
Ibid., 293.
70
These are the most scared objects each town and clan possesses because they have been handed down from the ancestors. They
are bundles of sticks tied together and covered with the white chalk used in some ceremonies. Victor C. Echendu, The Igbo of
Southeastern Nigeria (Chicago, 1965), 23. 81, notes that they are common with the Igbo.
71
Bradbury, Benin Kingdom, 148, confirmed my information on this point, but not specifically for this “war.”
72
How many failed is not mentioned in the oral tradition. But Uzere and Umede have not fought since, nor have Aviara, Iyede, and
Erohwa. Others who were also at war and profess to have eternally settled are Owhe and Emevor vs. Iyede, Igbide vs. Enhwe, and
Uwheru (Urhobo) vs. Igbide and Evrenni (Urhobo).
47
It might, then, be contended that these community councils were the seeds for an
integrating process. Locally within each of the towns and clans a clearly defined communal
structure for action was forming, and clan relationships, though challenged by the increasing
population pressure as well as other problems, were finding a basis for harmony. Another,
and certainly the most overt, integrating process at work in pre-twentieth-century Isoko was
73 74
the “Eni Oracle,” which became known throughout the lower Delta. Eni, the
water spirit companion of Uzee, has already been noted as assisting those who founded and
developed the Uzere clan. As a result of the misunderstanding that arose over Eni’s role in
the defense against the Aboh, the spirit moved from a stream in the town to a pond a few
miles away. By the nineteenth century Eni had begun to serve the new and vital function of
detecting witches, or orieda, not only for the people of Uzere, but for a much wider area.
While women without children were most often suspected of witchcraft, because it was said
that to become a witch a woman first had to kill her offspring, some witches were not easy to
identify, and an institutional element which claimed to do so would win great acclaim. 75
Eni’s success as an oracle, evidenced by the number of Isoko, Urhobo, and Ijaw clans
consulting it, thus served as an important integrating factor for the lower Niger Delta. Much
as the Aro succeeded in starting the process of building up a broader supra-clan sentiment to
the east, the people of Uzere slowly were accepted among the neighboring clans and beyond.
76
This process took many generations to get underway, but by the late nineteenth
century there were a few Uzere people in each of the major clan towns, one of whom had a
staff which indicated that he was the messenger for Eni 77and whose duty it was to lead the
accused and the accusers to Uzere for their judgment by the oracle.
There are several other points pertinent to Eni and the integrating function it served for
the lower Delta clans. The drum that was used in the ceremonies connected with the worship
of Eni was carved by a family from Enhwe, not from Uzere. Note also that78
Enhwe was of Igbo origin while Uzere was of Bini origin. Oyode (Iyede?) was responsible
for the boat in which the victims were transported to the center of the lake. During the
three-year period between the death of an ovie and the selection of a new one, a man from
Oleh served as interim ovie. Oleh is made up of two quarters, one settled from Uzere and the
other from Okpe.
Conclusion
But, while the people of Uzere, the descendants of Uzee and servers of Eni, were in
effect forging tools for the integration of their homeland, larger developments were
73
I am here using oracle in the same sense Dr. K. O. Dike uses it in his Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta, 183-1885 (Oxford,
1956), 37-41.
74
All the Isoko and Urhobo clans that I visited looked on Eni as worthy of great respect. The one Ijaw town, Patani, that I visited
reacted similarly and even noted the families of some who had been tried there.
75
In Dike, Trade and Politics , 39. S. R. Smith says there are four requisites for the establishment of an oracle: (1) a quiet place
remote from the main routes; (2) natural physical features arousing dread; (3) a system by which travelling agents are aware of and
can handle or refer disputes; and (4) an easy and secret method of disposal by the oracle of the victims. Satisfying the actual wants of
a people is another important prerequisite.
76
There also seems good reason to believe that the people of Uzere were beginning to become wealthy from their oracle the way the
Aro did from the Arochuku oracle.
77
Dike, Trade and Politics , 38, states that an important aspect of Aro power stemmed from the information obtained by the small
Aro colonies scattered throughout Igboland. They were so organized, in fact, that each Aro quarter had a “sphere of Influence” from
which its litigants and ultimate slaves could be drawn to the ”Long Juju-Chukwu.”
78
I am indebted to Phil Peek at the University of Indiana for his communication of this point.
48
occurring on their territorial periphery. They had heard of Oyibo, the white man, and his
power. Oyibo could be found in many different parts of the Delta, but he had never been to
Isoko. Isoko taken as slaves by the Ijaw raiders knew Oyibo well, but were never able to tell
their people about him. But a few Isoko had probably seen him in Warri or Akassa or Gana
Gana or one of the other centers of exchange the Europeans had manned over the past 400
years. So strongly had the fact of great strength been impressed upon the Isoko that one of
the most powerful gods of the area had been named after Oyibo. 79
In the waning years of the nineteenth century the English traders in particular had taken
an interest in the lands around Isoko. But the French were also there, as were the Germans.
The rather80fluid situation in the Delta was clarified as a result of the Berlin
Conference. As one author notes in referring to the British and the lower Niger: “A reluctant
government acted to protect existing fields of trading and missionary enterprise from foreign
81
annexations.” The Isoko were soon to experience the first steps toward the
formal institutionalization of British rule.
82
In the years to follow, Isoko became a “paper protectorate.” For the Isoko the first
inkling of change came with the establishment of a Royal Niger Company store at Ase in
1888. This was the beginning of the process by which alien institutions, at first solely
economic, but later political, judicial, and religious, came into contact with and altered the
evolving structures within the Isoko clans.
For the Isoko these centuries prior to the advent of British rule were a time for
migration, consolidation, and integration. They had not only begun to evolve a common
pattern of government from diverse roots, but they were building the basis for a more stable,
growing community. They were also experiencing the efforts of one clan, Uzere, consciously
or unconsciously, to assert a position of dominance, though limited, over not only the Isoko
clans but those of the Urhobo and Ijaw. Where this process was leading is open to conjecture.
In 1900 British rule, with all its attendant virtues and faults, was officially imposed, and the
process begun sometime in the sixteenth century was soon to stall, giving way to a new --
and in some ways drastically altered -- order.
79
Oyibo was the war god of Uruovo, a major town of Iyede.
80
I am aware of the possible presence of the Germans only through the repeated mention of a company the Isoko and Ijaw call
“Bergiman.”
81
Ronald Robinson and John Gallagher, with Alice Denny, Africa and the Victorians (New York, 1961), 464.
82
J. C. Anene, Southern Nigeria in Transition: 1885-1906 (Cambridge, 1966), Chapter III. For the Isoko clans, the “Paper
Protectorate” Dr. Anene describes lasted until the actual establishment of British rule after the military expeditions of 1904-1905.
49
Chapter 3
Development of Okpe as Exemplar

of Urhobo History 1
Onigu Otite
University of Ibadan, Nigeria
Introduction
This chapter is based on available written records and on oral tradition which I
obtained during my fieldwork amongst the Okpe in 1967 and 1968, in addition to my
experience as an administrative officer in the Midwestern State Government of Nigeria. I2
am not interested here in reviving what I consider to be a dead and unnecessary debate by
asking anew I. Schapera’s question: should anthropologists be historians? 3 Rather, like P.C.
Lloyd, 4 I say that while we may rely on the historian to give details and chronology of
political change, in the absence of historical work, a social anthropologist should study the
history of “his” society as part of his task; he should provide generalizations to illuminate
cases in the political process.
Studies by social anthropologists – D. Forde’s on the Yako or P. Bohannan’s on the
Tiv, 5 for example – show that fission and accretion are two opposing factors inherent in
6
lineage structures. As pointed out by M.G. Smith, lineages are segmentary in nature though
each acts autonomously in certain arenas as a corporate unit and maintains its special interest
in the total social system. In this respect, lineages can either be complementary or in
opposition to other lineages of the same range. We are told by Fortes that “a society made up
of corporate lineages is in danger of splitting into rival lineage factions.” Yet many societies
7
of this nature continue to exist as wholes. Fortes explains
this by showing that such societies counteract fissiparous tendencies either by a periodic
assertion of common interest in the whole polity or by involving every lineage segment in the
widest possible political grouping within which contraposition and confrontation, including
feud and warfare, are sanctioned.
This brief theoretical discussion is an appropriate introduction to Okpe political history,
because Okpe is a kingdom which manipulated its religious and kinship symbols to
1
Adapted from Onigu Otite, “History as a Process: A Study of the Urhobo of the Midwestern State of Nigeria.” African Historical
Studies, IV (1, 1971) 41-57. Republished in this volume with kind permission of the author.
2
I am grateful to the Federal Government of Nigeria for providing the funds for this fieldwork and also to the University of London
for a grant from its Central Research Fund which enabled me to obtain local equipment and to rerecruit research assistants.
3
I. Schapera, “Should Anthropologists be Historians?” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 92 (1962), 143-156.
4
P.C. Lloyd, “The Political Development of West African Kingdoms,” Journal of African History, 9 (1968), 329.
5
D. Forde, Yako Studies (London, 1964); P. Bohannan, “A Genealogical Charter,” Africa, 22 (1952), 301-315.
6
M.G. Smith, “On Segmentary Lineage Systems, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 86 (1956), 39-40.
7
M. Fortes, “The Structure of Unilateral Descent Groups,” American Anthropologist, 55 (1953), 28.
better face up to the disintegration created by the vulnerability of its political subsystem and
by the excesses of its principal political actor, the king.
With a population of 79,519 (1963 census) spread over a territory of about 200 square
miles, Okpe is the largest of the Urhobo indigenous states. Its place of origin is not clear but
its leaders claim that “they are t he direct descendants of the ancient ruler of Ife” and
therefore “originally, we came from Ife – in Benin direction – the Benis also came from
there.” 8Okpe history apparently has some relationship with the history of Benin. Perhaps if
the early history of the latter kingdom were not at present also shrouded in chronological
confusion 9 more details would be known about the history of Okpe Kingdom and about the
relationship of the two with Ife and other social groups.
Oral tradition in Okpe shows that on leaving Ife and later Benin, the tribe’s
predecessors settled in Ijo territory near Patani. From there they moved to a site near the
present Olomu tribal town of Okpe. Fierce disputes and disagreements over succession to the
tribal rulership are said to have led to the desertion of this town and according to J.W.
Hubbard, some of the emigrants settled in the Agbarho quarter of the present Isoko Okpe. 10
It is generally believed that Okpe, the ancestor of the kingdom, lived and died here.
Okpe had four sons: Orhue, Orhoro, Evwreke, and Esezi. Orhue, a hunter, founded the
present territory in which all of Okpe’s sons and their families later settled among other
Urhobo. The Okpe are therefore a people who believe in a common descent from a remote, if
mythical, ancestor, possess common traditions of origin, and a common culture. They are
also politically united and are distinct in their religious organization. Okpe kingdom “never
appear[s] to have been conquered by any tribe and though they probably came indirectly
under the Oba of Benin, this appears to have been a normal sovereignty.” 11
8
Statement by leading Okpe chiefs, Ayomano and A.E. Omarin, on behalf of Okpe people as plaintiffs in the Sapele Land Case with
Ginuwa II, the Olu of Itsekiri, from 1941-1943. Suit No. W/37/1941, High Court, Warri.
9
See also J. Boston, “notes on t he Origin of Igala,” Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, 2 91962), 373-383.
10
J.W. Hubbard, The Sobo of the Niger Delta (Zarla, 1948), 107. It should be noted that Okpe kingdom with which I am concerned
here is different from the Okpe in Olomu tribe and the Okpe in Isoko. For a discussion on these, see Whitney P. Foster, “Pre-
twentieth Century Isoko: Its Foundation and Later Growth,” African Historical Studies, 2 (1969), 289-306.
11
L.E.H. Fellows, Reports on Ukpe-Sobo Clans, C.S.O. 26/3.21943 (National Archives, Ibadan, Nigeria, 1928), 4.
52
Development of Okpe as Exemplar of Urhobo History
Okpe Political Structure
Figure 3.1
A Map of Okpe-Urhobo
Source: THE UNTOLD STORY OF A NIGERIAN ROYAL FAMILY: The Urhobo Ruling Clan of Okpe Kingdom
by H.R.H. Prince Joseph O. Asagba, Ph.D.
I regard a political structure as an abstraction based on actual and observed political

relations in a social unit. Relations are political when they are power-oriented, that is, having
to do with the distribution, retention, and exercise of power in a social unit. Political structure
can be looked at from two main standpoints: first, as a construct or model deriving from
dyadic relationships which are part of a wider network of social relationships; second, as a
network of more or less specialized but interdependent institutions. In each case, a political
structure refers to a distinctive arrangement of the statuses and roles of the units concerned.
Okpe political structure consists of interlocking statuses and roles of persons, offices,
12
and institutions as affected by age organization, personal efficiency, and kinship. Here I
will be mainly concerned with certain aspects of the interconnection between the chieftaincy
institution, kinship, and the age organization.
Okpe kingdom has a four-fold kinship organization based on patrilineal descent from
the four sons of the ancestor. Every Okpe belongs to one or more of these four descent
12
For details, see K.J. O. Otite, “The Political Organization of the Urhobos of the Midwestern State of Nigeria” (Unpublished
Ph.D. Thesis, University of London, 1969).
53
groups. This implies asserting one’s relationships on the father’s and/or mother’s side. Thus
the citizenship of a candidate for a chieftaincy title is decided by his patrilineage or by
membership of his maternal patrilineal group. Unlike chieftainship in Ashanti and in most
13
Yoruba, subordinate chieftaincies, where specific social units produce candidates to
specified offices, there is no social unit in Okpe which can be regarded as having the
preserve to produce the incumbent for any of the three political titles.
These three titles are those of king ( Orodje), and the two chieftaincy titles of
spokesman, Otota, and chief, Okakuro. A chief in Okpe is a man who has acquired a state-
approved position of political preeminence through wealth. The title of okakuro is
traditionally a prerequisite for the other titles and a candidate for it must specify the kin
group through which he offers to take the title. If such a candidate possesses and can activate
kinship relationship in more than one descent group, it is expected, though by no means
certain, that he will choose to obtain the title through his patrilineal descent group. His social
position in each of the groups is a major determinant although he cannot change his political
kin group as his fortunes in a descent group change. He is checked against this by the fear of
being regarded as unsteady and unreliable. The candidate who obtains the chieftaincy title
through his matrilateral patrilineage makes a delicate and crucial choice for, if he later offers
to be considered for the rotating position of king or spokesman, he is most likely to lose the
votes of his rival’s patrilineal descent group. This feature is result of the marked agnatic bias
in Okpe kinship system.
Okpe chiefs, called ekakuro (plural of okakuro), numbering forty-seven in 1969, are
not necessarily heads of lineage groups. Nor does a particular descent group produce a fixed
number for the state council, called Udogun-Okpe. None of the descent groups actively
work to obtain the chieftaincy title for their members in order to have representatives in the
council. That they do not is reflected in their uneven representation there. 14
Okpe has one king and several spokesmen. An elected spokesman can be found in any
social group or organization, permanent or momentary. For example, each town or even
ward has a spokesman. There is, however, one Okpe state spokesman, called simply the
Otota-Okpe or the Unuokpe, meaning literally the mouthpiece of Okpe; he and the king are
elected by all the chiefs of Okpe kingdom. In t he language of Jack Goody, these two
offices are high offices and are “unique and non-duplicating.” 15 As coveted positions, they
breed competition and conflict, particularly at moments of succession.
At present, the two positions of spokesman and king are rotating in a fixed order
among the four descent groups. Whether this has always been the case is not yet known. It is,
however, clearly stated that the order of rotation is overridden by the requirement that both
incumbents cannot be produced by or chosen from the same descent group called, for this
purpose, Ruling House. If the normal rotating process makes only one descent group eligible
to produce the two incumbents, the next descent group in order produces the spokesman.
Because of this rotation system, each of Okpe’s four descent groups is a “royal descent
16
group,” current or latent. Consequently, each is separately identified and sustains
its unity while involved at the same time in the total unity of the kingdom which is itself
13
regarded as a corporate unit with reference to the two rotating high offices and to the
K.A. Busia, T he Position of the Chief in the Modern Political System of Ashanti (London, 1951), 21. Also see P.C. Lloyd,
“Traditional Rulers.” In James S. Coleman and Carl Rosberg, Jr. (eds.), Political Parties and National Integration in Tropical
Africa (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1964), page 385.
14
Percentage-wise, the council is divided as follows: Orhue, 12.8; Orhoro, 63.8; Evwreke, 19.1; and Esezi, 4.2.
15
Jack Good (ed.), Succession to High Office (London, 1966), 2.
16
For a discussion of this and other types of “dynastic institutions,” see Goody (ed.), Succession, 26ff.
54
highest government institution, Udogun-Okpe, in which all four descent groups are
inextricably involved.
The king is the political head of Okpe; he is also the nominal owner or trustee of Okpe
lands. Unlike the Lozi, Okpe 17 people are not indebted to their king for their house
and farmland. Every Okpe, including the king, uses the land belonging to his patrilineage
and an Okpe king cannot dispossess any person of his right to use his land.
The state council, with the king at its head, is composed of the spokesman and chiefs,
and is the highest organ of government in the kingdom, with ultimate political,
administrative, judicial, and executive power. It is concerned with the political unity of Okpe
as a whole. By virtue of the total state involvement in his installations, admonitions, and
privileges, each18member is committed to and preoccupied with the welfare and
government of the whole state. He is not expected to be interested in the political distinction
of any of the four lineage groups; he acts within the framework of internalized chieftaincy
norms and values with the totality of the kingdom as his reference group. The chiefs are
asked at their installation to champion the cause of Okpe kingdom and to defend it as one
unit against other social groups if necessary. This is apparently one reason why an Okpe king
or chief is preferably a patrilineal descendant of any of the four original ancestors.
As noted earlier, this preference arises also from the strong agnatic bias in Okpe
kinship system. A man recognizes his matrilateral kinsmen while belonging to his patrikin
group, but during conflicts involving his patrikinsmen and matrilateral kin in which he
cannot act as a mediator he is expected to favor his patrikin group. In normal circumstances,
it is from this group that his political, economic, and legal rights and obligations are derived.
This is a common feature among the Urhobo. A person who prefers to stay with and support
his matrilateral kinsmen for one reason or another is reminded that he is an
͔m͕r͕m͕t́, child of a woman, during quarrels or c
descendants of the group. This attitude determines people’s behavior and affects their value
judgments and social attachments to the extent that a patrilineal descendant contesting for the
high office of king or spokesman in Okpe has much better chances of succeeding than his
rival whose patrikin group comes from another tribe.
The position of chief provides opportunity for the political participation of many at the
state level although jurisdiction, as with other Urhobo chiefs and their kings, terminates here.
Okpe is thus an in group ruled centrally by its state council; within the state, each component
town is governed by a town council composed of all members of the eldest age grade, that is,
over sixty years, assisted by members of the younger age grades and their leaders. Unless
also chiefs in the kingdom, none of these town councilors attend the
Udogun-Okpe.
Yet there are two main lines of communication between the state council and the town
councils. The first is through those chiefs who as members of both councils can act as agents
of the two-way communication system. The second is through the Okpe mass meeting called
by the king-in-council from time to time to discuss vital issues concerning the whole
kingdom. Representation in the mass meeting is through the main towns, now twelve, which
are used19as the units of the state government. Direct contact is also
maintained between state officials by messengers and nowadays, through the state secretary.
The mass meeting consists of both the titled and the untitled Okpe and is essential as a larger
consultative and deliberative body in a state in which, under normal
17
Max Gluckman, Politics, Law and Rituals in Tribal Societies, (Oxford, 1965), 37.
18
See Otite, “Political Organization,” 60-112, for details.
19
These twelve town units are Aghalokpe, Amwuokpe, Arhagba, Elume, Mereje, Oha, Okuovu, Orerokpe (the capital), Sapele,
Ugborhe, Ughoto, and Ugolo.
55
circumstances, only a few people can become chiefs, mainly because of the high costs of
acquiring these titles. In 1968, for example, the ratio of chiefs to untitled people was as low
as one to about 1691 : 9, that is, forty-seven chiefs to a 1963 Okpe population of 79,519.
Town councilors are assisted by the younger age grades whose leaders ensure that the
public works of the community are accomplished as directed by the town council of elders.
The age grades and their leaders are responsible in turn to the town council. Each town has
one chief age-grade leader who is elected by leaders of ward age-grade units; he attends the
state council when required. Also, he and the town spokesman are often members of the
town council delegation to Okpe mass meeting. Such age-grade leaders in the various towns
elect one of themselves as their representative in the state council. When approved by the
king-in-council, he is appointed as the state age-grade leader and styled odiegware, that is,
an attendant in the state council. In this way, the state council is linked to the various age
grades of the towns who in time of war and conflict were activated to defend the whole state.
In fact, before the British government intervened, the age-grade leaders and other warriors
drawn from the various towns to a large extent replaced the state council in administering the
external relations of the state in time of war or threat of war.
Other Aspects of Okpe Political History
The political history of Okpe shows that the kingdom once had a plutocracy, “a period
of Ekakuro at Ererukpe before the misalliance with Benin and prior to Esezi’s assumption of
kingship, which is looked back to as the ideal constitution of the Clan, and as the time when
20
the constitution of the Odogun was most exemplary.”
When kingship was subsequently established and Esezi I was crowned on a yet
unknown date in the sixteenth or seventeenth century, it was under the provision that no king
21
should act other than as a king-in-council, although no meetings of the state were
normally summoned unless approved by the king. All legislative and administrative matters
in the council were of state interest and there was a primacy of public concern for social
cohesion. These features are, to a great extent, historical continuities in Okpe political system
although state politicians have not always succeeded in this professed commitment to the
oneness of the kingdom or to the prosperity of all its members.
The prosperity and development of most kingdoms depend largely on the king’s justice
and virtue and on the acceptability of his rule by a majority of his people. In Okpe kingdom it
required a very high order of intelligence, political acuteness, and magnanimity for the
pre-nineteenth century king to achieve any form of success or retain his popularity in a state
where the various arms of government were so diffuse and where the king could lay claim to
less than one quarter of descent group loyalty. Some time after his installation, Esezi I failed
to meet the needs and political aspirations of the Okpe people. Not content to be merely head
of the state’s council, he developed into a despot. He decreed laws and commanded duties as
he pleased and without consulting the council. He soon lost the support of his people and in
the consequent breakdown of the kingdom there was no harmonious functional unity among
the various diffused political roles.
20
R.B. Kerr, Ukpe Sobo Assessment Report, C. S. O. 26/3.21943 (National Archives, Ibadan, Nigeria, 1929), 16.
21
The actual name of this king is said to be Ehweri, a patrilineal descendant of Esezi. He used his “father’s” or descent group name,
Esezi, as his title name.
56
The Tragic Death of Esezi I
Esezi I, the first and best remembered of the Okpe kings, was said to have been
22
“remarkable for the pleasure he took in acts of extreme brutality.” Legendary acts of
wickedness are preserved in modern Okpe showing Esezi I as high-handed and autocratic.
Most often quoted are the following two examples: First, the king ordered huge trees to be
felled on several occasions, commanding his people to prevent the trees from reaching the
ground. They were, of course, crushed to death by the heavy weight of the falling trees.
Another time the king ordered a large number of citizens to break bars of iron using their
bare hands. When they failed they were executed.
Although these stories recur always in the same form and with the same fervor
throughout Okpe, their historical reality at present is not clear. Yet even as myths in Okpe
oral tradition, they are of symbolic significance and indicate strongly first, the end of a
tyranny and of a mismanaged “centralized” political system; second, the weakness of a
constitution manipulated in such a way that its checks against the ruler’s excesses became
frozen; third, the people’s natural resentment of tyranny and their consequent violent deposal
of the king; fourth, the disintegration of the state and the emergence of the present twelve
socio-territorial units by which the kingdom is currently governed; and fifth, the
indigenousness of the kingship and chieftaincies in Okpe.
The mental ability of non-literate peoples to retain their history through oral traditions
is often highly underestimated. Because of this prejudice, we are often tempted to regard
their narratives as mere myths or legends; this is a major drawback in constructing or
reconstructing the history of peoples with few or no written records.
The king’s tyrannical commands, though clearly violating the constitution regulating
the Okpe political system, were obeyed until general discontent, fright, and insecurity spread
throughout the state. In the absence of a constitutional means or of its activation to depose the
king, Okpe people eventually decided to kill him. The mechanism for vacating the throne
either by peaceful deposal or by a process of abdication, if it was ever well- formulated, was
never operated in the case of Esezi I. This was partly because the king so ably concentrated
the state political power in his hands that it was impossible for any of the chiefs to openly
organize to replace him. How Esezi I successfully achieved this concentration of state power
23
unchallenged is not clear. He could not have done this by
dismissing some or all of his important opponents in the state council. Okpe chiefs owe their
political position purely to achievement and dessert and not to the favour of their king. Nor
could he have de-titled any chief without the justified support of the body of chiefs. Through
some cleverness, however, the king suppressed all opposition to his wicked acts, becoming at
the same time the center of an information network covering the entire kingdom.
The king’s policies were by no means supported by all the members of even his Esezi
descent group or by the royal household. His covert opponents ingeniously organized those
closest to him as contributors to his downfall. Myths and traditions suggest that a state
council meeting was summoned at a time when public resentment against the king was
highest. On that day, amid an already assembled audience of chiefs and age-grade leaders,
the king began to walk the route to his decorated chair, only to fall into a prepared pit
cleverly disguised with a framework of sticks and covered with mats. Each time the king
hesitated on his “walk to death” he was persuaded to continue with flattery, echoes of praise,
and assurances of goodwill. Once in the pit, he was deluged with boiling oil and
22
Fellows, Report on Ukpe-Sobo Clans, 8.
23
This point requires further investigation.
57
water prepared nearby. Sand was then hurriedly dug from outside the hall to cover him.
Esezi I died mercilessly and ignominiously cursing his own people.
The king’s death was the signal for his relations and supporters to flee the capital.
Those who failed to escape promptly were killed or driven from the city. Esezi I died
because he failed to act within the limits of the roles assigned him by the Okpe constitution.
He failed to embody the hopes and symbols of unity and happiness which formed the basis
for introducing the kingship. His unprecedented dethronement and murder, and the murders
that followed, acted as a catalyst for the political kingdom of Okpe.
The Struggle for Social Cohesion and Political Leadership
At the time of Esezi’s death, four chiefs led the other three descent groups. They were
Odorume of Orhue descent group, Owhere of Orhoro descent group, and Eruohwo and
Ogoni, both of Evwreke descent group. The four chiefs re-divided the whole of the known
territory of Okpe kingdom, leaving no area for the descent group of the late king. They shared
other spoils equally as well. At this point, then, communication and social relationships
between the various social and territorial units in the state were still, in some manner,
operative.
As the most powerful of the four chiefs, Odorume had uneasy control over Okpe
kingdom. Though wealthy, he was merely first among a group of notable chiefs.
Nevertheless, he was apparently encouraged by his new position and endeavored to maximize
his political power. He was anxious to confer chieftaincy titles, for example, and to assume
for himself a higher political status than that of the others. Unfortunately for him, memories
of Esizi’s atrocities discouraged any self-superimposition on the shattered Okpe political
structure.
It has always been the exclusive role of a king to confer the chieftaincy title, an act
which he cannot normally withhold once a candidature has been approved by the Udogun-
Okpe. After the death of Esezi I there was no satisfactory way of continuing the chieftaincy
institution and Chief Odorume sought the support of the king of Benin, long publicized as
the recognizer of the power and authority of some Urhobo kings and chiefs. In Benin, Chief
Odorume, already an Okpe okakuro , spent several months, as well as much in money,
goods, and slaves, until he came before the king and received the title of okakuro. Odorume
knew that to have demanded and received the title of king, Orodje, of Okpe with all the
recent memories of evil and cruelty associated with it, would have been to incur the anger
and animosity of both the titled and the untitled in Okpe. He chose to bear the title of
okakuro, the original Okpe-typed title, but his role was in practice similar to that of a king.
Supported by Benin recognition, his title made him superior to other Okpe chiefs who,
though dissatisfied, were afraid to incur the enmity of his powerful supporter.
Chief Odorume later led other candidates to the king of Benin to obtain the
chieftaincy title. In this way, Benin influence became substantial in Okpe state. Each Benin-
appointed chief had tangible symbols of authority -- ceremonial sword and a native trumpet
called ogba could also be manipulated to transmit insult; it “talks” and “sings” praises,
prestige, and abuses.
The bitterness resulting from the death of Esezi I and from the consequent strife abated
with the lapse of years. With the support of his clique of foreign-recognized chiefs, Odorume
recalled the Okpe state council to the capital and invited the descendants of Esezi who had
fled to return and form part of common state judicial, legislative, and administrative systems
with the three other descent groups.
While this effort was being made, the conspicuous brandishing of the ceremonial
swords from Benin and the manipulation of the ogba as a transmitter of insolent sounds and
58
speeches acted as oppressive symbols of newly acquired foreign power. Two opposing
factions, chiefs with titles originating from Benin against those with tiles conferred by Esezi
I, provided two areas of alignment, and competition for power was intensified in the state.
Bloodshed and disunity in Okpe followed. Odorume’s pride finally became excessive and he
began to appoint new chiefs in Okpe without reference to the king of Benin.
Although Okpe state appears to have come indirectly under some Benin influence at
this time, Benin’s authority apparently involved no judicial and political supremacy over
Okpe kingdom. 24Odorume continued to rule for some years from the capital which, as the
leading politician, he attempted to rebuild, but his state council was never well attended and
not all the social units were represented. At some point, it became apparent that Chief
Odorume was no longer intimate with the king of Benin, and the realization unlocked the
jealousy and antagonism of the other chiefs, particularly those who had been indigenous,
when Chief Odorume tried to proclaim himself king.
Civil war broke out between two of the descent groups, Orhue and Evwreke, probably
as the result of a struggle for state leadership between the groups’ powerful leaders, Odorume
and Eruohwo. Kerr suggests that the war against Odorume was sponsored by the king of
Benin. Odorume was said to have been defeated easily because few Okpe people supported
him, and the conflict ended with the burning and the total destruction of his capital.
These political developments showed once again that the theory and the practice of
Okpe constitutional government failed to coincide and that the dislodgement of the leading
politicians from the apex of government was an inevitable consequence of tyranny and the
arbitrary use of state power.
What immediately followed was chaos. The Okpe national and collective spirit was
replaced by great internal discord and with no common enemies threatening from outside,
the state developed warring factions and inter-family feuds. Attacks and counter-attacks,
hence fear and insecurity, were generated throughout the kingdom. Near-kinsmen clung
together for guided settlements and farming activities; the founding of many towns and
villages was the result. Patterns of dispersion and settlement show that in general, the most
powerful chiefs and their relations dwelt around the ruined capital; the less privileged or
weaker went farther into the uncleared forests. None of the new settlements – town or village
– was strong enough to become an independent state and today these main town settlements
(twelve in all) constitute the units of Okpe indigenous government.
Each town developed on its own as well as in relation to such other towns or villages as
were founded by descendants of the same ancestor. Each town tried its offenders including
those who had formerly been taken to the state council/court. Each town had its own
independent shrines, town court, and council through which to rally its members. Towns thus
became more politically and judicially important than they had been before the dispersion
from the capital. Such divergent development indicates the degree to which it was possible to
maintain some form of political order. Town councils and courts provided the highest and the
most effective means of political control in Okpe although suspicion between towns and the
expanding need for land by the increasing population gave rise to local duels. This incoherent
growth of the kingdom seems to have occurred before and during the first half of the
nineteenth century.
All the chiefs and their sons, some of whom had posed as chiefs by primogenitural
succession, died in old age, and the already fragmented political structure of Okpe as
operated by the king and the chiefs finally crumbled. State political positions remained
24
See Fellows, Report on Ukpe-sobo Clans, 9, 15; and Kerr, Ukpe-Sobo Assessment Report, 31.
59
unfilled; there was neither a king to confer more titles nor a candidate willing to return to the
25
king of Benin for kingly sanction.
In about the middle of the nineteenth century, the surviving avenues of social
interaction were tapped by another prominent political leader, a descendant of Chief
Eruohwo of Evwreke descent group, named Diemor. He established a political framework for
the whole state, a new capital at Ugolo (founded by descendants of Eruohwo), and settled
current matters of peace and war. Diemor assumed no kingly role through the
conferring of chieftaincy titles. Instead he appointed age-grade leaders, ilotu, with whom he
attempted to revive the political functions of the previous regime. Because he could not
command the respect of all the political leaders of the various towns, however, his rule was
short. The leading descendant of Chief Owhere of Orhoro descent group, the political leader
of Amwuokpe town, refused to recognize the state political leadership established in the new
26
capital, for example, although it is not quite clear whether this non-acceptance was
based on personal, town, or descent group rivalry.
In the absence of positions obtained through wealth to sustain the political system, the
Diemor regime reverted to a government through the age-grade organization. But this was
inadequate to preserve the political unity of Okpe, and, in place of chiefs and king, Okpe
four-fold kinship system and the religious organization rose to provide the mechanisms
through which Okpe traditions of collective existence were preserved. These in turn
generated feeling for the revival of the seventeenth-century state council and in spite of the
constitutional separation of the towns; efforts were made to reunite Okpe.
Diemor had died but his national age-grade government remained. Typical of this kind
of government in patrilineal societies, the eldest man in Okpe called Anovwan was chosen
27
from his village, Egbo, to rule Okpe state in about 1890. His quasi-political title
was okpako-Okpe, that is, simply, the eldest man of Okpe state. He was moved to another
capital, Ojede, where a house was built for him and from where he governed all Okpe,
settling matters affecting the state and conducting major trials. He was assisted in the state
council not by the town governments but by the age-grade leaders as the representatives of
the various town units.
Like its immediate predecessor, this state council was poorly and irregularly attended.
Political organization coincided largely with age-grade organization, which meant that the
president of the council was merely nominal and that the younger, more vigorous age-grade
leader became the actual manipulators of political power.
The emphasis on age-grade organization under Anovwan was an effort to restrain by an
age qualification the attempts of one major descent group to exercise control over any of the
others. Yet this structure disrupted the original division of labour which the age-grade
organization was meant to maintain. Those originally meant to be the assistant executive arm
of the gerontocratic government of the towns or the state dictated policies and performed the
judicial and administrative functions of that government. Anovwan’s state council also
distorted the authority system inherent in the age-grade organizations: age- grade leaders
supposed to be supervised practicing students of indigenous politics and traditional
government did, in fact, become much more powerful and more recognized than the elders
under whom they supposedly studied. Occupying positions for which they normally had no
entitlement, they could neither participate fully in town governments to
25
Individuals in Okpe towns such as Aghalokpe that went to Benin for chieftaincy titles did so for authority over their individual
towns only.
26
Amwuokpe town was founded by descendants of Chief Owhere of Orhoro descent group.
27
See Annual Report, Warri Province, C.S.O. 26/2, File 11857, Vol. VII (National Archives, Ibadan, Nigeria, 1929).
60
their previous extent nor govern satisfactorily at the state level. As a result of their
ambivalent roles, the state government lost its firm hold on the total Okpe polity.
A prominent evidence of Anovwan’s weak central government was the emergence of
a group called otuada, an organization similar to that of the age grades. They had their
spokesman and drummers and their operations were effective mostly at the town level. In
referring to this group, Fellows stated:
Their original object was to see that justice was administered and that retribution
came to the wrong doer whatever his rank. If a murder was reported, they
proceeded to the spot and dispatched the culprit without trial. Their methods were
summary. And violent and they soon became the terror of the Okpakus and
Olotus [i.e., elders and age-grade leaders]. So great had their power become that
there is little doubt that, but for the advent of the Government, they would have
completely usurped the position of the Odogun. 28
The emergence of the otuada indicates that without a powerful political leader or institution
whose position was derived from other than the age-grade organization, the Okpe political
system was open to more injustice and abuses.
That the personnel for the state government were drawn from the age grades, as was
that of the new group, led to the latter’s feeling, rightly or wrongly, that they had all the
qualifications necessary for sharing in, and indeed, controlling the governments of both the
towns and the state.
It is uncertain how much longer the state council would have lasted under Anovwan. In
all probability, the organized rebels would have ended up disgruntled and defeated as they
had in the neighboring Urhobo state of Agbon where, owing to their atrocities, the whole
community organized to abolish the group. Agbon itself was at this time a state rather than a
kingdom in which each town was a near-independent segment. It had no central political
institution and no chief political leader. Mutual ties and sentiments deriving from the “web of
kinship,” traditions of common history, ritual and religious collaboration, held Agbon
together. Neither Okpe nor Agbon possessed at this time acceptable central political
frameworks with political organs or institutions capable of exerting coercive power over the
whole state.
Despite its faults, however, Anovwan’s national council as based on the age-grade
organization diverted the political growth of Okpe kingdom from an unstable confederation
to one central government, even though weak from the turmoil of the new recalcitrant group.
Whether a monarchy or scattered under different but similar gerontocratic town

governments, Okpe state was preoccupied throughout with efforts to maintain its unity under
a constitutional and democratic government. In 1891, when the uninvited British government
spread its new political institutions over the whole kingdom, they found that though
Anovwan was very old, his government appeared to have been satisfactory and his name was
29
mentioned with respect.
28
Fellows, Report on Ukpe-Sobo Clans, 23-24.
29
Ibid. 11.
61
Okpe State and British Contact
Anovwan’s age-grade government continued for six years after Gallwey’s tour of
1891, 30but eventually the political motives and aspirations of Okpe and of the British
government clashed. In 1897, just after the Benin expedition, conflicts arising from their
differences could no longer be contained and the British colonial government, apparently
inadvertently, ended Okpe state council by rendering it practically role-less. Full details of
the conflict are not available, but the indication is that it arose from Okpe retention of all or
most aspects of their political and judicial processes in spite of British government
regulations. Those displaced from the state council reactivated their interests in their various
town governments. However, these individuals formed the most eligible virile social category
from which the British colonial government drew the membership of their newly-constituted
Native Authorities and Councils.
Apparently, at this time British impressions of the Okpe political system did not include
any knowledge of a king-centered socio-political framework. And in the late 1920’s when
British government-sponsored investigations preceding their intelligence reports revealed the
political kingdom structure of Okpe, it seemed too difficult to dislodge the
untitled but already efficient, friendly, and sometimes trusted age-grade leaders, ilotu, who
had been chosen as warrant chiefs to sustain the indirect rule system of the British
government. By 1928, Okpe people had begun to return to their capital, assured of peace and
tranquility by the British colonial government. Although their political structure was now
known from the intelligence reports to be based on kingship, the British colonial government
was unwilling to revive the titular framework mainly because they felt that Okpe people were
not fully unanimous in their choice of a successor.
Britain’s refusal to allow a revived kingdom in Okpe was overcome only by the
determination of Okpe people, including the well-placed warrant chiefs themselves. The
colonial government attitude was regarded as unfair, especially as it had recognized the
installation in February, 1936, of Ginuwa II, king (Olu) of the neighboring Itsekiri peoples
whose previous king, Akengbuwa, had died in 1848.
The political development of the Itsekiri kingdom had been similar to that of the Okpe
31
kingdom, passing through three similar stages. First there was the period ending in the
nineteenth century with the regime of the last king, who was supported by a patrician
“caste,” chiefs called ojoyes. This was followed by an interregnum period which started
with chaos after the death of Akengbuwa in 1848 and was marked by unsuccessful attempts
to form the state council at Ode-Itsekiri, the capital. The kingdom finally disintegrated,
resulting in near-independent town units over which some sort of order was maintained, first
by the influential Nana family and later by Chief Dogho (Dore) who eventually became a
king in everything but name. This state of affairs lasted until the 1930 reorganization of
Warri (now Delta) Province. After Chief Dogho’s death in 1932 the Itsekiri, now with some
measure of unity among the Ruling Houses, passed through some pre-succession disputes
from 1932 to 1935, particularly between Warri notables and those of Benin River, and
eventually entered their third stage with the installation of their new king, Ginuwa II, in
1936.
30
Captain Henry Lionel Gallwey was one of the most important British officers among the Urhobo at this time. He was
MacDonald’s Deputy Commissioner and Vice Consul in Her Majesty’s Consulate in Benin River.
31
See Report on the Itsekiri Native Administration and Proposals for Reorganization , File Ughel. Dist. 1:1080 (National Archives,
Ibadan, Nigeria, 1948).
62
Okpe determination to reactivate their kinship received support from outside the state,
notably from the press, 32
Urhobo Progress Union, and from protests and telegrams from
branches of Okpe Union throughout Nigeria and Ghana. On January 1, 1945, Okpe people
took a near-unilateral decision to install their king, Esezi II, but no official attention or
“recognition” was received until 1948.
Conclusion
In studying the political history of a kingdom, attention must be focused on the

political structure, how it changed, and how it affected the political system as a whole. The
structure of a society reflects the meaning and the significance of the political statuses and
roles in that society. These, according to A.M. Hocart, cannot be derived objectively from
“an accident such as the extent of square miles ruled or the size of the civil list.” 33
Okpe political system cannot be regarded as being in equilibrium. To regard it as such
is to create and face the problems of relating the system and its history to the reality of the
complex changes in Okpe politics. Okpe political history shows that equilibrium theory
cannot be applied indiscriminately to “non-literate” peoples as easily as Radcliffe-Brown and
some of his students assume. Further, the degree of the complexity of the political structures
and systems of “non-literate” societies is often ignored or glossed over because researchers
prefer to think that these total social systems are simple and relatively unchanging.
This article suggests that both these assumptions are faulty; that to understand the past
and present political systems and aspirations of Okpe kingdom, its history has to be studied
as a process. Perhaps this conclusion is applicable to the political history of other former
colonial societies as well.
32
See Southern Nigeria Defender (Warri), December 29, 30, 31, 1944; January 3, 6, 23, 31, 1945; April 16, 1945. See also The
Daily Service, January 3, 16, 1945.
33
A. M. Hocart, Kings and Councillors (An Essay in the Comparative Anatomy of African Society) (Cairo, 1936), 86.
63
BEGINNINGS OF BRITISH COLONIAL RULE
IN
URHOBOLAND
Chapter 4
The Establishment of British Administration

in Urhobo Country, 1891-1913 1
Chief T. E. A. Salubi
The Urhobo 2people form one of the 7 indigenous ethnic groups of the 3
people in
4
Delta Province of Western Nigeria. These groups are in four Administrative divisions, one
of which is Urhobo Division. It is therefore the Urhobo division that is referred to broadly in
this paper as the Urhobo Country. I say broadly because, in recent years the Isoko people
who are also in the Division, have ceased to regard themselves as Urhobo.
According to the 1952 Census figures, there are 244,775 Urhobo out of a population of
590,966 for the whole Province. This represents roughly 41.42 percent. The area of the
Division, the second largest in the Province, is 1,684 square miles, the population 323,315
and the density of population is therefore 191.99 to the square mile. The Urhobo are a
heterogeneous people whose social organization is based on small units, commonly called
clans. There are some 16 autonomous clans 5 each ruled by an Ovie 6or an Okpako. 7
For their origin, the people have always maintained that their ancestors, who were the
8
founders of their present country, hailed from Benin which they call "Aka." In his book, 9
Rev. Hubbard identified the people with three other sources of origin, namely, Erowha, Ijo,
and Ibo. 10 It is believed that the Urhobo had settled in the Delta Province before -- probably
long before -- the beginning of the 15thcentury. 11
1
Originally published in Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria , Volume 1, Number 3 (December), 1958, pages 184-209.
Published in this volume by kind permission of
2
The people have in the past been indiscriminately called "Subou", "Subo", "Sooba", "Uzobo", "Issobo", "Usobo" and "Sobo."
Each of these is a corruption of "Urhobo." Urhobo is the name and except "Uhobo" which is the Benin rendering, the people resent
being called otherwise . Government recognised officially the term "Urhobo" in place of "Sobo" as from 1.10.38. See government
Notice No. 1228, p. 652 of Nigeria Gazette, No. 49 Vol. 25 of 8.9.38.
3
The other ethnic groups are Isoko, Ijo, Ukwuani, Aboh, Ndoni and Itsekiri.
4
The name of the Province was changed from "Warri" to "Delta" with effect from 26.9.52. See Public Notice No. 64 in Supplement
to Nigeria Gazette No. 52, Vol. 39 of 2.10. The change was a direct result of the strong protest of the Urhobo people against the
change of the traditional title of the head of the Itsekiri people from "Olu Itsekiri" to "Olu of Warri."
5
The term "clan" has been used here in the sense in which Administrative Officers used it. Bradbury used the term "tribe." See R. E.
Bradbury. The Benin Kingdom and the Edo-Speaking Peoples of South-Western Nigeria (1957) p. 128.
6
"Ovie" (plural Ivie) is the Urhobo rendering of Ogie (Benin) and Onogie (Ishan), each meaning a Head Chief over a clan. Only the
Oba of Benin could confer the title before the days of British Government.
7
"Okpako" is the acknowledged oldest man of the clan or group.
8
The name "Aka" is said to have been derived from "Egbeaka" the name of one of the former Obas of Benin believed to have
reigned about 1370. The name "Edo" is sometimes not often used.
9
The Sobo of the Niger Delta (1948).
10
With all respects to the learned Reverend gentleman, it is very doubtful whether the assimilation of Ijo and Ibo by the Urhobo
people is on as large a scale as he portrays.
11
P. A. Talbot - The Peoples of Southern Nigeria, Vol. I, p. 318.
The Urhobo country (except that part of it lying to the east and bordering on the Niger
and its creeks) constitutes the main dry land of the Delta Province. Generally, all the country
is flat and well within the zone of the evergreen tropical forest dominated by the ubiquitous
12
West Coast oil-palm. The Division is bounded on the South by Western Ijo
Division, on the West by Warri Division, on the East by Aboh Division, and on the North by
13
the River Ethiope except at the north west where the line embraced a strip of land on
the right bank of the River.
The people are given to agriculture and owing to their system of shifting cultivation
and the habit of living in small scattered groups in villages, the bulk of the vegetation
consists of secondary growth springing up rapidly on temporarily abandoned farmlands.
Owing to population pressure on the land, about 97,000 Urhobo people live away from home
14
in Lagos Township and in 20 other Divisions in the Western Region alone.
The Knowledge of Early Europeans about Urhobo
The story of European enterprise and influence in the Bight of Benin is too well-
known to deserve recapitulation here. Various writers have given interesting accounts of the
Portuguese discovery of Benin in 1472, of the trade and the missionary activities that
followed the discovery, and of the keen competition which other European nations like
England, Holland and France etc., successfully organized against Portugal in her exploits in
the Bight of Benin. For some 420 years, the selling and buying of commodities between
Europeans and Africans of the Benin Coast had brought about a civilization, a culture
contact, exchange of ideas, and a mingling of peoples about which the Urhobo people in the
hinterland knew practically nothing. How much the Europeans on the coast knew about the
Urhobo people was clearly very little since there was no direct contact of any kind; the
Europeans relied on the different stories which African traders of the coast, mainly Itsekiri,
told them.
What seemed to be the earliest reference on record to the Urhobo people was made by
Duarte Pacheco Pereira, who, while describing Rio Dos Forcados (Forcados River) said
among other things: "Farther in the interior is another country called Subou, which is
densely populated. . . ." 15
Between 1839 and 1840 Dr. Daniell and Mr. John Beecroft navigated the Benin River
and attempted to learn something about the Urhobo country and its people. Dr. Daniell tells
us that "The Subo country consists of an extensive series of fertile plains, thirty miles above
12
At the beginning of the British Administration, the Urhobo people were for administrative purposes, grouped in about four
different divisions. Some were under Benin, some under the same Division with either Ukwuani, or Itsekiri people. However,
changes occurred from time to time until 1951, when all the Urhobo people were included in the Urhobo Division. For the description
of the administrative boundary of the Division, see Public Notice No. 28, p. 116, Supplement to Nigeria Gazette, No. 9, Vol. 38 of
13. 2, 51.
13
At a point about 60 miles from the sea (at Sapele), the Benin River divides itself into two branches. In 1840, during the exploration
of the River John Beecroft named the southern branch, leading to the Urhobo country, "Ethiope", after "Ethiope", the 30
horsepower craft which he used for the voyage. The craft belonged to his employer, Mr. Robert Jamieson, a West African merchant
of Glasgow, who had then considerable trading interests in the Oil Rivers.
A year earlier, Mr. Jamieson had named the northern branch "Jamieson" after himself. See A. F. Mockler-Ferryman,
British West Africa (1898) p. 288 and also "Journeys in the Benin Country, West Africa" by Capt. H. L. Gallwey, Journal of the
Royal Geographical Society, Vol. I, 1893, pp. 122-130.
14
Figures obtained from Bulletins Nos. 2 to 9 of the Population Census of the Western Region of Nigeria, 1952.
15
Duarte Pacheco Pereira - Esmeraldo De Situ Orbis, p. 129. Translated and edited by George H. T. Kimble (1937). The exact
period of Pereira's voyage would appear to be unknown but it is believed that his book was written between 1505 and 1508.
68
The Establishment of British Administration …
Reggio," 16"beautifully ornamented with park-like clumps of trees and verdure of the freshest
17
tint. . ."
Beecroft's purpose of exploring the Benin River in April, 1840, was to ascertain
whether an approach through the river to the main body of the Niger, without having to go
through the pestiferous swamps of its delta, was possible. That took him to the highest point
navigable on that part of the River leading to the Urhobo country. Beecroft says that the
name given to the district by natives lower down the river who represented it as forming
part of the Kingdom of Benin was Sooba. 18
In the narrative of his voyage of the Niger in 1854, Dr. William Balfour Baikie wrote
of the Urhobo as a "people speaking a distinct language who bring palm-oil to the trading
19
ships, and who are called Sobo, being tributary to Benin." Writing in 1863, Sir Richard
Francis Burton confirmed what appeared clearly to be earlier information by Beecroft and
added "I believe that the word" (Sooba) "applies to the greatest part of the country between
Abo on the Niger, the Warri River, and the southern branch of the Benin which bounds it on
the north...." "At Warri we were within one day's row of the Sobo people." 20
Fifty years after Beecroft's attempt had passed, and still Europeans, on the coast or
elsewhere, did not know much about the Urhobo people. Thus in 1890, Sir Alfred Moloney,
then Governor of Lagos, told a London audience what at best was hearsay that in addition to
"the Benins, Jakrymen, and Ijohs, much was heard in these parts of the Issobos or Sobos,
who were described as people tributary (they have been so for generations) to ... Benin." He
described them as industrious, agricultural and oil manufacturers, and their language as
having great affinity with the Benin language in many ways. 21
About the same period, the Intelligence Division of the War Office in England,
recorded the Sobos and the Binis as occupying the country north of Warri, west of the Niger,
and west and east of the Benin River; they were described as seeming to be a shy and timid
race, given to agriculture rather than trade and as being more or less under the suzerainty of
22
the King of Benin.
For many years, European traders on the coast wanted to reach the interior people who
were the oil producers, but the African middlemen who were natives of the coast, did not
permit them. It was a part of the middlemen's design deliberately to malign or blackmail the
23
interior people to the Europeans, and the Europeans, to the interior people.
16
"Reggio" - "Reggio" or "Rego", according to Sir Richard burton, the town was named after Elusa's father. See "My wanderings in
West Africa" by "An F.R.G.S." Fraser's Magazine, Vol. LXVII, March 1863 pp. 273-289. The town was situated on the point
between Ughoton (Gwato) Creek and Benin River. It was shown on an 1829 map. C. O. Maps 700. "Reggio" or "Rego" was probably
a corruption of Erejuwa.
17
Dr. William F. Daniell, Sketches of the Medical Topography and Native diseases of the Gulf of Guinea West Africa (1849) p. 47
18
John Beecroft, On Benin and the Upper Course of the River Quorra on Niger . Communicated to the Royal Geographical Society
by Robert Jamieson. See Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, Vol. II, 1841, from p. 184.
19
Dr. William Balfour Baikie, The Narrative of an Exploring Voyage Up the Rivers Kwora and Binue (1854) p. 339.
20
Sir Richard Burton) "My Wanderings in West Africa " by Fraser's magazine , Vol. LXVII February, 1863, p. 145. The Warri
visited by Burton was Ode-Itsekiri, not the present Warri Township.
21
Sir Alfred Moloney - "Notes on Yoruba and the Colony and protectorate of Lagos, West Africa". Journal of the Royal
Geographical Society, Vol. XII, pp. 596-614.
22
Major L. Darwin. R.E.-- Precis of Information concerning the Niger Territories with Maps , prepared at the Intelligence Division
of the War Office. (1890).
23
When I was a boy, there was a story that the white men who made the clothes we wore were fairies with tails living in tree-holes
in a far away bush where a kind of dumb barter or silent trade with them took place.
69
The total exclusion of the European traders from any contact with the hinterland people
suited the middlemen's purpose eminently well. As agents between the interior and the coast,
many of them had become very wealthy and influential, a position which they very jealously
guarded. The jealousy was based on the fears of losing their powerful advantageous position.
Projected Exploration of the Country by Consular Officers
Beside these few references, the riddle of the Urhobo people and their country
remained unsolved until late 1891, when the Government of the Niger Coast Protectorate
(formerly Oil Rivers Protectorate) was established on the coast. It was left to Captain H.L.
Gallwey 24as will be seen presently, to solve the riddle.
Two of the six Consular districts under the Niger Coast Protectorate Government were
established on the Benin, and the Forcados Rivers, the latter being shortly removed to Warri
trading station, now the Warri Township. The two districts formed the bases from which the
Consular Officers penetrated into the interior.
In order to be assured of an adequate and effective force readily available, it was
necessary to have a constabulary post somewhere in the districts. Calabar, where the main
force for the Protectorate was to be stationed, was too far away. Therefore, one of the first
assignments to Captain Gallwey was the survey in October, 1891, of the Urhobo oil- markets
along the Ethiope River, with a view, among other things, to selecting suitable sites for a
25
Vice-Consulate, barracks and constabulary posts. Sapele, a small Urhobo village, on
the left bank of the Ethiope River, about 55 miles from the Benin Vice-Consulate, appealed
to Captain Gallwey.
In his report to Major Macdonald, 26 Gallwey said, "The anchorage here is deep and
roomy, and the ground high, though one mass of forest. A most suitable spot to establish
factories, especially as all the produce from the Sobo markets passes here on the way to the
towns near the mouth of the river." He, therefore, recommended Sapele, which he called the
first Sobo market, to be a very good place to establish a Vice-Consulate and constabulary
barracks. 27
Macdonald visited Sapele in the following month and approved it as being eminently
suitable for the purpose for which Gallwey recommended it. The Urhobo people there
assured him that, if he would come and build there, they would clear as much ground as he
wanted. 28That was the origin of the present Sapele Township.
24
Capt. (later Sir) Henry Lionel Gallwey of East Lancashire Regiment was the first Vice-Consul at Benin River. From there he did a
valuable piece of pioneer work in the north-eastern part of the Urhobo country. Gallwey claimed to be not only the first European to
get as far inland as he did, but also to hold meetings with the people.
As the founder of the present Sapele Township, the Sapele Urban District Council will do well one of these days to
honour his memory by naming at least a street after him.
25
"Sapele"--This is the European rendering of " Urhiapele" which is the Urhobo name for the village. It is a combination of two
words " Urhie" and " Apele". " Urhie" means river or stream, and "Apele" was the name of the Juju of the Urhobo owners of the
village. "Urhiapele", therefore, means the "River or Stream of the juju, Apele".
26
Major (later Sir) Claude Maxwell Macdonald an Officer of the Highland Light Infantry. Formerly Acting British Agent and
Consul-General at Zanzibar. F.O. 84/1941. Appointed later Her Britannic Majesty's Special Commissioner to the Niger and Oil
Rivers, December, 1888, to inquire, among other things, into the dispute between the Royal Niger Company and the European
merchants at Benin River concerning the Warri Oil Markets. F. O. 84/1881. Macdonald became the Commissioner and Consul-
General of the Oil Rivers Protectorate with headquarters at Calabar from 1891 to 1896.
27
Capt. H. L. Gallwey--Report on Visit to the Sobo and Abrakar Markets, dated 3.11.91. F. O. 84/2111. pp. 473-482.
28
Major Macdonald's Dispatch No. 30 of 12.12.91 to the Foreign Office.
70
The two powerful Africans preventing European penetration of the hinterland of the
Benin and the nearby rivers, were, firstly, Chief Nana who lived in a creek near the mouth of
the Benin River, and secondly, the Oba of Benin. In fairness to Chief Nana, however, it must
be recorded that he made no open opposition when, barely two months after the inception of
the Protectorate Government, Captain Gallwey penetrated into the Urhobo country. Gallwey
recorded that the Chief consented when consulted about the proposal to establish at Sapele.
Proving his support and co-operation for the Protectorate Government at his trial at
Calabar in December, 1894, Chief Nana himself said "I assisted the Government when they
29
went up to Sapele first in getting ground." The reason for the Chief's agreeable attitude
must be obvious to any one who has studied Benin River affairs up to that time. Chief Nana
was already losing popularity and his hold over his own Itsekiri people, and was fully aware
of the British Government's intention to put an end to his power. To that end, his rivals and
enemies, all Itsekiri people, were solidly behind the Government.
In view of the important role which Chief Nana played in the trade and related affairs
of Benin River, particularly in regard to trade in the Urhobo oil markets, it is necessary to
ask for indulgence to digress a bit to be able to say a word here about the Chief. Mr. Neville
and Mr. P.C. Lloyd have contributed articles, each giving some personal details about the
Chief; 30it is unnecessary here, therefore, to touch on the points already covered. Suffice it
to say, however, that Chief Nana's mother was an Urhobo woman married from the
Agbamu-Elemodia family, a well-known family in Evhro (Effuru), 5 miles from Warri
Township. The Chief himself was always proud of his maternal connection with Urhobo. 31
Many European Merchants, Missionaries, Explorers and Consular Officers who visited
the Benin River in the second half of the nineteenth century, and had occasion to meet Chief
Nana, had nothing but great admiration for his outstanding personality, intelligence, wealth
and hospitality. His ability to speak the Urhobo language coupled with his liberality won for
him the favour of practically all Urhobo traders on the River. He, of course, had enough force
to bring to submission any one who was so unreasonably stubborn as to interfere with his
trade anywhere. For many years, he concentrated his commercial activities on the Urhobo oil
markets until he practically established a perfect monopoly over all the oil markets.
Chief Nana did not establish any form of native government in Urhobo land. All his
interest was in trade, and only when his trade was interrupted was there any friction between
his canoe-boys and the people. In many cases, settlement of such frictions was peaceful. But
most of the immediate causes of the Chief's trouble, leading to his fall in 1894, were related
to his trade dealings with the Urhobo people.
By the end of 1893, the Vice Consuls at Benin River had started to accuse the Chief of
gross disloyalty to the Government; but his actions, usually through his trading boys,
appeared to reach a climax, when in July 1894, his boys seized fifteen Urhobo people
(including a local Chief's wife), for an alleged debt of 200 puncheons of palm-oil. It32was
29 th
Chief Nana's evidence given on 6 December, 1894 at his trial at the Consular Court, Calabar. Further Correspondence
Respecting the Niger Territories, January-June, 1895. Inclosure in No. 71, p. 46a.
30
Geo. W. Neville--" Nana Olomu of Benin " Journal of the African Society, Vol. XIV, No. LIV, January 1915, pp. 162-167. and
P.C. Lloyd--"Nana Olomu--Governor of the River", West Africa, No. 2098 of 29.6.57, pp. 609 and 610.
31
Chief Nana told Mr. Coxon, who gave him friendly advice just before his trouble, that he would remove from Brohemie to his
mother's country (Effuru), if the trouble at Benin River was too much for him. Mr. Coxon was a trader at Benin River for 18 years.
F.O. 2/63 pp. 266-268.
32
Mr. Ralph F. Locke, Consular Agent, Benin Vice-Consulate's letter dated 10 July 1894 to Chief Nana. This was among
documents found in Chief …………….. (missing information to be supplied later).
71
when Chief Nana refused to surrender those captives, blockading the River instead, that the
government was obliged to use force to overthrow him towards the end of 1894. With the
capture of the Oba of Benin 3 years later, all obstructions to penetration of the interior were
removed.
Protection Treaties with Urhobo Chiefs
About 2½ years before Chief Nana's fall, the Urhobo Chiefs of Abraka, north east of
the Benin Consular district had concluded a Treaty of Protection with Her Britannic Majesty's
33
Government placing themselves and their people under British protection. In
the south and the south-east of the Urhobo country under Warri district not less than 14 such
Treaties had also been entered into. The Treaty making activities were however intensified
after the fall of Chief Nana.
It is also clear from some of the earlier Treaties that the Protectorate Government did
not wait for the enactment of Order in Council of 1893, before penetrating into the
hinterland of what was hitherto a virtual, sea-coast Protectorate. Thus in 1892, Sapele
became a Vice Consulate when a hulk 34- serving not only as a Vice Consulate, but also as
a prison and barracks, was towed there. The Sapele Vice-Consulate soon became important,
35
as in 1895, the Benin River Vice-Consulate was, except as a Customs port, closed and
removed to Sapele. The closure of the Benin River Vice-Consulate in favour of Sapele had a
considerable historical and economic significance. In the first place, it marked the end, after
some 433 years of European enterprise in that part of the historic River, and, in the second
place, it broke the barrier almost completely of the Itsekiri middlemen in the matter of trade.
Although a beginning of British administration of the Urhobo country had nearly been
completed, yet no further effective practical steps to govern could be taken, ready and
anxious as both the Consular Government and the Urhobo people were. The Government ran
up against the difficulty of an administrative boundary between itself and the Royal Niger
Company.
Arising from an earlier dispute over the Niger Basin by the Forcados River, over which
Major Macdonald was appointed a Commissioner in 1889, the Major had recommended in
36 37
his report some arrangement to fix a boundary between the disputants.
When two years later, the Major was commissioned to establish the new Protectorate
Government, one of his first duties in London, was to fix that boundary known as the
Provisional Boundary Line between his Government and the Royal Niger Company.
33
That was 8 years after Chief Nana signed a similar treaty placing himself and the Itsekiri people under British Protection.
34
The hulk cost £1,800; a further £1,800 was spent in adapting it for the purposes of the Government. F.O. 84/2194, pp. 330-331. It
was called the "Hindustan". F.O. 2/186.
35
The Customs port was eventually closed in 1905 when Koko became a port. Koko was also known as " Koka" or "Capp's Town".
R. E. Dennett, Report on Forestry Work In The Western Division, January 1906; also C. O. 591/2, p. 653. It is a small village shown
on all maps before 1900 (seen so far) as Capp's Town. It is believed to be the personal name of a local Chief. Sir Alan Burns
(personal communication). Messrs McNeil and Scott, and Bey and Zimmer established a port there in 1905. Other large traders of
Benin River soon followed. It was constituted a European Reservation with a Sanitary Board in 1907.
36
Report by Major Macdonald of his visit as Her Majesty's Commissioner to the Niger and Oil Rivers. Chapter VII. B.S. 14/37
(British Museum).
37
Parties to the dispute were the Government of Lagos which then depended on the Forcados as a port, the European merchants of
Benin River, and the Royal Niger Company. The first two accused the Company of encroaching on the Forcados River by making
Treaties with the local Chiefs, thereby capturing what were then known as the Wari Oil Markets. The markets were claimed by the
Benin River merchants as theirs. Major Macdonald found in favour of the Royal Niger Company.
72
Because of the great part which the boundary delimitation subsequently played in the
matter of administration of the Urhobo country, the text of its description is quoted
hereunder.
"On the west of the Niger River the line starts at the middle of the mouth of the
Forcados River, follows that river midway to the mouth of the Warri Creek, and
follows that creek midway up to a point 2½ miles below the mouth of the creek
leading to Oagbi and Akiabodo. From that point the line runs to the north-east
for 10 miles and thence due north for 50 miles…"38
The effect of the demarcation was that all the country lying to the west of the Line was
within the jurisdiction of the Niger Coast Protectorate Government and similarly, all the
country lying to the east of the Line was regarded as being within the territories of the
Company.
Dispute Arising from the Provisional Boundary Line
One of the most significant consequences of the Provisional Boundary Line did not
present itself until 1895, 4 years after it had been drawn. Protection Treaties concluded with
39
five Urhobo towns were, in accordance with the understanding between the Foreign
Office and the Royal Niger Company, referred to the Governor and Council of the Company
for affirmation. The Company wrote back claiming that the 5 Treaties concerned a group of
towns considerably to the east of the Provisional Line, and were, therefore, in its area of
jurisdiction, and what was more, the Company had already concluded Treaties with each of
the five towns. It was pointed out that the only difference was in the spelling of the names of
the towns. So strong and clear was the Royal Niger Company's case that the Foreign Office
was obliged to agree eventually that both their own and the Company's Treaties covered the
same towns.
It was however suggested that as Sir John Kirk was shortly going out to the West
Coast, for the purpose of investigating the circumstances of the attack at Akassa by the Brass
40
people, he might take the opportunity to look into the matter.
In June 1895, Sir John reported inability to decide the issue one way or the other. To
him, the necessity to come to any decision was questionable since the area concerned was
occupied by neither the Protectorate Government nor the Royal Niger Company. After
describing the upper reaches of the Ethiope river which waters it on the west, the area in
dispute, and the Ase creek which waters it on the east, Sir John concluded that actual
boundary could not be fixed until more was known of the geography of the country; he
recommended that, for the time being, the trade of the towns concerned should be left to take
41
their natural water course.
38
The line was drawn subject to modification by further delimitation according to local requirements but the Company later rejected
the idea of any modification.
39
The five towns were Okpara, Uwhokori ( Kokori), Oria, Eko (Eku), and Igu. All in the Agbon and Abraka clan areas in Western
Urhobo.
40
Foreign Office's letter dated 9.5.1895 to Sir John Kirk. Further Correspondence respecting the Niger Territories, January to June
1895, p. 176.
41
Sir John Kirk's report dated 30.6.1895 to the Earl of Kimberly. Further Correspondence Respecting the Niger Territories, July to
December, 1895, p. 67.
73
The Foreign Office therefore, had no alternative but to advise the Niger Coast
Protectorate Government to stop its officers visiting any more, those parts of the Urhobo
country. Thus, what was apparently the high hopes of the Consular officers, and the
expectations of the Urhobo people for a coming administration, were dashed to pieces, at
least for the time being.
But the Consular Officers were dogged; instead of abiding by the Foreign Office's
advice, they continued visiting the Urhobo and the Ukwuani countries, entering into more
Treaties with the people. Mr. John Mc. Taggart, 42 the Chief Officer in charge of the Royal
Niger Company's patrol team, was not to be beaten in the race. The fall of Benin was to him
an impetus for extensive patrolling activities, not only in the Urhobo and the Ukwuani
countries, but also in the Ika (Agbor), Ishan, Afemai (Kukuruku) and the Ora countries. On
an earlier occasion, he even marched into Benin.
The whole situation was one of real jealousy and competitive scramble, and, at one
stage of it, an open clash between the officers of the two administrations seemed imminent.
And so that disquieting situation continued for two long years ending in November, 1897,
when the foreign Office was again obliged to tell Sir Ralph Moor, then the head of the Niger
Coast Protectorate Government, of the importance which Her Majesty's Government
attached to the avoidance of both administrations alike of any action on the frontier likely to
provoke friction between them. The dispatch ended by saying "Lord Salisbury feels sure that
43
no effort on your part will be wanting to avoid such friction."
Sir Ralph Moor reluctantly obeyed, instructing his officers to take as little action as
possible for the present, in the direction of the left bank of the Ethiope River, and in the
interior of the Urhobo country. Sir Ralph opined, however, that the decision was a retrograde
step and one that would result in the work already done in that direction having to be done
44
again in the future.
The attitude of the Protectorate Government was in a sense quite understandable. The
restricted movement of its officers did not permit them to move farther than 15 miles from
Sapele on the north, and at Warri on the South the distance was much less. And yet most of
the important oil markets, especially those in the north east, formerly monopolized by Chief
Nana, were beyond – some much beyond – the boundary line, and well within the Company
s territories. The unaccepted argument of the Protectorate Officers was that their conquest of
the Chief automatically bestowed upon them the right to all those markets.
The Consequences of the Dispute of Urhobo

45
The Urhobo had always known and talked of two "Akpo". The first and the only one
known and recognized by them before the British Government, was "Akpo r' Oba" ("the
Oba's world"). The second, which was coming to oust the first, was "Akpo r' Oyinbo" ("the
white man's world"). It was most difficult, if not altogether impossible, at that time, to take
governmental affairs to Benin. The momentum against the Oba's rule and power was then
gathering. The Consular government that was to come to replace the time-honoured regime
of Benin, was not seen. The Royal Niger Company did nothing more than enter into
42
The personal name " Itaga" still common among eastern Urhobo people is a corruption of " Targart". There was a soap (Carbolic
soap) called " Odja r'itaga " meaning " Itaga's Soap ". It was named after Targart because it was sold by the Royal Niger Company.
The company's trading beaches themselves were known as "Oto r'itaga"--"Targart's beaches or shops."
43
The Marquess of Salisbury's Despatch No. 192 of 2.11.1897 to Sir Ralph Moor.
44
Sir Ralph Moor's despatch No. 11 of 12.1.1898 to the Marquess of Salisbury.
45
Akpo" means "world" and in this concept "world" means regime.
74
Treaties. Absolute vacuum and dilemma therefore emerged. In the unhappy circumstances,
the state of chaos and disorder that ensued can be better imagined than described.
Writing about the situation a few years later, Mr. Henry Morley of the Royal Niger
Company described a confused situation where the officers of the Niger Coast Protectorate,
the Governor of Lagos, the officers of the West African Frontier Force, and the Government
of his Company each in turn gave orders to native rulers, or exercised authority in the
Company's Territories, without prior consultation with each other. To his mind, the situation
was deplorable and probably unprecedented in the history of any government of any modern
country not actually suffering from war or revolution.
It is interesting to read what was said to be happening in the Urhobo country, and the
feelings of the people during an anarchy which lasted some 5 years. The people developed a
deep feeling of disappointment and of neglect by the British government. A very natural
feeling after about 7 years of submitting themselves by Treaty to the Government. They
could not understand why restrictions had to be placed on the Consular Officers' movement,
thus preventing their visits as formerly. Government however decided well to sustain their
confidence by continuing the payment of any subsidies previously paid.46
The situation described above could not exist without some acts of atrocity. All the
way from Abraka 47the dead body and decapitated head of Chief Akatamu were brought to
the District Commissioner at Sapele. The reason for the outrage by the Orogun people being
that the Chief took upon himself to decide a case between two groups of people in the
Orogun area instead of referring it to the Consul. 48
Two other isolated cases of armed fighting with considerable sacrifice of life were
reported from around the same area. The disturbing situation led to inevitable stoppage of the
local trade; and there was a danger of more of the waterside markets being closed owing to
troubles in the interior Urhobo towns.
By that time, it became quite obvious that the officers of the Royal Niger Company,
who had hitherto made no attempt to govern, were still not in a position, to do anything. The
company was about winding up. And so in January, 1899, after merely informing Mr. John
Flint, the Agent General of the Company at Burutu, Sir Ralph Moor instructed his officers to
proceed with an escort of 25 men to all the subsidized Urhobo market towns, telegraphing
the Colonial Office thereafter that the Urhobo and the other neighboring countries be
49
regarded thenceforth as being under the Niger Coast Protectorate. Mr. Flint
referred the matter to London, the Governor of the Company condemned Sir Ralph's action
as being most reprehensible, but there the matter died.
The scramble for power in Urhobo land then came to an end. The Royal Niger
Company wound up. The taking over of its assets in the latter part of 1899, by the British
government gave a free hand to the Protectorate Government to organize and establish
properly, for the first time, the administration of the Urhobo country. In this sense, it can be
regarded that British administration in Urhobo land commenced only from 1900.
46
Annual Report of the Niger Coast Protectorate 1897-8. Gallwey's despatch No. 151 of 1.9.1898. F.O. 2/180.
47
"Abraka" is an important district north east of the Urhobo country and is 36 miles from Sapele by land. The Chiefs there entered
into Treaty with the Government on 9.5.1892 and from information so far available, were the first Urhobo Chiefs to do so. They
were quickly followed on the next day by Ogborikoko in the south in Warri district.
48
Sir Ralph Moor's Despatch No. 77 of 23.5.1899. C.O. 444/1, Vol. 1. It will be surprising if there was no more reason for the
outrage than the one given by the District Commissioner. The Abraka and the Orogun people (both Urhobo) have been known to be
quarreling from time to time over land disputes, the most recent occurring only a few years ago when several lives were alleged to
have been lost on both sides.
49
Sir Ralph Moor's Despatch No. 66 of 14.4.1899. C.O. 444/1, Vol.1.
75
The Role of Political Agents in Establishing the Administration
A paper of this nature will be incomplete without reference to the important role which
African middlemen played in assisting the government to achieve its objects. This time, the
reference is to Political middlemen, known in those days as Political Agents. Three such
Political Agents were known to the early history of the British administration in Urhobo.
50
They were George Eyube, Tom Falladoh, and Chief Dore Numa. As was said
before, Protectorate Officers' penetration of the Urhobo country was initially, in two
processions, that is to say, from Warri and Benin River (later Sapele). After 1900 however,
two other processions from Abraka and Agberi were formed, penetrating respectively from
the north east, and the south east, of the country. The Warri procession was spear-headed by
51
Chief George Eyube, the Abraka one by Tom Falladoh, the Benin river by Chief Dore
Numa, while the Agberi procession appeared to have been conducted by Protectorate
Officers themselves.
As an escort to the Government up to 1896, a small Government post was opened for
Tom Falladoh with two others assisting at Abraka. His functions consisted in explaining to
the people Government's purposes, encouraging them not only to increase trade but also to
plant cash crops, and in keeping Government informed of what was happening in that part of
the country. There could be no doubt that Tom Falladoh acquitted himself well for he
became a Political Agent in the following year. But there was evidence that this bold man
(as might be expected of people left altogether on their own in those conditions away from
the range of a close watch) often exceeded his duties.
In March, 1898, Mr. Henry Lyon of Benin District Office replying his opposite number
at Sapele about Falladoh said, "I am sending you later a report on Falladoh's conduct as
Political Officer in Abraka and Quale countries -- as you may hear at Benin City some
rumors of the way he has carried on his work -- Falladoh at present is in custody and every
day I get more evidence of his doings in these countries such as looting and burning towns --
52
If you hear any palavers about him I hope you will let me know."
After Chief Nana, the next person among the Itsekiri who came to prominence was
Chief Dore Numa, 53 a great friend of the Government. During the Nana and the Benin
Expeditions he was solidly behind the Government rendering invaluable services which were
later recognized and rewarded. By the beginning of this century, he had risen to a height
which made him to be not only the head of the Itsekiri, but also an indispensable person to
Government in its dealings with the Urhobo and the Ijoh people. It was in that
50
The little that is known about George Eyube of Igbogidi is that he died in May, 1901, at the early stage of his career from injuries
from an accident from his own pistol during the patrol to Orhokpo in Urhobo.
51
Tom Falladoh was an Ekiti Yoruba from Emure. His real name was Falodun but the Urhobo called him Fenedo. In connection
with his work described above, he got the Abraka people to establish the Abraka waterside market ( Erhor), sometimes called "Erhor
ro Fenedo". With the introduction of Native Councils in 1900, he became a leading member of the Native Council at Abraka where
he lived for many years before retiring home. Later in life, he founded and lived in a small village near Ekiadolor in Benin.
52
Political Papers, District Office, Benin City. P 16/98.
53
"Dore" is the European rendering of "Idocho" also believed to be an abbreviation of an Itsekiri name. Like most Itsekiri, Dore was
a trader. He started his semi-official career as a Native Interpreter at the Benin River Vice-Consulate and was made a Political
Agent 1896, a Warrant Chief, 1902, and, an Unofficial Member of the Nigerian Council, 1914. For his services to the Government
during the Nana and the Benin Expeditions, he was mentioned in dispatches, awarded medals and a combined set of clasps in May
1899: Niger Coast Despatches, 1899, Vol 3, C.O. 444/3. Received the King's Medal for Chiefs in 1925; died 29.9.32. For further
information about the Chief see William A. Moore--History of Itsekiri, Chapter XXII.
76
capacity that he signed in 1908, for and on behalf of the Chiefs and the people of Sapele, the
54
lease to the Government of Sapele land.
As Warri was by 1901 fast becoming the headquarters, Chief Dore, "pushed his way to
55
Warri. The fact that more than half of the Urhobo country was then under the Warri
Division gave the Chief free play in purely Urhobo affairs. As the President of the highest
Native Court for many years, no Urhobo, however important or influential, could be made a
Warrant Chief without Chief Dore's recommendation. Although some Urhobo Chiefs sat
with him as assessors to take appeals in cases from their areas, Dore often had the last say.
So high was the esteem and power conferred on him by Government that even in 1918
56
when, in accordance with tradition, two Urhobo Ivie applied to Benin for
confirmation of their title, the Resident advised the Oba not to grant the title without Chief
Dore's expressed consent. In rejecting one of the applications, the Resident said he did not
think it advisable for the Oba to grant the title as it would involve the Ovie coming regularly
to Benin to see the Oba, and that must, inevitably, tend to lessen Chief Dore's authority.
1900 - The Beginning of Effective Administration

th
The last decade of the 19 century had passed with the not too insignificant, but
disturbed, achievement made in the attempt by the Protectorate Officers to govern the
th
country, and the 20 century had arrived bringing in its wake the practical realities of
establishing a firm and effective government. It would be an error of judgment to overlook
or under-rate the magnitude and the urgency of the task called for by those realities.
57
While the towns already familiar with "Kosini," some of which had been enjoying
their subsidies all along, waved their Treaties in a hearty welcome of the long expected
government, many other interior towns had perhaps never heard, or only heard dimly, of the
curious person called 'the white man'. It would be too much to expect therefore, that some of
those towns would not be indifferent, at least for the start, to the new order. As it was
required to establish a foothold in districts where those towns existed, it was necessary to
deal with each and every town or village therein, and there were a few hundreds of such
towns or villages.
In order, therefore, to establish itself, the Government was obliged to tackle the hard
tasks of:
(a) pacification, however small and inexpensive in scale, of the country;

(b) establishing a machinery for Indirect Rule through Chiefs and Headmen;
(c) clearing and improving the rivers and creeks to facilitate trade; and
(d) constructing roads to open up the country.
It must be appreciated that, in the circumstances of the situation, each of the tasks was
one of extreme urgency and second to none in the matter of priority.
54
The Itsekiri people unsuccessfully claimed ownership of this land in 1941. Suit No. W/37/1941.
55
William A. Moore, Op. Oit, p. 119. The Chief was an Itsekiri of Batere, Benin River. Odogene was his new village near Warri.
56
Those were the first applications after the 1897 Expedition. That stroke of the pen brought to an end ever since then a title custom
that existed from time immemorial.
57
"Kosini" is the Urhobo rendering of "Consul". Some children born during the time of Consuls were named " Kosini" and the word
has remained a personal name in Urhobo ever since.
77
(a) Pacification of the Country
Whether the more interior Urhobo would have resisted the government, if ever they
could, is a question which admits of no consideration here at present; but it seems correct to
say that the four punitive expeditions, two of them major, undertaken towards close of the 19
th
century facilitated Government's passage to the interior. The two major expeditions,
namely, the Nana and the Benin Expeditions, though not directly connected with Urhobo
land, had a very far-reaching effect on the Urhobo people as a whole. Nana was respected
and feared for his wealth and power, and the Oba of58Benin for his suzerainty and juju
power. Most Urhobo people did not believe that the Oba could be, and was in fact, captured
by the white-man 59because of their belief in his juju power to transform himself into a
spirit. With the capture, therefore, of those two acknowledged powers, the Urhobo people
had no choice but to submit to the conqueror.
The two other punishments, in the form of setting fire to each of two Urhobo towns,
clearly brought home to the people the practical evidence of the white-man's superior power.
Effuru was set on fire just a little over two months after concluding a Protection Treaty with
the Government. A dispute leading to stoppage of trade and the refusal of the head Chief to
answer charges connected therewith were given as the cause for the action. The head Chief
(Arigbe) who was said to have caused the dispute was believed to be a staunch adherent of
Chief Nana, and his actions were regarded as a demonstration in favour of the Chief.
60
Accompanied by two other officers and 12 armed men from the Warri Consulate,
61
Major Copland-Crawford set fire to a town in the east, destroying only a part of it. The
local inhabitants known to be seizing traders and produce passing through a creek nearby
had shot a man. The refusal of the local Chief to surrender the offender, and the beating up
of the Consulate Messenger sent to them necessitated the action.
Between 1901 and 1909, the Government was involved in a number of patrols.
Beginning with Orhokpor in 1901, the Kwale Patrol followed in the first quarter of 1904. In
order to be able to bring under effective control that part of the country, however, it became
62
necessary in 1905 to barrack the Patrol unit permanently at Abraka, where, as stated
earlier, a Government post had been established since 1896. The appointment of a District
Commissioner 63to the station shortly after basing the unit strengthened the operation of the
scheme for the administration of that part of the Urhobo country.
58
The Urhobo's other name for the Oba is "Orovwa Akpo" meaning "the owner of the world". That was, of course, the world as they
then knew it.
59
"The Sobos declined to believe in the capture until they were shown the captive king at Warri. " Reginald K. Granville and Felix
N. Roth, Notes on the Jekris, Sobos and Ijohs of the Warri District of the Niger Coast Protectorate, (1898).
60
Sir Ralph Moor, Despatch to Foreign Office dated 8.8.1894. Lt. Commander Heugh; letter to Rear Admiral Bedford dated
10.8.1894; Correspondence respecting the Disturbances in Benin and the operations against the Chief Nana, 1894, pp.4 & 6. The
Effuru Treaty was concluded on 5.6.1894 and the town burnt on 8.8.1894.
61
Copland - Crawford called the town " Merrie" - 30 minutes paddling from Orere creek. This is therefore likely to be
"Arhavbarien". The incident occurred in May, 1896.
62
The station was known to the north-eastern people as " Ebareki" and has since become a personal name also. The station was
closed ultimately in about 1938 in favour of the present Kwale Divisional Office at Obetim.
63
The abbreviation "D.C." is the origin of "Idisi" which had since become a personal name in Urhobo. The first "D.C.", Mr. R.W.
Bird, was posted to the station on 12.12.1905.
78
In April, 1907 it became necessary for a patrol from the Warri district to visit Agbassa
and Iyede. The people of the former place had refused to receive the Government and were
said to be a likely menace to the people of the surrounding country. Captain Beamish, with
Mr. S.D. Simpson-Gray as Political Officer, visited and quieted the towns until early in 1908,
when, owing to a further distributed state of Agbassa, a small force under Captain Wayling,
th
with Major H. O. Swainston as a Political Officer, entered the town on 4
February. After a few days, the people expressed willingness to submit to Government. The
two head chiefs 64 captured were not allowed to return until the town became quiet again.
As the whole area had been effectively controlled, the Kwale patrol unit was withdrawn
in April, 1909, and replaced by a Civil Police. One of the remarkable consequences of those
patrols and Police movements reported, was the large number of cases of impersonation as
Government Police or messengers in the inland towns. The impersonators took payment for
settling cases, inflicting fines, seizing and flogging people, and causing trouble in different
65
ways.
(b) Establishing a Machinery for

Indirect Rule through Chiefs and Headmen
With 1900 came a spate of enactments one of which is relevant here. It was The Native
Courts Proclamation, No. 9 of 1900, amended in the following year by The Native Courts
Proclamation No. 25. The Proclamations legalized the status and regularized the function of
native Councils and Native Courts, a few of which had been in existence as far back as 1895.
Two such Native Courts, serving the Urhobo country, were at Sapele and Warri. In 1900,
however, more courts were established in the more inland areas of the country.
The Native Councils and Native Courts system was a most important integral part in
the machinery of indirect rule. Whatever the critic may have to say against the system, it is
doubtful whether he can deny the hard fact that the Native Councils and Native Courts were
the only means which the Government had then of reaching and governing the people.
The need for the Councils and Courts were such that between 1900 and 1904,
Government established in the Urhobo country not less than 9 Native Courts, appointed 174
Warrant Chiefs with jurisdiction over 329 towns and villages. Two of the Courts (Sapele and
Abraka, later Okpara Waterside) were in the west and the remaining seven in the east of the
country.
The Native Councils, later known as Native Authorities, did not only function as
executive bodies, but also as Appellate Courts to the Native Courts within their areas. Not
only did these bodies take orders from the Government to the people but they had to ensure
also that such orders were carried out. For the purpose of local administration, the Urhobo
country was constituted into three Native Councils. The Sapele Native Council for the Sapele
District area, including Benin River, was split up in 1907 when the Abraka-Okpara Native
Council was constituted. The remaining 7 Native Courts in the east, covering by far the
greater part of the Urhobo country, were sub-ordinated to the Warri native Council of which
Chief Dore Numa was the President. Following a further re-organization in 1914, by the
passage of the Native Courts Ordinance No. VIII, Chief Dore Numa was made the
64
Quarterly Report on Central Province, March 1908: Supplement to Southern Nigeria Government Gazette No. 60, Vol. 3 of
19.8.1908. The two head Chiefs (Ivie) were Owe and Uwerhiavwe.
65
Quarterly Report Agberi District dated 4.7.1904: Gazette Op. Cit. No. 16, Vol. 5, September 23, 1904.
79
Paramount Chief 66 of the Judicial Council, and in 1916, when the first Native Authority
Ordinance was enacted, the Urhobo Native Authorities in the east and all others in the
Warri Division, were again made subordinate to Chief Dore Numa.
Scarcity of court clerks was one of the difficulties that faced the working of the native
court system in the early stages. In some cases, the District Officers themselves sat in the
Courts occasionally as clerks and Presidents, and in other cases, one court clerk was made to
run two or more courts in rotation.
The Annual Report for 1899 to 1900 recorded the views of Mr. Menedez, Acting Chief
Justice, "....that native administration under the supervision of the District Commissioners has
worked exceedingly well"; he was reported to have particularly referred to the outstations of
Warri and Sapele, where the gradual extension of the system had brought within the control
of the Government numerous outlying villages whose previous attitude had been far from
67
friendly.
(c) Clearing and Improving Rivers and Creeks
Another enactment of some considerable importance was the Roads and Creeks
Proclamation, No. 15 of 1903. On sufferance of a penalty of £50 or 6 months imprisonment
in default, the Proclamation imposed it as a duty on the Chiefs and their people to clear and
repair any roads, creeks or rivers within their districts, towns, villages, or places through
which, or by which, such roads, creeks or rivers, or parts of such roads, creeks or rivers run.
Waterways were of course the first means of communication, and while the Chiefs and their
people were required by law to keep them open, there was clearly a limit to what they could
do having regard to the means at their disposal. Upon the newly established Marine
Department fell therefore the duty of starting where community labour left off. Thus the first
major marine clearing operations of the Ethiope River at a cost of some £388 started in 1905.
With the second operations at a cost of about £609 three years later, the whole River became
safely navigable from Sapele to Kwale; and in 1911 when clearing reached the farthest point,
or the River head at Umutu, timber traffic on the River became easy.
68
Other rivers in the Benin and Agberi areas received similar attention from the Marine
Department, and it was the policy of Government to encourage traders, mainly, Itsekiri and
Yoruba, to establish waterside markets along the banks of the rivers cleared. 69
66
Chief Dore Numa's Presidentship of the Native Council and later his Paramount Chief ship of the Judicial Council are the only
bases of the claims of the Itsekiri people that the Urhobo people were once ruled by them, and nothing else in the history of the
relationship of the two peoples.
The Chief's supreme position which he fully enjoyed till the late twenties of this century was the creation of the British
Government.
67
Colonial Reports - Annual No. 315. C.O. 520/3, Southern Nigeria Despatches ………. (missing information to be supplied)
68
The clearing work was not without its risks. In June 1906, Lt. Pierson and 13 of his waterway party working near Agberi on the
Niger lost their lives when an explosion occurred.
69
Supplement to Southern Nigeria Government Gazette No. 24, Vol. 3 of 25.3.1908. C.O. 591/5.
The introduction of Itsekiri traders by Government to establish waterside markets along creeks or rivers in Urhobo land led to
considerable administrative and sometimes political, troubles many years after. Many of the Itsekiri settled in the various market
places and that gave rise to the problems of what the later Administrative Officers called "Itsekiri Enclaves" on Urhobo land. The
Enclaves problems were not satisfactorily solved until only a few years ago.
80
(d) Constructing Roads to Open up the Country
One of the early steps taken by the British Consular and other political Officers to open
the country was in regard to roads. It was part of their duty during their visits to map out the
more important towns with a view to opening them up by means of roads which in the white
man's sense did not exist. Between towns and villages only footpaths existed. Most of these
paths were difficult, and in some cases, unsafe to negotiate.
Accompanied by 5 orderlies, 28 carriers and a guide, Major Copland-Crawford, then
Acting Consul, Warri Division, passed in January 1896, through a number of these paths
from the Warri Consulate to Sapele, that being the first time ever any European had
undertaken a journey by land between the two towns. The primary purpose was to endeavour
to open up land communication with Sapele by a direct route. The journey took 2 days but
Copland-Crawford thought it could be half a day less in a straight through march with troops.
70
But the real period of road-making did not begin in earnest until 1903 when the
provisions of the Roads and Creeks Proclamation were applied. 71One of the officers whose
activities accelerated the construction of roads, but whose work was taken over in 1907 by
the Superintendent of Roads, Roads Department, was the Traveling Commissioner for the
Division.
While it was reported that some of the Chiefs cheerfully got their people to cut straight
roads, others were said to be indifferent, and stringent measures had to be taken to enforce
the required communal labour. Most of72the roads with planted shade trees in the
Urhobo country were constructed between 1903 and 1910. In 1911 it was possible to motor
in a light car on the triangular route of Warri-Sapele-Kwale, the oldest roads in Urhobo.
By 1906, the survey for a light railway or tramway to connect Sapele to Benin City
was completed at a proposed estimate of £79,000 for a 2 ft. 6 in. line and £105,000 for a line
wider by a foot. As the scheme was not however started before the amalgamation. Sir Walter
Egerton rejected it as unballasted. He recommended instead the construction of a good
73
metalled road. But this same road was, in fact, not completely metalled until 1952
— 46 years later!
With roads connecting the larger and the more important towns, and the greater
development of mutual confidence between the Political Officers and the people, the former
began to undertake long tours, sleeping in the towns. That created the necessity for building
Rest Houses, again by communal labour, for the convenience of the District Commissioners.
The first of such Rest Houses built at Abraka in 1904 was followed, up to 1907, by not less
74
than 17 others in various parts of the Urhobo country.
70
The Foreign Office forwarded the report with a map of this journey to the Royal Geography Society who published it in its
journal.
71
Even up till now the roads constructed at the instance of the Government usually 12 to 14 feet wide are still called "Idjere ro
Oyinbo" ("the whiteman's road"). Those of them along which telegraph lines passed are referred to as "Idjere re Etaligrofo"
("telegraph roads").
72
Road work by communal labour was usually divided up into tasks, each adult in the community being given a task to finish. I was
old enough to be among my father's children who helped from time to time to do his task of grass cutting. The communal labour
continued till 1928 when poll tax was introduced.
73
Minutes of the Legislative Council meetings of August 15 and December 26, 1906. Southern Nigeria Government Gazettes Nos.
23 & 42, Vol. I, of September 12 and December 26, 1906, respectively. C.O. 591/3.
74
The Rest House at Ovu Inland, my home town, was after a few years roofed in 1909 with corrugated iron sheets bought by my
father at the request of the community. The cost was later repaid in kind i.e. by reserving for him for an agreed period the palm-oil
from a portion of the communal palm forest.
81
With the arrival in January 1905 of Capt. J.P. Moir of the Telegraph Battalion, as
Superintendent, Telegraph Construction, it was possible to complete the laying of telegraph
lines between Warri and Sapele in that year. An75inland weekly mail service between
Sapele and Kwale by runners started in 1906. In 1908, a telephone system was opened at
Warri and other places like Abeokuta, Afikpo and Obubra Hill. However,76the
telecommunication position as at that period remained unexceeded until only a few years
ago when telegraph facilities were extended to Abraka and Ughelli and a Telephone service
to Aja-Igbodudu, Ughelli and Abraka.
Observations and Conclusions
It may perhaps be appropriate here to say a few words about the period (1891-1913)
covered by this chapter. As will be remembered, Captain Gallwey, the Vice-Consul, Benin
River District, made his first contact with the Urhobo of Sapele in late 1891. In 1900, the
Niger Coast Protectorate Government started administration in earnest with a series of
Proclamations with Rules and bye-laws, etc. Those laws continued until 1906 when the
Protectorate of Southern Nigeria was amalgamated with the Colony of Lagos under one
administration known as the Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria.
Although such arrangement appeared not to have any appreciable difference to the
Urhobo country, yet it led to certain administrative adjustments and changes in the structure
of governmental set-up. The situation again continued until the great amalgamation of Lord
Lugard in 1914. As students of Nigerian Constitutions of that period know too well, a spate
of new legislation accompanied that amalgamation. I am, therefore, of the opinion that by
1913 the foundation of British administration in Urhobo and in fact elsewhere in Nigeria,
had been firmly established. Whatever followed after 1913 were, in my view, subsequent
developments and improvements on the already established administration.
While it has not been the purpose of this paper to prove certain specific points, it has,
however, endeavoured in a humble way to show briefly how very little was known by early
Europeans of any walks of life about the Urhobo country and its people, for well over four
centuries ending in 1891. And yet the country or a part of it is contiguous on the Benin
River, the scene of a great historic European enterprise with the sea-coast Africans.
The paper has told the story of an unfortunate dispute arising from a boundary line
drawn and agreed on paper in London which delayed for some 5 years the commencement of
direct trading with the white man, and therefore of contact with the civilizing influence that
accompanied it.
The paper has also endeavoured to show that contrary to what many people in Nigeria
or elsewhere have been told, the Urhobo had before the British Administration always been a
separate and distinct people under the suzerainty of Benin, not under any other ruler as Dr.
Talbot conjectured. 77The paper has shown further that the Ivie and the Chiefs of the
Urhobo country were sufficiently separate and distinct to be recognized as authorities in their
various little domains to enter into Treaties of Protection with the British Government.
75
Annual Report Western Division (1905) Southern Nigeria Government Gazette No. 2, Vol. I of 9.5.1903. C.O. 591/3.
76
For references regarding inland weekly mail service and telephone service, see Southern Nigeria Government Gazette No. 72,
Vol. 2 of 18.12.1907. C.O. 591/4, and Colonial Reports--Annual (No. 630) 1908, respectively.
77
Talbot had said the Urhobo were under the Oba or the Olu of Jekri (Itsekiri), P.A. Talbot-- The Peoples of Southern Nigeria , Vol.
I, p. 318. That was a lone view in contradiction of facts and the truth. The Urhobo were never under any Olu of Itsekiri. Happily, but
without any disrespect to the learned author, the present-day scholars have started to discover some inaccuracies in this book. Mr.
Lloyd says ". . . . some of his "facts, which are unsupported by citations, are inaccurate". P.C. Lloyd in "The Benin Kingdom and the
Edo-Speaking Peoples of South-Western Nigeria " (Bibliography) p. 203. I am certain his statement that the Urhobo were under the
Olu was one of such inaccuracies.
82
Earlier in the paper, a reference was made to the role successfully played for many
years by the wealthy middlemen of the Coast in their two-way tactics of misrepresenting the
white-man, even including the Consul in some cases, to the Urhobo people on the one hand,
and the Urhobo people to the white-man on the other. The Urhobo people were called all
sorts of vicious names and described in a most humiliating and discreditable way to the
white-man and the outside world.
But the Protectorate Officers soon discovered the trick as will be appreciated from
what Sir Ralph Moor himself said on the point. He said, the Consul had been so grossly
misrepresented in the past by native traders and others, to serve their own ends, that his
coming was greatly feared by the natives of the interior. The Consul's name had been used
indiscriminately by the Coast traders as a sort of "bogey" with which to frighten the natives
into compliance with their wishes which were often of a nefarious character. 78
While it is true that the two major punitive expeditions against, Chief Nana and the
Oba and the minor sporadic punitive patrols undertaken in he Urhobo country augured well
for the Government, it is equally true to say that the Urhobo people meant well and that by
and large they had intended from the start to be friendly with the Government.
Gallwey, the first European ever to be seen in the remote interior of the country tells us
in connection with his first visit that although he was warned, he did not take an escort
(armed or unarmed) with him; that when he anchored at Eku, several Chiefs visited him in
the launch. That he was conducted to the head Chief's house where he held his meeting by
thousands of a cheerful crowd. The people's reply to all Gallwey had to say was that they
were very pleased that the white man had come into their country. In a welcome appreciation
of the visit, the people invited Gallwey and his party to watch a dance which he said he could
79
not wait to see as it was already getting dark.
What was perhaps a singularly warm demonstration of friendliness by the people of the
Urhobo and the Ukwuani countries, was shown to Mr. Hugh Lecky, Assistant district
Commissioner, Sapele and his party on their first visit to Ukwuani in 1896. The people did
not only bring him presents but also organized all the children in the town to entertain him
with a dance. At the meeting that followed, the people willingly signed a Treaty, as they
were very pleased to see the white man. Handing over to them a copy of the Treaty with an
accompanying present, the people said they were ashamed to take the present as to see the
white man was enough for them; and when going away, they gave a big cheer for which in
return Mr. Lecky and his party gave a general salute.
But this alone was not enough. In the afternoon, all the head women gave a goat as a
present and staged a big dance of all the women in the town in honor of the visit. One very
old woman believed to be the widow of a big Chief invited Lecky and his party to her house
and said how pleased every one was that the Consul had come to see them at last. The Chiefs
asked Lecky and party to come often and said that they would do anything they were told. Is
it not80surprising that a people vilified for years as savages should act like that!
The picture was not all rosy. Some -- perhaps many -- Urhobo people did run away at
the first sight of the white man, probably due to the strangeness of the sight, if not to
anything else. But that was soon over. Mr. F.S. James bore out the point when in 1905 he
said "Only a few years ago the Sobos, especially, would all run away at the appearance of a
78
Sir Ralph Moor's despatch No. 50 of 14.6.1896 to the Foreign Office. One of the proposals in the Despatch was the appointment
of two men to act as forerunner of Government in penetrating into the interior and explaining Government aims.
79
Gallwey's Report on the visit. Op. Cit.
80
Sir Ralph Moor's Despatch No. 58 of 18.7.1896 to the Foreign Office. F.O. 2/101, pp. 180-187.
83
white man, now it is just the opposite; ride into an inland Sobo town on a bicycle and you
will have the greatest difficulty in getting out again without either damaging one of the
inhabitants, yourself or the bicycle, in the crush of seething friendly and excited mob." 81
It must be noted here that beginning from the first contact up till now, not a single
European whether a Consul, a trader or a missionary who had any duty or business in the
Urhobo country, has been in any way molested or killed.
As may perhaps be expected, the Urhobo people have some grievances against the
British administration. The chief of these is what they consider an error of judgment by which
for nearly 30 years Government sub-ordinated the eastern part of the Urhobo country to Chief
Dore Numa, the head of the Itsekiri, whom they regarded as being only a stranger from a
neighboring tribe. They feel strongly that the strong backing of the Government gave the late
Chief too free a hand in Urhobo affairs without clear and adequate safeguards. They alleged
that that administrative arrangement had later led them to serious land disputes with the
Itsekiri people and that it had also given rise to unfounded claims that the Itsekiri were once
rulers of the Urhobo people.
Finally, it seems to me a fair assessment to say that the first 22 years of British contact
with the Urhobo country, during which British administration was established, had been a
remarkable success. And having regard only to the few points of the people's dissatisfaction
stated above, neither side, I am sure, regrets the bargain.
Bibliography
Baikie, William Balour: Narrative of an Exploring Voyage Up to the Rivers Kwora and Binue Commonly
Known as the Niger and Tsadda in 1854. London: Athenaeum, 1502.
Bradbury R. E. The Benin Kingdom and the Edo-Speaking Peoples of South-Western Nigeria. London,
International African Institute, 1964,1957.
Burton, Sir Richard. “My Wanderings in West Africa: A Visit to the Renowned Cities of Wari and Benin.
Fraser’s Magazine, 67: 135-157, 273-289, 407-422, 1863.
Daniell, William F. Sketches of the Medical Topography and Native Diseases of the Gulf of Guinea West
Africa. London: S. Highley, 1849.
Darwin, Major L.: "Precis of information concerning the Niger Territories with Maps. Intelligence
Division of the War Office" (1890).
Dennett, R. E.: Report on Forestry Work in the Western Division, January, 1906.
Gallway H. L. “Journeys in the Benin Country, West Africa.” Journal of the Royal Geographical Society,
Vol. 1, 1893.
Granville, R. K. & Roth F. N.: "Notes on Jekris, Sobos and Ijos of the Warri District of the Niger Coast
protectorate" J. Anthrop. Inst. XXVIII (August & November 1898), pp. 104-126.
Hubbard J. W. The Sobo of the Niger Delta a work dealing with the history and languages of the people
inhabiting the Sobo (Urhobo) Division, Warri Province, southern Nigeria, and the geography of their
land. Zaria, Gaskiya Corp., 1948.
John Beecroft - "On Benin and the Upper Course of the River Quorra on Niger ". Communicated to the
Royal Geographical Society by Robert Jamieson. See Journal of the Royal Geographical Society , Vol. II,
1841, from p. 184.
81
Annual Report Western (Warri & Benin) Division. Southern Nigeria Government Gazette No. 2, Vol. I of 9.5.1905. C.O. 591/3.
84
Lloyd, P.C., "Nana Olomu--Governor of the River." West Africa, No. 2098 of 29.6.57.
Macdonald, Major C.M.: "Report by Major Macdonald of his visit as Her Majesty's Commission to the
Niger and Oil Rivers" (B.S. 14/37 British Museum).
Mockler-Ferryman A. F. British Nigeria: a geographical and historical description of the British

possession adjecent to the Niger, West Africa, London 1902.
Moloney, Sir Alfred: "Notes on Yoruba and the Colony and Protectorate of Lagos, West Africa"
Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography , New Monthly Series,
Vol. 12, No. 10 (Oct., 1890) , pp. 596-614
Moore William A.: History of Itsekiri. Originally published 1936.London: Frank Cass, 1970.
Neville, Geo W., " Nana Olomu of Benin " Journal of the African Society , Vol. XIV, No. LIV, January
1915, pp. 162-167.
Pereira, Duarte Pacheco: Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis . Translated by G. H. T. Kimble London: Hakluyt
Society, 1937.
Population Census of the Western Region of Nigeria, (1952).
Talbot P. A., 1926. The Peoples of Southern Nigeria, Vol. 1. London: Oxford University Press, 1926.
Other Sources
(i) Despatches.
The despatches of British Consuls at Calabar to Foreign Office and Foreign Office despatches to the
Consuls from 1888 to April 1899, and thereafter despatches between the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria
also at Calabar and the Colonial Office.
Reports and Correspondence from the Vice-Consuls, later Divisional Commissioners at Warri and Benin
River (later Sapele) Districts to the Headquarters of the Protectorate at Calabar (1891-1906). Also reports
etc. of High Commissioners, Central Division to the Governor at Lagos (1906-1913). Most of these
documents are to be found in the Public Record Office and the Foreign Office Library, London.
(ii) Reports.
Monthly and quarterly reports by Departmental heads of the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria published
from time to time in the Supplements to the Government Gazettes 1900-1913. Annual Reports of the Niger
Coast Protectorate and the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria (1891-1906).
Annual Reports - Colonial: Southern Nigeria, available at the Colonial Office Library.
(iii) Official
Gazettes.
Southern Nigeria Protectorate Government Gazettes 1900-1906 (1st May).
Southern Nigeria Government Gazettes 1906 (May) - 1913. Nigeria Gazettes 1914-53.
85
Chapter 5
British Treaties of Trade and “Protection”

with Urhobo Communities, 1980s-1890s
Composed and Compiled
By Peter P. Ekeh
The last two decades of the nineteenth century were a volatile period for Urhobos and
Urhoboland. For four centuries prior to the 1880s, Urhobos had involuntarily been drawn into
the trade and geo-politics of the Atlantic world that were opened up following the arrival of
Portuguese explorers in the Niger Delta in the 1480s. However, for a greater part of those
prolonged centuries, Urhobo country was only indirectly serviced by the international trade
that flowed from Europe and the Americas. Direct contact with the European agents of the
international trade that ensued from the Atlantic world was monopolized by coastal Africans
on Atlantic shores. For at least the last two centuries of this period of the history of the
Western Niger Delta, Itsekiri mercantile chieftains not only monopolized the European trade
but also employed violent means to ensure that their hinterland neighbours, the Urhobo
people, did not participate directly in the trade. In the last twenty years, or thereabouts, of the
years leading to the beginning of the 1890s, Chief Olomu, Itsekiri [British-ordained]
“Governor” of Benin River and his successor-son, Nana, completely monopolized the trade in
the Ethiope River, even preventing other Itsekiri traders from gaining easy access to trade in
the northern portion of Urhobo country that was served by the waterways of the Ethiope.
The monopoly of the European trade by Olomu and other Itsekiri chieftains in much of
the Western Niger Delta was made possible by another sort of control. Exclusive possession
of arms and other means of violence was also exercised by Itsekiri mercantile chieftains. The
infusion of arms as an accompaniment of the Atlantic trade was chiefly an attribute of the
slave trade. European slave traders sold arms to their African counterparts in order to enable
them to secure captives for the evil trade. However, the importation of arms for use by
African traders continued into the era of legitimate trade, even after the abolition of the slave
trade in early nineteenth century. Their monopoly allowed Olomu and other privileged
African traders to dominate the trade in agricultural produce from Urhobo country and in
industrial wares from Europe.
Such lock-out of Urhobos from direct participation in the Atlantic trade was gradually
loosened in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. The break-out of European trade
and presence inside Urhobo country occurred in two waves. First, European traders -- headed
by Royal Niger Company (or United Africa Company, its other name after 1900) – pushed
into Urhobo waterways, establishing direct contact with Urhobo chieftains and traders.
Second, imperial agents of the British foreign office pushed into Urhobo country in search of
markets in which British commercial interests would engage Urhobo traders directly by
imposing a regime of administrative control by the British imperial government. Both of
these instances of encounter between Urhobo chieftains and traders, on the one hand, and
British agents, on the other hand, entailed treaty-making.
Lease of Lands and Making of Treaties of Trade

by Royal Niger Company with Urhobo Chieftains
In 1886, a company known as United Africa Company received a charter from the
British government under the name of Royal Niger Company (RNC). 1 Its charter gave RNC
a broad mandate and concessionary powers to operate in "all the territory of the basin of the
Niger:"
[In fact,] the Royal Niger Company combined the trading functions of its
predecessor UAC with the role of a British surrogate imperial power. As a
trading company, the RNC established pioneering trading posts in the upper
Niger Delta, beyond the Atlantic coast in which Europeans did business for
centuries, and in Niger’s inland basin . . . . [In addition] it made treaties with
native chieftains. These pro forma agreements required signatory chiefs to
declare, ‘We, the undersigned Chiefs ... cede to the Royal Niger Company, for
ever, the whole of our territory,’ in exchange for the RNC’s promises ‘to protect
the said Chiefs’ and pay monetary compensation for the RNC’s use of their land.
The RNC had a military force for enforcing its imperial ventures, occasionally
resorting to menacing tactics of gunboat diplomacy. (Ekeh 2005: 635)
One territory where Royal Niger Company was most active was in Urhobo country.
While Sapele and Warri were being opened up in the early 1890s by British officials of the
Niger Coast Protectorate government, the Royal Niger Company penetrated the inland
waterways in Urhoboland. The RNC, as well as UAC, was particularly active on the Ethiope
River and Okpare River. Other European companies, such as Compagnie Francaise del
Afrique Occidentale (CFAO) set up operations at Okpare. On the Ethiope, such Urhobo
towns as Okpara Waterside, Kokori Waterside (now Igun), Eku, and Abraka benefited from
the early penetration into their territory by the Royal Niger Company. Okpare especially
became an inland trading post where Urhobo traders learnt their craft. Many of them, like
Mukoro Mowoe, later moved from Okpare to Warri or Sapele where Urhobo contacts with
European traders expanded appreciably.
In all these places the Royal Niger Company made trade treaties with Urhobo
communities who were eager to receive the European traders. It is doubtful that the meaning
of these treaties was carefully weighed by Urhobo chieftains. The point of emphasis in their
interactions with the foreign traders was that they could now deal directly with the Europeans
– instead of the indirect trade that they engaged in through Itsekiri middlemen in previous
times.
1
United Africa Company was previously composed in 1879 by the English businessman Sir George Goldie (1846–1925) from
numerous failing European companies in the Niger basin.
88
British Treaties of Trade and “Protection”…
….
Figure 5.1
A Sample Treaty between the King and Chiefs of Ughelli and the
Royal Niger Company, 1894
British Treaties of “Protection” with Urhobo Communities
The Royal Niger Company stayed close to navigable waterways of Urhoboland. Its
agents did not venture into the numerous towns and villages that were not on such major
rivers. Nor was the RNC able to prize open the stranglehold that Chief Nana Olomu’s
monopoly of trade in the Ethiope imposed on several communities in northern Urhoboland in
the late 1880s. As pleasing to the Urhobo as RNC’s presence was in their country, it was not
adequate for coping with the dominance -- and what many of them saw as the oppression --
of Itsekiri merchants in matters of trade from Urhobo communities. The Urhobo were well
aware that the Itsekiri advantage was obtained from their monopoly of contacts with
Europeans. The Urhobo were therefore fully happy to accept any European
89
contacts that would help to break the Itsekiri monopoly of international trade in their
territory.
It was on such grounds that the eagerness of Urhobo chieftains to make treaties with the
British in the 1890s can be explained. In the decade of the 1890s, British agents of Niger
Coast Protectorate government concluded many treaties with Urhobo communities. More
comprehensive than the trade treaties of the Royal Niger Company, these so-called
“protection” treaties were wide in scope and sought to impose British monopoly of
administration in Urhobo country. These treaties followed the same pattern of the treaties that
the British had concluded with Opobo, Itsekiri, and Asaba in 1884. (See Ekeh 2004.)
The British treaties with Urhobo communities were organized in two batches. The first
batch was in the District of Warri, focusing on communities in the neighbourhood of the new
township of Warri that the British set up as their headquarters in the early 1890s. Perhaps the
most important of these treaties was that of March 14, 1893, that the British concluded with
the Agbarha-Ame (‘Agbassah”) people. This is so because the British made their official
headquarters in the lands of the Agbarha people.
The second batch of treaties consisted of treaties which British agents made with
upland Urhobo communities in what the British then styled “Sobo” country. Unlike those
signed with the Urhobo in the District of Warri, these treaties with upland Urhobo
emphasized market locations and the general need to bring British colonial administration to
inland Urhobo country. This was why the market-town of Avwraka (misnamed by the British
as Abraka) was targeted for treaty-making very early in the British penetration of Urhobo
country. Eventually, the British signed these “protection” treaties with tens of Urhobo towns
and villages, perhaps an indication of the eagerness with which the Urhobo people initially
received the British into their communities. Again, it is doubtful that those signing these
treaties fully understood the political implications of their new contact. They probably saw it
as a new avenue to commerce of the type that the Itsekiri monopolized for centuries.
90
….
Figure 5.2
Sample British Treaty With Chiefs of Abrakar, May 9, 1892
91
92
….
93
94
….
Figure 5.3
Sample British Treaty With Chiefs of Agbarha-Ame (“Agbassa”) March 14, 1893
95
96
….
97
Two Disputes on the Administration of Urhobo Country, 1894-1900
The penetration into the waterways of Urhobo country by the Royal Niger Company
and the deeper incursions by British agents of the Niger Coast Protectorate government into
Urhobo territories set off two disputes concerning administration of Urhobo country in the
1890s. The first of these was between Itsekiri chieftains, led by Nana Olomu, on the one
hand, and British officials of the Niger Coast Protectorate, on the other. Royal Niger
Company’s intrusion into Urhobo country was probably not fully threatening to Itsekiri
98
….
mercantile chieftains, although it breached a psychological barrier that pleased many
Urhobos.
The greater threat to Nana Olomu’s and other Itsekiri mercantile chieftains’ dominance
came in the early 1890s with a more robust presence of officers and agents of Niger Coast
Protectorate in Urhobo country. Chief Nana Olomu and his agents resorted to an old method
that worked well for his father in the 1870s and for himself in the 1880s in fending off
competition in past years. Intimidation and employment of violence had helped Olomu and his
successor-son to ensure a favourable environment for his monopoly trade, particularly on the
Ethiope.2 By 1894, Nana Olomu had dramatically escalated his violent methods on the Ethiope
and Warri Rivers. His targets were those Urhobo merchants who were known or suspected of
dealing directly with Europeans.
A natural alliance of interests was quickly formed between Urhobo merchants and the
3
new European presence in Urhobo waterways. Both wanted direct trade, against the
interests of Nana Olomu and other Itsekiri mercantile chieftains who pressed that they had
monopoly rights over Urhobo waterways. When, therefore, Urhobo leaders on the Ethiope
ordered trade stoppage in response to rampage by Itsekiri war canoes, their complaints were
received with great sympathy by the British officials of the Niger Coast Protectorate. The
British response was a terse warning against Itsekiri acts of terrorism on Benin River,
Ethiope River, and Warri River.
2
Obaro Ikime (1969) has given a fulsome account of the uses of violence by Olomu and his successor-son, Nana, in their trading
empire in the waterways of Urhobo country. According to Ikime (1969: 29-56), Olomu successfully prosecuted several wars against
the Urhobo, fellow Itsekiri merchants, and even the Ijo. Olomu’s “war” against the Abraka (in about 1876) was especially bitter.
Ikime (1969: 51) writes: “It would appear that the Urhobo people here [in Abraka] were particularly difficult to deal with. Olomu
complained that the Urhobo people demanded that he and other Itsekiri traders should pay a comey amounting to two-thirds of the oil
they carried the Ethiope River. . . . The result was tension which often led to stoppage of trade. Olomu, as a keen trader, was
disturbed by these stoppages; on one occasion at least he had to take the field against the Abraka people in an endeavour, according
to him, to force the people to reopen trade. On that occasion, Olomu was entirely successful and carried away eighty prisoners among
whom were three ‘chiefs’. It was the rumour that Olomu had murdered these prisoners in cold blood that took the British Consul,
Hartley, to the Benin River in 1876.”
3
Professor Obaro Ikime (2005) has queried my view of such an alliance, asking “Can Professor Ekeh really believe that the British
put themselves to such great expense and trouble in the interest of the Urhobo – to save them from the tyranny of Nana? I don’t
think so. The British were interested in destroying the control which the coastal traders had over the trade of the hinterland, so they
could take over both the coast and the hinterland.” I believe Obaro Ikime has guessed correctly that the British were acting in their
own self-interest. I would wager a bet that the wise Urhobo leaders of the 1890s correctly assessed that the British were acting in
their own self-interest. But that British self-interest coincided with the interest of the Urhobo people at that time. Concordance of
mutual interests is always a basis for a good alliance. In this instance Urhobos formed a good alliance with the British, despite the
fact that it was previous British action in favouring Nana Olomu and his father that helped to create the monstrosity that the British
now sought to destroy.
99
Figure 5.3
Text of British Warning against Acts of Terrorism in Western Niger Delta
It can fairly be imagined that Urhobo merchants were pleased with the British action.
The guns and arms with which Olomu and his son, Nana, terrorized Urhobo water ways were
most probably British in their origin. From the point of view of the Urhobo, it was natural
justice that the British should now remove the Frankenstein terror whom they had created.
For once, Urhobos would not be the victims and target of British arms. The dispute between
the British and their former ally, Nana Olomu, escalated, leading to the British attack and
sacking of Nana’s fortification at Ebrohimi in September 1894. The other Itsekiri chieftains
heeded the British warning and assisted the Europeans in the defeat of their fellow Itsekiri
strongman.
The defeat of Nana Olomu in September 1894 threw open Urhobo waterways. But it
led to another dispute on the governance and administration of Urhobo country. The Royal
Niger had won some concession from the British government on having a share of Urhobo
100
….
country in its status as a surrogate imperial power. However, its coverage of Urhobo
country was satisfactory neither to British officials of the Niger Coast Protectorate nor to the
Urhobos themselves. Even so, RNC insisted on preventing agents of the Coast Protectorate
from including Urhobo country in its administration. Accusations and counter- accusations of
interference by both sides flowed to the British Foreign Office, which issued orders that were
sometimes conflicting and unclear.
The stalemate on Urhobo country lasted for some five years, causing agony and anxiety
in Urhobo communities. It was not resolved until 1900 when the Royal Niger Company
received a compensation for its efforts in Urhoboland and elsewhere and then handed over its
imperial activities to the new creation of the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria, which
succeeded Niger Coast Protectorate. It is only fair to add that the Urhobo seemed to have
welcomed the new circumstances as much more preferable to the havoc which indirect trade
created for Urhobo communities before the new circumstances which the arrival of Royal
Niger Company and the Niger Coast protectorate created in Urhoboland.
References
Ekeh, Peter P, editor. (2004) Warri City & British Colonial Rule in Western Niger Delta . Lagos, Nigeria:
Ekeh, Peter P., (2005). “Royal Niger Company.” Pp. 635-636 in John J. McCusker, Editor-in-Chief,
History of World Trade Since 1450. New York: MacMillan Reference, USA.
Ikime, Obaro. 1969. Merchant Prince of the Niger Delta. The Rise & Fall of Nana Olomu of the Benin
River. New York: Africana Publishing Corporation.
Ikime, Obaro. 2005. “Thoughts on Isoko-Urhobo Relations.” A keynote Address delivered at the Sixth
Annual Conference of Urhobo Historical Society, on Saturday, 22 October, 2005, at Petroleum Training
Institute, Effurun, Nigeria.
101
Chapter 6
The Origins of Sapele Township 1

Sapele, which is today one of the most important industrial port towns in the Western
Region of Nigeria, was a small village belonging to the people of Okpe in Urhobo country.
Sapele, Sapoli, and Sapeli, are the European rendering of the Okpe name of the village which is
Urhiapele or Urhuapele. The hinterland Urhobo call itIsapele and the Itsekiri people generally
call it Usapele, both obviously after the European rendering. Urhiapele or Urhuapele is a
combination of two Urhobo words –Urhie or Urho and Apele. Urhie or Urho means a river or
a stream, and Apele is a name of a Juju of the Okpe owners of the village. Urhiapele or
Urhuapele therefore means the “River or the stream of Apele.”
Among the Edo-speaking peoples of South-Western Nigeria, there are two groups of
people both of whom bear the name Okpe. The first is the Okpe (Urhobo) people of the Delta
Province, and the second is a small group in the north of Benin Province. Hubbard has already
dealt with the origins of those in the first group while Bradbury dealt with those in the second
group.2 So far, no affinity between the two Okpe groups has been identified.
At a point somewhere about 60 miles from the sea coast, the Benin River3 divides itself
into two branches. In 1839, Mr. Robert Jamieson4 of Glasgow, who had considerable trading
interests in the Oil Rivers, named the northern branch of the river after himself. In April,
1840, during his exploration of the Benin River, Mr. John Beecroft named the southern branch
Ethiope after the name of the 30 horse-power craft used for the voyage. The craft belonged to
Mr. Robert Jamieson, his employer 5. It is on the left bank of the Ethiope River that Sapele is
situated.
The juju “Urhuapele”, according to tradition, was said to have belonged to a single
6
family at Orerokpe . It has also been said that it was Onoje, a member of that family and a son of
Orhue, who brought the juju from Orerokpe to Sapele. Onoje was one of the founders of
Sapele. At Sapele the juju became a communal juju for the whole people of Sapele. After
Onoje, his son Basude became the priest. Basude was succeeded by Amune Aparo. When the
latter became a Christian, he was replaced by Uboro. The original sacrificial place for the juju
1
Originally published in Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, Volume 2, Number 1 (December), 1960, pages 115-135. Published
in this volume with the kind permission of Dr. Chief Thomas Salubi, Chief Chief Salubi’s heir, and of Historical Society of Nigeria.
2
J. W. Hubbard,The Sobo of the Niger Delta, pp. 107, 236-241and R.E. Bradbury,The Benin Kingdom and the Edo-speaking Peoples of
South-Western Nigeria pp. 110 and 117.
3
The River was so named because it was only through it that Benin City could be reached in the old days. Joao Alfonso, a Portuguese
and the first European to discover Benin, named the river Rio Fermoso–the “beautiful river”. The English, French, Dutch and other
northern European called it Benin orArgon river. A Description of the Coasts of South-Guinea:–John Barbot Book IV, Chap. V., p. 355.
Churchill Collection of Voyages and Travels Vol. 5 B.M. 566 K. 10.
4
A. F. Mockler–Ferryman, British Nigeria: a geographical and historical description of the British possession adjecent to the Niger,
West Africa (1902) p. 288 and also, Capt. H. L. Gallwey–Journeys in the Benin Country, West Africa. J.R.G.S. Vol. 1, 1893, pp. 122-
130.
5
A.F. Mockler–Ferryman– British West Africa (1898) p. 288 and also, Capt. H. L. Gallwey, ‘Journeys in the Benin Country, West
Africa.” Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, Vol. 1, 1893, pp. 122-130.
6
Orerokpe is a combination of two Urhobo words–Orere and Okpe meaning “Capital town of Okpe”.
was at the waterside near the site formerly occupied by the Messrs. Miller Brothers7 but now
occupied by the Stores of the United Africa Company. It is only a short distance from the
Sapele Ferry Landing. The juju still exists but the sacrificial place has been shifted. A small
house built for it by its worshipers can be seen in Sapele Urban area near Laborde Street.
The homestead of the Okpe people is Orerokpe. Tradition has it that owing to the
autocratic attitude of the Orodje 8, the people revolted and killed him. After that incident, the
people abandoned Orerokpe and settled in groups in different parts of what is known today as
Okpe land in Urhobo country. From among those groups of settlers came people like Ijigare,
Onoje, Onokuta and Omighodua who were said to be among the founders of Sapele. There is
no one alive today who has any idea as to when the revolt at Orerokpe occurred; nor can
anyone tell when the subsequent founding of Sapele village took place. 9
Early European Influence
For how long the Okpe people of Sapele lived on the land before its contact with
outside influence, especially by way of trade, no one can surmise. The Portuguese who were
the first European power to have influence in the Bight of Benin made contacts with the
th
Kingdoms of Benin and Warri from the middle of the 15 century. From that period, a considerable amount
of trade in slaves, pepper, palm oil, ivory, etc., began with Portugal, Holland, England and
other European countries. Some of the market towns on the mouth of Benin River, or in the
creeks leading to the River included Arebo or Arbon, Gotton10, Boededoe 11and Meiborg. Dr.
Talbot thought that Arebo 12or Arbon might be Sapele but Sir Richard Burton suggested that
Arebo or Arbon was Arogbo. From the description of the proximity of the town to the other
market towns in the area, and also of the water-plants of the creek, I am inclined to agree with
Burton that Arebo or Arbon was Arogbo, not Sapele. Captain Gallwey was of the opinion
that the Portuguese, in their trade in the Benin River district, “must have confined their
labors to the Benin country proper, as there was nothing to show that the white man had ever
before been in the13Sobo country” . The Urhobo people were not directly concerned with the European slave-
trade. For the little part they played, the Itsekiri and the Ijo people acted as middle-men.
7
Evidence of Chief A.E. Omarin and others in the Sapele Land Case No. W/37/1941. Chief Omarin was educated and one of the leading
Okpe Chiefs of his own time. Died 12.3.1949.
8
Orodje is the Okpe rendering ofOvie. The Orodje is the titular head of the Okpe people. The office was defunct for many years. The
present Orodje of Okpe, His Highness Esezi II, O.B.E., M.H.C., J.P. was installed on 1.1.1945 on resuscitation of the Office.
9
Giving evidence before Mr. Alexander, Commissioner of Lands, on the 9 thNovember, 1911, Chief Iyefian, one of the Sapele Okpe
Chiefs, claimed that their fathers who were farmers had always been at Sapele. He described how the boundaries of the land were
demarcated and divided, according to Urhobo customs, into compounds each occupied by a family. See memorandum on the subject of
Native land Tenure in the Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria. (C.O.L.) Nigeria Pamphlet No. 36, Vol. 1 pp. 20-21. Chief
Iyefian’s evidence was supported in later years by Chief Ayomano, Chief Omarin, Itoto Ogodo and Amune Aparo in the famous
Sapele Land Case; but not one of them gave any direct indication as to when Sapele was founded.
10
This is Ughoton. Its other names by the Portuguese are Hugato or Agatton. John Barbot, Ibid. It was also called Gwato or Gato.
Ughoton was the old port town to Benin City known to Europeans. It is about 25 miles to the City.
11
Boededoe was identified to be the Itsekiri town of Bobi on the left bank of the mouth of Benin River. See Selected Papers on
Anthropology, Travel and Geography by Sir Richard Burton, edited by N.M. Penzer, author of annotated Bibliography of Sir Richard
Burton, etc., London, (1924) p. 229.
12
P. A. Talbot The Peoples of Southern Nigeria, vol. 1, p. 325.
13
H. L. Gallwey, “Report on visit to te Sobo and Abraka markets.” F.O. 84/2111, pp. 473-482.
104
The Origins of Sapele Township
It is a matter for conjecture whether Sapele village existed at the time of the European
slave-trade. What seems to be true is that, if it existed, the slave trade activities on the Benin
River by Europeans did not extend to Sapele. There has been, so far, no such evidence. There
is evidence, however, that from the time of what came to be known as “the legitimate trade”
Sapele, the first Urhobo market to be reached from the sea coast, had contacts with Ijo and
Itsekiri traders. These traders acted as middle-men between European supercargoes and
merchants on the coast and Urhobo people who are agriculturists and producers of raw
materials from the hinterland.
At this distant time, no one can venture to guess when the trade at Sapele started. But
Chief A. E. Omarin seemed to have shed a ray of light on the remoteness of the time in his
historic letter of 1912 14to Chief Dore Numa. Chief Omarin stated in the letter that when
Ijeghare 15and his people were at Sapele, the ‘Ijo’ or ‘Ujon’ people were often troubling him.
Ijeghare therefore sent to the Olu to give him one of his Captains to trade with him. That the
“Olu” sent to him at Sapele a man called Ibakpododo, that after Ibakpododo died, Princes
“Idolu” 16sent “Amakatse”. That after Amakatse’s death, she sent one Ofokunije.
The significance of the information is the close connection of the action said to have
been taken by the Olu and Princess Idolu. If the story is true, then that Olu must be
Akengbuwa who died on June 14, 1848. It is a fact in Itsekiri history that Princess Idolu took
charge of the affairs of the Itsekiri country after Akegbuwa’s death. There was no Olu, after
Akengubuwa until 1936, when Genuwa II was installed.
The inference to be drawn from Ijeghare’s contact with the Olu is that trading in Sapele
must have been earlier, probably very much earlier, than 1848. From this point, one may be
tempted to hazard a conjecture, albeit reasonable, that the palm-oil trade which began at about
the close of the eighteenth century probably stimulated the founding of Sapele – a waterside
village – to facilitate the trade. This is, however, a big guess and if one is to go by it, the
conclusion may be drawn that Sapele village might have been founded either in the late
eighteenth century or in early nineteenth century.
In the first half of the 19th century, however, Europeans paid occasional visits to Sapele.
Dr. William F. Daniell visited the area in 1839, and in April, 1840, Mr. John Beecroft
explored the Benin river and its two branches including, of course, Sapele.
Establishment of British Government at Sapele
In August, 1891, the British Government established a Consular Administration over

the Oil Rivers Protectorate, later, the Niger Coast Protectorate. The administration, consisting
of six consular river districts, was under Major (later Sir) Claude M. Macdonald. He was the
Commissioner and Consul-General and his headquarters was at Calabar. Two of the six river
districts were located at Benin River and Forcados River. Shortly after its establishment, the
Forcados River District was removed to Warri trading station which is now the Warri
14
This letter is historic having been tendered as an exhibit in the Sapele Land Case No. W/37/1941.
15
Very likely to be the same person as Ijigare identified as one of the founders of Sapele.
16
Princess “Idolu” was an influential Itsekiri woman. She was a daughter of Olu Erejuwa. Her full name wasUdorolusan but she was
popularly called Iye. Europeans of the time referred to her as “Princess Dola or Dolla”. Letter dated 1.3.1849, from Commander John
Tudor of H.M.S. Firefly off the Benin reporting the disturbed situation of affairs in the river to his Chief Commander A. Fanshawe of
Constance at Ascension.
105
Township. It is with the Benin River District that we are concerned in this paper. The first
Deputy Commissioner and Vice-Consul in charge of the Benin River District was Captain H.
17
L. Gallwey . The District Office was at the mouth of Benin River, 5 miles from the sea coast. The
jurisdiction of the Vice-Consul covered the whole of the Benin country and included the south-
western part of the Itsekiri country and the north-western part of the Urhobo country,
particularly along the Ethiope river.
Figure 6.1
Vice-Consulate on Benin River (1891)
About two months after the establishment of the Protectorate Government, Gallwey was
given an important duty to carry out. The new Government was anxious to open up the
country. For many years, the powerful Chiefs of the sea coast had prevented European from
penetrating into the hinterland. The two powerful Africans in the Benin District who were in
18
the way of the Government were Chief Nana of Ebrohimi and the Oba of Benin. It was the Government’s
17
Gallwey, Lieut.–Col. Sir Henry Lionel; K.C.M.G., created 1910 (C.M.G. 1899); D.S.O. 1896; born 25 September, 1859; (Assumed
the surname Gallway in place of Gallwey 1911); A.D.C. and Private Secretary to Commander-in-Chief and Governor, Bermuda, 1882-89;
Deputy Commissioner and Vice Consul, Oil Rivers Protectorate, 1891; concluded treaty with King of Benin at Benin City, 1892; in
command of Hausa force, under Sir Frederick Bedford, at attack on and capture of Nimbe, and during further operation against Brass
Chiefs, 1895; Acting Consul-General, Niger Coast Protectorate 1896-98, and was during that period attached to Sir H. Rawson’s
intelligence staff, and also in command of a Hausa company for operations in Benin country, including capture of Benin City, 1897;
Acting High Commissioner Southern Nigeria, 1900; Chief political Officer Aro Expedition, 1901-1902; Governor of St. Helena, 1902-
11; of the Gambia, 1911-14; of South Australia, 1914-20; Hon. Col, 27th Australian Infantry, 1921-46; died 17.6.1949,Who Was Who,
1941-1950.
18
Chief Nana was a powerful Itsekiri Chief. His full name was Eriomala. His father was Olomu and his mother was an Urhobo
woman from Evhro (Effuru). Made “Governor of Benin River”. 6.5.1885, captured and kept in exile at Calabar December, 1894; deported to the
106
view that unless both of them changed their attitude, there would be no peace, good
government and expanded trade in the area. The Government would therefore be obliged to
take strong measures against them if they did not change. In any case, the new Government
needed a force. In order to be assured of an adequate and effective force readily available to
sustain the authority of the Consular Officers, it was necessary to have some constabulary
post at suitable points in the new Protectorate. Therefore, one of the first assignments to
Gallwey was the survey in October, 1891, of the Urhobo Oil markets along the Ethiope River.
The objects of Gallwey’s survey were however many, namely to endeavor to establish
the authority of the new Government, to select suitable sites for Vice-Consulates, barracks
and constabulary posts, to impress upon the people the great advantages to be gained by the
cultivation of such crops as coffee, cocoa, etc., and to inquire into the general slackness of
trade in that part of the Urhobo country.
Figure 6.2
Lieut.–Col. Sir Henry Lionel Gallwey
On October 27, 1891 accompanied by Mr. S. Munro of the African Association,

Gallwey proceeded on the voyage for the survey in a launch hired from Messrs. Bey and
Zimmer, a German trading firm at Benin River. The following part of his report is pertinent:
Gold Coast (now Ghana) August, 1896; released from exile and resettled at Koko 1906; died 3.7.1916.
107
General Account of Gallwey’s Visit in Diary Form
“October 27: Left Consulate at 10 a.m. reached Sapele 6 p.m. anchored for the
night – roughly 55 miles from Consulate and 60 miles from the mouth of the river.
“The anchorage here is deep and roomy, and the ground high, though one mass of
forest. A most suitable spot to establish factories especially as all the produce
from the Sobo markets passes here on the way to the towns near the mouth of the river.
“I consider Sapele to be a very good place to establish a Vice-Consulate,

constabulary barracks, etc.
“A great deal of clearing would be necessary to prepare the site, but this would
afford work to the natives, and consequently be beneficial to some one.
“By means of a launch all the markets could be reached in a very short time; a
launch drawing 6 feet of water could go about 3 miles past Eku.
“The river water at Sapele is fresh, and one is well clear of the mangrove and
fever swamps of the coast.
“Steamers drawing 14 to 15 feet of water could run up to Sapele.
“These steamers could tranship cargo to and from the larger steamers in the
Forcados River.”
“October 28: Up anchor at 6 a.m. Half a mile after leaving Sapele I left the main
stream and went almost due east up a side creek (or river?). Sapele is the first Sobo
market, and from there each bank is dotted at intervals with the oil markets, the
few houses on the river-side being a sort of depot where the middlemen live and
buy oil as it is brought from inland by the Sobo men. Reached Acpara 19 at 4:30
p.m.” 20
Major Claude Maxwell Macdonald, the Commissioner and Consul-General visited
th
Sapele on the 14 November, 1891, and approved the site as being eminently suitable. In his Despatch
No. 30 the Foreign Office, dated 12 thDecember, 1891, the Major said “I consider the Sapoli
would be a very good situation for the establishment of a constabulary station; the ground is
high, and though covered with forest, could be easily cleared. The people of Sapoli informed
me that if I would come and build there, they would clear as much ground as I wished.” That
was the historic decision that made Sapele Village the modern Township it came to be in later
years21.
19
Acpara refers to Okpara Waterside.
20
H.L. Gallwey–Report on visit to the Sobo and Abraka markets, op. cit.
21
As the founder of Sapele Township, the Sapele Urban District Council will do well to honor Gallwey’s memory by naming at least a
108
The Government did not however wait for the work on the site of the proposed Sapele
constabulary station to be completed before establishing there. The matter was urgent and a
22
temporary device had to be made. A ship named the “Hindustan” , bought at Bristol was sailed
to Benin River. There it was dismantled, fitted up as a hulk, and towed to the Sapele
anchorage. The hulk was said to have provided excellent accommodation for four
Europeans, a Customs Office, a Consular Court, a Treasury, a Prison and Barracks for civil police.
Figure 6.3
Temporary British Colonial Headquarters at Sapele (1892)
While the machinery of Government began in the hulk, the excellent site opposite the
anchorage was being cleared for the construction of barracks to accommodate sixty men and
a detachment of Protectorate troops under an English Officer. That was in 1892. To live and
work in a hulk might be an innovation at Sapele23, but the idea was certainly not a new one to
Europeans, especially European traders in the Oil Rivers 24. By its strategic location, Sapele,
like Degema was considered to be an important military and administrative station for the
projection of power and authority.
Details about the settlement of the Government at Sapele for the next two years are yet
unknown and must await further research. It is known however that by July, 1894, a Medical
Department had been established. It is also known that by 1895, the Sapele Vice-Consulate
had already been sufficiently established as to warrant the closing down of the
Vice-Consulate at Benin River. Thereafter, the Benin River Office was used as a Customs
post until October 27, 1905, when the post was removed to Koko Town.
street or a square in the town after him.
22
The “Hindustan” cost £1,800; a further £1,800 was spent to adapt it for the Government’s purpose. F.O. 84/2194, pp. 330-331.
23
When Degema district was being established in 1894, a hulk “George Shotton ” was used for exactly the same purpose as the
“Hindustan”.
24
Ellen Thorp gave an interesting description of this mode of living by Oil Rivers traders in her book, Ladder of Bones pp. 170-203.
109
Sapele Township
Under the provisions of the European Reservation Proclamation, 1902, a part of Sapele
became a Reservation25. Later, a Board 26of Health for the Reservation was constituted. The
President and Treasurer of the Board was Hugh Jones, Esq., Agent, Messrs Alex Miller
Brothers & Company 27 . The significant point to be noted here is that the institution of the
Board laid the first foundations of the present local government of Sapele township.
A major change in the local government set-up took place in 1917, by the enactment of
the Townships Ordinance. Under this Ordinance, Order-in-Council No. 19 of 6 thSeptember,
1917, made Sapele a Second Class Township. The Senior District Officer became the Local
Authority assisted by an Advisory Board. The two members of the Board were the Health
Officer and the Chairman of the agents of the trading firms28. In September, 1924, Chief A. E.
Omarin and Mr. J. A. Thomas were appointed to the Board. They were probably the first
Africans to be so appointed. In later years, however, African representation on the Board was
increased, but the Township was governed almost entirely alone by the Local Authority, who
was always a Civil Servant, for 38 years.
A new local government system was introduced in September, 1955, by the
establishment of the Sapele Urban District Council under the Western Region Local
29
Government Law, 1952 . The Council consisted of 33 members, namely, the President, who was the Orodje of
Okpe, 8 Sapele Okpe traditional Chiefs and 24 members elected from the local community.
From the above account, it is clear that unlike many towns in the Western Region, but
like the present Warri town, Sapele is a new town30. Both places came into prominence as from
August, 1891, when the Niger Coast Protectorate Government was established. Sapele has
always been a rapidly growing town but its present size is not known. In December, 1908 the
Government leased for 99 years, 510 acres of the land from the owners. This leased area has
not only been developed since to become the present Sapele township, but a considerably
large Urban Area has grown alongside it on the southwest and on the north-western side.
Sapele town has always needed some sort of planning. Before the establishment of the
Protectorate Government, the original Sapele village was at the site where the Prison Yard
and the Government houses are now; the small market was at the old garage site at Court
Road. The Sapele village had town quarters known as Udumurhie and31Udumuogo . Udumurhie included
the area where the District Officer and the Medical Officer’s houses were built at the waterside,
25
Order No. 6 of 29.1.1903, Southern Nigeria Protectorate Government Gazette No. 1, Vol. 4 of 31.1.1903, p. LXXII.
26
The Board was proclaimed on 3.2.03.
27
Other members were J. E. Dickson, Esq., Agent, African Association Ltd., J. Frisch, Esq., Agent, Bey and Zimmer, the District
Commissioner and the District Medical Officer. p. 12 of Gazette quoted immediately above.
28
Government Gazette Notice No. 7, p. 13 of the Nigeria Gazette No. 3 of 10.1.18.
29
W.R.L.N. 220 of 1955, pp. B. 617-620, Supplement to the Western Regional Gazette No. 34, Vol. 4 of 21.7.1955.
30
Among other towns in Nigeria which like Sapele and Warri owe their origin to the British administration mention may be made of Port
Harcourt, Enugu, Aba and the Capital Territory of Kaduna.
31
Udumurhie means “Riverside Quarter” and Udumuogo means “Farmland Quarter”.
110
and Udumuogo was the Prison Yard area. The original village was vacated for the Government
and the Okpe aborigines moved farther out. Chief Ofotoku was living on the site where the
present market is, and Chief Ogodo’s village was in the area now occupied by the staff
buildings of the African Timber and Plywood, Limited. Mclver acquired the lease of the site
and Chief Ogodo moved farther down to the Warri road where his village still stands today.
These movements of the aborigines were uncontrolled and the areas occupied unplanned. As
they began to sell or give the land around them to strangers, a large unplanned urban area with
all types of houses began to grow. And something must be done to the layout of the town. Mr.
32
Palmer tells us that we had Mr. Laborde, District Officer who laid out the town, to thank
for the good streets. But it has been a long time from Laborde’s days, and the slum in Sapele
continues to grow.
Thus in January 1949, the first Town Planning Authority was appointed. The
appointment was long overdue for many years having regard to the rapid and indiscriminate
way in which the urban area was developing. Everybody built just what and how he liked
without control from the health authorities. On the Town Planning Authority were
representatives of the Administration, the Health Department and the Township Board being
represented by two of its members. Three members represent Okpe interests, and one member
from the Amalgamated union of U.A.C. African Workers, Nigeria and Cameroons,
represented the interest of workers in Sapele. For the next two years, Chief Arthur Prest and
Chief Festus S. Okotie-Eboh (then Chief F.S. Edah) represented the Township Board, while
Messrs Rabor Abeke, E. A. Iyefian and J. A. Ayomanor represented Okpe interest.
Within the last ten years, the Sapele Town Planning Authority has been enlarged both
in membership33 and organization. It has now a big separate office of its own. It is at present
projecting a new development scheme by which the area of the Township is to be extended to
include all the parcel of land south of Sapele Urban Boundary and along both sides of
Sapele– Warri road. This new acquisition contains an area of approximately 1,840 acres (2.88
square34miles) .
Following the enactment of the Communal Land Rights (Vesting in Trustees) Law No.
45 of 1958, a most significant change in the management of Sapele Township land occurred.
Under this law, the Sapele Urban District (Okpe Communal Lands) have been vested in a
board of Trustees known as the Okpe Communal Land Trustees. The Orodje of Okpe is the
Chairman and the other members of the trust are 10 other Sapele Okpe Chiefs. The main
functions of the trustees are to demise land for a term of years, to accept surrenders of leases
and to be reversioners of any lease so granted. All revenue received in consequences of the
exercise of the board’s functions are to be applied or disposed of (a) in defraying the
expenses of the trustees in carrying into effect their duties (including the management of any
lands over which rights of disposition are exercisable and the conduct of legal proceedings in
connection with which rights have been vested) and (b) in advancing the education or culture or maintaining th
32
Mr. I. T. Palmer, a Yoruba, was for many years a Political Agent of the Royal Niger Company. He was popularly known as
Ogana among the people of the Afenmai and Asaba Divisions among whom he exercised his jurisdiction. On retirement in 1898, he settled at
Sapele in the following years as a businessman. He was the first person ever to be nominated as an unofficial member for
Warri–Benin Provinces to the Legislative Council of Nigeria (1928-1934). Died at Sapele on 26.10.42.
33
For the present members of the Authority, see Western Regional Notice No. 1329, p. 728 Western
of Region of Nigeria GazetteNo. 57,
Vol. 8 of 10.12.59.
34
W.R.L.N. 462 of 11.9.59, pp. B597/8 of Supplement to the Western Regional Gazette No. 43, Vol. 8 of 17.9.59.
111
tradition of the Okpe Community. To ensure that the revenue received by the trustees is
applied or disposed of in the manner specified above, an Okpe Lands Representative
35
Committee has been established . Under this arrangement, the Government of the Western Region which
succeeded to the titles and rights of the former Nigerian government appears to have very
little or nothing practically to do with the management of Sapele land.
Sapele Township has for a long time now became a populous town of mixed Nigerian
tribes and other people from different parts of West Africa. A significant fact about the
population of Sapele is that it has always included a large number of Europeans for a town of
that size. Some of the historical factors responsible for the growth and the cosmopolitan
character of the population may be described. Firstly, the transfer of the vice-consular office
from Benin River, followed by the removal of the European trading firms at Benin River to
Sapele, brought in its wake most of the mixed trading population which had settled in Benin
River for many years. Secondly, when in 1894, Chief Nana was captured by the Protectorate
Government, the concentrated population of Ebrohimi, was disbanded and many of them
resettled at Sapele. A great many of them were Chief Nana’s domestics and among them were
Yorubas, Ijos, Urhobo, Benins, etc. Thirdly, and this is perhaps by far the most important, the
employment opportunities offered by the Sapele rubber plantations and the U.A.C. Sawmill
and Plywood factories attracted a large body of people seeking gainful employment. Most
people in this third category are Ibos; this factor accounts mainly for the large number of Ibo
settlers in Sapele and its environs.
The African population of Sapele Township in 1952, was 33,63836. This is comprised of
some 14 tribes with the Ibos leading at 35.6% or more than a third of the total population.
The figures in a descending order of magnitude are:
Figure 6.4
Census Population of Sapele Township, 1952, Showing Major Ethnic
Groups
IGBO ……………………………………………………….. 11,974
URHOBO 7,657
ITSEKIRI 4,825
EDO 3,335
YORUBA 2,428
ISOKO 2,428
IJAW 685
HAUSA 615
IBIBIO 333
NUPE 78
TIV 37
FULANI 20
OTHER NIGERIAN TRIBES 646
NON-NIGERIANS 174
35
W.R.L.N. 219 of 11.6.59, p. B303 of Supplement to Western Regional Gazette No. 27 of 11.6.59.
36
Bulletin No. 9 Delta Province: Population Census, Western Region of Nigeria, 1952, p. 28.
112
The Problems of Administration
The Government’s reason for moving from Benin River to Sapele and from the
Forcados River to Warri trading settlement was to have bases on land to facilitate penetration
into the hinterland. These places, like many others in the Protectorate, were to be centres of a
civilizing power. The officers of the Government must therefore have a sense of mission.
Gallwey knew too well what he wanted to make of Sapele. He said in May, 1892, that before
another year had passed he would “have founded a prosperous little English Colony at
Sapele.” But how was this possible!
Before Sapele, which had already been described as “one mass of forest”, could
become a “prosperous little English Colony,” a lot would have to be done. There were
therefore the problems of roads and other means of communication, the problems of
sanitation and health, of administration of justice, of education and of economic development
to make possible the realization of the prosperity desired for the little English Colony. But
economic prosperity was impossible without adequate and effective communications with
the interior of the Urhobo and the Benin country. Before the station was founded, the only
sure access to it known to the Europeans was through water communication. There were, of
course, bush footpaths from village to village, but know only to the natives.
Each of these problems was by no means easy and none second to the other in order of
priority; but somehow construction of roads seemed to take precedence. Although nothing
was done immediately, Gallwey suggested as early as July, 1892, that a road be constructed
between Sapele and Urhobo (Sobo) Oil markets at Ekanaka and Okpara waterside to be
followed later by a railway 37.
The first bold attempt with the primary purpose of opening a direct road
communication between Warri and Sapele was made on January 6, 1896. Accompanied by
five orderlies, twenty-eight carriers and a guide, Major P.W.G. Copland-Crawford, the
Acting Consul, Warri Division, marched through a number of bush paths from Warri
Consulate to Sapele. That was the first time ever that any European had undertaken a journey
overland between the two towns. The journey took two days and was regarded as an
important new discovery. The Foreign Office forwarded major Copland-Crawford’s report
together with the map of the route to the Royal Geographical Society of London which printed it in its Journal.
However, the period of active road construction did not begin until 1903 when the
provisions of the Roads and Creeks proclamation were applied to the area. From Sapele, two
roads were projected. They were the Sapele-Warri road and the Sapele-Ologbo road. The
latter was a first sector of the road from Sapele to Benin City. At Amuokpe, which is 4 miles
on the Sapele, Warri road, a branch road to tap the oil markets in the Urhobo and Ukwuani
countries, was to shoot off.
The Public Works Department took over supervision of the construction of these roads
in 1904, when the Department was established. By this time, the portion of the road assigned
to Egbeku village on the Sapele-Warri road had not been completed. Mr. Ross Brown, the
District Commissioner, imposed a heavy fine on the Chief. As regards the other portions, it
was reported that work from Sapele end was completed up to Amuokpe, and that the trace
via the new cutting to Adeje was being rapidly cleared.
37
H. L. Gallwey–Report on Benin District for the year ended 31.7.1892, F.O. 2/51 p. 54.
113
In 1906, the 33 miles of the Sapele-Warri road was completed at a cost of £840, and the
11 miles of the Sapele-Ologbo road was also completed at a cost of £500. The cutting of the
Ologbo-Benin City sector was about to be started and the Amuokpe-Kwale road was just
being cut. Mr. C. Darby, superintendent of Roads, tells us that the construction of the portion
between Amuokpe and Ovwori was started in late 1907. For the making of all these roads,
labor was compulsory and, to a large extent, free. Free labor recruited by local chiefs was
however given occasional presents. No other road from Sapele had been constructed since
38
1910, when the last of the three main roads named above, was known to have been completed . In 1911, it was
possible to motor in a light car on the triangular route of Warri-Sapele-Kwale which were the
first motor roads in Urhobo country.
The protectorate Government had in mind the construction of railway lines to link
Sapele with Abraka, and Sapele with Benin City. In the latter case, definite proposals were
put forward and a report of the scheme was submitted in 1906. The estimates were £79,000
for a 2 feet 6 inches line, and £105,000 for a 3 feet 6 inches line. But the scheme did not
materialize. Following the amalgamation of the Protectorate with Lagos, Sir Walter Egerton,
then Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Lagos Colony and the Protectorate of Southern
Nigeria, advised the Secretary of State against it. He condemned the proposed railway line as
unballasted. Rather than constructing a railway at what he considered to be a heavy cost for a
distance of only 29 miles, he recommended making at lower cost a good metalled road all the
39
way from Warri to Benin city . It is interesting to observe here that this same road was, in fact, not completely
tarred until 1952-46 years later!
From the beginning of the Protectorate Government, the Vice-Consul in charge of each
River District was a Postal Agent. Gallwey was, therefore, the first Postal Agent for the Benin
River-Sapele area. In the Annual Report for 1896, the Government reported the opening of
three Post Offices each at Sapele, Forcados and Degema, thus bringing the number of such
offices in the whole Protectorate to nine. The service was mainly a postal service by canoe.
An inland weekly mail service between Sapele and Kwale station (now Abraka) through mail
runners using canoe was started in 1906.
On the 1st April, 1907, a Postal Agency by non-Government staff, probably, the first in
the area, was opened on the premises of the Messrs Alexander Miller Brothers at Siluko. It
was a link of the weekly creek mail service between Lagos and Sapele. In 1909, the service
was extended to Okitipupa and Gbekebo.
Captain Moir, R.E., D.S.O., and five non-Commissioned Officers of the Telegraph
Battalion, R.E., who arrived in the Protectorate in February, 1905, completed the erection of
an overhead telegraph line connecting Warri, Sapele, Benin City, Ifon and Owo in December
of that year; but the service was not officially opened until March 8, 1906. In 1908, a
telephone system was opened at Warri.
The Sapele Ferry which is till today the only means of carrying motor vehicles across
the river was started in January, 1929.
38
It is not known when the Sapoba-Agbor road which branched off from the Sapele-Ologbo road at mile 4 was made, but it is believed to
been later than 1910.
39
Government Notice No. 350, p. 471 ofSouthern Nigeria Government Gazette No. 23, Vol 1, of 12.9.1906, also p. 864 of Gazette No.
42 of 26.12.1906.
114
Eduction
The first attempt to establish a Mission and a School in the Benin River area was in
1875, 16 years before the administration of the Niger Coast Protectorate began. Bishop
Samuel Adjai Crowther, accompanied by Mr. S. Cheetham, Mr. D. Johnson of Pinnock, and
his son (later Archdeacon Crowther), visited Olomu at Ebrohimi on November 4, 1875. Nana
was one of the two of Olomu’s sons present at the interview. He acted as an Interpreter as he
understood English pretty well. Olomu did not welcome the Bishop’s mission, and so to the
disappointment of many people, including European traders of the river, the40 mission failed .
A second unsuccessful attempt for the same purpose was made by Captain Gallwey in
August, 1891. In his letter, dated August 28, 1891, six days after opening the Benin Vice-
Consulate, Gallwey requested Archdeacon Crowther to establish a Mission at Benin River. In
his reply dated October 8, 1891, the Archdeacon told Captain Gallwey that he would
establish only if the Chiefs unanimously agreed and invited his Mission with a promise to
support the cause. The support would be in the form of voluntary subscriptions, gratuitously
giving the ground on which to build the station, helping to erect the houses for the
Missionary agents, and of finding half the share of the annual expenses until the station could
stand on its own. The Archdeacon sent the record of the 1875 visit to Gallwey and requested
him to ascertain the feelings of the Chiefs who, he said, could not be regarded as “poor Africans.”
Bishop Crowther died about three months after this correspondence. Matters connected
with the death naturally occupied the Archdeacon’s time, and in the meantime, Gallwey was
busy establishing at Sapele. However, Gallwey wrote to the Archdeacon on rd3 May, 1892, and
indicated that he would welcome a Mission as he was opening a Vice-Consulate at Sapele
where the ground was high and well away from the fever swamps of the coast. Clearing, he
added, was at that time being made and before another year had passed, he would “have
founded a prosperous little English Colony at Sapele.” Continuing, he said that two traders
had established there, more were to follow. They would all be glad to assist in helping the
Mission to build and to contribute towards the erection of a small church. Workshops would
41
be built and suitable instructors imported . Gallwey’s strong persuasions did not, however, move
Archdeacon Crowther, and there the matter rested.
When the Ogugumanga Industrial Institute, Bonny, was founded in April, 1900, each of
the local Chiefs was requested by Government to bring a son for primary education. Response
to the request was reluctantly given, some Chiefs sending young slaves instead of their sons. On
February 26, 1904, government opened an Intermediate School at Sapele, but on the
Sapele-Benin road, with 14 boys on the roll. The late Chief A. E. Omarin and the late Mr.
William Moore, the Itsekiri Historian, were students of that School. The school was temporarily
housed in a native building as the brick building was not ready owing to a delay by the Public
Works Department at Calabar. Later in the same year, a girls’ section was added. Supported by
the Chiefs and European traders, the school was also grant-aided by Government.
For many reasons, the school was not popular and attendance not encouraging. The
Benin River Chiefs considered the distance too great for their children. The Sapele Chiefs felt
40
Archdeacon D.C. Crowther. The Niger Delta Pastorate Church West Africa, its Establishment during the Episcopacy of the Rt. Rev. S.
A. Crowther, D.D. 1864-1892. pp. 119-125.
41
Ibid. p. 128.
115
the school was on the wrong side of the river as crossing the river involved risks of life. But
these were not all. At a Council meeting with the Chiefs, Mr. W. Ross Brown, the District
Commissioner, was told that more pupils were not sent because the fees were considered
excessive. The Chiefs however appeared to be satisfied when told that the annual fee
would be reduced to £2 if the pupils supplied their own food. Owing, however, to the
continued unpopularity of the school, government was obliged to open in 1907, a new School
in Sapele town itself. That was the beginning of the Government School, now Sapele Urban
District Council School. The cost was £52, defrayed entirely from contributions by the
Chiefs. It operated in two sections each separate for boys and girls.
By 1908, Bishop Johnson of the Church Missionary Society, through the assistance of
Mr. I. T. Palmer had established the first church and missionary school, the St. Luke’s at
Sapele. The school was not at first assisted by Government because it was not prepared to
comply with the requirements of the Education Code, particularly in regard to religious
instructions. The line of missionary educational work was soon followed by the Baptist
Mission, headed by the Rev. J. R. Williams and Rev. Omatsola, and, the Roman Catholic
Mission. Since then missionaries of other denominations have established in Sapele at various
times.
It is rather surprising that although attention was given to the education of females as
early as 1904, no Colleges catering exclusively for girls’ secondary education have been
established in Sapele. To the credit of the authorities of the Roman Catholic Mission it must
be said that the only two missionary boys’ colleges in the area were introduced by them.
There are, of course, some colleges in the form of commercial institutions owned by some
private individuals like Chief Festus Sam Okotie-Eboh. But generally speaking, these
colleges are by no means adequate. On the whole, progress in secondary education in the
area has been very slow, resulting in the backwardness of many of the people.
Bibliography
Barbot, John. "A Description of the Coasts of North and South Guinea." Vol. 5 Book 4 Chapter V. in Thomas
Astley and John Churchill, eds., Collection of Voyages and Travels (London, 1732).
Bradbury R. E. The Benin Kingdom and the Edo-Speaking Peoples of South-Western Nigeria. London,
International African Institute, 1964,1957.
Crowther, D. C. The Niger Delta Pastorate Church West Africa. Its establishment during the episcopacy of
the Rt. Rev. S. A. Crowther D. D. 1864-1892. Printed by C.M.S. Bookshop, Lagos, 1916.
Daniell, William F., Sketches of the Medical Topography and Native Diseases of the Gulf of Guinea West
Africa. London: S. Highley, 1849.
Gallway H. L. “Journeys in the Benin Country, West Africa. ” Journal of the Royal Geographical Society,
Vol. 1, 1893.
Hubbard J. W. The Sobo of the Niger Delta, a work dealing with the history and languages of the people
inhabiting the Sobo (Urhobo) Division, Warri Province, southern Nigeria, and the geography of their land.
Zaria, Gaskiya Corp., 1948.
Mockler-Ferryman A. F. British Nigeria: a geographical and historical description of the British possession
adjecent to the Niger, West Africa, London 1902.
116
Penzer N. M., editor. S elected Papers in Anthropology, Travel, and Geography by Sir Richard Burton,
London: A.M. Philpot Ltd, 1924.
Salubi A. The Establishment of British Administration in the Urhobo country (1891-1913) Journal of the
Historical Society of Nigeria Vol. 1. No. 3, December, 1958.
Talbot P. A., 1926. The Peoples of Southern Nigeria, Vol. 1. London: Oxford University Press, 1926.
Thorp, Ellen. Ladder of Bones. London: Cape, 1956.
Other Sources
(i) Despatches
The dispatches of British Consuls at Calabar to Foreign Office and Foreign Office despatches to the
Consuls from 1888 to April 1899, and thereafter dispatches between the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria
also at Calabar and the Colonial Office.
Reports and correspondence from the Vice-Consuls, later Divisional commissioners, at Warri and Benin
River (later Sapele) Districts to the Headquarters of the Protectorate at Calabar (1891-1906). Also, reports,
etc., of High commissioners, Central Division to Governor at Lagos (1906-1913). Most of these documents
are to be found in the Public Record Office and the Foreign Office Library, London.
(ii) Reports
Monthly and Quarterly Reports by Departmental heads of the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria published
from time to time in the Supplements to the Government Gazettes 1900-1913. Annual Reports of the Niger
Coast Protectorate and the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria (1891-1906). Annual Reports –Colonial: Southern
Nigeria, available at the Colonial Office Library.Memorandum on Land Tenure by Mr. Alexander, full record
of the Sapele Land Case No. W/37/1941.
(iii) Official Gazettes and Other Publications
Southern Nigeria Protectorate Government Gazettes 1900-1906 (1st May).
Southern Nigeria Government Gazettes 1906 (May) 1913. Nigeria Gazettes 1914-53.
Western Region of Nigeria Gazettes.
Population Census of Western Region of Nigeria, (1952) Bulletin No. 9.
(iv) Miscellaneous Correspondence
Chief A. E. Omarin’s letters and evidence in the Sapele Land Case. Chief Ogodo’s petitions 1923-25.
Petitions by Okpe Clan Executive Council (1932) and by Urhobo General Council (1938).
117
Document
Planning for the First School in Sapele:

Request for a Teacher from Great Britain 1903
The following is a photocopy of a letter written in 1903 from Old Calabar, 1headquarters of
the new colonial colony of Southern Nigeria. It was in search of a teacher from the Colonial
Office. Note that it was written to the Colonial Office which was created in 1900. This letter
describing the eagerness of Sapele chieftains for Western education was probably the first
indication of Urhobo quest for Western education.
1
Old Calabar stands for Calabar, which was the headquarters of Niger Coast Protectorate (1891-1900) and then of Protectorate of
Southern Nigeria as from 1900. The term New Calabar was used for the group of Ijaw Islands that are called Kabari. Like the City
of Calabar in Brazil, Calabar in modern Nigeria, is named after a Portuguese sailor of that name who was active in the early history
of Atlantic exploration. Kalabari is a corruption of Calabar.
120
Planning for the First School in Sapele ….
121
122
Planning for the First School in Sapele ….
123
ADVENT OF CHRISTIANITY
IN URHOBOLAND
Chapter 7
Beginnings of Christianity in Urhoboland

and Western Niger Delta 1
Samuel U. Erivwo
St. Andrews (Anglican Communion) Cathedral, Warri
After the failure of the first attempt to plant Christianity in Nigeria [in the sixteenth and
seventh centuries], a failure, which, as we have already pointed out, was largely due to its
connection with the [Portuguese] slave trade, it was significant and fitting that the second
attempt which finally succeeded should be a concomitant of the abolitionist movement. Since
by the end of the eighteenth century when the abolitionist movement started, Western
Christianity was already a divided Christianity, divided into Roman Catholicism and
Protestantism. Since Protestant countries, notably Britain, initiated and championed the
campaign to end the slave trade, it was Protestant Christianity which led the way when the
Faith was reintroduced to the Itsekiri and their neighbours, the Urhobo.
During one of three expeditions – in 1841, 1854, and 1857 – Samuel Ajayi Crowther
sought to introduce the Christian faith to Okwagbe people who belong to the Urhobo ethnic
group. He made an attempt to live on the Western bank of the River Niger. We are told in
Christian oral tradition of the Urhobo that the Okwagbe people rejected Crowther and his
message which he claimed to have brought from God. The Okwagbe could not conceive
how a man could claim to bring good news from Oghene (Urhobo word for God), who is
often identified with the sky. They were more interested in trade than in that type of good
news which seemed to them a fairy tale. 2
The Crowther Crisis
As a sequel to the creation of the Niger Coast Protectorate in 1891 Captain Harper,
appointed Acting Vice Consul for Warri District, requested the Church Missionary Society
(C. M. S.) to send a missionary to Warri District. This request, which came before the parent
committee of the C.M.S. in Salisbury Square [United Kingdom] in 1893, was not favourably
considered. The reason for this adverse outcome is not far to seek. Bishop Ajayi Crowther
died in 31st December 1891.Before his death, he had been politely discredited by C.M.S.
authorities through the Maidera Commission of Inquiry set up by the C.M.S. to investigate
certain complaints received from the mission field, including complaints from the Niger
mission under Bishop Crowther. It was found out that Bishop Crowther’s treatment of two
junior workers of the C.MS. from the Niger Delta who were accused of misconduct, charged
to court in Sierra Leone and found guilty by the British Administration, was not severe
enough. The whole question was exaggerated by some
1
Culled from Chapters 2 & 3 of Erivwo, Samuel U. 1979. A History of Christianity in Nigeria: The Urhobo, the Isoko, and the
Itsekiri. Ibadan: Daystar Press.
2
In 1875, about ten years after the consecration of Samuel Ajayi Crowther as bishop on the Niger, he traveled through the Western
Delta in the company of his son, Dandeson, and came to the Warri area.
C.M.S. puritans from Cambridge, whose report on the incident was unfavourable to
Crowther. The whole affair became a C.M.S. scandal. The matter even went to the British
Parliament where attempts were made to discredit the work of the C.M.S. overseas.
Following this whole episode now known to historians as the Crowther crisis, the C.M.S.
which previously adopted Henry Venn’s policy of the native church changed its practice and
began to send white missionaries to the mission field, including the Niger Mission which had
3
hitherto been worked exclusively by Africans. What is more, in appointing a
successor to Bishop Crowther, the C.M.S. authorities decided not to appoint an African. For
Crowther’s episcopate, regarded as an experiment, was now deemed by the C.M.S. to be a
failure.
In reaction to this stand of the C.M.S. the Niger Delta Pastorate Church declared its
independence of the C.M.S. on 29th April 1892. This breach with the C. M.S. lasted many
years. For, although attempts were made to reach a settlement, it was not until after the death
of James Johnson that the Niger Delta Pastorate Church reverted fully to the C.M.S. In 1893
when Captain Harper’s request was placed before the C.M.S. Home Committee, the breach
was not only still on, but was in fact still fresh. Since geographically Warri District fell
within the Niger Delta Pastorate territory the C.M.S. was not in a mood to, and did not,
consider the request favourably.
The Diocese of West Equatorial Africa
Herbert Tugwell was appointed bishop after the ephemeral episcopacy of Mr. Hill,
Crowther’s successor. His Diocese, the Diocese of West Equatorial Africa, covered the
whole of the West Coast.
On touring the Western Delta in 1894 Bishop Tugwell saw the need for a missionary at
Warri to minister to European merchants there. The Africans in their employment might be
allowed to eat of the crumbs that fell from their table! Consequently Tugwell put the plea of
the European merchants at Warri for a missionary before Salisbury Square in 1898, but to
little purpose. It was not without difficulty that C.M.S. authorities permitted Rev. Henry
Proctor, a C.M.S. missionary stationed at Patani, to pay occasional visits to Warri. Indeed it
was expressly stated by the C.M.S. that Bishop Tugwell was to relieve Proctor of this extra
4
duty “which does not properly belong to him as a missionary of the Society”.
A man of lesser mettle could have been daunted by the attitude of the C.M.S. Parent
Committee; but not Bishop Tugwell. He took up the matter with the Parent Committee again
in 1899, this time arguing that should the C.M.S. not take the advantage of British conquest
of the Benin empire in 1897 to open mission stations in Benin and the neighbouring country
there was the possibility of the local people lapsing into a worse form of idolatry and
“paganism.” Despite Tugwell’s eloquent and persistent demand, the C.M.S. refused to be
drawn into the Benin-Warri mission field which they contended should be the responsibility
of the Niger Delta Pastorate. Thus, it came about that Benin and Warri, the first places in
Nigeria to have contact with European Missionaries, were among the last areas to be
evangelised in Nigeria. Not until the early ears of the twentieth century was the
Benin-Sapele-Warri area eventually evangelised.
3
The fact that by this date (1892) European missionaries could spend longer time in the Niger Area than was the case before 1854
may also have influenced their decision.
4
Obaro Ikime, “The Coming of the C.M.S. into the Itsekiri, Urhobo, and Isoko Country” in Nigeria Magazine (No. 86, Sept. 1965)
p207.
128
Beginnings of Christianity in Urhoboland ….
Bishop James Johnson’s Era
In July 1901 James Johnson, after his consecration as an assistant bishop the previous
year, visited Warri, Sapele and Benin. In the first two places the bishop reported that he met
worshipping communities which he then undertook to organise. Thereafter he paid yearly
episcopal visits to this region until 1917 when he died.
“Native Foreigners”
In the early years, the young congregations both at Sapele and Warri faced a number of
difficulties. There was no resident catechist, let alone priest, who could minister to the
congregations regularly. The first members of the congregations were “native foreigners”,
that is, Africans who were not Delta people. They were neither Itsekiri nor Urhobo who
could be attracted to the congregations. The Saro and Yoruba who constituted the first
congregations were people either in the employment of the Government or of mercantile
houses.
It would appear also, at least at Sapele according to the witness of E. M. Howel, that
the congregation was initially a mixed one, being made up of people who had elsewhere
embraced Christianity through different denominations -- Anglican, Baptist, Methodist,
Presbyterian and so on -- before they came to Sapele either on transfer or to trade. Be this as
it may, it was Bishop Johnson of the Anglican Church who first visited these Christians and
first organised them into a proper worshipping community. Thus the difficulty of welding a
mixed group together was also there, a problem which perhaps partly accounts for the split at
Sapele later on.
Because of difficulty of staffing, a primary school opened in 1902 at Sapele had to
close down the following year, while a similar school opened at Warri apparently functioned
only on Sundays when teachers were available. Bishop Johnson, who was greatly concerned
about personnel for the two congregations, earnestly searched for staff to be in charge of the
worshipping communities as well as the schools attached to them; but he did not find it easy
to secure qualified staff. It will be recalled, as earlier stated, that the C.M.S. showed no real
interest in this area. Furthermore, Bishop Johnson who had a life- long dream of an
independent African Church in full communion with the Church of England, employed
African agents, who were usually Yoruba or Saro, to work in the Niger Delta Pastorate
(N.D.P.) Churches. His hope was that before long the N.D.P. would be constituted into an
autonomous Diocese with James Johnson himself as the Diocesan.
Making use of African agents who were not themselves indigenes of the Delta had its
own difficulties. This is a fact which earlier writers like Professor Ajayi and, notably,
Professor Ayandele did not seem to have appreciated. Dr. Tasie has however made the same
5
point forcefully in respect of the eastern Delta, namely that those Africans regarded by
Bishop Johnson and his colleagues as “natives” were not so regarded in the Delta.
Yoruba Catechism -- Native Church Policy
Thus, while Bishop Johnson felt that making use of Yoruba and Saro to evangelise the
Itsekiri and Urhobo was the right thing to do, (and let it be added that there is much to be
said for it), and consequently made it imperative for the young converts among the Itsekiri
and the Urhobo to learn the catechism in Yoruba if they were to be baptised, the converts
5
G.O.M. Tasie, “Holy Johnson -- A Review Article” in Journal of Niger Delta Studies (Vol. I, No. I, 1976.)
129
held a contrary view. While in pursuance of his native Church policy inherited from Henry
Venn, Bishop Johnson directed that the Urhobo converts be taught Yoruba instead of English
so that they could learn the catechism in order to be baptised. But many refused. They would
rather be taught English at once. According to6 Omofoye Emuakpo, one of the
earliest converts from Ephron, this was one of the reasons why he and others seceded from
the N.D.P. in 1916 and joined the African Church, where the minister did not insist on their
learning the catechism in Yoruba before baptism. 7These were only some of the difficulties
which the congregations at Warri and Sapele and those which sprang up shortly afterwards
in the Urhobo hinterland had to face in the early years of Christianity in the western Niger
Delta.
Omatsola -- Catechist
However, as a result of the organization by Bishop Johnson of the congregations at

Warri and Sapele, Christianity soon began to penetrate the Urhobo hinterland. The Bishop
appointed Aghoghin Omatsola as an agent at Sapele and Omatsola helped in no small way in
the expansion of Christianity from Sapele to the hinterland. Before 1914 there were already
no less than fifteen congregations to the Urhobo hinterland, which looked up to Sapele as
their mother Church. Among the congregations which did so were Eku, Abraka, Sanubi,
Amukpe, Idjerhe.
The Cleansing of the Leper
The manner in which Christianity reached some of these places is fascinating. For
example, at Idjerhe (Idhese) Christianity was introduced by a leper who found himself
miraculously healed in his isolation in the bush. This man, we are told, was driven from the
community as a result of his leprosy, then a slow and certain killer. While in the bush he was
8
told thereafter he should do no evil. He did so and was healed. On returning to town
he gathered people and started a worshipping community.
A similar thing happened in the Urhobo hinterland and in Isoko. Thus, at Owe the
infant Church was reported to have been made up of lepers. This was because, once
Christianity had penetrated the hinterland, many of those who came to Church did so in
expectation of miracles. The sick expected to be healed; those who were barren expected
children; those who had been held bound by edjo longed to be released from its clutches
and be enabled to freely eat tabooed food which they could not eat before their conversion.
It may be argued that there was too much emphasis on miracles; for, when later such miracles
appeared to cease, attendance at services dropped. But, in fact, the ‘disappearance’ of
miracles and a decline in Church attendance are both accounted for by a common factor: lack
of faith. It may well have been that the initial converts were presented with the crown without
the cross. They wanted the joy of Christianity but were not prepared to accept its discipline.
For, what actually, more than anything else, brought about decline in Church attendance was
the high and uncompromising moral demand which the new faith imposed on the converts.
6
Ikime, “The Coming of the C.M.S.” loc. cit p209.
7
Omofoye Emuakpo aged 100 plus interviewed 24th August, 1970.
8
See Ikime, “The Coming of the C.M.S…” loc. cit. p.210.
130
Ethical Demands or Cultural Pressures?
Polygamists were required to send away all their wives but one if they were to be
baptised members of the Church; and the converts were not expected to pay any form of
respect or homage to their ancestors, the cult of which they had cherished from the beginning.
The cult was indeed ingrained in their way of life. They were expected to refrain from
participating in annual and traditional festivals, which were generally connected with the
ancestral cults, and in which the traditional culture of the Itsekiri, Urhobo, and Isoko
appeared in bold relief. If converts were denied participation in traditional festivals, they were
also excluded from taking traditional chieftaincy titles; they could not circumcise their
daughters the way the Urhobo and Isoko had always done. All these prohibitions had the
effect of discouraging Church attendance. Thus, though many of the first converts were
happy they were healed or released from their respective Ukoedjo, 9 yet they found all that
they had to give up in order to continue to be Christians too high a price to pay. This was
basically why Church attendance dropped. To say this is not to suggest that the new faith
was not taking root. It did, in fact, spread, and, although in times of crises there were back-
sliders, the Church members grew over the years.
Catechists, Agents and other Evangelists
Who were the chief propagators of the new faith and how did they themselves come to
embrace it? The spread of the new faith in Itsekiri, Urhobo, and Isoko lands in the early years
was due to the evangelistic fervour of Omatsola , Aganbi, Omofoye Emuakpo, Ogugun,
Denedo, Evwaire, Madam Birbrina, and Rev. J.D. Aitkens, among others. Aghoghin
Omatsola an Itsekiri, educated in Hope Waddell Training Institution in Calabar where he had
embraced Christianity before the dawn of the twentieth century, returned to Sapele where he
met and worshipped with a few other Christians from various parts of West Africa, notably
from Sierra Leone, Gold Coast (present day Ghana) and Yorubaland. After the visit of
Bishop Johnson to Sapele to organise the congregation there, Aghoghin was appointed an
agent. He spread the faith to many villages and towns in the neighbourhood of Sapele.
Meanwhile a few congregations were springing up in Abraka, Urhuovie and Uhwokori.

These were initially made up of liberated slaves from the area of Zwo in Yorubaland. The
congregations were later visited and organised by Bishop Johnson who appointed an agent at
Uhwokori congregation. Evwaire, a native of Ogbovwan in Ughelli, whose mother hails from
Uhwokori, first heard of Christianity from the congregations at Uhwokori. In about 1910
Evwaire introduced the new faith to Ughelli. But before this date the faith had spread from
Warri through Ephron to Oguname, and to Ohrerhe (Mogba). The chief propagators of
Christianity in these places were Omofoye Emmuakpo, Denedo, Ogugu, and Masima Ebossa;
while Aganbi evangelised in Eku and its neighbourhood.
From Ogbovwan in Ughelli, Christianity was carried to many other parts of Urhobo
and Isokoland. The evangelists included Udori, who took the faith to Agbarha clan; Isikpen
who introduced it to Evwreni. Avwarecha took it to Olomu, and Udu to Uwheru. From Isoko
those who heard of Evwaire’s new faith came, enlisted, and spread the faith among their
people. Thus Agbro of Emevor introduced the faith there, as Ikogho of Uwheru, who first
heard it from Isikpen, did at Enwhe.
9
A tutelary divinity with whom an individual is in covenant relationship.
131
Foods Tabu
Many of those who embraced Christianity did so because of a desire to be free to eat
food they could not eat before conversion. It was for this reason that Christianity in
Urhoboland was initially known as Orugbegwa -- that which defies tabu. About 1911, Mr.
Oluku Adjarho, from Ekiugbo, also of Ughelli, brought the Christian faith from Yorubaland
where he had been sojourning. Thus, Ekiugbo also became another sub-centre to which
people flocked to enlist in the faith.
Because Oluku was adroit in the Yoruba language, he read the Bible and taught the
enquirers. Thus, between 1901 when Bishop Johnson first visited Warri, Sapele and Benin,
and 1914 when World War I broke out, Christianity spread by leaps and bounds among the
Urhobo and the Isoko and, to some degree also, among the Itsekiri.
In the case of Isoko, apart from those places from where people came to Urhoboland to
enlist in the new faith, there were other towns which received Christianity from a different
source. A man of the name Utuedon, who was said to be a relation of Dogho Numa of the
Itsekiri, introduced Christianity to Uzere in 1909 when he was posted there as a court clerk.
He was a convert of Bishop Johnson. He held services in a court hall, services from which
women were excluded.
Brobromae and Other Women of the Faith
Ironically, however, it was a woman who in 1911 introduced Christianity to some other
parts of the Isoko country. She is Bribrina by name, a native of Patani. Bribrina was one of
the early converts to Christianity in Patani. When she had twins and was required by custom
to destroy them she refused because of her new faith. Accordingly, she was banished to an
island opposite Patani. It was here that an Igbide man called Ibiegbe met her and helped her.
He later married her and brought her to Igbide, where Bribrinae undertook the evangelisation
of the people. Through her efforts Christianity spread to many other parts of Isokoland.
As if to further disprove the principle of Utuedon at Uzere, it was also a woman who
brought Christianity to Illue-Ologbo. She is Madam Emadu, who in the course of her travels
embraced Christianity in Obiaruku. Thus, through the work of Evwaire, Utuedon, Emadu and
Bribrina, Christianity spread rapidly in Isokoland before 1914. As men from Isoko inland --
Owhe, Emevor and Ozoro -- flocked to Ughelli to Evwaire to be taught the new faith, so
many others from Isoko water side journeyed to Patani and in the course of their trade
embraced Christianity there. In 1913, the Revd. J. D. Aitken (who was with Proctor at
Patani), reported that many Isoko were visiting Patani and buying either the Bible in English
or an Ijo translation of one of the Gospels. These they kept under their pillows “as a witness
10
that they have left heathenism and have joined God’s company” .
Aitken traveled through Isokoland and Urhoboland between 1912 and 1913 and helped
to propagate the faith. His method in each town was to preach to the local people in the
evening on their return from their farms. The places visited by him included Evwreni,
Uhwokori, Ekrerhavwe, Oguname, Abraka , and the villages around Ughelli. Aitkens met
several Christians in these places -- people who had embraced the faith through the
evangelisation efforts of Bishop Johnson and his agents. It should be emphasised that without
the zeal and persistence of Bishop Johnson the evangelisation of Itsekiri and Urhoboland
would not have happened when it did. For, as already indicated, on the
10
O. Ikime, The Isoko People (Ibadan, I.U.P. 1972) p.62.
132
evidence of Rev. Henry Proctor himself, the C.M.S. was not interested in evangelising areas
which were outside Igboland.
“We get very little if any help at all from the so-called Niger Mission and I have
found it so all along. All the members of E.C. (Executive Committee) myself
excepted are working amongst Ibos and naturally Ibo work looms largest in their
ideas. They know little or nothing of our work or our district, the Secretary
cannot find time to visit us and I feel we have little or no sympathy.” 11
And yet, to quote Ikime,
“Little do the Christians in Itsekiri and Urhoboland realise that they owe their faith
more to the energy and determination of a fellow Nigerian than to the C.M.S. and the
12
Niger Mission itself”
If the Itsekiri, the Urhobo, and also a part of the Isoko people recognise this fact, then
they ought to express their appreciation for the work of Bishop Johnson, at least by naming
an institution after him, as they have done after Bishop Tugwell. This is a point made as
early as 1965 by Professor Ikime, but a point about which Anglican Christians in the area
have not taken serious note.
J.D. Aitken and Isoko District
From his travels in Isoko and Urhoboland, J. D. Aitken was convinced of the necessity
to organise and administer these Churches together under one district. This is significant,
especially when it is realised that Aitken did not make many converts in the course of his
itinerary. For example, at Oleh only one convert was made in 1913. In spite of the poor
result, he believed that if the faith was to spread and grow, then proper organisation was
needed. Accordingly, he proposed at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Niger
Mission held in July 1914 that the work in Isoko be merged with that in Urhobo under a new
district in which a European or West Indian Missionary should be assigned. Aitken suggested
that either Okpare or Mogba (Ohrerhe) in Agbarho should be the head-quarters of the new
13
district with strong stations at Uhwokori, Oleh, and Emede.
Although this proposal might have been inspired by the desire on the part of Aitken to
be independent of Proctor and become a superintendent of his own district, there is no doubt
that a real need for such a new district did exist. The congregation which sprang up, in
Urhoboland in particular, could not be properly organised and administered without such an
arrangement. For Bishop Johnson, enthusiastic and energetic, he was the only trained
personnel of N.D.P. who visited the Urhobo congregation; and since he had an extensive area
(the Eastern and Western Niger Delta) to cover, the congregations in Urhoboland suffered
considerably. Had he trained personnel to work under him in these areas from the beginning,
it would have been a different story. But up till 1914 no other trained personnel worked in the
Urhobo Churches. This is why, had the recommendation of Aitken been accepted by the E.C.
of the C.M.S. Niger Mission, it would have rebounded to the advantage of the young
congregation in Urhoboland.
11
Ikime, The Isoko People I.U.P. 1972) p.62.
12
“The Coming of the C.M.S…loc. cit., p.212
13
Ibid, p.213.
133
But the whole of Aitken’s recommendation was not accepted, to the detriment of the
Urhobo congregations. Only the Isoko section was constituted into a district, leaving the
Urhobo section to continue to grope in the dark. The refusal by the C.M.S. to take up the
work in Urhoboland is perhaps better seen as a result of their continued reluctance to
interfere with the work of Bishop Johnson’s Niger Delta Pastorate. In any case, it was the
Urhobo Churches which suffered.
C.M.S. Administration And Ministration, 1914-1934 14
By 1914, Christianity was permeating Urhoboland. The work was still fluid and infirm.
The tasks of consolidation in the period before us still lay ahead. The period witnessed a
major upheaval, resulting from an attempt to impose form and proper structure on the
formless, haphazard pioneering work of Bishop Johnson’s agents. The conflict which later
resulted might have been avoided if Aitken’s suggestion to the Niger Mission Executive
15
Committee that the Urhobo-Isoko areas be constituted into a single district had
been fully accepted and implemented. But as it happened, only the Isoko section was
constituted into a district, leaving the Urhobo congregations in the lurch. Consequently these
congregations continued to be administered by Bishop Johnson’s agents, ill-equipped as they
were. The converts had continually to look up for leadership to Warri and Sapele, the major
centres of Niger Delta Pastorate Administration in the area.
The relationship between Warri and Sapele in the Niger Delta Pastorate set up was,
however, not clearly defined. It was not clear, for instance, whether Warri was the centre, and
Sapele a sub-centre, or vice versa; or whether the two were standing at par in importance. But
when Warri applied for a resident pastor in 1914, she stated in her letter of application the
jurisdiction of the Vicar to-be would embrace Sapele, “the Christian Church at Forcados:
16
“the prospective Church at Burutu”, and the outstation churches, fifteen of
17
which were by 1914 affiliated to Warri, and the same number to Sapele.
The relationship between Warri and the outstations and that between Sapele and
affiliated outstations, were also not clearly spelt out. Nor was there any indication given in
the constitution of the Diocese of West Equatorial Africa (by which the Niger Delta Pastorate
18
was governed ) of what the relation between mother and outstation churches
should be. In the absence of any laid down policy, what relationship existed emerged from
the situation. Thus in practice, the outstations to Warri and to Sapele looked up to these
centres for spiritual leadership. In that kind of situation, the initiative of men on the spot, like
Omatsola, (as we shall see) counted much. It was their attitude and initiative which dictated
the decisions of higher authorities like Bishop Tugwell. Thus it was the de facto motherly
status already assumed by Warri and Sapele, even if forced upon them by men like
Omatsola, that was to give rise to Bishop Tugwell’s suggestion that “local committees
should be formed (in the outstations) of which the agent in charge at Sapele or Warri should
14
It should be noted that the C.M.S. did not actually take over the work until after 1917.
15
See Obaro Ikime, “The Coming of the C.M.S.,” loc. cit., p. 213. See also C.M.S. Niger Mission, G.3A3/013.
16
St. Andrew’s P.C.C., Minutes 31, December, 1917.
17
See C.M.S. Report 1914-15, p.46.
18
For more details about the NDP and its relation to the Diocese of West Equatorial Africa, see (I) D.C. Crowther, Delta Pastorate
Church (printed by C.M.S. Bookshop, Lagos; 1916) pp.2-5; (ii) E.M.T. Epelle, The Church in the Niger Delta (C.M.S. Niger Press,
1955) pp. 33-62.
134
be for raising and disbursing of moneys, rendering a quarterly statement of account to the
parent committee in Sapele or Warri”. It was this awareness of responsibility for some, at
least, of the outstations which made Warri include “the Sobo villages”, “Chapels around
Warri” in the jurisdiction of the expected vicar.
Warri in the Era of Rev. Cole
Between 1914 and 1920 the C.M.S. Church at Warri was trying to work out an
19
administrative structure. Prior to Rev. Cole’s arrival a church committee had managed
affairs, but when Cole was appointed for Warri in 1914, a Parochial Church Council (P.C.C.)
was set up with the pastor as chairman. The relative powers of the priest on the one hand and
that of the rest of the council members on the other soon became a matter of some
contention. For example, the pastor’s activities in the outstations when he paid his maiden
visit there aroused criticisms from one Solade Solomon, 20who was apparently a spokesman
for many. The authority by which Cole demanded money from the Urhobo in the hinterland
for church work at Warri was challenged. Cole, who was reprimanded roundly for his
activities, had to be on the defensive, although he still continued his itineration of the
outstations till his departure from Warri.
Connected with this uneasy situation was the need to define what the relationship
between Warri and the outstations should be. The Government had decided that all churches
be registered like statutory bodies, in order to enable them to own property. Warri and Sapele
churches had been so registered. The outstations connected with Warri needed to be
registered with the Government by St. Andrew’s Church, Warri, in such a way that their
satellite relationship to Warri could be legally recognized. But this end was not yet achieved
by 1920 when Cole left on leave. Apparently, as a consequence of the views of a section of
21
the Urhobo people, he did not return. Thus the era of Cole, which covered only six years,
did not achieve very much, even if he saw the need to, and did, visit the outstations in their
22
afflictions and persecutions, and attempted to meet some of their spiritual needs. Like all
pioneers, his difficulties were many, and a great deal still needed to be done at the time of
his departure.
Sapele
Although Sapele did not have a resident pastor till 1916, the situation there would
appear to have been somewhat better than at Warri. There was a management committee
made up among others, of A. Omatsola, as Church Agent, G. Sunday as Hon. Secretary, and
I. T. Palmer as President. This was the governing body of Sapele Church and adjoining
outstations – Amukpe, Ugharefe , Ugbomoya, Idjerhe, Abraka, Obiaroku , Uhwokori, Eku,
and Ovu.
19
Rev. C. F. Cole of Benthe, Sherbro, was sent to Warri from the Gambia where he had been a minister on the 14 October, 1914.
20
Solomon was a Saro who lived at Warri and worked under the P.W.D. at the turn of the nineteenth century, and early in the
twentieth. Like many in his days, Solade Solomon was a mason, but he played a leading role in the church at Warri, and was
throughout a very active member of the P.C.C. for Warri. After the death of Bishop Johnson he led the Warri delegation to Lagos
which finally brought St. Andrew’s under the umbrella of the C.M.S. He later retired and went back to Sierra Lone where he died.
21
See C,M.S. (Y) 2/2.14: Ughele District C.M.S. Warri to Bishop Jones, 12 May 1929. Some of the Urhobo, we are told in this
letter, did not desire the return of Cole.
22
During his itineration Cole was conveyed from town to town in a hammock by the Urhobo converts.
135
These outstations, some of which, unlike Warri, had been registered by 1916, looked up
to Sapele for spiritual leadership. Omatsola, who since 1909, had been chiefly responsible for
planting churches in many of them had never relented his efforts at visitation and
evangelisation of the outstations, sometimes even to the detriment of his work at Sapele, and
to the discomfiture of Sunday, who on one occasion got the Committee to restrict Omatsola’s
visitations to the outstations.
But such restriction hampered work in these stations, for as Bishop Tugwell’s letters
were to reveal, many of the agents in the hinterland were little more than the blind leading
the blind. For example, the man at Uhwokori, Jacob Oluwole, was not even baptised.
At the time Omatsola’s activities in the outstations were restricted (1913-14) progress
there was retarded. For example, only Amukpe, of the outstations, sent in her assessment for
October 1914 whereas prior to the restriction the outstation agents had been duty bound to
attend the Church Committee meetings at Sapele every first Saturday of the month, and
during that time paid in their assessment for the previous month. They were also then
subjected to half-yearly examination in “Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, etc.,” to determine
promotions. But owing to lack of effective supervision from Sapele these activities were
neglected until Bishop Tugwell’s visit in December 1914 resuscitated them.
The structure of authority at Sapele had something to do with the way Sapele Church
ministered to the needs of the outstation churches. It had been indicated that there was some
tension in the Sapele Church administration, and administration made up solely of the laity
with power concentrated on the trio: Palmer, Sunday, and Omatsola. In this trio, Omatsola
came least in importance, and yet he was the only indigene, and the only salaried and full-
time employee of the Mission, the offices of the other two being honorary. Any suggestion
made to or by Omatsola had to be referred to Palmer and to Sunday for their comments and
approval before it could be implemented. Being involved in other jobs and not being
indigenes, they did not care very much about evangelisation in the outstations, and did not
always take very kindly to Omatsola’s eagerness to itinerate the outstations. Even when one
Simate, a co-indigene with Omatsola, returned from training, there was also not much love
lost between the two, mainly because Simate, a trained teacher, resented being placed under
Omatsola who was untrained.
The answer to the Sapele Church conflict appeared to be in the appointment of a
pastor, long sought for by that church; a pastor might impose some authority and bring about
harmony. But it also looked as if the Sapele Church problem had to do not only with the
structure of authority, but with the persons in whose hands authority lay. For there appeared
seated in Omatsola what he regarded as foreign domination. As long therefore as the
expected pastor was not an indigene, the problem would remain unsolved. And the pastor,
one Ologududu, with whom negotiations were on was not, for no indigene was as yet trained
for that post. Omatsola’s resentment burst out in 1916 (shortly after the arrival of
Ologududu), resulting in schism and secession in 1917.
Apart from reaction against foreign domination, the teething problem of monogamy
was apparently a contributory factor to this schism. The Baptist Mission had been for some
time now in Nigeria, and initially tolerated polygamy, 23a practice which the Itsekiri and the
Urhobo with their Isoko brethren found near impossible to repudiate. A majority of the
indigenous population, finding the Baptist at this time more congenial to their taste, broke
away from the NDP-C.M.S. at Sapele, with Omatsola as their leader. Bishop Johnson heard
of the schism, while at Bonny, and wrote passionately from there, urging reconciliation and
23
Cf. The Serampore Mission Resolution.
136
patience until his arrival. 24Unfortunately, however, the Bishop died even before his letter
arrived at Sapele.
Transfer to the C.M.S.
The death of Bishop Johnson on Ascension Day, 17th May, 1917 marked a milestone
in the spiritual pilgrimage of the Urhobo congregations and affected the administration of the
Urhobo Churches. The death of almost the sole architect of the NDP made that body defunct.
In the Warri P.C.C. a motion that “steps be taken to have this church enrolled under Lagos
25
Mission” was unanimously carried. This decision was communicated to
Lagos. By this measure, and a similar one from Sapele, St. Andrew’s with its satellite
churches together with St. Luke’s, Sapele, and its outstations came fully under the umbrella
of the C.M.S. and were united to the Yoruba Mission. But this union which continued in the
case of Warri, till 1934, and Sapele, till much later, was an uneasy one. Lagos was much
farther from Warri and Sapele than was Onitsha from where these districts should have been
supervised.
Before this time the fate of Benin, Warri and Sapele districts, as well as of the “Igabo
people” had long been a matter for debate in C.M.S. circles. Manley, the Secretary of the
C.M.S., in a letter to F.M. Jones in 1918 referred to an earlier letter of 1916 to Bishop
26
Tugwell about the needs of the districts. Tugwell had raised the issue in the Niger
Executive, which decided that
If the occupation of the Igabo Country did not interfere with the proposed
development in Udi district, they would gladly undertake the Igabo work from
Benin as a centre, providing recruits were forthcoming in sufficient number. 27
This decision of the Niger E.C. explains, as shown later, the transfer from Igbide of
Aitken at a time when there was a crying need for him there.
Manley’s letter endorsed an action of the Yoruba Mission in arranging for tentative
supervision of the Benin, Sapele, and Warri work by the Revd. R. Kidd, subsequent to the
death of Bishop Johnson. The above rather confused state of affairs in which the supervision
of the “Igabo” district from Benin as a centre was originally envisaged, shows that the
boundaries between the Yoruba and the Niger Missions were not yet delineated.
Consequently Manley later wrote to Smith, the Secretary of the Niger Mission, proposing a
boundary between the Yoruba and the Niger Mission, which placed “the Benin and Ora
Districts” under the Yoruba E.C., and “the Igabo and Ijaw Districts” under the Niger E.C.,
while the proposal remained silent about Warri and Sapele Districts, unless we are to
understand that either Benin and Ora Districts included Warri and Sapele, or that Igabo
28
District include them. But neither did. This was later to constitute grave problems which
24
Interview with Okitlpi, 16 April 1971. The letter is said to have concluded with the words: “We are not divided, Onward Christian
Soldiers”.
25
St. Andrew’s P.C.C. 17 August 1917.
26
C.M.S. Y 1/1; Manley to F.M. Jones re Benin, Warri, and Sapele Districts, 27 April 1918.
27
Ibid.
28
C.M.S. (Y) I/I: Manley to Smith, 19 September, 1919.
137
29
have left their permanent effects on the area. As one of my informants, an elder of the
church, put it:
Koyeomokere aware epha? 30
So we are cut off in an island?
At the Isoko end, subsequent to the creation of “Igabo District” in 1914, Aitken was
put in charge as superintendent, with headquarters at Igbide. Although he left on furlough the
same year, the District continued steadfastly in his absence. On his return, he did not only
find that the converts at Owodokpokpo were still virile in their faith, but that their population
had increased to about a hundred and twenty in spite, and in some ways as a result, of
31
persecution. For the blood of the martyrs has often been the seed of the church.
Aitken himself wrote in his letter of December 1915:
“They are people who’ve turned to God from idols, and many have progressed
little further. Still, during this last year, we have been encouraged by the
discovery of definite spiritual growth by many of the inquirers, both young men
and women who are striving to ‘be holy unto the Lord.’” 32
Aitken complained of girls persecuted by their parents and unconverted neighbours

because of refusal “to enter into temporary marriage relationships with men of their town”, a
custom through which the parents, especially mothers, derived financial benefits. He also
wrote of the victory of the gospel in abolishing twin killing and saving tabooed children. 33
There were other victories. At Uzere, according to Aitken, many deaths had occurred from
poisoning; but the situation was altered when the chiefs
“Sent all the professional poisoners to church that they might learn to love and not
to poison other people’; and these men now attend the services of their own accord
34
and have given up their old profession.”
The Uzere Church, eighty feet by twenty feet, was reported crowded on Sundays.
Those who found no seat within “were seated outside in rows four or six deep.” 35A similar
thing occurred at “Aravia” (Araya?). Here church membership grew sufficiently to require a
larger building. But before one was built, the hundreds of enquirers or seekers, who had no
accommodation within, peeked from outside. Before gaining admission a seeker submitted
his former sacred objects for burning, after which he was expected to contribute three
29
The Urhobo area was treated as a no-man’s land. Consequently C.M.S. work was much more firmly rooted in Isoko than in
Urhobo whose fate swung pendulum-like from the Niger Delta Pastorate to Yoruba Mission, and then to the Niger Mission.
30
Interview with Adeda, 17 December, 1969.
31
Although there was no actual bloodshed, yet the privations and hardships the converts suffered could have discouraged many. But
they did not.
32
C.M.S. Report, 1915 – 1916, p. 41f
33
C.M.S. Report, 1915 – 1916, p. 41-42.
34
C.M.S. Report, 1915 – 1916, p. 41-42.
35
Ibid.
138
pence. It was reported that when Aitken visited the Church, the headman handed over to him
£15 10s.realised from this enrolment fee; and on the Sunday he visited the sum of thirteen
36
shillings and six pence was collected from that source alone.
The 5,000 Igabo converts and inquirers…without any resident European Mission agent to shepherd them
guide this wonderful and rapid Movement towards Christianity which is in progress.
37
The ill-timed transfer of Aitken from Igbide, whatever the reasons, meant a severe
setback on the Isoko work, especially since the persecution of the converts was just then on
the crest. In their plight, an Isoko delegate went to Onitsha to plead for “a Christian teacher”
who would cater for the “1,600 people” still assembling for worship. “His appeal”, writes
Smith, “was most pathetic and when I told him that Mr. Aitken could not return and that we
had no teachers to send, he said, “Then we are lost”.
The C.M.S. Niger Mission was, as usual, unable to cater for the Isoko work which it
had taken up, knowing fully well the responsibilities which the creation of the “Igabo
District” in 1914 entailed. Once again action failed to match intentions, due to inadequate
finances and personnel. In addition to this, Proctor’s protest that the C.M.S. gave preferential
treatment to certain areas explains why, when short of personnel, the Niger Mission could not
send a missionary to Isoko which was not a priority area. But no matter the excuse, the
transfer of Aitken from the newly created District, without a replacement, was very hard on
the Isoko.
In this plight, those Isoko (from Isoko inland) who had been connected with Warri
continued to look up to St. Andrew’s for help. Thus, Cole’s itineration embraced this area
which included Iyede, Enhwen, Emevor, Owhe, Ozoro and Oleh. In 1916 when the church at
Acheowhe, a village of Owhe, was burnt down, Cole visited the place and saw to it that the
three men responsible were arrested and tried. They were subsequently sentenced to nine
38
months imprisonment. Similarly, in 1918, the converts of Ozoro ran to St. Andrew’s
to report that their Church had been broken down by their chief, some Church members
imprisoned, and more than a hundred offering envelopes removed from the church. 39
Thus, while Isoko waterside (Igbide, Uzere, Araya, Ikpidiama etc.) were hard hit by
Aitken’s transfer, Isoko inland was administered from Warri. But even in the former case,
Proctor, based at Patani, proved to be of some assistance. As the C.M.S. Report puts it:
One of Mr. Proctor’s tours carried him to the Igabo country, the station opened at
Igbide in 1912 being without European Missionary. 40
Proctor’s itineration of the area was inevitable because converts from Isoko waterside
“literally swarmed” to Patani to attend a daily instruction class in preparation for baptism. 41
Nearly two hundred of them were said to have learnt the “church catechism and a scripture
36
This means that 54 people joined the church that Sunday.
37
C.M.S. Report 1915-1016, pp.41-42.
38
St. Andrew’s P.C.C. 24 March 1916, and 5 April 1916.
39
St. Andrew’s P.C.C. 21 January 1918.
40
C.M.S Report: 1917-1918, p. 28.
41
See C.M.S Report: 1917-1918, p. 28
139
catechism” translated by Proctor with the assistance of a young teacher. “4 very old women”
42
were also baptised by Proctor in one of the towns he visited.
By 1918, Aitken was transferred back to Isoko, and through him the Isoko work was
reinvigorated, especially as he was apprehensive of the Roman Catholics who were just then
arriving in Isoko. The R.C.M. provided teachers in profusion. The C.M.S. thus stood to lose
if they failed to redouble their efforts at providing education for their converts. The presence
of the Roman Catholics should have led Aitken to change his policy of depriving prospective
evangelists of book knowledge for fear that they might deflect to Government service. But it
43
did not. Since no teachers had been initially prepared, their services were
difficult to come by. Aitken was thus hoisted on his own petard, a fact attested to by the
C.M.S. report which records: “The lack of teachers was sorely felt…around Igbide in the
Igabo country… [where] there was ‘a real soul hunger’ among the people. 44
The lack of teachers notwithstanding, the work surged forward. “As many as 12,500
attended the services, nearly 300 were in the classes for inquirers and more than 2,300 in
baptismal classes, and 328 had been baptised by the end of November 1918. 45
These results are overwhelming, especially since for more than a year the District was
not only without a resident missionary, but also witnessed severe persecution. The results
might not have been so considerable but for the assistance given to Aitken by “ten baptised
lads who visited towns in the district and passed on what they remembered of addresses
which they had heard…” 46These “lads” also assisted in the examination of candidates for
baptism. An interview with one of the men who did this revealed that a very large area of
Isoko was reached through this method. The teachers gathered in a town, where they were
taught by Aitken or Latham for a month and sent out the following month to towns like
Oleh, Aviara, Bethel, Araya, Ozoro, Emede, Owodokpokpo, etc. to teach and preach. 47
Through this system of itinerant evangelism, the Isoko country was far more effectively
handled by the C.M.S., her converts better taught, even if only in the oral message and
catechism, than was the case in the Urhobo section. This was made possible by the presence
of white missionaries there, which was in turn consequent upon the creation of “Igabo
District” in 1914. Apart from the earlier influence of Proctor and Reeks from Patani, Aitken
had by 1920 other missionaries, like Gerrard and Latham, working with him in Isoko.
Gerrand, who arrived in 1919, worked for about 18 years in Isoko country.
The C.M.S. 1920-1934
Up to 1920 the work of the C.M.S. in Urhobo had been based largely on Sapele and
Warri. Enough has been said to make it clear that Warri and Sapele were not sufficiently
equipped to cope with the need of the Urhobo churches. Eku, therefore, became an offshoot
of Sapele.
42
Ibid.
43
C.M.S Report: 1918-1919, p. 33.
44
C.M.S Report: 1918-1919, p. 33.
45
Ibid.
46
Ibid.
47
Interview with D. Egbebruke, an Ex-Catechist, c.70, 12 December 1969, at Ughelli, Egbebruke, an Urhobo, was taken as a boy to
Patani by his parents, where he later attended school and was taught by Proctor and Reeks.
140
Another major problem was inadequacy of personnel. To meet this inadequacy, the
Urhobo congregations affiliated to Warri sent two of their sons to St. Andrew’s Primary
School, Warri, with the intention of sponsoring them to St. Andrew’s College, Oyo. This
plan proved abortive since those sent deserted the Church. In 1923, there was a major
breakthrough in search for personnel. The first Urhobo gained admission to Oyo. He was
none other than Agori Iwe, later to become Bishop. Born at Okuama, about 1906, he attended
the village school from where he went to St. Andrew’s, Warri, in 1920. He completed
standard six there in 1922. At the end of 1923 he was selected to train as teacher/catechist in
St. Andrew’s, Oyo. He completed the course in December 1927. His return marked another
milestone in the history of Christianity in Urhoboland in respect of evangelisation of the
people, proper organisation of the churches, and translation of the scriptures.
Indeed long before Agori Iwe went to Oyo, preliminary translation work had been on
in the era of Cole, as Tugwell’s letters indicate. One W.A. Tadaferua was at Idjerhe, urged
by T. Emedo, 48the pioneer of Urhobo literature, to join Adult Education class. When he
moved to Warri in 1920, he was appointed as an instructor in Urhobo Bible class, and got
others interested in Urhobo literature. Together with others –Ikimi Waghoregho, S. Magi (an
Ijo teacher at Ekiugbo), and to some extent, Oghenekaro, Tadaferua worked in a translation
class that was later set up. St. Mark was translated by 1924. Agori Iwe’s return sped up the
rate of translation.
The preliminary translation work also drew inspiration from the neighbouring Yoruba
territory of Ikale, where one Ofodidun, was actively organizing Urhobo congregations under
49
the supervision of Revd. Canon (later Bishop) S.C. Phillips, then based at Ondo.
According to Phillips, about 1921, he and Ofodidun translated an Urhobo Primer and a
Prayer Book with some hymns which Bishop Jones helped to print in Lagos. The consequent
Yoruba impress on these early translations is seen in the use of such words as alufaa for
priest in the prayers translated. Emedo’s 50and Ofodidun’s translations formed the
basis for further work after the departure of Cole.
When Cole left Warri, Kidd, who had been appointed Superintendent of the Sapele-
Warri Districts in 1918, visited Warri and outstations from Sapele. He had under him Revd.
Ologududu at Sapele and Revd. Akande at Eku. But by mid 1924, Ologududu had to be
discharged from his pastoral work at Sapele, because his interminable absences from his
stations made his duties suffer. 51As a consequence of his dismissal, Warri, Sapele, and Eku
with their adjoining outstations were left in the care of Kidd, assisted by only one clergy.
Hence when Kidd was to go on leave, he expressed fear as to how all the Districts could be
worked by Akande alone. But fortunately for the converts, in July 1924 Revd. J. Thompson
was posted to Warri from Hausaland to be Acting Superintendent of the Districts in Kidd’s
absence.
48
Thomas Emedo translated the first Urhobo Primer, c. 1920
49
Interview with Bishop S. C. Phillips, aged 90, on 20 March 1971, at Oshogbo. In Ikale country the Urhobo settlements included
Ebuteriele, Gbekebo, Iyara, and Ogbono, their Headquarters. Ofodidun, who was evidently converted through Bishop Johnson’s
work, went to the Ikale country where he and his compatriots collected palm nuts. There Phillips met him and made him a Catechist
over the Urhobo converts who became numerous in the 1920’s. Phillips toured the settlements, admitting Catechumens, and baptising
infants and adults previously instructed by Ofodidun. By the time Canon Phillips left Ondo, 31 March 1930, to resume work at
Breadfruit Parsonage Lagos on 1st April, he had baptised about 200 of the Urhobo in the Ikale country. See also Bishop S. C. Phillips
Diaries, 1919-1930 in Africana, University of Ibadan).
50
Ofodidun’s translation was predominately in Okpe dialect and so was difficult to use all over Urhobo.
51
At the time of his appointment, he was reluctant to move his family from Lagos to Sapele, and so was often away to Lagos to visit
them.
141
The one-and-a-half-year ministration of Thompson in the area was highly spoken of by

the converts, though, not by enough attention to the financial aspect of his work. The
converts, however, praised Thompson mainly because of his frequent visitations and his keen
52
interest in music. Moreover, while Kidd was away, he was able to settle a
disagreement at Eku in which Akande was opposed by people Thompson described as
“malcontents”.
In the absence of Kidd on furlough there was no other resident pastor at Sapele in the
second half of 1924, since Ologududu had been laid off. The Sapele Church had to be
managed by Catechist Smith, and one Dauda, a lay helper. Occasionally, Akande visited
from Eku. But Catechist and lay workers could not compensate for the loss of a pastor. What
was more, Smith, who was initially praised by Kidd, was later accused of immorality and
dismissed or suspended on Kidd’s return from furlough in 1925. Ikomi, who was the
catechist under Thompson at Warri, had to be transferred to Sapele much against the wish of
Thompson. But even Ikomi, good as he was, had also to be suspended early the following
year on a charge of “immorality”.
Ikomi, who joined the services of the C.M.S. some ten years before this time, was a
product of St. Andrew’s College, Oyo. Despite his ten year service, he had received little or
no increment. He had complained to the C.M.S. about this treatment on a number of
occasions without eliciting any favourable response. In a letter to the Archdeacon at
Oshogbo, Ikomi pointed out that he was still having to depend on his parents to subsidise his
feeding; that he was anxious to get married but could scarcely do so in a situation in which he
could not even feed himself. Apparently53this letter did not produce any effect
either. It was in this situation that Ikomi had an affair with a girl. For this reason he was
charged with “immorality” and suspended from his post as Catechist.
It is quite clear from Ikomi’s case that the church was asking her servants to maintain
high moral standards but subjecting them to temptation by her inability or unwillingness to
provide these servants with the wherewithal to lead the ‘good’ life. Consequently a majority
of her members who faltered were prisoners of circumstances. And their suspension
adversely affected the numerical strength of the Church’s staff. So disturbed was the Church
at Sapele by the lack of qualified staff that she wrote in anguish to Archdeacon Mackay
stating her case for a pastor.
In the face of acute shortage of staff at Sapele, Kidd had to make do with those workers
who showed signs of repentance. Thus, Smith who, after a year of suspension, was preparing
for holy wedlock, was reinstated in May 1926. But without a resident pastor for Sapele the
C.M.S. Church there stood to lose, especially “with the Baptist next door waiting to take
54
advantage of any trouble. In the letter to Mackay, the church deplored the fact that
“unlicensed laymen should occupy” their pulpit on important occasions, while corpses of
their members had to be offered to other denominations for burial in the absence of a pastor.
At Eku, the offshoot of Sapele, Akande’s ministration was profitable to him and to the
people until 1925, when he received some opposition from his members. But the dispute was
quickly settled by Thompson. A major crisis at Eku had to do with the primary school in
1926. One Imoukhuede, from Ora, was posted to Eku to head the primary school there. But
according to Imoukhuede, Aganbi “the Sobo untrained teacher who was helping,” was
transferred to Sanubi, two and a half miles away. Aganbi was not only a son of the soil, but
52
In his time St. Andrew’s Choir was highly organised and became increasingly competitive to join.
53
In his time St. Andrew’s Choir was highly organised and became increasingly competitive to join.
54
C.M.S., Y 2/2.14: Sapele Report, June 1925, by Kidd.
142
he also introduced “Christianity and Civilisation” to his people. He therefore wielded great
influence. His transfer from C.M.S. School, Eku dealt a death blow to the institution.
Majority of the pupils deserted the school as a result. Many followed him to Sanubi whilst
55
some joined the Faith Tabernacle School in Eku, and others moved to Warri.
Imoukhuede, who viewed this as intrigue, protested to Kidd and asked for transfer to other
schools not “in Soboland”. Kidd advised Imoukhuede to exercise patience, and endeavour to
win back his former pupils. What Imoukhuede viewed as a consequence of intrigue might
well be the result of Aganbi’s dynamism, coupled with his privileged position as a citizen.
But by the end of 1926 the rivalry worsened. Aganbi resigned from the C.M.S. in September
and introduced the Baptist Mission, pulling away more people than before after him, this
time not only from the school but also from the church.
Here at Eku, as elsewhere, there was bitter rivalry amongst Christians, a result of each
denomination struggling to have a foothold in the land. There were as many as five
denominations at Eku, all contending to preach Christ and win adherents. While rivalry may
56
be undesirable, it does sometimes produce good results. Here the Christian faith, as had
happened before, was spreading through a process of division like some unicellular
organisms which reproduce themselves by a similar biological process. Knowing what the
Baptists have done in and for Eku and the Urhobo today, the theologian in retrospect may
well recognise God’s presence in the confusion of the 1920’s.
The work at Eku dwindled by 1928.The inability of the C.M.S. to compete effectively
with the Baptist at Eku as elsewhere can be accounted for by the perennial cry for funds and
personnel. Added to this was a drift to Warri of the young educated for employment and
trade, leaving the decrepit men and women who could not support the church financially.
Akande had to leave Eku for Sapele in 1928, 57and was wholly responsible for Sapele after
the departure of Kidd in 1931.
Warri, after the departure of Thompson in December 1925, continued without a
resident Vicar till the end of 1926, when a new pastor J.C.C. Thomas, was secured for Warri
from Sierra-Leone.
J. C. C. Thomas
Thomas arrived in October 1926 bustling with energy and brimful of hope. He left on
November 1931 a broken and disillusioned person. His eventful tenure of office arose from
his realistic approach to problems, and the resolution with which he tackled them. As a
result, he suffered the fate of all reformers. All attempts to sew a new garment to the old, or
pour new wine into old wine skins have always produced the prophesied rupture. Plato’s
suggestion, consonant with Jesus’, was to have a clean beginning. 58 But even such a step is
not without its problems.
55
There were as many as five denominations each with a Primary school, at Eku by 1926. See C.M.S. Y 2/2 14: Imoukhuede to the
Secretary, Yoruba Mission, 24 November 1926.
56
See Philippians 1:15-18.
57
At about the same time that C.M.S. work at Eku declined, that of the R.C.M. also dwindled. Father Kelly left Eku for Sapele in
1925 according to Umurie, in 1927 according to Biakolo.
58
See The Republic of Plato, trans. By F.M., Oxford) Clarendon Press 1961, pp. 204ff.
143
Early Period: His Ministry
When Thomas arrived at Warri, his first assignment was to arrange for that year’s
harvest; he was as yet reaping the harvest of others’ labour. Shortly after the harvest,
therefore, Thomas went into the field. His maiden tour of the outstations which commenced
on November 22, lasted for eight days. So impressed was he that his heart jumped for joy.
I had a hearty welcome from the Sobos in every station and was very favourably impressed with the keen
and, above all, the sincerity of these Sobo converts. There is undoubtedly a great future for the church in
59
Of Ebossa, he says:
With the almost indispensable help of the energetic travelling agent I conducted
class meetings, services, and administered the Holy Communion in all the
important centres. 60
But this first impression stood in clear contradiction to what he was to say of them later.
Like his predecessors, Thomas felt the need for instructing the converts, destitute as
they were of properly trained teachers. But unlike his predecessors, he did not only feel and
express concern for the Urhobo, he attempted to translate his good intentions into action. 61
Consequently he invited the Urhobo to a conference at Warri from December 15 to 17. This
conference was attended by 78 persons. A wide range of subjects was discussed:
“Registration, Finance, Visitation, Church Officers, Preparation of candidates for Baptism,
and Confirmation, Need of qualified Teachers, Sunday Observance, Prayer, Evangelisation,
Lectures, and periodical examinations”. 62It was agreed that the conference, rewarding as it
was, be held twice a year, one about Easter, the other in November.
Of the situation in Warri itself, Thomas’ report was equally hopeful. The work of
Fajemisin, the headmaster at St. Andrew’s School, was commended. Barimi, the second
master, had just returned from Oyo to assist Fajemisin. The pastor therefore hoped that with
Barimi there to assist, St. Andrew’s School, which they had long struggled to place on the
assisted list, would now be worked to the position where the Government would accept it. To
achieve this objective, the services of Fajemisin had to be retained; for “to allow him to go
away means retrogression pure and simple.” But63to the great displeasure of Thomas,
Kidd had already informed the E.C. that Fajemisin, whose salary according to him had
become too heavy for Warri, had to be transferred, even if that meant “retrogression pure and
simple”.
Of the Warri Congregation, while Thomas praised their work, he expressed
dissatisfaction at their Church Building which had become inadequate besides falling below
59
C.M.S. Y2/2/15: Thomas’ short Report on work at Warri, January 1927.
60
Ibid.
61
Kidd often referred to the need for trained personnel, especially a pastor for the outstations in his reports. But he took no positive
step to improve the situation by recommending people for training at Oyo.
62
C.M.S. Y2/2:14 Thomas Report, January 1927.
63
Thomas Report: January 1927.
144
64
“its dignified appellation “The House of God” for a place like Warri.” A Building
Committee set up therefore decided in 1926 that a more spacious and substantial building”
worthy of65God’s glory be erected shortly to replace the old.
If well begun was always half done, Thomas’ Ministry at Warri would have known
better success. For after only two months there, he described the work as “interesting and
encouraging” and religiously concluded his report with
While we are busy praying ourselves we earnestly solicit your Prayers on our
behalf that God may give us the adequate strength, grace and wisdom to meet up
the need of the hour and that his Work may be abundantly blessed in our hands.66
His first report on his ministry at Warri and environs is interesting in its details and
encouraging in its spirit, but to what extent it was “abundantly blessed in our hands” the
years ahead were to reveal. His judgment was perhaps premature. But even after a year, he
did not see the clouds that were gathering. His annual report for 1927, apart from a few
regrets for the transfer of Fajemisin, had that same ring of encouragement and hope about it.
According to him the Warri Church work itself witnessed no setbacks during the year 1927,
class meetings and Sunday services were regularly conducted throughout the year; even “the
spiritual tone of the work…has been nicely kept up”. From Warri he visited the outstations
several times in the dry season to administer Baptism, the Lord’s Supper etc.— all of which
activities culminated in the Bishop’s visit for a confirmation service on Sunday, 13
November during which time no less than one hundred and twenty-two candidates ratified
their vows.
The conferences with the Urhobo converts were held as arranged in June and December
“with attendance of 75 and 68 respectively”. Amongst the problems attended to “was the
necessity of translating portions of the Scriptures and Special Services of the prayer book”. A
translating committee was accordingly set up to begin work.
In December Thomas conducted examinations for six of the outstations school teachers
who had been receiving two days monthly lectures. Two of them, David Egbebruke (who had
worked with Aitken, and was at the time a teacher at Edjekota) and Johnson Emoefe, a
teacher at Ovwo in Olomu, were successful. This was a mark of progress in the Urhobo
congregations, since some of their sons were at last improving their minds through study and
so were equipping themselves for the ministry. What was more, Agori Iwe had just returned
from Oyo to the great pleasure of Thomas who prayed that Agori should help stimulate
67
interest in the Urhobo youth to follow his suit.
Thomas’s prayer was apparently answered. For Ejaife and Ebossa’s son gained
admission to Oyo at the end of 1927. 68 Ejaife finished from Oyo in 1931 and taught at St.
Andrew’s, Warri for a while. These early successes encouraged Thomas to look forward to a
bright future “with an eye of faith.” 69
64
]Ibid.
65
Ibid.
66
Ibid.
67
See C.M.S. (Y)
68
District Annual Report 1927 by J.C.C. Thomas.
69
Ibid.
145
But after the return of Kidd from furlough in 1927, and his resumption of
superintendence of the districts, Thomas’s importance diminished. Kidd had very little to say
in commendation of Thomas. Evidently, he was not very satisfied with Thomas’s work; and
indeed, by mid 1929, the latter had been reported to him by the Urhobo converts. In his report
Kidd observed that Thomas was finding it difficult to visit the outstations since he could not
ride a bicycle and had to be conveyed on a trailer. According70to Kidd he visited
the outstations only twice in the year. Thomas had evidently had his hey day. If indeed he
visited the outstations only twice in the year, then he had developed cold feet. The storm was
about to break. The outstation work was to pass through fire. But who was to bear the brunt
of the failures of the work: R. Kidd, Thomas or Ebossa? From all indications, Thomas who
had been more intimately involved in and concerned about the real welfare of the Urhobo
was to be the victim. A majority of the people whom he had in 1926 lauded to the skies were
in 1929 to be at enmity with him.
The Later Period
The later period of Thomas’s ministry was characterised by conflict and bitterness with
the Urhobo. Several factors were responsible for the crisis. First, was the struggle for a
mission centre. Agori Iwe was sent to Otovwodo Ughelli, against the will of those converts
notably from Ekiugbo and Eruemukohwarien towns, and from Ughievwe and Udu clans who
preferred Ekiugbo, or better Eruemukohwarien. Secondly, it appeared that Thomas further
alienated the converts at Eruemukohwarien which had been the de facto headquarters, by
deposing Mukoro Kaghogho, the leader there, and Igben Onajovwo, his second in command.
According to their letters they were deposed from office because they did not attend the
bazaar on a fixed day after they had obtained permission to palm nut collecting hitherto
71
suspended but which was to be resumed that very day. Umukoro
indicated in his letter that Thomas’s real intention was not only to depose them, but to
remove the headquarters from Eruemukohwarien. Oluku Adjarho of Ekiugbo also wrote
about his own grievances against Thomas. He said that although he was trained under Cole,
Thompson and Kidd, had associated with Bishops Johnson, Tugwell, and Jones, and had
been the acknowledge leader of Ekiugbo, Agbarhaoto and other churches and was
consequently recommended for Lay Reader’s licence which he believed Bishop Jones had
handed over to Thomas, the latter would not give him his licence. He also complained of
being debarred by Thomas from Holy Communion without a just cause. The removal of
“headquarters” from Eruemukohwarien seemed, however, to have been the prime factor
creating disharmony between Thomas and many of the converts. The entire
Eruemukohwarien congregation wrote, decrying Thomas’s action which “actually baffled us
... the headquartership of our town has been removed by him to a town called Otobodo.”
72
They also referred to the fate of their deposed leaders, adding that when they
pleaded for forgiveness Thomas’s reply was “we can go to any church we like beside the
C.M.S. Church”. They therefore concluded that they could not have him as their Minister
“because he showed himself to have no missionary traits in him. 73
70
C.M.S. (Y) 2/2. Kidd’s Report on Sapele and Warri Districts. January-June 1929.
71
See C.M.S. (Y) 2/2.14: Igben to Bishop F.M. Jones 23 April 1929, and also Mukoro Kaghogho to Bishop F.M. Jones 26 April
1929.
72
C.M.S. (Y) 2/2.14: Eruemukohwarien Church to Bishop F. M. Jones 26 April 1929.
73
Ibid.
146
What went by the name Sobo District Committee, C.M.S. Warri, also wrote against
Thomas to the Bishop on this same issue, referring to the manner Umukoro, Kaghagho and
Igben were deposed by one who had granted them permission and how some other
communicants in the Urhobo interior were forbidden from Holy Communion because of their
failure to attend committee meetings. The petitioners maintained that
These men (i.e. those in Urhobo Interior) were treated as ignorant men hence
such act was exercised over them which clearly tend to break down the C.M.S.
Church in the interior Sobo town. 74
They further noted that Thomas himself had attended harvest service on Sunday at
Torey Church and returned with his luggage that Sunday, because he had a visitor at home.
He did not go back to Torey on Monday for the bazaar. In75another letter from the same
committee, 76Thomas was accused of turning his predecessor’s work topsy-turvy, “looking
down on the converts, and framing his own orders, and plans unconfirm (sic) with the former
principles of the churches, supporting faith”. He was quoted as remarking that “the churches
in Sobo were not properly organised, and therefore can go on as they please, something
similar to the African Church ways and manners”. (sic) His preaching, they claimed,
undermined the work of his predecessors, which led the Committee to report to Kidd, who
warned him and quelled their anger. But according to them, Thomas continued to be
bitter against the Travelling Agent and other Head Leaders of the Churches in the
interior Sobo deposing them from their respective positions and propose to
replace other new men. Declared enmity in his actions towards the travelling
Agent, A. Asedo, Umukoro Kaigho, Lelegbel,e and Oluku. 77
Since he did not heed Kidd’s warning
We have decided not to have Revd. Thomas again as our minister. We now pray
your worships help to instruct Revd . I. T. Akande of Sapele to be giving the
Communicants the Lord’s Supper at intervals and his expenses to and fro will be
paid by us. 78
They chose this alternative until another pastor would be sent to them, and they specifically
asked for a European pastor who would serve under Kidd, if it was not possible to send
Thompson back.
In yet another letter, written this time to Thomas himself, the committee asked for the
receipts of the account of money to the tune of fifty-eight pounds which they said they had
sent to the bank and also for the account which Kidd handed over to Thomas in respect of the
Urhobo Churches. Finally, the Sobo District Committee at Warri and the Interior Churches
combined to write a memorandum to the Bishop in which they pointed our
74
Ibid. Sobo District Committee C.M.S. Warri to Bishop F. M. Jones26 April 1929.
75
Ibid.
76
It is noteworthy that the new Catechist was not in this “Sobo District Committee”
77
C.M.S. (Y) 2/2.14: Sobo District Committee C.M.S. Warri to Bishop Jones 27 April 1929.
78
C.M.S. (Y) 2/2.14, op.cit.,26 April 1929.
147
Diocesan Regulations which Thomas was said to have infringed. Among other charges, they
indicated that Thomas presented an unsuitable candidate for confirmation against the protests
of the candidate’s church.
To crown it all Ebossa wrote a scathing letter about Thomas to the Bishop, in which
Thomas was accused of contravening Diocesan Regulations by baptising children not born in
wedlock or whose parents were “heathen.” In this connection the accuser was obviously
ignorant of the fact that it was the prerogative of a priest to administer baptism to anyone
who asked for it, a request which should not be denied. Thomas was further accused not only
of denying Ebossa and others the right to administer baptism to the sick on their deathbed, as
had previously been the case, but also of refusal on Thomas’ part to bury the dead.
The foregoing might give the wrong impression that every one in Urhobo was against
Thomas. Even if a majority of the old leaders were against him and had a large following,
there were few who sided with him. They were those who preferred Otovwodo as a centre,
and came from Otovwodo itself, Edjekota, Oviri Ogor, Agbarha (Agbasah), Uduere, Oteri,
Iwreogbovwa, Afiesere, Ephrotor (Effuruntor), Iwremaro, and Odovie. Their preference for
Otovwodo was partly motivated by its proximity to them as was also the case with those
who preferred Eruemukohwoarie.
This latter group recounted the good works of Thomas, which “is beyond description”
while describing the former petitioners as “back consulters” who when Cole went on
furlough, and desired to return, wrote “that they did not want any black pastor, but
white…and put before you as aforesaid.” Ikimi Waghoregho wrote on behalf of C.M.S.
Church Ephrotor in defence of Thomas “who is throwing the light into our darkness”.
This flood of letters directed to the Bishop through Thomas was forwarded to him by
the latter with a covering note serenely penned:
I forward you herewith under registered cover, letters from the Sobo District
Committee and would ask you not to be alarmed in the least, After reading them
through. I think you have heard and know much more the Sobos and their
characteristics as a people than I who have only had a few days with them…with
your kind permission I am taking him (Ebossa) with me to Lagos as also the
Catechist; so that we may have a fair opportunity of looking into the so- called
79
dissatisfactions…
Accordingly, the three persons appeared before Bishop Jones in Lagos where the case
was carefully gone into. Ebossa repeated most of the things he had written before the Bishop
and asserted that all Urhobo churches rejected Thomas, an assertion refuted by the Catechist.
The Bishop characteristically urged reconciliation while admonishing both parties to show
consideration for each other. Ebossa was urged to recognise the authority of the pastor, while
Thomas was advised to treat Ebossa with due consideration.
But when Ebossa returned from Lagos, which he did late, the two never met again until
they were to appear before Canon S.C. Phillips. Rather than see reconciliation effected,
Ishoshi Erhi Movement started with Masima Ebossa at the head. He moved from place to
place, preaching and pulling large crowds after him. He declared with zest that the prophecy
of Joel was fulfilled in him and in his retinue. The church in Urhobo was thrown into utter
confusion. He and his members claimed to be in full possession of the Spirit. He embarked
on militant evangelism, sending disciples out in twos to preach, and to pray for
79
C.M.S. (Y) 2/2.14: Thomas to F. M. Jones 6 May 1929.
148
those who had been overtaken by sin, and suspended by the church. One Diasao who was
suspended by Thomas on the ground of adultery was prayed for by Ebossa after which
Diasao caught the spirit and the members declared him forgiven by the Holy Ghost. As the
catechist, Agori Iwe, rendered the point of Ebossa’s preraching,
Knowledge is nothing in the Religion of Christ. Pastors and Catechists may not
enter the Kingdom. Those who do not take heed of this spirit are infidels and shall
80
have no part of the Kingdom.
This was Agori Iwe’s interpretation of the Ishoshi Erhi movement.
Phillips Commission of Inquiry
There was veritable schism in the church and like all such spirit movements, those
81
affected overtly asserted their righteousness and adopted a “holier than thou” attitude.
When Bishop Jones learnt of the confusion he despatched Canon S.C. Phillips from Ondo
to Warri to investigate the case and forward his recommendations to him. Philips made a
meticulous investigation in which he was able to convince many of the movement of its
incongruity with the spirit of God, especially since it was characterised by orgiastic
displays. Some of those “spirit filled” even committed offences for which some of them
were imprisoned. Agori Iwe in tending his evidence showed that Egbo and
Eruemukohwarien were hot beds of the movement; that at the latter place one of the “spirit-
filled” bit a “heathen woman” for which the assailant was fined ten pounds in court, while
two others who assailed a traditional priest were each jailed for six months.
While the investigation was on, a woman possessed by the spirit was actually raving in
the parsonage. Were there no other evidence, this should have been adequate demonstration
of the unscripturalness of the spirit movement. What was more, Masima Ebossa apparently
denied none of the charges made by Agori Iwe. The spirit of God is indeed not of confusion,
God being a lover of peace and of concord.
But we need to be particularly cautious before we condemn the movement. For the
margin between the man excessively imbued with the spirit of God and one wholly demon
possessed can be extremely slender. The evil spirit which tormented Saul when he fell out of
favour with God was from Yahweh. (1 Sam. 16:14) And when Jesus went about proclaiming
the arrival of the kingdom, a good many considered him mentally deranged. (Mark 3:21) And
significantly it was the evil spirits who first recognised and proclaimed him the son of God
most high. (Mark 1:24) The case of the divination damsel at Philippi during Paul’s
ministration there would also be in point here (Acts 16:16ff) And did Paul not say that none
could call Jesus Lord except by the Spirit of God; and that only the Spirit of God can
understand, even search, the depths of God? (1 Cor. 2:10ff; 12:3)
What was happening in the Urhobo churches in 1929 had a close resemblance to the
gifts of the spirit in the Corinthian church founded by Paul. What is enigmatic and
uncomfortable in such situations is the tendency to schism, although as has been indicated,
divisions may not always be evil -- more so since the evilness of evil as a result of the
purpose to which evil can be put by God is in itself enigmatic.
What was happening in Urhoboland then was indubitably due to lack of proper
instruction, proper organisation, and proper direction of the young churches. And if anyone
80
C.M.S. (Y) 2/2.14:Agori Iwe (Catechist) to Revd. J.C. C. Thomas 16 August 1929.
81
What is remarkable, to my mind, is that none of the affected members who later recanted, and whom I interviewed between 1969
and 1971, denied the genuineness of the spirit. Some of them believed that it was not properly directed by the church’s hierarchy.
149
should bear the blame, it is not only Ebossa, and certainly not Thomas, but the entire C. M. S.
This is because, as has been pointed out, the C.M.S. had not been enthusiastic in their support
and supervision of the Urhobo churches. In such situations where “the little children” were
led astray or not led at all, the manifestation of the spirit in the particular mode it happened,
was apt to cause confusion and division, as it had done in the past, invariably involving
egocentricity on the part of those affected, and a derision by them equally suppress and stifle
it.
Accordingly, Phillips made a four-point recommendation: the reorganisation of the
work at Warri; the need for properly trained agents; the position of Ebossa; and that of
Thomas. First, Warri, then comprising 67 churches according to Phillips, needed to be
organised as a separate district, directly under and responsible to the Lagos Diocese.
Secondly, properly trained and well instructed agents of a higher calibre than the Ebossa
group, who could impart the requisite Christian instructions, were urgently needed for the
Urhobo churches. Thirdly Phillips recommended that Ebossa, evidently resentful both of
Thomas’s methods of administration and of the New Catechist, Agori, be posted immediately
to another area, the Kwale or Isoko section. For, according to Phillips, Ebossa was unwilling
82
to take the subordinate position meant for a scripture reader of his grade.
Phillips noted that this unwillingness was chiefly responsible for Ebossa’s vain attempt to
start a new religious movement. Phillips fourth recommendation was that Thomas be given a
free hand in the administration of Warri district, instead of making him a kind of sub-
superintendent under Revd. Kidd. He urged that Thomas be made chairman of Warri
District, responsible only and directly to the Synod in order that his interest in the work at
Warri may be stimulated and sustained and his tenure prolonged. Otherwise, he might wish
to return to Sierra Leone, to the detriment of the work at Warri.
The case, squarely decided in favour of Thomas and those with him, was a clear
victory for the institutionalised Church which provided the judge. That Masima Ebossa felt
insecure at the return of the new catechist no one would doubt. But that he should have
expected a favourable verdict from the hierarchy he stood to oppose showed how ignorant he
83
was of church politics. Moreover, it was palpable that Masima and his kind could more
easily hoodwink white missionaries like Kidd, and even Bishop Jones than they could
Africans like Thomas and Phillips.
After the return of Phillips, it took some exchange of letters between him and Bishop
Jones to get the Bishop to accept all his recommendations about the Warri situation. Philips
stressed the point to the Bishop that Thomas was not given a free hand by Kidd. He urged
that Thomas be made a superintendent of his own district, and so become responsible directly
to the Synod. It is true that Kidd had harped on Thomas’s inability to ride a bicycle. But
Phillips emphasised that responsibility for working up the District should first be wholly
given to him. For “without that, he will not wholly rise to the occasion because he will
neither get the benefit of success in the work nor wish to take the responsibility of any
84
failure”. If by becoming entirely responsible for the work Thomas found “that ability to
ride a bicycle is a sine qua non to the carrying on the work” 85he would, argued Phillips, be
compelled to do so. For, “no native who has any ability and self respect would ever do his
82
Ebossa’s unwillingness to submit to Agori Iwe may also have to do with the typical African concept of seniority which had
strictly to be determined by age.
83
Had he and his henchmen secured a European Missionary as Judge of the case they might have fared better.
84
C.M.S. (Y) 2/2 14: Canon S. C. Phillips to Bishop F..M. Jones, 30 October 1929.
85
Ibid.
150
best or continue to do his best when he feels he is in a position where the European
Superintendent gets the credit of his hard work and success while he simply takes turn when
86
some discreditable business comes along”. There was also exchange of letters between
Thomas and the Bishop. First, the Bishop wrote to encourage him but took exception at
Thomas’s uncharitable remarks about Kidd. Thomas, therefore, wrote back to apologise and
withdraw them, but reiterated:
I have reason for using the remarks. Revd. Kidd told me we have no need to send
boys to Oyo to be trained as Catechists, etc. Only a few School Teachers are
needed, and Mr. Masima and some of the leaders told me that Revd. Kidd had
given them his promise that they will be responsible permanently for their work
because the boys trained at Oyo are all corrupt, and by my special effort to send
87
boys to Oyo I am upsetting his arrangements.
Kidd’s argument, according to Thomas, had been based on lack of money, but Thomas
thought differently. The Urhobo Christians had money enough to support the work “if they
are properly educated to it”. According to him, during the spirit movement £30 was spent in
88
feasting—and this was money collected for church purposes.
It is necessary to comment on Thomas’s and Phillip’s attitude in this matter vis-à-vis
the attitude of Kidd and Jones. The conflict of ideas between Ebossa and Thomas, Kidd and
Thomas, and on a higher level, Jones and Phillips, reflects the general tendency of the period
when white Missionaries felt that Africans could not take full responsibility for running the
Church in Nigeria. It was this same spirit which had made it impossible for Bishop Johnson’s
dreams to be realised. Ebossa and his kind were in fact no more than convenient tools in the
hands of white missionaries for fostering their design. It is against this background that
Bishop Jones’ reluctance to make Thomas fully independent of Kidd, and so responsible for
his own district, must be seen.
On Kidd’s part it must be noted that the apparent zest with which Thomas earlier
carried out his work might have piqued the former and made him feel rather insecure about
his own tenure. This, and not the spurious reason of Thomas’s inability to ride a bicycle, will
account for his lack of commendation of Thomas. This unfortunate lack of confidence in
non-white missionaries affected West Indians also. For, as has been indicated, Thompson, a
West Indian, who acted as superintendent in Kidd’s absence in 1925, was also not
commended. Kidd’s uncomplimentary report on, and unsatisfactory treatment of, Thompson
made the latter leave Warri and go back to Hausaland a disappointed man. Thomas suffered
his fate to a much severer degree.
After the Spirit case had been decided by Phillips, supported by the Bishop, Thomas
later visited the outstations to discover that although the Movement had subsided, secret
meetings organised by Masima were nevertheless still going on. The churches particularly
affected, and which continued to be stubborn were Egborode (Egbo I), Masima’s own station
where the movement started, and churches in Ughievwe District, where Masima’s influence
was particularly strong. When Thomas visited some of these stations and persuaded the
members “to give up this false movement,” the members stuck to their guns, on the ground
that “they have been praying for this spirit”. Because of this stubbornness or
86
Ibid
87
C.M.S. (Y) 2/2.14” Thomas to Jones, 19 December 1929.
88
Ibid.
151
firmness on the part of those who claimed they were under the spirit’s influence, Thomas
held a conference at Okpari with the loyal Church Leaders and decided to replace “all those
who are still stubborn over this deceptive Spirit Movement” with new teachers who have
passed Government standard six. They would be regularly lectured and properly trained by
Thomas. In return he believed work of the translation class would be sped up by these new
teachers and the Catechist, all of whom were Urhobo.
The significance of Thomas for Future Work
After the crisis of 1929, Thomas served for two more uneventful years before he
returned to Sierra-Leone, a broken man. But the significance of his ministry at Warri and
amongst the Urhobo has not been fully appreciated. Many Urhobo, particularly those in the
Erhi Movement, do not speak well of him even today. He is accused of partiality, and of being
money minded. Some even accused him of making away with St. Andrew’s building funds.
All these accusations may not have been groundless. But they should not blind us to the
significance of his work, which is fourfold: Conferences, Organisation and Evangelisation,
Training, and Translation.
Conferences
It will be recalled that from the reports of the work at Warri he was the first to summon
delegates from the hinterland churches to Warri for conferences which were aimed at
discussing the problems of the young churches -- the problems of organisation, of
Evangelisation, of Translation and Training of personnel. The conferences infused life into
the churches, and should have been continued by future leaders.
Organisation
It was his organisational foresight which led him to choose Otovwodo of Ughelli as the
headquarters for the C.M.S. in the hinterland. This choice, happily supported by Evwaire,
was a mark of clear foresight on Thomas’s part. Otovwodo was the seat of the Ovie of
Ughelli, and is a stone’s throw to Iwhreko, which later became Government headquarters.
89
The Roman Catholics later on also moved to Otovwodo and built a central
school there, as did the local Council, (formerly called Native Authority).
Thomas’s concern for proper organisation also made him deprecate the blissful
ignorance in which the Urhobo converts groped. He did not wish to see them continue
perpetually in that state -- a state which did not seem to concern Kidd much. Thomas
attempted to translate his concern into action through the regular lectures he gave to the
school teachers and through his special efforts to get Urhobo youth sent to Oyo.
Training
It was to get youth qualified for Oyo that he gave regular lectures to the primary school
teachers. This system of having teachers prepared for higher studies was continued later in
C.M.S. schools. Qualified personnel would enhance the work of evangelisation and of
translation of the Scriptures.
Translation
The fourth significance of Thomas’s work was his keen interest in translation. After
removing the old leaders who refused to recant the Spirit Movement, he replaced them with
89
The Government headquarters were moved from Ase to Ughelli in 1932.
152
graduates from the Government Schools. This, as we have shown, took place at Okpari. He
encouraged and supervised their translation of the Scriptures. It was under this patronage that
Agori Iwe translated the Fourth Gospel in 1929.
Reflections on C.M.S. Work in Urhobo and Isoko
If Thomas’ alleged faults were many, so were his good qualities. His evil should
therefore not have been allowed to live after him, to the exclusion of his good. The judgment
of Ikimi, was that Thomas threw out “the light into our darkness”. This light may have been
beclouded, but it was not extinguished.
From the crisis of 1929 two salient conclusions may be drawn. First, the Urhobo
congregations had from the beginning been sadly neglected. This may be due to the fact that
the C.M.S. in taking these congregations over from the Niger Delta Pastorate did so very
reluctantly. Secondly, a majority of the converts themselves, for reasons best known to them,
preferred white missionaries, who were in fact reluctant to come to them. Consequently the
few of their own men who were trained were looked at with distrust as those who had come
to oust them. This conclusion is legitimate, although Masima never gave this (and could not
have) as a reason for his action either before Jones in Lagos or before Phillips in Warri.
Had all those who were in the movement retraced their steps after Phillips’s
investigation and recommendations, as a majority did, the schism would have been averted or
bridged. But a few of the members -- Ije ( a woman of Edjekota), Oriunu, a man from
Edjekotoa, Edjederia a man of Okpavuerhe, Onoyovwere of Eruemukohwarien, and Ogegede
of Ovwo -- stuck to their guns; they broke away completely to found Ishoshi Erhi. Similarly,
and perhaps understandably, Okpe Churches (Masima’s own area) did not return with the rest
of the Urhobo Churches which Agori Iwe under the supervision of Thomas reorganised. The
churches in Okpe clan were consequently adversely affected, a set-back from which they
90
have never really recovered.
Following the meeting at Okpari, various regular schools, as contrasted with the former
irregular (“bush”) ones, were started by Agori Iwe. This process received impetus from Isoko
where between 1929 and 1931 James Welch embarked on an elaborate educational project
and founded many schools including I.C.S. (Isoko Central School) Oleh, and a Central
School at Uwheru. But even at this stage the Urhobo congregations could only still be
described as struggling. They were still largely ignorant and did not fare as well as their Isoko
brethren who were under the Niger Diocese, from where the latter were closely supervised
and instructed, after the initial difficulties of shortage of staff.
This was from 1918 onwards when Aitken was sent back to them. Although Aitken
did not completely change his attitude to education in the face of the presence of the Roman
Catholics, he embarked on monthly instruction of teachers who went out to disseminate his
teachings. Some of these teachers graduated from the school at Patani under Proctor. This
continued till 1923, when the practice was dropped.
Aitken and M. C. Latham, assisted by one Eloho, worked indefatigably in organising
and evangelising the Isoko, whose interests he represented at the Niger Dioceses Executive
Committee. Under the supervision of Aitken, Eloho translated the Four Gospels and later
also Acts into Isoko as well as composing an Isoko Prayer Book. St. Mark which was the
first to be translated was published in 1920. And91the Four Gospels together were
published in Isoko in 1922.
90
Interview with Bishop Agori Iwe, c.64, Bishop of Benin Diocese, 16 April 1971
91
Interview with Efeturi, one of the earliest priests in Isoko, aged c.60, at Warri,25 August 1970; and with Ven. Apena, at Oleh.
153
The local congregations themselves were headed by men devoted to service, and were
92
fortunate to have missionaries and Ibo pastors from the Niger who lived and worked
among them. Consequently a majority of the Isoko converts in the 1920s were not as
ignorant of the rudiments of the Scriptures as were their Urhobo counterparts. While Eloho
led the congregation at Uzere, John Emu led at Illue Ologbo, Ubido at Akeowhe, Uvwaha at
Canaan Owhe, Isaiah Ajohwomue at Otie Owhe, Umukoro at Otibio Owhe, while Abraham
Okujeni and Matthew Agbro were at Emevor. At Ikpidiama Abraham Obaro was the leader,
while the Oyode church was led by Samuel Ibagere, the present father of the church of
Bethel. All these head Christians of the first generation continued to be active in organising
93
the churches in Isoko throughout the twenties.
The buoyancy of Isoko C.M.S. at this period is attested to by the C.M.S. Reports:
The class fees for Christian instruction are paid twice a year sometimes as much
as £60 a week is taken. About 20 C.M.S. rest houses in the district facilitate
travelling. Some of the district churches are attended by over 1,000 people daily,
and there are 200 or 300 at school in the afternoon. At night they sit in their
94
compounds and repeat the catechism to one another.
During his visit to Isoko, Smith was so stunned by the rate of converts to Christianity there
that he wrote:
Nothing that I can say will give adequate idea of what is going on among the
people who have come out of idolatry in thousands to serve the living and true
God. The women in many congregations outnumber the men, and to meet with
congregations of 500 to 1,000 every morning and evening, consisting of the
majority of the population, was an experience never to be forgotten. 95
M.C. Latham, the Missionary Priest working with Aitken in Isoko, reports that during his
visits to each town, he was equally beset by 200 or more people waiting to be examined for
baptism. Where he could not complete examining all of them within a scheduled time in any
one particular place, some of the people followed him from town to town for two or three
96
weeks -- all wanting to be baptised.
Aitken himself had to marry 63 couples after baptising 80 adults in the same day. All
this was apart from 500 or 600 persons outside his lodging, waiting to be examined for
baptism. 97The overwhelming numerical strength of the Isoko converts is further indicated
by the sales of the Gospel of Mark. In 1921 alone, 5,000 copies of this Gospel newly
translated and published, were sold.
The hold which Christianity had on the Isoko at this stage was also evident from
Latham’s observation at Aviara. During his visit there on a Sunday which happened also to
92
Revd. Asiku arrived at Ozoro in 1924. The Ozoro C.M.S. School opened the following year.
93
Interview with Aenas.
94
C.M.S. Report: 1920-21, p.9.
95
Smith’s words quoted in the C.M.S. Report of 1921-22.
96
See C.M.S. Report: 1921-22
97
See C.M.S. Report: 1921-22
154
be the market day, Aviara Market, normally attended by from 1,500 to 2,000 people, was
attended by only 50.
The marvellous conversion to Christianity in Isoko was not at first properly channelled
in the right direction. Aitken, as we have reiterated, initially denied the Isoko book knowledge
for fear that they might deflect to Government services. According to the C.M.S. Report,
about twenty men were being trained as evangelists, but they were still being trained only in
things necessary for evangelists to know; “that is to say, they are not taught writing since that
98
would give them the opportunity of obtaining secular work”. It
was not until the advent of Welch in 1929 that this attitude was revised.
In Isoko, Welch was the chief missionary pioneer of education. Schools there were
irregular until his arrival, the only exception being that at Uzere. One Ifode, (later Revd.
Ifode), was the head teacher at Uzere until 1925 when he entered Awka in 1926 to train as a
Catechist and was succeeded at Uzere by Apena, who was also to enter Awka in 1920, with
Ockya. When the three of them returned from Awka, they assisted the reinforcement of
white missionaries dispatched to the Isoko country in the early 30’s.
By 1930/31, there were no less than three white missionaries (one with his wife) at
Oleh: O.N. Gerrard (and wife), J.W. Hubbard and James W. Welch. At the same time, at
Bethel where in 1931 the C.M.S. built a medical and social welfare centre as well as Girls’
Training Home, two female white missionaries, Misses Dorothy Jewith and Margaret B.
Sheath, were serving.
The movement in Isoko C.M.S. Church which was the counterpart of the Erhi
movement in the Urhobo speaking section, originated in the early 30’s at Araya, one of the
important C.M.S. centres. One Adam, though illiterate, was a choir master. He gathered a
group of choristers around him and continued to sing. Because his music and preaching
methods were unorthodox he also initially received opposition from the institutionalised
church. He was opposed by the hierarchy of the church, notably Gerrard, since he preached
against “class fees”. But when much later the church officials discovered how powerful his
preaching was, and how he pulled crowds by his music to harvest festivals which he attended
and consequently increased proceeds, and how many traditionalists were converted because
of his preaching, he was not only tolerated, but recognised as an Evangelist. His group,
however, avoided the excesses of the type of Ishoshi Erhi where some members went literally
99
insane.
In 1931, Kidd retired from Sapele District. Before his departure, the Urhobo
congregations presented a petition to the Yoruba Mission through him, asking to be included
with the Niger Diocese so that they could be administered with their Isoko brethren, who as
had been indicated, had at the time no less than five white missionaries and Ibo pastors
serving them.
Kidd urged that the request be granted, and admitted that it was an experiment joining
the Urhobo to the Yoruba, and since for the past twelve years, no effective missionary work
was done in their midst, the experiment failed. Provided the Niger Mission agreed to receive
them, the Yoruba Mission would gladly hand them over. After all, Jones had complained that
Lagos took the Urhobo work over as an added responsibility when no other Mission was
prepared to have them.
As from 1932, therefore, Urhobo interior was administered with Isoko, James Welch
came to reside at Ughelli in 1932. Warri and neighborhood, where Thomas was succeeded
98
See C.M.S. Report: 1921-22.
99
The Adam’s movement, popularly known as Usi Woma (Iyere Esiri) “Good news”, is now a very powerful and virile section of
the Anglican Diocese of Benin, Adam himself holding the Bishop’s licence as a Diocesan lay Reader.
155
by Sabine in 1932, continued the dying link, until 1934, when it was separated from Yoruba.
But Sapele District, where Akande took over from Kidd, never did.
Conclusions
The period 1914-34 for the Niger Delta Pastorate and C.M.S. in Urhobo was a period
of struggling, of disappointed hopes, and of groping in “blissful ignorance”. As has been
reiterated, Isoko, which the Niger Diocese through the instrumentality of Aitken took over,
enjoyed effective supervision and evangelisation; whilst the Urhobo did not. It is not to be
wondered at, therefore, that Anglican Christianity is even today more firmly rooted in Isoko
than in Urhobo.
The remarkable thing about the whole situation, however, is that despite the conflicts
for instance between Ebossa and his retinue on the one hand, and J. C. C. Thomas with is
supporters on the other, there was no return to the traditional religion. If there were
breakaways from the C.M.S., they were no lapses into Urhobo Religion. It was only another
brand of Christianity, and indeed one which claimed to be more Christian than
institutionalised Christianity, one which claimed that it was going back to pristine
Christianity, that emerged. 100
But because of the neglect of Bishop Johnson’s converts, when other denominations
came they made successful inroads into Urhobo giving rise to splinter groups or secessions
from the C.M.S. in Urhoboland, a pattern that could not be achieved with as much success in
Isoko.
Denominational Developments
One of the consequences of the C.M.S. neglect of the work in Urhobo was the
emergence of myriads of denominations. First were the Roman Catholics, through a
resuscitation of the moribund Roman Catholicism at Warri. Warri became a springboard
from where R.C.M. Fathers and workers plunged into Urhoboland. A common effective
weapon was the campaign that the Roman Catholic was the only truly Catholic Church. The
ignorant converts of Bishop Johnson’s agents who did not know what “Catholic” meant were
often convinced that by repeating “The Holy Catholic Church” in the Apostles’ Creed
without belonging to the Roman Catholic Church, they were contradicting themselves.
Second were the Baptists. At first they evinced a capacity to tolerate much of Urhobo
culture, like the apparent condoning, if not obvert “baptising” of Esemo worship, and
acceptance of polygamy. Both these practices, as has been indicated, could not easily be
repudiated. Their acceptance or toleration therefore made the Baptist Church as attractive
Church to embrace.
Third was the African Bethel Church. It started in Yorubaland, for the same reason, if
with different results, for which Christian Ogboni (later Reformed Ogboni Fraternity) was
started by Ogunbiyi. 101 Nationalism was the controlling motif. After the death of Crowther
in 1891, the C.M.S. authorities who considered him a failure, resolved never to appoint
another African a bishop in the near future. 102 Consequently, James Johnson, himself an
African nationalist to the core, who was expected to succeed Crowther, was not only denied
100
This brand of Christianity now flowers in Pentecostalism -- the Aladura or Alleluia Churches.
101
See E.. A. Ayandele, Missionary Impact on Modern Nigeria, p. 271 ff.
102
Ibid. pp.122ff.
156
the post of a bishop, but was ignominiously made a half bishop; but worse still and to the
great displeasure of his admirers in Lagos, he was virtually forced by Tugwell to the Niger
103
Delta. His movement there enabled him to bring Christianity to many of the Urhobo by
organising the Christian communities at Warri and Sapele. But it so infuriated his Lagos
admirers that they walked out of Breadfruit Church and formed the African Bethel Church in
1901.That Church should have fostered the aspirations of Africa and her culture. But only
one aspect, the practice of polygamy, was adhered to. Apart from African leadership, and the
sanctioning of polygamy, the African Bethel Church was a replica of the Church of England.
But when it came to Urhoboland, African leadership, which was not necessarily, and very
often not, Urhobo leadership, was not what recommended her to the people. It was the
sanctioning of polygamy. But ironically, the African Church then or now, did not command
as much respect and membership ad did the C.M.S.
The later rise of three splinter groups, such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the God’s
Kingdom Society, and later still, some Pentecostalists, was consequent upon a one-sided
emphasis and interpretation of scriptures. But they did not take as many members from the
C.M.S. as did the Roman Catholic Mission, the Baptists and the African Church, who also
distorted some aspects of scriptures to their own advantage. But they succeeded particularly
because the C.M.S. did not care for the converts of Bishop Johnson’s agents. In the Isoko
section, where the C.M.S. Niger Mission took charge of the work from 1914 onwards, the
new comers were not able to make much progress.
103
See Sunday Times, Sept. 26, 1971 p.10
157
Chapter 8
Establishment of Roman Catholic Mission and

Other (non-C.M.S.) Christian Missions in
1
Urhobo and Isoko
Samuel U. Erivwo
St. Andrews (Anglican Communion) Cathedral, Warri
The Growth of Roman Catholicism in Urhobo and Isoko
Early Years, 1916-1929
The Roman Catholic Mission (R.C.M.) was resuscitated in Western Niger Delta in the
second decade of the twentieth century. During the period 1914-19, it was placed on a firm
footing by the efforts of Cavagnera, an Italian Father, and Olier, a French, both of whom
were sent by Bishop Broderick from Asaba, the headquarters of the R.C.M. in Nigeria at that
time. It was not until after 1916, however, that Roman Catholicism penetrated the hinterland,
through the work especially of J.A. Eyube, an Itsekiri from Igbogidi, with an Urhobo mother
from Ekiugbo, Ughelli.
Eyube was attending the Government School at Warri which was under Protestant
influence when he and his colleagues were converted by Cavagnera in 1913. They were
converted by the argument that the Holy Catholic Church which they had so long been
repeating in the Apostles’ Creed was none other than the Roman Catholic Church.
Consequently when Eyube came to Ekiugbo in 1917 to visit his mother who was stricken
with illness, Olier baptised her as a Roman Catholic. Thereafter he proceeded to Ovwo to
convert a relation, one D.F. Sadjere, from the Niger Delta Pastorate, by the same argument of
2
the Holy Catholic Church.
Sadjere’s conversion was so thorough that his uncle, Chief Ovedje, who desired him to be a
polygamist, proved antagonistic. But Sadjere, in the bid to avoid being coerced to life of
polygamy, packed bag and baggage and fled to a neighbouring town, Ophorigbala, where
he was baptised in December 1921. He returned to organise a Roman Catholic Church at
Ovwo, at a time when Eyube was doing a similar thing for Ekiugbo.
Meanwhile, Roman Catholic Churches were springing up in other places, at Igbogidi,
Ophori in Agbarho, Oguname, Ovu, and Evwreni. At Evwreni, the Church was introduced by
one M. Pinnick around 1917. But Pinnick died shortly after, and Sadjere was posted to
Evwreni as Catechist in 1921. From Evwreni, he not only supervised other churches which
had emerged in Ewu, Arhavwarien and its neighbourhood, but also received and instructed
inquirers who came from Illue Ologbo in Isoko. While Sadjere was active in this area, Eyube
stationed at Ughevwughe, was organising the churches in Igbogidi, Ughievwe, Polomu, and
Ughelli areas. As more hands were needed for this kind of organisation and
1
Culled from Chapters 4, 5, 6 & 7 of Erivwo, Samuel U. 1979. A History of Christianity in Nigeria: The Urhobo, the Isoko, and the
Itsekiri. Ibadan: Daystar Press.
2
Interview with D.F. Sadjere, a retired Catechist, aged 80, at Ovwo, 15 April, 1971
.
supervision of churches, aspirants who wanted to help in this way were given some training
by Eyube at Igbogidi.
In Western Urhobo, now Ethiope Local Government Area, Ovu became a centre of
activities. Here the faith was introduced by one J.E.E. Enaohwo, who converted the African
3
Bethel Church there to R.C.M. in January 1921. Next to Ovu is Eku where the R. C. M.
was introduced at about the same time by one Peter U. Inweh, of Okurekpo, after an ugly
incident in which at Christmas time he and his followers beat up Aganbi and seceded from
the C.M.S. 4At Ephron the R.C.M. was introduced by one Okpikimu in 1927. Okpikimu
had Stephen Umurie, who was to be the first Urhobo Roman Catholic priest, as second in
command. Between them they organised the church here, and invited especially young
children to catechism.
Roman Catholicism was carried to Okwagbe by Obudu, Ganagana, Irorobayeghie, and
Okopheghe in 1924, three years after the C.M.S. had been brought by Babeido. Here, and in
many other places where Roman Catholicism was introduced in Urhobo, there seemed to
5
have been mutual understanding between traditionalists and the converts. This should
not be surprising because, as has been shown, Roman Catholicism did not reach the
hinterland until after 1916, which was the year of great persecution. According to
Ganagana, whenever Okwagbe town suspended Okpa (palm nut collecting) and intended to
resume it, it was done on any day but Sunday so that Christians could participate. Even
during esemo worship, says Ganagana, no attempt was made to persuade Christians at
Okwagbe to take part. Food prohibited by edjo, or even those held sacred by the entire
community, were eaten with impunity by the Christians. A number of esedjo, we are told,
even released their children to go to church while they themselves declared:
Avware rue amenasherire. 6
We are already too deep in the water.
Much later in this period, the Christians at Okwagbe were called upon to destroy
anyedijo which proved unhelpful. Thus, in the period just before 1961 three e djo were
destroyed on the invitation of the people. These were Eloho for fertility, Arigbo for
protection against lions and other carnivores, and Igegen for war. Although the Christians at
Okwagbe gave this as an example of cordiality between Christians and traditionalists, the
invitation to destroy these edjo can be accounted for on other grounds. A few hospitals and
maternity homes had been built to make the people less dependent on Eloho. 7 Similarly,
lions and other carnivores were scarcely now existing in Urhoboland, nor were there inter-
clan wars any more to require the help of Igegen. If a different situation arose, the civil war,
for instance, those who had allegedly turned their backs on traditional medicines might call
for a resuscitation of Igegen. It is, however, alleged that Okwagbe who had become aware
of the possible blessings forfeited by their forbears’ legendary rejection of Crowther,
cooperated with the various denominations, not least with the Roman Catholics, when the
3
A souvenir in honour of the ordination of Rev. Father C. F. Obieh, 29 December, 1968, pp.3ff.
4
Arawore, typed script 5, June, 1971.
5
Interview with Ganagana, one of the founders of R.C.M. (aged 80), at Okwagbe, 12 April, 1971.
6
Interview with Ganagana
7
The provision of these amenities was due to the emergence of Christianity and the philanthropy of missionaries. For example, Eku
Baptist Hospital, was opened and operated by American Baptist missionaries
.
160
Establishment of Roman Catholic Mission…
new faith was introduced there. The period 1916-29 thus witnessed a rapid spread of Roman
Catholicism among the Urhobo.
In the Isoko section, Roman Catholicism was neither as widespread nor as deep rooted
as in Urhobo. Roman Catholicism reached Isoko in 1918, six years after the arrival of the
C.M.S. At Uzere (Uze), the C.M.S. had been introduced by Eda. But when one Alexander
Obuseri, an ex-service man from Ase, paid one B. Adaka of Uze a visit, both of them
attended the only church then at Uzere. Since Alexander was a Roman Catholic, he made a
sign of the cross -- a sign unknown to the Protestants, and viewed by them as
savouring of Edjo practice. Alexander was therefore expelled from the Church. He was
followed by his host, Adaka, and others -- M. Osa Oboravo, G. Oriege Egoro, P. Obra Otefe
etc. They started a Roman Catholic Church adjacent to the C.M.S. compound.
From Uzere, the R.C.M. spread to the rest of Isoko. Through one Odhu, it reached
Illue-Ologbo, from where one G. Okoloko who had separated from the C.M.S. at Ozoro,
took it. Together with one Erimu, a fellow secessionist from the C.M.S., Okoloko erected a
hut at Alla Square in Ozoro for a place of worship. 8
In 1922, according to Itugbu, who claimed to be the first Roman Catholic Catechist in
Isoko, one Stub, a Rev. Father from Asaba, visited Ozoro and baptised a few persons in
Erimu’s house. In that same year, Itugbu, who had been educated at Onitsha, was made a
Catechist, and placed in charge of a number of Roman Catholic churches in Isoko which
was at that time under Warri Parish. 9 Itugbu, stationed at Olomoro, said he supervised
Olomoro, Ofagba, Orien, Oleh, Irri, Ellu, Ovrode, Adadje, Oyode, Ewekpaka, Emede, and
even Uzere. He mentioned B. Adaka, S. Ovuoronye, and P. Omonyowoma, as others who
were his contemporaries in the field, while L. Ojakovo of Iyede, and M. Isololo of Uzere,
both of whom trained at Asaba under Broderick, taught the new converts at Ozoro, which
later became the headquarters of R.C.M. work in Isoko.
Method of Evangelisation
As must be clear by now, unlike the Protestant Churches, Roman Catholics did not
depend on open air preaching to win members to their fold. Their method was a less
emotional and more subtle one of appealing to individuals at their places of work and
wherever they were met, to come to Church. This method was used extensively later by
members of a particular society -- the Society of the Legion of Mary. Secondly, any
traditionalist who was at the point of death was quickly approached and offered baptism.
Once baptised, if he happened to recover, he generally became attached to the Church. In this
way, Sadjere, during his tenure of office as Catechist, between 1921 and 1964, with a break
from 1934-54, administered private baptism to the sick on the average of twelve per year!
Although some of them lapsed, many became faithful.
A third and more significant method employed to win converts was the school. True,
the C.M.S. antedates the R.C.M in Urhobo, but it was the latter, which by 1935 planted
schools in myriads of Urhobo villages and towns in most of which places the C.M.S.
maintained only worshipping congregations. As pupils flocked to schools they were coaxed
or compelled to attend the Roman Catholic Church. For instance, B. M. Ogagan of Ephron,
who as a boy attended the African Church introduced by Omofeye, crossed tot he Roman
Catholic Church at Warri when in 1924, he enrolled in an R.C.M. School there. S. Umurie,
8
Interview with S. Itugbu, one of the earliest R.C.M. Catechists, aged c. 100, at Ozoro, 14 and 20 August, 1971.
9
Isoko was later in 1929 placed under Arhagba (Orogun) parish, and in 1937 under Ashaka parish.
161
who, in 1927, was assisting Okpikimu at Ephron, gave Ogagan and his colleagues written
commendation as testimony of their attendance at Church when the Church was introduced
to Ephron. Failure to tender such notes at school on Mondays earned the youngsters more
than a few strokes. 10 Umurie painstakingly carried out this ministry of ensuring which of
the children were regular at such services, and which were not, until 1928 when he entered
St. Thomas’s Teacher Training College, Ibuzor.
The School was thus used as an effective instrument of evangelisation. Hence at
Okwagbe, where the C.M.S. preceded the R.C.M., it was also the latter which, with a
characteristic competitive spirit, introduced a school in 1932. This was through the help of
Father Kelly, then stationed at Warri. The significance attached by Roman Catholics to
schools cannot be over emphasised. There was the firm belief that once the children were
converted, the continuity of Roman Catholicism in the land would be assured. The stratagem
of the Roman Catholic authorities appeared to be “instruct the child in the way to go, and
when he is old, he will not depart from it”. Once they had a child for the first seven years of
his life, they were generally sure that he would remain a Roman Catholic forever.
The process of “Roman Catholicising” did not end with the alluring invitation to attend
school; it was sustained by an offer of baptism and promoted by encouragement to attend
confessions regularly once baptised, and to be present at Mass without fail. This contrasted
sharply with the C.M.S. practice where after baptism even of adults, the baptised were
expected to wait for at least another two years before confirmation, without which they were
not qualified to participate in the Lord’s Supper. The Roman Catholic approach was surely
more effective, and in a situation where the C.M.S. was not very active, as in the Urhobo
section, the former stood to gain.
After the initial penetration of the hinterland the question of organisation of the
churches became urgent. From what has been said, it is evident that the authorities were at
first satisfied to place newly baptised converts as Catechists in charge of young churches.
Hence, as we have seen, Sadjere became a Catechist at Evwreni after his baptism, as was the
case with Itugbu at Olomoro. But as yet all the young churches were under a single Parish --
11
Warri Parish. For, apart from Orogun (Arhagba) Parish created in 1919, there
was no other parish in the hinterland. From Warri the pioneer Rev. Fathers, like Cavagnera,
Olier, and their successors came to itinerate the Urhobo, Isoko, and Ijo countries. Their
itineration was obviously attended with grave difficulties. For, covering a vast area as it did,
it necessarily lasted for weeks and sometimes months.
Before their arrival in any town, the Catechists went as harbingers to prepare the
converts. On the arrival of the priest, candidates were presented for baptism, confessions
were made, and Holy Mass said. The Catechists were therefore placed on strategic points
only to hold the fort pending the arrival of a priest, whose visits needed to be frequent if the
work of evangelisation was to be thorough. But covering a large area as they did, and with
the scarcity of priests, these visits could not be but far between. There was therefore a dire
need for more priests and more parishes.
Up till 1921, Father G. Kraught was alone at Warri, but in December of that year,
two young Irish priests, Fathers J. Cadogan and P. J. Kelly, were sent to assist him. Eku
Parish was consequently created in 1922, and Kelly was stationed there as the resident priest.
From here he itinerated and supervised Eku, Ovu, and Sapele areas. Under his leadership an
R.C.M. Church was planted in the Urhobo village of Ovu in 1922. Eku Parish, was, however,
short lived. Kelly moved to Sapele in 1925. The decision to leave Eku was
10
Interview with B. M. 9 Ogagan, at Ephron,16 December 1969.
11
Interview with Monisgnor Umurie, at Ughelli, 11 April 1971
162
consequent upon the decline of the R.C.M. there. After the introduction of the Baptist Church
and the subsequent conflicts of 1927, Roman Catholic membership at Eku dwindled even
further. The unavailability of properly trained workers, especially indigenous and capable
priests who could compete effectively with the Baptists, for instance, was no doubt a
contributory factor to the decline of Roman Catholicism at Eku.
The Later Period 1929-61
To meet the need for priests, particularly indigenous ones, there was a major
breakthrough in 1929. In that year, it was said, Umurie implored the Principal of Ibuzor
Teacher Training College to recommend him to the seminary. He was 12 happily
recommended to the seminary at Asaba, from where the students later transferred to Benin.
After thirteen years of training in the seminary, he was ordained on 20 December 1942, the
first Urhobo Rev. Father.
At his ordination, despite the acute shortage of money which was consequent upon the
continuing world war, the Urhobo Roman Catholics expressed their joy by presenting him
13
with as much as £26. 8:9d. Furthermore, they gave him a charge to keep. He was to
be for ever conscious of the important role he started henceforth to assume. In the words of
their Welcome Address:
You are now for the public as the Master did and commanded to be done. In
the execution of your official duties, we are brimful of confidence that you
will certainly follow the Lord’s splendid examples… Obedience, Humility,
Diligence, Tactfulness and other essence of good qualities which hitherto
endear and make you lovable, should still be borne in mind and practised
continuously. 14
Although the number of priests at Warri had now increased by one, it was still not
possible to create more parishes in the hinterland until 1945, when one was granted to
Ozoro, and another to Okpara in 1947. In the case of Ozoro, there was even no resident
priest until 1953. Ughelli, which was the only other parish created before the end of the
period, had a resident priest at the close of 1954, with one Styles as the first priest, followed
in 1955 by R.O. ‘Regan who first organised the parish on a proper footing.15
Part of the difficulty of creating more parishes in the hinterland, was, as has been
shown, the unavailability of priests, which was in turn partly a result of World War II, which
resulted in the withdrawal of as many as five priests from the Warri area. But it was also
partly because no indigenous priests had been trained. Although Father Umurie was at Warri
from 1943 to 46, he could not alone make up for the loss of five priests. Catechists and other
lay helpers therefore carried out much of the work in the hinterland. It is in this connection
that the Urhobo Catholic General Committee (U.C.G.C.) calls for attention.
12
See U.C.G.C.-Welcome Address to Umurie, on his ordination, 20 December 1942
13
Although today this sum appears paltry, then its value was infinitely greater. Ephron NDP Church could raise, for a period of a
year, only £47: 8: 4d during the First World War.
14
Welcome Address by the Urhobo Roman Catholics to Umurie, on 20 December 1942. Since his ordination, he has served at
Ashaka 1943. Warri 1943-6, Kabba 1946-8, Lokoja 1949, Warri 1949-51, Ogwachuku 1951-8, and Ibuzor 1958-64.
15
Interview with Biakolo, a retired Catechist, aged 60, at Otughievwe, 18 August 1971.
163
Urhobo Catholic General Committee (U.C.G.C.) 16
This body was, from the laity’s view point, a vital functionary in the government of the
Church. It concerned itself with the discipline, correction and encouragement of weak
Roman Catholics. Its chief aim was to work for the growth of Roman Catholicism in the
Urhobo area. For this reason, this body also interested itself inter alia in settling disputes
and disagreements among married couples, and between the laity and the priests. For
instance, it investigated a case between one James Adjani and Clara, his wife, as it did in
another case of an anonymous and scandalous letter in which two priests, Heally and Umurie,
were accused of various malpractices. In the latter case after a meticulous investigation the
unknown writer was identified as one Oghrere, and on admitting that his accusations were
17
unfounded and based on hearsay, he was disciplined.
In the Adjari-Clara case, the cause of dispute was a complaint by Clara of her
husband’s inability to consummate their marriage, a statement denied by the husband but
used by the wife with the support of her father to justify her meeting other men, and
dissolving the marriage. This case provides an example of the stresses which resulted from
the African setting of Christianity. In the African context Clara would have had no difficulty
in deserting her husband and marrying another man, once she was satisfied, and could
convince her father, that her first husband was incapable of playing the man. But the
Christian faith, particularly the Roman Catholic brand of it, did not permit divorce on any
score. And this was a veritable, indeed an insurmountable, difficulty for the U.C.G.C. which
18
had no alternative but to refer it to the Bishop.
This participation of the laity in Church work designated “Catholic Action” was a
policy which the U.C.G.C. pursued vigorously. As will subsequently be shown, this body also
concerned itself with translation work. Its functions were therefore clearly varied and vital.
For the purpose of its working and of organising the Roman Catholic Church among Urhobo
speakers, Urhobo area was divided into eight sub division: Urhiephron , Adagbrassah,
Agbadu (Agbarho), Olomu, Ewu, Ogelle, Oginibo, and Ephron.
The Committee which at first met only at Urhiephron later decided to rotate its
meetings to each of the sub-divisions. But when the Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Kelly, learnt of this
decision, he, to the amazement of the Committee, vehemently opposed it, apparently because
the Bishop was informed that the Committee’s rotational meeting adversely affected
attendance at Mass when a priest was at Ughelli to offer Holy Mass. The Bishop
consequently decreed that the meeting should hold only either at Warri or Okpara Inland,
neither of which places was included in the eight sub-divisions.
The U.C.G.C. wrote several letters 19to the Bishop to explain their own position and
affirm their common intention of promoting Roman Catholicism in the area, and of carrying
out Catholic Action. The Bishop remained adamant for a long time, arguing that Catholic
Action was better pursued through Societies like the Legion of Mary. More through the
persistence of the Committee than by his own volition, he eventually yielded but gave the
Committee certain provisos. First, a priest must always be present at meetings to say Holy
Mass for the members. Secondly, no member should leave his town for the Committee
16
It was also designated “Urhobo General Catholic Committee”.
17
See U.C.G.C.-Anonymous letter to Bishop Kelly, Benin City,17 September 1943.
18
See U.C.G.C.-Tuedor to Bishop Kelly, 17 August 1943.
19
See for example U.C.G.C. petition to Kelly on venue of Church Committee meetings, 15 May 1951.
164
meeting if a priest is visiting his town for Mass. And thirdly, no bad Catholics should become
active members of the U.C.G.C.
The U.C.G.C. has since then been a very powerful organ of the Roman Catholic
Church in Urhobo, an organ through which the works of evangelisation, translation, and
reconciliation have been carried out. Despite the hierarchy’s initial doubt of its usefulness,
Catholic Action has since then been effectively pursued through it.
The Legion of Mary
Apart from the U.C.G.C., Catholic Action also found expression in a Society like the
Legion of Mary. This Society was founded by Fanrank Duff in Ireland in 1921. It was not
until 1931 that it was introduced to Warri from where it reached the hinterland thorough
Biakolo in 1943. The Legionaries moved from house to house convincing fallen Roman
Catholics to repent and come back to the Church. They not only administered baptism to
dying “pagans” but persuaded Protestants to become Roman Catholics. According to
Biakolo, this lay organisation was geared specifically to the evangelisation of the masses. 20
Furthermore, the Legion of Mary among the Urhobo was concerned about
safeguarding the authentic teaching of the Church. Hence, when the members at Warri felt
that a Catechist named Ukoli was disseminating teaching which they deemed repugnant to
the Church’s position, especially with regards to interpretation that the Catechist gave the
Lord’s Prayer, the Legionaries, in a missive addressed to the U.C.G.C. expressed their deep
concern and urged that an immediate stop be put to the teaching. 21
The Legionaries demanded that “all Urhobo Catholics” should agree on a common and
acceptable translation of “the Lord’s Prayers”. They22requested their brethren in the
hinterland to send members to instruct and advise on their erring -- “preaching” to rather than
“catechising” the Christians. Moreover, those at Warri indicated that an earlier translation of
the Lord’s Prayer in the first edition of the Catechism, which Bishop Kelly also approved of,
was to be preferred to the one in use. Together with the hinterlanders, they desired to appeal
23
“in the Urhobo Voice in general” to the Bishop for a peaceful
settlement of the misunderstanding and a curbing of the heretical tendencies, if the present
Catechist was not to be dismissed. In English the Catechist’s translation would literally read:
Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed is thy name thy Kingdom is come (or has
come), thy will being done on the earth as it is in heaven. For today give us your
food for each day that is ours.
The concern of the Legionaries about authentic Roman Catholic teaching is

unmistakable and laudable. Uniformity of purpose and meaning in prayers and teaching was
indeed a prerequisite for a young Church in need of growth, a Church which must therefore
be wary of uncertain doctrines and fluctuating interpretations. For to do otherwise, to permit
20
Interview with Biakolo, a retired Catechist, aged 60, at Otughievwe, 18 August 1971.
21
Ukoli’s translation of the Lord’s Prayer, as given by the Legionaries, reads: “ Oser’avbare to h’ oju ywu, Ogho ho de we wie re
rhere Ohore we eruovb a kponakeroba to he phaubogyuew. Orinomekavbaeemure re kedekederawbare,…”
22
U.C.G.C.: J. Akusu (President, Legion of Mary, Warri) to T. Tuedor, (U.C.G.C. Secretary), 1 December 1944. Cf. Bishop
Tugwell’s letter where the Bishop made a similar point in the case of the N.D.P. in 1914.
23
U.C.G.C.: J. Akusu (President, Legion of Mary, Warri) to T. Tuedor, (U.C.G.C. Secretary), 1 December 1944.
165
cross purposes and diversified interpretations, was to be tossed about by ever wind of
doctrine --a pattern which would have been ruinous to the young Church and the struggling
converts who as yet needed no more than milk.
Translation Work
The Ukoli-Legionaries conflict underlined the necessity for a translation Committee

whose translation of prayers or catechism would be accepted as authoritative and final.
24
The work of translation had started early in the twenties. For, like the other
denominations, the Roman Catholics needed to translate some songs, prayers and the
catechism at least, if not the Mass, into Urhobo for the benefit of the illiterate converts. The
Mass had always, till very recently, been said only in Latin. Igbogidi, where Eyube trained
Catechists, became the first centre of translation. When in 1924 he was transferred to Ophori
Agbarho, the translation committee, over which he presided, moved its activities
there. In that year Little Key of Heaven was translated under the title Umusiavwre
R’Odjuvwu. It contained about forty prayers. At about this same time, a few songs were also
translated, although the Urhobo versions were seldom used during Church services. The
translation centre later moved to Ovu, where the catechism was translated and published in
1929 under the title Catechism r’Uyonor’Christianeheverevbe ‘Urhobo.
It was not until much later that a second form of the Catechism was translated and
published on 22 ndMarch 1954. The laity largely undertook this work, although as Bishop
Kelly indicated, it was necessary to submit any translation made to a priest who is adroit in
the English language for vetting. 25If there was a priest who was not only erudite in English
but was also an Urhobo indigene, accuracy in translation would have been guaranteed.
Because there were no such priests yet, the translations could not be regarded as classic.
Hence it was possible for men like Ukoli to give their own interpretations, and for frequent
changes to be made in earlier translations.
In this kind of situation the need to train indigenous workers as catechists and priests
was urgent. For indigenous and well trained catechists and priests would not only be in a
better position to impart the correct and acceptable teaching of the church to her members;
their presence could also make for the indigenisation of the church in such a way as to avert
the kind of friction which sometimes occurred between white missionaries and local
Christians. 26
To create funds for the training of priests, a period of about four weeks, beginning
from Trinity Sunday, was set apart for collecting two shillings or more from each Church
member. This levy was designated “seminary collection” and used by the Bishop for the
training of indigenous priests. In this regard, Father Heally, in one of his general letters to the
Urhobo Churches, declared:
24
See E.M. Howell, Nigerian Baptist Leaders and their contributions (D. Th. Baptist Theological Seminary, Texas, 1956) p. 146.
Surprisingly, Howell thought that Aganbi was the first to commit the Urhobo language to writing and only in 1948! He was
evidently ignorant of the fact that as early as 1914, the Lord’s Prayer had been translated to Urhobo, under the guidance of Bishop
Tugwell.
25
See U.C.G.C. Bishop Kelly to Tuedor 11th June 1951.
26
Itugbu narrated an incident where, in 1937 when Isoko was under Ashaka Parish, the local Christians at Ozoro had a scuffle with
one Rev. Father Mahon over harvest money. The local Christians argued that the money was being taken away to develop another
area. An indigenous Rev. Father would perhaps have understood the situation and explained to the people in a language they
understand.
166
“Let all stations in Urhobo know that the time for “Seminary Collection” will be closed.
There are many towns and villages where no contribution has yet been made. Yet you all
know and understand the necessity of a native priesthood”.
27
The recognition of this necessity also impelled the U.C.G.C. to write to the Bishop of
Asaba-Benin Vicariate through Heally. The Committee raised the question of the need for a
resident priest in the hinterland. The presence of a priest was vital, they argued, “in order to
make the propagation of faith (sic) more effective”. Again the U.C.G.C. prepared a
memorandum embodying their demand which it sent to the Bishop. It appeared, however,
that the Committee was asking for any priests, and not particularly for indigenous ones,
which were as yet, apart from Umurie, non-existent. Heally, through whom the letter to the
Bishop was forwarded, gave a discouraging, if realistic, reply. The extreme scarcity of priests
consequent on the continuing war, and the doubtful ability of the Urhobo to support a priest
needed to be carefully considered. He reminded them that if they must have a priest, then
they needed a residential house for him. What was more, the Urhobo were not, according to
him, even able, from their meagre collection, to support their catechists, let alone a priest.
They should therefore, until possibly after the war, depend on the newly created Ozoro
Parish, only eighteen miles away from Ughelli. But even the new Parish was to have no priest
28
for a long time.
In view of the desire of the Urhobo for a resident priest Heally in his letter appealing
for Seminary Collection trusted that they would not only contribute generously but also find
“good boys who are willing to go there to become priests, and girls to become nuns”. 29 For
it was not enough to demand for a priest, it was even more important, and indeed imperative,
that indigenous youths should offer themselves for the priesthood. But one of the obvious
difficulties was the question of compulsory celibacy attaching to the Roman Catholic
priesthood. Another was the long period of training involved, during which time the trainee
30
was not only cut off from his relations but also virtually from the society.
It was bad enough that there was a dearth of priests, but worse still that suitable
catechists should be extremely few. In the Ughelli, Olomu, and Ephron areas no qualified
resident catechist existed between 1934 and 1954. The U.C.G.C. though painfully aware of
the reasons for the inadequacy of qualified catechists in these areas, wrote nonetheless to
Foley, the Father Superior, at Warri requesting for catechists. 31His obvious reaction was to
throw the ball into their court. If the people were able to suggest three suitable men he would
speedily test them and appoint them. He even offered to send any two willing young men for
a catechist training at Ashaka. But no suitable or qualified person was available for
appointment or for training.
27
U.C.G.C: J. Heally to Urhobo Churches, 20 June 1944.
28
See U.C.G.C. 1: J.J. Heally to Tuedor,21 April 1945.
29
See U.C.G.C. Heally to Tuedor, 7 May 1945
30
The long period of training had its advantages, however. Those who go through it are properly schooled in Christian Theology
and Philosophy.
31
See U..C.G.C. 1: Tuedor to Rev. Father Superior, 4 October 1946.
167
Since no other immediate solution was found, Biakolo 32had to itinerate those stations
(Ughelli, Ewu, Ephron, and Olomu) which were without catechist, in addition to those
stations under him in Ughievwe, until 1954 when Sadjere repented and was reappointed for
Ughelli and Olomu areas. Okpara, as has been shown, was sent a resident priest, though not
an indigene, on 25 October 1947, while Ughelli had to wait till after the forties. By the close
of the forties there were however, at least three indigenous persons from the Urhobo section
in seminaries, training for the priesthood.
Growth Towards Maturity
The new decade opened with a bright hope. The Vatican celebrated 1950 as a Holy
Year. Umurie was permitted by Kelly to go to Rome for celebrations connected with the
Holy Year. He therefore appealed to the Church members for financial aid with which to pay
his passage to Rome, which aid was readily given. When he returned to Warri, it was with
renewed vigour that he resumed his ministry. Consequently, Roman Catholicism witnessed
33
considerable growth numerically among Urhobo speakers throughout the
fifties, a fact attested to by M. J. Bane who wrote in 1955:
“In many towns pupils attending schools are now numbered in thousands. In Warri town
there are over 300 catechumens attending catechism in the evenings while more than
7,000 pupils attend Parish Schools. In Sapele more than 1,200 receive Holy Communion
34
on Easter and Christmas mornings”.
The growth was enhanced by the building of more schools, primary and secondary. A
secondary school, St. Peter Claver’s College, was opened at Aghalokpe in 1950; a Teachers’
Training College for girls (Queen of Apostles), to which was attached a minor nunnery, was
opened at Ughelli in 1954, when Ughelli Parish was also created. Mother Agnes, the first
Urhobo nun, was the Principal of the College. By 1960, when the Anglicans opened a Girls’
Secondary School at Ughelli, the Roman Catholics also opened one – Our Lady’s High
School – at Ephron.
In Isoko, after the granting of Ozoro Parish in 1945,it was not, as has been indicated,
until 1953 that the first resident Rev. Father, one Cavangh, arrived. Breslim, who succeeded
Cavangh, was the one who, according to Itugbu, caused two Colleges to be built: St. Joseph’s
Teachers’ Training College in 1954, and Notre Dame College in 1957. The latter was the
result of rivalry with the C.M.S. who in that same year built James Welch Grammar School
at Emevor. Before 1961, a new Church building was started at Ozoro, and a maternity home
set up. Ozoro has since then continued to function as the headquarters for all the Roman
Catholics in Isoko. And from here that Church has continued to struggle to
32
Biakolo was converted through an r.C.M.S. School at Ekakpamre in 1931. He was instructed by one Catechist Poe, and baptised in
1932. In 1933 he and others were to be confirmed by Bishop Broderick at Warri. But when Broderick arrived he was taken ill,
and so sent home. Kelly, the then Vicar-General of Asaba-Benin Vicariate, was authorised to perform the ceremony. Biakolo was
trained as a Catechist in 1935 by Father O’Connel, went to the field to work, and passed his final catechist examination in 1945-
Interview with Biakolo, 18 August, 1971.
33
It is important to emphasise that although there was numerical growth, and a few persons were also training for the priesthood, the
Roman Catholic liturgy like the Anglican, remained rigidly unindigenised.
34
M. J. Bane, Catholic Pioneers in West Africa (Clonmore and Reynolds, 1936), p. 169.
168
maintain her own in Isoko country. But in Isoko, the Anglicans, from whom members of the
R.C.M. separated, are still in a much stronger position. 35
Conclusion
The Roman Catholics had made considerable impact on Urhoboland by 1961,

especially through the building of schools. But their influence was felt more in the Urhobo
section than in Isoko. This was no doubt because of the gross neglect of C.M.S. work in the
former place. But it was also perhaps because Urhobo was nearer to the centre of activities
which for a long time was Warri. Apart from Orogun area, all other parts of Urhobo were
always under Warri Parish, until first Okpara, and then Ughelli had their own Parishes.
The Urhobo section did not therefore oscillate between one Parish and another as
happened in Isoko. By 1961, whereas there were already three Urhobo ordained Roman
Catholic priests -- Umurie, Obudu, and P. Enyowheoma -- there was none from Isoko, even
up till the time of writing. While there was still much to be done to supply adequate
personnel, the future of the R.C.M. was very promising. For by the end of the period nearly
ten young men were in seminaries training for the priesthood.
The Rise of the Baptists: 1917-1935
A. Omatsola, whose activities as agent under the Niger Delta Pastorate have been
traced, was the one who introduced the Baptist Mission to Urhoboland. As a result of the
discontent of the indigenous population (Urhobo and Itsekiri) with the foreign elements
(Sierra Leonians, Goldcoasters and Yoruba),Omatsola led a splinter group away from the
Niger Delta Pastorate Church, Sapele. Although E. M. Howell in his Thesis fails to recognise
36
the move as a secession from an existing Anglican body, Omatsola and those
37
with him knew that theirs was a calculated secession from the Niger Delta Pastorate,
motivated inter alia by three factors: a resentment against foreign domination; a desire to
become polygamous; and acrimony over alleged misappropriation of church funds.
Subsequently, they moved to Lagos as a body to meet J. R. Williams, also an Anglican
turned Baptist, to seek admission into the Baptist Church and have a branch started at Sapele.
Although “it was38made clear to these brethren that they could not be
received into a Baptist Church as seeders from another denomination,” they were nonetheless
admitted as individuals on believing “as Baptists believe in regard to the teachings of the
39
Bible.
35
The Urhobo and Isoko Roman Catholics continued with Benin Diocese until 1964 when Warri Diocese was created, and Dr.
Lucas Nwaezeapu consecrated its first Bishop.
36
See E.M. Howell, Nigerian Baptist Leaders and their Contributions , a Thesis for D.Th. (South) Western Baptist Theological
Seminary, Forth Worth, Texas, May 1956), pp. 114-5. He says “the Christians at Sapele “were of several different faiths --
Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist. They formed what might be termed a community church without any denominational
affiliation. Whenever a clergyman of any faith came that way he was invited to preach . . . Bishop Johnson . . . was their most frequent
visitor.”
37
See J. A. Omatsola, Op.cit, p-3.
38
Ibid. According to Omatsola’s son, this was preceded by letters written to two missions, the Methodist and the Baptist. After
registering the letters the same day “prayers were offered . . that the first of the two that replied . . . would be the accepted one”. The
Baptist replied promptly, and so A. Omatsola moved to Lagos with his men.
39
Quoted from M. M. Duval by Howell op. cit, p. 115.
169
From Lagos they returned to Sapele to inaugurate the new Church. They later invited
Williams to Sapele. Accompanied by some elders of the First Baptist Church, Lagos,
William proceeded to Sapele to organise the Church there. Deacon I. O. Gilbert is reported to
have described the trip thus:
“As a result of the appeal of our brethren at Sapele to the First Baptist Church,
Lagos, Rev. Williams left Lagos on the 16th of July, 1917 to organise the Sapele
Mission taking with him several of his members. The trip proved a very
successful one. He baptised on the whole 313 candidates and on one occasion
during baptismal services there was a heavy rain and he was under it in the river
for two hours without any bodily injury.” 40
At Sapele, Omatsola started his Church with the building facing the river side in
imitation of the First Baptist Church, Lagos. About three years later, Omatsola, whose
theological training had been unnecessarily delayed when under the Niger Delta Pastorate,
was sent by the Baptists to Ogbomosho for a short course of six months in 1920, and was
ordained into “the Baptist Gospel Ministry in the First Baptist Church, Lagos” on April 4,
1921. 41
He returned to plant Baptist churches and schools in the majority of Urhobo towns with
that enthusiasm which had characterised his ministry under the Niger Delta Pastorate.
According to his son, it was through him that Baptist Churches were planted at Ogharefe,
Koko, Ogidigbe, Obitukpagha, Gdogoda, Ogheye, Abraka, Asagba of Okpe, Obiaroku,
Okwagbe in Ughievwe, Sakpoba, Ugborodo, Warri, Ugbimidaka, Oginibo, Ogiedi,
Adagbarasa, Jakpatie, Elume, Ikoro, Okparabe, Okpara, and Eku . In42the case of Eku,
however, Aganbi was the originator but Omastsola’s influence was there since it was to him
and Williams at Sapele that Aganbi applied.
It is not surprising that in a majority of the towns and villages, the emergence of Baptist
churches was by a wholesale conversion of existing C.M.S. Church members, or a carving
out of a substantial proportion of them to form the new Church. At Okwagbe, for instance, a
C.M.S. Church had been introduced by one Babaido in 1921; but when he and his members
found the C.M.S. regulations and demands too rigid and uncompromising, he went to Sapele
on hearing of Omatsola’s Baptist Church in which polygamists were admitted as full
members and appointed as leaders. He consequently converted the Okwagbe C.M.S. Church
to Baptist, until 1937 when one of the members, Cosin Uheri, felt that the C.M.S. approach
was better and so reverted to the C.M.S., carrying with him a good number of the Baptists.
43
Omatsola appointed untrained teachers for his Churches which, as a result, suffered the
same fate of wallowing in ignorance as did their C.M.S. counterparts. This not withstanding,
they grew rapidly in consequence of Omatsola’s enthusiasm which smacked of fanaticism.
When, for instance, in 1918, the year of the influenza, a medical doctor, called Adam,
ordered at Sapele that people were not to congregate, Omatsola defied the order and
continued to hold services. The result 44of his zeal was the rapid growth of his
40
E. M. Howell, op. cit, p. 116.
41
J. A. Omatsola, op. cit, p. 4.
42
See. J. A. Omatsola, op. cit, p-3.
43
Interview with Mr. Tagbara 100+, and his son Isaiah c. 40, the present headman of the C.M.S. Church, Okwagbe 12 April 1971.
44
Interview with Okitikpi at Sapele,16 April 1971.
170
congregations, the membership of which exceeded a thousand within a decade. The 45

Sapele Association was subsequently formed with Omatsola as Moderator. All the member
Churches of this Association jointly built a Church house, the present First Baptist Church,
Sapele, in 1933, following which incessant letters requesting for a resident missionary were
sent to Baptist Headquarters. In response to them, one Carson and his wife were sent to
Sapele in 1936 as the first resident Baptist missionaries there. It is not without justification
that Howell described Omatsola as “one of the greatest organisers that the Nigerian Baptist
Convention has had.” 46
As must be evident by now, before their missionaries came, one of the major attractions
to the Baptist Church was initial toleration of polygamists. It appeared also that initially the
Baptists did not firmly take as negative an attitude to ancestor veneration as did the C.M.S.
But according to Agbaluwa, a Baptist minister, the practice was never approved of “but
47
people being so used to it mixed it up a little”. Thus, many who enlisted in that
Church were at first able not only to keep their harems of wives but also to pay some
homage to their departed parents, 48both of which practices were not allowed by the C.M.S.
As the Baptist changed their attitude towards polygamy later, this attraction belonged only to
the first phase.
By the time a change of attitude occurred the Urhobo had had their own son as a
Baptist pastor. For however valuable the leadership of Omatsola, an Itsekiri, must have been,
49
they understandably preferred their own man. This was none other than Aganbi of
whom much has been related. 50After his primary school education at Warri and Sapele, he
was one of those who introduced “Christianity and Civilisation” to Eku. He had taught there
and at Sanubi under the C.M.S. until September 2, 1926, when he resigned and joined the
Baptist, and so turned down admission offered him by St. Andrews College, Oyo.
Back to Eku, Aganbi invited Richardson, an American Missionary, and Omatsola from
Sapele to Eku where they assembled the people to whom they expounded Baptist doctrines.
Thereafter Aganbi continued to organise a Baptist congregation at Eku. During the first
assembly he chose for his address the topic, “God is leading His People”, a topic which was
based on Psalm 25:4-5. There was no shadow of doubt in him that his resignation from the
C.M.S. was God-directed, even if Imoukhuede and the C.M.S. authorities viewed it as a
diabolical design.
To strengthen Aganbi in the secession, Richardson and Omatsola visited the new group
on 15th October 1926, and impressed on them to continue to study the Scriptures. On the
10th of November, Miss Neale C. Young and Miss Mary Perry also visited the congregation
to address the women folk on how to organise “a Women’s Missionary Union” and to study
51
the Bible.
45
See Howell, op. cit. p. 116.
46
Howell, op.cit. p. 116.
47
Interview with S. G. Agbaluwa of Bethel Baptist Sapele, c. 6001, April, 1971.
48
Interview with J. T. Ayorinde, the General Secretary, Baptist Church, Nigeria,23 March 1971.
49
According to Agbaluwa, before an Urhobo pastor came, the Baptists travelled from Eku and neighbourhood to Sapele, to be
instructed by Omatsola in Itsekiri. “They recited what they did not understand”
50
For more Biographical notes on Aganbi, See Howell, op. cit, pp136-146.
51
Howell, op.cit., p. 140.
171
As a result of Aganbi’s influence many C.M.S. members deserted and teamed up with
him as did some R.C.M. members. For Aganbi, it was God leading His people; for the
C.M.S., it was an act of treachery and rebellion which must be crushed. Consequently, the
Roman Catholics, also adversely affected, combined with the C.M.S. to reclaim their
members. An effective way of achieving this objective was by preventing the latest arrival
52
from acquiring land on which to build. Land suits were therefore brought against the
Baptists by the two denominations, supported by the Chiefs and Elders of Eku. These cases
lasted throughout 1927. As a result of the conflicts some former C.M.S. members retraced
their steps while others lapsed into idolatry.
Here the question was inevitable. What impression was Christianity making on the
Urhobo? How could Christians who were antagonistic to one another hope to win converts
from the traditional religion? And were they, on this showing, being true to their calling and
to their Master, who taught that a house divided against itself could not stand? What had they
learnt from the Scriptures where St. Paul charged the Corinthians never to bring their cases
to the secular law courts? If they had learnt so little, what had they to offer to the Urhobo
traditionalists who before the appearance of Christianity and European civilisation settled
family disputes only within the context of the family? Clearly, the Christians were here
belying their Faith. This animosity borne of bitter rivalry did not prove detrimental to the
cause of Christianity as might have been expected. As has been indicated, competitions, even
unhealthy ones, do often yield dividends. The Baptists not only emerged triumphant from the
conflict, but also later built a gigantic hospital which served all and sundry -- including even
the members of those denominations with whom they had had court cases.
The Baptists no doubt saw the action of the other (one could not say fellow) Christians,
as persecution; while the others viewed the Baptists who claimed to be teaching the only right
doctrines as intruders and intriguers, dissenters and deceivers from whom their members
lured away must be reclaimed. The later development of Eku, especially the provision of a
hospital for all, vindicated the Baptists’ dedication to service and to their Faith, even if
53
through the Hospital they hoped to win members from other denominations.
After the troubles of 1927, Aganbi entered Iwo Headmaster’s Course which he
completed after four years and proceeded to Ogbomosho Seminary for theological training
for another three. He came out in December 1934. Although both in the Yoruba country and
at Sapele, Baptist Churches in need of trained pastors’ asked for his services and attempted
to dissuade him from returning to the young congregation at Eku which could not pay his
salary, he was resolute to go to his own people.
“They (the Eku Baptists) may not be able to pay me anything but they are my
people, and I have given myself to serve them as long as the Lord shall lead”. 54
He resumed work at Eku in January 1935, and reactivated the work of the young
congregation which during his seven year absence had been cared for by Okotie Esekeghre,
Isiorho, Onanore, Akemu, and Itohwo. 55Aganbi was well aware of the inability of the Eku
52
See J.B. Webster, The African Churches among the Yoruba 1888-1922 (London, Clarendon Press, 1964). p. 108. The strategy of
the C.M.S. and the R.C.M. was the same one employed by the African Church at Idoani, near, Oyo, to maintain their existence
there. “Since the agreements were enforced through the denial of land to a second mission society the African Church could not be
compelled to abandon Idoani where it had already secured land owned by their local members.”
53
Names of patients who claimed to have accepted Christ when preached to at Eku hospital were sent to the pastor nearest to their
homes. If no Baptist pastor was near, the names could be sent to a pastor of another denomination.
54
Howell, op. cit, p. 144.
55
Interview with Okotie.
172
Baptists to pay his monthly salary. His resolution to serve his people, come wind come bad
weather, was nevertheless amply rewarded. Although he was paid only one shilling and six
pence every Edewo, his services were paid for in kind by the members who frequently
cleared his farms and provided him and his wife with foodstuff. Furthermore, when the
Carsons, the missionaries at Sapele, observed the pioneering and persevering spirit of
Aganbi, they approached the Parkview Baptist Church, Portsmouth, Virginia, in the United
States to take up payment of his salary. This continued until Eku Baptist congregation grew
and on becoming financially viable was organised into a Church in 1936. Thereafter it took
over the responsibility of paying Aganbi’s salary.
Organisation
Because the planters of Baptist churches in Urhoboland were originally members of

C.M.S. Churches, the pattern of organisation was initially Anglican: much was left to the
imagination and initiative of the founders, until missionaries arrived. Thus, as in the C.M.S.,
income was realised by levying contribution of three pence per month (or three shillings per
year) per female and six pence per month (or six shillings per year) per male. Class registers
were called during services to ascertain those fulfilling their financial obligations to the
Church. This slow process continued until 1942-3 when the whole machinery of the Baptist
56
Churches was overhauled, and the tithe system introduced. Harvests, which were not a
normal practice of the Baptists, were also introduced through the influence of Williams. 57
Although some written prayers were used at first, this practice was quickly abandoned for the
exclusive use of extempore prayers which is characteristic of Baptist Church services. This
had a great attraction for members who did not have to depend on rigidly written prayers as
in the Anglican and similar churches. In their use of extempore prayers by which their
problems, individual and collective, were laid bare before God, the Baptists were in touch
with reality and with Urhobo religion, where the worshippers, uninhibited by
formalities, addressed their prayers to Osonobruwhe, Erivwin, Edjo, and Orhan.
Also in organization, the C.M.S. pattern of having worshipping congregations
immediately designated Churches was not at once departed from. But after the arrival of
missionaries when instructions were given to local Baptist leaders on Baptist methodology,
the practice of starting with preaching stations was adopted. In this system new converts were
sought in the preaching station through the addresses of evangelists and songs of choristers.
Only after winning enough members who would be financially viable was a preaching station
converted to a church. After Aganbi’s return from training, Baptist evangelisation of
Urhoboland by the above method was given impetus. Eku Association was formed in
addition to Sapele Association, with Aganbi as moderator. By 1935, Baptist churches were
firmly established in Urhoboland. But the development and growth of Urhobo “Baptism” still
lay in the second half of the thirties and especially in the forties and the fifties. But this aspect
will be discussed in a later chapter.
The United African Church 1916-1961
If the emergence of the Baptist in Urhobo was due to a quarrel in Sapele in 1917 over
foreign domination and misappropriation of funds, so was the appearance of the United
56
Interview with Agbavwa, sad.
57
Howell, op. cit., p. 115
.
173
African Church. 58But here the disagreement was with St. Andrew’s, Warri. The dissidents
were led by Omofoye Emuakpo of Ephron, who before 1916 had played a leading role in
planting Niger Delta Pastorate Churches at Oguname (which he visited with Bishop
Johnson), Oghara, Ikwewhu, Ovwodokpokpo, Ekrerhavwen, Uvwiama -- all in Agbarho. But
when the teacher promised to Ephron Church, for whose sake, according to Omofoye, the
members contributed six pence each, was never sent by St. Andrew’s, Omofoye felt that he
had no alternative but to take court action and reclaim the £47: 8: 4d. which his members had
collected. Part of this money was in fact used to feed the converts from outstations, including
Ephron Church members. In the court action Barrister Doherty, counsel for Ephron,
successfully represented his client and St. Andrew’s was made to refund the amount claimed.
Before the law suit in April 1916, Omofoye and his clique had in 1915 decided to sever
connections with St. Andrew’s and the Niger Delta Pastorate and go over to the African
Church.
Other undeclared factors were involved in the secession. According to Omofoye,
Bishop Johnson insisted that their learning the Catechism in Yoruba was a precondition for
being baptised, an exercise which many of the converts were least prepared to undertake. For
the Urhobo language did not resemble the Yoruba language (or indeed Itsekiri) to the extent
that both Bishops Johnson and Tugwell thought it did. The insistence therefore created
discontent in the coverts who, in fact, preferred to be taught English straight away, since they
believed equal effort would be expended on mastering either of the two languages. One result
of the discontent was that when a minister of the United African Church, Jacob S. Williams,
visited Warri in 1916, and offered to baptise all who accepted the Christian faith, apparently
without demand for knowing the Catechism in a foreign language, Omofoye and his retinue
seized the opportunity and were baptised on 19th March, 1916.
59
A further attraction of the United African Church was its acceptance of polygamy as a
facet of African culture not biblically proven to be unchristian. Here it was like the early
Baptist Church. Another, perhaps most potent, attraction was the expression African Church.
The words were sufficiently inviting to draw many away from other denominations where
the leadership had been in the hands of the white missionaries. It drew many away too from
the Niger Delta Pastorate, especially since the realisation of Bishop Johnson’s dream of an
independent indigenous church in full communion with the Church of England was
60
becoming more and more remote.
When the split occurred at Ephron what happened in the Baptist secession also took
place. The Niger Delta Pastorate Churches established through Omofoye’s efforts were either
converted wholesale or lost a substantial part of their membership to the African Church.
Through this method African churches sprang up at Ovu, Iwhre-Ughelli, Oba in Okpe,
Oguname (where Ibuje was the leader), Aladja, Orhuwhorun, Obodo in Udu, Owrode,
Okpare, Ovwo, Evwreni, Ewu, Otokutu, Egbo, Urhiephron, Ekrokpe, Eruemuko- hwarien,
61
and Ekiugbo in Ughelli.
58
Although the African Church was introduced to Warri about 1912, (see Webster, op. cit., p. 107) it was not until 1915-16 that it
became known in Urhobo interior.
59
Interview with Omofoye Emuakpo,24 August 1970.
60
See E. A. Ayandele, Holy Johnson, op. cit. p. 255ff. In fact, the ill-treatment of Bishop Johnson by Bishop Tugwell is said to have
led to the founding of African Bethel Church. See statement by Chief A. Coker in Sunday Times 26 September, 1971, p. 10. It must,
however, be mentioned that Urhobo converts knew very little about the Johnson-Tugwell tension.
61
Interview with QmofoyeEmuakpo,16 April 1971.
174
In certain instances a further split occurred, 62as was the case at Ovu. Here the Niger
Delta Pastorate Church was, under the influence of Omatsola, transmuted to Baptist in 1917.
But a further rift occurred in 1919 when members of Enaohowo family deserted the Baptist,
embraced the African Bethel Church and were baptised by D. H. Kukuiye, the first African
priest resident at Warri. There was to be yet another split in January 1921, when J. E. E.
Enaohwo introduced Roman Catholicism and converted the African Church at Ovu to
Roman Catholicism, leaving only a handful of the former’s members behind. Even these few
completely abandoned the African Church at Ovu in 1923 and declared for the Baptist
63
Church of Omatsola who baptised them at Arhagba (Egbekoba) on October 14, 1923.
Apart from African leadership and acceptance of polygamy, the organisation of the
African Bethel Church followed the same pattern as that of the Niger Delta Pastorate and the
C.M.S., except that instead of Dioceses they had Divisions, before Districts and Parishes. As
with the Niger Delta Pastorate and the C.M.S. the leadership also came initially from
Yorubaland where the African Church began. J. S. Williams, who was its first pastor, was
carried in a hammock like Cole during his itineration of the Churches. He was never resident
at Warri. Kukuiye, the first resident pastor, was followed by Sodeinde, then Osoba,
Oluwadare, Abitola, and Agbayawa. It was not until the forties that the African Church in
Urhobo produced their own part-time Church teacher in the person of Okirhienyefa.
64
Okirhienyefa, of Ekrerhavwe, joined the African Church as a child when he attended

their primary school in 1923, a course he completed at the Warri African Church School in
1930. He taught only from 1931-32 at Orhokpo before he resigned and became a tailor.
From 1942 onwards he functioned also as a part-time, untrained and unpaid catechist (or
church teacher), visiting African Church stations: Egbo, Ekakpamre, Urhiephron, Owhorode,
Eruemukohwarien, Ekiugbo, Ododegho, Ovwo, Okpare, Otokutu, Orhuwhorun, etc. From
1948 he became a salaried catechist but was still untrained until 1951 when he was trained
at Agege, Lagos, as a pastor.
On the completion of the course Okirhienyefa was ordained a deacon on January 31,
1954 at Bethel African Church, Lagos, by one Lakeru, the African Church Primate. He was
priested on 16th December 1956 at Warri by J.P. Jiboku, then Bishop of Ondo-Delta
Division. During most of his deaconhood Okirhienyefa served in Isoko. From Okpe, his
station in Isoko, he visited Aviara, Ofagbe, Ovwodokpokpo, Igbide, etc. 65
While he was in Isoko, the African Church in Urhobo was experiencing a crisis
resulting from a conflict between one M.E. Okorefe and G.L. Kolawole. Kolawole is
generally regarded as the first African Church pastor to reside in the interior of Urhobo. 66
He was posted to Ekakpamre in 1950. 67While he was there, Okorefe was said to have gone
62
Compare the case of the Baptist at Okwagbe.
63
A souvenir in honour of the ordination of Rev. Father Christopher E. Obiah,b29 December 1968, pp. 3 and 4.
64
As in the C.M.S. it was the Itsekiri who in Warri first played a leading role. Some of the earliest members included Pessu and
Omatsola, Aghogigin’s half brother who was the first African Church pastor from the area. There is, however, one J. D. Ifode from
Isoko, who left the C.M.S. in the early forties and was ordained in the forties into a different branch of the African Church, the
U.N.A., which is hardly to be found in Urhoboland. Consequently he worked in Benin and later in Sapele, the only place where that
Church had a foothold in Urhobo.
65
Interview with Okirhienyefa, Archdeacon of the African Church, aged 55, at Warri, 17 August 1971.
66
But according to S. G. Mukoro, (pastor at Ekakpamre) when for a time Warri could not pay Kukuiye’s alary, he came to stay at
Ekakpamre, for a while.
67
Mukoro says this was 1948.
175
to training without the knowledge and consent of the local church and pastor. Thus on the
recommendation of the local church, it was said Kolawole wrote to the Bishop in Lagos to
withdraw Okorefe. 68
When he returned, though unordained, he attempted to make himself a pastor of
Urhobo African churches, which he called Christ Urhobo Church and so to become the
manager of African Church schools. In an attempt to counteract Okorefe’s claim of the
African churches and schools, Kolawole wrote to the District Officer at Ughelli, to complain
of the treatment which was given to him at the meeting of the local Council at Agbarho. It
appeared that the Local Council was delegated by the District Officer to settle the palaver
between Okorefe and Kolawole. The Council summoned the African Church to
Eruemukohwarien as his witness. He maintained that Okorefe had no right to usurp African
Church property and members. If he chose to secede from the African Church and start a new
church which he called Christ Urhobo Church, he was welcome to do so, but he must leave
Africa Church property intact and ensure that the sum of £34: 10s, which the members owed
him was paid back. Because of the people’s intransigence Kolawole appealed for the District
69
Officer’s intervention.
But before a reply could be given to his letter, Kolawole wrote another letter indicating
that he would resume duties in the African Church School at Oguname and that at
Orhokpokpo. He also registered his protest against anyone who attempted to open a new
school in either of the above stations “as it is contrary to Education Principal (sic)”. 70
According to Kolawole, “there was a letter which he (Okorefe) used to show that he
got authority to be pastor from the D.O.” On receipt of this letter the District Officer aptly
71
remarked “the D.O. does not appoint pastors”. This tussle for supremacy adversely
affected African Church schools in Oguname and Orhokpokpo Agadu -- the hot bed of the
conflict.
It is patent that the struggle to become pastor is here motivated by the material gain
accruing there from, especially by reason of the managerial control of church primary
schools. These schools were plainly erected not so much for the benefit of the populace as for
the benefit of the pastor. They were generally in a disgraceful condition. Indeed one of them
72
(that at Ododegho) was described as “merely a roof on sticks”.
One of the results of the conflict between Kolawole and Okorefe was the transfer of the
former from Urhobo back to Yorubaland, and the ejection or secessionist Okorefe from the
African Church. Thereafter Okirhienyefa was sent from Isoko to Ekakpamre from where he
took charge of Urhobo and Isoko churches. Okorefe who broke away to form his own church
--Urhobo Christ Church -- later on saw the futility of this action, and upon recanting, was
re-admitted into the African Church, and ordained in 1965. Up till then Okirhienyefa was the
only Urhobo ordained African Church member, assisted by such Church agents as Mrabure
of Eruemukohwarien, and D. E. Ovadje of Okpe in Isoko.
68
Interview with Mukoro, African Church pastor, aged 38, at Ekakpamre, 21 August 1971. But Okirhienyefa, African Church
Archdeacon, said that Okorefe returned because he failed his examination.
69
Ughelli Dist. 1:1707/1 Kolawole to D.O. Ughelli.
70
Ughelli District 1:1707/1 Kolawole to D.O. Ughelli (not dated).
71
Ibid. D. O.’s remark on the above, to the P.E.O., 2 July, 1953.
72
Ughelli District I: 1707/1: D. O.’s note to the P.E.O., 6 December, 1954.
176
Conclusion
By 1961, the African Church was still a poorly organised institution. Its leadership,
though African, was seldom Urhobo. In spite of its main appeal of polygamy, it did not, and
still does not, command as much respect and membership as did the C.M.S., or the R.C.M.
or even the Baptist. By 1961 there was as yet only one Urhobo ordained to its priesthood. It
had primary schools but they were in a ludicrous condition. It had no other thing to impress
the indigenous population and hold them spellbound.
Faith Tabernacle
There are very few congregations in Urhobo-Isoko land called Faith Tabernacle.
Agbarho is the headquarters of theongregations.
c Those connected with Agbarho’ s Faith
Tabernacle accept T.G. Akporido astsifounder. In about 1940, Akporido, it wassaid, had a
vision in which a man presented him with books, and commissioned him to go andpreach.
This happened at Ohrerhe (Mogba) whe re they were all formerly members of the C. M.S.
After the vision Akporido preachedhat t no one was to put his trust in man, forhealth of
spirit, mind or body. The point ofiew
v he advocated was that true believers we re not to
seek for health from medical practit
ioners or take any drug when ill. Those con vinced
separated from the C.M.S. and withim h formed the Faith Tabernacle. Any of thei r members
who fell ill was asked to pray forimself.
h Should the ailment deteriorate hehould
s consult
the elders. The elders would sit aro
und him and inquire from him of any sin hemight have
committed, and having heard his conf ession, anoint him with oil and pray for him. This
73
practice is based on James 5:13-16.
Apart fromAgbarho, a Faith Tabernacle congregation had sprung up atEku, introduced
there by one Iyedo. Iyedo, Okoro, and Aganbi were contemporaries, andwere all of the C.M.S.
In the midtwenties Aganbi was in correspondence with some Americans. It was from the
letters hegot from the United States that Iyedo got to know of the Faith Tabernacle, which he
started atEku in 1926, while Aganbi was introducing the Baptist Church. Iyedo later worked
hand in hand with Akporido of Agbarho, although there was no actualunion of organisations.
Both branches were in touch with the Faith Tabernacle of America, with headquarters in
Philadelphia, from where some members received weekly sermons. At the time of writing the
Eku branchhas almost died out, while from Agbarho have emanated branches of the sect at
Warri, Okpe, Ughievwe, and Enhwen (in Isoko). There were other branches of this Church in
Isoko, someof which were later transmuted to Christ Apostolic Church. The present Faith
Tabernaclechurches have neither institutions, nor real leadership.The total number of their
members, estimated to be under a hundred, selected one Ovuakporaye,and ordained him as
their pastor when Akporido died only in 1968. In each branch under Agbarho, there are head
servants (Lay Readers or Catechists in the C.M.S.) From all available data, the Faith
TabernacleCongregations in Urhobo are a backwater organisation, maintaining no link (apart
from weeklysermons a few individuals receive from Philadelphia) with any similar body either
within or outside Nigeria.
Methodists 1942-1961
The Methodist Mission was introduced toSapele only in the early forties. This
happened when a number of men who had been in the C.M.S. decided to secede, owing to
73
Interview with J. Ovuakporaye, pastor of Faith Tabernacle, c. 60, Orho Agbarho, 11 August 1971.
177
alleged discrimination against them. Most of them were from Sierra Leone, Gold Coast (now
Ghana), and Yorubaland. They include T.H. Sam Tawiah, Kwenu and Dadson, all Gold
Coasters. With them were J. Emade and Egharevba, both of whom are Nigerians.
Dissatisfied with the C.M.S. they decided to desert her. In Dadson’s words:
“We were with them (the C.M.S.) they did not give us full cooperation; they did
not recognise our services, how they served too we did not appreciate it. There
was a small bit of dispute, disunity, that was why we decided to bring the Church
74
we know that can serve the purpose for our need.”
They met in Emade’s house in 1942 and decided on what denomination to introduce to
Sapele. As several of them had been connected with the Methodists at School in their home
country, when that denomination was suggested they readily accepted the idea. A few
Urhobo, like Omare, started with them but soon dropped out because of opposition from the
C.M.S. One Egbedi, however, continued with them as did H.A.G. Dickson, who pulled out of
the R.C.M.
Akande, who was still at Sapele, attempted to nip the secession in the bud by writing to
75
Lagos to counter their delegation there. While Akande insisted that they were his
members, the dissidents supported their claim to be Methodists from their early connection
with that denomination during their school days when some of them were baptised
Methodists. Determined as they were, they had their way and were from Lagos directed to be
included in Owo circuit.
But no proper Methodist Church was started until 1947, the period from 1942 on being
spent on holding meetings, saving money, and attempting to get clearance for the work to
begin. When they did start, they met for worship in Rodico’s School Hall, belonging to one
Yamu. This continued for over three years until a small church house was erected in the
compound of J. S. Sule, at one time the headmaster of Government School, Sapele. At length
they acquired land from the Sapele Local Authority but this was later abandoned since the
Town Planning Authority constructed a street through it. It was Sule who once more saved the
situation by offering them free of charge a piece of land on which the present Methodist
Church, Sapele, along Yoruba Road, is erected. Thereafter their members increased. One
Lamptey from the Gold Coast (Ghana), Coker a Sierra Leonian, and Momodu a Nigerian with
a Sierra Leonian wife, joined them. So did Mason, and Major Jones. Jones was formerly of
the Salvation Army and had his training in the U.K. He played a leading role, as did Atoboki,
the Society’s steward. At first the congregation which was almost entirely made up of these
men continued without receiving effective leadership from Owo. It was not, according to
Dadson, until the fifties, before they were visited by pastors from Owo who spent a week or
two, and occasionally a month with them. A resident Methodist Pastor did not come until after
1961. It was also at Owo that their representatives attended conventions, and from there they
received directives.
Apart from this one Methodist Church at Sapele, which is dominantly a foreigners’
church, and for which reason services are generally conducted in English, there are hardly
any others in Urhoboland worthy of mention.
74
Interview with E. B. Dadson, a foundation member of Sapele Methodist, c. 75, at Sapele, 10 April 1971.
75
There was a kind of gentleman’s agreement between the Methodists and the C.M.S., namely that the one organisation should not
interfere in an area where the other was already operating.
178
The Jehovah’s Witnesses 1935-1961
Although the Jehovah’s Witnesses do not usually regard themselves as Christians,

preferring to be known as Bible students, a history of Christianity in Urhoboland which says
nothing of them will be incomplete.
Their story in Urhoboland is largely the story of a single man whose movement has
made an impressive mark on a cross section of Urhobo society. It is the story of J.M. Orode,
formerly also of the C.M.S. In the nine-twenties, Orode was a teacher under the C.M.S. at
Ogba beech, five miles away from Benin City. While he was there a certain Owempa of Ora,
a Jehovah’s Witness colporteur visited Benin and Sapele in 1926, to preach. His preaching,
which Orode was not privileged to hear, was reported to have been particularly pungent. Its
theme was on Sunday rest which he denounced as unbiblical doctrine. In 1931, another man,
M. Ukoli (later G.M. Urhobo) also came to Benin to preach on a similar topic as Owempa
had done five years before. This time Orode was present, and “I was greatly moved by what
76
he said.” Consequently when next it was Orode’s turn to preach in his
station, he caused a stir by decrying the observance of Sunday as unbiblical. So perplexed
was the pastor in charge that Orode was cautioned to alter his tone of preaching if a schism
was to be avoided. Convinced as Orode was with this new biblical discovery, he was not
prepared to swerve an inch. His appointment was subsequently terminated.
Various attempts were made by his elder brother to secure him another job, amongst
others, as a court clerk, or an interpreter. But Orode turned each and all of them down not
only for fear of being corrupted by his bosses and coworkers, and lured into receiving bribes,
but also because of preference for a job which would afford him time enough to preach his
message without hindrance. This was his foremost desire. Thus when another senior brother
sent him a telegram from Enugu inviting him to Hope Waddell Institute for studies, he found
himself constrained to turn down the offer despite its attraction. His one passionate desire
then was to return to Urhoboland to preach. But he had no means of transport from Benin.
The opportunity to leave Benin came when his Highness, Ovie Oharisi, asked in 1931
for any young boy from the Ovie family to serve as a court clerk. When this call came to
Orode, he gladly accepted it as providing an opportunity for moving from Benin homewards.
Having been provided with a bicycle and five pounds, he purported to set out for Ughelli. But
he stopped at Warri instead, and spent three full months with G. M. Urhobo from whom he
learnt all he could about the Jehovah’s Witness Society, no member of which was as yet in
the interior of Urhoboland. Warri town itself had only four members.
Back home, Orode traversed the Urhobo country proclaiming the imminent arrival of
Armageddon. His family members attempted in vain to get him into a profitable job.
The Egware Ekpako 77 of the family was summoned on his account, where the elders,
apparently interested and concerned about his well-being, advised him to get married and
settle down to a profitable job. But his response put them off.
That Egware Ekpako was summoned to discussOrode’s marriage showed how
seriously the matter was viewed; thatOrode himself defied the Egware Ekpako and
76
Interview with J. M. Orode, aged 60, at Otovwodo, 8 September 1970. Amongst the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Urhobo, he is
regarded as one of the 144,000 who alone will inherit the Kingdom of heaven, while the rest of the society member shall inherit the
earth. For this reason he is considered to be the only one worthy to participate in the feast of the paschal lamb (the Holy
Communion).
77
Council of the elders.
179
persisted in his preaching showed equally how serious and deep rooted his convictions were.
There is even a story that the Ekpako deliberately enticed him by throwing a beautiful girl on
his path. At length, Orode was compelled to inform them that he would not marry any one
but a Jehovah’s Witness. The family thereafter did find him a Jehovah’s Witness and even
provided him with the money for the marriage. But if they felt that marriage would diminish
the tempo of his preaching, they were mistaken. It did not.
He adamantly continued and was without any other profitable job until he heard of one
George Jevu Egharen, of Ovwian, a herbalist converted to the Jehovah’s Witness Society. He
was sent for by Orode who taught him the Bible, and learnt from him his trade. This trade
which was abundantly blessed became Orode’s economic mainstay. Meanwhile his
Urhobo-wide preaching had won hundreds of converts from the traditional religion, as well
as from other Christian denominations. In 1958 he was invited to the Society’s headquarters
in New York, a visit which deepened his knowledge of the Society, and equipped him for his
ministry in Urhobo.
Content of the Preaching
The emphasis of the preaching has always been on the imminence of the parousis
designated by them as Armageddon, and viewed as a cataclysm in which all that is opposed
to God’s will would be annihilated and God’s Kingdom Society inaugurated here on earth.
To qualify for this new Kingdom one needed to belong to the Jehovah’s Witness Society. As
a result of the intensity of their conviction about the imminent Armageddon, the Jehovah’s
Witnesses held rallies night and day, moved from house to house, from street to street, form
village to village, from town to town, and from clan to clan, persuading and convincing
people with a tenacity of purpose, which, even if misguided, is commendable.
In consequence of their conviction of the imminent Armageddon they stood (and still
stand) opposed to acquisition of wealth, and indeed to nearly all things material.
Secularisation has no place in their theology. The world and all that is in it, including
every secular government, is of the devil, and to be eschewed, since it will be consigned
to fire and final destruction. The other denominations, in coming to terms with the secular
governments, show themselves agents of the devil, and therefore stand condemned as
teaching wrong doctrines, and misguiding the people.
nd
After the eclipse of the sun on Tuesday, 2 May 1947, the Jehovah’s Witnesses poured
into all villages and towns in Urhobo, declaring that the Armageddon which they had been
proclaiming was already here. They had always indulged in the practice of mapping out
future events, and fixing dates when the end of the world would be. They believe that it is for
them to know times and seasons which the Father has fixed by His own authority. (Acts
1:20) At the time of writing, the end of the world is put to them at 1975, for which reason
many of them fail to send their children to school. Similarly they have refused to build
houses, or plant rubber trees at a time in Urhobo when many people cultivated lands and
owned large rubber plantations.
Their preaching is based only on work, work of a particular kind -- a declaration from
place to place of an approaching doom, from which people need to flee by becoming
Jehovah’s Witnesses. They thus aptly see themselves as members of the Watch Tower
Society, the imagery being derived from Ezekiel 33, where the sentinel owes it as a duty to
be awake and warn the people of oncoming destruction. Their preaching can therefore hardly
be called Evangelism, devoid, as it is, of any good news. They seem to know nothing
180
of salvation by grace, and give no room in their message for the atoning work of Christ,
whom they are unprepared to accept as divine, and whose co-eternity with the Father is
rejected outright. The doctrine of the Triune God is repudiated by them as devilish.
Inconsistencies
In Urhoboland the Jehovah’s Witnesses initially accepted polygamy as a Biblical and

therefore acceptable practice. But later this position was altered with a consequent split in the
movement. Thence came the God’s Kingdom Society as a distinct movement. This latter body
was under the direction of G.M. Urhobo, with their headquarters at Warri at a place
designated Salem City. 78
At first the Jehovah’s Witnesses also stigmatized other denominations for erecting
Church buildings. A house could not be built for God, they argued, citing 1 Kings 8:27 as a
supporting text for their view. Later, however, they themselves deviated from this position,
and embarked on building church houses with the appellation “Kingdom Hall.”
Equally inconsistent were they in their teaching on Urhobo greeting. Traditionally a
junior person said Migueo to an elder as a mark of respect to him. This act, if properly
carried out, takes the form of kneeling down before one’s elder, that being the literal
meaning of Migueo. If done hastily, however, it takes the form of genuflecting, or simply
uttering the word. But the Jehovah’s Witnesses initially stood opposed to the expression of
this greeting in all its forms, 79and supported their stance by reference to Rev. 22:8&9. This
and many other aspects of their doctrine were based on a one-sided interpretation of
scriptures. During the fifties after returning from one of their conferences (when Orode
returned from the Unites States), they grew wiser and realised that no spiritual worship was
implied in the practice -- an argument which they had refused to accept from members of
other denominations.
Organization
The Jehovah’s Witnesses seldom have paid officials, except for a few full-time
workers for whom the Society gives money for clothes and travelling expenses. If a full- time
officer becomes married, his wife is also looked after by the Society. But once children are
born to the marriage the officer is requested to do the job part-time, and take up another
appointment to provide for his family. 80
From the Headquarters the Society isorganised into zones, branches, districts, circuits,
congregations, units, and rendezvous.There are, for instance, as many as seven circuits in
Urhobo-Ijo land. Each circuit is madeup of between eleven to twelve congregations, whilst
three or so circuits form a district.In big cities or towns, the Society has officers known as
city servants, who are directly in charge of the general organisation of
78
Other factors were also responsible for the spilt; see the section on God’s Kingdom Society below.
79
It is significant to mention here that traditional priests in Urhobo, as well as Roman Catholic Rev. Fathers, do not use this form of
greeting to their elders, whose spiritual fathers they consider themselves to be.
80
Interview with H.M. Orode, 8 September 1970.
181
the society in their area. Ughelli, for example, has Orode as the city servant. With the tireless
efforts of these servants and their congregation members Jehovah’s Witness membership
increased rapidly between 1945 and 1961. By the latter date they were about 400 strong in
Ughelli area alone, which was roughly one quarter of her total membership in Urhobo. But
their influence on non-members has always been minimal since it is a closed system whose
adherents often decline participation in family meetings, or cultural gathering. Consequently
apart from refining their own members through regular, pedantic, and studious if superficial,
reading of the Bible, cross fertilisation of cultures has not resulted from their presence in the
society.
Finally it needs to be mentioned that their one-sided view of scriptures not

withstanding, their tenacity of purpose and fanaticism have endeared them to many who
admire their otherworldiness without attempting to copy them. They have been able at the
risk of inviting persecution to stand over against the world, rather than compromise with any
facet of it.
God’s Kingdom Society 1934-1961

God’s Kingdom Society, with its present headquarters at Salem City, Warri, was
founded by G.M. Urhobo (a son of Ukoli from Agbarha in Warri). He was resident in Lagos
81
“as a postal clerk and telegraphist” and in his time belonged to the elite class. But,
according to his own testimony quoted below, he saw a vision which impelled him to resign
his lucrative and enviable appointment in February, 1933, and turn a preacher. The account
of his vision which resulted in the momentous decision reads:
“After three and half years’ diligent and prayerful studies of the Holy Bible, Jesus
Christ revealed himself to me in a vision and commanded me to go and proclaim
the good news of God’s Kingdom (or ‘Gospel of Peace”) to all nations as the only
remedy for all human sufferings and woes; to expose all the false doctrines which
Satan had used to deceive the people and keep them in ignorance of God’s
Kingdom and purpose of creation; and to pronounce God’s written judgment
82
against all wickedness.”
Consequent upon his resignation, his wife, who became apprehensive of what the
future held in store for them, deserted him. G.M. Urhobo looked after the children in addition
to the lectures he gave on street corners and in various public places in Lagos. Before the
lectures he would write notices on conspicuous corners of Lagos, inviting everyone to come
to his chosen venue in the open streets at a fixed time. Hardly anyone took notice of him; but
the few curious persons who on passing by were attracted, became moved by his addresses.
83
When Urhobo came across the publications of J. F. Rutherford, he was impressed by

the expositions of scripture they contained, which he believed were consonant with his own
understanding of the Bible. Consequently in October 1934, he came in contact in Lagos
with late W. R. Brown, the local representative of the Watch Tower Society in Nigeria.
Urhobo soon became an agent for the Watch Tower Society under Brown. He
81
“The Weekly Sermon” by God’s Kingdom Society, February16, 1969.
82
Ibid.,
83
Interview with the B.O. Tietie, Publicity Secretary, G.K.S. c. 45, Salem city, Warri, 11 August 1971.
182
collected publications from Brown and sold them to members of the public and returned the
money to Brown, whenever it was paid to him.84
But not long after their meeting, Urhobo was said to have discovered “errors in the
teachings of the Watch Tower Society in respect of ‘Marriage’, ‘Jehovah’s Organisation’,
‘Leadership’, ‘Memorial Supper’, ‘Women Preaching’ and their fixing dates for
‘Armageddon.’ 85While the Jehovah’s Witnesses at this time declared their support for
monogamy as the only proper marriage for their members, Urhobo held that polygamy was
as acceptable to God as monogamy.
With regards to “Jehovah’s Witnesses” teaching that any member of their society was a
Jehovah’s witness, Urhobo disagreed. He maintained that only the prophets and specially
anointed persons were Jehovah’s witnesses, Jesus Christ being the chief of Jehovah’s
witnesses. 86 He equally disagreed with the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ teaching that only 144,000
persons would enter Heaven, as he did with the doctrine that no man was to be accepted as
leader, when in fact they recognised Rutherford, their president then, as leader. When
Urhobo pointed out to Brown what he considered to be wrong teaching, the latter was said
to have accused Urhobo of vying for leadership. Urhobo was consequently declared as an
enemy of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The result was the emergence of God’s Kingdom Society.
Those who accepted Urhobo’s point of view followed him to form God’s Kingdom Society
at the end of 1934. When he died on February 25, 1952, E.R. Otomewo, who was the
vice-president, became the president.
Doctrine
Although the God’s Kingdom Society differs in some of its teachings from the
Jehovah’s Witnesses, it is still very similar in other respects. Like the Jehovah’s Witnesses,
they are unitarians. While claiming to accept the divinity of Christ, they hold with Arius that
there was when he was not. According to them, God (the Father) was from eternity but
created the Word (His Word?) in the beginning of creation. Having created the Word the
latter became God’s agent in creation. Jesus Christ is said to be a god, as is Lucifer, and as
indeed are men. An excerpt from one of their sermons reads:
The doctrine of Trinity has no biblical basis-it is false. We agree that the Father is
God and the son is a god but in no place in the Bible is the Holy Spirit referred to
as a god. Apart from the Son, Jesus, there are other creatures both in heaven and
on earth who are also gods but they, including Jesus Christ, are all subject to the
Father. in the Psalms it is written: “Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the
Most High.” (Psalm 82:6) Thus the Father is the “God of gods, and Lord of
lords” Deut. 10:17,… 87
84
Weekly Sermon G.K.S., 16 February 1969
85
Interview with Tietie, 11 August 1971.
86
87
The Weekly Sermon Vol. II, No. 48 “Are there three Persons in One God?”
183
Having taken this position, it is not to be wondered at that they have little to say about
the Atonement. For the full divinity of Jesus and identity of his substance with the Father
cannot be denied without playing down the Atonement. It was because of whom he was (and
is) that he could do what he did since only one who was identical in substance with the
Father could fully redeem fallen man.
GKS members also claim to be able to locate heaven, viewed by them as a place.
Heaven, according to them, is far above the firmaments, and there God dwells. The Kingdom
of God of which they claim to be a society, is designated Kingdom of Heaven also because,
according to Tietie, the headquarters of the Kingdom is sited in Heaven. This Kingdom, the
Society holds, was established only after the 1914-18 war. Thus when Jesus taught his
disciples to pray for the coming of the Kingdom it had not yet arrived. Majority of the people
to be admitted into the Kingdom will, we are told, inherit it here on earth, while only a few
will go to heaven, the headquarters.
Like several other sects, they reject infant Baptism, on the ground that it lacks Biblical
precedence. Like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, they hold that only those who belong to their
Society wherever it exists or, where it does not exist, those who belong to a society which
88
holds the same views with them, will enter the Kingdom of God.
By 1961, they were already commanding a large following all over Urhoboland. They
have made some commendable efforts by composing their songs generally to Urhobo music,
and so making good use of what is proper in Urhobo culture in their services. Furthermore,
they hold elaborate annual conventions in which the various cultures of Ijo, Western Ibo,
Isoko, and Urhobo are richly blended, and which in many respects are remarkably
reminiscent of Urhobo annual festivals, and to some degree of early Christianity in
Urhoboland. But whether it is this phenomenon which holds the adherents spell-bound, or
whether the doctrines really appeal to them as genuine and as guaranteeing security in this
world and in the next is difficult to ascertain. It is known however that the members were
tithed, and they seemed to have paid this happily, a thing which redounded to the wealth and
glory of G.M. Urhobo while he lived. That the members did this gladly, and that the bulk of
the membership was Urhobo and Isoko may be accounted for by much of the indigenous
culture that was “baptised” into this Movement. For finding themselves at home
in the church services in which Urhobo music and dances like opiri and udje were given
prominence, the Urhobo and Isoko were not only attracted but freely gave of their wealth to
promote the Movement.
Conclusion
The rise of different denominations has as its results competition and rivalries which
were often bitter and unhealthy. But in spite of such consequence, there was no reverse to
traditional religion. Indeed division and competition tended to make for growth and yielded
great dividends. These various denominations, in addition to the C.M.S. in Urhoboland,
meant a considerable dwarfing of the indigenous culture. The denominations usually
introduced schools to which the youth gravitated. As the youths attended church and school,
they tended to be separated from their traditional cultural connections and heritage.
The churches themselves struggled to attain some self-knowledge, particularly in the
Nigerianisation, or Urhobonisation of the personnel. With respect to other aspects of
indigenisation, say of the liturgy, very little happened. But this discussion, especially as it
affects the C.M.S. and the Baptists, must be left For other efforts..
88
184
Chapter 9
The Catholic Church in Agbon-Urhobo

(1922–2004) 1
Imo Otite
Okpara Inland, Nigeria
The Catholic Church has survived over 2,000 years on earth. It was started at very
difficult times, by our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ laid a very strong foundation
for it, using Himself as a Sacrificial Lamb. He preached love of our neighbours as a
cornerstone of the religion that he founded. He topped it up with an emphasis on “forgiveness
to one another.”
To help the weak faith of mankind, Jesus Christ kept to his promise of resurrection –
three days – after His death. This is why the saying -- that “Christianity is founded on the
forgiveness of sins and empty tomb” -- is today widely accepted. Our Lord Jesus Christ
promised eternal life, by emphasizing “the resurrection of body and life everlasting.” He
started it off by rising and leaving an empty tomb.
The Bishop of Rome, the Pope of the Catholic Church, is a direct successor to St. Peter
whom our Lord Jesus Christ handed the Church to before he left for Heaven. Today, both the
Pope and all the Bishops and clergy are successors to our Lord Jesus Christ, and they are
carrying on the work of evangelism as He did all over many parts of the Middle East, during
his thirty-three and a half years on earth.
In the past two centuries, many missionary orders sprang up. One of them is known as
the Society of Missionary for Africa – SMA. This is one of the early orders that came to the
Niger Delta region of Nigeria in early twentieth century. They settled in Benin, Asaba and
Warri. In the beginning of the twentieth century, about 1900–1910, they started their work of
evangelism in Warri and Benin Provinces of colonial Nigeria.
Bishop Thomas Broderick was a pioneer of this mission. He was the Bishop of
Benin/Asaba Diocese. He lived mostly at Asaba. This diocese controlled Warri, which was
then the only parish overseeing the Urhobo, Ijaw, Itsekiri and the Ukwani areas of Warri
Province. Later the headquarters of the Benin – Asaba Diocese moved to Benin and it then
became known as Benin Diocese.
In this period, there were Mass Centers established at Sapele (Okpe), Eku (Agbon),
Arhagba (Orogun), and Ughelli in various corners of Urhobo country. So it was that the
Catholic Church tactically established footholds in critical areas of Urhoboland in Okpe,
Agbon, Orogun and Ughelli. As its title suggests, our main concern in this lecture is Agbon.
Agbon is comprised of six main sub-clans. These 2are Okpara, Kokori, Orhoakpor,
Eku, Ovu and Igun. Okpara is Agbon’s most senior sub clan. The population of Agbon is
large. In recognition of this, the present Delta State Government recently increased the
number of wards to fifteen: four in Okpara, four in Kokori, two in Orhoakpor, two in Eku,
two in Ovu and one in Igun.
1
This is the text of a lecture given on August 21, 2004, during the occasion of Agbon Wives and Daughters Week in Okpara Parish
by Chief Imo Otite.
2
I have used the term clan as used by the Scots to describe a social group that has common ancestor.
With a Mass Center established in Eku before the mid forties, it was clear that Agbon
would be favoured with a parish, when parishes were to be created from Warri parish. A then
young priest, Rev. Fr. Patrick Joseph Kelly, was in-charge of these areas. It was he who took
the decision to construct a one-storey building in Eku for the use of priests whenever they
come to Agbon for their work of evangelization. From Eku they moved to the hither land --
to Okpara Inland, Kokori Inland and parts of Okpe and Agbarho. Most of the early contacts
made by missionaries were with pagans, some of whom were the elders and chiefs of their
areas of jurisdiction. With time, the priests of the Church became friendly with these elders
and chieftains who got involved in issues affecting the church in Agbon – even though they
were not Christians.
From available records, it was in 1922 that the Catholic Church arrived in Agbon. The
first priest that came was the aforementioned Rev. Fr. Patrick Joseph Kelly. His efforts
yielded many good results. He made converts and at the same made friends with important
people in Agbon.
It did not take Rev. Fr. Patrick Joseph Kelly time to see the potentials of Okpara Inland
as a center for the Catholic Church in Agbon. The church in Okpara Inland was first opened
at the entrance of Iyara Street. It was later moved several kilometers away to more ample
grounds to its present position of Ejaife Primary School. This school was originally known
as the Catholic Central School. That name was later changed to All Saints Catholic School.
Before Rev. Fr. Patrick Joseph Kelly was transferred to Benin and later made the
Bishop of Benin/Asaba diocese, he had literally made up his mind to establish a parish in
Agbon. When finally the decision to make a parish in Agbon came to be made, Father
Kelly’s knowledge of the area and the social contacts he made with non-Christians of the
area, proved to be most helpful.
Since Kelly had already built a one-storey house at Eku, it might appear that the
infrastructure needed for a parish to take off was already on the ground. Moreover, he had as
good Christian friend, Mr. Patrick Inweh. However, Kelly discovered that another Christian
denomination, the Baptist Church, had taken root in Eku, with Rev. Aganbi, a native of Eku,
proving to be as a formidable force. Another force that could not be ignored
was the people’s strong adherence to the traditional worship of Eche-Oko in Eku. These
were factors that Kelly weighed in deciding on the suitability of Eku as the seat of the
Catholic parish in Agbon.
He then zeroed in Okpara-Inland, as a possible seat of the parish. Here he also has a place
of worship. A big Central Catholic School has been built, attracting many pupils from all parts
of Agbon and beyond. The church here was also growing fast, with many Okpara natives
already baptized since the early 1920s. These early Christians included Mr. David Arhatar
(Emovwerha), Mr. Patrick Ojevwe (The Head Christian) Mr. John Adjarho (the Bellman), Mr.
Ojagberovwe Iyamu Erhueh (who was baptized in 1927), 3and many others. Among the social
friends whom Kelly had in Okpara Inland were Chief Otite Ijedia, Chief Oyibocha Orovwuje,
Chief Iginiamre, Chief Etarhuokpe and Chief Obieh.
In addition to these attributes, there was no other rival Christian denomination in
Okpara Inland at this time. However, there was a strong indigenous belief system in Okpara
that was manifested in the worship of several deities: (1) Oku vo Orhirihi; (2) Amavwiara;
(3) Ovworigbekpo; (4) Echerike; (5) Igwe; (6) Everhe; and (7) Owhorhu.
3
Ojagberovwe Iyamu Erhueh is the father of Monsigneur Anthony Erhueh, most recently the administrator of the Catholic
Cathedral of Warri.
186
The Catholic Church in Agbon-Urhobo…
When the final decision came and the parish in Agbon was sited in Okpara Inland,
against all odds mentioned above, there were several interpretations:- (1) Bishop P.J. Kelly
took the decision because he believed strongly that he could transform the indigenous belief
system that was strong and potent in Okpara into Christian beliefs – (maybe the way our
Lord Jesus Christ changed Peter from fisher of fish to fisher of men). (2) The Bishop’s
decision was largely influenced by some of the local chiefs he became very friendly with.
One of these chiefs, Otite Ijedia, became the Bishop’s life-long friend, from early 1922 till
4
Otite’s death in 1971.
Whichever version is correct, the fact that Okpara Inland became the headquarters of
Okpara Parish, is a good decision, considering the fact that Okpara, is also the senior among
the sub-clans of Agbon. That was how Okpara Parish came to be in 1947. Okpara Parish in
Agbon was given a wide jurisdiction. The parish covered many towns and villages in
Agbarho and Okpe. These areas are in addition to all the towns and villages in Agbon. Being
so large the effort of the parish priest to cover the whole parish in a month was quite a task.
Time may not permit me here to narrate the story of how Okurekpo became the favoured
center!
From its early beginnings, many priests loved to come and spread the word of God in
Okpara Parish. The first parish priest in Okpara was Rev. Fr. J.D. Sheahan. Many other
priests, such as Rev. Fr. Macconmic, visited Okpara Inland during his time. Other priests
who served in Okpara Parish since its establishment are as follows:
1. Rev. Fr. John Browne (who died in 2002 at the age of 86 years)
2. Rev. Fr. William Bill Power (late)
3. Rev. Fr. Oregan (late)
4. Rev. Fr. Cavanangh
5. Rev. Fr. Casey
6. Rev. Fr. J. Browne (second coming)
7. Rev. Monsignor Stephen Umurie (late)
8. Rev. Fr. Cadogan
9. Rev. Fr. Paul Ighaguolor
10. Rev. Fr. Cashman
11. Rev. Joachim Aghware
12. Very Rev. Monsignor Joseph Efebe (late)
13. Rev. Fr. Peter Igolo
14. Rev. Fr. Anthony Anamali
15. Rev. Fr. Jude Igho.
One of the priests who did not serve as a Parish Priest in Okpara Parish, but whose
activities are worthy of mention is Very Rev. Monsignor Peter Enyowheoma. He came to
Okpara in 1954 as a Seminarian, on one-year probation. He was so loved that he became a
role model to all the young men in the parish. He taught many young men catechism and
how to serve at mass. Before he left he sowed vocational seeds in the parish and many young
men decided to follow his footsteps; they went to the Catholic seminary to train for the Holy
Priesthood of the Catholic Church. Among these young men who were influenced by the
Very Rev. Monsignor Peter Enyowheoma are Very Rev. Dr. Monsignor Anthony Joseph
Erhueh – Administrator of the Sacred Heart Cathedral, Warri; Rev. Fr. Christopher
4
The Bishop tried very hard to convert Chief Otite to Christianity and he succeeded in getting him baptized just before he died in
1971.
187
Obieh – Parish Priest of St. Gregory the Great Parish, Agbarho; Mr. Stephen Otoro; Mr.
Francis Simon Agbro; Mr. Lawrence Orovwigho; Chief Imo Joe Otite. Well, at the end of the
day, God Almighty let three of these devotees to go back and serve the world economically,
socially and politically, but retained two of them. Very Rev. Dr. Monsignor Erhueh and Rev.
Fr. Christopher Obieh continue to serve in the vineyard, following the footsteps of
Monsignor Peter Enyowheoma. Even after this early group of his admirers, others followed.
An outstanding example of this later group is Mr. Augustine Ojevwe, who is the past
Chairman of the Warri Diocesan Laity. It is my belief that the work of Very Rev. Monsignor
Peter Enyowheoma, in Okpara Parish, merits documentation. In the early sixties, he was
appropriately ordained in Okpara Parish, together with the late Very Rev. Fr. Obineh.
Other people in the laity whose services in the Catholic Church in Agbon, are worthy of
mention are the catechists and some teachers. Mr. Patrick Inweh had a remarkable presence in
Eku. He functioned as both educationist and a catechist. Mr. Kevin Aghwaritivwighren of
Kokori was a great literary contributor to the translations of Catholic documents written in
English to Urhobo language. He single-handedly translated the penny catechism (120
questions) and the simple prayer book and the key of Heaven from English to Urhobo. Other
great Catechists in Okpara Parish are as follows:
(1) Catechist Peter Idahosa (so it is) (Late)

(2) Catechist Martin Otoro (Wokedji Oghene Kpokpo ko Otoro)
(3) Catechist John Otor
(4) Catechist James Akpomiemie
(5) Catechist James Ogwachiuku Isara
(6) Retired Catechist Chief James Ughwujabo
(7) Catechist John Obadjere.
These men all worked tirelessly for the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church in
Agbon did a lot of development work. For this, the church will like to continue to count on
the generosity and co-operation of the people of Agbon. The people cheerfully and willingly
gave out all the lands needed for the church to carry out necessary development work. For the
church to stay and build schools and churches they willingly gave land. First, after the
humble start of the church at the entrance of Iyara Street, they gave a large mass of
land in an area that was commonly referred to as Aghwarode. 5
Here Fr. J.D. Sheahan started the first presbytery or rectory which was completed by
Rev. Fr. Browne. At this time, church services were held at the Uwevwirode – the school
hall, where the finishing primary classes – standards three to six – were located.
When Rev. Fr. William Power came, he quickly took the decision to build the present
pro-cathedral church. This was a great visionary step. This church still accommodates a very
large crowd, up till today. Fr. Power also went ahead to establish the following great
development projects:
(1) A modern school (this used to be an intermediate school between primary school
and secondary school).
(2) St. Francis Hospital (With Dr. Bruno Bressia as Medical Director)
(3) St. Clare’s Girls College (Now Agbon Community College)
(4) Ovu Grammar School.
5
Aghwarode (literally, big [really, mysterious], land) was the forbidden grove reportedly haunted by the tormented spirits of the
departed who died in inappropriate ways -- from small pox, leprosy, and child-birth mishaps. -- Editor
188
The Catholic Church in Agbon-Urhobo…
(5) Okpara Boys Grammar School.

(6) St. Kevins College Kokori
Apart from these, there is the Sister’s of Charity, with a nunnery or Abey running in
Okpara Inland. There is also the CARITAS CENTRE, catering for the various needs of the
people of Agbon and Okpara Parish. With these, it is clear that the Catholic Church in Agbon
did not only come to convert people to Christianity, but it also contributed to the
development of the area.
Let me also mention with emphasis the construction of a new house for the Parish
Priest. The Presbytery was started by Rev. Fr. Anthony Anamali. He was transferred before
he could go far with the job. A young dynamic Priest, in the person of Rev. Fr. Jude Igho,
was posted to Okpara Parish to take over from Fr. Anamali. His activities on arrival
confirmed that this was the impetus that the house needed to move it to completion. Within a
short while the house was completed and it now stands as one of the best residents for Parish
Priests in the Warri Diocese.
The geographical area of Okpara Parish has been reduced significantly. This started in
1985 when St. Williams Parish Orerokpe was established. In 1987, St. Gregory the Great
Parish Agbarho was also established. About three years ago, St. Patrick’s Parish Eku was
also created from Okpara Parish in Agbon. The latest Parish that was created from Okpara
Parish is St. James Parish Kokori. Even with this, in Agbon alone, Okpara Parish still has
twelve Mass Centers, which does not include the Headquarters of the Parish.
Priests who are natives of Agbon in the Catholic Church have made their marks all over
the world. All together we have close to ten priests from Agbon. Rev. Fr. Isaac Aganbi is
doing great, working in the City of New York. I was very elated to meet a Rev. Fr. from
Agbon kingdom who is assistant Pastor in Waterloo Parish London U.K. At Abuja we have
Rev. Fr. Patrick Eyayoma working in the Lords vineyard. Before all these, Very Rev. Dr.
Monsignor Anthony Erhueh has left his mark in many parishes in New York and its environs.
He started working there after successfully doing his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) degree
course, at Fordham University Bronx, N.Y.
The women of Agbon are not left behind. Mother Idahosa, Rev. Sister Ovwigho, Rev.
Sister Emaduagu are but a few of Agbon women working in the Church all over Nigeria.
The Catholic Church has come to stay in Agbon. Right from the start, Okpara Parish
did very good work to serve all the nation. Through St. Francis Hospital it rendered medical
services to as far away place as Bayelsa State, from where many medical cases were referred,
in the late sixties and early seventies. I have also met many women lawyers and doctors, who
studied at St. Clare’s College Okpara 1/L, and Ovu Grammar School. By extension, St. Peter
Claver’s in Aghalokpe, a college founded by the Catholic Church under Okpara parish in
Agbon, has produced many politicians, professors, soldiers, medical doctors, that have served
the whole country of Nigeria.
To crown it all, as I have already mentioned, we have from Agbon, priests and Rev.
Sisters who are exported to other parts of Nigeria, and the world at large, serving humanity
and propagating the great work of our Lord Jesus Christ. No doubt all these achievements
can only be possible in a community like Agbon, where God’s blessings continue to be
abundant.
189
Chapter 10
Evolution of the Urhobo Bibleand

Some Christian Liturgical Books 1
M.Y. Nabofa
Department of Religious Studies,
The complete Urhobo Bible came out in 1978 and since then, an account of that
wonderful accomplishment, told in a simple but accurate manner, has been long expected.
The Urhobo people at least have been very eager to know how the Urhobo version of the
Christian liturgical books came into being. In fact, the curious minds have been very
desirous to know the kind of John Wycliffes, William Tyndales and the Francis Bacons
behind the translation and publication of the Urhobo Bible.
The earliest attempt to essay the evolution of the Urhobo Christian literature was the
one included in the Ph.D. Thesis of S.U. Erivwo. He briefly discussed Herbert Tugwell's
translation of a few passages of the Holy Bible and the Lord's Prayer into the Urhobo
language. A Section of the thesis was revised and published in 1991 and it contained, almost
exactly, what was written in the same thesis submitted in 1972.
The second written literature on this topic was a pamphlet titled Ikun ri Baibol re
Urhobo: The History of the Urhobo Bible , authored and read by the Venerable Enajero
Arawore during the launching of the complete Urhobo Bible on April 29, 1978. This
pamphlet was indeed sketchy. In May and July 1979, we published in the The Nigerian
Christian an article titled “The Complete Urhobo Bible.” This PAPER was revised and
published in ORITA, Ibadan Journal of Religious Studies, vol. XXVI/1-2, June and
December 1995 . In view of the limitation of space, much that was important about the
development of Urhobo Bible Corpus was not included. It is the need to give a more detailed
account of this important story that has prompted the development and publication of this
monograph.
We shall have achieved our objectives if this modest attempt will generate the desire to
improve on the historiography of the Urhobo Bible, the desired discussions and discourses
on the ways to improve on the translations of the various Urhobo Christian literature as of
now, and to encourage healthy Urhobo biblical scholarship. As a matter of fact, there is the
need for a concerted effort of experts of textual critics of translation to do a thorough x-ray of
the present Urhobo translation of the living Word of God. Again this work also stresses the
need for similar works to be done on the accounts of the liturgical books used in the Nigerian
Baptist, the African Church, The God's Kingdom Society (GKS)
1
This manuscript was originally published in Ibadan, Nigeria, and is now republished as a chapter in this volume by kind
permission of Professor Michael Y. Nabofa
and the other Christian denominations in Urhobo language, which are yet to be investigated
and documented.
We are greatly indebted to a number of people who helped in bringing this work to its
present stage. First, we are grateful to Dr. Egbe Ifie who assisted in proof-reading, editing
and type-setting the manuscript. Second, we express our indebtedness to the Urhobo Lan-
guage Committee for the use of the Urhobo Calendar Chart and numerals included in the
appendix in order to preserve it for posterity. 2We acknowledge the great help we received
from the introductory Section of Obe R'Une Re Otuine R'Ega Re Katolik R'Urhobo Joint
Choir, Warri Diocese . We are grateful to both Mr. Napoleon O. Aya, the Managing
Director of Mckay Group of Companies,Port Harcourt, for his tremendous financial
support and to the Rt. Reverend Vincent Omasheho Muoghere for his moral support, fervent
prayers, and for supplying us with many of the documents used in completing this work.
Finally, we are most grateful to the God Almighty for preserving our lives and for
giving us the strength to complete this job.
I dedicate this publication to Mrs. Janet Anore Ohwovwiogor, nee Obukohwo-Egide
Nabofa, "Oniemo of the Nabofa Family."
M.Y. Nabofa,
Department of Religious Studies
University of Ibadan
Ibadan, June 1997
General Introduction
In Christian altruism, the Holy Bible is the richest source and the most profound
fountain of faith in the life of a devout Christian. It is of great importance to him both in his
private devotion and congregational worship. It is from the Holy Writ that a Christian, and
indeed every spiritually minded person, draws most of his or her spiritual nourishment.
Hence, as we had opined elsewhere, "every devout Christian believes that the Holy Bible is
the gift of God to His Church.” 3Consequently, every faithful Christian depends upon it for
his or her spiritual growth and development.
Emphasizing the importance of the Holy Bible in the life of the Church and indeed
every Christian, the Vatican Council II pontificated thus:
Sacred scripture is of the greatest importance in the celebration of the liturgy. For
it is from it that lessons are read and explained in the homily, and psalms are
2
This material in the appendices of the original publication is not included in this chapter. – Editor
3
This is an enlarged and heavily revised version of our earlier publications of papers titled, "The Complete Urhobo Bible" published
in The Nigerian Christian Vol. 13, No. 3, May 1979 and Vol. 13 No. 7, July 1979 and "The Urhobo Bible" in ORITA: Ibadan
Journal of Religious Studies, Vol. XXXVI/1-2, June and December 1995. pp 13-21
192
Evolution of the Urhobo Bible …
sung. It is from the Scriptures that the prayers, collected and hymns draw their
inspiration and their force, and that actions and signs derive their meanings. 4
In fact, the Church depends upon the Holy Bible to grow and develop both vertically
and horizontally. Hence one of the factors which prompted a group of Christians to form the
first Bible Society in 1804 was to enhance this spiritual development by solving the problem
of the exorbitant cost of the Bible caused by its scarcity. 5
The major aim of the Bible Society was, therefore, to provide the Bible in a vernacular
which every convert understands at an affordable price. This example inspired the formation
of many other Bible societies in several other countries in the world where the Gospel has
been preached. A concomitant of this move was that the Bible organizations gingered
individuals and groups, who showed keen interest to undertake the translation of the Holy
Writ into their vernaculars. It is this same desire that led the Bible societies based in London
and Nigeria to vigorously stimulate the very few Urhobo Christians in the early days to
translate the Holy Scriptures into Urhobo language. This chapter focuses on how the
translation of the English Bible into Urhobo was accomplished over the years with the
technical and financial assistance of the Bible societies.
Advent of Christianity in Urhoboland
The history of the translation of the Scriptures into Urhobo could be related to the
origin of Christianity in Urhoboland. We know the following about the period when the
Urhobo had their first contact with Christianity. 6 Professor A.F.C. Ryder states that in 1689,
Rev. Father Franscisco de Monteleone, a Roman Catholic Prefect from Sao Tome (the
present Equatorial Guinea), got in touch with the Urhobo, whom he called Oribbo gentili di
Benij, in his fruitless efforts to visit Benin from Warri. He is said to have made some
7
impressions among the Urhobo at that time. Ryder further informs us that under the direction
of Gasper Gao, the Augustinian Bishop of Sao Tome, who was resident in that diocese
between the years 1556 and 1565 and from 1517 to 1574, a company of Augustinian monks
was sent to Warri to found the Christian settlement named Santo Agostinho. J.A. Ade Ajayi
opines that 8by the 1570s the Portuguese had established a
religious foothold in Ode-Itsekiri, the original seat of the Olu of Itsekiri, whose incumbent
badly needed the support of these early Portuguese to assert his independence against the
authority of the Oba of Benin 9 Ode-Itsekiri, the ancestral home of the Itsekiri people, where
the early Portuguese Roman Catholic Missionaries had their evangelistic Headquarters was 4
Austin Flannery O.P. (ed) (1075) VATICAN COLLECTIONS, Vol. 1. VATICAN COUNCIL-II (TWO)The Councilliar and Post
Concilliar Documents. 1975 edition, p. 10.
5
Bible Society of Nigeria, Information concerning the Bible Society of Nigeria (n.d.), a mimeographed document, page 3.
6
Materials used in this paragraph and the next one are mostly drawn from pages 1 and 2 of our earlier work titled, " Adam The
Evangelist", published by Daystar Press, Ibadan, 1992.
7
A.F.C. Ryder, “Missionary Activities in the Kingdom of Warri to early nineteenth Century" in Journal of the Historical Society
of Nigeria, vol. 2, No. 1, 1960, page 14.
8
Ibid.
9
A.J.F. Ajayi, Christian Missions in Nigeria, 1841-1891: The Making of a New Elite. London, Longman, 1985, page 3.
193
barely ten kilometers away from the Urhobo settlements of present day Agbassa, Aladja,
Igbudu and Okere, all of which, apart from Aladja, have been incorporated in modern Warri
township. It is to be assumed that the desire of these early missionary explorers to win more
souls for Christ may have led them into contact with the Urhobo settlements in order to
convert them along with their Itsekiri neighbours. And if the Portuguese missionaries did
convert some Urhobo in the present day Warri cosmopolis, the Urhobo were therefore one of
the earliest peoples of West Africa to receive the Gospel.
It is well acknowledged that the seeds of Christianity sowed by these early missionaries
fell among thorns; they go scotched and withered away. It was not until about 1900 that any
fruitful and meaningful Christian evangelization began in Urhoboland.
The Early Mode of Urhobo Christian Worship
It is the fact that the earliest well established and organized Christian denomination in
10
Urhoboland was the Church Missionary Society of the Anglican Church of England. The mode
of worship and liturgy in the Anglican Church is clearly spelt out in the Church's Common
Prayer Book. And every member of the Anglican Church is expected to have the book as
his companion to enable him worship meaningfully during service by following and
responding intelligently to the canticles and versicles." But the11 Anglican Christian's
pattern of worship among the early Urhobo Christians was unable to follow strictly the form
set out in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. This was inevitable because the founding
fathers and Church leaders were stark illiterates who nevertheless did worship, but whose
mode of worship, essentially, took the form of an unorganized Christian prayer meeting.
Thus, when the congregation assembled, more often than not, in the Church leader's
house or compound, depending on the size of the group the leader recited one or two verses
(which most certainly he must have learned from some other Christians) from the Bible. The
most commonly thus recited verse was from St. John Chapter 4:24 which says:
God is a spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in
truth. (Authorized King James Version)
After that they all knelt down and recited the Lord's Prayer. According to Enajero
Arawore, "no sentences, no exhortation, no absolution, because there was no priest to read
the absolution." 12While still in the kneeling position, they sang or chanted a verse or two
from a Christian hymn. But in some areas of Urhobo, where there were Itsekiri teachers,
some of the songs were rendered in either pure Itsekiri language or in a mixture of Urhobo
and Itsekiri. On the other hand, in those parts of Urhobo, such as Uwherun and Evwreni,
which were closely related to the Niger Mission (with headquarters at Patani, an Ijo
10
For more details on this vide Enajero Arawore, History of the Church in Urhobo, A.D. 1900-1983 . Printed by Akpovire Printing
Press, No. 3, Mission Road, Ughelli, (n.d.), pp. 19-21 and 54.
11
Enajero Arawore, op. cit., p. 43.
12
Ibid.
194
speaking town, or at Igbide, an Isoko town) used Christian songs which had a mixture of
Isoko, Urhobo and Ijo words. 13
This was due to cross-cultural influence brought about by Christian evangelism and
enterprises. This is not to say that they never used songs which were purely rendered in
Urhobo language. In fact there were many of them and the following is one of such songs
chanted wholly in Urhobo tongue:
URHOBO ENGLISH TRANSLATION

If one come to Jesus
Ohwo de bri Jesu
He will then see His light
Ko sa mr'urhukpe roye Jesus, you are light indeed
Jesu Urhukpe wo rue Wa You then come and let us
gba yanrhe re bro ra. All go to Him (Jesus). 14
The Apostolic Creed which contains the kernel and the kerygma of the Christian faith was
not said and the Psalms were neither read nor chanted because the people did not know them.
As Enajero Arawore puts it:
What passed for worship was something like a prayer meeting; the leader led the
worship as much as his brain could remember. There was no Bible reading as
such, but remembered verses or text which the leader had memorized was recited
and expounded, this passed for sermon. 15
In the course of worship those who had problems of any sort brought them forward.
These were discussed and they prayed to God in the name of Jesus for these problems to be
solved. These prayers worked wonderfully for them because they all prayed with one mind
and had an unflinching faith in the efficacy of their prayers.
During the same worship session, a period was devoted to receiving new converts into
the Church. New members were happily received into the Christian fold. The leader of the
congregation assisted by other older members expounded to the new converts the much they
knew about Christianity. Some other and knowledgeable members of the congregation were
assigned to each of the new members for constant visit and counselling in Christian spiritual
ideals and ways of daily life or codes of conduct. Most of them held strongly to the faith
while others backslided at the approach of some storms of life.
Charity, which had been part of Urhobo life, was strongly upheld and Christians were
enjoined to indulge in it. This was demonstrated in several ways which included free
13
For more details on this vide, M.Y. Nabofa, (1992) Adam The Evangelist, Daystar Ibadan Press, Ibadan, 1922, pp. 15 and 16.
14
This is a popular verse among the Old Urhobo Christian Women. They use it whenever they come together for any occasion. Some
of them even sing/hum it while alone, working in the farm or performing any chore in the home. We are yet to know to which
individual we should accredit its authorship. So for now, we should accredit it to "The Unknown Urhobo Early Christian".
15
Enagero Arawore, op. cit., p. 43.
195
donations mostly in kind and sparingly in cash, because at that time the people operated a
trade by barter economy. And there was communal meal at the end of each Church service.
There was, however, Church collection which in those olden days consisted of cowries.
Then, cowries were recognised as legal currency and medium of exchange. Whatever16
amount collected was used to help the needy among them and also for the expansion of the
Gospel. As they had no Church teachers and workers to maintain, every amount collected
was used within the community and among the members.
At the end of the service the leader of the congregation and some other members who
had the means to prepare food invited fellow members to dine with them. They had a
fellowship or communal or social eating and drinking together. Palmwine, which is an
Urhobo indigenous drink, was their favourite and it was taken with great moderation. Such
fellowship created a very strong agape and bond among them.
What happened among the early Urhobo Christians could be linked to what took place
among the early Corinthian Christians, but that of the Urhobo was more refined and carried
out in an orderly manner than that of the Corinthians which St. Paul rebuked when they (the
Corinthians) allowed their practice of agape to degenerate into "a kind of riotous picnic." 17
But the Urhobo saw the inner meaning of the life of Jesus Christ, hence everything was
carried out in an orderly manner.
In spite of the above initial seemingly and overt signs of successful Christian enterprise
among the early Urhobo Christian converts, the situation still needed to be improved upon
before the Christian message could be ingrained in their minds. Such could only be
successfully done through a meaningful textualization of the Good News by means of the
Holy Bible being accurately translated into a language that is understood by them.
The Need for an Urhobo Bible
One of the major reasons why the early Christian missionary efforts failed in this part
of the world was the lack of meaningful explanation of the message of the Gospel to the
people, and an absence of the Scriptures in the language that has any meaning to the people.
It is a pertinent fact that the spiritual development of every Christian depends largely upon a
thorough understanding of the message of the Scriptures which ought to be explained in the
language that the people really understand. It was in this vein that various attempts were
made to translate the Holy Bible into Urhobo.
We know very little about the first attempts made to translate the Scriptures into
Urhobo. We doubt much whether any attempt was made during the early missionary era that
was discussed above. It is a well known fact that in some parts of Nigeria, which were
evangelized by white missionaries, the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer and Hymn
16
Although the British currency, which was in the denominations of half-penny, penny, three pence, six pence, shillings, florins (two
shillings), pounds and guinea (that is one pound and one shilling, twenty-one shillings) was in circulation in Urhoboland as
early as about 1900, the Urhobo still accepted and made use of cowries as legal currency and medium of exchange in economic
transaction for up-to-early 1940s. Even in modern times, cowries still feature prominently in transacting traditional marriage rites
among the Urhobo people; they are included in the payment of bride-price. Not only that, in classical performance of Urhobo
traditional burial rites, especially those meant to repose the soul of the departed (tradtional requiem masses), cowries are also still
being used and accepted as legal tender or currency. Among the Uwherun, for example, key performers of traditional requiem burial
rites still demand for and accept cowries as part-payment for their sacred services.
17
Howard Clerk Kee and Franklin Y. Young, (1994) The Living World of the New Testament , London, Darton, Longman and todd,
p. 260.
196
books were translated into the people's language by the missionaries themselves. For
example, it was Archdeacon Thomas J. Dennis, assisted by some Igbo interpreters, who
translated the Bible into the Igbo language. 18Almost the same thing happened in Isoko. The
Reverend Henry Proctor and J.C. Aitken, the Pioneer missionaries in Isoko encouraged the
translation of the Bible into Isoko Language. They were thus the motivators of the vigorous
translation works and enterprises of Mr. Omuye, Wilson Oki and Israel Upelomo Eloho. 19
When the white missionaries of the Sudan United Missions got to the Northern part of
Nigeria they also helped and encouraged the translation of the Holy Bible into Hausa, Tiv,
Nupe, Biron and many other languages spoken by the minority groups in that part of Nigeria.
The expatriate missionaries pursued the translation enterprises vigorously because they felt
that if they succeeded in that venture they would be able to help liberate the oppressed
minorities from the Hausa/Fulani hegemony and British colonialism. 20
George Pilkinton and Henry Wright Duta, who were Christian missionaries in East
Africa, translated the Bible from English and Swahili to Luganda. The translations they made
helped them to preach, teach and impart Christian ideas and doctrines to the Baganda.
21
The position was different during the pioneering work of Christian evangelization in
Urhoboland. As it has often been asserted by many people who have carried out studies of
Christian enterprise in Urhoboland, the people evangelized themselves. The 22 Church in
this area was bounded by illiterates and semi-illiterates who could hardly read the Bible, and
according to Enajero Arawoye:
The few who could read were unable to translate the Bible. The first teachers,
mostly Itsekiri elements, had no Bible either. The first teachers read and
translated the Bible as they understood it. The English or Yoruba Bible was used
as a charm by placing it under the pillow to ward off evil spirits and juju (sic).
Church leaders and some people who attended Bible classes and Sunday schools
were made to memorise few verses of the Bible and these they in turn used for
preaching and teaching. 23
Enajero Arawoye further observed that as long as the church remained predominantly
illiterate no effort was made at translating the Bible into Urhobo language at this early stage
18
For more details on this vide, K. K. Ukechi, (1972), Missionary Enterprise and Rivalry in Igborland, 1857-1944 , London: Frank
Cass and Company Limited, pages 230-234. However, many scholars have expressed the opinion that this tradition can be hardly
sustained.
19
Messrs. Omuye and Wilson Oki translated St. Mark's Gospel into Isoko Language in 1920 while Israel Upelomo Elomo, a brilliant
catechist, translated the four Gospels into Isoko language, in 1921-22. These translations were carried out under the able
guidance of Revds. Henry Proctor and J. D. Aitken. For more details on the above vide Adube, D.O.U. (Rev) (1980) A History of
the Translation of Isoko Christian Literate, A University of Ibadan B.A. (Hons.) Degree Long Essay, pp. 61ff.
20
For more details on this vide, Jan Jara (1979) Boer, Missionary Messenger of Liberation in a Colonial Context: A Case Study of
the Sudan United Missions, Amsterdam, RODOPI, pp. 111ff.
21
W.B. Anderson, The Church in East Africa, 1840-1974 , Central Tanganyika Press, DODOMA, 1977, pp. 38-39. 109ff, 271ff,
450ff.
22
For more details on this vide, S.U. Erivwo Christianity in Urhoboland, 1901-1961. University of Ibadan Ph.D. Thesis, 1972.pp.
23
Enajero, Arawore op. cit. P. 51.
197
of Christianity in Urhoboland. The effect of this was that it was not easy for Christianity to
expand rapidly vertically among the Urhobo.
It is through the Scripture that the divine communicates with the devotee. After reading
and meditating or reflecting on the passage read, the believer is able to interpret the true
import of the message contained in the portion read. This is successfully done through the
divine inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit and such exercise helps the believer to
internalize the message of the Gospel.
Both Christian theologians and Church historians always refer to vertical and horizontal
expansion of Christianity when they examine the effects of Christian evangelization among a
given people. When they speak of vertical expansion they mean how deeply rooted the faith is
in the mind of the people while horizontal expansion refers to the geographical spread of the
faith and the numerical strength or population of those who profess to be Christians.
Usually, these scholars opine that the vertical expansion of the faith is the more
important of the two because it is more lasting and endures to the end. It is possible,
therefore, to argue that the early Portuguese Roman Catholic Missionary enterprise in this
area failed because they paid more attention to the horizontal than the vertical expression of
Christianity. This is the mistake the early Urhobo Christian evangelists wanted to avoid.
Actually, vertical growth and the development of Christianity among a given people
call for an examination of the depth of the development of Christian tenets and practices
among such a people. It also looks into how unshaken the faith of the people is and how
innately strong is the inward part of the believer, and that is to say, to what extent the people
have really internalized the message of the Gospel.
It is through constant and meaningful study of the Holy Bible that the "Word" develops
deep roots, strong and unshakeable faith in the believer. The Holy Bible is the principal
means by which the Christian message grows vertically. Thus, one can appreciate the need
and rational for the Holy writ to be translated into a language that is best understood by the
believer.
Translation Efforts
Early Efforts of Bishop H. Tugwell and His Teachers
Signs of preliminary translation work seem to have started during the era of Cole's
missionary activities in the Delta area of the Niger. Bishop H. Tugwell's letters written from
the Rest House at Kokori to the Parochial Committees of St. Luke's Church in Sapele and St.
Andrew's Church in Warri (all C.M.S. Anglican Churches) on December 16, 1914 explicitly
refer to the woeful ignorance of both the teachers and the early Christian converts due
mainly to lack of Christian scripture reading materials. Parts of the letters read thus:
While I am thankful to find that so many centres have been occupied in

connection with Warri and Sapele Churches, it is very evident that the work
which is being carried on is being carried on under very unsatisfactory conditions,
and under conditions which cannot be tolerated without bringing grave discredit
upon the Churches responsible for these centres. The people are
198
woefully ignorant, whilst their teachers are also ignorant and in some cases quite
incapable of giving instruction to others. I think I have already stated that I am
anxious to secure the help of the C.M.S. in connection with the needs of Sobo
(sic) country; especially in connection with work of the translation of the
Scriptures and Training Agent, but I am not able to state positively yet whether
the Society is prepared to render such help. In the event of such help being given,
there would be no desire on the part of any to interfere with existing work; on the
contrary, it would be desired to strenghthen and extend existing work…
In the meantime, I desire to impress upon your Committee the need of more
effective supervision of these out-stations. There should be at least a quarterly
visitation on the part of Omatsola or some responsible person, while Conferences
regarding translational work should be held as often as possible. On this occasion,
one form of the Lord's Prayer has been adopted which we trust will meet the
needs of the whole of the Sobo (sic) country, whilst I hope to be able to put a
small reading sheet in the hands of the printer in the course of a week or two.
24
We can deduce the following from the letters:
(a) The Churches were in an unsatisfactory condition because both the people and
their teachers were ignorant.
(b) The teachers were incapable of giving instruction to the people because the Scriptures had
not been translated into the language that they (the teachers) understood.
(c) There were on-going Conferences on translation work and Tugwell was anxious to
secure the help of the C.M.S. to assist in this work.
(d) It appears that there were various versions of the Lord's Prayer in these churches
– due largely to a lack of a standardised translation; and that
(e) Tugwell translated a small reading sheet for use of the Churches, content of which
is not stated in his letters.
The notes that followed these letters state that two thousand copies of that small sheet
should be sold at a penny each; this price allowing a profit on the outlay. Also in the notes,
he gave an order that Watts and the Church Catechism should be translated and printed
quickly. The Lord's Prayer and the first four of the Ten Commandments should also be
translated quickly. In a meeting held at Effurun in that year (1914), it was resolved that
Agbarho dialect, which was almost widely understood, should be used in all translations.
Thus, we can see serious efforts made by Tugwell to really ensure that the early Urhobo
Christian converts were presented with the message of the Gospel in the language that they
understood in order to make for a sound spiritual development. We doubt very much whether
copies of these early translations are extant. From the evidence that has so far come to light,
Bishop Herbert Tugwell pioneered the translation of the Scriptures into Urhobo by
24
S. U. Erivwo, Christianity in Urhoboland, 1901-1961. University of Ibada Ph.D. Thesis, 1972, pp. 450-452.
199
giving the directives that guided the translators without personally engaging himself in the
actual translation.
First Urhobo Translation
There was a lull in the spate of Tugwell's pioneered translation activities when he left
the Delta area. Bishop James Johnson, who later on took charge of other area, insisted that
the Church teachers and Catechists should learn and conduct the Church services in Yoruba,
a language into which the Scriptures have been fully translated. Only
25 very few of them
were able to meet up with such demand and for this reason Church services appeared very
formless, meaningless, and uninteresting to those who did not understand the Yoruba
language. In order to save the situation, Mr. Omatsola and a few other Urhobo Church
teachers, who had a working knowledge of English Language, interpreted directly from
English to Urhobo during Church Services, Sunday Schools and Class Meetings.
It was at this juncture that the Urhobo felt that the onus lay on themselves to have the
Scriptures translated into their language. The first Urhobo person who made some attempt to
translate the Bible into Urhobo was Mr. Thomas Emedo of Orogun. He was a C.M.S.
(Anglican) Church agent. In a few years before 1920, he had produced a pamphlet known
as Obeke. This was the first Urhobo Primer and it contained some stories from both the Old
and the New Testaments which became very popular among early Urhobo Christians.
Thomas Emedo also translated some sections of the Book of Common Prayer, and about
twenty popular songs. These were the most popular sacred bookings which the early Urhobo
Christians used for their worship that gave them no small inspiration.
In about 1920, one W.A. Tadaferua, who was at Idjerhe was urged by Thomas Emedo
to join an Adult Education class. When Mr. W.A. Tadaferua moved to Warri that very year,
he was appointed an instructor in an Urhobo Bible Class. Together with others, including
Ikimi Waghoregbo of Ephro-Otor, Philip Abi Oghenekaro of Oghwrode in Udu clan and S.
Magi (an Ijo teacher, who was at Ekiugbo, Ughelli), Mr. W.A. Tadaferua worked in a
translation class which was later set up. According to Erivwo, this translation class also drew
inspiration from the Urhobo people in Ikale in Yorubaland. In Ikale,26 one Ofodidun
actively organised an Urhobo Christian congregation under the supervision of Rev. Canon
S.C. Philips (later Bishop Philip), who was then based at Ondo. This group yearned for the
Scriptures to be taught and expounded to them in their own mother tongue; thence, they
actively encouraged the group at home involved with the task of the translation of the
Scriptures into Urhobo. Jointly in the Tadaferua class, they translated St. Mark's Gospel.
They finished this by 1924. This became the major vernacular reader in the elementary
schools of those days.27
The choice to translate St. Mark's Gospel was probably due to its small size and its
being the resume of the life and Ministry of our Lord, Jesus Christ. It contains almost all the
salient issues discussed in the other Synoptic Gospels. Hence, in 1936, when Agori Iwe, the
25
Ibid, p. 270.
26
S.U. Erivwo op. cit., p. 271
27
bid, p. 270.
200
first Anglican Bishop of Benin Diocese, decided to boost the work of translation, in order to
avoid duplication, he picked up St. John's Gospel, breaking new grounds. This was quickly
followed by the translation of the same Gospel (St. John) by Rev. Jovi Aganbi of the Baptist
Church in Eku, 28a duplication which seemed unwelcome by many Urhobo Christians of
that time in light of the urgent need to translate other remaining books. It is not quite clear
why Jovi Aganbi undertook the translation of the same gospel. The two translators could
have started to work simultaneously without knowing what the other person was doing,
judging from the quick succession of the two translations; or, perhaps, Rev. Agori Iwe's
rendering of this Gospel was not satisfactory to Aganbi and, therefore, he decided to produce
his won version. Future translators learned from this mistake and took precaution against the
wasteful duplications and dissipated efforts.
First Officially Organised Indigenous Translation Efforts
As the Church grew and developed both vertically and horizontally, the yearning of the
people to have more books in the Bible translated into Urhobo became greater. In order to
satisfy this yearning and to further enhance the people's spiritual development, Agori Iwe,
who was then the only ordained Priest in the C.M.S. (Anglican) Church in Urhoboland in
1945, commissioned three Anglican Catechists – Messrs. J.A. Emofe, Isaac Efedjara and
Enajero Arawore – to carry on the Urhobo Bible translation work in earnest.29
Arawore was made the co-ordinator of this project. In order to enable him to function
more effectively in this new assignment, he was transferred from St. Thomas's C.M.S.
(Anglican) Church, Uwherun (where he was a Catechist) to Ohrerhe in Agbarho. Apart from
Ohrerhe in Agbarho, being more centrally located and more easily accessible to where the
other members of his team were, the other major motive was to enable the group, and
especially the co-ordinator, to be more familiar with the Agbarho dialect, which as earlier
mentioned, had been selected and accepted as the union dialect of the Urhobo in 1914, to be
the medium of all translations into Urhobo. This assignment was completed within six years
and the New Testament in Urhobo was officially published in 1951.
To use Enajero Arawore's own words, “All these effors at translation were made by the
natives, whose determination was to make the word of God available to the Christians in
their own language.” 30 The pioneer translation of the entire New Testament into the Urhobo
language had a major flaw; it had no tonal marks. Since the Urhobo language, like most other
Nigerian languages -- for example, Ibo and Yoruba -- tones have significant meanings, their
absence in this first Urhobo New Testament version made reading difficult and impaired
comprehension since the absence of the tonal marks in some words occasioned wrong
interpretations of the words. In spite of this flaw Urhobo Christians were greatly encouraged
by this spectacular achievement and the enthusiasm with which the
28 th
Enajero, Arawore, “Ikun ri Baibol re Urhobo: The History of the Urhobo Bible” (n.d.). A paper which the author read when the
complete Urhobo Bible was launched at Eku on 29 April, 1978, p.2.
29
Enajero, Arawore History of the Church in Urholand A.D. 1900-1983. Printed by Akpovire Printing Press, 3, Mission Road,
ughelli, (n.d.), p. 51.
30
Arawore Enajero (1978), op. cit. p. 4.
201
people received the translation encouraged the translators to take up the more tedious work
of the translation of the Old Testament, in addition to reviewing that of the New Testament.
Translation of the Old Testament
Formation of the Joint Consultative Urhobo

Translation Committee
Venerable Enajero Arawore, the Chief Co-ordinator of this Christian enterprise, was
not satisfied with the stage reached so far in the translation work. The order of worship in the
(C.M.S.) Anglican Church requires that out of the two lessons to be read during every
worship, the first one should be taken from the Old Testament. Not only that, at least one of
the Psalms should also either be read or chanted. As the Old Testament had not been
translated, the practice then was for the reader to translate straight from the English text. This
was not very smooth and satisfactory. Apart from that, there was no uniformity in the whole
process of direct translation.
In order to overcome all these problems, in 1959, Venerable Enajero Arawore who was
stationed at Uwherun at that time, convened a meeting of all the clergymen of the various
Christian denominations in Urhoboland to plan for the translation of the Old Testament. The
first and subsequent meetings of these people were held at Ughelli, which was then the seat
of Venerable Agori Iwe, who was at that time the Archdeacon of Warri Archdeaconry in the
Niger Delta Diocese, Anglican Communion.
A Joint Consultative Translation Committee of all the Christian denominations in
Urhoboland was thus founded. This joint effort was to guard against what happened between
Agori Iwe and Jovi Aganbi in 1936 and in order to expedite the translation enterprise through
team effort. Another reason for the Urhobo Joint Consultative Translation Committee,
according to Enajero Arawore, was "to give the translation a national fervour and one
acceptable to all (the Christian) denominations in Urhoboland. 31
The Roman Catholic Church was not, inadvertently, represented during the inaugural
meeting, but her representatives attended the subsequent ones. It was resolved in that
meeting that all the ordained Urhobo-speaking Ministers of all the Christian denominations
should be members of the Joint Consultative Translation Committee. This also implied that
all the Ministers that were to be ordained later were automatically to join the committee. In
addition it was resolved that the Old Testament translation work should start immediately.
The following were the pioneer members of the Urhobo Joint Consultative Translation
Committee:
Anglican African Church Baptist Church Roman Catholic Salvation Army

Church Church
(1) Rev. J.A.O. (1) Rev. J. (1) Rev. P. E. (1) Rev. Father (1) Captain
Emoefe Okirhienyefa Onosode Vincent Obudu Uvwo
(2) Rev. (2) Mr. Ibuje (2) Rev. V. (2) Rev. Father
Unurhieri Eghaghe Paul Okudaje
(3) Rev. J. O. (3) Rev.
31
Enajero, Arawore, History of the Church in Urhoboland, A.D. 1900-1983 . Printed by Akpvire Printing Press, 3 Mission road,
Ughelli, (n.d), p. 51
202
Dafiewhanre Okerentie
(4) Rev. J. (4)Rev. Orikiri
Eterhere (5) Rev. F.
(5) Rev. Enajero Awetefe
Arawore (6) Rev.
(6) Rev. Mark Otojareri
Forae (7) Rev. P.
(7) Rev. Otubu Ofuoku
(8) Rev. Atikpe (8)Rev.
(9) Rev. W. Ariemuduigho
Tadaferua, and (9) Rev.
(10) Rev. P. Agbaluya
Akposibruke (10) Rev. J. E.
Ukueku
The following were appointed as the Executive Officers of the Committee charged
with the onus of seeing to its day-to-day affairs:
(1) Patron: Rt. Rev. Agori Iwe

(2) Chairman: Rev. P.E. Onosode (a post he held until his death in 1976).
(3) Deputy Chairman: Ven. J.A.O. Emoefe
(4) Treasurer: Rt. Rev. Agori Iwe
(5) Secretary and Co-ordinator: Ven Enajero Arawore
Someone who could perform secretarial duties was appointed as a Clerk to handle all duties
emanating from the Translation Committee. His main duties were to handle correspondences,
to type would all the translated scripts, mimeograph and arrange them in an orderly manner.
He was placed on an initial salary of ten pounds per month.
Why these People were Chosen
These people were chosen for this holy assignment because of their expertise in
Urhobo language and culture, and competence in English and Biblical languages: Greek and
Hebrew. For example, Venerable Enajero Arawore, who was the coordinator was trained at
the Trinity College, Umuahia in the mid-1950's and was priested in 1957, had records of
excellent performance in Biblical Hebrew and Greek languages, while he was studying there.
All the other clergies had working knowledge of those languages too. This informed their
being drafted. Judging from the efficient manner in which they handled the work, it is hard to
believe that they worked without the divine guidance of the Holy Spirit, for as the Bible is
believed to have been written under God’s inspiration, one could opine that it was in like
manner translated into Urhobo under the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Translation Procedures
During the translation proper, a number of books were assigned to each translator. The
arrangement was that a completed book was to be sent to the Venerable Enajero Arawore,
the Co-ordinator, for scrutiny and correction after which it was to be sent to the
203
typist for typing and mimeographing. The mimeographed copies were to be sent to some
selected laymen, who after reading through them were to make their comments and
corrections where necessary and return them to the co-ordinator, who would in turn read
through them again and pass the draft copies to the typist to effect the necessary corrections
on the semi-final draft copies. The co-coordinator closely supervised the typing of these fair
copies to ensure that no mistakes were made. At the end, these copies were sent to the
translation department of the British and Foreign Bible Society in London for further and
final vetting.
The meeting of the translation committee was rotated among the following church
centres: St. John's Anglican Church, Ovwodawanre, Ughelli; Bethel Baptist Church, Sapele;
First Baptist Church, Kakpamre; and St. Andrew's Church, Warri. Since all Urhobo Christian
congregations were properly briefed about this, they realised the importance of the workof
this committee. Consequently the Church members of each centre showed them great
hospitality and lavishly entertained them with food.
The business of the Translation Committee during each meeting was not limited to
translation work; but the questions referred to the committee by the Bible Consultants in
London and Nigeria were also discussed. They discussed and rubbed their minds together on
words which they themselves found difficult to translate.
The following are some such foreign words the translators found difficult to render in
the Urhobo language:
Incense: It was retained but spelt inces.
Door-post: edivu. This is a word derived from Uwherun and Ughievwen dialects
White: Ofuafon. Ofuafon is the common Urhobo word for "white" and "clean.”
But in order to differentiate clean from white in the Urhobo Bible, the
translators had to use Otantan for clean which is derived from Ughievwe dialect
for it. 32
How to name and correctly translate the four cardinal points into Urhobo also posed a
serious problem. However, they came out with the following translations:
East: Obaro-onre which literally means the front or in front of the sun. The
expression Ovatsa-ro onre, meaning where the sun rises from, could have been
a better and meaningful translation as it conveys a better geographical location of
the east, as where the sun rises from. It should be noted that in Urhobo thinking
and understanding, if one stands and faces where the rays of the sun are coming
from, either from the East or the West, he is described as standing and
facing the sun, Obaro-onre which is the ovacha-oren. Hence, the suggestion of
Ovacharo-onre as being the more appropriate translation or rendering of East in
Urhobo language. West is translated Obuko-onre meaning the back of the sun.
32
Otentan literarily means smooth and devoid of any filth. It could also mean empty and in this context, it means empty of dirt or
filthy. As used in the Urhobo, it means sparkling clean.
204
Again, this is not too correct a rendering because, geographically, the sun has
neither back nor front. North is translated Obohwere-onre, which means the left
hand-side of the sun. south is translated Oborhe-onre, which means the right
handside of the sun.
To those of us on the earth planet, we know that the position of the sun is stationary or
stagnant. Its direction to us in the morning is not the same at noon and evening. For example,
when we face it rising from the East in the morning, the geographical South will be on our
right hand-side, and the North will be on our left hand-side. The reverse will be the case
when we face the setting sun in the West in the evening. So, we cannot talk of "the right" and
"the left" sides of the sun as a permanent geographical feature.
One can see that the translation and interpretations given to the four cardinal points are
anthropomorphic because geographically, the sun has neither right nor left. The problems
faced by the translators in finding appropriate words and expressions for their work probably
arose as a result of their tendency to restrict themselves to the recommended and accepted
Agbarho dialect as the medium of translation. If they had probed further than they did into
other Urhobo dialects, they would have found more suitable words and expressions to solve
most of their problems. Nevertheless, it should be appreciated that in reading carefully
through the Urhobo Bible, one would discover that it is not only Agbarho dialect, but nearly
every Urhobo dialect had considerable input in the translation of the Bible.
Meanwhile, as the translation progressed, it was decided that something should be done
to wet the reading appetite of those who were yearning to read the Bible in Urhobo language,
and secondly, to encourage Urhobo Christians to develop more interest in reading the Holy
Scriptures in their own mother-tongue. What they did to satisfy the above
objectives was to publish The Book of Genesis , which was among the first books whose
translations were completed. This was done in 1963 and not quite long after that the
complete Book of Psalms was published.
As we had earlier hinted, when each book had been satisfactorily translated, it was sent
to the United Bible Society in London. There, if was typed-set and a camera-ready copy was
prepared for printing. The aspect of the translation work done in Nigeria was completed in
1972 and in 1976, the galley-proof was sent to Venerable Enajero Arawore for final
proof-reading.
The translation Committee met for several days in the house of Chief J. E. Ukueku at
Eku to proofread it. The committee cop-opted Venerable Professor S.U. Erivwo, an Anglican
Priest, and Rev. Father (Dr.) Erhueh, a Roman Catholic Mission Priest, in the final
examination of the books. As we had earlier mentioned, the Chief translation consultants,
who were Dr. P. Stine; Dr. E.A. Dahunsi and Dr. Eugene W. Bunkowske, did this under the
auspices of the United Bible Societies.
The translation which was started in 1951, including the Old Testament and the
revision of the New Testament, ended in 1972, a period of thirteen years. In fact, Dr. Eugene
W. Bunkowske confessed to both G.G. Darah, and my humble self, in1976, that this was the
longest translation of the Bible into any language he had ever handled so far. It was sent to
the press in 1972, and it did not come out until 1977. That is, the whole process
205
lasted about eighteen years. It was a great pleasure to the entire Urhobo people when the
Bible was launched on 29thApril, 1978 at Eku.
From the previous history of how the Bible was translated into other languages, we
learn that it takes shorter period to translate the New Testament than to translate the Old
Testament. For example, "Martin Luther translated the whole of the New Testament into
German in only eleven weeks, but the Old Testament took him twelve long years." 33So that
of the Urhobo was not an exception. Such delay may be due to both the large volume of that
section of the Bible and the technicalities involved in its translation. Thirdly, Christian
translators tend to relax their efforts in translation work once the New Testament, which
contains the main message of Christianity, has been completed.
Roles of the British and Foreign Bible Society (B.F.B.S.) and

United Bible Societies (U.B.S.)
The B.F.B.S. and U.B.S. played significant roles in the successful translation and
launching of the complete Urhobo Bible by Urhobo Bible Consultative Translation
Committee. The major decisions taken and how they planned to carry out the translation
work were conveyed to the B.F.B.S. which are based in London.
According to Venerable Enajero Arawore, the response from the B.F.B.S. was very
favourable. 34The reply was also accompanied with a list of questions. The Joint
Consultative Translation Committee quickly responded to all the questions and issues raised
in the reply from the B.F.B.S. These London based Bible Societies saw the great prospects in
the work of the Urhobo Bible Translation Committee and made recommendations to the
United Bible Societies (U.B.S.) there and then undertook to pay the salary of the typist, to
provide such facilities as may be needed from time to time, and assigned a specialist
consultant to supervise the work. 35
We cannot say exactly now how much the U.B.S. spent on this venture. The U.B.S.
actually sent about N400.00 annually towards the typist's salary. And this it did promptly
until the whole translation was completed. The U.B.S. spent some other huge amount of
money towards this translation enterprises. In fact, the exact amount which these Bible
Societies expended towards the completion of the Urhobo Bible, we are unable to say and
quantify now.
In order for the translation Committee to be well guided, the Bible Society of London
arranged for some members of the Urhobo Bible Translation Committee to undergo
workshop. It was at this instance, Ven Enajero Arawore, who was the Secretary and Co-
ordinator of the translation enterprise, and Rev. P. Ofuoku of the Baptist Church, were
invited by the United Bible Societies of London to attend a one month workshop on Bible
translation in a place called Ali-Baba, which is midway between Duala and Yaounde in
33
For how long it took Luther to translate the Old Testament vide Howard S. Olson (1980) The Kiswahili Common Language
Version of the New Testment", African Theological Journal, Lutheran Theological College, Makumira, USA RIVER, Tanzanian,
vol. 9 No. 2, July 1980 pp. 77-86ff.
34
Ibid., p. 53.
35
Ibid. p. 51.
206
Cameroun. They found this course very rewarding. In the words of Enajero Arawore, "We
returned with new ideas and techniques in Bible translation." 36
The United Bible societies evidently demonstrated keen interest in this work. It became
deeply involved in it and did everything possible to see that the job was perfectly done. In
order to achieve this it assigned Urhobo Bible Translators the following Bible Consultative
Translation Committee:
(1) Dr. Williams Reyburn who was based in Cameroun.

(2) Dr. P. Stine, who was based in Ibadan.
(3) Dr. and Mrs. Eugene W. Bunkowske, who were also based in Ibadan.
(4) Dr. E.A. Dahunsi, also based in Ibadan.
These specialists met with them periodically to discuss intricate translation problems.
They helped in no small measure in straightening the translation of difficult words and
phrases. These experts also conveyed to the U.B.S. the problems and requirements of the
Urhobo Bible translators. In order to hasten the production of the translated texts, the U.B.S.
donated to them a Gestetner Duplicating Machine for the easy mimeographing of the texts
typed into stencils.
The translation consultant based in London followed closely the work of the Urhobo
Bible Translation Committee in order to put the people on the right path right from the
beginning of the translation work. Venerable Enajero Arawore closely scrutinized the typist
while producing the fair copy. These fair copies were then forwarded to the translation
department of the B.F.B.S. in London for further scrutiny. The above Translations
Department helped in no small measure to ensure the accuracy of the translations, and
Enajero Arawore testifies to this fact when he says:
This was a very critical examination of our translation work, and their corrections
and comments helped to a great measure the success we have so far achieved in
the translation work of the Urhobo Bible. 37
It was when the translation consultant in London felt satisfied with the job that any
finished book was passed as having been satisfactorily translated. It was then kept aside for
final printing. The New Testament which had been translated in 1951 was revised and it was
marked with tonal marks which were not there before. The consultants based in London also
scrutinized this section.
The Development of Urhobo Liturgical Books
Anglican (Communion) Experience
A close observation of Christian enterprise in Urhoboland reveals that the production

of Urhobo liturgical books in the Anglican Church took place almost simultaneously with
36
Enajero, Arawore, op. cit., p. 54.
37
Enajero, Arawore (1978), op. cit., p. 44.
207
the translation of the Bible into Urhobo. As we had earlier mentioned above, a few years
before 1920, Mr. Thomas Emedo, a native of Orogun who was an Anglican Church teacher,
produced a Christian literature called Obeke and an Urhobo Book of Common Prayer ,
following closely the Anglican Book of Common Prayer of 1662. This liturgical book
contained the orders of morning and evening worships and twenty (20) hymns translated
from the Hymnal Companion. This liturgical book did not have psalms, no orders of Holy
Communion, Baptism, Confirmation, burial and marriage services. However, according to
Enajero Arawore, "This was the beginning of the evolution of worship in Urhobo Anglican
Churches". 38
In this aspect of Christian enterprise, Mr. Thomas Emedo could be regarded as the son
of encouragement. Following his footstep, but at a higher level, at this time, in 1940, Rev.
Agori Iwe, who later became Bishop Agori Iwe, the first Urhobo ordained Christian Priest,
produced the second Urhobo Book of Common Prayer. This publication contained a number
of Psalms and seventy-two Christian Hymns, most of which were translated from the
Hymnal Companion. Some other essential services were also included in this Agori Iwe's
translation, but the Orders of Ordination and Consecration Services, and the Anglican 39
Articles of Faith were excluded from this version of the Urhobo Book of Common Prayer.
This Book of Common Prayer translated by Agori Iwe remains the officially accepted
liturgical Book of Common Prayer among the members of the Urhobo Anglican Church till
today.
As membership of the Church increased and many more acts of worship were included,
the need to have more Christian hymns increased. In order to minister to the people's need in
this aspect, Enajero Arawore assisted by David Eferakeya and Papa Oghenekaro translated
more Christian hymns into Urhobo. These were added to Agori Iwe's collection and the
number increased from seventy-two to two hundred and fifty-two in 1958.
In its eleventh annual general meeting of 1958, the Christian Council of Nigeria
(C.C.N.) had lengthy discussion on how to enrich Christian life and worship. At the end of
that discussion, the following resolution was passed:
The Council asks its region committees to arrange for the discriminatory
examination of local customs and beliefs with the view to the enrichment of
Christian life and worship, and to appoint a sub-committee to collect and
examine indigenous musical compositions and the words to which they are set;
to assess their worth for use in worship. It is also urged that Christian hymn-
writers and composers should be given every encouragement to produce new
original hymns for worship and it was suggested that a conference of all those
interested and qualified for this work should be called together by the C.C.N. to
bring this need more forcibly before gifted members of the Church. 39
38 Enajero Arawore op. cit., p.

39 th th
Report of the Eleventh Meeting of the Christian Council of Nigeria, 9 -17 April, 1958, at Hope Waddell Training Institute,
Calabar, p. 12.
208
Venerable Enajero Arawore must have tapped the spirit and kernel of the above ideas
of the members of the C.C.N. during one of his silent moments and became enthused with
the development of Urhobo Christian literature.
The zeal to produce Christian literature in Urhobo language was very great in the mind
of Venerable Enajero Arawore, because he felt that that is one of the ways the Word and the
Message can be internalized by the Christian. He also felt that the more varied the sources
from which these Christian materials were drawn, the better and wider the vision of the
Urhobo Christian would be.
The above informed Venerable Enajero Arawore's action in taking a more critical look
at the Urhobo liturgical books; and in 1978, he, working single handedly, increased the
number of hymns from two hundred and fifty-two to three hundred and forty-two. Venerable
Enajero Arawore knew that variety is the spice of life: he therefore made gainful use of as
many hymns as possible available from the different sources that were at his disposal which
included the collection of Christian hymns in Urhobo that could be found in the Hymnal
Companion, Sacred Songs and Solos and B.B.C. Hymn Books. The size and the volume of
the collection made it imperative that the hymns should be separated from the Book of
Common Prayer. Thus, in April 1981, a separate Urhobo Christian Hymn Book was
developed and printed by the Caxton Press (West Africa Limited) Ibadan.
The Roman Catholic Experience
As we had once hinted, the Roman Catholic earlier Christian Missionary enterprise in
Warri and as far as to other parts of Urhoboland did not yield much fruits. That was the
Portuguese attempt which had been described as "futile, and spasmodic" an attempt which
became indistinguishable from the nefarious trafficking in "living tools" that was to last for
over 300 years. 40
The Roman Catholic evangelism among Urhobo was resuscitated in 1912, according to
S. U. Erivwo:
It was in 1912, that Revd. Father Louis Cavagnera rode on a bicycle from Ukwuani
district, traversing the Urhobo country to Warri. This was a reconnaissance to
determine what prospects of missionary activities existed at Warri. He found a few
Roman Catholic Clerks in the employment of the African Trading Company. After
a few other visits he came finally to Warri in 1913 to settle at the African Trading
Company's house which was also to serve as a Church House. He soon made the
acquaintance of some pupils at the Government School where Mr. J.J. Morford (a
strong protestant) was the School Master. These pupils whom the Rev. Father
converted to Roman Catholicism, later took him to their parents who, while not
being hostile, would however, not accept the new teaching. Characteristically the
Rev. Father then concentrated his attention on the youth so much so that before the
end of 1914, his congregation had increased so much as to require a separate and
larger house
40
E.A. Ayadele (1960) The Missionary Impact on Modern Nigeria Longmans p. 3. See also S.U. Erivwo (1991) Traditional
Religion and Christianity in Nigeria: The Urhobo People , Ekpoma, Department of Religious Studies & Philosophy, BENSU,
Ekpoma p. 109.
209
than the African Trading Company could provide. Thus in November, 1914, a
house was hired in Robert Road for the young congregation whose members were
encouraged to attend catechism regularly. From Warri Roman Catholicism later
penetrated Urhoboland, especially through the efforts of Mr. J. A. Eyube, one of
the boys converted by Cavagnera. 41
The early form of worship in the Roman Catholic Church was mostly in English and
Latin. Neither of these tongues was understood by most of the worshippers. Most part of the
Mass was said in Latin and with the possible exception of the priests and very few literate
members, most Urhobo Roman Catholic members did not understand what was being said in
the liturgy.
There were very few Roman Catholic Priests, Catechists, and teachers who were
knowledgeable in their ways of worship. Consequently their service centres were
concentrated in the major towns and villages such as Warri, Ughelli, Evwreni, Sapele,
Okurekpo (Agbon) Okpara Inland and Effurun.
One of the Roman Catholic strategies was to avoid the towns and villages where the
Anglican had strongholds. This could be one of the explanations for the stronghold that the
Roman Catholic had in Oto-Ogor, Evwreni, Ewu, and Okpara-Inland where the Anglican
had no much grip. Places like Uwherun, Udu, Ughievwe and Uduophori, just to mention but
few, which were earlier evangelised by the Anglican Church Missionaries, up till today, do
not have vibrant Roman Catholic Churches as those of the former.
Nevertheless, the Catholics made several attempts to establish church posts in nearly
every Urhobo town or village. This they did by establishing schools and pupils of these
schools automatically became their first converts. The classrooms were their first places of
worship.
The Rev. Father was looked upon as a very sacred person. In fact, his mode of dress
and how he comported himself, coupled with the mystery stories which the faithful Catholics
peddled around him, made him to be looked upon with great awe. He surrounded himself
with the aura of mystery which surrounds a traditional Urhobo priest in charge of any one of
their major community divinities.
Whenever the Rev. Father visited a town or village to conduct a Mass, he and the
faithful went in a procession through the town. While in such procession the Rev. Father
with his accolytes took the lead. He sprinkled his holy water all over the place and on those
nearby.
Such exercise normally attracted many spectators, especially the young ones, and most
non-Catholics avoided being touched by the Rev. Father's Holy Water. Many thought that
whoever was touched by the holy water would be charmed and must automatically become a
member of the Roman Catholic Church. But should he/she refuse to be converted, she/she
stood the risk of being severely tormented by the God of the Ifada (the Rev. Father). The
Latin language used during the Mass, like the classical Urhobo diviner's
(obuepha's) weird and sacred esoteric language, 42generated a great deal of aura of mystery
41
S. U. Erivwo (1991) op. cit., 109f.
42
For more details on the Urhobo Esoteric Language of the diviner vide Nabofa M.Y. and Elugbe B.O. (1981) EPHA, “Urhobo
System of Divination and its Esoteric Language," ORITA: Ibadan Journal of Religious Studies, vol. XIII, 1, June 1981, pp 3-19.
210
around the Roman Catholic liturgy. After a while the whole liturgy became mechanical and
meaningless to most of the faithful because they could hardly understand the meaning of the
Mass. The people started to yearn for a liturgy that should be conducted in a language that
they could fully understand. The necessity for liturgical changes became imparative.
On 15thApril, 1995 a joint Catholic Choir was founded at Evwreni. This new body was
christened "The Emmanuel Urhobo Catholic Joint Choir". Mr. Joseph Ejenake of Evwreni
was elected as the first president of this body. It was the belief of this body that the time had
come for a comprehensive Urhobo Catholic Liturgical book to be compiled.
The above move received the warm embrace and blessings of His Lordship, Most Rev.
Dr. Edmund Fitzgibbon, the Apostolic Administrator to Warri Diocese.
The first product of this group was a liturgical book which is designed primarily to
enable the Urhobo Faithfuls know and understand the meaning of the songs and it included
important Universal prayers. They arranged the contents carefully in accordance with the
seasons.
The manuscript prepared by this group was passed on to His Lordship, the Most Rev.
Father Edmund Fitzgibbon, who ratified it before its use in the church was allowed.
At the end of the sales of the first edition of this Urhobo Catholic liturgical book, a
committee was set up to revise and correct some of the minor errors noticed in it. The
following were the members of this committee:
1. Mr. Simon Ighofose -- Chairman

2. Mr. Isaac Oguori-Okodaso -- Secretary
3. Mr. Michael Eruemuose -- Member
4. Mr. Miller Agbuna -- Member
The other obligation assigned to this committee was to correct and include other Urhobo
Hymns which were in use but were not included in the first edition.
In order to accomplish this task the committee called for Urhobo Catholic Hymns that
were not included in the first edition and all the available English Hymns. They carried out
the work in two phases: First, they revised and edited the first edition. Then they handled
those hymns that were later collected.
The committee found the work of the first edition quite easy because before they
started on it Mr. Kevin Awatighre had thoroughly revised, edited and arranged its contents in
seasons. That is, the main sections of the book dealing with the Mass and Hymns 1-121 as
they stand today were revised by him.
nd
According to the members of the revision committee, the 2 Edition of the Roman
Catholic Liturgical Book currently in use in all the Catholic Churches in Urhobo language
was published in May 1993 by Emmanuel Urhobo Catholic Joint Choir.
The different roles played by the following individuals in the production of the
liturgical book merit mention, even if briefly.
1. Mr. P.I. Ogriya - President of the Emmanuel Urhobo Catholic Joint Choir.
2. His Lordship the Most Rev. Dr. Edmund Fitzgibbon, showed great interest and
concern in the Second Edition.
3. Prince S.P. Ukpebitere and his officers, who initiated its printing.
211
4. Rev. Father Paul Ighaguolor, the Spiritual Director of the Choir and his members.
5. Rev. Father Peter Ovadje,

6. Catechist Lawrence Owena, and
7. Paul I. Ogriya.
Lawrence Owena and Paul I. Ogriya, the two names, made the checking arrangements
and the necessary corrections on the doctrinal liturgical errors. The ministry of the Emmanuel
Urhobo Catholic Joint Choir has thus made worship to the Urhobo Faithfuls more interesting
and meaningful. The Word has thus incarnated and now dwells among the people.
The following Hymns were used in the process. Wesminister Hymnal (W.H.). My
Daily Prayer Books (DP), Ancient and Modern (.M.), Broadman Hymnal Companion
(H.C.) and Sacred Songs and Solos (S.S.S.). All other Hymns not found in these Hymn
Books were treated as self-composed and corrected to bring meaning to them.
According to the members of the Revision Committee:
The work we did (as Kevin testified) includes:

(1) Removal of Hymns already in part one of the Hymn Book e.g. 2, 32, 47, 104, are
the same as 130, 143, 184 and 159 respectively.
(2) Adopting 'C' and 'Ejir' Oghene' for "ch" and "Alleluya" respectively.
(3) Grouping Songs of "Corpus Christi" with Communion Songs, "Epiphany" and
"Holy Name" with Christmas and "Passiontide" with Lent.
(4) Indicating where the Hymns are found in the English Hymn Books for easy
reference.
(5) Including common Urhobo prayers like Morning and Evening prayers (short and
long), Communion prayers etc.
(6) Changing the word "Masi" to Izobo Ofuafo.
(7) Re-arranging the Hymns in Seasons according to the Catholic Liturgical yea.
(8) Including other Hymns not supplied to bring the number of Hymns to 322.
(9) Dropping those Hymns without meaning.
(10) Adding the remaining 10 verses of the Station of the Cross Song. 43
The members of the revision committee concluded thus: "the Hymns are now in their
excellent forms ... It is our earnest wish, therefore, that this Book should find a place in every
Catholic Community and pray for God's blessings through the use of the Hymns.” 44
Some Flaws in the Translation
The finished job has been acclaimed to be an acceptable translation of the Bible into
Urhobo language. However, some of the errors which we note below could have been
43 nd
Emmanuel Urhobo Catholic Joint Choir, Warri Diocese, Preface and Note by the 2 Edition Hymn Revision Committee, which
compiled and revised the 1993 edition of the Urhobo Catholic Hymn Book and Urhi Okpokpo re Masi.
44
Op. cit
212
avoided had the galley-proof reading been done a little more thoroughly. For example, the
word Ofuafon, meaning Holy on the first tile page and the other words on the second title
page on page 783 should have been tone marked. There is also a major omission on the
table of contents. The legend or caption, Opho Okpokpo , meaning the New Testament is
completely omitted.
The word "as" in Revelation 22, verse 14, should have been corrected to read "sa".
There are many more of such minor errors which should be taken care of in the next edition.
The use of wrong names of things and ideas constitutes another flaw in this work. For
example, in Matthew, Chapter 2, Verse 11, which deals with the three gifts which the wise
men or Magi gave to Jesus Christ, two of the words are mistranslated. These are
frankincense and myrrh:
(a) Gold: Oro which is correct.

(b) Frankincense: Adjidja - which is a spice put in a pomade to give it a nice aroma.
(c) Myrrh: Ugboduma - This is a sweet-smelling creeping herb which is found in
and around many Urhobo traditional shrines and sacred places. It is acknowledged
as a sacred plant and people plant it, not only to attract benevolent spirits, but also,
to ward off evil forces such as witches and wizards.
As these gifts are not found in Urhobo culture, the translators probably had to use these
two names as their Urhobo equivalents. Critical adherents of Urhobo religion often say that,
after all, Jesus Christ was given one of their most revered plants and God did not feel
offended against it. So, they and the Christian could be said to be working towards the
same goal. In Urhobo cultic practices, Ugboduma is used to purify, sanctify and tile a shrine
or sacred place. Jesus was already holy so he neither needed to be purified nor sanctified.
Those who translated the New Testament into Isoko, which is a sister Urhobo language,
retained frankincense and myrrh, because, like the Urhobo, they do not have such items in
their culture. These strange words being retained have done no harm to the Isoko Bible; but
the improvisation of Urhobo words by the Urhobo translators has tended to convey wrong
and misleading interpretations of those two words, in their traditional relation to the pristine
purity and divine nature of Jesus Christ.
The other misrendering we have noticed is in Luke Chapter 17 verse 31. In the
Authorized King James Version it reads thus:
Behold, the Kingdom of God is within you.
This is translated as follows in Urhobo thus:

Kidi nighe, Uvie re Oghene na o he o hri re ovwan.
Actually this expression means, Behold the Kingdom of God is in your midst.
The Greek plain text Entos which is translated Ohri (in the midst of) contains a major
translation error. In the kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures it reads.
"neither will people be saying, 'see here!' or 'there!'

For, look! the kingdom of God is in your midst"
213
Therefore, the Urhobo translation would tend to show Jesus quite out of context. Thus
the incorrect translation thereby destroys the whole picture of the Kingdom of God painted
by Jesus Christ. He meant the presence of the Kingdom of God or the Spiritual Realm of
God through which His will is in complete control of the mind of man or the total being of
man. It means the Spiritual Realm of God in the inward part of man which will eventually
well out to encompass man's physical and social environments.
It should, however, be realized that the Bible grew out of a culture which is totally
different from that of Urhobo. One should then not wonder why the translators found it very
difficult to find Urhobo equivalents for most of the ideas, symbols and things in their task to
translate the Holy Bible into the Urhobo language. It is near impossible to translate ideas
from one culture to another without flaws.
We must appreciate the fact that most of the flaws in the Urhobo Bible are of technical
nature arising from printing and cultural differences. They do not in any way affect or detract
from the spiritual message, historical facts, Christian code of pious conduct including
spirituality and ethical lessons contained in the version of the Urhobo Bible.
Significance of the Urhobo Bible
The significance of this work cannot be overemphasized. The bulk of the translation
job was done by the clergy because they realised more than others the urgency and propriety
of the task. With tenancity of purpose, they endured a great deal of deprivations, combined
this arduous task with their normal job of pastoring, to see this task to a successful end. They
had no special training or skill in translation, but, under the divine guidance of the Holy
Spirit, coupled with the physical assistance of the U.B.S. translation experts, they did this job
very beautifully.
The complete Urhobo Bible is the most voluminous work in Urhobo language and it has
in no small measure enriched Urhobo written literature. It is now being used widely, both in
the primary and post-primary institutions of learning, as one of the sources of reading texts in
Urhobo language. Many Urhobo parents who live outside Urhobo speaking areas, and whose
sons and daughters are in the danger of losing their mother - tongue, seriously enjoin them to
read and study it. Not only the children, but many adults who feel the need to brush up their
Urhobo language also turn to the translation. Thus, the Church is directly or indirectly
performing some of her duties which include teaching and enlightening people's minds.
The Christian message now appeals more to the people when readings are taken from
the translation, because it is being conveyed to them in a language that they really
understand.
The difficulties encountered in trying to grasp the meaning of a passage written in a
foreign language before drawing out the spiritual and moral inferences and messages it
carries are eliminated. The people have now begun to realise that the Word has incarnated in
the flesh and dwells among them. This has enhanced the quality of Christian worship and
aided the vertical expansion of Christianity among the Urhobo speaking people. The
complete Urhobo Bible has saved the time and energy of all those who lead in group or
congregational worship. Formally, they spent much time in studying and trying various
214
methods to translate a set passage to be read during services. The time which was meant to
meditate over a passage before worship was often spent on translation exercises; the result
was that the addresses of these people to the congregation had no real depth. By now, they
find it easy to read and brood over the passage and its message in a less tense atmosphere.
Naturally, the day the complete Urhobo Bible was launched marked another milestone
in the history of Christian enterprise in Urhoboland. The launching ceremonies presided over
by Mr. Justice Ovie-Whisky, a former Chief Judge of the then Bendel state, took place at St.
Matthias' Anglican Church, Eku. One of the main reasons for the choice of that venue for the
launching was because that place was the first headquarters of the Church in Urhoboland. In
other words, the events that took place in that place on that day could be regarded as a replay
of the early history of Christian evangelism in Urhoboland.
The enthusiasm with which Urhobo Christians attended the launching of the complete
Urhobo Bible at Eku on 29 thApril, 1978 was tremendous. But many of them were greatly
disappointed because the number of copies brought to the ceremony was small. The
representative of the Bible Society of Nigeria who was present on that day could testify to
how the people reacted and expressed their great demand for more copies. He gave them a
strong promise that more copies would be made available in due course, but this promise was
not fulfilled in time. The people said that the few copies of the Urhobo Bible (2,000 copies)
brought in 1978 were used to tantalize them. Luckily, copies of the Urhobo Bible are now
available for sale in C.S.S. Bookshops and some major bookshops and religious centres
throughout Nigeria.
On the whole, the Joint Consultative Urhobo Bible Translation Committee has
succeeded greatly in producing an Urhobo Bible which to some extent is both accurate and
clear. One other beneficial result of the Urhobo Bible is the unifying effect it has on the
Urhobo language, the impetus it lends to a wider use of Agbarho dialect. Using Agbarho
dialect as a base, the translators have fashioned out a means to unify the 22 different dialects
spoken in Urhoboland. The process to foster the use of one universal Urhobo literary
language has been going on since 1914 and it is now being furthered by the formation of the
Urhobo Language Committee. One hopes that such unity in language would eventually lead
to the much needed socio-political and cultural unity which the Urhobo are now craving.
Members of the Urhobo Language Committee working hand in hand with the translators of
the Urhobo Bible, with particular reference to the Venerable Enajero Arawore may be able to
bequeath to the Urhobo people what Martin Luther did for the Germans; because "Luther
through using the Gereinsprache of the peasants, mystics and scholars was able to produce a
unified German understood by Upper and Lower Germans."
45
In fact, to some extent, the members of the Joint Consultative Urhobo Bible Translation
Committee have made such contribution to unite and standardize Urhobo language.
One significant factor in the production of the Urhobo Bible is the joint in-put of all the
Christian denominations in Urhoboland. That was the first place in Nigeria where all
Christians of different sects joined to achieve a common purpose. It could be regarded as
45
Howard S. Olson (1980) Op. cit. pp 77-86ff
215
the beginning of Christian Association of Nigeria (C.A.N.). It was really the beginning of
total Christian ecumenism in Nigeria
Postscript
Recommendations for Future Improvement

Howard S. Olson has opined that "all languages are constantly changing, and so the
unchanging (Logos) Word needs to be restated. Thus, it is indispensable, if the original
message of the scripture is to be retained, that the form of its language be altered from time
to time to conform to new modes of expression". 46
The above idea must have informed the action of Martin Luther and many Bible
Societies. Luther, immediately after the publication of his Bible set about correcting and
improving it and we are told that the German Bible Society is, even today still up-dating the
Luther Bible. 47Such is also being done by many other Bible Societies in the world, and the
Revised Standard Version, the New English Bible and the Jerusalem Bible, just to mention a
few, are products of the dynamics to explain the Unchanging Word to a changing world.
The United Bible Societies are busy up-dating the message of the Bible. That of the
Urhobo should not be left behind, because they are a part of the changing world of an
Unchanging God.
The other suggestion that one would like to put forward when the present edition of the
Urhobo Bible would be revised, is for those who would be assigned that duty to secure the
services of Urhobo-speaking people who are specialists in the areas of Zoology, Botany,
Medicine, Philosophy, Poetry, Psychology, Folklore, Oral Literature and linguistics. The
Zoologist and Botanists will help in supplying appropriate or near Urhobo equivalents of
some of the plants and animals mentioned in the Bible.
While the Physicians would give more accurate interpretations to the medical terms, the
Poets, Philosophers, the Folklorists and those in Oral Literature, will put the ideas in the
Psalms, Prophets, and the Wisdom Literature, into proper and more pleasant poetic
perspectives and renderings. The specialists in Linguistics will definitely act as the guiding-
light to the translators. Such team of experts, be they all Christians or not, will definitely
come out with a more accurate translation of the Urhobo version of the Bible.
In order to improve upon the next version of the Urhobo Bible, one would like to
suggest that the few insignificant errors in the present translation, some of which we have
highlighted above, should be corrected. Attractive illustrations and maps of the Holy land
should also be included. Such attractive illustrations will not only add aesthetic appeal to the
reading audience but would also indicate and explain, at a glance what it would often take
many words to explain. Helpful tools as an index at the end of the Bible, convenient location
of cross references at the beginning of a paragraph where relevant, as it has been done in the
Isoko New Testament, published by the Bible Society of Nigeria in 1970. A glossary should
also be placed at the end of the Book. We think it would not be out of place to have
photographs and a dossier on each of the pioneer translators and member of the
46
Howard s. Oslon (1980) "The Kiswahili Common Language Version of the New Testament" in African Theological Journal ,
Lutheran Theological College, Makumira, USA River, Tanzania, Volume 9, Nimber 2; July 1980 pp. 86ff.
47
Howard S. Olson, op. cit., p. 77.
216
J.C.U.B.T.C. at the end of, or after the flying page of the Bible. They deserve being so
honoured and immortalized for their selfless and humanistic services.
It is also being suggested that the Urhobo version of the twelve officially recognised
books of the Apocrypha be included in the next edition of the Urhobo Bible. 48As we are all
aware, the apocrypha are books which Christian usage and opinion about their status were
th
somewhat ambiguous until the 16 century, when twelve of them were included in the
Canon of the Roman Catholic Church, but the Council of Trent and the Protestants (Luther
and the Anglican Church in the Thirty-Nine Articles) admitted them only for private
edification. 49
Many Urhobo Roman Catholic faithfuls will definitely find these books useful. Their
absence from the Urhobo Bible has made many Urhobo Roman Catholics feel that the Holy
Bible is not yet complete in Urhobo language. Some members of the Protestant Churches
may find them useful in private edification. Not only that, there are occasions in which
passages from the Wisdom of Solomon, which is one of the twelve recognised books of the
Apocrypha, have, even been used by some members of the Anglican Church during public
worship, such as funeral services.
It thus means that the absence of these books from the Urhobo version of the Holy
Bible has made some Urhobo Christians, especially Roman Catholics, feel that they are yet
to have the complete Holy Bible in Urhobo Language.
48
Those accepted books of Apocrypha are 1 and 2 Esdra, Tobit, Judith, Additions to the books of Daniel, and Ester, the Prayer of
Manasses, the Epistle of Jeremiah, the book of Baruch, the Wisdom of Solomon and 1, 2, 3, and 4 Maccabees.
49
J. D. Douglas and N. Hillary (eds.) (1988) New Bible Dictionary,Wheaton, Illinois, USA., Tyndale House' Publishers Inc. p. 56.
217
Document:
Historical Background
From a Brochure of the Proposed
Anglican (Communion) Diocese of Ughelli
Dated: 08-08-1996
During one of three expeditions – in 1841, 1854 and 1857 – [during which]
Samuel Ajayi Crwother sought to introduce the Christian faith to Okwaegbe
people who belong to the Urhobo ethnic group. He made an attempt to live
on the Western Bank of the River Niger. We are told in the christian oral
tradition of the Urhobo that the Okwabe people rejected Crowther and his
message which he claimed to have brought from God the Okwagbe could not
conceive how a man could claim to good news from OGHENE (Urhobo
world for God) who is often identified with the sky. They were more
interacted in trade than on that type of good news which seemed to be a
fairy tale. --- Professor Reverend Samuel Erivwo, History of Christianity
in Nigeria - The Urhobo, Isoko and Itsekiri , Daystar Press, Ibadan, 1979,
at page 4.
The above quotation from an authoritative book by Samuel U. Erivwo tells a graphic
story of how Christianity attempted to have an effective foothold on the soil of Okwagbe, in
present day Ukpedi District of Ughievwen Archdeaconry that is now being proposed as part
of the new Ughelli Anglican Diocese. As the scripture says: "The stone which the builders
rejected is become the head of the corner. This was the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in
our eyes".
Available records show that the planting of Christianity in Urhobo was essentially the
work of Bishop James Johnson of the Niger Delta Protectorate Church between 1901 and
1917 when he died. He used agents and indigenous evangelists, some trained, most with little
or no training at all, during this period. This man of God, who belonged to the Anglican
Church, visited Warri and Sapele and parts of the hinterland every year from 1901 to the
year of his death. Most of his agents were non-indigenes, as they were either Saro or Yoruba,
thus creating serious communication problems, as the early converts in Urhoboland were
taught the new faith in Yoruba. This unhealthy situation tended to slow down the growth of
the new faith being propagated by the Church Missionary Society (C.M.S.) while those who
could not cope defected other denominations. Be that as it may, a number of local
evangelists, Urhobo men, who having accepted Christianity, emerged to assist in the spread
of the faith to those unreached. Among them were Jove Akanbi, Omofoya Emuago, Ogugu
Akporido, Evwaire, Isikpen, Pa Abi Oghenekaro, Avwarocha, Pa Denedo, Pa James
Agbogidi, Thomas Dafese, James Adoda, J.A.O. Emoefe (later Ven. Emoefe), Pa John Udu,
Simeon Egan, Pa Ohwojohwovwo Ekenye, Pa Agaria Akerhonben, Pa Eferekeyan Isifo,
Masima Ebosa, Oiuku Adjarho and Agori-Iwe. Out of these Agoriwe became Urhobo's first
Catechist, First Priest, First Archdeacon and destined to become also the first idigene of the
defunct Bendel state to become a Bishop of the Anglican Communion of the Province of
West Africa, before the Province of the Church of Nigeria come into being.
These were the men, whose activities led to the establishment and nurturing of the
Christian faith of the Anglican Church in Urhoboland. In those days, this involved travelling
long distances on foot, by canoe or by bicycle, sacrifices which they made
joyfully in propagating the gospel of Christ in our land. We are happy to observe that in our
Lord's vineyard, "the labours of our heroes past have not been in vain", as could be seen from
the tremendous growth of the Anglican Church in the entire Urhoboland in general and in the
proposed Ughelli Diocese in particular. We cannot also but mention the colossal efforts of
the late Chief Evangelist, Cornelius Adam Igbudu of Araya in Isokoland. The evangelical
movement of Adam's Anglican Preaching Society (A.A.P.S.), which he founded, bestrode the
Anglican Communion in the Former Bendel State. It created waves of mass conversions of
various people from their traditional religion to the Christian faith. The impact of this
movement in Urhoboland had been and is still being vigorously felt in the numerical strength
of the Anglican Church.
A brief look at the steady growth of the Anglican Diocese will be instructive at this
th
point. When Warri Diocese was inaugurated on 25 January, 1980, the area was just an
Archdeaconry, with four (4) districts of Ughelli. Agbarha, Uwheru and Ughievwon. By 1988,
six (6) additional District Church Councils were created to bring the number to ten (10). The
new districts were Diomu, Agbarho, Udu, Uduophori, Ukpedi and Ewhu-Urhie. Two years
later in 1990, Ughievwen Archdeaconry was carved out of the mother Ughelli Archdeaconry
with four (4) District Church Councils of Ughievwen, Ukpedi, Udu and Agbarho with
headquarters at Owhrode. Three years later, in 1993, another Archdeaconry, Uwheru, was
created from the same Ughelli Archdeaconry. The new Archdeaconry had four District
Church Councils of Uwheru, Evwreni, Uduophori and Ewhu-Urhie with headquarters at
Uwheru. In 1992, Orogun District was transferred to Ughelli Archdeaconry from Sapele. By
1994, Urhuie District was carved out of Owhrode in Ughievwen Arch- deaconry to bring the
number of districts to five (5), while Egini became the new headquarters. The new Uwheru
Archdeaconry had Ewhu District created to bring it to five.
Meanwhile, as part of the phenomenal growth of the Church in the area covered by the
proposed Ughelli Diocese, All Saints' Church, DSC Township, Orhuwhorun which was part
of Ughievwen District, was constituted into an extra-Parochial Chapelry by the Late Rt. Rev.
J. O. Dafiewhare in August, 1991 and placed directly under the Bishop. Between 1995-1996,
two (2) additional District Church Councils, All Saints' Ughelli and Ogor were created in
Ughelli Archdeaconry to bring the number of Districts to six (6). It is to be observed that the
creation of these new districts and Archdeaconries was in compliance with the strict criteria
and standards in the Anglican tradition.
Thus, having transformed itself from one Archdeaconry of four (4) District Church
Councils in 1980 to three (3) Archdeaconries of sixteen (16) District Church Councils by
August 1996, the area of the proposed Ughelli Diocese (Anglican Communion) has demon-
strated its capacity and capability to stand firmly on its own as a diocese. The three (3)
Archdeaconries that are flaging-off the diocese, (more could be created later) are situated in
the existing Ughelli North, Ughelli South, parts of Okpe as well as Bomadi Local
Government Areas of Delta State. The facts above and the statistics attached to this
presentation show clearly that the growth and development of the Church in the area had
been in all sectors – membership, church stations, trained personnel, clerical and lay as well
as in finance. The potential for continued growth and development in all the facets of the
Church are quite enormous.
Politically, socially and culturally, the bulk of the inhabitants, of the area are
homogeneous, as they are of the Urhobo ethnic group. From the early days of Christianity till
now, the people have demonstrated great faith in Christ and love for their fellowmen, an
attribute which they have shown in abundance in their relations with their neighbours and
fellow Nigerians. Efforts will be made to maintain cordial relations with the Mother Diocese
of Warri or any other that may be created therefore in the future, as well as other dioceses in
Nigeria.
220
COLONIALISM AND THE SCRAMBLE
FOR URHOBO LANDS
Introduction
Colonialism and the Scramble

for Urhobo Lands
Peter P. Ekeh
State university of New York at Buffalo
Portuguese sailors and explorers made their initial encounter with the Niger Delta,
through its numerous waterways, in the second half of the 1480s. Throughout several decades
of exploration in the complicated creeks and rivers of the Niger Delta, the Portuguese stayed
close to the mouths of the waterways of the Niger Delta on the Atlantic coast. The only
exception to this pattern was the Portuguese venture in 1485 to Benin City, about fourteen
miles away from the Atlantic coast, where they subsequently established a trade mission as
well as a Christian missionary enterprise.
Sailors and traders from other Western European nations followed the Portuguese to
the Niger Delta in the seventeenth century. Most of these interests set up trading enterprises
in natural ports of the Niger Delta on the Atlantic coast. For some four centuries of Atlantic
trade, none of these companies ventured into the hinterland of the Niger basin, except again
to Benin City. European traders who came to this region dealt with Africans, mostly
traditional fishermen converted to traders, who were directly accessible from the Atlantic
coast line.
Thus, in the Cross River estuary, the Portuguese and other European traders had close
trading relations with the Efik, but not with the neighbouring Ibibio in the hinterland. In the
eastern Niger Delta, the Ijo of Kalabari and Opobo, both of them close to the Atlantic coast,
were the favoured African traders, whereas the inland Igbo had no access to the European
traders. In the Western Niger Delta, a fresh emergent ethnic nationality of Itsekiri, formed in
mid-sixteenth century from Atlantic fishing communities as a conesquence of Portuguese
explorations and trading activities, became the traders with close ties to the Europeans. On
the other hand, the Urhobo (as well as the Isoko and the Ukwuani), who occupied lands that
were not directly accessible from the Atlantic coast, had no direct access to the European
Atlantic trade for some four centuries.
High Valuation of Niger Delta’s

Waterways during the Era of Atlantic Trade
A direct consequence of this pattern of trade was the high value of waterways in the
Niger Delta for most of the centuries of the Atlantic trade, well up to the nineteenth century.
All international trading activities were carried on exclusively in these waterways. Their high
value came from two sources. First, European traders anchored their ships at natural harbours
near the mouths of Niger Delta rivers flowing into the Atlantic Ocean. Atlantic coastal
chieftains collected customs duties (called “comey”) from European traders and cargoes
berthing in these ports. Moreover, the chieftains monopolized the trade from the
interior, often using violent means acquired from the Atlantic trade to intimidate those who
supplied raw products from inland communities into selling their goods at low prices.
Second, produce from inland regions arrived at coastal ports by way of navigable
rivers. Thus, the Ethiope was a favourite passage way for ferrying palm produce and local
food stuff, which were produced in Urhobo country, to the coastal harbours in Benin River
where Itsekiri merchants sold and distributed them. These inland waterways, such as Ethiope
River in Urhobo country, were especially valuable in the era of so-called legitimate trade in
the 19 century.thNavigation in them was however dangerous because the coastal
merchants sought to monopolize the use of the inland rivers by violent means. Thus, for the
last two decades of the nineteenth century, the Itsekiri chieftain Olomu and his son- successor,
Nana Olomu, monopolized the trade in River Ethiope because they employed violence to
ensure that they and their agents alone had access to this vital waterway.
In sharp contrast to the high valuation of Niger Delta’s waterways, landed property in
the interior did not appreciate in any significant way as a consequence of the Atlantic trade.
Neither the European traders nor Itsekiri merchants were interested in landed property in the
Urhobo interior regions for much of the nineteenth century, until the last decade of the
century. This was largely because international trade was not transacted in its territory.
That participation in Atlantic international trade was largely responsible for the high
real estate valuation of properties in Niger Delta’s waterways may be abstracted from the
misfortunes of Ode-Itsekiri and the concomitant fortunes of Benin River in the nineteenth
century. Ode Itsekiri was the small island, near modern Warri City, in which the surviving
sons of Ginuwa 1 took refuge after their father’s death in the island of Ijalla some time in the
late 1520s or early 1530s. It was here in Ode Itsekiri that the Portuguese, following a rupture
in diplomatic and commercial ties with Benin in 1538, helped Ginuwa’s children to piece
together diverse fishing communities into what became known as Itsekiri. Ode Itsekiri
flourished from the mid-sixteenth century well into the nineteenth century around a royal
family that was supplied by the Ginuwa dynasty. However, by the beginning decades of the
nineteenth century, the deeper and more ample harbours of Benin River, which were much
closer to the Atlantic coast, proved more attractive to Itsekiri merchants who rapidly
followed European trading interests thither. By mid-nineteenth century, Ode Itsekiri had
become a shadow of its former self, while the Benin River region was booming with Itsekiri
trading houses. With the collapse of Ode Itsekiri, there followed the strangulation of Itsekiri
royalty by Itsekiri merchant chieftains. The last king of Itsekiri died in 1848 and none of his
descendants were allowed by the merchant chieftains to succeed him. Benin River thus
became Itsekiri country, with Ode Itsekiri only serving only as its ritual capital.
1
Ginuwa was a fugitive Benin prince who escaped from prosecuting Benin authorities into the creeks of the Niger Delta some time
before the Portuguese arrive in the Western Niger Delta, probably in the later 1470s or early 1480s. Portuguese explorers stumbled
upon his hiding place in the island of Ijalla in 1516. He died shortly after, leaving his children to continue with the business of hiding
from Benin authorities. They escaped to the island of Ode Itsekiri where the Portuguese met them and helped them to prosper and to
put together fishing communities who became known as the Itsekiri. (see Moore 1936, Ekeh 2004: 10-15)
224
Colonialism and the Scramble for Urhobo Lands
Royal Niger Company and the

Appreciation of the Waterways in Urhoboland
Much of the nineteenth century experienced transition from the Atlantic Slave trade to
the so-called legitimate trade in which raw tropical products from the inland regions, such as
palm oil and kernel from Urhobo country, were strongly represented. This trade was
dominated by British commercial interests. By mid-nineteenth century, the British had
insinuated themselves into the affairs of the Atlantic coastal trading communities. Thus, in
1851, the British signed a commercial treaty with the Itsekiri, three years after their merchant
chieftains orchestrated the demise of Itsekiri royalty. In 1884, the British signed treaties of
‘protection” with Opobo, Itsekiri, and Asaba.
The robust presence of British interests in the Niger Delta was manifested in the
activities of the Royal Niger Company in the late 1880s and the entire decade of 1890s.
Following the Berlin Conference of 1884-85, the 2 British government granted Sir George
Goldie’s United Africa Company (UAC) a royal charter as Royal Niger Company (RNC) in
1886. 3 The Royal Niger Company was the first European – indeed, the first alien –
enterprise to develop commercial interests in Urhoboland. The Urhobo, who had been cut off
from direct participation in the Atlantic international trade, appeared to have welcomed the
Royal Niger Company with open hands. However, the presence and activities of the RNC
was limited to the inland waterways of Urhobo country. Thus, they had a presence in such
“waterside” areas as Okpara, Eku, and Abraka on the Ethiope and Okpare on Okpare River.
But they did not penetrate into the deeper reaches of Urhoboland. This limited presence was
the source of friction between the RNC and agents of Niger Coast Protectorate who were
interested in including the rest of Urhoboland in British colonial purview.
2
See the following entry in The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia: “Berlin, Conference of, 1884–85, international meeting aimed
at settling the problems connected with European colonies in Africa. At the invitation of the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck,
representatives of all European nations, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire met at Berlin to consider problems arising out of
European penetration of W Africa. The stated purpose of the meeting was to guarantee free trade and navigation on the Congo and on
the lower reaches of the Niger. In fact, the territorial adjustments made among the powers were the important result. The sovereignty
of Great Britain over S Nigeria was recognized. The claims of the International Association, a private corporation controlled by King
Leopold II of Belgium, were more or less recognized; these applied to the greater part of the Congo. These territorial awards ignored
French claims to parts of the Congo and of Nigeria and the historical claim of Portugal to the mouth of the Congo. The attempts to
guarantee free trade and the neutrality of the region in wartime and to set up rules for future colonial
expansion in Africa were hailed, but soon the agreements proved too vague to be workable. See S. E. Crowe, The Berlin West
African Conference (1942).”
3
“The Royal Niger Company combined the trading functions of its predecessor UAC with the role of a British surrogate imperial
power. As a trading company, the RNC established pioneering trading posts in the upper Niger Delta, beyond the Atlantic coast in
which Europeans did business for centuries, and in Niger’s inland basin. The RNC had headquarters on the Niger, first at Asaba and
later at Lokoja. Its trading prowess opened up the territories of several communities and nations with which European trade had
previously been only indirect, including the Urhobo, Ukwuani, Ibibio, and Igbo in Niger Delta. The RNC’s trading relations also
reached Muslim communities on the Niger and its tributaries in what is modern northern Nigeria.
“The Royal Niger Company’s imperial activities were of two types. First, it made treaties with native chieftains. These pro
forma agreements required signatory chiefs to declare, ‘We, the undersigned Chiefs . . . cede to the Royal Niger Company, for ever,
the whole of our territory,’ in exchange for the RNC’s promises to “to protect the said Chiefs” and pay monetary compensation for
the RNC’s use of their land. The RNC had a military force for enforcing its imperial ventures, occasionally resorting to menacing
tactics of gunboat diplomacy. Second, the RNC staved off rival claims of colonial territories by other European powers, thus, for
instance, forestalling German and French claims in Sokoto and Borgu, respectively (1894). The RNC is credited with acquiring
territories that eventually constituted the British colonies of Southern Nigeria.” (Ekeh: 2005: 635-636.)
225
The Royal Niger Company lost its charter and reverted to its old name of United
Africa Company in 1900. 4 Under its UAC moniker, it established several outlets in the two
major towns that grew from British colonial rule in Urhoboland, namely Warri and Sapele, as
well as in several interior Urhobo regions such as Okpare and Okpara.
One important economic consequence of RNC’s and UAC’s presence in inland
waterways in Urhobo country was appreciation of their real estate value. The towns in which
they established their branches became economic centres in Urhoboland.
Niger Coast Protectorate and

the Devaluation of Niger Delta’s Coastal Waterways
The demise of the Royal Niger Company arose from the aggressive determination of
officials of Niger Coast Protectorate, which the British government installed in 1891 with
headquarters in Calabar, to expand the sphere of British commercial and imperial interests
beyond the Atlantic coastal region. In the Western Niger Delta, the affairs of the new
Protectorate government were run from the headquarters of two districts at Forcados in Ijo
country and Benin River in Itsekiri country. Those initial choices of administrative
headquarters would seem to suggest that British intentions were to continue with the old
European policy of operating from Atlantic coastal regions in the mouths of principal rivers
in the Niger Delta. However, it rapidly became clear from the actions of the Protectorate’s
officials that the British government was intent on pushing into inland Urhobo territories.
Two developments quickly unfurled British plans for the colonization of the Western Niger
Delta.
First, the British embarked on treaty-making exercises throughout Urhoboland. The

first of these treaties was with the market town of Avwraka (or Abraka, its British rendering)
on upstream River Ethiope in 1892. In these early years, the British divided Urhobo territory
into two clusters: Sobo Country and the Sobo of Warri District. In the Warri area, the British
made treaties with numerous communities, including the treaty of 1893 with Agbarha-Ame
(or Agbassah, in British rendering).
Second, the British moved the headquarters of the two districts from their coastal
locations to points upstream where access to the hinterland was readily available. The
Forcados River, near whose mouth was one of the headquarters at Forcados town, crawls into
the inland region in two branches. One of these branches is Warri River. The Protectorate’s
officials moved that headquarter from Forcados to a place upstream on Warri River in
Urhobo country that Captain H.L. Gallwey called Warri. This was 5in 1893. The
4
See Ekeh: 2005 (p 636): “The expansion of direct British colonialism in the 1890s beyond the Atlantic coast created problems for
the Royal Niger Company’s imperial interests, but probably boosted its trading prospects. British creation of the Niger Coast
Protectorate in 1891 and direct treaty making between the British Foreign Office’s agents and native chieftains challenged the RNC’s
imperial surrogacy and led to disputes between it and the [f]Foreign [o]Office’s field agents. Eventually, .in 1900 the RNC transferred
its imperial functions and territories to the British government, receiving a compensation of 865,000 British pounds. It then reverted
to its old name, United Africa Company.
“Despite loss of its royal charter, UAC remained the largest and most profitable trading enterprise in colonial Nigeria. Its
crowning achievement was the establishment of a sawmill for processing high-value tropical woods, under a subsidiary company,
African Timber and Plywood, Limited, at Sapele in Niger Delta. Inside postcolonial Nigeria, UAC remains a main trading enterprise,
whereas its U.K. headquarters, Uniliver House, London, bristles with records of nineteenth-century British ventures in colonialism
and world trade.”
5
Warri was a rationalization by H. L. Gallwey of the various local corrupted renditions of a Portuguese name Aveiro.
226
headquarters in the coastal territory of Benin River was removed from there to a location
upstream where Benin River changes to River Ethiope in Urhobo country at Sapele. 6
Both of these developments created tensions between the Itsekiri merchant class and
the British. Chief Nana Olomu had led the Itsekiri to sign a treaty in 1884 with the British
that gave the impression of special and exclusive relationships between the Itsekiri and the
Europeans. Olomu was particularly apprehensive because his monopoly trade on River
Ethiope in Urhobo country, which he inherited from his father, was now falling apart with
the aggressive promotion of British interests in Urhoboland. Moreover, there was every
indication that the Urhobo were eager to receive the British presence, at least in place of
Nana’s violence on the River Ethiope. In addition to this affront to Itsekiri interests in
Urhobo country, the removal of administrative headquarters from Benin River to Urhobo
country at Sapele was clearly a process of diminution of power that the Itsekiri mercantile
class had enjoyed for more than half a century.
These sources of friction led to a crisis in 1894 in which Chief Nana Olomu unleashed
intimidation and violence on the River Ethiope and its Urhobo towns. The Urhobo response
was to embark on trade boycott. The British, obviously for their own self-interested imperial
and economic reasons, took sides with the Urhobo in their dispute with Chief Nana. The
upshot was the Ebrohimi war of 1894 in which the British stormed Nana’s fortress at
Ebrohimi. The fall of Nana Olomu led to the rapid decline of Benin River as centre of
international trade in the Western Niger Delta. The new centre of commerce and
administration were now Warri and Sapele. In the aftermath of the Ebrohimi war of 1894
and, subsequently, of the British war against Benin in 1897, the bulk of the Itsekiri
mercantile interests moved to the new centres of commerce and power. Many settled in
Sapele. Others moved to Ugbuwangue, near Warri Township. That was also the time when
the Itsekiri settled at Ologbo in Benin territory.
One major consequence of these developments was the devaluation of the real estate
worth of the coastal waterways. The value of landed property increased enormously during
the British era of colonization in Urhobo country, while the waterways in the Atlantic coastal
region, in which European trade was transacted for centuries, declined in relative value. With
these changes came a fierce struggle for possession of Urhobo lands at Warri, Sapele, and in
the Urhobo hinterland. Disputes on ownership of lands inside Urhobo country, with many of
them ending up in colonial courts, surged in the colonial era. In Warri and Sapele, Itsekiri
chieftains, drawn away from their abodes of habitation and influence in Benin River, sought
to take possession and ownership of Urhobo lands in these enclaves of British colonialism.
Warri Land Cases
From 1896, when he was appointed British Political Agent for Benin River, through
7
1901, when he also became the Political Agent for the District of Warri , and up till the
time of his death in 1932, Chief Dore Numa of Itsekiri dominated the political affairs of the
Western Niger Delta in a colossal manner. The British rewarded him generously for his 6
Sapele is H. L. Gallwey’s rendering of the Okpe name Urhiapele.

7
George Eyube, an Urhobo who was originally appointed as the Political Agent for the District of Warri District, died in a gun
accident in 1901. Thereafter British authorities extended Dore Numa’s responsibilities to the District of Warri.
227
faithful assistance in ousting his fellow Itsekiri premier chief, Nana Olomu, and for his
further help to the British in their successful military campaign against the king of Benin in
1897. The British employed Dore Numa to carry out many unconventional deeds. These
included leasing landed properties which he did not own to British interests. Numa leased
Itsekiri and Urhobo lands, often sharing the monetary proceeds with the owners of the leased
lands. For these misbehaviours, he was dragged to court several times mostly by fellow
Itsekiri, but also, at least in one instance, by an Urhobo community. As Obaro Ikime has
implied, British courts never allowed him to lose any cases.
Perhaps the most memorable Itsekiri case against Chief Dore Numa came from
Ugborodo of Escravos River. They had sued Numa for leasing their land to the British
without their permission or even knowledge. The British colonial courts compelled a forced
settlement, called Consent Decree, of the dispute between Ugborodo and Dore Numa. In that
case, Numa had asserted his right to lease these lands because he was acting as the Olu
(king) of Itsekiri. Of course, legally it was a nonsensical argument because the Itsekiri had
no king, thanks to the actions of Itsekiri chieftains, including Dore’s own father in mid-
nineteenth century. But Numa had the ear of the British. Ugborodo accepted the settlement
which recognized their ownership of their land but subjected it to the overlordship of the
non-existing Olu of Itsekiri. That the Ugborodo did not like the settlement may be seen in
the fact that, years later in independent Nigeria, the Ugborodo people dragged Itsekiri
Communal Land Trust, which made the same claims of overdlorship of the Olu as Dore
Numa had asserted in the 1920s. This time the case was tried and Ugborodo won their
contention against the claims of overlordship. Their victory, with the help of their lawyer,
Godwin Boyo, an Itsekiri, was the first legal case that undermined the theory of
overlordship in Itsekiri affairs.
Agbarha (Warri) Land Case: Agbassah versus Dore Numa
At about the same time that Itsekiri Ugborodo people sued Dore Numa, the indigenous
8
Urhobo community of Agbarha-Ame (or Agbassah in British rendering) took
Dore Numa to court in 1925 on the same grounds – namely, that Numa leased their lands to
British interests without their knowledge or permission. The British Colonial Court also tried
to have a Consent settlement of the case, on the same terms on which the settlement of
Ugborodo’s legal action against Dore Numa was forced-settled. However, Agbassah people
rejected the offer of “Consent” settlement. The case was tried in court with a complicated
verdict whose results were similar to the judicial settlement in the case of Ugborodo versus
Dore Numa.
In the primary verdict in the Agbassah case, which was upheld in two appellate British
imperial courts, the trial judge offered a double-barrelled judgement. First, it upheld
ownership of the contested lands by the Agbassah people. Second, however, it subjected
Agbassah ownership of their lands to the “overlordship” of the Olu of Itsekiri, that is, of
course, the non-existing king of Itsekiri. In a sense, both Agbassah people and Dore Numa
won their claims – an Orwellian imperial doublespeak.
8
The term Agbassah was first used by the British in the treaty they made with the Chiefs of Agbarha-Ame in 1893. That treaty
established beyond any shadow of doubt the ownership of their lands by Agbarha-Ame people.
228
Few other judicial judgements in the history of colonial Nigeria have been as much
misunderstood and misinterpreted as Justice A.F.C. Webber’s verdict in this case. One of the
most dramatic misinterpretations of the case is the assertion that the Agbassah people “lost”
their case, implying that Agbassah people lost ownership of their lands as a consequence of
the pronouncement of the courts that tried this case between Agbassah people and Chief Dore
Numa. Such a declaration seems to have erroneously been made by Professor Obaro Ikime,
perhaps the most authoritative historian of British colonial rule in the Western Niger Delta.
Ikime says:
In 1925 the Urhobo of Agbassah in Warri had taken Dogho to court and challenged
his [Dogho Numa’s] right to collect rent in their area, arguing that the Agbassah
had settled in their present area of the new town of Warri without paying rent to
any one and before the Itsekiri ever came to the area. They lost the case. By the
1930s the Agbassah were still chafing under this loss and many Urhobo
sympathized with them (Ikime 1977: 63).
If by “loss” in this statement Professor Ikime meant that the judgement entailed the loss of
ownership by the Agbassah of their lands, then it is clearly mistaken.
There have since emerged many instances of poor understanding of the nuances of
Justice Webber’s judgement by lawyers and judges who apply it in land cases in the Warri
area. An egregious example is a judgement that has been attributed to Justice Uwaifo which
declares, in part, as follows:
They [the Itsekiri] have always been overlords and the people of Agbassa have
always been tenants. Any other person living in Igbudu or any part of Agbassa
except an Itsekiri is a tenant. 9
The poverty of this statement is that it violates every meaning of the concept of
“overlordship” and fully stands Justice Webber’s judgement on its head. First, in theory,
where he exists there can only be one “overlord.” To imagine that every member of an ethnic
nationality is an overlord is to breed chaos. Second, the case from which this faulty
judgement draws its lessons was never between the Agbassah and the Itsekiri. The Itsekiri
were not party to the case. Dore Numa was not sued as an Itsekiri. He was sued as a Political
Agent of the British Colonial Government.
The reason behind the frequent and grievous misunderstanding and
misinterpretation of the Agbassah versus Numa case has to do with the historical origins of
the concept of “overlordship.” Overlordship is soaked in Medieval British and European
history. It is a two-layered construct. Its underlying and critical element is ownership of
landed properties by landlords. In Medieval Europe, kings exercised the overlay right of
collecting taxes and tributes from landlords. The king thus exercised the rights of an
9
This statement, attributed to Justice Uwaifo, was cited by Warri Study Group, an Itsekiri organ, in its criticism of Frank Ukoli’s
review of Warri City and British Colonial Rule in Western Niger Delta . See Ukoli’s chapter in this book titled, “Frank Ukoli’s Last
Testament: I Can See Clearly Now.”
229
overlord. The revolt that led to the declaration of 1215, called the Magna Carta 10in English
history, was significant because it addressed abuses of the overlord, the king, in his
relationship with landlords in his domain.
The doctrine of overlordship has faded away from modern Europe, even by the time
in the 1920s when British imperial agents were applying it in the Western Niger Delta.
Fortunately for Nigeria, it has also been swept away from our laws – since Justice Webber’s
infamous judgement in the 1920s -- thanks in large measure to the brilliance of two Itsekiri
lawyers, Godwin Boyo and Arthur Prest, both of whom fought and defeated this bogus
11
doctrine of overlordship in Itsekiri affairs. What is left from the Agbassah versus Dore
Numa case is the enduring concept of landlords as owners of their lands. After all, it is
perfectly normal and possible to have landlords without overlords. What is impossible and
illogical is the reverse: overlords cannot exist without landlords. Agbassah people remain the
landlords in their realm, while the fictitious concept of overlords has died
12 a natural
death.
Itsekiri Claimants versus

Chief Daniel Okumagba in Okere-Warri Land Case
The Itsekiri people were not a party to the court case between Dore Numa and the
Agbassah. Nor could the King of Itsekiri be party to it, because it was non-existent in the
1920s. Thus, the title of that case was: “ Ometa substituted for Ogegede on behalf of
himself and Agbasa People VERSUS Chief Dore Numa.” In 1936, the British restored
Itsekiri kingship following Dore Numa’s death in 1932. Itsekiri campaign for possession and
ownership of Urhobo lands, now led by the restored Itsekiri King and the Itsekiri political
establishment, became obvious as from the 1940s and continued till the 1970s. In Warri, the
Itsekiri sued Chief Daniel Okumagba and the Okere people for the possession of
Okere-Warri in 1968. Remarkably, the title of that case explicitly included the Itsekiri King
and all Itsekiri. It is as follows: “ D.O. Idundun, Chief P.O. Awani, A.E. Hesse, C.A.
Lorie, J.D. Oruru (for themselves and on behalf of Ogitsi family of Okere, Warri.), Itsekiri
Communal Land Trustees, Erejuwa II, The Olu of Warri(for himself and on behalf of the
Itsekiri people) versus Daniel Okumagba (for himself and on behalf of Olodi, Oki, and
10
“Magna Carta (Latin for "Great Charter", literally "Great Paper"), also called Magna Carta Libertatum, was an English charter
originally issued in 1215. Magna Carta is the most significant early influence on the long historical process that led to the rule of
constitutional law today. Magna Carta was originally created because of disagreements between the Pope, King John and his English
barons about the rights of the King. Magna Carta required the king to renounce certain rights, respect certain legal
procedures and accept that the will of the king could be bound by law . . . . Magna Carta was renewed throughout the Middle Ages,
and further during the Stuart period, the Tudor period, and the 17th and 18th centuries. By the early 19th century most clauses had
been repealed from English law. The influence of Magna Carta outside England can be seen in the United States Constitution and
Bill of Rights. Indeed just about every common law country with a constitution has been influenced by Magna Carta, making it
perhaps the most important legal document in the history of Democracy.” (Available from Wikepedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta, May 14, 2006)
11
It is significant to note that the Itsekiri as a people have suffered a great deal more injustice from this doctrine of overlordship than
the Urhobo. It is striking that resistance to the doctrine of overlordship has been led by Itsekiri lawyers – especially Godwin
Boyo and Arthur Prest – who must be recognized for discrediting and finally defeating the unjust imposition of this bogus doctrine
on the Itsekiri people and the Western Niger Delta.
12
I venture to guess that the term overlord was most probably suggested to Dore Numa by the British. By the time of its collapse in
1848, Itsekiri kingship had been so weakened that it could not impose its will on the powerful merchants of Benin River. Nor was
the hold of the Itsekiri king in the Ugborodo region of Escravos River firm. In other words, the concept of overlord hardly existed in
Itsekiri history of kingship, at least at the point of its disappearance by the middle of the nineteenth century.
230
Ighogbadu families of Idimi-Sobo, Okere, Warri)”. This dramatic expansion of Itsekiri interests in
Urhobo lands probably indicated the high premium placed on possession of lands in Warri and, also,
Sapele.
The full text of the judgement in that case is published as Chapter 13 in this book. As
Akindele Aiyetan demonstrates in his contribution that follows in this section, its legal import is
far-reaching. It is noteworthy that in the Okere case, Itsekiri claimants did not rest their case on the
problematic construction of overlordship. They sought to be landlords of Okere lands directly. It
was the last major campaign that the Itsekiri mounted for the possession of Urhobo lands. Their
loss in that case may have dented the enthusiasm for acquiring Urhobo lands as replacement for
lands that they abandoned in their traditional abodes in Atlantic coastal areas. However, the
continuing abandonment of the Itsekiri countryside in the regions of Benin River and Escravos
River does put pressure on Itsekiri to search for new lands in Urhobo and Benin territories.
The Attempted Grab of

Sapele Lands by Itsekiri Political Establishment.
Sapele was the second principal city that grew from British colonial rule in the Western
Niger Delta. It sits at a critical point in the course of Benin River where it changes into River
Ethiope. The history of the founding of Sapele is narrated by Chief T. E. A. Salubi in a
previous section of this book. The Itsekiri flocked to Sapele, following the fall of Benin River
as the centre of commerce in the late 1890s. Sapele has the largest concentration of Itsekiri,
even in modern times.
In a daring move in the 1930s, at the instigation of Dore Numa shortly before his death
in 1932, the Itsekiri decided to claim ownership of Sapele. They refused to recognize Urhobo
ownership of Sapele, objecting to payment of rents for lands leased or rented to them by
Urhobo landlords. In reaction, Urhobo owners of Sapele sued the Itsekiri to court for
determination of the ownership of Sapele. Significantly, the case was listed as one
“between (Plaintiffs) Chief Ayomano and Edwin Omarin (on behalf of themselves and
the Chiefs and people of Sapele) and (Defendants) Ginuwa II, His Highness the Olu
(for himself and as representing the Itsekiri people of Sapele) .” Note that unlike the
Agbassah case in Warri, but like the Okere case in Warri, the Itsekiri as a people were listed
as parties to the Sapele case.
The judgement in this case by Justice J. Jackson in 1941 was unusually thorough for a
British colonial court. It is clear from it that the British administration was not taking any
sides in this dispute. It is reprinted in full in Chapter 15 of this book. One fact that is fully
established in this judgement, and that helps in the interpretation of the Agbassah case,
concerns the conduct of Dore Numa. Dore Numa signed the documents leasing Sapele lands,
as he did in the case of Warri. But Justice Jackson refused to accept the Itsekiri argument that
he did so as the Head Chief of the Itsekiri. Instead, Jackson accepted the submission of the
Urhobo that Dore Numa signed the documents as the Political Agent of the Colonial
Government. It is further noteworthy that the Itsekiri in the Sapele case did not invoke the
doctrine of overlordship. They contended in effect that they were the direct owners of the
lands in Sapele, that is, that they were landlords (not overlords). The defeat of their claims in
Justice Jackson’s judgement marked an important point in the history of the
231
scramble for Urhobo lands as a consequence of British colonialism in the Western Niger
Delta.
References
Ekeh, Peter P, editor. 2004. Warri City & British Colonial Rule in Western Niger Delta . Lagos, Nigeria:
Ekeh, Peter P., 2005. “Royal Niger Company.” Pp. 635-636 in John J. McCusker, Editor-in-Chief,
History of World Trade Since 1450. New York: MacMillan Reference, USA.
Ikime, Obaro. 1977. The Member for Warri Province: The Life and Times of Chief Mukoro Mowoe of
Warri, 1890-1948. Institute of African Studies
Columbia University Press. 2006. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed.
232
Chapter 11
Ownership of Pre-colonial Warri

Onoawarie Edevbie Wayne
County Community College
Detroit, Michigan, USA
This chapter is set against the foreground of the rise of communal nationalism that
flowed from foreign intrusion in Warri Township in1 Nigeria’s Niger Delta. It seeks to
scrutinize prevailing accounts of how indigenous lands were settled and maintained in the
years prior to the advent of colonialism. In modern times, there have arisen competing claims
of communal ownership of Warri. This chapter goes behind those claims to evaluate
evidence of assertions and usages of the term ownership by indigenous peoples of the area.
From a comparative point of view, Warri, with a rich history of rapid growth and
expanding economic and political importance, is particularly suitable for this type of
investigation. Located at a pivotal point on the landward margins of the mangrove swamps in
Nigeria’s Niger Delta, some thirty miles from the coastline of the Atlantic Ocean, Warri had
humble beginnings. It grew from being a part of agricultural farmlands to become a major
commercial center and port that has become well known in recent years for its proximity to
oilfields in the region.
In order to place this study of an urban center like Warri in a proper perspective, it
must be noted that African cities have cultural attributes that set them apart from the Western
urban experience that was more or less based on technological advancement. Baker (1974:5)
has noted that the features that characterize African towns include their pre- industrial origins,
the absence of feudalism, the maintenance of rural ties, the communal ownership of land, the
mobility of population, role of tradition, and differences in social stratification. These
deserve to be studied objectively before any cross-cultural comparison with Western cities
could be validly made. A proper understanding of African traditional life followed by an
analysis of several factors that relate to the formation of the area now known as Warri by the
end of the nineteenth century will therefore be critical in assessing issues involved in the
ownership of pre-colonial City of Warri.
This chapter will begin with comparative and conceptual discussions that help to define
the traditional system of land tenure in the area now known as Warri. It will also identify
structural and psycho-cultural factors that predispose disputes over land rights to degenerate
into ethnic conflicts. It will in addition assess the validity of the various claims of
indigenousness and migrations to the western Niger Delta region by evaluating patterns of
settlement, including accounts of early contact with Europeans that preceded colonial rule.
Comparative Perspectives on Disputes over

Claims of Indigenous Land Rights
The disputes and the inter-ethnic conflicts over communal lands in Warri bear close
1
The term Warri Township refers to the geographical area covered by the leases of 1906, 1908 and 1911. Warri has since then
expanded beyond the township boundary to include such places as Okere. It has also been used to designate the old Itsekiri Division
as defined in Public Notice No. 83 of June 19, 1950. In this chapter, the term Warri will be used to describe the City that now
comprises the original township and the new territorial additions.
comparison with those of other regions of the world touched by colonialism. A critical
evaluation of the structural and the psycho-cultural factors that seem to sustain the scale and
intractability of the ethnic crisis in western Niger Delta requires a general understanding of
communal land rights in pre-colonial communities like that of Warri. As Ross (1993) noted,
“structural explanations for conflict, violence and warfare focus on how the organization of
society shapes action, whereas psycho-cultural explanations look into the actors themselves
and how they interpret the world”. For example, the advent of colonial rule has shaped
society in ways that have intensified competition between ethnic groups in the area for
resources in the public arena. In order to secure an edge in the struggle, individuals within the
groups had sought means of enhancement or even survival in areas of political patronage
based on ethnic ideology. Ethnic ideologies by their nature are based on symbols created
from ideas of common origin, ancestry, and cultural heritage. By referring to them, a claim
may be made in inter-group and interpersonal relations to solidarity or opposition and even
superiority towards others whose identities differ. This form of appeal to ethnic loyalty or
reliance on primordial attachments -- be it cultural, traditional land rights, linguistics or
religious -- had been readily exploited by individuals for personal gain. The intent here is
therefore to examine how the formation and properties of aggregate social entities including
the behavior of individual actors have contributed to the political instability in the region.
Definition of Traditional Land Rights
Africans are known for their strong attachment to land being the main source of
livelihood for the people and the basis for their culture. The connection to land is expressed
through a system of traditional land tenure, which Udo (1982:49) describes as a fabric of
rights, and obligations that comprise the tripartite relationship between man, land and
society. He derived this definition from the often-quoted statement credited to a Nigerian
traditional ruler, the Elesi of Odogbolu when he appeared before the West African Lands
Committee that was set up by the British Colonial Government early in the twentieth century.
The chieftain echoed an African traditional view of land when he testified: ‘I conceive land to
belong to a vast family of which many are dead, few are living and countless members are
2
still unborn’.
The view that land belongs to the community and that every member dead, alive or yet
to be born has a right to it, as Colson (1971:195) observed, is based on two principles: one of
support and the other of creative pre-emption. The support principle provides for the right of
every citizen to direct access to the resources of his territory for his livelihood. For example,
he is entitled to cultivate as much land as he needs to support himself and his dependents. In
these circumstances, no one is landless, unlike the situation in medieval Europe under
feudalism in which ownership of land is concentrated in the hands of few wealthy landlords.
The right of an individual to use land derives from his membership of the community; aliens
or strangers are excluded except when granted permission to use land by the elders or the
head of the community. The granting of land to a stranger presumes that the stranger is
planning to settle permanently in the community and it is up to the elders to decide. The
elders could deny the right of permanent settlement to any one suspected of hostile intention
and of questionable character. Such rights like the citizenship on which it
2
The statement is similar to a Congolese native law, which recognizes collective ownership and not individual ownership of land.
According to the law, land belongs to the clan, a community made up family groups consisting of all descendants – living and dead
– of a common ancestor, and in theory of all generations to come (Heldt, 1959:204) as cited in Colonialism in Africa 1870-1960,
volume 3, p. 207
234
rests, could not be sold or ceded. The title to land by members of the community is therefore
purely usufructuary and any land that is no longer in use due to abandonment either for lack
of heirs or for some other reason reverts to the community. A sale that will result in a
permanent alienation of land is prohibited. The second principle recognizes the right of an
individual to anything he had created, be it an office, a hoe, a house or a field. The rights
could be passed from one person to another by way of inheritance, gift or some other
consideration as long as the recipient is someone acceptable to the local community. For one
to be acceptable means that one is associated with the community in ways that allows one to
be able to use the land in any fashion. The rights to an improved land could thus become the
particular rights of an individual responsible for the improvement or his family whose
members like him also form part of the community.
In many pre-colonial and non-centralized states in Africa, the two principles of general
rights of support based on citizenship, and of the particular rights of creative pre- emption
reinforced each other and did not clash. People in these communities hardly saw any need to
differentiate between the political and economic implications of occupying an area. The
distinction between the rights of the individual and those of the community or group was
therefore thin. These communities used the resources of their territories for the benefit of
their members and it was not necessary to draw any distinction between the rights of
ownership and those of sovereignty. Lloyd (1962:66) broadly defines sovereign rights as
rights that control the use of land; rights of ownership as those that concern the very use of
the land and the alienation of those usufructuary rights to others. The application of the
principles has survived into post- colonial era as observed in many rural and sparsely
populated areas of Nigeria. However, in centralized states even before the colonial era, the
distinction between rights of ownership and those of sovereignty was always clear as that
between the ruler and the ruled. In centralized states like the Ashanti of Ghana, the Benin
and Yoruba of southern Nigeria and the Islamic states of Northern Nigeria, the paramount
ruler is said to hold all land in the state ‘in trust for the people’. In pre-colonial times,
traditional rulers exercised sovereign rights. A traditional ruler endowed with such rights
could for example acquire land compulsorily for public good, thus extinguishing the
ownership rights of those occupying the acquired land though with the proviso that the ruler
assumed the obligation to resettle those displaced.
The push by colonial authorities to extend the system of land tenure that distinguishes
between rights of sovereignty and those of ownership to other areas, brought changes that
ultimately led to the collapse of traditional land tenure in many parts of tropical Africa. In
general, increase in population, industrialization and demand for land created social
conditions that lead people to think of land in ways that were bound to have impact on the
system of traditional land tenure. The imposition of colonial rule and rise of towns and cities
like Warri Township, among other factors, led to the development of land rights and the idea
of land units to which these new rights could be applied. Both the communities and
individuals were affected, and the ease with which unoccupied land was appropriated became
a striking feature of colonial rule. Colonial authorities used their power to impose European
concepts of land tenure, which they considered universal and therefore applicable to
everywhere else. As Colson (1971:196) observed, colonial authorities assumed that the full
range of land rights covered by the concept of proprietary ownership applies to Africa as in
Europe. If the authorities were unable to locate a private person known to hold such rights
over a given area as she further inferred, then they assumed the rights must vest in a political
unit whose members had used the area. They could also assume that the rights belonged to
the newly created colonial government [machinery], which could then alienate the land on its
own terms to European settlers and other comercial interests. Colonial authorities bent on
expanding European commercial interests, tend to think of African land
235
rights only in terms of land under obvious occupation, thereby freeing large areas of
unoccupied land for possible alienation to foreign interests. They regarded unoccupied land
as waste or idle land that could be appropriated for development.
Nevertheless, colonial authorities were aware that the local use of land was such that no
land could be an unclaimed territory even in the most sparsely populated areas or uninhabited
swamps of Nigeria’s Niger Delta. In West Africa for example, every portion of land is
claimed by one ethnic group or another. Each of the groups occupies separate and contiguous
territory. The territories were usually demarcated from one another by rivers, streams or
other natural boundaries. The ethnic groups are made of clans, each consisting of villages or
village-groups. In the past, it was the clans and the village-groups that owned and controlled
the land and they still do in many rural areas. Colonial authorities took note of these rather
extensive rights and adopted the famous Delafosse’s view that ‘no land in West Africa is
3
without an owner’. Yet colonial authorities proceeded anyway to create a
new system of land tenure, based on the theory as Colson (1971:197) indicated that land must
have an owner to exercise rights that are comparable to proprietary rights. The new land rules
supposedly based on tradition inhibited the development of individual rights but at the same
time expanded sovereign rights over unoccupied land. A close examination of these rules
indicates that they were intended to facilitate the acquisition of unoccupied land more so
when colonial authorities conveniently attributed sovereign rights to head of communities or
to political bodies in areas where people had little reason to busy themselves with defining
land rights. The authorities had introduced a system of indirect rule through traditional
authorities, under which they recognized existing rulers and chiefs, and created some in areas
where there were none. The collusion of colonial officers and African leaders particularly
those holding political office brought about the clash of sovereign rights with those of
ownership on its head. This clash over rights invariably created tension between various
communities over land issues that has culminated in ethnic conflicts now raging in Warri and
in many of the former British colonial territories.
Distinction between Ethnic Groups and Ethnicity
Many of the contributions so far made on the issue of communal ownership of lands in
Warri have dealt almost exclusively with political factors and with little attention paid to the
structure of ethnicity itself. In so doing, the contributions ignored advances in theories that
could help one to understand the political and structural importance of ethnic groups,
especially their role in the generation of ethnic rivalry and conflict.
Providing answers to questions about the contest among various ethnic groups for land
rights in an urban center like Warri City however requires one to examine the distinction
between the terms ethnic groups and ethnicity. Cohen (1974:ix) defines an ethnic group as a
collectivity of people who share some pattern of normative behavior as expressed in
symbolic formations and activities found in such contexts as kinship and marriage,
friendship, rituals and other types of ceremonies. Ethnicity on the other hand is the degree of
conformity by members of one ethnic group to some shared or common norms in the course
of social interaction with members of other groups within common social contexts. The
differences between individuals operating within their native areas for example are not
considered ethnic differences. However when such individuals from different communities
are brought together to interact in an urban setting, they are thought of as ethnic groups. It is
for this reason that the phenomenon of ethnicity is dramatically
3
See C. K. Meek (1949) Land law and custom in the colonies, p. 114 as cited in Colonialism in Africa 1870-1960, volume 3, p. 197
236
evident in urban centers like Warri. As Cohen noted, the division of labor in urban centers is
usually advanced and the struggle for resources like employment, housing, education and
political power is bound to be intense. A serious study of the nature of ethnicity should
include a consideration of interconnections with economic and political relationships whose
operations are modified or affected by processual and psychological factors.
While no one denies the efficaciousness of political approach to ethnicity in terms of
strategy for the struggle to control resources, it is equally important to note that ethnic
manifestations that are primarily cultural are not central to problems of conflict and
competition. Such manifestations may be better interpreted as Deshen contends in terms of
strategies to solve problems of identity, belief system and culture and not so much in terms of
4
political strategy. Hence, an investigator will do better by discussing ethnicity in terms
of structural factors devoid of cultural coatings in order to identify those conditions that
enable the problems of ethnicity to persist regardless of culture and regardless of specific
functions.
Review of Weberian Concepts:

Ethnicity and its Role in the Generation of Conflict
Since the crisis in Warri is being perceived for the most part as a struggle among ethnic
groups in western Niger Delta for political supremacy, any theoretical model that seeks to
explain the nature of the conflict must focus on conditions that motivate individuals to
structure patterns of political or economic domination. Such a model will also consider the
role of ethnic consciousness and its binding effect on people, to explain why ethnicity can
easily be exploited to mobilize people for political action. Understanding the situation in
Warri therefore requires one to appreciate the effect of ethnicity which Cohen (1974: ix) also
defines as a form of interaction between culture groups operating within common social
contexts. In order to carry out a productive analysis of conditions that encourage individuals
to manipulate ethnicity for selfish ends, this chapter will rely on Weber’s idea of ‘subjective
belief’ in ethnicity. Weber’s use of the notion of subjective belief in ethnicity allows one to
contest a widely held view that because members of an ethnic group enjoy a common
ancestry, they are bound together by some ineffable ties. While ethnic groupings can
coalesce politically and act collectively in a variety of issues, such form of solidarity cannot
be explained solely on the basis of biological or cultural affinity. As Ashley and his group
inferred, “without mobilization, ethnic attachments and feelings may exist but they do not by
5
themselves, have any large political significance. Ashley’s observation seems to
tally with Weber’s suggestion that the compulsions of politics are the main factors that drive
many groups of individuals to discover common resources such as ethnicity, religion or other
forms of solidarity-producing myths for use in their struggle for power.
Weber’s ideas on ethnicity now dubbed, as the ascriptive approach to ethnicity is in fact
a synthesis of two opposing approaches, the primordialist and epiphenomenalist.
Primordialists portray ethnic groups as natural units that derive their cohesion from some
inherent biological, cultural or racial traits, which then become instruments for social
differentiation. Membership generally defined by accidents of birth is used to perpetuate the
group’s distinctiveness by continuing process of socialization. In the process of socialization,
members of an ethnic group see themselves as unique and different from other
4
Shlomo Deshen’s Political Ethnicity and Cultural Ethnicity in Israel during the 1960s in Urban Ethnicity ed. Abner Cohen, pp.
281-309
5
Ashley J. Tellis, Thomas S. Szayna and James A. Winnefeld, Anticipating Ethnic Conflict, p. 72.
237
groups, we versus them. Primordialists therefore assume that because ethnic groups are held
together by facts of common ancestry, which may in fact be reinforced by a common
history and language, competition over resources within the group, would not be
significant or result in any large-scale violence. Such large-scale violence would
instead be directed primarily, justifiably or not at other ethnic groups.
Like the primordial approach, the epiphenomenal recognizes the existence of
physical, cultural or social differences, but it denies as Solomos put it, ‘ the claim that such
biological or cultural formations have independent effect, unmediated by class
formations or institutional relationships on politics’ . 6 The epiphenomenalist approach to
ethnicity, as evident in Marxist tradition, asserts that what is fundamental to explaining the
nature of political events are class structures and institutionalized patterns of power in
society and not any biological or culturally based social formations like ‘ethnicity’. To the
degree that “ethnicity” in the primordial sense plays a role, as Miles stresses, it functions
merely as a “mask” that obscures the identity of formations that are involved in the struggle
7
for political or economic power. Weber’s ascriptive approach may therefore be seen as
offering an artful middle ground for integrating the opposing views of both the primordialists
and epiphenomenalists. The approach recognizes that ethnicity can be used to identify certain
social groups based on a number of perceived commonalities including race, language,
religion, geographical origin or culture. However, it presumes that such ethnic markers come
into play only against the backdrop of ongoing social struggles, which may have conspicuous
economic and political components but not necessarily limited to them.
However, the Weber’s ascriptive approach to ethnicity has limited application for
understanding the intensity of the ethnic conflict in Warri. A major problem of ethnic studies
is understanding when and how ethnic claims come to be made and accepted or rejected
especially when used to justify communal rights. The ethnic conflict in Warri, for example
does not appear to have much to do with the struggle between individuals from the three
ethnic groups, the Ijaw, Itsekiri and Urhobo as members of working class in an urban setting
along the line formulated by Cohen. In normal times, individuals from the groups including
others from neighbouring areas of Benin and Isoko rely on mutual economic ties to make a
living. Yet as Llyod inferred, the presence of Urhobo has been exaggerated by Itsekiri
leaders to create a climate of fear and hostility among the people in Warri. The Itsekiri fears
of domination by Urhobo seem to be unrealistic and appear to be out of proportion to the
actual danger facing the Itsekiri. The Itsekiri that live in Sapele, an Urhobo town are more
than those living in Warri; many Itsekiri are known to have fled during times of ethnic riots
from their homes in Warri to stay with their relatives and friends in Sapele and other Urhobo
towns for safety. As Lloyd added, “one ought to look closely to see which individuals gain
from exploiting this tension and study the means by which they seek to gain their ends”.
8
Lloyd’s assessment confirms what many had known for a long
time that the masses in western Niger Delta are susceptible to manipulation by their leaders.
The Itsekiri Establishment for example, has exploited the cultural affinity its ethnic members
show for their king, the Olu to get such followers to defend narrow interests that are not
theirs. On the surface, the tactics used by members of the Establishment would be
6
John Solomos, “Varieties of Marxist Conceptions of Race, Class and State: A Critical Analysis”, in J. Rex and D. Mason (eds.),
Theories of Race and Ethnic Relations, pp. 84-109.
7
R. Miles, “Marxism versus the Sociology of Race Relations?” Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 7 (1984). pp. 217-237
8
Peter Lloyd, “Ethnicity and Structure of Inequality in a Nigerian Town” as cited in Donald L. Horowitz’s Ethnic Groups in
Conflict, p. 130. (Published as Chapter 20 in this book -- Editor)
238
regarded as an example of how individuals could mobilize others, drawing on ethnic

attachments in order to secure some form of pseudo-legitimacy for a political cause that
would in the long run benefit only a privileged few.
Yet not every group member involved in the struggle for the communal ownership of
Warri fits into the mold of those who are using ethnicity as mask to secure personal gain.
Urhobo people of Agbarha Warri, for instance, contend that unlike the Itsekiri, many of
whom are recent immigrants to the area, they had no other place to call home besides Warri.
9
The struggle to regain rights to lands in their territory, which they claim were
unfairly appropriated by colonial authorities in the early parts of the twentieth century, goes
beyond mere economic considerations. The Agbarha people describe their involvement as a
struggle for the survival of their homeland and the preservation of their culture. Weber’s
ascriptive approach to ethnicity does not seem to recognize the plight of such peasant people
who have been deprived of their land. Instead, the approach tends to treat all agitators for
land rights as parts of class formations that are bent on using the mask of ethnicity to secure
political advantage. When superficial observers particularly those from the western world
who consider ethnic riots as urban issues that involve working class people, see the crisis in
Warri as a result of fierce competition for scare resources, they miss the point and more often
than not confuse the issues. Although urbanization may have heightened the tension in Warri
City, none of the ethnic groups beside the Ijaw, Itsekiri and Urhobo is significantly involved
in the struggle for the communal ownership of the City. Many individuals who migrated to
settle and take advantage of employment and business opportunities in Warri, have other
places outside and far away from the City that they call home in Nigeria. The situation of
immigrants is different from that of those who are regarded as indigenous to an area. An
immigrant to one area in Nigeria may well be indigenous to another area that he identifies
with culturally and politically. The struggle for homeland can be tense because as
Stavenhagen (1990:105) observes, indigenous people are aware that unless they are able to
retain control over their land and territories, their survival as identifiable, distinct societies
and cultures could be seriously endangered.
The Role of Psycho-cultural Factors on Ethnic Stratification
Ethnic stratification is sometimes attributed to a number of psycho-cultural factors

collectively defined as set of attitudes, beliefs and stereotypes held by members of one ethnic
group about another group. More often than not, these factors are found in expressions of
group behavior regarding the value or the superiority of one’s group and the supposed
inferiority of other groups. People are indoctrinated with such pyschocultural dispositions
during early childhood when cultures establish orientations, such as trust, security and
efficacy towards self and others in one’s social world (Ross, 1993:10). Because they are
culturally learned, the dispositions readily shape a group’s action especially when the group
is dealing with situations of ambiguity and high tension that characterize many ethnic
conflicts. Understanding the origin, course and management of a conflict would therefore
seem to require consideration of pyschocultural factors along with structural conditions that
lead to conflict. According to Ross (1993:35), structural conditions not only direct one to
forces that make one society more or less prone to conflict than another, but
9
Agbarha people has consistently pointed to many members of the Itsekiri Establishment including such notables as Johnson
Ayomike, the Rewane Brothers, Ogbemi and Alfred, Elliot Begho, Gabriel Mabiaku and Allison Ayida who claim that they are
indigenes of Warri but were neither born or raised in the City. They hailed from such places as Ugborode, Batere, Jakpa, Ogidigben
in Itsekiri country, and others like Isiloko and Ologbo that are outside Warri. Unlike many Agbarha residents of Warri, who have or
live on freehold landed properties, the notables as recent immigrants, cannot point to any site in Warri where their parents or
ancestors had lived.
239
also seek to explain of how conflict once started, grow.

Ethnocentrism defined as prejudiced belief in the superiority of one’s ethnic group over
10
other groups, does play a significant role in shaping interethnic relations. As
Northrup (1989) indicated, deeply held dispositions are significant elements in determining
how participants interpret conflict and how these interpretations affect the actions they
take. 11Ross (1993:10) went further to say that pyschocultural dispositions shape how
groups and individuals process events and the emotions, perceptions, and cognition the
events evoke. These patterns of social relation when they occur between different ethnic
groups conform to a mutually reinforcing pattern that could generate interethnic hostility and
rivalry. Of course, such subjective attitudes and attendant group behavior can be instigated or
manipulated by special interest groups within or outside the community itself. For example,
acts of communal violence that have so often shaken India have been proven to result from
the pitting of Muslims against Hindus in that country. The level of ethnic tension and conflict
in Warri and Nigeria’s western Niger Delta is sustainable, as many believe only because of
the instigation of those with vested political interests in the region.
Yet interethnic attitudes and group behavior are not self-generated and certainly could
not be attributable to some underlying immutable ethnic hostilities or rivalries. Many
individuals from among the three ethnic groups, Ijaw, Itsekiri and Urhobo engaged in
political rivalry in western Niger Delta have family ties and have a long history of trade
relations. As Stavenhagen (1990:39) observed, peaceful coexistence between different ethnic
groups within limits of wider political units are at least as common and persistent as
interethnic conflicts. When ethnic hostilities or rivalries occur, they are usually due to some
underlying structural disparities and inequalities that result from historical grievances often
related to conquest, colonization, economic exploitation, political oppression, and other
processes of domination and subordination associated with the state. The dominant group
tends to fight to hold and keep privileges for itself, whereas the subordinates either conform
to the pattern or challenge it by a number of political strategies. Conflict becomes intense not
just because of the value of what is being fought over but also because of the psychological
importance of winning and losing.
Colonialism and the Promotion of Ethnicity
Applying the ascriptive approach in attempts to explain the nature of an ethnic conflict
like the situation in Warri and western Niger Delta, requires one to identify factors that
generate beliefs in ethnicity and how these beliefs, once generated, can be manipulated for
group mobilization and possible collective action. Among the many factors that seemed to
have encouraged the use of ethnicity in mobilizing people for political action, none appears
to rival colonialism for providing the context within which arose issues that have precipitated
ethnic rivalry and conflict in Africa. Colonialism has had the effect of creating new forms of
governance based on western ideas of political and economic structures, in place of African
traditional rule. As Nelson and Wolpe (1970) noted, the integration of
10
Instances of Itsekiri claim of superiority over other ethnic groups in Nigeria’s western Niger Delta include a newspaper article in
Daily Times of Nigeria of 1934 in which Revered Aghogin Omatsola, an Itsekiri pastor of First Baptist Church, Sapele, Nigeria
derogated and called Urhobo people slaves to the Itsekiri. In more recent times, the refusal of the Olu of Itsekiri, Atuwase II, to attend
meetings of the Council of Traditional Rulers, Delta State of Nigeria, was interpreted by many as a slight to an Urhobo traditional
ruler, the Orodje of Okpe, Orhoro I, who was then the serving Chairman of the Council. It was also alleged that on September 16,
1977, the Olu and his Itsekiri Chiefs insisted that the meetings of the Warri Traditional Council be conducted in Itsekiri language
much to the displeasure of the Ijaw traditional rulers who were present at the first meeting. The Ijaw rulers withdrew and the Council
was never reconvened.
11
As cited in Marc Howard Ross, The Culture of Conflict: Interpretations and Interests in Comparative Perspective, p. 10.
240
different [ethnic] groups through colonialism into peripheral capitalist formations brought
new and competitive notions of development, and heightened existing conflicts and even
produced new ones among groups. In this regard, competition for jobs, and business
opportunities, positions in government and the distribution of state resources among people
tend all too often to be carried out in ways that lead to conflict.
The pretension to legitimacy by any ethnic group to the detriment of others, under
colonial rule is a prerogative grounded in the events of the colonial process itself. The
process led to the rise of two classes of elite, the colonizing elite and the colonized elite, each
with its own set of ideologies and interests. Members of the colonizing elite were drawn from
the cadre of foreign colonial administrators just as the colonized elite were created from
among the local people. While the colonized elite served the interests of the colonizing
country, colonized elite also known as the local bourgeoisie operated in what Ekeh (1975)
depicts as two publics, the primordial and the civic. The primordial public, whose
constituents are derived from ethnic and communal groups, owed its origin to the alienating
nature of the colonial state and its failure to provide basic amenities for the welfare of the
people. On the other hand, the civic public, which was associated with the colonial
administration, and now identified with popular politics in post-colonial Africa, is regarded
as coterminous with the civil service. Yet unlike the primordial, the civic public is considered
to be too far removed from the people to be able to cater for their interests.
As Osaghae (2003:7) inferred, the contradictory pulls and demands of simultaneous
membership and operation in both the civic and primordial publics, underlies the pervasive
problems of ethnicity and corruption in colonial Africa. Members of primordial constituencies
expect those in positions of power or influence in the civic public to employ state resources to
satisfy their communal interests and in disregard of other communities. As a result, activities
such as the embezzlement or misuse of public funds, which would be considered morally
reprehensible in the primordial realm, are not sanctioned in the civic setting as long as the
larger primordial group benefits in one way or the other from the loot. In other words, “it is
legitimate to rob the civic public in order to strengthen the primordial public” (Ekeh, 1975).
Although colonialism may therefore appear to be such a rigid social system, it actually rested
only on fragile foundations that could easily collapse. The system lacked traditional
legitimacy as it ignored contributions by Africans except when they were part of colonial
exploits. The African bourgeois that emerged through the colonial process, sought to
legitimate its hold, on power in post-colonial period, often based on principles that are
implicit in colonialism itself. Colonialism had also created new and different elite that began
to compete with traditional elite for leadership and dominance. Nevertheless, many among the
class also challenged colonial authorities to the point where the colonizers felt compelled to
devise divide and rule strategies including efforts to undermine local tradition in favor of
western education as the basis for legitimacy.
Many among the divided emergent class ultimately were forced to seek ethnic
mobilization made possible through the meeting of elite and non-elite elements within the
group, in the struggle to hold on to power. As Ulf Hannerz noted, when members of a
community integrate around and depend on a common enterprise that they dominate, it is
certainly in their interest to ward off threatening incursions into that sphere of livelihood by
outsiders. 12They do this by maintaining a high degree of ethnic solidarity. The struggle for
power under the cover of ethnicity, will therefore out of necessity, involve efforts at
monopolizing power, including those aimed at preventing ‘others’ from sharing in the
political, economic, and social bounties enjoyed by a few. If the strategies prove successful
for any ethnic nationality, and become institutionalized, they create pressure on
12
Ulf Hannerz: Ethnicity and Opportunity in Urban America, in Urban Anthropology, ed. Cohen, 1974. p. 38.
241
disadvantaged groups, compelling them to devise responding forms of resistance that could
ultimately result in violence. The unwholesome consequences of colonially constructed
ethnic categories, encouraged by a pervasive sense of insecurity on the part of politicians,
have led investigators of ethnic conflicts, like Gourevitch to remark that... wars [ethnic
conflicts] one sees in Africa are in many ways the second generation of de-colonization
wars. They tend to be wars of succession, wars about the transfer of power or the
refusal of those in control of the state to share power or transfer that power. They’re
frequently wars that in some way are about trying to rectify the injustices imposed by
the first generation of independent rulers, many of whom held onto power for decades
and become terrible disappointments and abusers of their people. 13
Competing Claims of Indigenousness
Weber’s ascriptive approach to ethnicity in spite of its limitations provides grounds for
understanding the desire of ethnic nationalities engaged in a political struggle for some form
of political affirmation based on ethnic identification. The identification based on primordial
sentiments of common ancestry or history, invariably calls for group entitlement, which
encourages one group or the other to claim that a country or an area belongs to them and that
the political system should be made to reflect this. Such demands for ethnic priority or
legitimacy have in many instances been predicated on claims of indigenousness with the
implication that a group that is indigenous to an area “owns the area”. The claim to primacy
by the dint of indigenousness is widespread in many parts of Africa and Asia where it has
been used as a powerful political tool to secure privileges. In what appears to be a total
disregard for the notion of strict equality in the political process, indigenousness has been
used to justify special electoral arrangements to perpetuate or to inflate the power of
indigenes. It has also provided justification for some political authorities to reserve
employment, restrain the alienation of land, and in some other ways, secure for “the local
people, a place of pride in their own land”.
Since the concept of communal ownership of land is based on the idea of aboriginal
occupation, one would want to know which of the three ethnic groups, the Ijaw, Itsekiri and
Urhobo was occupying the area that came to be called Warri Township and now Warri City
at the instance of history which in this case is typified by the arrival of Europeans to the
region. However many claims of aboriginal occupation or indigenousness are difficult to
verify; relative time of arrival to an area remains a common basis of distinction among
people. Unfortunately, developing a chronology for the movement of people has been
difficult due in part to the paucity of archeological investigations for the period involved and
to the absence of written documentary evidence, a major problem of African historiography.
To be without writing, however does not mean that one is without history. Africans for
example, have depended on oral traditions for recalling past events and many students of
Africa history have made extensive use of oral traditions for their work. Unfortunately, many
of the traditions cover relatively short spans of time and like any other historical sources, are
prone to distortions. As will be observed in the tales about migrations into the area now as
known as western Niger Delta, distortions of historical facts could include bias towards
political events, potentials for revisionism, telescoping of events to occur within particular
reigns and artificial lengthening of reigns of certain rulers. Besides, many of the claims to
indigenousness are generally surrounded by ambiguities that are couched in legends. The
legends tend to associate people with places in order to create
13
Philip Gourevitch. Worlds Apart: The Roots of Regional Conflicts.
http://www.britannica.com/worldsapart/viewpoints
242
myths of occupations, often without regard for the perennial movement of people.
Yet, it is possible to discern from various accounts that much of traditional history
especially of pre-colonial times has been rendered in two broad formats depending the
political structure of the region. The history of centralized states is generally presented as a
chronicle of the reigns and glories of kings, and the achievements of aristocratic families.
Not much attention is given to the role or achievements of ordinary people in the traditional
historiography of several African societies. In non-centralized states, in which no authority is
exercised beyond the local community, whatever authority exists, affects a rather limited
aspect of the lives of those subject to it. Although non-centralized states like the centralized
ones depend heavily on oral tradition, the coverage is not as deep and continuous as one
would find in the tradition of centralized states. Since there are no clear landmarks, the
history of non-centralized states is told many times in relation to the chronology put in place
by accounts from centralized states especially if one is near by. This manner of history
writing unfortunately leads to a lot of conjectures and hypotheses that have little or no basis.
What you may find in these stories such as those about the origins of Warri, could be nothing
more than ideas about migrations and no body really knows how many of them are based on
factual history. Nonetheless, rights to lands continue to be sanctioned by myths of migrations
which tell how some ancestor came to own lands concerned. Such rights are generally passed
on to a large descent group that invariably becomes a major constituent part of the
socio-political structure of the region concerned. As Lloyd (1962:77) noted for centralized
states like those of the Yoruba, the myths tend to include accounts of how the king [or
ancestor] granted land to his subjects for their allegiance.
The habit of people in non-centralized societies of telling their history based on
landmarks established in some centralized states is reflected in many accounts of migrations
to the Niger basin. Many of the migrations are said to have originated from places like Benin,
Ife and Egypt that are known for their powerful centralized states. For example, there is some
account of how the eponymous ancestor of Urhobo people, one Uhobo, a Bini Prince who
felt cheated out of his claims to the Benin throne, left Benin during the time of tyrannical
kings, the Ogisos to found a new kingdom called Urhobo. Another relates how some other
wave of Urhobo left Benin during the era of a powerful Benin king, Oba Egbeka for some
place in their present location (Jacob Egharevba 1951:23). However, these assertions do not
register in the collective memory of Urhobo people about their past neither do they feature in
Urhobo folklore. Urhobo folklore has references to the Ogisos whom they must have known
14
but none to the so-called Uhobo or Egbeka. Arawore (1940) in his
account of the traditional history of Urhobo People also asserts that ‘The Urhobo for the first
time came from Egypt, left some of their people on the shore of Lake Chad, halted for a time
at Ile-Ife, had a permanent abode at Benin and finally were driven to the swamp of the
Niger’. For15the Ijaw, Owonaro (1949:3), an early Ijaw historian, claims also without
any corroborating evidence that the progenitor of the Ijaw people was the first son of the
Yoruba Oduduwa who had migrated probably from somewhere in Egypt, Persia or Mecca to
settle in Ife. Sometime in 990 C.E., Oduduwa was said to have asked his son whom he
called Ij͕ to go and establish a kingdom for himsel
father’s instruction was said to have embarked on a journey that took him through Benin
where he rested for a while before continuing on his trip to the Niger basin. The Itsekiri also
14
For a discussion of the use of oral traditions in determining the history of Urhobo people, see Peter Ekeh’s Profile of Urhobo
Culture in Studies in Urhobo Culture, pp. 5-31, and Onigu Otite’s A Peep into the History of the Urhobo in The Urhobo People, pp.
25-39.
15
As cited in The Urhobo People, (2ndedition) ed. Onigu Otite.
243
run similar stories of how Oba Olua of Benin commissioned his son, Prince Ginuwa in 1480
to found a kingdom somewhere in the Niger Delta region. Egharevba (1960:22) also asserts
that Oba Olua of Benin instructed some Ijaw men to carry his son, Prince Iginua, and his
retinue to the Niger basin to found the Itsekiri Kingdom of Warri.
The types of stories of migrations now propagated as proof of indigenousness were
also told to pre-colonial European or Arab visitors who were attracted because of commerce
to centralized states like Benin and Kano. The visitors recorded whatever they were given
and were not in position to question or ascertain the accuracy of what they heard. The
visitors who went to non-centralized states probably had little to record as activities in these
areas hardly had any impact of the affairs of the state. As improbable as some of these stories
may appear, it is possible to detect common denominators that run across many variants of
stories put forward that could approximate to historical facts. Yet as Robin Horton inferred,
there is really no reason to believe that a denominator is any closer to the
truth than any of the variants (Stateless societies in the history of West Africa in History of
West Africa , p.88). In absence of evidence from archaeological work, carbon dating and
other forensic techniques, the best that could be done in these circumstances is for this
chapter to consider oral tradition along with those of linguistics and cultural traits when
assessing claims of indigenousness by the various ethnic groups in the region.
Evidence Based on Folk History of Migrations
The history of Niger Delta is replete with accounts of a series of migrations; the
earliest believed to be that of the Ijaw, to the coastal areas prior to the arrival of the
16
Portuguese in the 15th century. Another wave of migrations involved Urhobo who are
believed to have moved from Agbarha-Otӑ and Okpare in Urhobo hinterland to settle in their
present locations of Agbassa and Okere respectively in Warri, sometime in the fourteenth
century according to Otite’s estimates based on Egharevba’s assertions (1960:14). Benin,
17
Ijaw and Itsekiri legends point to the arrival of a Benin prince, Ginuwa
who fled sometime in 1480 from Benin to avoid persecution, to hide among Ijaw
communities in the swampy creeks of western Niger Delta. The oral traditions provide more
details of how Prince Ginuwa and his entourage wandered about in the area trying to elude
detection by Benin warriors who were in pursuit. For example, the team was said to have
moved from one Ijaw settlement of Iduwini town of Amatu close to the mouth of Forcados
River to another one in Oruselemo where Prince Ginuwa took an Ijaw woman, Derumo, for a
wife. According to Sagay (1980:4), the Benin fugitives were not popular at Oruselemo and
were forced to move again to Ijalla, another Ijaw settlement in the region.
According to Moore, the fugitive prince died at Ijala nearly fifty years after leaving
Benin and while making plans to flee to yet another place more secure from the invasion of
Benin warriors. Ginuwa’s adult sons, Ijijen and Irame were able to lead other surviving
members of the entourage to safety, arriving at the secure Island of Ode-Itsekiri sometime
after 1540. The fleeing team was warmly, received by the host communities that offered
them much needed protection and land to settle. The host communities were mostly fishing
teams believed to be of Ijebu-Yoruba origins that had frequented the coastal area and later
16
Kenneth O. Dike, Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta, 1830 – 1885, p. 21.
17
Daniel Obiomah, Warri, Urhobo and The Nigerian Nation , Appendix C: The Urhobo Itsekiri Feud: The Warri Question, p. 2 .
Otite also cited evidence for Kay Williamson’s time-scale produced from her linguistic (glottochronological) study of the history of
Niger Delta that suggests that the prototype Urhobo and Isoko, among others probably settled parts of the Niger Delta some 2000
years ago (Onigu Otite, The Urhobo People, p 38)
244
18
decided at some point to settle in the area. The head of the community, Itsekiri led his name
to the ethnic nationality and kingdom that developed from the fusion of his followers and
19
that of Ginuwa’s descendants.
As parts of efforts to explain how the new Itsekiri Kingdom expanded, Moore
indicated that Urhobo migration into the Warri area occurred during the reign of Olu Irame.
The Olu is said to have reigned sometime between 1546 and 1588: During the reign of
Olu Irame, a fatal skirmish occurred at Agbassa-Otor, and the quarters which suffered
most in casualties resolved to migrate, and so they came to Olu Irame and begged for a
place wherein to dwell. He apportioned to them the place Ubumale where
they built a town [present town of Agbassa] and settled down. 20 Unlike the Ijaw who
had occupied the coastal area close to the Atlantic Ocean, and the Itsekiri’s little beginnings
in the island of Ode-Itsekiri, the abode of Urhobo immigrants lay on the mainland on the
northern banks of a segment of Forcados River now known as Warri River. Incidentally,
Urhobo settlements in the area are contiguous to those of their kin and kith neighbors to the
north in Urhobo hinterland. If Moore’s account is to be taken at its face value, it will mean
that the Urhobo community of Agbassa (Agbarha Warri) had been in its present location for
at least 400 years since Ginuwa’s descendants arrived to settle in Ode-Itsekiri.
Although Moore’s time frame can be viewed as sufficient to let validity to Agbarha
claims to their sections of Warri, Daniel Obiomah, an historian known for his work on Warri,
has doubts. He doubts the ability of the Itsekiri monarchy to master the locality in such a
relatively short time of 20 years after Ginuwa’s descendants left Ijalla for Ode- Itsekiri around
1540. It would therefore be unlikely, he argued, that the Itsekiri monarchy was ever in any
position to acquire by 1546, land located on the mainland across the river from Ode-Itsekiri
let alone give such property to other immigrants like them. As Otite (2003:38) noted, the
process of consolidating human settlements, and the evolution of social systems and kingship
take years to accomplish. In absence of any corroborating evidence to support the views
expressed by Moore and others, many have come to perceive these types of assertions as
nothing more than myth making being the intentional reconfiguration of the past to influence
current events. The Itsekiri have nevertheless seized upon Moore’s account among others, to
build their case that the people of Agbarha became settlers in Warri at the behest of a
benevolent Itsekiri king, an assertion that Agbarha people firmly reject as false.
Another contribution to the debate on the origins of Warri came from the account of
John Waddington Hubbard, a Church [of England] Missionary Society missionary who
served in the region most noticeably in Isoko areas of western Niger Delta. He shifted
Urhobo migration to Warri to a time frame as recently as the 18th Century: A migration
occurred, probably late in the 18th Century, from a Sobo town called Agbarha about
twenty three miles east of Warri in the middle of Sobo country … [they] crossed the
Warri River and by negotiations with the Jekri [during the reign of Olu Otugbuwa],
obtained land from them ... built a village of their own which they named after [their]
18
The use of the term ‘Ode’ to describe an area is common to the Yoruba of southern Nigeria, for example Ode Irele, Ode Ondo, Ode
Ijebu (Ijebu Ode), Ode Remo are names of towns in Yoruba country. It seems that Ode Itsekiri is a scion of the Yoruba (E.
Arawore, The Itsekiri and Urhobo Relationship, p. 7)
19
Itsekiri, the head of the host community is believed to be of Irigbo, Pessu family in present-day Warri (Daniel Obiomah, Who
Owns Warri (A Treatise for Peace), p.5)
20
William Moore, History of the Itsekiri, p. 185. Ubumale as a name seems derived from two terms, ubo and umale meaning a place
and a god respectively in Itsekiri. Taken together they mean a place of the gods. According to Arawore, Ubumale refers to the
location where a little stream that separates Warri main market from the Shikoko market enters the open river. The location was
dreaded by the Itsekiri who associated it with Owurhie, the Agbarha deity or juju and over time came to refer to the whole of
Agbarha-Warri waterside as Ubumale (E. Arawore, The Itsekiri and Urhobo Relationship, p. 9)
245
hometown Agbassa. This is now one of the quarters in Warri. 21

The versions given by Hubbard and Moore however seem to contradict that of John
Sagay, another Itsekiri historian who had indicated that Prince Ginuwa conferred with some
22
Urhobo in Ugharegin (Oghareki) on his flight from Benin in 1480. As Obiomah
emphasized, both Moore and Sagay were probably not aware that the Urhobo communities
in Idjerhe and Ugharegin left Agbarha-Otӑ as a second wave of migrants after the Urhobo
23
team that came to Warri. Of all the timelines used to identify the period of Agbarha
people’s arrival to Warri, the one employed by Hubbard as one could infer from other
accounts, is the most recent and most unlikely to correspond to the events under review. One
could therefore be tempted to accuse Hubbard of telescoping history, the rendering of events
24
that happened long time, to seem or look as if they had occurred only recently.
What is clear, however from the different tales of migration, is that each party to the
ethnic conflict in Warri, is trying to utilize history for forensic purposes using it to justify
claims of communal ownership of the City. The sentiments expressed are no doubt premised
on the fact that history does shape current views about the continuity of traditions, narratives
and ideologies, being materials society uses to form opinion of itself. History has therefore
come to be used to legitimize currently dominant institutions by appealing to traditions. The
revisionist can also use history to undermine current perspectives, ideologies or regimes,
either by pointing to the invalidity of current regimes and their illegitimate rise or by
revealing how history has supported viewpoints that are more in line with societal, political
25
or other current values. In spite of efforts to misrepresent or misuse history, one
wonders whether the receiving public cares much about dates as they do about events and
their significance. For example the arrival of Ginuwa, the fugitive Benin prince, seems to be
acknowledged not so much for when the incident occurred but for being responsible for
events that led to the emergence of the Itsekiri nationality. Before 1582 when the Gregorian
calendar came into use, and before the discovery of carbon dating and other modern forensic
techniques, attaching dates to events that happened in prehistoric times would be a difficult
task for any investigator.
Evidence based on the Relationship between the Community and its Land
Many institutions native to Africa are rooted in land. As Stavenhagen (1990:100-101)

noted, ‘Land is not only an economic factor of production; it is the basis of culture and social
identity; the home of the ancestors, the site of religious and mythical links to the past and to
the supernatural’. Stavenhagen’s observation encompasses all of the essential features of the
cultural relationship that a traditional African community shares with its land. Land defined
as the physical part of the surface of the earth, is regarded as a sacred entity that is believed
to exist for all time and independently of man. The earth has many potentialities that vary
from place to place and it is left to man to explore them for his
21
John Hubbard, The Sobo of the Niger Delta, p. 7
22
J. O. E. Sagay, The Warri Kingdom, p. 4.
23
Daniel Obiomah, Warri, Urhobo and The Nigerian Nation , Appendix C: The Urhobo Itsekiri Feud: The Warri Question, p. 2, and
Captain E. A. Miller’s Intelligence Report of 1929, p. 7.
24
Hubbard indicated in a footnote in his book, The Sobo of Niger Delta , p. 5 that he had no opportunity to verify information given
to him from various sources. He could therefore not guarantee the accuracy of his sources.
25
For a more complete discussion of the themes, see Friedrich Nietzsche, The Use and Abuse of History , 12 –17 (Adrian Collins
trans., 2nded. Macmillan 1957 as cited in Douglas J. Sylvester’s Myth in Restorative History, Utah Law Review, 2003:471, No. 1, p.
480).
246
benefit. The potentialities have both physical qualities, which determine the practical uses to
which land can be put, and the mystical qualities, which many believe, are discernable only
to a privileged few.
As Colson (1971:199) infers, it is the ability of the first settlers of a community to come
up with means of dealing with the mystical qualities of the local earth that gave them superior
standing over new comers. The superior position of first settlers of land is derived from the
privilege of coming into terms with the power of the earth after laboring to transform an
unoccupied or idle land into an area for habitation and cultivation. Some among the heirs of
the first settlers became ‘earth priests’ who served as intermediaries between the earth and
other individuals living in the new community. The priests routinely performed rituals to
appease the earth either at a local earth shrine or through appeals to the spirits of ancestors
who have the privilege of interceding on behalf of the living. Ogbobine (1977:145) indicated
that among Urhobo people, first settlers are believed to have established after securing a
settlement, shrines for a number of deities to mark the founding
of their homeland. 26Prominent among these ritual figures is the edokpa, which the elders of
various communities come to every year to worship, appealing to the earth goddess to ensure
that local palm trees produce abundance of ripe fruits for a good harvest. Other figures
include those for deities that help to secure the fertility of the soil and to protect members of
the community against accidents, spread of infectious diseases and sudden death. According
to Ogbobine, proof of maintenance and worship of various ritual figures has been accepted as
strong evidence in many lawsuits that land belongs to the worshippers of the shrines of the
land involved. The acceptance of the use of this type of evidence in court is recognition of
the taboo among the Urhobo that forbids any family or community to locate a shrine on land
belonging to another community.
The concept that the social unit and the ritual relationship to land is an undivided entity
can also be used to explain how traditional communities view land use. People think of earth
as a sacred entity and any claim or attempt to control it is considered sacrilegious. The
concern is therefore to use the land and not to hold it. Every member of the community was
expected to respect the ruler or those who supervised the rituals or had control over them.
They also had to observe the sanctity of the shrines in the community by adhering to
mandated taboos, which may include in some places, a call on people to exercise care not to
trespass on land surrounding a shrine. Every member has rights to land by virtue of
27
citizenship as members of the community. In many cases, citizenship also entailed
membership in a ritual group, which was considered coterminous to it. Since individuals in
pre-colonial communities saw themselves linked or connected to land through membership
in social groups, they tended to be more concerned about maintaining themselves in good
standing in the community than in seeking to secure land rights. The rights to land would be
impossible without the support of the community. And it was also in the best interest of the
26
community as Colson (1971:201) noted that every person had a plot of land to cultivate and
Besides building shrines for the worship of the earth, Urhobo are said to have planted trees most notably, the Oghriki and Uloho
(oak) trees to indicate ownership of land. A first settler may have also posted a stick on the ground and covering the other end of the
stick with leaves of some other plant to signal to others that the surrounding has been secured for settlement. A typical first settler
will then proceed to build on the land he has secured an utugh́, a hut where he lives with his famil
settlement with a name. Such a name could be derived from his own name, that of his father or ancestor, some prominent trees or
wild crop in the area or any remarkable feature that was noticeable on the land. (Rufus Ogbobine. The Urhobo People and their
Land Tenure, p. 144,145.)
27
The right of the community to extinguish the land rights of descent group or person is rarely exercised and the act is considered to
tantamount to banishment and not so much one of deprivation of land. A group or an individual could be banished for committing
serious crimes like murder, acts of treachery or rebellion against the community. An individual can also deprived of his general
rights to land by expulsion from the group; the individual could be a criminal or witch driven out of the community or sold into
slavery. (Peter Lloyd, Yoruba Land Law, p. 86.)
247
had the necessary assistance to be able to raise crops. In this way, people were able to
support themselves and their families and did not become a burden on others.
Although the development of a system of traditional land tenure followed similar lines
in most of tropical Africa, there are differences. The differences based on conflicting
principles inherent in pre-colonial land systems, could offer insights for understanding issues
involved in the contest for the communal ownership of a city like Warri. The three ethnic
groups, Ijaw, Itsekiri and Urhobo are culturally and linguistically different even though they
had depended on each other for the survival of their economies. They exhibited different
views of land ownership. First, of the three groups, only the Itsekiri country can be
described as a centralized state operating under a monarchy, the Olu. The other two
operated in pre-colonial times as non-centralized states in which people hardly saw any need
28
to differentiate between political and economic implications of occupying an area.
Since it was difficult to tell a private property from a public one, there was no clear
distinction between ownership rights for the individual use of land and the sovereign rights
for controlling the use of all lands. The distinction was also ambiguous for the Itsekiri in
pre-colonial times, unlike the situation in other centralized states like Benin and Yoruba
states of southern Nigeria and Emirate northern Nigeria where there was a marked difference
between the ruler and the ruled. Some have speculated that the Itsekiri experience is derived
from the way the Itsekiri monarchy was formed. The monarchy is believed to have been
imposed from the top with the help of the Portuguese and did not come about through
29
conquest nor did it evolve from the masses. The British as shown
elsewhere exploited the monarchy in a 1921 lawsuit, Dore Numa versus Olue, to sell the
idea of over-lordship with sovereign rights to the Itsekiri people. Secondly, the various rituals
for local deities indicated differences that appear to reflect circumstances of pre- colonial
settlements. All the well-known deities among Urhobo in Warri such as the
Owurhie (Agbassa Juju) are land based. The Warri Idju (Agbassa Juju) Festival held every
two years to honour the deity is celebrated on the mainland territory of Agbarha people,
where the shrine is located. On the other hand, many of the Itsekiri deities including the
Umalokun (god of the sea) and the series of umales are water based and have shrines
30
located in the riverine areas, supposedly where the Itsekiri country is located. The annual
procession of a carnival through major streets in Warri to mark the anniversary of the
coronation of the Olu started only recently with the ascension of Atuwase II to the Itsekiri
throne on May 2, 1987. As indicated in a memorandum submitted by the people of
Agbarha-Warri regarding the Ethnic Riots of 1993 , the processions are being made not to
display Itsekiri culture but to flout the institution of over-lordship before non-Itsekiri people
of Warri.
Evidence from Linguistics and Inter-ethnic

Interactions prior to Colonial Rule
In pre-colonial times, most of the groups that make up Nigeria today were often
distinguished from one another by differences in history, culture, political systems and
28
This may not true for all Ijaw people. According to Alagoa, the Ijaw of eastern Niger Delta have an ancient history of monarchy
that dates back to that of the first king of Nembe who reigned at about 1400 ( History of West Africa (3rdedition) ed. Ajayi and
Crowder, p. 379)
29
In the Emirate north of Nigeria, Muslim rulers placed all conquered land under the care of designated vassals. The British
protectorate claimed to have acquired the land following the conquest and subjugation of the Moslem Fulani rulers in 1901. The
Yoruba centralized states were built up by the people. Land was entrusted to the Obas to keep ‘in trust for the people’.
30
See William Moore, History of Itsekiri, p. 214-215 for the list of principal umales and their locations or places of worship.
248
religion. These differences offer some clues, not only into how the groups evolved but also
how their pretension to political legitimacy came about. The most significant of the
differences among the pre-colonial groups are those located in areas of sociopolitical
organization. A number of anthropological and historical studies have been able to
distinguish between centralized (state) and non-centralized (stateless) societies. Examples of
the former category include the Sokoto Caliphate, the northern emirates along with
Kanem-Bornu Empire, which operated advanced Islamic theocracies. Other empires like the
Benin, Oyo, western kingdoms of Igala of the middle belt and the Itsekiri kingdom of western
Niger Delta, also belonged to this class of centralized states. In these centralized systems as
indicated earlier, there were clear distinctions between the rulers and the ruled, usually based
on wealth and ascribed status. Systems of taxation and other institutions of distinctly political
nature were already in place before colonial rule. In contrast, non- centralized states like those
of the Igbo, Urhobo and some middle-belt groups were characterized by a diffusion of
political, economic and religious institutions and practices. Also observed among the
non-centralized groups was a large measure of egalitarianism, democracy and decentralized
authority.
In terms of linguistics, the various ethnic groups in the Niger basin are different from
one another. The Ijaw language for example based on Kay Williamson’s classification differs
31
from the neighbouring languages in western Niger Delta. The language belongs
along with those of Ҽdo, Igbo, Itsekiri, and Urhobo-Isoko to the Kwa sub-family of the
Niger Congo family of African languages. However, the Ijaw language forms within the
sub-family group, a distinct group, the Ij͕ group different doid to which Ҽdo
from and the ̀
Urhobo-Isoko belong. The Itsekiri in spite of their ancestral connection of its monarchy to
Benin, is linguistically allied closely to the Yoruba. As Lloyd (1963:209) infers, it may be
possible to postulate that although people who were prototype Yoruba accepted to be ruled
by the descendants of Benin monarchy, these Yoruba fishing groups of the area were
unaffected by the Benin culture that invaded them from the north.
Yet, one could not assume that the various population groups in pre-colonial Nigeria
had lived in isolation from one another. Historians have long identified evidence for different
forms of interactions among people, including trade and super-ordinate- subordinate
relationship. The Sokoto Caliphate and the Benin Empire, which had powerful centralized
systems, dominated the affairs of neighboring groups. None of the Yoruba- speaking groups
was however powerful enough to dominate others but were, nevertheless embroiled in a
series of inter-ethnic conflicts and wars. On the other hand, the three main ethnic groups,
Ijaw, Itsekiri and Urhobo of Nigeria’s western Niger Delta operated as independent political
entities but have no history of such serious inter ethnic conflicts as those that occurred among
the Yoruba city-states. The idea of political domination of one group by another in the delta
region came with colonial rule, which did much to accentuate ethnic differences and in some
cases created new divisive sentiments.
The three main ethnic groups, the Ijaw, Itsekiri and Urhobo were able to utilize the
viable network of rivers and creeks available to them in the delta for relatively peaceful
coexistence through trade. Many villages in Urhoboland, for example though far removed
from the Atlantic coastline could, nevertheless be reached through a number of creeks and
rivers including the Ethiope River and Warri River. The Ijaw and Itsekiri, the bulk of whom
depended on fishing, making of salt and pots and other earthenware utensils, exchanged the
products of their occupations – fish, salts and utensils for cassava products, plantains, pepper,
yams and other farm produce, with their Urhobo neighbors who are an agricultural
31
Kay Williamson’s Languages of the Niger Delta, Nigeria Magazine, xcvii, 1968, pp. 124-30 as cited in E. J. Alagoa’s The Niger
Delta States and their neighbours to c. 1800 in History of West Africa 3rdedition, ed. Ajayi and Crowder, p. 373
249
people living on the mainland just outside Ijaw and Itsekiri countries. Many among the
groups continue to take advantage of inter-ethnic interactions to establish series of blood
relationships through intermarriage. If there were quarrels, they could not be more than
minor frictions such as acts of piracy and abductions that arose from social and commercial
transactions. Some have speculated that the peaceful coexistence was due to the kinship
relationship shared with Benin whose powerful presence discouraged any serious form of
interethnic strife. The groups especially the Itsekiri and Urhobo also share a number of
common words like ́ sete for plate, ukuj́ŕ for ogwaj ́j ́ for the im
spoon, ́j ́
cultery, f
for table, oro for gold, usi for starch and igari for tapioca, a byproduct of cassava. Many of
these words were derived from the language of the Portuguese who were in the area before
the advent of British colonial rule. The word for cassava plant, imidi r’ aka or imid’ aka for
short, is also the same for both Itsekiri and Urhobo.
While many of these common words in use in western Niger Delta are perceived as
linguistic evidence of inter-ethnic interactions that began long time ago, the word imid’aka
holds a special place in the linguistic history of the area. The word is being touted by some as
a form of linguistic evidence in support of claim of indigenousness to area and by extension
of communal ownership of its major city, Warri. William Moore (1936:26) had asserted that
Olu Irame, the second son of Ginuwa gave his ‘subject people’ of Agbarha- Warri, the
cassava plant for cultivation. He also indicated that the plant came initially from the
Portuguese who gave it to Ginuwa when they met the prince at Ijalla in 1516. As Peter Ekeh
(2005: 42) indicated, Moore provided no clue on how the plant was preserved for 30 years
from 1516 when Prince Ginuwa received it to 1546 when Irame began his reign at
Ode-Itsekiri as Olu of Itsekiri. Such piece of information would be valuable and worth
knowing, more so when the swampy conditions of the area have always been considered
unsuitable for farming.
Ekeh (2005:42) further noted that the plant and the common salt were among food
items that the Portuguese brought from their colony in Brazil to West Africa sometime
between 1485 and 1538. The words imid’aka (tuber of Benin) and ughwa’aka (salt of Benin
or common salt) seem to suggest that Urhobo named these items by their historic route of
introduction into the area, aka being Urhobo word for Benin, the first port of call for the
Portuguese when they came into the region. For comparison, the Itsekiri word for Benin is
ubini. As Niyi Akinnaso (1981:63) observed, names constitute a vital part of symbolic
system used in many parts of Africa and Asia for transmitting cultural information. Many
names were historically constructed and socially maintained to reflect shared assumptions,
values and expectations of people within the community involved. Since the Itsekiri apply
the same name to designate the plant, it would be within the realm of reason to suggest that
the Itsekiri borrowed the word imida’aka from Urhobo in the course of their trade
interactions. As a source of staple food in the region, the plant thus provides ample evidence
of ethnic interactions among the people; there is however nothing in its name or method of
cultivation that could suggest that the plant was introduced to Urhoboland through the
Itsekiri as alleged by Moore.
Early Contact with Europeans
Much of what is known of the history of the Niger basin between the 15 thcentury and
the 18 thcentury comes from notes kept in dairies, and descriptions written by European
travelers and traders who visited the area in these early times. Also available as valuable
sources of information are contemporary documents retrieved from various archives in
Europe including those relating to early missionary activities in western Niger Delta. These
documents together provide revealing insight into the ethnographic configuration of the
250
area and how it has been impacted by the arrival of early European traders and missionaries
to the area.
The Arrival of the Portuguese and the Formation of Itsekiri Nationality
Besides opening the western Niger Delta region to outside world, the Portuguese were
largely responsible of the formation of Itsekiri nationality. The nationality is believed to have
resulted from the fusion of various fishing migrants the Portuguese came upon when they
first visited the coastal areas off the shores of the Atlantic Ocean in the 15 century.th
Many of these exploits into foreign territories such as the Niger Basin were intensified
following the Papal Bull of 1493 that had granted monopoly of trade in practically all of
Africa to Portugal. Using the extensive network of rivers and creeks that were easily
accessible from the Atlantic Ocean, Portuguese explorers, Ruy de Sequeira and Alfonso de
Aveiro, for example, had been able to navigate through the Niger basin, up the Benin River
estuary to reach Benin in 1472 and 1482 or 1486 respectively, most likely through the port of
Ughoton (Gwato). Ughoton was the nearest port to the headquarters of Benin Kingdom. The
Portuguese opened Benin to missionary activities but these efforts did not produce any
32
significant or lasting impression on the people. The trade at Ughoton was also difficult as
it was under the strict control of the state and the Europeans had no opportunity to dictate
terms. The Portuguese must have concluded that the Benin environment was not friendly
enough for business and decided to move away.
As described in the dairies of one of the early Portuguese explorers of the area, Captain
Pacheco Pereira, the Portuguese did venture elsewhere beyond Benin into western
Niger Delta area in 1502. One of the entries in Pereira’s diary had this to say: Five leagues
beyond Rio dos Escravos is another river called Rio dos Forcados. Whoever enters this
river will find that it branches to the right and to the left, five leagues up the left branch
is a place of barter, which consists chiefly of slaves and cotton cloths, with some panther
skins, palm oil and some blue shells the natives call ‘coris’. The inhabitants along this
river are called Heula. Farther in the interior is another country called Suobo, which is
33
densely populated. Beyond these dwell other called Jos.
Pereira also noted that Suobo country was thickly populated and known for producing a lot
of Benin pepper. The Ijaws were described as living along the southern banks of the
Forcados River and were regarded as warlike. Nevertheless, the Portuguese did forge some
trade with the Ijaws in slaves and ivory. The identity of the Heula remains unknown but
Ryder suspects that they were related to either Urhobo or Isoko.
Pereira’s records were restated more explicitly by Moore in his History of Itsekiri , p.
13, that Prior to the advent of the Bini Prince Ginuwa, the territory now known as the
Kingdom of Itsekiri or Iwere, was inhabited by three tribes, namely Ijaws, Sobos, and
the Mahins. They [Sobos] occupied the hinterland, while the Ijaw occupied the
coastline, and the Mahin [prototype Itsekiri] squatted on the seashore near the Benin
River. The presence of these non-Itsekiri elements especially the Ijaw in the Niger Basin is
34
prehistoric, as no one seems to know when and how they came into the area. Unlike the Ijaw
and Urhobo, much of the history of the Itsekiri is known not so much through the dictates of
Itsekiri and Benin legends but also from the written accounts of European
32
H. Ling Roth, Great Benin, 1903 pp.4-5 (cited by Peter Llyod in Odu, 4, 57, 1957, pp. 27-39)
33
Duarte Pacheco Pereira, Esmeraldo de situ orbis, ed. and trans. G. H. T. Kimble (London Hakluyt Society, 1937), pp. 128-29.
34
Although unable to pinpoint where the Ijaw came from originally into the region, Alogoa was able to provide a number of
accounts of internal migration of Ijaw people within the Niger Delta ( History of West Africa, 3 rdedition , ed. Ajayi and Crowder, p.
377).
251
missionaries and traders. Many of these groups of Europeans were opportune during their
foray into the area to witness the emergence of the Itsekiri as an ethnic nationality in western
Niger Delta.
The absence of the Itsekiri from early Portuguese records raises doubts about the place
and importance of the Itsekiri in the western Niger Delta by 1500. Ryder, who carried out
extensive studies of the activities of Europeans in western Niger Delta, indicated that he
found in his research no documentary evidence that points to the existence of an
independent Itsekiri state on the Forcados River area, anytime before 1530. Moore (1936:20,
21) also asserted that Ginuwa’s two sons, Ijiyen and Irame did not get to Ode- Itsekiri until
sometime after 1540 following the death of their father earlier in the Ijaw community of
Ijalla. Ryder concluded in absence of any evidence to the contrary, that the subsequent
establishment of the Itsekiri nationality and state with its capital city at Ode- Itsekiri began
only after the arrival of the Portuguese to the area. After failing to establish a foothold in
Benin, the Portuguese who knew Ginuwa’s descendants were royalties, must have cultivated
their friendship and subsequently nurtured them into building a new kingdom. The
35
Portuguese were probably anxious to set up a constituted authority to help
regulate trade. Peter Lloyd inferred from Ryder’s analysis of events of the period involved,
36
that the Itsekiri kingdom appeared to have been imposed on the host communities. The
new Kingdom developed for the next two centuries under the continued mentoring influence
of the Portuguese, mainly through trade and missionary activities to full maturity and
37
independence from Benin.
The new Itsekiri country, easily accessible from the Atlantic Ocean, lay in a mangrove
swamp that is transected by creeks and rivers including Benin River, and the Escravos and
Forcados rivers, all of which open as estuaries into the Ocean. Within the creek, lie a number
of isolated islands where the Itsekiri lived. Ijaw settlements as parts of the various fishing
communities were also found along the creeks, spreading across the most southerly area of
the Niger Delta from Arogbo in the west to as far or beyond Nembe in the east. On the other
38
hand, Urhobo communities are located on the mainland on the
shores of River Forcados, which incidentally are contiguous with those occupied by their
fellow kin in Urhobo hinterland.
Evolution of the Name “Warri”
A number of attempts have been made to link the term ‘Warri’ linguistically to some
local words of similar letters and sound as proof of ethnic ownership of the area. The 39
etymology of the word however remains unclear in spite of the various accounts so far
35
This observation is in contrast to the Itsekiri claims that Prince Ginuwa reigned as the first Olu over a kingdom he founded. Both
Ryder and Lloyd seemed to infer from Portuguese records that the Itsekiri nationality and the Itsekiri monarchy did not exist during
Prince Ginuwa’s lifetime. Prince Ginuwa because of his special circumstances could not be in any position to found a kingdom.
36
Peter C. Lloyd, The Itsekiri in the Nineteenth Century, Journal of African History, IV, 2, (1963), p. 209.
37
Peter C. Lloyd, The Itsekiri in the Nineteenth Century, Journal of African History, IV, 2, (1963), p. 210.
38
For some description of early settlements in the Western Niger Delta, consult Peter C. Lloyd, Itsekiri in the Nineteenth Century,
Journal of African History, IV, (1965 ), p.209; and E. J. Alagoa, Long – Distance Trade and States in the Niger Delta, Journal of
African History, IX, 3 (1970), map on p. 324.
39
The ability of a party to describe convincingly the origin of the name of a town or village is an important element in the
determination of ownership when the land forms the subject of dispute between different villages, families or communities. The
source of the name is usually given in evidence in a land dispute, but in some cases the courts have not shown their readiness to
accept the meaning ascribed to such names as they appear to be either fictitious or have been invented for the purpose of the
litigation (Rufus Ogbobine, The Urhobo People and their Land Tenure, p. 144)
252
given to explain its origins. The accounts vary from one ethnic group to the other. The Ijaw
for example, claim the word is derived from wari, an Ijaw word that could mean either a
‘house’ or ‘this where I stand’. The Itsekiri for their part, stress that the word is a corruption
of Iwere, a term whose meaning is unknown but regarded as one that the Itsekiri sometimes
use to refer to themselves. Urhobo language on the other hand, has no word to which the
term could be tied. However, Daniel Obiomah who has written extensively on the history of
the area believes the word ‘Warri’ or ‘Iwerre’ is foreign and it is neither Itsekiri nor Ijaw. He
concluded from his review of historical accounts available to him that Warri as a name was
most probably derived from that of Alphonso de Aviero, one of the first Portuguese
explorers to work in the area back in early parts of fifteenth century.
The term, Obiomah reasoned, came about the same way as Forcados, Escavros and Rio
de Farmosa, later Benin River. These names were invented and used by early European
40
explorers to designate the various places they visited. To support his reasoning, he
explained that “V” in Aveiro in Portuguese is pronounced as ’W’ in English hence ‘Aweiro’
which seems to have undergone many mutations over the years from Aweiro through Oere,
Ouwerre, Oveiro, Owerre, Warree, Wari and other mutant forms into the current variant
Warri. Besides, the first letter “I” in ‘Iwere’ seems as he indicated, to have resulted from the
local habit of inserting a vowel when pronouncing foreign words. For example, both Itsekiri
and Urhobo do pronounce Warri, James and Victor as ‘Iwarri, ‘Idjemisi’ and ‘Ivictor’
respectively. Many of the assertions by various ethnic groups on the origin of the word Warri
are however speculative and not based on any solid evidence. What is clear however, is that
the name ‘Warri’ in its current form was coined by Vice Consul Henry Galleway to identify
the location of a British consulate that was built on the northern banks of Forcados River in
western Niger Delta, from the later parts of the nineteenth century to early parts of the
twentieth century.
Much of the confusion over the origin of the term Warri however arose from its use by
many including colonial administrators and nineteenth century historians to refer to places or
administrative units other than the location of a British consulate. The site of the consulate
now known as Warri Township is different from that of the Itsekiri capital City of
Ode-Itsekiri, which many historians had referred to as Warri and described as a center of
commercial and missionary activities in the seventeenth century. The two locations, Warri
Township and Ode-Itsekiri also referred to as Big Warri are about four nautical miles apart.
41
One of the earliest references to the area as the ‘kingdom of Forkados or Aveiro
was probably made by John Ogilby in 1682 at a time when the boundaries of the area could
not possibly have been determined. The area was described as a large complex of mangrove
swamps that extended from the mouths of the Escravos and Forcados Rivers down to the
creeks. The term had also been used to refer to the City of Ode-Itsekiri. Father Jerome
Merolla de Sorrento, for example, writing about catholic priests who visited the town in
1682 referred to it as part of the kingdom of ‘Ouuerri’.or ‘Warree’. Incidentally, the term
Warree was the name of the boat used by Messrs. Moffat and Smith when they sailed
through the creeks to reach Gwato on their way to the City of Benin in 1838. 42A number of
40
Other examples include Brass River so called because brass pans were the favorite article of trade in the area, Fernando Po after an
old Portuguese explorer, Fernao de Poo; Akassa river bearing the name of an old Portuguese town of Akassa and Bonny from the
native word Obani (James Pinnock’s Benin, The Surrounding Country, Inhabitants, Customs and Trade in Harold Bindloss: In the
Niger County, p. 358-361).
41
A 1891 map cited by Ikime shows different locations for Ode-Itsekiri and the nineteenth century trading post that grew into the
present Warri (Obaro Ikime: Niger Delta Rivalry, p.102)
42
The boat was built by Mr. Robert Jameieson, a merchant of Liverpool who was credited for building Ethiope, the first steam vessel
to enter the Benin River in April 1840. He built these boats after the failure of Mr. Macgregor Laird’s Niger expedition. Mr.
Jameison took a very great interest and invested a large sum of money in efforts to explore the Farmosa River or Benin River
253
other British officers including Consul Campbell then stationed at Lagos and John Beecroft
who visited the area in sometime in 1840, also referred to Ode-Itsekiri as ‘Warre’ or
‘Warree’. As the geography of the area became better known, visitors like Captain John
Adam who came to the area in 1876, accurately described Warri he saw as a ‘beautiful
island’, an apt description for Ode-Itsekiri as opposed to the site of a consulate that was yet to
be built on the mainland. Apparently, the current anglicized form ‘Warri’ was derived from
Warre or Warree. In more recent times, for example in 1914 following the amalgamation of
the southern and northern parts of Nigeria into one country, the term was applied as name to
one of the southern provinces, Warri Province with headquarters in the same premises as the
British consulate. The area of provincial jurisdiction extended beyond the location of the
British Consulate to include the neighboring areas of Urhobo hinterland, Ijaw, Itsekiri, Kwale
and Aboh territories. One of the administrative divisions within Warri Province initially
called Itsekiri Division was renamed Warri Division sometime in 1950.
Conclusions
The arrival of Europeans to Nigeria’s Niger Delta basin back in the 1480s after
centuries of isolation from the rest of the World brought changes that affected land use and
other ways of life for the indigenous people of the region. The indigenous societies of Niger
Delta basin like those of other Africans had developed a strong attachment to their land
which they regarded not only a dwelling place and subsistence base but also the basis for for
their culture. The various nationalities had cause to resent the intrusion of the British colonial
authorities who took control of the area in the later parts of the nineteenth century. Colonial
authorities ignored indigenous prior occupancy and property rights as they appropriated land
in ways that set one community against the other. Cast against the background of communal
nationalism and foreign intrusion, the City of Warri offers itself as a good place to study
pre-colonial institutions including how indigenous lands were settled and maintained in the
millennia prior to the era of European expansionism into this part of the world. Such
knowledge of pre-colonial institutions in the area now known as Warri City could provide a
basis for understanding the rise of ethnic conflicts over land rights in many areas of post-
colonial Africa.
The chapter began with theoretical discussions that include the definitions of pre-
colonial land rights and the structural and pyschocultural factors that predispose disputes
over land rights to degenerate into the kind of ethnic conflict now raging in Warri and
other parts of western Niger Delta. Following these discussions was an assessment of
the various claims of indigenousness and pattern of early settlements in the region.
Documentary evidence beyond accounts provided by early European explorers and
traders is almost non-existent. However, from available documents combined with
legends passed orally from one generation to another and reports of ethnographic
studies, we now know that the present settlements were preceded by series of migrations
from different places into the area. A process of integration and consolidation of the
peoples involved was to follow in earnest. While no one is position to predict the
direction where these social changes were heading, one could assume that the peoples of
the region were moving on their own towards establishing stable societies for
themselves. A major impact on the lives of the peoples was nevertheless to come from
Portuguese traders and missionaries who helped to create the Itsekiri
hoping to find other and better channels to the Niger ( James Pinnock’s Benin, The Surrounding Country, Inhabitants, Customs and
Trade in Harold Bindloss: In the Niger Country, p.369)
254
nationality, a new group forged from the fusion of iterant fishing communities. The rise
of Itsekiri may well be considered the beginning of a process in which alien institutions
that at first were purely economic, later religious and ultimately political and judicial
altered the direction of evolving structures in the region. By the time the British arrived
on the scene, the Itsekiri had emerged with the help of the Portuguese to become firmly
settled along the coastal areas of the Atlantic Ocean as a formidable group in the region.
The proximity to a major sea route had provided the Itsekiri a unique opportunity to
supplant older communities in the region and to establish themselves as middlemen in
the international trade between European merchants and the inland communities that
produce the merchandise. With increase in commerce and the need to move inland to
reach centers of production, the British decided to acquire land for building offices and
residential quarters in ways that destroyed the system of traditional land tenure that was
in place before the advent of colonial rule.
Selected References
rd
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England: Longman
Akinnaso, Niyi F. 1981. Names and Naming Principles in Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Names, 29, 37-63.
Alagoa, Ebiegbari. 1970. Long-distance Trade and States in the Niger Delta. Journal of African History,
XI, 3, pp. 310 - 329
Baker, Pauline H. 1974. Urbanization and Political Change: The Politics of Lagos, 1917 - 1967 .
Berkeley, California: University of California Press
Bindloss, Harold. 1968 (New impression). In the Niger Country Together with James Pinnock’s Benin,
The Surrounding Country, Inhabitants, Customs and Trade. London, England: Frank Cass & Company,
Limited.
Colson Elizabeth. 1971. The Impact of Colonial Period on the Definition of Land Rights in Colonialism
in Africa, 1870 – 1960, Volume 3, Profiles of Change ed. Victor Turner. Cambridge, England: Cambridge
University Press.
Dike, Kenneth, O. 1956. Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta , 1830 – 1885 Oxford, England: Clarendon
Press
Duarte Pacheco Pereira, Esmeraldo de situ orbis , ed. and trans. G. H. T. Kimble (London Hakluyt
Society, 1937), pp. 128-29.
Egharevba, Jacob. 1934. A Short History of Benin. 4th ed. Ibadan, Nigeria: Ibadan University Press
Egharevba, Jacob. 1951. Some Tribal Gods of Southern Nigeria. Benin City, Nigeria: Self Published
Ekeh, Peter. 1975. Colonialism and the Two Publics in Africa: A Theoretical Statement, Comparative
Studies in Society and History, vol 1, 1975.
Ekeh, Peter. ed. 2004. Warri City and British Colonial Rule in Western Niger Delta . Lagos, Nigeria:
Ekeh, Peter. ed. 2005. Studies In Urhobo Culture. Lagos, Nigeria: Urhobo Historical Society
Gourevitch, Philip. Worlds Apart: The Roots of Regional Conflict.
255
http://www.britannica.com/worldsapart/viewpoints
Horowitz, Donald, L. 1985. Ethnic Groups in Conflict. Los Angeles, California: University of California
Press
Hubbard, J. W. 1948. The Sobo of the Niger Delta. Zaria, Nigeria: Gaskiya Corporation
Lloyd, P. C. & Ryder, A. F. C. Don Domingos, Prince of Warri, Odu 4, 1957, pp. 27-39
Lloyd, Peter. 1963. The Itsekiri in the Nineteenth Century: An Outline of Social History. Journal of
Africa History, IV, 2, pp. 207 – 231
Lloyd, Peter. 1962. Yoruba Land Law. London, England: Oxford University Press
Memorandum of Agbarha Clan, Warri South Local Government to the Warri Judicial Commission of
Enquiry into the Riots in Warri in May 1993
Miles, R. 1984. Marxism versus the Sociology of Race Relations? Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 7
(1984). pp. 217-237
Moore, William. 1970. History of Itsekiri. London, England: Frank Cass and Company Limited.
Nelson, R. & Wolpe, H. 1970. Modernization and Politics of Communalism: A Theoretical Perspective.
American Political Science Review, vol 64, No. 4
Obiomah, Daniel, A. 1995. Warri, Urhobo & The Nigerian Nation. Warri, Nigeria: GKS Press
Obiomah, Daniel, A. 2003. Who Owns Warri? (A Treatise for Peace) Benin City, Nigeria: Ako-Pat &
Company
Ogbobine, Rufus A. I. 1977. The Urhobo People and Their Land Tenure , A Bendel Land Law Series.
Benin City, Nigeria: Bendel Newspaper Corporation.
Osaghae, Eghosa. 2003. Colonialism and Civil Society in Africa: The Perspectives of Ekeh’s Two
Publics, presented at the Symposium on Canonical Works and Continuity in African Arts and
Humanities, Accra, Ghana, September 17-19, 2003.
Otite, Onigu. ed. 2003. The Urhobo People(2ndedition). Ibadan, Nigeria: Shaneson C. I. Limited
Owonaro, S. K. 1949. History of Ijo (Ijaw) and Her Neighbouring Tribes in Nigeria . Lagos, Nigeria: Self
Published.
Ryder, A. F.C. 1959. An Early Portuguese Trading Voyage to the Forcados River . Journal of Nigerian
Historical Society, Vol.I, No. 4, 1959
Ryder, A. F. C. 1960. Missionary Activity in the Kingdom of Warri in the early Nineteenth Century ,
Journal of Nigerian Historical Society, Vol. II, No. I, 1960.
Rex, John & Mason, David. ed. 1994. Theories of Race and Ethnic Relations (Comparative Ethnic and
Race Relations). Cambridge, England: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge.
Ross, Marcus. 1993. The Culture of Conflict. New Haven, Connecticut. Yale University Press
Sagay, John, O. E. 1980. The Warri Kingdom. Sapele, Nigeria: Progress Publishers
Stavenhagen, Rodolfo. 1990. The Ethnic Question: Conflicts, Development and Human Rights. Tokyo,
Japan. United Nations University Press.
Sylvester, Douglas, J. 2003. Myth in restorative Justice History, Utah Law Review, 2003:471, No. 1
Tellis, Ashley J. Szayna, Thomas S. and Winnefeld James A. 1997. Anticipating Ethnic Conflict . Santa
Monica, California: Rand’s Arroyo Center
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Udo, Rueben K. 1978. A Comprehensive Geography of West Africa . New York, New York. Africana
Publishing Company
Udo, Rueben K. The Human Geography of Tropical Africa. 1982. Ibadan, Nigeria: Heinemann
Educational Books (Nigeria) Limited.
257
Chapter 12
Who Owns Colonial and Post-Colonial Warri? 1

Onoawarie Edevbie
Wayne County Community
College Detroit, Michigan, USA
Abstract: A number of British colonial policies are known to have left behind
a trail of political problems that continue to haunt many of the former British
colonies in Africa. One of such policies was that formulated to deal with the
acquisition of land for colonial settlements in ways that eroded African
traditional system of tenure and the corollary belief in communal land
ownership. The ethnic conflict in the City of Warri, for example, grew from what
many regard as the illegal use and distribution of communal land in the City,
which for the most part, has been attributed to the failure of British colonial
policies. The strife has since intensified and spread to other parts of western
Niger Delta following the emergence of the area as a major source of oil wealth.
The thrust of this paper is therefore to explore the colonial roots of the conflict
and the resulting political ramifications that continue to sustain the prevailing
political discord among the Ijaw, Itsekiri and Urhobo, the three major ethnic
nationalities in the area.
Introduction
The question of who owns a city or municipality such as London in the United
Kingdom, New York City in the United States or any other major city in the western World
would not arise except when put in a rhetorical sense. A rhetorical question being one to
which no plausible answer is expected probably because a response in one way or the other
will be of little or no consequence. While a typical city in the West, as Plotnicov (1972:01)
observed, might be identified with nation-states, its citizenship or civil rule is not based on
ethnic identification. This notion of an ‘open-door policy’ is however in contrast to what
happens in Nigeria and in many other parts of Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe where
territories have long been traditionally associated with particular ethnic groups on the basis
of aboriginal occupation. Such an attachment far from being insignificant convention in these
places provides legitimacy for political action of a most profound nature. The tradition of
ethnically identifying territory with owners of land flows from a supposed concept of
indigenous ownership and its corollary of the rights of the natives to control and rule in their
area except when such are altered by other political developments.
The crisis in Warri and the western Niger Delta, offers a classic example of how
political expediency has thrown indigenous ownership of a territory into dispute. The
controversy has generated various conflicting claims of ethnic identification with the territory
by different ethnic groups in a struggle for political legitimacy that has become marred by
ethnic strife and civil unrest in the area. The City of Warri is among other
1
Parts of the paper were discussed at the First Convention of Urhobo Historical Society, held on November 3–5, 2000 at
Hampton Inn At The Falls, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.
modern towns like Enugu, Port Harcourt and Jos that were built by British colonial
authorities in the early parts of the 20 thcentury to serve their strategic interests in Nigeria.
Enugu and Jos for example, started about 1910 as mining centers following the discovery of
coal and tin respectively in their vicinity. Port Harcourt was deliberately built in 1913 to
serve as a major seaport and as a terminus for a railway line that would transport coal from
Enugu mines to the sea for export. The railway line had also been extended to other places,
and by 1927, it had reached the tin mines in Jos. On the other hand, the location for Warri on
the landward margins of mangrove swamps was recognized for its relatively easy access to
the Atlantic Sea route and proximity to centers of production of palm produce in the
hinterland. The site, about 30 nautical miles from the Atlantic Ocean, was considered
strategic for British colonial interests and by 1891 colonial authorities had started to develop
the area to serve as administrative headquarters for their activities in Nigeria’s western Niger
2
Delta.
However many of the colonial settlements in Nigeria were soon to become subjects for
disputes over ethnic ownership of the land involved. The parties to the disputes are usually
drawn from groups bordering the area, who are anxious to reap commercial, political and
other benefits that are expected to accrue from use of land. Warri Township for example was
developed at a point where the boundaries of three ethnic communities, the Ijaw, Itsekiri and
Urhobo in Nigeria’s western Niger Delta, converge on the edge of mangrove swamps and dry
land. Many of the settlements that became engrossed in ethnic conflict were established
during colonial times in areas that were regarded as ethnically peripheral. Platnicov had
described peripheral locations as those not lying unambiguously within the confines of a
traditional homestead. When that happens, major ethnic groups bordering the area tend to
equally lay claim to the area. This lack of clear identification with an area is touted as one of
the reasons why Jos located on the fringes of several indigenous ethnic groups in the former
Plateau Province in Northern Nigeria had witnessed series of ethnic riots in the struggle for
ethnic ownership of the lands involved. The site of Port Harcourt within an area sandwiched
between territories occupied by a number of ethnic groups essentially, the Igbo, Ijaw and
Ikwerre in the eastern part of Nigeria also became a contentious issue for people in the area.
As Platnicov observed, the contested places eventually get identified in most cases with
ethnic groups that are politically dominant, which may not necessarily be among those that
have valid claim to the area, on the basis of aboriginal occupation.
The site of Warri Township presents a less complex case of ethnic ownership. Like Jos
and Port Harcourt, the township is located as indicated, in a territory that obviously has been
the scene of trade and other forms of interactions among individuals from different ethnic
groups in the area since pre-colonial times. Unlike Jos and Port Harcourt, which were located
in ethnically peripheral territory, the communal ownership of Warri Township could not
have been so much in doubt. Of the three ethnic groups in the area, only the Urhobo people
of Agbarha-Warri can be identified with a geographical location that brings them in the
closest contact with the lands that were acquired by British colonial authorities for
development. The Agbarha people claim that the lands involved originally belong to them,
being part of their farmlands long before the advent of colonialism. The Ijaw and Itsekiri
lived further away in the riverine areas within the deltaic creeks and depended on fishing and
other water-based occupations for their livelihood. When the British came into the area, one
of their first lines of duty was to seek out the ethnic owners of the land. They were able
2
Many of colonial settlements were segregated from the main population as a matter of policy to safeguard the health of European
workers.
260
Who Owns Colonial and Post-Colonial Warri? …
to sign a number of treaties with their leaders. The British pledged to protect the land in
return for the privilege to operate in the region. Colonial authorities later decided to take a
lease on a section of the farmlands to build a segregated township now known as Warri to
serve as administrative headquarters. In doing so, colonial authorities for reasons of political
expediency ignored treaty obligations and chose to introduce novel political concepts and
ethnic ideology that had the effect of nullifying traditional claims to indigenous ownership
and local ethnic hegemony in the area. This amplification of this observation is the focus of
this essay and it should lead to the understanding of issues involved in the Warri crisis.
Intensification of Ethnic Conflict in Warri
The City has grown over the years from being a small British trading post to become a
major administrative and commercial center, a position bolstered in recent years by the
discovery of crude oil in commercial quantity in its vicinity. In addition to self-serving
colonial policies that have endured even to the present times, the increase in commerce,
population and the worth of land, have combined in no small measures to intensify the
struggle for the political control and access to wealth generated in the area.
Perhaps one of the most remarkable indicators of ethnic conflict in the City of Warri,
in recent times, stemmed from an action of the government of the former Western Nigeria,
which inherited powers at independence from colonial authorities. The government struck at
the heart of the struggle for the communal ownership of the City by officially changing the
title of the Itsekiri king from the Olu of Itsekiri to that of the ‘Olu of Warri’ in May 1952.
3
The change was made at the request of the Itsekiri over the objection of the Urhobo.
The Urhobo felt that the title, Olu of Warri would give the impression that the Olu was the
paramount ruler of the former Warri Province and thus legitimized the Itsekiri’s claim of
communal ownership of the area. The City of Warri, however, continues to be regarded
rightly or wrongly not only as a home to the Itsekiri but also to the Ijaw and Urhobo, the
other ethnic groups in the region, who considered the government decision as an imposition
on non-Itsekiri people of Warri. The resentment flared into violence when an Itsekiri
procession along Warri/Sapele Road in Warri City, arranged by the Itsekiri to welcome
Arthur Prest, was allegedly attacked in September 1952, by some Urhobo elements. Mr.
Prest, an elected Itsekiri member of the Government of Western Nigeria, and a minister in a
former Central Government of Nigeria was regarded as being instrumental in getting the
4
government to change the title of the Olu.
The Itsekiri parade through major streets of town may have been seen as an act of
provocation but more importantly as a display of authority and power of the Itsekiri in ways
that appear to intimidate many in the non-Itsekiri communities of Warri City. The
confrontation quickly degenerated into riot that spread to Sapele, followed by attacks by
Urhobo on Itsekiri property in the villages along Benin, Jamieson and Ethiope Rivers. Many
lives were believed to have been lost although the official report and even the findings of
inquiries sponsored by various ethnic groups in the areas did not point to any loss of lives in
Warri City itself. However the various accounts did agree on one thing, that looting and
damage to houses, farms and plantations occurred on a deplorable scale, resulting in the
5
arrest and persecution of over 250 individuals.
3
See Public Notice No. 64 Supplement to Nigeria Gazette No. 52 vol. 39 of October 2, 1952
4
Obaro Ikime, Niger Delta Rivalry, p. 271. Arthur Prest, the Minister of Communication for the Central Government of Nigeria
was scheduled to visit Warri on May 8, 1952 but had been persuaded to change plans.
5
Annual Report by the Lt. Governor on Delta Province, CS026/1185/S.1
261
Although law and order, was eventually restored to Warri, the issues that triggered the
events of 1952 remain unresolved. Warri had more disturbances; the ethnic riots of 1993
alluded to the resentment to the change of Olu’s title, and disruption of Agbarha juju dancers
at Okere enroute to their designated assembly point by unknown persons during the
Warri Idju festival of 1981. 6The crisis was to assume a wider dimension following the
eruption of yet another riot in 1997. The riot resulted from the protest organized by an Ijaw
community near Warri City to challenge the decision of Nigerian Military Government to site
the headquarters of a local government area outside its territory. The headquarters of a newly
created Warri Southwest Local Government Council was relocated, according to the Ijaws,
from Ogbe Ijaw on the southern shores of Warri River to Ogidigben in Itsekiri country on the
Escravos estuary that leads to the Atlantic Ocean. The Ijaw community accused the Itsekiri of
bad faith and of using their ‘proverbial influence’ with the government to effect the change of
the council headquarters. The disturbances quickly spread to other places including Sapele,
Koko, and a number of locations in Benin River area. A tempest was however unleashed
when the Warri residence of Chief Edwin K. Clark, a prominent Ijaw leader, was burned
down, in the early hours of March 25, 1997, allegedly by some Itsekiri youths.
7
The reaction that followed the incident at Chief Clark’s home was swift. The City of
Warri was almost immediately plunged into one of the most vicious and destructive armed
conflicts ever known in the area. Even in absence of reliable figures, hundreds of lives were
believed lost and damage to properties was extensive. In spite of her supposed non-
involvement, the Urhobo community was not spared of the atrocities generated from this
round of ethnic clashes. The Uduvwu-Urhobo community of Okere in Warri was reported
invaded on June 4, 1999, early in the day, allegedly by Itsekiri youths. The area was
devastated, again with loss of lives and massive destruction of property, including the
palace of an Urhobo traditional ruler, Orosún, the Ovie of Okere-Warri, whose
appointment the Itsekiri oppose. 8
.
Rationale and Scope of this Chapter
Some of the early works on the history of Warri Township in colonial times came from
Peter Lloyd. He provided accounts of how the Itsekiri emerged to become formidable
intermediaries in commercial activities that started with the Portuguese and progressed onto
the era of British colonial rule in western Niger Delta. In his later writings, Lloyd gave a
glimpse of how the contested Warri Township, was administered under colonial rule, in the
years prior to 1955. The Itsekiri account of their ordeal in these early times can be located
in the History of the Itsekiri published in 1936 by William Moore, an early Itsekiri
historian. Other writers like Robert Bradbury provided an ethnographic survey of Edo-
Speaking Peoples that include the Itsekiri and Urhobo nationalities of the western Niger
6
The roit of 1993 grew out of a carnival procession to mark the anniversary of the coronation of the Olu of Itsekiri. Daniel Obiomah
indicated that the riot was initiated by the Itsekiri when they attacked Thomas Essi at Igbudu for not parking his car to pave way for
the Olu’s carnival troupe to pass by. The Urhobo interpreted the procession as provocative and as one intended to affirm the over-
lordship of the Itsekiri king (personal communication).
The disturbances of April 12 and 13, 1981 were reported in Nigerian Observer, April 14, 1981
7
Tell Magazine, Number 19, May 12, 1997, pp. 8 – 14. Chief Clark’s residence along Mission Road, GRA, Warri and two of his
office buildings were attacked and burnt down, allegedly for leading the protest against the relocation of the local government
headquarters. A member of Chief Clark’s security staff, Mr. Emeka Ndukwe was killed in the attack.
8
Urhobo National Forum (UNF), Press Release, June 15, 1999: The Itsekiri Survival Movement reported that the Urhobo and Ijaw
had joined forces to attack the Itsekiri. The story gave the impression that the Urhobo and the Ijaw have teamed up against a
defenseless Itsekiri population in Warri. The impression is rather unfortunate because there was no evidence of Ijaw involvement or
presence in the June 4, 1999 attack on Okere-Urhoho, Warri.
262
Delta based on the linguistic classification that was first used by Northcote Thomas in 1910.
Obaro Ikime, one of the first local historians in recent times to study interethnic relations in
the region, centered his work on the impact of European presence on interethnic relations
particularly those of Itsekiri-Urhobo from 1884 to 1936.
However, a lot has transpired since Lloyd and others wrote about Warri Township,
particularly since Nigeria ceased to be a colonial territory. Much of the new information has
not been integrated into the discussion of issues relating to communal land rights in Warri.
For example, the implications of court judgements in Arthur Prest versus the Itsekiri Land
Communal Trust of 1970 and Idundun & Ors versus Okumagba & Ors of 1976 for the
communal land rights of the people of Agbarha Warri are yet to be fully articulated. These
landmark decisions discounted the use of the doctrine of overlordship to lay claim to
properties in private hands. That Agbarha lands belong to the Urhobo Community of
Agbarha-Warri is well documented in the various treaties of protection that colonial
authorities signed to bring the people and their land under colonial rule. Yet the evidence of
land rights provided by the treaties has not received the attention it deserves from social
scientists including historians, anthropologist and others involved in studies of ethnic
conflicts. Ikime had referred to the treaties but failed to stress the relevance of these
documents to the ethnic ownership of Warri Township. Neither Lloyd nor Moore made any
mention of Agbarha treaties but like Ikime they seemed to emphasize colonial court rulings
that were decided in favor of the Itsekiri chieftain, Dore Numa who signed the leases to
release land needed for development of the Township. It became the lot of Daniel Obiomah,
another local historian, more than any one else, to highlight the importance of the treaties,
and the political undertones involved in the colonial court decisions. The decisions while
preserving the rights of Urhobo community of Agbarha-Warri to their land nevertheless went
as far as to establish what many regard as unfair imposition of a political doctrine dubbed as
the over-lordship or the sovereignty of the Itsekiri King over lands in Warri. Although the
exercise of the over-lordship has been severely curtailed, the effect of such curtailment has
not resulted in any meaningful rearrangement of the political landscape to reflect the current
realities in the City of Warri. The lack of political muscle to effect required changes to
improve the fortunes of people affected, represents an enduring aspect of the legacy of
colonialism that deserves to be studied. Much of what has been put out in recent times, lacks
coherence as the writings tend to concentrate on some aspects of the issues and not on the
others. For example any investigation of communal land rights with accruing benefits in
Warri Township that depended solely on colonial court decisions and failed to give due
consideration to the place of treaties in the political history of the region would have been
incomplete. Such partial assessment more often than not has the effect of confusing the issues
rather than clarifying them almost to the point of misplacing the real reasons why ethnic
conflicts seem to be particularly virulent in the region. Yet a unified approach that looks at all
aspects of the issues is what is needed to highlight the uniqueness of the Warri situation in the
study of ethnic conflicts among many others in the world.
The ethnic conflict in Warri revolves around three main issues, namely the communal
ethnic ownership of Warri Township, the title of Olu, the Itsekiri king and the electoral
process in the City. The treaties appear to reveal the duplicity of colonial authorities in their
land dealings with the indigenous people of the area when the authorities chose to ignore the
9
very instrument that they used to bring the people and their land under colonial rule.
9
J.O.S. Ayomike protested the publication of the Agbassa Treaties in htp://www.wtaado.org., which he labeled as forgeries and
therefore objected to their use as valid proof of ethnic ownership of Warri Township. He seemed to have confused the Agbarha
treaties with Ijaw treaties that were negotiated and signed by Flint or MacTaggart, on behalf of the Royal Niger Company. The
Agbarha treaties on the other hand were signed on behalf of the Niger Delta Protectorate by Cuthbert Harrison, Vice Consul Warri
Vice Consulate and endorsed by Henry L. Galleway, Deputy Commissioner and Consul General. They were subsequently
263
What follows in this chapter is a discussion of the three issues using facts that relate to the
kinds of material evidence that could support or discredit the conclusions reached from the
treaties and court decisions. The facts that one could consider pertinent to this investigation
include the following:
x The authority of Dore Numa and Ogbe Yonwuren, both Itsekiri chieftains
employed by colonial authorities to sign on behalf of the “Chiefs and the people of
Warri” leases that released land to their employers. Who were the people of Warri
that Dore Numa and his associate represented?
x Since neither Dore Numa nor Ogbe Yonwuren was resident in the area at the time
of the leases, one would want to know the origin of the sovereignty of the Olu over
lands in Warri Township, that Dore claimed provided him the authority to sign the
leases.
x The place name Warri itself has been used to designate different political entities
and places at different times in history, a situation that leads one to question the
appropriateness or the legitimacy of associating the name with title of the Itsekiri
king especially for an area where non-Itsekiri also live. What would be the
historical basis for changing the title from the Olu of Itsekiri to the ‘Olu of Warri’?
x Another question to ask is how does any group of non-resident people beside those
whose ancestors had occupied and worked on supposedly freehold farmlands
become joint owners of a township built on such lands?
x The effect of colonial court decisions, which seemed to have legitimized the
Itsekiri claims to communal ownership of the contested lands. However, many of
the decisions reached in post-colonial courts, appear to have raised doubts about
this legitimacy. The courts have removed the suzerainty of the Olu over private
lands in Warri and western Niger Delta and limited the same only to lands that are
communal and Itsekiri owned. It would therefore be pertinent to know why such
court rulings that ought to have changed the political landscape in the region have
10
not been applied to the contested lands of Warri Township.
In order to address the issues raised about communal land rights in Warri, this chapter
will attempt an overall view of certain developments in the history of the region, from the
onset of legitimate trade through colonial occupation and into independence from Great
Britain. It will devote most of its attention to the more obvious effects of colonial rule: the
surrender of traditional authority brought about by the signing of treaties of ‘protection’, the
illegal use and distribution of communal land, the rise of privileges for certain groups of
people to the detriment of others and the enduring legacy of colonial rule that continues to
haunt the people of Warri. This chapter thus represents an attempt to examine certain events
and social changes wrought on the life of the people by colonialism defined loosely as a
policy whereby a political power requires or retains control over people in territories other
forwarded to the Foreign Office, London as inclosure No. 46 of November 30, 1894 by Claude MacDonald, Commissioner and
Consul General stationed at Her Majesty Consul General Offices, Old Calabar (Daniel Obiomah’s Warri Crisis: A Rejoinder to
Itsekiri Leaders, Itsekiri Leaders Forum, Concerned Itsekiri Youths, Vanguard, October 1, 2003 and October 10, 2003).
10
The contested lands were leased to colonial authorities in 1906, 1908 and 1911 and are referred to as B2, B5, and B7 in colonial
records. These lands were part of lands recognized by colonial authorities in the series of treaties they signed between 1883 and
1893 with Agbarha people of Warri. The lands are believed to lie within the territories of two of Agbarha villages of Igbudu and
Otovwodo-Agbarha. Agbarha was a homogenous community made up of seven villages namely Edjeba, Igbudu, Ogunnu, Okorode,
Otovwodo on the mainland, and Oteghele and Ukpokiti in the riverine areas ( Memorandum of Agbarha Clan, Warri South Local
Government Area To The Warri Judiciary Commission of Enquiry Into The Riots in Warri in May 1993, p.33)
264
than its own. 11The overriding theme of this chapter thus emerges and runs as follows: That
the dispute over land rights in Warri Township originated from a process of acculturation
between Europeans and different sociocultural groups meeting, influencing one another, and
then with economic development, drawn into an overreaching political order based primarily
on commercial interests and hardly on territorial political considerations.
British Colonialism and Its Effect on Inter-ethnic Relations
When British traders arrived at the coastal areas of western Niger Delta, they found
market-oriented trade systems – slaves, palm oil, etc already in place. Here it was therefore
relatively easy for them to encourage the production of existing or new products for exports.
As indicated in Pereira’s diaries, much of early trade in the area, involved Ijaw and the inland
Urhobo whom Portuguese traders met and engaged in business during the later parts of the
th
15 century long before the formation of Itsekiri nationality. However, Urhobo
participation in direct trade with Europeans faded with the passing of time and was to be
supplanted by fresh efforts from an emerging Itsekiri group that had come into existence
under the guidance of the Portuguese. By the time British traders arrived in the 18 thcentury,
the Itsekiri had attained prominence as traders in the coastal areas, so much that they had no
difficulty responding to British commercial interests. It would therefore not be surprising to
note that the British who introduced colonialism in western Niger Delta, found the
engagement of the Itsekiri appealing, not only for Itsekiri expertise in business but also for
the proximity of the new Itsekiri country to the Atlantic Ocean, a major sea route for
international trade. As Ikime inferred, the British like other early European traders, were
anxious to go to places not only where trade was already developed, but also to areas where
12
some political authority existed to help regulate trade.
The Scramble for Territorial Rights and

Emergence of the Itsekiri as Middlemen Traders
The Scramble for Africa that resulted from imperial ambitions of European countries
was largely responsible for British decision to establish a stronghold in western Niger Delta
to protect their interests in the area. With the abolition of overseas slave trade in 1807, British
traders became interested in its replacement of legitimate trade in palm oil, and later rubber
and timber. Britain however moved cautiously in spite of calls by traders for assistance to
protect legitimate trade and maintain peace, and from missionaries to help stamp out slavery
and other “barbarous practices associated with indigenous religions. The British were
reluctant to establish colonies, which they regarded as expensive liabilities. They were not
prepared to go beyond posting a few consular officials from the Foreign Office to help
supervise the increasing amount of trade in the Bights of Benin and Biafra. Britain’s restraint
on colonial ambitions however ended when it became clear to her government that rival
European powers especially France and Germany had scurried around to develop overseas
markets and annex territories in Africa. This clash of imperial ambitions ultimately led to the
Berlin Conference of 1885 where various European powers assembled and attempted to
resolve their conflicts of interests by allocating areas in Africa for exploitation. Although her
claim of influence over the Niger basin was recognized as would be shown later, the British
Government came to believe that only effective occupation could guarantee full international
recognition of such claims.
11
Hilda Kuper’s Colour, Categories and Colonialism: The Swazi Case in Colonialism in Africa, 1870-1960, p.286.
12
Obaro Ikime, The Peoples and Kingdoms of the Delta Province, in Groundwork of Nigerian History, p. 102.
265
Prior to the decision to establish colony in the Niger Basin, the Dutch and the English
traders, who took over from the Portuguese by 1800, had considered the Escravos and the
Forcados rivers and much of the creeks in the area, to be un-navigable for ocean schooners.
The Europeans chose to anchor their ships in the lower reaches of the Benin River estuary,
outside the treacherous bar. By late eighteenth century and the first half of nineteenth
century, Ode-Itsekiri had started to lose its commercial appeal and people began moving
away to the lower Benin River in order to maintain contact with European traders. Ikime
listed Bobi, Jakpa, Batere and Ebrohimi as among Itsekiri settlements that were founded in
13
Benin River in the nineteenth century, as a result of the migration from Ode-Itsekiri. TheItsekiri
who had migrated to Benin River, to be close to European traders emerged as middlemen
between the traders and the more distant suppliers of trade goods, the Urhobo. By the end
of 1840s, warehouses were built by English firms at Horsfall near Bobi and at Harrison
near Jakpa, all in Benin River. The building of these facilities marked the beginning of a
14
new era of trade for the Itsekiri. The trade created new problems that called
for new ways of organization, including a new kind of relationship between the European
traders and the people of the delta.
The decline in trade in Ode-Itsekiri and the movement from the capital also meant the
loss of revenue to maintain the Itsekiri royal establishment. The decline in the wealth of the
Itsekiri kingdom was blamed largely for the collapse of political order and the long
interregnum that followed the death of Olu Akengbuwa in 1848. The traditional chieftaincy
system was severely weakened and an officer known as Governor of Benin River emerged as
the only one who could exercise some form of control over certain aspects of Itsekiri affairs.
According to Ikime (1976:16), the Governor of the River in normal times was the Olu’s chief
trading agent and collector of comey, custom fees from trading vessels. Because trade was
the main source of wealth and power in the kingdom, the office of the Governor had become
quite influential and more so during the interregnum. During the interregnum, the Europeans
looked up to the Governor to maintain law and order in the region, and to ensure that trade
flowed uninterrupted. The Itsekiri on their part relied on the Governor to protect their
interests against European traders.
A look at those who held the office of the Governor of Benin River after the death of
Akengbuwa in 1848 will indicate that they were all rich and powerful men. Governor Idiare
from the Ologbotsere family was already wealthy before his appointment by Itsekiri elders
in 1851. Tsanomi from the royal family, who became Governor in 1870, was also a wealthy
trader. It would seem as Ikime suggested that the governorship was rotated between the
15 th
heads of the two trading houses. The nature of Itsekiri society in the middle of the 19
century however was such that matters of trade degenerated in no time into competition and
rivalry between the trading families. The collection and distribution of comey during and
after the reign of Olu Akengbuwa devolved into corruption and distrust within the ranks of
the Itsekiri Establishment. John Beecroft who was appointed in 1849 as the British Consul
for the Bights of Benin and Biafra was nevertheless able to negotiate and sign a treaty with
Chief Idiare, along with Idibofun, Olomu (Nana’s father), and a host of other Itsekiri elders
in 1851 to protect trade in the area. 16Nana Olomu, the last of the governors, was later to be
removed from office by colonial authorities in 1894 for restricting access to free trade when
he acted to protect Itsekiri commercial interests as middlemen traders.
13
Obaro Ikime, Niger Delta Rivalry, p. 35.
14
Peter C. Lloyd, The Itsekiri in the Nineteenth Century, Journal of African History, IV, 2 (1963), p. 214
15
For a discussion of the Governorships of Benin River, see J. O. E. Sagay, The Warri Kingdom, Chapters 6 and 7
16
F. O. 84/858, Beecroft to Palmerstom on March 20 and April 19, 1851.
266
British Treaties of ‘Protection’
The initial stages of colonialism included efforts to persuade indigenous host

communities to sign treaties of protection with the British crown. The British Government
needed the treaties in order to demonstrate to other European countries and the world that the
Niger Delta area lay within its area of influence. The British signed the treaties with people
they recognized as those who had legitimate ties to the land based on the prevailing belief
that permanent rights to communal land were traditionally controlled by groups indigenous to
the area. The treaties thus remain the most significant piece of evidence that identifies
communities as indigenous owners of their lands.
Consul Hewett and his team went on a treaty-signing trip across the Niger Delta, in late
1880s and early 1890s, searching for indigenous people to work with. They were able to
secure many treaties of protection, first with the Itsekiri of Benin River, for example on July
16, 1884 and again on August 2, 1894. In between, the British also signed treaties with
various Urhobo communities in Warri namely Edjeba, (March 7, 1893), Agbassa (March 14,
1893), Obodoodoo or Igbudu (March 30, 1893), and Ogunu (March 30, 1893). The Urhobo
communities contend that the contested lands used for building Warri Township were carved
out of Igbudu and Agbassa, now referred to as traditional headquarters or Otovwodo to
distinguish it from other Agbarha communities. A similar type of treaty was also signed on
March 20, 1893 with the Ijaw community of Oturbo (Ogbe-Ijaw) located on the south shores
of Warri River. The treaties recognized the extent of lands owned by Ijaw community of
17
Ogbe-Ijaw near Warri, Itsekiri and Urhobo communities in the region. The territory
covered by the Itsekiri treaty of 1884 was later extended to include Ijaw areas of Burutu,
Forcados and its environs. The Ijaw residents in this region were said to have
acknowledged themselves to be under Nana. When Nana later discovered that two
communities in the area, Burutu and ‘Goolah’ signed another set of treaties with Royal
Niger Company, he protested to colonial authorities. Consul Hewitt sided with Nana
arguing that letting Royal Niger Company to occupy the Forcados area would cripple trade
since Forcados afforded the best entry point for ships coming into the region. The Consul
declared the treaties invalid because ‘the native signatories thereto had no power to enter
18
into them they being subjects of Nana. Consequently, the communities were ordered to
surrender the treaties to Nana. Another point worth noting is that the word ‘kings’ was
crossed out as inapplicable in the forms on which the Itsekiri treaties were printed and
signed. 19The elimination of inapplicable terms from such important documents as the
treaties were regarded, would seem to suggest that the traditional authority in Itsekiri country
did not reside in a king at the time the treaties were signed.
The non-inclusion of Warri Township as part of Itsekiri country and the absence of
Itsekiri king or his representative from among those who signed the treaties raise questions
about Itsekiri’s claim of ethnic ownership of the City. The treaty of 1884 identified the
Itsekiri geographically only as people of Benin River. This form of identification seems to
explain why Itsekiri leaders of the era, like Nana Olomu and his predecessors in office were
characterized as Governors of Benin River. Some among the Itsekiri had worried that the
17
Contrary to claims that the Agbarha treaties were forged, the treaties were dispatched by Claud Macdonald, High Commissioner
and Consul General with a cover note: [ I have the honour] to forward herewith the originals of treaties made at various times with
certain tribes of the Protectorate . Among the treaties sent were those signed with Asagba Sobo country, Oturbo Ejoh and Saba Ejo
in inclosures nos. 1, 5, 6, and 10 respectively
18
F.O. 84/1881, Hewett to F.O., No. 34, 10 November 1888 as cited by Ikime in Niger Delta Rivalry, p.93
19
The complete text of the treaties are displayed in http://www.waado.org/UrhoboHistory/BritishColonialRule/
ColonialTraties.html
267
treaty unfairly minimized the size of their country and so pressed upon colonial authorities to
adjust the treaty to reflect a more accurate description of their territories. The adjustment was
subsequently made in an addendum that described the full extent of Itsekiri country at that
time to include both banks of the Escravos River in addition to banks of Benin River. Major
Claude Macdonald who visited the area as a special commissioner to investigate complaints
made against the Royal Niger Company, took the opportunity to revisit the Forcados
question. After talking to the Ijaws, he concluded after careful consideration: ‘I cannot see
that Nana and his advocates had made out a case with regard to Burutu and Goolah’. The
20
Ijaws at Burutu and Goolah had told the commissioner that Nana was a
friend not their overlord. The treaty of 1894, which was more or less a ratification of that of
1884 remedied the situation, and was broadly made to read as ‘Treaty with Chiefs of Benin
River and Jekri Country [both banks of Escravos River]’. The leaders of the Itsekiri
community at the time treaties were signed, obviously did not ask for Warri Township nor
the Ijaw communities to be included as part of their territories in the 1894 treaty. Neither did
colonial authorities see any need to adjust Itsekiri country to include Ijaw communities nor
any area on the mainland including the township then under construction.
Consolidation of Colonial Rule in Western Niger Delta
As parts of efforts to consolidate her grip on the Niger basin, Britain entered into series
of protection treaties with different communities including those with the Itsekiri and Urhobo
both in Warri District and Urhobo Country. They signed treaties with Lagos in 1851, the
people of Opobo and Asaba in 1884, the same year as that with the Itsekiri. Endowed with
these four treaties acquired in 1851 and 1884, the British were able to persuade the Berlin
21
Conference of 1885 to recognize British claims to the Niger Basin.
With the acknowledgement of the Conference secured, Britain moved quickly in June of
1885 to declare all of the coastal area, over which Consul Hewett had been exercising limited
powers as the Oil Rivers Protectorate. In 1886, Britain also granted a trading company,
United Africa Company founded by George Goldie in 1879 as the Royal Niger Company, a
royal charter, which empowered the company “to administer, make treaties, levy customs
22
and trade in all territories in the basin of the Niger and its affluents.” Armed
with this mandate, company agents fanned into area, signing literally hundreds of treaties on
behalf of the British crown with various indigenous communities in Nigeria and establishing
a firm monopoly over all trade in the western Niger Delta area in 1880s and 1890s.
The new disposition did not however please Itsekiri traders who resented the
competition brought about by direct trading relations that the Royal Niger Company had
established with Urhobo and the Ijaw. Nana Olomu, Governor of Benin River had stopped
trade briefly with Europeans in 1886 to protest low prices. Now with the expansion of the
activities of the Royal Niger Company into Urhobo hinterland, the Itsekiri began to lose their
trade to the company. Urhobo before the era of Royal Niger Company, sold palm oil, palm
kernel and other farm produce which they produced, to the Itsekiri who in turn retailed the
goods to Europeans. The breaching of Itsekiri monopoly brought a lot of resentment and
20
F. O. 84/2109, Macdonald’s Report: Chapter III-The Forcados Question as cited in Ikime: Niger Delta Rivalry, p. 93.
21
George Goldie was brought in during the negotiations at the Berlin Conference of 1885, as an expert on matters relating to Niger
basin. At the conference, he declared that on the lower Niger, the British flag alone flew. French traders encouraged by Leon
Gamabetta had established themselves on the lower river and made it difficult for othes to obtain territorial rights in the area. The
Frenchmen were bought out in 1884, thus clearing the way for the British to sucessfully negotiate for full control of the area
(http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ George_Taubman_George)
22
James S. Coleman: Nigeria: Background to Nationalism, University of California Press, 1971, p. 41
268
complaints to the British Government by the Itsekiri who felt that the Royal Niger Company
was threatening their source of wealth and livelihood. Similar complaints came from other
parts of the delta and from rival European traders who had operated in Benin River with little
or no competition. The Itsekiri traders were anxious to retain their role as middlemen. They
had demanded the deletion of clauses in the Treaty of 1884 that provided for Christian
activities within the Itsekiri country and the right of European traders to trade freely in the
area. The offending clauses were accordingly struck out before Nana, who was then Governor
of Benin River, and other Itsekiri trader-elders signed the treaty. They probably foresaw that
freedom of European traders to move into the hinterland whenever they chose if unchecked
could eventually erode the advantage of their middleman roles.
The British Foreign Office in reaction to complaints from traders in the Niger Delta,
sent Major Claude MacDonald as a special commissioner in 1889 to ascertain not only how
best to administer the Oil Rivers Protectorate but also to seek some accommodation with the
Royal Niger Company on how to conduct business in the area. MacDonald’s findings led to
the reorganization of the Oil Rivers Protectorate into what became Niger Coast Protectorate
in 1891. The authority of the Protectorate had by the later part of 1893, been expanded to
include control of newly acquired territories in the south and as far north as Lokoja, the
headquarters of the Royal Niger Company. The new territories included Urhobo
communities in Urhobo hinterland and Agbarha-Warri, whose leaders had signed treaties
with colonial authorities in March of 1893. The British were no longer satisfied with leaving
the affairs of the Niger Delta to one consul to manage. Consul Beecroft who was stationed in
Fernado Po and later Calabar had difficulties administering a large area that spanned from the
Cameroons to Forcados.
The new arrangement expanded the bureaucracy from one officer, a consul to a group
consisting of a Commissioner, a Consul General and a team of some six vice-consuls, and
other officials. 23The newly established consulates, included one at what was called New
Warri or Warri Township on a segment of River Forcados known as Warri River, another at a
point along the Benin River and a third at Sapele on the Ethiope River. The consulates were
charged with the responsibility of putting into effect the desire of the British Administration
to advance into Niger Delta hinterland behind the coastal belt to reach palm oil-producing
centers of Urhoboland in spite of opposition from Itsekiri traders. The Royal Niger Company
was at this point, deemed insufficient as an instrument of imperialism and consequently
Britain had to revoke its charter on December 31, 1899. The Protectorate subsequently took
control of all territories in the Niger Basin that were under the jurisdiction of the company.
Lugardian System of Indirect Rule and

the Rise of Jurisdictional Rights and Privileges under Colonialism
Colonial authorities after declaring the Niger basin a British protectorate began in
earnest to experiment with the idea of indirect rule. The eventual implementation of the idea
as a system of governance led to the granting of special rights and privileges to certain
groups of people to the detriment of others in the area. Major Claude MacDonald, then a
High Commissioner and Consul-General, and his team of vice consuls including Sir Ralph
Moor and Colonel Henry Galleway were among the 19 thcentury exponents and operators of
indirect rule in southern Nigeria before the appointment of Frederick Lugard in 1900. (See
th
Tamuno, British Colonial Administration in Nigeria in the 20 Century in Groundwork of
Nigerian History , p.399). Lugard however, came to be credited for rationalizing and
23
Obaro Ikime, Chief Dogho of Warri, p. 21.
269
popularizing the idea. The administrators must have impressed upon the British
Government the advantages of working through chiefs and other traditional authorities, and
in upholding aspects of African institutions that were helpful for trading activities.
In his book, The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa (London, 1922), Lugard
tried to pull together various ideas into a comprehensive theory of colonial policy for the
administration of British colonies in Africa. Lugard based his treatise on the concept of the
‘dual mandate’ that called for two sets of responsibilities: One was to promote and develop
economic resources in Africa for the British industry and to secure African market for British
goods. The other was to bring about progress and enlightenment to Africa by promoting the
welfare and the advancement of her people. Indirect rule as an administrative policy based on
the concept of dual mandate, however began according to Lloyd only as an expedient that
became necessary as there were too few British officials willing to work in West Africa.
Traditional rulers, chiefs and other locals had to be brought in to help make up
for the deficiency. 24As Tamuno noted ( Groundwork of Nigerian History, p.397 ), the coast
of West Africa and its adjoining areas were associated with debilitating ‘fevers’ which had
no effective remedies until the discovery and application of quinine at the end of the 19 th
century. West Africa had been regarded up to the 19thcentury as the white man’s grave.
As Wallace Mills inferred, the system of indirect rule embodied a conservative outlook
and ethos that suited many British officials who came from aristocratic and gentry
background. 25The system seemed to fit the paternalist tradition of English conservatism,
which stressed leadership and the dominance of hereditary propertied classes. To early
colonial officials, retaining and using local elite and elements was attractive in the belief that
order and stability could only be maintained by stressing continuity and by avoiding massive
disruptions and changes. To maintain the authority of traditional rulers as Lloyd (1974:61)
stressed, customary modes of appointment had to be overtly protected. The emphasis on the
use of traditional authorities however did not deter officials from the liberty to install favored
candidates when they felt compelled by economic or political considerations to do so.
Political boundaries existing at the start of colonial rule, often in fluid state had to be ossified
to serve as modern administrative units ostensibly to coincide with supposed traditional
realities.
However, the idea that the system of Indirect Rule would support traditional authorities
and preserve traditional institution was not always realized in practice. New and largely
unregulated economic forces disrupted many of the traditional institutions. Besides, indirect
rule as a system of governance, presupposed a substantial degree of totalitarianism or a
complete control by government over all forces of change in ways that guaranteed not the
interests of colonized people but those of imperial masters. In an era in which the British
were preoccupied with trade and its regulation, it would be easy to understand why they
chose to rely initially on the Itsekiri’s middleman-roles to promote their commercial interests
in the area. Itsekiri traders had in early parts of the nineteenth century before the advent of
colonialism, had moved up and established trading posts along rivers in Urhobo country. The
traders were able to buy farm produce, essentially palm oil and palm kernel from Urhobo
farmers in these markets; transporting goods so acquired to Benin River for resale to
European traders.
However, in the 20thcentury, when British Administrative officials opened up Urhobo
country for free trade, many Itsekiri were displaced from their middleman roles. Colonial
24
Lugard’s idea of indirect rule in Nigeria was his way of implementing the Dual Mandate, a principle enunciated at the 1885 Berlin
Conference. The conferees felt that the best interests of Europe and Africa would best be served by maintaining free access to the
continent for trade and by providing Africa with the benefits of Europe’s civilizing mission (http://countrystudies.us/nigeria/15.htm)
25
Wallace G. Mills: British Colonial Policies, Hist. 317 Notes http://huskyl.stmarys.ca/~wmills/course317/ 3brit_policies.html
270
authorities had to create new roles for them as guides, messengers and interpreters, and later
as political agents, warrant chiefs, clerks etc. Individuals like Dore Numa and a host of
warrant chiefs were among the first set of Itsekiri traders in middleman roles selected to
assist in the administration of the newly created Niger Coast Protectorate. Dore Numa came
to the notice of colonial administrators as early 1891 when he provided men to help convey
Colonel Galleway then the Vice-consul of Benin River District in a journey by canoe through
26
the creeks to Lagos. Dore Numa, an Itsekiri from Batere in Itsekiri country,
George Eyube, an Urhobo from Ugbogidi near Agbarho in Urhoboland and Tom Fallodun, a
Yoruba man from Ekiti were appointed political agents sometime between 1893 and 1896.
27
According to Adogbeji Salubi (1957), Dore Numa was in charge of Sapele District
covering Itsekiri country and some 94 towns and villages in Urhoboland. Eleven warrant
chiefs, six of which were Urhobo, were appointed to assist Dore Numa in the Sapele District.
A number of other Itsekiri including 16 warrant chiefs headed by Ogbe Yonwuren, an Itsekiri
from Ugbuwangue, were appointed to Warri Native Court that served a number of Itsekiri
and Urhobo communities in the region. George Eyube’s appointment was for Warri District
that included all of the area under the jurisdiction of native courts headed by Ogbe
Yonwuren. When George Eyube died in 1901, one Egbe, another Itsekiri from Ugbuwangue,
replaced him. Tom Fallodun’s service areas included Abraka and Agbon clans. However the
expansion of the native court system that began in 1900 had by 1902, 41 members most of
whom were Itsekiri. The number of Urhobo warrant chiefs on the bench remained at six.
Dore Numa himself later became the Chief Political Agent for Sapele and Warri Districts and
the de-facto head of all warrant chiefs in the court system.
The duo of Dore Numa and Ogbe Yonwuren were to become the facilitators of
colonial land deals that have since thrown the ethnic ownership of Warri Township into
dispute. They signed leases in 1906, 1908 and 1911 on “behalf of the chiefs and the people
of Warri” to release parcels of farmland to the Colonial Government for ninety-nine years. In
1908, 510 acres of land of Sapele land was also released to colonial authorities on a lease
signed by Dore Numa “acting for on and on behalf of the Chiefs and people of Sapele”. The
British, anxious to reorganize the area into functional administrative units, needed land on
which to build administrative offices and residence for colonial officers. As Ikime inferred,
the influence of Dore Numa was so great at the time of the transactions that no one
28
questioned his rights to sign the leases. In later years, however, reactions to the way the
leases were handled, culminated in a series of court actions. The suits were filed as will be
shown later, first to challenge the right of Dore to sign the leases and then to resolve the
issue of the land ownership or title to the parcel of lands involved.
Besides using Dore Numa and Ogbe Yonwuren as surrogates to acquire land on
favorable terms, colonial authorities also decided to intensify the training of young Itsekiri
for positions in the colonial administration. As early as 1900, Sir Ralph Moor, the High
Commissioner, asked a number of Itsekiri Chiefs to bring a son each for education at the
26
H. L. Galleway: “Journeys in the Benin Country”, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society , Vol 1, 1893, p. 124 as cited in
Obaro Ikime, Chief Dogho of Warri, p. 21
27
Dore Numa at the time of appointment founded a village called Odegene from which he communed to work in Warri Township
(Personal communications with Daniel Obiomah)
28
The evidence in Ogegede versus Dore Numa, and Ometan versus Dore Numa indicated otherwise. While Ogegede testified that he
was too frightened to confront colonial authorities , Ometan said he confronted Dore Numa.and the Resident when he observed that
his people were being prevented from building on their land. Between 1913 and 1915, Saturino Wilkey who leased land from
Agbarha people wrote series of letters to protest Government’s enchroament on his land.(see Obiomah’s Warri, Lands, Overlord
and Land Rights , and Memorandum of Agbarha Clan to the Warri Judicial Commission of Enquiry into the Riots in Warri in May,
1993, p.30)
271
Ogungunmanga Government School, Bonny. 29 When Government School was opened in

Warri and Sapele in 1903 and 1904 respectively, majority of the students were Itsekiri. The
missionary schools, Saint Luke CMS School, Sapele opened in 1902 followed by Saint
Andrew CMS School, Warri in 1903, were also used to serve the educational needs of the
Itsekiri. 30These schools provided the early crops of graduates that served as interpreters,
court clerks, bailiffs, tax collectors and a host of other positions in the colonial
administration.
In contrast to opportunities opened to the Itsekiri for education and jobs in colonial
administration, there was no meaningful education in Urhobo hinterland, outside of Sapele
and Warri. Urhobo were in no position, even as late as 1927, to compete for jobs that require
31
western education. The predominance of Itsekiri in colonial administration was
further enhanced by the position of Dore Numa as a paramount chief for Sapele and Warri
Districts. He used his authority to nominate warrant chiefs, most of which were Itsekiri, for
appointments in native courts in many areas of western Niger Delta. The native courts in
Urhoboland for example, were packed with Itsekiri chiefs thus supplanting traditional
authorities in Urhobo. This manner of appointment was probably why the Native Court
established at Abraka to serve Urhobo settlements, had by 1896, no Urhobo on a bench
which sat fifteen Itsekiri and one Ijaw. The hand over notes prepared by Mr. H. G. Aveling,
District Officer, Warri Division, in 1922 identified only one Urhobo, and seven Itsekiri
32
among the seventeen clerks who were serving in Itsekiri and Urhoboland. As colonized
elite, these chiefs and other colonial appointees were endowed with rights and privileges that
were not available to others in the region.
Rise of Ethnicity and Abuse of Privileges
Although only a handful of Itsekiri were working in the colonial administration, the
prestige that accompanied such privilege as Lloyd (1974) observed, went to the entire group.
Many among the privileged civil servants more often than not, took advantage of their
positions in colonial administration to exploit state resources for personal gains and to satisfy
primordial interests. In this conflict, individuals as demonstrated by Dore Numa’s preference
for recruiting workers for government jobs from his Itsekiri ethnic base, tend to fight to
expand their ethnic sphere of influence in order to control and dominate the state and use its
resources for the benefits of their primordial group. This manner of preferential treatment of
one group over another thus seems to encourage the use of ethnicity as a ready tool for
settling scores in "conflict between segments of the African bourgeoisie regarding the
proportionate share of the resources of the civic public to differentiated primordial public”.
33
Both the Ijaw and Urhobo in their subordinate roles were thus put at disadvantage 29
in the interethnic struggle for political and economic supremacy that colonialism had
William Moore, History of Itsekiri, p. 112. As Peter C. Lloyd also indicated, Sir Ralph Moore’s efforts seemed to be a follow-up
of earlier attempts by Bishop Samuel Crowther, sometime between 1872 and 1874, to convince Olomu (Nana’s father) about the
idea of opening a school in the area (The Itsekiri in the Nineteenth Century, Journal of African History, IV, 2 (1963), p.223)
30
Obaro Ikime, Niger Delta Rivalry, p. 203
31
Daniel Obiomah questioned the assertion and indicated that there were Urhobo teachers by 1927. He cited the examples of
pioneers like Efekodo, and Otuedo, both Urhobo from Ughelli, Okwagbe, an Urhobo from Uvwie, and Okene, another Urhobo
believed to be from Abraka who came in as trained teachers on the staff of Catholic School, Warri, in 1933. There were others before
them (personal communication).
32
Ughelle Papers, file 33/1922, Handling Over Notes, Warri Division: H. G. Aveling (D. O.) to H. B. Butler (D. O.), 18 November
1922, cited by Obaro Ikime, Niger Delta Rivalry, p. 204. Ikime also indicated that the inequality in educational opportunity seemed
to have evaporated by 1936. Government School Warri had 157 Urhobo and 155 Itsekiri students out of a total of 389 in 1936 (C. S.
O. 26, File 09098, Vol. X, Chief Commissioner’s Inspection Notes, Warri Province, 1936, p. 9)
33
Peter Ekeh: Colonialism and Two Publics, p. 109.
272
created and foisted on them.

While many may express concern for primordial interests as a major part of the
disruptive legacy of colonialism, they seem to undermine the role of personal interests and
other factors that Weber emphasized in his ascriptive approach to ethnicity in civil rule. Most
cases of embezzlement, bribery, fraud and influence peddling obviously more in recent times
than they were during Dore Numa’s era of office, have proven to be projects aimed at
personal gratification rather than catering for primordial interests. The role of ethnicity in the
primordial sense only seems to serve as a ‘mask’ for obscuring the real intention of those
with access to power. Many have used their position to amass wealth for themselves. A
number of Itsekiri court officials including government appointed warrant chiefs who served
in Urhoboland were considered corrupt and oppressive. As Mr. Stubbs, District Officer for
Warri observed, Itsekiri warrant chiefs did not appear to see anything wrong in using their
positions to intimidate the few Urhobo counterparts in the Native Court system
(C229/14-CSE 5/9/28). The Itsekiri were also known to have intimidated Ijaw and inland
Urhobo during trade contacts. The Itsekiri maintained their power and influence in the area
by use of superior arms, most of which were acquired from European traders. Obiomah cited
a letter written on February 5, 1913 by Colonel H. C. Moorehouse, to complain about acts of
intimidation by some Itsekiri. The Colonel called on the Colonial
Secretary to note that “ For some months past there has been reason to believe that an
organized blackmailing gang of Jekris was at work amongst Sobos in the Warri District
and that DODO OAGBE, one of the sons of Chief Oagbe was at the head of
the gang …” Dodo was said to be going about exploiting his father’s high position in the
government to exhort money from innocent Urhobo individuals that came his way.
Dore Numa was also reported to have used his position for personal gain and to
oppress people. Ikime (1974: 300-302) cited a number of instances to prove this point. Dore
Numa kept the rent paid on the land that he and Ogbe Yonwuren leased to the government on
behalf of the ‘people of Warri’. He thus made himself a landlord. When challenged by other
Itsekiri, the descendants of Olu Akengbuwa, the court ruled that Dore as the paramount chief
had the right to handle matters dealing with land as he saw fit. It also was revealed in the
1920s that Dore had appropriated subsidies due to other Itsekiri families. The government
paid subsidies to families that used to derive income from ‘comey’ which the government
abolished when custom duties on imports was introduced in 1891. In 1926 Awala,
representing one of the families affected, petitioned the Resident for restitution but was
ignored. In 1920 Dore Numa suspended an Ijaw warrant chief without just cause from his job
at the Patani Native court. He also forced other Ijaw chiefs of Frukama to provide him
building materials for personal use. As president of two courts, he was said to have
disregarded evidence when biased in favor of a party to the suit. Although there was room for
appeal against Dore’s decisions, many let matters slide rather than challenge them for fear of
retribution. As Ikime (1970:301) noted, these abuses of power could have earned lesser
chiefs in Warri Province dismissal or even imprisonment.
Ikime (1968:193) highlighted British’s tolerance for abuse of power by favorites in
his comparison of British attitude towards Nana and Dore: … In 1894, Administrative
Officers seemed to have listened avidly to Nana's misuse of his power and position. In
the 1920s and 1930s, the British Administration shut their eyes to the glaring instances
of abuse of power by Dogho. Well, they might. Nana was an African nationalist who
refused to yield to British imperialist ambition and so had to be broken. Dogho was a
British lackey whose position and authority had to be upheld. The British's preference
for him, nonetheless explains why Dore Numa, in his lifetime, did not lose any of the
lawsuits brought against him by the Itsekiri and the Urhobo in Warri for abuse of power and
other acts of illegality. The courts upheld all the prerogatives conferred by the British on
273
Dore Numa, their protégé or surrogate, no matter how serious his offenses were. Dore
Numa’s power like those granted to emirs in Fulani emirates in Northern Nigeria, was
buttressed and maintained by colonial authorities; such elite could act more selfishly and
corruptly than otherwise; without colonial sanction, they would have always been constrained
by the dangers of revolt from the people.
Acquisition of Land in Warri: Use of Dore Numa as a Surrogate
Colonial authorities before the decision to acquire land for development could not be
unaware of how land was distributed between the various ethnic groups in the region. When
they came into the region, they recognized that permanent rights to land were under the
control of the groups indigenous to the area. The recognition of such rights led them to sign
treaties with indigenous people in various territories in return for the rights to operate in the
region. The treaties as indicated earlier clearly identified the various groups with the areas
under their control. By 1891 as Ikime (1969:254) noted, the authorities had prepared maps to
describe various settlements in the region. It is also likely that they had plans made for the
area they wanted to develop and could have approached the communities involved if they
thought it was in their best interest to do so. Ikime (1969:255) also speculated that a number
of Itsekiri had moved into the area of Warri Township in the nineteenth century to be close to
European traders who were relocating from the Itsekiri capital of Ode-Itsekiri to the site of
the consulate that was being built. He concluded from these types of migrations that Warri
Township grew from a collection of Ijaw, Itsekiri and Urhobo settlements that were separated
from one another by stretches of unoccupied land. No one, he added, raised questions about
title to land until the British arrived and decided to acquire land. One could also speculate
that given a supposed fluid state in which people move in and out of an area, it may not have
been possible as Lloyd (1974:242) inferred, to establish clear ethnic boundaries.
The views expressed by Ikime and Lloyd could not be tenable as they seem to give the
impression that the British were not able to identify the indigenous owners of the land they
wanted for development. The central issue is not so much one of fluidity but one of
established territories as identified in the various treaties. The treaties identified the Ijaw and
Itsekiri as peoples whose places of abode lie outside the Township area. Why would the
British ignore heads of communities in the vicinity of the Township area and choose to
engage individuals like Dore Numa and Ogbe Yonwuren, both Itsekiri who were living at
considerable distance from the area at the time the leases to release land were signed. Dore
Numa, a defacto native authority for Warri District was a resident of Batere in the Itsekiri
country far away on the Escavros estuary that leads to the Atlantic Ocean. Ogbe Yonwuren,
a senior warrant chief lived in Ugbuwangue, another Itsekiri settlement also lying outside the
leased areas. Who were then the Chiefs and people of Warri on whose behalf the land
transactions were made? The answer varies. The residents of Agbarha-Warri claim that when
they arrived to settle in the area, they found no other occupation and that the area on which
the Township was built had been part of their farmland ever since, long before the advent of
colonialism. The Ijaw based their claim on Lynch’s Assessment Report of 1928, which
34
identified Ogbe-Ijaw in Warri Township an Ijaw enclave. The Itsekiri lay claim to
34
The report, which offers an earlier description of the area, in parts, reads: “the original settlement which
in due course became the nucleus, around which population settled, is known as Ogbe-Ijoh and the name
is still retained to define that portion of the town around the present market. As the name indicated, Ogbe-
Ijoh was originally an Ijaw settlement and translated literally means, I am informed, ‘the Ijaw market’ …
The Ijaw fisher, more always at home in them canoes than on land, fished up and down the stretch of
274
the area, based not on rights of occupancy but on the premise that Dore Numa and Ogbe
Yonwuren had acted on behalf of all Itsekiri people. The question of who owns the lands
and who is entitled to rents accruing from them has thus become the subject of endless
litigation and a series of government commissions of inquiry since the beginning of the
twentieth century.
Colonial Land Policies
In order to gauge how much colonial authorities knew about land tenure in Africa, it
could be instructive to refer to what Lugard, the promoter of Indirect Rule in Nigeria thought
of it.
In the earliest stage the land and its produce is shared by the community as a
whole; later the produce is the property of the family or individuals by whose
toil it is won, and the control of the land is vested in the head of the family.
When the tribal stage is reached, the control passes to the chief, who allots
unoccupied lands at will, but is not justified in dispossessing any family or
person who is using the land. Later still, especially when the pressure of
population has given to the land an exchange value, the conception of
proprietary in it emerges, and sale, mortgage and lease of the land, apart from its
user, is recognized…. These processes of natural evolution, leading up to
individual ownership, may, I believe be traced in every civilization known to
35
history.
Lugard’s stated expression was supposed to constitute the framework of understanding

for colonial officers in their land dealings with Africans. As Chanock (1991) inferred from
Lugard’s words, the dominant trend was the logical progression from communal tenure
through individual rights of use to proprietary rights. One may therefore need to examine the
extent of this progression in an area like the present Warri City that has become a part of
the capitalist world in which land is regarded as a commercial commodity. Chanock in
attempts to explain what really happened cited Gluckman who wrote that rights to land were
an incidence of political or social status and were determined by ‘meeting
obligations inherent in that status. He further noted that political allegiance was commonly
[in colonial era] not consensual and the distribution of land which sprang from
political arrangements should not, therefore, be seen as the expression of consensual
arrangements. Colonial authorities seemed to have ignored the notion of communality,
which they considered inhibiting to progress, and believed that ‘expropriation of land was far
easily politically and legally accomplished and justified than the expropriation of individual
36
rights’.
water which now forms the Warri anchorage and made use of the settlement to sell their catches. In the
main, the purchasers came from the old established Sobo hamlet of Agbassa and the more recent Jekri
village of Okere… Beyond the swamp, in a westerly direction, stood the comparatively large village of
Agbassa, while on the side, the growing hamlet of Okere was rapidly extending its boundaries…
Intercommunication between these villages and the riverside settlement was maintained by means of
‘bush’ paths which meandered around the edge of the swamp” (National Archives, File No. 2063).
35
F. D. Lugard, The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa (London, 1922), pp. 280-1 as cited in Martin Chanock, A Peculiar
Sharpness: An Essay on Property in the History of Customary Law in Colonial Africa, The Journal of African History , Vol. 32, 1
(1991), p.69
36
Chanock drew his conclusion from the judgement of Privy Council in the special reference as to the Ownership of the Unalienated
Land in South Rhodesia: In re Southern Rhodesia A.C. 1918.
275
However, Africans find communality a useful tool in their desire to prevent the
alienation of their land to strangers. Right to land was a privilege confined only to those who
are members of the community in a system where land could not be bought or leased. With
increasing commercialization and pressure on land, land began to be made available to others
but the leases were often in form of gifts or traditional form of service, in transactions that
were based on redeemable pledge. This system was to change during the colonial era in
which a more exclusive form of land tenure was imposed on Africans. “It seems reasonable”
as Chanock inferred “to suppose that the distortions introduced into customary law by
colonial regimes’ monopolizing of criminal law and punishment, for example, had their
counterparts when colonialism froze particular procedures of land distribution and patterns of
land use…” An example of such form of distortions imposed on traditional land tenure by
colonialism was the Public Lands Acquisition Ordinance of 1903, under which the Warri
leases were handled.
The acquisition ordinance as designed, seem to reflect British policy and initiative as
expressed in Article II of the Protectorate Treaties. The article denied local communities, the
right to enter into any agreement with foreigners without approval of colonial authorities.
Consequently, Section 3(a) of the Public [Native] Lands Acquisition Ordinance
of 1903 was made to read: No alien shall acquire any interest or right in or over any
lands within the Protectorate from a native except under an instrument which has
received the approval in writing of the Governor. Such alien was required under rules of
procedure to apply to the District Commissioner giving specific details of location, grantors,
purpose of the proposed acquisition etc. The District Commissioner shall then make enquiries
in order to determine among others whether the grantee is a person of good character and
desirable as a resident or trader in the district. This provision thus enabled the British Colonial
Authorities to shut off rival powers like France and Germany from ever gaining any land
concession in the area. The enabling instrument needed for
implementation, came in Clause six of the Ordinance that states in parts: Where lands
required for public purposes were the property of a native community, the Head Chief
of such community may sell and convey the same for an estate in fee simple,
notwithstanding any native law and custom to the contrary.
The colonial authorities however ignored many of the provisions of the acquisition
ordinance and did not implement them as intended. As Obiomah inferred, it is not clear why
the authorities chose to use leases rather than outright acquisition as the ordinance stipulated.
The authorities in making land deals, more often than not, turned to their own appointees
styled as political agents for effective control of transactions and not to bona fide heads of
communities as required by the ordinance. Rights to land as Gluckman indicated became
incidence of political or social status and were determined in ways that defiled traditional
system of tenure. Even before the ordinance went into effect colonial authorities under the
direction of Sir Ralph Moore, Lt. Governor had taken possession of certain parcels of land in
advance of the leases, and had begun to erect buildings on them. For example, the building
for the British Consulate started in 1891 was completed in 1903. The Police Barracks, the
General Hospital and Government School were built between 1903 and 1905, all before the
first set of Warri leases was signed in 1906.
Various Land Deals
Many of the various land deals were as indicated earlier handled through Dore Numa
and Ogbe Yowuren both Itsekiri chieftains, who signed the leases that released the land to
the colonial administration. At least one lease transacted in 1930 was between colonial
authorities and the people of Okere-Warri directly and did not involve either Dore or Ogbe.
276
Obaro Ikime, Peter Lloyd, William Moore, Daniel Obiomah, and John Sagay among
other investigators, not only identified a number of the leases that were executed in Warri
before and after 1903 Ordinance was enacted but also showed how the leases had changed
hands over the years as follows: 37
x In 1885 and 1890, Bey and Zimmer, and Elder Dempster at the respective times,
were among a number of European trading companies that acquired land along
the shores of Warri creek. Peter Lloyd (in Urban Ethnicity, ed. Cohen, 1974:227)
who provided this information, did not indicate how the leases regarding these
lands were transacted. It should be noted that Bey and Zimmer was a German
company that operated in the area before the British used the 1903 Ordinance to
edge them out in violation of the mandate of the Berlin Conference that called for
unrestricted access to trade in Africa.
x On April 16, 1894, Mr. Saturino Perigrino Wilkey, a Custom Officer, under the
Colonial Administration, leased land, now known as Daudu or Alders Town from
Chief Igbi, Clan Head of the Urhobo community of Agbarha Warri. The deed,
witnessed and signed by the British Consul was duly entered into Lands Registry
when it was opened for business at Warri in 1905. According to Obiomah, Pessu,
one of the many Itsekiri fleeing from the commotion in Ode-Itsekiri following the
death of Olu Akengbuwa, was also allotted some land to build his compound.
x In 1898, Messrs. Alexander Miller Brothers of Liverpool, James Pinnock and other
companies secured land along Warri River to build a number of trading factories.
The location of these factories was near what became the headquarters of the Niger
Coast Protectorate and the site of the British consulate in what came to be known
as Warri Township. The details of the various transactions are yet to emerge.
x In 1900, Southern Nigeria Protectorate Government leased from Dore Numa, land
in which they built residential quarters, barracks and offices. The existence of this
lease is being disputed. 38
x In 1906, the British Government leased from Dore Numa, 360 acres that included
an Ijaw hamlet to make room for ‘Whites Only’ residential area and offices in what
came to known as Government Station. The land involved spanned the
Government Reservation Area and Ogbe-Ijaw market areas.
x In 1908, the British Government took a lease for a 90-acre land including what was
originally leased to Mr. S. P. Wilkey as stated earlier, from Dore Numa. The land
included Alder’s/Daudu/Wilkey Town or present day Daudu.
37
Much of the information about the leases were obtained from four main sources: Daniel A. Obiomah, Warri, Lands, Overlords, &
Land Rights (Ometan Vs Dore Numa) ; and J. O. E. Sagay, The Itsekiri Kingdom with citations from William Moore’s History of
Itsekiri., Obaro Ikime: Niger Delta Rivalry and Peter Lloyd: Ethnicity in a Nigerian Town in the Mid-1950s in Urban Ethnicity
edited by Abner Cohen.
38
The circumstances of this lease which according to Sagay, was signed by Dore and Ogbe on behalf of themselves and the Itsekiri
people, seem unclear and doubtful. The enabling instrument used by the Colonial Administration to acquire land (Public Lands
Acquisition Ordinance) through Dore, did not come into force until 1903. Besides, George Eyube who died in 1901 was the political
agent for Warri District at the material time. Dore Numa’s authority was extended to include jurisdiction over Warri District only
after the death of Mr. Eyube. Obiomah went as far as to label Sagay’s account as false and denied the existence of the 1900 lease
(personal communication)
277
x In 1911, the British Government leased some more land, 350 acres, from Dore
Numa. The land according to Obiomah, included much of Agbarha village, its
market and adjoining farmlands. Another Agreement replacing the 1911 lease, was
drawn, complete with survey plan, and signed by Dore Numa in 1932, just before
he died. The move was made to establish boundaries, which could not be
delineated in the 1911 lease. The new drawing was an improvement over the
original sketch plan.
x In 1911 about six months after the Agbarha lease as indicated in the preceding
paragraph, Messrs. John Holt of Liverpool Limited, leased land from Ogbe
Yowuren. Unlike the Agbassa leases, the transactions relating to Ogbe land did not
involve Dore Numa. The land has for sometime now been taken over by the
Nigerian Ports Authority from the Holts Transport Limited, a subsidiary of John
Holt Limited as lessees.
x In 1915, the British Government leased 1360 square yards of land, a small portion
of land in Okere, from Dore Numa for building Warders Quarters near Her Majesty
Service Prisons in Warri. The lease was only for 15 years and expired in 1930.
x In 1924, the Itsekiri National Fund also known as the Olu Fund was created by Lt.
Governor Colonel H. C. Moorehouse to place the exercise of over-lordship of
Itsekiri lands on a triumvirate of Dore, Omagbemi and Skinn under the supervision
of the Resident. The fund was created as part of Colonel Morehouse’s settlement to
appease the descendants of Olu Akengbuwa who were unhappy with Dore Numa
for usurping the Oluship and collecting rents on property on their behalf.
x In 1930, the Colonial Government leased from the people of Okere, some more
land in addition to the 1,360 square yard piece originally leased to Dore Numa, for
the expansion of Her Majesty Prisons. This lease thus nullified the 1915 lease with
Dore Numa. Dore Numa was said to have stayed away from this land deal in order
to stave off any potential court action that would challenge his authority should he
sign the deed as he did in the case of Agbarha land deals.
x In 1936, a newly installed Olu of Itsekiri, Ginuwa II, was named the Chairman of
the Itsekiri Native Council that had been created in 1930 to replace the triumvirate
of Dore, Omagbemi and Skinn. Consequently, the Olu and the council assumed
responsibility for the over-lordship of Itsekiri lands in accordance with decision
entered by Justice Webber in Dore Numa versus Olue of 1921.
Legal Challenges to Colonial Land Deals
Many of the legal challenges revolved around the right of Dore Numa to sign leases to
the British Government and other bodies on behalf of various communities in western Niger
Delta. Both the Itsekiri and non-Itsekiri communities in the area disapproved of Dore
Numa’s use of his appointment as a political agent, to execute land deals with the colonial
authorities. The Itsekiri accused him of usurping the Olu traditional role and the Urhobo
278
charged him with fraud for leasing their land without proper authorization. As a result, Dore
Numa was taken to court over the land deals by the Itsekiri themselves as well as by non-
Itsekiri communities in Warri. The details of many of the legal tussles are available from
various legal citations, and from accounts provided by Moore, Obiomah and Sagay and will
not be repeated here. 39For this chapter, it will therefore be sufficient to limit discussion to
the significance of the cases under two broad categories namely colonial court cases and
post-colonial court cases.
The distinction between the colonial and post-colonial lawsuits as they relate to land
ownership is a crucial one. It reveals how the prevailing conditions of the era involved
affected court decisions even though the substantive issue in many of the cases was the
same. Many of the cases filed in colonial courts during the lifetime of Dore Numa and before
the restoration of the Itsekiri monarchy in 1936 were decided in favor of Dore Numa. A few
others before 1960 the year of Nigeria’s independence from Great Britain, were decided in
favor of the Itsekiri Communal Land Trustees which inherited powers from the Itsekiri
Native Council created in 1930. The colonial courts imposed and affirmed the doctrine of
over-lordship of the Olu, over the land and the peoples of Warri Division the exercise of
which was invested on the person of Dore Numa. Dore Numa’s designation was
only a de facto as no one besides colonial authorities recognized him as Olu. The post-
colonial cases, many of which were instituted after Nigeria gained independence from its
colonial master, Great Britain in 1960, reversed many of the colonial court decisions and
above all, invalidated the role of the Olu-Itsekiri as the overlord of all lands in Warri
Division.
Colonial Court Cases
Three of the most notable land cases in Warri Division during the colonial era, were
the Dore Numa versus Olue & Others of 1921 , Denedo versus Dore Numa of 1924, and
Ometan versus Dore Numa, which ran from 1926 through 1934. Dore Numa versus Olue &
Others of 1921 placed the exercise of over-lordship rights on Dore Numa. The 1924 suit
was brought by Denedo and a number of other members of the Itsekiri Royal family for
ownership and the entitlement to rents accruing from a parcel of land known as Ogbe Ijaw
and Alder’s Town in Warri. Ometan versus Dore Numa actually began as Ogegede versus
Dore Numa of 1921. It was initiated for rights to collect rents on lands belonging to
Agbarha, that were leased to colonial authorities by Dore Numa. Ometan replaced Ogegede
after his death. The 1921 case was dismissed in 1925 but that dismissal did not deter
Agbarha people from filing another suit, Ometan versus Dore Numa this time around, to
demand title to Agbarha lands. Thus in effect, Agbarha people asked the court to set aside
the leases of 1906, 1908 and 1911. 40
As noted earlier, colonial courts ruled for Dore Numa in all the cases. The court
dismissed the claims of the Itsekiri Royal family for rights to rents on the grounds that the
Olu Akengbuwa held rights to Itsekiri lands not on behalf of his family but in trust for the
Itsekiri people. In upholding Dore’s rights to collect rents on behalf of the Olu, the court in
39
Much of the material for this section was drawn from William Moore: History of Itsekiri; Daniel Obiomah: Warri Land, Overlords
& Land Rights (Ometan Vs Numa) and J. O. E. Sagay: The Warri Kingdom.
40
Witness No. 14 for the plaintiff in Ometan versus Dore Numa in testifying on Friday, November 15, 1929, referred to the writ of
summons which described the land between Okere Creek and Warri River, Egbudu, Igboraho, Alder Town, Wilkie Town, Pessu
Town, Odion, Fugbe and Ogbijo as Agbassa land. The areas covered two Agbarha communities of Igbudu and Otovwodo spanning
the present day Lower Erejuwa Road to Ugbogboro Stream and Cementry Road to Warri River eastwards down to Mile 3 on
Warri/Sapele Road ( Memorandum of Agbarha Clan, Warri South Local Government Area to The Warri Judicial Commission of
Enquiry Into Riots in Warri in May 1993, p.70)
279
Denedo versus Dore Numa noted that Dore and not the plaintiffs, is the person the
Government recognized as the head of the Itsekiri. This rule meant as Ikime points
out, Dore Numa’s appointment as Paramount Chief was put over Itsekiri laws and
customs. This decision that reaffirmed Dore Numa’s position among the Itsekiri, as
established in judgment from an earlier case, Dore Numa versus Olue of 1921 also between
the Itsekiri. The decision reached in Dore Numa versus Olue became a precedent that was
later used as basis for settling other land cases. Consequently, in Ometan versus Dore
Numa, the presiding judge, Justice A. F. C. Webber caused the decision in Dore Numa
versus Olue to be put in evidence as Exhibit 1. 41The implication of this move by the judge
was clear. The decision made over Itsekiri lands in Dore Numa versus Olue was also
applicable to Agbarha land, and it became clear from the beginning that Ometan versus
Dore Numa was bound to fail. Thus the use of Dore Numa versus Olue as a basis for
settling land cases in the region had the effect of expanding the authority of Dore Numa to
exercise over-lordship rights over lands in Warri Township, without first ascertaining, who
were the owners of the lands in dispute. The decisions in Dore versus Olue ,and Dore
versus Denedo constituted what became known as the concurrent finding of facts which the
Privy Council refused to disturb when it heard the appeal of Ometan versus Dore Numa in
1934. Yet in Ayomano Omarin versus Ginuwa II of 1941, Suit No. W/37/1941, also called
the Sapele case, twenty years after Ogegede versus Dore Numa, later ruled that Dore Numa
had no representative capacity and that he acted alone as a government agent and not as a
representative of the Itsekiri people in many of his land dealings.
Although colonial courts brought various communities in Warri Township under the
over-lordship of Olu-Itsekiri, nothing in those decisions declared all lands in Warri lands as
Itsekiri owned. Neither is there any indication from the findings of the court that people of
Agbarha had lost ownership of any portion of their land. The court implicitly acknowledged
the rights of Agbarha people to their lands when it ruled that: “the rights of Agbassa to
occupy Agbassa, Odion, and Fugbe according to native law and custom could not be
denied provided the over-lordship of the Olu [of Jekri] was recognized” . 42 All the court
did in this ruling was to reaffirm the doctrine of over-lordship as the political arrangement
preferred by colonial authorities for governing the area. In other words, Justice A.F.C.
Webber placed Agbarha people and their land, by the fiat of a court decision, under the
jurisdiction of the Olu as part of the Itsekiri Kingdom. 43
Dore Numa himself recognized the right of Agbarha people to their lands. He
expressed this recognition in a well-known confessional statement to indicate that his
exercise of Olu’s over-lordship rights in Warri Township did not include control of private
land. The letter from Dore Numa signed February 28, 1923 to Mr. S.L. Bucknor, Attorney
representing people of Agbassa-Warri reads as follows:
41
There was no tradition of overlordship until the decision in Dore Numa versus Olue of 1921 . The decision appeared to have been
motivated by the Native Lands Acquisition Ordinance of 1903, section 3(a) of which says “ No alien shall acquire any interest or
rights in or over any lands within the protectorate from a native except under an instrument which has received the approval in
writing of the Governor. It would seem that if Olue and the people of Ogidigben were to have their way, it would have opened the
way for rival aliens to contest for for trade and territorial claims. The doctrine of overlordship was thus an option used by colonial
authorities to prevent any rivalry from other foreign competitors.
42
For a more detailed discussion of the concept of over-lordship, see Edevbie: Doctrine of Over-lordship and the Warri Crisis in
Warri City & British Colonial Rule in Western Niger Delta ed. Peter Ekeh, Chapter 12.
43
The court did not resolve the issue of who should have the radical title to Agbarha lands. The Olu/Itsekiri Communal Lands Trust
sought an answer by suing for the title in suit W/63/58. According to Obiomah (2003:146), they were unable to prosecute and had to
withdraw in 1964. However in another suit W/41/57 (SC 67/1971 and SC 327/1972) consolidated for compensation, Justice Obaseki
relying on a faulty interpretation of the concept of over-lordship of the Olu in Ometan versus Dore Numa , awarded the radical title
to Warri lands to the Itsekiri Communal Lands Trust. The Obaseki ruling is now thought of a presumption that has been rendered
obsolete by the more recent court ruling in Idundun & Ors versus Okumagba & Ors (Suits No. W/48/1968 and No. W309/74
280
Dear Sir:
I beg through you to inform your client, the people of Agbassa that I claim no
title whatsoever either in my private capacity as member and representative of
the Jekri Olu people. That Agbassa land belong to Agbassa people although the
Olu of Jekri has always had sovereign rights over all land in Warri but such
rights have nothing to do with ownership or the title to land.
I remain, Dear Sir,
Yours faithfully,
(Sgd) Dore.
Dore Numa had sent a similar letter dated January 9, 1923 to the people of Okere-
Warri, whose land he also leased to the colonial authorities. Okere people threatened to go to
court and Dore Numa had to surrender the £20.00 premium he had received for the land.
When the lease signed in 1915 expired, a fresh lease was signed in 1930 for the same land
directly between the people of Okere and the government. Dore Numa was not involved. In
the case of Agbarha lands, the treatment was different. Dore Numa’s letter to the people of
Agbarha was however ruled inadmissible when it was presented as evidence of Agbarha
claim of ethnic ownership in Ometan versus Dore Numa on grounds that Dore Numa did
not seem to understand the contents of the letter he signed.
The Warri Provincial Government also brought its own suits to revisit the issue of
rightful land ownership that was not addressed in Ometan versus Dore Numa . Colonial
authorities wanted to establish how compensation could be paid to individuals and
communities for land acquired by colonial authorities for public use. The lands involved
include what was used for the expansion of the cemetery and for building offices for the
Department of Inland Waterways. These parcels of land had been compulsorily acquired in
accordance with the Public Lands Acquisition Ordinance of 1903. In each of three separate
suits, W/44/1941, W/3/1949 and W/22/1956, Chief Commissioner, Western Provinces of
Nigeria versus Olu Ginuwa of Itsekiri; Obiomah Ejenavbo and Sam Essi, both of Agbarha
community, filed at different times, the court provided a precedent for distribution of
compensation paid by colonial authorities for use of the said lands. 44
In the 1941 case, the court awarded 5 percent of the compensation to the Olu, in
recognition of his sovereignty over the Township area. Another 25 percent were paid to
compensate the Agbarha landowner for the loss of his farmland, and 75 percent to the
Agbarha community for the loss occasioned by the severance of its community land. Sir
Grantham, Governor of Nigeria formalized the arrangement for compensation in 1943. A
similar arrangement for compensation was used to settle the 1949 case. However in third land
deal which was the subject of a 1956 court case, the Action Group-controlled Government of
Western Nigeria offered an interpretation of the court verdict that significantly increased the
share due for the over-lordship to 33 percent of the compensation
while that due to Agbarha people dropped to 67 percent. According to Lloyd (in Urban
Ethnicity, ed. Cohen, 1974:243), the Olu seized upon this interpretation of the law,
favorable to him, to begin actions to lay claim to a third of all rents paid on lands including
44
The 1941 suit which involved Obiomah Ejanavbo dealt with land acquired for the extension of cemetery. That of 1949 concerned
Inland Waterways, which was built on Igbudu section of Agbarha, lands, the home of Sam Essi. Both Obiomah Ejanavbo and Sam
Warri Essi were notable Urhobo nationalists in their lifetime.
281
those from private grants used for building on lands that were outside the crown area. The
actions by the Olu were also to assert that people of Agbarha-Warri ought or should forfeit
rights to their land and become mere strangers anytime they failed or refused to pay the
amounts as required in the supposed acknowledgement of the sovereignty of the Olu. One of
such attempts was made in 1974 when the Itsekiri Communal Land Trust insisted that the
Trust was entitled to one-third of the compensation paid to the Agbarha Community of
Ogunnu for use of its land by the Federal Government of Nigeria, even though the parcel of
45
land involved lay outside the crown area.
Post-Colonial Land Cases
Many of the post-colonial land cases followed the historic reversal of Dore Numa
versus Olue of 1921 , which had established the doctrine of over-lordship in western Niger
Delta. The reversal came from the judgement in Itsekiri Communal Land Trust versus Dick
Olueh & Ors of 1969 which as based on a key provision of the Trust instrument that
prevents assault on family lands: “The said [over-lordship] rights shall (that is to demise land
except surrender of leases) shall not include any rights exercisable by any persons in respect
of family land on behalf of the family”. Many believed that Arthur Prest, a prominent Itsekiri
lawyer and former judge of the High Court, was motivated by this reversal to sue to end the
exercise of over-lordship over the property of his family in
Ugbuwangue. The plaintiff in Arthur Prest versus the Itsekiri Communal Lands Trust of
1970, sought and obtained a court annulment of deeds granted by the Trust in 1959 to Messrs.
Holts of Liverpool on land belonging to his family, the Ogbe family of Ugbuwangue, an
Itsekiri settlement outsideWarriTownship. As indicated earlier, the Trust had used the deeds
to extend the sovereignty of Over-lordship of the Olu, to private lands such as that owned by
the Ogbe family. The court in siding with plaintiff declared that the exercise of over-lordship
rights does not include the control of lands in private hands. The
Judge noted that for the avoidance of doubt, especially as there are many cases pending
in the Warri High Court on the over-lordship issue. I hereby make it abundantly clear
that the defendant [the Itsekiri Communal Lands Trust] have no power whatsoever in
law to exercise the Olu of Warri rights of over-lordship over land owned by private
individuals and family in Warri Division.
The efforts of the Trust (acting in conjunction with a number of Itsekiri families,
Idundun and others) to expand over-lordship rights in Idundun & Ors versus Okumagba &
Ors, 1968 to private land in Okere-Warri was also rejected. The Hight Court in Warri
observed in the 1968 case that “ The Olu by title is Olu of Warri, but his rights of over-
lordship relate only lands of Itsekiri people and even then, there is ground for saying
that it does not relate to all lands of Itsekiri”. 46 What is more intriguing and relevant to
this essay is that the court went as far as to cast doubt on Itsekiri’s claim of ethnic
ownership of this section of Warri City. The Supreme Court that heard the appeal from the
lower court noted that the evidence in the plaintiffs’ case show that Ginuwa I when he
was trying to make settlement after leaving Benin got as far as Ijalla where he
45
The Agbarha Community of Ogunnu had to sue the Itsekiri Land Trust for declaration of title when the Trust insisted on one-third
share of the compensation for Ogunnu land acquired by the Federal Government of Nigeria. Agbarha people refused to plead their
case for fear of bias and interest before Justice Atake who moved ahead anyway to rule for the Itsekiri, ordering forfeiture. The
Supreme Court of Nigeria overturned the judgement in 2003 and ordered retrial by another judge. The retrial has been held up in
series of motions and adjournments by the litigants [Daniel Obiomah: Who Owns Warri?(A Treatise for Peace, p. 37)]
46
Idundun & Ors versus Okumagba & Ors was instituted at the Warri High Court (W/48/68) and decided on July 17, 1973. The
decision was appealed to the Supreme Court of Nigeria (SC 309/74) which affirmed the decision of the lower court on August 8,
1976.
282
ultimately settled, lived, died and was buried. There is no evidence in the plaintiffs’ case
to show that in the process of making his settlement, he or any persons under him
settled anywhere beyond Ijalla and towards or in Okere. I [the judge delivering
judgement] do not believe that any kingdom founded by Ginuwa I extended to Okere.
Plaintiffs’ evidence and, also evidence in the whole case do not prove such extent of any
47
kingdom founded by Ginuwa I.
Weakness of the System of Indirect Rule and its Modification
Indirect Rule as designed by Lugard was a flexible and adaptable approach to local
government involving traditional authorities that were accountable to a central colonial
administration manned by British officials. Preserving traditional authorities as envisaged
would provide continuity into the past as well into the future. British officials would come
and go but indigenous officials would remain. Warri Township was part of the area under the
Niger Coast Protectorate, for example that was reconstituted on the basis of Indirect Rule
during the amalgamation exercises of 1914 into Warri Province. The province became one of
the southern provinces that resulted from the division of colonial Nigeria politically into
three units namely the Colony of Lagos, Northern Provinces and Southern Provinces. Warri
Province covered five territories: Aboh, Kwale, Ijaw, Itsekiri and Urhobo.
However many colonial officials found it difficult to make indirect rule work especially
in areas in the South where there had been no chiefs. Creating chiefs in order to set up
indirect rule became counterproductive following resentment against the chiefs and the
unwillingness of local people to cooperate. Much of the south lacked the system of
centralized authority such as the Sokoto Caliphate that existed in some parts of Northern
Nigeria. In fact, several intelligence reports revealed that the customs and traditions of people
in southern Nigeria were different from those in Northern Nigeria where the system of
indirect rule as originally formulated, had been used successfully. The expectation that chiefs
appointed in the South could be trusted with responsibilities such as the handling of funds
realized from taxes, portion of which could be retained in local treasuries to pay local
officials, and fund local improvements and public works was to a large extent not realized.
For instance, many of the Itsekiri warrant chiefs employed as paid agents of colonial
authorities to work in Urhoboland could not function effectively. Many among Urhobo
people resented the presence of these chiefs not such much because the chiefs were
considered corrupt but more so because Urhobo and Isoko people were not used to such
imposition of alien administrators.
The colonial authorities decided to modify the system of governance based on Indirect
Rule in order to bring the administration closer to the local people at least to facilitate the
collection of taxes. The authorities were jilted specifically more by anti- taxation movement
of the 1920s than by any other administrative failure. The British Government back home
had insisted that its colonies should be self-supporting and the only way to realize revenue
needed for development was through taxation. As part of overall policy to modify the
system of Indirect Rule in Southern Provinces, the British embarked on a process of
decentralization by splitting the administration of the provinces further into divisional units.
Colonial authorities were obviously not willing to go back to the use of pacification patrols
of earlier years to enforce compliance with the revenue ordinance.
47
Prince Ginuwa was never an Olu neither was a Itsekiri nationality in existence during his lifetime. His circumstances during his
exile in the swamps of Niger Basin, were such that he could not have founded any kingdom as credited to him.
283
Reorganization of the 1930s
The reorganization which was essentially designed to raise much needed revenue to
meet the needs of the colonial administration, led to abrogation of the corrupt native court
system and its replacement by one of native administration. Colonial Administrators had
decided to replace a unified system of governance with one of separate administrations based
on the clan system. Colonial authorities had researched the structure of the clan system and
were convinced that utilizing the system offered the best chance of securing the cooperation
of local people. The Native Revenue Ordinance was amended in 1927 in anticipation of these
changes. The British took the opportunity offered by the reorganization to replace many of
the much despised warrant chiefs by traditional chiefs to help with the collection of taxes. In
Urhoboland for example, Urhobo traditional authorities took over from Itsekiri warrant
chiefs, thus giving Urhobo people an opportunity for the first time under colonial rule to mind
their own affairs in Warri Province free from Itsekiri domination.
The Itsekiri opposition to taxation and inability of Itsekiri warrant chiefs to collect
taxes even in their homestead was considered problematic for the administration especially in
the face of rivalry between various Itsekiri factions and the position of Dore Numa himself.
48
In absence of an Olu, the Itsekiri had relied on the system of sub-ethnic councils
made up mainly of heads of leading trading families. The families were often involved in
such bitter rivalries over trade that colonial authorities may have regarded them as too
disorganized to act as effective tax collectors. Also not helpful was the fact that non-Itsekiri
elements in the Warri Province, particularly Urhobo resented Itsekiri monopoly of power and
had to lodge series of complaints of corruption and abuse of office against Dore Numa and his
alien warrant chiefs with the colonial authorities. The British may have also observed that
Urhobo traditional authorities unlike those of Itsekiri conducted their business
through community councils with members drawn from elders, ekpako, and titled men, all
operating on a level of colleagueship. Although the Urhobo lacked the tradition of central
and unified kingship, the British were pleasantly surprised at the ease with which the Urhobo
49
cooperated, in spite of their clannishness, to oppose taxation.
The reorganization, which was completed in 1934, resulted in the creation of the Jekri –
Sobo, Sobo and Aboh Native Administrations with headquarters at Warri, Ughelli and
Abraka respectively. The Jekri – Sobo Administration covered all Itsekiri and five Urhobo
clans of Agbon, Oghara, Okpe, Udu and Uvbie, all of which were considered territorially
close to Itsekiriland. The Sobo Administration or Division covered Isoko clans and the rest of
Urhobo clans except Orogun and Abraka, which fell under Aboh Division. Although Urhobo
in Sobo Division were happy to have an administration with headquarters in Urhoboland, the
Urhobo in Jekri – Sobo Division were not and had asked to be separated from the Itsekiri.
Urhobo resentment of Itsekiri domination that arose during the native court era was still fresh
and the Urhobo did not want anything to do with Warri Township, which they associated
50
with Itsekiri predominance . The request for separation was granted
48
For more information on the rivalry between two Itsekiri trading families, the royal group also known as the Emaye based at
Batere, and the Ologbotsere family (an Ologbotsere is the traditional ‘prime minister of the Olu’) based at Jakpa, see Obaro Ikime,
The Fall of Nigeria, p. 46
49
C.S.O. 26/2 File 11857, Annual Report, Warri Province, 1927, p. 25, cited by Obaro Ikime, Niger Delta Rivalry, p. 229.
50
Many believed that agitation for separation was fueled by various displays of arrogance and superiority by Itsekiri over others. A
typical example is a statement published in Daily Times in 1934 credited to Reverend Omatsola, head of Sapele Baptist Church, in
which re referred to Urhobo people as Itsekiri slaves. Although the Reverend published a retraction and an apology, Urhobo and
other non-Itsekiri members of his church left the church to form the New Bethel Baptist Church. This incident among others was
considered inflammatory, and seemed to have intensified Urhobo demand for separation from Itsekiri dominance.
284
in 1938 although the newly created Western Urhobo Native Administration with headquarters
at Orerokpe still existed within the Jekri – Sobo Division. However, the separation was made
complete in 1949 and the Western Urhobo was transferred to the Urhobo Division. Whatever
was left after Western Urhobo was separated from the Jekri – Sobo Division was for
administrative convenience merged with the Ijaw communities of Egbema and Gbaramatu
51
and Ogbe-Ijaw into what became known as Warri Division. The
new division also included the City of Warri, Ode-Itsekiri and the Itsekiri settlements of
Ekurede Itsekiri, Ajamonogha, Ugbori, and Ugbuwangue that sprang up in its vicinity in the
later part of the nineteenth century. Egbema, Gbaramatu and Ogbe-Ijaw had also been
excised from the former Sapele and Forcados districts respectively to form part of the
division. The other Ijaw communities of the present day Burutu, Bomadi, Forcados and
Patani were constituted into what came to be known as Western Ijaw Division. The new
arrangements did not however solve the problems of indigenous Urhobo communities in
Warri City. According to Obiomah, the Urhobo community in Agbarha-Warri, regarded the
retreat from premiere Warri as an act of capitulation by the larger Urhobo community, and
52
refused to join Western Urhobo in 1949 when the offer to join the division was made.
According to Obiomah, the offer did not include transfer of Agbarha lands and the people of
Agbarha-Warri were not prepared to abandon their land and become strangers to Itsekiri and
fellow Urhobo people.
Although the reorganization did not resolve the problem of Agbarha-Warri, many
believed that Urhobo in general nevertheless benefited from it. The new system seemed to
have prepared Urhobo people for participation in partisan politics that was to follow. Mukoro
Mowoe, President of Urhobo Progress Union for example, was appointed under the Richards
Constitution of 1946, as the provincial member to represent Warri Province in the Western
53
House of Assembly. When Mowoe died in 1948, Jessa Ogboru, another Urhobo
man from Abraka, replaced him. When the Richards Constitution was revised in a conference
chaired by Arthur Prest, a young Itsekiri lawyer and member of the Itsekiri Native Authority
Council, Warri Province was granted an additional seat in the Western House of Assembly.
The new seat also went to another Urhobo, Mr. W. E. Mowarin, from Agbarho, as the second
54
member from Warri Province in the House. The appointments
were made to favor the Urhobo because of their numerical superiority in the province. The
Itsekiri became agitated and seemed worried by the political ascendancy of Urhobo in the
affairs of Warri Province. 55
Restoration of the Itsekiri Monarchy and

Change of Title from Olu of Itsekiri to ‘Olu of Warri’
Another major consequence of the reorganization exercises was the British decision to
revive the Itsekiri monarchy to help bring various factions of Itsekiri leadership under
51
The new administrative division as identified as Itsekiri Division as indicated in the Public Notice No. 83 of June 19, 1950. The
division was renamed Warri Division without public announcement just before the 1951 elections conducted the then newly adopted
Macpherson Constitution. (T. E. A. Salubi: The Change of the Title “Olu Itsekiri” to “Olu of Warri” in Warri City & British
Colonial Rule in Western Niger Delta, p. 95., ed. Peter Ekeh
52
Daniel Obiomah, Warri, Urhobo and the Nigerian Nation, Urhobo National Politics and Warri , p. 1. Obiomah’s account seems to
contradict Ikime’s findings. According to Ikime, the Agbassa of Warri, in 1949, petitioned the Colonial Administration to have them
transferred to join other Urhobo in Western Urhobo Native Authority. The request was denied. (C.S.O. 26/2, file 11857 Vol. XVIII,
Annual report, Warri Province, 1949)
53
Obaro Ikime, Niger Delta Rivalry, p. 267, citing C. S. O. 26/2 File 11857, Vol. XVII, Annual Report, Warri Province, 1946
54
ibd., p. 268 but with citation C. S. O. 26/2, File 11857, Vol. XVIII, Annual Report, Warri Province, 1949.
55
ibd., p. 267
285
control. Restoring the Itsekiri monarchy, however, remained problematic as it had been for
decades because of opposition from Itsekiri mercantile class. These groups of Itsekiri
notables had resisted and derailed earlier efforts to install any one to replace the Olu who
died in 1848. Ikime in his discussion of the Changing Status of Chiefs among the Itsekiri
identified three instances from among many other attempts made to restore the Itsekiri
kingship. One occurred in a plea made in 1851 by the British Consul, John Beecroft to
Itsekiri elders to install an Olu to help maintain law and order in Itsekiriland. Another was
made during the administrative reorganization that followed the anti tax riots of 1920s. These
attempts like many others failed. The attempt made in 1936 was successful only because the
main obstacle to Itsekiri unity and the restoration of the kingship, supposedly posed by the
person of Dore Numa, was removed when he died on September 24, 1932.
The three instances of attempts to revive the Itsekiri monarchy as indicated by Ikime,
were all British initiatives. The Itsekiri themselves were unable to reach a consensus on the
issue, thereby creating the situation that ultimately led to the virtual collapse of the monarchy.
The period of interregnum that followed was characterized by the rise of various local
authorities built around merchant princes, and the lack of central authority to help manage
Itsekiri affairs. The princes were all wealthy traders who had moved away from Ode-Itsekiri
to found their own settlements and were bent on expanding their separate commercial
interests. Competition and rivalry that ensued culminated in a state of lawlessness that
attended the first few years of the interregnum, including attacks on a number of European
warehouses in the region. The European traders protested to the British Consul, John
Beecroft, pleading with him to persuade the Itsekiri to install an Olu to help restore law and
order. Beecroft’s efforts failed largely because of internal wrangling within the royal family.
The consul was however able to get the Itsekiri to elect in 1851, Idiare, a wealthy trader as
the Governor of Benin River.
The attempt to restore the Itsekiri monarchy after anti-tax riots was premised on the
need to replace the Native Court system with a Native Administration system. The court
system was deemed inefficient in dealing with tax matters. The new system was to be based
as much as possible on pre-colonial conditions. Colonial authorities felt that local traditional
authorities would do better than alien warrant chiefs in the task of raising revenue needed to
run the colonial administration. For the Itsekiri, as Ikime put it, pre- colonial conditions mean
a return to the days of the Olu and his council. Again, the efforts failed to yield desired results
because colonial authorities this time around were unable to agree on what to do with Dore
Numa’s exalted position. The Resident held the view that any attempt to appoint an Olu
would amount to disgracing Dore Numa and his aides out of office. He therefore noted that it
was not feasible to appoint an Olu in Dore Numa’s lifetime. According to Daniel Obiomah
(1995:4), the decision to appoint an Olu was based on a more ambitious plan than the limited
role implied by Ikime. The British wanted to bring all Urhobo who were split at this time into
Warri, Kwale and Sapele Districts, together under the rule of a revived Itsekiri kingship in
accordance with Lugard’s administrative policy of working through traditional rulers.
Obiomah cited evidence from
colonial records ( C229/14-CSE 5/9/28) that a number of colonial officers were opposed to
the plan. The officers saw the potential for abuse and so cautioned against placing Urhobo
people under the Itsekiri. Perhaps, the most striking of the warnings came from the District
Officer for Warri, Mr. W. W. Stubbs: The Sobos are inland people and have little to do
with the Jekri; they were never subject to the Jekri who raided them at will. They do
not trust the Jekri and have good cause for the mistrust. They are still terrorized by the
Jekri as they imagine that Jekri have the power of the Government behind them. The
Sobos are a difficult race and cannot unite with the Jekri, they may live on fairly
friendly terms but they cannot amalgamate, they are independent in every way. They
286
recognize no chiefs but those of their own towns and are usually hostile or jealous of the
chiefs of a neighboring town.
Mr. Stubbs, himself did not seem opposed to the restoration of the Itsekiri monarchy
itself as long as such kingship did not entail the subjugation of Urhobo people. He based his
views on complaints that his office had received. In those courts in the district in which a
Jekri Chief frequently sits or used to sit frequently, there have been many complaints
made to me, that the Jekri Chief will not allow [Urhobo] chiefs to give the decision
which they wish to give and that they have to give in because they fear the power which
the Jekri as a European knowing person has, and as their knowledge of the European is
not great, they give in rather than face the unknown and lay themselves to the false
report which are so easily made in this country. By all means, let the Itsekiri have their
king but let him be the king of the Jekri and have nothing to with
the Sobo, his power over the Sobo would have to be coercion by the Government. The
plan to revive the Itsekiri monarchy had to be dropped as the opinion of colonial officers was
decidedly against the idea. The British, it was noted, did not meet any Olu on the Itsekiri
throne and felt that there was no need to create one. The earlier appointment of Dore Numa
to take charge of Itsekiri affairs was considered sufficient to serve the purpose of Indirect
Rule. In fact, as J. O. Sagay (1980:155), noted the Native Courts Ordinance of 1914 created
and invested Paramount Chiefs with considerable amount of power to enable them
function as traditional rulers. Sagay pointed to a section of the Native Court Ordinance of
1914, which made the Paramount Chief, president of the court with or without
assistants, also empowered the Paramount Chief of the District subject to the approval
of the Governor-General to “make, revoke and amend rules, embodying any native law
[traditional practice] in its district with or without such conditions and
modifications as may be deemed expedient.”
As one can infer, the native court ordinance rendered the place of Itsekiri monarchy
unnecessary during the lifetime of Dore Numa, thus explaining why the idea of reviving the
monarchy could not be implemented while Dore Numa was alive and in office. Unable to
appoint an Olu, colonial authorities continued to rely on the Itsekiri ethnic council of heads
of families derived from the mercantile class for the administration of the area. In any event,
the ethnic council run by Itsekiri notables such as the Olotu, Chiefs Omagbemi and Dore
Numa as ex-officio members was eventually replaced in 1930 by the Itsekiri Native Council
that now included some educated young men. By 1934, the new council had been
reorganized to form a part of a newly created Jekri – Sobo Division. With the death of Dore
Numa on September 24, 1932 Captain J. C. Pender, the District Officer as Obiomah noted,
wanted someone of Dore Numa’s stature to take charge of the council. Only an Olu with all
the trappings of power and prestige of the throne could possibly fit into Dore Numa’s shoes.
Consequently, on February 7, 1936, after an interregnum of about 88 years, Gbesimi Emiko,
the great-grand son of Olu Akengbuwa I was installed the Olu as Ginuwa II.
The enthronement of the Olu had an immediate effect on Itsekiri-Urhobo relations in
the City of Warri and other parts of western Niger Delta. The Itsekiri were reported claiming
that the Olu had full powers to rule over the Ijaw and the Urhobo. They also 56
called on the colonial administration to style their ruler as the ‘Olu of Warri’ instead of the
Olu of Itsekiri, as he was hitherto known. The Acting Secretary for Southern Provinces
stationed at Enugu, Nigeria remarked in a note to the Governor that the call was an attempt
to flaunt before the Agbarha people, the 1934 verdict of the Privy Council, which adjudged
56
The Olu himself was reported to have claimed that he recognized no boundaries except those with the Oba of Benin, thereby
disregarding the existence of the Urhobo [and Ijaw], his immediate neighbors (C.S.O. 26/2, File 1187, Vol. XIV, Annual report,
Warri Province, 1936, pp. 6 – 7, cited by Obaro Ikime in Niger Delta Rivalry, p. 253)
287
Agbarha lands to be under the Itsekiri kingdom. The Urhobo objected, arguing that the title
would give the impression that all the people of Warri Province were subjects to the Olu,
since Warri incidentally was also the name of the entire division and province. The Acting
Secretary, Southern Provinces, when he reviewed the Itsekiri’s request, also made the point
As regards the second request [change of Olu’s title], Warri is the largest town in the
Itsekiri land, but it is comparatively recent. There is no historical claim to the title of
Olu of Warri and Warri is a township over which the Olu has no administrative
control. 57 Urhobo objection to the change of Olu’s title was sustained but that did not
prevent the Itsekiri from renewing the demand in a petition to the Chief Commissioner,
58
Western Provinces in 1944 and again in 1946. The Commissioner also in both instances
rejected the request and offered in 1946 to change the title to the ‘ Olu of Iwere’. Undaunted,
the Itsekiri taking advantage of political patronage, were able to persuade Chief Obafemi
Awolowo, the Western Nigeria Regional Minister of Local Government and Leader of the
Action Group Party in 1952 to recommend a change in the Olu’s title, to the full House. 59
The Urhobo objected and cited the same reasons they advanced when the issue was debated
in 1936 and 1944. The Action Group-controlled Government which had a substantial number
of individuals from the Itsekiri Establishment as members of the ruling party, ignored
Urhobo arguments and granted the Itsekiri request. In May of 1952, the Olu came to be
60
known as ‘The Olu of Warri’. The non-Itsekiri members for Warri Province,
particularly the Urhobo, were so incensed that the government had to change the name of the
province from Warri to Delta Province as a way to appease the people.
However the Colonial Administration obviously mindful of the consequences of the
change, cautioned in its note of September 1, 1952 approving the Western Nigeria
Government’s recommendation to change the Olu’s title that: His Honour approves the
change in the Olu’s title from that of Olu of Itsekiri to that of Olu of Warri. It should
be made quite clear, however, that, the change in title does not on any account imply an
61
extension of the Olu’s traditional authority”. The change in Olu’s title was to be
followed by the decision of the Itsekiri Establishment to move the reigning Olu, Erejuwa II,
from his ancestral home and cultural headquarters of Ode-Itsekiri to Ekurede in order to
provide him with more visibility. The creek-side village of Ekurede where the Olu could
now be reached by land, is located just outside the boundary of Warri City. 62Lloyd ( Urban
ethnicity, ed. Cohen, 1974:245) inferred that the choice of a location outside Warri
Township seemed to be an indication of Itsekiri’s seemingly loss of hope of bringing Warri
Township under the control of the Olu. One could view the choice of location, in more
explicit terms, that as a consequence of the 1952 riots and the fear that Urhobo would never
give up Warri Township. Lloyd further surmised that move was a part of Itsekiri’s grand
plan to build a new, modern and purely Itsekiri town around the Olu’s palace in Ekurede to
57
CSO 26/2, File No. 54176
58
War. Prof., File W. P. 86, Vol. I, See H. F. Marshall, Acting Secretary, Western Provinces to the Senior Resident, Warri Province,
No. 1132-343 of 9 October 1944, cited by Obaro Ikime, Niger Delta Rivalry, p. 269.
59
Many believe that Chief Obafemi Awolowo, leader of the Action Group of Nigeria (AG), granted the request to reward the Itsekiri
for siding with the party during the Nigerian General Elections of 1951. The Urhobo voted overwhelmingly for the National
Council of Nigeria and Cameroon (NCNC), the main opposing political in that electoral contest.
60
ibd., p. 270 citing C. S. O. 26/2 File 11857/S.I, Annual Report, Delta Province, 1952
61
The British Colonial Administration’s letter of approval, Ref. 26801/1/7, p. 2 also made clear: The title of the Olu of Warri is like
that the Alake of Abeokuta. Just as the title, Alake of Abeokuta does not mean that the Alake owns the whole of Abeokuta which
also include Ilaro and Egba, the title of the Olu does not confer the over-lordship or ownership of all lands in Warri on the Olu. Both
Egba and Ilaro have their own Obas (kings) who are not in any way subject to the Alake.
62
The Olu’s palace in Warri is built on lease-held land. The land was privately owned and was leased to Mr. Wilson Gbesimi Emiko,
Erejuwa II, by Chief Omagbemi for the Ewelofu family of Ekurede Warri. (Council of Ijaw Associations Abroad, Press
Release No. 3, August 1, 1999, p. 5).
288
which the Itsekiri would eventually decamp.
Review of How Warri City was Governed in the Years Prior to 1958
In order to appreciate the flaw in claims of control by any of the ethnic groups involved
in the dispute over communal ownership, one may need to examine how the City was
administered before 1958. The year 1958 is pivotal in the history of Warri City. 1958 was the
year in which the former Western Regional Government of Nigeria enacted the Communal
Lands Vesting Trustees Law. The law became controversial for the people of Warri
Township, as its application seemed to have revived the erstwhile flagging hope of the
Itsekiri Establishment to expand the exercise of over-lordship rights over lands in Warri City
and other parts in western Niger Delta.
Peter Lloyd (1956) provided some details of the administrative structure of Warri in the
years prior to 1955. Warri Township as a colonial settlement was administered before 1955
by a local administrative authority known as Warri Township Local Authority independently
of any indigenous authority in the area, including the Itsekiri Native Authority that was
created in 1930. The Authority was however assisted by an Advisory Board nominated by the
Resident. The Advisory Board was made up for example in 1939 of two government
officials, three representatives of European trading firms and three Africans, two of whom
were Itsekiri and one was Urhobo. The Olu of Itsekiri played no role in the government of the
township and neither did he exercise any form of control. The number of Africans was
increased to six in 1946 and further to twelve in 1951. While Llyod indicated that the six
members consisted of two Itsekiri and two Gold Coasters, he provided no figure for Urhobo
representation on that board probably because there was none. Also evident was the lack of
Ijaw representation on the board.
However, in 1951, the method used in selecting African members of the Advisory
Board was changed from appointment to one by election either by acclamation or by
whispering names to an electoral officer. In the past and before the system of indirect rule
was scrapped, the Resident made all the appointments. Of the twelve elected, six were
Itsekiri, four Urhobo and again no Ijaw. The Colonial authorities were accused of arranging
the proportion of Itsekiri to Urhobo members on the board to favor the Itsekiri. The
authorities however applied the system of secret balloting and direct rule in conducting the
election of councilors into the Warri Urban District Council. The Council which was
proposed in 1953 and finally created in 1955 replaced the Warri Township Local Authority.
The new system of election was based on the Local Government Law of 1952 (No. 1 of
1953) which provided for the first time for elections to be held by secret ballot. The legal
instrument, WRLN 176 of 1955 that established the Council delineated the council area into
separate wards to accommodate the interest of people resident in various sections of the
63
township. Of the twenty-one members elected in 1955 under this system of Direct Rule
into Warri Urban District Council, 14 were Urhobo (13 under the platform of NCNC., and
one A.G.), four Ibo (all NCNC.) and three Itsekiri (one AG., and two independent NCNC.).
Frederick64Esiri, an Urhobo elected on the platform of NCNC, the majority party,
was made the Chairman of the Council. The Action Group-controlled Government of
63
Electoral regulations stipulated that one person each be elected from 21 electoral wards in Warri Township namely Alder’s Town
AB1, A 2, A 3, B 1 and
Ogbe-Ijaw C and
2; C Agbassa 1D , D ,2;D , D 1 2 3 4 and D 5;Okere with Ajamogha E ,1 E ,2E and
3 E Government
4; Area
F1;Odion G 1, G ,2 and G 3(The Western Region Local Government Law, 1952 [No. 1 of 1953)], W. R. L 177 of 1955.
64
The Itsekiri accused Urhobo of electoral fraud alleging that Urhobo brought in truck loads of people from outside Warri in
Urhobo hinterland to register as voters in Warri Division. These voters were also said to have swarmed polling stations for about 12
hours before they opened on Election Day in 1955. (A Memorandum submitted by the Itsekiri Leaders of Thought to the Military
Governor of Bendel State on Proposals for Creating Warri Local Government Authority, July 12, 1976)
289
Western Nigeria appointed the Olu as the President and six Itsekiri chiefs as traditional
members, even though their titles had no traditional status in Warri City. It is also instructive
to note that no Ijaw was elected or appointed to serve on the Council. The absence of Ijaw
representation could well be an indication that the population of the Ijaw in the township was
probably thin at the time. The newly created Warri Urban District Council operated as an
autonomous body.
The electoral arrangement for Warri City that seemed to have taken into account the
cosmopolitan nature of the population in the City was in contrast to that made for areas
outside the township. 65The legal instrument of 1955 also established the Warri Divisional
Council. The divisional council was essentially made up of three Ijaw councils (Gbaramatu
Local Council, Ogbe-Ijoh Local Council and Egbema Local Council) and four Itsekiri
councils (Benin River Local Council, Koko Local Council, Ode-Itsekiri Local Council and
Ugborodo Local Council), including Itsekiri settlements of Ekurede Itsekiri, Ugbori,
Ugbuwangue and others that had sprung up on the outskirts of Warri City. The Township
itself though located within the geographical area covered by the divisional council was not
under the control of the council. Unlike the Warri Urban District Council, the Ijaw and
Itsekiri councils were not autonomous but had to function under the precepting authority of
the Warri Divisional Council.
Realignment of Political Fortunes and Disenfranchisement of

Non-Itsekiri Elements of Warri Township and Western Niger Delta
Understanding the forces behind the shifting of political fortunes in western Niger
Delta also means knowing how opportunity structures in the region have influenced the
expression of ethnicity and social relationship between the ethnic groups. Such analysis
could benefit from two major theoretical points as derived by Cohen: (i) Urban ethnic groups
are interest groups engaged in the struggle with other groups for resources in the public
arena. (ii) The peculiar contribution of ethnicity to the struggle is to provide an idiom that
promotes solidarity as a moral duty. Interest groups in the context used here are unlike those
of labor unions that are concerned with the allocation of resources between its members and
the employers, in which internal differences of one kind or the other are irrelevant. On the
other hand, relationship between the elites and the masses within each ethnic group in the
traditional African context takes precedence over the kind of class alignments that are
observed in labor politics. This is so because ethnic solidarity as a generalized moral
obligation as Hannerz infers, provides a particular form of relationship between individuals
within the groups. It ascribes to individuals in the group regardless of situation to a
relationship of incorporation, in which gains are sought for the sum of partners at the possible
66
expense of outsiders. The level of affinity is such that politicians for
personal interests could readily exploit ethnic solidarity. Such politicians may also be able to
secure marginal benefits through jobs and other resources for the people from the public
arena as patronage to ensure continued support of followers.
The dispute over communal ownership of Warri Township may have created grounds
65
Warri Divisional Council consisted of 51 members, namely the ‘Olu of Warri’ as the President, 10 traditional members and 40
elected members. The traditional members were individuals holding the titles: The Iyatsere Ogbe of Ode-Itsekiri, The Iyatsere
Atsogban of Ode-Itsekiri, The Ologbotsere of Benin River, The Oluye of Benin River, The Alema of Koko, The Olotun of Koko,
The Orori of Gborodo, The Pere of Ogbe-Ijaw, The Ikenuwa of Gbaramatu and The Oluejeyebeyije of Egbeoma. The number of
persons to be elected were distributed as follows: 11 from Benin River Council, 3 from Ogbe-Ijaw Local Council, 6 from Koko Local
Council, 3 from Gbaramatu Local Council, 5 from Gboroda Local Council, 5 from Egbeoma Local Council and 7 from Ode- Itsekiri
Local Council (Supplement to the Western Regional Gazette No. 30, Vol. 4, 30 June, 1955th– Part B, W.R.L.N. 176 of
1955.)
66
Ulf Hannerz: Ethnicity and Opportunity in Urban America in Urban Ethnicity, ed. Abner Cohen, p. 42.
290
for competition for power and resources in which the object of competition is the state
apparatus itself. The fierce rivalry for the control of the council government of the town, for
example, is believed to have risen from ‘the fear that which ever ethnic group controls the
Urban District Council will allocate market stalls only to its own members’. This control
which according to Post (1960;100) constituted a ‘serious threat for almost all the retail trade
of the town and its hinterland is controlled through the stalls built by the Councils in the
public market’. Much of this type of competition for relevance is known to occur either in
areas of colonial activity that were not fully controlled by colonial administrators, or in a
postcolonial society in which colonial influence has receded or is receding. These activities
include efforts to gain advantage through political patronage that would help to create
conditions for the domination of one group by another. The conditions were made possible
through various forms of political alignment, call for constitutional guarantees and enactment
of laws that had the effect of disenfranchising others and legitimating political control. Since
many of the activities and their effect on interethnic relations during colonial rule have been
discussed, this section of the chapter will turn its attention into examining political
developments that occurred in the period of transition from colonial rule to those in a
postcolonial society of Warri Township.
Political Alignment
The change of Olu’s title in 1952 in the last decade of colonial rule turned out only to
be the first step in what many regarded as Itsekiri determination to reestablish political
control of Warri City and Division. In fact, the table had begun to turn in favor of the Itsekiri
since the first general elections in 1951 under the revised Richards Constitution now known
as Macpherson Constitution of Nigeria. As Post (1963:412) gathered from an
informant during survey work for his book, The Nigerian Federal Elections of 1959 , the
Itsekiri Establishment had ‘apparently regarded the indirect elections of 1951 as their
opportunity to begin the desired renaissance and to reassert their control over the [Warri]
Division’. The Itsekiri people as the informant noted, would support the party that won. 67Inthe
elections, six Urhobo men were elected under the platform of the National Council of
Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) into the Western Nigeria House of Assembly. Two
Itsekiri, Arthur Prest, a lawyer and Festus Sam Edah, a businessman, were also elected.
Although the NCNC won more seats in Warri Division, it was Action Group (AG) that
mustered enough seats in Western Region as a whole to form the regional government.
Many Itsekiri politicians true to plan agreed upon quickly switched their loyalty and support
to the government in power. 68For example, Arthur Prest, an Itsekiri who had been elected
on the platform of Warri Peoples Party defected and declared for the Action Group Party.
The AG Government of Western Nigeria seemed to have reciprocated the political gesture by
exploiting a provision in the Macpherson constitution, to nominate Arthur Prest to the
Central Legislature where he was appointed the Central Minister of Communications. On the
hand, Urhobo elected as NCNC candidates stayed with their party. As members of opposition
in a Westminster type of parliamentary system that Nigeria inherited from Britain, none of
them was eligible for any ministerial appointment either at the regional or
67
The editorial page of the Warri National Union Newsletter , Anniversary Issue, No. 12, September 1955 echoed the same
sentiment. The newsletter, official organ of the London Branch of the Warri National Union while lamenting the decline in the
fortunes of the Itsekiri Nation, called on all Itsekiri to join hands to reverse the decline.
68
Many Itsekiri politicians alleged that Festus Sam Edah [almost] ruined Itsekiri plan of supporting the government in power by his
refusal to desert the NCNC and his friend, Nnamdi Azikiwe. He was to be accused repeatedly of trying to wreck the Itsekiri nation
and prevent Itsekiri from exercising their civic rights in their own home. In the subsequent Federal Elections of 1954, Chief Edah
was reelected mainly through the support of Urhobo, and Ibo immigrants in Warri Township.
291
at the central level.

By 1959, Itsekiri politicians had established themselves firmly in the hierarchy of the
Action Group Party and the Western Nigeria Regional Government. A partial list of Itsekiri
notables will suffice to prove the point. Reece Edunkugho became the Chairman of the
Action Group Divisional Executive and member of the Western House of Assembly for
Warri East. Another, Gabriel Ekwejunor-Etchie was the member of the Western House for
Warri West. Others like Ogbemi Rewane and Elliot Begho served as the party Divisional
Secretary and Publicity Secretary respectively for Warri Division. Still another Itsekiri,
Alfred Rewane, besides being the Political Secretary to Action Group Party Leader, Chief
Obafemi Awolowo, was made the Chairman of two state-owned corporations, the Western
Nigeria Marketing Board and the Western Nigerian Development Corporation. The
marketing and development boards were considered the main source of revenue and the
spending arm respectively of the Action Group government. Also prominent on the
diplomatic front was Michael Okorodudu who served in the highly visible ambassadorial
position of Western Nigeria Commissioner in United Kingdom. These politicians took
advantage of their positions to exploit party’s patronage not only to solidify their positions
but also to work towards restoring Itsekiri’s domination of political affairs in Warri Province.
Arthur Prest for example had been credited for successful lobbying the AG Government for
the change in Olu’s title. Another politician of Itsekiri persuasion, Festus Sam Edah now
known as Festus Okotie-Eboh who had risen to become by 1956, a very powerful politician
and Nigeria’s first Minister of Finance, was also known to have used his position to promote
69
Itsekiri causes.
In what appeared to be part of efforts to sustain the support of the Action Group, the
Itsekiri Establishment began to advance the view that Itsekiri were people of Yoruba origin,
and that Itsekiriland should be administered as part of Yorubaland. Many believe that this
ploy was to forestall the possibility of carving out of Yoruba dominated Western Region, a
new state, the Midwest State that would include Warri Division. The NCNC made the issue a
theme of its campaign in the Federal Election of 1959. The Action Group were opposed to
the inclusion of Warri Division even though it had in 1957 given the area a special status by
setting up a Ministry of Midwest Affairs and a Midwest Advisory Council. The Action
Group’s position was supported by the Minorities Commission’s report which stated that in
Warri ‘dismay would be more prevalent that pleasure’ if the new state could be created
overnight’. 70The Action Group Government of Western Nigeria was to declare in July of
1959 that it no longer recognized Warri Division as part of minorities area, a position which
a joyous Olu said ‘marked the fulfillment of a ten year-struggle by the Itsekiri people to be
identified with their Yoruba kith and kin in [Western] region. The71Itsekiri’s claim of
ethnic relationship with the Yoruba also received a boost with the inauguration of a Warri
branch of Egbe Omo Oduduwa, a major Yoruba cultural organization with Reece Edukugho
th
as its first Administrative Secretary. When the 12 annual conference of the organization
was held in Warri Township in November 1959, the Olu took the opportunity in his welcome
address to down play the importance of the ancestral connection of Itsekiri people
to the Benin monarchy: …….. that there should still be unprivileged Itsekiri who did
not acquire the basic history of the Itsekiri people … the fact that a few members of
the Royal House of Benin came over to Itsekiri to establish a kingdom did not
69
Festus Okotie-Eboh was born and raised in Batere in Benin River area of Itsekiri country of Urhobo parents; his father and
mother hailed from Ewu and Orogun areas of Urhoboland respectively
70
Report of the Minorities Commission, Chapter 4, paragraph 18, page 32
71
Daily Service, July 28, 1959 as cited Post in The Nigerian Federal Election of 1959, p. 417
292
automatically make them Benis. 72
The Itsekiri Communal Land Trust
Another strong incentive for the Itsekiri to stay with the party in power was to come
from the decision of the Western Regional Government in February 1959 to appoint five
‘Itsekiri Communal Trust Land Trustees’. The appointments were made in accordance with
the provisions of the Communal Lands Rights (Vesting in Trustees) Law of 1958. The73
enactment of such a law was part of government efforts according to Post (1963:414) to
regulate the conditions of land tenure in Western Nigeria to meet demands of modern life.
The law authorizes the government to nominate from among chiefs in the areas concerned,
trustees who would be expected to protect traditional rights over the lands. The five trustees
for Itsekiri lands included the Olu, Chiefs Edukugho and Ekwejunor-Etchie. Under the law,
the government surrendered to the Trust, the leases of lands that were considered crown-
owned. The lands involved were those acquired by the British Colonial Administration in
1906, 1908 and 1911 excluding sections of the lands now occupied by government
buildings. The buildings exempted include the Naval Base, Delta Boatyard, Old Customs
and Treasury, Warri South Local Government Council Offices, and Senior Service Quarters
etc. 74As the name suggested, the authority of the Trust was limited to lands that were
communal and Itsekiri. Yet, the Trust laid claims to all crown lands in Warri including those
75
belonging to private hands as Itsekiri owned. The Trust essentially became the
pristine landlord of these lands, replacing the Local Authority that administered Warri
Township independently of the Itsekiri in the years prior to1955. The transfer of leases thus
had the effect of forcing Urhobo people and other non-Itsekiri elements of Warri Township
to submit themselves as tenants to the Trust and by extension to the Itsekiri.
The Itsekiri Establishment seemed to have regarded the government surrender of leases
to the Trust as a final recognition of their claim of ownership of Warri Township and of the
corollary rights to draw funds from the Trust to promote Itsekiri interests. The transfer of
leases to the Trust became a useful cudgel for the Itsekiri to force others to accept their
claim of communal ownership of these lands. The trust proceeded to grant fresh leases
without the consent of the communities who lived in the lands affected. Many individuals
were threatened with confiscation of their property if they failed to take fresh leases from
the Trust on lands they already owned. The company, Messrs. John Holt Transport Limited,
for example, had to take another deed of lease in 1959 in spite of the existence of a
1911deed between Ogbe Yonwuren and John Holt & Co. Liverpool Limited. In May 1959,
it was also announced that trustees were negotiating to acquire Hussey College (secondary
grammar school) from its founders, Ogbemi Rewane and Elliot Begho. The trust would
provide over 70 percent of the fund and the rest from the Regional Govern- ment towards
new buildings for the school. The school was opened on November 7, 1959 at its new site.
Some believed that the Olu used the occasion to appeal to Itsekiri consciousness and to
impress upon the Itsekiri electorate the need to appreciate the value of supporting the
government in power, and the political ambition of those who controlled the
72
Quotations from the Midwest Echo, November 9, 1959 as cited by Post in The Nigerian Federal Election of 1959, p. 417
73
In 1978, Itsekiri Lands Trust among other such agencies in Nigeria were abolished by the Land Use Decree entrenched in Section
274(d) of the 1979 Constitution of the Federal Government of Nigeria. The various functions of the Trust, including the collection
of revenue were turned over to the Bendel now Delta State Ministry of Lands.
74
Chief Okotie-Eboh came under fire from the Warri National Union for failing to persuade the Federal Government of which he
was a member, to follow the example of Western Nigeria Government and surrender its rights over lands in Warri Township to the
Trustees (Midwest-Echo, July 17, 1959)
75
Daniel Obiomah, Warri, Land, Overlords & Land Rights, p. 86.
293
Communal Land Trust. 76The Thomas Commission of Enquiry set up in 1963 to look into the
affairs of the Trust, found that crown plots were allocated only to trustees and their agents, all
of whom are persons of Itsekiri descent. The commission also concluded that political
affiliation and personal interests were the overriding factors used in the allocation of the plots
to the individuals, some of whom proceeded to erect building on the plots without paying for
77
them.
Another consequence of communal trustee law is the persistent adoption and use of the
name of Warri in preference to Itsekiri. Some believe that these moves designed to legitimize
Itsekiri claims to exclusive ownership of Warri are taking the form of ideological struggles to
supplant or diminish what is already on the ground. A good number of Itsekiri institutions
including Chieftaincy titles now identify with the name Warri – Itsekiri Kingdom becomes
Warri Kingdom; Ologbotsere of Jakpa, Ologbotsere of Warri; Iyasere of Ubeji, Iyasere of
Warri, Uwangue of Jakpa, Uwangue of Warri etc. As Obiomal argued, many of these titles do
not conform to the definition of “chief” in the Bendel State Chiefs Edit Number 16 of 1979
now applicable to Delta State of Nigeria. A carnival procession to mark the anniversary of
the coronation of the Olu in May 2, 1987 was introduced in 1988 supposedly to promote
Itsekiri culture. The names of many major streets particularly those in Government
Reservation Area (GRA) have been replaced with names of prominent Itsekiri. For example,
Swamp Road is now known as Princess Olunogho Crescent, and School Road now Mabiaku
Road. The changes appeared to have been carried out to make the word Itsekiri synonymous
with the name Warri or to lay claim to anything that carries the label Warri.
78
Compiling List of Electoral Voters, and Constitutional Efforts
Apart from extra parliamentary measures, the struggle for control of Warri Township
and Division also involved manipulation of electoral registers and attempts to devise
constitutional means that would restrict participation in the political process of the area to a
few citizens. Many among the Itsekiri Establishment who had taken many of the early Crown
Land leases even before the Communal Land Trust Law was enacted, were becoming
increasingly frustrated with their inability to dominate or control the affairs of Warri City.
They called on colonial authorities to restrict the rights to vote or to be elected
to property owners. Democratic government which gives every resident a vote,
irrespective of his status, they claim, is a retrograde step . 79 Michael Okorodudu seemed
to have followed up on this proposition when he used his position as the Western Nigeria
Commissioner in the United Kingdom, to appear before the Willink Commission held in
London in 1957 and 1958. He pleaded with commission to recognize the ‘precarious
position’ of the Itsekiri in the City of Warri, stressing that …… In the town of Warri
where they [Itsekiri] number less than a sixth of the population, they consider it an
80
injustice that other tribes should have a vote or any say in the affairs of the town.
76
The point was made to underline the need to support the candidacy of Ogbemi Rewane, then Chairman of the newly constituted
School Board of Governors, who was running at the time, as an Action Group Candidate for Warri in the Federal Election of 1959.
77
Thomas Report also known as Western Nigeria Official Document No. 2 of 1963, p. 11, listed a number of Itsekiri notables
namely Alfred Rewane, Ogbemi Rewane, Elliot Begho, Brown Tenumah, Mayuku, B. C. Otuedo, O. Efueye, Nelson Mene-Afejuku
and Gabriel Ekwejunor-Etchie who received allocation of land from the Communal Land Trust. Much of the land affected, include
those with the lease area of B.2 in Government Reservation including the Golf Links.
78
The Guardian, Friday, May 28, 1993. The Truth About Who Owns Warri.
79
Peter Lloyd: West African Institute of Social and Economic Research Fifth Annual Conference Proceedings, March 1956, p. 85.
80
The Willink Commission was set up on the recommendation of Constitutional Conference held in London in 1957 and 1958 to
examine the fears of minority groups in any part of Nigeria and to propose ways to allay such fear as cited in J. O. E. Sagay, The
Warri Kingdom, p. 187
294
Such fear of losing control may well be one of the reasons why the Itsekiri Establishment,
called on Nigeria’s central government in 1963 to provide constitutional guarantees before
the Itsekiri would agree to be a part a Midwest Region that was about to be created.
The difficulty of compiling an accurate list of eligible voters was a consequence of the
census of 1952 and electoral regulations of 1953 that were modified in 1955 and again in
1958. According to the census figures of 1952, the population of Warri Division was 54,284,
made up of 20,889 Itsekiri, 10,972 Urhobo, 8,556 Ijaws, 8,379 Ibos and 5,488 others. As
observed later from election results, it was quite possible that the census estimate of 1952
was inaccurate, and it was not unlikely that there was ‘packing’ of at least one Itsekiri area
with electors brought in from outside. The population81 of Warri Township
itself at this time was put at 19,526; the 3,133 figure for Itsekiri accounted for only 16
percent while Urhobo and Ibo commanded 33 percent and 31 percent respectively of the
population. In accordance with Western Region Local Government Law of 1952 (No. 1 of
1953), electoral registers used for local government elections for the period between June
1953 and October 1955, were compiled from tax rolls. The registers were revised annually
by local government officials who visited homes to verify the accuracy of the list and to
secure the names of all eligible adults.
Implementing the electoral regulations as observed during the elections of 1955 for the
Warri Urban District Council was problematic. According to the regulations (section 23 of
the Law), a person shall be entitled to be a voter who “(a) (i) has been resident in the council
area for a period of 12 months immediately preceding the date of the election; or (ii) is a
native of the area; and (b) (i) has paid tax anywhere in Nigeria, or been exempted therefrom
in the financial year immediately preceding that in which the election is to be held; … ‘a
native of the area’ means a person who was born in or whose father was born in the area.” All
others including women could register in their native wards (see Lloyd and Post, 1960).
Many Itsekiri women living in Sapele found that they had no vote and decided to flock
accompanied by their men from Sapele not to the villages in the creeks where they were born
and raised but to register to vote in the contested City of Warri. The men feeling that their
votes would be wasted in Sapele, must have decided like the women to register in Warri
82
Township where their votes could help elect Itsekiri candidates. Many saw these
movements as attempts to pack the electoral registers in Warri Township with Itsekiri names.
The NCNC was alleged to have reacted by bringing in truckloads of electors from
neighboring villages to swell the population even more. The electoral adjudicators were
however able to remove many of the names of those who came from outside to register to
vote in Warri Township from over 20,000 to 11,000. The results of the election favored
Urhobo (Urhobo won 14 of the 21 seats on the Warri Urban District Council) and the Itsekiri
were quick to accuse Urhobo of having engaged in rigging and committing other forms of
electoral frauds. Reece Edukugho, an Action Group candidate was elected in 1956 with a
slight majority of a little over 400 into the Western House of Assembly for Warri East, which
incidentally comprised Ode-Itsekiri Council Area, Warri Township and some Ijaw villages.
83
The difficulties of running a credible registration and election resurfaced in 1959 in
81
K. W. J. Post, The Nigerian Federal Election of 1959, p. 414
82
Many of the Itsekiri who flocked to Warri Township claimed the township as the place of birth, often saying that their mothers had
come to a midwife in the town to deliver. Over 20,000 names were registered as a result. The population of the town in 1921,
was only 2,000. The fact that many of those who registered were born around 1921 cast doubts on claims of Warri as a place of
birth ( Journal of African Administration, XII, p. 100)
83
Reece Edukugho was to lose the Warri East seat to the NCNC candidate in August 1960 elections.
295
84
spite of several attempts to close all loopholes in earlier regulations. New electoral
regulations that would provide uniform procedures for registration and election throughout
Nigeria, were published in July of 1958. The major regional difference was that women
could vote in the Eastern and Western Nigeria but not in Northern Nigeria. Another
modification from previous regulations was the definition of residence. The amendment
published in November 1958 defined the place of residence of a person as ‘the place where
he intends to return when away therefrom’. Registration that was carried out on the basis of
the revised regulations between February and March 1959 for Warri Division recorded
35,742 about 72 percent of the total population in 1952. In Warri Township itself, 14,212
were registered, about 62 percent of 1952 figures. According to Post, the registration
numbers seemed high especially when one notes that only those 21 years old could vote, but
not extraordinary for the whole Western Nigeria with an official claim of 97 percent
registration of calculated ‘eligible population’. Both AG and NCNC objected to 20,180
names; many of the objections could not be sustained and had to be withdrawn, especially for
the Itsekiri and Ijaw who lived in the creeks around Warri Township. The residence of these
citizens because of their migratory nature (they often wander from place to place fishing for
85
their livelihood), could not easily be ascertained.
The difficulty of defining residence notwithstanding, the number of registered voters in
some creek areas seemed exceptionally high. Ode-Itsekiri Local Council area, for example,
registered 6,204 eligible voters, an increase of 125 percent of the 1952 total population; a
village came up with more than twice its population in 1952. Benin River and Gborodo local
council areas also showed an increase of 72 percent and 65 percent respectively. The NCNC
alleged that the Action Group had packed these areas with Itsekiri voters, its major supporters
in the region, in readiness for regional elections coming up in 1961. The Itsekiri may well
have defended their action by arguing they complied with regulations when they selected
Itsekiri areas including Ode-Itsekiri, traditional capital of the Itsekiri, their ‘choice’ of
registration areas, being the places “to which they intended to return”. Reece Edukugho,
Chairman of Action Group Divisional Committee for Warri Division had also claimed in a
newspaper report that a preliminary list contained 22,000 Itsekiri names and 14,000 for all
others. He also accused Festus Okotie Eboh, an NCNC candidate in the report of trying to
object to Itsekiri names and prevent the Itsekiri from exercising or discharging their civic
duties. The NCNC objections were however ignored as the original objections were
destroyed and replaced with meaningless ones by unknown individuals, allegedly for the
purpose of invalidating all of them. In spite of these types of attacks, Okotie-Eboh remained
popular and was re-elected in the 1959 elections largely as many believe through the support
of non-Itsekiri voters in the area.
Perhaps, the boldest move in the struggle for control was the unfortunate search for
constitutional means to secure the domination of one group by another. Many believe that
Festus Okotie-Eboh used his position or influence to persuade the Nigeria central government
to enshrine in the Midwest Constitution of 1963, a number of provisions
84
Much of the information about registration figures came from K. W. J. Post’s Where Should One Vote? in Journal of African
Administration, XII, 1963
85
The issue of inflated number of registration surfaced again in 1988 when Electoral officer claimed to have registered 481,979
eligible voters in Warri Local Government in an area where the population of eligible adults was estimated to be 175,240. The
number of Itsekiri wards was substantially increased from the original figure as many were split into smaller units. Obiomah alleged
that the inflated figures were possible because officers of Itsekiri origin dominated Warri Local Government and key positions in
Bendel State Government. For example, the Commissioner for Government; Permanent Secretary for Local Government; the entire
membership of UPN Management Committee; Chairman of Local Government Service Commission; Officer-in-Charge, Registration
of Voters, Warri Local Government; and Secretary, Warri Local Government doubling up as Revising Officer of the Preliminary
Voters’ List, Warri Local Government Council including officials appointed by him, were all
Itsekiri. [Daniel Obiomah, Who Owns Warri (A Treatise For Peace, pp. 85-88 and 128-130)].
296
intended to guarantee Itsekiri control of Warri Urban District Council and Warri Divisional
Council. 86The stipulations offered as conditions under which the Itsekiri would agree to be
a part of Midwest Region before it was to be carved out of the former Western Region of
Nigeria, ran as follows:
x That a provision entrenching the title of the Olu of Warri in the Constitution of the
Region be made and the holder of the title being an ex-officio member of the
House of Chiefs,
x A provision in the constitution that only the Itsekiri must stand for election to the
House of Assembly in Warri Division. This provision inserted in First Schedule of
the Constitution, asked for a partial communal electoral system for four special
areas, and
x A provision in the Local Government electoral law giving the Itsekiri two-thirds
of the seats in both the Warri Divisional Council and Warri Urban District Council.
87
The provision was to provide a separate electoral register for Itsekiri
All the provisions except those dealing with allocation of seats in the urban district and
divisional councils were implemented before the Nigerian Military seized control of the
Nigerian Government on January 15, 1966. These constitutional provisions would have
meant that Urhobo like Frederick Esiri who was elected Chairman of the Warri Urban
District Council, 1955 – 1958, and Daniel Okumagba, a former elected member of the
Western House of Assembly from Warri in 1955, could no longer aspire to any elected
political office in Warri. The provisions also had the effect of spreading the over-lordship of
the Olu to cover some areas of the former Warri Division including the Ijaw communities of
Egbema, Gbaramatu, Isaba and Ogbe-Ijaw. In other words, the guarantees would also have
effectively abolished the 1958 Chiefs Law cap.19 of the Laws of Western Nigeria (WRLN
335 of 1958) that recognized Ijaw Traditional Rulers and their independence of the
over-lordship or the jurisdiction of the Itsekiri king.
The Warri Council of [Itsekiri] Chiefs was also to sponsor a bill to the Nigeria’ Senate
in 1999 to create The Federal Protected Territory for Warri Division, without
consultation with other ethnic nationalities of the area. The administrative structure as
designed was to be dominated by the Itsekiri even though they were considered the minority
group in the area. The bill also called for the creation of a Territorial Force Command under
the control of the Itsekiri to maintain law and order. Many fear that such a command will be
used to intimidate any group, most likely the Ijaw, Urhobo and any other group who might
be opposed to such a system. 88
Effect of Military Rule and the Reorganization of

Warri City and Nigeria’s Western Niger Delta
The military take over of Nigeria in 1966, brought in changes that affected electoral
arrangements in ways that struck a new note in the politics of Warri. Nigeria’s military
government suspended all constitutions both at the federal and regional levels, including that
of the newly created Midwest Regional Government. The suspension might have seemed like
a relief from a system that had severely limited the participation of Ijaw and
86
Midwest Constitution 1963, Sections 5, 7, 14 and the First Schedule.
87
A Memorandum submitted by the Itsekiri Leaders of Thought to the Military Governor of Bendel State on Proposals for Creating
Warri Local Government Authority, July 12, 1976, p.5
88
Vanguard, July 5, 1999, pp. 22 –23
297
Urhobo nationals in the political affairs of Warri City and other areas of Nigeria’s western
Niger Delta. However, military regimes by their nature are notorious for shrinking space for
public debate on issues and other forms of democratic participation in governance. The result
had been the pervasive suspicion of government intention and many of its interventions had
been considered insensitive and aggravating. The running of Warri Divisional Council and
Warri Urban District Council was placed in the hands of individuals appointed by the
Military Governor of the region. Many of these administrators presided over looting of public
resources and cared very little for the welfare of the people.
Obasanjo Local Government Reforms of 1976
The whole of Warri Division, including Warri Urban District Council, was merged by
Obasanjo local government reforms of 1976 into one Warri Local Government Area (LGA).
However many felt the Obasanjo reforms had the effect of disenfranchising non-
Itsekiri elements in Warri Division by way of gerrymandering. A number of Ijaw territories
in Warri Division were believed gerrymandered into districts that favor the Itsekiri and so
deprived them of adequate representation in the government of the region. For example,
Itsekiri villages of Ode-Itsekiri, Orugbo, Obodo and Omadino were by electoral registration
exercise of 1976, included in Ijaw areas of Gbaramatu, Egbema and Ogbe-Ijaw as wards in
the Warri Local Government Area, solely as many Ijaw believed, to give electoral advantage
89
to the Itsekiri over other groups. The Local Government Council elections of
1976 were based on the new electoral wards, and out of 15 seats contested, non-Itsekiri
candidates won eight leaving seven to the Itsekiri. However, the Military Governor of the
state exercising his power of choice chose the minority candidate, Elliot Begho as Chairman
of the council instead of Daniel Okumagba of the majority. The choice precipitated a crisis
that left the council paralyzed for over three months. The crisis was partially resolved when
the Ijaw member elected from ward 7, was withdrawn on the pretence that ward 7 was
located in Ondo State and not in Bendel State. A vote to elect a new Chairman ended in a tie
and the Governor appointed Mr. Sunday Skinn, another Itsekiri as the Chairman.
The Warri Local Government Council ran for some thirty months amid acrimonious
dealings before it was dissolved by a newly elected civilian government controlled by the
United Party of Nigeria (UPN). The UPN government which had many elements of the
former AG party, known for their sympathy for Itsekiri causes, replaced the Council by a
management committee of only Itsekiri members under the chairmanship of Ogbemi
Rewane. 90The government also transferred the Ijaws in Ogbe-Ijoh near Warri Township,
over their objection to merge with their kith and kin in Burutu Local Government Area. The
presence of Ijaw in the former Warri Division was also diluted by the illegal transfer of
Tsekelewu, an oil-rich Ijaw constituency from Bendel State formerly known as Midwest
State to join Ondo state, without the knowledge and consent of the people of Tsekelewu. It
took another government, this time one controlled by the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), in
1983, to dissolve the All-Itsekiri Member Committee and to return the Ijaw communities of
Tsekelewu and Ogbe-Ijaw back to Warri Local Government Area.
Creation of additional Local Government Areas (LGAs)
Delta State was created in August of 1991 when the military returned to Nigeria’s
89
Council of Ijaw Associations Abroad (CIAA), Press Release No. 3, August 1, 1999, p. 4
90
The leader of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) was Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the leader of the now defunct Action Group Party
of Nigeria which officially changed the title of the Olu from the Olu of Itsekiri to the Olu of Warri in 1952
298
political landscape in 1983. Warri Division was also reorganized into two administrative
areas, Warri South Local Government and Warri North Local Government.Warri South was
more or less the former Warri Urban District Council covering the two Urhobo communities
of Agbarha and Okere, and some Itsekiri settlements outside Warri Township including
Ode-Itsekiri. Warri North consisted of all four Ijaw clans of Egbema, Gbaramatu, Isaba and
Ogbe-Ijoh and some Itsekiri settlements with headquarters at Koko in Itsekiri countryside.
The arrangement for Warri North proved to be difficult for the Ijaw who must now travel on
water through the Escravos and Benin River estuaries to Warri City on the mainland and
continue from there on land through Sapele and Ethiope local government areas to reach
Koko for official business. The Federal Military Government recognized the problem and
was persuaded to reassign the four Ijaw clans to Warri South. Each of the LGAs was placed
under the control of a Sole Administrator appointed by the Military Governor.
The reassignment to Warri South was however no longer sufficient to satisfy the Ijaw
as they began to press for a separate local government of their own. 91After investigation by
the Delta State Government, the Federal Government on the advice of the state government,
created in October 1996, the Warri South-West Local Government Council with headquarters
supposedly billed for location in an Ijaw community at Ogbe-Ijoh outside Warri City across
Warri River. The new council was made up of two Itsekiri communities of Ogidigbe and
Omadino, and all of the Ijaw communities except those of Egbema which remained in Warri
North along with some Itsekiri settlements with headquarters at Koko in Itsekiri country.
Warri South as currently constituted comprises essentially all the areas administered under
the former Warri Urban District Council with new additions of neighboring Itsekiri territories
of Ode-Itsekiri, Ugbori, Ekurede-Itsekiri, and Urhobo areas of Agbarha and Okere
communities. Each of the LGAs were also under the supervision of a government appointed
Sole Administrator. The Ijaw were still not satisfied with the new electoral arrangement and
became more incensed when the Abacha Military Government decided to reassign the
headquarters of Warri South-West Council from Ogbe – Ijoh across from Warri City on
mainland to Ogidigben, an Itsekiri village located on the Escravos estuary. The Ijaw believed
that the Itsekiri Establishment had persuaded some military government functionaries to alter
earlier plans that placed the headquarters at Ogbe-Ijoh. The Ijaw saw the new government
directive as unfair and refused to abide by it.
The three councils of Warri North, Warri South and Warri South-West as currently
constituted remain unpopular and some view the composition of the councils as another
example of government’s acquiescence to Itsekiri demand for full control. Although the
Itsekiri are considered minority in at least two of the three councils, the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) of Nigeria, assigned to them more electoral wards than those
given to the Ijaw and Urhobo majority. For example, Warri South has 19 electoral wards
evenly split between the Itsekiru and Urhobo even though many believe that the population
of the Itsekiri is much smaller. Ode-Itsekiri that was regarded as one ward, is now split into
three wards namely Ode-Itsekiri, Obodo and Ubeji as some alleged to give the Itsekiri
electoral advantage.
91
The demand for a separate local government for the Ijaw, in fact started much earlier as shown by a letter addressed by the
Resident, Warri Province to the Secretary, Civil Service, Western Region: “I have recently met the Gbaramatu and Ogbe-Ijaw
Councils, and explained that their request would be considered in relation to the whole question of local government reform in the
province. Their grievance against the Itsekiri is that they are treated as inferior beings, looked down in Council and generally
disregarded. This is the natural reaction of a very backward tribal minority, and represents strong feelings on the part of most of the
people concerned, though there is a pro-Itsekiri element in Isaba, a village of the Ogbe-Ijaw group. At both council meetings, I was
implored as representing a Government of God-like power, to arrange removal of the Itsekiri yoke” (Letter referenced No. WP.
1452/14 of August 20, 1952)
299
Concluding Remarks
A number of municipalities or cosmopolitan cities like Warri Township were built

th
towards the end of the 19 century in Nigeria by colonial authorities to serve as
administrative headquarters. They became major attractions for migration of people from far
away and neighboring places, flocking in to settle and to be able to exploit economic
opportunities offered. The result of this mix of people from different backgrounds often
working at cross-purposes is the rise of what Afigbo called urban revolution in Nigeria, that
has come to be characterized by an intense competition among the people for common
92
resources, be they political or economic. Searching for an answer to the question, Who
Owns Warri? may well be akin to examining perennial urban problems that are common to
colonial Africa, including those dealing with issues of communal land ownership and the
corollary rights of the indigenous to govern or rule.
The dispute over the communal ownership of the City originated from the action of
colonial authorities, in which they chose to use two of their employees, Dore Numa and
Ogbe Yonwuren, as surrogates for acuquiring land. The authorities acquired the lands to
build a consulate close to the center of a growing commercial activity on the mainland
immediately north of Warri River. The acquisition was handled unjustly not only to deny
indigenous communities fair compensation due them for use of their land but also to expand
privileges for the Itsekiri to the detriment of other groups in the area. With the end of British
colonial rule in Nigeria, the Itsekiri now finds its privileges and interests challenged by the
Ijaw and Urhobo, the other ethnic groups in the area. The Itsekiri reaction to the challenge
has been to organize to maintain privileges by relying on various instruments of the
government in power, to safeguard their interests. The struggle for supremacy remains tied to
the issue of ethnic ownership of crown lands in Warri Township which Dore Numa and
Ogbe Yonwuren leased to colonial authorities. However, the decision of the Privy Council in
1934 that adjudged the area to be Itsekiri-owned could no longer be sustained 60 years later
under the weight of fresh and new evidence regarding the extent of colonial self interest,
existence of treaties that identified major parts of Warri City as non-Itsekiri and in the light
of post colonial court decisions.
So who owns Warri? The issue raised in the question is about the rights of indigenous
people to land in their homeland. The desire of the citizens of Warri to participate fully in
the affairs of their city would not be realized as long as infringement on property rights in
the area continues. Infringement on property rights tends to lead to the curtailment of other
93
essential rights of citizens to participate in their government. As indicated earlier, courts
in post-colonial Nigeria have declared many instances of infringement of property rights by
the Itsekiri Communal Lands trust illegal. The courts declared that lands in private hands
anywhere whether such lands exist in Ugborode, Ugbuwangue or Okere-Warri, cannot be
part of land communally owned by all Itsekiri. That leaves for resolution, the issue of who
owns the crown lands described in the leases signed by Dore Numa in 1906, 1908 and 1911.
The claims of ownership put forward by Ijaw, Itsekiri and Urhobo people of Agbarha-
Warri could be examined against the following facts and issues:
x The leases concern land in only two of Agbarha communities, Otovwodo,

traditional headquarters of Agbarha-Warri and Igbudu, and not the rest of five
92
A. E. Afigbo, The Eastern Provinces under Colonial Rule in Groundwork of Nigerian History, p.427-428)
93
For a fuller discussion of property rights, see Gottfried Dietze’s Manga Carta
300
other adjoining Agbarha territories of Ogunnu, Okorode, Edjeba, Oteghele and

Ukpokiti. The five territories though part of a continuous community lie outside the
crown areas described in the leases.
x Dore Numa and Ogbe Yonwuren, both signatories to the Warri leases had personal
properties in Warri Township and Ugbuwangue respectively. Dore leased the only
property credited to his name at 42 Market Road, Warri Township from colonial
authorities. The Itsekiri settlement of Ugbuwangue where Ogbe owned property
lies outside the area covered by the leases of 1906, 1908 and 1911. Ogbe was able
to lease his property there to John Holt in 1911 in his capacity as the owner and not
on behalf of the Olu or all Itsekiri people.
x Pessu who according to Obiomah settled on land granted him by Agbarha people
when he fled from the commotion in Ode-Itsekiri following the death of Olu
Akengbuwa, did not extend his claim beyond his compound now known as Alder’s
Town. The land incidentally is part of that covered in the 1908 lease signed by
Dore Numa. Pessu was able to recover his property allegedly through the help of
British friends in 1927.
x The Itsekiri community of Okere limited their claim of 1915 to lands used for the
Prisons and extension for Warders Quarters, all of which are outside the area
covered by the leases of 1906, 1908 and 1911.
x A group of unhappy members of the Itsekiri royal family accused Dore Numa as
an usurper in Denedo versus Dore Numa of 1924 for improperly collecting rents
on property in their name. Although they lost, the suit did not as inferred by
Obiomah, establish any Itsekiri individual or family claim to any land within the
areas represented in the leases.
x When Dore Numa signed the Warri leases, he claimed he was acting on behalf of
the “Chiefs and people of Warri”. As Obiomah noted, the Olu was not named in
the deed and as he further deducted through a process of elimination, there were no
Itsekiri at that time, who could be described as chiefs and people of Warri that
Dore claimed to have represented.
x None of Ijaw titles including those of Ijaw traditional rulers such as the Pere of
Ogbe-Ijaw, the Ikenuwa of Gbaramatu, the Oluejeyebeyije of Egbeoma describes
the Ijaw people as people of Warri Township. The legal instrument that established
the Warri Divisional Council in 1955 identified three Ijaw council areas and four
Itsekiri council areas, all of which were located outside the Township area.
The process of delineating others from ownership role leaves Agbarha people as the
only bona fide owners of the land involved in the leases of 1906, 1908 and 1911, which they
94
claim they inherited from their ancestors. As Ukoli (2004) inferred, if the exercise of
94
The leases signed in 1906, 1908 and 1911, also known as B2, B5, and B7 leases respectively will expire between the year 2006
and the year 2011. The people of Agbarha Warri, have expressed their desire to get these plots of land back.. Incidentally, the
Agbarha leases are among the many including those at Sapele and Kwale, leased by Dore Numa. The Sapele and Kwale leases have
been released to the rightful owners, the people of Sapele and Kwale respectively.
301
Itsekiri over-lordship was ruled inapplicable to private and family lands in Okere-Urhobo,
Ugbuwangue and Ugborode, the same is true for Agbarha lands and Warri Township. British
colonial authorities themselves recognized such rights to land when they signed treaties with
various communities in the Niger basin, in which they pledged to protect the lands in return
for the privilege to operate in the region. For colonial authorities to excise a part of a
continuous community belonging to Agbarha people for development and come around to
declare the area as part of Itsekiri kingdom simply because the lands were conveniently
acquired through an Itsekiri chieftain, represents a major flaw in British colonial policy. As
the Sapele case of 1941 clearly declared, Dore Numa had no representative capacity. He
acted alone as political agent and not on behalf of the Itsekiri in the various land deals that he
contracted for colonial authorities.
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Ikime, Obaro. (1977). The Fall of Nigeria: The British Conquest . Ibadan, Nigeria: Heinnemann
Educational Books Limited
Lloyd, Peter. 1956. Tribalism in Warri, Paper presented at West African Institute of Social and Economic
Research, Fifth Annual Conference, March 1956, Reprinted by Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic
Research, 1963
Lloyd, Peter & Post, K. W. J. 1960. Where Should One Vote? Journal of African Administration, XII, pp.
95-106.
Lloyd, Peter. 1963. The Itsekiri in the Nineteenth Century: An Outline of Social History.” Journal of
African History, IV, 2, 207 – 231
Llyod, Peter. 1974. Power and independence, urban Africans perception of social inequality . London:
Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Lloyd, P. C. & Ryder, A. F. C. Dom Domingos, Prince of Warri, Odu 4, 1957, pp. 27-39
Memorandum Presented to the Military Governor of Bendel State on Proposals for Warri Local
Government Authority by Itsekiri Leaders of thought, July 12, 1976.
Memorandum of Agbarha Clan, Warri South Local Government Local Government Area to The Warri
Judicial Commission of Enquiry into The Riots in Warri in May 1993, submitted on October 4, 1993.
Memorandum of Agbarha Clan Group Warri South L.G.A. to The Justice Alhassan Idoko Warri Judicial
Commission of Enquiry into The Ethnic Unrest, March to May 1997, in the Three Warri Local
Government Council Areas Undated.
Moore, William, A. 1936. History of Itsekiri. London: Frank Cass and Company Limited
Obiomah, Daniel, A. 1975. The Land Factor in Inter-Community Feuds in Warri – A Colonial Legacy .
Self Published
Obiomah, Daniel, A. 1987. Warri: Land, Overlords & Land Rights (Ometan Vs Dore Numa) Fact,
Fiction & Imperialism. Warri, Nigeria: GKS Press.
Obiomah, Daniel, A. 1995. Warri, Urhobo & The Nigerian Nation. Warri, Nigeria: GKS Press
Osaghae, Eghosa. 2003. Colonialism and Civil Society in Africa: The Perspectives of Ekeh’s Two
Publics, presented at the Symposium on Canonical Works and Continuity in African Arts and
Humanities, Accra, Ghana, September 17-19, 2003
Plotnicov, Leonard. 1972. Who Owns Jos? Ethnic Ideology in Nigerian Urban Politics. Urban
Anthropology, Volume 1 (1), 1972, pp. 001-013.
Post, Kenneth, E. J. 1963. The Nigerian Federal Elections . Published for the Nigerian Institute of Social
and Economic Research, Oxford University Press (January 1, 1963)
Sagay, John, O. E. 1980. The Warri Kingdom. Sapele, Nigeria: Progress Publishers
The Third Rejoinder of the Ijaws of Warri Division to the Representations of the Itsekiri Leaders of
Thought to the Head of State, Chieftaincy Matters in Warri Division. The True Position and the Stand of
the Ijaws of Warri Division by Ijaw Chiefs, Elders and Leaders of Thought of Warri Division, August 6,
1976.
Ukoli, Frank. 2004. I Can See Clearly Now: A Review of Warri City and British Colonial Rule in Western
th
Niger Delta. Ed. Peter Ekeh, Presented at the 5 Annual Conference of Urhobo Historical
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Society Held at the Petroleum Training Institute, Effurun, Nigeria on October 29, 2004.
Urhobo Historical Society, 2000. British Imperialism in Urhoboland: British Colonial ‘Treaties of
Protection’ With Urhobo Communities in “Warri District” 1892-93
http:/www.waado.org/UrhoboHistory/BritishColonialRule/ColonialTreaties.html.
304
Chapter 13
Judgement on Warri Land Case

between
Itsekiri Claimants and Chief Daniel Okumagba
(for Urhobo-Okere Community in Warri)
_____________________
In The Supreme Court of Nigeria

On Friday, the 8thday of October 1976
S.C. 309/74
Before Their Lordships
Atanda Fatayi-Williams . . . . . . Justice, Supreme Court

Mohammed Bello . . . . . . Justice, Supreme Court
Andrews Otutu Obaseki . . . . . . Acting Justice, Supreme Court
Between
D.O. Idundun
Chief P.O. Awani
A.E. Hesse
C.A. Lorie
J.D. Oruru ...... Plaintiffs/Appellants
(for themselves and on behalf of Ogitsi
family of Okere, Warri.)
Itsekiri Communal Land Trustees
Erejuwa II, The Olu of Warri
(for himself and on behalf of the Itsekiri people)
and
Daniel Okumagba
(for himself and on behalf of Olodi, Oki, and ...... Defendant/
Ighogbadu families of Idimi-Sobo, Okere, Warri) Respondent
Judgement of the Court

Delivered by
Atanda Fatayi-Williams. J.S.C.
In Suit No W/48/1968 commenced in the High Court of the Mid-Western State sitting in
Warri, the plaintiffs claimed against the defendants jointly and severally:
"1. A declaration that in accordance with Itsekiri Customary Law, all that piece or parcel
of land at Okere, Warri, described in Plan N o WE.2367 filed in this suit and verged pink is
the property of the Ogitsi Family of Okere subject only to the overlord-ship of the Olu of
Warri now vested in and exercisable by the Itsekiri Communal Land Trustees by virtue of
the Communal Land Rights (Vesting in Trustees) Law 1959 and the Warri Division (Itsekiri
Communal Land) Trust Instrument, 1959.
“2. A declaration that, in accordance with Itsekiri Customary Law, defendants have forfeited
their rights of user and/or occupation and any other rights or estate in or over that part of the
land in dispute marked Area ''B' and any right they may have in or over that part of the land
in dispute marked Area 'A' in the Plan No. E.2367 filed by the plaintiffs in this suit.
“3. An order of injunction to restrain the defendants, their servants and/or agents and any other
person or persons purporting to claim under or through them from entering the land in dispute
and/or interfering with plaintiffs' rights and interest in and over the said land in dispute and in
particular from granting leases or other disposition of the same to any other persons or
collecting rents or any other dues from any other persons in respect of the land in dispute."
Pleadings were ordered and were duly delivered.
The averments in the plaintiffs ' amended statement of claim and the evidence adduced
in support showed clearly that the claim was based partly on traditional evidence and partly
on acts of ownership. The averments in the defendants' statement of defence and the evidence
given by them in support gave a completely different version of the traditional evidence. The
defendants also testified as to their acts of ownership on the land in dispute. It must be
pointed out at this stage, however, that the defendants did not counterclaim for title to the
land.
In a considered judgement, the learned trial judge after reviewing, at great length if we
may say so, all the evidence adduced by both parties, rejected the traditional evidence
adduced in support of the plaintiffs' claim after observing as follows:
"Considering first the traditional evidence in the case, my view of that aspect
of the evidence in plaintiffs' case whereby plaintiffs have sought to establish that
the land in dispute and even also Okere Village were part of the kingdom
founded by Ginuwa I and also their evidence that Ogitsi owned the whole of
Okere land including the land in dispute in this case is that it is unconvincing.
“The plaintiffs say that Ginuwa I founded a kingdom and that before Ekpen
came to Okere the area of Okere was or would be part of that kingdom. There
is no evidence of the extent or area covered by that kingdom, nor is there any
evidence going to show any act or acts in history which made the area part of
the kingdom founded by Ginuwa I before Ekpen came there.
...............................................................................................................................
....................................................................….………
“The evidence in plaintiffs' case only shows that Ginuwa I when he was
trying to make a settlement after leaving Benin got as far as Ijalla where he
ultimately settled, lived, died and was buried. There is no evidence in plaintiffs'
case going to show that in the process of making his settlement or kingdom he
or any persons under him settled anywhere beyond Ijalla and towards or in
Okere.
“I do not believe that any kingdom founded by Ginuwa I extended to Okere.
Plaintiffs' evidence and also evidence in the whole case do not prove such extent
of any kingdom founded by Ginuwa I."
306
Judgement on Warri Land Case….
As to the veracity of the geneological evidence, the learned trial judge observed
as follows:
"The evidence in plaintiffs' case is that Ginuwa I founded his kingdom about
1485 and evidence in the case established that he got to Ijalla.
“The evidence in the plaintiffs' case is that the first of the ancestors of the
Idimisobos, that is, the defendants' people, to come to Okere came there during
the reign of Olaraja Arukuleyi and the plaintiffs put the time of Arukuleyi's
reign at about two hundred years ago or more. The Olu then was Akengbuwa
who was on the throne from 1795 to 1848 (see the evidence of plaintiffs' 6 th
witness, Chief Begho).
“From 1485 when Ginuwa I founded his kingdom to 1795 when
Akengbuwa became Olu and during whose reign plaintiffs say Arukuleyi was
Olaraja is about three hundred years, actually three hundred and ten years to be
precise.
“The only Olaraja mentioned by the plaintiffs before that interval was Ogitsi
and Gbegbenu. All that plaintiffs were able to say of Olaraja Gbegbemu's
geneology is that he is descended from Ogitsi. ......................
“The view I take of this aspect of the evidence in plaintiffs' case is that they
are not certain about the precise geneological connections of the said persons
st
and that this is so is even confirmed by the evidence of 1 plaintiff when he
said
'Gbegbenu is a descendant of Ogitsi* I do not remember the father of
Gbegbenu.'"
After considering the following books to which he was referred in the course of his
address by learned counsel for the plaintiffs:
(1) "The Benin Kingdom and Edo-speaking peoples of Southern Nigeria" by

R. E. Bradbury and P. C. Lloyd; and
(2) "A Short History of Benin" by Jacob Egharevba.
As to how Ginuwa I left Benin, the learned trial judge observed as follows:
"Save as to the date of departure of Ginuwa from Benin City and his settling
finally at Ijalla and founding a kingdom, none of the books affords any reliable
basis for testing the veracity of the rest of plaintiffs' traditional evidence"
The learned trial judge also considered a third book cited before him – P.A. Talbot's
book on "The Peoples of Southern Nigeria" - and observed that that book only shows that
Ginuwa left Benin about 1480 to found an Itsekiri Kingdom and that nothing therein referred
to by learned counsel dealt with how Okere was founded.
Since it is implicit in the second leg of the plaintiffs' claim that the defendants were in
possession of most of the portion shown as Areas 'A and' 'B' in the land in dispute as
indicated in the plaintiffs' survey plan (Ex. 2), the learned trial judge dealt at great length
with the evidence as to how the defendants came to be in possession of these two areas. He
also dealt with that given in respect of the area shown as "Socio-Cultural Corporation Land"
in the said plan.
The observation of the learned trial judge with respect to Area 'B' reads -
307
"Learned counsel for the plaintiffs amongst his submissions to court said that
even though defendants granted leases of lands to persons in area ‘B’, it has not
been shown that such lessees are not members of Oki, Olodi and Igho- gbadu
families. There is on the other hand no evidence that they are members of
defendants' families. Furthermore, plaintiffs' 6th witness did testify that the
persons to whom the defendants granted leases in parcel 'B' were not necessarily
members of defendants' families.
“The plaintiffs said they allowed defendants area ‘B’ first to farm on and
later to build houses on a strip measuring about two hundred feet wide thereof.
The defendants said that they got no permission from plaintiffs to use area ‘B’
and do the acts they have been doing thereon.
“I have earlier on stated the law as to where the onus of proof lies in this
type of case. On the point now being considered the onus lay on the plaintiffs to
prove that the defendants got into parcel ‘B’ in the way plaintiffs said defendants
got there. This they have not done. .......
“The conduct of plaintiffs' 6th witness, as an incontrovertible member of the
Ogitsi family in not only taking leases of land in parcel 'B' of Exhibit 2 but
also going to witness a lease by another person who took a lease of land in the
said parcel from defendants, shows that he knew that the defendants and not
Ogitsi family own parcel 'B'. I have already said the 1st plaintiff and plaintiffs'
3rd witness are not persons whose evidence can be relied on…… The plaintiffs
said that they allowed the defendants at the latter's request to farm on parcel 'B'
and subsequently also to use a strip about two hundred feet wide on parcel 'B'
abutting on Upper Erejuwa Road for the building purposes of their (defendants')
children. Chief Begho stated the year of the latter permission to be 1954.
“I do not believe the said evidence as to permission. I do not believe defen-

dants got permission from anyone to use any part of parcel 'B'."
With respect to the portion shown as parcel ‘A’ in the said plan (Ex.2), the learned
trial judge observed as follows:
"As regards parcel ‘A’, the plaintiffs said the police, until defendants entered
into it and bulldozed it and laid it into plots, was a thick bush, and that there was
no farming in the place before it was bulldozed. They never took their surveyor
into the bush.
“The evidence in the defendants' case is that members of their families have
been farming on parcel ‘A’, planting food and cash crops therein. Their
surveyor in his evidence said he saw all the features he showed on Ex. 4l, the
plan he made for the defendants.
“The plaintiffs on their plan have shown rubber plantations belonging to
various persons and two of the said persons are Nelson Tseke and Chief Iwere
Odobriken. These two persons on their own showing by their evidence, are
descended from both the Ogitsi and defendants' families........ Chief Iwere
Odobriken in answer to questions by learned counsel for the defendants admit-
ted that one Madam Esale, whom he said belonged to Ighogbadu family had a
rubber plantation in parcel 'A' on Exhibit 2. ..............
“The plaintiffs who said that all the persons whom they said raised plan-
tations in parcel 'A' did so with their permission offered no explanation as to
308
how Madam Esale came to raise her plantation close to the plantation of
plaintiffs' 3rd witness.
“The fact that Madam Esale of Ighogbadu family, who has not been con-
nected with Ogitsi family, raised a plantation on parcel 'A' and that, as
plaintiffs’ 3rd witness said, she did so in I960, that is eight years before the
present action was instituted, and also the fact that the plaintiffs have not
explained how she came to be there, tilts the scale in favour of the evidence of
the defendants on record that members of the defendants' families have been
farming on parcel ‘A’ and that the persons shown on plaintiffs' plan Ex. 2 as
owning rubber plantation thereon planted them with the permission of the
defendants as the truth. I do not believe the evidence of the plaintiffs and their
witnesses on the point. I believe the evidence of the defendants on the point."
The learned trial judge then went on to consider the decision in Suit No. W/111/71 (Ex.
48) and the survey plan of the case (Ex.48B). That decision is in respect of a case in which
the present defendants successfully defended their title to and possession of a piece of land
which falls within parcel ‘A’ in Exhibit 2. The learned trial judge then made the following
observations about the decision and the said survey plan (Ex. 48B):
"Superimposition of Exhibit 48B on Exhibit 2 in such a way that Ugborikoko

road and the plantations shown by the road therein fall on the positions where
Ugborikoko road and the plantations are shown on Exhibit 2, will show clearly
that a substantial part of the extra portion of the land in dispute in Suit W/111/71
in which the present defendants successfully defended their title to and
possession of the land in dispute in that case falls within the land shown as parcel
'A' on Exhibit 2. The superimposition stated earlier will show identical portions
of Ogbogboro Stream in either plan to coincide. So that it is also clear from the
result of Suit No. W/111/71 that the present defendants have been in possession
of the said land, at least from 1960, the year Chief Iwere Odobriken said Esale's
plantation was raised and this also tilts the scale in favour of the view that the
defendants here have been and are in possession of parcel 'A' as defendants said
from when their ancestors founded that portion of the various tracks of land
founded by them."
Finally, the learned trial judge considered the evidence as to how the Socio-Cultural
Corporation came to be on part of the land on the western side of parcel 'B' and found as
follows:
"Coming back to parcel 'B' the evidence in the case, as put forward by both
parties shows that in 1961 the Socio-Cultural Corporation sauntered beyond the
area the defendants granted them on lease in 1950 at an annual rent of £30 and
tried to grab land adjacent to the area already granted them. They began to
bulldoze the adjacent land and the defendants stopped them.
“The Socio-Cultural Corporation as the evidence shows, did not on being
stopped by the defendants, go to the Chief and Peoples of Okere through
Okumagba or any other member of defendants' families as they did when they
earlier applied for and got land from the defendants. Instead they went to where
I will call a 'home ground', that is, the Customary Court, Ajamogha, and sued
the defendants for damages for trespass and for restrictive injunction vide
309
Exhibit 20. The defendants unsuccessfully tried to get the suit transferred to the
High Court. In the Ajamogha Customary Court, the Socio-Cultural Corporation
got an order of injunction 'to restrain the defendants, their servants, workmen
and agents from continuing or repeating the said acts of trespass, and also from
interfering with and intimidating and obstructing the plaintiffs' workmen,
servants or agents in the lawful and peaceful position (possession) and
enjoyment of the land in dispute.'
“After getting the order of interim injunction, the next thing that happened
was that the Town Planning Authority of the Warri Divisional Council of which
Mr. O.N. Rewane was the Chairman and Chief Begho was Secretary, published
a notice of intention to 'acquire the land. It would appear the Town Planning
Authority in fact acquired the land because they went further to execute a lease
of land including the said land to the SocioCultural Corporation of which Mr.
Rewane and Chief Begho were members. See Ex. 11A.
“The Warri Divisional Council Town Planning Authority eventually in Suit
No. W/64/68 vide Ex. 11A admitted it had improperly acquired the land and
gave it up.
“The defendants sued the Socio-Cultural Corporation, Mr. O.N. Rewane
and Chief Begho for damages for trespass and for injunction in respect of the
land the Corporation tried to grab from them and in a consent judgement the
present defendants recovered against the defendants in that suit, the sum of
£1,000 as damages and also order for payment by the Socio-Cultural
Corporation of an annual rent of £270 to the plaintiffs in the suit - vide Exhibits
19, 19A and 19B mentioned earlier.
“Now, if parcel 'B' belonged to Ogitsi family, (1) why did the Socio--
Cultural Corporation of which plaintiffs' 6th witness, Chief Begho, a member of
Ogitsi family is a member, not apply to that family when it wanted land from
the said parcel in 1950?
“(2) Why did the said witness not apply to the said family in 1961 when his
Corporation wanted additional land?
“(3) Where were the Ogitsi family when he was sued in the suit vide Ex. 19?
“(4) Did he tell them of the suit and if he did why did they not do something
if in fact the land belonged to them?
“(5) If he did not tell them, why did he not? There is one common answer to
everyone of these questions and it is that parcel 'B' never be1onged and does not
belong to Ogitsi family.”
As for plaintiffs' contention that the defendants' ancestors paid tribute to the
plaintiffs' family, the learned trial judge made the following finding of fact:
"As regards payment of tribute by defendants' ancestors and peoples, I do

not believe that they paid any tribute to anyone in Okere.
………………………………'…………………………….
“The claim in Ex. 22 which was a suit commenced in the Ode-Itsekiri Clan
Court for recovery of possession of land, plaintiffs therein claimed in respect of
land known as Ogitsi Ekpen land situated in Okere Town now in possession of
the defendants as a tenant of the plaintiffs' family and also £75 mesne profit.
(Underline is mine).
310
“The suit was instituted by (1) Chief Omatsone, (2) Tsegbeyeri Awani and
(3) Pegbeti Popo (for and on behalf of the Ekpen Ogitsi family of Okere) against
Okumagba of Idimisobo.
“In the first place there is nothing to show that the land to which the claim
related was not land in the Itsekiri area of Okere but land in the Idimisobo area
of Okere. As I have found in this case, the two blocs are separate, evidence in
the whole case showing that since the Idimisobos have been in Okere, and the
plaintiffs say it is over three hundred years now, they have maintained their
identity.
“But the interesting point about the case - vide Ex. 22 - is that the Court of
first instance found against the plaintiffs there.
“The judgement of the Magistrate's Court that heard the appeal in Ex. 22
shows that it appeared the suit was based upon an action brought as far back as
1927 in the then Warri Native Court (Suit No. 788/27) between Nikoro of Okere
and Okumagba of Okere. It is said that in that case an order was made that the
defendant who is the same as the defendant/ respondent in the appeal before the
Ma agistrate’s Court was to pay to the Ogitsi family who were represented by
one Nikoro to whom the plaintiffs/appellants in the appeal in the Magistrate's
Court were successors, the sum of £5 as rent and that the land was that of the
plaintiffs named therein.
“The judgement shows that an appeal was lodged to the Warri Native
Court of Appeal and there the President stated that 'The Jekri and Sobos have
been living together without question of paying rents to the other and cannot do
so now.'
“That passage in the said Appeal Court's judgement is important parti-
cularly as it was made in a suit instituted in 1927, and especially when one
takes into consideration the evidence in plaintiffs' case which evidence, I, of
course, do not believe, that it was in the time of Olaraja Uku who died in 1905
that the Idimisobos ceased to pay tribute.
“That the ldimisobos paid any tribute at any time to the Olu or the Ogitsi
families runs counter to the sweeping statement that the Jekris and Sobos have
been living together without question of one paying rents to the other and
cannot do so now. That statement, in my view, supports the evidence in
defendants' case that the ldirnisobos never paid tribute to anyone. Exhibit 22 was
tendered by the plaintiffs."
(The underlining is ours).
After all these observations, the learned trial judge thereupon dismissed the plaintiffs'
claim in its entirety after finding finally as follows:
"As between the evidence in plaintiffs' case and that in the defendants' case,
I accept and believe the evidence in the defendants' case as truthfully stating
how Ogitsi family and the defendants' people came to be in Okere area.
“I accept and believe the evidence of the defendants that three persons,
namely, Idama, Ohwotemu and Sowhoruvwe, first came to Okere and founded
various tracts of land as they said, and that all others of the Idimisobo who came
to Okere came after the aforementioned three persons had come.
311
“I also accept the evidence of the defendants as to how and when Ogitsi got
to the waterside area of Okere and made his sett1ement there, and as to how the
sett1ement and that of defendants' people grew until they met in Okere.
“As I earlier stated, I am satisfied that the defendants' people are not
Ghaminidos in Okere and never paid tribute or rent to anyone in Okere. I am
satisfied they were never tenants to anyone. I accept and believe the evidence of
defendants that the members of Ighegbodu family who went to Odion did so
free1y............
“I am satisfied and find as a fact that the land in dispute in this case
including the area where rubber p1antations are shown on p1aintiffs' p1an,
Exhibit 2, and also where Madam Esale's rubber plantation is, belong to the
defendants and that they have been such owners and in possession of the1and
from the time their ancestors founded the land.
“The plaintiffs have failed to prove that Ogitsi family owns the land in
dispute, or that Itsekiris of Okere own the land in dispute."
In the appeal to this court against this decision based, as can be seen from the extracts
quoted above, on definite findings of fact on the definitive and clear-cut points on which
issues were joined by the parties, learned counsel for the plaintiffs/appellants (hereinafter
referred to as Appellants) attacked the findings on the traditional evidence and also on the
evidence given in support of the various acts of ownership. Learned counsel complained that
the learned trial judge drew erroneous, unreasonable and unwarranted inferences,
prejudicial to the Appellants' case with respect to the activities of the body known as the
Socio-Cultural Corporation. He also contended that the learned trial judge erred in law in
refusing to invoke the provisions of section 45 of the Evidence Act in favour of the
Appellants. He referred to the judge's findings on the traditional evidence and submitted
that in considering and determining which of the two traditional histories adduced was more
probable, the learned trial judge erred in failing to apply the test recognised by law which is,
to refer to the facts in recent years as established by evidence. There was also the complaint
that the learned trial judge erred in 1aw in superimposing the survey plan (Exhibit 48B) on
the survey p1an (Ex. 2) for the purpose of' ascertaining the position of' Madam Esale's rubber
plantation and the land in dispute in Suit No. W/111/71 to which the present appellants were
not parties. The issue of' illegality of the whole trial was also canvassed before us because,
according to learned counsel, the judge made reference to the Itsekiri-Urhobo riots of 1951
and the role he (the judge) played as counsel for the Itsekiri people (the present appellants)
which facts were not given in evidence by any witness during the proceedings. Finally,
learned counsel pointed out that the judge, without justification, relied on this observation
about the riots to detract from the weight and authority of the publications (to which the
judge referred in his judgement) upon which the appellants relied.
In replying to all these points, learned counsel for the defendants/ respondents
(hereinafter referred to as the respondents) meticulously took us through the evidence
adduced by both parties at the trial and submitted that, having regard to the onus placed
upon the appellants in a case such as this, the findings of fact made by the learned trial
judge were amply supported by the evidence. Learned counsel also submitted that these
findings show clearly that the appellants have failed to discharge the onus of proof placed
upon them and thereby failed to prove their claims before the court.
After considering the arguments urged upon us in support of the submissions made on
behalf of the appellants, we share the views of learned counsel for the respondents that the
issues involved in the case were mainly issues of fact on which the learned trial judge made
definite and specific findings. The law applicable to the facts as found is, of course, now
312
well settled. We have closely examined the record of appeal ourselves in the light of the
submissions made before us. We are satisfied that, except for the unnecessary reference,
which is no more than an observation, to the 1951 Riots, and for the erroneous description of
what is clearly a comparison of the pieces of land respectively shown in the two non-
transparent survey plans (Ex. 38B and Ex. 2) as a “superimposition”, the various findings of
fact made by the learned trial judge are amply supported by the evidence which he accepted.
With respect to the observation about the 1951 Riots, it is settled law that any
wrongful admission of evidence shall not constitute a ground for reversing a decision unless
the party complaining can show as well that without such evidence the decision complained
of would have been otherwise. (See section 226(1) of the Evidence Act and the decision of
this court in Ugbe & 4 ors. v. Edigbe & 2 ors. (unreported) but see SC.736/66 page 15,
delivered on 27th February, 1970). It only remains for us to point out that in the case in
hand, the appellants have not discharged this further burden. As for the second complaint,
we do not see anything wrong in a judge looking at two survey plans tendered before him
during the hearing of a case and comparing the boundaries and location of the land in one
with those in the other. (See Latinwo v. Ajao (1973) 2 S.C. 99 at page 110, lines 4-25).
As for the law involved, we would like to point out that it is now settled that there are
five ways in which ownership of land may be proved. We will now proceed to consider
each of these five ways in order to see if the findings of the learned trial judge can be seen
to bring the evidence adduced in the case in hand within the ambit of any of them.
Firstly, ownership of land may be proved by traditional evidence as has been done in
the case in hand. In our view, not only was the evidence of the witnesses called by the
appellants rightly rejected by the learned trial judge for good and sufficient reasons, we also
think that he was right in not attaching any weight to the views expressed in the books cited
in support of such traditiona1 evidence. As Lionel Brett, J.S.C. (as he then was), rightly in
our view, once pointed out in a learned address given by him at the University of Lagos to
the Nigerian Association of Law Teachers:
"The courts are not to be hypnotised by the authority of print. The crucial
fact is that a book cannot be cross-examined, either as to the opinion expressed,
or as to the claims of the author to have special knowledge. If the author is
living, there is no reason why he should not be tendered as an expert witness,
when this difficulty would vanish."
No evidence was adduced to show that any of these books is generally acknowledged
either in Nigeria or elsewhere as a standard work or as appropriate authority on the relevant
traditional history so as to enable the court to resort, with justification, to its aid. (See
section 58 and 73(2) of the Evidence Act, Cap. 62 and Adedibu v. Adewoyin 13 WACA
191 at page 192). Moreover, none of the authors of these books testified in support of the
views stated therein and no explanation was given for this omission. For all these reasons, we
share the apprehensions of the learned trial judge about the value or weight of the traditional
history as narrated by each of these authors, particularly as the authenticity and impartiality
of the sources of their narratives cannot, for obvious reasons, be easily ascertained.
Secondly, ownership of land may be proved by production of documents of title which

must, of course be duly authenticated in the sense that their due execution must be proved,
un1ess they are produced from proper custody in circumstances giving rise to the
presumption in favour of due execution in the case of documents twenty years old or more
313
at the date of the contract (See section 129 of the Evidence Act and Johnson v. Lawanson
(1971) 1 All N.L.R. p. 56). As the appellants' case was not based on any document of title,
this requirement, in the circumstances of this case, is not particularly apposite.
Thirdly, acts of the person (or persons) claiming the land such as selling, leasing or
renting out all or part of the land, or farming on it or on a portion of it, are also evidence of
ownership, provided the acts extend over a sufficient length of time and are numerous and
positive enough as to warrant the inference that the person is the true owner (See Ekpo v. Ita
11 N.L.R. p. 68). It is clear from the judgement in the case in hand that the learned trial judge
completely, and for good reason, rejected the evidence in support of the acts of' ownership
put forward by the appellants while he accepted those given by the respondents.
Fourthly, acts of long possession and enjoyment of the land may also be prima facie
evidence of ownership of the particular piece or quantity of land with reference to which
such acts are done (See section 45 of the Evidence Act, Cap. 62). Such acts of long
possession in a claim of declaration of title (as distinct from a claim for trespass) are really a
weapon more of defence than of offence; moreover under section 145 of the Evidence Act,
while possession may raise a presumption of ownership, it does not do more and
cannot stand when another proves a good title (See Da Costa v. Ikomi (1968) 1 All N.L.R.
394 at page 398). It cannot be gainsaid that, in the present case, not only did the learned
trial judge reject the appellants’ evidence as to possession of any portion of the land in
dispute; he also found that the respondents have proved by evidence, which he accepted, that
they are the owners of the land in dispute.
Finally, proof of possession of connected or adjacent land, in circumstances rendering it
probable that the owner of such connected or adjacent land would, in addition, be the owner
of the land in dispute, may also rank as a means of proving ownership of the land in dispute.
(See section 45 of the Evidence Act, Cap. 62). It must be remembered that the learned trial
judge, after comparing the land shown on the survey plan No. OM3926 (Ex. 48B) with that
on the survey plan No. WE2367 (Ex. 2) – a comparison which, as we have pointed out
earlier, he erroneously described as a "superimposition" – found, with justification, that the
land described as parcel "A" on Ex. 2 has been in the possession of the respondents, at least
from 1960. He also found that members of the respondents' family have always farmed in
parcel "A". We also recall that the trial judge also found that the respondents granted a lease
of part of the land in parcel "B" of the land in dispute as shown in the survey plan (Ex. 2) to
the Socio-Cultural Corporation and to other persons, that they effectively resisted the attempt
of the said Corporation to extend their holding beyond the portion granted to them, and that
they successfully sued the Corporation, Chief O.N. Rewane, its Chairman and Chief Begho,
its Secretary, (as shown in the proceedings in Suit No. w/28/65 Exhibits 19, 19A and 19B)
later for damages for acts of trespass committed by the Corporation on the portion unlawfully
occupied by them; all these acts are clearly indicative of the fact that the respondents are also
effectively in possession of that area described as parcel "B" in the survey plan of the land in
dispute. Further more, the judge rejected the evidence of payment of tribute by the
respondents to anybody, evidence which the appellants sought to use to justify the
respondents' possession of land outside the disputed land. In any case, as learned counsel for
the respondents has rightly submitted, for the provisions of section 5 of the Evidence Act to
apply, there must be an admission by the respondents, or a finding by the trial judge, that the
land in dispute was surrounded by other lands belonging to the appellants. Not only was this
fact not proved by the appellants, there was also no admission to that effect on the part of the
respondents. Furthermore, as the learned trial judge could not, and did not, make any finding
on this crucial point, the inference under section 45 of the Evidence Act that the appellants
were the owners of the
314
disputed land could not have been drawn. That being the case, we do not see how this
particular section of the Evidence Act could have been of any assistance to the appellants.
On the whole, it is sufficient to say that most of the matters canvassed before us were
examined meticulously and rejected by the learned trial judge for reasons upon which we
cannot improve and to which we do not desire to add except, perhaps, to say that whether
taken separately or together, none of the points urged upon us by learned counsel for the
appellants would, in our view, justify any interference with the findings and decision of the
learned trial judge. Consequently, we are of the view that the appeal has no merit and it is
accordingly dismissed with costs assessed at N350.00.
Appearances
Chief F.R.A. Williams

(Chief O. Awolowo, Dr. F.A. Ajayi, Messrs. O.N. Rewane, For the
N.E. Akporiayo, S.A. Ajuya, S.E. Agambi, S. Edema-Sillo Plaintiffs/Appellants
and E. Okonedo with him)
Chief R.A. Fani-Kayode For the
(Dr. M. Odje, Messrs. A.O. Akpedeye and A. Orioye with Defendants/Respondents
him)
315
Chapter 14
The Need for Peace in Warri 1

Akindele Aiyetan
Warri City, Nigeria
January 28, 2002
The recent outbreak of violence in Warri, presumably between the Urhobo and the
Itsekiri, was just one out of several skirmishes either between the Itsekiri and the Urhobo or
between the Itsekiri and the Ijaw in what appears to be an unending fratricidal war in the
Warri metropolis. Although a Yoruba man of Ondo State extraction, I have lived in Warri for
upward of almost 40 years. Indeed, I had all my children, all of whom are now grown up and
married, in this area. Now a septuagenarian, I am old, experienced and intelligent enough to
know and discern the unorthodox manner in which some of the protagonists of the
internecine "war" prosecute it against their neighbours.
The questions which we, who are strangers, ask ourselves are, what are the issues
involved in the perennial squabbles between the Itsekiri and the Urhobo on the one hand and
between the Itsekiri and the Ijaw on the other hand? In other words, what is/are the cause(s)
of the quarrel between each of the two groups? Now, we know the answers: land and politics.
Those of us on the spectators' seat are at a point of vantage, where we can see almost quite
clearly what goes on among the warring players: The original Delta Province (Warri
Province until 1952) had five distinct groups -- the Urhobo (easily the most populous), the
Ijaw, the Isoko, the Ukwani (in Ndokwa) and the Itsekiri. The last-named
had a kingdom whose headquarters was at a place called Ode-Itsekiri. Up till now, Itsekiri
kings and top chiefs who pass on are taken to that village for interment. Being reverine
dwellers on the Atlantic littoral, the Itsekiri were the middlemen between the white traders - -
first in slaves, procured from the Urhobo and Isoko people to the hinterland, and, later, in
palm oil. The depot must be somewhere in what is called Warri today.
So, who owns Warri? The Itsekiri claim that Ginuwa 1 founded Warri in 16th century;
the Urhobo claim that they had founded and lived in Warri before the 16th century. To a
dispassionate observer, the former claim would sound implausible because the Itsekiri
king (known as Olu of Itsekiri until 1952) did not move into the present Warri until 1952,
when the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo rewarded the Itsekiri for their votes in the 1952
general elections by changing the title of the Olu of Itsekiri to Olu of Warri and establishing
an Itsekiri Communal Land Trust over Warri, with the Olu as the president or chairman.
The Urhobo went wild with rage and, as law-abiding citizens, went straight to the court to
cause the Olu to revert to his original title and/or at least to change the name of the Province
from Warri to Delta. They failed and won: failed to get the title of Olu of Warri to revert to
Olu of Itsekiri but succeeded in getting the name of the Province to change from Warri to
Delta Province. But the seed of inter-tribal conflicts had been sown, I dare say, by the
South-West and was watered by the South West until 1976, when the Supreme Court, the
apex court of the land, pronounced its judgement on the contending claims to Warri: A group
of prominent Itsekiri chiefs -- D.O. Idundun, P.O. Awani, A.E. Hesse, C.A. Lorie, J.D. Oruru
(for themselves and on behalf of Ogitsi family of Okere, Warri), the Itsekiri
1
Culled from The [Lagos] Guradian On-Line - http://ngrguardinannews.com, Monday, January 28, 2002
Communal Land Trustees and Erejuwa II, the Olu of Warri (for himself and on behalf of the
Itsekiri people) -- had sued Daniel Okumagba (an Urhobo, for himself and on behalf of
Olodi, Oki and Ighogbadu families of Idimisobo, Okere Warri) over ownership of Warri. The
plaintiffs (the Itsekiri) claimed against the Urhobo (the defendants), that the defendants had
forfeited their rights of user and/or occupation and any other rights in the area in dispute and
an order of injunction to restrain the defendants, their servants and/or agents from entering
the land in dispute.
As far as those of us, spectators, were and are concerned, so much depended or should
depend on the ruling of the Supreme Court. In a landmark judgement, the apex court,
exhibiting erudition, handed its decision to the litigants. Quoting, with approval, the opinion
of the lower court presided by Mr. Justice Ekeruche, the Supreme Court said:
"Considering the traditional evidence in the case, my view of that aspect of

the evidence in plaintiff's case whereby plaintiffs have sought to establish that
the land in dispute and even also Okere Village were part of the kingdom
founded by Ginuwa I and also their evidence that Ogitsi owned the whole of
Okere land including the land in dispute in this case is that it is
UNCONVINCING..." (1976, 9 & 10 SC, 227 @ 229).
Continuing, the learned Justices said:
"The plaintiffs say that Ginuwa I founded a kingdom and that before Ekpen
(an Urhobo) came to Okere the area of Okere was or would be part of that
kingdom. There is no evidence of the extent or area covered by that kingdom,
nor is there any evidence going to show any act or acts in history which made
the area of the kingdom founded by Ginuwa I before Ekpen (the Urhobo man)
came there..." (Ibid @ p230).
The Itsekiri case against the Urhobo suffered a stroke when the learned justices of the
Supreme Court further stated that:
"The evidence in plaintiff's case only shows that Ginuwa I when he was
trying to make a settlement after leaving Benin got as far as Ijalla where he
ultimately settled, lived, died and was buried. There is not evidence in plaintiff's
case going to show that in the process of making his settlement or kingdom he or
any persons under him settled anywhere beyond Ijalla and towards or in Okere"
(ibid).
The learned trial judge in the lower court had stated: "I do not believe that any kingdom
founded by Ginuwa I extended to Okere. Plaintiffs' evidence and also evidence in the whole
case do not prove such extent of any kingdom founded by Ginuwa I..." (ibid). The Supreme
Court agreed with this statement.
The Urhobo are a peaceful race, with a republican spirit. Although they have an
enviable culture, they are not united under any single monarch, like the Itsekiri or the Idoma
or the Efiks, etc. Which explains why the struggle over Warri is restricted to only the
Urhobo of Agbarha and Okere (in Warri) and the Itsekiri. The overwhelming majority of
the Urhobo in the remaining 20 of their 22 clans are uninterested, at least for now, in the
Warri crisis. On the other hand, the Itsekiri have, since the early 1950s, fashioned a link with
the Yoruba of the South West. Historically, the Itsekiri, like the Urhobo, originally
migrated from Benin. They settled in the riverine areas where they mixed with the Ilajes
318
The Need for Peace in Warri
and the Ijo-Apoi's (in the present Ondo State) whose patois is a dialect of the Yoruba: hence
their claim to linguistic and cultural affinity with the Yoruba. To help them fight their war
against the Urhobo and Ijaws, Itsekiri leaders have ingratiated themselves with the Yoruba,
through Chief Awolowo, over the years. They attend Afenifere and Yoruba Council of
Elders meetings. Recently, our leader, Chief Abraham Adesanya, formally welcomed the
Edo-turned-Yoruba group to the Afenifere fold. And TheNews magazine of July, 2001,
published a lecture by Femi Fani-Kayode, in which he said, among other things, that "...we
(the Yoruba) shall expand our borders and re-establish the ancient boundaries. It is that time
that we will drive the alien invaders out of Kwara and parts of Kogi, reclaim what is
rightfully ours and deliver our Yoruba brothers that have been forced to languish in those
parts in a sad and pathetic condition of debilitating bondage. It is at that time that we will
vigorously respond to plight of our Itsekiri cousins..." I dare say that if the Itsekiri are
Yoruba, then the Igala and the Nupe are also Yoruba, who should send representatives to
the Afenifere and the YCE!
I think we have more than enough problems in the present South West. To decide to
"vigorously" drive the Urhobo and/or the Ijaws from their land in the Delta is like saying that
the land occupied by the Itsekiri in Warri today is part of Yoruba land, just like parts of
Kwara and Kogi! I recommend a copy of the judgement of the Supreme Court No. SC 9/10,
1976, to all who like to fish in troubled waters.
319
Chapter 15
Itsekiri Land Claims in Sapele and

the Jackson Judgement
_______________________
In the Protectorate of Nigeria

In The High Court of the Warri Judicial Division
Suit No. W/37/1941

Between
Chief Ayomano and Edwin Omarin on behalf of themselves ...... Plaintiffs

and the Chiefs and people of Sapele.
and
Ginuwa II, His Highness The Olu for himself and as ...... Defendants
representing the Itsekiri people of Sapele.
Judgment
The plaintiffs claim, on behalf of themselves and of the Chiefs and the people of the
Okpe Clan, as against the defendant, for himself and as representing the Itsekiri people of
Sapele, a declaration of title to all that area of land now known as the Township of Sapele, as
shown in the plan approved by the Governor, exhibited in Court and marked as No. I.
Pleadings were filed. In these pleadings, and during the course of the proceedings, the
plaintiffs refer to Sapele as URUAPELE, and described themselves as URUBOS, the
defendants they described variously as JEKRI or ITSEKIRI. On the other hand the
defendants call themselves ITSEKIRIS and refer to the plaintiffs as SOBOS, whilst calling
the land in dispute SAPELE. In all legislations these tribes are described as being SOBOS
and JEKRIS respectively. In prior litigation as reported in the Law Reports they have always
been referred to as SOBOS and JEKRIS. Elderly men who gave evidence for the plaintiffs
referred naturally to their people as SOBOS and the town as SAPELE, later correcting
themselves on the same breath. MR. I. PALMER, a Yoruba, who has lived in Sapele since
1898 tells me that he always heard the names SOBOS and JEKRIS until quite recently. As
prior litigation will be referred to, in this judgment, and, to avoid any confusion I propose to
refer to these tribes by the names under which the legislation recognizes them, namely as
SOBOS and JEKRIS.
It is said that, by tradition, the Sobos migrated from the ancestral home of the Yoruba’s
at IFE and traveling via Benin and Okperisi founded a town known as OREROKPE. Chief
Omarin testifies that from this mother town the various families went out, in all directions,
founding other villages, among which was SAPELE, but retained their allegiance to the
mother town of the OKPES to where each village would subscribe each year to the
OREROKPE festivals. I am told that the name of the town Sapele (URUAPELE) is derived
from the name of the juju belonging to the family who were the original settlers in that place,
and that these settlers we re a part of the Clan, centered at OREROKPE, and who know
themselves as the OKPE Clan. A Clan is described to me as being in the nature
of an extended family, each member related, in some degree, by a blood tie with the common
ancestor. The people were farmers, and, they settled upon this land and farmed for their
living.
From that period of tradition there is a void in history, as it occurs in all countries
where a national tradition is built up partly from folklore and later from history derived from
the memories of old men and women. The [items of] evidence of events within living
memory are those connected [with]:—
(a) the domestic life of the community from the past 80 years;
(b) the arrival of the European Mercantile Firms;
(c) the Nanna Expedition of 1894, and later
(d) the growth and the development of the Township under the aegis of the
Government of Nigeria subsequent to the acquisition of this land by Government
in 1908.
The evidence dates from the earliest times of living memory, and the evidence of
Amune Aparo (4 thwitness) I accept as being an entirely reliable account. He was a very old
gentleman of not less than 80 years of age who, until his conversion to Christianity, was the
juju priest of the juju known as “Sapele”. He tells me that the main Sobo village was situated
originally where the prison yard is today, and that where the firm of Messrs Mclvers Ltd is
today, was a hamlet founded by one OGODO, who lived there with his family until the Firm
came, and who leased the land from OGODO, who then removed to the site where his
descendants still live, just outside the Township along side the main Sapele-Warri motor
road. [According to] this witness, the whole area now claimed was farmed by these Sobos.
He personally knew the fathers of the present plaintiffs who, among others, farmed these
lands. He tells me that from his earliest days he can remember JEKRIS visiting
Sapele—coming there with goods for barter, exchanging their goods for the farm produce of
the SOBOS, and returning in their canoes from where they came.
It appears, from the evidence, that European Mercantile Firms established themselves
at Sapele before Government established their offices there, and that, when they came, in
exchange for “dashes” of gin, tobacco and clothes the SOBOS gave them permission to settle
and to erect buildings on the shore. That is the plaintiffs’ evidence. The defendants offer no
evidence whatsoever of the conditions under which they originally settled there. Their arrival
appears to have been practically contemporaneous with an event, which was one of
considerable significance in this area, and which is known locally as the “Nanna War”,
hostilities lasting for about 5 months in that year 1894.
There is no dispute between Chief of the Jekri tribe, who ruled the Jekris for a brief
period during an interregnum from 1848 to 1936, during which period the Jekris ceased to
possess their hereditary ruler known to them as the “OLU”, the position which the defendant
occupies today. The status of the OLU was judicially defined in the case of Omagbemi v.
Dore Numa N.L. R. Vol. 5 p. 17. “That monarchy was overthrown and the Jekris themselves
directed how and by whom their country was to be ruled.
Nanna followed Chanomi as the accredited head of the Jekri nation. He was clearly a
man held in the greatest respect by JEKRIS and SOBOS alike. The causes of this “Nanna
War” have been described variously to me, but, I do not think it would be unfair to the
memory of Nanna to describe it as being due to his reactionary spirit and his opposition to
the abolition of the slave trade, in which he had a considerable interest as a possessor of
slaves, and his realisation that its abolition would ultimately tend to destroy that monopoly of
trade which he had enjoyed upon the rivers through mediary of these slaves. The British
Government overcame his opposition by force of arms and he was deported. The evidence
322
Itsekiri Land Claims in Sapele and the Jackson Judgement
shows that Dore Numa succeeded Nanna and, I am again quoting from the case of
Omagbemi v. Dore, where the findings of fact necessary to found a decision in the case, bind
the defendants:
“Sir, R. Moore appointed him (i.e. Dore) paramount Chief of the Jekris, but in
appointing him Paramount Chief and spokesman of all the Jekris he was
officially recognised as the head of the Jekri nation and the man with whom the
Government would negotiate in all matter connected with the Jekri nation and
their land.”
I have interpolated these matters at this stage as the status of Dore as recognised by
Government is of importance later when interpreting a deed put in evidence.
The evidence shows that after the overthrow of Nanna at his town EBROHIMI a large
number of Jekris ran for refuge to Sapele and there obtained the permission of the Sobos to
settle, giving customary “dashes” for the grant of that privilege.
This was in 1894. Some time later, the date is unknown, the firm of Messrs Mclevers
Ltd arrived and obtained the permission of OGODO to settle. The son of OGODO gave
evidence, namely OTOTO OGODO, that each year the Firm paid the sum of £20 rent to his
father, and that since his father’s death, and, to this very day they pay to him £20 each year.
The evidence shows that during these years following 1894, the men whose authority was
recognised by the Sobos as being their Chiefs were OFOTOKU, who was the oldest and
regarded as the senior, the fathers of the present plaintiffs and OGODO, who was described
to me as being a man both of wealth and of powerful personality.
Mr. I. Palmer, who was formerly a Diplomatic Agent employed by the Royal Niger
Company, and, who is 83 years old, tells me that when he retired from the service he
proposed settling down in Sapele as a trader, and went there for that purpose in 1899. He tells
me that the vice Counsul directed him to the District Commissioner who was then living at
Sapele and that a Yoruba man, named Ogugbene, then, introduced him to OFOTOKU, who
was recognised then as being the head Chief, and who then lived on the site now occupied by
the market.
OFOTOKU showed him the piece of land, which he might occupy, the site occupied by
Mr. Palmer today. OFOTOKU did not wish to receive rent, and, as Mr. Palmer tells me, in
those days, the people were only too glad to welcome and accommodate any who brought
trade, but that, upon the advice of his Solicitor, he paid, and has since paid to OFOTOKU
and his successors a sum of £5 each year as rent, a rent which he still pays today. He tells me
that at no time has he paid one penny rent to Government, who are now the lessees of the
land, and his position appears to be analogous to the one occupied by Messrs. Mclvers Ltd.
This witness testified that later he assisted the Bishop to acquire the site, upon which St.
Luke’s Church now stands, for the Church Missionary Society and that, in doing so, he
introduced the Bishop to OFOTOKU and to the late Omarin, the father of the present
plaintiff, as being the persons entitled by custom to deal with the land. This was prior to the
lease to Government of the land in 1908.
There is also evidence to show that further WEST, just beyond and adjacent to the
Township boundary there, the Baptist Mission sought and obtained from the plaintiffs
permission to settle and to build a Church and School. Mr. Mbanefo objected that this
evidence was not relevant, as the land acquired by the Baptist Mission was outside the area
claimed. I ruled that this evidence was both admissible and relevant for the following
reasons. There has been no suggestion that the Township boundary formed a natural
boundary between two separate holdings. The evidence of the defendants themselves
323
suggests that the plaintiffs farmed far inland, and upon the evidence before me I am satisfied
that a unity of character exists between the area in dispute and the area within which the
Baptist Mission is built, as to lead to the fair inference that both are subject to the same
rights, and constitute in fact but parts of an entire property.
There is, further, the evidence of a letter, written on the 11 thJune, 1907 and exhibited in
Court as No. 5, which Chief William Moore, a witness called by the defendants, admits is in
the hand writing of his old schoolmaster, Ikuke Etotoma, who was a Jekri, who occupied
land opposite to the site described on the plan as Renner’s compound. This letter certifies
that this piece of land was given to Ikuke by Chief Omarin for the purposes of building. This
is a declaration by a deceased person, who is a predecessor in title to the present defendants,
and which declaration, in the nature of the defence now set up, is admissible in evidence as
an admission against proprietary interest.
Now, what is the evidence of the defendants as regards this period of time between
1809 and 1908? In effect the only evidence is that during the whole of that period Jekris have
lived on this land. That fact is not disputed by the evidence of witnesses called by the
plaintiffs, and to whose evidence I have attached credence. The defendants admit that on no
occasion, during this period, or during any other period has rent been either demanded or
obtained from the Sobos at any time. The evidence of the defendants is entirely silent upon
the manner and the terms upon which the European Mercantile Firms first established
themselves. I have heard bombastic claims to Royal privilege and overlordship over the
Sobos, but not one title of evidence has been advanced in support of such a claim. I should
have expected, at least, to have heard some evidence that a Jekri exercised some degree of
authority as a Chief in this area. There is not a murmur of any such evidence -- other than a
suggestion that the last 9 lines of a letter written by Omarin on behalf of the elders of Sapele
and exhibited by the defendants as Exb. ‘A’ means -- that the OLU controlled the land. In my
view such an interpretation goes wholly beyond the bounds of reason. Omarin the writer tells
me it means what it says, to wit, that the Sobos formerly traded with the Ijaws, but finding
the Jekris better clients, they transferred their custom to the Jekris and that to prevent the
Ijaws victimizing them in any way, the OLU sent a “Captain” (a man versed in the ways of
war) to protect the OLU’s traders there. In other words it is admitted that to protect the trade
between the Jekris and the Sobos and to prevent interference by the Ijaws, the OLU sent a
“Captain” who may be described I think fairly accurately as possessing the functions rather
of policeman than ofrda soldier.
Now on the 3 December, 1908, the Governor of the Colony of Southern Nigeria
acquired a lease of this land for a term of 99 years at an annual rental of £100 from “Chief
Dore Numa of Benin River, Trader, acting for and on behalf of the Chiefs and people of
Sapele”.
Apart from the traditional history adduced by the defendants the above is I think a fair
summary of the events evidencing acts of ownership both by the plaintiffs and the defendants
prior to the lease. I do not propose to comment upon that fantastic story of tradition, which I
feel must have emanated largely from the fertile brain of that self-styled historian, Chief
William Moore, other than to say that it appeared to afford a considerable amount of
amusement to the Sobos in Court, and I must confess to myself. As a background, or a frame
to the picture of events within living memory, it appears to have no relation whatsoever.
The plaintiffs tell me that Chief Dore Numa they regarded as their friend, until certain
events occurred in 1932. They tell me that he was a Trader and a Political Agent who had
considerable influence with the Officers of the Government of that day, and that when
Government negotiated for a lease of this land, they authorised Chief Dore to complete the
negotiations and to sign the deed on their behalf purely as a friend. They tell me that they
324
were highly satisfied with the result and that for his assistance to them in this matter
permitted him to take each year £30 at first, and later, £40 of the £100 rent given to them by
Government. The evidence called by the plaintiffs shows that until 1932 the relations
between them and Dore remained cordial, but ceased then, when Dore claimed Sapele land to
be his, and ordered the Jekris living there and around to pay no more rent to the Sobos; a
claim which the defendants assert to this day, and which ultimately compelled the plaintiffs
to come to this Court to rebut. Dore died in the same year, and the evidence before me is
quite clear, that, short of taking action in the Courts, the plaintiffs by petition and by
complaint to the Local Administrative Officers of the Government, protested at the Jekris
claims to overlordship, requested that the rents should not be paid into the Olu Trust Fund, as
had been done just prior, and subsequently to Dore’s death, and claimed the whole rents. The
evidence of the Resident, Major Bowen, shows that everything that tact and patience
demanded was done to obtain a settlement between these closely intermarried tribes.
Reasoning appears to have been fruitless and as Major Bowen tells me, “I told both parties
that I was tired of them and that they could go to Court if they wanted to. This was a year
ago.”
The defendants in paragraph 5 of their statement of defence say that “Chief Dore
Numa leased the Sapele Township in his own authority as the representative of the OLU of
ITSEKIRI who has ever been the rightful owner of the land for the Itsekiri people.”
Chief William Moore tells me that he saw Dore sign this deed in the office at Sapele in
1908 where he had, that year, been employed by the Government as a clerk. Chief Omarin
said he knew when Dore signed the lease, but there is no evidence that he witnessed its
signature.
Mr. Palmer asserted in very certain terms that the deed was executed in a manner
described very eloquently by him as being done on the “Q.T.” His allegation that it was
signed at OLOGBO I place no reliance upon, as this was hearsay evidence derived from a
conversation with Dore, and it was apparently rather a conversation by noods and winks,
than of words.
Nowhere in the Deed can I find any record of the locality in which it was signed. The
“Oath for proof of an instrument” sworn by Mr. H. M. Douglas, the then Senior District
th
Commissioner, was made at Warri on the 11 November 1908 and it affirms that, on that
same day, the Deed was not only signed by Dore but was read over and interpreted to him at
the time of its execution and that he appeared to understand its provisions.
Now Chief William Moore told me that the deed was explained to Dore before he
signed it, but that he cannot remember what the explanation was. He can remember Jekri
Chiefs being present, but cannot remember if any Sobo Chiefs were there. At that time no
motor road connected Sapele and Warri which today is a road 31 miles long. In those days, I
am told the journey was made by foot or by cycle. It may be true, but it seems difficult to
credit, that if the deed was in fact signed at Sapele why the oath of proof did not say so. The
matter is not one of much importance either way, and, the only evidenctiary value of that
deed is as to the interpretation of the status of the parties named therein and of the capacity
in which they conveyed.
At that time the Government of Southern Nigeria, as I have mentioned before, had
recognised Chief Dore officially as the paramount Chief of the Jekris with whom they would
negotiate in all matters connected with the Jekri and their land. There is evidence that all
Chiefs whether Jekri or Sobo were appointed upon Dore’s recommendation, and provided the
Sobos did so authorise, and the plaintiffs tell me they did, there could be no possible
objection to Dore signing such a deed on their behalf provided that the lessee (the
Government) were satisfied that Dore possessed that authority. Now, if the land, at that
325
time, was Jekri land why, in the Deed, is Dore not referred to by his officially recognised title
as the Paramount Chief of the Jekris. The lease was acquired under the provisions of the
public Lands Ordinance (Chapter CXII Laws of the Colony of Southern Nigeria, 1908 Vol.
II p. 1196) and Dore would possess all the attributes of a “Head Chief”. Why not so
described him if he purported to convey Jekri lands as their Head Chief?
Who were the “Chiefs and people of Sapele” at that time? I have already found, as a
fact, that the only persons who exercised any authority upon the land, as Chiefs prior to 1908
were Sobos and were not Jekris. The plaintiffs tell me that Dore conveyed to the Government
in his private capacity as their agent for this purpose. The deed sets out “Chief Dore Numa of
Benin River, Trader, acting for and on behalf of the Chiefs and people of Sapele.”
The evidence before me satisfies me that when Chief Dore Numa did convey this land
to Government for a term of years he did so upon the authority of the Chiefs and people of
Sapele, who were members of the Okpe Clan who were residing in that area and around it,
now known as the Sapele Township.
If any further evidence was required to establish the truth of the plaintiffs’ allegation it
is to be found in the evidence of Chief William Moore himself. He tells me that he and
others petitioned in 1930 against Dore for keeping these rents himself, and that is precisely
what the plaintiffs intended Dore should do with the money, as they tell me, and apparently
it was exactly what he did with it.
The only arguments advance by Counsel for the defendants were firstly that the Okpe
Clan as a whole is not entitled to any declaration of title as sought as only individuals of that
Clan have been proved to possess any interest in that land, and that secondly, the plaintiffs
have accepted benefits from his lease for 34 years and have permitted the defendants to take
rent for that period, as owners and that their acquiescence now stops them from setting up
their present claim.
In regard to the first argument, the Okpe Clan, indisputably, occupied the land in
dispute as farm land known as Sapele or Uruapele. The greater contains the less and the
plaintiffs Omarin and Ayomano are undoubtedly blood descendants of the founders of the
original village known as Sapele.
As regards acquiescence, the argument of learned Counsel entirely begs the question.
The plaintiffs have in no matters other than that which they allege and which they have
proved to be the true facts, namely that as owners of the land, who had authorised Dore to
convey on their behalf, they have permitted him to retain as a personal prerequisite the sum
of £40 out of the £100 rent paid by the Government, in recognition of his personal services.
These services terminated on his death and there is ample evidence that since his death the
plaintiffs have claimed the whole rent, and have actively opposed the manner in which it was
dealt with through the Olu Trust Fund.
The plaintiffs have been forced into Court by the denial by Dore, and later by his
successors in title, of their ownership of the land, and I can find no substance in the
defendants’ claim in their defence either as to ownership or as to overlordship. They might
well be described as impudent claims.
I do not wish to give expression to any further opinion, as to the merits of this case,
that might be construed so as to retard a full and free reconciliation between the parties, who
are members of separate tribes who appear to find their only common denomination in the
fact of close intermarriage, a fact which should be a potent factor in arriving at an amicable
settlement of their differences.
I do grant to the plaintiffs Ayomano and Omarin, and to those members of the Okpe
Clan who are the blood descendants of the founders of the settlement now known as Sapele
lands, a declaration of title that they are the owners of that land now commonly known as
326
the Sapele Township.

The plaintiffs are entitled to the full costs of this action which I assess at £150.
(Sgd.) J. Jackson
A.J. at Warri.
5/5/1942.
Certified true copy.
(Sgd.) E. Bamgboye
Registrar.
327
URHOBO PROGRESS UNION
and
THE QUEST FOR EDUCATION AND
DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 16
The Miracle of an Original Thought

A History of the Origins of Urhobo College 1
President-General, Urhobo Progress Union (1961-1982)
Dedication
It is with the deepest respect and honour that I dedicate this publication to Joseph
Akpolo Ikutegbe Esq., J.P., the great thinker, philosopher and philanthropist. – Chief T. E.
A. Salubi.
As could be seen from the heading of Part I, the substance of this chapter was
st
contained in a speech that I delivered on 1 August, 1964, on the occasion of the second
Speech-Day of Urhobo College.
Because there has, so far, been no written account of the why and wherefore of the
early history of the College, I thought it would be a good thing to expand the text of the
speech embodying more facts and details to make up this little publication.
There are three definite periods covered in the book. The first is from 1935 to 1942 –
that is to say, from the time when Mr. Joseph Akpolo Ikutegbe first conceived the idea of
scholarships for Secondary Education of deserving Urhobo youths up to the time that the
Urhobo Progress Union in Council decided to found a National College. The second is from
1943 to 1946 the period in which overseas scholarships were awarded to two Urhobo young
men for professional studies with the sole purpose of returning to man the proposed College,
and the acquisition of the Collegiate School of Commerce. The third is from 1947- 1949
culminating in the founding of Urhobo College.
I have deliberately packed the book full with details, facts and also quoted in extensor.
My aim is to make the book a preserve of details and facts which may probably not be
available to many students in the years to come. I, therefore, offer no apology for what may,
perhaps, be regarded as unnecessary clusters of details and boring quotations.
The terms “Home Union”, “Mother Union” and “Headquarters” have been freely
used. In every case, they are synonymous with and refer to Warri branch up to July, 1945,
when the quarterly Executive Council now, Central Executive Committee, was inaugurated.
It was at the end of 1949 that the Urhobo Progress Union ceased to have direct
management and control of the College. Let the writing of the history of the College from the
years subsequent to 1949 be a challenge to some one else. My humble efforts here end in the
laying of a foundation for whoever will take up that challenge.
Most of the facts and information in this book were taken from the archives of the
Lagos branch. To this branch must go the credit of being the best keeper of records. Their
1
This chapter was originally published in 1965 as a booklet titled The Miracle of an Original Thought: Being the Origins of Urhobo
College. It was printed at Unity Press & Stationery Stores Ltd; Box 210, Warri, Nigeria, It is being reproduced in this volume by the
kind permission of Dr. Chief Thomas Salubi, heir of Chief T. E. A. Salubi.
Chief Salubi attached the following hopeful “Preliminary Note” at the beginning of his account: “For various reasons, the publication
of this work has been delayed for nearly a year even though I referred to it in my Presidential Address [of Urhobo Progress Union]
for 1964. I hope that now that it has at last been published, it will meet with a popular welcome.”
files and minutes books are intact. It is hoped that the branch will continue to be a good
keeper of records and also that other branches will emulate this good example.
T.E.A. SALUBI
President-General, Urhobo Progress Union
OVU INLAND
Western Urhobo
20thOctober, 1964.
***
Introduction
The following is a speech that I delivered in my capacity as President-General, Urhobo

Progress Union, on the occasion of the second “Speech Day” of Urhobo College, Effurun,
held on Saturday, 1st August, 1964, at 3.30 p.m.
The Principal, the Staff

And the Students of Urhobo College,
Members of the Board of Governors,
Ladies and Gentlemen
As the President-General of the Urhobo Progress Union, the Proprietors of this

College, it is with pleasure that I rise to welcome you all, especially the invitees, to this
occasion, the occasion of the second Speech-Day of the College. As some of you may
remember, the first “Speech Day” was held on the 9th of November last year. As I have
already observed in my Presidential Address to the Annual General Council of Urhobo
Progress Union held in December last, the Speech-Day was a very successful event. The
College was congratulated for it.
I am glad to say that the Principal acted on the suggestions I made in the Presidential
Address that, in future, sufficient notice of the holding of the “Speech-Day” should be sent
to our prominent men and women, and indeed, to select members of the public so that they
might, by their attendance, grace the occasion, and also, that appeal be made to them and
others who might be interested to donate prizes.
The Urhobo College is our College. We are very proud of it. As you may have seen, it
is growing at its own pace to become a fully developed secondary grammar school that will
be second to none in the whole Federation. Like many Voluntary Agency institutions of its
kind, Urhobo College has its own humble beginnings; it is an organic growth which
germinated from a deep-rooted idea of self-help for progress.
If you permit me, I should like in this speech to take you back to the earliest possible
period of the events which led to the founding of the College. When I shall have finished
taking you along with me through the long and tortuous journey of how the College came to
be, you will, I am sure, agree with me that the institution you see here today is, indeed, a
wonderful achievement arising from an original thought, from a people’s faith, self-help and
steadfastness. This is why I have styled this speech “The Miracles of An Original Thought”.
***
Now I proceed with the story.
332
A History of the Origins of Urhobo College
Origins of the Proposed Scholarships for

Secondary Education for Urhobo Children
Viewed from many angles, the emergence of Lagos as a branch of the 2Urhobo Progress
Union can not but be regarded as a great event in the annals of our great Union. Lagos branch
it was that carried the Union, by broadening the basis of its constitution, from the narrow
tract of a mere brotherly society to the wide fertile region of a sturdy, progressive
organization which it is today. No sooner after inauguration than Lagos began to breathe new
ideas into the life of the Union. It gave the Union a new name, introduced the holding of
annual General Council into the affairs and activities of the Union and formulated various
policies for the consideration of branches attending the annual General Council. The
3
branches of the Union were then nine only.
But what is perhaps Lagos branch’s greatest contribution of all times to the work of
Urhobo Progress Union, especially in the field of education, is the mooting of the question of
endowment of Scholarships, originally for secondary education, for deserving Urhobo
youths. The hour was 7.25 pm., the date Saturday, July 6, 1935, and the place No. 9, Thomas
Street, Lagos, when and where at a Committee meeting convened4 specially at his
5
request, Mr. Joseph Akpolo Ikutegbe unfolded his mind on two important subjects
fundamental to Urhobo progress. Here we are concerned with one and the first of the two
subjects, namely, the endowment of Scholarships for Secondary Education for Urhobo
children under the auspices of the Urhobo Progress (then Progressive) Union.
Those who know Mr. Ikutegbe intimately well in the Lagos fold of the Union will
readily admit that he is a great thinker, a dreamer, a lover of education, a man imbued with
high ideals, and a man whose mind is fashioned after great things for the development and
progress of Urhobo people. As I write, I still remember vividly one significant statement
made by Mr. Ikutegbe when introducing his subject at the Committee meeting. He said he
did not believe in being a member of a Union merely attending meetings regularly without
doing anything more from the period of one meeting to another. That it was his own idea
that, in an organization such as ours, one must work and live for something. Then the Lagos
branch was barely eight months old.
Looking at the record today, the research student or any one for that matter, may well
ask: why scholarship for as low a standard as secondary education? But such an enquirer
must need be told that we were then in the days when it was difficult, if not altogether
impossible, to produce Urhobo youths with education higher than the proverbial standard
2
Lagos branch was founded by Mr. (now Chief) J. Arebe Uyo on 4th November, 1934. Mr. F. A. O. Susu was the first President
Chief Uyo informed me that he had changed his first name from Joseph to Obazenu. He is now OBAZENU Arebe (abbreviation of
ARHOREBE) Uyo. Chief Uyo claimed to be the founder also of four other branches of the Union, namely, Kaduna, Enugu, Aba and
Onitsha. He is still keenly interested in the Union. He volunteered to accompany, and did accompany, me throughout my official
tour of the Union branches in Northern Nigeria from which we returned on the 29th July, 1964.
3
The number grew rapidly in the late thirties and throughout the forties. Today, it stands at 85-72 in the whole Federation of
Nigeria, 8 in Ghana, 1 in Sierra Leone and 4 in the United Kingdom.
4
Those present at the special Committee meeting were, F. A. O. Susu President, O. Arebe Uyo, Vice-President, T. E. A. Salubi,
Secretary, J. R. Noquapoh who volunteered to be the first “Oyinko” (Messenger-Circular bearer), U. O. Johnson and A. S. Wowo.
5
Mr. Joseph Akpolo Ikutegbe was the first Financial Secretary, later becoming Vice-President for many years of Lagos branch. To
his ever-lasting credit the Urhobo historian must record that Mr. Ikutegbe was the first Urhobo citizen to ever sponsor an Urhobo
student abroad (United Kingdom) for a professional study. The student was Thomas Michael Ighotite Borke. He left Nigeria for
legal studies early in 1937 and died in England on the 5th December, 1955.
333
six. That was incredibly so. Owing to the dreadful scarcity of secondary school leavers, the
idea was to regard that class of scholars as a recruiting ground for higher scholarships. 6
Mr. Ikutegbe’s suggestion was unanimously accepted in principle in Lagos and the
details of the scheme had to be worked out quickly for the Headquarters to study against the
first Annual General Council of the Union that was to sit on the 17th and 18th November,
1935. When laid at the General Council, there was, due to lack of sufficient knowledge on
the part of some delegates, some confusion as to the real purpose of the scheme. But after
elucidation by Chief O. Arebe Uyo, a Lagos delegate, the scheme was warmly applauded
and the Council, therefore, decided to begin to raise subscriptions to fund it as from June
1936.
On the face of it, this long story appears to be irrelevant to the occasion that has
brought us here today. And yet this was the beginning of the very long journey that landed us
in the two-pronged, and clearly, a bigger, educational programme whereby the Union
eventually decided to award Overseas University Scholarships to two Urhobo young men,
and to found the Urhobo College. Following the decision of the 1935 Annual General
Council, some funds were raised in the ensuing years.
First Indications of Departure from the Original Idea
As early as December, 1937, I, as a representative of Lagos branch attending that

year’s Council, moved that “an attempt be made next year” (1938) to award one scholarship
to a boy “to the King’s College so that all subscribers to the Scheme might have knowledge
of how the money was being spent. 7The Council discussed the matter and concluded “that
the money in hand was yet too small to make a start”. In any case, the Council observed that
the aim of providing education for deserving Urhobo youths should not be limited to training
at King’s College, Lagos, only, and that when funds were sufficiently available, deserving
youths could also be sent to England for professional studies. This was the first departure
8
from the original idea.
In 1938, a further departure from the original principles of the Scholarship Scheme
occurred. This time it was to the effect that whatever money that was spent on the scholar for
his training must be refunded on completion of his professional studies. This was carried.
9
Here again, the words “professional education” came prominently into play!
Besides the above, there was a rumour also that, contrary to the original intention, girls
6
In this connection, I can not do better than reproduce part of a letter dated 11th December, 1942, to the General Secretary, U. P. U.
Headquarters, Warri, by Mr. (now Chief) S. J. Mariere, Governor, Midwestern Nigeria).
Chief Mariere wrote: “We understand with concern that during this year the post of a clerk, falls vacant in the Resident’s office,
Warri. The Resident, out of sheer interest for the Urhobo, offers the post to an Urhobo youth with a Class VI pass if one can be had.
Three months together the President-General was engaged in combing all over the country for a boy, but not one can be found, unless
we have to rob the mission of one of their trained teachers. How many standard VI pass have we all over the country. Why not send
one to fill the post if this is just as good? Simply because we could not produce one with a Class VI pass?”
Chief Mariere’s letter was a reply to the Headquarters who had invited his comments on Port Harcourt branch’s suggestion
to alter the 1941 General Council’s decision to build a primary school with the Scholarships Fund to founding a College. I will revert
to this matter later,
7
Even at Logos, the Treasurer and one of the leaders of the branch who was not present at the special Committee meeting asked for
the meaning of the word ‘scholarship’ when the proceedings of the Committee were being reported to the next General Meeting
held on the 7th July, 1935. Mr. (now Doctor) F. O. Esiri, the Assistant Secretary, explained to him (and perhaps others who did not
know too) what ‘scholarship’ meant and how to run it. See P. 41 of Lagos branch Minutes Book No. 1, 4th November, 1934 to
15th November, 1936.
8
See page 12 of the minutes of the proceeding of the Annual General Council for 1937. It was the scholarships for professional
studies awarded at that time by the Ibibio State Union that influenced the minds of our leaders at Warri and elsewhere.
9
Agendum 20 and p. 20 of the minutes of the proceedings (printed) of the Annual General Council for 1938, refer.
334
would not be permitted to benefit from the Scholarship Scheme. Lagos branch therefore gave
a most careful consideration to these fundamental matters of departure from the original
principles and policy, namely, award of scholarships for professional education, repayment
of the scholarship cost and exclusion of girls from the Scheme.
In June, 1939, Lagos forwarded a 5-page letter to the Headquarters protesting
vehemently against the fundamental departure from the original policies of the Scheme. It is
regretted that, owing to its length, it is not possible to reproduce here the text of this all-
important letter. 10Copies of the letter were forwarded to various branches of the Union of
which Koko was one. In July, Mr. (now Chief) J. C. Avbenake, then Honorary Secretary,
Koko branch, commented on the letter. It was the view of his branch that, while they were in
sympathy with Lagos branch, they were convinced that the fund, as it then stood, was
inadequate to embark, to any realizable advantage, on secondary education scholarships.
They added that the force of expressed sentiment by Lagos impelled them to say that the
only suitable remedy was to invite the Church Missionary Society in Warri to establish a
secondary school in the very heart of Urhobo Division. Here again space does not permit
11
reproduction of Chief Avbenake’s important letter.
Another deviation from the original policies occurred at the Annual General Council of
1939 when the title of the Scheme was changed from Urhobo Scholarship Scheme Fund to
Urhobo Educational Scheme Fund. No details as to the implications of the change were
12
given and one was therefore left in the dark to guess as to what it was all about. What we
in Lagos regarded as a momentous decision was however taken at that Council meeting. It
was to the effect that a commencement of the Scheme be made in 1940 with two boys. Lagos
13
branch was to draw up details of the Scheme or conditions governing the award.
Primary School Versus National College
But a most dramatic change of policy in the Scheme was yet to come. It took place at
the Annual General Council in December, 1941, when the Council, to Lagos branch’s utter
surprise and dismay, decided to establish a primary school, to be gradually developed to a
secondary grammar school, with the existing funds of the Scheme. This decision was the last
straw that broke the camel’s back. It raised a great deal of hue and cry from the more
progressive and intelligent branches of the Union. Lagos branch’s immediate reaction was a
quick decision raising the strongest possible objection and deciding not to subscribe anything
more than the minimum of 2/- per member per annum until the awful Council decision was
rescinded.
The second branch to kick violently against the Council’s unprogressive decision was
Port Harcourt. In the words of Mr. T.M. Uwamu, the Honorary Secretary, the reading of this
decision in the minutes of the Council at their General Meeting of 30th August, 1942,
“abruptly became sapless and rancid in character.” It would be “an ignominy to the Urhobo
nation to adumbrate -- imagine aiming at building a mere school” of this type in a “far
10
Lagos branch’s letter No. CB/UPU/120?vol. 4 of 23rd June, 1939.
11
See P. 161 of same file quoted immediately above for the letter.
12
See P. 10 of the minutes of the proceedings of the Annual General Council for 1939.
13
It was about six years later that the content of the Urhobo Educational Scheme was defined. See the policy outline of the Scheme
reproduced under Part VII, pages 26-32. The most significant thing about the original idea and this new one was that scholarship
for secondary education was completely dropped and new proposals such as scholarships for medicine, law, commerce and banking
substituted.
335
advanced country” like ours “instead of a College”, he cried. Accordingly, Port Harcourt
branch proposed redoubling of efforts to raise funds for the founding of a College.
This letter was circulated widely, and consequently, the Headquarters invited comments
upon it from various branches.
As evidenced by available record, it was only Ibadan branch that supported in their
comments the Council’s obnoxious decision. It was in this connection that Chief Mariere
wrote his letter referred to in footnote 5 above. Chief Mariere and I picked up the cudgel
from where Port Harcourt left off, and it is my humble opinion, that it was my letter,
followed by the Chief’s about a month later, that drove the last nail into the coffin of the
proposed primary school project.
Elsewhere in his letter already quoted, Chief Mariere argued brilliantly thus:
“That the six years’ effort of the Urhobo Progress Union with that of other
persons outside the Union, in subscribing money towards the Scholarship Fund
boils down ultimately to the establishment of an elementary school. Some of our
Urhobo young men have established elementary schools in several places. If the
united forces of the Urhobo Progress Union should embark upon a jiffy, what
respect do we command in the eyes of other progressive tribes who think of
Building Colleges and of sending their young men to Europe and scheme in
Nigeria? We found that we could not suppress our feelings, we arranged a
deputation composed of Messsrs S.J. Mariere, Jackson Igben and his visits to
Agbor. We expressed our disagreement with, and disappointment at the decision
to establish an elementary school instead of a College. We concluded that we
could move an amendment of that decision when the next Council sits. In
connection with the same matter Mr. Mariere received a private letter from Mr.
T.E.A. Salubi in favor of founding a College and NOT an elementary school.
Further discussions were had with the President-General at Agbor when Mr.
Salubi who was then on leave visited here. Thus it will be seen that when Port
Harcourt’s letter was received we found that we were not alone in our stand.”
In response to the Headquarters’ invitation for Lagos branch’s views, I wrote again
another 5-page letter, a paragraph of which reads as follows:
“3. As you know too well, the idea of subscribing money to found scholarships
for Urhobo youths originated from our branch (Lagos). God knows how much
we have done to give effect to the scheme since its inception in 1936. We have
been strong adherents of, and believers in, the Scheme. We advocated for its
practicalisation both within and without the four walls of the Union. We have
always thought that nothing could sway us from following up the scheme to
realization soon or late; but since the idea of founding A College as against the
proposed scholarships has cropped up, we have given the two propositions a
most careful study with a broad and unbiased outlook. We weighed the “cons”
and the “pros” of both proposals and found that, notwithstanding our strong
faith in the scholarships proposal, the founding of a College will be far more
beneficial to the Urhobo tribe than scholarships. This is our honest and sincere
conclusion. Having been thus convinced, we are not ashamed to make known
our change of policy, because we have been known to be staunch adherents of
the latter. We hold that in matters of this kind, individual branch’s feelings or
336
idiosyncrasies should not be allowed to supersede national ones as the greater

contains the less.”
In the same letter, Lagos branch suggested; “That owing to” the Union’s inability, for
obvious reasons, to run the College “on its own, missionary authorities (preferably C.M.S.)
in Warri Province 14be approached with the proposal and requested to kindly consider the
possibility of” running “the College under their aegis.”
Further, in my annual report to the Annual General Council holden in December, 1942,
I also wrote the following in connection with the Urhobo National Education Scheme:
“For the first time in our history, we failed to do anything worthwhile in the
prosecution of this scheme this year. Very late in the year, we decided on a
nominal subscription of 2/- per member. The subscription is not yet ready for
sending to the Headquarters as usual. Our failure was due to the attitude of the
executives of the Headquarters to the Scheme and to the most backward decision
[it took] at the last General Council of the Union whereby it was agreed that
funds available under the scheme be utilized to establish an elementary school.
While we do not desire to write at length here about this poorest of decisions, yet
it is sufficient to say that those who brought it about had “killed” our enthusiasm
and interest with it. However, we are pleased to observe that the more intelligent
and enlightened Urhobo youths have since come to our rescue with the result
that a better alternative proposal, which, if effected, guarantees far-reaching
advantages and benefits to the Urhobo youth, is afoot.”
Agreement on National College and Subsequent Developments
Arising from this considerable pressure and stiff opposition, the Annual General
Council of December, 1942, had no alternative but to rescind its previous decision and to
record a fresh and healthier one, namely, that an Urhobo National College be founded.
One significant event at that Council after agreement had been reached on founding the
National College was the spontaneous voting of various sums of money by delegates to the
Scheme. 37 delegates voted on the spot an aggregate sum of £311:15s:0d. The decision for
th
every delegate to pay up from January to 15 December, 1943, showed that not all paid
the various sums voted in full or even in part.
Another important decision taken by the Council was the siting of the proposed college
“opposite the N.A. Oil Palm Nursery near Effurun Town” – i.e., the present site.
By that time, the President-General’s first 5 years term of office had expired “and
being satisfied with his five years peaceful services,” the Council re-elected Chief Mowoe as
President-General for a second tenure. The Council requested the President-General who was
to be accompanied by the General Secretary and the General Financial Secretary, to
commence touring all branches in April, 1943, with the primary object of facilitating
collection of funds for the scheme.
In winding up the debate, the President-General rationalized in order to save the face of
those who took the 1941 decision. He said the Council should thank “those who proposed the
establishment of an Elementary School during the last Council. That had
14
Changed to Delta Province on the 26th September, 1952.
337
enabled Port-Harcourt to make [that is, suggest] the more refined plan” to build a national
College.
The Council, however, rejected Lagos branch’s suggestion to invite a Missionary body
for the running and management of the College.
In his letter dated the 15th January, 1943, conveying the Council’s decision to Lagos
branch, the General Secretary of the Union, acting under direction, requested the Branch to
approach again Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe for necessary advice regarding, as he put it, “the
fundamentality and maintenance” of the College.
With the 1942 Annual General Council decision one would have thought that all
troubles and disagreements about the Scheme were over. But the contrary was the case. The
next two years, as would be seen presently, were years of bitter disagreement especially
between the Home Union and Lagos branch ably supported by Northern Nigeria branches. At
the fifth session of their Conference held at Kano on the 9 and th10 of October,
th
1943,
the North had the following to say with regard to the Urhobo Education Scheme:
“Desirability of sending two men on Scholarship to Europe next year by the

Union.”
“As soon as this matter was tabled for discussion Mr. I. Okandeji in 15a
lengthy speech pointed out how real national progress depended upon ability of
the nation to send deserving sons for Overseas education. In the Nigeria of
tomorrow there would be no room for the tribe that would look upon matriculants
16
as constituting the top intelligentsia. He referred to the example
set by the Ibibio Union. The Ibibio tribe was at one time unheard of and primitive
and looked down upon, but now that tribe has jumped into the foreground of
progressive tribes and become a factor to be reckoned with in Nigeria.
Discussing the contribution of a national progress, he stated, such a college
could only add to the number of our clerks, but a progressive nation needed
professionals. Concluding, he submitted that sending two men to Europe was
overdue and should be undertaken immediately. Messrs. J.J. Oduko, G.A.
Inoaghan, Edwin Ogun, J.D. Oketugba, E.N. Igho spoke in support stressing that
while the prospective students are studying in Europe the Urhobo National
College Scheme could still be pursued.
"Mr. D.A. Green-Okoro in disagreement dwelt upon the great advantages of
a National College; the number of our youth to receive secondary Education
would increase as it was much easy to educate a boy at a home college than
abroad. He contended that a National College would further enable our sons to
qualify for Government Scholarship. He therefore urged the Conference to
accept the decision of the last General Council on this matter.
"Mr. I. Okandeji speaking once more in support of scholarship told the
Conference that it was a National duty to seek the rise of our nation. The
15
Mr. (now Chief) IROLIKI OKANDEJI was at that time a Postal Clerk and Telegraphist, Posts and Telegraphs Department, Kano.
He relinquished that post and proceeded to the United Kingdom to study law. He is now a practising Barrister at Warri.
Chief Okandeji has always been a staunch member of the Urhobo Progress Union. As Chairman of the Management
Committee, Urhobo College, Chief Okandeji is doing wonderful work for the development of the College. We can not be too
grateful to him for his invaluable services.
16
The term “matriculant” was used in early colonial times in Nigeria to designate a person who passed six subjects, including
English) in the General Certificate Examination (GCE, ordinary level)), which was administered by the University of London, or six
credits (including English) in Cambridge School Certificate Examination. Thus passing at the level was deemed to be a matriculation
qualification for admission to London University, hence the term “matriculant.” Needless to add, it was a rare
achievement in the 1930s and 1940s among, particularly among the Urhobo people. -- Editor
338
general minimum standard of obtaining a Government Scholarship was an

Intermediate Degree. With the greatest possible expedition the proposed National
College might produce its first matriculants in 1951 when perhaps Government
Scholarships might have been discontinued or standard of obtaining them raised.
We should fail in our duty and show lack of patriotism if we counted upon the
generosity of the Government to provide our necessities.
"The Clerk of the Conference pointed out that a national college even called
for studies abroad as we must produce worthy Urhobo men fit for Principalship
and mastership at the College or otherwise we would have to count upon the help
of foreign-hands.
"After further discussion on this matter, Mr. I. Okandeji moved that the
time was overdue to send two deserving Urhobo men to Europe on scholarship.
This motion was seconded by Mr. Ogun and unanimously carried. Mr. Green-
Okoro lost his counter motion as he had no seconder.
"Taking decision the Conference felt that scholarship was an immediate need
by the nation and should be given priority over National College which should
still remain as a National aim but given less impetus. The Conference then
resolved – that it was a national duty to send deserving young men Overseas on
scholarship and that should this decision be turned down at the General Council
the Northern Branches would inaugurate a Scholarship Scheme of their own to
see that this national need became a reality.”
The Conference therefore passed this resolution:

"That the sending of two deserving Urhobo youths on Scholarship to Europe
next year was a national duty. That the General Council should consider this
desideratum forthwith and that the Northern Branches strongly feel that, in
consequence, the decision reached at the last General Council be reconsidered
and revoked at the next session of the General Council; that the Northern
Branches while still strongly associating themselves with the scheme for a
National College, urged upon the Home Union to give the Scholarship Scheme
greater priority and acceleration; that towards the fulfillment of this National
duty the Northern Branches would be compelled to run a Scholarship Fund on
their own if reasonable consideration is not given at Headquarters.”
As that Conference was being held, I [i.e., Adogbeji Salubi] was already on the high
seas proceeding to England on Government Scholarship. I did not, therefore, know what was
then happening. But just exactly one month after that Conference, I wrote a letter from
England to the Lagos branch reporting the disgraceful condition in which I found Mr. Borke,
the lone Urhobo star (or as Mr. Ben Davies, the Honorary Secretary, Logos branch, termed
him “the pillar of our hope”) in the field of professional studies in England. As I said earlier
on, Mr. Borke was the first Urhobo ever sent abroad for a professional study. He was
sponsored by Mr. Joseph Akpolo Ikutegbe and was to study law.
After reporting in full the sad circumstances and misfortunes which befell Mr. Borke, I
added:
“This, so far, is the stage to which Mr. Borke’s six and a half years’ stay and
study in England and Mr. Ikutegbe’s bold philanthropy landed him. A fortune
lost to find sorrow, disappointment and misery. It is a pity; this is Mr. Borke,
the hero of my boyhood! This is Mr. Ikutegbe, the noble-minded whom I
339
learnt to respect so much for his venture about Mr. Borke. Above all, is
Urhobo the tribe to which I belong.”
“Whither are we heading?

“When will our day dawn?
“When will our sun rise?
“When will our moon bloom?”
“Let us admit that for the moment our ship has shattered and we have to
retrace our steps. We have to begin again. But can we find another Ikutegbe?
Can we find another broadminded person among the lot? What a
discouragement, what a national shame—for a first attempt to be so ended!”
This letter added fuel to the fire already lit by the North. On its receipt, Lagos issued
an appeal to the Home Union and other branches attaching a copy of the letter.
In the appeal, dated the 9th January, 1944, Lagos branch proposed that, in order to
meet the challenge to the Urhobo nation, brought about by Mr. Borke’s ignominious failure,
the Urhobo Progress Union should use the funds of the Educational Scheme, the National
Fund and other monies readily available to send two scholars to the United Kingdom to
study law. The award was to be “Scholarship in perpetuity” and the students to be sent off
not later than June, 1944. Many branches supported Lagos but the Home Union adopted
what was probably a right, but dilatory, attitude by seeking the views of the branches.
Out of sheer disgust occasioned by the Home Union’s attitude, the Northern branches
in February, 1944, appealed to Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe to speak to our leaders at the
Headquarters and to our people at Sapele in order to rouse them to immediate action. Zik was
then contemplating a visit to the area. Like the Northern branches, Lagos with its supporters
in the South was firmly determined to ensure that Mr. Borke’s disgraceful failure was
avenged at all costs.
It now seemed as if there was a battle between the “progressives” and the
‘reactionaries.’ Lagos called for inauguration of a conference of the branches of the Union in
Southern Nigeria with the object of:
“(a) promoting common understanding among the members of the individual

branches and (b) strengthening the fold and thereby enabling us to present a
formidable front in all matters affecting our destiny. (c) Its inauguration would
help broaden our general outlook and quicken the materialization of our dreams
and schemes, such as the Scholarship and other menacing problems.”
In the circular calling for this conference, Mr. Ben Davis said:
“The advantages of a conference such as it is now being proposed cannot be

overemphasised. The enviable strides of the North, largely due to their
intermittent conferences are achievements quite unexpected. Please be referred
to their Circular, re: the recent resolutions on Scholarship and other matters of
grave importance confronting the Urhobo race. Why not we? Once up and doing
with such two conferences in the North and South, there is no doubt that other
branches in the East and West would automatically wake up and live to
immeasurable advantages. The Mother Union is asleep, should we too?”
340
Very much unlike Lagos, there is no further record in file about this proposed
conference. It is not certain, therefore, whether the conference was in fact held; nor is there
anything about its proceedings if ever it was held. But it would appear from correspondence
from other branches, in reply to a Lagos letter N. CB/UPU/Vol. 7 o 18:2:44 (copy not in
file), that a decision was taken at that conference, or somewhere else, to set up a Commission
of Inquiry into the causes of the weakness of the Home Union. According to Mr. Ikutegbe’s
letter of 3:4:44, expressing inability to serve on the Commission, the idea to set up the
Commission emanated from him. Again another original thought and idea from Mr.
Ikutegbe. The branches’ replies evidenced quite clearly that they welcomed the setting up of
the Commission of Inquiry.
By April, 1944, the Home Union reported the conclusion of its enquiries from branches
as to whether priority should be given to founding a college or overseas scholarships for law.
Of the 33 branches consulted, only 20 replied. Twelve of the twenty favoured proceeding
immediately with the National College, seven were against and one offered no opinion. The
Headquarters, therefore, decided that priority be given to the founding of the College.
Accordingly, an Education Committee, consisting of the members of the Executive
Committee of the Headquarters, together with a number of certain other members who were
co-opted, was set up. The Committee, charged with the responsibility of establishing and
organising the College, with Mr. S. A. Uriafe, as the first secretary, soon met and took the
following decisions:
"(I) That the Secondary School should open in 1945 January.
(II) That owing to difficulties in obtaining qualified staff as well as to those of

getting Government’s approval to open at one stroke a full-fledged Secondary
School, it is decided to start from very humble beginnings—viz: from infants
to Std. VI, and one Secondary Class, other classes being added gradually as
more qualified staff become available.
(III) That Scholarships be offered to at least two Urhobo young men one to
Study Science in Yaba Higher College, specialising in Chemistry and Biology
and the other to study for the B.A. Degree and the Diploma in Theory and
Practice of Teaching in Fourah Bay or in Achimota. These two men will be
the Principal and the Science Master respectively in the Secondary School,
after completing their course (training). Correspondence has already been
opened with each of these colleges.
(IV) That an appeal, a copy of which is attached marked “Strictly

confidential”, be issued to all Urhobo youths throughout the country for
two objects, viz:
(a) To secure from amongst them if possible a staff with which to open the
school next year.
(b) To get the necessary candidates from amongst whom selections will be
made against the two scholarships to be offered for the present.”
The question of selection of candidates for the scholarships was to come up in due
course.
341
A few weeks later, Mr. (now Chief G. Ohwotemu Oweh, then a Co-operative Inspector
at Ibadan, who did not appear to agree with certain aspects of the Education Committee’s
proposal, wrote a well considered letter to advise and appease Lagos in order that they might
bow to the wishes of the Home Union. In the concluding part of his letter, Chief Oweh said,
“If you are convinced with what I have written, I am advising you to write cancelling our
invitation circular for United Kingdom Scholarship. It is no disgrace to do so, but a
vindication of our goodwill to avoid quarrels in the ranks of the Union. In God’s good time”
Chief Oweh reasoned “an Urhobo man will certainly wear the Lawyers’s wig to the glory of
our Fatherland. So be it, Lord” Lagos acceded to the Chief’s advice. In doing so, Mr. Ben
Davies philosophized, “we bow to the inevitable, if it is the will of God, whichever plan that
was first taken would be to the utmost good of our beloved land.”
But the month of May 1944 was an uneasy month for the Home Union. While this
harangue between the North and Lagos on the one hand, and the Home Union on the other,
was about dying down, the Commission of Inquiry, of which Mr. J.D. Oketugba was the
chairman and Mr. J.C. Avbenake the Secretary, was going on in full swing at Warri. It was
said to be a very critical enquiry. In Mr. Avbenake’s own words, “the Commission of
Inquiry…… has come to save the Union from continued decay…… There were indeed
revelations.” Curiously enough, the report of the inquiry never saw the light of day. It was
never published and no copy could be found in any file! I will make no comments.
The Home Union now realised that the game was up and that they had to face the
practical realities of the situation – to start the educational scheme at once or to further
advance dilatory tactics as it had done over the past years.
Award of Two Overseas Scholarships

for Professional Studies In Education
On August 8, 1944, the Education Committee informed Lagos that in connection with
the proposed Urhobo College, Mr. M.G. Ejaife had been awarded a scholarship to study at
the Fourah Bay College for three years followed by a year in the United Kingdom in order to
qualify for the Principalship of the College. That Mr. Ezekiel Igho was another scholar to
follow later. Mr. Ejaife was due to be in Lagos about the 24th August and Lagos branch was
to accommodate him for his brief stay, and also to book his passage to Fourah Bay. Lagos
quibbled as to how Mr. Ejaife came to be selected and so on. But the main thing was that
Mr. Ejaife entered Fourah Bay when the academic year 1944-1945 began.
That was how the Urhobo Progress Union groped for eight long years in its dreams to
found a suitable scheme of its own for the educational advancement of Urhobo youths. But
that was not, by any means, the end of the struggle. The story continues.
As one who was far away from home (for I was already in England), I did not know in
time all the developments that had taken place at home in the fold of the Union. I was aware
of the Commission of Inquiry but did not know in time that Mr. Ejaife had been awarded a
scholarship.
In the midst of my studies, however, the deteriorating state of affairs of the Union at
home was uppermost in my mind. Long before I sailed abroad, I was in fact never happy
with the position of the Union, especially the Home Union. It was always a matter of great
concern to me.
In this connection, I will respectfully seek indulgence to quote what I wrote at
Liverpool in the fall of 1944 in regard to the attitude of the Home Union towards the
scholarship or educational scheme. The extract is a part of a long article written when I was
342
ruminating seriously over the general affairs of the Urhobo Progress Union as I saw them
then. In the article, which was published serially in Southern Nigeria Defender 17 from 1st
November, 1944, I surveyed the whole field of the Union’s activities, criticizing and praising,
where necessary, certain of the activities of certain of the then leaders of the Union.
And I wrote as follows:
“The Scholarships Scheme
I do not propose to discuss here subscriptions to this fund, as this might be

said to be encouraging ...
The members subscribed far more than the minimum of two shillings, per head
per annum, some even subscribed up to about £5 or more, all depending on
will and financial ability.
In a place like Lagos, it was a matter of wide interest, many non-members

subscribing thereto.
The clan unions which were firmly organised made it a point to subscribe
something each year
And so they did until very recently.
This branch, besides other activities, organised a very successful cinema show
the proceeds of which benefited the fund and the Nigerian Troops Comforts
Fund.
Between 1936 and 1942, this fund rose to a few hundred pounds, now idle in
the coffers of the local bank.
Here again we had and still have enormous resources to explore for the
benefit of this fund.
All we wanted was a little more effort and psychology—to start the project
with one or two of the most deserving youths in a local secondary education
institution (King’s College, Lagos, preferably), for that was the original idea,
and hold that up to stimulate the people.
Meanwhile collection of more money would be going on.
But instead, what did we see?
The subscription which was encouraging from the beginning began to drop,
not because subscribers were tired but because the General Council was
incapable of taking decisive action as to what to do with what had already
been collected.
17
The Southern Nigeria Defender was then publishing at Warri. The article was published in more than 14 installments.
343
The original aim was altered to creating Overseas scholarships for

professional education in Europe or in America. Then the question as to the
terms of the grant arose—should award be granted entirely free, or should
part or the whole of the expenditure involved be refunded by scholars?
Views were sharply divergent, and, although we had the benefit of advice of
well-informed and qualified men like Dr. I. Ladipo Oluwole, Zik and a few
others, yet we were unable to come to a definite conclusion.
Later, it was suggested that instead, we should found a secondary school in

Urhoboland.”
And so we kept on changing our minds each year without doing one out of all,
until quite recently when some one with a brilliant brain came along with a
very clear idea. Not only did he suggest, but actually manoeuvred and got the
1942 Council to rescind the previous decision and to substitute therefore
another, which was that the founding of an elementary school which would
gradually develop into a secondary school was the best solution to our
pressing educational needs!
Well, we are in a world in which each man is entitled to his opinion, and
provided he knows how to get about his job. It is easy to carry the majority in
a Council where most delegates, particularly those from Urhoboland, feel that
the views sponsored by influential members of the headquarters are always
right.
If ever the headquarters exhibited obvious inability in handling a given

problem, it is how they fumbled over, bungled and muddled the scholarships
scheme.
They had never once had a clear view of their own as to what to do, nor were
they prepared to accept others’ views with any appreciable sincerity, with the
result that they kept on tossing representatives of branches here and there at
the annual council meetings.
Is there any wonder, therefore, that some members now begin to feel that the
scheme is being deliberately frustrated by some people with private axes to
grind?
We won’t be surprised if the next move would be a decision to adopt the Forge
three or five year plan for Standard II Mass Literacy!
Unfortunately or fortunately (which it is in this case we don’t really know),

this officer who was alleged to be at the head of Education Department, Warri
– a department which has for the past two decades consistently worked in a
manner as tended to betray the cause and stifle almost to death the progress of
education in that Province – has been transferred.
In the address presented by the Urhobo Progress Union to the new Governor
on the occasion of his first official visit to Warri, it was observed among
344
other requests that they needed three secondary schools in the Province, and
what is more, they had made representations to this effect in the Elliot
Commission!
From their last decision before I left Nigeria, one would have expected that,
true to the belief and conviction which must have prompted that decision, they
would have given priority to elementary schools!
Whatever may be their present views, we strongly feel that enough experiment
has been tried on the Scholarships Scheme, and, therefore, it is high time
something concrete is done.
We must remember that members of the general public subscribed to the Fund
and for this, we owe them a responsibility and obligation.
Already, the Okpe Union, Lagos, one of the Urhobo Clans Unions which
supported the scheme admirably, had quite rightly called the Lagos branch to
question recently as to what happened to the Fund, since they had heard
nothing about it. 18
That is how we groped for eight long years altogether. But my article worked, perhaps
like magic. The Commission of Inquiry together with this open press criticism ‘ferreted’ the
Headquarters leaders out of their inexcusable state of inaction.
With all those events, the year 1944 must have been a most exciting and excruciating
one in the annals of the Union. After skipping the holding of Annual General Council for
1943, due, as Mr. Avbenake put it, to the “Home Union delinquency,” a very busy and hectic
Council was held in December, 1944. It is believed that arising from the Commission of
Inquiry, far-reaching decisions involving fundamental re-organisation and changes of
procedure, etc., affecting the structure of the Union itself were taken at the Council.
Unfortunately, the minutes of the proceedings regarding that link of our long story are
missing. It was the last Council called by Chief Mowoe. None other was held before his
death in August, 1948. The next Council was in May – June, 1950 -- a lapse of some six
years. When called to question at the 1950 Council, Mr. (now Chief) J.J. Okene, the then
Honorary General Secretary, gave vague and indefensible reasons as to why the minutes
were not compiled and issued. This earned him a severe censure from the Council.
On the June 20, 1945, Lagos was requested to book the passage of Mr. Ezekiel N. Igho
19
who was to proceed to Cambridge on the Union’s scholarship commencing from the
1945-1946 session. Igho arrived in England in September 1945.
In 1935 Mr. Igho had entered Christ the King’s College, Onitsha, where he came first
in the School Honours List in 1938. He passed the Government Middle VI Examination and
the Cambridge School Certificate Examination, Grade I Pass with Exemption from London
Matriculation. Ezekiel joined, in 1939, the Marine Technical Institute, Apapa, later
18
This is part of the fourth installment. See pages 3 and 4 of the issue o 4th November, 1944, No. 378.
19
Ezekiel Noruchor Igho was born in Ohwrode, Udu Clan Western Urhobo District. He received his early education at St. Phillips’
School, Burutu and the Holy Cross School, Benin City. Came out first boy at the 1932 standard six Examination for all pupils in
Benin Province. Young Ezekiel was therefore the first of the 26 boys selected to do one years’ preparatory work at the Benin
Government School in order to become foundation students for the Edo College.
345
resigning to enter the Telegraph School, Post & Telegraphs Department, from where he
qualified to become postal clerk and telegraphist.
Six years later, Ezekiel was awarded one of the two Overseas scholarships by the
Urhobo Progress Union with the ultimate aim of qualifying for Science Mastership on the
staff of the proposed Urhobo College. In October, 1945, Ezekiel entered Downing College,
Cambridge University, graduating Bachelor of Arts in Natural Sciences in June, 1948. He
obtained his Diploma in Education from the Institute of Education, University of London in
July, 1949. Ezekiel returned from the United Kingdom in September, 1949, and joined the
Staff of the College as the Vice-Principal. He died at an early age at his hometown,
Ohwrode, Udu Clan, on Saturday, 5th May, 1956. A grievous loss to the Urhobo people.
Urhobo Educational Scheme's

Ten-Year Policy: Its Content and Obstacles
All along, the Education Committee was hard at work producing by August, 1945, the
following detailed ten-year educational programme:
Urhobo Education Scheme
1 CHANGE OF This Scheme formerly known and circulated as the

TITLE: “Urhobo College Scheme” should now be known
and called the “Urhobo Education Scheme”.
2 EFFECT OF The Urhobo College Scheme was wholly based on
CHANGE: the building, equipment, maintenance of, and the
training of staff for the “Urhobo National College.”
But by the adoption of the new title, the scheme has
opened up opportunities of granting scholarships to
Urhobo deserving Youths to study abroad for such
professions or degrees as the General Council may
approve. This change of title has strongly affected
the fund. The target of £12,000 for ten years plan
was increased to £60,000 for the same period.
3 DEFINTION: This scheme may be clearly defined as the Urhobo

Education Scheme planned under the auspices of the
Urhobo Progress Union for a period of ten years
whereby certain sums are estimated to be raised from
among the Urhobo people towards the establishment
of a National College and granting of scholarships to
deserving Urhobo Youths to study abroad for chosen
professions or degrees.
4 OBJECTIVES: There are three objectives the scheme is out to
achieve:
(I) Founding of Secondary School
(II) Granting of Scholarships for Higher Education
(III) Raising of Funds.
5 FOUNDING OF (I) Building of College:

SECONDARY
346
SCHOOL: (a) Acquisition of land: Lease or freehold, survey

of the plot.Plan of the building.
(b) Building: U Shape Storey Building according to

the plan prepared by the Education Committee and
submitted to the Executive Council for approval.
(c) Houses for the Principal and Vice-principal to be

concrete modern buildings and so are the houses for
other tutors. There shall be built houses for gardener
and cook and Other members of the College.
(d) Commencement of Building: As soon as funds

are available, i.e. after setting aside total expen-
diture for Messrs M.G. Ejaife and Igho for the period
covered by their training and transport fares back to
Warri, the building will commence.
(e) Purchases of materials – Cement, sand, gravels,

planks washers and nails
(f) Block moulding and assembling of same.
(g) Employment of Watchman and appointment of

Contractor. Agreement With the contractor drawn
and signed.
(h) The Education Committee supervises the

building.
(i) The period 1945 to 1946 December set aside to

complete the Building, if not earlier.
(ii) STAFF: Employment of Tutors and opening of

the College.
(iii) January 1947: (a) Four Masters to be employed

– College opens with 120 boys (girls may be
admitted as day girls in classes one 1
(a) (b) & II (a) (b) 30 in each.
(b) Laboratory Instruments and equipment to be
provided.
1948: (a) Employment of more Tutors and opening

of class III probably (a & (b).
347
(b) More equipment and laboratory instruments.
1949: (a) Messrs. Ejaife and Igho return and

assume duties.
(b) Opening of Class (IV).
(c) Equipment, and Instruments.
(d) Two students sent abroad for Education.
1950: (a) Opening of Class (V).

(b) More equipment and laboratory instruments.
(c) Employment of more staff.
(d) Two students abroad for Education.
1951: (a) Opening of Class (VI).

(b) More equipments and laboratory instruments.
(c) Employment of more staffs.
(d) Two students abroad for Agriculture to be
Tutors.
1952: (a) More openings considered – Technical

School attached.
(b) Two students abroad for Commerce (to be
Tutors).
(c) 1949 Students arrive and assume duties.
1953: (a) 1950 Students arrive and assume duties.

(b) Two Students abroad for Education to
Specialise in Technology ( option Tutors).
1954: (a) 1951 Students arrive to assume duties.

(b) Equipment and Laboratory – General
Improvements.
1955:- (a) Ten years plan ends in May 31st.

(b) 1952 Students arrive and assume duties.
6 GRANTING (1) As soon as 1945 funds are available by May 31

st
SCHOLARSHIPS 1946 arrangements for grants of scholarship for
FOR two students shall be made for 1947.
PROFESSIONS:
(2) In 1948 Two more students: one for Medicine
and the other for Law.
(3) In 1949 Two students one for Commerce and

Banking, the Other for social science to be employed
by Urhobo N. A. For Welfare Works
(4) In 1950 Two more Law Students.
348
(5) In 1951 Two students all medicine or one to

specialize in dentistry.
(6) In 1952 Two more students – one Medicine the

other for Law.
(7) In 1953 Two more students – all Medicine.
(8) In 1954 Two more students – Commerce and

Industry.
(9) In 1955 Three Students for general Education.
7 RAISING OF (1) June 1,1945: Raising of Funds commences.

FUNDS
(2) The Target is £6000 a year.
(3) The Target is divided up as follows: (Clans: 29

in number) £2,000 a year. Urhobo abroad, including
Warri and Sapele, £4,000 a year.
(4) This amount be made available by May 31 of each

year.
8 THIS MOVE IS A (1) The Scheme is a project to serve the educational

NATIONAL need of the people of Urhobo. Apart from its
CONCERN immediate attainments i.e. establishment of a
National College at Warri, granting of Scholarships
to study in U.K. and U.S.A. and the realisation of the
fund estimated, the Nation will greatly benefit by the
spirit of co-operation and unity the method of
collection will bring about during the ten years the
scheme remains operative.
(2) It should be borne in mind that any clan or group

of clans desiring to operate a scheme of the nature
scheduled above with the mind of giving up the
payments of its quotas towards the Urhobo
Education Scheme has violated a National pledge
and the failure to carry out the scheme will be
attributed to such clan or group of clans and the
Urhobo Progress Union has the right of brining up
such clan or group of clans before the Urhobo Native
Administration Authorities for censure and redress.
(3) It is wise to sound a note of warning here that
349
the success of this scheme depends largely on

principally just two things: firstly the degree of
efforts by, and general activities of, the members of
the Urhobo Progress Union as a whole; secondly
the co-operative efforts of the Urhobo public backed
up by their willingness to pay up quotas.
9 It would not be too much for a clan or group of clans to
raise funds of their own for the purposes of granting
Secondary Education Scholarship or University Educa-
tion Scholarship, if the sponsors would make the people
affected by their move to clearly understand that their
scheme would not prejudice the Urhobo Education
Scheme Fund, nor would it in any way serve as an excuse
for paying less quotas.
10 In any further awards of scholarship either under 4(1) or
4(2) above, due advertisements by publications, circulars,
open discussions at Mass Meetings, will be made in
inviting applications, supported by testimonials from
Clan Heads, Executives of Clan Unions, of Urhobo
Progress Union branches and Headquarters: and from the
Executive Boards in Townships. No application will be
accepted in cases where condition stipulated above is not
satisfied.
11 Selections will be determined by the educational
attainment, conduct and health. In some cases, advices
of the Education Authorities may be sought either by
way of tests or interview to be arranged for the selected
candidates. The Education Committee is free to award
scholarships to candidates with exceptional ability and
of good character provided such applicant is recom-
mended by the approved authority.
12 The Union reserves the right of calling upon any
Urhobo man or woman to proceed for further studies if in
the opinion of the Union, such award will be of national
value for the nation.
13 The Education Committee has rightly concluded that
when the College is opened, scholarships will be offered
to deserving students either (a) for free tuition and
boarding, (b) free lodging, (c) free tuition. There shall
be also certain number of regular scholarships to be
granted annually for boys or girls of exceptional
brilliancy during their College career in cases where the
parents of such boys or girls are unable to foot the
College bills. The terms of the Scholarships will depend
on the merit of the case or on the degree of the poverty
of the parents.
350
14 The Union will dare tackle the problem of Mass

Education after years if the Co-operation now needed
could be secured to work successfully through the ten
years plan, but it is a duty incumbent on the clan Unions
to encourage children of school age to attend schools.
15 The question of Adult Education is a matter of
willingness on the part of present adult Illiterates to learn
how to read, write and do simple arithmetic.
16 All Clan Unions should encourage girls of school age to
attend school. If special effort is made and good number
of our girls are found to attend schools, Secondary
Education of our girls will receive special attention of the
Union in ten years’ time.”
17 The Union expects every Urhobo man and woman to do
his or her duty to bring this scheme to a success so that
we shall be free to express ourselves in matters affecting
this Country.
18 All expenses incurred in respect of Medicine and Law
students are refundable in full. Those students for
Education shall refund half the expenses.
19 The above Scheme is subject to amendment, alteration,
modification as the need arises.”
In his first Monthy Circular, 20Avbenake left for us the following summarised record
under the following heading:
“Controversy On Education Scheme”
“In 1936 a Fund known as Scholarship Fund was opened for all branches of the Union.
The Scholarship Fund was suggested by Lagos Branch of the Union in order to grant
scholarship to Urhobo deserving Youths to Secondary Schools. Lagos Branch Union was
then instructed to make up the scheme for submission to the General Council of 1937. The
U.K. and U.S.A. Scholarships granted by Ibibio Union in 1937 biased the mind of some
Branch Unions against the Education Fund in favour of Scholarship Funds. In 1938, the
scheme was merely discussed and no motion was passed. In 1939, in spite of Lagos stand the
claim for Overseas Scholarship was gaining ground. In 1940, Mr. J.A. Ikutegbe, a dynamic
force behind the Secondary Education Scholarship was delegated from Lagos to the General
Council where he won the debate with a promise to start with two boys in King’s College. In
1941, owing to war exigency, according to the Headquarters, the General Council did not sit.
In 1942, the School was suggested as a primary move. In 1943, Port Harcourt brought up the
idea of Secondary School. This was moved in the Council with laudable funds ranging from
£5 to £30 as their contribution towards the Scheme. Among the few who paid their votes
were Messrs. Mukoro Mowoe, President-General, and
20
Following the reorganisation of the Union in 1945, there was established a Central information Committee which was charged
with the duty of propagating the cause of the Union with particular reference to the Urhobo Education Scheme. The Committee
introduced a system of issuing a Monthly Circular as information medium. The first Monthly Circular was issued in June, 1945
Chief J.C. Avbenake was the editor of the Circular.
351
Mr. Affun of Forcados Branch Fame. The famous letter from Mr. T.E.A. Salubi, Social
Science Student in London reporting the tragic fate of Mr. Borke in his law career to the
Lagos Branch Union and subsequent circular passed by that Branch supported by Kano Area
Council resolution prejudiced the mind of some Sections against the Secondary school
building scheme. Thus a conflict flared up – Hot Correspondence followed; split threatened –
dissension became rampart and a loophole was thus created for a less subtle ruthless
propagandist to ply his trades against the Union. The time spirit changed the mind of the
leaders who unconsciously began to reason with one another. Then the New Education
Scheme was drawn with greater degree of attention to Secondary School. But the famous
General Council of 1944 modified it and brought the scheme to a point where neither of the
opposing thoughts could find a job of complaint. It is a balanced scale. Those who held that
deserving Youths should be sent to Great Britain for law studies are satisfied under the
Scheme even beyond the conception of law studies only. Those who believed that a National
College of the first grade type would be a royal road to progress are under the scheme
supported to the extent of granting Scholarship to deserving Youths to study abroad for art
and science degrees. The March is now begun! The success of the Scheme depends upon just
two things: (1) The degree of energy exerted in bringing before the Urhobo people the true
position of the Scheme, its value and at the same time making them to realise the national
importance of the scheme. The importance makes it necessary to assume the title of Urhobo
Education Scheme. (ii) The degree of co-operation that the Urhobo people are prepared to
give to the Schemers. Those who are ignorant of the extent in population of the Urhobo tribe
may doubt the possibility of collecting annually for ten years £6000. The arrangement of
dividing the target into two making Urhobo abroad (including Warri and Sapele) to
contribute annually £4000 and Urhobo clans (29 in all) £2000 a year is an attempt to
consolidate the scheme. The Annual quota is invariably the annual financial responsibility
towards the scheme of the Urhobo people resident in an area where the flag of the Union is
flying. And the duty of the members of the Urhobo Progress Union in such area is the
organisation of the local community – Urhobo speaking people into a working committee
possibly under such representative system as is clearly defined in a Section of the New
Constitution.
“A successful campaign is being made in Warri Township by the Central Information
Committee in preparing the mind of the people for the very near future when Warri will
commence collection of its quota. For your information, the following are the subject matters
for discussion in any clan Union visited:
1. Words of appreciation for the existing Co-operation between the clan and the Urhobo
Progress Union, stressing the need for more and better mutual understanding between
the two.
2. Need and value of a representative clan Union on all 29 clans and Branches of the
Urhobo Progress Union.
3. The Need and value of unifying all 29 clans under one Native Administration with
Authority vested in Urhobo Council.
4. The survey of the present World Order with particular reference to Secondary and
higher Education and progressive strides ofour Sister tribes in those directions.
5. The Urhobo Education Scheme, with Aims at achieving both needs Secondary and
University Education, the later of course includes professional studies abroad.
352
CONCLUSION:
"I close this June Circular by remarking that at this stage of the Scheme all
branch Union must first of all re-awake to set its internal machinery going and
to try as best as it can to avoid misunderstanding not only between the Union
and its members but also between the Urhobo Community and the Union and
among the local Urhobo elements.”
One of the ways and means proposed for raising the necessary funds for the Scheme
was touring the outside branches by the President-General and branches in Urhoboland by
officers and prominent members of the Home Union. Sums of money to be subscribed by
each branch of the Union and each Urhobo clan for the Scheme were allocated. The various
Clans in Urhoboland were to be toured also.
Accordingly, the President-General planned two tours of the branches in the Provinces
th
for the collection of the allocations. The first was to be undertaken from the 15
th th th
to the 27 of August, and the second from the 10 to the 19 of September, 1945. Both
were, however, postponed indefinitely owing to what was termed “unavoidable
circumstances”. Avbenake again left a record showing that the uncompromising attitude
adopted by the Lagos branch towards the Home Union was responsible for the postponement.
The relationship between Lagos and the Home Union must have been terribly strained.
Mr. J.R. Noquapo told me on my arrival from the United Kingdom that no one would have
met the President-General, if he had undertaken the tour at that time. Like a great man,
however, the President-General piped down. Not only did he personally apologise to Lagos
branch at an interview at Lagos, but also got the Home Union to do so in writing. The quality
of Chief Mowoe’s leadership and magnanimity of heart can best be assessed from the tenor
of his letter to Lagos. I have the honour to reproduce the letter hereunder:
Urhobo Progress Union,

Secretary-General’s Office.
P. O. Box 96,
Warri.
10th Sept., 1945.
The Secretary,
Urhobo Progress-Union.
Lagos.
Sir,
From what I could gather from my interview with you when I visited Lagos, I
deduced that unless one of the two parties to the quarrel gives way to the other,
the result will be a permanent disunity and by that we may destroy what we
have created. I need not state categorically the needs for an effective Union in
Urhoboland. You all know that. At this crucial moment when Nigerian History
is being made, we must not allow petty differences to disorganise us so that we
may be able to create a New Urhobo in a New Nigeria and when the political
History shall be written, when the Economic History shall be written and when
353
the Social and Religious history shall be written, our names, nay that of the
tribe shall not disappear.
2. I held meeting with the Headquarters Union and came to agreement that an
unqualified apology be sent you. I made them to realise whatever shortcoming
they have. From constitutional point of view your action in contacting other
branches in matter of general policy is wrong. Originally that power was vested
with the General meeting of the Home Union but the New Bye laws has, by
creation of an Executive Council brought the General meeting of the Home
Union to this because it is the only offence for which you are held by the Home
Union.
3. As your President-General, I am duty bound to settle dispute between any

two branches, but the effectiveness of my settlement depends on your loyalty
and it is this loyalty I crave for in my asking that Warri Home Union shall
submit an apology to you. There is nothing short of loyalty when Home Union
agrees to do so. And now it is your turn to display this same spirit of loyalty by
accepting this apology in true spirit I know, it is expressed. I need not, therefore,
hesitate in anticipating that the scheme now in hand will meet with your
approval in that Scholarships for U.K. and U.S.A. will be available in a year’s
time as the target is reached. The method of selection, as stated in Section 10
and 11 of the Scheme, will no doubt interest you.
4. You will, no doubt, fall in sympathy with me when I state here for your
information that this quarrel has already done some harm to the Scheme. My
tour was planned before I met your Union. Having discovered you have still
stood in the way you did, I hastened to Headquarters to cancel my tour until
internal affairs are adjusted. Before this time, as you know, circulars have gone
to all branches with itinerary attached. Letters canceling this itinerary did not
reach Port Harcourt in time, due to strike and the fact that the Branch made an
elaborate arrangement, with Government granting a day leave to Urhobo
employees, made my absence due to cancellation of itinerary a painful
experience to us, more to Port Harcourt Branch than to me. It is an example of
what discord generally creates in human society.
5. I, therefore, appeal to you to cease fire and lay down arms as Home Union
has honourably, unconditionally surrendered. In the name of progress I have
made this appeal.
While I remain,
Faithfully yours,
J.J. OKENE M. MOWOE

--------------- ----------------
Secretary-General President-General
Urhobo Progress Union.
354
In order to further pacify Lagos, the Education Committee caused section 6, subsection
I of the policy governing the Education Scheme to be amended to enable two law
scholarships, tenable in the United Kingdom, to be awarded in 1946. In response to the
circular from the Headquarters, many candidates applied for the law scholarships but nothing
came out of it all – probably, not enough money could be raised.
Urhobo Collegiate School of Commerce
In January, 1944, a respectable retired Civil Servant, Mr. E.O. Wey (popularly known
as Pa Wey) in Warri, founded a school, known as Collegiate School of Commerce, Warri. It
was providential for the Urhobo Progress Union that two years later, Mr. Wey, for some
21
reasons, offered to sell the school. Mr. J.G. Ako, who was then a teacher in the school,
suggested the purchase to the Urhobo Progress Union so that it would be managed as a
nucleus of the College which the Union wanted to found. Ako’s suggestion was well taken,
the purchase concluded, 22and the take-over was effected as from 1 October,
st
1946. At first,
the school was re-named Urhobo National Collegiate School of Commerce, later Urhobo
Collegiate School of Commerce.
The School maintained classes from Middle Class I to Middle Class IV and the first
Manager, under the direction of the Union’s Education Committee, was Mr. P.K. Tabiowo
(currently Speaker of the Mid-Western House of Assembly). The first Entrance Examination
th
under the new management was held on Saturday, 14 December, 1946, at
seven centres, namely, Warri, Sapele, Okitipupa, IIe-Ife, Lagos, Jos and Kano.
On the April 30, 1947, Mr. (now Chief) J.A. Obahor was appointed Treasurer or
Bursar of the School. Other appointments, in August, 1947, to the membership of a newly
created School Management Committee were Messrs. L.T. Mayiko, R.O. Efekodo and A.
Udih. By October, 1947, there appeared to be some dissatisfaction with the management of
the school and a Commission of Enquiry was set up to make necessary investigations. The
Commissioners were Messrs. J.C. Avbenake and F.R.A. Iyoma.
In March, 1948, Mr. P.K. Tabiowo resigned not only from the Managership of the
School but also from the membership of the Warri Township Education Committee where he
was serving as a representative of the Urhobo Progress Union. He was succeeded in the
Managership by Chief J.A. Obahor assisted by Mr. J.R. Sharta-Okoh with effect from March
11, 1948.
Whatever might have been its initial operational difficulties, the school showed early
signs of brilliant academic performance. The first three candidates presented in 1946 for the
Junior Cambridge Examination were all successful. They were Johnson Edremoda, Egoke
O. Buluku and M. David Unurhoro. 23All three were scholarship holders of the School. The
future educational progress of the School, from the point of view of University of Cambridge
University Examination Syndicate towards pupils of private and unrecognised
21
Mr. (now Chief J. Gordon Ako was the first Hon Secretary, Urhobo Progress Union, Ughelli branch, founded in 1935. He was one
of the six honourable members elected in 1951 to represent Urhobo Division in the Western House of Assembly and was made
a Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Health. At the end of this career, Chief Ako proceeded to the United Kingdom where he
studied Law. He is now a Barrister-at-Law practicing at Warri.
22
“The School was purchased because of the late Chief Mukoro Mowoe’s stick-to itiveness; all others were apologetic” so wrote
Chief J. Gordon Ako in a personal communication to me. The purchase price was £160.
23
According to Chief Ako, Johnson, Edremoda is now in the Foreign Service of the Federation Egoke O. Buluku (son of Madam
Okpada, first Lady President of the Women Section of the Union at Warri) in the Nigeria Railway Corporation and M. David
Unurhoro is a Barrister-at-Law now practising at Warri.
355
Commercial Schools, did not appear to be bright. The Syndicate restricted the number of
such pupils as candidates, and as there was no recognised secondary schools in Warri (now
Delta) Province, which had been in existence long enough to present candidates, Warri was
not made a centre for the Cambridge School Certificate Examination.
Urhobo College
Rent on the hired private premises which very inadequately housed the school was a
heavy item of expenditure in the running cost of the school; there was, therefore, a proposal
24
as early as June, 1947, to erect a temporary school building on the present site of the College
which had then been newly acquired by the Union. Three principal reasons prompted this
idea. In the first place, the hired private premises had already proved to be two small, thus
giving rise to serious overcrowding. In the second place, the temporary building would
eliminate the element of rent in the school expenditure to the tune of about £60 per
annum. In the third place, the building would facilitate the full change-over from the
purely commercial character of the School to that of a secondary Grammar School.
Accordingly, the Education Committee drew up a detailed scheme for the establishment of
the College. The change was to take effect from January 1948, and the Union’s intention
was conveyed to the Provincial Education Officer, Warri, in a letter dated 22nd October,
1947.
An extract of the letter reads:
“1. We are directed to submit this, notifying our intention to convert the Urhobo
Collegiate School of Commerce into a full Secondary Institution (Urhobo
College) in 1948. A new site has been acquired between Effurun and Warri And
will be built in 1948-49.
"2. The School is owned by the Urhobo people, but is being run under the
auspices of the Urhobo Progress Union and, the thought of its elevation to a full
secondary school status in the immediate future was supreme at the time of its
acquisition.
"3. The Principal-designate and the Vice-Principal of the school are now at
different universities in the United Kingdom as scholarship students under the
Urhobo Education Fund: they will return to join the present staff cf. the school
in 1948.
"4. The Principal, M.G. Ejaife, Esq., B.A., Inter B.Sc. (Econ), is reading for
Diploma in Education in the University’s Institute of Education in London. The
Vice-Principal, E.N. Igho, Esq., a 2nd Year B.A., is reading for his Final degree
in the University of Cambridge.
"An early consideration and approval of this request will be highly appreciated.”
25
24
Okitipupa branch supported by Lagos suggested that the College be sited at Ughelli, Administrative Headquarters of Urhobo
Division, for security and other reasons. Three years later Okpe Union suggested Orerokpe. See p. 312 of File CB/UPU/Vol. 7 for
Okpe Union’s letter dated 24th August, 1946. Both suggestions were not considered.
25
Letter No. UPU/84/44 of 22:10:47 pp. 44, Urhobo Collegiate File (Home Union)
356
As could be seen from Paragraphs 3 and 4 above, the appointments of the two Urhobo
scholars had been designated long before their return from the United Kingdom. By
December, 1947, however, the Union found itself unable to carry out the contemplated
change, and informed the Education Department that the project was postponed for a year, 26
i.e. to January, 1949.
Prominent among members of the teaching staff of the school at that time was a teacher
27
called S.J. Mayaki who taught Mathematics and Latin. Pa Wey’s appointment as a
teacher in the school was terminated as from 19th January, 1948. It is amusing to note that,
even though on a meager salary scale of £36 to 48 per annum, he petitioned and pleaded
unsuccessfully to be retained in his post.
It is interesting to see the array of young teachers, especially those of Urhobo and
Isoko origins, among the staff of which Gordon Ako was the head. They included Messrs.
G.E. Om’ Iniabohs (Isoko), G. Diejomaoh, Egoke E. Buluku, M.D. Unurhoro, Frank Sodje
and M. A. Akpofure (now a Chief and Barrister-at-Law). I am happy to say that Mr.
Diejomaoh is still on the staff.
The return of Mr. Ejaife on 4th August, 1948, from his Overseas studies, to take up his
appointment in the School marked a definite turning point in the history of the School. On
th
the 7 August, 1948, the Union wrote to inform the Education Department of Mr.
Ejaife’s return and to seek appointment for 12.30 p.m. on Tuesday, 10 thAugust, 1948, so as
to introduce him to the Provincial Education Officer, Warri. But before noon on that date,
Chief Mukoro Mowoe, the President-General of the Union, who had been ill only for a few
days, had died! It was a most severe shock to all.
In this connection, I still remember quite well my conversation with Mr. Ejaife at
Providence House 28regarding the Chief’s death. He, like all of us, was most grievously
affected, and in his grief, he aptly said something similar to this:
It is a bit of ill-luck
He sent me abroad for a purpose
I returned but I did not see him
To report to.
With the great leader’s death, it would not be too much for any one to expect a set-
back in the School’s projected programme. But fortunately, this did not happen in any
appreciable way. Here, our thanks are due to the deceased leader’s able lieutenants, chiefly,
Chiefs J.A. Okpodu and J.A. Obahor, 29 who rose admirably well to the occasion. But one
significant incident which occurred was the desertion of the school by the three scholarship
holders to whom reference had already been made above. They had since become teachers
deemed to be serving under bond in the school. By their desertion, the strength of the staff
was naturally reduced.
26
Provincial Education Officer’s letter No. W. 1103A/6 of 4:11:47 confirmed by Union’s letter No. UPU/84?51 of 24:12:47. Ibid
pp. 49-51.
27
Mr. S. J. Mayaki LL.B, B.L., Diploma in Public International Law of Gray’s Inn, is now the City Clerk of the Lagos City Council.
Mr. Mayaki still shows interest in Urhobo College. I saw him at Lagos on 16:6:64, and as a result of our conversation, he readily
promised to offer a prize at today’s occasion for the best work in Mathematics.
28
This is the name of Chief Mukoro Mowoe’s House.
29
Both attained the post of President-General of the Union. Okpodu held the post from 13:5:50 to 23:1:57 and Obahor from 26:1:57
to 29:12:61. The former acted in the post from the time of Chief Mowoe’s death before formal appointment.
357
Without any prejudice whatsoever, I reproduce below the text of the letter sent by the
Union to the parents of each of the three young men.
“I am directed by the Officers and members of my Union to inform you that

your son . . . . who had enjoyed our scholarship in the Urhobo Collegiate School
of Commerce, Warri, on the agreement that he would teach in the school for an
unbroken period of three years after the completion of his training has deserted
us thus breaking the contract.
"We understand that he has left the town for employment elsewhere, but he
forgets that we can easily interfere with his present move and so cause a stain to
be put on his character for life.
"In order, therefore, to avoid such unpleasantness and a resort to legal action
to claim refund of expenses incurred for his training, and damages caused to the
Urhobo Collegiate School of Commerce, Warri, we may prefer to treat the
matter domestically.
"In this respect, I am directed to ask you to meet the Executives of my
th
Union on Monday, 20 instant, at 3 O’clock p.m. in the house of Mr. J.O.
Aghoghovbia, Robert Road, Warri unfailingly.” 30
However, the programme to convert the School to a secondary grammar school was
pursued earnestly and undisturbed. In anticipation of official approval being obtained, Mr.
Ejaife issued a circular-letter dated 8 thOctober, 1948, to sixteen branches of the Union with
th
a request to arrange for the conduct of Entrance Examination on the 6 November, 1948, for
admission to the College in January 1949. According to that circular, the College was open
to boys and girls!
On the November 24, 1948, the Union appointed a Finance Committee “to study,
among other matters of importance, the proposed 1949 Budget submitted by the Principal,
and to make recommendations”. The members of the Finance Committee were Messrs M.O.
Ighrakpata, J.A. Obahor, P.K. Tabiowo, W.O. Okoh and J.J. Okene.
th
On the 6 January, 1949, Mr. Ejaife applied formally on behalf of the Urhobo Progress
th
Union as Voluntary Agency for approval to start the Urhobo College on the 24
January, 1949. The application was approved. Thus the dreams of the leaders of the Union
became a reality thenceforth. Later in the year, Mr. E.N. Igho, the Vice-Principal designate,
returned from the United Kingdom fully qualified, and assumed duty in the College.
For the following years, the government of the College, as it must be under the law,
was vested in a Board of Governors which had been set up.
Thus the onus of supervision, control and overall management of the College shifted
from the Union to the Board. The Union, as the Proprietors, had, as it still has till today, its
own representatives on the Board.
It is not the purpose of this exercise to deal with the history of the College in the years
subsequent to 1949. But I must refer to a significant decision taken by the Union in regard to
the staff as a result of the new political set-up that began from early 1951. The matter is very
relevant because of the grievous harm which is being done to the College as a result of some
of the staff’s activities in politics. On the 7th June, 1951, the Union decided by resolution:
30
Mr. Unurhoro who was present at the College on the “Speech Day” had an opportunity of a speech as an old boy of the College.
In the course of his speech, Mr. Unurhoro denied ever being under bond with the Urhobo Progress Union.
358
“That the members of the staff of Urhobo College, while they have their
right to vote, should not stand for elections; and should not also hold offices
in any political parties.”
The text of the resolution was conveyed to Mr. Ejaife, the Principal, who replied the
Union eighteen days later as follows:
“Staff and Discipline”
“With reference to your No. U.P.U./84191 dated June 14, 1951, I have brought
your letter to the notice of the staff and added to my circular the following
words:
"Members of Staff will please note that if they already hold office in any
political parties, they should resign such office and send me a copy of their
resignation, to reach me at or before 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday 19th June, 1951.
(sgd) Mac. G. Ejaife

Principal
"I have since received no copies of resignations though I understand that both
Mr. Ako and the Vice-Principal are officials in their respective parties. I am,
therefore, leaving the rest to you.
"The following members of staff have been absent from school for the following periods without leave.
(1) The Vice-Principal; May 24th – 31st, 8 days. This is already in your hands.
(2) Mr. J.G. Ako; June 19 thand 20 ,th2 days. The usual penalty is to deduct the
pay due to the period – 20/- in the case of Mr. Ako. The Vice-Principal has,
however, suggested that the Staff should meet to consider the whole question of
relationship of staff and Urhobo Progress Union, and the Board of Governors. If
the staff meets, it will communicate to you whatever decision it arrives at. Mr.
Ako has now written to resign in order to participate actively in politics without
stint.
Yours sincerely,
M.G. Ejaife.
----------------
Principal”
I rather not make any comments as to the deviation of the staff, no doubt with the
connivance of the Union, from the spirit and letter of the Union’s resolution. Times have, of
course, changed over the years. But it is enough to observe that the only member of the staff
359
who made an honest and honourable exit from the College, purely on account of active
participation in politics, was Chief J. Gordon Ako. That was how Chief Ako severed his
historic connection with the school which was his pet baby up to the time of Mr. Ejaife’s
arrival.
That wisdom and foresight of the Union in that resolution must be more and more
appreciated now that we see, from time to time, the havoc that is being done to the progress
of the academic work of the College through active participation in politics by some of the
members of staff.
Postscript
Tribute to Mr. L.U. Ighomrore
I can not conclude this brief historical survey of the origins of the College without
paying just and well-deserved tributes to some one who was the General Secretary of Urhobo
Progress Union at the time the Collegiate School was purchased from Mr. Wey, and who in
that capacity, handled so well, for several years, all the correspondence relating to the
College. I refer, of course, to no less a humble but distinguished worker than Mr. L.U.
IGHOMRORE. Mr. Ighomrore had since been transferred to the staff of Urhobo College, and
is still on the staff today, not only as a Bursar, but also as a sort of General Manager of the
College Office. The Union, and, indeed, Urhobo people, can not be too grateful to Mr.
Ighomrore for his invaluable services.
360
Chapter 17
Chief Mukoro Mowoe: Leader of the Urhobo 1

Obaro Ikime
University of Ibadan
Some men are born great, some achieve greatness

and some have greatness thrust upon them.
– Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, II, IV, 158.
In the above words, whatever else Shakespeare meant, he underlined for us the inter-
play of personal ability and talents, prevailing circumstances in the fortunes of man. That
inter-play was very much in evidence in the life of Chief Mukoro Mowoe. In the 1930s and
the 1940s, the Urhobo as a people, as a group distinct from their neighbours and yet
interacting with them in the Nigeria that was formally born in 1914, were very much in
need of identity. The history of the immediately preceding three decades had a major role to
play in this challenging need for identity. Identity required a focus, a rallying point and
leadership. Mukoro Mowoe provided that rallying point, that leadership. Having through
hard work established himself as a businessman of substance by the mid-thirties and forties,
he found himself called upon to assume the leadership of his people at a challenging time in
their history. The events showed that Mowoe was well fitted by personal ability and
attributes to accept this challenge and to turn it to good effect.
Setting the Scene
The British began to penetrate into Urhobo country from 1896. By the end of the first
decade of this century, British penetration of Urhoboland was virtually complete. Unlike
what happened in some other parts of Nigeria, the British did not have to fit out any major
military expeditions against the Urhobo. This, however, is not to say that penetration was
necessarily easy. Without a centralized political organization embracing all of the Urhobo,
the British had perforce to go from clan to clan and, in some cases, village to village. This
took time.
In the years before British penetration began, no European had reached the Urhobo
hinterland. Not even Urhobo clans as close to what is now Warri as the Udu clan had been
visited by any European. When the British moved into the Urhobo hinterland, therefore,
they were moving into terra incognita. This fact determined them to seek the assistance of
persons who knew about the Urhobo country to act as guides, interpreters and agents. They
found some of these among the Itsekiri who live at the coast and who had been interacting
with the Urhobo for centuries. It was in this way that a few Itsekiri British-appointed political
agents found their way into Urhoboland during the establishment of British colonial rule.
2
1
Culled from Chapter 4 of Obaro Ikime. 1977. The Member for Warri Province: The Life and Times of Chief Mukoro Mowoe of
Warri, 1890-1948. Ibadan, Nigeria: Institute of African Studies. Reprinted with the kind permission of the author.
2
For details see Ikime, Obaro. 1969. Niger Delta Rivalry: Itsekiri-Urhobo Relations and the European Presence, 1884-1936 .
Longman., Chapter 4.
It was said above that the Itsekiri and Urhobo had been interacting with one another for
centuries. This was especially the case in the economic sphere. This interaction became even
more pronounced in the period after 1830 when the trade in palm produce replaced the trade
in slaves. As I have discussed the major developments attendant on this switch in trade
3
elsewhere, it is not intended to go into any details here. The point which must be
made is that in the interest of their trade in palm produce (and virtually all Itsekiri palm
produce trade was with the Urhobo) the leading Itsekiri traders established semi-permanent
trading posts in the Urhobo clans (especially in clans like Agbarho, Agbon, Ephron,
Ughienvwe, Uwherun, Ewu which have 'watersides') where their 'trading boys' collected the
produce ready for shipment in canoes to the coast for sale to the European traders. This
practice explains the fact that at the time of the British penetration of Urhoboland, there were
Itsekiri traders settled semi-permanently in parts of Urhoboland. As was to be expected, the
practice led to closer social intercourse between such Itsekiri strangers and their Urhobo
hosts. For the same reason of promoting and ensuring peaceful trade, leading Itsekiri traders
married wives from those areas with which they traded, leading again to greater social
intercourse than had taken place in earlier years.
As the British began their push into the Urhobo hinterland, their views of the Urhobo
into whose territory they were advancing were very much influenced by the Itsekiri at the
coast who had been dealing with the Europeans since the fifteenth century. Thus, the Urhobo
were 'bush and uncivilized' — civilization being measured in terms of the degree of contact
with Europeans. As is well known, the British style of penetration was to establish native
courts in those parts of Nigeria which they subdued — native courts (or in some areas native
authorities) which were expected to administer the areas concerned as agents of the new
colonial authority. Thus, native courts were established for Warri, the Benin River and
Abraka-Okpara, in 1896 and for Agbarho, Okpare (both 1900), Sapele (1902), Ughelli and
Ughienvwe (1904). More such courts were opened in the Urhobo areas later. Proof of the fact
of interaction between the Urhobo and Itsekiri is seen in the fact that of the 17 members of
the Abraka-Okpara native court 6 were Itsekiri. In Sapele 5 out of 11, in Agbarho 3 out of 19
4
court members were Itsekiri. It may at first, appear strange that the
British decided to appoint Itsekiri strangers to native courts in Urhoboland, especially as in
Warri no Urhobo sat in the native court even though that court had jurisdiction over such
Urhobo towns as Ephron, Ephronto, Mogba, Asagba, Adeji, Aladja and the Urhobo
settlement of Agbassah (now part of the city of Warri). It is possible to argue that it was only
fair that stranger elements should be represented in the local government body which had
authority over them. However, that was not the reasoning of the British. As became clear
later, the British appointed the Itsekiri because they being 'civilized' were expected to show
their Urhobo hosts how to run the new native courts of which they themselves (the Itsekiri,
5
that is) had no previous experience. This concept came out in the open in the
1920s when the Urhobo began to agitate for the removal of the Itsekiri from their native
courts and the British refused to grant the Urhobo request.
British refusal to grant the Urhobo request in this regard was undoubtedly influenced
by the strong position which was held by Chief Omadoghogbone Numa (Dogho in short, and
Dore in British records), an Itsekiri, held in high esteem at provincial headquarters in Warri.
The story of Chief Dogho is well known in the present Delta State (former Warri
3
Ibid, Chapters 2 and 3
4
Ikime, Rivalry, p. 181.
5
The full story with all the sources can be found in Ikime, Rivalry. Chapter 5.
362
Chief Mukoro Mowoe: Leader of the Urhobo
Province). Dogho's father, Numa, was one of the leading Itsekiri traders in the age of Olomu,
father of the famous Nana. As is well known, the trade in palm oil was an extremely
competitive affair. Olomu, who was succeeded by his son Nana in 1883, established himself
as easily the most successful Itsekiri trader of his time. His son Nana even improved on his
father's performance, becoming thereby the envy of many other Itsekiri traders. One such
Itsekiri trader who envied and, so, hated Nana was Numa who died in 1891 and was
succeeded as head of the family by his son Dogho.
It was fortunate for Dogho that he took over from his father at the point in time when
the British were seeking to establish their rule effectively in Itsekiriland. We do not intend to
go over the old story of how Nana opposed British encroachment on his power and trading
markets and how in order to get rid of him the British mounted a combined naval and military
expedition against him in August 1894. Nothing could have been more fortuitous for Dogho.
Dogho threw in his lot with the British and helped them to accomplish the fall of Nana. In
gratitude for his help against Nana in 1894 and also for his role in the Benin expedition of
1897, Dogho was appointed British political agent about 1897. He was also appointed the
President of the Benin River Native Court set up in 1896. When in 1914 Lugard introduced
the idea of Native Courts of Appeal into Southern Nigeria, Dogho was appointed permanent
president of the Warri native Courts of Appeal, a court which served the entire province. In
1918, Dogho was appointed Native Authority for the Warri Division, This division included
most of the Urhobo and also the Ijaw. What is more, all the native courts of Urhoboland, in
their capacity as native authorities, were made subordinate to Chief Dogho who was
recognized as a Paramount Chief and super Native Authority in the province. As a
consequence of these various appointments, Dogho's influence over the peoples of the
province — the Itsekiri, his own people, the Urhobo, Isoko, Ijaw Ukwuani and Aboh —
increased tremendously, beyond any limits conceivable in the pre-colonial period. Urhobo
elders anxious to be appointed to the native courts in their own areas sought the goodwill of
Dogho by sending him presents or relations to work for him. The same thing happened with
parties to cases pending in the Warri Native Court of Appeal.
Dogho for his part, took full advantage of his new position. There are on record
instances in which he compelled some Urhobo oil producers to sell oil to him at his own
price, making tremendous profit as a consequence. There were instances in which he
extended the privilege conferred on him, by law, to be consulted by the Resident of the
province in the appointment of members of the various native authorities into a power to
remove already appointed members from office on his own authority — a power which was
clearly not conferred on him by law. Those instances of abuse of power and position were
brought to the notice of the British resident, but produced no adverse reaction from that
quarter, for Dogho was a great friend of the British who, grateful for his loyal and efficient
services, refused to do anything that would amount to a public reprimand or derogate from
his prestige as their great ally. In many ways, therefore, the British colonial period in Warri
6
Province up to 1932, the year in which Dogho died, was the age of Dogho.
The age of Chief Dogho was one in which Itsekiri-Urhobo relations deteriorated
considerably. The point about Itsekiri membership of some of the native courts in
Urhoboland has already been made. Considerable Urhobo discontent arose from that
situation. The establishment of the Warri Native Court of Appeal with a majority of Itsekiri
6
The reader interested in details of the career of Dogho is referred to any one of the following: Ikime, Rivalry, Chapter 5; Obaro
Ikime, "Chief Dogho: The Lugardian System in Warri, 1917-1932" in Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria , Vol. 3, No. 2,
Dec. 1965; Obaro Ikime, Chief Dogho of Warri, Heinemann, 1976.
363
members and with Dogho as permanent president created another grievance. Apart from the
comparatively long distances which Urhobo litigants had to travel to attend the appeal court,
there was the fact that only very few Urhobo chiefs sat on the court — and those few were
usually Dogho' minions. Consequently, many Urhobo had no confidence in the appeal court
and would not, therefore, appeal to it as they would otherwise have done. Urhobo protests
against this situation, protest upheld by their District Officer, failed to produce complete
satisfaction until the reorganization of the 1930s. In 1926 the Urhobo of Agbon clan who
belonged to the Kwale Division were removed from the jurisdiction of the Warri Native Court
of Appeal when a separate court of appeal was established for the Kwale Division. Three
years before that, Sapele had been removed from the jurisdiction of Dogho's appeal court. But
the bulk of the Urhobo remained subject to that court's jurisdiction until the reorganization of
the 1930s made that situation untenable. Urhobo agitation against these various disabilities
imposed on them by the colonial authorities led to a hardening of Itsekiri-Urhobo relations, a
hardening of relations which produced a new awareness of ethnic identity. The British were
treating the Urhobo in some ways as second rate subjects, compared with the Itsekiri. The
British may not have thought of the situation which arose in these terms, but it was easy in the
eyes of the peoples concerned for the age of Dogho's predominance to be translated into that
of Itsekiri predominance. The Urhobo were determined that imposed predominance must be
terminated. In this situation the rise of Chief Mukoro Mowoe, an Urhobo, as a wealth and
influential personage in the province, strengthened the Urhobo position. Official British
policy in the thirties further made the termination of Itsekiri predominance inevitable. This
latter fact, however, produced a reaction from the Itsekiri which made Itsekiri-Urhobo tension
a major feature of the politics of Warri Province right up to fifties and even later.
The Reorganization of the 1930s and

the Emergence of Urhobo Progress Union (U.P.U.)
For the Urhobo, reorganization meant the setting up of village and clan councils as the
local authorities; for the province as a whole, reorganization involved the setting up of new
Native Administrations and the recasting of the province into new Divisions in line with the
new Native Administrations. The guiding principle was that people of the same ethnic group
were to be placed within the same unit of Native Administration. This is not the place to take
up the debate as to whether the emphasis on ethnicity was wholesome or not. The fact is that
local government always invariably recognizes local susceptibilities.
Although in general terms the principle of ethnicity was recognized, there was one
exception. The Resident, Warri Province, proposed and got the British Government to
establish a 'Jekri-Sobo' (Itsekiri-Urhobo Division) Division in 1932. This Division was made
up of the Itsekiri and the Urhobo clans closest to them – Ephron, Udu, Agbon, Okpe and
Oghara. The Resident argued that the Itsekiri were a dying race and that as a consequence of
the great intermarriage between the Itsekiri and these and other Urhobo clans, the Itsekiri
would eventually die out and 'there would emerge a 'Jekri-Sobo' sub-tribe in the 'Jekri-Sobo'
7
Division. It is difficult to agree with the Resident. True, there was great
intermarriage between the Itsekiri and their Urhobo neighbours, but this had not led to loss of
identity on either side. There was really no evidence that the Itsekiri were a dying race. What
was more, relations between the Itsekiri and the Urhobo in the years just before
7
National Archives, Ibadan (N.A.I.) C.S.O. 26, File 26767: A Broad Scheme for the Reorganization of Warri Province on tribal
lines.
364
reorganization had become extremely hostile as a result of Urhobo agitation against British-
imposed Itsekiri predominance. The British themselves had taken some steps to remove
sources of Urhobo grievance as was pointed out earlier. Reorganization offered a good
opportunity to complete this process. Were the British perhaps unwilling to confine Dogho's
influence to just his own people after years of influence over the entire province? The
Resident himself wrote in 1932, 'The Jekris desire such a Native Administration (i.e. the
Jekri-Sobo Native Administration) but upon the old basis of Jekri predominance. The Sobos
8
at present do not'. The Urhobo did not desire the new arrangement; yet the British went
ahead. It was difficult for the Urhobo to avoid the conclusion that the British were pandering
to Itsekiri desires. In the years after 1932 when the 'Jekri-Sobo' Division was born, therefore,
the existence of that division remained a major Urhobo grievance.
All the other Urhobo clans except Abraka were now brought together under what
became know as the 'Sobo' (Urhobo) Division in 1934 with headquarters at Ughelli. In this
regard reorganization was a major development for the Urhobo, for this was the first time that
a British administrative centre was established in the heartland of the Urhobo country. It was
hoped that form now on the British would begin to know the Urhobo as they really were,
rather than seeing them through the glasses of the Itsekiri, from provincial headquarters in
Warri. The emergence of the Urhobo Division naturally led to greater ethnic consciousness.
Although each village now had a village council made up of the traditional elders, etc., as the
local authority, the British also encouraged the development of 'superior sub-tribal native
authorities' developing on a voluntary basis from the local authorities. In 1934, for example,
there emerged the Finance Committee of the Urhobo Division, made up of delegates from the
component clans. The Committee members were educated elements chosen by the District
Officer and approved by the local authorities. The responsibility of the Committee was the
drawing up of the annual estimates of the Urhobo Native administration. It was precisely
because of the nature of the functions of the committee that the members had to be literate. In
fact one of the problems which arose in the post- reorganization years was that of the
membership of the local authority councils and the central Native Administration Council.
The emphasis in these years was on 'traditional members', by which was understood such
persons as would have sat on village councils in pre-British days. Yet these councils were
supposed to be functioning in an increasingly different situation created by the British
presence. The preparation of annual estimates, for example, was a novel function. It was for
this reason that as the 1930s wore on, it became imperative for some educated elements who
would not normally qualify to sit on the councils to be injected into them to look after the
more 'modern' sector of their affairs. Mukoro Mowoe was one of the members of the Finance
Committee set up in 1934. In 1936 there came into being the 'Sobo-Isoko Executive Council'
(the Isoko were part
9
of the new Urhobo Division ), the superior native authority desired by
the British. Mukoro Mowoe
also became a member of this council, representing the Evwreni clan. Mowoe thus became
intimately involved with the Urhobo Native Administration from its inception and served the
Urhobo people in that capacity for fourteen years.
If the emergence of the Urhobo Division had the effect of fostering Urhobo ethnic
consciousness, another event connected with re-organization outside the Urhobo Division
also had the same effect. This was the installation of an Olu for the Itsekiri in 1936. The last
ruler of the Itsekiri before this date died in 1848. The turbulent internal politics of
8
Same File: Report on New Jekri-Sobo Division -- Enclosure in Secretary, Southern Provinces to Chief Secretary to the Nigerian
Government, No. 6925/238 of 10 Feb., 1932.
9
See my The Isoko People, pp. 108-115.
365
Itsekiriland at the time prevented the choice and installation of an Olu. Then came the British
and the age of Chief Dogho. Dogho, from the view point of the British, more than adequately
filled the vacuum created by the absence of an Olu. However, once the principle of basing
local government on indigenous political systems became the guiding principle, an Olu had
to be installed to head the Itsekiri native Administration. Additional pressure for the
appointment and installation of an Olu came from the Itsekiri royal family who had been
challenging Dogho's position since the 1920s. Consequently, as soon as the tax riots had
been quelled, the British set in motion the machinery for the selection and installation of an
Olu. Only one major obstacle stood in the way: Chief Dogho. Dogho could not continue to
hold his position once an Olu was installed. The British were not prepared to see a
diminution of the power and influence of Chief Dogho and so decided that no Olu was to be
installed till after the death of Dogho -- a decision which further shows just how well
established Dogho was with the British. Dogho died on 24 September, 1932 and the way was
thus cleared for the installation of an Olu.
In June 1934 there appeared in the Nigerian Daily Times an article about the
possibility of the installation of an Olu of the Itsekiri. The article contained a number of
statements which the Urhobo regarded as objectionable and defamatory. For example, the
article referred to Chief Dogho as 'the recognized Ruler of the Itsekiris and Sobos'. It further
stated that within the borders of Itsekiriland 'lived the Sobos, a hardy people, who served for
10
several years in the capacity of slaves to their Itsekiri and Benin Masters'. 'Within a
comparatively few years of their emancipation,' the article went on, the Urhobo had made
outstanding progress in the affairs of Native Administration, so much so that the Itsekiri had
been forced by that fact to seek the installation of an Olu so that they too could have a
properly organized Native Administration.
Whatever the intentions of the author of the article, the Urhobo flew up in arms. A
rejoinder appeared in the same paper on 19 June challenging the claims that Dogho was the
'recognized Ruler' or that the Urhobo were Itsekiri slaves. The rejoinder accepted the fact
that Dogho had had great influence in Urhoboland, but hastened to explain that this was only
because the British colonial authorities set him up. The Urhobo did in times past sell slaves
to the Itsekiri but there was no justification for the claim that the Urhobo were slaves of the
11
Itsekiri or Bini in the same way as the 'children of Israel' had been slaves in Egypt.
On 17 July the Urhobo clans compelled against their will to stay in the 'Jekri-Sobo' Division
met at Orerokpe to protest against the article and decided to take the author and the
newspaper to court. It took the Resident quite some effort before he succeeded in persuading
the Urhobo not to go to court. From the date of that Orerokpe meeting, however, the five
Urhobo clans constituted themselves into the Urhobo General Council which met regularly at
Orerokpe, pledged to uphold the rights and pride of the Urhobo people.
It is natural that the Urhobo agitation for complete separation from the Itsekiri should
have become more insistent after the events depicted above. In 1935 the Resident reported
that 'the Sobos (were) growing more insistent in their requests for control of their own
12
funds, and for the establishment of a native treasury on their own land'. In the same year
during a tour of the province, the Lieutenant Governor, Western Provinces, discussed the
matter with both the Itsekiri and the Urhobo. His report once again made it quite clear that
the Urhobo had no desire at all to remain within the 'Jekri-Sobo' Division. Then the next year
came the actual installation of Emiko, great grandson of the Olu who had died in 1848,
10
Nigerian Daily Times, 13 June, 1934, p. 7
11
For this rejoinder, see Nigerian Daily Times, 19 June, 1934, p. 9.
12
NAI, C.S.O. 26/2, File 11857, Vol. XIII, Annual Report, Warri Province, 1935. Emphasis mine.
366
as the Olu Ginuwa II. This led to increased tensions. The Olu was reported to have claimed
that he recognized no boundaries except that with Benin, disregarding thereby the Urhobo
who occupied the intervening territory between him and Benin. As if that was not enough,
the Itsekiri began to demand that their ruler be styled Olu of Warri instead of Olu of the
Itsekiri as he was previously styled. The Urhobo objected strenuously to the proposed
change, arguing that Warri was the name and headquarters of the entire province which was
made up of the Urhobo, Ukwuani, Isoko, Ijaw and Aboh in addition to the Itsekiri, and that
to style the Itsekiri ruler 'Olu of Warri' would create the impression that the Olu ruled over
the non-Itsekiri peoples as well. The British government decided to reject the Itsekiri
demand, largely as a consequence of the Urhobo protest.
The installation of the Olu, and the furore which the demand for a change in his title
brought about, gave the Urhobo a new-found unity. Commenting on this, the Chief
Commissioner wrote: "Imbued with a national spirit as strong as that of the Jekris, the Sobos
regard separation (from the Itsekiri) as the outward and visible sign of complete freedom
13
from Jekri influence'.
It was as a further 'outward and visible sign' of their new found unity that the Urhobo
inaugurated what later became known as the Urhobo Progress Union (U.P.U.) in 1936. The
very next year Chief Mukoro Mowoe was elected the first President-General of U.P.U., a
post he retained till his death in 1948.
While, given what had been said so far, it is tempting to reach the conclusion that the
U.P.U. was founded as result of the various agitations of the 1930s, such a conclusion would
certainly not represent the whole truth. Throughout Nigeria, the 1930s and 1940s were the
years which saw the rise of 'Progress Union.' The reorganization of the 1930s was not limited
to Warri Province. It was common to all of Southern Nigeria. Native Administrations were
required and encouraged to engage in developmental projects – the building of inter-village
and inter-clan roads, dispensaries and maternity centres, schools and other works of public
utility. The taking in of the tax which provided the largest share of the revenue for these
developmental projects became a major task for the N.A.s. Indeed, very often the success or
failure of the N.A.s was measured in terms of how efficiently they carried out this aspect of
their functions. The establishment of "native treasuries" was a logical corollary of taxation.
Traditional rulers and elders in council constituted the bulk of N.A. membership. As has
already been indicated, the very nature of the jobs which the N.A.s had to do necessitated the
injection into their membership of educated elements. 'Progress Unions' developed alongside
village and clan councils of N.A.s to serve as forums for the coming together of a cross
section of the populace, irrespective of traditional status and educational qualifications, to
think about development projects and how to finance them; to serve when necessary as
pressure groups of the N.As; to forge ethnic unity, to provide a supra – N.A. leadership. The
fact that often branches of such unions sprang up in different parts of the country meant that
even those not at 'home' could still contribute their views and means to the development of
the 'homeland.' True; these unions could and did later become agents of ethnic politics and as
such made national unity more difficult to forge; but in their original concept and motive,
they were meant to contribute to local development as indeed they all did. It is against this
fuller background that the rise of the U.P.U. must be seen.
According to the late Chief J.S. Mariere, the first exploratory meeting which was to
lead to the formal inauguration of what grew into the U.P.U. was held on 30 October, 1931 at
the residence of Chief Mukoro Mowoe. The formal inauguration took place on 3
13
NAI, C.S.O. 26, File 51642, III. Progress Report on the Jekri Sub-tribe and the Sobo clans in the Jekri-Sobo Division.
367
November, 1931 and the name adopted was Urhobo Brotherly Society. The moving spirits
behind the inauguration of the Society were Mr. Omorohwovo Okoro, an Ovu trader in
Warri, and Mr. Thomas Erukeme, a clerk in the colonial civil service, who were duly elected
President and Secretary respectively. That the14meetings were held in Mowoe's
residence would indicate that he was already notable figure in the Warri of 1931. According
to one source, Mukoro Mowoe was, at the meeting of November, 1931 elected Vice-
15
President of the Urhobo Brotherly Society. Some insight into the Urhobo and Warri
society at the time of the inauguration of the Urhobo Brotherly Society can be gotten by
quoting from the written account of Chief Mariere, a foundation member of the Society.
Wrote Mariere:
The period preceding the birth of the union was one in which the disunity
among the Urhobo people came to an unbearable point. It was a period of
everyone for himself and God for us all. This was probably so because of the
clannish leanings of the Urhobo people in their different homesteads. 16
According to Mariere, not even those Urhobo who had settled in Warri and who were
engaged in trade or other walks of life outgrew this "clannishness." Rather, life in an urban
setting posed new problems:
The behavior of many people at that time was a stigma on the Urhobo tribe. A
large number resorted to questionable means of livelihood. The strong oppressed
the weak and unnecessary litigation was the order of the day with its concomitant
evil of corruption... Few people (could) put their chest forward to answer the
Urhobo name owing to the fact that at that time all sorts of derogatory terms
were applied to the Urhobo tribe. In the midst of this disgusting and sad state of
affairs, a growing consciousness of the shortcoming of the Urhobo Community
17
in Warri reared its head.
In an endeavor to overcome these shortcomings, the Urhobo community began

organizing social get-togethers and traditional Urhobo dances, thus bringing Urhobo of
different clans together on purely social plane. Gradually there emerged a certain
recognizable leadership which did the groundwork for the inauguration of a society which,
given what has already been said, was aptly called Urhobo Brotherly Society, 'an organization
18
which aimed at unifying the people in brotherly love.
As the years wore on, so different formulations were given to the aims of the society,
later Urhobo Progress Union. 'The object of this Union', one source indicated, 'apart from the
general good of the Urhobo nations and the encouragement of loyalty to the Government, is
also advisory to our native authorities'. Another source19claimed:
14
Mariere, 'Notes on the Urhobo Progress Union'
15
Southern Nigeria Defender, 15 April, 1944.
16
Mariere, Notes on the Urhobo Progress Union.
17
Ibid.
18
Ibid.
19
368
The aim of the Union is to maintain good reputation and so earn for the Urhobo
a better place in the public... The Union seeks to promote education in
Urhoboland because it strongly believes the immense advantage of education in
social and economic structure of a society. It realizes that unless the Urhobo
tribe extending from Oghara and Jesse on the extreme North-East is unified
under one central treasury and one Native Authority, the economic, social and
educational aim of the Union will be greatly hindered; and for this reason it has
in mind the unification of all Urhobo clans under one Supreme Council by the
20
people.
The evidence available thus confirms the point earlier made that the rise of the U.P.U.
should be seen against the background of a general ferment of ideas arising from British
local government and other policies in the nineteen twenties and thirties. The Urhobo
Brotherly Society in its first few years was confined to Warri. Then a branch was opened at
Sapele. By 1934 only three years after the inauguration of the Society, branches had been
opened in some three or four other towns. According to Chief Salubi, one Joseph Arebe Uyo
who replaced Thomas Erukeme as Secretary of the Warri Union, played a leading role in
establishing some of these branches. Chief Salubi recalled that Uyo was 'transferred' from
Warri to Enugu and then to Kaduna and by 1934 to Lagos, and that in each of these places he
encouraged the formation of branches of the Society. In 1934, Uyo became the founder of
the Lagos Branch of the Urhobo Brotherly Society. According to one source,
21
F.A.O. Susin was at the inaugural meeting of November 4, 1934, elected President of the
Lagos Branch, J.A. Ikutegbe was elected Vice-President, and T.E.A. Salubi was elected
Secretary, 22a position he held for ten consecutive years. Dr. F. Esiri was Assistant
Secretary. Once branches began to be established, the Warri branch became known as the
"Mother Union." Omorohwovo Okoro held the presidency for some time after which he
decided to hand over to Mukoro Mowoe. Salubi recalls that Omorohwovo is alleged to have
said to Mowoe in Urhobo:
Eyere akpo re-e. Ubrubro onye ene ison. Asa erutena orhe te re. Aghara kpo
imitini-i. Orohwohwo oyi ghwre phio.23
In English:
No one can ever accomplish everything (by himself) in life. Man's faeces never
comes out in one continuous piece but in bits and pieces. What we (meaning
Omorohwovo) have sought to do thus far is enough. In an organization (like the
U.P.U.) one does not expect to take home dividends. Rather one continually
invests in the organization.
20
Southern Nigeria Defender, May 27, 1944.
21
Chief Salubi, 30 March, 1976.
22
23
369
With Omorohwovo thus eager to hand over presidency, the mantle fell on Mukoro
Mowoe. Chief Salubi, who recalled what Omorohwovo is alleged to have told Mowoe, could
not say in what year the change in leadership took place. He did say, however, that by the
time the Lagos Branch was established in 1934, Mowoe was already President. If Salubi's
recollection of what Omorohwovo said is correct, it would man that the first president was
beginning to feel the economic pinch involved in leading such a movement in its early stages.
The choice of Mowoe as his successor may, therefore, have been influenced, among other
factors, by the awareness that he had the means, in a financial sense, to help support the
movement in these early years when its finances could hardly have been buoyant. The name
of the movement was changed from Urhobo Brotherly Society to Urhobo Progressive Union
at the suggestion of the Lagos Branch. Shortly after this change, however, the Urhobo
Literary Committee suggested a slight amendment and so the union became known as
Urhobo Progress Union, which formulation, it was agreed, best summed up the aims of the
24
union. With the establishment of branches, Annual
conferences began to be held at Warri to which the branches sent delegates. It was at the
1937 conference that Mowoe's designation was changed to President General. So although
he was the first President General, he was not the first president of what grew into the
U.P.U.; that honour went to Omorohwovo Okoro. At some point later Mowoe was elected
Life President of the U.P.U. Talking about this development, Chief Salubi said he was not
quite sure why the decisions so to elect him was taken. By the 1940s the Lagos branch had
become extremely outstanding in its contribution to the ideas and programmes of the U.P.U.
Was there, perhaps, some fear that although Mowoe was doing a good job, some more
radical members of the U.P.U. might seek a change in the leadership of the union? Be that as
it may have been, Mowoe became Life President of the U.P.U. and died as such.
Since as from 1936 the Urhobo agitation for complete separation from the Itsekiri
ceased to be the principal concern of the five clans in the "Jekri-Sobo" Division and became
the concern of the entire Urhobo people, it was logical that the U.P.U., as the central organ of
the Urhobo, should get involved in it. The agitation achieved its first success in April 1938.
As from that date two separate Native Administrations were established within the
"Jekri-Sobo" Division — the Western Urhobo Native Administration with its own 'native
treasury' at Orerokpe, and the Itsekiri Native Administration with its headquarters and 'native
treasury' at Warri. The Urhobo success was as yet incomplete in so far as a separate Division
had not been granted them. Hence the agitation continued until 1949 when the Western
Urhobo Native Administration was transferred to the Urhobo and the Itsekiri constituted into
what became known from that year as Warri Division. By 1949, however, Mowoe was dead.
The details of the role the U.P.U. and Mowoe as its leader played in achieving Urhobo aims
in this matter are not clear. All that is known is that that body kept the agitation alive and
Mowoe as President-General must have played a central role. His acclaimed influence with
British political officers in the province probably helped to ensure Urhobo success.
The U.P.U. and Education
The point was made earlier that although the U.P.U. was bound to be involved in the
agitation discussed above, the primary motive for its inauguration was to help contribute
towards the development of the Urhobo. In no other sphere was this better demonstrated than
in the sphere of education. In the thirties and forties the Urhobo were, by comparison
24
Mariere, Notes on the Urhobo Progress Union. Also Chief Salubi.
370
with many of the other groups in southern Nigeria, educationally backward. This was mainly
because the missionaries who took the lead in providing education for the peoples of
Southern Nigeria did not begin effective operation in Urhoboland till about 1914. The
European role was of 1914-1918 limited in any real expansion. In terms of education only a
few 'hedge schools' were established in Urhoboland up to the 1920s. The C.M.S., the
missionary body that led in the field of education in Urhoboland, did not work out a
comprehensive primary education plan for Urhoboland till 1929, and this plan was not
formally implemented till 1931, the same year that the U.P.U. was born. If primary education
was this late in taking off, it is easy to see that secondary school education was later still. Yet
education had by the 1930s already become the key to progress and meaningful participation
in the political life of the nation, as well as in the professions and certain sectors of the
Nigerian economy. The Urhobo were aware of their inadequacies in this respect and the
U.P.U. necessarily devoted a great deal of its energies and attention to this aspect of
Urhoboland's development.
The full story of U.P.U. involvement in education and the ultimate emergence of
Urhobo College, Ephron (Effurun) has been told by Chief T.E.A. Salubi, on whose account
25
the summary that follows is exclusively based. According to Salubi, the U.P.U. became
involved in education as a result of the initiative taken by the Lagos branch of the Union at a
meeting in July 1935. At that meeting one Mr. Joseph Akpolo Ikutegbe proposed the setting
up of a secondary school scholarship fund for Urhobo children under the auspices of the
U.P.U. This proposal was adopted by the Lagos Branch and forwarded to the headquarters of
the U.P.U. in Warri to be tabled for discussion at the First Annual General Council of the
th th
Union scheduled for the 17 and 18 of November, 1935.
The matter was discussed at the General Council meeting and the U.P.U. adopted the
Lagos proposal. It was decided that subscriptions towards the fund should begin to be raised
as from June 1936. A certain amount of confusion crept into the education scheme of the
U.P.U. in the ensuing years. By the time the General Council met towards the end of 1937,
the Lagos Branch was pressing that the first scholarships under the scheme be awarded. The
Council ruled that there were not enough funds yet for that to be done. Four years later
(1941) nothing had been done. Rather than award scholarships for secondary education, the
Annual General Council meeting of 1941 decided that the thing to do was to establish a
primary school which would ultimately develop into a secondary school The Lagos and Port
Harcourt branches took strong objections to the idea of U.P.U. establishing a primary school.
Both branches wrote strong letters of protest to U.P.U. headquarters decrying the decision
and urging instead the building of a secondary school. Accordingly, the 1941 decision was
reconsidered in 1942 when the General Council rescinded the earlier decision in favour of
founding 'an Urhobo college,' to be sited near Ephron. Mowoe's first term of office as
President-General ran out in 1942. He was re-elected at the General Council meeting at
which the above decision was taken.
The 1942 decision was followed by two years of inaction caused by disagreements
between U.P.U. headquarters and the Union's branches in Lagos and Northern Nigeria. In
October 1943, the branches of the U.P.U. in Northern Nigeria held a regional conference
which decided that it was not enough to build a secondary school which 'could only add to
the number of our clerks', and that U.P.U. should immediately sponsor two deserving Urhobo
youths to Europe to engage in professional studies. The Lagos branch bought the idea of the
northern branches and in January 1944, wrote to U.P.U. headquarters proposing that two
Urhobo youths be sent to the United Kingdom to study law. U.P.U. headquarters circularized
all branches in April 1944 asking them to make their views known on the latest
25
T.E.A. Salubi, The Miracles of an Original Thought (being the origins of Urhobo College), Published by the author, 1965.
371
proposals. Of the 33 branches only 20 replied; of these twenty, twelve favoured proceeding
immediately with the National College project while seven favoured the overseas scholarship
idea. One offered no opinion one way or the other. In the light of the expressed views of the
branches, U.P.U. headquarters decided that the proper thing to do was to go ahead with the
secondary school project.
The events which followed the above developments are a little confusion. The story, as
it emerges from Salubi's narrative, is that the General Council of 1944 eventually ratified the
decision to translate the resolution about a secondary school into practical reality. Towards
that end, Mr. M.G. Ejaife was awarded a scholarship to study at Fourah Bay College and then
in England to qualify as Principal of the proposed college. In September 1945, another
Urhobo young man, E.N. Igho, was sent to Cambridge on a U.P.U. scholarship to study the
Natural Sciences and return to teach in the proposed college. Meanwhile, efforts to actually
set up the college were redoubled.
One obstacle which stood in the way of effective planning was the continued
estrangement of the Lagos branch which felt that the Home Union was reactionary and
unprogressive. Salubi, a leading member of the Lagos branch, used words like 'fumbled,'
'bungled' and 'muddled' to describe the way the Home Union had handled the scholarship
idea. Now that scholarships were being awarded (though not for law studies!) and now that
the U.P.U. was committed to building a secondary school, it was necessary that all ranks be
closed. Consequently, Chief Mukoro Mowoe as President-General traveled to Lagos and held
discussions with that branch. He followed up his visit with a letter which is worth
reproducing in full.
1. From what I could gather from my interview with you when I visited Lagos, I
deduced that unless one of the two parties to the quarrel gives way to the other,
the result will be a permanent disunity and by that we may destroy what we have
created. I need not state categorically the needs for an effective union in
Urhoboland. You all know that. At this crucial moment when Nigerian history is
being, made we must not allow petty differences to disorganize us so that we
may be able to create a new Urhobo in a New Nigeria and when the political
history shall be written, when the economic history shall be written and when the
social and religious history shall be written, our names, nay that of the tribe shall
not disappear.
2. I held meeting with Headquarters Union and came to agreement that an
unqualified apology be sent you. I made them to realise whatever shortcoming
they have. From constitutional point of view your action in contacting other
branches in matter of general policy is wrong. Originally that power was vested
with the General meeting of the Home Union, but the New Bye Laws has, (sic)
by creation of an Executive Council brought the General meeting of the Home
Union to this because it is the only offence for which you are held by the Home
Union.
3. As your President-General, I am duty bound to settle dispute between any
two branches but the effectiveness of my settlement depends on your loyalty and
it is this loyalty I crave for in my asking that Warri Home Union should submit
an apology to you. There is nothing short of loyalty when Home Union agrees to
do so. And now it is your turn to display this some spirit of loyalty by accepting
this apology in a true spirit I know, it is expressed. I need not, therefore, hesitate
in anticipating that the Scheme now in hand will meet with your approval in
that. Scholarships for studies in U.K. and U.S.A. will be
372
available in a year's time as the target is reached. The method of selection, as

stated in Section 10 and 11 of the Scheme will no doubt interest you.
4. You will no doubt fall in sympathy with me when I state here for your
information that this quarrel has already done some harm to the Scheme. My
tour was planned before I met you Union. Having discovered you still have
stood in the way you did, I hastened to Headquarters to cancel my tour until
internal affairs are adjusted...
I therefore appeal to you to cease fire and lay down arms as Home Union
has honorably, unconditionally surrendered. In the name of progress I have
made this appeal. 26
The Lagos branch heeded Mowoe's appeal and the U.P.U. settled down to its task of
establishing a secondary school for the Urhobo people.
In October 1946, the nucleus of the future Urhobo College was established. Two years
earlier, one Mr. E.O. Wey, a retired Civil Servant, had opened a school which he called
Collegiate School of Commerce. In 1949, Mr. Wey decided to sell it. The late J.G. Ako, who
was then teaching in Wey's School, suggested to the U.P.U. that it should buy over the school
which was permitted to read up to the old Middle IV. The ranks of U.P.U. were divided on
the wisdom of buying Wey's School. However, Mowoe threw in his weight in favour of
buying Wey's School and this was eventually done, the U.P.U. taking over effective
ownership and management on October 1, 1946. By 1947, accommodation problems were
beginning to arise; so U.P.U. decided to move the school to the present site where it began in
temporary quarters in January, 1949. In 1948, the U.P.U. obtained permission from the
government to convert Wey's Collegiate School into a full-fledged grammar school. Mr.
Ejaife had returned from the United Kingdom in August 1948 and taken over as Principal of
what became known as Urhobo college. It has taken eleven years for the U.P.U. to achieve
what is unquestionably its greatest contribution to the development and progress of the
Urhobo people.
In thus taking the story up to the actual foundation of Urhobo College, we have
skipped a discussion of the issue of finance. A levy was imposed on every branch to begin
with. Later, an education rate was added to the tax of all tax payers in Urhobo Division. (This
meant that the Isoko who are not Urhobo but who were then in the Urhobo Division also had
to contribute towards funding Urhobo college). Mowoe as President-General of U.P.U.
undertook a tour of the entire country in 1946, to explain to the Urhobo people away from
home the aims of the education scheme and urging them to contribute generously in its
support. The evidence indicates that Mowoe took his responsibility in this regard seriously.
He became (if at all he had not been from the very beginning) really devoted to the provision
of secondary education for the Urhobo. In a private letter to one Mr. Igo dated 25 May 1946,
he expressed the hope that Igo was keeping abreast of development relating to the education
scheme. He continued, "I am trying to build my tribe. I hope it is God's call on my side to do
27
such business as Urhobo tribe is concerned.' In October 1946, Mowoe
wrote to one Chief Otite:
Your son Godfrey wrote to tell me that he wishes to enter into the Urhobo
National College, but you refused to pay his school fees. If this is correct, I am
very much surprised to see a Chief of yourself (sic) depriving your son who
26
Quoted by Salubi in The Miracles...pp. 34-35.
27
Mowoe to Mr. Igo, 25 May, 1946.
373
has the desire to learn from learning, because of a few shillings. By this you are
helping to debar the progress of the Urhobo Tribe. 28
He went on in the letter to argue that Chief Otite could not plead lack of means for his
action, as he was more than capable of paying the fees. He hoped Otite would change his
mind. The relationship between Mowoe and the Otite family is not clear. Evidence from
other spheres of Mowoe's life indicates that it was not unusual for perfect strangers to appeal
to him for help. Was Godfrey one of these perfect strangers looking up to Mowoe, leader of
the Urhobo, to help persuade his father to send him to school? If he was, Mowoe's letter to
Godfrey's father clearly shows that the boy knew where to go for help.
During one of his tours of the different parts of the country, canvassing financial
support for the Urhobo Education Scheme, Mowoe made a speech which has fortunately
survived. This speech, a response to his toast, shows Mowoe's commitment to the job in
hand. After the usual thanks for the generous toast, Mowoe went on,
'My belief is that every being born into the world has duty to perform to his
people: either to the village he belongs or to the town or country as a whole...
Frankly speaking any one of you who should fail to play his or her part for the
upliftment of our dear tribe, it were better that she or he had not been born at all.'
29
He reminded his listeners that not too long before that meeting the British governor had
asked Nnamdi Azikiwe with whom would he (Zik) replace the white officials were the latter
to leave there and then. Zik had proceeded to rattle off a number of qualified Nigerians who
could take over from the British:
'Out of these names is there any Urhoboman among them? If no, why? I say we
have no privilege (sic) of learning; otherwise I think if now more, we have the
same equal brains. Are we to leave our Nation to be under, always subject to all
other nations in Nigeria? If no, be up and doing. Now we have the opportunity ---
our clans, our councils are ready and waiting for us; every one of Urhobo man
should do his bit for the upliftment of our Race. We want money to send our
deserving children to England for further studies and for the building of the
Urhobo National Secondary School. I am sure we shall win the race before us. I
pray that God may give you strength, long life to work hard and to complete the
estimate before us and our name shall be remembered for ever by our children.'
30
Both what was said and the way it was said leave little room for doubt as to Mowoe's
commitment. Little wonder that he is even today fondly remembered as having played a
leading role in the establishment of Urhobo College and also in getting the British
government to move the college built by it in Warri in 1945 to Ughelli in the heart of the
Urhobo country. One of the dormitories in Urhobo College is named after him. He deserves a
worthier memorial than that.
28
Mowoe to Chief Otite, 29 October, 1946.
29
This statement which can be found in the same file which contains Mowoe's personal letters is not dated and we do not know
where the statement was made.
30
Same statement
374
Mowoe, the U.P.U. and the Sapele Land Case
In 1908, the British colonial government acquired 510 acres of Sapele land. The lease
which gave the land to the British was signed by Chief Dogho 'acting for and on behalf of the
Chiefs and people of Sapele.' He signed a similar lease for land acquired by the British in
Warri. We do not know exactly why the British asked Dogho to sign these leases, especially
that of Sapele, Sapele being decidedly Okpe land. The most obvious guess is that because
Dogho was the British political agent, he was made to sign for the people. The British
Government paid an annual rent of £100 for the Sapele land. The Sapele land owners took
£60 and gave Dogho £40 --- evidence of the way in which Dogho and indeed all those who
held office for the colonial regime in those early days flagrantly abused their offices and
enriched themselves. Even if Dogho was the Orodje of Okpe and had signed the lease as
such, he could not expect 40% of the annual rent for himself.
Nothing happened before the 1930s to raise the technical and legal questions as to who
owned Sapele land. However, in his last few years, Dogho began to instruct Itsekiri residents
in Sapele not to pay rent to their Urhobo landlords, arguing that Sapele land belonged to the
Olu of Itsekiri and that he, Dogho, represented the Olu. Perhaps Dogho thought he could get
away with the Sapele land issue as he had with regard to Warri. In 1925 the Urhobo of
Agbassah in Warri had taken Dogho to court and challenged his right to collect rent in their
area, arguing that the Agbassah had settled in their present area of the new town of Warri
without paying rent to any one and before the Itsekiri ever came to the area. They lost the
case. By the 1930s the Agbassah were still chafing under this loss and many Urhobo
sympathized with them. Indeed the "Agbassah land case' as it came to be known to everyone
in Warri became one of the most permanent sources of Urhobo-Itsekiri tension. Was Dogho,
then, attempting a repeat performance in Sapele?
Dogho died in 1932 before the Sapele land case had gone to court. British political
officers did all they could to prevent litigation over Sapele land. But the matter had to be
legally resolved. In 1941 the Urhobo of Sapele went to court to establish legal ownership.
Given what has been said about Urhobo relations with the Itsekiri in the 1930 and '40s, it is
easy to imagine how other Urhobo would have reacted to the Sapele land issue. The U.P.U.
and, with it Mowoe, became heavily involved in the court case. The Urhobo won the case.
The Itsekiri appealed to the West African Court of Appeal. Appeals of this nature cost a
great deal of money both in lawyer's fees and in travel. Mowoe led the U.P.U. and the Okpe
people in organizing and raising funds for the Sapele land case. The Itsekiri lost the Appeal
31
and Okpe ownership of Sapele land was confirmed in law once and for all.
The judge who tried the case in the first instance had been convinced about the Okpe
case, largely because the Okpe were able to show that it was they who gave land out to
various European firms when the latter began to arrive in the areas as from 1891 and before
the colonial government sought the lease of 1908. The Okpe elders argued that they let
Dogho have £40 only out of gratitude, not in recognition of legal ownership of the land by
the Itsekiri as represented by him. (They may well have admitted that they were frightened of
the position he then occupied with the British). As for the Itsekiri claim, the judge noted that
although there was 'bombastic claim (by the Olu) to royal privilege and overlordship,' there
was 'no title of evidence' to back up this claim. In many ways then the Okpe had a good case.
But good cases can be lost. It required leadership and organization to win the case. Mowoe
headed those who provided this leadership and organization. The Sapele land case was
handled differently by the Urhobo from the Agbassah land case. The former was
31
For details of the Sapele land case see Ikime, Rivalry, Chapter 3 and Epilogue.
375
fought at a time when the Urhobo had acquired not only greater consciousness as a people,
but had an organization that could translate that consciousness into action. Chief Salubi who
was Secretary of the U.P.U. in Lagos when the appeal of the Itsekiri was heard, showed me
the accounts he kept at the time in connection with the feeding of the Okpe elders who had to
go to Lagos because of the appeal. The feeding of the Okpe delegates became the
responsibility of the U.P.U. It was so arranged that each Urhobo clan in Lagos was charged
with responsibility for feeding the delegates on agreed days. Salubi claims that each clan was
32
only too pleased to shoulder this responsibility. The Sapele land case was thus
transformed into an Urhobo affair in which the U.P.U. and its leadership played a leading
role.
Five years after the 1943 decision by the West African Court of Appeal when the
writer first went to live in Warri, the story was still being told of Mukoro Mowoe's great role
in the Sapele land case. Many Urhobo were convinced that it was Mowoe's position and
influence in the province that ensured that justice was done. In fact, a popular song was
composed in commemoration of this victory which was seen as Mowoe's victory. Indeed,
one informant told the writer that a day before the verdict was delivered Mowoe had already
been informed that it would be favourable. Consequently, the informant continued, Mowoe
organized an all night party. Pressed to comment on what was being celebrated, Mowoe was
alleged by this informant to have said that he was celebrating his escape from death in a
motor accident which had occurred the previous day. The party went on all night and into the
next day and soon news of the favourable verdict came through. Suddenly men and women
realised that Mowoe had received prior information and had been celebrating the Urhobo
33
victory! Stories like this are most unlikely to contain much truth. No judge
was likely to have behaved in the manner implied in the story. And Mowoe was most
unlikely, even had he advance information about the verdict, to mount a party before
judgment was delivered. Yet such stories are extant, evidence of the kind of connections and
influence people believed that Mowoe had.
Uneasy Lies the Head
It was not only within the context of the U.P.U. that Mowoe acted out his leadership
role. Having become acknowledged as leader, he was called upon to take an interest in a
wide variety of issues and problems. One such issue was that which had to do with the
recognition of the Orodje of Okpe, the traditional head of the Okpe people. The story of
Mowoe's involvement with the Orodje of Okpe has two sides to it. On January 1, 1945, the
Okpe had installed Esezi II as Orodje of Okpe. It was one thing to install him; quite another
to secure for him government recognition. By 1945, there was already talk of a conference of
chiefs in the then Western Region of Nigeria. The idea was to bring together once a year the
rulers and chiefs of the various peoples of the region so they could discuss various issues and
common problems, and familiarize themselves with official government policies at
headquarters in Ibadan.
Among the Urhobo who do not have a 'natural ruler' recognized by all the clans, there
was a feeling that Chief Mukoro Mowoe should be the person to represent the Urhobo at
such a conference. As President-General of the U.P.U. there was probably quite some sense
in sending him to Ibadan for such a meeting. However, there were those who did not see why
Mowoe and not 'rulers' like the Orodje of Okpe should represent the Urhobo. As
32
Chief Salubi, March 1976.
33
Interview with Chief (Mrs) Alice Obahor, 21 March, 1974.
376
Orerokpe had become the headquarters of the Western Urhobo Native Administration, the
Okpe apparently felt that their Orodje held a special position. The Okpe did not just press the
case for the Orodje, their young men began to deride Mukoro Mowoe. They argued that
Mowoe was no more than a successful businessman. Success in business did not confer on
him the right to represent the Urhobo at a conference of chiefs. In the typical Urhobo way
they spoke in parables: the hat is made to be worn on the head; you do not fear the head so
much as to wear the hat on the knee! 34
We do not know whether Mowoe was particularly anxious to go to the conference of
chiefs. He may well have felt that as leader of the Urhobo he had good reason to be the
Urhobo representative, for while the U.P.U. was pan-Urhobo and so its leader cold claim to
speak for the Urhobo as a whole, none of the titled 'heads' of any of the Urhobo clans could
make a similar claim. Besides, Mowoe had led the U.P.U. in fighting the Sapele land case for
the Okpe. Then he was not just 'a mere trader.' It was, in the circumstances, perhaps natural
that Mowoe should have been angry with the Okpe people. He refused to exert himself to
secure government recognition for the Orodje. The Orodje could hardly play any meaningful
role without government recognition. For two years the new Orodje was without recognition.
In the circumstances he could hardly reign, let alone rule. Mowoe who by this time, 1947,
was not only influential in the then Warri Province, but had also become influential at the
regional level where he represented the province in the Western House of Assembly, was
obviously the best placed person to move the regional government to recognize the Orodje.
Suddenly, even the Okpe young men realized that Mowoe was more than 'a mere trader.'
Letters poured in to Mowoe from Okpe people both at home and away from home, pleading
with him to use his good offices to secure official recognition for the Orodje. Mowoe relented
of his anger and used his influence to secure government recognition for the Orodje of Okpe,
Esezi II. Just as letters had poured in appealing to Mowoe to act in the interest of the Orodje,
so now letters and telegrams flowed in, in gratitude for Mowoe's services to the Okpe people.
35
Problems which arose in Urhobo clans were also referred to Mowoe for arbitration and
advice. In 1946, there was trouble between the Ovie of Ewu and the people of Orere. Mowoe
was called upon to settle the matter. He called in a few others and reached some settlement.
But apparently the Orere people later began to flout the settlement reached. The Ovie,
Omoko Ziregbe, wrote to Mowoe to report this development and to say that the Orere people
were shouting abusive slogans at his people and attacking them. He did not want to report
the matter to the District Officer or take legal action until Mowoe had had another chance of
36
looking into the matter. Whether or not Mowoe did look again into the matter,
the records do not indicate. But the matter did reach the Senior District Officer, Urhobo
Division. It is proof of the central role that Mowoe played in the affairs of Urhoboland that
he, Senior District Officer, wrote to Mowoe requesting him to visit Ewu and settle the
quarrel. 37
In 1948, only two months before he died, Mowoe received a letter from one C.O. Itete
of Uwherun in which he (Itete) informed Mowoe that the Uwherun Clan Council had met to
decide who should be president. Of the 50 councillors present, 34 had voted for one Chief
34
The details given in the narrative were provided by Chief Salubi who was for ten years U.P.U. Secretary in Lagos. Interview of 30
March, 1976.
35
The letters can be found in a file on the Orodje of Okpe.
36
Ovie Omoko Ziregbe to Mowoe, 7 June, 1946.
37
Senior District Officer, Urhobo Division to Mowoe, 10 July, 1946.
377
Obrute as president. The other 21 who were opposed to Obrute had refused to sign the
voters’ list and the matter had been referred to the D.O. Itete urged Mowoe to intervene in
the matter, ensure justice and save Uwherun from possible litigation. It 38is unlikely that
Mowoe had time to look into this problem before he died, as he had to go to Ibadan to attend
a meeting of the House shortly after receiving the letter, and took ill shortly after he returned
from Ibadan.
One reason why these various problems were referred to Mowoe was that in the 1930s
and '40s ethnic unity was a major concern of the Urhobo people. The birth of U.P.U. itself
was partly the result of this concern. Hence, if quarrels arose between groups, Urhobo men of
influence were called upon to attempt settlements and so reduce intra-Urhobo litigation. In
1946, for example, one Sam E. Arawore, a teacher at Uwherun, wrote to inform Mowoe that
Mr. Akpomiemie of Evwreni had taken the Uwherun clan to court at Warri. Arawore thought
this very unfortunate and asked Mowoe to get the matter withdrawn from the Warri
39
Magistrate's court and settled by the U.P.U. Later in the same
year Mowoe stepped into a similar situation in Ekwese where two families had gone to court
over land. In this case, his intervention secured only temporary success, for although the
case was withdrawn from court, one of the parties did later take court action once more.
40
If Mowoe thus had to take the lead in preventing intra-Urhobo feud, he himself had to
show a good example in the event of quarrels between himself and other Urhobo leaders. It
would appear that at some point, Mowoe and the late P.K. Tabiowo, one of the Urhobo
leaders of the time, fell out. Salubi who played the major role in settling the quarrel recalls
that Tabiowo's offence lay in the fact that he always had the courage to voice his dissent
whenever he disagreed with Mowoe at U.P.U. meetings. As tends to happen with leaders,
Mowoe resented the courage and frankness of Tabiowo. Rather than become a 'Yes Man',
Tabiowo began to stay away from U.P.U. meetings, and relations between him and Mowoe
became noticeably strained. Other prominent members of the U.P.U. felt that the situation
had gotten out of hand. So while in Warri on leave in 1948, Salubi and a few others settled
the disagreement simply by getting the two people together. Salubi and his friends asked
Mowoe to join them in visiting common friends in Alder's town in Warri. After calling on a
number of friends, Salubi drove the party to Tabiowo's residence. As is the practice, Tabiowo
offered drinks, etc., to the visitors. The mere drinking together by Mowoe and Tabiowo
41
constituted the settlement of the disagreement. Both men realized that the
meeting was not a chance one, but a deliberate intervention by common friends. Neither of
them allowed past bitterness to stand in the way of reconciliation. In accordance with Urhobo
practice, thanks for settlement had to go to the elder. In a letter to Mowoe soon after, Salubi
wrote:
I should like to thank you for the great part you played in the matter between
you and Tabiowo. You deserve great respect for the way you accompany (sic)
us to his house. It was a demonstration of a great mind which all good leaders
38
C.O. Itete to Mowoe, 11 June, 1948.
39
Sam E. Arawore to Mowoe, 1 May, 1946.
40
M.D.A. Okenarhe to Mowoe, 15 July 1946 and Mowoe to Okenarhe, 20 July, 1946.
41
378
should have. Tabiowo was very pleased and I am sure your future relationship
will be stronger and closer. Many thanks indeed. 42
That "great mind" ceased to function within four weeks from the date of the above
tribute, as Mowoe died on 10thAugust 1948. Salubi recalls how grateful Tabiowo was that he
had been reconciled to Mowoe before the latter died.
Mowoe's leadership role sometimes forced him to use his influence with the British
political officers in order to put an end to what he considered oppression. In a letter to his
friend Mr. Gbagi in Sapele in October, 1946, Mowoe complained about one Mene who kept
arresting Urhobo people in Sapele and taking them to the mixed (Itsekiri-Urhobo) court
there. He had done this in 1945 and the Urhobo concerned had to spend some money before
the court struck off the case. Mene was at his game again and Mowoe feared that Mene had
some working agreement with members of the Mixed Court. "I want you', he wrote to Gbagi,
'to approach the court clerk and get a copy of the previous case, attach it to the summons and
send it to me to enable me to send it to the High Officials (sic) and see that they put stop to
43
this man' (sic).
Leadership sometimes has its funny side. Early in October 1946 Mowoe had delivered
to him a letter from Ayemor Oyawiri of Jesse. The letter informed him that the bearer,
Samuel Amagiya, had passed the entrance examination to Government College, Ibadan, but
had failed the shortlist examination.
"Sir", the letter went on "all of us at Jesse and the boy's parents beg you
sincerely by the name of Almighty God to write or phone the Principal to
admin the boy. If the Principal wants any money for his cigarettes, please give
him any amount that he wants then tell the boy to come home and receive the
money from us to you. 'We think you to be our supreme helper and President-
General hence we are now asking you for this favour. Sir, the cigarettes you
will charge for this work, take it from the boy as your present.' 44
We have no evidence of Mowoe's reaction to this letter which typifies the kind of
limitless pressures under which our leaders have to work and live.
It was not only Urhobo clans and groups that called on Mowoe as the Urhobo leader to
offer one service or the other. Individuals also demanded his good offices. In June 1948, an
Urhobo teacher in Koko wrote to Mowoe begging him to get him transferred from Koko to
45
Ughelli as he was Urhobo not Itsekiri. In May of the same year it was one E. Awore
who wrote to Mowoe to inform him that he was anxious to get into the Nigeria Police force.
He had taken the test and was awaiting the results. He prayed Mowoe to do all he could to
46
ensure his success, 'having known how you fight, for our progress in Urhobo District.' In
September 1946 one George Obregoro wrote from Lagos. He had read up to Middle II' in
St. Gregory's College, Lagos, and could not continue for financial reasons. Since he left
school he had been jobless. Could Mowoe give him a job in his business establishment —
'For I have nothing in my mind now than your help for me, as every Urhobo man and
42
43
Mowoe to Gbagi, 26 October, 1946.
44
Ayemor Oyawin to Mowoe, 3 October, 1946.
45
D.A. Ojigho to Mowoe, 12 June, 1948.
46
E. Awore to Mowoe, 7 May, 1948.
379
woman talks of your kindness and generosity to every person'. It is47clear from these selected
instances that Mowoe's reputation not only as the leader of the Urhobo but as a kind and
generous person had spread far and wide and brought him no end of trouble in terms of
demands made on his time, his energy, his charity.
The price of leadership, it is sometimes said, is that the leader ceases to have a life that
he can call private. Perhaps the best example in Mowoe's experience as leader of the
Urhobo people is that which has to do with Mowoe's quarrel with the Southern Nigeria
Defender, a newspaper established in Warri by Nnamdi Azikiwe in 1943. When Zik had
visited Warri earlier in 1942 he had met Mowoe and some friendship had developed
between them. When in 1943 Mowoe was thinking of sending his son, Moses, overseas to
read medicine, he wrote to Zik for advice on whether to send Moses to America or Britain.
It is, against this background, not surprising that Mowoe rented his house along Warri-
Sapele Road to Zik's press. In 1944, the rent fell in arrears. Payment was delayed and
Mowoe took the press to court. Immediately this was known, letters and telegrams flowed
in from various Urhobo organizations in Lagos, Kano, Okitipupa, Uyo and elsewhere. All
the letters and telegrams urged Mowoe to withdraw the court action, lest the press moves
elsewhere. They pointed out that the fact that the Southern Nigeria Defender carried the
inscription "Printed and Published by Zik's Press Ltd., in Mowoe Building, Warri-Sapele
Road, Warri" constituted a great pride which the Urhobo would be very sorry to lose.' Zik
himself also wrote a letter of appeal and the matter was ultimately amicably resolved. Thus
even Mowoe's private financial affairs (in this instance, at any rate) became a matter of
general Urhobo concern. Such is the price of leadership.
47
George Obregoro to Mowoe, 16 September, 1946.
380
Chapter 18
The Place of Urhobo College Effurun

1
in Urhobo History
David A. Okpako
Introduction
On April 27, 2002, the Urhobo Progress Union (UPU) launched a well-attended one
billion naira “Development Fund” at Effurun. The reporter who covered the event,
Abraham Ogbodo ( The Guardian On Sunday May 5, 2002) poignantly remarked that the
ceremony was held in “the yet-to-be completed school hall of Urhobo College Effurun”.
UCE as we simply refer to it (motto: aut optimum aut nihil: either the best or nothing), is
among the best known schools of its type founded in Nigeria in 1940s to provide avenues for
the educational advancement of the talented youths in their respective communities. Urhobo
College Effurun continues to fulfill this aim, and it stands today as the flagship of secondary
schools in Urhoboland. The Urhobo College Assembly Hall where the UPU held the
fund-raising ceremony, was built from individual contributions of members of Urhobo
College Old Students Association (UCOSA) when the late Edo State-born Dr. A.U. Salami
was its president. UCOSA brought the hall (uncompleted now for more than twenty five
years) to the present stage where it could be hired by the UPU for the launching of its
development fund. But, remarkably, Urhobo College Effurun does not feature in the
development plans of the UPU!
Why is this the case? Granted that the college was taken over by governments in the
madness of the oil boom years of the 1970s; still this institution bears the name of the Urhobo
nation and stands, it can be argued, as the most outstanding and positive achievement of the
UPU in its seventy-year history. Urhobo College is also the institution to which is linked the
name, Mukoro Mowoe, who without doubt, is the most revered leader the Urhobo nation has
produced. As The Guardian newspaper reporter put it: Urhobo College “became a
springboard for the intellectual empowerment of Urhobo youths… the net result is that
Urhobo land which could not produce a Cambridge matriculant in the 1930s and early 1940s,
is today a major contributor to the nation’s intelligentsia and in fact global scholarship”.
Urhobo College Effurun symbolises Urhobo resilience, independence of spirit, determination
and what the Urhobo nation can achieve when the people work together. These are reasons
why the College should feature prominently in Urhobo National Development Plans. In
Nigeria’s present environment of private enterprise, the government finally recognized its
foolishness, and is now begging to hand back the schools it took over to their original
proprietors. Now that good quality secondary schools are big business, has the UPU seriously
considered taking back the proprietorship of Urhobo College Effurun? If it has not, then it
should, to start with, by setting up a high-powered committee to seriously look into its
feasibility.
1
Keynote Address at Third Annual Conference of Urhobo Historical Society on November 1-3, 2002, at Goldsmiths College of
London University, United kingdom
Urhobo College Effurun and Urhobo Interethnic Relations
At one level, the relationship between the Urhobo nation and its Itsekiri and Ijaw
neighbours in Warri is one characterised by conflict. At a personal level, the various peoples
are closely interwoven, having intermarried extensively for many decades. So, it would have
been obvious to the UPU that Urhobo College Effurun could not be an exclusively
“Urhobo” institution. The founders did not intend it, in staff and student composition, to be
an ethnic institution. That may seem an odd thing to say about a college founded and
funded by the UPU and named “Urhobo College”. The evidence from early student
admission and staff recruitment policies clearly suggests that Urhobo College was “Urhobo”
only to the extent that the school was Urhobo home grown; it was UPU-inspired from
conception, staff development, funding to building of infrastructure (including the land on
which the college is built); there was no missionary influence, no expatriates, no corporate
or profit motives, no governments. Beyond that the founding fathers were more intent in the
quality of the staff and students of Urhobo College Effurun than in their ethnic origins. Of
course being on Effurun soil, Urhobo boys (and later girls as well) were at a ‘catchment’
area advantage over other ethnic groups, but there was no evidence of active exclusion of
other nationalities in student admission. In other words right from inception, the founders
operated an open multi-ethnic institution. To some notable examples may be cited as
illustration.
Two early recipients of the UPU-sponsored undergraduate scholarships (meant for
talented secondary school graduates to go to the University College Ibadan and return to
teach at the college) were S.J. Okudu and T.N. Tamuno, who years later became,
respectively, Registrar and Vice-Chancellor of Nigeria’s premier University of Ibadan. They
were both Ijaw, one from the Western and the other from the Eastern region. Okudu returned
to UCE to teach in fulfillment of his scholarship bond and rose to the post of Vice- Principal.
Okudu later returned to U.I. where his talents as university administrator were immediately
evident. Importantly, Chief S.J. Okudu became the Foundation Pro-Chancellor and Chairman
of the governing Council of the new Delta State University, Abraka. Tekena. Tamuno having
N. a brilliant undergraduate career in history at the University College Ibadan, went on to
had
distinguish himself as an academic and he is today one of Nigeria’s most important men of
letters. The Senior Tutor and History Master when I entered Urhobo College Effurun in
1951, was no other than Chief Ikime, from Eastern Urhobo, now Isoko. Chief Ikime is the
elder brother of the brilliant Ibadan historian, Professor Obaro Ikime. The issue of whether
Urhobo College Effurun was conceptualised as an ethnic institution is worthy of reflection. If
for nothing else, it enables me to suggest that the founding fathers of UCE, and the school
itself, contributed to interethnic harmony in the 1950s, at a time when interethnic tensions
were already rising in the Warri area. I think it is a pity that the early products of UCE,
many of whom are now senior citizens and still very much around and willing to play a
mediator role, have not been pressed into service and into attempts to resolve the various
crises in the Warri area.
Multiethnic Student Body of Urhobo College Effurun
The late Chief Arthur Prest when giving a UCOSA annual after-dinner address at
Idama hotel, Okumagba layout Warri, raised the issue of the name “Urhobo College”. Chief
Prest, an eminent lawyer, a member of the Itsekiri Land Trust and former Federal cabinet
minister suggested that the appellation “Urhobo”, for an institution that was clearly
multiethnic in staff and student composition, was anachronistic. Prest was right certainly with
respect to the multi-ethnic composition of UCE students. On this point, perhaps you
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The Place of Urhobo College Effurun in Urbobo History
will permit me to drop the names that come to mind of some illustrious non-Urhobo
members of my 1954 class as illustration: Julius Ifidon Ola (JIO) is a native of Ora in
present day Edo State. After Urhobo College Effurun, Ola entered Fourah Bay College,
Sierra Leone for a Durham BA. He later joined the civil service and after the Midwest
Region was created out of the Western Region in 1963, he was one of the youngest among
the first set of Permanent Secretaries to be created; he thus became a pillar in the new
Region’s administration. JIO is now owner and CEO of JIM Travels, a travel agency with
branches through out Nigeria. Felix Ejebba Esisi, is Itsekiri and the present head of Okere
Itsekiris, the opposite number if you like, to Chief Benjamin Okumagba, the Otota of Okere
Urhobo Kingdom. Okumagba and Esisi are both UCOSAites and leaders on opposite sides in
the intractable Urhobo-Itsekiri crisis at Okere in Warri. Before becoming the leader of his
people, Esisi, who with Benjamin Okumagba, played football on the same side in the first
eleven for Urhobo College Effurun, and was one of Chief Daniel Okumagba’s most valued
players, had had a successful career in the NNPC. Benjamin Maku is also a prominent
Itsekiri who took a degree from the University of Lagos sometime after Urhobo College
Effurun and then joined the Central Bank of Nigeria where he rose to be a director and head
of Banking Examinations Department before retirement. The most gifted member of the
1954 class was undoubtedly Christopher Orji, an Igbo, from which side of Niger I am not
able to say. Orji was delightfully and irritatingly eccentric and brilliant in mathematics. He,
Orji and Mathew Scott-Emuakpor were the first Urhobo College Effurun boys to enter
University College, Ibadan (UCI), in 1957. We used to think that Orji saw the answer to a
mathematics problem laid out as soon as he set eyes on it. To live up to his eccentric
reputation, Orji claimed that he had read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation over and over
again! He later worked with Shell Development Company. Outside my class of 1954, there
were many other non-Urhobos in UCE. Commoners rubbed shoulders with royalty in people
like the late Prince Magnus Eweka, who had a great career as a schoolboy half-miler (880
yards). He quickly and brilliantly rose to the top rank in the Police Force before his tragic
death at an early age. Gbenoba (a prince of the Agbor royal family at Boji Boji), I
remember, was a junior in Orerokpe House where I was prefect in 1954. This is just to give
a flavour of the ethnic plurality of ethnic background of the early students of UCE.
In his after-dinner address to UCOSA that I referred to, Prest called on the old
students to consider changing the name of Urhobo College Effurun, to reflect the
cosmopolitan outlook of the college. The old students took Prest’s point seriously, but after
deliberation, decided on the status quo, many taking the view that if the name did not make
the college any less multiethnic up till then, there was no reason to expect it to in years to
come. Besides, the name “Urohobo College Effurun” like the college itself had a critical
significance in Urhobo history. It seems to me that the positive multi-ethnic thrust of Urhobo
College Effurun in its early days ought to be fully appreciated in looking at Urhobo relations
with other ethnic groups in this our crisis-ridden region of Nigeria.
Strategies for Urhobo Cultural and Educational Emancipation
Urhobo needs to project a different image of itself in the eyes of other Nigerian
nationalities, as a major ethnic group being among the top ten most populous. The UPU
under the inspiring guidance of Mowoe did a lot to improve Urhobo’s image from being
predominantly associated with the fraud phenomenon known as “Urhobo wayo” (brain pass
brain na him be wayo) to the present position of relative respectability. But there is still a lot
to do; Urhobos must take steps to change its present image of a minor tribe harassing
Itsekiris, instead of the major nationality that it is in Nigeria. Perhaps it is for this purpose
that the present UPU leadership has thought of the Urhobo development fund that I referred
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to earlier. Personally, I was impressed by Chief Okumagba’s statement at the occasion that
the problems arising from the leadership tussles leading to his emergence as president- general
of UPU are now things of the past. I sincerely hope that under Benjamin Okumagba’s
leadership, the Urhobo nation can look forward to a future of united commitment to the
course of meaningful development. One would hope that the Urhobo development project
will serve to mobilise and unite all Urhobos behind Chief Okumagba, just as the Urhobo
College Effurun project of the 1940s did behind Chief Mukoro Mowoe in a way that no other
Urhobo leader has experienced. Permit me to dwell a little on some of the areas of Urhobo
national life that the UPU has earmarked for development. I have chosen to expatiate on two
of these because of my personal concern for the conservation of Urhobo culture as a critical
step towards our self knowledge and self respect:
Ultra-Modern Urhobo Cultural Centre
One of the projects outlined by the UPU is an ultra-modern cultural centre. The idea of
such a centre is a good one. But what purpose will it serve? Urhobo culture (meaning the
totality of the peoples’ accumulated experience as expressed in their languages and dialects,
religions, medicine, poetry, dance, architecture, art, technology, festivals etc. and handed
down during centuries of life in Urhoboland), is alive among the people in their towns and
villages. It is not something that can be collected and housed in a cultural centre. Perhaps a
cultural centre built in an urban area like Warri, Sapele or Ughelli, can serve the purpose of
providing facilities for the display, from time to time, of aspects of our diverse cultural
heritage. This will be for the benefit of the elite who live in the diaspora, and tourists. But, if
we do not take steps to preserve the “culture” back home where it is functional and alive
today, a cultural centre will have nothing to display tomorrow.
Urhobo National Museum
An Urhobo National Museum is a very important proposal as a way of promoting

Urhobo culture. Let me explain why. In Greek mythology, Muse, the daughter of Zeus, was
the goddess of learning, especially in the arts, poetry and music. This myth has survived into
modern usage; each branch of the arts is believed by some to be under the guidance of
a Muse, e.g., Clio is the Muse of history, Euterpe of music, Terpsichore of dance. In
Urhobo art, the idea of the Muse also exists and it was not borrowed from the Greeks! More
likely, it is a remnant of ideas that reached Greece by diffusion from ancient Africa through
Egypt. In Urhobo, perhaps the most concrete expression of the Muse is Uhawha, the spirit
that inspires and protects all who engage in Udje, the somewhat dangerous satirical
poetry/song/dance form for which Ugbienvwen and Udu Clans are famous. Uhawha is
believed to intercept the invisible missiles that may be fired at Udje performers (composers
and performers) by enemies who are scandalised by the incisive satire of Udje poetry. And,
without prior homage, Uhawha, once it has been evoked and taken possession of, may
refuse to leave the performer and he may ‘sing’ or ‘dance’ him/her to exhaustion. I am an
Ughienvwen and not wanting to take Uhawha’s name in vain, I shall call on you to join me in
paying a brief formal homage to Uhawha thus:
Uhawha je….je! Uhawha je….je!!, Uhawha je!!!
How can a museum promote Urhobo culture? A museum can be used to teach Urhobo
culture because it should store old illustrative artifacts including old manuscripts on different
aspects of Urhobo history and culture. A museum can also serve as a repository for
384
Urhobo repatriated sculptures, paintings, films or other works of art about or by Urhobos
that are now displaced outside Urhoboland in the diaspora. I am reminded here of Professor
(Chief) Perkins Foss, the Oyibo-Edjo of Evwreni, an internationally renowned American art
historian and world authority on Urhobo art who, in collaboration with our own brilliant
and erudite Bruce Onobrakpeya (D.Lit., Honoris causa, Ibadan), Nigeria’s topmost creative
fine artist, will be putting up an exhibition of Urhobo art in New York in 2003. After that
event, scholars within and outside Nigeria will want to know where Urhoboland is and how
to have access to its cultural artifacts in their natural surroundings. So, there is the very
important function of a museum, but an Urhobo National Museum should be linked directly
to serious studies of Urhobo culture in an institution where such studies can be pursued
without hindrance. I suggest below that a Mukoro Mowoe University will serve as that kind
of institution (see below).
Shrines are Museums
When we think of establishing an Urhobo National Museum, we should try to

understand museums in their broad historical context. The word “museum” derives from
“Muse” as described above. The original museums date back to ancient Greece and they
were, in fact, shrines built to store mnemonic objects of natural history, religion and the arts.
In due course of time, the shrines built to the different artistic muses evolved into what are
now modern museums; these are in fact buildings or places containing artifacts of
knowledge. Urhobo communities have numerous museums called shrines ( edjo) built to
various gods and goddesses. In fact what most characterises the tarditional religious life of
the Urhobo people are numerous shrines in various towns and villages. The shrine is a sacred
place of worship, but in most cases, it also houses the history of the village or community
and its evolved relationship with neighbouring communities. For example, the
Ughienvwen has a clan deity called Ogbaurhie (a river goddess). Her shrine is at
Otughienvwen. Our oral history of origin has it that when the man Ughienvwen left Ogobiri
on the Atlantic coast in present day Bayelsa for whatever reason, a woman companion in
Ughienvwen’s entourage, disguised Ogbaurhie as a baby on her back. It was the goddess
that guided Ughienvwen and his followers to safety at Otughienvwen after wandering for
years in the rivers and creeks of the Niger delta. Today, Ughienvwen and Ijaws have very
close, most of the time, friendly relations. I am told that artifacts of this history are evident
in the Ogbaurhie shrine.
The political, legislative and judicial instruments for the administration of
Ughienvwen were traditionally in the hands of members of four Ogbaurhie cults: Ade
(Administrative/Ceremonial/Judicial cult), Igbun-Oto/Igbun-Eshovwin (Military/Law
Enforcement), Ebo (Medicine/Philosophy). These are the structures of traditional
Ughienvwen governance. Admittedly, there is a limitation to the potential usefulness of
traditional shrines as institutions for the promotion of cultural education; that limitation is
their relative inaccessibility. Often, only the priests can enter them! The only non-initiate
that I know of who has ever been allowed into the Ogbaurhie shrine at Otughienvwen is our
intrepid Oyibo-Edjo of Evwreni, Chief Perkins Foss!. Nevertheless, I believe that any
meaningful development of museums in Urhoboland should be comprehensive and must
include the critical recognition that our traditional shrines are important components of
Urhobo national heritage. We must develop strategies for their preservation and restoration.
In this regard, we should challenge ourselves to be, at least, tolerant of the religious
institutions of our forefathers. Or, are we, now converts to foreign religions (which owe their
foothold among us to the tolerance, in the first instance, of our traditional religions), going to
be intolerant of the very kernel of our culture? The religions of our forefathers
385
constitute the core of Urhobo culture, history, spirituality and morality. Efforts at intellectual
appreciation of our culture must include a positive scholarly engagement with
the practitioners, the ebos who are in fact the conservationists, of Urhobo traditional
religions.
The environment in Urhoboland is intricately interwoven with Urhobo culture.
Nowhere are the people more part of their biodiversity than in Urhoboland, nowhere are the
poetry, oratory, sculpture, festivals more products of the peoples’ interaction with the
environment, nowhere is any talk of environmental protection without conservation of the
peoples’ culture more of an empty talk. What we need is an Urhobo community university in
which scholars of different persuasions, Urhobo and non-Urhobo, can undertake rigorous
pursuit of, among other things, various aspects of Urhobo culture without having to fight for
limited space with groups who have had the advantages of headstart and larger numbers. In
Nigerian universities Urhobo scholars and their attempts to introduce Urhobo cultural studies,
are often victims of the form of democracy that is unique to a country of many nationalities in
which the minority has to endure the tyranny of the majority.
Mukoro Mowoe University
Below, I try to argue the case for a Mukoro Mowoe University in Urhobo heartland.
Such an important project will unite all Urhobos behind the UPU. When completed, a
Mukoro Mowoe University will also act as a catalyst for the scholarly pursuit of Urhobo
culture, history, language and environment in the way that Urhobo College Effurun proved to
be the catalyst for intellectual upsurge among Urhobo young men and women. In fact the
ideas embodied in the one billion naira development fund launch will be best actualised in a
Mukoro Mowoe University project. Such a university will also serve as a befitting memorial
to our hero, Mukoro Mowoe. The call for a university in Urhobo heartland is not a frivolous
call. It has parallels in other parts of the world among minority groups struggling for cultural
identity. Such institutions have served as critical strategies for the propagation of latent
energies and talents among minorities trying to discover who they are. The preservation of
Welsh culture and language was a major impetus for the foundation of the National
University of Wales, with University Colleges in Cardiff, Aberystwyth and Bangor; these
great institutions are imbued with the Welsh character, but, they are also world famous as
centres of learning and sound scholarship. The Welsh are a minority ethnic group in Britain
with a similar population size to Urhobo and like the Urhobo, poetry and song more than the
visual arts are their major traditional forms of artistic expression. When one explores the
prodigious complex of Udje poetry of the Udu and the Ughienvwen, one cannot help
imagining that had Dylan Thomas been born in Owahwa instead of a Welsh village, he might
have been a great Udje exponent! The Welsh universities helped to preserve and update the
Welsh language and hence Welsh culture, by providing opportunities for its scholarly study.
There was a time when under English ‘colonialism’ the Welsh language all but died out of
existence; its use was prohibited under British colonialism. Today, the Welsh are very proud
of their language.
But before I expatiate further on the case for a Mukoro Mowoe University, let me go
back a bit to the origins of Urhobo College Effurun.
The UPU and Urhobo College Effurun
The book by Chief T.E.A. Salubi with the intriguing title The Miracles of an Original
Thought (1965), is a story of Urhobo College Effurun by an eminent Urhobo man who was
there from the beginning when the college was established in 1946. In the brief account on
386
the subject of Urhobo College Effurun in The Member for Warri Province. The life and
Times of Chief Mukoro Mowoe 1890-1948) by Obaro Ikime (1977), the author
acknowledges Chief Salubi’s account as his main source. A detailed account of this great
historic institution and its makers remains to be written. I do not intend to go over the
grounds already adequately covered by Chief Salubi and Professor Ikime. When one looks at
the records, one thing is certain: it was a miracle that Mukoro Mowoe was able to mobilise a
group of people who were at that time nothing but a tribe of unconnected clans behind a
common project. Clearly, this was due to the personality of the Mukoro Mowoe and also
because this happened at a time when education was an intensely felt need throughout
Urhoboland. I will add that the founding of the UPU and the founding of Urhobo College
Effurun were very closely interwoven; thus we can say that the desparate need for education
of Urhobo youths throughout Urhoboland was the major impetus for the founding of UPU.
One rendition of the aims of the UPU to be found in the book by Ikime (p.88) explicitly said:
The Union seeks to promote education in Urhoboland because it strongly

believes in the immense advantage of education in social and economic
structure of the society.
That is why I maintain in this lecture that Urhobo College Effurun, has been an
intimate part of Urhobo history in the last seventy years. Urhobo College Effurun was the
much needed foot in the door for advancing the educational aspirations of Urhobo youths.
That is why I maintain that UCE should continue to remain on the development agenda of
the UPU and why it should serve as a template for the establishment of institutions of higher
learning in Urhoboland.
As we learn from Salubi and Ikime, the Urhobo Brotherly Society that later became the
Urhobo Progress Union was inaugurated in Chief Mowoe’s house on 3 November, 1931
with Omorohwovo Okoro from Ovu as its founding president. Mukoro Mowoe was elected
Vice-President at that meeting. Within three years (1934), Okoro had stepped down for
Mukoro Mowoe as President of the Society which eventually became the Urhobo Progress
Union. As early as 1935, a year after Mowoe took over as President, the Lagos branch had
put education for Urhobo youths on the agenda of the UPU by proposing the setting up of a
secondary school scholarship fund for Urhobo boys and girls under the auspices of the
Union. Other branches had other conflicting ideas on how to advance education in
Urhoboland; this is not hard to imagine for disparate groups of Urhobos trying to decide on a
common course of action! It took eleven years for issues to be resolved and for the
foundation of Urhobo College Effurun to be laid in 1946. Resolving the potentially fatal
conflict between the Lagos branch (the progressives) and the Warri, the home branch (the
conservatives) appeared to have tested Chief Mukoro Mowoe’s leadership qualities to the
limit. Ikime tells us that Mowoe toured the entire country in 1946, to explain to the many
Urhobo people in the diaspora ( urhie), the aims of the education scheme. Here is a widely
quoted passage from a lecture he gave at one stop in his tour, which may in fact be used
today as the clarion call for any Urhobo National education project:
“My belief is that every being born into the world has a duty to perform
to his people …. any one of you who should fail to play his or her part for
the upliftment of our dear tribe, it were better that she or he had not been
born at all”.
387
And, lamenting the absence of Urhobos from among the political leadership in Nigeria
in 1946, he asked rhetorically,
“Out of these (potential rulers of Nigeria)….any Urhoboman among the
names? If no, why?”
His own answer was precise – lack of educational opportunities for Urhobos. His own
analysis was accurate
“….otherwise, I think if not more, we have the same equal brains.”
If one examines the quality of intellectual attainment of Urhobo scholars today,

Mukoro Mowoe was right in his assessment that given the same opportunities Urhobo
“brains” can hold their own among other Nigerians.
Some Early Urhobo College Effurun Personalities Recalled
While the UPU branches were engaged in these debates, two Urhobo young men had
been sent for further training in preparation to take charge of the new college: M.G. Ejaife
went to Fourah Bay College Sierra Leone where he took a Durham degree. The other was the
brilliant E.N. Igho who went to Downing College, Cambridge University in England, where
he read Biology. Ejaife had earlier studied at the famous St. Andrew’s College, Oyo. At Oyo,
he became a contemporary of some of the great names in education in the Western Region of
the 1950s. The late Chief Michael Adekunle Ajasin, who became Governor of old Oyo State
and later the famous leader of NADECO, was one; another is the Rev. Alayande, famous
principal of Ibadan Grammar School and teacher of the great Bola Ige. Rev. Alayande, now
in his 90s, is leader of the Yoruba Elders Forum. Had he lived, Ejaife would have been 90 at
the time of this lecture. Ejaife became the first principal of Urhobo College Effurun, and
Igho his deputy. A comprehensive story of these great Urhobo teachers is yet to be written.
Ejaife was an all round scholar, a polymath/ polyglot – Latin and Greek, English iterature,
English language, music, mathematics, history, geography, several Nigerian languages, the
most learned man I have been influenced by. E.N. Igho was M.A. (Cantab) and he never
allowed too many opportunities pass without him reminding you of the fact: “I am a
Cambridge master, you know; your principal is only a bachelor’, he was known to say. Then
there were men like Ikime, the History Master and Senior Tutor in charge of admissions, J.G.
Ako who was already a teacher at the Urhobo Collegiate, the predecessor of Urhobo College
Effurun. Daniel Okumagba was the tough Games and Maths Master of Urhobo College
Effurun who later became long serving Treasurer of the UPU, and a prominent politician of
the Shagari era.
Urhobo College Effurun, in the early years was famous, but not for the number of
straight A’s or Grade Ones it produced in the Senior Cambridge school certificate
examinations. It was famous in sports. But what was remarkable is that UCE graduates went
out to excel in fields which could not have been predicted from their time in UCE or even
from their performance in the school leaving certificate examinations. Some became well
known scientists, even though the only real science subjects in which we had any exposure in
the early years were Biology and Chemistry, without laboratories and no Physics at all. Our
biology classes consisted of leisurely strolls with E. N. Igho through what could be described
as Urhobo College Effurun Botanical Gardens, on the other side of the Effurun-Sapele Road
facing UCE, the site on which Mid-West Inn was later built, now a concrete jungle of shops
and motor parks. Igho taught what is nowadays called
388
“integrated biology”, during which we were introduced to the biodiversity of the Niger
Delta Wetlands or what is locally called Ivwori.
Remarkably however, the first Urhobo College Effurun graduate to earn the PhD did it
in the field of genetics from the University of Cambridge in 1964. His name is Matthew
Scott-Emuapkor who became the first professor of genetics in the Department of Botany at
the University of Ibadan in 1978. And, yours sincerely, the first Urhobo College Effurun
product to become full university professor in any field of study, achieved it in pharmacology
at the University of Ibadan in 1977. Again, the first Urhobo College Effurun product to
qualify in Medicine, Prince Sunday Mebitaghan was a member of my class of 1954. Dr. S.B.
Mebitaghan is a very distinguished public health specialist based in Benin. Scott-Emuakpor'
was a brilliant scholar and an all rounder. I know because he was my classmate and there was
usually a baton change between first and second positions between us – Matthew due to his
talents in science and mathematics; my interests at that time were more in the arts, Latin and
English. Matthew held the Greyer Cup records in the triple jump (16 feet 7 and half inches
[1953]), and high jump (6ft 4 and half inches [1954]). He also excelled in long jump as well
as being a member of Chief Daniel Okumagba’s tough football first eleven. It was something
of a surprise to many of us who admire him that Matthew did not pursue any of these
tremendous talents later in UCI or Cambridge.
Here now, permit me a little immodest indulgence! On my first day in the “A-Level”
Physics class at the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology Ibadan, in 1956, the
Physics master watched me from a distance while I tried to work a Wheatstone bridge
experiment. I did not know one end of the contraption from the other having never set eyes
on one before, nor could I make head or tail of the typed instructions. I began to sweat!
Finally, the master came round. Mr. Woodcock was a rough looking Englishman with a
reputation from Umuahia or CKC for tough no nonsense attitude towards students. I thought
he was going to throw me out! He did not. Instead he glared at me and warned I could never
pass physics at any level in two years without a previous “O”-Level pass in the
subject. From that day on Nelkon “A Level” Physics became my constant companion. I was
going to show him and I did! I have a certificate to show that I passed GCE “A-Level”
Physics in 1958. What Urhobo College Effurun transmitted into its early products was not so
much dazzling knowledge in specific subjects, but broad education; a recent Cambridge
alumni leaflet humorously defined education as “what is left after all that was learnt has been
forgotten”. A strong belief in one's ability to make the most of limited facilities was an
important part of the education. I could, if it was appropriate to do so, name some great
pioneer students of Urhobo College Effurun, eminent men in Nigerian Society today, who
when they left UCE, no one expected much, but who later attained distinction in law,
politics, administration, the military, academia and in the literary world.
The robust ability to make do with little could also have been an attribute of my
generation of Urhobo College students, many of whom had come to Effurun from all sorts of
primary schools where some were practically self-taught. I, for example, began my
education career in Owahwa in 1944 in a primary school appropriately called Ifaka
Providence School , after its founder, Mr. Ifaka of Ughelli/Evwreni. Ifaka was an
entrepreneur, a man who recognised the educational needs of rural Urhobo youngsters and
started a chain of IP schools in the Ughelli area. With school fees of threepence per month
paid irregularly, Ifaka did not hire too many teachers. In Owahwa, Ifaka was virtually the
only teacher. He rode into the village once or twice a week on his Raleigh Bicycle and that
was when the classes held. The rest of the time, we were engaged in the other traditional
processes of education, fishing, wrestling, singing, dancing. I was luckier than most, because
I had access to informal instruction from two cousins who were in school at Otughienvwen.
By 1946, I had advanced to primary 3 and had become Ifaka’s assistant
389
teacher on those days when he did not show up! This was before I graduated to the famous
Baptist School Oginibo where Urhobo greats like Gamaliel Onosode, a boardroom guru and
a 1999 APP presidential candidate, and the late Chief Clarkson Majomi were also primary
school boys. That was where the Rev. (Dr.) Paul Ebhomielen, the mentor to whom I owe my
advancement in education beyond the primary school level, was headmaster.
The Case for a Mukoro Mowoe University
The name Mukoro Mowoe is revered everywhere in Urhoboland not just because he
was the first President-General of the UPU, but more importantly for his outstanding selfless
achievements for the Urhobo people. The most outstanding of these achievements which are
there for all to see are in the field of education. His inspiring role in establishing Urhobo
College Effurun is unparalleled in Nigeria. But, not many people know that it was Chief
Mowoe too who succeeded, almost single-handedly, in persuading the colonial government, I
am sure against strong opposition from certain quarters, to move Government College Warri
built in 1945 from Warri to Ughelli in Urhobo heartland. Chief Mukoro Mowoe died on
August 10, 1948. In the more than half a century since then, how have we commemorated
him? Let me draw attention to some examples of the way in which other people have
immortalised their heroes. In my retirement I currently teach pharmacology on
contract at the Obafemi Awolowo College of Health Sciences of the Olabisi Onabanjo
University, formerly Ogun State University. I had a choice between that and the Ladoke
Akintola University at Ogbomosho in Osun State, the Adekunle Ajasin University in Ondo
State or the Obafemi Awolowo University at Ile-Ife! In his paper “Mukoro Mowoe and
Urhobo Destiny and History” Peter Ekeh lamented the failure of the Urhobo nation to
adequately commemorate our national hero, and he put forward the following ideas; I doubt
if an occasion has ever arisen to debate them:
i. Rename Delta State University after Mukoro Mowoe.

ii. Establish a Mukoro Mowoe Scholarship Fund.
iii. Build a Mukoro Mowoe International Airport in Warri.
The idea of a significant Mowoe commemoration is one with which the majority of
Urhobo will agree; therefore, these ideas deserve consideration by the UPU. Perhaps (i) and
(iii) above may draw considerable controversy knowing the prevailing politics of Delta State.
On the other hand, the experience from various scholarship schemes in Nigeria is the problem
of sustainability in the face of the vanishing value of endowments. My own addition to the
above list will be for a brand new Mukoro Mowoe University outside Abraka in the Urhobo
heartland. Dare I say that perhaps the Chief might be pleased that the idea of a University
named after him is being advocated by a product of Urhobo College Effurun the full
educational significance of which he did not live to see. He might also be pleased to see that
his efforts in establishing Urhobo College Effurun has brought his beloved Urhobos to the
stage where they can contemplate a community university project. As Ekeh put it “we live in
an era in which community efforts have once again become mandatory for groups that wish
to overcome the handicaps imposed by circumstances of poor governance”. There is no
nationality of our population and land size, wealth, endowment in men and women, that does
not boast of at least one university catering to its cultural and educational needs in Nigeria
today.
There is also a strategic justification. Delta State is reputed to be relatively rich, but the
state itself is multi-ethnic and its coffers cannot be used to satisfy Urhobo cultural aspirations
alone. We are the largest group, but our experience within Nigeria should teach
390
us that we must be particularly sensitive to the feelings of our neighbours. While we have the
crude oil, and America and Europe are still buying it, Delta State will remain relatively
wealthy. Some of that will inevitably come to Urhoboland; unless we embark on a major
project like a Mukoro Mowoe University, where would all our share of the oil wealth have
gone in the end? Where would our rich men and women have immortalised their names in
Libraries, Science Blocks, Halls of Residence? In 50 or 100 years time, the oil might be
finished or Europe and America may no longer buy crude oil, because it is too dirty; or
because they have discovered cheaper, cleaner forms of energy. Meanwhile, Urhoboland
would have been left physically, culturally and spiritually in ruin. We could find that we
frittered our share of the oil money away in frivolities. In many parts of the country, even
states with miserable resources are also thinking strategically and putting down permanent
infrastructures while the oil flows in the Niger Delta. One state, which shall be nameless, that
can hardly raise 10% of its monthly expenditure from internal revenue, is planning a State
University. In the year 2000, only 5 indigenes of that State secured university entrance scores
in the WASC examination. A Mukoro Mowoe University will not have that problem of
suitable entrance material. The Urhobo nation’s contribution to the intellectual life of Nigeria
is significant and out of proportion to its population. In a cursory count of senior academics
in the University of Ibadan, Urhobos come next to Yorubas in the number of full professors.
A Mukoro Mowoe University will be a university that draws on its immediate surroundings
for cultural and intellectual inspiration, with roots in traditional institutions making
contributions to the well being of Nigeria and the world at large from the perspective of a
unique environment and cultural experience.
David Okpako
30 August, 2002
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Chapter 19
Mukoro Mowoe and Urhobo Destiny

and History 1
Peter P. Ekeh
State University of New York at Buffalo
The late Chief [Mukoro Mowoe] lived as a universal man! .... Kind-hearted and full of
sympathy, he relieved many from sorrows and misfortunes and assisted some to achieve
fortunes.... Many will cherish his memory from age to age.... Verily, Chief Mukoro Mowoe
(Oyinvwin) is dead but his work liveth, shining and inspiring us, his people, to action. Let
each and all of us vow and work so that the torch he handed down may not flicker out but so
burn that it may generate greater light for the good and the progress of our dear land
even unto posterity. – From Memorial Ceremonies and Service in Honour of the late Chief
Mukoro Mowoe, 30 October 1948.
In modern times, Urhoboland has emerged as the most prominent area of the western
Niger Delta of Nigeria. But it was also historically the most problematic terrain in this vital
region. Positioned among the tributaries of the famous River Niger, the lands of Urhobo
ethnic group possess rivers (most notably the River Ethiope), streams, and lakes that provide
ample waterways and water supplies that are so very important in the histories of all the
ethnic groups in this region of West Africa. But of the three ethnic groups that people the
western Niger Delta, only the Urhobo have no direct link with the Atlantic Ocean. Their
ethnic neighbors to the southwest, the Itsekiri, and to the southeast, the Ijaw, are Atlantic
peoples who inhabit the mangrove and swampy lands of this portion of the Atlantic coastline
of West Africa.
These ecological traits have been important factors in the histories of Urhobo and of
their ethnic Atlantic neighbors. They also proved crucial in establishing a pattern of
relationships for more than five centuries of the recorded history of the western Nigeria Delta
between Urhobo and their Atlantic ethnic neighbors, on the one hand, and Europeans, on the
other hand. Urhobos suffered from major disadvantages in most of these centuries because
they were cut off from a lucrative Atlantic trade which was dominated by the Itsekiri. It was
Urhobos who supplied most of the goods that fueled the European Atlantic trade in the
western Niger Delta. But they had no direct contact with the European traders for most of
these centuries. On the other hand, with colonial rule, Urhobos finally had an opportunity to
burst out of this encasement, exploiting their land resources and the skills that they had
developed in these centuries with which they provided raw materials for an Atlantic trade that
their southward neighbors controlled.
The history of Urhobos of the western Niger Delta is thus one of severe historical
problems for which they organized solutions. What is most impressive about this history is
the ability with which Urhobos overcame significant disabilities that they suffered as a result
of their ecological location in the western Niger Delta. These efforts were crystallized in the
1930s and 40s by nationalists who sought to enhance the Urhobo share of opportunities under
a new British colonial regime. Their pioneering leader was a man
1
A Memorial Lecture delivered in New York City on November 21, 1998, under the platform of Urhobo Nation in commemoration
of Chief Mukoro Mowoe’s death in 1948.
named Mukoro Mowoe. He and his co-nationalists faced severe problems of organising the
fortunes of a people to whom the new British rulers were not particularly friendly. Thus, they
had little governmental resources for their monumental endeavors. Instead, Mukoro Mowoe
and his co-nationalists pioneered a methodology of self-development that relied heavily on
community efforts for achieving Urhobos' collective goals. Judging from the relative
prominence of Urhobos in modern Nigerian public and economic affairs, it is now an
historical fact that Mukoro Mowoe achieved these goals, although he did not live to
experience such judgment before his untimely death fifty years ago. That we who are here, an
ocean away from the land that he sweated to enrich, are bearers of the fruits of his labors is a
celebration of his life that would have pleased Mukoro Mowoe greatly. I dare say, though,
that he was the type of historical character whose strength lay in plotting solutions to fresh
problems rather than in recitations of past achievements.
Historic Challenges Facing Urhobos in Precolonial Times
The English historian, Arnold Toynbee, proposed that the character of a civilization is
best revealed from the challenges facing its bearers and the responses that they design and
manage for meeting the problems that these challenges pose. Such a Toynbean syndrome
carries with it the fullness of historical formations because it implies a continuous process.
Each successful response enhances the value of a civilization; but it also instigates fresh
challenges to which new responses are required in turn. The model of Toynbean challenge-
and-response will do well for analyzing Urhobo history and for revealing the parts played by
its pioneering nationalists in organizing responses to the heavy historical problems facing
Urhobos.
These problems date back to the fifteenth century, with the arrival of Europeans and
the Atlantic trade that they brought with them to the Niger Delta. When the Portuguese
stumbled upon the forested West African Atlantic coast in the mid-1480s, they were in
search of the Kingdom of Benin. Thanks to the enormous scholarship of one of our own
intellectuals, we are now able to narrate the facts of these five centuries of history with some
ease. Professor Obaro Ikime, the foremost authority of the history of the peoples of
our region, tells us that Pacheco Pareira, the captain of the first Portuguese voyage to our
area, named two other ethnic groups in addition to the Binis in his accounts of this maiden
European journey to the Niger Delta. These were the Urhobo (whom he named "Soubu")
and the Ijo (whom he called "Jos"). Ironically, the group not named in this initial European
account became the Europeans' most trusted partners in these five centuries of contact. In a
matter of decades, the Itsekiri became the Portuguese most trusted allies, supplanting Benin
which had rejected Portugal's religious overtures.
In the four centuries spanning 1485-1894, Itsekiri merchants established themselves as
the principal trading partners of European merchants who brought with them Western
European wares and bought several valuable agricultural products from the region. Although
their lands supplied the tropical goods so traded and although they purchased the European
goods, the land-based Urhobos were cut off from this trade by Atlantic Itsekiri chieftains who
used the resources and means of violence that they acquired from the Europeans. It must be
stressed that this historic disadvantage was not unique to Urhobo. In roughly the same time
span, the land-based Igbo were cut off from the Atlantic trade by the eastern Ijo in the eastern
Niger delta. Similarly, the land-based Ibibio were prevented from establishing contact with
the European traders by the Effik of the Cross-River estuary. In all three instances, the
Atlantic groups (Itsekiri, Ijo, and Effik) were demographically much smaller than the
disadvantaged groups (Urhobo, Igbo, and Ibibio) that they oppressed. The lots of the Igbo
and Ibibio in the eastern Niger Delta and the Cross-River region were
394
Mukoro Mowoe and Urhobo Destiny and History
considerably worse off than the Urhobo situation because the notorious slave trade was much
less in the western Niger Delta than in the east.
Ironically, the nightmare of these land-based ethnic groups began to ease in the last
fifteen years of the 19 thcentury, during the so-called European Scramble for Africa. In the
mid-1880s through the 1890s, Britain was in a hurry to establish valid contacts with the lands
beyond the Atlantic coast. In the eastern Niger Delta and in the Cross-River, these contacts
were effectively established with the Igbo and the Ibibio. When it appeared that Jaja, a
prominent merchant of Igbo ancestry operating from Opobo in eastern Ijo land, was
interfering with British expansion into Igbo and Ibibio countries, they exiled him. However,
the circumstances in the western Niger Delta among the Urhobo and the Itsekiri were
different. At Britain's insistence, Nana Olomu, an Itsekiri chieftain, was appointed
"Governor" in 1884 with the primary responsibility for ensuring orderly trade in this region.
Nana operated principally on the River Ethiope and other waterways in Urhoboland whose
palm produce was the main staple of the European trade. Between 1884 and 1894, Nana
terrorized the Urhobo areas with weapons of violence that he acquired from the British.
The sour relations between Nana and Urhobo merchants came to a head when Nana
assaulted and abducted Oraka of Okpara Waterside. Urhobo reactions to this outrage were
severe. They resorted to a trade boycott which not only attracted British attention, but
rendered the purpose of Nana's governorship impotent. The British were clearly unhappy
with Nana's conduct and so decided to deal with Urhobos directly -- a consequence that
Urhobos had craved. Nana's attempt to block direct British trading relationships with
Urhobos was the principal cause of the military encounter of 1894 that led to Nana's exile in
that year. Thereafter, Urhobo merchants began to trade directly with Europeans for the first
time in four centuries. 2
Political Challenges Facing Urhobos during

the Early Phases of Colonial Rule: 1894-1938
The British colonization of Urhoboland occurred after 1894, the year of the British
military encounter with Nana Olomu. That hostility happened while Mukoro Mowoe, the
man who was to emerge as the pioneer leader of the Urhobo thirty years later, was four years
old. The British penetration into various areas of Urhoboland must have intensified in the
years 1894-97, since much of Urhoboland was already under British control before the Benin
War of 1897. It was after that war that the British effectively established their colony of
Southern Nigeria.
With regard to access to the new European rulers, the British colonisation of southern
Nigeria was directly advantageous to the ethnic counterparts of Urhobo in the eastern Niger
Delta and the Cross-River region. The Igbo and the Ibibio were now able to deal directly
with the new British rulers, without the intermediary agency of the Ijo and the Effik, whose
erstwhile monopolistic connections with Europeans now collapsed under the new colonial
dispensation. In many ways, the resources of the Igbos and the Ibibios were considered by
2
Professor Obaro Ikime has rejected this representation of the events of 1894 in part because he believes that it is biased in favor of
British interpretation of their encounter with Nana Olomu. Ikime says: "The view as expressed here is the typical British
explanation for the Ebrohimi Expedition of 1894. The facts are rather different -- see my Merchant Prince of the Niger Delta . My
field work in Urhoboland convinced me beyond doubt that Nana was more a man of peace than war. That he used force
occasionally to have his way is true. That knowledge of the fact that he was well supplied in arms and ammunition served him well in
his trade with the Urhobo is also true. It is also, however, equally true that he married wives from quite a number of Urhobo groups.
In the age in which he lived, you didn't terrorize your in-laws. Nana was a wealthy and very influential man. That also served him
well. Besides, the use of force to settle disputes was part of the accepted ways of behaviour pattern of the age of Nana."
395
the new British rulers to be more valuable than those in the Atlantic ethnic groups of eastern
Ijo and the Effik.
The British colonizers and Christian missionaries began to settle into many areas of the
new colony of Southern Nigeria as from the late 1890s. Elementary schools and teacher
training institutes were already being established in Yorubaland and Igboland as early as the
1900s. Benin and neighboring ethnic groups were also directly engaged with the British and
the Christian missionaries, with new Western-style schools established in a number of places.
In this new colonial era, Urhobos had an unusual experience full of humiliating
challenges. This uniqueness had a lot to do with the old politics of the Niger Delta. In order
to capture and discipline Nana Olomu, the British needed local help which came from his
3
Itsekiri rivals, led by Dore Numa. Numa also helped the British in their campaign of
conquest against the powerful kingdom of Benin which eventuated in the Benin War of
1897. The new British rulers richly rewarded Numa by making him the paramount agent of
British colonial rule in the new Warri Province. 4
Dore Numa's reign (1897-1932) over the affairs of Warri Province effectively disrupted
any wholesale direct relationships between Urhobos and the other communities of Warri
Province, on the one hand, and the new British colonial rulers on the other. Urhobo agitation
for direct dealings with the British was largely unsuccessful while Dore was alive. Beneath
Dore there was the further irritation that Urhobo native courts had Itsekiri judges sitting side
by side with their Urhobo counterparts whose competence British colonial officers
mistrusted, thanks to Dore Numa's influence. Moreover, Warri Native Court of Appeal,
which served as an appeal court for matters handled by the native courts, was presided over
by Dore Numa and had an Itsekiri majority.
Dore Numa's death in 1932 provided some relief for Warri Province, but not for all
Urhobos. In the aftermath of Numa's death, the British reorganized native administration in
Warri Province. With Numa's paramountcy no longer looming over the province, local
government and native courts were now organized along the component ethnic lines. The
single exception to this rule was the constitution in 1932 of the "Jekri-Sobo" Native Authority
Division, which grouped Western Urhobo with the Itsekiri. While Eastern Urhobo, which
included Isoko, was thus free from extra-ethnic supervision, Western Urhobo was under the
5
forced tutelage of Itsekiri chieftains. There was another
development in Itsekiri affairs in the post-Numa era that threatened the Urhobo. The last king
of the Itsekiri had died in 1848 without any succession, owing to internal rivalries among the
Itsekiri. In the post-Numa period, the Itsekiri now wanted to revive their royalty, but with a
twist. They wanted his title to be changed from the Olu of Itsekiri to the Olu of Warri.
Urhobos were outraged at this suggestion. The British did revive the Itsekiri royalty,
3
“Dore” is the British corruption from Dogho, the name by which Dore Numa was known and called among the Itsekiri and
Urhobo.
4
Numa’s rise to prominence in Warri Province was helped by the circumstances of the accidental death in 1901 of Chief George
Eyube whom the had appointed as their Political Agent for Warri District. Numa was initially appointed as the Political Agent for
Benin River. Upon Eyube’s death, his area of jurisdiction was added to Numa’s.
5
I am impressed by the following rejoinder from Obaro Ikime. I reproduce it here because the point he is making is a noteworthy one
to which I had not given any great thought before now. I believe other Urhobos should share in its subtlety. Ikime comments on
my matter-of-fact style of grouping Urhobo and Isoko as the same ethnic people as follows: "It never ceases to strike me that for the
Urhobo, it was okay for the Isoko to be under them! What happened here was clearly "extra-ethnic supervision." as far as the Isoko
were concerned. . . . The Urhobos are quite happy to say that the Isoko are Urhobo. But I am yet to meet an Urhobo who says he is
Isoko!!! Why is this the case?. Only - completely and solely only - because we the Isoko were brought into the Urhobo Division by
the British, just as some Urhobo groups were brought into the Jekri-Sobo Division"
396
but left the title as the Olu of Itsekiri, although his ties to the hated "Jekri-Sobo" Native
Authority were a source of resentment from the Urhobos.
Social Challenges Facing Urhobos during

the Early Phases of Colonial Rule: 1894-1938
Modern Urhobo destiny was shaped from the events of the 1930s. Politically, Urhobos
suffered from handicaps imposed by the special relationships between the British and the
Itsekiri, especially their chieftain, Dore Numa, which had roots in four centuries of European
trade in the Western Niger Delta that Itsekiri chieftains so effectively controlled. But Urhobo
problems were far more than political. Urhobos were plagued by a number of social
problems in the first three decades of colonial rule.
First, unlike their significant neighbors, the Bini and the Itsekiri, the Urhobo had no
single king or chieftain who could speak on behalf of all Urhobo. While it is true that the
Igbo and Ibibio, the Urhobo's counterpart in eastern Nigeria, had the same problem, these
ethnic groups did not experience the severe political problems of the western Niger Delta
which required a common voice for articulating the political grievances of Urhobos in the
new colonial dispensation. It was clear that by the 1930s, Urhobos were craving for a leader
who could handle their affairs with the new colonial rulers who had continued to deal with
Urhobos through Itsekiri chieftains.
Second, there was a bittersweet phenomenon that opened up a fresh opportunity for
Urhobos, but also exposed them to new dangerous circumstances. The new colonial era
imposed heavy demands on skills that Urhobos had developed in previous centuries as a
result of the European Atlantic trade. In the centuries of the European Atlantic trade, Urhobos
had developed unique skills that were most useful for harvesting palm bunches, from which
precious tropical palm oil and palm kernels were extracted. It was an occupation which
required special techniques of climbing wild tall palm trees and of extracting oil and kernels.
These were tropical products that were in great demand in industrial Europe. In tropical
Africa, Urhobos became the most gifted in this occupation. By its nature, it was an
occupation that demanded large land areas which were not available in Urhoboland. Indeed,
Urhoboland -- like Igboland and Ibibioland -- suffered from relative high population densities
that have resulted in emigration.
The new colonial era opened up other territories in which Urhobos could use their
unique agricultural techniques. From the early 1900s, young Urhobo men began to emigrate
to neighboring Benin and to more distant Okitipupa, Ilesha, and Oshogbo in Yoruba country.
Colonies of Urhobos soon sprang up in these areas. But they lived in dangerous and
uncertain circumstances that often required intervention from organized groups. The
leadership that Urhobos craved in the new colonial order was therefore not limited to the
Urhobo heartland. In addition to this form of agriculture-based emigration, Urhobos were
already spreading to colonial townships in Lagos and Enugu in southern Nigeria and Jos and
other cities of Northern Nigeria. A good number traveled as far as the Gold Coast [modern
Ghana].
Urhobos faced a third set of problems in the first three decades of the 20 thcentury and
of the new colonial era. In the British colony of Southern Nigeria in which the Urhobo were
implicated, the business of the new colonial state was transacted in English and other
elements of Western education that enabled the British and colonized Nigerians to interact as
well as to transact commercial business. Much of the education that enabled the newly
colonized Nigerians to engage in these enterprises was imparted by Christian missions
which, by the year of Amalgamation between Southern Nigeria and Northern Nigeria in
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1914, had established either elementary schools, secondary schools, or teacher training
colleges in various areas of Yorubaland, Igboland, Benin, and Ibibioland.
Urhoboland conspicuously stood out as one region where there was an absence of
educational opportunities in the new British colony of Southern Nigeria. Missionaries came
late to Urhoboland. Indeed, Professor S.U. Erivwo's research shows us that there were no
schools of any kind in Urhoboland up until the year of Amalgamation in 1914. By the time
schools were established, the teachers who came to Urhoboland were usually either Igbo,
who headed Catholic schools, or Yoruba, who headed and taught in Anglican schools. This
handicap dragged on well into the 1930s. By the late 1930s, there were secondary schools or
teacher training institutes in the territory of virtually every other ethnic group in southern
Nigeria. There was none in Urhoboland until after World War II. Indeed, until the Urhobo
collectively built Urhobo College in the late 1940s, there was only Warri College, Warri,
6
which was established in 1945.
In view of these disadvantages, Urhobos judged themselves and were seen by other
ethnic groups as backward in the 1930s and 1940s. While there was little doubt that they
were hard workers, they were ridiculed by other ethnic groups that had gained more
prominence under the new colonial arrangements. The pains from these disadvantages were
obviously felt by homeland Urhobos who smarted from their inability to overcome the
paramountcy of the Itsekiri chieftains in their affairs. But the pains and sense of humiliation
felt by Urhobos in the Diaspora were far more engaging. Everywhere in the 1930s and 1940s,
Urhobos were determined to overcome their handicaps and the disabilities which the history
and geography of the Niger delta had thrust upon them. Men and women of the generation of
Urhobos of the 1930s and 1940s were pioneers in search of ways of overcoming their
disadvantages and of catching up with those other ethnic groups whose peoples were far
more advanced than Urhobos in the new ways of Western civilization that British colonialism
entailed in Nigeria.
Mukoro Mowoe and the Urhobo Response to

Challenges of the Colonial Era
The premier arena for organizing a response to these severe challenges was the tri-
ethnic seaport city of Warri. Warri was created from farmlands of the Agbarha-Ame people
with whom the British entered into a treaty in 1893. As the headquarters of a new division
of colonial Nigeria, Warri gave its name to one of the most important provinces of British
Southern Nigeria. It was a major commercial area because it was a seaport that was also
accessible to inland regions where Urhobos predominantly lived and worked. An
enterprising group of Urhobo merchants settled in Warri early in the colonial era in the
1910-20s.
It was from among the ranks of such merchants that the first batch of Urhobo
leadership emerged. Unlike prominent Itsekiri and Benin chieftains who tended to rise from
established aristocratic families, Urhobo leadership in this new era was liable to be of a
different kind. It arose from among those who had been individually successful in their own
chosen occupations and were then willing to lead. Leadership among Urhobos in the 1930s
entailed a lot of sacrifice and uncertainty because it was experimental and was without
precedent. While divisions of Urhobos (poorly called "clans" under colonial usage) had their
aristocratic traditional rulership, they had no common platform for organizing pan-
6
Warri College was a Warri Province’s governement secondary school, just as Edo College was developed for Benin Province. It
was later moved to Ughelli in the Urhobo heartland with the name Warri College, Ughelli. When the name of Warri Province was
changed to Delta province in 1952, the name of Warri College was changed to Government College, Ughelli.
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Urhobo affairs. In this respect, the Urhobo were very much like the Igbo and Ibibio but
unlike their immediate neighbors, Itsekiri and Benin. The new Urhobo leadership had to
satisfy the sentiments of Urhobos who, in the 1930s, craved a single voice that would match
the singularity which, say, Dore Numa's rulership in 1894-1932, had provided for the
Itsekiri. But it would also be a leadership that would organize Urhobo affairs in ways that
would overcome their severe social problems, both at home and in colonies of Urhobos in
various territories and communities in British West Africa. That meant that this new
leadership must organize the affairs of Urhobos with the singular aim of catching up with
other ethnic groups who were privileged under the new colonial era.
Urhobo merchants in Warri and the emerging cadre of junior civil servants bravely
tackled these problems. In 1931, they formed the Urhobo Brotherly Society which was
renamed Urhobo Progress Union in 1936. Obaro Ikime, Chief Mukoro Mowoe's biographer,
tells us that Mowoe's house was the venue of meetings for both the Urhobo Brotherly Society
and its successor organization, the Urhobo Progress Union. Initially, Omorohwovo Okoro, a
prominent Ovu trader, was the premier President of the Urhobo Brotherly Society. But it was
soon clear that the leadership of the new organization required a man of some financial and
educational means, in large part because its branches soon sprouted up among Urhobos who
were resident in townships and cities in other parts of Southern and Northern Nigeria.
Mukoro Mowoe easily emerged as the second President of the Urhobo Brotherly Society and,
subsequently, the President General of the Urhobo Progress Union.
Mukoro Mowoe was already a highly successful merchant, having risen from the very
bottom of the trading order to become an agent of Messrs. John Holt & Co. In the 1920s he
had become a prominent exporter of agricultural products which he purchased in Urhoboland
for shipment to England, and an importer of European goods. By 1926, he had visited
England for business purposes, a rare privilege for any trader in those days. His trading posts
were spread throughout Southern Nigeria, employing many young Urhobos as clerks in his
stores. He had a flourishing motor transport business. He was later to add to these enterprises
the role of contractor for the colonial govern ment in such areas as road construction,
construction of prisons, and supply of food for prisons. Obaro Ikime accepts Adogbeji
Salubi's calculation that Mukoro Mowoe was probably self-educated, since there were no
schools in Urhoboland, certainly in his native Evwreni, until 1914 when he would have been
twenty-four years old. But there was little doubt that Mowoe acquired a good amount of
education for his new leadership roles and his tasking business transactions.
By the 1930s, there was in a sense a political leadership void in Warri. The colossus of
Dore Numa had disappeared through death in 1932. With his huge success in business and
his emergence as an undisputed leader of the largest ethnic group in Warri Province, Mukoro
Mowoe easily became the most prominent Nigerian in Warri Province. At long last, and for
the first time, Urhobos now had someone who could deal directly on their behalf with the
new colonial rulers.
But it was a leadership that served the people. Urhobo Progress Union, which Mukoro
Mowoe led, was ultimately a service organization. Its name correctly conveyed its passion
and commitment of bringing progress to Urhobos and Urhoboland. However, its operations
were premised on strong persuasion that in view of the disadvantages that Urhobos suffered
in the new colonial arrangement, they could only achieve any progress by way of collective
efforts. As the leader of the Urhobo Progress Union, Mowoe played a triple role in this quest
for Urhobo progress. First, he had to ensure that Urhobos had a good share of the benefits of
colonial administration by maintaining healthy relations with British colonial officers.
Second, he cultivated good relations with Christian missions that were largely responsible for
establishing and running educational facilities in the new colonial order.
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Third, he had the responsibility of coordinating voluntary efforts by Urhobos at home and in
the Urhobo Diaspora, all of whom were engaged in a self-willed effort to uplift the collective
fortunes of Urhobos.
In the 1930s, Urhobos were frustrated with the British colonial government that
grouped Western Urhobo with the Itsekiri in the much-hated "Jekri-Sobo" Division. Mukoro
Mowoe and Urhobo Progress Union fought hard for separation and partially won it in 1934
when an Urhobo Division was established, with headquarters at Ughelli. Mowoe was a
member of the council of this new colonial division when it was initiated in 1934. This
success endeared the Urhobo Progress Union and its leadership to Urhobos. Their ability to
prevent the title of the renewed Itsekiri monarchy from being changed from Olu of Itsekiri to
Olu of Warri was also credited to Mowoe and the union he led. In the course of the 1930s and
1940s, Mowoe's influence with the British colonial officers grew tremendously. It culminated
in his selection as the member representing Warri Province in the Western House of
Assembly in 1946 under the Richards Constitution. He served in this esteemed position until
his death in 1948.
Mukoro Mowoe's campaigns for Urhobo progress included attempts to persuade
Christian missions to establish their branches in Urhoboland. As a prominent member of the
Anglican Church (called Church Missionary Society in its colonial version), Mowoe was
influential in the affairs of this Christian mission in the 1930s and 1940s. Ikime narrates
Mowoe's efforts to ensure that both the Church Missionary Society and the Roman Catholic
Mission maintained functioning schools in his own birthplace of Evwreni. But his efforts in
this regard were far more widespread. For instance, there is anecdotal evidence that Mowoe
and Urhobo Progress Union were involved in the negotiations that enabled a Catholic Parish
to be established in Okpara Inland in 1947 and a Baptist Hospital to be built at Eku in the late
1940s.
The greatest task of leadership that Mukoro Mowoe and Urhobo Progress Union
undertook was one of coordinating voluntary efforts by Urhobos. These were in the Urhobo
heartland and in the Urhobo Diaspora. The Second World War (1939-1945) interrupted
whatever developments were available from British colonial authorities in their African
territories. For instance, those areas that had government secondary schools before the war
(e.g. Edo College in Benin City, King's College in Lagos, or Government College, Ibadan)
had to maintain them on limited resources induced by war-time austerity. But those, like
Urhobo areas, which had not benefited from such development had to wait until after the war.
Urhobos were impatient and embarked on a huge amount of voluntary efforts. Most Urhobo
towns had their own versions of "progress unions." In Agbon, which currently constitutes
Ethiope West Local Government, there were Okpara Progress Union, Kokori Progress Union,
Eku Progress Union, etc. These associations usually held annual conventions that brought
together educated and well-to-do Urhobos who were "abroad," that is, away from the Urhobo
homeland, in meetings with their hometown folk. They contributed money to build town
halls, bridges, and to assist the efforts of Christian missions which required land and initial
capital for schools. They also paid levies which the Urhobo Progress Union imposed for the
sake of pursuing pan-Urhobo causes.
Urhobo Progress Union was actually a federation of several unions, called "branches,"
which were formed in numerous cities and towns in Southern and Northern Nigeria and all
over West Africa. In many instances, these branches served local security needs of Urhobos
-- including attending to the needs of newcomers, funeral arrangements for the deceased and
care of their dependents, and help with those who had problems with the troublesome police
and justice system of the colonial government. They were immensely popular among
Urhobos in the Diaspora, particularly those of them who lacked secure means of existence in
the Darwinian world of the new colonial era. But these branches were also the mainstay
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of Urhobo Progress Union. As its President-General, Mukoro Mowoe coordinated these

branches and ensured that they contributed their fair share to the collective efforts toward
Urhobo progress. A major aspect of his responsibility was visiting these various branches
which often accorded him royal reception. Thanks to his biographer, Obaro Ikime, we have
the rich text of an address that he delivered before one (possibly several) of these branches.
Mukoro Mowoe exhorted his audience as follows:
My belief is that every being born into the world has a duty to perform to his
people: either to the village he belongs or to the town or country as a whole....
Frankly speaking, any one of you who should fail to play his or her part for the
upliftment of our dear tribe, it were better that she or he had not been born.
[Professor Obaro Ikime's paraphrase: He reminded his listeners that not too
long before that meeting the British Governor had asked Nnamdi Azikiwe with
whom (Zik) would replace the white officials were the latter to leave there and
then. Zik proceeded to rattle off a number of qualified Nigerians who would
take over from the British. Mowoe continued] Out of these names is there any
Urhoboman among the names? If no, why? I say we have no privilege of
learning; otherwise I think if not more, we have the same equal brains. Are we
to leave our Nation to be under, always subject to all other nations in Nigeria? If
no, be up and doing. Now we have the opportunity – our clans, our councils are
ready and waiting for us; every one of Urhobo man should do his bit for the
upliftment of our Race. We want money to send our deserving children to
England for further studies and for the building of the Urhobo National
Secondary School. I am sure we shall win the race before us. I pray that God
may give you strength, long life to work hard and to complete the estimate
before us and our name shall be remembered for ever by our children (Ikime
1977: 102-3).
Mukoro Mowoe was a warrior for progress. The dual campaigns that he mentioned in
this address were the supreme achievements of Urhobo Progress Union. First, he was
campaigning for contributions that would enable U.P.U. to send two qualified Urhobos to
England for training in British universities. The painful background to that campaign is that
up to the mid-1940s, Urhobos had no single graduate, no lawyer, doctor, or anyone with
post-secondary school education – in sharp contrast to most other ethnic groups in Southern
Nigeria. Second, up till the end of the Second World War, there was not a single secondary
school or teacher training institute in Urhoboland – again in sharp contrast to the experiences
of other ethnic groups in Southern Nigeria in whose territories were established such
educational facilities which were owned and managed by either the colonial government or
Christian missions. Mukoro Mowoe was campaigning for contributions that would enable
Urhobos to establish their own secondary school, which would be run by the graduates whose
training is the collective efforts of all Urhobos to sponsor.
It is ironic that M.G. Ejaife’s arrival from Durham University coincided with the
sudden death of Mukoro Mowoe on August 10, 1948. He was the first of the two graduates
so collectively trained by all Urhobos under the auspices of Urhobo Progress Union, The
second Urhobo graduate, E.N. Igho, again trained by all Urhobos, arrived from Cambridge
University shortly thereafter. The two of them began the arduous task of upgrading Urhobo
Collegiate School, which Urhobo Progress Union had purchased, into Urhobo College at
Effurun.
These pioneering efforts are significant for their results, but also for another important
reason. Perhaps along with the Ibibio Union, Urhobo Progress Union was the first
401
organization of its kind in colonial Nigeria, probably in colonized Africa. Urhobo efforts to
sponsor their own young persons for undergraduate training and to have their own secondary
school were born out of a burning desire to catch up with other ethnic groups that had been
helped by either the colonial government or Christian missions. With the arrival of these two
graduates and the building of Urhobo College, Urhobos had finally joined the league for
competition for Western education. Developments thereafter were to become quite rapid.
Urhobo lawyers, most of whom were self-sponsored in England, returned home in the early
1950s. Most of these had been born in Okitipupa and in other regions of the Urhobo in
Diaspora. The founding of Urhobo College was rapidly followed by the transfer of
Government College at Warri, established after the War, to Ughelli in the Urhobo heartland
-- an eventuality that is fully credited by Urhobos to Chief Mukoro Mowoe's influence with
colonial officers. The Roman Catholic Mission also built St. Peter Claver's College at
Aghalope, again in Urhoboland, in 1950. Urhobo folk memory is long. A great deal of the
progress that was to follow was easily ascribed to Mukoro Mowoe's seminal efforts. It was
not in vain that folk references to him were in the order of salutations from aged women who
called him "our Dogho."
Comparing Dore Numa and Mukoro Mowoe
The politics of Warri Province in the new British colony of Nigeria in its first fifty
years, from 1897 to 1948, were dominated by two personalities whose names are seared into
Urhobo collective memory. In the 1940s-1950s, the names of Dore Numa and Mukoro
Mowoe were mentioned in folk songs and stories by ordinary people as legendary Nigerians
who wielded enormous power in the new colonial era. But their history and legacies were
totally different.
Dore Numa took over the reigns and authority of his family in 1891, assuming his
father's merchant and chieftain roles. He found his way into British favors, helping the
Europeans to oust his rival, Nana Olomu, and to defeat the Benin in the War of 1897. As his
reward, the British accorded Dore a paramount position in the administration of the entire
Warri Province when it was created at the onset of British colonization of Southern Nigeria.
His dominance over the affairs of all the ethnic groups and divisions of Warri Province -
Urhobo and Isoko, western Ijo, Kwuale, and his native Itsekiri - was extensive. He presided
over the "native" judicial and administrative affairs of Warri Province. His power was clearly
irksome to Urhobos.
Dore Numa stood above all other Nigerians in Warri Province while he exercised his
power. Having exploited his friendship with the British to crush his rivals in Itsekiri politics,
he chose to reign supreme. He did not encourage or allow others to rise to his status. Dore
Numa received tributes from many chieftains in Warri Province. The esteemed historian
Obaro Ikime has made the judgement that "The age of Dore Numa was one in which
Itsekiri-Urhobo relations deteriorated considerably." (Ikime 1977: 74) But ordinary Itsekiri
did not benefit materially from his rule and authority, although many of them enjoyed a sense
of vicarious satisfaction from his supremacy over all other ethnic groups in Warri Province.
By the time he died in 1932, he was as much of a problem to his native Itsekiri as he was to
Urhobos. For instance, while he was alive the Itsekiri could not restore their monarchy.
Urhobos' direct relationships with the British colonial authorities were muted while Dore
Numa ruled the affairs of Warri Province.
Dore's death in 1932 was a relief to the whole Province, including the British colonial
administrators. It was after his death that the British undertook the reorganization of the
affairs of Warri Province. His death allowed the Itsekiri to ask for the restoration of their
monarchy. It is significant that the Urhobo Brotherly Society and the Urhobo Progress
402
Union were established in the early 1930s. It is remarkable that Dore Numa has not left
behind him any legacies, either among his native Itsekiri or any other ethnic groups in Warri
Province. There is very little sense of endearment for his memories among his own Itsekiri
people.
Mukoro Mowoe, already a wealthy merchant, rose rapidly in the 1930s and eventually
attained the same height as Dore Numa in the affairs of Warri Province, but with a different
profile and consequences. Mukoro Mowoe did not inherit wealth and status from his family
circumstances as Dore Numa. He attained recognition by dint of hard work, taking advantage
of opportunities which he squeezed from the new colonial circumstances. Having attained
eminence in the eyes of his fellow Urhobos, he then decided to serve his people by leading
them to exploit the virtues of hard work for which they had been prepared by their own
circumstances of previous centuries. His crusade was to push up Urhobo fortunes to the same
heights as more privileged ethnic groups in the new colonial era. Mukoro Mowoe used his
considerable private wealth to help disadvantaged Urhobos. But his leadership forte was in
urging Urhobos to embark on the new colonial opportunities which Western education
endowed upon its recipients. He chided parents who refused to send their children to school.
Consider this bit of information about Mowoe's view of education. He wrote to a pioneering
teacher who complained to Mowoe that attendance in the elementary school that he had just
opened in Mowoe's hometown of Evwreni was poor. Replied Mowoe: "When I visit home I
will make it compulsory that all members [of the C.M.S. Church] shall send their sons and
daughters to the school. Those who fail to comply with the instruction would be punished
accordingly." ( See Ikime 1977:54.) He used his authority to fight for the upliftment of a
future generation by way of Western education. Ultimately, his historical value to Urhobos is
that he led the Urhobo Progress Union in this crusade for erasing the backwardness of
Urhobos in the ways of Western education.
There is another area where Mowoe's legacy towers over Dore's. In the last years of his
life, Mowoe had become the dominant Nigerian in the politics of Warri Province. As the sole
"Member" from Warri Province in the Western House of Assembly, Mowoe fought hard for
all component ethnic groups of the Province. He was not a man who relied on taking tributes
from those he sought to help. He was a modern parliamentarian who sought the welfare of his
constituents, a point that Ikime has made several times. But he also sought to enhance
inter-ethnic relations of his time. It is noteworthy that one of the last public services that he
performed was his travel to an Ijo town in an attempt to settle a festering dispute between Ijos
and Urhobos. He was not bent on any revenge on the Itsekiri in return for the misdeeds of
Dore Numa. By the time of his death on August 10, 1948, the whole Province genuinely
mourned his untimely death. Remarkably, British colonial officers also mourned his loss. In a
tribute to him, the acting Resident of Warri Province said:
It is not too much to say that Chief Mukoro Mowoe gave his life to the service
of the people of this province and that over-work in their interests was one of
the causes of his untimely death. All will agree with me that his place in public
life will, indeed, be very hard to fill. I feel that I have lost not only a wise and
trustworthy fellow-worker and adviser but an old and trusted friend. (Cited in
Ikime 1977:177).
The Cost of Mukoro Mowoe's Death in Urhobo History
Mowoe's death was a blow to Urhobos in 1948. This is in large part because they were
unprepared for it. At long last, they had a leader who counted in the new scheme of
403
colonial public affairs. In many ways, they felt lost after his death in 1948 because there was
no one of his stature to replace him.
Mowoe died at the wrong time. Two days before his death he had been visited by a
cohort of British colonial officers. Among them was John MacPherson, who was to become
the Governor-General of Nigeria in a few short years later. It was he who ushered into
Nigerian history the constitutional reforms that led to party formation and indirect elections
in 1951-52. The party that became dominant in Western Nigeria was the Action Group.
There are stories among Urhobos that the leader of the Action Group, Obafemi Awolowo,
had been in touch with Mukoro Mowoe before his death. But the Action Group's first public
act in assuming power was an assault on Urhobos. The new Action Group Government
changed the title of the Itsekiri king from Olu of Itsekiri to Olu of “Warri,” suggesting his
suzerainty over the entire Warri Province. Mukoro Mowoe and the Urhobo Progress Union
had blocked this attempt in the 1930s. Now leaderless, Urhobos were out-maneuvered.
Urhobo reaction was explosive. Their pent-up frustration and anger was now trained on
Itsekiri living in Urhobo towns on the River Ethiope and other waterways. They expelled
these Itsekiri from their towns. Urhobos also resorted to a tactic that they had employed in the
19th century: trade-boycott. They refused to sell food to the Itsekiri who relied almost solely
on Urhobo agricultural products. The Action Group Government sought to resolve this
problem by changing the name of the province, from Warri Province to Delta Province. But
the damage was already done. Once again Urhobo-Itsekiri relations had suffered from the
actions of Itsekiri aristocracy who had used their influence with Chief Obafemi Awolowo and
the Action Group party that he led to confer a benefit that purported to enhance the prestige of
the Itsekiri king. The Urhobo reaction was also political. Despite the large number of
Urhobos who lived in Yoruba lands, Urhobos became unalterably opposed to the Action
Group party. Urhoboland was the only area of Western Nigeria in which the Action Group
failed to win any seats in all the years of party politics in Nigeria (1952- 1966). But Urhobos
took heavy punishment from a vindictive Action Group. Urhobos stubbornly stuck with the
National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (N.C.N.C.) led by Nnamdi Azikiwe who was
Mukoro Mowoe's personal friend. The Action Group hit Urhobos where it hurt the most:
young Urhobo men and women were palpably discriminated against in the award of
post-secondary scholarships. However, Urhobos benefited enormously by readily exploiting
the advantages of free universal primary education that the Action Group government of
Western Nigeria provided.
More remarkably, the 1950s-1960s became a period of private efforts in the sphere of
education in Urhobo history. Urhobo College opened its gates to young men, rarely turning
away anyone on account of inability to pay fees. Through the dint of dogged individualism,
Urhobo families sacrificed a great deal in training their young men and women. Hundreds of
Urhobos entered into universities, in the United Kingdom and inside Nigeria. It was a
campaign of individual efforts that were linked to a collective definition of Urhobo destiny.
By the mid-1960s, there were clear signs that Urhobos were on the threshold of achieving
parity with other ethnic groups. The creation of the Mid-West Region in 1963 emboldened
Urhobo efforts. But this political achievement for which the Urhobo had laboured hard was
also accompanied by a troubling development. The separation between Isoko and Urhobo,
who had jointly built up Urhobo Progress Union, was a leadership failure whose
significance is profound. It occurred at a time when Igbo and Yoruba ethnicities were
rapidly expanding. Would it have happened if Mukoro Mowoe were still alive? It is difficult
to say. But it is fair to note that Mowoe had close ties with the Isoko. His best personal
friend was said to be Chief Akiri, an Isoko man. It is not unusual for the Urhobo elite to
claim that any such modern failures would have been prevented by Mukoro Mowoe's
leadership.
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Commemorating Mukoro Mowoe
In a real sense, Urhobos have mourned Mukoro Mowoe's death (on August 10, 1948)
for fifty years. It is as if they would not let go of Mowoe's memories. In periods of difficulty,
Urhobos easily resort to invidious comparisons between the fullness of Mowoe's leadership
and the perceived failures of modern Urhobo leaders. The mystique of Mowoe's leadership
has grown more complex with age. His legendary accomplishments are honored in epic
terms, even among a generation born after his death.
The irony of Mowoe's undying memorialization is that a great deal of what he planned
and dreamt about have been more than achieved by several generations of Urhobos who
grew up after his untimely death. This is particularly the case with educational development
which was his mantra. Despite Urhobos' late start in the race for Western education, they
have caught up with most ethnic groups in Nigeria. For instance, Urhobos range only behind
the well-endowed Yoruba and Igbo ethnic groups in the number of university professors in
the country, despite the fact that the first two Urhobo/Isoko professors (Obaro Ikime and
Frank Ukoli) attained their professorial status only in 1973. Urhobos have also done very
well in the professions as well as in industry and commerce.
Why then are Urhobos still craving for a surrogate Mowoe-type leadership? This is
because modern Urhobos have no comparable records of collective projects, such as those
that produced Urhobo College and our first two graduates. Mukoro Mowoe and his compeers
divined collective challenges facing Urhobos and then planned common strategies for solving
them. The shortcomings of modern Urhobo leadership flow from failures to wrestle down
new challenges that confront the common destiny of all Urhobos. What new collective
challenges do Urhobos now face?
There are huge new problems facing Urhobos that cry for collective solution. They are
urgent because of the acute crisis of governance in Nigeria. We live in an era in which
community efforts have once again become mandatory for groups that wish to overcome the
handicaps imposed by circumstances of poor governance. Foremost among the new dangers
we face is the ecological degradation of the waterways and fauna of Urhoboland. The
reckless exploitation of the oil resources in the Niger Delta by the federal Government of
Nigeria has ruined our lands and threatens to cause permanent damage to our region of
Nigeria. Restoration of our lands and waterways will require full and single-minded
leadership. Such efforts may well be regional since the belt of devastation stretches from the
Cross-River Estuary and the Eastern-Niger Delta to Urhoboland in the Western Niger Delta.
Can Urhobos be mobilized to embark on such an enterprise? The post-Mowoe era requires
such new challenges.
There may be one piece of emotional challenge that Urhobos can respond to with some
success. Over twenty years ago, Professor Obaro Ikime regretted the fact that Mukoro
Mowoe had not been honored with a befitting memorial:
It is over a quarter century since the great Mukoro Mowoe passed away. In that
period Urhoboland has not produced another [leader of the stature of] Mukoro
Mowoe. . . . It is, therefore, something of a pity that there is not a single
memorial to him anywhere in Urhoboland. (Ikime 1977: 180)
It is more than a pity. It is a shame that Urhobos who have held up Mukoro Mowoe in
such high esteem have been unable to honor him in a significant way. This is a challenge that
we can respond to in various ways. Will the renaming of Delta State University at Abraka as
Mukoro Mowoe University be an adequate piece of memorialization? How about
405
a scholarship fund for young Urhobo men and women who have difficulties attaining the
best education available in our modern age? Or we may decide to build a Mukoro Mowoe
Warri International Airport in honor of a man who was a pioneer in introducing modern
transportation of his times to Southern Nigeria. Chief Mukoro Mowoe would deserve these
honors and much more from us who cherish his memories.
References
Ekeh, Peter P. (1996) "Political Minorities and Historically-Dominant Minorities in Nigerian History and
Politics." Pp. 33-63 in Oyeleye Oyediran, ed., Governance and Development in Nigeria. Essays in
Honour of Professor Billy J. Dudley. Ibadan: Agbo Areo Publishers.
Erivwo, Samuel U. 1991. Traditional religion and Christianity in Nigeria : the Urhobo people . Ekpoma :
Department of Religious Studies & Philosophy.
Ikime, Obaro. 1968. Merchant Prince of the Niger Delta: the Rise & Fall of Nana Olomu, Last Governor
of the Benin River. London, Ibadan: Heinemann Educational.
Ikime, Obaro. 1969. Niger Delta Rivalry; Itsekiri-Urhobo Relations and the European Presence 1884-
1936. London: Longman.
Ikime, Obaro. 1977. The Member for Warri Province. The Life and Times of Chief Mukoro Mowoe of
Warri 1890-1948. Ibadan: Institute of African Studies.
406
URHOBO AND ITS ETHNIC NEIGHBOURS
Chapter 20
Ethnicity and the Structure of Inequality in

1
Warri Town in the Mid-1950s
P. C. Lloyd
University of Sussex, United Kingdom
As is well known the cities of the poorer nations have grown rapidly in the last few
decades; they are populated overwhelmingly by recent migrants from the rural areas. In
Africa, those who now hold the top positions in the modern sector have come, in large
measure, from humble homes, their parents being illiterates, near subsistence farmers. Even
those who came from the families of the traditional local and rural elite have experienced
cultural change in gaining western education and entering a completely new range of
occupations. In this process the achieved quality of education is usually stressed, a prescribed
level of schooling being demanded for most posts in the public service (which itself accounts,
often, for one-half of the nation’s employees). Less stressed in the literature, but I feel
equally, if not more, significant, is the importance of patronage, both in providing the
opportunities for education (in paying fees, etc.) and in subsequently getting jobs. A strong
reliance upon patronage as a means of social advancement strengthens the solidarity of those
groups defined in terms of primordial qualities as the expense of other groups.
This is so because, in the African context, the patron is most likely to be a member of
one’s own ethnic group. Just as in the rural area a man turns for help first to the members of
his own descent group or small village, so when he comes to the town does he seek the
support of those related closely to him by ties of kinship or locality. In fact, these are likely to
be the only people he knows in the town. (Another type of bond to be exploited is that
created by the secondary school – but this affects only the better educated migrant.) The
debts and obligations contracted during first few months in the town, as the members of the
ethnic group first of all accommodating the new migrant and finding him a job, create a
relationship which the migrant subsequently finds difficult to break. Indeed, the poorer
migrant often finds his entire social life encapsulated within that of members of his ethnic
group. It is only subsequent to his arrival in the town that he may join other associations
which bring him into a close relationship with members of other ethnic groups. Again, in the
context of the African town, an appeal to a patron made in terms of ethnic loyalty is likely to
have the most favourable result; such an appeal is unambiguous and least constrained by
other sectional interests. Conversely, the would-be patron seeking followers, perhaps a
politician hoping for votes, is strongly drawn towards an appeal to ethnic loyalties.
The various ethnic groups in a town can be ranked hierarchically and they may be
vying with each other for advancement. But equally, the situation may exist in which two
1
Originally published as P. C. Lloyd, “Ethnicity and the Structure of Inequality in a Nigerian Town in the Mid-1950s.” Pp.223-250
in Abner Cohen, editor, Urban Ethnicity, London: Tavistock Publications, 1974.
The fieldwork on which much of this paper is based was carried out in 1955-56 when I lived in Warri and spent most of my time
engaged on an ethnographic survey of the Itsekiri. I was able to revisit Warri for brief period in 1958 but have not, since that time,
had another opportunity to go there. A part of the substance of this paper was given at the WAISER Fifth Annual Conference,
Ibadan, 1956.
ethnic groups are locked in conflict, with others looking on as bystanders. The issue here is
the rules by which power and rewards should be allocated.
Map of Warri in 1955
This situation is exemplified by Warri, a town in southern Nigeria where I lived and
carried out fieldwork in 1955-56. At that time it did not occur to me to make a systematic
study of personal networks, though looking back through my notes I find much relevant
information. I was able to collect data illustrating the power and wealth of members of
different ethnic groups and can correlate this with the perceived ranking of these groups. For
most of the period of Warri’s existence the members of the different ethnic groups had lived
together in harmony. The major incidents of disharmony centred upon the claims of two
ethnic groups for superiority in the town. This superiority was seen at one level in terms of
prestige – each group wished to see the town as its capital. At another level each wished to
control the town – control being seen to involve the allocation of scarce resources. (Thus, to
give one example: Most of Warri’s trade is conducted in the town’s municipally-run market,
with – in the mid1950s – its 1,800 stalls, as against 60 shops. When ten new stalls were built
there were a thousand applications. It was generally believed that the members of the town
council would allocate the stalls to their friends, i.e. to members of their own ethnic groups.)
The struggle for supremacy resulted, as I shall outline in a later section of this paper, in a
long series of land cases in the courts, in rioting and looting, and in the near-disruption of the
parliamentary electoral system.
Warri Town
Warri lies about thirty miles from the sea on the landward margins of the mangrove
swamps of the Niger Delta (Lloyd 1957). Incorporated within the present limits of the town
are Okere, an Itsekiri settlement, and Agbassa, an Urhobo settlement. Ijoh fishermen
probably had had camps along the shore of the creek. The modern town dates from the end of
the nineteenth century when European firms acquired land on the shore for factories – Bey
and Zimmer in 1885, Elder Dempster in 1890 and the African Association in 1898. The
British colonial administration established a vice-consulate there in 1891, as a base from
which to open up the hinterland. (A similar station was established at Sapele, thirty miles to
410
Ethnicity and the Structure of Inequality in Warri Town….
the north.) The colonial government later acquired a large area of land – at Ogbe Ijoh, in
1906 (this becoming the reservation for government officials and for clerks’ quarters) and at
Alders Town in1908, Alder being a government interpreter who had settled in the area. Land
here was leased to individuals for private development; Old Alders Town developed mainly
in the 1920s, New Alders Town in the 1930s. In 1911, the government acquired Agbassa and
its environs, and thus held most of the unused land within the town’s boundaries.
Politically, Warri became the headquarters first of the Central Province in 1906 – one
of the three provinces into which the Protectorate was divided – and then of Warri Province.
Commercially, it developed too. For John Holt Ltd., it was the terminal port for their Niger
River fleet where cargoes were transferred to ocean-going vessels and vice versa. The United
African Company’s port of trans-shipment was at Burutu but they maintained a large office
complex at Warri. The town served as a market centre for a large hinterland, though still
rivalled by Sapele, now dominated by its huge plywood factory. (In the late 1950s, Warri’s
importance as a commercial centre seemed to be in decline; but the expansion of the oil fields
in its hinterland consequent upon the civil war has made it, once again, a boom town.)
Warri was still a small town in 1921 with a population of only 2,300; by 1931 it had
gown to 11,000 and by 1952 to 22,500 – within the 1955 township boundary. (The 1963
population was 55,000.) The 1952 population was distributed ethnically as follows: Urhobo
38 per cent, Ibo 28 per cent, Itsekiri 15 per cent, with the remaining 19 per cent
predominantly Yoruba and Benin. Historically the Itsekiri were predominant among the
earliest settlers together with clerks employed by government and the firms who came from
Lagos, the Gold Coast, etc. The immigration of Ibo is the more recent. As figures given
below in Table I show, members of the three major ethnic groups are distributed throughout
the town. Old Agbassa is still predominantly Urhobo, but in Okere the Itsekiri are now in the
majority. The lower rents obtaining in the poorer quality houses here have attracted many of
the least-skilled Ibo and Urhobo migrants. Furthermore, in many of the large tenement
houses, members of several ethnic groups not only co-reside but share common cooking and
washing facilities.
Table 1: Residence of self-employed persons (Percentages)
Area Itsekiri Urhobo Ibo Other Total n=

Ijoh
Ogbe 12 40 3022100
169
Old Aders Town 11 26 53 11 100 428
New Aders Town 14 56 22 8 100 429
Old Agbassa 7 53 25 15 100 530
New Agbassa 6 45 37 14 100 271
Okere 279 27
100
332
36
Odion 124 71
100
534
14
Total 12 48 29112,693
100
Note: The quantitative data presented here is derived from the tax rolls of the Warri Urban
District Council. These rolls separated employees from self-employed persons. The names
of employees were submitted by their employers and listed as such. The income cited is that
paid by the employer during the previous tax year; it may refer to an incomplete year of work
and takes no account of other earnings. Incomes ascribed to self-employed persons are too
unreliable to use; such persons are listed under the place of residence and there is of course a
probability of substantial tax evasion among certain categories of persons. The
411
ethnic origin of each tax payer was not given in the rolls; it was established by me with the
help of several clerks employed by the Council, on the basis of the name of the individual (a
fairly sure guide) together with personal knowledge. I estimated that this method gave at least
a 95 per cent accuracy.
Historical Background
Before continuing this description of Warri town, I must outline the background of
historical relationships between the major ethnic groups. (Ikime 1969; Lloyd 1957, 1963;
Moore 1970.)
The Itsekiri, numbering 33,000 in the 1952 census, traditionally lived on the islands of
dry land within the mangrove swamps, on the landward edge of the swamps and along the
ocean shore; they practised some agriculture, but were also engaged in fishing and salt
making. They speak a dialect of the Yoruba language. To the south of them live the Ijoh in a
similar environment. To the east of the Itsekiri live the Urhobo (1952 census: 340,000 in
Warri province, and nearly 100,000 elsewhere in Nigeria), settled agriculturalists and
speakers of an Edo dialect. Even further to the east – their nearest village being 30 miles from
Warri – are the Ibo-speaking people. These four languages are as different from each other
as, say, English is from Russian; these linguistic differences are paralleled by equivalent
cultural differences. Between the Itsekiri and their nearest Urhobo neighbours there existed a
symbiotic relationship as the former traded fish and salt for foodstuffs in the border villages.
Originally, the Itsekiri seem to have lived in autonomous villages headed by a chief,
often selected for his supernatural powers – apparent possession by a spirit indicating a
candidate for the vacant office. But in the fifteenth century a Benin prince founded a
kingdom and eventually established his capital at Iwere, also known as Ode Itsekiri, or Big
Warri – a village sited on an island in the swamp about four miles from the present town of
Warri. Whilst the rulers of Benin soon rejected the proselytising efforts of the Portuguese, the
Itsekiri rulers – perhaps to assert their independence of Benin – welcomed them. Christianity
became, as it were, a royal cult. Until the beginning of the nineteenth century Catholic
missionaries resided intermittently in the capital (the death rate was high) and one Itsekiri
king was educated in Europe, took a white wife of noble birth, and was succeeded,
apparently, by his mulatto son. During this period slaves were exported from Iwere – these
slaves were probably most Urhobo who had been expelled from their own village
communities; the Itsekiri did not make war on their neighbours. The relationship with the
Portuguese at this early period is still very important to the Itsekiri; ‘Portuguese’ origins are
ascribed to heirlooms, loan words are carefully preserved (Ryder 1960).
The Urhobo remained culturally unaffected by this contact with Europe. They lived in
village communities based largely on descent and amalgamated into larger units now known
as clans (Bradbury 1957). The largest of these is of equivalent population with the Itsekiri
(1952 census); others number only a little over a thousand persons. Village government
rested with councils of chiefs in title associations; but although some titleholders had their
appointments ratified in Benin, kingship in the usual sense of the word did not exist.
The social and political structures of the Ibo resembled, in its level of development,
that of the Urhobo. That of the Ijoh who lived close to the Itsekiri was equivalent to Itsekiri
organisation before the advent of the kingdom.
The trade in slaves began to decline at the end of the eighteenth century and European
ships no longer sailed to Iwere or to Ughoton, the port lying 14 miles from Benin; instead
they anchored outside the bar of the Benin River. Enterprising Itsekiri moved to the lower
412
reaches of the river and created a much more elaborate middleman role, for they had to bring
their cargoes of slaves, and later of palm oil, from the markets of the Urhobo hinterland to
the sea coast. English firms later established their ‘factories’ in the same area. The leading
Itsekiri traders established powerful ‘houses’ consisting of their kin, followers, and slaves.
In 1848 the Itsekiri king died and there followed an interregnum lasting for nearly 90
years during which the traditional political system largely disappeared. Power was wielded
by the leaders of the trading houses, one of whom was recognised by the British consular
officials as ‘Governor of the River’. During the second half of the century one of these
traders, Nana Olomu, established a near monopoly of the trade in the river and its hinterland.
By the 1890s, he was opposed variously by those sections of the Itsekiri who suffered from
exclusion from the trade – these were led by Dore (or Dogho) Numa, a prominent member of
both the royal and the senior commoner ‘Houses’; by those of the English traders who sought
independent access to the interior markets; and by consular officials anxious to extend British
dominion. A series of events of a type common in colonial history culminated in a little
military action in 1894 in which Nana was defeated; he was later exiled.
Dore Numa was made ‘Political Agent’ and greatly assisted the British in their efforts
to ‘open up’ the interior. Subsequently he was made Paramount Chief of the Itsekiri, an
office which he held until his death in 1932. Throughout the first half of this [twentieth]
century British administrative officials appeared to show a strong preference for the
‘civilised’ Itsekiri over the ‘bush’ Urhobo. Itsekiri dominance over the Urhobo was rarely
oppressive but a large number of incidents and situations appeared to demonstrate Urhobo
inferiority. Thus Warri, seen as an Itsekiri town, was the administrative capital of the whole
area. The country of the Itsekiri together with that of neighbouring Urhobo clans was
constituted into a Jekri-Sobo Division in which Itsekiri interests seemed to be paramount;
although the Urhobo gradually gained independent native authority councils and treasuries, it
took a long period of agitation to effect the administrative changes which put the Itsekiri in
one Division and almost all the Urhobo in another.
During the nineteenth century no Christian missions established posts among the
Itsekiri; a few chiefs sent sons to school in Bonny but education was very limited and most
men learned their ‘pidgin’ in dealing with the English traders. Schools were opened in Warri
and Sapele in 1902-3 and most of the early pupils were Itsekiri. Missions and schools did not
penetrate Urhobo country until the 1920s and it was not until the mid-1930s that Itsekiri and
Urhobo students were equal in number in the Government primary school in Warri. As a
result the Itsekiri held most of the clerical posts in this early period. Thus, of seventeen
native court clerks serving in 1922 in this area, seven were Itsekiri and only one was an
Urhobo.
This dominant role of the Itsekiri was increasingly contested by the Urhobo from the
1930s onwards as political consciousness and education developed among them and, as the
following paragraphs will demonstrate, their role in Warri itself belied the inferiority still
ascribed to them by the Itsekiri.
Itsekiri were wont to say, ‘The whiteman is god to the Itsekiri, the Itsekiri is god to the
Sobo’ (a derogatory name for the Urhobo). The Itsekiri remain inordinately proud of their
long connections with the European, This is seen by their detractors as sheer arrogance and
the Itsekiri is portrayed as a man who holds the train of his wrapper in one hand and his cane
in the other – he is thus incapable of manual work and is lazy too. The Itsekiri see the Urhobo
as hardworking but as ‘bush’, commenting upon the scanty nature of their traditional dress,
and ‘dirty’ habits. Itsekiri women are acknowledged by all to be tall, beautiful, and clean;
nevertheless Itsekiri men admit that Urhobo women make steadier
413
wives. Both the Itsekiri and the Urhobo see the Ibo as ranking beneath them; ‘they are fond
of money’ (as target workers?) and will do the meanest tasks; most truck pushers in Warri
are Ibo and they live in the cheapest and most cramped lodgings; they default in their civil
obligations – several migrants will, it is said, share one tax receipt.
I now contrast these popular images with the actual situation in Warri.
Occupations
In 1955 a little over 5,000 men were, as taxpayers, recorded in employment. Nearly
one-half of these were employees in the public services or with the largely expatriate
commercial firms; the remainder were self-employed as traders, craftsmen or casual
labourers, with of course a few pensioners, professionals, etc.
Over one-half of the employees worked for six large companies – in descending order
of size – Holt’s Transport, the Public Works Department, United Africa Company, the
Nigeria Police, the Warri Township Authority and Elder Dempster Lines. Each of these
employed over 100 men. Eight other organisations employing between 50 and 100 men
accounted for a further quarter; the distribution of these employees by type of work – clerical
or manual – and by major ethnic group is shown below. Perhaps the most striking fact to
emerge is the evenness of the distribution. A few divergences are lost in summarising the
data. Thus Ibo predominate in the Police Force and prison services (45 per cent); and also in
the Posts and Telegraphs Department and as crew on the river fleets; conversely few Ibo were
employed by the Warri Township Authority. The Itsekiri are rather better represented in
government offices (18 per cent) than elsewhere, but, despite their advantages of education in
the early years of this century they do not have a high proportion of teachers. As one would
expect, the Ibo are more heavily represented in manual work, the
‘other’ ethnic groups in clerical occupations (see Table 2).
Table 2: Occupation of Employees (Percentages)
(a) Itsekiri Urhobo Ibo Other Total n=

Public Service:
clerical 10 31 33
27100
579
manual 10 36 31
23100
834 Firms:
clerical11 37 28
22100
356 man ual
9 29 42 19 100 778
Total 10 33 35
232,547
100
(b) Itsekiri Urhobo Ibo Other n=

Public Service:
clerical 22 21 21
27 23
manual 33 36 2933 32 Firms:
clerical16 16 12
14 14
manual
28 27 3826 31
Total 100 100 100100 100
n= 251 841 879 576 2,547
Again, if one looks at the incomes earned by these men one sees that the Itsekiri have a
high proportion of men in the highest bracket – but only relative to their proportion of the
total population; they still have but one-seventh of such income earners and but half that of
414
the Urhobo. The Ibo are under-represented at the top. The Itsekiri are well represented in
the lowest levels of income (Table 3).
Table 3: Income of Employees (Percentages)
(a)
Income Group Itsekiri Urhobo IboOther Total=n
Over £300 p.a. 14 27 23 37 100 81
£150-£300
p.a.
10 29 30
33100
362
£70-£150 p.a. 9 29 39 23 100 917
below £70 p.a. 10 39 34 18 100 1,187
Total 10 33 34
232,547
100
(b)
Income Group Itsekiri Urhobo IboOther=n
Over £300 p.a. 4 3 2 5 3 £150-£300 p.a.
14 12 12 21 14 £70-£150 p.a. 34 3140 37
36 below £70 p.a. 48 54 45 37 47 Total
100 100 100

100 100
n= 251 841 879 576 2,547
When we turn to the distribution of the self-employed persons, a similar picture

emerges. More of the Urhobo are traders; Ibo tend to be craftsmen. The table below shows
that certain ethnic groups tend to specialise in particular crafts. The Ibo predominate as truck
pushers – a lowly occupation, but each ethnic group is well represented; the proportion of
Itsekiri jobbers is especially high. Traders and businessmen are among the town’s wealthiest
and most prestigious citizens. But there were in Warri five times as many Urhobo as Itsekiri
in the category of wealthy traders and twice as many Urhobo engaged in other, but equally
rewarding, businesses. Many of the prosperous Itsekiri were landlords, though it was often
said that they were selling their property in order to maintain their accustomed style of life.
Very few Ibo were as wealthy as this. Of the ten lawyers residing in the town in 1955, three
were Itsekiri, one was Ibo and one a Sierra Leonean and the
remainder Urhobo. The town’s sole private medical doctor was an Urhobo (Table 4 and 5).
These figures, taken together, completely dispel the image of Itsekiri superiority. Urhobo
and Ibo have obviously taken, by the mid-1950s, the opportunities provided by the economic
development of the town. The Itsekiri, it is true, do have a slightly higher proportion of highly
paid employees (18 per cent earning over £150, compared with 15 per cent Urhobo and Ibo);
yet this is completely cancelled out by their numerical inferiority in the town, only 14 per
cent of all the highest paid employees being Itsekiri – considerably less than either Urhobo or
Ibo. The Urhobo have surpassed the Itsekiri as traders, perhaps because in both the town and
its hinterland, Urhobo exceed Itsekiri in number. The Itsekiri have not become craftsmen,
disdaining manual trades; they become instead casual labourers.
415
Table 4: Occupation of Self-employed Persons (Percentages)
Other Ibo
Urhobo
(a) Itsekiri
Total n = 6 ftsmen Cra
s ader
36
66040 Tr
18 100 106 62
100
827
22
Others
(Professionals,
retired, etc.) 14 45 24 17 100 257
Truckpushers 7 12 77 5 100 60
Jobbers
(casual labourers) 18 46 27 9 100 889
Total 12 48 29
112,693
100
= n Other Ibo
Urhobo
(b) Itsekiri Crafts
13 18 32 40 25
Traders 26 40 2316 31
Others 11 915810 Truckpushers 1 1 16 2 Jobbers
49 32 30
27 33
Total 100 100 100
100 100
n= 323 1,290 798 282 2,693
Table 5: Craftsmen (Numbers)
Craft Itsekiri Urhobo Ibo Other Total

Sawyers 4 43 53 55
Carpenters
16323105
269
Builders 11 33 34
19 97
Blacksmiths
and Tinkers 1 6 20 1 28
Bicycle
repairers
11 11 287 47
Tailors 11 85 28
31155
Goldsmiths 6 31 24
27 88
Washermen 0 4 212 27
Total 43 239 265
113 660
Property Owning
The Itsekiri and Urhobo have leased plots of crown land and built houses in Warri for
their own permanent residence and for letting. The same has happened in Sapele. Neither of
the two ethnic groups has, within its territory, another town which it might look upon as its
commercial and administrative capital, though Ughelli, the Urhobo Divisional headquarters,
is now rapidly growing. The Itsekiri have always looked upon Warri as their capital. They
have on occasions suggested that property owning should be a qualification for a local
government vote. But as the table below shows, whilst the Itsekiri still do own a majority of
the houses, their value is exceeded by that of the Urhobo. Furthermore, while Itsekiri men do
own 5 of the 8 biggest houses in the town the Urhobo own 23 in the next lower category
against 12 owned by Itsekiri. Again, the Itsekiri are clearly losing ground to the Urhobo.
Itsekiri ownership predominates in Old Alders Town – the first part of Warri to be developed
for private residence, but the Urhobo predominate in the newest areas – and
416
especially in New Agbassa. The dominance of the Urhobo in Ogbe Ijoh, an area of early
settlement, is probably because new commercial premises have been built by the Urhobo,
perhaps replacing earlier buildings. The Ibo, though so numerous in the town, have not built
many houses there; the more affluent build in their home villages to which they ultimately
intend to return.
Thus, to an ever increasing degree, it is becoming apparent that Warri, on the criterion
of property owning, is fast becoming an Urhobo town (Table 6).
Table 6: Property Owning (Percentages of Value)
(a)
total n
Area Development ItsekiriUrhobo Other Total value
£
Ogbe Ijoh 1910 on 28 50 22 100 67 80,000
Old Alders Town 1925 on 64 30 6 100 128 141,000
New Alders Town 1935 on 47 448
100127
115,000
Old Agbassa indig. 7 92 1 100 116 94,000
New Agbassa 1945 on 7 63 29 100 127 164,000
Okere indig. 99 0 1 100 181 102,000
Total 41 47 12100746696,000
(b)
Ogbe Ijoh 8 12 22 11
Old Alders Town 32 13 10 20
New Alders Town 19 17 5 16
Old Agbassa 2 26 2 13
New Agbassa 4 31 59 24
Okere 35 0 2 15
Total: 100 100 100 100
Number of houses 360 315 71 746
Value £ 284,000331,00081,000 696,000
Government
I have already mentioned the bias shown by British officials towards the Itsekiri and
the administrative arrangements, such as the Jekri-Sobo Division, which facilitated Itsekiri
superiority. In the agitation which led to the creation of separate Itsekiri and Urhobo
Divisions in 1949, the traditional chiefs and elders of the Urhobo had been allied with the
educated elements, organised since the 1930s, in the Urhobo Progress Union (Ikime 1968).
In 1946, Mukoro Mowoe, then President of the Urhobo Progress Union, was chosen to
represent the entire Warri Province in the Western House of Assembly, thus ending the
Itsekiri monopoly of such representative offices in Lagos and Ibadan. He was a wealthy man,
with a large house in Warri, and he was much respected by the Itsekiri. The same could not
be said of Jessa Ogboru who succeeded Mowoe on his death two years later. Then in 1949,
another prominent Urhobo was selected to fill the newly created second seat for Warri
Province in the Assembly. It began to appear to the Itsekiri that the numerical superiority of
the Urhobo would determine their future success. However, the tide temporarily turned.
417
Before 1949 the nationalist elements in Warri and Sapele supported the National
Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons as heir to the party of Herbert Macaulay. In 1951 the
Itsekiri elected two local patriots to represent Warri Division in the new Western House of
Assembly – on the platform of theWarri Peoples Party – Chief Arthur Prest and Chief
Festus Edah. Prest, a mulatto, had served as an officer in the Nigeria Police Force and had
recently returned from studying law in England. Edah had been born and had grown up in
the Benin river but his name suggested an Urhobo origin (he later changed it to Okotie-
Eboh); he was a very wealthy businessman in Sapele. As was expected, Prest declared his
support for the Action Group, Edah for the NCNC, the six representatives from Urhobo
Division were also NCNC. The Action Group formed the government and Prest became a
minister, first in Ibadan and later in the Federal parliament in Lagos. NCNC members held
no office. The newly installed Olu of the Itsekiri was also a strong AG supporter and the
Itsekiri began to identify themselves – and be identified by others – as following the AG,
whilst the Urhobo were represented by the NCNC. The lines were never clearly drawn,
however, as Festus Okotie-Eboh had strong Itsekiri support, especially in Sapele and the
Benin river area. In 1954 he defeated Prest for the, now sole, Divisional seat in the Federal
House of Representatives.
The relationship between the rival ethnic groups and the nationalist political parties
coloured Warri local government. In 1939 the Warri Township Advisory Board consisted of
three British officials, three representatives of the expatriate firms and three African members
– two being Itsekiri and one Urhobo. By 1946, the Board’s African membership was
increased to include two Itsekiri, two Urhobo and two other members (one of these a lawyer
from Sierra Leone resident in Warri). Further reforms gave the Africans a majority. Four
officials sat ex-officio, and one expatriate was elected for his ward – the government
residential area. In the remaining wards men were chosen by acclamation, with the result –
six Itsekiri, four Urhobo, one Ibo and one Sierra Leonean. Some Urhobo alleged, in 1955,
that the Resident manipulated the election to ensure Itsekiri superiority.
In 1955 direct elections were held for a new town council set up under the Region’s
Local Government Law (1952). In the 21 wards, 24 Urhobo stood as candidates (15 NCNC, 6
AG, 3 Indep.); 14 Itsekiri (8 AG, 3 Indep. NCNC, 3 Indep.), 6 Ibo (5 NCNC, 1 Indep.
NCNC) and 5 members of other ethnic groups. Whilst the Itsekiri vote was split between the
AG and the Independent NCNC, Urhobo and Ibo were competing for the official NCNC
nomination; it seems likely that a directive from the highest levels of the party persuaded the
Ibo to stand down. Elected were 14 Urhobo (all but one NCNC), 4 Ibo (all NCNC) and 3
Itsekiri (1 Independent NCNC and 2 Indenpendents). These men were by occupation traders
and businessmen, professionals, clerks and teachers; one man was a craftsman – a printer. In
the instrument setting up the new Council, the Western Region government provided that the
Olu should be the President and that six traditional members should be selected from among
the Itsekiri chiefs. In the event, the six chosen were all prominent AG members. The division
between the predominantly Urhobo/NCNC popularly elected Council, and the AG/Itsekiri
leadership orientated towards the Olu and the government in Ibadan, was starkly expressed in
this opposition.
Co-existence
The Itsekiri look upon Warri as their own capital city. Yet they now form a numerical
minority; they no longer hold a majority of the more prestigious occupational positions; nor
do they own most of the residential property. From a position of dominance in local
government they have been displaced by the Urhobo. Increasingly Warri seems, to the
outsider, to be an Urhobo town. The situations and incidents which I describe in the later
418
sections relate to the attempts made by the Itsekiri to retain either the symbols or the reality
of their former superiority. But although tension between the Itsekiri and the Urhobo is never
far below the surface, it must nevertheless be rcognised that daily life in Warri is essentially
harmonious.
Firstly, there is quite a substantial degree of intermarriages between the ethnic groups.
The Ibo remain almost completely endogamous, probably because most of them do not
intend to remain permanently in Warri. But in a sample of school children in Warri, 76 per
cent of those with Itsekiri fathers had Itsekiri mothers, whilst 22 per cent had Urhobo
mothers. Whilst Itsekiri men who marry outside their ethnic group almost all take Urhobo
wives, the Itsekiri women who marry exogamously choose Urhobo men and those from
other ethnic groups in almost equal proportions. Again, Urhobo men who marry outside their
group more often take Itsekiri wives than others. But only 11 per cent of the sampled
children with Urhobo fathers had non-Urhobo mothers (Lloyd 1957).
In factories and offices there seemed in 1955 to be little tension between members of
different ethnic groups and labour officers and workers’ leaders alike told me that disputes
were rarely interpreted in terms of ethnicity.
Again, I heard no complaints that the newly elected town council was being partisan in
its dealings with the public. I do not doubt that favouritism was shown on many occasions,
but here, as in other organisations, men from various ethnic groups are found in high
positions, so that the supplicant has no difficulty in finding a patron from his own group to
plead his cause. It is perhaps significant that one issue which did divide council members on
ethnic lines was the choice of armorial bearings – the Itsekiri wanted the Olu’s crossed
swords and crown, the Urhobo an emblem symbolising all the three major ethnic groups.
In the Warri primary schools English was the medium of instruction – pidgin in the
lowest forms. The children played without apparent reference to ethnic identity. In the Youth
Clubs, too, the adolescents mixed freely. The merits of the members of Warri’s national
league football team were discussed solely in the context of their skills; nobody ever
suggested that there were too many Urhobos or Ibos in the side. My elderly informants
insisted that these characteristics of the youth of today do not differ from those of a
generation or so ago.
Yet, for the year that I lived in New Alders Town, my neighbours were an Itsekiri trader
and chief, an Urhobo who was a senior executive in the Education Depatment, and a wealthy
Ijoh trader. Whilst these men would pass the time of day with each other on meeting in the
street, it was very evident that the visitors to their homes were overwhelmingly men of their
own ethnic group. Their children were very close companions. How do we account for the
difference between generations? The answer must lie in the fact that men of their age and
prominence are drawn into the affairs of their own ethnic group – not merely that section of it
resident in Warri but more usually the entire group. They were thus respectively involved in
the politics of Warri, Urhobo, and Western Ijoh Divisions rather than those of the Township.
Furthermore, although inter-ethnic rivalry might overshadow certain issues, most were
concerned with matters internal to the ethnic group or Division and related to internal
sectional interests and factions. Some, however, were issues of the type which I now describe.
419
Leading Issues
(a) The Ownership of Warri Land
The town of Warri lies on or close to the margins of Itsekiri and Urhobo settlement –
their villages and farmland so interpenetrate that a clear boundary would be difficult to draw.
Much of the agitation over the Divisional administrative boundaries has been over the
‘enclaves’. The leases of land to the Colonial government were signed by ‘Chief Dore Numa
of Benin River and Chief Ogbe Yonwuren (a senior Warrant chief living in Ugbo- uwange,
just outside the present Township boundary) acting for and on behalf of the Chiefs and
people of Warri’. This wording was crucial in the long sequence of lawsuits from the
beginning of the 1920s to the present. On one hand Dore Numa’s status was questioned; but
more importantly was the meaning attached to ‘people of Warri’. Interpretations ranged from
‘the residents of Warri Township’ on the one hand, to ‘the entire Itsekiri people’ (excluding
other ethnic groups) on the other. Arising from both issues was the disposition of the rents
received from the leases; and later the government received huge sums from the lease of
plots to private and commercial builders.
In 1920, the (Itsekiri) chiefs and people of Ogidigben claimed full and exclusive
fishing rights in their areas, asserting that they had never been subject to the Olu of Warri. At
almost the same time the Agbassas claimed the rents paid to Dore Numa for their area of
Crown land, similarly denying the sovereignty of the Olu. The villagers did not present their
cases very well, and though, in view of the long interregnum it was difficult for the Itsekiri to
prove acts of sovereignty, the weight of evidence suggested that these two communities had
been part of the Itsekiri kingdom. Judgements confirmed the sovereignty of the Olu, but
specified the right of the village communities and their members to use the land. However,
Dore Numa had, in 1915, written to the Okere people, who were leasing land to the
government for a prison, stating that whilst the Olu was sovereign over this land, ‘such rights
have nothing to do with the ownership and title to the land’; the sum paid for the land was
given to the Okere people.
Soon after the two court cases cited above, members of the Itsekiri royal family
claimed that the right of sovereignty resided in them, not in Dore Numa. The courts had little
difficulty in deciding that the sovereign rights cited were not held by the Olu for his family,
but on behalf of the kingdom, and that they were rightly held now by Dore Numa. Until his
death in 1932, the detractors of Dore Numa were continually claiming that he aspired to the
kingship.
While these early court actions confirmed Itsekiri sovereignty over the Township area,
later ones, deriving from subsequent lease of land, went further in specifying the nature of
those rights and the compensation due on loss of rights. In a court action ending in 1941
between the government and the newly installed Olu and the chiefs and people of Agbassa,
concerning land acquired for a cemetery, the Olu had stated that he was willing to receive
£15, keeping £10 for himself and giving £5 to the Agbassa. However, the judge awarded £5
to the man farming the land, £15 to the Agbassa community and £1 (being 1s. p.a. rent for 20
years) to the Olu. Later court actions on other land substantially replicated this award. But in
1956, largely, I believe, due to an error in interpreting these judgements, the Governor of the
Western Region awarded the Olu a third of the compensation received.
As a result of this favourable award, and with the very pro-Itsekiri attitude of the
Regional Government, the Olu began actions not only to claim a third of all rents received –
including those from innumerable private grants of building land outside the Crown area –
but also to assert that the Agbassa, in failing or refusing to pay these sums and thus
420
acknowledge the sovereignty of the Olu, should forfeit their rights in the land and become
mere strangers.
The second major issue here concerns the disposition of the rents received by the
government in leasing Crown lands for private development; such rents ranged from £160
p.a. per acre for the better sited land to £40 for the poorer. In 1943 an agreement was made
between the Governor (of the Western Province) and the Olu that a quarter of the rents should
be retained by the government for its costs of administration, half paid to the Township
treasury (to benefit the town) and quarter paid to the Itsekiri NA in recognition of the
sovereign rights of the Olu over the land. Chief Dore Numa had set up an Itsekiri National
Trust fund for sums received from land transactions but the colonial government officials felt,
at this period, that the Trust did not benefit the entire community. The matter was reopened in
the mid-1950s when it was realised that, whilst NAs could legally receive such moneys, the
newly created government councils could not properly do so; the Communal Land Rights
(Vesting in Trustees) Law was passed providing for the establishment of community trusts
with the traditional rulers and chiefs as trustees. The Crown land was transferred to this body.
In an award made more on political grounds than based upon past legal judgements, the
Regional Government awarded half the Warri rents to the Itsekiri National Trust, half to the
government. At the time it was argued that the Olu and his fellow trustees would use the
money for further litigation over land, rather than for more productive use. One of the early
actions of the Trustees was to commit £100,000 to new building for Hussey College, a school
managed by Action-Group-supporting Itsekiri chiefs. The management of the trust was one of
the factors in the train of events leading to the exile of the Olu in the 1960s.
(b) The Title of the Olu
Chief Dore Numa died in 1932 and the colonial government was prepared to see the
installation of a new Olu; Ginuwa II, a lineal descendant of the last reigning king, ascended
the throne in 1936. The government did not accede to the request that he should be entitled
Olu of Warri.
In 1949, Ginuwa II died and was succeeded by Erejuwa II. The later was a much
younger man, well educated and hitherto a trader. His appointment was not without
controversy but he seems to have had the backing of those Itsekiri chiefs later associated with
the Action Group. The issue of the title was reopened – with some justification, for not only
was Olu of Warri the traditional title, but the Division over which he ruled was now termed
Warri Division, and not Jekri-Sobo. But Warri was also the name of the Township and the
whole Province and the Urhobo objected that a change of title would infer that the Olu was
paramount ruler over the entire Province – there being no Urhobo or Ibo ruler of comparable
status. In May 1952, the Regional Government gazetted the new title, Urhobo members of
parliament petitioned that the Province should be named Delta, but the government dithered
while tension mounted in Warri.
On September 8,1952, Chief Arthur Prest planned a political tour of Warri. He was
seen by the Itsekiri as the principal agent of their recent benefits from the government and
they arranged a grand motorcade welcome. Though anticipating trouble, the police allowed
the plans to proceed. Urhobo mobs then attacked the procession and broke it up; in the
succeeding days Itsekiri homes – mainly in the small Urhobo market villages – were looted.
Two hundred and forty men reported losses amounting to £140,000. The Urhobo refused to
sell in the Warri markets, but established new sites within Urhobo territory where the Itsekiri
would not venture. It is said that the Oba of Benin secretly sent lorry loads of food
421
to the hungry Itsekiri. In a few weeks life returned to normal, although the memory of these
incidents coloured the interpretations of probable outcomes of later situations.
Erejuwa II built a new, modern palace near the creek-side village of Ekurede, a little
beyond the Warri Township limits; this was obviously a more convenient site than Old
Itsekiri, accessible only by canoe. But this move had rival interpretations. On one hand it
suggested that the Olu was trying to strengthen his position within the Township; on the
other hand the Itsekiri, seeing control of the Township slipping from their grasp, planned to
build a new, modern and purely Itsekiri town around the palace, to which they would soon
decamp.
The predicament of the Olu is understandable. Is he to be the traditional ruler of but
half of the Itsekiri population – those living in the villages of the swamps, eking out a poor
subsistence and heavily reliant on remittances of Warri Division – and even here the Itsekiri
were in a minority; of all the Itsekiri wherever they may live; of the Township of Warri
which falls within the administrative Division but remains an Itsekiri town only in a symbolic
fashion and to the extent that some Itsekiri do look upon it as their permanent place of
residence.
(c) The Electoral Registers
The early electoral registers in the modern Nigerian State were compiled from the tax
rolls. Thus, in theory, all adult men were registered – almost invariably in the ward where
they resided. Women were, in most areas, disenfranchised. In an attempt to approach
universal suffrage, voluntary registration was instituted. This raised the question – should a
man vote where he lives and pays tax, or in his home village (in the affairs of which he was
still deeply involved)? (Lloyd & Post 1960). In 1955 the electoral regulations decreed, in
complex but relatively unambiguous provisions, that a man should register where he lived
(provided that this was in the Division of which he was ‘native’) and had paid his tax for two
years; those disenfranchised by this clause could register in the ward of which they were
‘native’. Many people believed that they had a much greater freedom of choice. Itsekiri
women living in Sapele had no right to register in that town; so they came to Warri, rather
than to the creek villages where they had probably grown up. So, too, did many other Itsekiri
husbands, who saw their votes being ‘wasted’ in a predominantly Urhobo constituency. The
Urhobo interpreted this as a move to pack Warri Township and they brought in lorry loads of
electors from the surrounding villages. The final register contained over 20,000 names –
double the number of adults resident in the Township. Political party agents, who had
undoubtedly been active in creating this situation, next turned to objecting to names in order
to restore the register to a proper size. With the adjudicators deciding that the person objected
to should attend to defend his right, most of those who had come to Warri from outside were
removed from the register.
In 1959 the situation was repeated. The choice between residence and native area as a
qualification for registration and voting was debated at the highest political levels and
successive amendments to the regulations seemed to give the elector an increasingly greater
freedom of choice. The final regulations gave choice between voting in one’s present place of
residence or ‘the place to which he intends to return’. Other legislation had referred to
‘native’ qualifications, clearly intending that the place referred to should be the one
associated with the descent group of which one was a member – and most Nigerians did so
interpret it. One could not be a ‘native’ of a modern township, but one could justly claim
one’s intention to retire there. Again an inflated list of registered electors resulted and 13,000
objections were made. Following the rulings made in 1955, Action Group leaders objected to
almost every Ibo name on the register. But this time the Revising Officer placed
422
the onus of proof on the objector, not the person objected to; most of the objections were
then withdrawn (Post 1963).
In this election the principal issue for the Itsekiri was not so much the control of the
town but their position within the projected Mid-West State to be created by the Federal
government. This state, overwhelmingly Edo and Ibo speaking, would certainly have an
NCNC majority. During the decade the Olu and the Itsekiri chiefs closely associated with
him were the staunchest possible supporters of the AG. In evidence before the Minorities
Commission, the Itsekiri leaders had emphasised their cultural ties with the Yoruba, thus
claiming continued membership of the Western Region. The election, however, resulted in a
victory for Chief Okotie-Eboh over his AG opponent, O.N. Rewane, an Itsekiri lawyer living
in Warri and closely identified with the Olu and his faction. Okotie-Eboh could only have
won with considerable Itsekiri support and his success reflected not only his own personality
but also the continuing divisions within the Itsekiri community (Post 1963).
Commentary
In the nineteenth and earlier centuries the ‘middleman’ role of the Itsekiri, in the slave
and palm oil trade, gave them economic super-ordination over the Urhobo. In the early
twentieth century the structure of trade was radically altered. But as the British
Administrative officials ‘opened’ up Urhobo country, new roles were created for the Itsekiri
as political agents, court clerks, etc. Though few Itsekiri could hold these middlemen roles,
the prestige accrued to the entire ethnic group. In time, however, these political roles became
obsolete, too.
The Itsekiri looked upon Warri as their new capital, the focal point for their
community. But, as we have seen, they have now lost whatever economic and political
dominance they once held. The one exception to this general trend concerns the income from
the land. In a series of legal actions Dore Numa preserved the Itsekiri rights of sovereignty,
though the monetary value of these was whittled down to a token sum. But in the late 1950s,
it was decided that a substantial proportion of the rents received from crown land should pass
not to the community originally holding them – the Agbassa, Okere or Ogbe Ijoh – nor to the
people of Warri Township, but to the Itsekiri. The success of the Itsekiri here, and in getting
the Olu and his chiefs as traditional members of the new Urban District Council, derived
from the support given to the Action Group, the governing party in the Western Region, by
the Olu and these same chiefs.
The struggle for these symbols and realities of power heightened ethnic tension in
Warri. The rivalry between the two major political parties, the AG and NCNC, polarised this
tension; but not completely so, for one faction of the Itsekiri continued to support the NCNC
in the person of Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, whilst some Urhobo were AG supporters.
What had the Itsekiri common man to gain from these struggles? Nearly one-third of
the ethnic group lived no longer in the creek villages but in modern towns – Warri, Sapele,
Lagos, etc. In Warri they had their due share of the good jobs, though they had conspicuously
failed to take advantage of new opportunities in trade and crafts. They were represented on
the Urban District Council in proportion to their numbers in the town. And, in any case, the
taxes or rents which they paid were unaffected by the political complexion of the local
government council.
Why should they then fear Urhobo superiority? Typical response included ‘They might
insult the Olu’, ‘Hooligans might insult my father (a chief) in the street’. A reign of terror
against the Itsekiri was predicted. Yet, although the events of September 1952 did provide
the Itsekiri with a vivid precedent and although the Itsekiri feared that the Urhobo
423
might abuse them, as they had once abused the Urhobo, everyday life in Warri went on for
months without any major incident of this nature.
Those who gained most in these struggles were the Olu and his circle of chiefs. The
Olu sought to increase the status of his title by claiming jurisdiction over all land once falling
within the traditional kingdom and including the modern town of Warri; he sought to control
the public wealth of this area in the form of ground rents. Some of the chiefs most active in
his support seemed to have little income other than that deriving from this ‘political’ activity.
These claims were transformed through the medium of inflammatory speeches, the
maintenance of the Itsekiri self stereotype in matters of dress, and through promises of
patronage, into issues which could entice the support of the Itsekiri man-in-the- street.
Conversely, they were interpreted by their Urhobo counterparts as threats to the economic
and political positions which they had won through the ‘legitimate’ process of free economic
competition and democratic elections.
There seemed, in the mid-1950s, to be little immediate likelihood that the Itsekiri
would lose their ethnic identity, even though the Urhobo had a reputation for cultural
assimilation (two Ibo clans, for instance, having become Urhobo in recent decades). But they
were encouraged to believe that a diminution in status of the Olu and his chiefs would be a
substantial threat to their own separate identity. It is such fears which seem to produce mob
violence – violence which expresses no specific or well articulated interests, at least of the
mob.
As I had already indicated, not all the Itsekiri supported the Action Group nor were all
solid in their support for the Olu. Many consistently voted for Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, the
wealthy Sapele businessman who became Federal Minister of Finance and was killed in the
1964 coup. This split reflected a long-standing division in Itsekiri society between people
living in the Benin River (where Okotie-Eboh was born) and those of the Warri area.
Furthermore, the Benin River people looked more to Sapele as their commercial centre and
were less interested in the stratagems of the Olu which concerned and benefited (if at all) the
people of Warri. The Olu and Chief Okotie-Eboh were leaders of two great factions. But the
basis of the wealth of the latter came from his private business and his Federal political
office; his electoral support came from Itsekiri, Urhobo and Ibo. So, although he dressed as
an Itsekiri (in as much as one can be dogmatic here, for the Urhobo tended to copy Itsekiri
fashions) he did not appeal to exclusively ethnic sentiments. Conversely the Action Group
propaganda tended to vilify him as a traitor to the Itsekiri.
I do not wish to minimise the frustration felt by the mass of the Itsekiri as their self-
image of themselves accorded to an ever decreasing degree with economic and political
realities. But one ought always to look closely to see which individuals gained from
exploiting this tension and study the means by which they seek to gain their own ends.
References
BRADBURY, R. E. 1957. The Benin Kingdom and the Edo-Speaking Peoples of South Western Nigeria.
Ethnographic Survey of Africa, Western Africa, Part XIII. London: International African Institute.
IKIME, O. 1960. Niger Delta Rivalry: Itsekiri-Urhobo Relations and the European Presence 1884-1936.
London: Longmans
LLOYD, P. C. 1957. The Itsekiri. In Ethnographic Survey of Africa, Western Africa Part XIII. London:
International African Institute.
— 1963. The Itsekiri in he Nineteenth Century: An Outline Social History. Journal of African History 4:
207-31.
424
—
LLOYD, P. C (with K. W. J. POST). 1960. Where Should One Vote? Journal of African Administration
21: 95-106.
MOORE, W. 1970. (2nded.) History of the Itsekiri. London: Cass.
POST, K. W. J. 1963. The Nigerian Federal Election of 1959. London: Oxford University Press.
RYDER, A. F. C. 1960. Missionary Activity in the Kingdom of Warri to the Early Nineteenth Century.
Journal of Historical Society of Nigeria 2: 1-26.
© P. C. Lloyd 1974
425
Chapter 21
Thoughts on Isoko-Urhobo Relations 1

Obaro Ikime
Formerly, Head of Department of History and Dean,
Faculty of Arts, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
Preamble
Let me begin by expressing my gratitude to my friend and respected academic

colleague, Professor Peter Ekeh, Chairperson of the Urhobo Historical Society, for the
invitation extended to me to deliver the Keynote Address at this year’s conference of the
society. I confess that my initial reaction was to turn down the invitation. Why? Because I
feared that what I say in this address could, in years to come, be quoted out of context by
scholars and pseudo-scholars in a manner that could worsen rather than improve inter-group
relations between the Urhobo and my people, the Isoko. This fear derives from the way my
existing writings have been used in the seemingly endless tensions between the Itsekiri and
the Urhobo.
That I am standing before you is evidence that I overcame the fear expressed above. As
the only Professor of History from these parts who has studied our history, I consider that I
should, even at the risk of being misunderstood and mis-quoted, take the opportunity such as
I have this day, to draw attention to certain issues about history and historical research which
quite a few of those currently involved in writing the history of our peoples have either
tended to ignore or are ignorant of. I say this, not in a spirit of condemnation, but out of a
genuine concern to influence the tenor of future historical writings concerning our peoples.
First, what is history? In the last thirty odd years, I have, in all my public lectures, used a
definition of History that I find most apt. “History,” says Robert V. Daniels, “is the memory
of human group experience. If it is forgotten or ignored, we cease in that measure to be
human. Without history we have no knowledge of who we are or how we
came to be, like victims of collective amnesia groping in the dark for our identity. It is the
events recorded in history that have generated all the emotions, the values, the ideals that
make life meaningful, that have given men something to live for, struggle over, die for ” 2.
All who get involved in the writing of history will do well to remember that what they write
can generate tremendous emotions, and give “men something to live for, struggle over or die
for.” Meeting as we are here in Ephron, we are close enough to Warri to know that, indeed,
people have died because of the events recorded in history. This places tremendous
responsibility on the historian. He must carefully choose his words. He must remind himself
that history is not static. Fresh evidence necessarily leads to new arguments and altered
conclusions. Take me, for example. I no longer hold some of the views in my published
books because, among other reasons, other scholars have produced works that force me to
re-think my earlier conclusions. There is also the fact that I have matured over the years,
1
Being Keynote Address delivered at the Sixth Annual Conference of Urhobo Historical Society, on Saturday, 22 October, 2005, at
Petroleum Training Institute, Effurun, Nigeria.
2
Daniels, Robert V., Studying History: How and Why (2ndEdition) Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1972, p. 72.
and come to a greater appreciation of the significance of my discipline. I realize that what I
write can be put to uses that I never intended. For this reason, I exercise great care over what
I say and how I say it.
Whoever writes history, whether he is a trained historian or an amateur, needs to ask
himself/herself what is the purpose of history. In my Inaugural Lecture, delivered as far back
as 1979 at the University of Ibadan, I said: “For if history is to serve any useful purpose at
all, it must deepen man’s understanding of why and how things have happened.” I quoted
Marc Block3 who had written: “…a single word ‘understanding’ is the
beacon light of our studies…. We are never sufficiently understanding. Whoever differs from
us – a foreigner or a political adversary – is almost inevitably considered evil. A little more
understanding of people would be necessary … in the conflicts which are unavoidable.” The
4
purpose of history, according to J.H. Plumb, “is to deepen
understanding about men and society, not for its own sake, but in the hope that a profound
5
awareness would help to mould human attitudes and human action.” Often, the historian
finds himself challenged by prevailing problems to probe the past with a view to seeking
greater understanding of the present. That was how I chose to study Itsekiri – Urhobo
Relations for my Ph.D. I was a boy of sixteen when the Itsekiri-Urhobo riots of 1952 took
place. I was a student of what was then Warri College, Ughelli. As a consequence of the riots
of 1952, the name, Warri Province, was changed to Delta Province. And because of that
change of name, the name of my school was changed to Government College, Ughelli. I was
in Class III. Even so, I was struck by the events of 1952. When later in life I had the
opportunity to engage in historical research, I chose to study Itsekiri- Urhobo relations in
order to seek understanding of why the events of 1952 took place! The present (the situation
that arose in 1952 was “the present”) thus led to a study of the past, and the events of the past
threw light on why things happened the way they happened in 1952! “Great history,” E.H.
Carr wrote long ago, “is written precisely when the historian’s vision of the past is
6
illuminated by insights into the problems of the present.”
One more point may be made here. The historian studies the past. But that past is not a
dead past. It is a past that has relevance for the present. Permit me to illustrate. It is not
uncommon for the coastal peoples of the Delta region to say that the hinterland peoples were
their slaves in times past! Nothing whips up greater emotions than a statement like that. The
historian involved in studying Delta-Hinterland relations must be aware of the kind of
reactions that his/her work may elicit. A sensitive historian would therefore take the trouble
to provide details as to how slaves were actually obtained in the days of the slave trade. I
know, from my own researches, for example, that the bulk of the hinterland slaves who were
taken to the coast and sold overseas were enslaved not by the coastal traders but by their own
people, i.e. hinterland peoples, eager to make a profit from the slave trade. Besides, not all
slaves who found their way to the Eastern Delta, for example, were Igbo as is often
presumed. Many slaves came from further north, through Igboland, to the coastal states.
Details such as these provide greater understanding, even if they cannot guarantee that in the
heat of today’s politics, irresponsible statements, designed to deepen acrimony rather than
understanding, will not be made! The historian’s task is to lay before his reader
3
Ikime, Obaro, Through Changing Scenes: Nigerian History Yesterday and Tomorrow , University of Ibadan Inaugural Lecture,
University of Ibadan Press, 1979, p. 10.
4
Bloch, Marc, The Historian’s Craft, New York, Alfred Knopf, 1953, pp. 143-144.
5
Plumb, J. H. The Death of the Past, Boston, Houghton Miflin Co. 1971, p. 106.
6
Carr, E.H. What is History? Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1971 edition, p. 30.
428
Thoughts on Isoko-Urhobo Relations
as much of the evidence as is available to him. When he has done that and commented
objectively on his evidence, he must leave the rest to his reader. Knowledge of the fact that
the past impinges on the present should compel him to be faithful to the canons of historical
scholarship. I fear that some of those who are today acclaimed as historians of Group A or
Group B are not familiar with the canons of historical scholarship, and so cannot be faithful
to them.
The Historian and His Evidence:
I must not conclude this Preamble without saying a word about the historian and his
evidence. The evidence the historian uses is created by others. This being so, the historian
must seek to know who created the document – whether written or oral; when it was created;
whether there are other documents which confirm or contradict it; in what circumstances it
was created; whether there was the likelihood of prejudice, and so on. It is not enough to
latch on to a single document or even to a series of documents without subjecting it or them
to close scrutiny. Permit me to use an example that concerns me. In
2000, there was published the book: Leadership, Unity and the Future of the Urhobos . This
th
was a collection of lectures on the occasion of the 50 Anniversary of the death of Chief
Mukoro Mowoe. In that collection is a chapter on “Mukoro Mowoe and Urhobo Destiny and
History” by Peter Ekeh. In his presentation, Ekeh wrote, in one of the sections of the chapter:
“Between 1884 and 1894, Nana terrorized the Urhobo areas with the weapons of violence he
acquired from the British. The sour relations between Nana and Urhobo merchants came to a
head when Nana assaulted and abducted Oraka of Okpara Waterside.” Ekeh goes on to
discuss Urhobo reaction which was to impose a trade boycott which caught the attention of
the British. “The British were clearly unhappy with Nana’s conduct and so decided to deal
with the Urhobo directly… Nana’s attempt to block direct British trading relations with the
Urhobo was the principal cause of the military encounter of 1894 that led to Nana’s exile in
7
that year.”
Because I had the privilege of seeing the chapter before publication, I drew Ekeh’s
attention to the fact that he had fully accepted the British view of the events of 1894, and that
that view was not all there was. He dutifully gave my position in a footnote at page 49
of that book, for which I am grateful. However, in the book Warri City and British
Colonial Rule in Western Niger Delta , published first in 2004 and re-printed in 2005, Ekeh
maintains the same position as he took in 2000. 8
It is not that Professor Ekeh’s position is baseless. Not at all. It is in fact based on
documents created by Vice-Consul Gallwey and Acting Consul-General Ralph Moor. These
servants of the British empire had to create the kind of documents that would make the
Foreign Office in London sanction a war against Nana. Every coastal trader objected to the
British trading directly with hinterland peoples. In the treaty of 1884 Nana had led other
Itsekiri traders to strike out the clause in the treaty which permitted free trade with the
9
hinterland, just as Jaja of Opobo had done. In other words, British efforts at direct trade
7
Ekeh, Peter, “Mukoro Mowoe and Urhobo Destiny and History” in Mowoe, Isaac O. James, Leadership, Unity and the Future of
the Urhobos. (mimeo-graphed and bound), p. 49
8
Ekeh, Peter, “Introduction” to Warri City and British Colonial Rule in Western Niger Delta edited by Peter P. Ekeh, Buffalo, New
York, Urhobo Historical Society, 2005, pp. 20 and 22.
9
Ikime, Obaro, Merchant Prince of the Niger Delta , Ibadan, The Author, 1995, p. 52. (The edition here cited is the Centenary
Edition published for the celebration of the centenary of the Ebrohimi War. The original edition was published in London by
Heinemann Educational Books in 1968).
429
with the hinterland of Itsekiriland were in contravention of a subsisting treaty. In fact,

minutes on various dispatches from the Niger Coast Protectorate to London indicate quite
clearly that the British appreciated that Nana was within his rights in seeking to protect his
trading areas from British penetration. That is not all. The British accused Nana of a trade
monopoly. But the Royal Niger Company, a British chartered company, had, by reason of its
charter, been allowed to build a trade monopoly. When the Brass people in frustration
attacked the Royal Niger Company, the British Government in 1895, the year after they had
exiled Nana, sent an expedition against Brass and imposed their rule on that city state. How
do we explain this? This was the age of the imposition of British colonial rule over what
became Nigeria. Britain used any excuse to ensure that the end in view was achieved. The
historian of this period owes a duty to sketch in detail the circumstances in which what
happened happened. This is what I have done in my biography of Nana – Merchant Prince
of the Niger Delta . 10 Peter Ekeh doesn’t have to accept my views. Historical scholarship
would demand, however, that he should take issues with my position. An examination of
the history of the document he used could well have led him to a slightly different
conclusion. The force that the British sent against Nana in 1894 consisted of four British
warships, over 300 marines, virtually all the military force of the Niger Coast Protectorate,
and some twenty five officers, commanded by Rear Admiral F.G. Bedford, the Supreme
11
Commander of Britain’s African squadron. Can Professor Ekeh really believe that the
British put themselves to such great expense and trouble in the interest of the Urhobo – to
save them from the tyranny of Nana? I don’t think so. The British were interested in
destroying the control which the coastal traders had over the trade of the hinterland, so they
could take over both the coast and the hinterland. The fall of Nana led to the fall of
Itsekiriland to the British, followed in the years 1895-1910 by the fall of Urhoboland to the
British. It is knowledge of these truths that have conditioned my assessment of Nana’s place
in the history of the years of British conquest of Nigeria. Today, that aspect of our history has
ceased to take centre stage. Therefore scholars may be tempted to reach different
conclusions. That is their prerogative. All I ask is that all the evidence readily available
should be allowed to inform the conclusions reached.
In all the writings – and there has been quite some writing – about Itsekiri-Urhobo
relations in the last five years, I have been struck by the fact that on both sides there has been
tremendous respect for the British records. I wonder whether those concerned have ever
stopped to ask how the word “Protection” or “Protectorate” was translated into Itsekiri or
Urhobo and who did the translation! One of those who signed as witness in the treaties made
in the “Warri District” was a Saro called Alder after whom Alder’s Town in Warri was
named. How did this Saro translate English into Urhobo or Itsekiri? What was the
understanding of our peoples of the treaties they signed? Treaties apart, how do we know
that what we read in the various British records are indeed facts? In the 1961/62 session, as
part of my Ph.D. work, I visited virtually every polity in Urhoboland and sat with the elders
who talked to me about their history. Some of what they told me was in sharp contrast with
what I had read in the British records. In 1963 while in London, I sought to talk with retired
colonial officers who had served in the then Warri Province. A number of them gave me
lunch at the Commonwealth Institute. I was amazed at their candour. Virtually all of them
admitted that they found themselves sometimes having to write what their senior officers
would like to read rather than what happened. They reminded me that they were young and
inexperienced; that they wanted to get on in their chosen careers, and therefore had to be
10
Ikime, Obaro, op. cit.
11
Ikime, Obaro, op. cit. Chapter 4.
430
careful not to say the wrong things about persons favoured by their seniors! In many of the
cases I raised with them, they agreed that what the elders told me was more correct than what
they wrote in their annual reports, and the like. This is what I mean by saying that the
historian has to seek to know the history of the documents he decides to use. Various factors
decide what is written and how it is written; what is transmitted orally to younger generations
and how it is transmitted. The user of historical documents has always to be aware of this
reality, and so to let that awareness influence the conclusions he reaches and his presentation
of those conclusions. Mr. Chairman, one of the reasons why I accepted the invitation to
speak here today is to say what I have said thus far. Having so done, I can now go on to the
subject of Urhobo – Isoko Relations.
Of Urhobo and Isoko
One of the questions which any one interested in the study of inter-group relations
must ask himself is, when the groups he is studying came to be known as they are now
known. In the context of our subject, who are the Urhobo and who are the Isoko? Can we,
for example, meaningfully speak of Urhobo-Isoko relations in the 18th century? If we can,
how would we define Urhobo or Isoko? Did my people, the Evohwa in today’s Isokoland,
have any identifiable relations with Ughienvwe, for example? Did the Isoko group of Ozoro
have any relations with the Urhobo group of Evwreni in the 17 thcentury? On what sources
do we, can we, depend for a re-construction of such relations? All the groups who constitute
Urhoboland today speak the Urhobo language. Did they, for that reason, regard themselves
as a socio-political group with identical political and economic interests that they defended
against other groups in the period before our colonial experience? The same questions can be
asked about the Isoko. Did a common language, or mutually intelligible dialects, result in a
common political identity such as can enable us speak of Urhobo – Isoko relations in
pre-colonial times? I have always found this a knotty question in my writings about inter-
group relations.
Today we speak of the Hausa as an ethnic nationality within the Nigerian nation- state.
But the history of Hausaland from the 16 to the 18 thcentury reveals
th
constant
struggles for supremacy between the various Hausa states – Kano, Zazzau, Zamfara, Kebi,
etc. 12A common language did not result in a union of all of the Hausa states. Each state had
its separate identity and its interests. The same was true for Yorubaland. The Yoruba wars of
th
the 19 century were not civil wars. They were inter-state wars, fought to protect or
extend the interests of the various Yoruba-speaking states. 13 Here too, as indeed elsewhere in
the country, a common language did not result in a single state, embracing all the
Yoruba-speaking people. Can we, in the light of this reality, speak, for example, of Yoruba-
Hausa relations in the 18 thcentury? Which Hausa state? Which Yoruba state? What is the
point of this discourse? This, that today we speak of our various ethnic groups or nationalities
as single entities – Yoruba, Efik, Tivi, Angas, Igbo, Urhobo, Hausa, Isoko, Idzon, etc. These
nationalities only began to make sense in the colonial state of Nigeria and in the independent
nation-state of Nigeria in which language was used to identify whole groups and to
differentiate them from the others. This was not the case in the earlier period of the history of
the peoples concerned.
12
Adeleye, R. A. Power and Diplomacy in Northern Nigeria, London, Longman Group Ltd., 1971. See a very brief summary of the
point here made on pp 5-7.
13
Ajayi, J. F. Ade and Smith, Robert. Yoruba Warfare in the 19 thCentury , London, Cambridge University Press.
431
What the above means is that whereas Urhobo and Isoko groups that were
geographically contiguous or not too far the one from the other would have maintained
commercial and social relations (Iyedi–Ughelli, Enwhe–Evwreni, for example); whereas
centres that were famous for specific products would have attracted people form considerable
distances (like the Uzere “Eni Juju” did right up to the opening years of colonial rule), it
would be strictly wrong to speak of Urhobo–Isoko relations understood as involving all of
Urhoboland and all of Isokoland. And because there had not come into being pan-Urhobo and
pan-Isoko interests, conflicts between one Isoko group and one Urhobo group would not
necessarily have brought in other groups. Even when groups were
involved in the long-distance trade, they did not trade qua Isoko or qua Urhobo. It was the
needs of the various Urhobo and Isoko groups that determined their relationships –
commercial, social (intermarriage, for example) ritual, etc. with neighbouring groups.
There are traditions of “wars” between certain Isoko groups and certain Urhobo groups
– for example Ughweru – Enwe, Igbide – Evwreni, Iyede-Ewu, Emevor – Agbarha,
Ughweru-Igbide. 14 Virtually all of these wars were fought over disputes about ownership of
land, as the population of the various groups increased and there was a need for more land.
Sometimes “wars” were fought over run-away women! These “wars” were fought between
the groups indicated. My position is that it would be strictly wrong to speak of these wars as
Urhobo-Isoko wars, as if all of the Urhobo groups and all of the Isoko groups got involved in
them. Usually the kind of “wars” mentioned above ended with the groups entering into pacts
of perpetual friendship which forbade future wars. I repeat here what I have said elsewhere,
that our ancestors knew how to work towards accommodation in the interest of peaceful
15
co-existence. In the heat and differences of today those who lead the various
nationalities will do well to imitate their ancestors and seek accommodation and promote
peace.
Traditions of Origin and Isoko-Urhobo Relations
If there is any aspect of the history of the various peoples of Nigeria about which no
one can speak with any exactitude, it is that which deals with the origins of our peoples. In
my earlier writings, I claim that most of the Urhobo and Isoko groups are of Benin origin;
that Ewu, Ughelli and Ughienvwe are of Ijaw origin; that Evwreni, Igbede, Enwe and Olomu
have Igbo connections; that Ephron is of Erohwa (in Isokoland) origin; that Agbon is of Irri
(in Isokoland) origin; that the Okpe kingdom and the Okpe group in Isoko are related, the
16
former having migrated from the latter; that Olomoro is of Olomu origin.
These views as expressed in the 1960s and 1970s are decidedly simplistic and were based on
British Intelligence Reports of the 1930s and my field work of 1961-1963. Can we deduce
anything from these claims of origin in terms of Isoko-Urhobo relations? Before we answer
that question, let us take a look at what two Urhobo scholars have said about the origin of the
Agbon, Uvwie, Okpe – those groups that I had indicated are linked to Isoko groups in origin,
and about Evwreni and Olomu origins.
According to Professor Onigu Otite, the eponymous ancestor of the Agbon was called
Agbon. He goes on: “He was believed to be a son of Ukonurhoro, an Urhobo migrant from
14
See Intelligence Reports on the named polities.
15
Ikime, Obaro, In Search of Nigerians: Changing Patterns of Inter-Group Relations in an Evolving Nation State , President
th
Inaugural Lecture delivered at the 30 Congress of the Historical Society of Nigeria, 01 May, 1985, published by the author at
Ibadan. p. 5.
16
Ikime, Obaro, Niger Delta Rivalry, London, Longman, 1969, Chapter 1, pp. 7-10.
432
Udo…. Agbon had a long migratory history through Kwale, settling at one time in Enhwe
and Erhivwi (Irri) in Isoko Division from where he moved to a settlement called Utokori,
near Ughweru, then to Olomu, and finally, through the present Ughelle territory of Ighwreko
and Ekiugbo to found the town of Agbon (Otorho r’Agbon).” What does17Otite
mean by “an Urhobo migrant from Udo?” That Agbon’s father was already Urhobo before he
left Udo, which I understand to mean Benin? When he says Agbon settled at Enhwe and Irri
in Isokoland, are we to understand that these places already existed as such before the coming
of Agbon? These are only a few of the kind of questions that confront anyone dealing with
traditions of origin.
As for Uvwie, Otite states that Uvwie lived at Ife. From there he migrated eastwards.
He settled at Erugbo in the creeks of Ondo State. Subsequently he “settled in a territory in
which Erohwa situates.” The Uvwie left Erohwa and settled in Ephron-Otor from where they
migrated to their present territory.” Later on Otite writes, “…..we may say that Erohwa may
18
be regarded as the parent settlement of Ephon Otor”
It is again Otite who writes about what we know today as the Okpe kingdom. Otite
indicates that there are two stages in the evolution of Okpe. The first has to do with traditions
that there was a man called Uhobo who fathered those who became known as Okpe and who
lived in Benin territory for some time. A variant of this tradition says the Okpe are descended
from an ancient ruler in Ife. Otite does not consider this tradition too seriously. The central
stage of Okpe history, says Otite, is clearer. This has to do with a man named Igboze leaving
Benin territory, moving into Ijo territory around where Patani now is, and then settling “in
present Erohwa territory in Isokoland.” Okpe would, in this account, appear to have been one
of Igboze’s children. He founded a kingdom of his own near Erohwa. He moved on to Okpe
in Olomu. It would appear that Okpe also had some connection with Okpe in today’s
Isokoland. Orhue, one of four sons of Okpe, later left Okpe – Olomu and established himself
in the territory of Orerokpe. Otite draws attention to the fact there is a connection between
Okpe – Isoko, Okpe-Olomu and Oreokpe, and these three units exchange annual visits,
19
especially during festivals.
M.Y. Nabofa’s account of Olomu indicates that the Isoko polity of Olomoro was
founded by persons from Oto-Orere-Olomu. I make the same point in my The Isoko People .
The Isoko town of Otibio is also of Olomu origin, according to Nabofa. 20Nabofa’s opening
sentence in his chapter on Evwreni is: “The traditional story of the origin of Evwreni is
intimately bound up with those of Igbide, Emede and Enhwe. The place of origin is said to
be somewhere in Igboland. The ancestors of Igbide, Enhwe and Evwreni are said to have left
Igboland. Emede was, according to some of the traditions, a friend of Okpolo, the founder of
Enhwe. The Evwreni and Enhwe first settled in one place before the Evwreni moved on to
21
their present location.”
In virtually all of the traditions of origin there is some reference to Benin. Clearly, it
was fashionable to claim Benin origin because of the reputation that attached to that
kingdom. The linguistic evidence has, however, called to question claims of Benin origin by
the Urhobo and Isoko. According to Ben Elugbe, the Edo language (by this he means the
17
Onigu Otite, “Agbon” in Onigu Otite (Editor), The Urhobo People, (Second Edition), Ibadan, Shaneson C. I. Ltd., p. 167.
18
Onigu Otite, “Uvwie” in op. cit, pp. 189-193.
19
Onigu Otite, “Okpe” in op. cit, pp. 198-199.
20
Nabofa, M.Y., “Olomu” in Onigu, Otite, op cit, p. 137.
21
Nabofa, M. Y., “Evwreni” in Onigu Otite, op. cit., pp. 257-258.
433
language of Benin proper), the Urhobo language and the Isoko language, among others,
which he classifies as Edoid, are of about the same antiquity. To say this is to say that the
Urhobo or Isoko language could not have developed after migration from Benin. Elugbe
therefore posits that the Bini, Urhobo, Isoko and other Edoid groups had a common origin in
the distant past, and migrated to their present locations in different waves at different times.
If this 22
be so, then the references to Benin in the traditions of the Urhobo and Isoko
could well refer to later (rather than founding) migrations into areas already inhabited by
groups who spoke the Urhobo and Isoko languages. It is, so it is argued, because the Benin
migrations were the latest that they are the most remembered. As I indicated earlier, we
would never know for sure the full details of migrations that took place thousands of years
ago.
Let us now go back to the question I raised earlier whether we can deduce anything
about Urhobo-Isoko relations from the traditions of origin. In 1976 Professor P. A. Igbafe, a
fellow historian, delivered a lecture in which he said: “Taken as an entity, the Bendel State is
a microcosm of the whole country – a sort of miniature Nigeria in the heterogeneity of its
peoples, the plurality of languages and the diversity of resources. Yet there abounds in the
state a marked homogeneity in cultural traditions rooted in a common ancestry ” 23(my
emphasis). This lecture provoked a rejoinder from a group at the University of Ibadan and
the Ibadan Polytechnic among whom were S.U. Erivwo, N.Y. Nabofa and G.G. Darah – sons
of Urhoboland. In this rejoinder they said among other things that “Igbafe’s history is ….
politically damaging.” “It is difficult not to think,” they wrote, “that Igbafe’s Bendel History
was ill-motivated against certain ethnic groups.” Igbafe’s24lecture was delivered in
August 1976. In November of the same year I delivered a lecture to the University of Benin
Historical Association entitled The Historian and Politics: The Bendel State Situation . 25
In that lecture I drew attention to Igbafe’s lecture and the rejoinder from the Urhobo group
in Ibadan. And I asked: “What does it matter where Group A came from?” Surely, the group
from which group A came also came from another group, I argued. I made the point that it is
unacceptable to me to assume that if Group Z migrated from Group Y then group Z was
vassal to Group Y, bearing in mind that sometimes migrations took place as acts of rebellion
or protest. If groups moved out of a given kingdom or polity as a protest against the ruler of
that polity, it is unlikely that they would thereafter put themselves under the vassalage of the
polity from which they moved. I argued that origins in themselves cannot be used as
determinants of inter-group relations. A more interesting point of inquiry is the relations
which subsisted between the group that moved and the group from which it moved – after
the former settled in its new habitat.
As will become clear later, the sore point in Isoko-Urhobo relations is the claim by the
Urhobo that the Isoko are Urhobo. Only yesterday, Olurogun Moses Taiga spoke of us, the
Isoko people as “the Eastern Division of the Urhobo Nation”. The implication of this is that
the Urhobo are a nation; the Isoko are a sub-group of the Urhobo nation. Permit me to ask;
Are the Isoko junior brothers to the Urhobo? Are they (the Isoko) descendants of the
Urhobo? Is there anything in the traditions of origin of the two groups that can be used to
support the claim that the Isoko are Urhobo? My researches have not thrown up any
22
Elugbe, Ben., “Edo Linguistics and its Application” Typescript, 1982.
23
Igbafe, P. A. “Bendel State History, People and Resources” a lecture published in Nigerian Observer, August 28-31, 1976.
24
The Rejoinder was allegedly sent to the Nigerian Observer, but never published. Some of us got mimeographed copies of the
rejoinder.
25
Ikime, Obaro, “The Historian and Politics: The Bendel State Situation,” Lecture delivered to University of Benin Historical
Association, 19 November, 1976.
434
evidence in support of such a conclusion. If two Isoko towns – Olomoro and Otibio – have
Olomu, an Urhobo polity, as place of origin, that cannot make the Isoko Urhobo. The fact
that Uvwie, Okpe, Agbon, Evwreni have traditions which link them to Isoko polities does
not and cannot make them Isoko. The migrations about which these traditions speak took
place over a thousand years ago. The migrant groups went on to develop their own separate
identities. Those identities have to be recognized and respected.
The above is not to say that contacts made during migrations do not impact on inter-
group relations. Take Uvwie-Erohwa relations, for example. I am from Erohwa. And I know
that there exist certain special relations between these two groups even up till today. Those
relations are such that promote peace between the two groups. No Uvwie person
would lay violent hands on an Erohwa person. The Uvwie deity owhoru, is the same as the
Erohwa deity that goes by the same name. At festival times, as we saw earlier, Okpe-Isoko,
Okpe-Olomu and the Okpe of Orerokpe exchange visits. Olomoro in Isokoland used to visit
Olomu in Urhoboland during the annual festivals. Ancient ties thus continue to be
remembered without detracting from the separate identities that have developed over time.
British Colonial Rule and Isoko-Urhobo Relations
The details of the establishment and working of British rule in Isokoland and
26
Urhoboland are available in a number of my published works, and so will not detain us
here. In what follows, attention will be drawn to the effects of British rule on Urhobo-Isoko
relations. As prelude to that, however, there is the need to provide the administrative
framework established by the British. When the Niger Coast Protectorate was established in
1891, British Vice-Consulates were established in Warri, Benin River and Sapele. The Benin
River Vice-Consulate was closed down in 1892. British penetration into Urhoboland and
Isokoland thus took place from Warri and Sapele. In 1900 the Niger Coast Protectorate gave
way to what was known as the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria. This protectorate was
divided into three Divisions – Western, Central and Eastern. The Urhobo belonged to the
Western Division. The bulk of the Isoko were placed in the Agberi District of the Central
Division, and the others in the Western Division. Then came 1906, when a new protectorate –
Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria was created. This protectorate was broken into
the Colony of Lagos, Western, Central and Eastern Provinces. Warri was the headquarters of
the Central Province and the Urhobo and Isoko belonged to the Warri Division of the Central
Province, with Warri serving as Divisional Headquarters. The amalgamation of 1914 resulted
in further re-structuring. The colonial state was broken into provinces. One of these was
Warri Province, to which the Isoko and Urhobo belonged. Within Warri Province, the
Urhobo and Isoko were placed in Warri Division, with Warri as Divisional Headquarters. In
27
the context of this address, the point to stress is that none of
the Nigerian peoples had a say in deciding to which Division, District or Province they would
belong. The British were in these years establishing the colonial state of Nigeria. In the
process they had to break up the territory into administrative units. The administrative units
which the British established were not based on any clearly-worked out principles. Ethnic
homogeneity was clearly not a consideration. The British hardly knew the peoples they
brought together into provinces, divisions and districts. They clearly did not realize that the
new units of administration they created favoured some groups and worked
26
See, for example, Ikime, Obaro, Niger Delta Rivalry , already cited, Chapters 4, 5 and 6, and Ikime, Obaro, The Isoko People ,
Ibadan. Ibadan University Press, 1972, Chapter 4.
27
Ikime, Obaro, Niger Delta Rivalry, Chapter 5
435
hardship on others. Nor did it enter into their thinking that as they brought Nigerians together
into new groupings and for new purposes, they inadvertently threw up new challenges of
relationships between these groups. This was what28happened as we shall
see, between the Isoko and the Urhobo.
The Native Court System:
As the British pushed into the Urhobo and Isoko hinterland from the coast, so they
began to establish agencies for local administration. In the years from 1900-1930, it was the
native courts established by the British that constituted these agencies of local administration.
Details of the Native Court system as it worked among the Urhobo and
Isoko are available in my Niger Delta Rivalry . In this presentation we shall restrict
ourselves to aspects of the working of that system which impacted on Urhobo-Isoko
relations. The native courts established by the British were supposed to replace the peoples’
existing system of justice. They also doubled as local governments charged with discharging
even non-judicial functions of local government. As with provinces, divisions and districts, it
was the British who decided where to site native courts, and which polities in Urhoboland and
Isokoland were to attend which native court. Thus in 1902, a native court was established at
Okpare in the Urhobo polity of Olomu. The Isoko polities of Iyede, Emevor and Owe were
required by law to take their case to the Okpare native court, thereby giving Okpare a
jurisdiction over these Isoko groups that never existed before. The Isoko groups resented the
long distances they were required to cover to attend court. Luckily in 1905 a native court was
established at Iyede which had jurisdiction over Emevor and Owe. In the previous year
(1904), a native court, the first in Isokoland, had been established at Uzere. Oleh, Emede,
Igbide and a number of other towns were required to attend the Uzere court. My people of
Erohwa and those of Ume were put under the native court sited at Patani, an Ijo town.
Inadvertently, British colonial rule began to confer advantages on certain centres, while other
groups resented the new arrangements which required them to leave their territory and go
elsewhere to have their cases adjudicated. In these early years of British rule, the answer our
people found for these new inequities was to ignore the new native courts and carry on as
they had always done. Urhobo-Isoko relations thus continued
on an even keel in this period. In fact as new roads began to be built, as a new pax began to
be established, there was easier and greater movement of peoples and goods in the area of
Urhoboland and Isokoland. Thus part of the consequence of the coming of British colonial
rule was greater and easier contacts between these two peoples. Paradoxically, however,
greater and easier contacts contained the seeds of new conflicts and new tensions.
The Lugardian System:
The amalgamation of 1914 brought with it certain changes. As already indicated, the
entire colonial state was divided into provinces, Warri Province being one. The Urhobo and
Isoko belonged to Warri Division, with headquarters at Warri, the headquarters of the
provincial administration. The head of the provincial administration was the Resident. He
had his office in Warri. A District Officer (D.O.) was in charge of the Division. He also had
his office in Warri. The Ijaw of today’s Delta State, the Itsekiri, most of the Urhobo and all of
the Isoko belonged to Warri Division. The D.O. in Warri was expected to supervise this
entire area. The Isoko were the most distant from headquarters, and only infrequently
28
Ikime, Obaro, In Search of Nigerians…, pp. 16-20
436
received visits from their D.O. This meant that in the year 1914-26 Isoko affairs received
comparatively limited attention from the D.O in Warri. This was a distinct disadvantage.
Amalgamation and the coming of the Lugardian system are sometimes presented as
having brought about radical innovations in the functioning of local government. In fact there
are those who would argue that Lugard introduced “Native Administration” into Southern
Nigeria as from 1914. My position about the Lugardian system in Warri Province has been
29
articulated elsewhere. In the context of today’s discourse, certain comments are
needful. Lugard sought to make a legal distinction between native courts functioning as
judicial institution and native courts functioning as native authorities, i.e. performing the
executive functions of local government. Thus there was a Native Courts Ordinance and a
Native Authorities Ordinance which gave legal backing to the native courts and native
authorities. Among the Isoko and Urhobo, the same personnel constituted the native courts
and native authorities. Because the work of local government had to be done, Lugard
established many more courts in the area of our study than was the case up to 1914. Whereas
there were only three native courts in Isokoland up to 1913, there were seven such courts in
the period 1914-1927. In Urhoboland the numbers were seven in the earlier period and fifteen
in the latter period. No Isoko groups attended court in Urhoboland in the latter period. The
number of courts indicated meant that there were still groups both in Urhoboland and
Isokoland that did not have native courts of their own even in the Lugardian period.
30
British colonial administration at local level in our area of study from 1900-1932 was
dominated by those referred to as Warrant Chiefs. These were the persons appointed to sit
on the native courts. In the period under consideration, quite a number of these warrant chiefs
would not have been appointed had their standing in the traditional system determined their
appointment. Whether the warrant chiefs had traditional status or not, they owed their
appointments to the British more than their people. Once appointed, they became the most
powerful persons in their polities and were wont to abuse their powers. With the court clerks
and court messengers in their khaki uniforms and badges of office, the warrant chiefs made
up the unholy trinity of the Warrant Chief System. There were instances in which the people
rose against them. A few court clerks were killed in some of
these risings. Details are available in my Niger Delta Rivalry and other writings.
Two other aspects of the Lugardian system must receive our attention if we are to
understand what led to the tensions that developed in Urhobo-Isoko relations in the years
1932- c. 1952. Lugard was enamoured of the emirate type of set-up in Northern Nigeria and
the Obaship system in Yorubaland. The emirs and some of the Yoruba obas were gazetted as
“First Class Chiefs.” Some other obas and some non-emir, non-oba chiefs were appointed
“Second Class Chiefs.” Lugard regarded the First Class and Second Class Chiefs as superior
native authorities. This meant that other native authorities in the same Division as the First
Class or Second Class Chief were legally pronounced to be subordinate to the First Class or
Second Class Chief. In our area of study Lugard appointed Omadoghogbone Numa (“Chief
Dore Numa” – “Dore” being the British rendition of Dogho, the shortened form of
Omadoghogbone), an Itsekiri chief, as a Second Class Chief and gazetted all the other native
authorities in Warri Province as subordinate to Dogho. In practice this meant that all the
native authorities in Ijoland, Urhoboland, Isokoland, Ndokwaland (Ukwuani) and Itsekiriland
were made subordinate to an Itsekiri chief who, before this time, had absolutely nothing to do
with these other peoples. Once so appointed, all who had ambitions
29
Ikime, Obaro, Niger Delta Rivalry, Chapter 5
30
Ikime, Obaro, Niger Delta Rivalry, see map facing p. 170.
437
to be appointed to the native courts began to court the favour of Chief Dogho Numa. This
arbitrary paramountcy granted to Dogho became the most odious aspect of British colonial
rule in the period 1918-1932, when Dogho died.
Perhaps Dogho’s arbitrary paramountcy would not have been so odious if Lugard did
not, at the same time, establish a Native Court of Appeal for Warri Province, and appointed
Chief Dogho the permanent President of that court, in his capacity as superior native
authority. Native courts administered “native laws and customs.” Each ethnic group and even
sub-group had its own “native law.” To appoint an Itsekiri to preside over appeals from
Isokoland, Ijoland, Urhoboland and even Ndokwaland – appeals arising from “native law and
custom” was in itself a travesty of justice. Yet the British not only did it, but turned a deaf ear
to the many protests from these other ethnic groups in the years 1918-1926. In 1926, some
action was taken in response to the peoples’ protests. First Sapele and the “Kwale Division”
of Warri Province had a separate Court of Appeal established for them. Then an Ase
Sub-District was established for the Isoko and an Isoko Appeal Court set up in the Ase for
them. An Assistant District Officer was appointed to oversee the Isoko, with his base in Ase.
For the first time under British colonial rule, the Isoko were recognized as a separate group.
Admittedly, Ase is not located in Isokoland, it being in Aboh territory. But Ase is much
closer to Isokoland than Warri. The Isoko were naturally delighted at the British reaction to
their protests against the arbitrary paramountcy of Dogho over them through the Native
Court of Appeal in Warri.
The Anti-Tax Riots of 1927-28 and the Emergence of the “Sobo Division”:
Lugard left Nigeria well before 1927. However, it was in that year that the British
decided to implement his idea about raising revenue for Native Administration through
taxing the people. The introduction of taxation into Warri Province led to an eruption of
violent riots all over the province. 31The most striking feature of these riots was that it was
against the warrant chiefs, the court clerks and court messengers that the peoples of the
province vented their anger. Many had their houses burnt; many were viciously manhandled.
The British, as was expected, reacted with greater violence, arrests and imprisonments. The
riots, however, achieved a major success – the reorganisation of native administration in the
then Warri Province. This reorganisation was 32 preceded by a
thorough investigation of the peoples’ socio-political systems. It was this investigation that
produced the Intelligence Reports on the various polities of the province, which
researchers continue to use up till today. The investigation having been concluded, the
British studied the reports and reached the conclusion that Native Administration in the
province should be based on the traditional system. For the British, this meant the setting up
of village courts and “Clan” courts for each polity in the province, with members chosen
either according to tradition or elected by the people, not appointed directly by the British.
The logical corollary was that administrative Divisions should henceforth follow ethnic lines,
in order to remove the kind of disaffection that Dogho’s arbitrary paramountery had created.
Accordingly, the Resident, Warri Province, set about reorganizing the province. He
established four Divisions – Aboh Division, Western Ijo Division, Sobo Division and Jekri-
Sobo Division.
31
For details see Obaro Ikime, “The Anti-Tax Riots in Warri Province, 1927-28” in Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria ,
Vol. III, No. 3, December 1966, pp 559- 573.
32
For details see Obaro Ikime, Niger Delta Rivalry, Chapter 6.
438
Despite all the paper work that preceded this reorganization, despite the guideline of
letting Native Administration follow traditional practice, the Jekri-Sobo Division and the
Sobo Division were deviations from the enunciated policy indicated above. The Jekri-Sobo
Division was made up of the Itsekiri and five Urhobo polities-Udu, Okpe, Oghara, Uvwie and
Agbon. Each of this polities had its local administration based on its traditional system, just
as the Itsekiri had theirs. But at Divisional level, these Urhobo polities and the Itsekiri were
to have a common Native Administration and a common Treasury. The Resident argued that
the Itsekiri and these Urhobo groups were so socially mixed through marriage and other
contacts that they could be expected in the not distant future to fuse into one ethnic group!! It
was strange reasoning. From the very beginning, the Urhobo in the Jekri- Sobo Division
protested against this arrangement, and they kept protesting until 1 April, 1938 when two
separate Native Administrations – Western Urhobo Native Administration with headquarters
in Orerokpe, and an Itsekiri Native Administration with Warri as headquarters, were
established. For no really satisfactory reason, the British retained the “Jekri-Sobo Division”
even in 1938, though the two ethnic groups in it had been granted separate Native
Administrations. Let the point be made here that the Urhobo groups not in the Jekri-Sobo
Division supported their brothers in their protests against inclusion in the Jekri-Sobo
Division.
The Creation of Sobo Division and Developments in

Isoko-Urhobo Relation, 1932–1952
The tax riots that erupted in Warri Province in the years 1927-28 were more than a
protest against taxation. Taxation merely provided the occasion for the peoples of the then
Warri Province to express their dissatisfaction with British colonial rule as it had impacted
on them at the local level. 33For their part, the British were forced, for the first time, to take
a hard look at their policies as well as to study the indigenous socio-political systems of the
peoples over whom they exercised rulership. The plans for re-organization of local
government (what the British called Native Administration) based, as it was theoretically
supposed to be, on the peoples’ pre-colonial socio-political systems necessarily placed
emphasis on the ethnic groups, or ethnic nationalities as some prefer to call them. The
1930s–1950s thus witnessed increasing ethnic awareness among our peoples in Warri
Province as elsewhere. Greater ethnic awareness and sensitivity produced greater tensions
between our ethnic groups. This was, in some ways, an unintended result of British colonial
rule. That fact, as we shall see as we examine Urhobo-Isoko reactions in the years 1932- 1952,
did nothing to assuage the tensions which developed.
As we go on now to examine Isoko-Urhobo relations, we will discover that the British
knew very little about the Isoko people. As I said earlier, in the years 1900-1926 the Isoko
were very distant from Warri, the seat of the British government in what became Warri
Province. Visits by British administrative officers to Isokoland were few and far between. It
was this which led to the creation of Ase Sub-District as we saw earlier. However, with the
reorganization of the 1930s, both the Ase sub-District and the Isoko court of Appeal were
34
abrogated in 1932 when the Isoko were transferred to the newly created Sobo Division. In
other words, after only six years in which the Isoko were made to feel that they were part of
33
See Footnote 24 above
34
National Archives Ibadan (hereafter NAI), CSO 26/2 File 11857 Vol X, Annual Report, Warri Province 1932, p. 42, paragraph
85.
439
what was going on in Warri Province, that feeling was destroyed. The Isoko must thus have
gone into their new Division feeling ill-used by the British.
In my study of inter-group relations, it has become quite clear to me that the
advantaged group(s) can never enter into the feelings of the disadvantaged. So it was
between the Urhobo and Isoko in the years 1932-1952. In the 1931 Annual Report on Warri
Province we read: “The sub-tribes inhabiting the WARRI Province are the “JEKRI, the
35
SOBO, the KWALE-IBOS and the Western IJOS”. The ISOKO are not mentioned. Yet
the British had created a Sub-District for the Isoko in 1926. In the Annual Report for 1932 it
was reported, “The Sobo Division…includes the Isoko–speaking SOBO clans of the former
Ase Sub-District”. 36In that same report, Uzere, an Isoko polity, is described as “the
headquarters village group of the Isoko SOBO clan”! 37
All of this, it would appear by hind sight, in preparation for lumping the Isoko with ten
Urhobo polities in the Sobo Division which came into existence in 1932. The baffling
thing is that these two reports were written in the years in which British Intelligence
Reports were being written on all the Urhobo and Isoko clans. None of those reports
describes the Isoko as Urhobo or the Urhobo as Isoko. As we shall see presently, Urhobo
leaders of this period were quick to cash in on these British misconceptions and to declare in
rather insulting language that the Isoko are Urhobo. As I prepared for this address, I re-
visited the Warri Provincial Annual Reports and discovered that in the seven years from
1939-1945, the name ISOKO does not appear in the British colonial officers’ reports on
Native Administration. 38It was as if the Isoko were not part of Warri Province; as if they
did not exist. Anybody interested in checking on the point here made should go and read the
reports to which I have alluded. Against this background, I can fully understand why it was
that on 28 October, 1945, all of the Isoko polities signed a petition to the Senior Resident in
Warri asking that the name Urhobo Division be changed to Isoko-Urhobo Division. We will
return to this petition later.
Developments in the Sobo Division (later Urhobo Division) fell into three phases. The
first phase covered the years 1932-1939; the second 1940-1949, and the third 1950 to
independence. The first phase did not, it would appear, result in much acrimony. Perhaps this
was because the twelve Isoko polities (i.e. all of Isokoland) and the ten Urhobo polities were
savouring the new experiment. Even so, however, these years laid the foundation for the
Urhobo attitude that came to the fore in the 1940s. The Central Executive Council that
39
constituted the native authority sat in Ughelli, the seat of the District Officer. The court
also sat in Ughelli. This meant that all Isoko who had to transact any business at Divisional
headquarters had to travel to Ughelli. This is what I mean when I argue, as I have done in a
number of fora, that colonial rule created new inequalities among the peoples of Nigeria.
Ughelli acquired a new and unusual importance for the Isoko in the years after 1932. I have
not researched into it, but I would not at all be surprised if Isoko fathers gave their daughters
in marriage to Ughelli men, so they could have a home in Ughelli whenever they had to visit
Ughelli. Because all of Isokoland was in the Sobo Division, even those Isoko who in earlier
years had had little connection with Ughelli were compelled by the new realities to be
Ughelli-conscious.
35
Same file as in footnote 27, Annual Report, Warri Province, 1931, p. 7, paragraph 13.
36
Same file as in Footnote 27, Annual Report, Warri Province, 1932, p. 2, paragraph 3.
37
Ibid, p. 45
38
These reports can be found in NAI, CSO 26/2, File 11857, Vol. XVII
39
See Footnote 27, Annual Report, Warri Province, 1932.
440
It was in the years 1940-1949 that the greatest tensions developed between the Urhobo
of the Urhobo Division and the Isoko. In December 1940, there was established the Urhobo
Central Native Authority, as it was then called. There was also a Divisional Court of First
Instance and a Divisional Court of Appeal established for the Division. Ughelli remained
40
headquarters. Each polity had a “Clan Council” which served as a subordinate
Native Authority. All the polities had equal representatives (two each) in the Central Native
Authority except for two which had three representatives each by virtue of observable larger
population. In the context of this address, the details of the working of the subordinate Native
Authorities do not concern us. By the 1940s the Isoko had become openly unhappy. Let the
point be made that in these years the Isoko were not asking for a separate Division. What
they wanted was for the Division to be called Isoko-Urhobo of Urhobo-Isoko Division in
order for their identity to be recognized. At no time in the history of these two peoples before
the 1930s were the Isoko regarded as Urhobo, even though their language had some
similarity to the Urhobo language. To the chagrin and anger of the Isoko, the Urhobo not
only opposed their proposals but began to make claims that the Isoko are Urhobo. It is this
claim that generated the tensions between the two peoples in the 1940s and 1950s.
On December 20, 1940, the Resident, Warri Province, Major R.L. Bowen, addressed
a meeting of the Urhobo Central Native Authority which sat in Ughelli. He began his
addres with, “I salute the chiefs and people of the Urhobo Tribe gathered here 41 today”. It is easy
enough to imagine how the Isoko delegates felt. The Resident was, by his address saying the
Isoko did not exist. Then at a meeting of the Urhobo Executive Council held on 2 November,
1944, the Urhobo members proposed that Chief Oveje, who had been elected Chairman of
the Council (Oveje represented the Urhobo polity of Olomu) should be elected as “the
42
Annual Chairman of the Urhobo Divisional Council”. The regulations provided
that the Chairman should be elected each year. The Urhobo were working for a permanent
Urhobo Chairman. At the same time it was proposed that Mr. (later Chief) Mukoro Mowoe,
another Urhobo man, should be appointed Vice-Chairman, even though no provision was
43
made for a Vice-Chairman in the regulations. The Resident turned down both proposals
on the grounds that the regulations made it impossible for the proposals to be considered. 44
These proposals by the Urhobo clearly indicated that they had no consideration whatever for
the Isoko. Again, it is easy to imagine how the Isoko felt.
At a meeting on June 2, 1945, the Isoko delegates again asked for a change in the name
of the Division. The records tell us that the reason they gave for the change of name was that
“they felt that their name was dying off by the present name”. The Urhobo 45
delegates opposed a change. Because it was clear that the two groups could not come to an
agreement, the Council decided that the Chief Commissioner of the Western Provinces
should be asked to take a decision. It was probably what went on at this meeting that led to
the setting up of a “Select Committee” of the Council to deliberate further on the matter and
40
NAI, CSO 26/2, File 11857, Vol. XVII, Annual Report, Warri Province, 1941, p. 4, paragraph 13.
41
NAI, War Prof., File 115, Vol I, Urhobo Native Administration Reorganization, Resident’s address to a meeting held on 20
December, 1940, p 1.
42
Ibid, Meeting of the Urhobo Executive Council, held on 2 November, 1944, paragraph 9.
43
Ibid
44
Ibid, Letter from Resident, Warri Province, to D. O., Ughelli, 17 November, 1944, at p 6 of the file.
45
Ibid, Minues of Urhobo Divisional Council, 2 June, 1945
441
make recommendations. The Committee met on July 1, 1944, and January 12, 1945. The
Urhobo members were Ovie Arumu, Duku, Obodo, Revd. Agori Iwe, Chief Ugen, and I.
Jeje. The Isoko were led by Chief J.A. Akiri. Other members were D.A. Ogbor, Ogero,
Ogodo, Unuafe and Okujeni. 46
For the Urhobo, Revd. Agori Iwe was the lead speaker. He argued that “The name
Isoko is a local name for that part of the Urhobo nation”. 47According to him, Isoko is to be
understood in the same way as Okpe, Jesse and other Urhobo sub-groups. Stated the
Urhobo group: “From the beginning, since the advent of our government, the Isokos,
48
Urhobos, Okpe and Jesse have been answering the name ‘Urhobo’.” The advent of our
government. Whose government? Urhobo government or British government? If the latter
(which is the only thing that makes sense), how can the coming of the British constitute the
beginning of the emergence of “Urhobo”? Chief Ugen was even more outrageous in his
contribution. According to him, “Isoko is a nickname”. A change of name “is nothing but
retrogression”. 49The Isoko were stunned that all of Isokoland was being likened to Jesse,
Agbarho or Ughienvwen. Chief Akiri reminded his Urhobo colleagues that twelve Isoko
“clans” were represented on the Council. How could the Urhobo, in the light of that reality
argue that Isoko was just like Jesse? The Isoko insisted: “we were not originally called
together (sic),” 50meaning that never before the new regime were the Isoko called Urhobo –
which position, I believe, all at this conference would agree. Needless to say, the Select
Committee could come to no agreement.
It was no doubt the insults heaped on the Isoko by the Urhobo that led the Isoko Union
to call a mass meeting of the Isoko for October 1945. Permit me to quote three paragraphs of
51
the petition:
The Division comprises the two co-ordinate entities -Isoko and Urhobo; and
therefore, naturally, the Division should be named “Isoko-Urhobo Division” and
not “Urhobo Division” to the exclusion and disregard of Isoko. In this respect
Isoko felt, and rightly, of course, that she has been meanly treated and regarded.
Our appeal to amend the name of our Division has started receiving official
treatment in our Divisional Council since last year 1994; but no decision has
been reached. The delay of this matter is wounding the dignity and pride of
Isoko as a nation and is creating an air of dissension among the two communities
forming the Division. The present name as we see it must necessarily bring
chaos since it favours one (Urhobo) establishing her name as a general name,
and disregards the other (Isoko).
To avoid wounding the social peace between us, we appeal to your Honour,
our Resident, to intervene to decide the issue to the interest of both of us.
46
Ibid, p. 37
47
Ibid, p. 36
48
Ibid, p. 36 (emphasis added by me)
49
Ibid, p. 37
50
Ibid, p. 37
51
Ibid, p. 67
442
The tone of the petition is amazingly devoid of rancour.

Permit me a little digression. The President General of the Isoko Union at the time of
the petition quoted above was Mr. S.O. Efeturi. Mr. Efeturi was ordained a priest in the
Anglican Communion, after training at St. Michael’s College, Awka, in 1946. Revd. Efuturi,
as he then became, served as the Vicar, St. Andrew’s (Anglican) Church, Warri, in the late
1950s. Before he was posted to Warri, there existed an “Urhobo-Itsekiri Section” of the
church which met for worship in the church building in the afternoon on Sunday. During
Rev. Efeturi’s tenure as Vicar, he established an “Isoko Section” in St. Andrew’s Church.
Because no time could be found for this new section to worship in the church building, it
used to meet in one of the classrooms of St. Andrews C.M.S. School, Warri. The Urhobo
were outraged that this Isoko Vicar established an Isoko arm of the church in Warri. The
Revd. Agori Iwe, the same person who had said the Isoko were simply one of the Urhobo
clans was Archdeacon. When Revd. Efeturi was transferred from Warri to Oguta in Igboland
(we were still part of the Diocese on the Niger then), the Isoko smelt a rat. Did the politics of
52
Urhobo Division filter into the politics of the Church of God?. The
Revd. Efuteri served from 1946 to the early 1960s. Not once was he preferred. Did he pay a
price for daring to lead his people in their struggle to establish their God- given identity?
Although the British authorities did not in 1945 grant the Isoko demand for a change of
name of the Division, fairness demands that we put on record the fact that the Court of
Appeal which was established in 1940 was made to sit in Ughelli to hear Urhobo appeals and
in Oleh, in Isokoland, to hear Isoko appeals. When the court sat in Ughelli, it was presided
over by an Urhobo “Clan Head”. When it sat in Oleh, it was presided over by an Isoko “Clan
Head”. Because of the basic fairness of the Isoko demand for a change of name for the
Division, one would have thought that the British would grant the demand. They did not. Nor
did the Action Group government of Obafemi Awolowo that took over from the British in
1957. The British, however, made one more concession. We turn our attention to that
concession now.
The issue of the name remained a sore point at the meetings of the Council. The
debates were always acrimonious, and the District Officer was inclined to prohibit further
debate. In 1946 he thought the Resident should impose a settlement. Wrote he, “The Isoko
desire is undoubtedly earnest”. He pointed out that the idea of eventual separation had
already surfaced. “It would not, in my opinion, be altogether advisable to reject the Isoko
53
request merely because the urhobo elements… cannot agree”. Despite views like these
here expressed, the British, at provincial and regional levels, kept arguing that the Isoko
language, which they called a dialect, was so related to the Urhobo that there was no basis
for a change of name! This was a strange argument for persons who were British. Despite the
fact that the Scots and the English speak a language that is called English, the Scots remain
Scots and the English English. When we refer to the two groups we use the word British –
not English, not Scots. Let us also recall the Ben Elugbe thesis about Edo and the other
Edoid languages being of the same antiquity. What this means is that Isoko did not develop
from Urhobo or Urhobo from Isoko. The amazing thing was that the argument about
language was not based on any empirical research. Presumably, because the Isoko have a
smaller population than the Urhobo, it was assumed that the smaller grew from the larger! I
repeat that, within my knowledge, there was no basis for the Urhobo claim, which arose from
the British decision to place the Isoko in the Urhobo Division. When both the
52
Personal knowledge. I attended the “Isoko Section” of the St. Andrew’s Church on a number of occasions when I was on holidays
from the University College, Ibadan
53
NAI, CSO 26/2 file 11857, Vol XVII, Annual Report, Warri Province, 1946
443
Isoko and Urhobo were in the Warri Division in the earlier years, the Urhobo did not claim
that the Isoko are Urhobo. They began to do so only after the Sobo Division came into being.
In September 1949 all of the Isoko polities again met over this issue and sent yet and
another petition to the Chief Commissioner, Western Provinces. This petition insisted that
the Urhobo and Isoko are different peoples and that, therefore, the name of the Division as it
was was “indefensible”. The petition drew the attention of the Chief Commissioner to the
fact that England, Wales and Scotland are not together known as England but as Great
Britain! The Isoko were not averse to federating with the Urhobo in one Division, but the
name of the Division should reflect the federating entities – Isoko-Urhobo Division. It is only
54
as I prepared for this address that I saw this petition for the first time. I have found it
so persuasively written, and its language so controlled, that I attach it as an appendix to this
address.
It is difficult to appreciate why the British took the position they did. In the same
province was a Division named Jerki-Sobo Division, so named because it was made up of
Itsekiri and some Urhobo polities. Even with that name, the Urhobo kept agitating to be
removed from that Division. The Isoko were not, in the petitions I have seen, asking to be
given a separate Division as of 1949. They merely asked that their name be reflected in the
name of the Division. The British refused. Was it that the D.O. with his seat in Ughelli was
inclined to respect the wishes of the Urhobo? Was it that there were certain influential
Urhobo in warri who had the ears of the Resident?
Be that as it may, the Resident eventually reached the conclusion that “reorganization,
involving recognition of the Isoko aspiration for more direct and intimate conduct of their
own affairs was a matter of some urgeney”. 55 By the end of 1949 the Chief Commissioner
granted approval in principle to an Urhobo/Isoko Federal Council that would serve as
Superior Native Authority to an Isoko District Council which would sit in Oleh and an
Urhobo District Council that would sit in Ughelli. The Federal Council was to sit in Ughelli.
! This arrangement came into legal existence in April 1950. The Resident reported at the end
of that year the Isoko were not completely satisfied that they had to deal with a Superior
Native Authority and Treasury in Ughelli. But for the first time since 1932 the Isoko now
had a Council that catered for Isokoland as a whole. It took another thirteen years before the
Isoko were granted a separate administrative Division, after the Midwest Region was
created. No other group in the old Warri, later Delta, Province was subjected to that kind of
administrative neglect, not to say oppression.
The events discussed in this section of our presentation covered only twenty years of
the history of the Isoko and Urhobo peoples – twenty years during which the British colonial
administration refused, by acts of commission and omission to recognize the separate identity
of the Isoko people; twenty years during which the Urhobo leaders, taking advantage of
British administrative arrangements, began to orchestrate the claim that the Isoko are
Urhobo.
Within my knowledge, nothing has done more to sour Isoko-Urhobo relations than the
developments we have just been discussing. It was as if the history of peaceful co-existence
and socio-economic activities between various Isoko and Urhobo sub-groups was forgotten.
The Isoko struggle began to be seen as an anti-Urhobo activity. Up till this day, most Urhobo
people, learned or unlearned, consider us, the Isoko people, as Urhobo. Peter Ekeh, Chairman
of the Urhobo Historical Society, writing as recently as 1998, which is just seven
54
NAI, War Prof., File 115, Vol I, Urhobo Native Administration Reorganization. The petition is at p. 161.
55
NAI, CSO 26/2 file 11857, Vol XVIII, Annual Report, Warri Province, 1949, p 16, paragraph 9.
444
years ago, said that “the Sobo/Urhobo Division was free from extra-ethnic supervision”. 56
Although subtly crafted, Ekeh was implying that the Isoko and Urhobo are one. I reacted to
that statement, and Ekeh faithfully published my reaction to his position and indicated in that
footnote that “the point [Ikime] is making is a noteworthy one to which [he] had not given
57
any great thought before now”. What was Professor Ekeh saying in that footnote?
He was saying that until that point in time he had assumed indeed that the Isoko are Urhobo.
In 1998. Had he also assumed that the Urhobo are Isoko? Can A be equal to B, and B not be
equal to A? Indeed it is only the one who wears the shoe who knows where it pinches. The
question which arises, is: What is the basis of this assumption? I know of no historical or
other basis save that which we have been discussing in this section of this address. So
pernicious has been the impact of British administrative arrangements on Isoko- Urhobo
relations.
The Post-1952 Period
Soon after the events of 1950, Nigeria entered into the era of decolonization. In the
Western Region to which we then belonged, Nigerians began to get involved in governance.
Chief Obafemi Awolowo became charged with responsibility for Chieftaincy Affairs and
Local Government. Under him a new system of local government was put in place. This new
system gradually gave the Isoko greater autonomy in the ordering of their local affairs. But
the Isoko remained part of the Urhobo Division, despite unabated Isoko protests. As a
university undergraduate, I used to go to the gallery of the Western House of Assembly to
listen to the debates in the House. Mr (now Chief) James Otobo, who represented Isoko in
that House, was officially referred to as the Member for “Urhobo East”! Thus in government
circles, right up to independence, it was as if we, the Isoko, did not have any legal existence
in our own country. And this was solely, and only, because the British colonial authorities
decided that the Isoko people should be in the same Division as ten of the Urhobo polities.
No one who has not suffered the kind of denial inflicted on the Isoko can enter into their
feelings or imagine the impact of that denial on the psyche of the Isoko people.
Against the backdrop of the experience of the years 1932 into independence, when the
campaign began for the creation of the Midwest Region, the Isoko gave, as a condition for
their support, the creation of an Isoko Division in the new region. This condition was
accepted, and fulfilled in 1963. The struggle that began in 1932 did not achieve its purpose
until 1963. It took over thirty years.
In the years since 1963, Isoko-Urhobo relations have, on the whole being peaceful. I
fear, however that the tensions of the 1932 – 1952 period have left a near permanent dent on
Isoko-Urhobo relations. There are still many Urhobo who cannot accept the Isoko in any
other mould save that of the Agori Iwes and Ugens. My limited experience is that in the
inevitable competition for office and positons among the political, professional and business
elite in the wider context of Delta State and/or Nigeria, the Urhobo and Isoko elite continue
to operate against the backdrop of the years 1932-1952.
56
Peter P. Ekeh, “Mukoro Mowoe and Urhobo Destiny and History” in Isaac O. James Mowoe (Editor), Leadership, Unity and the
Future of the Urhobos , p 51. The book in which Professor Ekeh has a chapter is a collection of lectures on the occasion of the 50th
Anniversary of the death of Chief Mukoro Mowoe. The lectures were mimeographed and bound. It carries no date of “publication”,
but the lectures were given in 1998.
57
See footnote at p. 51 of the book cited above, I am grateful to Prof. Ekeh for quoting my view in full in that footnote.
445
The creation of Delta State has given the Urhobo a new status, that of being the largest
ethnic group in Delta State. And, like all other majorities in the Nigerian political
arrangement, they have tended to exploit this majority status to the fullest. Some years ago, I
was invited to deliver a Keynote Address to a meeting of stakeholders at the Delta State
University. My letter of invitation was delivered to me by an Urhobo Professor at that
University. He came to Ibadan and personally handed over the letter to me. The same
Professor was the Master of Ceremonies at the lecture. He invited all manner of people to the
“High Table” except the Keynote speaker, an Isoko by the name Obaro Ikime. It took the
intervention of the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of the University,
an Ijo, to get the learned Urhobo Professor to ask me to the “High Table”. A small incident
won’t you say? But there was a delegation of the Isoko Development Union at that lecture.
That delegation was extremely furious at the way I was treated, and told me so after the
lecture. The Master of Ceremonies may have made a genuine mistake. But because of
lingering memories of past years, that mistake was interpreted as a deliberate slight on the
Isoko, the argument being that were the keynote speaker an Urhobo, the Master of
Ceremonies would never have made that “mistake”. Why have I chosen to tell this story?
Because I consider it necessary to warn the Urhobo and Isoko elite to take due heed to
themselves. Although Isoko-Urhobo relations have not resulted, and I pray they never result,
in the kind of conflagrations we have witnessed in Urhobo-Itsekiri and Ijo- Itsekiri relations,
those relations (Isoko-Urhobo) remain very sensitive because of the Urhobo attitude to the
Isoko to which we have drawn attention in this address. Because we, the elite, are the ones
who have access to knowledge of the type we are sharing here, we owe our respective
peoples a duty not to allow personal interests and ambition, or the interests of a small clique,
to drive us into actions that can ignite the fire of inter-ethnic violence. When such a fire
breaks out, the losses to our peoples far outweigh whatever we the elite gain from
manipulating ethnic sensitivities in our favour. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
Conclusion
We must now begin to draw this address to a close. It is under the auspices of the
Urhobo Historical Society that I am delivering this address. It is as a historian that I am
speaking. I am the first to admit that we do not, to my knowledge, have any detailed
scholarly work on Urhobo-Isoko relations, and to urge that such a study be undertaken. Our
presently limited knowledge indicates contacts between some of those who today constitute
the Urhobo and Isoko during the years of migrations. Those contacts provide no basis
whatsoever for postulating that one group was vassal to the other. The Evwreni, for example,
are said to have migrated from Igboland. The Evwreni cannot, for that reason, be classified
as Igbo! The tradition of origin as we have them today do not provide any basis for a claim
that the Urhobo are Isoko or Isoko Urhobo. While some of what today we can properly call
Isoko and Urhobo sub-groups did engage in “war” in ancient times, we do not have any
evidence, in the present state of our knowledge, to postulate a conqueror- conquered
relationship either way. Those who have done some work on these two peoples speak of
intermarriage between them. This has persisted over the years. Sub-groups from the two
peoples have been involved in inter-group commercial relations for centuries as they
th
attended each others’ markets. Evidence from the early 20 century indicates that
persons who were Urhobo submitted themselves for trial at what the British called the “Eni
446
Juju” – of Uzere . 58 Those who went to Uzere did so on their own volition. We cannot,
therefore, use attendance at the “Eni-Juju” as an index of Urhobo-Isoko relations.
The history of missionary activities in Isokoland and Urhoboland reveals that whereas
Isokoland eventually fell into the jurisdiction of what was known as the Niger Mission with
Onitsha as headquarters, Urhoboland fell first under James Johnson’s Niger Delta Pastorate
59
and later under the Yoruba mission. The Niger Mission’s Isoko District which included
all of Isokoland, also included Ughweru and Evwreni. I believe that this is what explains the
fact that many Ughweru and Evwreni people speak the Isoko language fluently. When in the
heat of the 1940s the Isoko members of the Divisional Council of the Urhobo Division drew
attention to the fact here adverted to, the Revd. Agori Iwe was quick to counter that the
missionaries did not have “nation or tribe in mind when they formed their Districts.” What
60
the Reverend Gentleman implied was that when it came to administrative
Districts or Divisions, the British always followed “nation or tribe”! He had to believe this
for him to have argued, as he did, that the Isoko are to be seen in the same way as Jesse and
other Urhobo sub-groups. However, there was the Jekri-Sobo Division which clearly
contradicted the presumed ethnic homogeneity of administrative Divisions. The truth is that
in inter-group relations we always ignore facts that do not support our position.
In his Assessment Report on Olomu Clan, S.E. Johnson, commenting on the Okpare
Native Court wrote that the Native court Areas “were on a territorial rather than on clan
basis”. This point had been made earlier in this address when we looked at the way the
British set up their administrative machinery. Onitsha was for a while part of a Central
Province with Warri as headquarters! Would any one want to argue that for that reason
Onitsha belongs to the same ethnic group as those who lived in Warri? In the case of the
Urhobo and the Isoko, the British kept pointing out that the languages and socio-political
institutions were similar. Could not languages and institutions of groups that were in a given
ecological zone become similar over time? At any rate similarity is not the same thing
as sameness. All the Isoko polities for example, have the odio institution. Among the
Urhobo, only Ughweru and Evwreni have the odio institution. The Isoko do not have the
ohovwore institution of many of the Urhobo polities. In my view, the British position was
based on inadequate knowledge of the two peoples. It is amazing that Urhobo leaders like
Agori Iwe could make the kind of statements they made, simply because the British took an
action based on inadequate knowledge. I am sure it would shock some listening to me when I
say that the British classified Ughweru as an “Isoko-speaking clan”, and this in the 1930s.
Did the61fact that many Ughweru people speak Isoko make them Isoko? It is to
prevent misinformation of this type that the historian cannot afford to assume that whatever
the colonial authorities wrote is therefore correct.
Let us, as we close, remind ourselves of some of the points made in the Preamble
that should now make more sense “Historical events have created all the basic human
groupings – countries, religions, classes – and all the loyalties that attach to these.” The
Urhobo, the Isoko are a product of history. Time there was when it made more sense to speak
of Olomu, Agbon, Ughelli rather than of Urhobo; of Uzere, Erohwa, Ozoro, Aviara
58
For details see Obaro Ikime, The Isoko People, Ibadan, Ibadan University Press, pp 46 – 48.
59
For details see Obaro Ikime, The Isoko People, Chapter 4, and Samuel Erivwo, A History of Christianity in Nigeria – The Urhobo,
The Isoko and The Itsekiri, Ibadan, Daystar Press, 1979, Chapter 3.
60
NAI, War Prof. File 115, Vol I, Urhobo Native Administration Reogranization , p. 36, Minutes of Meeting of Select
Committee, 1 July, 1944.
61
NAI, CIO 26/3, File 26767 Vol. 1, Reorganization of Warri Province, Attachment II at the end of the file.
447
rather than of Isoko. But history created a British Colony and Protectorate in what we now
know as Nigeria. In that setting, people began to be referred to by the languages they speak.
That is how the Isoko – those who speak Isoko, and the Urhobo – those who speak Urhobo,
came into being. As these new groupings came into existence, so loyalties developed around
them over time. It is those loyalties that are at play when we speak of Isoko – Urhobo
relations. Unless we know the background to the emergence of these loyalties, we mis-handle
them and worsen inter-group relations as a consequence.
“It is the events recorded in history that have generated all the emotions, the ideals, that
make life meaningful, that have given men something to live for, struggle over and die for”.
The history of Urhobo-Isoko relations in the period 1932-1952 is an eloquent testimony to
the truth of this assertion. A Sobo Division came into being. Neither the Isoko nor the
Urhobo were responsible for its creation. Once created, however, it generated emotions and
loyalties which had the unintended result of worsening Isoko – Urhobo relations. Thus the
Urhobo argued as if what was on the ground in the 1932-1952 period had always been there –
as if the Isoko had always been part of Urhoboland when, in fact, in 1926 the same British
who created the Sobo Division had created a sub-district for the Isoko! This is why we need
to know our history, so that we can have a better understanding of how things came to be.
The understanding which history enables us to have should stand us in good stead when we
deal with contemporary inter-group relations. That is why we study history: so that
knowledge of our past can inform the position we take in the present, and guide our planning
for the future. Those who lead our ethnic nationalities today will do well to seek the
understanding that history provides.
Sobo Division:
What’s in a name? Although never before today have I addressed Urhobo-Isoko

relations in as much detail as I have done in this address, I have had cause to draw attention
to the issue of administrative arrangements and inter-group relations on at least three
previous occasions – and all in public lectures such as this. I 62
have warned that those in
government today should avoid the mistakes of the past. I have asked: why call a local
government with Koko as headquarters Warri North? Why, is a local government with Otor
r’Ughienwe as headquarters called Ughelli South? What has Ughelli got to do with it? Will it
surprise anyone if one hundred years from now some scholar reaches the conclusion that
those in the Ughelli South local government area were vassals of Ughelli? Take another
example – Warri South West Local Government. Given a ruler with the title Olu of Warri;
given the fact that in the Warri South West Local Government are Ijo who do not accept the
suzerainty of the Olu of Warri, could not a neutral name have been found for that local
government? Just as the name a person bears is his identity, so in some degree is the name
we give to our administrative units. It was because the name of the Division created in 1932
was Sobo (later Urhobo) Division that the Isoko who were part of that Division were
regarded by the Urhobo leaders of that age as Urhobo, with the attendant tensions that that
name generated. Let us, therefore, avoid the pitfalls of the past, as we take decisions today;
as we plan for the future. Delta State of which the Urhobo and Isoko are part has seen
frightening violence in our days as the Urhobo have fought the Itsekiri; as the Itsekiri have
fought the Ijaw. Let there be no more fights. Let all of us dedicate ourselves to promoting
peaceful relations among our various peoples. As always, however, there can be no peace
without justice. Let no group, however large, however powerful, consider that any other
62
This is, in fact, the main subject of the lecture I delivered in commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the death of Chief
Mukoro Mowoe. It is published in the same book cited in footnote 49 above.
448
group, however small, will allow itself to be destroyed without a fight. “Live and let live”
may be a trite epigram. It is, nevertheless, an important ingredient of peaceful inter-group
relations, as of inter-personal relations.
Mr. Chairman, I am not sure whether I have passed the tests that I ask those who will
write history to pass! What I have tried to do in this address is to present us with a slice of
the history of the Isoko and Urhobo, and to ask us to seek to understand Urhobo-Isoko
Relations in the light of this history. My hope is that the understanding that history gives will
enable us to temper emotionalism with a degree of realism. If in the process of trying to do
this I have given offence, I crave your forgiveness, even as I dare to hope that we have all
gained some new insights today. It remains for me, once again to thank the Urhobo
Historical Society for the privilege that has been mine to deliver this address, and to thank
you, Mr. Chairman, and you Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen for your kind attention.
Thank you very much indeed.
APPENDIX
EGWAE OWHEGBE ISOKO,

c/o M. A. Warioghae/Sect.
Ozoro
27th
Sept. 1949
The Chief Commissioner Western Provinces,

Secretariat,
IBADAN
Resident,
The
Thru’ Warri.
Sir,
At a meeting of the Egwae Owhegbe Isoko which is a confederation of all Isoko

Towns, it was decided that the Divisional name ‘Urhobo Division’’ is not only wrong but
should be changed for a better. You are also reminded that this issue went before several
officers in 1946.
The name “Urhobo Diviison” could have been right if the Division comprised a
homogenous community of Urhobo tribesmen. But this is not the case – the Division thus
named includes the Isoko tribe. There is plainly therefore an error in nomenclature
fundamental and indefensible. The Egwae Owhegbe Isoko submits that the name should be
thus amended – “ISOKO-URHOBO DIVISION”.
The British is reputed the world over as loving fair play. We also know that our
honoured administrative officers will disdain to defend what they see is both wrong and
oppressive. This special question of the value of a federating capacity in a name is not new to
the Englishmen. England, Wales, and Scotland are not together known as England or any
other local tribesname but as Great Britain. In that single name can be seen common sense
and fair play to all the entities that make up Great Britain. Even in a colonial territory like the
Sudan the name is aptly qualified by the epithet ‘Anglo –Egyptian’. Here again fair play
449
is self evident. We shall not be denied fair play. The Egwae Owhegbe Isoko begs to submit
that a better name for the Division should be ‘ISOKO URHOBO DIVISION’’.
We shall not be deterred by arguments that our tribe is small., or that this request is a
tendency towards separatism and disunity, or that after all we are of the same stock as the
Urhobos so one name is enough or that the office work involved in changing the name is so
big as to be undesirable. We know that our tribe is large in this division, your statistics can
tell you that. We know too that we do not desire separation. Besides, it is not true unity in
which one loses his identity; it is a submersion. An attempted fusion of people, every body
can tell you, is an impossibility. The Isoko people are not prepared to surrender their identity,
or adopt a new one. About Isoko and Urhobos being one stock, all the world is one stock, yet
people delight in retaining their identities, the Briton in particular. All these arguments we
have heard before and consider trivial and unstatesmanlike because they evade the issue. The
Egwae Owhegbe Isoko submits that the name ‘’Urhobo Division’’ is an anomalous
nomenclature that is outdated and must be substituted with the name ‘’Isoko- Urhobo
division’’. They would view opposition to this submission as an act of oppression, a forcing
of a loyal tribe to lose its tribal identity for political convenience.
The merit of the suggested new name is that it gives both tribes their identities and,
therefore, scope for the unity of the two or more recognized entities. It recognizes that Isoko
as a tribe has a place in Nigeria. It shows also that the Briton in Nigeria intends to so be fair
at least to the Isoko man.
You will agree that we have given our submissions in clearly unmistakable language,
We have given them without bitterness and in good faith. We trust your sense of fair play.
Lastly we hope that you will not agree with us and than fail to do anything now.
We remain Sir,
faithfully.
very
Yours
Marioghae
M.A. Secretary
450
Chapter 22
Frank Ukoli’s Last Testament:

I Can See Clearly Now
Editorial Foreword
Frank Ukoli occupies a prominent spot in modern Urhobo history. He is reputed to be

the first Urhobo man to earn a Ph.D. He was the first to become a professor – at no less an
institution than the University of Ibadan. He was the first Vice-Chancellor of Delta State
University at Abraka. On retiring from university teaching, Frank Ukoli became fully
engaged in Urhobo cultural affairs, acquiring a chieftaincy title from Ogor, an ancient
Urhobo kingdom.
Frank Ukoli was closely associated with Urhobo Historical Society. He attended the
Third and Fourth Annual Conferences of the Society, held in London, United Kingdom, in
2002 and 2003. He played a leading role at the first Annual Conference of Urhobo Historical
Society that was held in Urhoboland, in October 2004. His review of the Society’s book,
Warri City & British Colonial Rule in Western Niger Delta, was without question the centre
piece of the opening ceremonies of that Conference. His address, titled “I Can See Clearly
Now,” is destined to be a long-lasting testimony of a prominent scholar in the historical
affairs of his home town of Warri. Urhobo Historical Society was pleased to honour Frank
Ukoli at that conference with M. G. Ejaife Education Award for his pioneering achievements
in the field of education.
Sadly, two months after the Conference, Professor Frank Ukoli died unexpectedly on
December 2, 2004. He was deeply mourned in Urhoboland. We in Urhobo Historical Society
were especially touched by his death. In mourning him, Urhobo Historical Society published
an obituary which also featured his final public statement, “I Can See Clearly Now” in
[Lagos] Vanguard of February 1, 2005.
In a paid advertisement of the [Lagos] Vanguard of March 7, 2005, a previously
unknown group with the name of “Warri Study Group” attacked Frank Ukoli and his family
for what he said in his statement, “I Can See Clearly Now.” It disputed the claims made by
Frank Ukoli in his review of the book, Warri City & British Colonial Rule in Western Niger
Delta. In doing so, the “Warri Study Group” ridiculed Frank Ukoli, his father and his
grandfather. Unfortunately, we have no permission to reproduce the advertisement by
“Warri Study Group” in this book. However, the substance of the group’s attacks and claims
are included in a reply from Urhobo Historical Society to the “Warri Study Group.”
We have included the response from Urhobo Historical Society in the chapter that
follows Frank Ukoli’s statement (“I Can See Clearly Now”) and a statement of mourning by
Urhobo Historical Society. Our reply is signed by two prominent members of Urhobo
Historical Society. Professor Ajovi Scott-Emuakpor and Professor Jackson Omene were
close associates of Frank Ukoli. They were especially outraged by the ridicule of Frank
Ukoli from the “Warri Study Group.” However, the response from them goes beyond
personal matters. It contains an historical analysis of the claims of ownership of Warri City
by the indigenous Agbarha people of Warri and by the Itsekiri. For that reason especially,
we have included our response in this volume of essays in Urhobo history.
Peter Ekeh
Buffalo, New York, USA
May 3, 2006
ƅƅƅƅ
I Can See Clearly Now

A Review of Warri City and British Colonial Rule in the
Western Niger Delta 1
F.M.A. Ukoli
i
The opening pages of the Preface dealt telling blows to the veracity of the frequently
touted reasons for what has now come to be known as the Warri Crisis. The first of the
assumptions, one can even say myths, to be exploded is this: it is not true that the minority
Itsekiri are being oppressed by the mighty Urhobo majority. On the contrary, it is the
Agbassa 2 and Okere Urhobo who, though are in the majority, suffer humiliation and 3
injustice at the hands of the Itsekiri who dominate the politics of the area. Next to be
debunked is the assertion that there was a case between Agbassa people and the Itsekiri in the
1920s which the Itsekiri won. There was no such case at all; the Agbassa sued Chief Dore
Numa, not as an Itsekiri man or as their representative, but as a Political Agent of the British.
Furthermore, the verdict of that case was based on "bare-faced fraud" given by a corrupt
colonial court invoking the doctrine of overlordship of Itsekiri King over Itsekiri lands which
clearly did not extend to Agbassa lands. It did not apply to Ugborodo land either. This is an
Itsekiri community who successfully prosecuted their case in court. In any case, there had
been no Itsekiri king for 78 years before the case. Dore Numa was no king!
Most importantly, the Itsekiri establishment continues to cite this judgement to support
their claim of ownership of Warri even though several subsequent judgements have
repudiated the validity of the doctrine of overlordship. Whatever the case may be, it is
expected that the Land Use Decree (now Act) which is enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution
should have put paid to this disgraceful chapter of the legal history of the western Niger
Delta.
But most damaging to the case of the Itsekiri establishment are two significant
revelations from a close examination of the so-called Protection Treaties which the British
signed with the "Chiefs and Peoples" of the Niger Delta (and elsewhere in Nigeria) in the
1880s and 1890s. First, in the treaties with the Itsekiri, the full extent of Itsekiri country was
defined to include the lands and waters of Benin River and both banks of the Escravos River.
Nowhere did the Itsekiri lay claim to Warri nor was Warri mentioned, either in the 1884 or
the 1894 treaty. On the other hand, the treaty with the Agbassa (Sobo) of Warri District of
1893 shows quite clearly that the British recognised Warri as belonging to the indigenous
people of the area, i.e the Agbassa people. Also of great significance, as will become evident
later in this review, nowhere in the treaties with the Itsekiri was the word 'king' used; the
treaties were with the "Chiefs" of Jekeri.
The book under review is the outcome of recent fierce war of words between the
Itsekiri Leaders' Forum whose chief spokesperson is J.O.S. Ayomike and the Urhobo
Historical Society under the leadership of Peter Ekeh. Professor Ekeh drew first blood by
1
Presented at the Fifth Annual Conference of Urhobo Historical Society at Petroleum Training Institute, Effurun, Delta State, on
October 29, 2004 under the distinguished chairmanship of Chief E. K. Clark.
2
The people of "Agbassa" of old, now prefer to be addressed as Agbarha-Warri or Agbarha-Ame. However, in deference to historical
reference consistent with the use of the term in the book, I shall adopt the name Agbassa in this review.
452
Frank Ukoli’s Last Testament….
reproducing these treaties verbatim, posting them in the website of the Urhobo Historical
Society, Urhobo waado, and publishing his incisive analysis and commentary on the
available evidence. Not only that, he delivered a seminal lecture in October 2001 in which
he canvassed his deductions based on a rigorous scrutiny of these treaties. He asserted that
Agbassa people own Warri. The implications of the conclusions arising from this brilliant
exercise in scholarship cut the Itsekiri establishment to the quick, and it was not surprising
that their response was vitriolic in its abusive style. By the time the Editorial and
Management Committee of UHS made their submission to the Danjuma Presidential Panel
on the Warri crisis incorporating all the main issues in the debate about the treaties
(Chapter 11), the battle line was already drawn, with both sides trading critiques and
counter critiques. Ekeh's treatment of the Treaties is contained in Chapters 2 & 3 while the
Itsekiri Leaders' Forum's challenge is published in Chapter 5. This is followed by the stand
of the Editorial Committee on the status of these treaties as regards the issue of the
ownership of Warri in Chapter 6. Then a series of critiques of Itsekiri Leaders' Forum
essays follows. Ekeh analyses the contents of these treaties in Chapters 7 & 10 while Chief
Daniel Obiomah gives a wide ranging review in Chapter 8. Oke Sikere beams the
searchlight on Ayomike's literary style in Chapter 9, while Onoawarie Edevbie examines the
doctrine of overlordship, one of the cardinal pillars on which the Itsekiri claims to
ownership rests in Chapter 12. The book ends at Chapter 13 in which Ekeh responds to
Professor Itse Sagay's unexpected and startling allegation, like a bolt from the blue, that the
Urhobo have joined forces with the Ijaw "to drive the Itsekiri from their villages and 'Warri
territory'".
These form the main body of the book. If that were all, the UHS would have fulfilled
their ultimate mandate of telling the truth about the Niger Delta. But the inclusion of a
hitherto unpublished treatise written by the legendary Urhobo leader, Chief T.E.A. Salubi in
1952, was like icing on the cake. In it, the chief presented a glimpse of the history of the
western Niger Delta and chronicled the bloody conflict that was the consequence of the
change of title from Olu Itsekiri to Olu of Warri by Chief Obafemi Awolowo's government in
1952. This paper, written over half a century ago gives us an eye witness account of the
unfortunate events of that era, as it were, from the ring side. The paper, rendered in the chief's
inimitable style, demonstrates both a remarkable degree of knowledge and forthrightness and
thoroughness in the analysis of historical events, the hallmarks of his
publications in the internationally reputable Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria .
This is what earned him the well-deserved award of an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters
from Nigeria's premier University of Ibadan. This is not the time or place to extol the
formidable intellectual and leadership credentials of an icon of Chief Salubi's stature. But it is
hard to doubt the credibility of such a man when he declares, "The title 'Olu Itsekiri' is
historic and deserves to be retained by the Itsekiri. Changing it to 'Olu of Warri' is
illegitimate, not only because it violates Itsekiri history, but because it takes and steals from
their neighbours who share the name Warri with the Itsekiri…. THE OLU IS THE OLU OF
ITSEKIRI, OR OLU OF IWERE, NOT OF WARRI. AND SO MUST HE REMAIN". Chief
Salubi will be astounded if he were to come down from heaven and find that this matter is
still in contention, 50 years after those prophetic words.
Another significant contribution by UHS, being a society of intellectuals, mostly
academics in the Diaspora is striving to raise the intellectual tone of debate of the issues.
People should be free to conduct academic analysis of issues and engage in intellectual
discourse dispassionately and without rancour. Surely, there are universally accepted norms,
or ethics if you like, governing the conduct of intellectual discourse in the civilized world.
Hitherto, the literature on the Warri crisis has been characterised by the combative style of
writers who resort to gratuitous insults and ad hominem. By so doing, they hope to
453
bring their opponents into contempt and public ridicule, thereby calling their credibility to
question. Writers invariably assume, according to Sikere, that all readers are gullible and
have neither the inclination nor time to verify sources. So they sometimes cite a string of
references which Obiomah says smacks of name-dropping. But much worse, according to
Sikere, they indulge in selective referencing, quoting only from books and passages therein
that favour their case; sometimes crediting authors out of context, distorting original sources,
deliberately misinforming, misinterpreting quotations and purposely withholding relevant
information with the assurance that the original sources will be out of the reach of the
average reader.
UHS by adopting three major approaches has, according to Ekeh, "tried to erase such
obscurantism from the history of Urhoboland and that of the western Niger Delta". First, they
have begun publishing books that are either out-of-print or not widely available. Then they
have started to reproduce the so-called British "Treaties of Protection" of the western Niger
Delta and posting them in the website, Urhobo waado (http://www.waado.org). This they
hope will serve to democratize our history so that information is no more than the price of a
visit to the website at the nearest cybercafe. People should now be able to scrutinize and
interpret documents and make up their minds without the spin from Itsekiri establishment or
Urhobo loyalists alike. By taking advantage of advances in information technology, one no
longer needs to be a conventional historian to be able to dabble in the study of history or the
writing of history.
But more importantly, the adoption of these approaches has helped to throw new light
into our understanding of the main issues underlying the Warri crisis, so that, at the end, the
fair, non-partisan reader should be able to declare like this reviewer, "I can see clearly now!"
as the following few examples will show.
It is no longer excusable to continue to rely on the Itsekiri Leaders' Forum

version of Urhobo-Itsekiri historical relationships in Warri. A re-examination
and re-interpretation of the evidence, using modern tools and techniques have
shown it, according to Ekeh, to be "bogus and illogical in the extreme". The
authenticity of the British Protection Treaties with the "Chiefs of Benin River
and Jekeri territory (in Escravos River)" in 1884 and 1894 and with the "Chiefs
and People of Agbassa (Sobo) of Warri District" in 1893 are cases in point.
These treaties prove two issues conclusively: that Itsekiri territory is in Benin
River and both banks of Escravos River, an area which geographically does not
include Warri City, and that Agbassa people own Warri. Besides, the allegations
by the Itsekiri Leaders' Forum that the treaties with the Sobo of Warri District
are forgeries can no longer be sustained; the signatures, the official stamp, Queen
Victoria's letter head are all there for all to see, thanks to the wonders of the
internet.
It is an exercise in futility to continue to cite outdated court judgements in

support of ownership of Warri. The judgements on which the Itsekiri
establishment relies are the product of corrupt British colonial imperialist
policies, what Obiomah describes as "the age of British jingoism, trickery and
truculence". Two examples of this can be cited. The colonial authorities made
sure, through corruption and complicity that Chief Dore Numa, the British
Political Agent won every one of the numerous cases brought against him even,
by his fellow Itsekiri. No useful purpose can be served by insisting on citing the
notorious case of a judgement given in favour of Numa in 1925 by
454
the infamous British judge T.D. Maxwell against whom a clear case of
conflict of interest has been established.
Why do the Itsekiri continue to favour all the legal cases they won in the Numa
era as evidence that they own Warri, while turning a blind eye to more recent
judgements in favour of the Urhobo? It is invidious for the Itsekiri
establishment, on behalf of the otherwise sophisticated and law abiding Itsekiri
people, to choose to uphold decisions of a colonial judicial system which has
been severely flawed and to ignore decisions of courts of superior jurisdiction
like the Supreme Court of Nigeria. Why do they persist in assuming the anti-
democratic posture of flouting the Nigerian Constitution in which the Land Use
Decree (now Act) of 1979 is firmly enshrined?
The Itsekiri establishment in this day and age, clings to the doctrine of
overlordship with all the oppressive features of feudalism it exhibited in
medieval Europe. Is it fair and just, asks Edevbie, for them "to subject the affairs
of Warri City to the dictates and interests of people that reside outside the city"?
In other words, does overlordship imply that all Itsekiris are overlord even
though they are not landlords in Warri City? But all this is now only of academic
interest. A series of court judgements has established beyond doubt that "[the
Itsekiri Communal Lands Trust] has no power whatsoever in law to exercise the
Olu of Warri rights of overlordship over lands owned by private individuals and
families in Warri Division" (see ruling in favour of Arthur Prest in the
Ugbuwangue case, July 1971). One immediate implication of this ruling is that
the Agbassa lands are "owned by private individuals and families" and cannot be
subject to the obnoxious T.D. Maxwell ruling of 1925.
It was fraudulent to invoke the power of overlordship of the Olu when there was
no king at the time of the leases or the trial. It is true that Dore once styled
himself as the Olu. But Dore was an impostor who was discredited by the
Itsekiri for cheating them and misusing his authority. There is difference in the
understanding of the meaning of ownership. The Itsekiri claim is absolutist;
Warri is owned by the King of Itsekiri, while the Urhobo and the Ijaw claims are
limited; i.e. they do not exclude ownership of portions of Warri by other
communities. And yet, ironically, it is the Itsekiri who are the settlers in the
Warri District, while the natives are Ijaw and Sobo tribes, as published in the
Southern Nigeria Civil Service Handbook of 1904. It is, therefore, under-
standable that in its submission to the Danjuma Panel, UHS declared that it is
"the Itsekiri establishment's absolutist and obdurate approach to Warri City that
is ultimately the essence of the Warri crisis".
From such studies, it is possible to deduce the source and cause of the inter-ethnic
conflicts persisting in the Warri area to this day. They include:
The breach of the spirit of the British Protection Treaties. The appointment of
Chief Dore Numa as their Political Agent in Warri District was done in bad
faith. As expected, he then surreptitiously proceeded to lease Urhobo lands to
the British in the absence of those with whom they entered into agreement in the
1890s. By so doing, the seeds of inter-ethnic conflicts which, according to Ekeh
"have ruined Warri City even in our times" were sown.
455
Undue reliance by the Itsekiri establishment on corrupt judgements and duplicity

of the British. In particular, their insistence that the 1925 judgement is still valid
and that overlordship means that all Itsekiri are overlords, even if they are not
landlords in Warri City.
Lack of political will by successive governments, (colonial, military, federal and

state) to come to grips with the problem and take the right and just decision.
There is every reason to believe that the recommendations and conclusions of the
Nnaemeka Agu and Idoko Commissions set up by government in 1993 and 1997
respectively to resolve the disputes over the ownership of Warri are forgotten on
the shelves gathering dust because they do not favour the interests of the
influential Itsekiri establishment. It is not far- fetched to surmise that a similar
fate awaits the report of the Danjuma Presidential Panel submitted in 2003
believed to be "favourable to the indigenous people of Warri City".
Why this fascination with the name Warri in preference to the traditional Itsekiri? At a
time when all Nigerian ethnic nationalities are going back to their roots and rejecting corrupt
versions of their names and identity, the Itsekiri establishment insists on adopting what at
best is a foreign name, or at worst a corrupt version of Iwere. Everything originally bearing
Itsekiri is now replaced by Warri: Olu Itsekiri, chieftaincy titles of Itsekiri kingdom, names
of clubs and societies etc. are now changed to reflect Warri. Why is Warri more important
than Itsekiri? It is as if the name Itsekiri is a term of dishonour to be rejected in favour of
Warri. How can the Itsekiri live with this blatant paradox? Obiomah asks rhetorically in his
book, Who Owns Warri?" There is nothing in the history of the western Niger Delta to
justify this attraction that remains the root of the deadly conflict in the region. For example;
the 1911 British Intelligence Report on the Itsekiri by Pender lists all Itsekiri settlements with
the names of their village heads. Warri was not one of them. The
revered Itsekiri historian, William Moore in his book, History of Itsekiri, used the title Olu
of Itsekiri more than 20 times, but nowhere in the book did he use the title Olu of Warri.
Most of the members of the Itsekiri establishment are not indigenes of Warri City, they are
from Benin River.
From their studies it has become clear to UHS that an adoption of a live-and-let live
approach is the only viable answer to the Warri problem. They sound a note of admonition;
"while the Itsekiri establisment concentrates all its wealth and resources and its attention on
Warri …the Itsekiri countryside is dying from neglect…we all have a duty to seek to
improve Urhobo and Itsekiri rural areas which are today terribly endangered. While we
quarrel over Warri, our rural communities are dying. Our streams are drying up. Pollution is
killing our fishes, animals and plants". In the words of the well-worn cliché, we should all do
well to sheathe our swords.
If all sides to the conflict harken to this call, then Peter Ekeh and his Editorial and
Management Committee of UHS would, through this book, have fulfilled their mandate as
expressed in their motto: "Serving Urhobo history and culture and advancing the welfare of
the Niger Delta, particularly its environment."
F. M. A. Ukoli, F.A.S.
Oboiroro of Ogor Kingdom.
Effurun, October 28, 2004.
456
ƅ ƅ ƅ ƅ
Urhobo Historical Society Mourns the Death of

Professor Olorogun F.M.A. Ukoli (1936-2004)
Members of Urhobo Historical Society in the United States awoke on December 21,
2004, to the grievous news of the death of Olorogun Professor Frank Mene Adedemisiweaye
Ukoli. He had driven himself to a clinic a few days earlier because he felt sick. When his
condition became much more serious, he was transferred to Shell Hospital in Warri. His
friend and cousin, Professor Ajovi Scott-Emuakpor, a physician and a leading member of
Urhobo Historical Society, was monitoring Professor Ukoli’s condition by telephone from his
home in Michigan in the United States when the news of his death in the early morning
hours of Tuesday, December 21, 2004, was broken to Frank’s family at Warri.
Frank Ukoli occupies a special place in the history of Nigeria’s higher education.
Having been born and raised in his native hometown of Warri, he had access to a good
elementary school education which enabled him to be selected in the early 1950s to attend
one of the most highly competitive and prestigious secondary schools in colonial times,
namely, Government College, Ughelli. Frank followed his rich Ughelli experience with a
superb academic training in Nigeria’s only university in the 1950s. The University College,
Ibadan, which changed into University of Ibadan in Nigeria’s year of Independence, became
home to Frank Ukoli’s rich family and academic life until he retired in 2001 from that
institution, after forty-four years of association and service.
Frank Ukoli benefited from a powerful and rich educational system, as good as any in
colonial times. More importantly, he contributed enormously to the expansion and
strengthening of the University of Ibadan and indeed of university education in Nigeria, right
from his debut as a young lecturer at Ibadan in 1964 to his retirement from university
teaching as a seasoned professor in 2001. We will leave the assessment of his contribution in
his chosen field of Zoology to the experts in that field. But we are impressed that such of
his landmark publications as Prevention and Control of Parasitic Diseases in Tropical
Africa: The Main Issues (Ibadan University Press, 1992) range beyond academic Zoology
to applications in Medicine with Africa-wide references. Of the many honours that he
received, Frank Ukoli proudly displayed that of Fellow of the Academy of Science (FAS)
after his name, an honour he richly deserved and one that he and only twelve others
pioneered.
457
Frank Ukoli’s contribution to university administration was diverse and rich. He was
among the first batch of Nigerian university teachers who took over responsibilities of
administering academic disciplines from expatriate lecturers. Frank Ukoli was Head of
Department and Dean of Faculty of Science during a period of transformation of the
University of Ibadan. His expertise was sought in setting up various departments and
faculties of science in newer universities in Nigeria. It was in recognition of his talents in
academic institution building that he was appointed the first Vice-Chancellor of Delta State
University. It is entirely fair to say that Frank Ukoli served his country well in his chosen
vocation of university teaching.
While he can legitimately be classified as among the foremost contributors to academic
development in Nigeria’s history, among his own people Frank Ukoli will always occupy a
special place in the history of education in Urhoboland. This is because he was a pioneer. At
its recent Fifth Annual Conference, Urhobo Historical Society awarded for the first time a
special prize newly named after M.G. Ejaife, Urhobo’s first University graduate. It is
remarkable that this first award for pioneering achievements in the history of education in
Urhoboland was presented to Professor Olorogun Frank Ukoli at Agbarha-Otor on October
31, 2004. The short citation on the plaque that was presented to this highly decorated
university teacher reads as follows:
Presented to Professor F.M.A. Ukoli for pioneering achievements in higher

education, having become Urhobo's first Ph.D., first university professor, first
dean of a university faculty, and founding Vice-Chancellor of Delta State
University. His friendship with many young Urhobos and the fame of his
achievements have inspired many Urhobos to aim high in diverse educational
fields.
For these rare achievements, Frank Ukoli will be in the history books forever.
Frank Ukoli’s numerous friends will remember him for embodying another virtue.
Having hailed from a large Agbarha-Warri family, including that branch of his family that
bears Urhobo as surname, Frank has been celebrated as a family man. The great G. M.
Urhobo, founder of God’s Kingdom Society, was Frank’s father’s elder brother. Frank’s
home was many times a place of assembly of the Ukolis and Urhobos. Moreover, his
attachment to his children was legendary. Between Frank and his dear wife, Philomena
Araba, we have a strong example of that Urhobo virtue of total service for the sake of one’s
children. We know that Frank has left behind for his children a firm legacy of absolute
dedication to family and children, a virtue that is highly treasured among the Urhobo.
Urhobos will remember Frank Ukoli for other achievements. In his last years,
particularly after his retirement, Frank Ukoli participated actively in the chiefly traditions of
his people. He was awarded a title of Oboiriro of Ogor (literarily, Doctor of Thought of
Ogor). He was of course awarded the honorary D.Sc. of Delta State University, Abraka, a
university which he founded as its first Vice-Chancellor. Remarkably, at many points Frank
Ukoli admonished the ethics of chieftaincy bearers, often rebuking his chiefly peers for
failing to attend to the needs of the people whose culture has enabled their entitlements.
We all will miss Frank Ukoli. None will miss him more than Urhobo Historical
Society. A member of the Society, Frank featured prominently in the three most recent UHS
Conferences. His scholarship and leadership registered strongly in UHS Conferences in the
United Kingdom in 2002 and 2003. In the Society’s recent Conference at PTI, Effurun, his
review of Warri City and British Colonial Rule in Western Niger Delta was a star
performance that intellectually dominated the first day of the Conference on October 29,
458
2004. He was passionate in his review because, as he himself acknowledged, Warri was his
native home. It was here where he was born on November 5, 1936. It was in his father’s
hometown of Warri where Frank’s rich life was terminated, sixty-eight years later, on
December 21, 2004.
May His Soul Rest in Peace.
Signed:
Editorial and Management Committee, UHS
Ovie Felix Ayigbe, B. Pharm., R. Ph.; Onoawarie Edevbie, M.A., M.Sc.;

Peter P. Ekeh, Ph.D.; Edirin Erhiaganoma, M.Sc.; O. Victor Ikoba,
M.S.N.E., MBA, P.E.; Joseph E. Inikori, Ph.D.; Isaac James Mowoe,
Ph.D., J.D.; Omokere E. Odje, Ph.D.; Aruegodore Oyiborhoro, Ed.D.;
Ajovi Scott-Emuakpor, M.D., Ph.D.; Elehor O. Urhiafe-Bobson, B.A.
(Fine Arts). Executive: Peter Ekeh, Chair and Editor; Andrew Edevbie,
Secretary; Edirin Erhiaganoma, Treasurer.
December 21, 2004
459
23 Chapter
In Defence of Frank Ukoli’s Honour

Ajovi Scott-Emuakpor
Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA
Jackson Omene
Atlantic Health Care Center, Brooklyn, New York, USA.
Professor Olorogun Frank Ukoli died unexpectedly at Warri, his hometown, on

December 21, 2004, and was mourned intensely and nationally by many. From the
University of Ibadan to Delta State University, Abraka; from many corners of distant
Diaspora abodes in Europe and America to various towns in Nigeria, Frank Ukoli was
remembered as a good and decent human being and a scholar of great eminence. He left
behind a legacy of truth-telling and honest public service for his many admirers and
followers.
Frank Ukoli hailed from Agbarha-Ame, an Urhobo sub-cultural unit on whose lands
the British established the Township of Warri in the 1890s. The Urhobo people, particularly
his kinsfolk in Agbarha, mourned Frank Ukoli very deeply as one of their heroes. Frank’s
mother is Itsekiri. We know that his mother’s family and many Itsekiri mourned his death
with a passion.
Frank Ukoli was a dedicated member of Urhobo Historical Society (UHS). In mourning
his death, UHS posted an obituary along with a brilliant lecture which Frank Ukoli gave on
October 29, 2004, his last public appearance. The lecture was a substantive
review of a UHS book titled Warri City & British Colonial Rule in Western Niger Delta.
Apparently, the Itsekiri establishment has taken offence at the obituary and lecture that
were published on February 1, 2005. Accordingly, “Warri” Study Group, the latest moniker
of the Itsekiri establishment, launched a scathing attack on the person of Frank
Ukoli and his family in a paid advertisement in (Nigeria) Vanguard of Tuesday, March 7,
2005.
We believe that attack by “Warri” Study Group on Frank Ukoli and his family is
untruthful and scandalous. As individuals who share so much with Frank Ukoli, the two of
us, who sign this statement for UHS, have taken it upon ourselves to respond to that
venomous attack on a great man whom we were proud to call friend, leader, and worthy
fellow scientist while he was alive. His was an exemplary and an honourable life that, in
truth, needs no defence in his death. We are compelled, regretfully, however, to respond for
the record, to the falsehoods and the vitriol of the “Warri” Study Group.
For the sake of full disclosure, we wish to reveal our relationship with Frank Ukoli and
those attributes that we share with him, which entitle us to speak on his behalf now that he is
dead. Like Frank Ukoli, we are members of Urhobo Historical Society whose supreme goal
is to tell the truth about Urhobo people and their history and culture as well as relationships
between them and their neighbours. Frank cherished that mission of UHS because he
believed that truth-telling is the bedrock of good neighbourliness. Secondly, like Frank we
are Urhobo men whose mothers are Itsekiri. Like Frank, we see no contradiction between our
Urhobo patriotism and our fondness for the culture of our mothers’ people, the Itsekiri. In
addition to these common attributes, we regard Frank Ukoli’s passion for honest
and truthful research as a virtue that we should emulate. Indeed, we regard Frank Ukoli as
our hero. Many Urhobos and Itsekiris, and indeed numerous other Nigerians, also regard him
as their hero. We believe we are duty-bound to defend him when his reputation is unfairly
disparaged, especially now that he is not here on earth to defend himself.
There are two aspects of the attack on Frank Ukoli by “Warri” Study Group. The first
concerns the gratuitous assault on him and his family. The second is the challenge of his
views on the history of Warri in a manner that calls into question his truthfulness. We will
respond to these insults, in that order. But before we do so, the two of us who sign this
statement on behalf of UHS want to stress that we repudiate the authority of the so-called
“Warri” Study Group to speak on behalf of our mothers’ people, who are generally decent,
loving and caring people. We see “Warri” Study Group as a collection of self-serving
individuals who have callously taken advantage of our collective hardship in the Niger- Delta
to prey upon the fears and insecurities of the Itsekiri people.
Aspersions on Frank Ukoli and His Family
The most painful aspersion, in the view of Frank’s family at least, was the heading of
the “Warri” Study Group’s assault. It brands Frank as a “son unlike his father.” Why?
Because, according to “Warri” Study Group, Frank’s father, Chief Paul Ukoli, took a
chieftaincy title from the Olu of Itsekiri, whereas Frank Ukoli was contesting the Itsekiri
king’s claim to be the Olu of “Warri.” The group alleges that the Itsekiri king gave a title to
Frank’s father as a reward for Frank’s Itsekiri’s names and for the appreciation of the
Agbarha community for the good things that the Itsekiri had done for the Agbarha people.
Nowhere in the entire publication did “Warri” Study Group acknowledge that Frank’s mother
is Itsekiri and that he was, therefore, entitled to bear Itsekiri names by the force of that fact
alone. Instead, this avant-garde of the Itsekiri establishment trades on a falsehood in order to
sensationalize its unwarranted charges against Frank and his family.
Successful Urhobos bear chieftaincy titles from numerous places, inside and outside
Urhobo culture. Frank Ukoli himself received a title from Ogor. There are many Urhobos in
Lagos who bear titles from Yoruba kingdoms. This is especially so in the case of those who
marry into such non-Urhobo communities. Frank’s father was a very successful and well-
respected educator in the Western Niger Delta; he travelled extensively developing schools
and basic primary education in Benin River, the home territory of the Itsekiri. His wife was
Itsekiri. There was nothing unusual in his taking a chieftaincy title from his wife’s people.
Nor was there anything abnormal in the Itsekiri king acknowledging Paul Ukoli’s immense
contributions to the education of Itsekiri children in Benin River. In receiving his chieftaincy
title, Chief Paul Ukoli was acting like many other successful Urhobos.
There was an additional family tie between Olu Erejuwa II and Frank’s father that
accounted for his chieftaincy title from the Itsekiri king. Paul Ukoli’s eldest daughter, Violet,
that is Frank’s elder sister, was married to Dr. George Emiko, Olu Erejuwa’s younger
brother. It is well known in Itsekiri circles that Frank’s father accepted the title at the urging
of his son-in-law, Dr. Emiko. It is, therefore, blatantly dishonest to concoct a bogus story in
order to malign Chief Ukoli’s title as special grace of the Itsekiri people to the Agbarha
community.
“Warri” Study Group also falsely alleges that while at the University of Ibadan, Frank
Ukoli was uninterested in Urhobo affairs, until he sought the position of Vice-Chancellor of
Delta State University, whereas he was involved in Itsekiri affairs. Nothing could be farther
from the truth. Fortunately, there are living witnesses who will readily testify on Frank’s
leading role among Urhobos in Ibadan. As Urhobo leaders in Ibadan up through the 1980s,
such as Professor Joseph Akpokodje and Professor Peter Ekeh, will testify, Frank Ukoli was
462
fully engaged in Urhobo meetings and activities. When Chief T.E.A. Salubi received an
honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from the University of Ibadan, Frank Ukoli was
prominent in the arrangements and was recognized by Chief Salubi on that occasion as
Urhobo’s first Ph.D.
Although all enlightened Nigerians, whether Itsekiri or from somewhere else, would
acknowledge Professor Ukoli’s pre-eminent position in academic circles in Nigeria, the
“Warri” Study Group seems to be in the dark on this issue. For many years before he
accepted the appointment at Abraka, every time a search for a Vice-Chancellor was
conducted for Nigerian universities, Frank Ukoli’s name featured prominently. He never
expressed any interest in such a position until he was called upon by his State Governor to
pioneer and develop a new University in Delta State. Whether he was Ibo, Ijaw, Itsekiri or
Isoko, no one in Delta State was more qualified than Frank Ukoli for that position. He did
not need to be an Urhobo to be appointed the pioneer Vice Chancellor of Delta State
University.
With respect to Frank Ukoli’s role in an Itsekiri association at Ibadan, the truth is plain
and simple. He and one of the signatories to this document, Professor Ajovi Scott- Emuakpor,
were approached by Itsekiri club officials with an appeal to become members, because, they
said, the membership of the club was small. Frank Ukoli and Ajovi Scott- Emuakpor accepted
the invitation and joined the Itsekiri association. Both of them had Itsekiri mothers and both
of them were teachers at the University of Ibadan. But they did not join the Itsekiri
organisation at the expense of their Urhobo commitments, as anybody who knows the two of
them will readily acknowledge.
“Warri” Study Group tells a further deliberate falsehood when it claimed that on
becoming ex-Vice-Chancellor of Delta State University, Frank Ukoli hankered after contracts
and appointments “from the UPU-dominated Delta State.” Frank was not associated with the
current administration of UPU, was not a member of the ruling People’s Democratic Party,
and was not a contractor.
Frank Ukoli was an honourable man. His father was a very successful man who raised
a splendid family: Frank (university professor), Neville (frontline journalist), Flora (medical
doctor), Preston (medical doctor) and Christie (medical doctor). Frank’s grandfather has
legendary status in the Agbarha community; he raised three very successful sons – Augustine
(father of Chief Anthony Ukoli), G.M. Urhobo (founder of God’s Kingdom Society), and
Paul (Frank’s father). In our judgment, the attempt by “Warri” Study Group to malign the
reputation of such a distinguished family crosses the line of public behaviour into a zone of
indecency.
The Land Case between Agbarha People

and the British Colonial Agent, Dore Numa
“Warri” Study Group continued its insult on the Ukoli family by saying that Frank’s
grandfather accepted a verdict of overlordship in a case of the 1920s in which Agbarha
people sued Dore Numa, British Colonial Agent, for leasing their lands without their
knowledge. The facts of that case are clear. Relying on the forced settlement of a similar case
brought against Dore Numa as British Colonial Agent by the chiefs of Ugborodo, a fraction
of Itsekiri ethnicity in Escravos creeks, Dore Numa pleaded that the Olu of Itsekiri had
overlord rights over Agbarha’s lands and that he was, therefore, entitled to lease the lands.
British colonial courts at Warri, Lagos, and London gave a two-part judgement. First,
they recognized Agbarha people as landlords who were entitled to live and work in their own
lands. This is how Justice Webber phrased this portion of the judgement of December
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30, 1929: “As to Agbassa, Odion and Fugbe, no court could deny the right of Agbassa to
occupy same according to native law and custom provided the overlordship of the Olu of
the Jekris was recognized.”
The second portion of the verdict is thus, that the colonial courts subjected Agbarha’s
ownership of these lands to the overlordship of the Olu of Itsekiri. It should be clearly noted
that at no point was the Olu of Itsekiri called the landlord of Agbarha lands in these colonial
judgements. As it was in Medieval Europe, the Olu of Itsekiri was deemed to be the overlord
to whom land taxes could be paid by Agbarha landlords.
Since the verdict in colonial courts in the 1920s and 1930s, nothing has happened to
change the fact that Agbarha people own their lands, that is, the first portion of the two-part
verdict. But the second portion of the verdict has come into hard times. The main blows to
the doctrine of Olu of Itsekiri’s overlordship came from within Itsekiri internal disputes, that
is, Itsekiri versus Itsekiri court cases.
The first of these was a case from Ugborodo in which the issue of the Olu of Itsekiri’s
overlordship resurfaced in 1969. Ugborodo community, represented by lawyer Godwin
Boyo, an Itsekiri, took the Itsekiri Communal Land Trust to court for claiming rent on
Ugborodo/Ogidigben properties. Ugborodo community won this case, opening a crack in the
armour of overlordship. Ugborodo is a section of Itsekiriland that traditionally contested the
right of the Itsekiri King to rule over its people. P.C. Lloyd put their case this way: “The
Gborodo people say that they arrived at the same time as Ginuwa migration, maintaining that
until recently they did not recognize the Olu of (sic) Warri as their king” (Page 178 of
“Itsekiri” in R.E. Bradbury, The Benin Kingdom and the Edo Speaking People of South-
Western Nigeria.)
The second serious blow to the verdict of overlordship again came from within Itsekiri
disputes, that is, in Itsekiri versus Itsekiri court cases. Aggrieved by the excesses of Itsekiri
Communal Land Trust, which the Action Group Government had set up for the benefit of the
Itsekiri, the famed lawyer and jurist, Arthur Prest, took the Olu of Itsekiri and the Itsekiri
Communal Land Trust to court for exercising overlordship over the lands of the people of
Ugbuwangue. The verdict of the learned judge of July 9, 1971, in Suit No. W/15/1970,
defanged overlordship, restricting its scope severely. It states:
For the avoidance of doubt, especially as there are numerous cases pending
in the Warri High Court on this overlordship issue, I hereby make it
abundantly clear that the defendants [the Itsekiri Communal Lands Trust]
have no power whatsoever in law to exercise the Olu of Warri rights of
overlordship over lands owned by private individuals and families in Warri
Division.
Following this far-reaching judgement, the fortunes of overlordship were in a free

fall.
The Agbarha lands under judicial contention were never public lands. This ruling,
upheld by Nigeria’s Supreme Court, is the subsisting court judgement that applies to lands in
Warri. It is not what one Lord Atkin wrote in 1936 that applies. We know that the Itsekiri
establishment does not want to be reminded about it. But it is true that Chief Arthur Prest’s
suit changed the doctrine of overlordship decisively in the judicial sphere.
The third judicial blow to overlordship came from a daring attempt by the Itsekiri
establishment to impose Olu of Itsekiri’s overlordship on the people of Okere-Urhobo in
Warri, suing Daniel Okumagba and his kinsmen for possession of their lands. The Itsekiri
establishment lost very badly. In their verdict upholding Justice Ekeruche’s primary ruling
against the Itsekiri establishment’s quest to acquire Okere in Warri, the justices of the
464
Supreme Court of Nigeria in 1976 declared as follows: "The evidence in plaintiff's case
only shows that Ginuwa I when he was trying to make a settlement after leaving Benin
got as far as Ijalla where he ultimately settled, lived, died and was buried. There is not
evidence in plaintiff's case going to show that in the process of making his settlement or
kingdom he or any persons under him settled anywhere beyond Ijalla and towards or in
Okere."
It is noteworthy that the above three cases that were won against the claims of
overlordship – by Godwin Boyo, Arthur Prest, and Daniel Okumagba – all occurred in the
post-colonial era. In general, their judgements are well informed, historically nuanced, and
are superior in their reasoning to the colonial judgements on this issue of overlordship. It is
striking that “Warri” Study Group and the rest of the Itsekiri establishment studiously avoid
mentioning any of these cases. Instead, they rush to the colonial judgement of 1936 that has
been overturned, or at least severely limited, by the subsequent judgements cited above.
It is also noteworthy that Urhobos are not the main victims of the practices of claims of
Olu of Itsekiri’s overlordship. The main victims are Itsekiri. Members of the Itsekiri
establishment, living in opulence in gated estates in Warri City, exploit their own people.
Urhobos can and will fight back. It is the rural Itsekiri, in whose names huge fees and rents
are collected, who cannot fight back because their defenders, of the stature of Godwin Boyo
and Arthur Prest, have all been silenced.
The above was not the only misfortune that befell overlordship. The Land Use Law,
enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution of 1979 from General Olusegun Obasanjo’s Land Use
Decree of 1978, nullified any claims of overlordship, making the Nigerian Federal
Government the sole overlord in Nigeria.
Now that we have stated what Frank Ukoli was saying in his review of the UHS book,
we may turn to respond to the charges and insults against his family. First, about Frank’s
grandfather. This is what the “Warri” Study Group said of his role in the land case: “Prof. F.
M. A. Ukoli’s grandfather, UKOLI, was one of the witnesses for the Agbassa people ... After
the judgement ... the grandfather regarded the matter as settled and closed and recognized the
overlordship of the Olu of Warri.”
There is no basis for the above claim, no evidence whatsoever that Frank’s grandfather
accepted the verdict and the overlordship of the Olu of (sic) “Warri.” However, before
commenting further on this claim, let us publish the entire record of Frank’s grandfather’s
appearance in court on November 18, 1929. It is brief and it is as follows:
UKOLI Sworn: I am Agbasa. I am a farmer. I farm at Odion. I farmed

there all my life – also my grandfather and father. I am Sobo.
CROSS EXAMINED: Chief Ogegede is head of Odion. I am not a chief.
Ukoli’s numerous descendants can be proud that their ancestor fought to pass his own
ancestor’s lands on to his descendants. And it is not in vain. When Professor F.M.A. Ukoli
stood on the podium of Petroleum Training Institute to make his famous “I can See Clearly
Now” speech, his grandfather was proudly smiling on him.
Frank Ukoli accepted a conclusion of the authors of Warri City & British Colonial
Rule in Western Niger Delta – a conclusion to the effect that the judicial determination of
the case brought by his people against Dore Numa was handled fraudulently. The reason for
that conclusion appears above. It was based on the overlordship of a non-existing king. In
1929, there was no Olu of Itsekiri. In some circles in Itsekiri at that time, it was forbidden to
mention the Olu of Itsekiri. The Itsekiri establishment of those days, particularly Dore
Numa, had squelched kingship among the Itsekiri. At some point, Dore Numa, British
Colonial Agent, called himself the Olu of Itsekiri. Frank Ukoli rightly called Dore Numa an
465
impostor. In any case, there was no Olu of Itsekiri in 1929. How could Frank’s wise
grandfather declare allegiance to a phantom? He did not.
“Warri” Study Group challenges Frank Ukoli’s position that the case of 1925 was not
between Agbarha and Itsekiri, because Agbarha people sued Dore Numa in his individual
capacity as a British Political Agent. “Warri” Study Group takes refuge in the opinion of
Lord Atkin in which he narrated the submission of Dore Numa. But here was a judge who
simply restated the pleadings in the submissions of Dore Numa. The critical question is, who
were the real parties, in interest, in the case? The answer is as simple as it is clear – Agbarha
people and Dore Numa.
The title of the case was as follows: “Ometa substituted for Ogegede on behalf of
himself and Agbasa People VERSUS Chief Dore Numa.” There was no point at which
the Agbarha people ever pleaded that their case was against the Itsekiri or the Olu of Itsekiri.
Dore Numa did not bring in the Itsekiri as a third party. Nor did the Itsekiri apply to join the
case as interested persons. The reason for that should be clear from the Ugborodo case.
Ugborodo, an Itsekiri fraction, sued Dore Numa on the same grounds for which the Agbarha
people sued him, namely, abuse of his office as Political Agent. Dore Numa pleaded in many
ways, including a declaration that he was the Olu of Itsekiri or that he was acting on behalf
of the Olu of Itsekiri. But the point is that the case never involved either the Itsekiri or their
king as a party in interest.
One more item from “Warri” Study Group. It cited a case of Chief Augustin Osioh
versus Anthony Idesor and 2 others, all of whom were apparently of Agbarha origin. In it the
plaintiff was said to have pleaded on the grounds of the overlordship doctrine. The judge in
that case was said to have upheld the doctrine of overlordship of the Olu of Itsekiri.
Professor Frank Ukoli cannot be held responsible for uninformed presentation by a member
of the bar or for lack of historical knowledge in a judgement from the bench. One hopes that
more lawyers and judges will become better informed and educated on these matters. To
reveal how poor and uninformed some judicial reasoning can be, one should quote a portion
from the judgement cited by “Warri” Study Group. It reads as follows:
They [the Itsekiri] have always been overlords and the people of Agbassa have
always been tenants. Any other person living in Igbudu or any part of Agbassa
except an Itsekiri is a tenant.
Anyone who is familiar with the history and doctrine of overlordship should be
saddened by the deficiencies in the underlying reasoning of this pronouncement. First of all,
nowhere in the world are all members of a whole nation or ethnic group overlords. There can
only be one overlord presiding over many landlords. Were all Englishmen overlords in
Ireland? Of course not. It was the King of England who was the overlord. Second, overlords
have no relationships with tenants. It is landlords who collect rent from tenants. Third, there
cannot be an overlord without landlords. The domain of an overlord consists of landlords.
One must ask a question of such a strange pronouncement from the bench: was that to say
that an Itsekiri bricklayer or houseboy living in boys’ quarters in Igbudu was an overlord,
just because he is an Itsekiri? Does that not make nonsense of the law? How does this
judgement relate to the 1971 case in which it was ruled, in favour of Arthur Prest, that the
doctrine of overlordship did not apply to properties held by individuals and families?
One supposes that Frank Ukoli would like to send copies of Warri City & British
Colonial Rule in Western Niger Delta to some of the learned lawyers and justices involved
in such cases. After reading it, they should understand the doctrine of overlordship a little
more clearly.
466
One final note on this matter of the land case between Agbarha people and Dore Numa
and all its ramifications. No matter its determination in judicial, political, or constitutional
processes, the people of Agbarha are entitled to record a full history of what their ancestors
did to resist an organized attempt to steal their lands. They should narrate how long ago they
settled in Warri land. They were there long before the Portuguese arrived in the Western
Niger Delta in the 1480s. They were there long before Prince Ginuwa was born in Benin.
They were there long before Ginuwa’s descendants, with the help of the Portuguese,
constructed Itsekiri nationality after the Portuguese broke commercial and diplomatic ties
with Benin in 1538. Moreover, they should tell their descendants about the treaty that their
ancestors made with the British in 1893. Then they should carefully narrate how the Itsekiri
establishment (not the Itsekiri people) mounted a concerted campaign to steal their lands
from them. We truly expect those Itsekiri who are natives of Ugborodo and Ogidigben to do
the same narration about their confrontation with the Itsekiri establishment.
Such is the responsibility of fathers and teachers. That was what Frank Ukoli attempted to achieve. We tr
children and the next generation of Agbarha people will appreciate and admire his brilliant efforts.
British Treaties with Itsekiri and Agbarha: 1884, 1893, and 1894
In his review of Warri City & British Colonial Rule in Western Niger Delta , Frank
Ukoli emphasized the cogent argument that the contents of the 1884 British Treaty (remade
and ratified in 1894) with the Itsekiri painstakingly defined the boundaries of Itsekiri territory
to be the banks and waters of Benin River and Escravos River. Nana Olomu, who led the
Itsekiri, and the other Itsekiri signatories to the Treaty did not mention Warri as their
territory. On the other hand, in the 1893 British Treaties with Agbarha and other Urhobo
communities, it was clearly noted that the lands that now constitute Warri City belonged to
the Urhobo Chiefs and People of these communities.
In their panicked reaction to UHS’s introduction of these treaties, the Itsekiri
establishment has given many reasons why these 1893 treaties should be discounted. First,
they said the mere fact that they were made in territories designated as Warri did not matter.
They have now abandoned that argument. Then they said that the treaties were those of Royal
Niger Company which the Company made taking advantage of war against Nana Olomu in
1894, falsely citing Professor Obaro Ikime as their authority. But that argument cannot hold
because the 1893 Treaties predated the British confrontation with Nana and in fact provided
some of the grounds for the dispute between the British and Nana. Then in their presentation
to President Olusegun Obasanjo on the Warri crisis, the Itsekiri establishment declared that
the Warri Treaties with Urhobo communities in Warri were invalid because, in their own
words, “As there is no signature of Her Majesty’s Representative on each treaty, no one can
talk of a genuine Treaty as such. It takes two parties to make a treaty. As can be seen, the two
treaties in respect of Itsekiri Country with Itsekiri Chiefs in 1851 and 1894 were duly signed
by Her Britannic Majesty’s Representative.”
This argument turns out to be totally false and quite careless. All the Warri Treaties
with Urhobo communities were signed by Arthur E. Harrison whose title clearly appears as
Acting Vice Consul. Now the Itsekiri establishment is still groping for other reasons. As Mr.
Oke Sikere clearly shows in his chapter in the UHS book on Warri, the Warri treaties had
nothing to do whatsoever with the dispute over the treaties that the Royal Niger Company
made with the Ijaws. Will the Itsekiri establishment give up its fight to take over Frank
Ukoli’s ancestral lands if it is decisively proven that these treaties are bona fide treaties
between the British and Agbarha communities?
467
Itsekiri King as Olu of Iwere or Olu of “Warri”?
“Warri” Study Group tells an outrageous falsehood when it described Olu Akengbuwa
as “Olu of Warri” and claimed that all Itsekiri Kings up to 1848, the year Akengbuwa died,
bore the title “Olu of Warri.” William Moore, a descendant of Olu
Akengbuwa, was a royalist historian whose History of Itsekiri was almost entirely devoted
to a discussion of Itsekiri kings: He consistently called them “Olu Itsekiri” or “Olu of
Itsekiri,” not even “Olu of Iwere,” that is, the nickname by which he said Itsekiri were
th
sometimes known. The term “Warri” did not appear anywhere until the late 19 century
when the British created the Township of Warri. One wonders what drives a group of people
to fabricate a false title from a strange name for their king and then forsake his historic title.
Is it lust for power and money or is it an unrestrained effort to perpetuate an illusionary crisis
that is self-serving?
Again, “Warri” Study Group distorted the history of the Itsekiri establishment’s
application to the British colonial authorities to change the title of their King from the Olu of
Itsekiri to Olu of “Warri.” The British did not object to change of the title, provided it was
changed to Itsekiri’s other name, “Iwere.” The British told the Itsekiri that they could change
the title of their King to “Olu of Iwere,” but not “Olu of Warri.” After all, it was the British,
not the Itsekiri, who invented the word “Warri.”
All that Chief T.E.A. Salubi and Professor Frank Ukoli did was to agree with the
decision of the British in this instance, because it is historically sound. Until 1949, when
Ugbuwangue was incorporated into the Township of Warri, Itsekiri had no foothold in Warri
town at all. Time there was when Professor Obaro Ikime was the favourite oracle of the
Itsekiri establishment. Now that it has been shown decisively that its members falsified his
views, P.C. Lloyd is the new favourite oracle. They quote Lloyd as saying: “The Itsekiri call
themselves Itsekiri or Iwere.” That is true. If they don’t want to call their King by its historic
title of Olu Itsekiri, then they should call him by the nickname “Olu of Iwere.” Warri does
not belong to the Itsekiri alone. Until 1949 they had no part of it. They cannot deprive the
other owners of Warri, especially its original owners, of their heritage by distorting the
history of Itsekiri kingship.
What is the historic relationship between the Olu of Itsekiri and the Township of
Warri? Let the Itsekiri establishment accept the following description by Professor P.C.
Lloyd (at page 85 of “Tribalism in Warri” presented at the West African Institute of Social
and Economic Research, Fifth Annual Conference Proceedings, March, 1956. Issued by
University College, Ibadan, 1956. Reprinted by Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic
Research, 1963). Lloyd says:
The struggle for the ownership of the town has been intensified by modern
political developments. Warri was, in the years prior to 1955, administered as a
Township and not as part of the Itsekiri Native Authority. An Administrative
Officer, termed the Local Authority, was assisted by an Advisory Board,
nominated by the Resident, which in 1939 consisted of two other Government
officials, three representatives of the European trading firms and three Africans –
two Itsekiri and one Urhobo. The Olu of (sic) Warri had no part in the
government of the Township.
In 1955 the Warri Urban District Council was formed and election of
councillors was by secret ballot. Of the twenty one councillors elected, fourteen
were Urhobo (13 N.C.N.C., and 1 A.G.) four were Ibo (all N.C.N.C.) and three
were Itsekiri (1 A.G., 2 Independent N.C.N.C.). The Olu, the
468
President of the Council, is an Action Grouper and the six chiefs, appointed as
traditional members of the council are men whose titles have no traditional
status, least of all in the town; they are all prominent in the local Action Group
branch.
That is to say, until 1955, in the words of Peter Lloyd, “The Olu [of Itsekiri] had no
part in the government of the Township.”
Itsekiri Establishment’s Wars against the Dead
Frank Ukoli is not the first deceased person to be viciously attacked by the Itsekiri
establishment. Indeed, its morbid catalogue is deep and merciless.
Ginuwa and his descendants have re-emerged as heroes among the ranks of the Itsekiri
establishment. But, in fact, for decades this family that did so much for the Itsekiri was
trampled upon by the Itsekiri establishment. Following the mysterious death of the
immediate heirs to Olu Akengbuwa’s throne, the Itsekiri establishment disrupted Itsekiri
royalty with scurrilous allegations against members of a family that was responsible for the
construction of Itsekiri nationality.
For many Itsekiri, William Moore, a descendant of Olu Akengbuwa, was a hero for
raising his voice against Dore Numa and the rest of the Itsekiri establishment for
maltreating his royal ancestors. Moore’s History of Itsekiri was a stout defence of Itsekiri
royalty. He was not a rich man nor did he hanker after power. But he was attached to the
culture of his people. He would not bastardize the title of his ancestors for mere profit.
Within legitimate limitations of research, his book was a courageous and truthful account of
Itsekiri history.
Upon his death, the Itsekiri establishment waged a campaign against William Moore’s
shades. Because he told too much truth, the Itsekiri establishment destroyed his valuable
book. This is how Professor P.C. Lloyd narrated this campaign: “Moore’s book was
discredited and, in Warri, copies were destroyed or hidden by their owners so that
very few are now in circulation.”
There are other instances of such morbid campaigns against the dead by the Itsekiri
establishment. One such campaign stands out, because of the stature of its victim. Chief
Arthur Prest, native of Ugbuwangue in Warri, served the Itsekiri in many capacities. He
represented them in the Western House of Assembly and in the House of Representatives in
Lagos. He was an important Federal Minister. Besides, he was a brilliant lawyer and jurist.
He did not like the way his people in Ugbuwangwe were being treated under the oppressive
doctrine of overlordship. He took the Itsekiri Communal Land Trust to court for over-
stepping its bounds under this doctrine. His – and Ugbuwangue’s – victory destroyed the
doctrine of overlordship, the source of wealth for rent-seeking members of the Itsekiri
establishment. They were angry with him, but there was not much they could do to him while
he was alive.
Upon Arthur Prest’s death, the Itsekiri establishment carried out its revenge. It denied
him burial rights among his people, whom he had served for so long.
Now, the Itsekiri establishment has once again stepped outside the boundaries of
Itsekiri culture to wage its morbid campaigns against the dead. Not only did they tell blatant
falsehoods against Frank Ukoli, they had the temerity to drag his father and grandfather into
the mud of their morbid campaigns. They did worse than that. They dared to disparage Chief
T.E.A. Salubi’s good name. One of the cheekiest attack lines in “Warri” Study Group’s menu
of insults ran as follows: “If he [Chief T.E.A. Salubi] were to come down
from heaven or hell and find that this matter is still in contention, he would be proud of the
469
likes of the Ukolis, Obiomas, Ukeukus, Ejoors, Ekehs ...” We wonder what these people
enjoy in such callow sense of humour.
We cannot claim to know the Holy Will of God and His Holy Judgement on mortals.
But we are reasonably sure that Chief Salubi lived a good and decent life and that he is in all
probability in Heaven. We believe – and pray – that in Heaven he will meet with William
Moore, Godwin Boyo, Arthur Prest, Daniel Okumagba and Frank Ukoli. They would
certainly discuss the affairs of Warri. They would all agree with William Moore that Itsekiri
Kings were always called the Olu of Itsekiri and that lust for lucre should not lure the Itsekiri
establishment into changing the title of the Itsekiri King to the strange name of Olu of
“Warri.” They would all agree with Godwin Boyo and Arthur Prest that they were right to
take the Itsekiri establishment to court for the oppressive invocation of the doctrine of
overlordship.
We are satisfied that Frank Ukoli is in good company in Heaven.
(Sgd.)
Ajovi Scott-Emuakpor, M.D., Jackson Omene, M.D., FAAP

Ph.D., FAAP Formerly, Professor & Head, Dept
Formerly, Professor of Child Health of Child Health & Provost, College
& Director, Institute of Child Health, of Medical Sciences, University of
Univ. of Benin. Director of Clinical Benin. Chief Medical Director,
Services & Training, & Acting Chief UBTH.
Medical Director, UBTH. Currently, Director & CEO, Atlantic
Currently, Professor of Paediatric Health Care Center, Brooklyn, New
Haematology and Oncology, York, USA.
Michigan State University, USA.
For: Urhobo Historical Society

April 2, 2005
470
A Memorial Poem
Ajovi Scott-Emuakpor, Friend and Cousin,

Recounts Frank Ukoli's Legacy in a Poem
Editor's Note
By Peter Ekeh
Editor@waado.org
The late Frank Ukoli was a friend to many. But none was closer to him than Ajovi
Scott-Emuakpor. Cousins and special friends, their company was always illuminating,
affecting their mutual friends positively. Ajovi was not at Frank's bed side at Warri, in West
Africa, as he took his last breath at Shell Hospital on December 21, 2004. But Ajovi was an
ocean away in Michigan in the United States of America, on telephone, monitoring and
worrying about his friend's health. Ajovi knew of Frank's death before his relatives in Warri
did.
It will not be enough to publish the poem that Ajovi has composed in his friend's
memory without narrating his agony since his death. His note forwarding the poem says it
well. There is a human touch in the poem that transcends the competence of medical
professionalism. As a distinguished medical practitioner, whose experience spans the
Atlantic and two different worlds of Nigerian and American medical practices, Ajovi has
saved many lives. He has also seen many people in their dying moments. But nothing
prepares one for the taking away of a rich life with which one has become wedded in human
love.
Here is Ajovi's note, before his poem:
Dear Peter,
I have been very down for the last three weeks. My pain is so excruciating
that I do not know why. If it is because Frank is gone, then I must be feeling guilty
that I did not do enough to sustain him when he was alive. Only this morning did it
dawn on me that it is because I missed the one opportunity to have interacted with
him in the last days of his life (at the UHS meeting in Effurun ). His last email to
me before the UHS meeting stated, in part, that he was looking forward to seeing
me and to laughing loud again during my visit. He talked about hearing my views
on his plans for the next few years (turned out to be days).
Now that I know why I have been so down, I have the courage of sending my
humble tribute to the memory of Frank. You may share it with our members, if you
think it is appropriate.
Thank you very much, Peter.
Ajovi
[My Humble Tribute to the Rich Memory of

Professor Frank M. A. Ukoli, FAS]
By Ajovi Scott-Emuakpor
DEATH? NOT FRANK

They announced that he is dead
Just because he is not there
They’ve used many strange words
Passed, demise, called, left, gone
In those words, so much finality abound
Yet, I see him everyday, he moves around
This occurrence, “death” describes not To
say it well, must find another word
Enabling us feel his continued presence So
present, so real, so profound in essence
Giant-sized, watchful, with diligence
Monitoring, as in real life, a rich legacy
His legacy, enabled our liberated minds

Empowering us all to be different kinds To
be different, we courageously traversed
Paths, which for the special were reserved
Special because we saw no other persons
Except those, alike, inspired by his lessons
Wanted to be known only as a Scientist So

he gave impetus to spirited Scientists
Wanted to be remembered as a Scholar He
created beauty around scholarship Showed
example, the value of excellence Drove us
to relentless pursuit of excellence
He taught us the purity of conscience

He made honesty an art and a science
He administered life, not just education
So we can dance, complete dance of affection
For Truth, Justice, Equity and Fairness
A dance for Service, with class and finesse
Be vigilant, you’ll see him everywhere

In those he inspired and who now dare
To pursue knowledge and reach out for truth
In a World, strikingly lacking of both
This should be our greatest tribute to him
Steadfastness, dedication to a life of honor and merit
(December 21, 2004)
472
MODERN URHOBO MIGRATIONS AND
THE URHOBO IN DIASPORA
Chapter 24
Migrating Cultural Performances:

The Urhobo among the Ikale-Yoruba 1
Onigu Otite
Introduction
This chapter deals with Urhobo rural-to-rural immigrants in Ikale-Yorubaland. It seeks

to show how cultural performances serve as important markers of cultural identity. At the
same time, in the context of scarce political and economic resources and the ethnic pluralism
which characterise Nigeria, the very mechanisms which sustain these boundaries can,
ironically, lead to their fracturing, as increasing interactions generate new forms of
cross-cultural performances. This argument builds on Abner Cohen’s insights into the
politics of cultural symbols and his most recent work which demonstrates how these are
manifested in modern cultural movements (see Abner 1993).
Urhobo Rural Immigrants in Ikale-Yorubaland
With a 1963 population of 0.6 million growing to about 1.1 million, according to the
1991 census, the Urhobo people constitute the largest ethnic group in the former Bendel and
now Delta State of Nigeria. They are divided into twenty-two polities, each defined by
dialectal differences and micro-political and religious symbols. Most of the polities are
organised around kingship, with the king, called Ovie, chosen rotationally from descent
groups or town units, such as in Agbon and Okpe, or through primogeniture, as in Ugelli
and Ogor. A few of the polities have gerontocratic structures at the centre, as in Ephron-tor,
while others have central institutions in which senior members of title-associations officiate,
as in Ughienvwen. Generally, each polity is also constituted by several towns and villages,
where kinship symbols and sentiments determine, to a large extent, the character and
operation of indigenous council democracies.
The Urhobo regard themselves as one people, principally because they share a system
of common political religious and kinship symbols and speak the same language. Thus there
are several levels of differentiation characterised by the use of symbols and cultural
performances. The dramatisation and even ritualisation of socio-cultural differences are
critical in the political and economic relationship between some Urhobo entities and
neighbouring ethnic groups inhabiting the same or adjacent settlements, for example, in the
urban areas of Warri and Sapele – conflicts between the Urhobo and Itsekiri ethnic groups in
Warri and Sapele. Conflicts between the Urhobo and Itsekiri ethnic groups in Warri, for
instance, over land and settlement space, on the one hand, and indigenous and modern
political supremacy, on the other, provide the social spheres for manipulating and
instrumentalising cultural performances in the urban setting.
1
Reproduced from Onigu Otite, “Migrating Cultural Performances: The Urhobo among the Ikale-Yoruba, Ondo State, Nigeria,”
pp.113-124 in David Parkin, Lionel Caplan, and Humprey Fisher, editors, The Politics of Cultural Performance , Providence,
Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1996. This chapter is published with the kind permission of the author.
This Urhobo experience of changing levels of symbolic identifications, which may be

explained further in terms of the theory of segmentary opposition, forms part of their strategy
of co-existence with members of other ethnic groups away from their own territory.
Emigrants from rural backgrounds move to other rural areas where the abundance of oil palm
trees and forest environment provide opportunities for the exploitation of resources for their
socio-economic survival. Ikaleland in Okitipupa division, a rural Yoruba territory, offers
such opportunities.
From the 18 thcentury, individual males or small male-headed households took the
decision to migrate to Okitipupa and other parts of Yorubaland, a distance in this case of
about 270 kilometres from their natal homes. Oil palm production is an enervating occupation
which requires the co-operation of men, women and children as working units. A rural
Urhobo household can survive wherever oil palm trees grow in abundance. On arrival in the
area, immigrants were introduced to Ikale rural landlords through friends or kinsmen who had
arrived earlier, and paid a fee, or promised to do so, for a tenancy to exploit the land and oil
palm resources. They then established camps or villages consisting of an average of seven
households. A village was an exclusive Urhobo settlement.
I studied six of these camps-villages in great detail, and found that everything was done
according to Urhobo culture. Also, Urhobo expertise in palm oil production was preserved in
the villages. Before the arrival of the Urhobo immigrants, the local Ikale population had had
no technology for climbing the tall oil palm trees to cut regimes (bunches of oil fruits). They
could only cut fruits for food and domestic use from those short trees which did not require
climbing with the rope girdles manufactured by the Urhobo.
The villages are organised and shaped after the Urhobo home villages in the Delta
State, but with elements of impermanence which betray the target character of their migration
and temporary settlements. The language and dress forms are Urhobo; just as
their trough-factory, called oko, rope girdles, specially shaped slicing knives and axes,
filters, etc., are symbols of an exclusive occupation and manner of economic survival and
prosperity in the locality.
Within this context of an exclusive lifestyle, the Urhobo immigrants work from about 7
a.m. to 5 p.m. daily except on Sunday (for Christians) and the indigenous resting day
called edewo (for all immigrants). When not engaged in palm oil manufacturing, the
immigrants do farmwork. The products of these two occupations bring the Urhobo face-to-
face with members of Ikale society in the market places. Here, the Urhobo sell their palm oil
and the kernel cracked and extracted by the women from the dried fruits. While the Urhobo
have learnt the local language to facilitate their economic transactions, they maintain their
identity, and in their camps follow their exclusive lifestyle and socio- economic activities.
The earlier immigrants apparently maintained friendly relationships with their hosts,
and hence later arrivals were willingly accepted by local Ikale landlords. The Urhobo
immigrants were target migrants, aiming to accumulate money and materials for urban
businesses or trade, houses in Urhoboland or in a nearby town, etc. The failure or success in
achieving these targets determined the rate of immigration and consequently the numbers of
Urhobo in Ikale territory from years to year. The Urhobo immigrants population changed
from 25 percent of the total population in the locality in 1931, to 22.3 percent in 1952, to
14.7 percent in 1963. Other immigrants in the area were Ijo (Izon), Igbo, Bini, Isoko, Itsekiri,
Hausa, Effik and Ibibio, constituting between 1 percent and 8.2 percent of the population.
The Urhobo are thus quite visible carriers and manipulators of a separate culture in this
heterogeneous rural locality.
476
Migrating Cultural Performances: The Urhobo….
The Urhobo camps are identifiable not only from the lifestyle of immigrants but also
from the architectural design and structure of the settlement. Each camp consists of an
average of seven family/household units, totalling some forty people related to one another
through kinship and descent. Their government is gerontocratic. The eldest man, who is
generally the father or uncle of the rest, has an intensively ritualised socio-economic
authority, and intervenes during quarrels to ensure co-operation and peace both within the
group and in relation to the host society. The success of oil palm production requires this
peaceful co-operation (Otite 1979: 228). My calculations from observed working situations
in the first half of the 1970s showed that “it took a household twenty one days to complete
the process of extracting oil from the palm fruits. On average, a kerosene tin of 18.2 litres of
oil was produced from 18 regimes of palm fruits, thus giving a total of sixty tins of palm oil
produced yearly by a typical immigrant. In addition, to this, an immigrant’s wife or wives got
1, 097.2 kg of palm kernel a year; (ibid.: 229). Fluctuating earnings were made from these
products from year to year.
Immigrants, particularly those who have made substantial economic progress, have
also set up shops manned by adult sons or relatives in Okitipupa or any nearby town. In
1972, immigrants engaged in several enterprises in Okitipupa town, involving textiles and
clothes, tailoring etc. Single commodity shops were also run in Okitipupa for the sale of palm
oil and kernel. It should be recalled that none of the immigrants camps is viable as a
commercial or market centre, and this fact brings many immigrants face-to-face with other
members of the local, non-Urhobo population on market day.
Such days are also the Urhobo resting day called edewo. They provide occasions for
cultural performances focused on igbe religious worship. In Urhoboland, the igbe as a
religious movement is believed to have begun ages ago and became a very visible religion
in about the eighteenth century. It is patronized in the Delta State and other areas where the
Urhobo are found. Urhobo and non-Urhobo (such as the Isoko) believers in igbe religion in
Nigeria (mainly in the Delta State) were estimated to be about one million in 1982 (Nabofa
1982: 249).
The igbe religious worship was apparently alien to the Ikale in Okitipupa area. Only
the Urhobo immigrants constituted the membership at the time of my first study. On edewo
days, members, both male and female, assembled in the house of their leader, as early as 8
a.m. The overall colour scheme and background was white; white blouses and white wraps
for women, white singlets and white wraps for men. Small white thread or beads might be
tied round the necks, wrists and ankles of members, and white powder or chalk rubbed on
the face and neck, although these were soon dissolved by sweat during the dancing. White,
to the generality of igbe worshippers, as to the Urhobo generally, symbolizes purity, peace
and joy.
The ‘congregation’ in each case was not too large, that is, about twenty people. They
formed lines of three members each, or constituted themselves into a small circle for the
ritual dance. Though not compulsory, each member held a small skin fan with the right and,
following the rhythm provided by the songs and bare-foot stamping, clapped it on the left
palm or on the right leg. The igbe meeting and dance required energy to perform and could
last until 4 p.m. or even later, so members found it advisable to eat their breakfast, usually
consisting of starch and carbohydrates and some protein derived from cassava, yam, plantain,
fish or meat, before it began. There were intervals necessitated by exhaustion. Occasionally,
during such rest intervals, the leader or another member would get possessed by a spirit. Such
occasions of spirit possession and mediumship provided more drama, and sometimes
suspense, since at these times revelations and prophesies would be revealed about the life of
an individual or the fortunes of the group.
477
In addition to the four-day edewo igbe meetings and worship, members organised
yearly festivals or religious outings with dances through some streets of the town. On such
occasions, which occurred between October and December, members would carry foodstuffs
— yam, plantain, large fish, oil, etc., as gifts to the leader. In their natal Urhobo land,
members from several of the twenty-two Urhobo polities assemble in the compound of their
founders, for example, in Chief Agege’s compound in Orogun polity. In such
central places in Urhoboland, halls of worship (called ogwa) are constructed and decorated
with white cloth, native chalk ( orhe), carvings, hand skin fans etc. Such halls are absent
from igbe arrangements in Ikaleland. In Urhoboland, as in Ikaleland, some of the foodstuffs
are carried, while singing and dancing in their white dress, to the riverside where they are
thrown into the river, ostensibly to be eaten by the water goddess, called ‘mammy water’ by
some Urhobo adherents.
Igbe membership is voluntary, but the religion is also believed to provide sanctuary
for confessed witches and wizards who thereafter profess to be benevolent (practising
positive witchcraft) instead of harming victims. Members also include those who seek
protection from bewitchment and anyone who ‘gives his or her head to God for
safekeeping. Although they are not Christians, igbe worshippers also pray to God, known as
Orise, to be saved, and to have good health and prosperity. Besides, the igbe is also a
‘hospital’ where those who are affected by illnesses, poisoning or mental and chronic health
problems are treated with herbs, tree bark and prayers. This occurs after divination, to
ascertain the involvement of superhuman and spiritualised forces. Members’ major precepts
are love, charity and purity. Thus, although igbe is significant as an entertaining cultural
boundary marker, its hidden meaning is the search for inner purification by purging the mind
of evil deeds or thoughts.
The igbe religion in Ikaleland is an Urhobo affair, and the spectators and non-
believers are Ikale and non-Urhobo immigrants. The igbe leaders’ compound, as theatre,
provides an exclusive place for the dramatisation of Urhobo culture and belief system. The
four-day edewo occasions, like the yearly gatherings, are thus critical events for manifesting
and sustaining Urhobo migrant culture in Ikaleland. They symbolize an important aspect of
Urhobo migrant social structure in the host society. The igbe is not in competition with any
local religion. For the Urhobo, it provides a refreshing break and refrain from hard work and
hazardous activities associated with oil palm production. It enjoins friendliness and co-
operative living.
The two powerfully distinctive forms of cultural performance described above are
mutually reinforcing and promote one identity. On the one hand, there is the exclusive
identifiable economic organisation for individual and group survival and improved standard
of living in a recreated Urhobo physical and architectural environment. Activities in this
sphere of life are complementary in Okitipupa society and do not compete with those of the
Ikale indigenes. On the other hand, igbe religion is not only spiritually and psychologically
satisfying, but is also a visible cultural-religious drama with a distinctive Urhobo label. The
potency of this cultural performance is increased by the need to ensure peaceful co- existence
in the locality and economic well-being.
Together, these two forms of exclusive culture-bound performances have the effect of
identifying a political category of Nigerians with local second-class citizenship. They are
manipulated to get their votes during elections to the Local Council or State and National
Assembly, but hardly ever to compete or expect to be voted for as candidates. In this sense,
cultural performances convey political messages of disabilities. They are ready-made
natural-cultural displays and exhibits for man-made political discriminations in the local
settings. Yet the immigrants adhere to their ‘Urhoboness’, despite the evils of the widespread
phenomenon of local dual citizenship in Nigeria, hoping that at some point in
478
time they will achieve their targets: to acquire enough wealth and financial means to contest
elections or be vocal and visible in politics as first-class citizens when they return to their
natal homes in the Delta State of Nigeria.
The immigrant Urhobo cultural-social organizations, though exploited for political
gains by Ikale-Yoruba political office seekers, nevertheless remain together; politics from
‘outside’ does not have the effect of factionalising or segmenting them. Two reasons account
for this phenomenon. First, the camp-villages are small and tightly held together as moral
communities by ties of kinship and the cultural value of respect for elders as headmen.
Second, immigrants are concerned with, if not committed to, their survival and the
achievement of their targets, which they conceive of as economic, not political. Thus, for the
Urhobo immigrants, ethnicity is not a political phenomenon in the sense of struggles,
competitions, and confrontations in respect of local and national positions. Rather, it is
essentially an economic phenomenon involving the dynamics of cultural exclusivity in a
friendly host environment.
In the above senses, cultural performances reveal the differences between the Urhobo
incomers and Ikale-Yoruba host and non-Urhobo immigrants. They maintain the content of
Urhobo identity, and facilitate their link, one way or the other, to the local council, state and
national politics and government. As processes of promoting their homogeneity, Urhobo
cultural performances are symbols of exclusion. They also constitute an unintended means of
maintaining cultural pluralism in the rural setting of Okitipupa. Ikale-Yoruba cultural
performances are less visible, and less assertive. Yet both the hosts and immigrants are just
as ‘ethnic-conscious’ in this Okitipupa rural environment as are the Hausa of Sabo and the
Yoruba in the Ibadan urban setting.
Some Areas of Social Change
My 17 years of continuous study of these immigrants from the 1970s (Otite 1994)
reveals that the basis of Urhobo exclusivity has become gradually punctured following the
introduction of oil palm plantations and a modern palm oil mill built in Okitipupa town in
October 1974, to extract palm oil and process palm kernel. A large part of the land on which
the exclusive villages were built, like the Ikale settlements, have been converted to oil palm
plantations through the Small Holders Oil Palm Project. In a similar manner, a Nigerian
Army Unit, established in Okitipupa, has occupied a large space from which the immigrants
have had to re-emigrate. Furthermore, several sources of urban concentration (Otite 1988)
have increased the population of Okitipupa creating more socio-cultural diversity. The town
has ‘set up new cycles of rural-urban dependencies with new phases of immigration and
potentials for further development in the countryside’ (ibid.:26).
According to my earlier finding, ‘real value was derived from the maintenance of
exclusive ethnic identities and organizations. In this respect … 100 percent of the total
number of immigrant parents interviewed would not give their daughters in marriage to Ikale
landowners and thereby change the pattern of ethnic exclusiveness in the future through
affiliation and dual local citizenship’ (Otite 1975: 123). This preference for Urhobo marriage
and family symbols has changed, and Urhobo-Ikale marriages have occurred in the latter
period of my study.
Also changed is the Urhobo monopoly of palm oil manufacture technology. Young
Ikale people have learnt to climb tall oil palm trees using rope girdles made by Urhobo
immigrants. This Ikale acquisition of aspects of Urhobo technology has been possible
because of its open practice. Nothing was done in secret, and the Ikale freely observed from
time to time how the immigrants climbed the tall trees. The incentive for this Ikale adoption
of the technology has been due mainly to the increasing market prices of palm oil and
479
kernel. However, the Urhobo girdles made from oil palm fronds have gradually been
replaced by new iron (woven wire) types made through Western technology and imported
into Ikaleland. These are now used by the Urhobo and the Ikale alike.
Thus Urhobo immigrant socio-economic organisations are being reduced as a result of
urban and industrial incursions into the rural areas, thereby forcing Urhobo immigrants to
re-emigrate, become absorbed as physical labourers in the new oil palm plantations, or
return home. In addition, those that remain in the Okitipupa urban environment find their
exclusive organisations to be an unnecessary strategy of coping with the local economy and
changing patterns of life. Although the Urhobo are still easily identified as Urhobo through
their language, dress and lifestyle, they have become part of the growing urban
heterogeneity and anonymity. The Urhobo answer to their disappearing village organisations
has been the formation and invigoration of their ethnic associations and home town unions
in Okitipupa and other large settlements.
Changes in the rites and membership of the igbe religious organisation have also
occurred. New types of members have joined the religion as a result of Urhobo-Ikale
marriages and affinal kinship links, and as a result of the desire of convinced local patients to
be cured of certain ‘imponderable’ diseases. Yet, the essential content of the religion remains
unchanged in the rapidly urbanising Okitipupa town.
In many respects, this Okitipupa rural situation contrast with the urban Hausa in Sabo,
Ibadan, described by Cohen (1969). Sabo is an ongoing permanent area set aside in 1916 by
municipal law, for Hausa settlement. Since then, Hausa exclusive symbols have been
maintained and recreated to meet the changing needs of cattle and kola nuts traders, as well
as of an endless stream of visitors and settlers with new and diverse occupations such as
tailors, craftsmen, middlemen, currency dealers, and transport owners and drivers. The
dynamics of Hausa cultural performances and exclusivity are still central in Ibadan politics
today. Thus, while the Urhobo rural immigrant organisations are being reduced, much of
Sabo today is still the Sabo that Cohen knew in the 1960s.
Conclusion
Symbolism and ‘the politics of cultural performance’ are never absent from the social
life of either the Urhobo target migrants or the Hausa immigrant settlers. In this respect,
Cohen’s insights have contributed substantially to my work on Urhobo immigrants in
Okitipupa, and to the study of their politics, symbols and cultural performances.
References
Cohen, Abner. 1969 Custom and Politics in Urban Africa: A Study of Hausa Migrants in Yoruba Towns.
London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
—. 1993. Masquerade Politics: Explorations in the Structure of Urban Cultural Movements. Berkeley
and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Nabofa, M.Y. 1982. ‘Igbe Religious Movement’ in The Urhobo People, Onigu Otite (ed). Ibadan:
Heinemann.
Otite, O. 1975. ‘Resource Competition and Inter-ethnic Relations in Nigeria’ in Ethnicity and Resource
Competition in Plural Societies, Leo Despres (ed). The Hague: Mouton.
480
—.1979. ‘Rural Migrants as Catalysts in Rural Development. The Urhobo in Ondo State, Nigeria’, Africa
49(3).
—. 1988. ‘Sources of Urban Concentration in the Nigerian Countryside’, African Studies Review 31(3).
—.1990. Ethnic Pluralism and Ethnicity in Nigeria. Ibadan: Shaneson C.I. Ltd.
—.1994. On the Path of Progress: A Study of Rural Immigrants and Development in Nigeria. Lagos:
Malthouse Press (forthcoming).
481
Chapter 25
Urhobos in Benin 1897-1945:

Changing Patterns of Relations under Colonial Rule
Uyilawa Usuanlele
Institute for Benin Studies, Benin City, Nigeria
European imperialism in Africa had a far-reaching impact on the lives of African

people. Its impact is most manifest in the economic re-organization and re-orientation of the
colonized societies towards serving the profit needs of European capitalist enterprise. These
developments put much pressure on the people and changed the nature and character of their
social relationships with one another and their attitudes towards resources and people. These
changes affected social relations not only within the various groups existing in African
societies, but also between the groups. This development brought about new consciousness
and struggles amongst and between the groups, resulting in increasing conflicts, which
continued long after the formal exit of the colonisers.
Two groups whose relations were affected and changed by colonialism are the Benin
and Urhobo who inhabit the rainforest and the swamps adjoining the Western Niger-Delta.
The Benin and the Urhobo belong to the Edo speaking language group and share aspects of
culture and history. Prior to colonial rule, their relationship was characterized by migrations,
interspersed by occasional frictions (with some Urhobo clans) over political sovereignty and
increasing economic symbiosis. Under colonial rule, their relationship gradually changed
with the intensification of Urhobo migrations into Benin land and pressure on resource use,
resulting in conflicts which were contained.
This chapter argues that the relations between Benins and Urhobos became oriented
towards conflicts as a result of colonial policies which incorporated them into the world
market over which they had no control and led to struggle over control and access to resource
use. This argument is sustained through a historical examination of how colonialism affected
the relations between these people, the management of the resultant conflicts and their
consequences for future relations.
Perspectives on Benin and Urhobo Relations before Colonial Rule
Benin and Urhobo oral traditions agree that some Urhobo originated from Benin 1and
other studies have also shown that some Urhobo clans have a mixed origin which included
Ijaw and Igbo migrants. These various migrations that created Urhobo ethnicity did not occur
2
at the same time. The earliest migrations from Benin land are traced to the Ogiso
th 3
period of Benin history before the 13 century . In addition there have been reverse
1
Jacob U. Egharevba, A Short History of Benin (Ibadan, Ibadan University Press, 1968), p.13, Robert E. Bradbury, The Benin
Kingdom and the Edo Speaking People of South-Western Nigeria (London, International African Institute, 1957, pp.129-131 and
Thomas E.A. Salubi, “Perspectives on the History of the Itsekiri and the Title of their King” Pp. 72-104 in Peter P. Ekeh, editor.
Warri City & British Colonial Rule in Western Niger Delta, Lagos, Nigeria: Urhobo Historical Society, 2004.
2
Obaro Ikime, Niger Delta Rivalry : Itsekiri-Urhobo Relations and the European Pressure,1884-1936 , London, Longman Groups
Limited, 1977, 9-15
3
Peter P.Ekeh, Ogiso Times and Eweka Times: A Preliminary History of the Edoid Complex of Cultures, Benin City, Institute for
Benin Studies, 2002,14-16
migrations which have resulted in the settlement of Urhobo in Benin land. Overtime, Benin
developed a centralized political organization which brought the whole Benin people under
the rule of the Oba. The Urhobo continued to be organized in (groups usually described as
“clans” under their Ivie and priests. Some of the Ivie maintained relations with the Oba of
Benin who sanctioned their installation. 4
The religio-political relationship between Benin and some of the clans provided basis
for occasional conflicts. Benin traditions are not too clear on conflict with any of the Urhobo
clans. But the oral traditions of some of the Urhobo clans allude to the experience of
5
occasional conflicts. These would have been over the failure on the part of some clans
to perform the ritual sanctioning of Ivie installation and presentation of gifts that went with
it and the failure of the Oba to reciprocate the necessary protection of the clans with which it
maintained religio-political relations. One Abraka-Urhobo clan tradition identifies a place in
their clan as Adakaji meaning “where Benin people were halted” and this has been
6
interpreted to mean a place of war, between the Abraka Clan and Benin forces. But the
historicity of this interpretation still needs to be proven rather than assumed. Abraka is on the
borderland area of Benin, Kwale, Igbo and Urhobo and was susceptible to incursions which
threatened Benin’s security. The Ogie-Ugo n’Iyekorhionmwon was specifically stationed in
that area to check such incursions into Benin land. Benin traditions allude to problems with
the Oru (Kwale) and Oboro (Ubulu-Uku Igbo) and not the Abraka-Urhobo of this border
7
area. But what cannot be ruled out are the possibilities of the Oru and Oboro
groups having Abraka allies or Benin forces straying into Abraka land in pursuit of the Oru
and Oboro forces. It is also possible that Abraka-Urhobo palm oil produce prospectors
violated Benin Forest and were pursued back into Abraka land until they were halted by
reinforced Abraka warriors. That was not unlikely as the Urhobo were increasingly in need
of forest to prospect for oil for their trading activities and Benin jealously guided its forests
against uncontrolled exploitation.
It was the issue of access to forest and water resources that was to increasingly shape
Urhobo-Benin relations in the nineteenth century and after. Changes in economic activities
that came with development of European trade in the fifteenth century affected production
and distribution activities and increased interactions between the Benin state and Urhobo
clans. Benin people are a forest land dwelling people and their livelihood revolves around
farming, crafts and trade, while their southern Urhobo neighbours inhabit both forest and
swamp land areas which enable them to engage in fishing and canoeing in addition to
farming, crafts and trade. The canoeing and fishing occupations of the Urhobo people
encouraged a symbiotic relation with the Benin people who bought their fish and used their
canoe services for trade in exchange for Benin farm and craft products.
4
T. E. A. Salubi “The Establishment of British Administration in the Urhobo Country (1891-1913” Journal of Historical Society of
Nigeria, Vol. I, No 3,December 1958,184-209
5
Ikime, , Niger Delta Rivalry : Itsekiri-Urhobo Relations and the European Pressure,1884-1936,
6 nd
Ibru Goddie “Hotel and Tourism development potentials in Delta state” A paper presented at the 2 Anniversary of the
Administration of James Onanefe Ibori, Executive Governor of Delta State at the Conference Hall, Hotel Excel, NNPC Road,
Efurun on Saturday, 2ndJune 2001, http/www.deltastate.gov.ng/retreathotel.htm.
7
The Enogie of Ugo n’Iyekeorhionmwon was actually placed there to check the activities of these Kwale and Igbo intruders. It was
this Enogie who led Benin war against Ubulu-Uku. Benin oral traditions claim that the Enogie was sent to lead the Benin army
during this war, because he had earlier been trained in the art of divination and medicine by the Obi of Ubulu Uku and he was to use
his knowledge of the Ubulu-Uku Igbo terrain and their magical art against them. This was a violation of the professional oath of
diviners that a diviner should never harm his teacher. The Enogie was assisted by his wife Emokpaogbe who was a great sorceress
and he won the war. But he was denied the trophy by some Benin City chiefs through subterfuge.
484
Urhobos in Benin 1897-1945….
The shift of European trade away from Benin River and the need to meet demands of
European merchants pushed Benin to Urhobo land and waterways. This was known as Eki-
Egbe Amen or waterside trade and Benins and Urhobos made fortunes from it. A 8major
centre of this trade was Uwhokhori (Kokori). A renowned Benin trader who made fortune
from this trade was Chief Edo, who was recalled by the Oba and conferred with the title of
Iyase which made him popularly known as Iyase ne ode urhobo -meaning “Iyase from the
Urhobo country.” 9
Migrations for the purpose of this trade with Europeans went both ways and brought
some Urhobo merchants to Benin. It led to the establishment of Urhobo trading camps on
Benin land. This development was occasioned by the expansion of the palm oil trade.
Urhobo and Benin traders moved into the Benin forest and employed both family and slave
labour to exploit the wild oil palm trees and other fibres particularly cane ( Ikan in Benin-
Edo language and Tietie in colonial records) used in making baskets for transporting
produce. 10The Urhobo camps were established largely along waterways which served as
collecting centres for palm produce. Participation in this trade required alongside capital,
some political connection with the Benin state because of the security concerns of the state.
Amongst the renowned merchants who mustered such political clout was Prince Itoje from
Kokori, Agbon clan, who was a trader in Benin. He married into one of the Benin titled
families in Ogbe quarters of Benin City and fathered another merchant Prince Erebe Itoje,
who became a Native Court member in the early colonial era. 11 Prince Erebe Itoje used his
Benin maternal connections and relationship with the crown Prince Aiguobasimwin (who
became Oba Eweka II 1914-1933) to further his trade and founded his camp now known as
Oke-Erebe on the Jamieson River by Sokponba (Sapoba). He built his own house along the
centrally located and strategic Akpakpava Street in Benin City in the early 1900s.
The Urhobo trading and production camps were established with the permission of the
Oba. This was done on the recommendation of the Eson who was the title-holder in charge
of Benin Forest. The Urhobo camp owners paid rent for this land with part of their produce.
12
In addition, they paid annual homage to the Oba with various gift items. There is
no information on the number and size of these camps to facilitate assessment of the
population of Urhobo’s in the kingdom. But it is significant to note that these camps were to
form the nucleus of latter Urhobo settlements that later became widespread in Benin land.
Another source of Urhobo population in Benin land was through slavery. The
population of some of the settlements might have included slaves of Urhobo origin. Slaves of
Urhobo origin were among the slaves in the services of the palace. Since13there is no
evidence of Benin’s engagement in slave raids against its neighbours, these slaves could
have been acquired through purchase and /or gift exchanges. This is contrary to the claim of
8
Ekhaguosa Aisien, Benin City: The new Edo State Capital (Benin City, Aisien Publishers,1995)
9
Aisien, Benin City: The new Edo State Capital
10
Princess Mrs. Katherine Oronsaye’s grandmother and prominent trader to Urhoboland and Warri established a settlement known
as Ago-Ikan (cane camp) on account of availability of Cane bush in large quantity near Sokpoba on the Jamieson River. The camp
still exists today as an enclave in the Sapoba Forest reserve. Personal Communication with Princess Mrs. Katherine Oronsaye (nee
Eweka) aged 82 years at her Benin City residence September 2002.
11
Personal Communication with Madam Osemwowa Aghedo (nee Erebe Itoje) and first daughter of Prince Erebe Itoje aged 93 at her
Benin City Residence January 1999. This was also confirmed by Princess Mrs. Katherine Oronsaye (Nee Eweka) a niece to the
wife of Prince Erebe Itoje.
12
National Archives Ibadan, BP 332/18 Sobos, Benin Division: Process adopted in the collection of Produce. See Resident (Benin
Province) to Resident (Ondo Province), 24 / 06/1918
13
National Archives, Ibadan, CalProf 6/1 File III Turner to Moor, 8/04/1897
485
High Commissioner of Niger Coast Protectorate, Ralph Moor that Oba Ovonramwen en
route his exile to Calabar had requested to “be allowed to send and catch a waterside…..
Soboman” for sacrifice to the rain deity. 14This was obviously part of the “anti-slavery and
anti-human sacrifice” propaganda of the British to rationalize their violence and brutality
against Benin Kingdom and the illegal deposition of the Oba. Slaves of Urhobo origin were
highly sought by traders because of their skill in oil palm production and canoeing the
produce to the trading ports. Traders of Benin, Itsekiri and Urhobo origin acquired and settled
such slaves in Benin land for palm oil production and canoe transportation purposes. In
addition to the trading opportunities, Benin land provided an outlet for the settlement of
surplus Urhobo population and refugees. For instance the Oghara and Idjerhe clans, following
a dispute in their Agbassa Otor homeland, are said to have migrated northwards and found a
place of abode near and within Benin land. There is not much information on the date of this
migration. But Peter Ekeh has relied solely on Itsekiri sources particularly Moore to claim a
th
15 century date for this migration during which the
Benin Prince and founder of Itsekiri monarchy Ginuwa met with the Oghara/Idjerhe people.
15
This date is suggestive of the antiquity of the present Oghara/Idjerhe Urhobo
location/settlement. What is not clear about this tradition is the exact location of this meeting.
Was it in the present day Oghara/Idjerhe settlement or in one of their stopovers between
Warri and their settling in their present abode near and within Benin land? Benin traditions
recall present day Ogharefe as part of their land which used to be known as Adanisievbe until
16
the early period of colonial rule when the Benin population was
dwarfed by the expanding Urhobo migrants. They had also started drifting into the present
day Jesse in Benin land. The headship of some of the communities by people of Itsekiri and
Kwale origin and the name of settlements like Evbonogbon (Benin language) meaning “new
town” attest to the recent incidents of some of these settlements. This makes Oghara/Idjerhe
migrations into Benin land a recent event that happened within living memory. The
17
Oghara-Urhobo paid tributes to the Oba till the conquest of Benin and the
Oba regarded Oghara as part of his domain. This made Oghara Urhobo settlement in the
neighbourhood of Benin Kingdom pretty easy. Thus Urhobo migration and settlement in
Benin land was obviously achieved without conflict.
The relationship between the Benin and the Urhobo was mostly cordial on the eve of
colonial conquest of Benin and was beneficial to both groups. Apart from trade and
marriages, other cultural products and problems were also exchanged. One such cultural
product was pepper soup, which the Benin’s call Ehien-Urhobo meaning Urhobo soup.
Salubi informs that the Urhobos viewed the era before colonial domination as Akpo Oba –
the era of the Oba (of Benin) as distinct from Akpo Oyibo – the era of the Whiteman, 18thus
making the era of Oba’s sovereignty an event of epochal magnitude in the worldview of the
Urhobo. The influence of the Oba and Benin on the Urhobo was not lost on the British
imperialists who worked to weaken this influence and changed their relationship.
14
National Archives, Ibadan CSO 1/13,Vol 7, Despatch 120 Moor to Marquis of Salisbury 18/10/1897, 263
15
Peter P.Ekeh, “A Profile of Urhobo Culture” Peter P.Ekeh (ed.) Studies in Urhobo Culture , Buffalo, NY and Lagos, Urhobo
Historical Society, 2005,26-7.
16
Personal Interview with Madam Osemwowa Aghedo, nee Erebe Itoje
17
National Archives Ibadan File BP 2015 Secretary, Western Provinces to Resident, Warri Province, 19/06/1941.
18
T. Agbodeji Salubi “The Establishment of British Administration in the Urhobo country (1891-1913 ),” Journal of the Historical
Society of Nigeria, Vol. 1. No. 3, December, 1958.
486
Colonialism, Urhobo Influx into Benin, and

Changing Relations between Benin and Urhobo.
The conquest and colonization of Benin by the British in 1897 was climaxed with the
deposition of Oba Ovonramwen. The deposition and exile of Oba Ovonramwen to Calabar
were largely motivated by British fear of the ideological influence of the Oba, which was
believed to be capable of undermining colonial administration in the whole area including
Urhoboland. To weaken Benin and the Oba’s influence, the British went to the ridiculous
extent of taking Oba Ovonramwen in chains to Sapele and invited Urhobos to view him. 19
This last act was to demystify his “Juju” power and make the Urhobo realize his humanness
and powerlessness.
The exiling of Oba Ovonranmwen and the earlier removal Of Nana Olomu removed
the last obstacles to European trade with the Urhobo people who had been earlier brought
under British rule. It also freed some of them from tributary obligations and payment of rents
to the Oba. Since the British were more concerned with the expansion of trade, they threw
Benin land open to all and sundry to move in, settle, trade and exploit the natural resources.
In some instances, they invited groups like the Itsekiri who were already in control of trade
in the area to move in and settle along the inland rivers like Siluko to trade. The British also
negotiated land with Yoruba farmers to establish Cocoa farms while they encouraged Urhobo
migrants initially to collect oil palm products and later to farm on
20
taungya basis on Benin land. The Itsekiri and Urhobo exploited their mastery of the
waterways to establish monopoly over the waterborne trade and Palm oil production in Benin
Division. This is attested to by the annual report of 1921 which noted that “In Benin division,
trade is almost entirely in the hands of Jekris and Sobos who live alongside the waterways.”
21
This monopoly continued into the 1930s and 1940s when the depression
made the business less profitable and produce from the plantations began to compete with the
wild palm production of the Urhobo.
The monopoly of Urhobo and Itsekiri was largely because of the catastrophic effect of
British conquest on Benin from which the Benin people did not recover quickly and easily.
The effects were still very visible in the mid 1920s when a colonial official observed that
Benin City is still “… slowly recovering from the paralysis which followed British conquest
in 1897.” 22The destruction of Benin City by the British invaders, pursuit of the Oba and
Chiefs and continued resistance by some chiefs till 1899 brought British brutality and
violence to the rural areas and sent more people in flight into the heart of the forest. The
demands and exactions of the colonial regime and its agents, particularly the Chiefs, for
tributes and labour, drove many people away from their communities into refuge in the forest.
Many such communities were only “discovered” in 1934 during Forestry
19
Reginald. K Granville, Felix N. Roth and Henry L. Roth “Notes on the Jekris, Sobos and Ijos of the Warri District of the Niger
Coast Protectorate” The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol.28, No.1/2, 1899,112.
20
For invitation to Itsekiri traders to establish trading camps on Ogbesse and Ossiomo Rivers see National Archives Ibadan, File BD
13/2 Quarterly Report of Benin City District for Quarter ended 31/03/1905; For Land negotiation on behalf of Yoruba Farmers
to establish Cocoa Farms in Ogbese and Olumoye area see National Archives, Ibadan File BP 89/22 District Officer, Benin Division
to Resident, Benin Province 30/5/1929 and 11/6/1929 and for the colonial administration’s support of land grants to Urhobo migrant
farmers to farm in Forest Reserves in spite of the opposition of Oba and Forestry Department see National Archives Ibadan File BP
1223 Handing Over Notes, BNA Forest Circle and BP 2015 Sapoba Forest Reserve: Farming by Sobos.
21
National Archive, Ibadan File BP 4/2/8 Annual Report of Benin Division for the year ending 31/12 1921
22
National Archive, Ibadan File CSO 26/2 / 14617 Vol. II Annual Report of Benin Province, 1925.
487
Department’s survey. 23Those who remained in their communities were forced en-masse to
labour on building the roads and other infrastructure, in communal rubber and timber
plantations, for brick making work in Calabar and carriers in Cameroun and East Africa. 24
As a result, many old communities were without much population and it was observed that
“in Benin City district, which was sparsely populated, the villagers were largely called on for
labour and it was a common case to find a village nearly empty of men…” Some25of
these communities were gradually settled by migrant Urhobo, Itsekiri and Kwale.
Initially, Benin Chiefs had protested the influx of migrants into Benin forest and
demanded their expulsion in 1897/8. 26But the colonial administration was more interested
in the extraction of the forest products and revenue derivable from them than the complaints
of the chiefs. In response to the increased migrations and the need to make exploitation
sustainable, as well as, generate revenue from forest resources, the colonial administration
imposed payment of various fees on migrants for exploiting the forest. This action of the
colonial administration only helped to legalise migrant exploitation activities and encouraged
the migrants into increased production for the British. Seeing that their earlier request to
stop the migration of Urhobo and Itsekiri into Benin land was not acted upon, the chiefs
seized the opportunity of the visit and meeting with Hon. F.S. James, the Lieutenant
Governor of Southern Nigeria in 1913 to again state their opposition to the influx of Itsekiri
27
and Urhobo and requested its stoppage. The administration still did not take any action
against this influx because it was largely beneficial to British economic interests. Benin
communities gradually lost effective control over their forestland which was being virtually
taken over by migrants and settlers. The Forestry department reported in 1913 that:
On the bank of streams and rivers camps of migrant natives are found, these
people come for a variety of reasons. Jekris own no land so they are on the
lookout for a place to farm and to trade. Sobos have farmed out their virgin land
and have cut down their palm trees and are now on the lookout for both in other
districts, other people Yoruba’s, Hausa’s, Ishans and Igarras come to trade, to
escape their chiefs, avoid their creditors and escape all government demands on
them…. These settlers farms increase rapidly…. the chiefs owning the land do
not visit these places and when they hear of them they charge rent yearly or
periodically receiving this, they would not cooperate with the Forestry
28
Department in restricting farming
While the other migrants like the Itsekiri restricted themselves to the waterside trade,
Yorubas to Cocoa farming around Ogbesse, and Ijaws engaged in illegal timber felling for
23
Uyilawa Usuanlele and Victor O.Edo, “Migrating Out of Colonial Reach: Fugitive Benin (Nigeria) Communities, 1897-1934” in
Femi J.Kolapo and Kwabena O.Akirang-Parry (ed.) African Agency and European Colonialism: Latitudes of Negotiation and
Containment (Lanham, University of America Press, Forthcoming).
24
Uyilawa Usuanlele “State and Class in Benin Division 1897-1959 :A History of Colonial Domination and Class Formation” M.A.
Thesis, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, 1988, 216-229
25
National Archive, Ibadan File BP364/1914 Conservator of Forest, Central Province to Provincial Commissioner, Central
Province, 3/04/1914
26
National Archive, Ibadan CalProf 8/2, Vol.II Alfred Turner, Resident Benin City to Ralph Moor, Consul General, Niger Coast
Protectorate, Calabar, 24/04/1897
27
National Archive, Ibadan File BP 7/1914 Minutes of a Meeting held by Hon. F.S. James, Lieutenant Governor, Protectorate of
Southern Nigeria with Chiefs at Benin City on 19/12/1913.
28
National Archive, Ibadan File BP 209/1914 Annual Report of Forestry Department, Central Province, 1913.
488
canoe making, the Urhobo were all over the forest in the division and engaged in palm
produce and “tie-tie” collection and farming.
The influx of Urhobos was caused by both land shortage and regulation of Palm
produce exploitation in Urhoboland. 29This influx was swelled by a mass migration in
about 1917 during land dispute between Mosogar and Idjerhe over parts of Benin land.
Though palm produce exploitation regulations existed among the Benin people, colonial
administration had usurped community authority and replaced it with administrative fiat
which undermined such regulation. In addition, Benin had more abundant land ratio to its
population, in comparison with Urhobos, and the Benin did not engage much in palm
produce exploitation as the Urhobo did. As a result of the influx, the Urhobo were the second
largest taxable population after the Benins and had an estimated taxable population of 10,042
30
in the 1920 tax assessment. Apart from the illegal rents which some of the
Chiefs were receiving, the Urhobo migrant produce collectors paid for their produce
collection permits to the Forestry Department. The Forestry Department received an entrance
fee of 12/- and an annual rent of £1 (one pound) for every new location the Urhobo palm
31
produce collector established camp.
In spite of the fees being charged and collected, the Forestry Department was most
concerned about the illegal activities of Urhobo migrants who started engaging in farming
which was not covered by their permits to collect palm produce and “tietie.” The Urhobos
were alleged to be destroying the merchantable forest trees during farming and were refusing
to cooperate in the preservation of the forest. The Political Department also started to worry
in the 1920s because of the unwholesome activities of Urhobos along the waterways
bordering Warri Province, specifically those called “Warifi Sobo” (Ogharefe Urhobos). They
were alleged to be engaging in violent robberies, pillaging farms and terrorizing Benin
villages. This was forcing Benin villagers to migrate from their villages, which were quickly
32
occupied by Oghara-Urhobo farmers.
Oba Eweka II’s attitude towards migrants was to welcome them into the division. His
view was that some of the migrants were his subjects who were engaged in reverse migration
33
to the land of their fathers and should be allowed to settle. At the same time he
was negotiating with the colonial administration to return the communities and land
formerly under the Oba’s jurisdiction, which were excised as a result of colonial policy and
administrative organisation. In 1924, he formally requested the restoration of some Oghara-
Urhobo communities and Esan communities to Benin Native Authority as they were part of
Benin Kingdom. 34But the request was refused. Oba Eweka still operated within the old
political philosophy of Benin Empire and was interested in restoring the former glory of
35
Benin Empire with all the constituents including the Urhobo. More so some of the rulers
29
Onigu Otite, “Rural Migrants as Catalysts in Rural Development: The Urhobo in Ondo State, Nigeria”,
Africa: Journal of the International African Institute , Vol.49, No.3 1979,227 and Peter E.Ekeh, “Mukoro Mowoe and Urhobo
th
Destiny and History” Mukoro Mowoe 50 Anniversary lectures http://www.waado.org/Biographies/
Mowoe/Lectures/Mowoe_ekeh.htm.
30
National Archive, Ibadan, File BP 613/1919 District Officer Benin Division to Resident, Benin Province, 20/ 09/1920.
31
National Archive, Ibadan File BP332/18 Resident, Benin Province to Resident Ondo Province, 24/06/1918.
32
National Archive, Ibadan File BP2015, Memo to Inquiry held in Sapele 11-13 and 15 Februaryth 1932 by Mr. Nichols,
Conservator of Forest.
33
National Archive, Ibadan File BP 71/1930 District Officer (Benin Division) to Resident (Benin Province) 22/10/1931.
34
National Archives Ibadan File CSO 26/2, 14617 Benin Province, Annual Report for 1924.
35
Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs Library, Benin City, File BP44Vol.1, The Oba of Benin, 1926
489
of these migrants still acknowledged his spiritual powers and still tried to pay homage in
spite of British opposition.
The Colonial administration, on the other hand, was more interested in restricting the
Oba’s authority and influence to the Benin people and opposed restoration of the old multi-
ethnic empire. More so the Lugardian indirect rule system under which the monarchy was
restored thrived on “tribalism” or containing “tribes” in tight compartments under chiefs and
36
customary laws. Lugard’s successor, Hugh Clifford, Governor of Nigeria 1919-1925,
further reinforced this policy by insisting that the “tribes” should not be subordinated to one
another for native administration. This policy of strict enforcement of tribe-based
administration was enforced in Benin. Attempts of non-Benin groups to pay homage and
tributes to the Oba were refused by the administration. As 37 a result of this policy of
maintaining tribalism, the Political officers considered how best to control the Urhobo
migrants especially along the provincial borders and the other ethnic migrants like the Ika-
Igbo and Yoruba in the eastern and western borders of Benin division respectively.
The aspiration of the Oghara-Urhobo on the other hand was more in tune with
colonial policy and did not share the vision and ideas of Oba Eweka II. Having gotten used
to not paying tributes and exploiting Benin land without hindrance since colonial
administrative reorganization placed them in Warri Province in 1897, the Oghara- Urhobo
only aspired to share and enjoy Benin land resources without incorporation. Some Oghara-
Urhobo migrants tried to achieve this through land colonization in Benin forest at the
expense of neighbouring Idjerhe-Urhobo in Benin Province. This resulted in land dispute
38
with Mosogar which was settled in the Warri Appeal Court in 1917. This development
was to sow the seed of discord and conflict that was to continue to rear its head along the
Benin-Oghara-Urhobo border area.
Except for the Mosogar-Jesse land dispute, until the early 1920’s, the Urhobo migrants
on the Benin-Urhobo border areas had maintained cordial relations with the Benin people.
They intermarried and some Urhobo migrants even integrated into their host Benin
communities. The cordiality in relations was such that an Urhobo policeman seduced and
eloped with a woman named Iyare, who was a wife of Oba Eweka II in 1923/4 and the Oba
was accused of using her for human sacrifice until the woman was found with her lover in
Effurun, Warri Province. 39In the Urhobo and Itsekiri dominated settlements that were to be
later known as Jesse district, they even invited Benin chiefs to settle their disputes. Till the
early 1920s the area that became known as Jesse district was mixed and made up of few old
Benin villages and many new migrant settlements of Benin, Itsekiri, Kwale and Urhobo. In
some of the Idjerhe and Mosogar- Urhobo settlements in the district like Boborokun Shoko
and Ekuobodo, they had Benins as their village head. It40was the colonial administration
which adopted the name Jesse (which is probably of Urhobo origin or a mis-spelling of
Idjerhe by the colonial officials ) 41
for the district when it was created in 1921 possibly
36
Frederick D.Lugard, Political Memoranda: Revision of Instructions to Political Officers on Subjects chiefly Political and
Administrative, 1913-1918 (London, Frank Cass and Co.Ltd, 1970), Memo No 9, Para 10 and Mahmood Mamdani, Citizen and
Subject: Contemporary Africa and the legacy of Late Colonialism (Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1996), 77.
37
Phillip A. Igbafe, Benin under British Administration: The Impact of Colonial Rule on an African Kingdom, 1897-1938, Atlantic
Highlands, NJ, Humanities Press, 1979, 148-150.
38
National Archive, Ibadan, CSO 26/2 Annual Report of Benin Province, 1924.
39
Ibid and Egharevba, A Short History of Benin, pp.62-3.
40
National Archive, Ibadan, CSO 26/3 File 26956 Vol. II J.H Beeley, Report on Jesse-Benin Boundary.
41
It was not unusual in Colonial records for the letter S to be substituted for the letter R. For instance Benin towns of Urhonigbe and
Urhomehe are spelt as USONIGBE and USOMEHE in colonial records.
490
because of the large number of Jesse-Urhobo settlements. Before then, it only served as a
native court area under Urhonigbe district. It was Governor Hugh Clifford’s reforms of
basing administration strictly to tribal compartments, squabbles among Benin Chiefs and the
predominance of Urhobo and Itsekiri population in the settlements that made the Jesse area
to be constituted as a separate District during the reorganization of Benin Native
administration in 1920. 42
The creation of Jesse District in 1921 brought the Urhobos under the direct rule of
district heads who were Benin Chiefs. Prior to the creation, the communities did not feel the
direct impact of the chiefs. The Chiefs only stationed their agents to act on their behalf in
such communities and visited occasionally, particularly when there were some problems to
be settled. But with the establishment of the district, the District head either stayed in the
district or visited regularly and took charge of affairs. This was always more demanding for
the people. According to Igbafe, the District Head System in Benin was both oppressive and
exploitative. He went further to state that “… what particularly made their [district heads’]
practices detestable to the people was the frequency of these demands and the intensity and
43
rigour with which such demands were made.” For instance, Chief Emuze (a Benin) who
was a Native Court Member in Jesse was fined £100 and sentenced to two years
imprisonment in 1920 for extortion and settling cases out of court. 44Chief Obayagbona (a
Benin) the first District Head was removed in 1924 for corruption, maladministration, and
45
alleged collusion with robbers from neighbouring Warri Province. These developments
were taking place against a background of increasing economic hardship being experienced
by the Urhobo migrants.
The economic situation of Urhobo migrants was worsened with the introduction of
direct taxation in 1920. It was fixed at a flat rate of 10 shillings per house in Siluko and
5shillings per house in Jesse which were largely populated by the Urhobo and Itsekiri. This
new tax burden which was increased in 1927 was an addition to the entrance fees and
produce collection permit fees which they were already paying. The imposition of taxation
came at a time when the price of palm produce was very poor because of the depression that
followed the end of the First World War. A report on the economic situation observed that
trade was at a standstill and
the whole crux of the question is that the collector of produce is not even
recompensed for his time and the middlemen receives no price sufficient to
provide a living, when it comes to the shipping the European firms offer a most
miserable price – consequently there are no collectors or middlemen. 46
Their economic situation worsened in 1921 and even affected Benin division’s
revenue. The division’s revenue from palm produce collection permits paid by the Urhobos
47
fell from £2, 404 in 1920 to £545 in 1921 and continued till 1924 when prices began to
42
Phillip A.Igbafe, “The District Head System in Benin, 1913-1935” Odu:Journal of Yoruba and related Studies , Vol. 3,No.2,
January 1967, p.9 and Harry A. Gailey, Clifford: Imperial Proconsul (London, Rex Collins Ltd, 1982)137.
43
Igbafe, “The District Head System in Benin 1913-1935,” Odu, p.13.
44
Phillip A.Igbafe, Benin under British Administration: The Impact of Colonial Rule on an African Kingdom, 1897-1938 ( Atlantic
Highlands, NJ, Humanities Press, 1979)p.206.
45
National Archives, Ibadan, CSO 26/2 File 14617 Vol. 1, Annual Report of Benin Province, 1924
46
National Archive, Ibadan, File BP4/2/7 Benin Province Annual Report for year ending 31st December 1919/1920
47
National Archive, Ibadan, File BP 4/2/8 Benin Province Annual Report for year ending 31 stDecember 1921.
491
rise again. The effect of this economic depression on the Urhobo was devastating, given their
virtual dependence on oil palm produce collection and the problem of land hunger. This
would have contributed to their increasing involvement in violent robbery which bedeviled
Jesse and the Benin-Urhobo border areas in the early 1920s, particularly along the
waterways. Given the economic plight of the Urhobos and non-payment of tax and permit
fees in Warri Province, the Jesse-Urhobo migrant community came to see their salvation in
joining Warri Province in spite of being tenants on Benin land. They started agitating for
their excision from Benin Province to join their kit and kin in Warri Province, where they
48
would be freed from crushing economic burden. But with the improvement in
the price of oil palm produce in the mid-1920s and the plan to introduce taxation in Warri
Province, the agitation died down. This agitation was to be revived shortly because of land
hunger in neighbouring Oghara-Urhobo area in Warri Province. The transfer of Jesse district
was expected to bring more land under Oghara-Jesse Urhobo control, free them from the
permit fees and extortion and oppression of Benin District Heads.
The vagaries of palm produce trade became most manifest in the economic slump of
the early 1920s. This forced the Urhobo into seeking an alternative means of survival in
farming. There was a growing market in food stuff in the administrative and port towns of
Warri and Sapele with lots of profit to be made. There was abundant forest land in
neighbouring Benin division on which food crops could be cultivated for profit. This
motivated many Urhobos to start combining palm produce collection with farming in Benin
division. But this development came at a time when the Forestry Department was creating
new and larger forest reserves in Benin Division and causing land shortage for the Benin
people. This development made the issue of access to land a very serious matter in Benin and
brought conflict with the Urhobo migrants. The neighbouring Oghara-Urhobos were crossing
the provincial boundary into Benin land to farm. In addition to alleged engagement in
robberies, the Oghara-Urhobo were engaging in illegal farming in Benin forests without the
49
consent of the Benin communities of Iyanomo and Abe who owned the land. When
the Oghara-Urhobo were challenged for trespass, they were reported to be quick at inflicting
machete cuts and visiting destruction on the communities and quickly escaping through the
waterways back to their base in Warri Province.
Apart from economic hardship of migrant Urhobos and land hunger of the Oghara, the
farming activities of the Urhobo migrants in Benin land was also encouraged by the Forestry
Department. The Department needed free labour for re-afforestation under the
taungya system, in which farmers were allowed to farm allotments in Forest Reserves for a
few years in exchange for planting the allotment with timber seedlings after which they
vacated the land. Since the Benin farmers had enclaves cut out for them as a matter of rights
for their farming and they were not much pressed for land, they did not initially embrace
taungya farming which demanded their free labour. The land hungry Urhobo farmers took
advantage of this system to acquire land in the reserves and establish farms alongside palm
produce collection. The alleged indiscriminate use of the cutlass to inflict violence drove
terror into their Benin neighbours in the reserves. As a result of these problems, Benin
farmers in these areas objected to co-existing with the migrant Urhobos farming in the forest
reserves. Rather than being forced to share farming areas with the Urhobo under the Taungya
Farming Scheme, Benin farmers were reported to prefer to move elsewhere to
48
National Archive, Ibadan, File CSO 26/2/14617 Vol. I, Annual Report of Benin Province, 1924
49
National Archive, Ibadan, File BP 2015 Acting Conservator of Forest Benin Native Administration to Resident, Benin Province,
27/06/1941.
492
establish their farms. 50Similar problems were being experienced in Jesse area. This started
bringing the Urhobos in conflict with the host Benin communities.
The situation worsened with the World wide economic depression of 1929 when the
prices of oil palm products crashed again and increasing land hunger ensued owing to a large
expanse of land demanded by palm produce extraction in Warri Province. More Urhobo
migrants moved into Benin division to seek land to farm. Some of the Oghara- Urhobo
migrants who had obtained their first farming permit in Sokponba Forest Reserve in 1932
were reported to have been violating their farming permits and forestry regulations.
These developments brought the Urhobos into conflict with the Forestry and Political
departments when these took action against them. This was especially because the Benin
timber industry was major revenue earner of Benin Division and accounted for four fifth of
Nigeria’s Timber export as well as contributing to Nigeria’s annual revenue. In Jesse, the
Political Department through the Native Administration reacted to this situation by restricting
51
Urhobo farming activities to an area of fifty yards behind their houses. This
restriction came at a time when the economy of the Urhobo had seriously worsened. The
economic situation was so bad that it was reported that the Urhobo were refusing to engage
in oil palm produce collection even with a fifty percent reduction in permit fees. 52
The restriction of the farming activities of the Urhobo in Jesse did not go down well
with them and they revived their agitation for transfer to Warri Province. With the recent
quelling of anti-tax agitation in Warri and Eastern Provinces and revival of Osanughegbe
53
anti-tax agitations in parts of Benin Province, the Colonial State persuaded the newly
installed Oba Akenzua II to allow the transfer of 103 Sq. Miles of land occupied by Jesse
district to Warri Province on an annual rent of £50 in 1936/7. In54the implementation of
this policy, the feelings of some of the Benin and Urhobo settlements which chose to remain
in Benin were sacrificed and transferred along with the agitators to Warri Province. This
55
British contrivance to save their own neck has proven with time not to be
just a tenant-landlord agreement, but the beginning of perpetual loss of parts of the ancestral
patrimony of Benin. By 1940, the representative of Warri Division in the Legislative Council
demanded the payment of rents from pre-existing tenants of the Oba of Benin on this land to
the Urhobos and that the Urhobos be recognized as the grantor of the land. This would have
been a violation of the agreement of transfer of the land area to Warri Province. The
56
consequence of this land transfer was the encouragement of the Oghara and
Jesse Urhobo to continuously tug at Benin for more land. This development influenced the
Oghara-Urhobo to start laying claim to Benin Forest Reserve lands which they had been
granted to farm on permit and taungya basis in 1932. They continued to indulge in forestry
violations and by 1941 it was discovered that they had removed the Reserve boundary
50
Ibid.
51
National Archive, Ibadan, CSO 26/2 File 14617 Vol. VII Annual Report of Benin Province, 1930/1.
52
Ibid.
53
Uyilawa Usuanlele “Osanughegbe Religious Movement and Social Ferments in Benin Province, 1926-1936” in Peter P.Ekeh (ed.)
Studies in Urhobo Culture, 387-90.
54
National Archive, Ibadan, CSO 26/3 File 26956 Vol. II The Secretary, Southern Provinces, Enugu to Chief Secretary to the
Government, 11/12/1936.
55
National Archive, Ibadan, CSO 26/3 File 26956 Vol. II J.H Beeley, Report on Jesse-Benin Boundary.
56
Ibid, Question by the Honourable the Member for the Warri Division, in Clerk, Legislative Council to the Secretary, Western
Provinces, 31/03/1940.
493
beacons and Oghara chiefs laid claims to ownership of some of the land in Sokponba forest
57
reserve in Benin Division. Thus was begun the land disputes and concomitant uneasy
relations that have come to characterize Benin-Urhobo relations along the provincial border
areas. Another consequence was that the Benin Native administration became indisposed
towards granting free land for farming to Urhobo migrants in the border areas of the division.
Apart from struggling to expand their land resources at the expense of Benin in the
attempt to solve their economic problems, the Urhobos in Benin also joined their kinsmen in
58
other Provinces in collective resistance to European firms’ monopsony control over
Palm Produce trade. During the depression of late 1920s and 1930s, the Urhobo palm
produce collectors organized themselves as producers and refused to produce and sell oil
palm products to European trading firms and their middlemen agents. This collective action
was not new to some of the Urhobos as they were reported to have employed similar tactics
59
to cripple Nana Olomu’s Governorship of Benin River in the late nineteenth century. But
this time around, it was organized across the four provinces where they monopolized palm
produce extraction, namely Benin, Ondo, Ijebu and Warri Provinces. This action was against
European imperialist firms which had been pooled together to fix low prices for African
produce that threatened the livelihood of Urhobo producers who could not realize their
labour cost. Holding back supplies of palm produce for some time by the Urhobo was the
only means of forcing the European firms into negotiation of prices. Though the desired price
negotiations was not achieved, the hold-up caused scarcity and drove up prices in months
because of the effectiveness of the Urhobo organisers and their sanction on erring
60
individuals. A subsequent depression of prices in 1938 was also addressed in the same
way, but this time the colonial state tried to negotiate because of the political support the
hold-up received from West African Pilot. 61 But the hold-up collapsed in 1939 when the
Second World War further pushed down prices and the hardship became too difficult for
many Urhobos to bear.
The trade crisis of the early and late 1920 to the early 1930s affected all Urhobos
involved in palm produce collection monoculture, but the conflicts and truculence amongst
Urhobos along the Benin-Warri Provincial border were not replicated in other parts of the
division where the Urhobos also had camps. This was because they could not easily escape to
their homeland as happened along the border areas and they were largely outnumbered and
encircled by the Benins elsewhere. As a result, they had to find a more peaceful alternative to
ameliorating their problems. Some of them gradually integrated into the neighbouring Benin
village communities and negotiated land for farming and participated in the affairs of these
villages and even took titles in the villages. Other activities they ventured into were “illicit”
gin distillery, food processing of especially starch and garri for
57
National Archive, Ibadan BP2015 Ag Conservator Benin Native Authority to Resident, Benin Province 16/08/1941 and Ag
Resident Benin Province to Conservator of Forest, Benin Native Authority 28/1/19142
58
The dictionary meaning of “monopsony” is as follows: “a situation in which there is only one buyer for a particular commodity or
service.” – Editor.
59 th
Peter E.Ekeh, “Mukoro Mowoe and Urhobo Destiny and History” Mukoro Mowoe 50 Anniversary lectures
http://www.waado.org/Biographies/Mowoe/Lectures/Mowoe_ekeh.htm
60
National Archive, Ibadan, CSO 26/2 File 14617 Vol. XI Annual Report of Benin Province 1934 and Ayodeji Olukoju,
“Confronting the Combines: Producers’ and Traders Militancy in Western Nigeria 1934-1939” Nordic Journal of African Studies ,
Vol.9, No. 1, 2000, 52-3.
61
National Archive, Ibadan, BP 41 Vol. VII and Vol. VIII Annual Reports for Benin Division, 1938 and 1929 and Olukoju,
“Confronting the Combines: Producers’ and Traders Militancy in Western Nigeria 1934-1939” Nordic Journal of African Studies ,
Vol.9, No. 1, 2000, 56-7.
494
sale to the labourers in the booming timber industry of Benin division and occasional wage
labour in both the timber and rubber industry.
Urhobo migrations and settlement in Benin division during this period was largely
rural in character. The 1952 population census of the Urhobos in Benin City, the major urban
62
center, was 905 out of the 57,753 in the city. This low population in the city might
not be unconnected with the largely administrative character of the city, with employment
opportunities. The few who ventured to the city worked as teachers, traders and the informal
sector. These trades required some level of western education and/or capital, as well as
kinship connections for housing, which might not have been readily available to majority of
the Urhobo migrants. Thus many of them remained in the rural communities with their
population concentration in Idogbo-Okha-Ologbo, Ogba, Siluko, Usen Okha and
Obanakhodo districts.
The alternatives to palm produce collection and trade were not free from the vagaries of
the world capitalist economy given that the local economies had become completely
monetized and integrated into the world economy. As already shown, the 1920s and 1930s
brought to the fore some manifestations of this monetization and integration. The colonial
economy with the various monetary exactions and pressures and labour demands of the
colonial regime had pulverized the social cohesion of families and communities. With the
co-option of the pre-colonial chiefs into the service of the colonial administration to which
they owed their loyalty and without any ameliorating mechanisms from the colonial state, the
people lost faith in the state and their chiefs. They increasingly turned to their kinship and
tribal organizations for succour, giving birth to kin and tribe based welfare organisations. It
63
was into this milieu that various ethnic organizations were born,
articulating various agenda including constituting themselves into pan-tribal organizations to
cater for the welfare of their members and development of their homeland through self- help.
Amongst such organizations that arose in Nigeria was the Urhobo Brotherly Society formed
in November 1931, metamorphosed into the Urhobo Progressive Union in 1933 and became
known as Urhobo Progress Union (UPU).
Urhobo Progress Union did not only articulate an Urhobo agenda for solving Urhobo
problems at home, but formed branches to help those abroad. This development gave fillip to
Urhobo political activities and influenced their agitations particularly against their
subordination to other ethnic groups in the administration of the Urhobo away from their
homeland. 64The extent to which this development influenced and affected the attitude of
the Urhobo migrant settlers in Benin towards their continuing administration by Benin Chiefs
and claims to land in Benin division is not known. A UPU branch was formed in Benin City
at the height of Jesse-Urhobo agitation for transfer to Warri Province. It is not clear whether
they had any role in this agitation as there are no documented records of their involvement in
the agitation for the transfer of Jesse district to Warri Province and in claims by Oghara
Urhobo of land in Benin division. But the fact65that the issue of collection of
rent by the Oba of Benin on land rented to Jesse-Urhobo was raised in the legislative
62
Council in 1940 by representative of Warri Division attests to the covert involvement of
Regional Census Office, Population Census of the Western Region of Nigeria 1952 Bulletin No.6 Benin Province , (Lagos, The
Government Statistician, 1953)31.
63
Peter Ekeh, “Social Anthropology and Two Contrasting Uses of Tribalism in Africa” Society for Comparative Study of Society
and History, Vol.30, No.4, 1990,683.
64 th
Ekeh, “Mukoro Mowoe and Urhobo Destiny and History” Mukoro Mowoe 50 Anniversary lectures
http://www.waado.org/Biographies/Mowoe/Lectures/Mowoe_ekeh.htm.
65
National Archive, Ibadan, BP1431 Urhobo Progress Union, 1937-1948.
495
UPU in the affairs of the Urhobo in Benin. Otherwise, the UPU seemed, therefore, to have
concerned themselves with welfare matters given the increasing migrations and population
of Urhobos in Benin division. The Urhobo constituted the third largest ethnic group in Benin
66
division and numbered 21,949 out of 292,081 in 1952. Till the end of colonial rule,
the Urhobo stayed out of the politics of Benin division and their relationship with Benin
people remained cordial, though the seeds of conflict were already sown along the colonial
boundaries over access to land resources.
Conclusion
The chapter has shown that the Benin and Urhobo maintained some level of cordiality
in relations and that a symbiosis in production and exchange activities existed before
colonial rule. The military and political influence of Benin gave protection to most of the
people of Western Niger Delta particularly Urhobo groups which maintained ritual relations
with the Oba, while those exploiting Benin forest land paid rents and tributes to the Oba.
But these relations were not free of occasional strains because of the difficulties experienced
at times in meeting obligations. In spite of these problems, the Urhobos continued to hold
the Oba of Benin in high esteem and this cordiality in relations made it possible for Urhobo
people to migrate and settle in Benin territory before and after the British invasion of Benin
in 1897.
But with the advent of colonial rule, there developed increasing dependence of both
groups on the World market over which they had no control. This adversely affected their
economies especially the Urhobo palm produce monoculture. The introduction of direct
taxation to Benin division in 1920 increased the economic adversity of the Urhobo migrants
and settlers in Benin and they began to demand for transfer to Warri Province of Colonial
Nigeria. Simultaneously, they diversified their occupational interests into farming, putting
further pressure on Benin forest land resources which were becoming increasingly
inaccessible to even Benin farmers because of the expansion of the forest reservation
programme of the colonial administration. In addition, there was the land hunger problem of
the Oghara-Urhobo which drove them increasingly into Benin land to farm and attempt at
increasing their territory at the expense of Benin. These led to conflicts and truculence on the
part of particularly Oghara-Urhobo along the provincial borders from the 1920s and even
after Benin land was rented to Jesse-Urhobos and transferred to Warri Province. The
consequence has been the encouragement of the Oghara Urhobo to laying claims to Benin
land, while Benin Native administration became indisposed towards allowing Urhobo
migrants free access to farm land in the division.
Needless to add, with this state of affairs of land hunger among the Oghara and
Idjerhe-Urhobo and Benin’s restriction of their access to its land resources, only the
diversification of Urhobo economy towards productive activities which are not primarily
based on landed resources can help curb conflicts that are induced by need for land. Such
conflicts, if not properly understood and managed can degenerate into inter-nationality
conflicts, which would not augur well for the development of these neighbouring groups who
have hitherto managed and shared their resources in relations of amity.
66
Regional Census Office, Population Census of the Western Region of Nigeria 1952 Bulletin No.6 Benin Province , ( Lagos, The
Government Statistician, 1953)31
496
OIL EXPLORATION AND ITS VICISSITUDES
A Prayer
We pray to God on this holy morn that no petroleum
oil will be discovered in our communities. Indeed,
Lord, let the oil underneath our houses and farms
drift away from us. Lord, spare us the pains and the
misfortunes and diseases that petroleum oil brings to
our people and to our farms and rivers. Lord, protect
us from further harm in the hands of those who want
our properties. Amen
— A Pastor’s prayer before a Christian Congregation in Nigeria’s

Niger Delta
Source: URHOBO WAADO’s Environment Page:

http://www.waado.org/Environment/EnvironmentPage.html
Chapter 26
Urhobo Women's Uprisings against the

Nigerian Oil Industry in the 1980s 1
Terisa E. Turner
Department of Sociology & Anthropology
University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada
June 1993
Abstract
In the 1980s women attacked oil industry installations and personnel

throughout Nigeria. This article considers two revolts: the 1984 Ogharefe
women's uprising and the 1986 Ekpan women's uprising. In the oil centre of
Warri where both took place, women do most of the peasant farming but land is
controlled by men. The study argues that oil-based industrialization
superimposed on this local political economy a new regime which dispossessed
women of access to farm land. Women responded by attacking the oil industry
with varying degrees of success. In the 1984 uprising women seized control of a
US oil corporation's production site, threw off their clothes and with this curse
won their demands. These had to do with financial compensation for pollution
and alienation of land. In the 1986 uprising women shut down the core of the
whole region's oil industry. They were less successful in winning their demands
for land compensation and oil industry jobs.
The different levels of success are explained by reference to class formation
and gender relations in the uprisings themselves. The success of the 1984
struggle derived from it being a relatively straight forward peasant initiative
against a foreign oil company. In addition, women had the support of young
men against the old men who had bargained away land rights to the state. In
contrast, the 1986 uprising was less successful because of its complexity,
combining as it did women's peasant and proletarian demands. Furthermore, in
the 1986 uprising, women lacked significant support from men who for the
most part, aligned themselves with the state against the women. The study
concludes by noting the prominent place of women's initiatives linked to gender
solidarity in the success of the exploited classes in struggles with big business
and the state.
1
This is a revised version of a paper which Terisa E. Turner presented at the annual conference of the Canadian African Studies
Association in Montreal in May 1992. Thanks are due to H. Rouse-Amadi, J. Ihonvbere, H. Veltmeyer and J. Fiske for comments
on an earlier draft. This revised version of the paper is reproduced with some editing from pages 123-160 in Terisa E. Turner,
(editor), Arise Ye Mighty People: Gender, Class & Race in Popular Struggles , Africa World Press, Trenton, NJ, USA., 1994.
Research for this chapter was done in Nigeria in the 1970s and 1980s, supported in part by the Canadian Social Science and
Humanities Research Council. This chapter is included in this volume of essay by kind permission of Professor Terisa E. Turner.
Introduction
This chapter considers two Nigerian women's protests against the oil industry: the
Ogharefe women's uprising of 1984 and the Ekpan women's uprising of 1986. These clashes
were explosive moments in an on-going movement of resistance to the hardships brought on
by the operation of big capital in the oil industry. First a civil war largely about oil and
ethnicity was fought in the late 1960s [Turner 1976]. This war brought social disruption and
over a million deaths in a population of about 100 million. It left an economically and
ecologically traumatized society saddled with a massive military state. The oil boom of the
1970s and bust of the 1980s brought on a more intense quality of chaos and desperation
[Falola and Ihonvbere 1985, Turner 1987].
The uprisings reveal the oppositions between men and women, between citizens and
state. They hark back to Nigerian women's struggles against colonial exploitation, to the tax
riots, market closures and cocoa holdups, to the unseating of kings and the kidnapping of
officials. The uprisings return to the historical theme of women warring against men who sell
out the interests of the community and become allies of the dominators, getting rich while
people starve. This study examines the conditions impelling contemporary resistance. It tells
the story of the women's uprisings, showing them to be expressions of what could be termed
'indigenous feminisms,' shaped by the world oil industry.
Two objectives here are to set down information about the women's uprisings and to
consider the alignment of social forces in those confrontations. This second objective
involves a class analysis which embodies the analysis of gender and ethnic relations. Three
arguments are made: (1) the uprisings were clashes resulting from class formation spurred by
oil based capitalist development; (2) the gendered character of the uprisings; that is; the fact
that they involved particular class factions of women against specific class factions of men,
followed from changes in gender relations that took place in the process of capitalist
development; and (3) the degree of success enjoyed by women in their struggles reflects both
the extent to which peasant relations persisted or were eroded by proletarianization, and the
degree to which men acted in solidarity with women.
Feminism in Marxism
The uprisings of Nigerian women are social experiences against which certain
orthodoxies and innovations in social theory may be tested. These theoretical elements of
contending paradigms include perspectives on issues such as feminism and the third world
state, women and transnational corporations, women in development, gender relations and
gender analysis, the party and revolution, national versus international socialism, privatization
and the market, and democracy and egalitarianism.
Social analysis has been transformed in the last century and half of the historical stage
has been captured successively by new world slave revolts, proletarian revolution, colonial
uprisings and women's mobilization. Two distinct paradigms, the reformist and the
revolutionary, inform most analysis; but their outlines are blurred. The disarray stems in part
from the collapse of Stalinism. For many who thought Stalinism was Marxism and centrally
planned state capitalism was socialism or communism, this collapse was a cause for despair,
theoretical bankruptcy and de facto subscription to the end of ideology camp.
The extraction of the revolutionary paradigm from this confusion over what constitutes
Marxist theory and practice is complicated by the stance of those claiming to be Marxists
who persist in discounting peasants, the unemployed, women, the poor and others as social
forces. On the other hand, feminists and analysts of those on the margins (and frontiers) too
frequently labour under the misconception that Stalinism equals Marxism.
500
Urhobo Women’s Uprisings against the Nigerian Oil Industry
The ignorance and misogyny of self styled Marxists, who, at best, observe as a convention
the practice of 'adding on' women to their analyses, drive deeper the wedge between feminists
and a revolutionary paradigm. The overall result of this confusion is the dominance of a
reformist paradigm, in versions ranging from world systems theory to neo- liberal
modernization theory.
While the present analysis of Nigerian women's uprisings does little to solve this crisis
of theory, it does draw upon a revolutionary paradigm. The paradigm's revolutionary
character derives from its source in orthodox Marxism as extended by C.L.R. James to
embrace colonial revolts and feminism [Grimshaw 1991a, 1991b, 1992, James 1970, 1973,
1977, 1980, 1984, 1986a, 1986b]. Features of the revolutionary paradigm which are
important in this study are its emphasis on capital's simultaneously destructive and con-
structive power, its recognition of the vital part played by intensified sexism and racism in
the history of capital accumulation, its global and historical scope and finally, its appreciation
of the capacity and imperative which capital has given all exploited peoples to use the
organizations of capitalism to establish a global, egalitarian successor system. The
revolutionary paradigm suggests that the central question about Nigerian women's uprisings
has to do with how these uprisings demonstrate the emergence of a new society from the
debris of the old [Turner 1989, 1991].
This study is informed by Boserup's [1970] major insight, that the expansion of
capitalism marginalizes and disempowers women. But the political consequences which
Boserup understands to follow from her analysis - 'help' for poor, marginalized women to
ameliorate their hardships - are different from the political consequences of this analysis of
capital's expansion in Nigeria. In fact, in Nigeria not only did capitalism break up women's
social order but it also created the conditions for resistance. The uprisings were products of
capitalist development just as much as is women's marginalization. This suggests that,
counter to Boserup's reformist and ameliorative stance, support for the objectives of the
uprisings, and the organizations and alliances that facilitated them, would contribute to the
empowerment of women and of all exploited people. In short, it is suggested that it is through
uprisings and the successful consolidation of the social power marshalled through them that
women can be meaningfully ‘empowered.’
The conceptualization of capital as the social dynamic impelling its own transformation
provides analytical power that is absent from the one dimensional emphasis in Boserup's
conceptualization of capitalist development. First, a transformational conceptualization
requires that attention be focused on social struggle. Clashes such as the anti-oil uprisings,
examined here, assume great importance. Instances of fight back yield lessons about people's
organisational capacities. They reveal fundamental social alliances and conflicts, especially
with regard to class and gender. Second, it gives the highest priority to historical analysis,
particularly for those interested in policy and in the political potentials of the future.
Analysis of the history of a social group reveals, for instance, whether a ‘development aid
project’ such as a water supply is embedded in defeat or victory for residents of a
community. This is to restate the dictum that technology such as a water pump is far from
neutral, but rather takes its meaning from the social relations and historical process of which
it is a part. Technology, such as a water pump, can be a means of class domination or
popular empowerment. The point that is emphasized here is that historical analysis offers a
way of understanding ‘development project’ failures or the roots of the fate of specific social
initiatives. For example, if some in a community neglect or sabotage water supply projects,
class-based motivations may be revealed by historical analysis. Such analysis illuminates the
systemic and subsurface meanings of state 'women and development' policies [World Bank
1992, St-Hilaire 1993:57].
501
For people seeking to resolve social problems, historical analysis identifies the groups
that have been shaped and empowered by capitalist development to be the carriers of the
transformational impulse. Such groups are obvious candidates for partnership in projects to
resolve social crises. The distinction between a conceptualization of capitalist development
as only destructive and one that sees it as simultaneously destructive and constructive, is also
a distinction between reformist versus revolutionary social forces and their respective
strategies.
In sum, a dimension of the method used here is the perspective that capital generates its
own demise and succession. Nothing is destroyed until it is replaced. A second dimension of
this method is gender analysis as an integral part of class analysis. This means that as we
examine how the process of capitalist development creates social forces capable of
transforming exploitative into collective relationships, we specifically examine relations
between and among men and women [Coquery-Vidrovitch 1975]. Some key questions are
how does capitalist development change the ways in which women are exploited? What do
these changes mean for the types of social power at women's disposal? How does capitalist
development polarize men, change relations among them, and change relations between
categories of men and women?
Capitalist development, at least in most of Africa, superimposes upon pre-existing
gender relations (themselves dynamic, not static), a new set of relations that facilitate the
realization of state and capitalist objectives: order and profits. Capitalism marginalizes
women through the redirection of existing gender inequality, for instance, in the realm of
control over land, into new capitalist projects. In what could be described as a 'male deal,'
class formation is effected in part through cross-class (and frequently cross-race) alliances
among men to the disadvantage of most women [Turner 1991, Dauda 1992]. For example,
some men, rather than allocate land for food production, may alienate it to foreign oil
companies in exchange for some personal gain. Capitalist relations are thereby extended and
this extension constitutes a change in men-women relations. A type of reciprocity is
overridden by market relations that might, for example, result in the employment in waged
work of some landless women in businesses established by indigenous men using money
from land sales. The change in gender relations with the development of capitalism pits most
women against those men who have become powerful through allying with the purveyors of
capital.
The most important change in gender relations, attendant upon the development of
capitalism, results from the new significance which capitalism gives to women's unique work
of producing people [Cox and Federici 1973, Mies 1986]. This significance resides in the
necessary nexus between the production of human beings as labourers and capital's profits. A
central, defining feature of capitalism is its commodification of labour. The capacity to work
(in the capitalists’ jargon, ‘a skill set’) is bought and sold on a global market. Capitalism is
fundamentally a system that allows a few to profit from ‘nature’ and the labour of many, and
it is women who produce and service this labour, including their own. State policies have,
since the rise of capitalism in the 16th century, been geared to provide capital with cheap
labour. This necessitated the development of policies to make particular groups of women in
specific geographical locations bear, socialize, service and nurse people of a particular nature
– labourers – in conditions least expensive to the state and to capital. The IMF structural
adjustment programs of the late 20th century are geared in part to cutting the costs of labour
power production [Bujra 1986, Elson 1991, Beneria and Feldman 1992, Afshar and Dennis
1992].
The change in gender relations that aids capital in harnessing women to household
production of labour is the instituting of men as the disciplinarians over women's work. Men
in the state, capitalist men themselves, but most significantly, proletarian men are
502
encouraged to ‘become masculine,’ that is, to define themselves as men, with reference to
their control over women. They do so, in particular, through supervising labour power
production by women. The proletarian man, bound to his exploiter through new bonds of
shared masculinity, serves this exploiter by rendering up to him in a reliable fashion, cheap
wage goods and fresh labour power, the products of the work of female kin [Fiske 1991].
However, to the extent that proletarianization is successfully resisted by peasant and other
subsistence producers, the degree of division between the interests of women and men may
be reduced.
Resistance by women to this type of capitalist exploitation takes many forms including
struggles for better work conditions (electricity, water, schools), the fight for control over
fertility including the refusal to bear or nurture children, or a fight to keep them
(contraception, abortion, retaining custody), and efforts to get or keep means of survival
independent of men (access to forests and other aspects of ‘nature’, land, crafts, marketing,
women's collectivities). Because capitalism changes gender relations to place men in
supervisory positions over their wives (and other women); women's resistance is directed
against male discipline, against poor work conditions, against the enclosures of nature and
against reducing people to cheap labour power.
Women's resistance is indivisibly both a class and a gender conflict. This resistance is
here called ‘gendered class struggle.’ It has two foci of empowerment for women. First,
social power may be exercised by women against exploiting men and second, men who have
not aligned with capital but instead are, like women, marginalized by capitalist development,
may align with women. Both foci are charged with ideological constraints. Miller's six
country study, including Nigeria, showed that with industrialization the ideology of male
dominance within the family persisted to the detriment of women's rights within the home
[Miller 1984]. The values associated with a kind of pre-capitalist reciprocity which
nevertheless subordinated women may act to constrain women in the marshalling of their
social power. In some circumstances, however, pre-capitalist values may be used as a
political resource for protection against exploitation [Leacock 1981]. Among women's
strengths is that their struggles and resistance usually start with a politics of mothering and by
extension, a politics of fertility and creativity that includes, in many societies, the
employment of collective nudity as a compelling force. In addition, men may be bonded in
many ways to each other, while being divided from women through highly formalized
processes that engender all work and social activity. For some men to break away from other
men and pledge solidarity with women engaged in confrontation with exploiting men
bespeaks a revolutionary change in social relations and how they are conceived. Given the
way in which capitalism pits husband against wife, a strong alliance between them requires a
leap in consciousness within an enabling context of changing circumstances. Where solidarity
is expressed between women and men, it may, in specific societies, most readily draw upon
kin relations such as sister/brother, mother/son or frequently grandmother/grandson.
Such alliances are necessary conditions for revolutionary change. Alliances of

solidarity between women and men are prerequisites for overcoming the power of capital and
for organizing an egalitarian, cooperative society. Note that an alliance is necessary: the
connection cannot be between a men's movement and women 'auxiliaries' who service and
support the programme of men. Why is a specific quality of alliance a condition for
revolution? The notion of class solidarity or of alliance implies that particular women have
stated their own demands and are acting through their own organizations in their own
interests. Men who ally with women must do so on women's terms or there is no alliance.
Women's social power can be marshalled by no one but themselves. The use of this power
503
is essential if a challenge to capital is to succeed. A revolutionary clash is one in which

women take the initiative and have the solidarity of some men. A struggle only among men
(for instance, male workers and male capitalists) cannot produce fundamental change because
absent from the struggle are women with their social power to produce and reproduce. A
struggle that is restricted to men is likely to be limited to an attempted revision of the
relations of exploitation and not go more deeply into eliminating the relations through which
women are exploited. In addition, the joint collaboration between exploited women and men
provides the strength in unity required by a fundamental challenge to capital.
In sum, this study employs a theoretical perspective which emphasizes capitalism's

revolutionary power to transform class relations and in so doing, to transform gender
relations. The key point is that revolutionary power to transcend capitalist relations derives
from the splitting (by capital) of the male gender into classes, and the alignment of exploited
men with women. The thesis in this study is that capitalist development promotes such
gender realignment and hence the basis for both the transcendence of capitalist relations and
the creation of an egalitarian society free from gendered exploitation as a condition of
freedom from class exploitation. The women's uprisings of the 1980s against oil companies
in Nigeria reveal, if only in faint outline, these patterns and this direction of movement.
The first section has considered some theoretical dimensions of feminist Marxism. The
second section turns to some instances of women's mobilization in Nigeria's colonial history;
and the third, to the political economy of the Warri community in which the 1980s women's
uprisings occurred. The fourth section examines the 1984 Ogharefe women's uprising against
Pan Ocean; and the fifth outlines the political context of the 1986 uprising. The sixth section
describes the 1986 Ekpan women's uprising and section seven compares it with the earlier
uprising in 1984. The conclusion returns to the questions about gendered class relations
raised in the introduction.
Nigerian Women's Mobilization in the Past
Throughout the twentieth century, Nigerian women have exercised the social power
under their control in their own interests, and in the interests of the community [Amadiume
1987, Mba 1982]. The Aba women's wars of 1928-1929, the Egba women's movement of the
early 1930s to the 1950s, the Ogharefe women's uprising of 1984, the Ughelli women's
anti-tax protests of 1985-1986, and the Ekpan women's uprising of 1986 are some examples.
In 1928-1930, Aba women rose in mass protest against the oppressive rule of the
colonial government. These Igbo women of eastern Nigeria feared that the head-count being
carried out by the British was a prelude to women being taxed. The women were unhappy
about the over-taxation of their husbands and sons that they felt was pauperizing them and
causing economic hardship for the entire community [Van Allen 1972]. They also resented
the British imposition on the community of warrant (that is, non-indigenous,
colonially-identified) chiefs, many of whom carried out what the women considered to be
abusive and extortionist actions such as obtaining wives without paying the full bride wealth
and seizure of property. Previously, new village leaders or heads had been democratically
chosen and removed by the people themselves. Power had been diffuse; decisions were
reached informally or through village assemblies of all adults who chose to attend. While
they had less influence than men, women did control local trade and specific crops. Women
protected their interests through assemblies. This had been changed by the colonial
government that appointed its own agents as warrant chiefs to rule over the people.
504
The abuses of the British appointed native judges and tax enumerators impelled the
women to stage a protest on 24 November 1929. Using a deeply rooted practice of censoring
men through all night song and dance ridicule ('sitting on a man'), the women's rampages
spread. Late in December 1929 the women forced the Umuahia warrant chiefs to surrender
their caps thus launching their successful campaign to destroy the warrant chief system. In
Aba, women sang and danced against the chiefs and then "proceeded to attack and loot the
European trading stores and Barclays Bank and to break into the prison and release the
prisoners [Perham 1937:208]." Some 25,000 Igbo women faced colonial repression and over a
two-month period of insurrection, December 1929 to January 1930, at least 50 were killed
[Hanna 1990:338-340].
Similarly, from the 1930s through the 1950s the women of Egba in western Nigeria
pressed for and subsequently secured the abdication from his throne of the Alake or king of
Egbaland. He was forced to abdicate on the grounds that he was collaborating with the
exploitative colonial government. The Egba women also claimed that the king was hiding
under the cover and protection of the colonial government to perpetrate misrule, hardships
and oppression on Egba people, and especially on the women.
These instances of women's political intervention during the colonial epoch
demonstrate the use of market power and the expression of indigenous feminisms. Rapid
and massive mobilization was possible because of women's strong societal organizations
and effective communication networks based on concentration in the markets and dispersal
along the trade routes [Hanna 1990:340]. Nigerian women's actions had to do with market
control and with women's dual focus on both the state and those among their own menfolk
who were instruments of the state. First, women who were engaged in the business of long
and short distance marketing took the initiative in mounting mobilizations. But peasant
women and towns-women joined the market women to constitute a mass movement. The
social power marshalled by this amalgam centred on the women's ability to withhold food
from the cities. They paralysed the trading system within which they exercised considerable
power. Not only was food denied to the cities, but also cash crops were denied to the
colonial authorities and their merchant allies in repeated confrontations over who should
determine prices (in the western Nigeria cocoa holdups organized by Funmilayo Ransome
Kuti during the second world war, for example).
Second, women mobilized not only against the British state directly but also against
collaborating indigenous men whose power was underpinned by a male deal with men in the
colonial regime. In so doing, women stood against class formation that distorted popular
control over indigenous political institutions. The women manifested their distress at the
deterioration of their own circumstances with the encroachment of capitalist relations. As
such their actions were feminist in as much as they were aimed specifically at defending the
interests of women. However, the discourse which women used then and now to explain their
motives and objectives cannot be assumed to resemble feminist discourses from other
societies or periods, and requires analysis in its own right. In mobilizing against the
colonizer-chief alliance among men, women were acting simultaneously on behalf of women
and on behalf of both men and women in the peasant and trading classes. We see here the
coincidence and indivisibility of feminist and class politics in the history of Nigerian
women's uprisings. To what extent have these qualities persisted in women's uprisings in the
postcolonial era?
Since independence in 1960 Nigeria has been characterized by political instability and
a series of coups that degenerated into the genocidal civil war (1967-1970). The oil boom of
the 1970s profoundly transformed Nigerian society from one based on agricultural exports to
one based on exports of crude oil. The state received dollars from oil sales and hence
505
relaxed the exploitation of alternative revenue sources such as export crops and agricultural
development. A massive class of middlemen flourished on the basis of state connections
[Turner 1976, 1980, Graf 1988]. Oil money was appropriated by indigenous capitalists who
tended to invest abroad rather than locally [Turner 1978]. Much theft was geared toward
conspicuous consumption and land acquisition [CDHR/NADL 1991:3-5, Platt's Oilgram
News, 19 March 1992:3].
The state sector expanded dramatically as oil wealth financed infrastructure and some
industrialization. Imported fish, chicken, wheat, cloth and other consumer goods undermined
indigenous production. This rapid extension of market relations throughout Nigeria
encroached on women's spheres of economic and social power. Land alienation, pollution
and disturbance of fishing grounds, the absence of men who answered the call of the
construction boom, labour shortages and high cost of labour, lack of credit and the need for
cash in an import dependent market were factors which contributed to most women's
heightened insecurity and marginalization [Lacey 1986:2-3, Adeyemo 1984].
The negative impact of these forces was felt most intensely with the collapse of the
international oil market in the early 1980s [Turner 1985:7-10]. By 1984 Nigerian women
were mobilizing again against the state and indigenous menfolk on whom the state rely on to
enforce its authority in the localities. Protests were particularly numerous in the petroleum
exporting regions around the oil towns of Warri and Port Harcourt on Nigeria's Atlantic
seaboard [Turner 1987]. The two uprisings considered below occurred near Warri in Ethiope
and Okpe Local Government Area (LGA).
The Political Economy of the Warri Oil Communities
Both the 1984 and the 1986 women's uprisings can be better understood against a
background sketch of the political economy of the community. The two Local Government
Areas (LGAs) in which the uprisings occurred are Ethiope LGA with its headquarters at
Ogharefe, adjacent to the south, Okpe LGA, where the major towns of Ekpan and Effurun are
located. The LGAs are located in Bendel (now Delta) State on the Atlantic coast in mid
western Nigeria. Bendel state is the site of Nigeria's second most important oil production,
refining and export complex at the port city of Warri. Some 100 kilometres north of this
coastal oil complex is the Bendel state capital, Benin. The region encompasses a patrilocal,
patrilineal peasant agricultural society producing food crops for consumption and trade. While
Ogharefe, site of the 1984 uprising, is more rural and characterized by peasant production,
Ekpan, site of the 1986 uprising, is a more urban village of some 14,000 people located very
near major petroleum industry complexes sited within Okpe Local Government Area.
The population consists mainly of the Urhobo community which itself is broken up into
clans. Two clans of relevance here are the Ogharefe clan that mounted the 1984 uprising and
the Uvwie clan, which organized the 1986 women's revolt. The Uvwie community consists
of several clusters of hamlets and villages with its headquarters in the town of Effurun,
adjacent to the oil city, Warri. While the largest number of people from the Uvwie clan live
in Effurun, the second largest concentration is four kilometres away in the town of Ekpan.
Effurun is a modern Nigerian town that is as large as the oil centre, Warri. The towns
of Effurun and Warri have grown together as they share a contiguous boundary. Nearby
Ekpan is now a suburban centre as a result of the vast housing developments and oil industry
installations constructed by the state oil corporation, NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation). The town of Ekpan has a medical dispensary that, as of the early 1980s, hardly
functioned due to lack of basic supplies, drugs, and the failure of government
506
to pay the salaries of staff in a timely manner. In contrast to the medical dispensary, Ekpan's
government hospital was relatively well staffed. The hospital had the town's only electricity
generating plant. Electricity supply was sporadic as it was produced only when spare parts
and fuel were available. The hospital faced problems similar to those faced by other hospitals
in Nigeria. This reflects the expansive construction of medical facilities, schools and other
infrastructure during the oil boom of 1974-1982, and the inability to equip and maintain them
when oil prices fell after 1983.
Ekpan also has one primary school and one comprehensive secondary school founded
in 1980. These schools were built as part of the free education programme promoted by
Professor Ambrose Alli when he was governor of Bendel state under the Unity Party of
Nigeria (UPN) government of the Second Republic (1979-1983). Water is available from a
single borehole, drilled for the community by the national petroleum corporation. However,
Ekpan has no electricity supply whatsoever apart from that produced by the hospital
generator.
Although the women's demonstration which took place on August 25, 1986 at Ekpan
involved all resident women who were indigenous to Uvwie; the uprising was, and is,
officially and unofficially known as 'the Ekpan women's uprising.' In a similar fashion, the
famous Aba women's war of 1928-1930 in fact involved, in addition to Aba women, others
from many areas outside the eastern Nigerian trading centre of Aba.
Land Rights
Land allocation and permission to use land or fishing areas are the focus of the most
intense political struggles. These struggles reflect the presence of several competing and
overlapping systems governing allocation of land. Land has historically been controlled by
men, not women. The Uvwie clan was characterized by semi-feudal social relations and
since the late 19th century, ruled by a royal king or Ovie. Prior to 1977 certain senior men
had the power to allow members of clans to use parcels of land and fishing grounds. This
system of permission was itself complex and disputed. While the king claimed full control,
in fact elders and chiefs participated with private owners in parcelling out land for use.
After 1977 all land not privately owned was appropriated by the federal government
through the 1977-1978 Land Use Decree (and later Act). While this momentous revolution in
land ownership occurred through the stroke of a pen, in practice it was disputed and rejected
by those peasant communities whose very existence depends on communal control over land
[Perchonock 1985]. The state simultaneously recognized certain chiefs as having special
status with the federal government. These chiefs tended to support the new order under
which the state owned and controlled all communal land in Nigeria. Taking this position
pitted the chiefs against ordinary peasants among whom the state takeover of communal land
was not recognized [Adepoju 1984:48]. Nevertheless, through the operation of the British
legal system, and with the cooperation of certain chiefs, land was legally leased or sold. The
direct beneficiaries in the oil producing territories were companies -- state and private, local
and foreign -- that were connected with the largely foreign oil industry.
For at least the last hundred years, Uvwie Urhobo people have been, in the main,
peasant farmers with the women doing most of the farming. Women also do important
marketing work. The work of the men is generally restricted to bush clearing. Uvwie
agricultural production consists mainly of food crops such as cassava that provides the
people's staple food (garri, that resembles what Africans elsewhere call grits, posho or ugali).
In addition yam, sweet potato, plantain, banana, cocoyam, and other food crops are
507
cultivated. The people of Uvwie also engage in intensive fishing. Surpluses of fish and food
crops are exchanged for money and other products in local markets or in nearby markets
such as those in Warri, Sapele, Jeddoh, Adeje, Agbarho, and Enerhen.
Indigenous Governing Councils
Another feature of the political economy of Ethiope Local Government Area is the
indigenous decision making apparatus that consists of councils. There are four councils:
married women, male youth, male chiefs and male elders. The council of chiefs has been
decreed by the federal government as the most powerful.
Government in Uvwie society has historically been based on gerontocracy. This system
also prevails in the larger Urhobo society of which Uvwie is part. As in other Urhobo clans,
the Uvwie clan's women's council is, in practice, made up only of wives, since unmarried
women, divorcees and widows who live in their parents' homesteads are not members.
Although Uvwie is organized along semi-feudal lines, it is not politically centralised. The
Council of Chiefs shares power with the Council of Elders. However, the Council of Chiefs
has become increasingly powerful under colonial and post colonial federal rule. This growing
power was accelerated by the government's recognition of the Ovie of Uvwie as one of the
First Class Traditional Rulers in Bendel state. This recognition has made the Ovie and his
Council of Chiefs the most prominent and thus most powerful organ of administration in
contemporary Uvwie society.
The only council that is powerful enough to resist the Ovie and his Council of Chiefs
is the Eghweya or Council of Women. The Council of Youth exercises differing degrees of
power, depending on the community in question. In 1984 the Ogharefe Council of Youth
was active in exercising power. In contrast, among the Uvwie, the Council of Youths (known
as the Ighele or Emoha) has not featured prominently in political matters since the civil war
(1967-1970) although it continues to exist.
Part of the difference may have to do with the fact that the youth of Ekpan were more
profoundly unsettled by the oil industry than were their more rural counterparts. Because
industrial development was more intense around Ekpan, more of the youth of the generation
of the 1980s were faced with economic dislocation and crisis. The cash nexus in
contemporary neocolonial Nigeria has driven a majority of the members of the Ekpan
Council of Youth into national and international Diaspora. Those left at home have been
dominated by the pressure to obtain means of subsistence in nearby industrial and
commercial activities. In this context communal political matters had low priority for most
Uvwie clan Council of Youth members in the 1980s.
The Oil Industry and Land Alienation
In the 1970s and 1980s, much of Ethiope Local Government Area had been virtually
swallowed up by oil developments of two kinds: actual petroleum exploration and production
on the one hand, and the building of many major oil processing facilities on the other.
Peasant agriculture and fishing came under tremendous pressure in the 1970s and 1980s as a
result of this incursion [Hutchful 1985:51, Turner and Badru 1985].
The headquarters of the Uvwie clan, Effurun, became a commercial and semi- industrial
city. Industries established under the abundant revenue regime of the oil boom include the
Delta Steel Company at nearby Ovwian-Aladja, a refinery, a petrochemicals plant, and
subsidiaries of multinational oil companies including Shell, Gulf, Elf and Pan Ocean. Other
industries auxiliary to oil production have sprung up in the nearby cities of Warri and
Ughelli, thus changing the socio-economic landscape of Uvwie. In addition
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several small-scale and service industries as well as commercial ventures sprang up in

Effurun and Warri. In 1978 a multimillion naira (one US dollar was officially equal to 29
naira in 1993) refinery owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was
commissioned two kilometres away from Ekpan [Turner 1977]. Adjacent to the Warri
refinery is another NNPC multimillion naira project, the Petrochemicals Plant, which went
on stream in the late 1970s.
The refinery and petrochemicals plant, along with the NNPC staff housing estate,
occupy several hectares of fertile agricultural land and fishing grounds of the Uvwie people
in and near Ekpan. In addition, the Delta Steel Plant at Ovwian-Aladja and its gigantic staff
housing estate (10 kilometres from Effurun) have taken over large portions of Uvwie
farmlands for a dual-carriage access road. Finally a well funded but under utilized Petroleum
Training Institute was built at Effurun on a large tract of arable land.
The construction and operation of these mega projects led to increased economic
activities in Warri, Effurun and their environs. Part of this expansion was a rapid increase in
population. Most of the population growth was accounted for by people who were not
indigenous to the area. This influx resulted in a great demand for land on which to build
houses. The Uvwie people had more land than their neighbours in Warri, and therefore bore
the brunt of this land alienation. The consequence was a rapid and marked reduction in the
amount of farmland available in the community. Despite these major developments in the
1970s and 1980s, most of the Uvwie people continued to depend largely on the land and
fishing areas for their subsistence.
The oil industry at Warri swallowed the people's land, and made the federal
government extremely rich. Through Urhobo land pipelines carry up to a million barrels of
oil a day. Warri is one of Africa's largest oil export terminals. Crude oil flowing out of the
dozens of tanks through a single point buoy and onto supertankers brings in a third of the
government's yearly revenue. From Warri come half of Nigeria's own petroleum product
needs. Each day, kerosene, petrol, diesel and other oil products are loaded onto dozens of
road tanker trucks. Warri is the source of fuel for Lagos and major cities in the west including
Ife, Ilorin, Ibadan and Benin. This is the source for the oil supplies to the west coast of
Africa, and to the continent's port cities to the south.
Offshore Warri US oil companies exploit some of the world's most prolific and
profitable oilfields. Shutting down this Warri nerve centre brings to a standstill billions in
investment. Losses amount to millions of dollars a day. International energy prices respond
to the least hiccup in the global system [Turner 1990:24]. World oil and national oil were
wired into the social crises simmering in the Warri oilfields in the 1980s.
Ethiope and Okpe LGAs constitute a region that is two realities: for the oil industry,
nationally and globally, it is the site of a major resource concentration with immense financial
and strategic import. For the indigenous people it is land, fishing areas, markets, religious
sites and homes which continue to underpin an essentially peasant existence. The
contradictions inherent in these two realities were expressed by women's uprisings against
men. Farming women confronted bourgeois men. And the division between collaborating
men and those men in solidarity with embattled women echoed the fact that oil
industrialization was choking out the community's farming roots.
The 1984 Ogharefe Women's Uprising
The Ogharefe women's uprising was a portent of more massive mobilizations to come.
It paved the way for the August 1986 Ekpan women's uprising, and offers significant
contrasts. The 1984 revolt took place before political mobilization reached a national level
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in post oil boom Nigeria. The uprising aligned the indigenous Council of Youth with the
Council of Women to produce a decisive power bloc.
Women's Grievances against the US Oil Company
The women demanded that the oil company pay them for lands seized, and for pollution
damage. This oil company is a subsidiary of the United States multinational, Pan Ocean. The
women demanded the drilling of a reliable water well and the provision of electricity.
Ogharefe has suffered from oil pollution and other effects of oil exploration and exploitation
over the years. The Ogharefe community along with villagers throughout Niger’s oil belt
suffered acutely from skin rashes, stomach ailments and other health problems associated
with hundreds of 24-hour a day natural gas flares and the discharge of “oil production water”
into the environment. This “down-well water” is laced with carcinogenic heavy metals.
Hunting had deteriorated as a result of the gas fires and heavy traffic. Corrugated iron roofs
dissolved when covered with corrosive ash from gas flares. Productive fishing ponds and
farming land had been reduced sharply by oil company expansion [Hutchful: 1985: 53-55].
The people of Ogharefe had been denied compensation payments for land acquired as
oilfields. On the one hand, the oil company had rejected the community’s evaluations of the
amounts of compensation necessary to replace the losses the people calculated they bore as a
result of petroleum development. On the other hand, the oil company refused to pay out to
claimants the sums that it had determined were adequate compensation. The unwilling co-
called ‘hosts’ had been denied the provision of social amenities by the main oil company
operating on their land. By early 1984 "all peaceful efforts to make Pan Ocean listen to the
community's protests and demands had fallen on deaf ears [Oshare 1986]."
An important feature of the grassroots political constellation in Ogharefe that was not
present in the Ekpan uprising of 1986 was the high level of political organization of Ogharefe
youth. In fact, there was widespread community agreement that "only the youths could
effectively represent the interests of the community. The youths claim that the elders are
selfish, too easily satisfied and ignorant of the realities of modern times [Oshare 1986]."
And crucially, the Council of Youths had the backing of the Eghweya or Council of
Women.
The Siege and the Curse of Nakedness
In 1984 the women of Ogharefe decided to call Pan Ocean's bluff. One early dawn saw
the entire womenfolk of Ogharefe laying siege to the company's Ogharefe Production
Station. The mass protest of several thousand women was aimed at preventing workers from
coming into the station to relieve their colleagues who were already held 'in captivity' by the
women. The personnel locked in the station made frantic radio contacts with Pan Ocean's
offices in Warri and Lagos. Several hours later the higher authorities responded: the
company's managing director himself was coming with his team to appeal to the women to
come to the negotiation table. When the women heard this they threatened to strip naked to
drive the point home that what they needed was compliance with their demands and not new
negotiations. They had negotiated enough already. Disrobing by women in public is
considered a serious and permanent curse on those to whom the women expose themselves.
The curse is related to mothering, agricultural productivity and fertility in general. It is used
by women in Kenya, Trinidad, South Africa and probably internationally [Kanogo 1987,
Rosberg and Nottingham 1966:51-52, Globe and Mail 13 July 1990:A10]. No man would
wish to bear the lifetime curse organized by the throng of naked Nigerian women. Any
510
foreign man subjected to this curse would lose his credibility (potency) in Nigeria and would
be effectively neutralized.
When Pan Ocean's managing director approached the site the women had in fact made
good their threat. Before the arrival of the company's officials, the women had removed all
their clothes. The sight of thousands of naked women of all ages was not one that these
officials or the police could withstand. They all fled without hesitation. The women's
demands were met almost immediately.
Reasons for the 1984 Uprising's Victory
The Ogharefe women's uprising was a dramatic success. The US oil company paid
compensation for land taken for oil operations. It paid small amounts against pollution
claims. And Pan Ocean began to install water and electricity for the villagers. The women's
revolt made a major impression on all parties, not least the women of neighbouring
communities who experienced hardships similar to those challenged by the Ogharefe
women.
Features of the uprising that contributed to its decisiveness include first, the alliance
between women and youth. Probably the single most important way in which young men
strengthened the women’s case was by publicly stating their opposition to the secret deals
which senior men had struck with the oil company. The concrete result of this stance was the
expectation that young men would join with women in shutting down Pan Ocean’s operations
should women require such assistance. Amongst the youth were articulate graduates who
were ready to provide the services of documentation and advocacy. Not only was the male
Council of Youth active, but it also had community status as a defender of the Ogharefe
people. In contrast, the Ovie and his Council of Chiefs had been discredited. The Council of
Women was supported in the uprising by this dynamic and popular Council of Youth.
Second, the Ogharefe women used a combination of well orchestrated tactics. They
kidnapped and held hostage a shift of US oil company workers. They took over the
production buildings. They blocked the access roads, and thereby enforced the work stoppage
that had already been imposed by the women's securing of Pan Ocean's production site. And
most seriously, the women refused to negotiate and used the ultimate weapon at their
collective disposal: exposing their naked bodies, and most specifically their vaginas, en mass
to curse the oil company management.
Third, the Nigerian government was not involved in the clash. It was a confrontation
between women farmers and traders, on the one hand, and US oil company management, on
the other. There was no state mediation between these third world women and the
representatives of the US oil company. The US company rushed to settle or ameliorate the
dispute possibly because it recognized the danger of allowing the conflict to escalate. Pan
Ocean may also have recognized that backroom deals struck between the local king and the
Nigerian state on behalf of the US company had been exposed. Prolonging the crisis could
create a demand for damaging disclosures.
A direct settlement was beneficial for Pan Ocean because it allowed oil to flow from
the Production Station after the short interruption, thus minimizing financial losses. The
incendiary naked women curse guaranteed Pan Ocean a massive public relations loss if the
conflict hit the media and was not settled immediately. And Pan Ocean itself was contending
with the government over payments for oil. Consequently the US firm could not rely on the
Nigerian state for support in quelling the Ogharefe women's uprising. Under these
circumstances the Ogharefe women scored a decisive public victory. They dramatized
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for the larger community women's power to right injustice for the benefit of the whole
society.
The Political Context of the 1986 Ekpan Women's Uprising
Nigerians against the International Monetary Fund
In 1986 Nigerian women of the Uvwie clan in Ethiope Local Government Area
organized to shut down the international and state oil industries. This confrontation took
place in a charged political atmosphere. The military coups of 1983 and 1985 unleashed
anti-women rampages by soldiers along with official measures to discipline and limit
women. For example, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) attempted to halt an initiative by
women to establish their own network within the union organization. Head of State, General
Buhari's 'War Against Indiscipline' targeted women with charges of over spending in the
household, failure to supervise children, inadequate service to husbands and kin and neglect
of farming [Turner and Badru 1985, Mba 1989]. International Women's Day was changed to
'Family Day,' on which women were enjoined by the state to change their wayward
behaviour and become more disciplined. In the Muslim north unmarried women living alone
or together in rented accommodation were turned out of their rooms, allegedly to combat
prostitution. In the south women wearing trousers were pulled off buses by soldiers and
stripped of their western clothing.
Nigeria had, in July 1985, experienced yet another military coup. Buhari, who seized
power by the gun on December 31st, 1983, was out and Babangida was in. The people,
sorely pressed by an economic downturn because of the fall in oil prices, expected
improvements from the new government. This expectant and militant demeanour was evident
in the popular campaign against the International Monetary Fund.
In the last half of 1985, Nigerians from all walks of life made known their opposition to
the government taking an IMF loan. The conditions of structural adjustment were rejected
[Bappa 1985]. In distant villages and in the urban cores, ordinary people attributed all
manner of hardship to the machinations of the IMF. Babangida's military regime had little
choice but to pay rhetorical tribute to what amounted to a near unanimous popular rejection
of a deal with the IMF [Turner 1985,Ihonvbere 1993].
The 1986 Ughelli Women's Tax Revolt
The loans would not be taken, announced the military government in late 1985. But in
practice the 'conditionalities' were imposed. There was resistance. Women were hit especially
hard by price hikes, increased petrol and transport prices and cuts in social services [Gladwin
1991]. They were at the forefront of the fight back. One vivid illustration is the 1986 Ughelli
women's uprising. This uprising established the immediate atmosphere of popular,
woman-centered mobilization within which the Ekpan women were moved to act. A key
element in IMF structural adjustment packages is higher taxes. African colonial history is
replete with instances of women leading tax revolts [Mba 1982]. Carrying on this tradition, in
1986 the women of Ughelli community laid siege on the Ovie's palace. The mass protest
accused the king of supporting the Bendel state government's efforts (under the military
regime) to make women pay income tax in the state.
The women stated that "it was ridiculous" for the Ovie, "who ought to know better
than anyone else in the community," to support the taxation of women. They demanded that
the Ovie should show them the tax receipts of his mother and grandmother, dating back to
when the colonialists introduced taxation into Nigerian society. Of course no such receipts
512
existed. Had not these women, the kin of the king, participated in the historical refusal of
Nigerian women to be taxed? The fury of the Ughelli women moved the Ovie to flee to
Benin, the state capital, probably to seek the protection of the military governor.
Within three days women in other parts of Ughelli Local Government Area joined the
protest. This anti-tax protest also spread to other Local Government Areas in Bendel state
including Isoko, Okpe and Oredo. Notably the women of Ethiope Local Government Area
also mobilized against the proposed tax on women. Market women in Benin City closed their
stalls, threatening to deprive the metropolis of food. Benin market women were against
taxing women. But they also refused to pay school fees. The Ughelli women's tax revolt was
highly successful. The state government withdrew its directive to tax women.
Multi-class Mobilization
The political setting for the Ekpan women's actions involved women's mobilizations.
But it also involved a broad based political intervention by the community of dispossessed. A
crucial development in the early 1980s was the return to their villages of high school and
college graduates capable of assisting peasants against the oil companies. Graduates and their
families expected jobs, especially in the state. But recession meant unemployment,
retrenchment, dashed expectations and a pressing need to find alternative means of livelihood
[Shettima 1993: 84-89] Youth were encouraged by the government to return to the land. But
when they did, young graduates experienced the effects of oil pollution, land alienation, and a
general lack of infrastructure and credit which were required for successful agricultural
ventures. By the mid-1980s, farmers, fishing people, market women, urban workers and the
unemployed, men and women were resisting land grabs and power plays by big oil
companies and the state. In the southern oil regions, the politicization stimulated by the oil
bust brought together many sections of the community to demand compensation for pollution
and land use [Turner 1986:44-45].
On March 29th and 30th, 1986 some 400 Bonny Island residents, including oil
workers, shut down Africa's largest oil export terminal, claiming that the operator, Shell, had
disrupted their lives and contributed nothing. Some 100 women sat on the Shell helipad to
prevent any helicopter from landing at the tank farm base. Their placards read "Shell's 28
years in Finima is a curse to us," "Our means of livelihood has been destroyed by Shell,"
and "No light, no water for us after 28 years of Shell [ The Vanguard (Lagos), April 4,
1986:1]." Among the specific grievances were that "all bush roads linking the terminal with
the village have been sealed up by the company thus locking Bonny Island residents in and
out; and that villagers passing through the terminal roads are often subjected to rigorous
interrogation and search by Shell's security agents." Further north in Imo state, villagers
protested the police murder of an oil worker by demonstrating in front of the military
governor's office. In April 1986 the villagers of Egbema in Imo state, numbering more than
5,000, held hostage for two days over 40 staff of Shell at the British company's office
building. The occupation protested "the company's neglect of the community since it came
there 28 years ago [Nigerian Tide, April 18, 1986]."
Nigerians living near production or exploration sites consider themselves entitled to
employment by the companies. They engaged in covert forms of class struggle such as
sabotage, theft, road blockage and harassment of company activities if a specified number of
jobs were not awarded. Such incidents appear to have increased since 1983 with the economic
downturn. Despite the government's decree that pipeline sabotage was punishable by death;
explosions, puncturing and pipe theft persisted. The difference after the government decree
was that peasants refused to report oil gushes or leaks to avoid the
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police practice of arresting on suspicion of sabotage any bearer of such news. A crucial
development was the return to their villages of thousands of unemployed graduates capable
of organizing peasants against the oil companies.
The Ekpan women's uprising was fuelled by militant political currents stemming from
the anti-IMF campaign, the women's successful anti-tax revolt and protests against the oil
companies. Women in Nigeria, and especially in oil rich Bendel state, mobilized themselves
when their expectations of some relief from the new military government were dashed.
Instead of getting better, after the coup, things got worse. When living became even more
precarious, Nigerian women, like their counterparts elsewhere, moved to secure what they
considered to be their rights [Agarwal 1992]. In so doing they confronted not only the
government, but also US oil companies and a faction of their own menfolk.
The 1986 Ekpan Women's Uprising
Ten Thousand Women Demonstrate

At 5 a.m. on Monday, August 25, 1986, a large crowd of demonstrating women from
the Uvwie community besieged the premises of the NNPC Refinery, Petrochemicals Plant
and the Pipelines and Products Marketing Pumpstation, all located at Ekpan. The
demonstrating women were estimated to be about 10,000 strong. The throng was made up
of all age groups of women, including the very old [ Daily Times (Nigeria), August 28,
1986:3 and Sunday Telegraph (Nigeria), August 31, 1986:1].
The demonstrators chanted war songs and carried placards some of which read: "Give
us Social Amenities," "Review all forms of employment within the Petrochemical," and
"Our sons, daughters and husbands are qualified for key posts within the Petrochemical."
These demands were similar to those of the women of Finima Community in Bonny Local
Government Area who had protested against Shell at the Bonny terminal only weeks earlier.
The Uvwie women were shouting, angry and riotous. They chanted demands for preferential
employment opportunities for their people. They threatened to go naked if they did not get
satisfaction. In the early morning, thousands of women surged forward in a determined
attempt to break into the premises of the Petrochemicals Plant. While the women blockaded
the access route to the three gigantic projects, their supporting menfolk laid ambush armed
with "dangerous" weapons, with "possible attack in mind just in case
their women were tampered with [Sunday Telegraph (Warri), August 31, 1986]."
The Ekpan women successfully blockaded the access road. All activities at the sites of
the three projects were halted. Workers could not reach their offices. Large oil tanker trucks
could not go in to load fuel for distribution to petrol stations. A team of men from the
Nigerian Police Force led by CSP G.A. Olatunbosun could not disperse the angry women.
It was not until about 2:30 p.m. that the women agreed to hold discussions with a
management team from the government's Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
This team of state oil officials was comprised of the refinery's General Manager, Refinery
Manager, Administration Manager, Zonal Manager and the Inspectorate Manager. The
women on the other hand were represented by three of their leaders. They insisted that no
man from their community should be at the meeting. This insistence reflects the suspicions
which some of the throng held that women interests had been sold out by senior men in the
community who were closely connected to the government and oil industry [Oshare 1986].
The negotiation meeting was a marathon, lasting for over four and half hours. While
the meeting continued inside the Refinery's boardroom, thousands of women remained at
their demonstration posts. They continued to cripple the central core of the midwest's oil
industry for the whole of that day. At about 7 p.m. the meeting adjourned to enable the
514
NNPC management team to communicate with its headquarters in Lagos. The oil
administrators agreed to convey the women's grievances and demands to top management.
This level of top management included the Managing Director of Nigeria's 'state within a
state,' the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation along with the powerful federal Minister
of Petroleum and probably General Babangida, the military head of state. The women
demanded feedback and positive response within two weeks failing which they would resume
their action.
Demands Made at the First Meeting
At the meeting the women stated their case as follows [Oshare 1986]:
(i) The indigenous people of Uvwie were not given a fair share of the recruitments
made for the Petrochemical Plant in line with the catchment policy of the
Federal Government as regards low cadre staff. The immediate development
precipitating that day's protest march was the recruitment of seven drivers the
week before. Of these, four were from Anambra state, one from Imo and the
remaining two from Ethiope Local Government Area. Not one was from the
Uvwie clan within Ethiope Local Government Area. The women said that they
had tolerated this kind of discrimination in recruitment in the NNPC
establishments located on their land for too long. They said it was only
happening because all the top positions were held by non-indigenous people.
These senior officials hired people from outside. For example, the Petro-
chemical Plant's Project Manager was from Anambra State, the Refinery General
Manager was Yoruba and the Pipeline and Products Marketing Sector's Manager
was from Anambra. All the officers immediately subordinate to them are also
from states other than Bendel. This ethnic and regional composition of top
management makes it possible for them to fill employment positions with
people from their respective home states at the expense of the indigenous
people. This, the women demanded, must stop.
(ii) Compensations had not been paid for farm lands acquired as long ago as 1973 for
the refinery and petrochemicals projects. When the NNPC acquired the land for
the refinery in 1973, it claimed that the land was donated to it by the Bendel (then
Midwest) State Government. The Uvwie Community went to court to dispute this
claim. The community won their case against the federal state oil company. But
as of the August 1986 action, the NNPC had failed to pay the community
compensation for alienated land. The community demanded seven million naira
(in 1986 about US$14 million, but in 1993 about US$483,000). The Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation claimed that the land was not worth so much but
did not say how much it is worth. The dispute was unresolved a full 13 years after
the land was acquired and was being utilised. The NNPC Estate Officer involved
in the matter said that the compensation was still being worked out by the
Corporation. On the Petrochemical Site which is adjoining the Refinery the
NNPC was not paying any compensation for land. It paid only for one season's
worth of crops being cultivated on the land when it was alienated. The NNPC
justified this non-compensation for land takeovers with reference to the 1977
Land Use Decree (now Act). The federal government is not recognizing
communal land rights under the Land Use Act.
515
(iii) With regard to the award of petty contracts, the women claimed discrimination
against people indigenous to the community. They charged that contractors from
the home states of the NNPC top management staff have the lion's share of small
contracts. This, they demanded, must also be rectified in their favour.
(iv) The women asked for the provision of pipe-borne water and electricity at Ekpan.
They pointed out that although the NNPC Staff Housing Estate which enjoys a
constant supply of electricity and an abundance of potable water is a mere stone
throw away from Ekpan, the people of Ekpan remain in utter darkness and lack
potable water. The contrast with their NNPC neighbour, occupying their land,
was stark. The women likened this situation to that in apartheid South Africa.
(v) The Ekpan women also demanded scholarships for their children in secondary
and post secondary institutions of higher learning. The state oil corporation
should provide scholarships, they argued, referring to precedents established by
Gulf Oil Company of Nigeria (GOCON) and other oil companies in the country.
Men Take Over the Second Meeting
The next meeting between the NNPC and the Uvwie community took place two weeks
later on Monday, September 8, 1986 at the Palace of the Ovie of Uvwie in Effurun. The
NNPC was represented by the Warri Zonal Manager, the Project Manager of the
Petrochemicals, the Manager of the Petroleum Inspectorate, the Pipeline and Product
Marketing Manager, the Refinery's Administration Manager and the Zonal Head of Public
Affairs.
The Uvwie Community on its part was represented by seven chiefs, one evangelist and
two women. Unlike the first meeting of August 8, 1986, at the second meeting the
community presented a proposed agenda that stated the objective of the meeting and its
modalities. Also unlike the first meeting the Uvwie delegation was no longer an all-women
body. Instead there were only two women in the ten-person delegation. The women and the
rest of the community were on the alert awaiting the outcome of the crucial meeting.
According to one view of the male takeover, "this male encapsulation of women's struggles
means in fact that corruption takes over and the political content of women's struggles is lost
to the economic interests of chiefs and elites [Ihonvbere 1991]."
In a written statement signed by the ten members who comprised the Uvwie delegation
on behalf of the Community and entitled "Why Our Women Folk Demonstrated on Monday
25th August, 1986: A Case of Displacement, Neglect and Non-Rehabilitation By NNPC," the
community once again restated their grievances and demands in unequivocal language. They
stated, inter alia, that
"Land as commonly known and accepted is the most important as well as the
most precious asset and implement for the realization of real wealth by both
state and individual. ... Be it known that together with the NNPC, the State and
Federal Governments are already occupying (over) 65% of Uvwie farm lands
while others, including major and minor private companies are occupying yet
another (over) 30% leaving the Uvwie people with barely 5% of their arable
farmland. Based on this, therefore, the community does not see why it should
suffer non-provision of potable water and electricity at Ekpan, scholarships,
516
job employment and petty contract awards for their sons and daughters, and
worst of all non-payment of compensations for land acquired by the NNPC
since 1973 [Uvwie Community 1986]."
They found it highly objectionable that all the NNPC establishments on their land
failed, for no good reasons, to implement the catchment area policy of the federal
government. This policy committed the state oil company to hire people indigenous to the
site on which oil operations were located, at least for lower level, unskilled and semi skilled
work. The lack of job recruitments was intolerable because jobs were viewed by the
indigenous people as one way to compensate them for land seizures by the state for NNPC.
When the NNPC officials tried to refute this by saying that Ethiope Local Government Area
to which Uvwie belongs was fully considered on the basis of "Catchment Area," the people
replied that Ethiope Local Government Area is comprised of many autonomous clans or
communities to which Uvwie has no obligation beyond linguistic ties. They then pointed out
that of the Refinery's staff strength of 1,600 only 40 are from Uvwie while only 22 sons and
daughters of Uvwie are in the Petrochemical Plant. None of these Uvwie people, employed
by the government owned refinery or petrochemical plants are in management positions.
However, in the course of the meeting "it was discovered that certain things were being
done for the community from which only the Ovie and his chiefs were benefiting without the
knowledge of the people. For example the Ovie had recently submitted the names of four
persons to the Petrochemicals' Project Manager to be employed without telling his people.
When this and other revelations were made at the meeting, the people felt cheated and
queried this action of the Ovie and his Chiefs [Oshare 1986]."
The meeting ended with the NNPC promising to implement the catchment area policy
with more discretion, to service the only water borehole in Ekpan, to reactivate the faulty
generator at the Ekpan Hospital and to speed up efforts at effecting the long delayed payment
of compensations for land acquired in 1973. Both parties agreed to work in close
collaboration to avoid confrontations in the future.
An Assessment of the Ekpan Uprising
The Ekpan women's uprising was characterized by complex gender relations, a

reformist outcome and multi-class demands. First, with regard to gender relations, most
notably, Ekpan women were placed under male control soon after the start of their uprising.
The August 25, 1986 shutdown of the heart of Warri's oil industry was an all woman action.
In contrast to the 1984 uprising, the Ekpan women decided to negotiate and this meant that
they had to select representatives. Only women negotiated that day with state oil managers.
Women explicitly excluded men from representing them. But in the two week interval before
the next negotiation, men, including chiefs and a Christian evangelist, assumed the right to
settle the issues. The second meeting's agenda and a written brief were prepared by Ekpan
men. Ten thousand women rose up. Then elite men moved in to explain the actions of "our
women folk." In the men's version, women were not challengers of power but victims of it.
The reconceptualization of power relations to construe women as objects rather than subjects
is evident in the male standpoint embodied in the negotiation document's title: "Why our
women folk demonstrated on Monday 25th August, 1986: a case of displacement, neglect
and non-rehabilitation by NNPC."
One view suggests that Ekpan women may have originally been motivated to act
"because they may have felt that the men were slow in pursuing the grievances of the
517
community. They may have felt that the male community leaders were benefiting secretly
from the NNPC jobs, contracts and pay-offs and therefore showing little or inadequate
concern for the community's grievances. The revelations at the second meeting held at the
Ovie's palace buttress this argument [Oshare 1986]."
Women engaged in a peaceful but militant shutdown of the oil industry after years of
frustration. Their rights were not secured through existing channels or through the efforts of
more powerful male community representatives. Any suspicions which women might have
had about chiefs selling out to the government and oil companies were confirmed at the
second negotiation meeting. Women discovered that the indigenous leaders had betrayed the
clan, could not be trusted, and were part of the problem. This group of indigenous men had
taken charge of the negotiations and was targeted in the second meeting as sellouts. The task
confronting Ekpan women was revealed as doubly complicated: the government had to be
forced to do justice, but a prior battle against indigenous men that aligned with the
government had first to be won.
A second feature of the uprising – its reformist outcome – follows directly from its
takeover by establishment men. The immediate settlement included a condemnation of Ekpan
women's tactics and a denunciation of confrontation. Members of the chief's council, in
alliance with the oil industry, sought to impose limits on the women's action. Consequently
the Ekpan uprising was in effect reformist and incremental rather than transformational. The
results were palliatives, vaguely defined and subject to no implementation timetable. At best
Ekpan and Uvwie women secured a partial victory. Probably more important than the
tokenism of some compensation and amenities is the leap in consciousness made by those
engaged in the uprising and its denouement.
A third feature of the Ekpan women's protest was the multi-class character of its focus.
The demands addressed the concerns of peasant farmers, traders and marketers, artisans,
craftspeople and waged workers. Ekpan women demanded land compensation, jobs,
scholarships, electricity and running water, as well as a range of social services, including
health and education.
The Ekpan demands were complex, involving who was employed in new oil industry
jobs and who in government made those decisions. Ekpan women were posing policy issues
on several fronts. Their demands around employment questioned the ethnicity of the
industrial establishment's management who make hiring decisions. Ekpan women posed
micro-local hiring priorities against the national and even international scope of NNPC's
personnel recruitment pool. The Ekpan uprising questioned the alleged ethnic and regional
(state of origin) bias according to which managers awarded small contracts.
The women challenged compensation policy and the very concept of compensation for
land taken by the state for the oil industry. How, they asked, can a way of life be destroyed
and 'compensated' through the payment of a small sum of money? The women objected to
lack of amenities, comparing the privileged western style housing across the fence to their
own poverty. Using the analogy of apartheid, displaced peasant women pointed to their poor
domestic working conditions with no electricity, water or functioning medical system. They
raised the fundamental issue of who benefits from the oil wealth. This tremendous national
treasure from their own communal lands was being used to benefit others and in the process
their own lives were being destroyed. Not surprisingly, the Ekpan women failed to settle
these complex, multi-class issues. However, they took an important step forward through the
organization of an uprising that put the issues on the agenda.
518
A Comparison of the Two Uprisings
There were important differences between the successful 1984 Ogharefe women's
uprising and the less decisive 1986 Ekpan women's uprising. The difference in scale is
relevant in making comparisons. The 1984 protest was small and localized. It focused on a
single oil production station. It cost one US oil company some financial loss. In contrast, the
1986 uprising shut down a major section of the national oil industry. It threatened not only
the government's oil revenues and international exports, but also the flow of oil products to
road tankers to supply Nigeria and west Africa. The state had to contemplate the possibility
that the 1986 uprising would spark solidarity strikes by road tanker drivers. In the 1980s
these road tanker drivers were very militant and frequently acted on threats to shut down
Nigeria by halting the delivery of fuel. All sections of the population were resisting the
imposition of IMF conditions. There was a real prospect that the 1986 women's uprising
could escalate into a national general strike. Consequently the state responded more
decisively against Ekpan women than against the much smaller scale uprising of 1984.
Taking into account this contrast in scale, comparisons between the two uprisings are made
with reference to (1) their targets and racial dynamics, (2) alliances which women struck with
men, (3) their peasant versus proletarian character, and (4) the dialects of gender and class.
These comparisons explore and corroborate the three arguments presented in the
introduction: that the uprisings were clashes resulting from class formation; that the gender
character of the uprisings followed from the process of capitalist development; and that the
degree of success enjoyed by women reflected both the degree of proleterianization and the
degree of male solidarity.
First, Ogharefe women confronted a foreign oil company. In contrast, the Ekpan clash
was between women and the government, as represented by the state oil corporation. In
Ekpan the state effectively shielded the international oil industry from displaced peasants
while Pan Ocean in 1984 did not enjoy a government buffer between its operations and
peasant women. The black nationalist state functions simultaneously as a class and a race
buffer. The Ogharefe-Pan Ocean confrontation was a black-white racial face-off. African
women, using the specifically feminist weapon of collective nudity, insisted on justice from
representatives of white US men. However, there is no doubt that black men were thought to
be equally susceptible to being rendered impotent by the sight of naked women. The ethnic
dimensions of the 1986 clash were more complex and subtle. Ekpan women did employ the
apartheid analogy to contrast the luxury housing enjoyed by African state oil personnel, with
their own homes which lacked water and electricity. While Ekpan women employed a racial
analogy to highlight class difference among black people, they also concentrated on ethnic
bias in hiring and contract awards.
Second, Ekpan women were not supported by a council of youth as were the Ogharefe
women. While Ekpan women moved against the government only to be surprised at the
depths of betrayal by their chiefs; Ogharefe women had already acted independently and
against the chiefs. In the Ogharefe clan women and youth had allied themselves against
weak, sell-out chiefs and this alliance won broad social support.
A separate aspect of women's alliance with men was tactical. Women in both uprisings
took action on behalf of men who, in comparison with women, could be subject to much
more severe state repression. Women took action in part because of the protection which
their being female bought them. Women had been massacred, for instance in the Aba
women's War of 1928-1930, but there persisted amongst both women and men a notion of
shame associated with men attacking women. Men's resistance to state exploitation, in
colonial and in post-colonial times, has always met with brutal repression. Women lose
519
from this repression in at least two ways. They lose their husbands, sons and the most able-
bodied men on whom they rely for some defence against rival communities and at times of
calamities. And they face a future, after the repression, in which the state may take
advantage of an extended interval of unimpeded exploitation. Women were acting on their
own behalf but also in the interests of their immediate families and in order to secure social
amenities for the entire community. The women's uprisings were embedded in a long history
of African communal strategies for expressing and resolving collective grievances.
Third, the demands of the 1984 uprising related to the interests of small farmers and
traders, not waged workers. The Ogharefe women were demanding protection as farmers
supplying local markets, in order to avoid being proletarianized. In contrast, the Ekpan
women, who had lost much of their land, were demanding better conditions as proletarians
and small contractors, at the same time as they sought protection of the eclipsed peasant way
of life.
Fourth, class and gender relations differed in the two uprisings. The more intensive
class formation of Ekpan bolstered the power of elite men. In contrast, the persistence of
peasant relations in Ogharefe preserved the power of ordinary men who continued to control
land. The Uvwie community immediately adjacent to the oil city of Warri bore the brunt of
land loss as the oil boom exploded. Land deals by the hundreds were executed. There was a
high level of involvement of indigenous men who were well placed to broker these land
deals. Men in positions of power within the local class configurations became very rich
through organizing the alienation of communal land. In 1986 Ekpan women revolted against
these men.
The displaced peasantry was largely female. This follows from the fact that women did
most of the farming, fishing and marketing. With land loss these women could neither reap
profits from farming nor could they ensure the survival of their own households. As traders,
food processors and artisans, Uvwie women depended on farming and the landed household
for produce and labour. These women moved against the class of land alienators, all male,
and against the men of the state to whom land rights had been ceded.
Men related to the women's uprisings in various ways depending on their class. In
Ekpan men sought waged work. In their uprising, Ekpan women demanded jobs "for the sons
and daughters of Uvwie." The oil industry is a male preserve. Waged jobs (apart from those
in agricultural labour) usually require literacy and women have been excluded from schools.
The colonial and neocolonial states in Nigeria preferred male to female waged workers, at
least in most jobs. Consequently, few women had waged work open to them as an alternative
to peasant farming and own-account trading. When oil belt women came under pressure they
responded, defending their own interests as economic and social actors. Among these
interests were more jobs. Men from the peasantry did join women in the 1984 Ogharefe
uprising, supporting them against the chiefly elite aligned with foreign capital. This class
division among men was also evident in Ekpan. But there, unlike in Ogharefe, elite men
prevailed. They intervened successfully in the negotiations. The 1986 Ekpan women's
uprising was moderated and diverted by influential men based in the indigenous power
structure responsible for land alienation, and linked through 'male deals' to capital and the
state.
In sum, the class struggle amongst men was won in 1984 by the Ogharefe peasant men
aligned with women. But it was lost by men from the exploited classes in the case of Ekpan
in 1986. This pattern suggests that class gains depend on solidarity between women and
exploited men on the terms according to which women are prepared to exercise their social
power. The pattern contrasts sharply with the Stalinist formula which relegates women's
issues to a status subordinate to the so-called 'overall class struggle.'
520
Conclusion
In the years since the 1986 uprising, Nigeria's political and economic crises have
become more acute. Women and all poor people came under more severe attack as the state
sought to implement the IMF structural adjustment programme. As the collapse of oil prices
reduced government revenues, the economy deteriorated even more and the environment
came under more severe threat [NEST 1991]. Privatization included some denationalization
of oil. Militant Nigerian oil workers were retrenched en mass and replaced by North
American and European personnel. Foreign companies gained power as the state
establishment shrank and became delegitimized from the perspectives of both capital and the
grassroots. At the same time the weakened state became more repressive, while promising,
but not delivering on, a return to civilian rule. The military regime in the early 1990s was
clearly a refuge for indigenous chiefs who are targeted by their subjects as enemies.
Uprisings have been frequent as Nigerian society becomes even more polarized along
gender and class lines. The multiplication of insurgencies is especially evident in the oil belt
where groups of villagers have been massacred by police because they protested corporate
depredation [CDHR 1990:31-32, CDHR/NADL 1991, Newswatch 1990, 1993]. Nigerian
authorities covered up an October 1990 police massacre of 80 unarmed villagers that
occurred after Shell Oil appealed to the police for intervention against protestors demanding
compensation for lost land [ Platt's Oilgram News 9 October 1992:6]. As oil belt women
establish that they are prepared to use the ultimate weapon of collective nudity, men
increasingly support women's initiatives and capital's counterinsurgency tactics are
increasingly directed towards the demobilization of women. The state and foreign aid donors
persist in attempts to mute feminist militancy with reformist 'women and development'
projects [Trager and Osinulu 1991]. Nigerian women are sharply divided into a bourgeois
elite backed by the state and a mass of women in the exploited classes. With the
destruction of civil society and the middle class, indigenous religious and clan organizations
have become more politically important. Underneath the surface of religious uprisings are
class conflicts with crucial gender dimensions [Dauda 1992].
As noted in the introduction, the Ogharefe and Ekpan women's uprisings were events
within a process of political mobilization. The process continues. The patterns of women's
resistance in the colonial period reappeared in the 1980s: women shut down markets, took
over buildings, blocked roads and attacked indigenous male leaders for siding with the state
against the people. The process by which sections of the exploited classes work out methods
for unified struggle is also a process of developing gendered-class consciousness. This
consciousness is international because it is replicated in other oil exporting societies in the
responses of people, women and men, to the same actions and social relations imposed by
multinational petroleum firms and the International Monetary Fund.
The process of political mobilization continued in the late 1980s under the impetus of
two new external forces: first, IMF political conditionalities which sought to put a 'human
face' on structural adjustment while championing a kind of democratic transition to civilian
multiparty governance; and second, the meteoric rise of democracy movements which
challenged Stalinist state power worldwide. In the space provided by these external
developments, Nigerian political mobilization has produced a range of human rights and civil
rights organizations some of which have both grassroots and international links [Turner and
Ihonvbere 1993]. And it has produced incipient popular movements, notably in the oil belt. In
the 1990s protests against oil company pollution have mobilized thousands of people with
over 100,000 Ogoni women and men massing for a day long demonstration
521
in January 1993 in the oil region near Port Harcourt [ Newswatch, 25 January 1993]. The
drive to expand the space for democratic expression within civil society is extending onto
the international plane as popular movements make brilliant use of the media to take
ecological issues to the United Nations meetings in 1993 to launch the decade of indigenous
peoples. The uprisings against oil companies in Nigeria were initiated by oil belt women and
have now been joined by all sections of the impoverished communities.
While these external developments did widen the political space within Nigeria, they
were soon confronted by counter developments. The peace and democracy dividends that
were expected to flow from the collapse of Soviet state power were blocked by US militarism
in the Middle East and elsewhere. United States and other imperial state orientations changed
from being apparently pro-democracy involving fair elections and a transition to civilian rule,
to being content with the military status quo in Nigeria. The change follows from the strength
of internal resistance to structural adjustment policies combined with the dramatic lesson of
state disintegration provided by Somalia in the early 1990s. It became apparent in 1993 that
in Nigeria only the military could maintain order, impose IMF policies especially with regard
to the oil industry and foster a form of federal state coherence in the face of demands for the
creation of more states and the growing sophistication of popular insurgency.
Both the 1984 and the 1986 uprisings confirm the ability of women to wrest
concessions from exploitative authorities. Ogharefe and Uvwie-Ekpan women's actions
should be seen as part of the class struggle that has persisted in both colonial and post-
colonial Nigeria. The women constituted a feminist force within the class struggle. Mass
protests of women, students, workers and peasant farmers will continue to occur as long as
Nigeria remains integrated into world capitalism as a neocolonial state with a disarticulated
economy that intensifies mass poverty, the exploitation of women and inequality in access
to resources. The women's uprisings against the oil industry are especially important
because they reveal the transformational impulse inherent in capitalist development. This
impulse transforms gender relations so as to forge class solidarity on the basis of feminist
militancy.
The women's uprisings against the oil industry in Nigeria in the mid 1980s confirm the
double complexity of capitalism's denigration and empowerment of women. On the one hand,
the extension of exploitation worsened the situations of women. Earlier relative reciprocity
between men and women dissipated into intensified sexism. The rise of local capitalists from
the chiefly stratum was paralleled by a transformation in gender relations. A kind of
communal symbiosis of gender was broken by elite men's private appropriation of land, the
fundamental basis of poor people's livelihood and community. With the deepening of
capitalist relations, unequal gains of men and women were echoed by unequal opportunities
among ethnic groups.
On the other hand, industrialization led to land alienation that motivated women to
fight back. It elevated women's political impact by offering them vulnerable oil industry
targets against which to concentrate their collective social power. It prompted feminist
militancy that re-forged the reciprocity between women and men, but this time on the new
basis of class solidarity. Out of this experience is emerging a new society with the force and
reason of women, and their organization and consciousness, at its forefront.
522
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526
Chapter 27
Petroleum Oil Fire Disasters in Urhoboland,

1
1998-2000
Compiled and Introduced by
Peter P. Ekeh Editor,
www.waado.org
Introduction
Idjerhe Petroleum Pipeline Explosion and Fire Disaster
In the halcyon years of wealth of the 1970s, every form of development seemed
possible in Nigeria. Suffused in oil wealth that it did not know how to manage, the Nigerian
economy was experimenting with all types of new ideas. One of these projects was the
uploading of oil to the politically privileged North by means of pipes. An oil refinery at
Kaduna, the informal political capital of Northern Nigeria, is the main beneficiary of this
expensive operation covering many hundreds of miles. The valuable mineral oil from the
Niger Delta is mined by powerful international oil companies in close alliance with the
Federal Government of Nigeria.
The pipes that drained oil from the western Niger Delta in south most part Nigeria run
through farmlands and near homes of ordinary people. Urhoboland in the western Niger
Delta is not only a main involuntary "supplier" of mineral oil; the pipes that carry the crude
oil to Kaduna run through its territory. Idjerhe is an Urhobo division on the western side of
River Ethiope through which the Federal Government's oil pipes run from the western Niger
Delta to the North.
These pipes were laid more than twenty years ago. They are ageing, with little
maintenance to help prolong their service lives. There have been many incidents of oil
leakage from these pipes. On Saturday, October 17, 1998, an oil leak from a section of these
pipes in Idjerhe developed into a fiery hell that consumed lives, farmlands, houses, and
other properties. The military ruler of Nigeria at that time, General Abdulsami Abubakar,
gave the Federal Government's verdict and reaction: the victims were to blame for causing
the fire! This insensitive reaction, arrived at without any investigation and widely condemned
at the time, provides a backdrop for the reports published in these pages on the Idjerhe Fire
Disaster.
Ekakpamre Shell's Fire Disaster
Eleven months after the Idjerhe debacle, while Urhobo communities were still
struggling to cope with the massive emotional and economic ill-consequences arising from
Idjerhe's hell fire, another preventable petroleum fire disaster has been wrought on a vital
area of the same region. Ekakpamre, in eastern Urhoboland, is within a fifty-mile range of
Idjerhe, which is in the western zone of Urhobo. Its lands and those of neighbouring
communities of Ekrusierho, Ekenewharem, Ekroghen, Ekrezeghe and Ekrata have
1
The documents and pictures in this chapter, including the “Introduction,” are from the pages of the Web site of Urhobo Historical
Society [http://www.waado.org/Contents.html]. We thank Nnimmo Bassey and his Environmental Rights [ERA] organization for its
close attention to the fires that disfigured Urhoboland and that caused so much pain as no other disaster has inflicted in Urhobo
history.
harboured Shell BP's operations since the 1960s. Together, their lands have twelve oil wells.
Shell BP's equipment, installed from the 1960s, have aged and even decayed in several
instances. If Shell were operating in the United States or Western Europe, it would be
required to replace its equipment before continuing with any further operations. But
Ekakpamre is neither in the United States nor in Europe. It is in West Africa where
international oil companies are the law.
On Friday, September 17,1999, ruptured equipment, which had been leaking crude oil
into streams and into lands, developed a huge and uncontrollable fire. Its range of destruction
is broad and catastrophic for the communities. Its pollution effects will be felt beyond these
communities. Lives, property, animals, fishes, people's entire livelihood have all been
affected. This is an agricultural bowl of Urhoboland valued for its farmlands and streams.
What Next?
It is invidious to compare two disasters. But it is necessary for reasons of preparing for
their inevitable reoccurrence. Idjerhe's hell fire was provoked from a pipeline that can be
watched and repaired if enough care is taken. Ekakpamre's hell fire bodes greater dangers for
Urhoboland and the Niger Delta. These places are littered with Shell's oil wells, featuring
equipment that should be replaced. But Shell and other international oil companies will
continue to operate with such decrepit tools because it is cheaper to face the wrath of the
communities whose lands are occasionally destroyed by Shell's fires than it is to refurbish its
operations with entirely new devices. What happened at Ekakpamre could have happened at
Kokori or any of the hundreds of locations in Urhoboland from which Shell drains oil.
Urhoboland is one of the few remaining areas in the Niger Delta where angry youths
have not forcibly assumed power from leaders who are incapable of facing up to Shell,
Chevron, and the other oil companies. There is still an established leadership in Urhoboland
that seeks to negotiate on the abuses that the citizens of these areas have absorbed from the
oil companies and the various corrupt military regimes who were the natural allies of the
international oil companies. Whether established Urhobo leadership will continue to enjoy
any legitimacy from their people is a question that the Idjerhe and Ekakpamre experiences
may provoke. It may all depend on how much respect will be granted to the leaders of the
Urhobo National Assembly by Almighty Shell and a Federal Government of Nigeria that is
cash-hungry and fully dependent on the powerful oil companies for its financial resources.
Peter Ekeh
Editor@waado.org, October 5, 1999
Update : Ravaging Fire Disasters in 2000
Sadly, the rash of great fire disasters caused by the actions of the Federal Government
of Nigeria and the powerful but negligent Shell oil company continued into 2000, with a
vengeance. The path of these great fires is now well defined. It lies along the Warri-Sapele
corridor of Niger Delta through which ageing and ill-maintained oil pipelines run. The fires
at Amukpe, Egborode, and Elume consumed hundreds of lives and large lands and waters,
aside from wasted and uncompensated lost properties.
When the great Idjere fire of 1998 occurred, the Federal Government of Nigeria
blamed the victims of the fire. It still alleges sabotage, but few people believe in its defence
any more. It seems quite clear now that the age of the oil pipelines is the main culprit, often
528
Petroleum Oil Fire Disasters in Urhoboland….
assisted by sophisticated vandalization through the use of rare equipment which is only
available to powerful and privileged men from within the ranks of those who work for the oil
companies or the Federal Government of Nigeria.
It is striking that less national and international attention is being paid to these later
instances of fire disasters than to those that occurred in 1998 and 1999. But as some of the
pictures from the Elume fire disaster will point up, they were no less severe. Sadly, the
indifference of the government of Nigeria to the victims of these fire disasters, which its own
actions have caused, is as cold today as it was during the years of ugly military rule in 1998
and 1999.
Peter Ekeh
Editor@waado.org , July 31, 2001
A Table of Petroleum Oil Fire Disasters in Urhoboland, 1998-2000
Dates of Communities & Local Casualties

Petroleum Fire Urhobo Cultural Government
Division Idjerhe Area Ethiope
Saturday, Town and West 1,063 dead;
October 17 1998 environs. several hundreds
(Idjerhe) injured; burnt
farms, houses,
boats, etc.
September 17-18, Ekakpamre, Ughelli South Hundreds dead
1999 Ekerejegbe, and tens injured;
Iwhrekreka, farmlands burnt;
Ughevwughe, river and fishing
Otor-Edo, and industry
Edjophe. destroyed.
(Ughievwen) Delicate
ecosystem with
intricate
biodiversity lost.
July 10, 2000 Egborode Okpe Homes and farms
(Okpe) destroyed.
Drinking waater
polluted; fishing
industry
destroyed
July 13-14, 2000 Adeje Okpe Homes and
(Okpe) farmlands
destroyed.
November 8, Elume River Okpe Farmlands, rivers
2000 (Okpe) and aquatic lives
destroyed. Ibada-
Elume bridge on
major Sapele-
Warri road
collapses.
529
ƅƅƅƅ
Idjerhe Oil Fire Disaster

Saturday, October 17, 1998
An Instance of the Idjerhe Fire
Reports and Comments
(a)
Idjerhe Oil Fire Disaster: Nigeria Petrol Pipeline Explosion:
An Avoidable Tragedy
A Report by Environmental Rights Action [Friends of the Earth, Nigeria]

Dateline: Idjerhe, October 21, 1998
Introduction
A tragedy of immense proportions occurred on Saturday, October, 17, 1998 in

Idjerhe Clan comprising 32 communities in Ethiope West Local Government Council of
Delta State, Southern Nigeria when a 16 inch petrol pipeline linking the Warri refinery to
KAduna exploded at Atiegwo, leaving hundreds of villagers dead and critically injuring
hundreds more in the ensuing inferno. The community most affected was Jesse, the main
town in the area. Without any investigation, the Petroleum Products Marketing
Company (PPMC) , a subsidiary of the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC) and the Military Government alleged sabotage. But this charge has
not been substantiated. Relying on this warped thinking, the Military Government of General
Abdusalam Abubakar has ruled out compensation and the surviving villages even fear that
they may be prosecuted.
The Environmental Rights Action (ERA) team that visited Idjerhe learnt that a leak in
the high pressure pipeline was noticed on Friday, October 16. That day, the local people
530
from Jesse and nearby villages trooped to Atiegwo. Some tried to scoop the fuel as the
country has been under an unending fuel crisis since the time of late dictator, General Sani
Abacha. Others went to the scene just to look. Some were in their farms while others were
either fishing or returning from fetching potable water from the nearby river Ethiope when
tragedy struck. A majority of the victims were women and children.
Idjerhe is in the grip of fear and gloom. The people are reluctant to tell their own story
to challenge the picture put out by the oil industry and the military regime that backs it.
In the testimonies that follow, ERA brings you the voice of the local people. They are
saying they are no vandals. They are saying the issue is that of resource deprivation. They
are saying that the underlying cause of this national tragedy is official negligence. They are
saying they have lost lives and means of earning a living.
Hear the People Speak:
"Can Eunice Be A Vandal?"

Name: Mrs Agnes Onojowo
Age: 38
Occupation: Housewife
“She said she was going to the farm. She left us happy. We were expecting some red
cassava for dinner. She never came back. We saw the basin of the cassava. We saw the
"karta" (head pad). We recognised our basin and her cloth. Her body we did not see. Her
voice we did not hear. The fire took her from us.
“They say we are vandals. How? Can Eunice be a vandal? It is the oil people who have
been vandalising our means of livelihood. It is the government that has stolen from us and
continues to do so even to this minute (voice quivering, and tears rolling down).”
"Nobody Knows What Caused the Fire"

Name: Mr. Columbus Daju
Age: 33
Occupation: Farmer
“In the afternoon of that Saturday, I was sleeping because I wasn't feeling well. I was
woken by the explosion and we decided to rush to the place. When we got there, we saw
many dead bodies. So we began to cry. Every body was running here and there looking for
their children. In some families, man and wife, father and children, young men, young
women, old mammas all died.
“We trace this incident to the pervasive fuel scarcity in the country. When the thing
happened, many of them didn't know that it was fuel. They didn't know. Many of those who
died went to look at the strange substance coming out from the soil. They did not go to
collect fuel. Many of them went to look. Many of them live by the River Ethiope. Those
who were just coming with basins/buckets on their heads with water went to take a look at
the scene. During the look, the explosion occurred. That is why you see the many basins.
Many people reside by the River. How can a motor bike that is using fuel in a place that is
bringing out fuel cause fire?”
531
What Caused the Fire?
“Nobody really knows what caused that fire. Well, an helicopter belonging to Shell
hovered around there, warning people to disperse. Five minutes after, the explosion occurred.
I lost five of my cousins. One is a child to Papa Ishan. He died. The boy is about 18 years old.
Then, another lady with a child on her back. Then another young boy aged about fifteen years
old died also. Two young ones who are about 12 years are still in hospital today. We don't
know whether the other two will be saved. We don't know. What the government is saying
now that these people went to vandalise the pipeline in order to take the oil is untenable. How
can a great number of people, almost one thousand come to a conclusion that they want to
vandalise the oil (pipeline)?
“The people that came from this village are very many. It is very difficult to get the
exact figure. Many people rushed to look. Like when the helicopter carrying the Head of
State landed on Monday, nearly the whole village went to look at it because they had not
seen such a thing before. Many of them here are semi-literate. Even myself, I have not been
living where helicopters are common. So if it lands I must go and look. This is why when
news of the leak made its rounds, many went to take a look. Not that they went to collect
fuel as is being alleged.”
Unprotected Pipelines
“Government has power over everybody. If the pipeline had been protected in a very
safe way, like with iron rods, people would not get access to it even if it was leaking. But that
was not the case. Because the pipeline was not well protected, so many of our people
perished. When the Head of State came, he told the whole world that there was nothing he
could do, but that proper medical attention should be given to those who are still alive. In my
own opinion, they should have given families of the victims some compensation because it is
not good for whole a household to perish at once just like that.
“The people of Jesse are predominantly farmers. Even most of the farms surrounding
that area have been damaged. Cassava farms were the most affected. These farms were
mostly owned by women. The women in this community feed the men because the men have
no employment. They are all jobless. Some of those who died were in their farms. This type
of tragedy has never occurred before. When the incident occurred, many came on bicycles
from the nearby villages to take a look at the scene. It is difficult to ascertain the figure (of
casualties) now except you go from village to village. We have 32 villages in this clan. This
is Idjerhe clan in Urhoboland. Some of those who died were fishing in River Ethiope when
the incident occurred.
“The River Ethiope is just about two poles from the spot of the explosion. Some of
them were fetched out of the river. That was how it all happened. If our government is loving
it should ensure compensation to families of the victims because the people never knew the
danger surrounding this fuel. They thought fuel is just like the water they fetch from the river
too. They only hear of fuel, fuel, fuel, fuel. That fuel passes through the earth, so when the
leak occurred, they naturally went to take a look at it.
“Many innocent souls died.”
532
"My Wife Was Killed in the Fire"
Name: Mr. O. Ogbakpa

Age: 60
Occupation: Farmer
“My house is broken. I have lost the pillar of my house. My wife. She was killed in
that fire. We married a long time ago. Yes, in 1963. We have nine children. I don't want to
talk anymore. No talk can bring back my wife. I am finished. What do you want me to say?
It has happened. Death has visited us and left us in sorrow.”
ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS ACTION (ERA)

214 Uselu-Lagos Road, P.O. Box 10577, Benin City, Nigeria
tel/fax + 234 52 600 165 e-mail: eraction@infoweb.abs.net
(b)
Wasting Lives: Official Negligence Results in Grave Tragedy
at Idjerhe, Niger Delta, Nigeria
Reports by Doifie Ola & David Eighemhenrio

Environmental Rights Action [Friends of the Earth,
Nigeria] Dateline: Idjerhe, October 20, 1998
x Over 500 people roasted to death; Death toll may reach 1000.
x 32 communities mourn.
x Fire explosion was from a leaking fuel manifold.
x Persistent and paralysing fuel scarcity caused disaster.
Gloom and fear grip communities; victims filled hospitals.
x
x Shell Helicopter hovered five minutes before explosion
Background
Jesse is the principal town in Idjerhe clan within the Urhobo heartland of the Niger
Delta. The town is about 55 kilometers from the oil city of Warri, Delta State. On Saturday,
October 17, 1998, the 32 communities in Idjerhe was thrown into unprecedented mourning
when a pipeline carrying fuel exploded and killed over 500 people.
The estimated population of Jesse town is 7,000. The settlement is rural, with wet
weather, typical of Ocean influenced areas of the Hot-wet Equatorial climate. The indigenes
of the locality are from the ethnic Urhobo nation. They are accommodative, law-abiding and
live in harmony with neighbouring communities.
The community is situated on huge commercial deposit of crude oil. The soil is acidic
clay, habouring fresh water swamp forest. The vegetation is diverse and economic plants like
the raffia and rubber thrive in commercial quantity. Palm trees grow well where the soil
retains its original drainage. The people of the communities are mostly crop farmers, rubber
tappers and fishermen and women. But some few indigenes are involved in service activities
like petty trading, tailoring, bicycle repairing.
533
Despite the immense wealth beneath their soil, Jesse like all the communities in the
Niger Delta remains poor, ancient and neglected. Educational opportunities are limited.
There are two primary schools and a secondary school. The schools are dilapidated with
grossly inadequate facilities. There also exists a primary health post which is a mere symbol
of primary health care delivery. There is a local market with few partially tarred single lane
roads of the 1960s model. Although there are electric poles all over the Jesse town, there
exists no electricity. The people depend on water from the River Ethiope which separates
Jesse from Sapele, a neighbouring town, for all their domestic use.
Their houses are mostly mud types. There is no hospital.
Black Saturday
A direct victim of the Idjerhe fire, Mr. Onoriode Efenaya, now a patient at Nene
Hospital, Sapele, told ERA that the leak from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation's
(NNPC) high pressure pipeline conveying fuel from the Warri Refinery in Southern Nigeria
to Kaduna in North Nigeria was first noticed on Friday, October 16, 1998 by a farmer
returning from the day's work. On getting home in Jesse, he broke the news to his kinsmen,
many of whom spread the story and trooped to Atiegwo, site of the 16 inch pipeline.
Efenaya, a rubber tapper and farmer, was in the field on Saturday, October 17, 1998,
close to the leaking pipeline. Around 1.00pm, he heard a heavy sound like that of a burst
truck tyre (Gboom!). The whole area was engulfed in flames. He fell down. Suffocating, he
managed to crawl out of the immediate scene and was helped to Nene Hospital by a good
Nigerian.
But close to 500 others were not as lucky. They were roasted to death. The immediate
cause of the fire is yet to be established, but everyone admits that prior to the fire outbreak, a
leak had occurred and several people from the Idjerhe clan consisting of 32 communities had
gone to Atiegwo either to fetch the fuel or simply to look at what was happening. It is being
suggested that because the whole atmosphere was high with fuel, even a little spark could
have sparked off the fire.
This is likely as some of those who went to fetch the fuel had iron buckets with them
and these are not known as one of the best means of carrying the product. ERA also learnt
that about five minutes before the explosion, a helicopter belonging to Shell Petroleum
Development Company Nigeria Limited hovered over the place and reportedly warned the
people to leave the place.
Official Negligence
Atiegwo, the explosion site is about 1.125 kilometre from Jesse community. The pipe
that burst runs parallel to River Ethiope and has two major foot paths to it from the road. The
area is actively cultivated by the local people. Next to the buried fuel pipe is a gas pipe line
about 15 meters apart.
The massive flame of fire coming out from the leaking pipes has a base area of about
25 metres square, located in a cassava farm, surrounded by rubber trees and the forest by the
River Ethiope. The smoke from the fire ascending into the atmosphere had formed a thick
dark cloud over the area in particular.
At the scene of the incident, the team was shocked to the marrow as the charred
remains of human beings littered everywhere. The dead included children, youths and adults.
A majority of those burnt were women. They were burnt beyond recognition. Jerry cans,
basins and other items still litter the scene.
534
There has not been such an incident in Nigeria since 1956 when oil was discovered in
Oloibiri in the Central Delta. About half of the cassava farm was completely razed to the
ground, the rubber and the bush also partially burnt. A huge chunk of farmland has now
been taken for burial purposes.
A deep and wide grave of about 30 metres from the fire point was dug and a pail loader
brought by the Ethiope West Local Government Council where the mass burial took place on
Tuesday, October 20, 1998. Wheel barrows and large bales of white linen cloth were used to
convey the charred to the pit by the mass burial team.
ERA confirmed that the NNPC fuel pipe from Warri refinery passing through many
communities in Idjerhe clan and others such as Amukpe, Jesse, Okpe, Mossogar through
Ologbo down to Lokoja, was laid in the early 70s. Under normal circumstances, the pipe
ought to have been changed because it had out lived its usefulness. There also ought to have
been an adequate protective facility
There were no regular checks and maintenance of the pipe; hence NNPC could not
detect the leakage at Jesse on time. They had to help themselves with the scarce commodity
that was oozing out and wasting. The NNPC and its joint venture partner Shell and the
military government did nothing immediately to salvage the situation when the leakage was
reported. Rather, a Shell helicopter hovered round the place, warning the people to leave the
scene. The law enforcement agents especially the police made the issue worse as they seized
the petroleum product from the poor villagers who managed to draw from the hot pipe
instead of chasing them away from the leaking spot that was a potentially dangerous area.
The Jesse fire disaster is a true and practical revelation of the acute poverty that the
masses of Nigeria are immersed in due to the continued misrule by successive military
regimes in Nigeria. The people battered, deprived and famished in the midst of plenty are
now in mourning. Hopeless in a vast natural environment of hope. It would be recalled that
Nigerians have now come to live with fuel scarcity without any meaningful efforts on the part
of government to arrest the ugly trend. When fuel was not scarce in the past, the
consciousness of rural dwellers of its importance was very low. When the military
government, especially the immediate past government, deliberately created artificial scarcity
to facilitate its perpetuation in power, the consciousness of fuel as a quick source of income
rose astronomically among Nigerians even poor farmers who form the base of the most
neglected Nigerians by military tyranny.
State of the Direct Victims
Dr. Hastings Eduvie, Medical Director of Central Hospital, Sapele, the nearest hospital
to the Jesse people explained on the day of the incident 40 people were rushed there. Of this
number, 18 were immediately admitted while the other 22 were treated and discharged. Out
of the 18, seven died and eight were removed by their relations for fear that they may be
prosecuted for sabotage on discharge. In Nigeria under successive military dictatorships,
including that of General Abubakar, the penalty for sabotage is death. The medical director
explained that those that died had severe burns. They include Gladys Temilero, 36,
Augustina Vincent, 33, and Ejowoke Enatamen, 18 . As at Tuesday, October 20, only four
patients were still at the hospital. The four were: Blam Ewubamen, 21, a driver from Jesse,
Mrs Caro Umukoro, Doris Solomon from Jesse and Aruguane from Sapele. On the next day,
one of the four lost his life.
The Medical Director noted that the Federal Government would settle the bills of the
patients. Unconfirmed reports had it that, Shell and Chevron Nigeria Limited have made
535
promises to donate antibiotics, infusions and dressings to the hospital. Only the Delta State
Government had made good its promise to supply all the drugs so far administered on the
patients.
At Imene-Eferakeya Medical Center, Amukpe, the most senior nurse on duty, Miss
Monical Egagifo, told ERA that eight of the fire victims were admitted but three of them
died, while two were discharged by their relations for fear of arrest and charge.
Three people were still lying there by the time ERA visited. They were Onoriode Futo,
17, student of Mossogor Secondary, Mossogar; Uniokoro Goodluck, 18, student of Zik's
Academy Sapele and Owho Fassa, 25 years old farmer, from Jesse.
Futo explained that, he was a victim of unnecessary anxiety. That he went to Sapele
for a wake-keeping on October 16, 1998. While returning the next day , he was enticed by
the crowd he saw close to the burst pipe and he went to catch a glimpse of the scene. About
100 metres to the spot , he heard high sound of explosion and balls of fire filled the whole
place. He shouted "Jesus Christ", and found himself flying over and through the flames. He
later found himself by the roadside and was immediately rushed to Nene Hospital by an
unknown good Nigerian.
A relation of Futo, Mrs. Victoria Odumaka, farmer, residing at Mossogar, pleaded
passionately with ERA to assist them in anyway possible. Mr. Matthew Obligho, a teacher at
Jesse Primary School, lamented the loss of lives and described it as a disaster. He described
the incident as "an unforgettable one". He berated the government for creating artificial
scarcity of fuel. According to him, Jesse has nothing to show as an oil producing community.
He warned that if urgent steps were not taken by the government to comprehensively review
the plight of Delta communities, particularly the Idjerhe, the people "would be left with no
option than to chase out the oil companies in their lands and practically take their destiny as a
people in their hands". He later gave the name of the teacher who was burnt in the inferno as
Mrs. C. Okwere, who was also a staff of Jesse Primary School, Jesse.
The Ovbioria family at Jesse, told ERA that they lost seven persons in the fuel fire.
And that they were mourning their dead. Mr. Ovbioria also confirmed that many car owners
who went to buy fuel from the villagers at the spot were burnt beyond recognition, while
others were seriously injured. Mr. J. E. Okoniteyi, the supervisor of the mass burial said that
they found some car keys on the ground which were taken away by policemen.
ERA Recommendation
Environmental Rights Action recommends that:
i. A new fuel pipe should be laid immediately to replace the affected one, and other
fuel pipes across the country in similar condition to the Jesse pipe. There should
be adequate protective covering on incendiary facilities.
ii. The Federal Government should treat and comprehensively rehabilitate the
survivors of the incidents.
iii. Jesse community should be apologised to, profusely by the Federal Government
and it should be paid adequate compensation for the massive loss of lives, farm,
farmlands and the psychological and emotion trauma they went through.
iv. The lingering fuel scarcity should be addressed without further delay.
v. We call for the setting up of high powered judicial commission of inquiry to look
into the remote and immediate causes of the fire. NNPC officials must stop
accusing the villagers of vandalisation when they have not done any
536
investigation. The point of the explosion is still on as at Thursday October 22,

1998.
vi. We call on the media not to paint the local people of Idjerhe as vandals and
saboteurs.
vii. We call on NNPC and Shell to take steps to restore the destroyed ecology of
Idjerhe.
(c)
Causes of the Idjerhe Fire Disaster
ERA's Environmental Testimonies #1

Dateline: December 7, 1998
This Testimony is based on a press statement just been published by one of Nigeria’s
largest circulating newspaper, The Punch (Lagos). The statement by the retired army
general, Major General Ejoor, points at an Oil Company as being responsible for the fire
disaster. It is well known that it was a Shell helicopter that hovered over the area before the
explosion. Refer to our Field Report (dated 20th October 1998) on the Jesse Fire disaster.
Therefore, the Oil Company refers to Shell. He pointed at sabotage by government agents
and added that the fire disaster was willfully caused so as to cover up a crime. Specifically,
he stated:
"The company and the government then sent a helicopter to the area. The
officials in the helicopter warned the people in English to disperse or something
would happen to them. Most of the crowd did not understand what was being
said and the sight of the helicopter added more fun to the fetching of the liquid
gold manna.
"The officials followed up their threat with firing nerve gas at the crowd,
which made it impossible for them to run. Those who attempted to run could not
move their limps with agility. Then the horror came; the place was set on fire
with the intention of killing everybody present and to prevent anybody from
giving evidence."
In our Report of October 20, ERA asked the question:
"What Caused the Inferno?

"The immediate cause of the fire is yet to be established. Everyone,
however, admits that prior to the fire outbreak, a leak had occurred and several
people from the Idjerhe clan consisting of 32 communities had gone to Atiegwo
either to fetch the fuel or simply to look at what was happening.
"It is being suggested that because the atmosphere was charged with petrol
fumes, even a little spark could have sparked off the fire. What caused the
“spark” is unknown. If someone saw it happen it is not probable that such a
person would be alive to tell the tale. There is the theory that since some of
those who went to fetch the fuel had iron buckets with them these may have
clashed and set off sparks. ERA also learnt that about five minutes before the
explosion, a helicopter belonging to Shell Petroleum Development Company
Nigeria Limited hovered over the place and reportedly warned the people to
leave the place."
537
“Jesse Fire Caused By Federal Government, Oil Firms”
Former Chief of Army Staff, Major General David Ejoor (rtd), has blamed oil
companies and the Federal Government for the disaster which killed about 1,000 people in
Jesse Ethiope Local Government Area of Delta State.
The retired General, in a statement made available to newsmen on Sunday in Warri,
said evidence abounds that the fire was caused by the oil companies.
The statement read in full:
"On October 17, 1998, the rush by the local people to collect spilled petrol from
the oil pipeline resulted in the death of over 1,000 Urhobo people in Jesse.
"Evidence abounds that the fire was caused by the oil companies and the
Government.
"When the spillage became a general knowledge, the oil companies moved in to
cover the cartel that was siphoning petrol from a joint valve near Idjerhe in
tankers. Towards daybreak, the saboteurs failed to put the pipes back properly
and hence the spillage of petrol.
"The spilled petrol flowed in the farm and into Ethiope River. People going to
their farms discovered that they were wading in petrol and not in water. There
was a rush to fetch the petrol from the farm and the floating petrol in the river.
"News got to the police and the oil companies. Attempts were made to persuade
the crowd to disperse. The oil companies feared that it was going to be
impossible to explain the cause of the spillage to any satisfaction. The Oil
Company then sold the idea that the local people had sabotaged the oil pipe.
"The company and the government then sent a helicopter to the area. The
officials in the helicopter warned the people in English to disperse or something
would happen to them. Most of the crowd did not understand what was being
said and the sight of the helicopter added more fun to the fetching of the liquid
gold manna.
"The officials followed up their threat with firing nerve gas at the crowd, which
made it impossible for them to run. Those who attempted to run could not move
their limps with agility. Then the horror came; the place was set on fire with the
intention of killing everybody present and to prevent anybody from giving
evidence.
"These actions accounted for the two nerve-raking statements by the Head of
State, to the effect that there would be no compensation to Idjerhe people and
the scaring off, of survivors from giving evidence by the military
Administrator, hence many victims ran away from the hospitals.
538
"The horror meted to the Urhobo people in Idjerhe could be avoided, if the
Government and the oil companies regarded the local people as Nigerians who
have a share in the proceeds of their activities. The local people are regarded as
nuisance.
"If the Government and the oil companies have good Urhobo (public) relation's
senior officer, and not just only Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba technocrats, the
warning given from the helicopter could have been in Urhobo language, to be
understood by Idjerhe people.
"The oil companies have covered up their injustices of stealing petrol, by using
the helicopter to murder 1,000 people. The Federal Government shied away
from her responsibility, by giving the impression that the rural innocent village
farmers carried out the sabotage of oil pipes.
"So, what next? No amount of compensation can bring back the dead, but
Government must ensure the orphans are documented, trained, housed and
generally looked after.
"Besides, Government must realise that people from areas where national
wealth is made are Nigerians -- and should not be excluded from the policy-
making machine.
"The general probe should be instituted, instead of the present probe by the oil
companies that will at best cover up their iniquities.”
(d)
Statement on Nigerian Pipeline Explosion at Idjerhe
By The Southern Minorities Front of Nigeria

October 21, 1998
The Southern Minorities Front of Nigeria (SoMiFoN) is deeply saddened by the

explosion on Sunday, October 18 of a gasoline pipeline in Jesse in the Delta State of Nigeria.
We of SoMiFoN share in the grief of the families of the hundreds of people who lost their
lives or are scarred for life in this avoidable tragedy which we view as the culmination of the
callous manner of operation of multinational oil corporations and the government-owned
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
Petroleum, produced almost entirely in the Niger Delta, accounts for more than 90% of
Nigerian government revenue. Yet the area is the most impoverished in the country and its
people are amongst the very poorest on earth. In collusion with successive irresponsible and
corrupt governments, oil corporations operate in Nigeria with deliberate abandon, impunity
and total disregard for the lives of the people in their areas of operation. The allegation of
sabotage in the latest disaster is hogwash! "Sabotage" and "political motives" have become
convenient excuses by the military regime for the crass idiocy and palpable nonchalance of
greedy and corrupt government officials who are the beneficiaries of largesse from oil.
Where else in the world would a pipeline carrying refined petroleum some 500 miles be
above ground all the way? This tragedy is symptomatic of the malaise of
539
Nigerian society where a section of the country has held other parts hostage for its own
benefit. The obscene irony is that while the oil-producing areas experience chronic shortage
of gasoline, refined gasoline is pumped from the area to Kaduna to ensure abundant supply
in Northern Nigeria!
We view reports that General Abdusalami Abubakar, Nigeria's military ruler, has
declared that families of the dead will not be compensated in the face of the devastating scale
of the disaster, "because the pipeline was sabotaged," as grossly insensitive. It is a further
illustration of the contempt and disdain the regime has for the people of the oil- producing
area. In African culture, we bury even our enemies!
Years of oil exploitation have resulted in vast ecological devastation as a result of oil
and chemical spillages left to seep into the soil, gas flaring which results in acid rain, the
combination of which has completely destroyed the people's economic mainstay of farming
and fishing. The people of the area have been pauperized; many suffer from respiratory
complications and other health problems that have been linked to oil exploitation. That
villagers were scrounging for gasoline for sale in the black market is a painful proof of the
level of poverty and the desperate condition of the people of the area. This sad occurrence is
also an indictment of an irresponsible government, avaricious multinational oil companies
and their shameless home governments.
For years, environmentalists have drawn world attention to the irresponsible manner of
operation of oil companies in Nigeria but their efforts have often been thwarted by greedy
multinationals, some of whom have admitted to going as far as providing the Nigerian
military and police with arms, aircraft and boats for violent suppression of genuine
complaints of the people. In the mid-1990s, the Nigerian military dictatorship under Sani
Abacha carried out a virulent military crackdown against the Ogoni people. In 1995, in a
horrendous and odious attempt to stifle protests, Abacha hanged nine Ogoni
environmentalists, including writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, as a cautionary example to intimidate
the people of the area and to suppress their protests against the damnable excesses of the oil
companies.
The people of the Niger Delta have paid the supreme sacrifice to ensure the flow of
Nigerian oil to Europe and America, but now we say "Enough is enough." Your wealth is not
worth our lives. We call on people of conscience around the world to assist SoMiFoN in its
efforts to redress the plight of the people of the Niger Delta and the injustices of successive
Nigerian governments, civilian or military, against them.
Southern Minorities Front of Nigeria (SoMiFoN)

The Secretariat
P.O. Box 431663
Pontiac, MI 48343 USA
Phone: (US) 248-332-4184
Fax: (US) 248-332-3329
E-mail: nidef@aol.com
ƅƅƅƅ
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Ekakpamre Shell's Fire Disaster

September 17-18, 1999
Reports and Comments
(a)
ERA Field Report on Ekakpamre's Shell Fire Disaster
By Israel Aloja
Environmental Rights Action [Friends of the Earth, Nigeria]
Dateline: Ekakpamre Community, Ughelli South LGA, Delta State.
September 21, 1999
Highlights
x 15 children still missing

x Hunger strikes Ekakpamre and other communities
x Shock, miscarriage and an imminent epidemic
x Terrestrial and aquatic lives devastated
x River, forest, farms, boats and outboard engines burnt.
John Willy (A Fisherman):
(With tears) "I am terribly sad and confused, my source of livelihood has been
destroyed by SHELL"
"We know how to bark and bite. Shell caused this disaster. They should
provide an immediate solution or else?
Mama Shoneka Ikumevwiyan:
"The fire was on for 3 days. Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) is
hypocritical.
From the media we've always heard that Shell cares for life, but from this
disaster and Shell's absolute negligence, Shell's care and safety ends in their
profits from crude oil."
Testimony from Samuel Onoriode Onome, Youth General Chairman, and Other
Sources
Introduction
Ekakpamre is an Urhobo community located in Ughelli South Local

Government Area of Delta State. It consists of five (5) clans: Ekrusierho,
Ekenewharem, Ekroghen, Ekrezeghe and Ekrata. There are 12 oil wells located
in the community. SHELL has been operating in these communities since
1960.
541
On 18 September, 1999, there was a fire outbreak which affected several

communities in Ughelli by burning their forests, boats, nets and even the river
which has a thick layer of still spreading crude. At the time of this report about
15 children were still reported missing.
Investigations carried out revealed that the fire emanated from a ruptured ancient
pipeline belonging to Shell which spewed oil into the communities. This is no
case of sabotage.
SPDC Toys with Human Lives
Friday, 17 September, 1999
According the Vice President of the community Mr. Robert Ojo , when they
were notified about the oil spill from the ruptured pipeline, Shell personnel Mr
Osas and Odia and the supervisor on duty in the Ughelli West flow station were
also notified.
They all visited the scene and identified the actual point of leakage. Shell then
promised to come back at about 4.00pm that day but they never came back.
That night the entire atmosphere was charged with fumes of crude oil. There was
a strong smell of crude all over the community. -- Town Criers (announcers)
were engaged to alert the entire community of an imminent disaster.
Engulfed in Flames
Saturday 18 September 1999
The following day, at about 4am, there was a loud noise. People ran out of their
houses screaming and crying. There was fire everywhere!
At 11.30am two helicopters belonging to SPDC hovered above the affected

areas while it was still in flames. Shell could not do anything to quench the fire.
A team of Shell personnel led by Shell Community Liaison Officer (CLO), Mrs.
Grace Akpan, eventually arrived the community at about 2:30 p.m. Their
mission was not to calm the situation or to sympathise with the community but
to request that a Joint Investigation Visit (J.I.V) be conducted.
Effects of the Inferno
19 September, 1999
The six affected communities – Ekakpamre, Ekerejegbe, Iwhrekreka,

Ughevwughe, a Otor-Edo, and Edjophe – have been thrown into hardship as
542
their only source of water, livelihood and survival has been burnt, polluted and
destroyed. They are predominantly fishermen. The fire destroyed their canoes,
outboard engines, boats and fishing nets.
Health Risks
So many people are still suffering from shock. One Mr. Patrick Ekhojoda said
his wife had a miscarriage due to shock. The release of excessive hydrocarbons
into the atmosphere is sure to cause respiratory track infection. The people’s
source of potable water was effectively destroyed and it would take years to be
restored to a usable state. An epidemic was eminent.
ERA Calls for:
x Immediate clean up of the environment by Shell.

x Provision of relief materials and potable water to the affected communities by both
Shell and the government.
x The government and Shell should assess the extent of damage done and
compensate the affected communities adequately and urgently.
x Proper medical care for members of the communities to avert out-break of an
epidemic.
x Intensification of efforts to locate and rescue the missing children.
(b)
Urhobo National Assembly

October 2, 1999
World Press Conference Held at Ekakpamre on Oil Spillage and Fire Disaster in Four
Urhobo Communities on September 17-18, 1999, in Ughelli South Local Government Area
of Delta State Of Nigeria
1. Preamble
On Friday September 17 1999, another major tragedy befell the Urhobo people. An oil
spill occurred on the Ughelli Quality Control Centre-Rapele Oil pipeline owned by Shell
Petroleum Development Company (SPDC). The spill resulted in a fire that devastated the
farmlands and environment of the Ughievwen communities of Ekakpamre, Ighwrekreka,
Ughevwughe, Ekrejegbe and Otor-Edo. The inferno affected several kilometers of the
delicate ecosystem of wetlands along the river that runs through the territory. The disaster
caused unquantifiable damage to animal and plant lives.
Irreplaceable biodiversity has been wiped out. Thousands of people are now rendered
economic refugees. This is one of the worst environmental disasters to happen in Urhobo
country in 40 years of oil exploration. It occurred exactly eleven (11) months after the Jesse
fire that killed 1063 people in October 1998. The entire people of the Urhobo nation have
taken up this latest disaster as a challenge, which must be responded to vigorously and
relentlessly.
543
This world Press Conference/Rally organised by the Urhobo National Assembly

(UNA) is to express sympathy with the victims of the disaster. We pledge to stand by them,
to defend them, and to struggle with them until justice is done.
2. We Reject Sabotage Claim
We categorically reject the charges of sabotage being peddled by Shell and its
mercenary propagandists. This is a familiar charge levelled against innocent and peace-
loving hosts in the Niger Delta by Shell, NNPC and the other multinationals. The sabotage
story is a deliberate attempt by Shell to confuse the global community. It is a diabolic ploy to
escape responsibility. The allegation is also intended to divert attention, to intimidate the
victims and the Nigerian government. We call on the Federal Ministry of Environment, the
National Assembly, the Delta State Government and the security agencies not to allow them
to be intimidated by this cheap blackmail.
3. Independent Inquiry
We hold Shell responsible for the disaster. Shell has claimed that it is conducting an
investigation. In pursuit of this, we hear that "independent experts" and "international bomb
specialists" are to be brought from overseas. We have no confidence in this investigation by
Shell and its joint venture partners. In the past 40 years such attempts were used to cover up
atrocities and to deceive our people. Therefore, we demand an INDEPENDENT investigation
by a genuinely international team comprising experts from China, Iraq, Iran, Syria, South
Africa and North Korea. They will work with specialists, environmentalists and lawyers
nominated by the Urhobo people and the Government of Delta State. The outcome of their
work will be made public, available to the United Nations and the international community.
4. N100 Billion Compensation
This oil spill and the resultant fire have caused incalculable damage to economic and
social lives. The disaster has destroyed the precious BIODIVERSITY of the delicate
ecosystem of the Niger Delta. Rare species of plant, animal and aquatic life have been lost
forever. Genetic pools and sanctuaries which took millions of years to evolve have been
wiped out. Some of these life forms are found only in the Niger Delta; they do not exist
anywhere else in the world. By destroying them Shell has deprived humanity of these
precious creations of God and Nature. It is a grave act of ECOCIDE. Therefore, Shell and its
joint venture partners must pay compensation for the restoration of social and natural life to
its pre-fire level. For this purpose, we demand a modest compensation of N100 BILLION
(ONE HUNDRED BILLION NAIRA) [$1 billion in 1999 exchange rates -- editor] for all the
communities afflicted by this tragedy.
5. Forty Years Holocaust
Urhoboland accounts for over 20 percent of Nigeria's oil production and over 50
PERCENT of natural gas. Every year Nigeria reaps at least N2OO BILLION from oil in
Urhobo land. In the past 40 years, about THREE TRILLION NAIRA of revenue has come
from Urhobo land. Every day, about N250 million worth of natural gas is flared in Urhobo
territory. Urhobo natural gas fuels electricity plants in Ughelli, Sapele and Egbin near Lagos.
In spite of these massive contributions to Nigeria's economy, Urhobo land has
544
nothing to show for it- no all season roads, no federal higher institutions, no employment, no
hospital facilities, no reliable electricity supply; not even a federal minister.
For 40 long years, Shell has turned Urhoboland into HELL. Shell has exploited our
land, devastated the environment and ruined socio-economic life. Urhobo people have now
resolved to terminate their suffering. They are now determined to liberate themselves from
this oil-induced HELL, to safeguard their environment and protect their life. We demand
compensation for Environmental Reparation and Restoration.
6. Immediate
Demands
(i) Independent investigation of the tragedy with experts from China, Iraq, Iran,
Syria, South Africa and North Korea.
(ii) Emergency clean-up of all polluted lands and water courses.
Payment of N100 Billion for the September 17 disaster.
(iii)
(iv) Provision of humanitarian relief to the victims until socio-economic life is
restored to pre-disaster level.
(v) Stoppage of oil exploration works in the area until all demands are met.
We acknowledge the prompt response of the Ministry of Environment to the disaster.

We also note the assistance of the Delta State Government and the Ughelli South Local
7.
Government to the communities in distress. The Federal Government of Nigeria must ensure
that Shell and its joint-venture partners meet the minimum demands set out above. We
commend the support of the media and the international community in exposing this
environmental tragedy. The Urhobo National Assembly salutes the affected communities for
their courage and patience in the face of provocative propaganda by Shell. We assure them
and all Urhobo people that we shall stand by them and struggle with them all the way until
justice is done.
Thank you for your solidarity.
Signed:
Chief Senator David O.Dafinone, OFR

Chairman
Chief Johnson Ukueku FPSN

Vice Chairman
Chief Patrick Okitiakpe

Secretary
Mr Omah Odoh-Tadafe
Assistant Secretary
ƅƅƅƅ
545
Egborode Fire Disaster

July 10, 2000
Environmental Rights Action [ERA] Field Report Number 74

Subject: Aftermath of the Egborode Pipeline Fire
Despatchline: Okpe Local Government Area, Delta State
Date: November 27, 2000
Highlights:
1. The Egborode fire disaster

2. Villagers rendered homeless
3. Only source of drinking water polluted
4. Navigation no longer possible on Omugba river
5. Economic activities paralysed
6. Villagers sink deeper into poverty
7. No relief in sight
"The government put the pipeline on our land to serve its own purpose. Now that
it has caused so much havoc, the government has an obligation to compensate
us. Why should we suffer for no fault of ours just because we live near
petroleum products pipelines owned by the government? We are dying because
of the pipeline that the government put on our land. In the past we ate fish, we
got meat from the bush, but now because of the pipeline these things are no
longer possible."
— Egbebotor (fisherman whose wife died in the fire)
"If you see the food that I eat now, you will be surprised. There are no crops left
on our farms and we have no money to buy food because we no longer have a
source of income. Some children have been dropped out of school because their
parents no longer have the money to retain them in school.
"As you have come here, we can not give you our water to drink, if we give you
we are poisoning you."
— Daniel Akpere (lost all his property)
The Niger Delta has of late been hit by a spate of oil pipeline fires, which have claimed
hundreds of lives, and left many people seriously injured. But the agony inflicted by the fires
goes beyond deaths and injuries as ERA found out at Okpe Local Government Area of Delta
State. The local government may well be the worst affected by the fires.
Okpe Local Government Area
Okpe Local Government Area is in Delta State. The people of the local government are
predominantly farmers, fishermen and hunters. Pipelines carrying petroleum products from
the Warri refinery to other parts of Nigeria pass through the local government.
546
The Egborode Fire Disaster
In late June, a pipeline near Egborode village in Okpe Local Government Area
ruptured. Petroleum products from the pipeline kept spewing into the nearby Omugba River.
The river transported the petroleum products through villages, farmlands and forests. The
affected area stretched over 30 kilometres from Okpe Local Government Area to Sapele
Local Government Area from where the river heads out for the sea. Authorities of the Okpe
Local Government made a report about the leakage to the Nigeria National Petroleum
Corporation, NNPC, the government agency that owns the pipeline. The corporation took no
action until the leaking petroleum products exploded causing a huge fire on July 10, 2000.
The fire spread through the River Omugba causing havoc to the villages, farmlands and
forests through which it passes. More than 3000 people were burnt to death; the incident is
the worst pipeline fire disaster since 1,500 people were burnt to death in 1998 in nearby Jesse
village.
Only Source of Drinking Water Polluted
The Omugba River is the only source of water for many villages in the area. The
villages include Ogbokolo, Ukugbogbo, Ugwagba, Alologe, Oviri Court, Egborode, Eriama
and Okuokolo. The river is now polluted as a result of the fire. The burnt petroleum products
have changed the colourless outlook of the river to a dirty black colour. Months after the fire,
the river is still polluted. Many people have fallen ill after consuming contaminated water.
The acute water scarcity has created untold hardship for the people.
Navigation No Longer Possible on Omugba River
Before the fire disaster, the Omugba River was a means of transportation in the area. It
was also a major water route between Okpe Local Government and Sapele Local
Government areas. Navigation is no longer possible due to the remains of hundreds of burnt
trees, which fell into the river. Besides, the canoes used in the river were burnt when the fire
spread through it.
Economic Activities Paralysed
Omugba River, in which the villagers used to fish, is now devoid of any aquatic life.
There is no possibility of life existence in the river in the near future due to the pollution.
Farmers are also counting their losses following the destruction of large expanse of
farmlands. The local economy has also been affected with the burning down of economic
trees like palm trees, Mahogany, Iroko and Afara. Another effect of the fire was the death of
wildlife, which the people hunt for food. Villagers said they have been seeing carcasses of
charred animals in the forests. The death of wildlife has thrown hunters out of job.
Villagers Sink Deeper into Poverty
Petroleum products-related activities are known to have made villagers in the

Niger Delta poor. Those affected by the recent pipeline fire have been pushed further
into poverty. The destruction of farmlands, forest and the loss of fishes, wildlife and
economic trees has led to loss of income which has made most people desperately poor.
Many people cannot even afford to feed themselves.
547
No Relief from Government
Although the fire occurred as far back as July 10, 2000, the Nigerian government,
which owns the pipeline, is yet to compensate the villagers. The government has refused to
do this, claiming that the villagers vandalised the pipeline to steal fuel. This is far from the
truth. The pipelines usually rupture due to corrosion or as a result of the activities of fuel
thieves who vandalise them to steal fuel.
Villagers argue that the government has a responsibility to compensate them. The
regret for many villagers is that if the government had not put the pipelines in the area this
calamity would not have befallen them.
ERA's Recommendation
1. The Nigerian government should compensate the villagers for the loss of their
farmlands, wildlife, economic trees and other losses suffered as a result of
pipeline fire disasters in the Niger Delta.
2. The government should rebuild all houses burnt by the fires.
3. All rivers polluted as a result of the fires should be cleaned up and the burnt trees
hindering navigation should be cleared.
4. Immediate medical attention should be offered to those who fell ill after drinking
contaminated water. The people should be provided with potable water.
5. Reclamation should be carried out in the forest and farmlands affected by the fire
disasters.
What You Can Do
1. Write to the Federal Government to ensure that NNPC cleans up the polluted
rivers and pay compensation to the victims.
2. Write to the Federal Government calling on them to rebuild the devastated
villages, send relief materials to the victims and provide potable water to the
villagers.
3. Write to local and international organisations concerned with the environment.
Write to your local mass media.
4.
5. Join in the campaign against the destruction of environment
of the Niger Delta. ƅƅƅƅ
Neglected Oil Spill Resulting in Fire Disaster in Adeje

Monday, 10 July, 2000
Editorial Introduction
Adeje petroleum fire broke out on Monday, 10 July, 2000, from pipelines owned by
the Federal Government’s Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation [NNPC]. It burned for
548
days. In two separate reports several months previously, on 11 January 2000 and on 14
February 2000, Environmental Rights Action, Nigeria's premier environmental advocacy
group, had warned about these impending dangers from troubled oil pipelines. No adequate
action was taken to prevent the disaster to which the dramatic picture below bears
witness… The troubled pipelines were laid near communities about twenty-five years ago.
Apart from ageing from lack of proper maintenance, the pipes have been subjected to
vandalisation by sophisticated thieves who use equipment that are only available to insiders
who have worked in the industry. The victims are the local communities in whose
farmlands the Federal Government’s owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
[NNPC] had arrogantly laid its oil pipelines without consultation or any risk assessment.
Peter Ekeh
Editor@waado.org
A Terrified Woman Running from Petroleum Fire at Adeje

Friday, July 14, 2000
(a)
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation's [NNPC's] Oil Spill in Adeje
11 January, 2000
An Enviromental Rights Action [ERA] Report

By Victor Raphael
January 11, 2000
Highlights
1. The people's source of livelihood destroyed

Rural poverty heightens
2.
3. The spill continues
4. Another "Jesse" crisis imminent
549
"My business has been affected since the pipeline burst. Nobody wants to drink palm
wine again, They say it is poisoned..."
----- Mr. John Erakpoke, a palm wine tapper.
"I was woken up early one morning after Christmas by my friend who told me
that fuel was spilling out of the pipelines near our farms in the forest here in
Adeje town. I quickly changed my clothes and followed him to the place to meet
that the spill was much. That was how we started collecting the fuel we found
on the ground in buckets and jerry cans, because we did not want it to waste.
No NNPC official has come here since but in the midnight some tankers drove
into the area and several others where the pipelines appear to have burst to
carry fuel away."
— Patrick Kadjohwo, member, Adeje Youths Association (AYA)
Introduction
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) owns several kilometres of pipelines

transporting premium motor spirit (PMS) from Warri in the Delta to Kaduna in the northern
part of the country. The pipelines that pass through Adeje are some of the many that
criss-cross the length and breadth of Nigeria. These pipelines often rupture, and in the process
spill hazardous petroleum products into the environment.
The spill has destroyed the surrounding vegetation near the pipelines. It has spread into
nearby streams and creeks, on which the people depend for fish, water, etc.
Impact of the Spill
Since the 23rd of December 1999, when the spill became pronounced there has been
no sign of agricultural activity here. ERA found that the men and women in Adeje town in
Warri South LGA of Delta state of Nigeria who claim to have been denied their means of
livelihood like fishing and growing of food crops have resorted to selling PMS on the
Warri-Benin Highway. A 25-litre gallon of PMS which officially sells for N700 is now sold
for N200 or less.
Local folks said they took to fetching and selling the product so cheaply because there
were eager buyers in vehicles plying the Warri . Sapele -Benin road. Moreover they claim
that they want to prevent it from wasting away as no NNPC official has come to inspect the
site of the ruptured pipelines since it happened last year.
There are, however, justified apprehension that there may be another petrol fire
incident like the "Jesse" episode of 1998 in, which over 1500 lives were lost.
ERA Recommendations
1. NNPC should without delay repair all ruptured pipelines in Adeje and its
environs.
2. NNPC should clean up the polluted areas immediately.
3. NNPC should pay compensation to those whose farmlands and means of

livelihood have been destroyed.
550
4. Fire fighters with suitable equipment should immediately be dispatched to

ADEJE and environs to forestall any ugly incident.
ƅƅƅƅ
Elume River Fire Disaster

November 16, 2000
Environmental Rights Action [ERA] Report

By Israel Aloja
November 8, 2000
A Main Bridge on Sapele-Warri Road Collapses from the Ferocity of Petroleum Fire
Highlights
x Fire erupts from PPMC spill

x Several communities affected
x Farmlands, rivers and aquatic lives destroyed
x Ibada-Elume bridge collapses
x NEPA Transmission Lines burnt/cut
“At bout midnight there was a wild fire on the river (Echion). I thought the world
was coming to an end. The entire community was thrown into confusion. We lost
our farmlands and major source of water. We are seriously devastated."
— Patience Adija, (Orange seller from Elume)
551
Background
Elume-Ibada is located along Sapele-Warri highway, in Sapele Local Government

Area, of Delta State. The people were woken from sleep at about 2.00 A.M. by a loud bang
from the Echion River on Wednesday, November 8, 2000. The noise alerted everyone in the
community and everyone rushed to the direction of the river. They found the river on fire.
The fire coursed along the waves and heated up the underside of the bridge across the river.
The bridge eventually collapsed when a truck attempted to cross over it. The driver escaped
with serious injuries. So many communities were affected in Sapele LGA. Amongst them are
Elume, Ibada, Gbemudaka, Ituru, etc.
The Spill and the Fire
This was a fire waiting to happen. Four months ago a PPMC (owned by the Nigerian
National Petroleum Company, NNPC) pipeline ruptured and spilled refined petroleum
products at Okolovwo community in Okpe Local Government Area of Delta State. The spill
spread to nearby rivers/streams and farmlands. PPMC was alerted and they responded by
mending the pipes without cleaning up the spill. The petroleum products continued to flow to
several other communities in other local Government Areas and there was fire explosion at
Echion River. As at the time ERA visited Okolovwo community the fire was still on.
According to Prince Fred Ugbo, the financial Secretary of Elume Community and a retired
Inspector of the Nigerian Immigration Service, "The ruptured pipeline passed through Okpe
Local Government and not Sapele Local Government Area where the inferno occurred. The
leakage has been on for over four months. PPMC was notified but they paid deaf ears. The
cause of the fire has not been known. What we do know and what everyone can see is that
aquatic lives farmlands, herbs and economic trees, vegetables, plantain, oranges, etc., have
been totally destroyed. Our means of livelihood is lost. We are mainly fishermen and
farmers. All hope is gone."
Burnt and Polluted River and Burnt Vegetation
552
The Destruction and the Loss
Until the time of this report, large volumes of diesel could still be seen on the affected
rivers and streams. The implication is that there is likely to be another fire out-break. The
destroyed bridge is yet to receive any attention. The charred remains of the truck remains as
a totem to the tragedy. The traffic situation is chaotic as motorists now use the unfinished
section of the Warri-Sapele highway here. The high-tension electricity transmission lines cut
by the fire still lie across the road. Some parts of the Edo and Delta states remain in total
black out as a result of this incident. The Chairman of NEPA Technical Board has estimated
that about N20m will be needed to reconstruct and replace the NEPA components destroyed
by the fire. Nothing is heard about how much will be invested to clean up the spill, restore
the environment and rehabilitate the people.
Columns of Fire and Smoke Coil Skywards, Consuming a

Communications Tower
ERA's Recommendations
x NNPC should be ordered to stop the fire completely

x NNPC should do a proper clean up of the entire environment.
553
x The reconstruction of the Ibada-Elume bridge should be treated as an emergency

need
x NNPC should pay adequate compensations to all the affected communities
Oil companies should be more concerned about their host communities
x
x Federal and State Government should wake up to their environmental protection

responsibilities.
x Relief materials should be supplied to the affected communities who have lost
their means of livelihood and source of drinking water.
What You Can Do
x Write protest letters to NNPC demanding that they rehabilitate the affected
communities with immediate effect. Insist that they should do a proper clean up
of the entire environment
x Send copies of your letter to the editor of your local newspaper.
x Send copies of your letter to the Legislator(s) from your constituency (Nigerians)
requesting them to raise issues of environmental concern as a critical part of their
mandate and obligation to the people.
x Send copies to local and international environmental groups genuinely concerned

about environmental protection to mount campaigns towards realising Article 24
of the African Charter of Human and Peoples Rights (AFCHPR).
554
Chapter 28
Urhobo and the National Question:

Urhobo’s Environment and Natural Resources 1
Bright U. Ekuerhare
On behalf of Urhobo Study Group, Delta State University, Abraka
March, 11–13, 1994
Introduction
In the context of contemporary world politics and ideological discourse, the National
Question refers to struggles by oppressed and marginalized nations or ethnic nationalities to
affirm and express their identity and self-actualisation in a plural setting of linguistic and
cultural diversities. In a broad sense, the National Question refers to the relations amongst
diverse ethnic groupings who are striving for democracy and equity in the distribution of
power and resources.
The term National Question has acquired new resonance and significance in the past
few years following the decomposition of the former Soviet Union. Western media promote
the idea of the National Question as an extension of the old cold war politics because it
serves the ideological function of discrediting the Soviet-type approach to nation-building.
This hypocrisy is evident in the situation whereby the Western promoters of ethno-national
autonomy, in say, Eastern Europe and Africa, do not tolerate or endorse instances of ethnic
and national autonomy in their multi-national countries. Thus, Western scholarship is silent
on the struggles for sovereignty and independence by the Scottish, the Irish and Welsh in the
United Kingdom and African-Americans, Puerto Ricans and Latinos in the United States of
America. This international dimension should be noted in relating to gestures of so-called
solidarity and support from the “international community”.
The National Question also refers to the experience of colonial peoples wishing and
struggling to attain sovereignty from foreign imperial domination. See, for example, the
works of Frantz Fanon and Amilcar Cabral on the cultural basis of anti-colonial movement.
Indeed, the current agitation for resource control by the Niger Delta peoples is the most
eloquent manifestation of the National Question in contemporary Nigeria.
The main objective of this paper is therefore to sensitise the Urhobo population and
their representatives at the 1994/95 Nigeria’s constitutional conference, as well as other
Nigerians so as to appreciate the general historical and social-economic context of Urhobo
desires, aspirations and expectations in the Nigerian Federation. Since we are concerned only
with a general survey of the issues involved in sensitisation, we are deliberately careless with
the scholarly requirement of referencing our source materials.
The Nigerian Experience
In its current usage, the National Question embodies the struggles of oppressed ethnic
nationalities and marginalised groups to press for a democratic reconstitution of the
1
A paper pesented by Urhobo Study Group of Delta State University, Abraka, at the Urhobo Pre-National Conference Seminar at
Petroleum Training Institute, Effurun, Delta State, March 11 – 13, 1994
Nigerian state system so that equity and justice can be enhanced. Historically, it is the so-
called ethnic minorities in the country that have championed the National Question sequel
to the imposed unification of the country’s diverse cultural and linguistic groups under
British imperial hegemony. The issue was the focus of the Willink Commission Report of
1958. The hegemonisation of the three big ethno-national groups of Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba
and Igbo in a so-called WAZOBIA arrangement has sharpened the minority crisis.
From the anti-Jihad revolts of the 18th and 19th centuries in the Sokoto Caliphate to the
current Zango-Kataf and Ogoni struggles, the National Question has been articulated
sometimes through armed resistance. Examples are the Tiv revolts, the Adaka Boro
Revolution, the ethno-religious upheavals in Bauchi, Kafanchan, Tiv-Jukun, etc. The creation
of states and local governments has mediated the problem somewhat, but has also exposed
other contradictions. The clamour for a conference to address the National
Question gained in stridency as the voodoo manipulations of the Babangida transition
became evident. The emergence of motley urban-based protests and civil rights movements
popularised the concept of the National Question. The debacle created by the annulled June
12, 1993 presidential election problematised the issue further. Consequently, the National
Question has become an omnibus term used to characterise the inequities and distortions of
power relations between ethnic groups and power blocs. Separatist agitations have been part
of the evolving consciousness associated with the National Question.
Because the term ‘National Question’ is used to categorise structural and philosophic
deformities of the Nigerian federation, its contemporary application seems to mask class
contradictions. The locus of meaning is deflected from the economic and class forces at play
to the superstructures of inter-relationships amongst competing ethnic nationalities. Thus, an
advocacy for a forum to discuss the National Question is quite often invested with a
magico-divine potency of resolving all fundamental contradictions arising from Nigeria’s
economic, political and ideological experience. The limit in this position should be noted in
order not to foster dangerous illusions. However, it is in the context of the Nigerian
experience with competing ethnic nationalities that we examine the place of the Urhobo in
the Nigerian state in the next section.
Urhobo in the Nigerian State
People, Their Land and Waters
With a population of about 1.3 million spread over seven Local Government areas
(Ethiope East, Ethiope West, Okpe, Sapele, Ughelli North, Ughelli South and Warri South),
the Urhobo account for 50.59% of the population of Delta State. According to Chief Obafemi
Awolowo, the Urhobo are the seventh largest linguistic group in Nigeria. Prior to the
discovery of oil and the promulgation of the obnoxious Land Use Decree of 1978, the
Urhobo owned extensive cocoa, oil palm and rubber plantations with numerous farms where
cassava, yam, plantain/banana, pepper, etc, were grown without fertilisers. So luxuriant was
the tropical rain forest vegetation around Urhobo towns, that the United Africa Company
established the African Timber and Plywood (AT&P) factory in Sapele over 40 years ago.
With a port for ocean-going vessels which carried plywood and various brands of timber such
as Abura, Mahogany, Mansonia, Opepe, etc, from Sapele to Europe, Sapele became, before
the oil era, the most important coastal-city east of Lagos. Urhobo forests had a high
biodiversity of insects, reptiles, birds and mammals, many of which are today endangered
and are of conservation interest.
Urhoboland is traversed by waters of four main rivers and their tributaries. On the
northern flanks, the Jamiesson River and Ethiope River meet at Sapele to form the Benin
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Urhobo and the National Question….
River which runs through Koko to the Atlantic Ocean. Urhobo towns of Ughoton and
Ukpokiti (Agbassa) are drained by tributaries of Escravos River while Warri River runs
through Aladja, Ovwian, Agbarho and Oha to its source at Utagba-Uno. Much of Ughelli
North and South have tributaries of the Forcados River. Many Urhobo were therefore
traditional fishermen, whose means of livelihood was fishing. Over 100 species of fish but
particularly Okaka or the Bonga fish ( Ethmalosa Timbriata), crayfishes or Iku, in Urhobo
language, (Cardina species), bivalves/ clams known by our people as Kpeku (Egeria
paradoxa) and periwinkles or Imekpe (Pachymelania fuscatus ), existed in these rivers.
Booming markets sprang up on the banks of the rivers where catches of various types of fish,
dry and fresh, were either traded or simply bartered for other farm produce like the staples –
garri, starch and tapioca. As fresh fish was plentiful, every family could afford its protein
needs. Cost of living was extremely low, people were healthy and life expectancy long.
The discovery of oil has changed all that. Thirty five years of oil exploration,
exploitation and production have systematically degraded our lands and waters, rendering
them so infertile and unproductive that they are no longer able to sustain life. The embarked
sites of petroleum operations have created unwanted antificial lakes/ponds that have rendered
desolate our rubber plantations, forest lands, fish ponds and farm lands. Oil spillages or
leakages which are constant features of oil production have caused physical damage to the
environment in forms of dark smears on oiled vegetation and soils even after clean-ups.
These oil spills have also caused soil infertility and unproductivity of waters in oil producing
areas of Urhoboland. Drilling for oil and gas and their extraction leave the undergrounds as
disequilibrated formations which may in future, with little earth tremors, become ready-made
graves of the oil producing communities. Drilling chemicals and petroleum contain numerous
inorganic, organic and aromatic hydrocarbons as well as heavy toxic metals. These are
dangerous discharges into the environment which, inter alia, cause serious human disorders.
There is abundant evidence that the disease patterns of the Urhobo population have changed
from the traditional malaria to diseases of the respiratory tract, central nervous system, blood
system, with the result that the Urhobo people now suffer from cancer of the various organs
of the body. There is no doubt that these developments are petroleum production/
environment related. Gas flaring has rendered crops unproductive and it has impoverished the
bush-meat population. Heat from flares cause increased river water temperatures that kill off
fish-food organisms. This has led to fish depletion from the rivers through death and forced
migration. Acid rains increase the acidity of both the river waters and the soil. Vapour
effluents from the Warri Refinery and Petrochemical Company, the Delta Steel Company
Plant, and gas flares are contributory to the depletion of the ozone layer.
The discovery of oil in Urhoboland has been a mixed blessing. While it has quickened
the rate of economic development, it has, unfortunately, pushed the frontiers of social
degradation beyond tolerable limits. The uncontrolled influx of foreigners has polluted the
Urhobo traditional social values while the ravages of oil activities have worn out the few
roads, caused unprecedented flood and over-crowding and increased crime rate. Worse of all,
the generous salaries paid by oil companies have put inflationary pressure on the rural
peasants, pushing them to despondency. Oil operations have attracted more people to
Urhoboland than it could absorb. As a result, unemployment and its attendant anti-social
habits have become a permanent feature of the daily life of Urhobo people.
557
Urhobo and National Development
It should be noted, however, that resources from Urhoboland have always contributed
to the sustenance of the Nigerian economy. Timber, cocoa, palm oil and kernel, and rubber
were traditional export products from Urhoboland. From petroleum, crude oil produced from
Urhoboland currently generates an average of N=19.8 billion annually. Natural gas from
Urhoboland fires the gas turbines at Ughelli, Ogorode and Egbin to supply electricity to the
nation. The same gas provides energy source to other strategic industries – the Delta Steel
Plant at Ovwian-Aladja, the Glass Factory at Ughelli, the cement works at Shagamu and
Ewekoro, to mention a few.
In addition to the 1.3 million Urhobo mentioned in section 3.1 above spread over seven
local government areas of Delta State, about the same number, if not more, live in other parts
of the country, with concentrations in Edo State, the oil palm rich enclaves (Ukale) of Ondo
State, the commercial centres of Lagos, Ibadan and Kano, the tin mines of Plateau State, and
the eastern oil city of Port-Harcourt. In all spheres of human endeavour, the Urhobo has
made his mark excellently. In the remotest village in some corners of this country there is the
hard working Urhobo woman producing some food item, or trading in some wares. Both
men and women have distinguished themselves in agriculture, banking services, and social
activities (sports). Urhobo children have always scored among the highest in all competitive
endeavours, be it education, sports and so on. As a group, the Urhobo have always been
proud of the legacy of competitive achievers in excellence. Given their cosmopolitan
exuberance and dogmatic patriotism, the Urhobo have at all times spared no efforts in
defending the Nigeria’s nation state.
Urhobo and Nigerian Citizenship
Before independence, the Western Regional government, under Chief Awolowo,

initiated the divide and rule tactic between the Urhobo and the Itsekiri. This destabilisation
factor seriously militated against the development of Warri urban and the creation of the true
Delta State which had been the yearning of the peoples of the former Delta Province. The
Babangida regime inflamed the situation to a climax during the 1991 state creation exercise
when the Igbo were excised from the old Benin Province and were joined with the old Delta
Province to form the Delta State with its capital at Asaba. The Urhobo rejected (and still
reject) this enforced Delta State in its entirety. There must be readjustment for a true Delta
State, comprising the old Delta Province, with Warri, a former provincial headquarters, as
capital. This instance of marginalisation of the Urhobo within the Nigerian state was a
continuation of past enslavement situations. In the mid nineteen seventies, the Federal
Government introduced federal character and quota system into every facet of Nigerian life.
This led to instant massive retrenchment of Urhobo men and women in the civil service and
thereafter halted the promotion of those left in the service. Even though Urhobo children
have always been among the highest scorers in placement examinations, the quota system has
seriously deprived them of their educational rights. To date, there is no federal institution in
Urhoboland which comprises the Delta State Central Senatorial District. This deprivation has
progressively denied the Urhobo the opportunity for the production of engineers, doctors,
technologists, applied scientists, and other professionals.
Urhoboland is under economic siege. The east-west railway project that was to pass
through Urhoboland never got off the drawing board. The construction of the section of the
Benin-Warri road, from the bridge at Ologbo down to Warri, passing through Urhoboland,
remains abandoned for over two years beyond its scheduled completion date. The Warri-
Patani-Port Harcourt Road is a perennial death-trap that becomes impassable every rainy
558
season. The roads going north from Urhoboland are in no better condition. Neither are the
intra-community ones. The Delta Ports have been dormant for years; their accesses are
blocked by sand bars that ought to be dredged off. There is no airport in Urhoboland. An
airport in Warri urban would be one of the most economically viable in the country, given
the high expatriate traffic that serve the oil industry in this part of the country. Even though
the natural gas from Urhoboland at Ughelli and Otorogu fuel the gas turbine stations at
Egbin, Ogorode and Ughelli, over 90 percent of Urhobo villages/towns (including those
immediately adjacent to these installations) are without electricity. Pipe borne water is
unheard of by most people in Urhoboland.
The Urhobo people have been denied equal rights of citizenship as other Nigerians.
From the days when they were in the Western Region, through Mid-West Region, to Bendel
State and now the enforced Delta State, Urhobo have been denied their commensurate shares
of facilities and amenities. Rather, they are maligned, marginalised, oppressed and suffocated
by draconian policies that have at times threatened their very own existence. Year in year out,
the towns and villages are flooded. What Federal Government’s aids have ever come to these
displaced and dispossessed citizens? How much of the Ecological Fund has been spent in
Urhoboland? How much impact has Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure;
Better Life Programme; Peoples Bank; and other developmental Federal Government
agencies had in Urhoboland? Where are the commensurate projects executed with the
Derivation Fund under the Task Force, and now by Oil Mineral Producing Areas
Development Commission in Urhoboland? All said and done, Urhoboland has been
discriminated against by both Federal and State Governments over the years.
The Urhobo, therefore, depose that the Federal Government, through legislative
manipulations, has cheated the Urhobo out of its God-given petroleum wealth, to enrich other
Nigerians, to the total neglect of the owners of this natural resource. First, there is the basic
natural law which says all that is in the land belongs to the land. Federal Government
has broken this law. Then the law says that all minerals belong to the Federal Government.
But over the years only petroleum has been exploited in accordance with the law by the
Federal Government for the benefit of all Nigerians. Solid minerals – limestone, kaolin,
marble potash, etc. – have been mined outside the prevailing mineral laws. Even bentonite
and barites, which have been declared economic minerals, are being mined outside the basic
laws. Recently (February 1994) Niger State announced that it had completed the geological
survey of the state and that it was ready to exploit the solid minerals, gold inclusive. State
governments have been involved in efforts to explore and exploit the tar sand deposits in
south western Nigeria. These sands contain butimen – a petroleum deposit. No State
Government has any rights over any minerals, be they solid, liquid or gaseous.
Since independence, Nigeria has purportedly operated a federal system of government.
This is only on paper. In practice, there has been a unitary government with a very strong
centre that has been dominated by the Hausa-Fulani, Igbo and Yoruba – the three major
ethnic groups. In this system the Urhobo, like some other minority ethnic groups, have
experienced untold coercion, degradation, deprivation, devastation, injustice, malignment,
marginalisation and oppression. It was thought therefore that the 1994/95 national
constitutional conference would offer some hope and opportunity to seek redress on these
issues.
559
The National Question and

The 1994/95 National Constitutional Conference
Given the excruciating conditions in which the Urhobo and other minority nationalities
find themselves in Nigeria, the 1994/95 National Constitutional Conference was a welcomed
opportunity to be fully exploited within the context of the Urhobo democratic legacy. And
given the fact that the Federal Government would impose no restrictions on the issues to be
discussed, one would like to cover the full spectrum of the national question from complete
(total) disintegration, to the retention of the corporate existence of Nigeria before touching on
other related issues. Indeed, the National Constitutional Conference was an opportunity for the
Urhobo people to participate in a new dialogue to restructure Nigeria in ways that could
promote the fundamental interests of the Urhobo. These interests would include greater
participation in national politics, emancipation of Urhobo people and their resources from
wanton and avaricious exploitation by hegemonic power blocs and their international
collaborators. The Urhobo being the exemplar of anti-feudal, anti-authoritarian struggles,
needed a genuinely democratic society in which their inherent egalitarian and humanist ethos
could flourish. The point needs to be stressed that the Urhobo are among the most
enlightened and the most technically and ideologically advanced of the southern minority
group of nationalities. The Urhobo must, therefore, play a leading and vanguard role in the
politics of emancipating the oppressed minorities from the imperial domination of
resource-impoverished but numerically strong ethnic groups. The outline of positions and
options that would be canvassed would be predicated on the realisation of these historical and
strategic tasks.
The first option to be considered is total disintegration of Nigeria. In the event of a
total disintegration or decomposition of Nigeria, an independent Urhobo Nation/State would
be founded. This could be justified on the basis of the numerical strength and the quality
of the population, territorial space (land and water mass), natural resources of petroleum
and gas, commercial and industrial establishments, wood/timber, arable and fertile land,
highly skilled technical and administrative skills, a common heritage of culture, language
and artistic traditions, modern communication facilities. These are the requirements for
running a modern nation state. And the second option is the retention of corporate existence
of Nigeria. This option would be supported on the condition that Nigeria would revert to
an authentic Federal system with very high degree of autonomy for the constituent parts.
Urhobo is relentlessly opposed to the present arrangement of a unitary and military
centralism which is operated to the peril of the southern minority nationalities. Greater
autonomy should be accorded the ethnic nationalities (which numbered 374 in 1990) for the
purpose of cultural freedom and identity. Every language should be equal in status as a
medium of cultural expression. The state system should be supported. Boundaries should be
adjusted to remove distortions and punitive intentions of previous exercises. New states and
local governments should be created in response to local needs. The Urhobo deserve to
have their own state. It might be desirable to regroup states which agree to do so for the
purpose of facilitating rotation of certain national political offices. The regrouped states
might be referred to as Federations. In the event of such regrouping, the Urhobo should
reject the Delta-Edo combination proposed by the Movement for National Reformation
(MNR). Instead, the Urhobo would agree to combine with nationalities in the Niger Delta
for a Niger Delta Federation which might comprise Urhobo, Isoko, Ijaw, Itsekiri, Kalabari,
Ogoni, Andoni, etc. which share identical historical, socio- cultural and ecological conditions.
The advantage of this reorganisation of regions is to smash the old tripodal structure built
around the Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo who treated others as second rate fiefdoms to
be exploited.
560
Other issues that should engage the attention of the conference should include resource
ownership and distribution, the structuring of national institutions such as government and
national security. The Urhobo, like the other southern minority ethnic groups, have provided
the bulk of the nation’s wealth from oil revenue. This has been made possible by way of
slanted legislation. The policy of the Federal Government of usurping the largest portion of
the national cake was justifiably introduced during the Gowon administration, to have enough
funds to prosecute the civil war and thereafter national reconstruction efforts. Subsequent
regimes have increasingly down-played derivation in the disbursement of the Federation
Account on the untenable excuse that other parts of the country had at other times sustained
the nation with their resources. Before oil became the dominant revenue earner, agricultural
products generated the sustaining revenues. Urhobo contributed more than their fair share in
the timber, rubber, cocoa, palm oil and kernel which they produced for export. But more
importantly, the Federal Government never confiscated these products from their owners, to
throw all the accruing revenue into the Federation Account. The owners of the products sold
them to derive their personal fortunes. The Federal government made its monies by way of
taxes and excise duties.
Revenue generation and allocation is at the heart of the National Question in Nigeria.
No democratic and peaceful order can be established in the absence of a just and equitable
arrangement. When it suited the WAZOBIA hegemonists, they supported the policy of
derivation for distributing revenue amongst the old regions. The current formula operated
through the notorious and oppressive Federation Account allows powerful political blocs to
treat resource-endowed areas as conquered colonies to be plundered. Strategic resources are
appropriated by the Centre and diverted to develop areas that dominate power. Information
on volume of revenue is handled like a state secret to give room for stealing and diversion as
was the case, for example, with the “windfall” oil revenue from the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
The appropriation of revenue by the Centre promotes dictatorial leadership. States should,
therefore, own strategic resources such as minerals, including crude oil and natural gas, ports,
airports, custom and immigration posts, industries, etc., and pay tax, duty or royalty to a
central government to finance the maintenance of agreed common services and emergencies.
This arrangement would free the resources of Urhoboland from the grip of avaricious and
imperial/hegemonic power blocs. This is the maximum position which should be pushed by
oil producing states. If this position does not succeed, we would consider the proposal which
shifts revenue in favour of constituent units. In the latter case, a special formula recognising
the rights of ownership of the minerals by states and local government areas should be
worked out.
Our experience of the control of core state institutions such as the army, police,
judiciary, etc. reflects the structural imbalance of the existing form of federalism. These
institutions have generally been instruments in the hands of the federal centre and which
controls it for terrorising other units and groups e.g. Zango-Kataf, Ogoni, Ovwian, civil
rights groups and patriotic professsionals and academicians. We would support a proposal
for dispersing their control across the regions or blocs of states.
The Urhobo should, finally, have a strong view on the issue of State and Religion. On
paper, Nigeria is a secular state. Yet Government is deeply involved in Pilgrims Welfare
Boards, provision of special transportation and accommodation arrangements, and special
foreign exchange allocation. These notwithstanding, Government has become too
accommodating, to the extent that the bitter quarrels between two religious sects have time
and again threatened the very existence of the nation state. Christianity and Islam are not
the only religions in the country. The Urhobo have their indigenous religion interwoven into
their culture; the peak of their religious celebration is during their annual festival
561
celebrations. What recognition and contribution have Government made towards these?
None. Government’s attitude here is grossly inequitable, wasteful and against the constitution
of the nation. It must stop, by words and by deeds.
Demands and Conclusion
Urhobo wants its nation state – Urhobo State – embracing all the Urhobo in the Ethiope
East, Ethiope West, Okpe, Sapele, Ughelli North, Ughelli South and Warri South Local
Governments of Delta State. The Urhobo State is very viable, given its vast human and
material resources.
The Urhobo do not mind associating with neighbouring states which have similar, if
not congruent, cultural, social, ecological and environmental problems and settings, and
developmental aspirations. Such a union should be only by way of a True Federal System
whereby the Urhobo are, in practice, guaranteed equal and full citizenship; the right to
develop at their own pace and with their resources (with full autonomy as possible);
contribute to the central government, on an equitable formula, for the running/provision of
agreed minimal common services such as currency, national security and foreign affairs.
The federal union must be a secular state where the central government must not, in
word and in deed, be involved in religious matters.
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Chapter 29
Some Solutions to Water Problems in the Niger Delta 1

A.B.M. Egborge
Professor of Hydrobiology, University of Benin, Nigeria
The survival of the people of the Niger Delta demands immediate sustainable
development efforts. Accordingly, a series of development possibilities are here offered.
River Management
During the early 1960s, the Atlantic Ocean coastline was some 2 km from the southern
end of Marina where many states now have their liaison offices in Lagos. Today, the distance
between the water edge and those imposing buildings is easily traversed by Atlantic water
surges. The pumping of sand into the sandy shores was the surest way of wasting money as
each tidal or wave movement took with it some dollars spent on the sand.
Shore-line Protection
Stone and concrete paving of shores of rivers and streams stabilises the shore-line. It is
thus more cost-effective to develop jetties for take-off and landing of aquatic resources. In
addition, paved shore-lines prevent erosion and so reduce the amount of silt in water. It also
prevents the invasion of littoral vegetation thus retaining the natural width of the waterways.
In some developed countries shore-line walls are higher than the natural shore levels thus
increasing the effective volumes of the rivers and reducing or preventing annual floods.
Aquatic Weed Control and Dredging
One of the problems of Niger Delta Rivers is siltation. This is the result of the
encroachment of the river channel by littoral weeds whose stems and roots serve as
sediment traps. Over the years, the sediments build up and the littoral region become land.
In deeper waters the accumulation of sediments reduces the depth of the rivers. Good
examples of these occur on the Port Harcourt-Ughelli road. In the Delta State segment of
this road from Evwreni towards Patani, it is difficult to determine the channels of the
Evwreni River, Onijoh River or the Orhivwiri River (at the 1st, 3rd and 4th bridges respec-
tively) as a result of the profuse growth of aquatic weeds and the near complete siltation of
the river bed. Consequently the river banks are overflowed and the surrounding low lands
are completely flooded.
If the encroaching weeds are cleared, the river beds dredged to depths of three metres,
the river banks paved to a height of 1 foot above the banks, the rivers will not only be more
beautiful aesthetically, but they will contain more water and reduce flooding.
1
A paper presented at Urhobo Foundation’s First Urhobo Economic Summit on “Oil, Gas and Sustainable Development,”
November 27-28, 1998, at Petroleum Training Institute, Effurun, Nigeria.
Flood Control and Fisheries
In eastern [Asian] developed and developing countries, river waters are channelled into
a series of lateral concrete or dug in tanks along the river banks for flood control and
fisheries. In Nigeria, this can be done in normally flooded lowland plains. For example, a
series of water holding tanks, each 50 x 50m x 3m deep on either side of River Ase might
reduce the annual floods to zero. These water holding tanks can be stocked with juvenile fish
which will grow to table size in 3-4 months with appropriate community management.
Modernisation of Fishing Villages
The primitive state of fishery villages restricts the influx of middle class fishermen
who cannot cope with the absence of modern living facilities like flush toilets, pipe borne
water, electricity, hospitals, etc. If these coastal fishing villages are developed beyond the
present low subsistence levels, fish production will rise consequent upon reduced loss due to
spoilage and fish from the water holding tanks.
Agriculture
At the end of the rains in December, farms can be watered through irrigation canals
constructed from the water holding tanks. This can continue until the beginning of the next
rainy season in March when the water level would have dropped considerably and the fishes
cropped. This way more crops can be produced.
Canalisation
Ibia (on Nun River) and Sagbama (on Forcados River) are about 15 km apart (crows
path) but one needs to do a boat ride of 40 km to go from one to the other. Also Isampou
(on Bomadi Creek) and Amatolo (on Sagbama Creek) are 25 km apart (crows path) but
about 100km river distance through Sagbama Creek/Forcados River turning south of
Ologowa/Agoloma that lies between them. With the scarcity of functioning fish
processing/preservation facilities, canalisation will greatly shorten distances between
production, marketing and consumption centres. One must condemn the irresponsible
cannalisation project of Chevron in which Atlantic Ocean waters in the new canal damaged
the brackish vegetation at Awoye, Ondo State.
Water Supply
Historically, drinking of river water must be nearly as old as the creation of man,
although the first book of Moses reports the use of water for irrigation (see Genesis 2-
10."And a river went out of Eden to water the garden..." As it was in the beginning so it is
today except that municipal water supply schemes also cater for fish farming and industries.
This last use of river water produces wastewater and heat which together with solid waste
disposed uncontrollable conflict with the use of the water as a municipal source. In the
United States of America, Europe, etc as in Nigeria there are standards for surface water
quality acceptable for beneficial use (fish farming, irrigation, industries), drinking water
from potable public supplies and wastewater effluent standards which regulate discharges of
industries into surface waters.
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Some Solutions to Water Problems in the Niger Delta
Drinking Water
Prior to the arrival of Federal Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA), Nigeria

public water supply standards was based on US standards published in Standard Methods. In
the developed world with the state of the art equipment for determining levels of
contaminants in water samples, set standards are met.
In Nigeria, drinking water quality is impaired by run-off discharges, organic and
inorganic matter. Rivers and streams into which organic matter is discharged show zonation
beyond the point of discharge/mixing. These are:
Zone of degradation
x BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand) rises sharply
x DO (Dissolved Oxygen) reduces drastically as a result of satisfying BOD.
Zone of active decomposition

x DO reduced to minimum
x Bacterial and fungal activities increase
x Anaerobic decomposition of bottom sediments produces odours
x Ammonia Nitrogen increase sharply as
x BOD drops
x Animal life decreases and eventually vanish.
Recovery from pollution is due to the self-purification capacity (SPC) of all rivers and
streams. SPC which assures the assimilation of wastes and restoration of good quality is
higher in shallow fast flowing rivers with high re-aeration than in deep and slow flowing
rivers with low re-aeration.
In many rural riverine communities river water is the main source of drinking water. In
communities close to the Atlantic Ocean high saltiness in river waters makes them unfit for
consumption and hence the following statement is applicable in these areas: "Water, water,
water everywhere, but none to drink."
Remedial Measures
x Waters abstracted from rivers for municipal supplies or drinking must be subjected
to prescribed laboratory tests to ensure conformity with set standards.
x Where laboratory tests are not possible such waters must be
a. Taken upstream of the discharge of sewage or inorganic chemicals
b. Stored in a storage tank and allowed to sediment in its own time or with the
addition of alum.
c. Boiled and cooled before drinking. Apart from killing a lot of living organisms
including bacteria, boiling expels free carbon dioxide and improves the pH
(hydrogen-ion concentration).
d. Desalinated in communities close to the Atlantic Ocean.
Industrial Water
All industries located close to river banks produce wastes which affect the normal life
of the river. There are records of pollution of Warri River by refinery, steel and other
industrial effluents. Water of rivers, creeks, etc. around the fertilizer plant at Onne in Rivers
State and many water systems of the coastal oil producing zones are polluted by spilled
565
petroleum. Benin River water of Ogorode, Sapele, is polluted with boiling waters discharged
from the NEPA thermal plant. Although wastewater effluents standards regulate discharges of
industries into surface water, monitoring to ensure compliance in Nigeria appears to be an
impossible task.
Remedial Measures
Political, social and ethnic considerations have influenced the distribution of FEPA
outstations. The most pollution-endangered part of Nigeria is the oil producing coastal zone.
While the zonal office located in Port Harcourt can be justified, the office in Benin meant to
cover the oil producing western Niger Delta is misplaced and should be relocated to Warri.
For effectiveness local government councils should be charged with the responsibility of
monitoring their environments. For this purpose enough money for the establishment of
suitable laboratories should be provided on the basis of graded pollution index of each local
government area.
Points of discharge of wastewater effluents by industries within the vicinity of the
same river should be re-examined with a view to relocating them downstream of the river
and on the same side to allow passage of aquatic organisms on the other side.
New Housing Schemes
A visit to Rivers Forcados and Escravos tells the same story. Government should as a
matter of priority start new housing schemes with 100, 3-bedroom apartments in 10 oil
producing communities each year for the next 10 years. Each of the houses should have all
modern amenities. With more knowledge and available funds the villages now occupied by
oil producing communities will be transformed into cities worthy of their natural endowment
before 2008.
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FRAGMENTS OF URHOBO HISTORY
Chapter 30
Urhobo Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow:

Where Do We Stand Now? 1
David O. Dafinone
Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria
My Beloved Brothers and Sisters:
Let me begin by making a bold statement of history and of hope hewn from rare human
service: Urhobo as a self-conscious nation began its modern common existence with Mukoro
Mowoe. Before his great service to our people, we were isolated lots like the three proverbial
coins in a fountain, each seeking its own level of happiness. Our common journey and
destiny began in his era of great service that has borne handsome fruits. Sadly, the legacies of
the Mukoro Mowoe era are being challenged by new developments in the Nigerian
Federation. I am here to review the record with you, and also to discuss new ways of
sustaining Mukoro Mowoe's legacies for the benefit of Urhoboland.
The Urhobo Past
History can be a great teacher. It authorizes the wise to learn from the past in ways that
will enable the mistakes of yesteryears to be weighed carefully for the purpose of building a
healthier future. It also permits wise men and women to construct a solid edifice from the
small beginnings of our past history. Let us examine the weakness of the past and extol the
virtues of our previous leaders with a clear determination to build a strong future for our
people who yearn for our service.
I have had my own share of an encounter with history. Permit me to share some
fragments of my own experiences with you. As one who was born within the height of
British colonial times in Urhoboland and Nigeria, I cannot refrain from going back to that
period. My most memorable experience of colonial times, which has been seared into my
consciousness, occurred in my studies at the University of Exeter in England. I was a
pioneering student from Nigeria in 1951 in that university, along with Messrs. Asabia and
Alhaji Tanko Galadima, both now of blessed memory. I recall vividly the lecture by my
teacher J. G. Spear on the slave trade from Africa. Mr. Spear had the following view of the
slave trade. Europeans, he said, began slavery not because they were concerned with the
matter of the dynamics of African population. Rather, they were interested in Black labour
because it was cheaper than white labour. They were, he pressed, also interested in increasing
their financial interests and gains, even as they preserved their principals in the international
trade. They were interested in El Dorado, not necessarily in an empire. As I listened to that
lecture, I could see that he was talking about my people. As one who hails from Sapele, I
could then connect stories from my childhood to the evils of the slave trade. My people were
victims of an international trade that they did not design. Somewhere in me
1
Keynote Address at the First Annual Conference of Urhobo Historical Society, held at Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, November
3-5, 2000
was the hope that we would learn from such bad experiences and never again become
victims of a system of economy we did not design.
The onset of colonialism, which was crystallized around the events of the Berlin
Conference of 1884-85, followed the evil slave trade. Its early impact was severe in
Urhoboland. The Royal Niger Company invested heavily in the palm produce that it could
secure from Urhoboland. The British push into upland Urhobo country was relentless in the
1890s. It was an economy that was controlled from England. But the hardworking Urhobo
profited from it. However, in political matters, we were badly treated. That was part of our
history.
The rise of Mukoro Mowoe in the 1930s and 1940s was the beginning of the Urhobo
response to the challenge of history. He founded Urhobo Progress Union and gave it its
character. Through his hard work and sheer charisma, he unified all the scattered clans in
Urhoboland. He fought against any attempt to oppress the Urhobo people. We in Okpe are in
his undying debt because he mobilized Urhobo people to win the Sapele land case, helping
to secure a land that was central to the economy and culture of the Okpe. We will forever
honour this great man.
One of my earliest and fortunate experiences in life was being challenged by Mukoro
Mowoe himself to serve the Urhobo people. As President-General of Urhobo Progress
Union, Mukoro Mowoe was on a tour of the Northern Nigerian Provinces where migrant
Urhobos worked and lived. Living in Kaduna and working in the Secretariat, I was then the
zonal Secretary of the UPU for Northern Nigeria. The great Mukoro Mowoe took my hand
and said. “Young man, ensure that UPU survives under your service. If Urhobo succeeds, it
will be your pride. If it fails, it will be your shame.” It was a charge that I took seriously. And
I treasure it very much. Many who served the UPU from those days have now moved on. We
were inspired by the Great Mukoro Mowoe. For him, the creed of leadership was that
Urhobo leaders must pay to serve. That is the essence of Mukoro Mowoe's legacy.
Mukoro Mowoe would have been one of the greatest and richest men in Nigerian
history. But he paid a price for his service to the Urhobo people and Niger Delta. Hard work
and relentless service caused his early death in 1948, three years after my memorable meeting
with him. But he left behind a great organization and a team of dedicated followers. Urhobo
Progress Union thrived under the leadership of a series of able Presidents-General. Obahor,
Okpodu, Salubi, and Esiri were dedicated Urhobo leaders and servants of the Urhobo.
Unfortunately, the trail of this excellence has grown cold. Dr. Esiri stayed long as
President-General, perhaps much too long. Unfortunately, he has been forced out in an
unconventional and contentious manner. Mukoro Mowoe's Urhobo Progress Union is
currently mired in a dispute that has now been dragged to court. Urhobo Progress Union is an
institution among the Urhobo that must not die, because it is still urgently needed to solve
pressing problems. Urhobo Progress Union was valuable to our development because it paid
enormous attention to our culture and our common moral issues, and it continues to do so.
The Urhobo Present
I will not say much about our past. Professor Onigu Otite, Professor Obaro Ikime,
Professor Peter Ekeh and many others of our academic minds have examined these issues
with great profit. Let me move to our present circumstances by saying that I am delighted to
be with you because you effectively represent the present in Urhobo history as well as our
future. I regard you all as great patriots. Although you are far away from your ancestral land,
a whole ocean away from Urhoboland, you have devoted your energies to serving Urhobo
interests. It is in that spirit of service, in the spirit of the Great Mukoro Mowoe, that
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Urhobo Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow….
I am here to challenge you with the facts of our past history, debate with you the difficulties
of our present circumstances, and examine with you the best proposals for safeguarding the
interests of the Urhobo people in the chaotic Nigerian political environment of our time.
Suffice it to say that Urhobo occupies a critical position in Nigeria. Our association
with Nigeria is not on the condition that we shall be subservient to any other ethnic group.
With a population of more than two million people, we are the sixth largest ethnic group in
Nigeria, from an estimated total of three hundred and seventy such ethnic groups. In land
area, Urhobo is larger than Switzerland. Urhoboland currently yields an annual total of 64
million barrels of crude oil. Urhoboland has one of the largest deposits of natural gas in the
world. Together, Urhoboland and the rest of the Niger Delta produce 95% of Nigeria's export
earnings. In the course of the last fifty years, Urhobo men and women have excelled in
commerce and education. Urhobo professors are a prominent presence in Nigerian
universities. In medicine and law, Urhobos feature very strongly. Thus, if Urhobo were a
nation on its own, it would not only be viable; it would be self-sufficient.
Despite such records, despite our resources, despite our competence and professional
achievements, Urhoboland is becoming greatly endangered. Its towns are decaying, crying
for renewal. Our roads are in disrepair. Houses in our villages and towns are falling apart.
Roads, overused from oil exploration, are mostly impassable. Hospitals cannot provide
treatment. Farms and fish ponds have been badly harmed by oil pollution. The environment
is distressed from forty years of gas flaring and uncontrolled oil exploration. Fifty years
after Mukoro Mowoe, Urhoboland is faced with the same magnitude of dire circumstances
inflicted from outside our control as when his leadership began in the 1940s.
In a revealing article titled “A Postcard From Warri,” published in the Nigerian
Guardian of October 27, 2000, Reuben Abatti depicted the circumstances facing our people
as follows:
“Warri is a haggard old lady, with tired feet and a mouth that has been
robbed of its teeth. She looks as used as an over-experienced prostitute.
The neighbourhoods were crowded. The whole scene seems indescribable:
humanity trapped in small spaces with threats of poverty and discontent
written on their faces and over their environment.”
That is a journalist's sad epitaph on the circumstances of our people whose lands have
supplied considerable opulence to other regions of Nigeria.
From Idjerhe to Ekakpamre, from Mereji to Adeje, the story is the same. We are the
victims of oil exploration and exploitation that has gone badly wrong. Today, as we sit here,
under the aegis of a so-called Technical Aid Scheme, there are soldiers in Urhoboland
burning houses, displacing old women from their homes on the unfounded allegation that
these humble and good people are responsible for damages to pipelines that carry crude oil
through their neighbourhoods. These ageing pipelines were constructed in 1976. In the
absence of good governance, there has not been any worthwhile maintenance and protection
of these structures that carry hazardous products and require frequent maintenance. Now they
are left derelict, posing grave danger to the lives of our people.
So, what has gone wrong? I can speak with authority on these issues and on any
attempt to answer this question. This is so because I was privileged to participate in a retreat
that was organized at the onset of Olusegun Obasanjo's presidency in order to formulate
national policies for the first four years of the President's tenure. The outcome was
wholesome and promising. We arrived at important proposals that would benefit the whole
nation, not just those who wield power. Sadly, as the developments of the last two years
571
have shown, the twin evils of ethnic aggrandizement and the politicization of religion have
captured the good intentions of the Presidential Retreat.
We in the Niger Delta have become the main victims of these twin evils. Please allow
me to quote a few more lines from Dr. Abatti about Warri, which has become emblematic of
the fate of Urhobos and the Niger Delta:
“I have wondered how anyone could live in a place like Warri. If I were
from Warri, I would be annoyed on an hourly basis. I would protest against
the beauty of Abuja, the splendour of Lagos, and the serenity of Owerri. I
would be tempted to call every Nigerian who is not from an oil- producing
state or community a pirate.”
These are the views of a powerful journalist and an objective observer on the misery
inflicted on our people for no fault of their own.
We in the Niger Delta have now discovered, indeed rediscovered, that among the three
ethnic groups vying to rule Nigeria, their treatment of ethnic minorities is one of utter
contempt and neglect. This is a habit that goes back to military rule. I recall a seminar
organized by Generals, during Sani Abacha's reign, on the topic "The Way Forward" under
the auspices of the Institute of Governance in Jos. I was privileged to be the Seminar's
chairman but was appalled to witness that virtually all the proposals and messages coming
from that Seminar were trained for the benefit of those who controlled power. In summing up
my views as chairman of the Seminar, I said a few things that I wish to repeat before this
audience. I told the Generals and others attending the Conference the following:
"We, the elite of this country, are guilty of gross misdeeds that have
undermined this nation. We are selfish. We are envious of one another. We
hate one another. We lack any principle of shared values. Everything that
comes our way, we grab for ourselves. Majority of the people of this country
are suffering. Graduates are unemployed for years, even in the North. If
these attitudes persist, I can assure you that the problems that you now
analyse will only grow worse. We are behaving like the proverbial frogs in a
pool of water, croaking away in happiness and enjoying themselves. As the
Japanese so wryly put it, wait until the water boils.”
That was the position then, a few months before the death of Sani Abacha. Clearly, the
policies pursued by Nigerian elites have caused immeasurable suffering for Urhobos and
Niger Deltans.
Let me cite a specific instance that fully illustrates unfairness and oppression in
national politics that victimize ethnic minorities in Nigeria. When an electricity-generating
thermal power station was sited at Ogorode district of Sapele, we all expected that it would
lead to ample electrification of Sapele itself and the neighbouring Urhobo communities in
Okpe, Oghara, Idjerhe, Agbon, Abraka, Orogun, Ughelli, etc. Contrary to its original design,
it was not stepped down for Sapele and these neighbouring communities, except for the
Naval Station in Sapele. Instead, the electricity generated from Sapele was fed into the
national grid that benefited privileged areas while Sapele and other communities in
Urhoboland suffered from constant blackouts.
Contrast this rough and unfair treatment of our people with the benefits which
communities in privileged ethnic groups have reaped from the siting of electricity-
generating enterprises in their communities. Shiroro, Kainji, and Igbin all have stepped-
572
down arrangements, benefiting the local communities, in sharp contrast to Sapele. I submit to
you that the main reason why Sapele Power Station has been the exception to this national
trend is that it is sited in Urhoboland and the Niger Delta, notwithstanding the fact that the
empowering natural gas is produced from our lands.
The Urhobo Future
I accepted your kind invitation to give this keynote address because I want to attend to
issues relating to Urhobo's future. I am here to invite you to use your tremendous intellectual
resources as well as your many other connections and endowments for the enhancement of
Urhobo's future. We all must work together to reclaim Urhobo's glory.
In order to achieve such a goal, we must first ask ourselves some severe questions.
Why are we where we are today, greatly disadvantaged? Why are our resources being carted
away for the benefit of privileged ethnic groups which are systematically organizing the
punishment and marginalization of our people? Why must our towns and villages be in
darkness while electricity generated from our midst is being transported to distant regions
because they are privileged? Why must our oil and gas resources be our curse?
Most of the answers to these questions lie in the unfair political arrangements that have
been imposed on Nigeria, denying peoples of the Niger Delta the opportunity to develop
their God-given resources for their own benefit. But a certain amount of fault also lies in the
consequences of the attribute of individualism which marks out Urhobo national character.
While we must work hard for the correction of our national political ills and ensure an
equitable redistribution of powers and resources in Nigeria, we, as a people, must also strive
to overcome the consequences of our character traits, if we are to survive as a people, and
perhaps flourish.
Our spirit of individualism has yielded marvellous results for individual Urhobos. In
commerce, education, the professions, literature, the arts, and much more, individual
Urhobos have achieved a tremendous presence. They have done so without the advantage of
Government's sponsorship, in contrast with what many other ethnic groups have been
privileged to enjoy. But what does it profit a famous professor or a literary giant if there is no
passable road to his own hometown? What does it matter to have a mighty business
organization in Lagos or the United Kingdom if your land of birth remains in darkness,
because no electricity is available to it? Having succeeded individually, we must all now
work together in order to ensure that our land of birth, our Urhoboland, is not suffocated to
death by evil forces. While our individualism must continue to be valued, we now need to
add to it another virtue of sacrifice for the community and comradeship for the greater good
of our people and ancestral land. We cannot, in the twenty-first century, hope to attain our
common destiny by each acting solely on his or her own behalf. Like the Chinese, we must
diminish the urge for personal glory and seek a larger corporate glory for our people.
Furthermore, we must be creative in using organizations of our people to achieve our
collective goals. I will give you two examples why this could become critical to our
existence. Not too long ago, there was a plan floated for the re-Regionalisation of Nigeria
into its colonial divisions. According to this plan, the old Mid-West would be re-merged with
the Yoruba southwest and the Cross-River people and eastern Niger Delta would be returned
to Eastern Nigeria along with the Igbo states. I was personally inalterably opposed
to such a scheme. I worked hard against it. The result is the formation of the present Union
of Niger Delta. The emergence of Urhobo National Assembly followed a similar need.
Thanks in large measure to the goodness and public spiritedness of Chief Johnson Ukueku,
who called upon me to help avert an impending act of injustice, Urhobo National Assembly
was formed initially in order to combat an unacceptable plan to reduce Urhobo and Ijaw
573
communities in Warri to permanent minorities in a proposed so-called Warri Municipal

Development Council. We have used Urhobo National Assembly and Union of Niger Delta
for securing the interests of Urhobo and Niger Delta in the tradition of Mukoro Mowoe. He
served not only Urhobos but the entire Warri Province, that is, Western Niger Delta. We must
rekindle Mukoro Mowoe's spirit of leadership and service by creative use of organizations in
which we all can work together for Urhobo's and Niger Delta's greater good.
One area where such co-operation is imperative is electoral politics. If we are swayed
by rampant corruption that has invaded Nigerian electoral practices and accept little crumbs
of gifts from politicians whose plans will be invidious to our future and children's future,
then we have betrayed our own destiny. In voting at least, we must work together to define
the goals that we seek from those who want our votes. We must understand that the vote is
the ordinary person's source of power. We must not sell off ourselves short by indulging in
corrupt practices. Our goals must be laid down long before elections, so that candidates
know what our collective goals in Urhoboland and the Niger Delta are.
Our nemesis so far has been the voice of Babel, without respect for authority of our
own leadership. Consequently, we have been diminished by our own disunity. It has arrested
the social and economic development of Urhoboland. When Delta State was about to be
created in 1991, no one could have imagined that the capitals of the two states issuing from
the old Bendel State would both be in the old Benin Province. Taking advantage of disunity
among Urhobos who canvassed for different cities, and prompted by machination from a few
misguided Itsekiri leaders, Ibrahim Babangida was able to please his wife's people by
unjustly giving the capital of Delta State to Asaba. Perhaps if we were united on the choice
of Osubi, a suburb of Warri, maybe the injustice of denying Warri as the capital of Delta
State would have been avoided. As matters now stand, Warri is the only city that was the
capital of a colonial Province that has not been allowed to be the capital of a state in modern
Nigeria. It is an act of injustice that must be reversed.
Despite our vast contributions to the making of the Nigerian nation, the Federal
Government of Nigeria treats us with levity. Individual Urhobos may well be rewarded with
some limited favours. But as a people we are being ignored. I must report that through our
efforts there is currently a process of stepping-down from the Sapele Power Station for the
benefit of the locality. I am also happy to report that the unfair transfer of the training
resources of the Navy from seaport Sapele to mainland Owerri, under military rule, is now
about to be reversed.
I want to appeal to all of you to understand that the industrialization of the Niger Delta,
stretching from Uyo to Sapele and Benin City, is a sine qua non of our development. In this
respect, I want to beg you, in the best sense of that word, to be involved in such development.
You have the capacity to be so involved. If you refrain from being involved, generations to
come will not forgive you for your indifference. The same spirit that enabled you to organize
this important Conference should further impel you to ensure that Urhoboland and the Niger
Delta will be industrialized. It is only those of us from the Niger Delta that can control our
own destiny. That is why the Union of Niger Delta wants local resource control as a
paramount article of the new federalism. The Federal Government should be able to tax such
resources. The only sensible way forward is to make sure that the Niger Delta becomes well
developed. Otherwise the radicalization of youth, of which our region has had its own share,
will continue.
In this regard, and for your information and action, I wish to report to you what you
probably already know. The Federal Government of Nigeria has assigned military personnel
to the Niger Delta. The essence of the policy is to ensure the free flow of oil by intimidating
and repressing our peoples of the Niger Delta who justly protest the ruin and harm done to
574
their lives, environment, and communities. The first article of the United Nations' Universal
Declaration of Human Rights states as follows: “All human beings are born free and
equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should
act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” Despite such professed standards,
multi-national corporations are determined to brush aside the economic and social rights of
our peoples of the Niger Delta, as well as their rights to elementary livelihood. These
international conglomerates have done a great deal of harm to our people, with the help of the
Federal Government of Nigeria. We all will not be forgiven by future generations if we allow
external forces to continue destroying our environment, ruining our towns, killing our youth,
and marginalizing us in the Nigerian political process.
So, how do we combat such evil? I will make the point in Urhobo: "Eje kuoma gbe."
[In English: Let us be united.] I will expand on this theme. In a lecture given at the
Petroleum Training Institute at Effurun on August 8, 1998, over which I presided as
chairman, Professor Onigu Otite of the University of Ibadan made the following important
observations:
“Thus, the Urhobo are part of the contemporary diversities in Nigeria,

being one of the 374 ethnic groups with rights, just as any other ethnic
groups, to the national, political and economic resources. We are Nigerians
because we are Urhobo, and we have strong claims to participate in the
government, politics, and the economic system of this country, and be part
of the central ruling body -- provided we are united.”
Professor Otite's point is an excellent one and should be constantly kept in mind.
Let me briefly refer to the derivation issue in this context of our people's unity. The
underlying meaning of derivation is to enable us to ensure that the resources of nature need
replacement. We need to work together to see to it that all of our people will benefit from
derivation. Suing the state government over such an issue was unwise and unnecessary. It is
an instance of individualism gone amok. Provided the State government uses the resources to
protect the heritage of the peoples of the Niger Delta, the purpose of derivation is being
properly managed.
Despite current problems in Nigeria, we must acknowledge that Urhobo's future is
ultimately tied to the welfare of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. However, we must upgrade
our fortunes in Nigeria. But Nigeria's own fortunes are currently threatened by an avalanche
of problems. Although it would not be fair to blame all the ills of Nigeria on the current
administration, nonetheless, it is important to recognize that Nigeria cannot, and
must not, continue in its present form and course. As the Patriots have widely canvassed,
there is need to return Nigeria to true federalism. In the view of the Patriots, restructuring
Nigeria into six zones is cardinal to Nigeria's future political welfare. Other key elements of
a restructuring exercise are (a) local control of natural resources and (b) devolution of powers
to the component regions. Such restructuring will help to minimize the current massive
corruption in Nigeria and will help to ensure accountability of those in government. It is
important that in any such restructuring, ethnic associations should continue to play
important roles in Nigerian public affairs. They help to check the excesses of the Federal and
State Governments.
In planning for the future of our people, we must be attentive to the consequences of
globalization and the imperatives of the international information technology. To give you an
example: I represented Nigeria in the Crans Montana International Forum, Switzerland. The
conditions for accepting our exports, which were determined by European nations, were so
stringent that most of our agricultural exports would be condemned to low
575
valuation in Western markets. Those standards call for the education of our people for the
proper management of their agricultural products. At the same time, with growing mergers
of multi-national companies, the manufactured products coming to our people are grossly
overvalued. We need to be involved in these matters if our people are not to suffer great
harm.
All these needs raise an ultimate question of leadership: Do we have the requisite
leadership resources to accomplish these difficult goals? In order to speak on this point, I
would like to cite the eminent American writer of the nineteenth century. In 1870, Ralph
Emerson wrote the following:
“It is not the population; it is not the beautiful city; it is not mineral
resources; it is not the crops -- no, no, no -- that make a nation. The kind of
people that the country turns out at every stage in the development process
is what constitutes a great nation.”
That vision has served the American people well. It should also be of value to Urhobos and
Niger Deltans.
We need a leadership that has ideas and a sense of values. Our leaders must in addition
have the energy to drive home their policies and ideas. They should have the courage to
change our current prostrate state, both locally in Urhoboland and in the wider Nigerian
Federation. Our leaders must have the courage of their convictions to nurture a breakthrough
in ideas necessary to take tough decisions that will lead to sustainable economic policies that
are girded and enshrined in the rule of law and the tenets of democracy.
May God protect Urhobo and the Niger Delta. May God save and bless the Federal
Republic of Nigeria.
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Chapter 31
Political Reorganization as a Pre-Condition for

1
Economic Success in Urhoboland
Moses Taiga
Chairman, Execon Organization, Lagos, Nigeria
Introduction
It gives me great pleasure to share my thoughts on some of the key issues facing our
beloved Urhobo nation. I sincerely believe that our discussion today will stimulate some
thinking that could lead to the political and economic development of our land, thus
becoming a possible point of reference for other nations that exist within the geographical
boundaries of Nigeria. Before we proceed, it will be necessary to outline the key objectives
of this paper, which can be listed as follows:
x Laying the foundation for Social and Political Equilibrium

x Within the Urhobo Nation and
x Between Urhobo and her neighbours
x Designing an alternative Urhobo national political process
x Articulation of a common front and purpose
x Fostering political integration and progress
With these objectives in mind, we can proceed on the journey of our political
reorganization. Let us begin with an overview of the Urhobo economy in the Niger Delta and
its contribution to the national economy. We shall also carry out an analysis of the existing
political structure and arrangements in Urhoboland and their effects on our economic and
political progress, to date.
The Urhobo Economy in the Niger Delta
Urhobos are the sixth largest ethnic nationality in Nigeria and the second largest in the
Niger Delta area. Its population is estimated at 2.3 million, which is about the size of
Ogun state and almost twice that of Taraba. Their immediate neighbours include the Ijaw,
Itsekiri, Isoko, Edo and Kwale. Urhoboland is blessed with abundant mineral and
agricultural resources including crude petroleum, gas, oil palm, rubber, glass-making soil,
clay suitable for pottery, rivers, tributaries and streams suitable for electricity generation,
fishing and other marine activities. Urhoboland reportedly accounts for over 28% of total
electricity generation in Nigeria through the power stations in Sapele and Ughelli. In terms
of oil production, Urhoboland accounts for an estimated 64 million barrels of oil annually. In
today’s prices, this is equivalent to $4.4bn or 19% of total annual oil revenue in Nigeria.
1
A paper presented at the 6th Annual Conference of, Urhobo Historical Society, held at Petroleum Training Institute, Warri, October
20, 2005. Olorogun Moses Taiga was the Chief Patron of the Conference.
In the days of cash crop boom and subsequent exports, Urhoboland was a veritable source of
cash crops for export like rubber, timber, and oil palm.
Urhoboland is also endowed with a large and growing crop of distinguished
professionals in various fields of human endeavour. Urhoboland has produced the World
record of a whole family in the accounting profession, first class academics and historians
(some of which are responsible for today’s gathering), sports stars, musical icons, top military
brass in Nigeria, inventors, artistes and poets, prize winning literary artistes, sculptors,
business moguls, medical scientists, engineers, financial consultants, etc.
Urhobo nation has all the qualities of a Socratic nation state. Its culture is rich and
pristine. Though largely undeveloped, it has a viable and sustainable economy. It has a fluid
and catching language, which has been blended with the English language so smoothly to
form a special brand of Pidgin English for which most of its cities, such as Sapele and Warri,
are popular. However, the widespread use of Pidgin English by Urhobo families has become
a threat to the survival of the Urhobo language. This is an issue, which I expect will be
addressed in the course of this conference as reflected in its theme. The Urhobo live in
contiguous and defined boundaries. Fortunately, they have not been dispersed amongst
different states in the federation over the years, through state creation or historical events, a
fate that has befallen some other ethnic nationalities including the Igbo (in Delta, Rivers,
besides wholesome Igbo states), Ijaw (in Delta, Rivers, Bayelsa, Ondo, Edo), Hausa (Benue,
Plateau, Kwara, Niger, besides wholesome Hausa states), Yorubas (Kwara, Kogi, besides
wholesome Yoruba states).
Political Structure of Urhoboland
For an extensive review and detailed analysis of the historical origins of the Urhobo
people of the Niger Delta, I would readily recommend that you read the scholarly writings
obtainable at the website of the Urhobo Historical Society. However, for the purpose of this
exercise, it will be necessary to take a somewhat simplistic overview of our political structure
and history.
Urhobo nation consists of some 22 independent kingdoms or provinces, each with its
own ruler or king. The Urhobo claim a common origin. They are referred to as “Uhobo” by
the Binis, as “Soubo”in fifteenth century records of the Portuguese and “Sobo” by
ethnographers. Unlike some of its neighboring ethnic nationalities, there has never been a
single monarchy ruling over the entire Urhobo nation in more than 2000 years of its historical
existence. The 22 kingdoms though independent are bound by blood, marriage, culture,
language, occupation, geography and politics. Its unique republican structure has worked at
times to its advantage as a resilient tribal group that has never been defeated or overtaken in
war, and at other times to its disadvantage as a group that has been relatively incapable of
having an organized front and common purpose. Some of the demerits of Urhobo’s
republican structure are listed below:
Implications of Present Political Structure
– Lack of cooperation and rivalry amongst provincial societies

– Lack of coordination and poor representation at national levels –
Poor organization and in-fighting
– General confusion and subjugation under other organized ethnic nationalities
– Political and Economic stagnation
– In-fighting means lack of common front to strive for common good –
Language & culture under threat of extinction
578
Political Reorganisation as a Pre-Condition for Economic Success….
Re-organizing the Urhobo Nation: Some Basic Questions
Why Reorganize?
Nigeria is an amalgamation of some 250 or more ethnic nationalities. Ethnic

nationalism has increasingly become a vital issue in the political development of Nigeria.
Some of the major ethnic nationalities have developed a viable political process and structure
that have ensured the protection of their interests at all levels in the nation. This has enabled
them to gain access to political power and more than their fair share of the political largesse
than what they received in the past. This is without prejudice to the fact that some of these
ethnic nationalities have contributed precious little to the economic wealth of the nation in
recent times. However, the Urhobo have repeatedly found themselves shortchanged in the
political arrangements in Nigeria over the years. This is in spite of their significant
contributions to the economic wealth of the Nigeria. In essence, the reason for re-organizing
Urhoboland politically can be summarized as follows:
x There is consistency between the issues facing Urhobos and the Nigerian state.
Nigeria is currently in the middle of an economic and political reform programme.
x There is an urgent need to have a common front for articulating Urhobo position
on national issues
x Reorganizing our political process is our baby step towards “Urhobo Reform.”
x We need to align with national, regional and global imperatives.
x Other ethnic nations within Nigeria are far ahead in terms of political and economic
organization (Arewa, Afenifere, Ijaws, Ohaneze, Edos, etc)
x Urhobos need to play “Catch Up”
x Disorganization is a threat to corporate existence of the Urhobo nation
What are the Consequences of Disorganization?
Lack of political organization and cohesion has led to economic stagnation typified by
poor infrastructure and widespread unemployment in Urhoboland. The Urhobo have not been
able to exert their influence on the central government as other ethnic nationalities have done
to their advantage. As a key oil producing area, the Urhobo have hardly benefitted from
decades of oil exploration in their area, in spite of its adverse environmental impact. In the
last five years, Nigeria has enjoyed an oil boom with hardly any impact on Urhoboland. For
example, oil revenue increased 167% to $23 billion between 1999 and 2004, whilst quality of
life in Urhoboland is declining.
One of the factors that have militated against development in Urhoboland is the
proneness to crisis. Fractious relationship with neighbours has led to investor anxiety, flight
and reluctance to locate business venture in areas where Urhobo and her neighbours have
consistently clashed.
What are the Benefits of Re-organization?
The following are some of the benefits of re-organization in Urhoboland:
x Social and political reorganization will enhance competition for and access to
national resources. One of the bitter consequences of the disorganization and
579
absence of a common goal is the shortchanging of the Urhobo nation in national

issues and appointments.
x Economic development cannot be possible without an organized political structure

and strategy. Even if the entire oil wealth were handed over to Urhoboland, we
must be organized in order to effectively utilize and distribute the wealth amongst
ourselves. Disorganization will breed discontent, waste and self- destruction.
x An organized Urhobo nation will be able to address properly social problems like
Illiteracy, unemployment, youth disaffection and delinquency as well as ethnic
conflict, communal crisis, crime, armed robbery and kidnapping. These factors are
threats to the economic progress of the Urhobo nation.
How do we get it done?
The time has come for all the various associations and groups in Urhoboland to close
ranks. Political reorganization cannot be possible unless all the groups collaborate and work
closely together. To do this, there must be broad consultations amongst representative groups
and kingdoms. The need for a clear-cut articulation of a common objective for economic
survival and political emancipation cannot be over emphasized especially in the current
political dispensation and the impending national elections in 2007. Urhobos must develop a
credible and viable conflict resolution process, which will ensure peaceful collaboration and
co-existence between Urhobos and between Urhobos and her neighbours.
Key Issues to consider in Political Re-organization
Political reorganization implies addressing the following issues critically:
x Historical, Cultural & Educational issues:

1. Investing in schools of excellence at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels.
2. Promoting the study of Urhobo language in schools and making fluency in

Urhobo language criteria for employment in Urhoboland.
x Economic, Financial & Investment Issues:

1. An Economic Plan for the Urhobo nation.
2. An Investment Strategy for Urhobo nation.
3. Research and identification of natural resources and how to exploit them.
x Political Strategy & Resource Control Issues.
x Women, Health & Child development Issues:

1. The HIV Scourge, Malaria, Malnutrition, etc.
2. Adult morbidity & infant mortality.
x Youth, Sports & Social Development Issues.
x Conflict Resolution, Peace & Security Issues.
580
Political Reorganisation as a Pre-Condition for Economic Success….
Conclusion
In conclusion, whilst acknowledging that the challenges of Urhobo Nation are many,
we believe that they are surmountable. The key to political and economic emancipation is in
the hands of Urhobo citizens. If we can come together and decide to operate as one people
with one voice, if we can eschew violence and bitterness amongst ourselves and concentrate
on our common problems, if we strive for peaceful co-existence with our neighbours, and
within ourselves we will be able to build international respect and investor confidence. This
will boost the level of investments in Urhoboland and ensure that we take our rightful place
in the Nigeria as well as the emerging world of regionalization and globalization.
581
Chapter 32
Urhobo Religious Leaders and the Urhobo Nation 1

S. U. Erivwo
Provost, St. Andrew Cathedral, Warri, Nigeria
Preamble: Religious Leaders and Civil Society
Religious leaders are ab initio leaders of their people in all aspects of life, sacred and
secular. Moses was a religious leader and by virtue of being a religious leader, he was also
leader of his people in all aspects of their lives. He was called, appointed, and commissioned
by Yahweh to lead the Israelites from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the promised land. In
other words, originally there was no dichotomy between a religious leader and a secular or
political leader. In the history of the Israelites, the Judges, the Prophets and the Priests were
the leaders of the people. Kingship was a later development. In fact, when the Israelites asked
for a king, because they wanted to be like other nations, their request though granted, was
construed as a rebellion against God’s original intention of divine leadership. (I Sam. 8:8).
Definition of Terms
Religious Leaders:
By the term “religious leaders,” we mean in this paper, primarily, Christian religious
leaders, those leaders of Christian Communities in Urhobo land, which includes some of
those who brought Christianity to the area. The term would also include members of the
Clergy, or those who hold important ministerial positions in their Christian communities.
But lest it be thought that we disregard the traditional religion and culture which is
woven into the warp and woof of African life generally and of the Urhobo people in
particular, we shall also use the term religious leaders secondarily to refer to leaders of
Urhobo Traditional Religion. And here the leadership is not easy to define, because the
traditional religion can scarcely be separated from social, and even political life of the people.
Consequently, when the term “Religious Leaders” is used in reference to leaders of the
Urhobo Traditional Religion, the focus will be more on the traditional rulers (Ivie and Orodje)
and their Chiefs, who are usually the custodians of the traditional religion and culture. In fact,
as Prof. F.M.A. Ukoli reported, each of the 22 kingdoms in Urhoboland ‘is headed by an Ovie
who is vested with religious and secular powers…exercising administrative, judicial,
legislative, and religious authority over his domain” (Ukoli 1999).
Urhobo Nation:
By “Urhobo nation” is meant the entire Urhobo people, who belong to the Edo-
speaking people, of the present Delta State, and who are located in the Western Delta within
longitude 50.30 and 60.25 east, and between latitude 60 and 50.15 north. They have as their
neighbours the Itsekiri, the Bini, the Ijo, the Isoko, and the Ukwuani. They constitute a
1
Keynote Address, Fourth Annual Conference of Urhobo Historical Society, held at Goldsmiths College of London University,
London, England, October 31, November 2, 2003.
major “minority” group in Nigeria, being the 6 thlargest ethnic group in the country, which has
about 400 language groups. The Urhobo have a population of about 3 million, and are the
majority ethnic group in Delta State. They are concentrated in the following local Govt.
Areas: Ethiope East; Ethiope West; Okpe; Sapele; Udu; Ughelli North; Ughelli South;
Uvwie; and Warri South. Some Urhobo communities are in Bayelsa, while many Urhobo
communities are in Ikale District of Okitipupa, and in several other states in Nigeria and
abroad. These are the Urhobo in Diaspora.
Purpose of this Keynote Address
The question may well be asked, what is the purpose or focus of this address. Its main
purpose is to create awareness, a consciousness, of the Urhobo personality and assess the
place of Urhobo nationality within the context of the Nigerian nation. It would also
appreciate the role religious leaders of the people played in the Urhobo past, and make
recommendations on the role they can still play to move, first, the Urhobo people foreword,
and secondly, to also move the Nigeria nation as a whole foreword. For as Socrates put it,
“Man know thyself”. This self knowledge is a sine qua non for making significant progress
in human history.
Urhobo Personality
A people’s self-consciousness is usually reflected in their attitude towards their

language, culture, their cohesiveness as a people, and their relationship to their neighbours.
We shall take a deeper look at two aspects of the Urhobo personality.
Urhobo Culture
Culture is defined as “the artificial and secondary environment which man

superimposes on the natural, the sum of all that has spontaneously arisen for the
advancement of material life, and as an expression of spiritual and moral life” (Erivwo
1997b). As I stated elsewhere, “it is the totality of habits, ideas, beliefs, customs, social
organizations, inherited artifacts, technical processes, moral values, and religion”(Erivwo
1997b). Any ethnic nationality, in Nigeria, for example, is easily identifiable by its people’s
culture.
Religious leaders, both Christian and traditional, in Urhoboland, play a major role in
identifying and promoting Urhobo culture. They do so by encouraging the celebration of
traditional festivals, such as Ohworhu festival at Evwreni, Uwherun wrestling festival, the
Iheri annual festival at Ughelli and Agbarha, Ughievwen annual festival, Okpara festival and
so on.
As a result of the advancement of science and technology, each nationality in Nigeria
is striving to make its voice heard and known all over the world, which has now become a
global village. If you do not say ‘I am here’, nobody may know, or even admit that you are
there. In this modern culture of information technology, the leaders of the people are
expected to also lead the way, so that generations coming behind them may follow. Urhobo
songs, literature and history should be documented, presented and transmitted to the wider
world through the Internet. Here we owe immeasurable gratitude to Urhobo Historical
Society under the dynamic leadership of Professor Peter Ekeh, which launched the Urhobo
Historical Society’s websites (www.waado.org. etc). It is a significant way of promoting
Urhobo culture in our time.
584
Urhobo Religious Leaders and the Urhobo Nation
For Urhobo identity to be known, recognized, and accepted in the world, the leaders of
the people, religious and secular, must play a major role in Urhobo affairs. In the early
days of the Urhobo Progress Union (UPU), that organization functioned, inter alia, as a
means of promoting Urhobo culture, and way of life, through dances and cultural displays
organized annually under the auspices of the UPU. This trend should continue and be
improved upon. Here religious leaders can also play a major role, that is, by taking active
interest in the activities of UPU.
Urhobo Language
Language is the vehicle of conveying a people’s culture. As an illustration of the

position of language in a people’s heritage, a story was told of an Urhobo elite living in the
United States of America with his family (that is, his wife and children). The children were
born in the US. Each time this family visited another Nigerian family, also in the US, which
happened to be from Yoruba land, the daughter of the Urhobo elite noticed that members of
that other Nigerian family spoke a language, which she did not understand. So one day she
posed a difficult question to her father. “Daddy”, she asked, “why is it that we do not have
our own language that we can speak which others will not understand if they visit us, as I
observe members of that other family do?” The father was overwhelmed with the question
and realized the tragedy of failing to take the mother tongue seriously.
For a second illustrative story, while pastoring St. Luke’s Anglican Church, Sapele, I
had a watch night, an Hausa man, who took delight in speaking sentences in Hausa to me,
“Sanu de zua … Sego-be” and so on; until a certain evening when he came to work, and in a
conversation with him, he told me that he came to Sapele in January 1946. And up to the
time we were speaking which was in 1996, he could not speak one sentence in Urhobo.
Thereafter when he wanted to continue to teach me Hausa, I resolutely refused.
A third story may be told to complete the trinity of problems facing the Urhobo
language: I have a brother-in-law working in Delta Steel Company (DSC), Aladja. In the
early 1980s while we were at Ekpoma, he came on a visit, and in the course of his brief stay
with us told this story. His son whom he instructed to speak the Urhobo language, because he
and his wife believed that they needed to bring up their children in a way to appreciate and
be able to speak their mother tongue fluently, told the father one day as the father raised his
hand to flog him for an offence he committed. “I no go speak Urhobo againioo!”
From these three stories, we see first a child living far away in the USA, who realized
that they ought to have a special language (the mother tongue) as others have, but whose
parents were either not fluent in speaking, or not willing, to speak the language and teach the
children. Second, we also see an elderly man, from another ethnic group, who had lived in
Urhobo land for 50 years, eager to teach an Urhobo elite his Hausa language while he
himself had not learnt to speak a sentence in Urhobo for the 50 years he had been amongst
the people. And thirdly, we see an Urhobo child whose parents were insisting that he should
learn and speak the language, now feeling that to speak the Urhobo language was to do his
father a favour. It goes a long way to show that there is a problem that needs addressing. If
there is an area where Urhobo identity is disappearing fast, it is in the inability of our
children to speak and take delight in speaking the language.
The early Christian leaders in Urhoboland, however, did a lot to first commit the
language into writing and then, encourage their members to learn it. Agori Iwe wrote an
Urhobo Primer containing the words:
“Mo re kpo, wo nyori? Wo kpo re? Yarhe.”
585
(English translation):
Come let us go home, have you heard? Won’t you go yet? Come.
As children in primary school, we enjoyed reading it. Agori-Iwe championed the

cause of the Urhobo language. He not only wrote a primer, first the Gospels of Mark and
John, and then the whole New Testament books were translated under his leadership.
Working with him were men like Ikimi Waghoregho of Ephronto, William Okonorho
Etadeferua, Isaac Efedjama, Ven. Johnson Emoefe, Ven. Okirhienyefa of the African
Church, Ven. Enajero Arawore, and so on. An assessment of some of the early church
leaders and their impact on Urhoboland is appropriate at this point. Three such leaders will
be considered.
The Work of Three Urhobo Church Leaders
Aganbi
The first such religious leader of the early period of Christianity in Urhoboland is
Aganbi of Eku. Aganbi introduced the Baptist Church to Eku. After his training at
Ogbomosho, even though he was encouraged by the Baptist Mission to be sent to either
Lagos or another big Church in Yoruba land where his salary could easily have been paid,
Aganbi insisted on returning to Eku to serve his people, salary or no salary. He rendered
selfless service to the Baptist Church in Eku and to the whole of Eku community. He was not
only a Church leader but also a community leader and a peacemaker. His interest in human
beings, we are told, is unequalled in the annals of Urhobo history. If any crisis erupted in the
community, no matter how intractable, Aganbi would step in and say:
“Eku we rovwo; a guono ozighire”
Eku be calm, we do not want trouble.
Once he stepped in, there would be calm. We are told that Aganbi was so peace –
loving, and so forgiving that, if any one slapped him, he would pray that the man be forgiven.
His magnanimity became so noticeable that it became a common saying among his people
“ophu mue Aganbii:” As a leader,2he was so kind hearted that he adopted
motherless babies and helped to train many children from Eku who would otherwise not have
had the opportunity of a formal education. Through his influence, Baptist Missionaries built
an hospital in Eku in 1950. All the Baptist schools in the then Midwest Region, we are told,
were established by him. According to Mrs. Aganbi and Chief J.E. Ukueku, it was Aganbi
who sponsored Chief Mukoro Mowoe, Urhobo’s foremost political leader to the Old
Legislative Council, because Aganbi was not prepared to combine his clerical work with
politics. It goes without saying, therefore, that, as I stated elsewhere, “Aganbi was an
outstanding Urhobo Church leader, who used his influence to introduce schools, medical care
services, and other agents of Christo-centric Western civilization to Urhoboland. He was one
of the pioneer leaders who committed the Urhobo language to writing in his translation of the
Gospel of John and of Psalms and Baptist Hymnal to Urhobo. After meritorious and selfless
services to God and his people, Ejovi Aganbi, the Unuevboro
2
This sentence translates into English as “Aganbi never takes offence.”
586
(Advocate) of Eku, slept in the Lord on 25th Sept. 1957. He was certainly a veritable
religious leader that the Urhobo nation has produced.
Agori Iwe
Agori Iwe, who was, at a stage, taught by Ejovi Aganbi, went to St. Andrew’s College
Oyo, where he trained as a teacher/Catechist, from 1924 – 1928. On his return from Oyo, he
was posted to Otovwodo – Ughelli, and in collaboration with the missionaries of the time,
Rev. J.C.C. Thomas and others, Agori Iwe helped to put in order the Churches in
Urhoboland which were disorganized by Ishoshi Erhi crisis in 1929. He went to train for his
ordination at St. Paul’s College Awka, and was ordained in 1938. After his ordination, he
served in various stations. He served his people in church and state until 1948 when he was
sent to the U.K for further studies. In 1954 he was appointed Archdeacon of Warri
Archdeaconry and in 1961, he was consecrated, the first Bishop of the Benin Diocese of the
Anglican Church, on St. Andrew’s Day and in St. Andrew’s Church, Warri.
Outside the church, Agori Iwe served in different capacities. In 1944, he was appointed
a member of Urhobo/Isoko Divisional Council and later he was appointed Appeal Court
Judge. In 1955 he was appointed as a “private member” councillor for central Urhobo
District Council, and in 1958, a member of the Midwest Advisory Council to represent the
educational interests of the Urhobo and Isoko people. Through him, many schools and
colleges were built in Urhoboland and Isokoland.
Not only did he cause a Primary School to be opened in his home community at
Okuama in 1936, when the previous School collapsed; he caused another one to be started in
the same place in 1940. He successfully counselled and led his home community of Okuama
to win a decisive victory in the land dispute with the Ijo community in the then West African
Court of Appeal at Warri, in 1946. He also played a leadership role in another land dispute
which Okuama had with a neigbouring community, this time an Urhobo community of Oviri
– Olomu. In consequence of his counsel, all the communities sharing a common border with
the land in dispute, were allowed by law to share in the land.
On another occasion, he intervened in the dispute between the Okuama people and the
government of the day that could have resulted in the sack of the community. He brought
peace by making the community make the necessary reparations. For this act of “salvation”
for his people, the community composed a song in his praise:
Agori jevwe, Agori jevwe, Agori Okpurhe rode

Okpurhe shegberurhie
Emo re Okuama vwa golo wan – Iye Iye.
I admire Agori, I admire Agori. Agori is a mighty tree

A mighty tree fell across the river
Okuama children proudly match across it. Iye iye.1
Unlike Aganbi’s, Agori’s leadership style emphasized discipline. Whether he was

dealing with his children, and members of his immediate family or with his Clergy, and
members of the Church who misbehaved and disobeyed church rule, Agori’s leadership style
was based on orderliness and disciplined life. He often mediated amongst leading members
of the Urhobo Progress Union (UPU) who had disagreement among themselves. In his
administration of justice, he was patently impartial; for this reason, while he was a
587
councellor, and an Appeal Court Judge, those who worked with him, who were inclined to
receive bribes, felt very much uneasy in his presence. His leadership qualities in his family,
in his community of Okuama, and in Church and government were outstanding. The many
honorific titles conferred on him bear eloquent testimony to the fact that Agori Iwe was a
leader and a man of many parts. He was made a Justice of Peace (JP) in 1957, member of
the British Empire (MBE) in 1957, and Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR) in 1965.
Not only the Church, but the Urhobo nation, is still in dire need of leaders of the caliber of
Agori Iwe. After a long life of dedicated service, in Church and State, disciplined character
and rigorous leadership style, Agori passed on to the Church Triumphant on July 9, 1979.
Stephen Umurie
Stephen Umurie was second in command to Mr. Okpikimu who introduced the Roman
Catholic Church to Ephron (Effurun) in 1927. Umurie who was at the Teacher Training
College Ibusa pleaded with the Principal to recommend him to the seminary. He was
recommended for training in 1929, at Asaba. The students were later transferred to Benin.
After 13 years of rigorous training, Umurie was ordained on 20th Dec. 1942 as the first
Urhobo Roman Catholic Priest.
Umurie’s life was characterized by qualities of obedience, humility, diligence, and
tactfulness. He ministered in many stations including Ashaka, Warri, Kabba, Lokoja,
Ogwashi-Ukwu where he served as a Parish Priest from 1951- 1958. He also served as a
Parish Priest at Ibusa from 1958 to1968. The moment he became a Parish Priest, he was also
Manager of the Roman Catholic Mission schools in each of the stations where he served as a
Parish Priest. In 1967 he was elevated to the office of a Monsignor and posted to Ughelli in
1968 to be in charge of the Parish. In 1970 Umurie was made a Vicar-General of the Roman
Catholic Diocese of Warri. On translation, Stephen Umurie assisted the Rev. Fr.
Kelly in 1939 to translate Stations of the Cross to Urhobo. He also assisted in the translation
of the Catholic Prayer Book, The Key of Heaven , to Urhobo, and vetted it single handedly
in 1944/45 before it was approved for publication by the Bishop of Benin Diocese. His
priesthood was shot through by humility and unassuming posture. He saw himself as a priest
called by the Lord to serve His Church whenever there was need for such service and did so
faithfully until he was called home in 1988.
Contributions of These Three Church Leaders to

Leadership in Urhoboland
Aganbi, Agori, and Umurie, were three outstanding Urhobo Church Leaders. They
demonstrated in their lives what Christianity could make of individuals who dedicated
themselves to the call of the Lord Jesus. Each of them became bearer of light in the
communities where they operated. And their leadership transformed the lives of their
followers.
However, one of the unfortunate dimensions of the leadership role of the trio in
Urhoboland was the rivalry amongst the different Christian denominations, which they
represented. One consequence of that rivalry was the use of different orthographies of the
Urhobo language in their translation work. Agori Iwe translated the Gospel of John. Aganbi
translated the same Gospel of John, later, using a different orthography. The Roman
Catholics did not at first regard other churches as genuine Christian churches, and so
continued to seduce their members.
However, over the years, the walls of barriers among the various denominations began
to crumble, as the spirit of ecumenism continued to grow, in such a way that by the
588
time the Urhobo Bible was translated, and published in 1978, it was possible to have a
translation committee embracing members of the different denominations in Urhoboland.
On the whole, these early church leaders played a leading role in creating awareness of
western civilization amongst our people through the introduction of schools, in committing
the Urhobo language to writing, in attracting health care delivery systems to the land, in
participating in the government of the day at different levels, and by mediating amongst other
Urhobo leaders, especially at the UPU level, where there was disagreement.
Traditional Religious Leaders:

Their Contribution to Unity and Urhobo Consciousness
The traditional religious leaders, the Ivie and their Councils of Chiefs and elders, play
a dominant role in the leadership of their respective domains. Each of the traditional rulers
and their chiefs, exercise administrative, judicial, legislative and religious authority over
their kingdom, for they are the custodians of Urhobo traditional religion and culture. Under
their authority each polity expresses the people’s culture during annual festivals, or periodic
celebrations, like the Ekene of Agbarha, the Edje-enu of Okpara, the Igboze festival of
Olomu. Some of these periodic festivals are celebrated once in 20 years, or once in 10 years.
They are characterized by dances, exchange of gifts, and veneration of ancestors and so on.
During annual festivals and periodic celebrations, the Urhobo abroad (and that includes
Urhobo elite) are expected to return home and share in the festivities. In this way the people’s
culture, and their traditions are kept alive as they are usually rehearsed. It is often said of an
Urhobo who for some odd reason refuses to go home frequently to share in the social and
religious life of the people that he would lose his identity, and may not flow with the people’s
way of life. The common saying to describe such a person is as follows:
Ohwo ro kpe Ukane or Ohwo ro ne uwevwi krire,

Ode rhe ile re awanre Koye o sua
“The man who traveled abroad and for a long time did not come home, when he
comes home, he will be singing outdated songs.”
In other words he would not be current with the life and latest development of his
own people because no culture is static; culture is dynamic.
Before the various traditional festivals are celebrated, it is at the Ovie’s palace that
final decision of the exact date is reached. Dances by the different towns and villages that
constitute a given kingdom, are usually organized from the town to the palace, as a way of
paying homage to the reigning monarch.
Any dispute between members of the kingdom which could not be settled in a town
meeting by the council of elders in a given town in Ughelli, for instance, will end up at the
Ovie’s palace. Also the Ovie and his chiefs would normally hold regular meetings to discuss
the affairs of the kingdom. Where there are disagreements to settle or issues to address in the
interest of the kingdom, these are discussed, settled, and agreed on at the palace.
With the advent of Western civilization, expressed in British rule, which gave birth to
the Nigerian nation in 1914, and the introduction of a Local government system, first known
as Native Authority (NA), the influence of the Ivie and their council of chiefs may have
diminished, but not obliterated. Indeed, for the Local Government Council Authority
589
of any area in Urhoboland to succeed, the Local Government Authority needs to cooperate
and work in harmony with the traditional ruler of that kingdom and his council of chiefs.
Finally, let us also point out that in Urhoboland, all the Ivie have a Union, they have a
meeting of all the Ivie in Urhoboland from time to time, and although it is a meeting of
equals, they have an elected chairman or leader who for a period is primus inter pares. And
there they discuss the welfare of the Urhobo nation. The Orodje of Okpe is currently the
Chairman of the Council of Urhobo Ivie. There is a lot which the Ivie and their Chiefs at
their respective kingdoms, as well as in their council of Ivie of Urhoboland, can do, and
should do to move the Urhobo people forward.
For example, where it is observed, as is often the case, that either at the State or Federal
Government level, the sharing of offices is being carried out to the detriment of our people,
the Ivie can make representations, either to the State Government, or to the Presidency, to
make their views and needs known. In this and other ways, they contribute significantly to
the collective leadership of Urhoboland.
Also, the UPU, from time to time, holds consultations, with the Council of the Ivie, on
issues, which affect the well being of our people. The current and recurrent crisis in Warri, is
a case in point. It is one over which the Ivie and the UPU leadership should confer and
together proffer a solution to Government, whether Government listens or not. It is important
that the leadership of the people makes their views well known to the Government of the
day.
I recall, that during the first term of the present PDP Government in Delta State of
Nigeria, when the question of whether or not the PTI Effurun be allowed to be used by
Federal overnment, as a temporary Campus of the Federal University of Benin, and the
controversy was very fierce, some of us who had access to significant documents, argued
that we should accept the offer as a first step to having a Federal University presence in our
area. The UPU leadership had to hold consultation with the Ivie of Urhoboland at the palace
of the Ovie of Ephron. Erohwo II (who has now slept in the Lord). The point we are making
here, is that the Ivie and their Chiefs play significant roles in Urhobo leadership. This being
the case, they should be enlightened, well informed about the goings on, in our world, and
they should be carried along by other segments of Urhobo leadership, for us as a people to
really move forward in our very rapidly changing world.
The Way Forward
From what has been said earlier on, it is clear that Urhobo religious leaders of the past
were conscious of their identity. They knew who they were and consequently initiated and
championed the cause of promoting the Urhobo language, by committing the language to
writing, by translating Books of the Bible, and subsequently, translating the whole Bible to
the Urhobo language.
What is not now so clear is the extent to which the contemporary Urhobo religious
leaders have sustained, and are sustaining, the initial interest and efforts of our predecessors.
Admittedly there is still the Urhobo Translation Committee currently working on the revision
of the Urhobo Bible. And the Urhobo Bible and hymnals are a rich source for promoting the
Urhobo language. This effort needs to be expanded to other secular areas
such as developing the Yono Urhobo 1 & 2 written years ago by S.S. Ugheteni.
Urhobo language is profusely rich in proverbs and pithy sayings which we learn at
social gatherings, such as traditional marriage ceremonies. Urhobo music records by Ogute,
Ӑmӑkӑmӑkӑ, Johnson Adjan,OkpaArido, and so on, are already becoming extinct. Our
religious leaders (Christian and Traditional) should have a forum for discussing such
590
documents, preserving them, and passing them on to future generations. Those records
should now be converted to discs as a result of modern technology.
The Urhobo elite should cultivate the habit of speaking the language at home, to their
children who will pass this tradition on to posterity. For those Urhobo elite, who are
Christians, let me recommend the practice of holding their morning family prayers in English
and the evening family prayers in Urhobo. In this way your children will take delight in the
language.
Urhobo leaders should also ensure that the Ministry of Education is prevailed upon to
introduce the teaching of Urhobo language in Primary and Secondary Schools, in Colleges
of Education, and in the Universities. Done in this way, the language will be kept alive, and
will not suffer the fate of a language like Latin known now as a dead language.
Urhobo Unity
It was our Lord Jesus Christ who said, “A House or kingdom divided against itself
cannot stand”. Our religious leaders (Christian and Traditional) should be sensitive to those
issues that disrupt our unity, as a people. Where there are misunderstandings, patent or
implicit, as between the Urhobo of Okere and the Agbarha of Warri, the religious leaders
should create a forum where such misunderstandings are resolved amicably as between
brothers. And where there is a clear dispute over border or ownership of any part of
Urhoboland, as the protracted dispute between Udu and Effurun, over Enerhe, the religious
leaders should step in and seek for ways and means of resolving such disputes. For it is in
unity that there is strength. For example, if all the Urhobo indigenes of Warri are truly united,
they will be in a better and stronger position to resist external aggression, which tends to
frequently disrupt the peace of this so-called oil City.
The Urhobo People and their Neighbours:

Ijo, Itsekiri, Isoko, Ukwani, and Bini
Our religious leaders, many of whom have significant relations in these neighbouring
ethnic groups, should also have a forum which attends to inter-ethnic conflicts in the region,
and nip them in the bud. For example, in 1997 when there was a serious crisis, between
Egbaregolo people and their Ijo neighbours, religious leaders, especially the leadership of the
Warri Diocese (Anglican Communion) in collaboration with the leadership of the UPU, and
some other Urhobo leaders like Chief J.E. Ukueku, played a major role in resolving the
crisis and bringing peace to the two communities. A stitch in time saves nine. Such conflicts
are usually as a result of injustice, perpetrated by a group that seeks to dominate their
neigbhours politically and economically in the Niger Delta Region. Here our religious
leaders should be at the forefront presenting an Urhobo voice, and ensuring that justice and
peace are maintained for the proper development of the region. They should remember, and
reiterate the truth to the State and Federal Governments, that without justice, there can be no
peace. What we have, for example, in Warri metropolis now is not peace, but a truce, an
uneasy calm. The Ijo, the Itsekiri and the Urhobo of Warri and in Warri, can co-exist and
together see to the development of the area. Religious leaders should be at the forefront of
the fight for justice and peace in the area. Creation of separate Local Government Areas for
the three ethnic groups is an honest and viable solution to the Warri problem, because it is
fair and just to do so, although this recommendation has not been accepted by all concerned.
591
Image and Place of the Urhobo People in Nigerian Politics
Our religious leaders, as leaders, ought to be conscious of the image and place of the
Urhobo people in Nigerian politics. Political offices both at the State and Federal levels are
not obtained by the idle or lazy man. They are not bestowed on any one on a platter of gold.
People struggle for them. Similarly, neglect and exploitation of the Niger Delta region by the
Federal government is not a situation that will or can be reversed without a struggle, a
struggle such as the Delta State Governor, Chief James Onanefe Ibori championed during his
first tenure and designated struggle for Resource Control. That struggle could be seen as
another terminology for a struggle for the realization of a true federalism in Nigeria, as is
practised, for example, in the USA. The repeated cry and demand for a national conference
by different segments of the Nigerian society is a struggle to attain the same goal.
In all these struggles, our religious leaders should play a significant role by sensitizing
their congregations in their sermons, and Bible studies about the need for justice and fair play
in Nigeria. In addition to sensitizing the congregations, our religious leaders should have a
forum through which they can communicate with Government, both at the State and Federal
levels, and represent the feelings and aspirations of our people. Government generally has
respect for religious leaders, and would listen to their presentation of the feelings and
demands of the people, such as educational institutions, health care centres and so on. These
are avenues for moving our society forward and combating the menace of youth
unemployment with its disastrous consequences.
It was Tennyson who said, “Far more things are wrought by prayer than the world
dreams of .” Any battle fought and won in the physical realm, had first been fought and won
in the spiritual realm. This being the case, who are better qualified and equipped to fight the
battle in the spirit realm than our religious leaders? They should always bear up the different
strata of the Urhobo people in their prayers, standing in the gap, and pleading the case of the
Urhobo nation before God.
Our religious leaders (Christian and traditional) should be involved in the challenge of
re-organizing the UPU, in a way that reflects the UPU of Mukoro Mowoe’s days. For as
Professor Onokerhoraye made very clear, there is a leadership vacuum created in Urhobo
land since after the death of Mukoro Mowoe on 10th August 1948. His successors in office
have not been very helpful. Some have stuck to the office of President General without
giving effective leadership to our people. The consequence is that the Urhobo nation with a
population of over 3 million, a people who Chief Obafemi Awolowo admitted in his book,
ought to have their own state, and yet they do not even have the State capital of Delta State,
which includes several other ethnic groups located in it, in Urhoboland -- and Chief Obafemi
Awolowo was not particularly a friend of the Urhobo.
The leadership vacuum created by the demise of Mukoro Mowoe is still with us, with
all its dangerous consequences, namely, the serious maginalization of the Urhobo. Our
religious leaders should come together and create a forum which will bring the needed
pressure on the present UPU to be reformed in a way that it can effectively play the role
which the UPU of Mukoro Mowoe’s day played in Urhobo affairs.
Finally, in this modern world, the religious leaders should identify with, promote and
encourage a society like the Urhobo Historical Society which created the present forum, and
which exists to pursue the progress, recognition and acceptance of the Urhobo nationality
world-wide. If our religious leaders play the roles recommended in this paper effectively,
they will demonstrate to the world that as religious leaders they are also leaders of their
people – the Urhobo nation – in all aspects of the people’s life.
592
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, let me conclude this address by expressing my
profound gratitude for being chosen and given the opportunity to articulate the views
expressed in this paper
I end this paper with our national anthem.
Urhobo jevwe, Urhobo jevwe (2x)

Obo r’ Urhobo jevwe na Asa ofa jevwe otioye yoo
Edefa me cha akpo Urhobo me je wan rhe
Urhobo hee Urhobo hee, Orere ri Ivie saan
Mr. Chairman, beloved brothers and sisters,

May God bless all of you and Urhoboland richly in Jesus’ name, Amen.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Erivwo, S.U., “Traditional Culture and Christianity: Rivals or Partners?” in AFER vol. 21 No. 4, August
1979a.
Erivwo S.U.., A History of Christianity in Nigeria: The Urhobo, the Isoko, and the Itsekiri (Daystar Press,
Ibadan. 1979b)
Erivwo, S.U, Traditional Religion and Christianity in Nigeria: The Urhobo People (Dept. of Religious
Studies and Philosophy, Ekpoma, 1991).
Erivwo S.U., “Aganbi, Agori and Umurie: Three Urhobo Church Leaders” in Epha – Ekpoma Journal of
Religious Studies and Philosophy (vol. 1 No. 1 Dec. 1992)
Erivwo S.U..,, The Life and work of Agori Iwe (Uniben Press, 1998).
Mowoe I.O.J. (ed) Leadership unity and the Future of the Urhobos
Niebuhr H.R. , Christ and Culture (Harper, 1956)
Onokerhorayen, Andrew G. “ Leadership and the Development of the Urhobo Nation: A look at the
Present, And Future Challenges from the Past” – A Guest Lecture Delivered at the 2003 Annual Party of
the Ufuoma Socio-Cultural Club, Benin City May, 17, 2003.
Ukoli, F. M. A. The Place of the Elite in Urhobo Leadership. In In Leadership, Unity, and the Future
of Urhobos: Lectures and a Poem on the Occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Death of Chief Mukoro
Mowoe. Edited by Isaac Owhofasa James Mowoe. With a Foreword by Dr. Moses E. Mowoe. (1999)
The Holy Bible (NIV)
593
Chapter 33
Urhobo Youth and the Urhobo Future 1

Omafume F. Onoge 2
University of Jos, Nigeria
Introduction
I want to express my thanks to Urhobo Historical Society for the invitation to deliver a
keynote address to this conference. I consider it to be an honour. It is also with great pleasure
and deep sense of solidarity that I accepted the invitation.
I must also immediately congratulate the Historical Society for its many achievements
during the short period of its existence thus far. The potentials and prospects you have
opened up for future Urhobo scholarship by exploiting the facilities of the latest global
technologies and other resources of your ukale 3 locations are truly inspiring. Some of us,
over the years, regardless of our disciplinary and professional backgrounds, have dreamt
dreams of how we could expand the spectrum of Urhobo leadership to include, not just actors
in political and business domains, but also intellectual labourers. Put in another way, the
question was; must an intellectual step out of her or his professional role and seek admission,
4
like a desperate Jambite, into the political and business classes, in order to
make a contribution and receive due recognition?
For sometime, the predicament of the Urhobo intellectual in this regard was difficult
for two reasons. First the late entrance of Urhobo men and women as effective players in the
national movement of primitive accumulation led to the extreme valorisation of money,
which Marx had described since 1848 as the “ chemical power” of capitalist society. Thus,
all professions that could not reliably pass the litmus test of financial solvency lost prestige
easily. This shift was not lost on the Urhobo masses. I recall that G.G Darah’s field studies
of Udje 5 poetry in the late 1970’s already revealed such awareness among Urhobo poets.
1
A keynote address at the Fifth Annual Conference of Urhobo Historical Society, delivered at Petroleum Training Institute, Effurun,
on Saturday, October 30, 2004, under the distinguished chairmanship of Olorogun M. O. Taiga.
2
I wish to acknowledge the following persons with whom I had extensive consultations on different aspects of the youth restiveness
in Urhobo land today. They are my brother T. A. Onoge and our friend Rotarian Luman Gbemre, JP. Both of them are current
presidents of the apex Community Based Organisations (CBOs) in the neighbouring kingdoms of Uvwie and Ughievwen,
respectively.
In their capacities as presidents of the CBOs they willy-nilly engage this restiveness and its consequences for the community,
business corporations, security officers and the youth themselves. They and their executive committees have frequently had to deploy
a great deal of tact and patience in mediating among this quartet of forces to produce a win-win environment for all.
I also consulted with my friend Chief Raphael Okene, the Otota of Otovwodo, Agbarah Ame (Agbassa) Kingdom, Warri. He
also grapples practically with the problem in his capacity as a community leader.
In conformity with the comradeship tradition of deep consultation of our movement way back at the University of Ibadan in the
1970s, I felt free to interrupt Prof. G.G Darah’s schedule several times through the medium of the GSM revolution, to test the validity
of my methodology and interpretive thrust.
Finally, I must here appreciate the patience of my daughter, Otome Ighofose Onoge, an undergraduate of the Faculty of Law,
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria who made this presentation possible. She spent four long nights typing and retyping and retyping
several unsettled drafts of this address. May her generation of Urhobo and other Nigerian youth actualise their futures in a Nigeria
emancipated from the barbarism of the rule of force.
3
Ukale is an Urhobo colloquial term for the Urhobo Diaspora -- Editor.
4
Jambite is a Nigerian term for a university freshman, coined from JAMB (Joint Admissions Matriculation Board) -- Editor.
5
Udje is an Urhobo dance-song -- Editor.
Many explained their shift from Udje satire to praise songs of the juju music
genre by saying that this is the era of “akpo r’igho” 6 and “ighoshemusua.” In the absence
of substantiating research on this point, I nonetheless hypothesise that the mass defection of
Urhobo officers from top positions in the civil service during the 70s was provoked largely
by the embarrassing tauntings at public gatherings such as: “Doctor. Oshekure: onota
7
r’igho ata na!” . It is my distinct impression that the defection was accompanied by a surge
in the registration of private companies dealing with pest control and garbage disposal. It is
also my impression that this also produced a boom in the development of private housing
estates in Warri and Effurun areas.
A second factor responsible for status erosion was the great decline that the teaching
profession as a whole suffered for several decades, through deliberate materially
impoverishing state policies and neglect. The education sector is yet to fully recover from the
protracted crisis of officially sponsored demoralisation.
It is, therefore, to the credit of the young Urhobo Historical Society to have produced
the much needed leadership synergy of academics and leading lights in business and public
affairs. In post-civil war Nigeria, your organisation represents the most successful effort in
the progressive evolutionary struggle to get a focused Urhobo scholarship going. In this
regard, we recall the first initiative of Urhobo Social Club, Lagos, which commissioned
Professor Otite and other colleagues to produce the first edition of The Urhobo People. 8
About a month ago, at another strategic academic brainstorming session, Dr. Rose
Aziza and I also recalled another pioneering effort in 1992 by Emudiaga Club, Jos, and its
young branch in Sapele, in organising a “First International Conference on Urhobo Studies,”
here at this same venue. I remember the infectious enthusiasm of Professor Okpako of the
University of Ibadan who responded to Emudiaga invitation by stating that the mere
gathering of Urhobo academics was itself a significant joyous event, even if nothing else was
achieved. As it turned out, there was a harvest of papers presented from multidisciplinary and
experiential perspectives. The difficulties encountered in publishing the conference
proceedings have prevented the Club from a fuller acknowledgement of the financial
contributions made by Chief Okitiakpe who raised money at short notice from the Urhobo
community of young businessmen and professionals in Lagos to prevent conference
postponement, Chief Benjamin Okumagba who accommodated several participants in Idama
hotel, the Ibru Organisation which made financial donation through the late Andy
Akporugo, and Chief Ofuah and his koka koka troupe who performed unpaid.
More recently we witnessed the successful sponsorship of an Urhobo Dictionary by the
Atamu Social Club of Lagos. In this respect we must also acknowledge the persistent efforts
of individual authors over the years who have self-financed their researches on critical
challenges faced by their communities or some cultural matter of interest. Chief Daniel
Obiomah readily comes to mind. The recollection – though not exhaustive- is important. It
staves off despair. To my mind, however, in the unfolding history of efforts by groups and
individuals to establish Urhobo Studies as an ongoing academic concern, the Urhobo
Historical Society is today, its most significant development. As it is said in
Urhobo, ‘okiemute.’ 9
6
This phrase literally means in English, “era of money.” -- Editor.
7
This is a sarcastic ridicule of the penury of academics at social occasions by those who made money the quick way. A rough
translation from Urhobo would be: “Doctor, the die is cast. It is now money matter, so lay out what you have for all to see.” – Editor
8
Onigu Otite, The Urhobo People, Ibadan: Heinemann Educational Books, 1982.
9
“Okiemute” in Urhobo means “There is time for the turn of a good event” -- Editor
596
Urhobo Youth and the Urhobo Future
Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, I want now to begin my presentation by

acknowledging the significance of the topic you have requested me to address. The
phenomenon of ‘youth restiveness’ – as it is now labeled – and its implications for our
collective future as a people are truly urgent. In the closing years of the last millenium, we,
the Uvwie Urhobo became the target of embarrassing jokes from neighbours, government
circles, traders, companies, transporters, okada associations, landlords, etc. because of the
manifestation of this phenomenon. Uvwie Local Government Council was derided in such
expressions as “I go die local government”; “I no go gree”, “garage council”, “motor park
council”. Uvwie Youth, often without any discrimination, were alleged to be nothing but
violent, riotous “gbeghe” and “deve” extortionists; who refused to go to school, learn a trade,
or work for a living. Uvwie people also felt rubbished by the external perception that we were
fixated on garage politics and that the traditional authorities and elders had abandoned their
supervisory responsibilities over the youth. This latter charge of abandonment of
responsibilities was also a favourite thesis in Abuja circles in respect of Warri riots.
The charge of irresponsibility drew angry rebuttals from concerned Uvwie in the form
of letters to the editor published in the Urhobo Voice. The rebuttals contained the counter
charge that the major political parties, and an indifferent police establishment, were in fact
escalating the crisis and frustrating the efforts of the traditional authorities to restore
normalcy.
However, it is also true that not everyone sought to deride Uvwie by redefining Uvwie
identity in terms of youth restiveness. Several Urhobo in different parts of the country were
genuinely worried about its consequences for Uvwie economic development and the larger
image of the Urhobo people. Such concerned persons urged that Uvwie leaders and the UPU
should do something about it. As I reviewed for this address I sometimes wondered if the
invitation to address the conference was based on the initial notoriety which Uvwie people
endured as a prominent ‘inaugural’ site of the youth irruption in Urhobo land.
I also admit that it was not without some tu quoque satisfaction that some of us
received the news reports of the later manifestations of youth violence in other Urhobo
towns. Since then this restiveness, often sliding into criminality with tragic consequences,
has spread to various Urhobo and Isoko communities.
I consider it a sad moral irony that its uglier manifestations in communities like
Evwreni, Isoko land and riverine communities that have degenerated to battlegrounds,
helped in some way to reduce the special targeting of Uvwie reputations. What the general
public did not fully appreciate was that Uvwie people were even more disturbed and pained
by the destructive character of the restiveness. We were the people on the spot- with no
where else to call home. It was our properties that were being destroyed. It was our people
who were the casualties of factional revenge violence among the youth. And it was the
livelihoods of our masses that were being worst hit as economic activities in the area
continued to shrink. We the victims were the ones being blamed. I shall return to this point
later.
At this juncture it suffices to note that the wide diffusion of restiveness shows that it is
not a problem that is the special property of any single community or ethnic nationality, for
that matter. Its multiple occurrence across Urhobo land, across the state, and across the Niger
Delta compels a more searching investigation. It is in fact not just a Niger Delta problem as
the central organs of state power in Abuja often wish to portray it. In truth, we are in the
throes of a national youth crisis. The immediate triggers of ‘youth restiveness’, and its formal
manifestations may of necessity vary according to locality; but its
597
pervasiveness and cross-cultural, cross-zonal spread indicate some underlying

national causes.
Supplying a Context:
It can be safely assumed that all socio-cultural formations recognise the imperative
linkage between a people’s collective future and the character of their youth. Evidence of this
recognition is abundantly provided in ethnographic reports of the institutions and customary
practices devoted to socialisation and enculturation of the young. The reports state, and the
people confirm, that the goal of enculturation, is to enable the young acquire the appropriate
behaviours, interiorise the beliefs, value orientations and identities of the group. Thus
equipped, the young generation is in a position to reproduce the institutional format of the
society and its cultural contents, long after the parental generation has moved on.
As is well known, psychological anthropologists and social psychologists have done

considerable work in establishing how socialisation practices ensure not just the reproduction
of formal institutional structures of economy, kinship and polity, but also the emergence of
“basic/modal personality structures” (a shared inner reality) which reproduce the deep psychic
dispositions and anxieties, that sustain society’s collective projective defence systems in the
domains of religion, rituals and art. In fact, as we may also recall, some investigators hold that
it is alterations in the socialisation of the young that constitute the best predictors of societal
change when the young become adults.
In any case, the point I seek to make here is that parental generations in ongoing socio-
cultural systems see their youth as the custodians or ‘leaders of tomorrow’. As such, every
coherent culture places emphasis on the care and proper upbringing of the young.
It is to be further noted that the leader- of – tomorrow conception does not imply
complete agreement between the elderly and youth generations all of the time. There may be
differences, but they are framed and resolved within the model assumption that, in general,
youth must serve their apprenticeship under the superior wisdom and experience of elders.
In small scale, pre-industrial societies where there was strong predisposition towards
culture conservation, the idea of change was also part of lived experience. Elders were aware
that youth experimentation and venturesomeness were often sources of some cultural
changes. Innovations of better techniques of production, cultural borrowing in contact
situations occurred. Environmental changes or some other exogenous developments may
pose fresh challenges to the new generation who were now in control. Yet the practice of
socialisation and enculturation was undertaken by the retiring generation in the confident
hope that their successors would make the necessary socio-cultural adaptations without
‘subverting’ the core values and identities of the collectivity.
Thus, the generational differences are not antagonistic contradictions that breed
disloyalties and threaten the persistence of the social fabric. If a youth lives long enough, he
too will become an elder someday. Hence the confidence of the Urhobo saying: ‘There is one
elder, but several children’. In the mean time, the pervasiveness of the seniority principle in
social relationships ensures that the individual youth is also already enjoying the privileges of
respect and deference from his or her own age juniors.
In East Africa, several societies developed the seniority principle into a full-blown
mechanism for political administration, and the orderly public transfer of decision-making
power from generation to generation. Preparations for such transfer from a retiring age group
to its successor were quite elaborate and involved the entire society in a series of
598
cumulative festivals and other ceremonial rituals. There was always great and joyous
expectation.
The import of such democratic political culture based on age-group constituencies was
not lost on colonial dictatorships. In deed, as I once stated the colonizer’s response: “
‘coming out’ ceremonies of age-groups- important occasions for dramatic performances of
democratic transfer of political power from one generation to another- were banned in
societies such as Banyakyusa and the Agikuyu, because of the fear that they could escalate
into realistic dramas of anti- colonial politics.” 10
A Further Context: Imaging Dialectics
By all accounts the imaging of Nigerian youth by state officials and the general
public today is largely negative. Youth is now perceived as a social problem. No week
passes without some media report of disparaging comments about youth and their alleged
defilement of traditional ‘core values of yore’, such as respect for elders and authority,
family honour, good manners, work ethic, self discipline and the like. At the community
level, The Urhobo Voice is also an unfailing source of news headlines reporting problem
youth activities in Urhoboland and other ethnic groups.
In the past youth were perceived as heroes of the nationalist movement. As students
and as a nascent proletariat they were the militant wing of the anti- colonial struggle. As
founder-members of the Nigerian Youth Movement, the Zikist Movement, the West African
Students’ Union, WASU, etc, they popularised the anti-imperialist consciousness theorised
by the elder nationalists. They were thrown out of school, often detained and jailed by the
colonisers who regarded them as dangerous nuisance: but they persisted. As a proletariat, in
the coalmines of Iva valley, Enugu, some of them were murdered by colonial police: yet they
persisted. They fought even the slightest manifestation of the colour bar -- thereby arresting
the introduction of any crazy racialist schemes. It was a youth, Anthony Enahoro, who first
moved the motion for self-government. The broad historical record of the sacrifices made by
vanguard youth in the liquidation of colonial rule is clear, even though many of them were
later marginalised as spectators, the day after independence.
Nigerians came to independence with the image of youth as a precious, strategic,
patriotic resource to be carefully groomed for leadership and developmental roles.
Investments in youth education were considered paramount in the public consciousness, if the
nation was to make rapid progress from colonial stagnation.
On the ‘morning’ of independence, Nigerian students from the University of Ibadan
and the Yaba Polytechnic had demonstrated fidelity to the legacy of militant
anticolonialism, by physically disrupting parliamentary sessions in Lagos to block
ratification of an Anglo- Nigerian Defence Pact, secretly imposed by the British
government as a conditionality for conceding independence. The public read the behaviour
as patriotic: and the Judge who tried their leaders reflected this public mood and dismissed
the demonstration as an instance of harmless “youthful exuberance.”
Three decades after independence, after so many twists and turns, the famous Report
of Political Bureau1987 11 was still able to affirm linkages of youth and national destinies
without recourse to philistine, pejorative slander. The Report devoted Chapter IX to ‘Special
Groups in Nigerian Politics and Society’ such as traditional rulers, the military,
women, labour, youth and students. I quote in extenso from the subsection on youth and
students:
10
Omafume F. Onoge, “Towards a Marxist Sociology of African Literature”, in George M. Gugelberger ed, Marxism and African
Literature, James Currey Ltd.; London, 1985.
11
Federal Republic of Nigeria, Abuja, Report of the Political Bureau (March 1987)
599
In the context of Nigeria’s historical experience, youth and students have

rendered valuable contributions to the struggle for liberation and national
development. They can constitute a reservoir of energy and dynamism for any
national struggle or campaign if they are correctly guided, mobilized, and fully
integrated into the social fabrics of the nation. They may also constitute a threat
to national survival and stability if they are allowed to drift, are unemployed,
undisciplined and morally bankrupt. No nation aspiring to major national
greatness can afford to ignore the youths and allow them to constitute a major
social problem. They are a vital source of manpower and do possess leadership
potentials, can acquire knowledge, and are full of future promises. Once these
innate potentials in them are fully exploited and properly channeled, their
contributions to national development can be immense. (p.163)
While sticking to the official classification of youth as persons between 6 and 30 years,
the Report noted that this age constituted about 59% of the nation’s population: with those
between 15-30 years representing a hefty 47% of the productive population of the
nation. The Report further noted that the students, a segment of the youth have sustained the
“militant wing” heritage of the anti-colonial movement by their current political activism:
They are the most committed group in the organisation of voluntary social work
or community development projects in their various localities. As students, they
are always in the forefront in the struggle against injustice, oppression and
exploitation. They, therefore, constitute a militant force in any political system.
Many of these activists have been recognised and acknowledged in Nigeria.
Unfortunately, however, their positive contributions have tended to be drowned
by rather frequent and sometimes violent protest actions. These protest actions
are promptly suppressed by the authorities and, sometimes, by ruthless means.
(P.163)
A detailed sociology of the changing relationships between the Nigerian State and
Nigerian Students movement has not yet been researched. I can only suggest that part of the
outline of such a study will include the following phases:
i. The switch from an inherited original perception of students’ nationalism to a

critique of an alleged emergent elitism, narrow concern with campus welfare and
‘ivory tower’ divorce from public causes.
ii. The perception that student protestant “radicalism” was short-lived; and was
abandoned as they ‘joined the system’ upon graduation. That is, an allegation of
hypocrisy of ‘fire-spitting’. The establishment of NYSC as “remediation.”
iii. The post-civil war phase, as the students movement began to adopt more public
causes of mass welfare, ignoring the sharp decline in student welfare (e.g.
Canteen, dormitory, classroom etc. facilities); and acting as a de facto
opposition, given the prohibition of politics by the military dictatorship.
iv. State response of violent suppression and repression and the allegation that
students’ role was to ‘face their studies’ and not get involved with public polices
and ‘politics’. Directives to university authorities to confine students to their
campuses, etc; and harsh treatment of Students Union officials.
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v. Phase of students’ intensification of critique of state policies, and deeper

identification with radical professional associations, and mass organisations such
as Labour -- e.g. the signing of an accord with Labour Union; and state response
of prohibition of NANS [Niational Association of Nigerian Students] and the
prohibition of “undue radicalism” in academic pedagogy; restriction of usage of
classroom facilities for public seminars.
vi. Phase of religiofication of campus culture and attempts by authorities to use this
to fragment solidarity of unions.
vii. The impact of SAP. 12
viii. Phase of emergence of violent cult phenomenon; its unresolved controversial
genesis, and its negative impact on state and public images of students.
ix. Phase of Youth Earnestly Ask for Abacha (YEAA) and two million-man march.
That was a period of active co-optation of youth by the State through the
propagandistic manipulation of a theory of conflict of generations.
A well-nuanced analysis will require that the changing images of student youth during
these phases take account of the dynamics of the larger political economy, and the cultural
sociology of Nigerian society as well. Student youth are not insulated from the existential
impacts of changes in these larger societal contexts. The Structural Adjustment Programme
(SAP) has been significant in the misfortunes of the country. Its continuation in the job
retrenchments, curtailment of welfare, and obsessional fuel price increases in our ‘born-
again’ democracy, unhinge real lives. A study of the changing images and behaviours of
student youth will also take account of the quality of state-society relations, fresh currents
of corrupt primitive accumulation; and the surge in new forms of piety as well as criminality.
The study will also consider the sociological forces shaping the composition of tertiary
institutions increasingly in the direction of indigeneity.
I move now to observations on the current youth crisis.
Current Youth Crisis: Some Observations
Perhaps I have erred in my persistent usage of the term ‘youth crisis’. You will have
observed that the thrust of my address is the ways in which various phases of our national
crisis are manifested in youth attitudes, fears, hopes, and behavioural responses. Of course,
there is a dialectical feedback relationship between society and its youth; but who in the
relationship triggers the feedback dynamics in the ‘last instance’?
Consider this touching comment by Obi Nwakanma, which I have excerpted from his
column, published in the Sunday Vanguard of October 24, 2004, page 9. The title of his
piece was “Chinua Achebe’s symbolic weight” and it focused on the literary icon’s public
rejection of the award of a national honour by the state. He applauded Achebe’s action with
the argument that government policies continue to exacerbate widespread poverty, “polluted
cities, scarcity, insecurity, decay, anomie”. Let me reproduce the harsh but sad judgement of
the penultimate paragraph of Nwakanma’s column, which I consider pertinent to the national
youth question:
“A contemporary generation of Nigerians have psychologically rejected, and
spiritually abandoned Nigeria. To them, the Nigerian project has come to an
end. Those who are unable to achieve physical flight have taken a mental flight
from Nigeria. As it is, only the president and a handful of those who are around
him still believe that there is something of a Nigeria left to talk about. But if
12
[Nigerian] “Structural Adjustment Programme.” -- Editor
601
the President takes a look, just once, and peep (sic) out of the windows of
his rock castle, he would see that Nigeria no longer exists. What exists is a
fascist state. It is not the Nigeria that the then young Chinua Achebe thought
about in 1958, when Things Fall Apart appeared to a joyous horizon; a
country then with such hope writ large, as it moved gingerly towards final
decolonization. It is not even the Nigeria that my own generation, born
within the first decade after independence, knew. Most of my generation
move towards our fortieth birthdays and beyond, towards middle-age, and it is
increasingly clear to many of us, children of the post-colony, that we incarnated
in the cannibal cycle” (emphasis mine).
And here is the first segment of his concluding paragraph:
We entered life to a meaningless existence – a nullity. And we might even be

called lucky, because those coming after us will live as slaves.
To our columnist, it is this government and previous military regimes “who have
authored this tragedy -- who have ruled Nigeria, and led her to the slaughter”.
We can of course hold that some of his statements do not fully capture the many-
sidedness and ambivalences in the public mood in the social responses to certain events and
policies over the decades. To take just the example of military rule: it used to be the case
that some military coups received initial considerable support both from the public and
ranks of the intelligentsia. Such support was founded on the theoretical and speculative
expectation that military regimes would be free from corruption, ethnic partisanship,
inefficiencies, and indiscipline; and that they would more readily attend to the technological
and economic development of the country, as well as, promote a deep sense of common
nationhood. It is our lived experience under a series of military regimes that has established
the mythological character of the initial heraldic expectations.
The foregoing notwithstanding, the despair of the ‘post-colony’ generation is evident
in Obi Nwakanma’s intervention just quoted. It is not an isolated observation. Harsh
appraisals of the current state of our nation are now frequent in our print media and
broadcast media under private proprietorship. Such appraisals increasingly characterise
newspaper and magazine editorials. The old supportive restraint displayed by
commentators, NGOs (including labour) and others during the first term of the new
democracy is evaporating. There have been shifts too in the consideration of youth
question. Here is an itemisation of some of the switches.
1. There is a national crisis on the youth front. Youth are now perceived largely as a
problem -- and the problem is popularly described as youth restiveness. The
national dimension is reflected in formal bodies such as OPC, Arewa Youth,
MASSOB, Egbesu Boys of Africa, etc. These are publicly acknowledged bearers of
structured political economic agendas of geo-ethnic divisions.
2. There are a number of other smaller youth associations in the states, local
governments and towns across the country today. They must be in the hundreds, at
least. These smaller youth associations are without any explicit political agenda, but
focus more on their welfare concerns. This is the predominant type whose activities
trouble Urhobo land today.
3. There is also a rise in organised youth delinquencies in Nigeria’s cities today.
Popularly known as “area boys”, at least in Lagos, they have a neo-gang structure
602
and specific city turfs where they operate and defend against rival groups. They
have a strong lumpen subculture.
4. Whereas in previous years, discussions of youth concentrated on the student
stratum based on the assumption of a vanguardist role, the situation has changed.
Discussions no longer privilege students, over other youth. The emergence of cult
gangs on campuses has facilitated the assimilation and subsumption of students in
the inclusive category of Nigerian youth. It is the violent restiveness of youth,
which now announces their presence in the public mind; and campus cults share in
this attribute. I suggest also that the rampant graduate unemployment, which now
exists, has also contributed to the erosion of the status of undergraduates.
We recall that in some states of the Eastern zone, the un-employment crisis
resulted in sharp decline in enrolment of boys in secondary schools. Parental
preference was for early insertion into vocational training as apprentices in
commerce and artisanship. It has required mass campaigns to reverse the trend.
5. There is an increase in the number of youth who flee the country through
illegitimate means in order to make a living in other lands. Global networks have
emerged to facilitate this physical flight of both male and female youth, as well as
child labour and smuggling. In any case, the long queues of Nigerian youth at
foreign embassies seeking entry visas is, in part, an indication of the “mental
flight” which Nwankama mentioned.
6. The youth who are now so characterised as restive were born during the era of
military rule. The era in which the actual use of force, or the demonstration of
readiness to use force to gain advantage, was institutionalised by soldiers at public
service points, such as petrol filling stations with long queues. Traffic regulations
were routinely violated by uniformed men. There was a resultant militarisation of
youth consciousness, which the society is now reaping.
The foregoing national characteristics of the youth condition today enable us better
appraise the youth question in Urhoboland. It should however be noted that just as it is the
case with the rest of Nigeria, it is not all Urhobo youth that have resorted to violent
restiveness. Like their counterparts in other parts, there are Urhobo youth, who work within
the framework, conform to the normative order, and strive for education in order to actualise
personal career goals. Some youth are of course fortunate to enjoy class privileges of their
parents. There are others, who are not so advantaged, but who have been guided successfully
by highly motivated parents, significant persons, or religious backgrounds. Some have also
made it because of their affiliation with morally strong peers, or spatial location in rural
Urhobo land not yet swamped with the chaos and anomie of unguided urbanism.
Urhobo Youth Restiveness:
Two years ago, I initiated a pilot field study of youth restiveness in selected
communities in the Niger Delta, as a basis for a more comprehensive investigation of the
phenomena across the zone. The goal was to generate data that could guide the formulation
of informed development policies and programmes for youth. Some Urhobo communities
were included in the pilot study.
Here are some of the tentative findings:
1. Youth groups in Urhobo land were largely apolitical. They were not the kind of
social movements with political economic agendas and bill of rights associated
603
with, for example, the authors of the [Ijaw Youth] Kaima Declaration, or
MOSOP. 13
2. Urhobo youth restive groups came into existence in the 1980s as pressure groups
to get paid employment for their members in companies operating in the area. This
is emphatically the initial purpose of their genesis. In some other Urhobo
communities where there were oil wells, there was the additional question of the
quest for fair sharing of compensations from oil companies. The presence of oil
companies and the consequent promiscuous debasement of the environment have
spurned the emergence of compensation agents and a veritable compensation crisis.
There are accusations in a number of Niger Delta communities concerning the
hijacking of such compensation by agents, and traditional authorities. Youth groups
have emerged to ensure that they are not shortchanged.
3. In the Uvwie case, the groups supplement their revenue by demanding “deve”,
that is development, levies, from non-indigene property developers; or
companies. A respondent justified the actions thus: “ …government has collected
most of our lands in the community with the aim of building low cost housing
estate without paying compensation, but surprisingly these lands have been sold
by government to various individuals who are not indigenes of the community. I
see nothing wrong therefore in collecting ‘deve’ from these people. It is our land
they are building these houses, making us landowners tenants. They must pay.
This is the only way we get compensated.
In a sense, some of us foresaw this land crisis in Uvwie kingdom more than two
decades ago. In 1978, I wrote an article titled “Rural Poverty in Nigerian Bourgeois
Sociology” 14in which I devoted a section to the rape of the Urhobo peasantry that had
commenced with the oil rush economy. While I leaned on Darah’s collection of Udje poetry
to illustrate growing mass consciousness of capitalist penetration among Urhobo generally, I
used the happenings in Uvwie land to sketch the process of land alienation that had
commenced. Here is a fragment of how I expressed it 26 years ago:
From my personal observations, the singular feature of the current state of

capitalist penetration of Urhobo villages, following the oil rush, is the process of
rapid land alienation. Uvwie villages, which are immediately adjacent to the
city, have faced the pressure more intensely and without any advance warning.
Within the short time that the city of Warri has become an administrative
centre for oil prospecting activities in this part of the country, landlessness has
come to characterise the Uvwie people. Within a decade the Uvwie polity has
lost more of its communal, lineage and individual farmlands to non-farming
private proprietors. At the time of writing, the ownership of most of the
remaining parcels of communal land is tied up in court litigation.
This material haemorrhage, this massive dispossession of Uvwie peasants of
the means of production, land, has been effected through the mechanisms of
forcible expropriation, deceit, corruption, state acquisition and commercial
transaction whose morality is unproblematic only in the fetid ethical system of
bourgeois legal culture.
13
MOSOP stands for “Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People.” – Editor.
14
Omafume F. Onoge: “Rural Poverty in Nigerian Bourgeois Sociology: A materialist Critique” in Onigu Otite and Christine
Okali, eds., Readings in Nigerian Rural Society and Rural Economy Heinemann, Nigeria, 1990.
604
The leaders of this coerced proletarianization movement are big landlords

who have converted the farmlands into giant housing estates, ‘layouts’ and
hotels for high-class corporate tenants. Today, Uvwie villages are imprisoned in
a forbidden ring of estates and layouts boldly flaunting the obscene egoism
of the new lords of the land on gilded sign boards: ‘Chief Oguobi’s Estate’,
‘Mr. Ozighe’s layout; Ogbare’s Mansion’. A variegated assortment of hotels,
motels, ‘guest houses’ and ‘inns’ dot the area like smallpox. My natal village
Ugborikoko, is today without farmland, imprisoned, in this capitalist
transformation of the ecology.
In this land racket Uvwie villagers were truly ambushed. The land pirates
had the money. The villagers had no money. The land pirates could afford the
best lawyers and the services of professional surveyors. The villagers could not.
All that villagers had were oral chronicles of geneologies of their forebears who
tamed the land. The land pirate with his money could summon emergency fake
griots (who had also begun to emerge) to fabricate geneological claims on
behalf of the pirate for a fee.
Meanwhile, the litigation battle is an unequal one. Desperate and pressed to
the wall, the peasant villagers fall back on their only ultimate cultural resource:
they sacrifice to the ancestors and summon them to come and defend their
children. They perform magic before they go to court only to discover that
money, the god of the capitalist age, is thicker than the blood knot between
peasant and ancestor. Thus defeated, some villagers capitulate and accept the
“magnanimous” offer of compensation” by the pirate. But the financial
“compensation” is for this year’s crops, and not for the infinite generations of
crops that future generations of the village will require for their sustenance.
Need we probe further for the root causes of “ gbeghe”-“deve” youth
associations today?
Further Characterics of Urhobo Youth Groups:
1. Membership of the organisation is not restricted to indigenes. All youth who seek
employment can register as members.
2. Definition of youth is elastic. Some have membership spanning 19-50 years of
age. The driving force is really the search for employment. Some refer to the
older members as “big youth”. A non-indigene member, an artisan in his 30s
from outside the Niger Delta zone said: "For years I have nothing doing. The
only way to survive is to join the youth, and since I joined I have been getting
some money”.
3. Membership spans the educational spectrum. There are graduates, HND, NCE
holders, artisans, SSCE and primary school certificate holders. It is not true that
members are a bunch of dropouts
4. On how long one can remain a member? A respondent said: “ First nobody
forced you into it. Moreover, the group is not a secret cult where members
remain for life. You are free to decide whether you want to be a life member or
not. As for me I am no longer a member because I have very important things to
do”.
5. Membership is all-male. But they are ready to “gbeghe” companies for the
employment of women.
6. Groups get additional funds through membership levies and monthly contribution
of a percentage of salaries earned by those who secured
605
employment through the groups lobby; and the fines they impose on
cases they settle among litigants in youth “courts”. They also make money from
fees paid by persons who seek their services in recovering debts via their display
of “gbeghe” (the show of force). Funds are shared by members immediately.
7. On the critical question of personal future goals. All responses stress to “get a
job”; other expressions are “take care of my children”, “get married”, “settle
down”, “to become a businessman”, “to become a politician” and, in one case, to
“gain admission to University”. On future community goals: they say they “wish
to see my community developed”.
8. The two sources of violence that have often spilt over from the groups to fracture
the community itself have come from the chronic problem of Executive
Committee successions; and the infiltration of the groups by rival politicians
seeking to use the groups for electoral campaigns support.
The flight of business organizations -- because of frequent youth “gbeghe” and the
Exco succession crisis, which is the occasion for much factional violence, and which has
sometimes led to loss of lives, property destruction and instability in the community -- has
provoked community initiatives. Some communities have now set up committees to ensure
peaceful succession and prohibited the associations from involvement in extra legal activities.
Implications for Urhobo Future
Notwithstanding the tentative nature of the findings from the study-in-progress, they
indicate that all is not lost even in sites of galloping urbanisation such as Uvwie land and
Warri. This is because the members, as well as, opponents of the youth associations state
emphatically, that the main goal of the groups is lobbying for paid employment from the
business corporations operating in the area. When pressed for remedial suggestions, both
members and their opponents urge the creation of more jobs in the area by government and
other relevant development agencies.
Members state personal future goals and ambitions of ‘settling down’ and raising
families as soon as “ I have a good job”. They claim they would cease to be members as soon
as they have employment, to enable them focus on their careers. Indeed, the study confirms
several cases of such former members who quit youth organisations after they secured jobs.
This means that members see the association as a temporary instrument for unlocking closed
employment doors. They are of course aware that the extortion of ‘development levies’ and
‘compensation’ fees from companies and individuals is illegal. These are illegal desperate
acts for survival in an economic environment where legitimate alternatives are presently bare.
However, the fact that they dream of personal futures of settled life outside this kind of youth
association, indicates that they have not deteriorated to a mindset which celebrates idleness
and survival predicated on illegal use of force. In some parts of the Niger Delta, community
leaders are already expressing great anxiety about the future behavioural consequences of the
huge “stand by” wages paid to some unemployed youth by oil corporations, just to buy peace.
Unemployment is a nation-wide problem, which is now further exacerbated by ongoing

SAP-type ‘reforms’. It is a veritable social time-bomb: and it is already manifesting as the
flash point for riots across the country, expressed in a variety of
ideological colourations. Although a full resolution of the crisis requires a growing of the
national economy, the local situation can still be relieved somewhat.
606
For example, the state government can insist that the giant companies comply strictly
with the regulation restricting job positions of certain grade levels to host communities. The
local governments and the Community Based Organisations (CBOs) can, through patient
dialogue, persuade smaller business outfits to reserve some of their job positions to their host
communities as well. This will enhance the climate of peace necessary for the orderly conduct
of business and the growth of the economy. The leaders of the CBOs and the Local
Government Councils ought to ensure that they bring to the attention of Niger Delta
Development Commission (NDDC) the concrete needs of the grassroots of their
communities. That way, the NDDC can match development projects to real community
needs. The current NDDC practice of explaining their master plan to contractors and
politicians at local government headquarters, does not reach down to populations in greatest
need of development.
Meanwhile, the flight of companies and other commercial outfits from Urhobo land,
because of the violence and insecurity contributed by “gbeghe” - “deve” violence of the
youth associations, has become clear to the communities and the youth alike. The very
employment, which they seek, is vanishing because of their mode of approach. A number of
communities are already taking initiatives to rein in the youth associations and gradually
return them to the traditional role of serving the community under the directives of ekpako,
that is, elders. The recent move of the UPU to inaugurate a central youth body to monitor
and coordinate youth associational activities, through representatives from the clans, is an
appropriate initiative.
Youth in rural Urhoboland still have the advantage of early insertion into the productive
family economy through availability of farmland, unlike their urban counterparts. The project
of road construction and rehabilitation, which the current state government has undertaken,
has already produced an impressive network of motorable roads. This development has
opened up market access for rural farm economies. It has also created possibilities for youth
to have their primary and secondary education within their villages and towns, with eventual
access to University education less than two hours from home. The upshot of this is that rural
youth can complete primary and seconddary education, without being alienated from a work
ethic. This is an opportunity now largely lost in the enculturation curricula of youth growing
up in urban Urhobo.
However, despite this rural advantage, educated youth will be attracted to agricultural
pursuits as a long-term option only if the agrarian economy is revolutionised. Here then is a
vast opportunity for Urhobo entrepreneurs’ industrial mechanisation of agriculture.
Fortunately, the state government is currently promoting programmes for a refocusing on
agriculture: and has in fact set up a successful training facility – Songhai farm – at Amukpe.
Surely, there is an urgent need for state partnership with entrepreneurs here to help relieve
the unemployment and poverty burdens.
The state, the UPU, Urhobo Associations, CBOs and communities have a role to play
in rescuing the youth groups from the violent lumpen regressions which now contaminate
their original employment seeking goal. The aforementioned bodies need to seek ways of
terminating the sources of small arms supply to the region. Where do the guns come from?
The commercial networks, which drive substance abuse among youth, must also be
dismantled. No nation progresses with a population addicted to substance abuse. Where the
habit had taken roots, its eradication has been one of the first priority objectives of third
world revolutions, as was the case of China. Urhobo Associations from UPU to the CBO
levels ought to consider launching political education mass campaigns for a redefinition of
politics in Urhoboland. Such a redefinition in the direction of service will remove the
necessity, by politicians; to convert the vital social force of youth into armed electoral thugs,
who violate the preferences of the community vote.
607
As I had indicated earlier, provided that some rehabilitative action is taken,

youth that presently constitute the associational type that has been discussed, do not seem to
me to constitute a major hurdle to Urhobo future. Fortunately, female youth are thus far,
largely insulated from this associational type. Urhobo have also escaped the teenage female
delinquency which first hit Urhobo youth -- in the form of hotel and night club prostitution
with expatriate oil workers, in the late sixties to mid seventies, when the oil rush
commenced. Many teenage girls abandoned their school for the ‘easy life’ at the time. It
appears also that Urhobo female youth are happily under-represented in the current
international network of migrant prostitution. We must salute our mothers for so protecting
our female youth in these truly trying times.
To my mind, therefore, there are more serious challenges facing the Urhobo future in
the poly-ethnic/poly-national constituencies of the Nigerian State. I itemise them as issues,
which the conference and the Urhobo Historical Society may wish to address.
Urhobo Future: Other Challenges
We are faced with four crucial challenges. They are the questions of cultural identity,
leadership, politics and nation-class tensions. I discuss them in capsule form.
1. Cultural identity:
Language is the key aspect of Urhobo cultural identity. And it is proper that its
significance has recurred in various sessions of this conference. Indeed, it has always been an
agitational issue in all-important gatherings of Urhobo. I suspect that Urhobo
Associations and ‘Meetings’ in ukale locations in Nigeria and abroad now require that the
language be spoken whenever they convene. The language is dying especially in the homes
of the successful educated middle and elite classes. Apart from the general loss of fluency in
the usage of the language among most educated elite, it is not being transmitted to their
children. Back in the homeland, where intense urbanisation has taken place (e.g. Warri and
Uvwie Local Government areas) children of the native Urhobo populations have been
overwhelmed with the Pidgin English language. It is in the rural areas where the language is
regularly spoken. Of course, literacy in the language lags for behind. The death of a language
is tantamount to ethnocide. It is a powerful means of communicating the knowledge, skills,
symbols, and aesthetics of a culture.
The case of the Australian Aborigines is a tragic empirical lesson. One of the indices of
inequities in the Nigerian polity is its neglect of the promotion of the languages of the
minority ethnic groups. The system works on the assumption that national integration
requirement is achieved when the languages and cultural symbols of the big three ethnic
groups have been provided for. Other minority groups in the Niger Delta and the Middle Belt
are also now much concerned with this problem. But it must be said also that the big three
are not relying solely on federal support. They have been doing a lot for themselves in the
promotion of their languages, literatures, dress modes etc. In seeking to reverse this trend
with respect to Urhobo language, we can learn much from the initiatives of the Yoruba,
Hausa and Igbo.
In promoting the language and culture of Urhobo the Local Governments, Urhobo
CBOs, and other associations can do a lot for us without waiting for initiatives from higher
organs of state power in the Federation. Among a host of things they can jointly do is the
establishment of community Radio and Television stations devoted to cultural promotion.
For example national and world news, discussion, enlightenment, religious and entertain-
ment programmes can be broadcast in Urhobo in such media.
608
Research and publications can be funded on a regular basis if the local councils expand
the notion of development beyond motor park and market stalls construction, to include
culture development.
There is yet another issue: masquerade festivals used to be a fecund source for cultural
renewal and community solidarity. Occupational changes among the population, the
dispersal of youth from home for education and career pursuits are some of the factors that
have led to their decline. But there is a new force in the land- Christian Pentecostal
evangelism that now paganises cultural practices, including these masquerade festivals
which, in essence, were classical indigenous Urhobo theatre. FESTAC 15 is now denounced by
these evangelists as having spiritually polluted Nigeria. Igbo annual masquerade festivals
have now also come under heavy Christian censure in the East.
Are we not faced here with a major cultural cost? Is there not a middle ground? Is the
ongoing uncritical demonisation of the indigenous environment not itself a source of Urhobo
identity disorientation for the coming generation? The Urhobo Historical Society may wish
to organise a thoughtful panel on the question.
2. Leadership question:
After the golden age of the Urhobo Progress Union under Mukoro Mowoe and his
associates who succeeded him, this apex organisation of the Urhobo has been plagued by
successive leadership crisis. The problem is now almost endemic. Tshis problem has also
been remarked upon at Urhobo assemblies. Whereas, the discussion of the language problem
unites, that of the leadership question fractures the community. Whereas successful initiatives
are already being contributed to the resolution of the culture problem; resolution efforts on
the leadership concern continue to totter.
It is an issue still requiring deep thought. For my part I think that a serious aspect of the
problem which is often neglected is followership. I hold the view that leadership is not all
just charisma. The followership also matters. A leader is as strong as his followership. A
weak followership can wreck leadership. In my judgement, the modern generation of Urhobo
are poor followers. Ethnography of modern Urhobo public occasions will reveal a constant
alteration of seating arrangements at the high table and on the front row. Everyone wants to
be at the high table or front row whether or not such ‘notable’ is directly relevant to the
occasion. Each is a ‘leader’ at all times.
I have usually argued that the poverty of followership stems from the deep tradition of
republicanism and egalitarianism, which informed Urhobo social structures and cultures for
very many generations. We do not, in my view, have long-standing traditions of living
under rigid neo-feudal hierarchical structures. Such hierarchies institutionalise deep traditions
of deference performance and subservience. In fact, there are several instances where mass
migrations of whole communities were driven by the desire to be free of tyrannical polities.
In such instances, the present kingdomite revivalisms represent a return to a past, which had
been superceded. These returns are adaptations to a colonially crafted polity with structured
privileges according to the degree of feudality of the constituent societies. Our colonial
master-nation, we should remember, did not complete its own democratic revolution from
feudal monarchism.
By my hypothesis, the stabilisation of Urhobo modern leadership in its apex
organisation will therefore require deep thought about far-reaching democratisation of its
constitutions.
15
Festival of African Cultures, popularly abbreviated to its acronym FESTAC, was an international celebration of African cultures
which was hosted by Nigerian Government during General Yakubu Gowon’s regime in the early 1970s. -- Editor
609
3. Politics
This is another area of concern in thinking about the Urhobo future. In particular I have
in mind the question of political party affiliation. Despite official and popular public thinking
that Nigerian political constituencies, and voting behaviour, are ethnic, it is also the case that
politics fractures ethnic communities. People also consider their self-interests and moral
principles in the choice of party affiliation and the candidates to support at elections.
As a people the significant political injury suffered by the Urhobo in Warri under the
Action Group government in the Western region, created a long-standing anxiety about being
in the opposition. The fear and distaste of opposition is indeed a pervasive Nigerian
phenomenon. It derives from the deformed values of the current political culture where
control of the state apparatus is crucially for accumulation, and the settling of scores. Ethnic
minorities are particularly disadvantaged if they find that their votes went to the losing
political party. The consideration, come election time, is to hop on to the “winning” party
wagon regardless of the relevance of its manifesto, if there ever was one. Even if the voting
was a hoax, it does not seem to matter as long as one’s own ethnic minority constituency was
rigged to the winning party. If the rigging is 100%, that is better: one can deploy the one
hundred percent support in bargaining for appointments and other spoils.
Yet for all that political strategising about being on the winning side, no matter what,
there is today general complaints that the Urhobo have not found any special favours. More
fundamentally, Urhoboland suffers the disabilities of neglect, environmental damage and
underdevelopment of the Niger Delta zone. It is this stagnation that is at the root of the
emergence of the youth disturbances we have discussed. Fortunately due to combination of
youth social movements with clear political economy and environmental protection agendas
in Rivers and Bayelsa states, and the political activism of the current crop of State Governors
of the Niger Delta, the problem of marginalisation can no longer be quarantined from national
consciousness. Yet the same one-party winners regime, routinely threatens the fruits of this
struggle -- NDDC, onshore-offshore agreement -- through state governments controlled by
the winning party where our states are members.
It is my position that the developmental transformation of the Niger Delta zone will
hugely facilitate the development of all the states and ethnic nations -- including Urhobo -- of
the zone. On this ground, I suggest that it is time for Urhobo politicians to encourage the
establishment of a Niger Delta political personality. They in association with their colleagues
in the zone can form their own political party with manifesto articulating the special problems
of the area. The party can then invite alliances across the country on the basis of terms that
will include the core concerns of the zone. As it is, despite the awakening, Niger Delta zonal
concerns receive grudging treatment, because our political elite now lost in the world of the
big party, are reduced to the status of appendage politicians.
4. Nation- Class Tensions
This is the fourth challenge, which faces the Urhobo future. However, I do not think it
has usually been posed in this way, although the empirical consequences are much discussed.
I consider the caption unsatisfactory; but it is for want of a better expression. In any case, by
it I am referring to the sentiment of common solidarity and unity – of interests’ assumption
which informs our public discussions on occasions like this. Are there no risks in taking this
common solidarity for granted? Will it hold for all instances requiring
610
collective effort? Has it in fact held on all fronts today? Is this assumption not an
exceptionalist view, which places the Urhobo outside of Nigerian history?
Yet it is the case that like other ethnic groups in Nigeria, the Urhobo have undergone
and are undergoing profound changes that have brought about structural differentiation of
class and personal material interests, as well as cultural changes. For one thing, the youth
restiveness that is decried is an instance of some of the changes that have emerged in respect
of statuses in the traditional social structure, and economic enfeeblement of the elderly voice.
Are the differentiated interests emerging from the changes still so mild that they can always
be dissolved under an invocation of a shared primordiality? Did some of our elite, in the
recent past not question the basic foundational text of “we are all Urhobos”? Did the elite,
traditional and modern, demonstrate agreement on the need for state creation at its
historically most opportune moment? Has the famed reconciliational ethos of dispute
settlement of Urhobo tradition, overcome the factional divide among the top politicians?
Urhobo Historical Society may wish to carefully examine the carrying capacity of the
common nationality identity in the light of the plurality of interest configurations constantly
emerging from socio-cultural changes. In contexts where interests have become so
differentiated, the efficacy of development interventions may require targeting specific
groups that can be most loyal executors.
Conclusion
By way of conclusion, let me remind the conference that the Urhobo heritage has a
time honoured technique for seeing the future, it is evwa, divination. I had no time to
consult any diviner before preparing my address. One of the secular techniques for an
16
approximate apprehension of the future of a culture or society is to do a SWOT analysis-
that is the strengths and weaknesses of the internal environment, as well as, the opportunities
and threats from the external environment. Although I did not follow the SWOT framework
in this address, I am convinced that the Urhobo Historical Society has through the quality of
participants and resources it has attracted from within Urhobo, is evidence of the peoples’
strength.
If we keep up the momentum, much poverty can be banished from this part of Nigeria
through community self-effort. A therapeutic environment conducive to the rehabilitation of
human dignity can be recreated. We can by our collective effort re-empower the people who
have been the true custodians of the culture. A programme of cultural revitalisation is not an
invitation to cultural autarky. It is an invitation to be an integral self confident, and
visible player in every domain of Nigeria’s multi-cultural society.
It is therefore my hope that this programme of protecting the environment, safeguarding
the livelihoods, heritage and dignity will strengthen the voices of Urhobo sons and daughters
in the ongoing struggle to reformat the Nigerian state in a truly democratic direction. In this
regard, other progressive constituencies, ethnic and transethnic, eagerly await our
participation in the sovereign national conference.
It remains for me to thank you for your audience.
16
“SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors.
Opportunities and threats are external factors.” -- Editor
611
Chapter 34
Fifty Years After Mukoro Mowoe 1

Onigu Otite
Introduction
The differentiation into three socio-linguistic families called Niger-Congo, Afro- Asiatic,
and Nilo-Saharan (Williamson 1971) is the ultimate basis for describing the old geographical
region which later became Nigeria in 1914, as a country defined by unity in diversity. The
Kwa-group of languages as part of the Niger-Congo (or sometimes called Western Sudanic)
includes socio-linguistic groups such as the Edo, Efik, Idoma, Igbo, ljo, Yoruba, etc. which
got separated about 5,000 to 6,000 years ago as calculated through lexico-statistics and
glottochronology. The Edo-speaking peoples separated into various groups, such as Bini,
Esan, and Urhobo, at about 3,000 years ago (see Otite 1982 16-24: for references).
Following this event, the Urhobo passed through several routes of friendly and hostile
physical and social environments with marked continuities and discontinuities, and settled in
their present territories in Delta State.
Thus, the Urhobo are part of the contemporary diversities in Nigeria (Otite 1971),
being one of the 374 ethnic groups with rights, just as any other ethnic groups, to their
national, political and economic resources. We are Nigerians because we are Urhobo, and we
have strong claims to participate in the government, politics, and the economic system of this
country, and be part of the central ruling body -- provided we are united.
We have at present about 1.5 million Urhobo, being more than 53% of the population
of our state, and each of us belongs to one or more of twenty-two polities that make up the
Urhobo nation. We were proud independent and sovereign governmental societies and
peoples prior to British colonialism. We have inalienable rights to exploit our territorial
resources or to negotiate compensation for their nonpolluting use by foreigners.
Fifty years is a long period in the life of an individual. The Urhobo existed before
Mowoe was born in 1890, and have existed as a society since his death on 10th August,
1948. Fifty years is a short period in the life of a society. In many respects, the life of a
society may be regarded as relatively timeless, unless it is terminated by natural disasters.
These statements suggest that we are temporary individuals on earth. While alive, it would
be improper to engage in divisive activities which destroy our society.
The Urhobo as a society can also be conceived of as a large family on the basis of biology,
i.e., blood relations, and of socially accepted extended classificatory kinship. We all have an
obligation to ensure the continuity of all social and associational arrangements such as the
Urhobo Progress Union (UPU), for keeping the Urhobo together as a powerful family while
we are alive. This is the basic and most important challenging side of the Urhobo question
today. Indeed, to modify Nkrumah's statement, when we seek first and achieve the unity of
our ethnic group, everything else that is achievable shall be added unto it. We should never
shirk this ethnic group responsibility.
1
A lecture given to mark 50th Anniversary of Mukoro Mowoe’s death in 1948.
Aspects of Urhobo Social Organisation Prior to UPU
A peep into Urhobo ethno-history has been attempted (Otite 1982: 9-26), ending with
loud calls to future researchers, professional historians, archaeologists, and anthropologists
to undertake further work. This is the only reliable way in which knowledge grows. And this
is particularly relevant in the social history of the Urhobo where many issues need to be
expanded, confirmed or challenged on the basis of new convincing evidence.
The migratory history of the Urhobo through their Udo-Edo territories is a history of
multiple societal separateness and common cultural continuity. The question here is whether
our history or histories should be perceived as an asset or a liability when considering Urhobo
unity. The fact that we do not have one centralized political system with one centrally
constituted authority does not mean that we are not the same people. The Urhobo are a
multi-polity people governed on the relatively micro levels of kingdoms, plutocracies, and
gerontocracies. In this respect of intra-ethnic separate identities, we share common ethnic
organizational features with the Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, etc., but not with Benin, Itsekiri and
since 1947, the Tiv and Idoma etc.
Thus as a people we have many socially organized "unities", but not one strong macro
unity, except in a cultural sense. The separate organizational identities have been consolidated
by the instruments of symbols and sentiments. Symbols are acts, objects, social formations,
etc., which convey meanings beyond what we see; they impel men to action. Hence kings and
their royal trappings are symbols in the various polities which rally people together in
cherished exclusiveness and defense of the various polities.
Subsequent to the Proclamation of the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria in 1900 and the
increased colonial activities up to the 1930s, the relative weakness of the separate polities
became very apparent. The colonial re-organization exercises and the emergence of
ethnic-cultural identities brought about a new need for larger formations or amalgams to cope
with the operating demands of Nigeria's plural society. What became relevant in that scenario
were not the sub-ethnic units, but the whole ethnic group in competition with others at the
national level for the scarce political and economic resources.
UPU and the Rise of Urhobo Nationalism
There were many precursors of the Urhobo Progress Union (UPU): gatherings of a few
people, informal and formal meetings, and discussions in several places attended on several
occasions by Urhobo people from the various polities, etc. A receptive climate of local
patriotism was formulated within the wider context of the general African renascent
nationalism. This was extended from the two townships of Warri and Sapele to the rural
towns and villages throughout Urhoboland. Stories of the formation of other ethnic
associations in Nigeria had been known in this respect, beginning with that of the lbibio-
speaking peoples in 1928.
Chief J.S. Mariere stated that the first exploratory meeting of the Urhobo people in their
attempts to form a pan-ethnic association was held in Chief Mukoro Mowoe's residence on
October 30, 1931, before the formation of the UPU on November 3, 1931. Mariere stated
further that "disunity" and "clannish leanings" characterized the Urhobo people at the time
(see Ikime 1977: 86-87).
However, before Mariere's 1931 meeting, the Urhobo had started to overgrow their
"clanishness." Indeed, by 1925, "a group of Urhobo met at Okpara Waterside ... to discuss
the questions of self-awareness and of how best to resist ethnic discriminations allegedly
made against the Urhobo particularly in Forcados" where a meeting was said to have been
held in 1924 (Otite 1982: 263). Each of the Urhobo polities was relatively powerless when
614
Fifty Years after Mukoro Mowoe
confronted by the discriminatory and antagonistic attitudes of other ethnic groups. By 1934,
the Urhobo in their home territories and in Diaspora formed many branches in Sapele,
Kaduna and Lagos, etc. The name of the union was changed from the Urhobo Brotherly
Society at its inauguration in 1931 to the Urhobo Progress Union in 1935, on amendment
from the Urhobo Progressive Union, by the Urhobo Literary Committee as suggested by the
Lagos Branch. The original UPU motto, that is "Higher Thoughts-Higher Aims" was
changed to "Unity is Strength" in the third (1956) edition of the UPU constitution.
Two significant issues emerged from the preceding statements. First, the Urhobo
people realised early an outstanding principle of social life which sustains the continuity and
development of societies, that is: materials are good in promoting individual and societal
comfort, but ideas are the ruling forces in life. The idea of the formation of the UPU and of
working out a motto played and still plays a major role in holding us together. Second, the
UPU and its motto "Unity is strength" constitute core symbols that order the life of the
Urhobo as one socio-cultural entity. The symbols were mobilized from the 1930s as identity
banners manifested through the proud ownership and use of UPU blazers and badges in both
the rural and urban areas. (Incidentally, the Otite children still keep our father's UPU blazer
and badge in safe custody).
However, although we can argue that these Urhobo symbols had a firm content to
regulate intra- and inter-ethnic relations from the 1930s to the 1950s, they have since become
empty symbols because of our own neglect and divisions in the contemporary situation. We
are all descendants and kinsmen of functionaries and members of the UPU when it was
formed, that is Mr. Omorohwovo Okoro (1st UPU President), Mr. Thomas Erukeme
(Secretary) and Mr. Joseph Arebe Uyo, who succeeded him as Secretary of the Warri Union,
Chief Mukoro Mowoe (first Vice President and later President, and from 1937 to 1948,
President-General and life President-General), Chief J.A. Okpodu (President- General from
May 13, 1950 to January 23, 1957), Chief J.A. Obaho President-General from January 26,
1957 to December 29, 1961 and Chief T.E.A. Salubi President-General (from December 30,
1961 to 1983) together with UPU successor-secretaries and members, etc. All these noble
UPU actors may not forgive us from their graves if they were to learn of the empty
symbolism of the UPU in our times.
Your Royal Highnesses, respectable Chiefs, distinguished Urhobo ladies and
gentlemen, I suggest that we must all admit our offense of conscious or inadvertent disregard
for the UPU legacy of unity which we inherited from our predecessors. We must have the
humility to atone for the sins we have committed against the bright torch of our exclusive
progressive heritage.
Chief Mukoro Mowoe was easily the most outstanding promoter of Urhobo ideals and
aspirations through the UPU. In acknowledging Mowoe's contributions to the UPU, Chief
T.E.A. Salubi said as follows in 1981:
The Urhobo Progress Union was founded in November 1931. The late Chief
Mukoro Mowoe, after gathering all Urhobo people into its fold, became its life
President-General in December 1937. The Chief was a powerful leader, very
highly respected, even to the point of adoration, by his people. He was
indisputably the wealthiest Urhobo patriot of his time. All the progressive
elements of Urhobo, at home and abroad, gave him full support and co-opera-
tion. It is probably not an exaggeration to say that, at that time, his word in
Urhoboland was law. The peoples' confidence in his leadership was at all times
unshaken. He deserved and enjoyed that confidence buoyantly until his untimely
death in August 1948. (Odje 1993)
615
The general mission of the UPU was well defined at its formation. That is to be the
strongest umbrella for articulating the interests and aspirations of individuals and the polities,
in an effort to develop the whole Urhoboland. The Urhobo had to pull in the same direction
(not in different or opposing directions) in recognition of their motto "Unity is strength."
Development was conceptualized in qualitative and quantitative terms, in measurable and
immeasurable indices as well as in capacity building through the educational development of
our human capital. It was observed that however abundant our natural territorial gifts might
be, our human resources must be developed as essential capital for development purposes.
Chief Mowoe and other founding fathers of the UPU realized this factor and made it a central
issue in UPU development activities.
Some Achievements of the UPU under Mukoro Mowoe
One of the most significant achievements of the UPU under Mowoe was its success in
sensitizing the Urhobo to recognize the need for their pan-ethnic unity. Every other
achievement derived from this united front. Let me refer to just a few examples.
(i) The UPU created a tradition of a broker association in reconciling parties that appealed
to it for help. In this respect, the rulers and unions of Oghara and Idjerhe kingdoms
appealed to the UPU at different times regarding their disputes over land rents and
benefits involving their two component units respectively, i.e., Oghareki and Ogharefe
and Idjerhe town and Mosoghar (Otite 0. 1973).
(ii) The UPU piloted the struggle for the colonial government awareness of the Orodje of
Okpe, Esezi II whom the Okpe people and the Okpe Union had duly chosen and
crowned as their king. The UPU led by Chief Mukoro Mowoe resisted the colonial
government's delay in view of the fact that the neighboring kingdom of the Itsekiri had
crowned with the colonial government's notice Ginuwa 11 as Olu in February 1936,
after a long interregnum as from 1848. The Okpe Kingdom also had a long interregnum
and equally wanted the colonial government's notice of its situation. It has been argued
that "The Political readings made into the non-recognition of the king (Orodje),
particularly vis-à-vis the king of Itsekiri, was one important reason for the involvement
of the Urhobo Progress Union. Through the Union President, Chief Mukoro Mowoe of
Evwreni and Member for Warri in the Western House of Assembly, the Urhobo
Progress Union put up fresh arguments in Warri and in lbadan, between November
1946 and March 1947 for the colonial government to reconsider its unpopular decision
on the Okpe king. So again what was supposed to be Okpe internal politics developed
beyond the kingdom through the Urhobo Progress Union" (Otite 1973: 97). It is also
significant to note the UPU's further actions when its secretary, in forwarding a petition
dated September 23, 1946, by the Udogun Okpe (Orodje-in-council) to the Senior
Resident, Warri, stated:
"My union has examined the claim of the Okpe people for the installation of their
Orodje as a clan head of their council and is satisfied that recognition by government is
a step forward for the advancement of Okpe clan administration. What brought my
Union into this matter is one living evidence of the Okpe peoples' popular choice of
Mr. Mebitaghan. The Odogun Council, the Okpe Union and royal house unanimously
appealed for the intervention of my union in the matter...” (Otite 1973: 1256; 1982:
264).
616
Although the Orodje was installed by the Okpe people on January 1, 1945, the colonial
government was made to note this fact much later.
(iii) The UPU was also heavily involved in the Sapele land case of 1941-43 which the Okpe
people won against the Itsekiri. It was, in fact, made an Urhobo affair.
(iv) There was also the UPU's important achievement in the field of Education. In addition
to widespread tours to enlighten the Urhobo about the need to educate their children and
their efforts in awarding college scholarships, the UPU was in the forefront of collecting
funds to send Mr. M.G. Ejaife to study at Fourah Bay College, Sierra Leone and later at
Durham University in the United Kingdom. Mr. E.N. Igho was similarly sent to Cambridge.
Ejaife returned as the first Urhobo university graduate (from 1942-48) and became the first
graduate principal (from August 1948) of Urhobo College. The UPU had founded this
college on its present site, first used as its temporary quarters in January 1949. This was
after buying over Wey's school in October 1946 (see Ikime 1977: 100). Mr. Igho returned
from Cambridge to handle science subjects at Urhobo College. Both Chief Ejaife and Mr.
Igho were versatile scholars who injected a lot of pride and enthusiasm in their students at
Urhobo College. These two personalities and the college acted as one of the early catalysts
for educational expansion in Urhoboland. Today, the effect is that Urhobo university
students inside and outside Nigeria number in the thousands. The educational current is
strong and sustained, and no one can stop it.
The moving engine behind these UPU successes and foresight in Urhobo human capital
development was Chief Mukoro Mowoe. His father, Oghenemohwo, and mother,
Onokporere, were both Urhobo from Evwreni. The original name of their child was
Umukoro Oghenemohwo, which became shortened and anglicised as Mukoro Mowoe. As a
full-blooded Evwreni man, he grew and functioned beyond Evwreni social and territorial
boundaries and made all Urhobo people the beneficiaries of his wealth, his physical and
intellectual energies, and his patriotic commitments. It was this prominent man who
strengthened the UPU which we have all inherited. Should we let this heritage slip out of our
hands? How would we explain our failures in this respect to the living spirit of Mukoro
Mowoe and all our dead UPU torchbearers ? Not many of us would want to be in a team to
intercede with our Urhobo spiritual world for tolerance or forgiveness. We have an option to
rethink our neglect of the UPU and avoid being so badly placed.
We must be reminded that the UPU has never detracted from the political or economic
stature of Urhobo individuals or groups. "The UPU is not an all-Urhobo government and does
not issue binding rules on any kingdom (or polity); rather it is regarded mainly as a
reconciliatory (and energizing) body to lubricate the machinery of Urhobo indigenous
governments and act as their consort and assistant." (Otite 1973: 128) The UPU is an Urhobo
instrument for promoting the interest of the Urhobo people as individuals and as a group.
Aspects of Nigerian Politics and the UPU
The UPU is unlike many other Nigerian ethnic associations with regard to the
formation of political parties. For example, the Egbe Omo Oduduwa (Union of Oduduwa
descendants) was founded in 1945 by Yoruba students in the United Kingdom and by
prominent Yoruba citizens in Nigeria in 1948, later sponsored the formation of the Action
617
Group (A.G.) political party in 1951, just as the Pan-Ibo Federal Union founded in 1944
supported the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC). The NCNC was
formed in 1944 from the Democratic Party in Lagos, and led by Nnamdi Azikiwe after the
death of Herbert Macaulay in 1946. It was just as well that the UPU remained a cultural
organization with members allowed free and democratic choice of their political party
affiliation. By taking this stand, following the wisdom of our founders, the UPU avoided the
destabilizing and fractionalizing consequences of political party organization. We thus had a
chance to remain stronger in unity.
The A.G. and the NCNC were regarded as Yoruba and Igbo political parties
respectively, but they had influence on the Urhobo mainly as individuals and as subjects of
traditional rulers, especially as from 1951 when both parties contested the 1951 regional
elections under the Macpherson Constitution. This lecture will not deal with an analysis of
political party activities in detail in Urhoboland for the obvious reasons of space and time. It
should, however, be recalled that because the majority of Urhobo people supported and voted
for the NCNC in the elections, various legal and political procedures were put in place by the
Action Group-controlled government of the Western Region for a selective penalisation of
the Urhobo people.
In particular, the two Urhobo polities of Okere-Urbobo and Agharha-Ame (Agbassah)
which were exclusively organized with jurisdiction over their own parts of Warri, like that of
the Ogbe-Ijo peoples, were made parts of the renamed kingdom of the Itsekiri. By re-
designating the Olu of Itsekiri as the Olu of Warri, these two Urhobo polities were made de
jure rather than de facto parts of Itsekiri kingdom. This was an outrageous misjudgment and
an abuse of party political power, by deliberately succumbing to unwarranted pressures from
emergent party politicians, despite the fact that following strong protests from the Urhobo
people, the colonial government had strongly rejected, many times, the Itsekiri request to
change the title of the Olu of Itsekiri to the Olu of Warri. (See also Ikime 1977:84). The ruler
of one of the four independent and coordinate parts cannot be made the ruler of the whole of
Warri. To tolerate this illogicality so long after the 1952 Itsekiri- Urhobo riots confirms the
rightly stated fact that the Urhobo are a peaceful and democratic people seeking justice
patiently until it is achieved.
UPU during the Nigerian Civil War
The military struck in 1966, and most Urhobo – like members of other ethnic groups
and their leaders – went underground. All the ethnic associations formed after and including
the Ibibio Union which began in 1928, were disbanded partly because they were thought to
be inimical to military government processes. The only strong ethnic association spared in
this exercise was the UPU, thanks to our own Major General David A. Ejoor, a top member
of the military elite, who had friendly working relations with the then Head of State, General
Yakubu Gowon.
What did we or could we make of this spared associational continuity of the instrument
of our unity, the UPU? Conventional wisdom dictated that we had to go underground as well.
The UPU could not be made visible; its activities were submerged, and hence while Chief
Salubi was President-General and later succeeded by Chief (Dr.) Esiri, it appeared to many
observers that the UPU and the two Presidents-General were not active.
618
The UPU after the Civil War
The studied inactivity or even silence of the UPU continued up to the 1980s and 1990s.
One important consequence of this situation has been the emergence of multiple micro
efforts towards the same theme of unity – micro unities towards one Urhobo strength. In one
important sense, this is a healthy development because it demonstrates the general eagerness
for the progress and oneness of the Urhobo people. Hence we must applaud the formation of
the Urhobo Social Club in Lagos, The Urhobo Peoples Club, Kano, The Ufuoma Club, The
Urhobo Solidarity Club of Nigeria, Emudiaga Club, The Urhobo Ladies Association, Ekugbe
Association and many others. These associations cut across town and sub-ethnic associations
formed to cater for the progress of home-towns and the separate polities.
The constitutions and operations of all these associations deal with the problems of
leadership in a united Urhobo society. There is also the problem of how to avoid pulling
down our emergent leaders in various spheres of national or sectional activities in which the
Urhobo take part. The network of associations of various scales imply the existence of
various centres for the promotion of Urhobo development.
Another important consequence of the civil war period is the diversion of attention and
energies from the central all-Urhobo UPU and leadership. This partly explains why I argued
elsewhere (Otite 1993:21) that "the Urhobo have many leaders in various areas of life, but
they have no leader." This should not be interpreted to mean that the Urhobo have no
shepherd. We are, of course, all aware that we currently have a President-General succeeding
in an unbroken line of leaders since 1931. There are now in reality several constitutional
democratized shepherds as leaders of the various patriotic Urhobo Unity Clubs elected for
specified periods. Here I also reiterate my 1993 argument that "The leadership and unity of
the different Urhobo communities, Unions and Clubs mentioned earlier should be regarded
as viable dimensions of the central leadership of the Urhobo." (Otite 1993: 18) We have
unity in parts, but not unity of the whole. We have a horizontal arrangement of micro Urhobo
Unions, but these are not articulated vertically within the umbrella of our inherited UPU.
The Urhobo are not as seriously or irrevocably segmented as the Nigerian society, and
we are not worse off than many of Nigeria's multi-polity ethnic groups. We have more
potential for sustainable unity and centralized leadership once we develop the will,
particularly as the UPU has never been made a base for political party activities in our
contemporary situation. We must develop the will to forge and maintain a unity of all the
Urhobo as bequeathed to us by Mukoro Mowoe and other founders of the UPU. We can no
longer ignore this legacy. It is the mandatory way in which we can move the Urhobo forward.
Let me repeat the point that since the Urhobo are not descendants or extensions of other
people, it is only the Urhobo as a distinct people who can move themselves forward. And the
non-negotiable unity of the Urhobo is not an end in itself; it should be constituted into an
instrument for mobilizing and empowering the Urhobo people to develop themselves.
The Urhobo can also use their unity in many other ways. They could bring the heavy
weight of their unity to bear on the oil companies and pressure them to develop the oil-
producing communities. We should prevent them, using diplomatic and non-violent means,
from creating without solving the problems of ecological disaster, and from the wanton
destruction of the economic life of the Urhobo without appropriate sustainable substitutes.
We should prevent them from slowly destroying our societies and cultures. By accident or
619
by design, these oil mineral-producing companies are working slowly towards the extinction
of the Urhobo people, not by the barrel of a gun, but by cutting the economic base sustaining
our social and political existence. Our air, land and water are polluted, and fish and other
animals, as well as human beings, are dying gradually.
Further on our Major Possession: Land and its Resources
Let me draw together the most important issues mentioned earlier in the preceding
paragraphs regarding our territorial resources. I reiterate the point that we are full citizens of
Nigeria with inalienable rights to inhabit and exploit our own territory in the present Delta
State. In 1993, I lamented the situation that "it is an excruciating experience that while so
much wealth is produced and carried away from our (Urhobo) land, only pollution is left
behind." This situation has not changed.
My 1993 figure of 557, 595, 658 barrels of oil produced by only six oil wells in
sixteen years (1970-1985) (see Appendix 11) at the fluctuating average rates of US $3.00
(1973), US $11.00 (1974) US $14.00 (1978) and at the boom rates of $35.00 (1980) and US
$40.00 (1981) represented an enormous national wealth from Urhoboland.
Further research on this subject reveals that "Urhoboland produces about 64.3 million
barrels of oil annually. This represents about 30% of Delta State and 10% of the national
yearly total land production. At the modest price of US $14.00 per barrel, annual oil income
from Urhoboland amounts to US $900,200,000 (nine hundred million, two hundred
thousand dollars) or N 19, 804,400,000 (nineteen billion, eight hundred and four million,
four hundred thousand Naira) at the current official exchange rate of N22 = 1 US$.2
Several oil companies operate in Urhoboland. These include Shell Petroleum
Development Company (SPDC), Pan Ocean, Chevron, and the Nigerian Petroleum
Development Company (NPDC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC). Let me deal briefly with only two of these companies, SPDC (or Shell
for short) and Pan Ocean.
In a period of 35 years, Shell's annual earning of US $560,000,000 from Urhoboland
added up to US $19,600,000,000 (Nineteen billion, six hundred million dollars), i.e. N
431,200,000,000 (four hundred and thirty one billion, two hundred million Naira) at the rate
of 22 Naira to one dollar. Shell appears to have a near monopoly on oil exploration in
Urhoboland such as in Afiesere, Amukpe, Ekakpamre, Evwreni, Kokori, Sapele, Ughelli,
and Utorogun. On the other hand, Pan Ocean operates mainly around Oghareki. With an
annual production of about 2,000,000 barrels worth about US $28,000,000 (28 million
dollars at US $14 per barrel), the company earned from Urhoboland in 20 years, a total
amount of US $560,000,000 (five hundred and sixty million dollars), i.e. N12,320,000,000
(twelve billion, three hundred and twenty million naira). Delta State is the largest oil-
producing State in Nigeria and about 15% of the national oil production is derived from
Urhoboland.
Another territorial issue relevant to our demand on the State has to do with gas flaring,
a most outrageous and most disastrous activity, viewed in the context of the chemical,
physical, and other forms of the pollution of our air, land, and water. The most notorious
example of flaring is probably the site at Agbarha Otor with a 70 feet inferno for the past 20
years; Otughienvwen (Otorogin) has been flaring gas since 1970, Afiesere since 1968,
Kokori from 1966 until recently, and Eruemukohwarien since 1967. There is a philosophical
side to Eruemukohwarien. The name means literally, we should appreciate
2
See paper titled "The Nigerian Petroleum Industry and Urhobo Oil Mineral producing Communities” presented by Urhobo Oil
Mineral Producing Communities on the occasion of the Ministerial Committee Visit, P.T.1 Effurun, Delta State 28. 2. 94.
620
any good thing done to us. As an involuntary host to Shell, the people expected something
good from oil exploration. We are told instead that the people were taken unawares when
they suddenly saw light everywhere and some actually left to stay for a week or two in the
bush thinking that the prophesied "Armagedom," or rapture, had come. The effect of gas
flaring on them was thus traumatic from all angles.
The current value of gas flared off and wasted in Nigeria daily has been estimated at
450 million Naira. The Urhobo share of this waste is about 15%. This is good money that
could be used for road dualization, urbanization and urban renewal, flyover connecting
bridges, etc. And, of course, such gas could help tremendously to resuscitate and salvage the
Delta Steel Company now apparently abandoned by the Federal Government.
I am aware that by Decree No 23 of 1992, the Federal Government set up OMPADEC
to administer funds allocated to it from the Federation Account and tackle ecological
problems among other things arising from oil production. We all probably know that the
Commission was deformed structurally, misused and abused, and it became ineffective right
from its creation. Several suggestions have been made to government to salvage OMPADEC.
I strongly support its decentralization to bring it nearer to its intended grassroots beneficiaries
who could then act as watchdogs of OMPADEC's transparency, accountability, and proper
and acceptable execution of its development programmes.
The issues of petroleum resources obtained from our land and the gas flared to
eliminate or "de-develop" us and our ecosystem form the background to our rightful main
demands as we shall treat shortly.
In all probability, if he were alive, in keeping with his celebrated leadership, Chief
Mukoro Mowoe would be in the forefront of this struggle. He organized united demands and
pressures on behalf of Urhobo interests even where individuals or only one polity benefitted
from such united Urhobo demands. With the heavy weight of our unity and central leadership
behind the needs of specific affected communities, the UPU could provide technical advice
to ensure that payments or compensations made to communities are used for the development
of such towns or villages, rather than get siphoned away into private pockets. For example,
such community incomes could be used in setting up rural industries and other economic
enterprises.
Looking ahead into the 21st Century
Let me draw attention to the following five ways in which we may re-order ourselves
and move the Urhobo forword. First, we must finally settle the problem of a central
leadership. I have referred to some arguments in support of this issue in this lecture as I did
in 1993. Let me bring the two lectures together in this respect. Our central leader need not be
the richest Urhobo nor the most educated nor the oldest or wisest person. Our leader is rich if
we are rich, poor if we are poor, educated in many fields if we are educated, wise if he gets
wise advice from us, etc. That is, our leader is what we make of him as a reflection of what
we are.
Although in 1993, I drew attention to the analytical distinction between two categories
of leaders reflecting the two faces of the same coin, society and culture, which is still valid, it
has become obvious that, in retrospect, an objective analysis of our Urhobo experience in the
past few years compels us to suggest a fortification of the UPU as the best option in blazing
Urhobo uniting leadership. We must build on our past and maintain the unbroken line of
Urhobo leadership begun by Omorohwovo Okoro and passing through Mukoro Mowoe.
621
At this point, let me make a comment to clarify my image of the UPU a little further. It
should remain a non-mandatory union which all Urhobo are nevertheless urged to join. I
repeat that UPU membership should remain voluntary although its desirability is emphasized.
It should articulate vertically all the horizontal Unions and Associations or Clubs formed as a
result of our own democratic character. The various associations already referred to in this
lecture as well as all UPU Branches in Nigeria and elsewhere should function as UPU organs.
But these units as organs should be free to promote Urhobo unity the way they consider fit.
And when they undertake programmes even with funds from national and international
donors, they should report their successes or failures to the UPU. These may be passed round
as exemplary stimulants possibly for healthy competition during UPU annual or biannual
meetings. The organs could pass on certain tasks to the UPU if they find it more appropriate.
Another asset that the UPU has is the rural or village sustained organizational
continuities in our polities. The UPU may spread its threads of incorporation through the
central authorities of kings-in-council to youth and age-grade organisations to serve as
centres of mobilization and of enlightenment about Urhobo Unity and development.
The UPU in structure and function should not be perceived as an overworked
bureaucracy, but as an instrument of identity and communication, better placed to tap all
available resources to solve intra-ethnic and inter-ethnic problems. For example, the UPU
could identify some historians, lawyers and anthropologists to investigate and obtain facts
about land problems which may be passed on to politicians or judicial officers for use in
particular court cases. Thus the UPU can be a source of origination or co-ordination in
particular problematic situations.
The Urhobo should maintain one strong voice which articulates the various democratic
individual and group or union voices, with consensus vigorously demonstrated on national,
political, educational and other issues.
I should point out, however, that in spite of provocation, Mukoro Mowoe did not work
for Urhobo unity in order to generate ethnicity in Warri Province and the Western Region.
He, together with Omorohwovo Okoro, Erukeme and succeeding UPU Presidents- General,
promoted Urhobo unity generally as a basis for a united demand for social justice and for
consultations towards friendly relations and the wider unity of all the ethnic groups - Igbo,
Isoko, Izon, Itsekiri, Ukwani - living in the province. Mowoe's legacy in this respect is the
strict restraint put on fighting our other ethnic brothers and sisters in Warri Province and
others in the Western Region. Mukoro Mowoe did this even when it became apparent that
some individuals and groups unilaterally constituted themselves into unfriendly units for
persistent vicious campaigns and statements against the Urhobo people.
Mowoe's legacy of the wider "unity of unities" should be upheld and projected as an
instrument for teaming up with other ethnic groups of the Southern powerful and strategic
oil-producing minorities in an attempt to close ranks and forge a united demand for adequate
entitlements from oil revenue, and to fight against oil pollution and social and envirornmental
disaster. In this regard, I suggest the formation of a Southern Minorities Union or the Niger
Delta Peoples Alliance as a politico-economic pressure group. The Urhobo, being the most
populous group in the region, with the best-developed human capital, can provide leadership
or a very visible membership of such a Union or Alliance. Mukoro Mowoe's ideological
stand in this matter is exemplary; he regarded pan-ethnic unity of the Urhobo as consistent
with the desirable friendly inter-ethnic relations in Nigeria, and in Warri Province in
particular. As an outstanding personality, he carried out his successful business and
administrative and political careers in this ideological context. Mukoro Mowoe strongly
supported the Nigerian Federation at that time because it provided
622
various reconciliating arenas of activities in which individuals, ethnic groups and regions
satisfied their interests.
My second point for moving us forward is that our Urhobo leader of the 21st century
must be physically energetic and mentally alert, and must respond democratically to the
changing demands of the national environment as alerted by the principal actors in his social
networks or connections. He must learn to be diplomatic in his approaches to people and
issues. Obviously, Mukoro Mowoe's Nigeria is different from our contemporary Nigeria. Our
politico-economic environment is now more complex, and many critical variables have now
to be considered before leaders take decisions and make demands on the state to benefit their
people.
When there is need to meet top functionaries in Nigeria's political-governmental
systems, our leader must consult and use his pool of Urhobo experts and personalities with
experience, exposure and connections appropriate to a particular issue. All Urhobo people are
potential resources for constituting ad hoc action groups to deal with particular problems at
the right time. May I reiterate the issue arising from this point; that is, the dire need for the
Urhobo people to help one another to rise up, by assisting the needy with appointments and
promotions and using our various connections to "install Urhobo people in leading positions
in government and in parastatals and private establishments where they, in their turn, can
help other Urhobo people. This practice seems to be quite common in contemporary Nigeria.
And the Urhobo people alone cannot label it 'nepotism' and shy away from it, much to our
disadvantage in our system of national competition. We need many Urhobo big trees to make
a big economic and political forest" (Otite 1993: 19). This is an important issue which we
must all face in our different positions in life as a means of moving the Urhobo forward.
I should also urge again that we stop forthwith the condemnable habit -- I will not call
it culture -- of pulling our leaders down, instead, as it were, of fertilizing the ground around,
to let the emergent leaders grow. If we destroy our own leaders, who will be in the forefront
of our struggle for our rights and entitlements in Nigeria? We cannot continue to receive
almost nothing in return for what goes out of our human and natural resources to build and
sustain the nation.
Third, and following from the preceding paragraph, wherever and whenever we have a
single Urhobo candidate contesting for a political position, we should continue to support
such a candidate massively with votes, as we did in the case of Chief Felix lbru as the first
Executive Governor of Delta State. The advantages for the Urhobo of continuing this voting
behaviour into the 21st century can hardly be overemphasized.
Fourth, our Urhobo identity and unity will continue to be elusive into the 21st century
if we fail now to preserve and pass on the cultural content of our life to future generations.
Accordingly, we must set up strategies for cultural preservation. Several ideas come to mind
here:
(i) Parents and patrons must teach their children or wards the Urhobo language at
home. They must speak the language and if possible read and write it, using
elementary texts.
(ii) Where parents spend most of their time at work say in urban areas,
arrangements should be made for holding lessons and sessions in the Urhobo
language. This is absolutely necessary in urban areas, including Warri, Sapele,
Lagos, Kano, Jos etc.
(iii) Cultural centres should be established in urban areas consisting of libraries of
Urhobo collections -- books, journals, articles, artifacts, films etc. There should
623
be periodic demonstrations of ritual and artistic dances, and collection and

documentation of folktales, riddles, proverbs, oral literature, poetry of Udje, etc.
(iv) (iv) A research unit on Urhobo culture should be established, and occasional
lectures on various aspects of Urhobo culture should be organized.
(v) A Centre for Urhobo Studies should be established and possibly attached to a
sponsoring university, for example, Delta State University.
(vi) The Urhobo National Day should be resuscitated and popularized for the
celebration of Urhobo culture, identity and achievements.
Fifth, a Pan-Urhobo Politicians Club should be organized formally or informally now

and in the 21st century. This must be an alert group of political practitioners and elders with a
wealth of experience. They should follow on a daily basis the dynamics of political relations
and transactions in Nigeria, to ensure that the Urhobo people are not marginalised. They may
invite experts in all fields, including political scientists, political sociologists, political
geographers and professional historians, and must analyse issues objectively as they occur.
They should produce communiques whenever necessary, to articulate the Urhobo stand on
local and national issues. They must be self-assertive, shrewd and outspoken in line with the
Urhobo personality, and be diplomatic if and when necessary.
As I argued in 1993, and during my recent lecture to the University of Lagos Urhobo
students, the 21 stcentury will still provide political theatres in which the Urhobo must stand
up strongly united to be counted at national central tables, make demands on the State as a
group and be recognized. Otherwise, we would be strangled by smarter people of other
ethnic groups who struggle to get as much as possible or even more than their own share
from our limited political and economic resources.
The Final Question: What Do the Urhobo People Demand?
The issues of economic and political deprivations raised in this lecture gradually
evolved a consciousness which compels us to support the idea of a sovereign national
conference. We are confident that as true Nigerians, and the owners of our territory which
generates resources to develop and sustain the nation, a sovereign national conference would
provide the Urhobo people an opportune forum for objective dialogue aimed at restructuring
our national, political and economic arrangements in order to remove those critical man-made
obstacles which problematise our very existence and subvert our politico-economic
development. However, since the present military regime has argued that a sovereign national
conference is unnecessary, it should be assumed that other means will be put in place to
handle the problems that would have had to be bundled together for a sovereign national
conference.
I suggest that we give the present military government a chance to unfold its
pogrammes of resolving the anomalies of what amount to punitive intentions of past
governments and political decisions regarding our development. It would be unwise to be
confrontational at this stage and under the present dispensation. Without peace and
diplomacy we cannot achieve our demands. It should be emphasised, however, that being the
bonafide owners of the territorial resources used to start and maintain development
programmes, and to pay the salaries and wages of employees nationwide, the Urhobo have
the right to demand that their marginalisation, grinding disabilities, and underdevelopment
should be treated as a matter of topmost priority. They should have unimpeded access to
positions of political and economic power and seats at the central national table where
sectional or regional assets and liabilities are discussed and settled. The Urhobo have
624
abundant and highly qualified and experienced personnel to participate in these matters and
in national policy formulations.
The Urhobo people are self-confident, trusting, open-minded, tolerant and
accommodating to government and even to oil-producing companies. These attributes should
not be taken for granted as elements of weakness or cowardice now or in the next century.
They should be reciprocated. Rightly, this was one of Chief Mowoe's life demands. Nobody
should rely on deformed or distorted power to maltreat the Urhobo. We demand social
justice and equity. We demand that our land be industrialised by government and the
oil-producing companies, guided by a blue print for new urban centers in the next century.
This should lead naturally to population concentrations and hence urbanization and the
consequent investments to meet expanding and varied needs -- intra and inter-town roads,
water, electricity, seaports, railway, leisure facilities, schools, colleges, a University of
Technology with special reference to petroleum studies, etc. Education was central to
Mowoe's achievements, and such a university should be named after him to immortalise his
name further in the 21st century.
Conclusion
I conclude this lecture with three points.

First, we have the capacity to organize ourselves exclusively as an ethnic group
defined by our own system of symbols. The UPU is the Pan-Urhobo articulative umbrella
Union with which we should identify as progressives and also as conservatives now and in
the 21st century. All other Urhobo associations have their democratic right to organize, but
should function as organs of the UPU with their own names or as UPU branches throughout
the country and in the diaspora. It would then become imperative to work with the old
inherited UPU constitution and modify and democratize it where necessary in order to
accommodate changes in our group aspirations within the dynamics of Nigeria's multi- ethnic
society.
Second, we are now wiser in our experiences in inter-ethnic relations in Nigeria. The
Urhobo are well known and respected as individual achievers in various spheres of life. But
we can certainly do more than this. We should strive always to help ourselves, forge and
maintain our unity as the most viable supportive instrument for individual and group
politico-economic development. In the process, we must be alert always to detect and
prevent retarding climates of distrust introduced from outside through subversive human
corridors, or engineered by unpatriotic elements within the ethnic group, as we move into the
st
21 century.
Third, we should use and develop our own cultural resources in order to engage in
negotiated settlements in the resolution of conflicts involving sections and personalities in
Urhoboland, especially among the ruling elite. Impersonal legal or legalistic approaches
cannot solve our problem of Urhobo unity. They can only exacerbate disunity which our
self-declared unilateral enemies and rivals are only too happy to promote. Chief Mukoro
Mowoe showed us on many occasions the way of peace and internal (intra-ethnic) conflict
resolution before his untimely death. In his top position as President-General of the UPU, and
in order to avoid the impending disunity among the Urhobo people, Chief Mowoe canceled
all his tours in order to settle an internal quarrel between the UPU Headquarters and the
Lagos Branch, and appealed to the latter "to cease fire and lay down arms as (the) Home
Union has honourably (and) unconditionally surrendered. In the name of (Urhobo) progress, I
have made this appeal." (Salubi 1965: 34-35: see also Ikime 1977: 99)
625
Obviously, such a frank admission of errors and wrong decisions has its own way of
enhancing and conferring dignity on humble high office-holders.
I end this lecture on a very strong affirmative note. I have great respect for our
Traditional Rulers and Chiefs, and for all Urhobo people young and old, in low and high
positions in any sphere of social life. And I have absolute confidence in our capacity to
achieve a bright future as individuals and as an ethnic group. I am sure that if we were given
a chance to be reborn in a physical sense, we would always choose to remain Urhobo. This
being the case, we have a sacred duty to rally round all our constituted authorities and
leaders, as well as our institutional and associational arrangements which will help to
guarantee the continuity and unity of our Urhobo ethnic group.
I thank all of you for listening.
References
Ikime 0. 1977. The Member For Warri Province. The Life and Times of Chief Mukoro Mowoe of Warri
1840-1948. lbadan: Institute of African Studies.
Odje, M. 1993. Opening Remarks presented as Chairman at a Lecture on Leadership in Urhoboland:

Problems and Prospects by Onigu Otite organized by the Urhobo Solidarity Club of Nigeria, Warri
Branch. PTI Conference hall, Effurun 15 May 1993.
Otite O. 1971. "On the Concept of a Nigerian Society." The Nigerian Journal of Economic and Social
Studies Vol. 13 No 3.
Otite O.1973. Autonomy and Dependence. The Urhobo Kingdom of Okpe in Modern Nigeria. Evaston,
Illinois: Northwestern University Press.
Otite 0. (Ed) 1982. The Urhobo People. lbadan: Heinemann
Salubi, T.E. A 1965. TheMiracle of an Original Thought (Being the Origins of Urhobo College, Effurun)
Published by the Author.
Williamson, Kay R.M. 1971. Language families in Nigeria. (Personal Communication)
626
Chapter 35
Urhobo and the Nigerian Federation:

Whither Nigeria? 1
Peter P. Ekeh
The State University of New York at Buffalo, USA
In its ideal form, a nation-state is a human organization that is constructed for the
purpose of promoting the welfare of the people and communities that own it. Ideally, a
nation-state is an enduring political arrangement that is informed and supported by norms
and desires of such of its constituent cultural and social ensembles as ethnic nationalities.
That is to say, a worthy nation-state exists and survives on fundamental principles of human
organizations and on respect for grounded norms of the component communities that are its
support. In the normal course of the state's existence, these axioms of governance remain
largely unstated and are only implicit in its actions for as long as the nation-state adequately
performs its responsibilities of serving the needs of the people. Few citizens will ordinarily
probe the purpose and meaning of the nation-state if there is reasonable harmony in its
domain and in the relationships between the public means of the state and the cultural and
social needs of its individuals and citizens. When, however, there are major problems in
these areas, there is a tendency for citizens to raise questions about the purpose and meaning
of the state in their lives
It is an indication of the stress and turbulence of our times that Nigerians are
everywhere reexamining the purpose of the Nigerian state and the relationships between their
ethnic groups and the Nigerian federation. There has been no other occasion in our history
when men and women, otherwise engaged in professions far removed from politics and
public affairs, have been so concerned about the future of their ethnic groupings and about the
purpose of their country's political arrangements. I believe that this is an important and
forward-looking development that wise leaders would do well to embrace and to help
advance. In worrying about their future and about the prospects of their ethnic groups,
Nigerians have leaned backwards to probe their own foundation histories. In that process,
they have raised important questions concerning the nature of Nigeria's constitutional
arrangements that have implicated their cultural groupings.
These considerations and points of view will inform this chapter. Its purpose is
fourfold. First, I want to reaffirm the point that Urhobo, a major ethnic group in Nigeria's
Niger Delta, has an ancient history that antedates Nigeria's existence. Second, I will examine
the governmental principles of British colonialism in Nigeria into which Urhobo and
Nigeria's other ethnic nationalities were unwittingly incorporated at the turn of the nineteenth
century, a hundred years ago. On this score, I will characterize the political
1
A guest lecture presented at Urhobo National Assembly's Seminar on Whither Nigeria? The Position of the Urhobo at Petroleum
Training Institute, Effurun, Delta State, Nigeria on October 27, 2001. I thank Senator David Dafinone and his colleagues of Urhobo
National Assembly for inviting me to deliver this lecture to an assemblage of the Urhobo people. Mr. Moses Kragha attended to
aspects of my visits from the United States. I thank him. I also thank Dr. Igho Natufe, Senior Policy Research Advisor for the
Government of Canada, Ottawa; Mr. Onoawarie Edevbie, an engineer in City of Detroit Water Resources, Michigan; and Professor
Isaac James Mowoe, State University of Ohio, Columbus, for their important help in reading through the draft of this paper and for
several suggestions for correction in it. They are my worthy colleagues in Urhobo Historical Society from whose chair I serve the
Urhobo people, the Niger Delta, and Nigeria.
principle that was developed by Nigerian leaders in the 1950s, that is, in the decade of
decolonization in our history. Third, I wish to state, as clearly as I can muster, the nature of
military rule and what damage it has done to Nigerian history and politics. Fourth, I will
argue that the baneful legacies of military rule have remained with us, even after its formal
termination. Accordingly, we must restore the purpose of the Nigerian state that was
fashioned in the 1950s, which is to serve the needs of its people and their ethnic nationa-
lities, that military rule subverted. I hold the view that Nigerians will only overcome the
destructive consequences of military rule if and only they endorse manifest constitutional
principles of government that the ethnic nationalities of the Niger Delta and Nigeria's other
ethnic groupings can live with.
The Quest for Ethnic Origins and Precolonial Histories
Inside the Urhobo homeland, in the Niger Delta, and in the Urhobo Diaspora in Europe
and America, there is a strong resurgence of interest in the history and origins of the Urhobo.
This urgent quest has coincided with the difficulties and dangers that threaten the integrity of
Urhobo culture from the claims of those who seek to control our lives by using the powers of
Nigeria's intrusive central government. It is probably related to the anxieties instigated in our
lives by such dire calamities as the great petroleum fire disasters at Idjerhe in 1998 and
Ekakpamre in 1999 and other uncertainties arising from bad actions of the Nigerian state,
particularly in the Niger Delta.
Such renewed quest for the origins and history of ethnic nationalities is not unique to
the Urhobo. All across Nigeria, various ethnic nationalities are boldly restating their histories
and the cultural foundations of their existence. This vast search for ethnic meaning and for a
redefinition of the historic relationships between Nigeria and its ethnic nationalities became
manifest at the twilight of military rule. It has continued into the post- military era. In my
view, this is an intellectual movement that has been fomented by vast and untoward changes
in the functions of the Nigerian state. I believe that it is in the interest of humanity and good
scholarship to probe the sociological underpinnings of this pervasive intellectual yearning for
the meaning of our political and cultural existence in Nigeria.
Sadly, the pursuit of this important search is being hampered by a faulty and pervasive
assumption that has tormented the Nigerian history enterprise for quite a while. It is the
flawed notion that kingdoms are the points of origins of human communities. It is widely
assumed that it is respectable to search for the origins of peoples by looking for kingdoms
from which they originated. It is a supposition that violates common sense. Kingdoms arise
from communities of ordinary people. It is the cultures of common folks that give birth to
kingdoms. It is not kingdoms that beget cultures. Nor is it true that all human migrations have
kingdoms as their points of origin. There are many documented instances of people and
groups that have moved away from ordinary communities and settled in new lands.
The exaggerated significance of kingdoms in Nigerian historiography has led to such

outlandish claims as one which contends that the Yoruba originated from Mecca and the
Middle East or that the Urhobo have their origins in Ife. The Yoruba, I daresay, are much
older than Mecca whose importance was the fruit of Prophet Mohammed's religious ministry
in the sixth century. By historic standards, Mohammed is young in comparison to the age of
the Yoruba. Is anyone seriously suggesting that Oduduwa, the famed progenitor of the
Yoruba, was younger than Jesus Christ or Mohamed? Nor is it necessary to claim that the
Urhobo have any ties to the kingdom of Ife. If the Urhobo have any ethnic relationships with
the Yoruba, they need not lie in royal connexions.
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Urhobo and the Nigerian Federation: Whither Nigeria?
There is internal evidence in Urhobo culture and language that demonstrate that close
ties existed between various Urhobo communities and the lands of the Ogisos, centuries ago.
We should cherish that aspect of our lore and history. But it should not be misinterpreted to
suggest that there were no human beings in our lands before the arrival of our ancestors who
migrated from Ogiso's realm. Those original indigenous people of our lands are as much our
ancestors and progenitors as the subsequent arrivals from Ogiso's kingdom. They had been in
these lands, probably for tens of thousands of years, before Ogiso's kingdom arose from
communities that were no less ancient in their existence. The history of our region can only
make sense if it is integrated into the human history of Africa. There is now abundant
evidence which demonstrates that humankind began its long existence on our earth inside
Africa, only a few thousand miles away from our lands. It makes no sense to suggest that our
region of Africa had no human existence, whereas humans were migrating to Asia Minor and
the rest of the Old World from Africa. I daresay that the Urhobo and the other ethnic
nationalities of the Niger Delta abundantly share in the heritage that belongs to Africans,
namely, that we are the oldest humans in God's creation (see Lewis 1988).
I have staked out these claims for an important reason. Dr. Bala Usman's (2001) recent
assertions to the contrary, the lands that we inhabit in the Niger Delta have been handed
over to us from immemorial ages by our ancestors. We are a sedentary people who have
cultivated these lands and protected our rivers and lakes with utmost care, long before
Nigeria emerged. Our ancestors and our own good selves value them. In a vital sense,
our lands and waters in the Niger Delta are our greatest possessions. Just as we have
inherited them from our ancient ancestors, we must fight to ensure that our descendants
will inherent these lands and waters from our generation. If we fail to preserve them for
their sakes, then we will have failed to uphold the imperatives of our history.
British Colonialism and Urhobo and Nigeria's Other Ethnic Nationalities
The British understood such historical imperatives in their ventures into the Niger
Delta in the nineteenth century. When the British government empowered the Royal Niger
Company by its charter, shortly after the Berlin Conference of 1884-5, to engage in treaty
making on its behalf, the clear understanding of its commitment was that it would negotiate
with Niger Delta's ethnic nationalities. It so did in Urhobo country with our ethnic sub-
nationalities, "agreeing to pay native owners of land a reasonable amount for any portion
[the Company] may require" and promising "to protect the [signatory] Chiefs from the
attacks of any neighbouring aggressive tribes" (see Royal Niger Company). That is to say,
right from its inception, British imperialism acknowledged the reality of our ethnic
nationalities as the owners of our lands and the political actors of our circumstances of the
1880s.
In the early 1890s, the British moved beyond the surrogacy of the Royal Niger
Company to create the Niger Coast Protectorate. One of the first steps British agents took in
order to give a semblance of legality to their imperial action was to sign treaties throughout
the 1890s with Urhobo kings and chieftains and those of other ethnic nationalities of the
Niger Delta. In many ways, these treaties were unjust because they were pro-forma
documents formulated and printed in England and shipped to the Niger Delta. They were
clearly biased in favour of British interests. Even so, the treaties carefully recognized the
authority of Urhobo ethnic subgroups, as it did acknowledge the authority and ownership of
all ethnic nationalities of the Niger Delta, over their lands. For instance, the first article of the
British Treaty of March 14, 1893, with the people of Agbassa [that is, Agbarha in
629
Warri] reads as follows: "Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of
India, in compliance with the request of the Chiefs and the People of Agbassa hereby
undertakes to extend to them, and to the territory under their jurisdiction, Her gracious favour
and protection" (see Agbassa Treaty 1893).
How did the British intend to keep the promise that they made to "the Chiefs and
People of Agbassa" and what did they demand in return? In order to give a meaningful
answer to this worthy question, we need to make a clear distinction between two aspects of
public affairs in any normal society, such as the Urhobo and other Niger Delta communities
with which the British signed these treaties in the 1880s-1890s. In the first aspect, before
the British arrived in our lands, our people engaged in politics by deciding on how to
govern their communities. Sometimes, such acts and policies involved friendship or
hostilities with other groups within their boundaries as well as with those whom they
regarded as foreigners and strangers outside their territories. The chieftains and people of
these communities took part in making decisions and policies on how best to govern their
affairs. That is what happens in most free communities which engage in politics. There is a
second aspect in the management of the public affairs of any political community. It is the
administration of the policies and decisions arrived at by the political community. Certain
designated authorities and agencies execute the political community's policies and
decisions. This distinction between politics and administration was already very well
established in imperial circles in England in the nineteenth century when British agents
signed treaties with Urhobo and other Niger Delta communities in the 1880s-1890s. Indeed,
this distinction between politics and administration was well reflected in the treaties that the
Agbarha and other Niger Delta political communities were compelled to sign with British
agents in the 1880s and 1890s (see British "Treaties of Protection").
The British treaties with Niger Delta communities dealt separately with these two
aspects of public affairs. On the one hand, they enjoined our communities to give up the right
to practise politics, except in a very narrow sense. Thus, Article II of the Treaty with
Agbarha says as follows: "The Chiefs of Agbassa agree and promise to refrain from entering
into any correspondence, Agreement, or Treaty with any foreign Nation or Power except
with the knowledge and sanction of Her Britannic Majesty's Government." This diminution
of the power of our communities to practise politics was reinforced by Article IV which
states as follows: "All disputes between the Chiefs of Agbassa or between them and British
or foreign traders, or between the aforesaid Chiefs and neighbouring tribes, which cannot be
settled amicably between the two parties, shall be submitted to the British Consular or other
officers appointed by Her Britannic Majesty to exercise jurisdiction in Agbassa territories for
arbitration and decision, or for arrangement." This article in effect abrogated the right of our
people to take decisions and to make policies, that is to practise politics, in ways that they
were accustomed to before the arrival of the British.
On the aspect of administration, on the other hand, the so-called "Treaties of
Protection" solicited the help of Chiefs for the administration of their territories. Thus, Article
V of the Agbarha Treaty states as follows: "The Chiefs of Agbassa hereby engage to assist
the British Consular or other officers in the execution of such duties as may be assigned to
them; and further, to act upon their advice in matters relating to the administration of justice,
the development of the resources of the country, the interest of commerce, or in any other
matter in relation to peace, order, and good government, and the general progress of
civilization." It is noteworthy that the all-important matter of commerce was included in this
aspect of the colonies' public affairs. Indeed, free commerce and economic competition were
recognized in a separate article of the Treaty. Article VI stipulated that "The subjects and
citizens of all countries may freely carry on trade in every part of the territories of the Chiefs
party hereto, and may have houses and factories therein."
630
The foregoing statement of details from the so-called British "Treaties of Protection" is
necessary because they will help us to understand the character of British colonialism in the
Niger Delta and Nigeria. First, British colonial rule was based on ethnic nationalities.
Second, the British fully recognized the territories and lands of these ethnic nationalities as
belonging to their chiefs and people. Indeed, they understood that it was British obligation to
protect these lands and territories for the future of the ethnic nationalities with which they
entered into agreements. This was the case in all parts of what became Nigeria except in
those territories that the British acquired by acts of warfare, as it was the case in the Sokoto
Caliphate. Third, British colonialism entailed the banning of politics, especially in matters
affecting inter-ethnic regimes. The British achieved this goal by segregating the affairs of the
ethnic nationalities which became the administrative units of colonial Nigeria. In this regard,
Indirect Rule was a dual colonial artifact that enabled the British to segregate the political
affairs of Nigeria's ethnic nationalities and then to administer these segments of the colonies.
Fourth, while banning politics, and then restricting administrative matters to the sphere of
ethnic nationalities, British colonialism entailed a degree of liberalism in matters of
commerce and economic competition.
The consequences of these attributes of British colonialism range wide. I will limit this
analysis to two issues that concern us. First, the banning of politics had major consequences
for our people. The British did not consult us for our consent before we were incorporated
into the Niger Coast Protectorate that was in existence in the 1890s when Urhobo
communities signed treaties with British imperial agents. When later the British decided to
create the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria in 1900, we were not consulted for our consent
before we were incorporated into it. Nor was our consent sought when the British decided to
embark upon the Amalgamation of Southern and Northern Nigeria in 1914-18. Nonetheless,
it is significant that under British colonial rule we serially belonged to three different political
arrangements: Niger Coast Protectorate, which covered the area that we all now call Niger
Delta; then Southern Nigeria; and finally Nigeria.
I will like to call attention to a second feature of colonialism from which we as a people
profited. Despite the political restrictions occasioned by British colonialism, there was ample
room for economic competition. Furthermore, there was opportunity for migration to various
other regions of Nigeria. Famed for hard and intelligent work, the Urhobo people profited
enormously, not from what the colonial government did for us, but from the opportunities
that economic competition afforded our people. In addition, British colonial rule permitted
and encouraged ethnic associations that took care of their people's welfare. I need not repeat
here what Urhobo Progress Union did for us as a people. We only need to look around in
Nigerian universities to see what Urhobo College, founded and managed by Urhobo Progress
Union during British colonial times, has wrought in the academic sphere by producing some
of the most innovative of Nigeria's university professors. I am told that Urhobo's first Nobel
Prize in Literature is most likely to be claimed by Urhobo College. Despite its handicaps, and
despite British colonialism's duplicity in several instances in its observance of the terms of its
treaties with Urhobo communities, we as a people were enabled to lift ourselves by our own
bootstraps under the economic regime of British colonialism.
The Decade of Decolonialism and the Imperatives of Ethnic Nationalities
The mandate and methodology of British colonialism were altered considerably in the
post-World War decade of the 1950s. The entirety of this decade was devoted to
decolonization, in preparation for Nigeria's independence from colonial rule. The decade
631
began with the Ibadan Conference of January 1950, in which Nigerians initiated the process
of discussing their future political arrangements. It ended with Independence in October
1960. The colonial ban on politics was lifted by stages as the decade wore on. By 1951,
Nigerians began to engage in inter-ethnic politics for the first time, as Nigerian Leaders of
Government were appointed in the three administrative Regions of Northern, Eastern, and
Western Nigeria. In 1954, Nigeria moved into full-fledged federalism, as the scope of politics
was expanded and Nigerians for the first time emerged as largely unfettered decision-makers
in the Houses of Assembly, with Premiers as heads of their governments, in the Regions.
(See Arikpo 1967, especially.)
The results of the fresh expansion of politics in the 1950s were awkward. Many saw
politics as conquest, as opportunities to revive old powers in Northern Nigeria or to establish
new ones in Southern Nigeria. But these conflicts led to reactions and negotiations, which are
the essence of politics. For instance, when the Urhobo felt aggrieved that the name of Warri
was used to designate the title of the king of Itsekiri, thus falsely suggesting the expansion of
his domain, the Action Group Government of Western Nigeria, headed by Chief Obafemi
Awolowo, changed the name of the Province from Warri to Delta. In one form or the other,
either by way of approbation or disapproval, ethnic communities of Nigeria contributed to the
outcome of the negotiations that marked out the 1950s in Nigeria's history as a unique era of
political freedom.
Above all else, the decolonization decade of the 1950s was devoted to intense
negotiations for the constitutional format for governing Nigeria's public affairs. The choice of
federalism that emerged was driven by the deliberate desire of Nigerians who preferred a
system of government that would be close to them. Remarkably, each of the Regions had its
own Constitution. Important governmental powers lay with the Regions. The powers of the
Federal Government were those that the Regions allowed it to exercise. One of the most
remarkable indications of where political power lay in the 1950s could be seen in the fact that
the powerful Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello, great grandson of Uthman Dan Fodio and Premier of
Northern Nigeria, decided to remain behind in Northern Nigeria while delegating his deputy,
Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafewa Balewa, to become Prime Minister in the central government in
Lagos.
It is important that we label the style and character of government and public affairs that
were worked out in these intense negotiations in the 1950s. First, Nigerians and their leaders
accepted ethnic nationalities as legitimate political actors. Indeed, they accepted the basic
premise of British colonial rule, namely, that ethnic nationalities constituted the basis of
governance. What changed was the introduction of politics in intra-ethnic as well as
inter-ethnic matters which colonial rule had disallowed. Second, the British colonial principle,
that lands and territories of ethnic nationalities in Southern Nigeria belonged to them, not to
the government, was fully assumed and accepted by those who negotiated Nigeria's
constitutional matters in the 1950s. Third, there was a subtle new assumption in Nigerian
public affairs that emerged in the decolonization decade of the 1950s. It had been assumed
during colonial times that the state and its government belonged to the British colonial rulers
and their distant Britannic Majesty in England. During the 1950s, Nigerians increasingly
assumed that they owned the state and its government. Some ethnic nationalities were cheated
in this new development, as larger ethnic groups were much advantaged in the contest for
power. However, there was the overall assumption that
independence meant the transfer of the ownership of the state from the colonizer to
Nigeria's political communities. It was from this latent assumption that so much pride and
attachment were generated in Nigerians for their country.
There was another underlying assumption that empowered those achievements of the
1950s. Although it was not given any explicit expression, it was a formula that was
632
paramount and pervasive in the political thinking of our founding fathers from the 1950s.
This was the assumption that what was good for Nigeria's ethnic nationalities was good for
Nigeria. The pursuit of a constitutional formula in the 1950s was, therefore, a search for
those principles that were regarded as providing the most common good for Nigeria's ethnic
nationalities. That was what the negotiation for a constitutional arrangement was all about.
The outcome was maximum federalism that was entirely homegrown, not borrowed from
any international templates.
Sadly, despite the innovations of the 1950s, the newness of political practice in Nigeria
and the brash notion that politics was a game of conquering other ethnic nationalities
bedeviled Nigerian politics after Independence, leading to political violence and the arrival of
military rule in 1966. To the awesome difficulties created by military rule we must now turn.
Military Rule and Its Vicissitudes
In major ways, military rule has changed the course and landscape of Nigeria's political
development. It overthrew the political achievements of the 1950s. Military rule challenged
and rejected the central precept of British colonialism, which was incorporated into
decolonization, namely, that ethnic nationalities were central to Nigeria's political welfare. It
destroyed Nigerian federalism, substituting in its place an unworkable form of central
government that breeds inefficiencies in governance and that generates deep alienation in the
body politic. Military rule not only banned politics; it made administration the sole province
of Nigerian public affairs. It reduced the constitutional process to a mere administrative
exercise, producing administrative handbooks that are forced on Nigerians as their
constitutions. No matter however one cuts it, those thirty years of military rule have changed
our lives for ever, with far-reaching consequences that will stay with us for a long time to
come (see Ekeh 1997).
The question posed by this important seminar organized by Urhobo National Assembly
is as follows: Whither Nigeria? I daresay that the only meaningful way to answer that
weighty question is to ask, in the first instance, whether Nigeria has the will power to beat a
retreat from the ways of military rule or whether we will be compelled to live with its baneful
consequences for ever. I seek your permission to outline the character of military rule and its
role in the current political crisis that rides Nigeria's political affairs. Since we are all familiar
with its facts, I will dwell on my own characterization and interpretation of military rule.
To begin with, military rule operated on two key assumptions that attacked the
achievements of decolonization, as well as a central element of British colonialism in the
Niger Delta and the rest of Nigeria. First, military rule confronted the underlying master
formula of decolonization. Nigerian leaders of the 1950s had operated on the assumption that
what was good for Nigerian ethnic nationalities was good for Nigeria. Military rule reversed
that formula and worked on the premise that what is good for Nigeria is good for its ethnic
groups. Indeed, military rule regarded the political salience of Nigeria's ethnic nationalities as
inimical to national progress. Accordingly, it abolished the agencies and associations of
ethnic nationalities, such as Egbe Omo Oduduwa, Ibo State Union, and Ibibio State Union,
although our own Urhobo Progress Union was graciously spared.
Second, military rule operated on the assumption that the ownership of the state
belongs to its rulers. In other words, it assumed that rulers own the state and its government.
In doing so, it upturned and vitiated the claims of average Nigerians who were increasingly
becoming assertive about their ownership of the Nigerian state, following independence.
633
Under military rule, the political space of Nigeria was exclusively occupied by Nigeria's
military rulers. What are nowadays labelled as civil societies were pushed out of Nigeria's
political space. For instance, on the strength of the assumption that the state belongs to its
rulers, the military government took over elementary and secondary schools that were owned
by individuals, ethnic associations, or Christian missions.
Ruling under the aegis of these two assumptions, military rule dismantled much of
what it inherited and then instituted new political structures that have remained with us.
Despite the fact that it retained the label "Federal Military Government" throughout its
control of Nigeria's affairs, military rule effectively cancelled the federal arrangements that
were worked out in the 1950s. The practice of politics was disallowed. Indeed, politics and
politicians became double dirty words. Public affairs were reduced to military adminis-
tration. In the event, there was large room for arbitrariness and personal rule. From Decree
No 1 onwards, military rule was a web of administrative misadventures. As the late Professor
Billy Dudley, a close observer of military rule put it, "Decree No 1 empowered [the new
military Head of State] to suspend the legislature and to transfer the full executive power of
the state to himself, power which he was free to exercise at his sole discretion and for which
he could not be held accountable to anyone" (Dudley 1982: 80)
The uniform governance of Nigeria was tolerable for as long as it was restricted to the
banning of politics. During the Civil War years (1967-70) and for five years thereafter, that is
under Yakubu Gowon's segment of military rule, regional military governors exercised
important administrative powers that gave a semblance of federalism. In the second segment
of military rule, under Murtala Muhammed and Olusegun Obasanjo, those regional
administrative powers were lost. This development led to a brutal regime of centralization
that issued, for the first time, new structures for virtually every aspect of government –
extending downward to elementary schools and local governments. Flushed with abundant
oil revenues, the central military government took over all Nigerian universities and other
institutions built by state and regional governments. Meanwhile, arbitrary dismissals from the
public service and universities weakened professional standards in the public sphere.
The consequences of military rule have been severe for Nigeria. First, it makes
governance a very precarious matter. When Shehu Shagari's civilian government (1979- 1983),
which succeeded Olusegun Obasanjo's military regime, appeared to be inefficient it was
blamed on personal ineptitude and corruption in his political party. In fact, however, his
predecessor Olusegun Obasanjo's return to governance under a civilian regime is now dogged
with the same failures as we witnessed in Shehu Shagari's government. In these
circumstances, we should search for a deeper meaning of these failures. In my view, they lie
in the mode of centralization that military rule has forced on us. Our present system of
government relies on distant governance, which is inimical to the principles of federalism
and is rarely exercised anywhere else in the modern world. I challenge anyone to cite the
equivalent of the Nigeria Police Force in any country of Nigeria's size. The Nigeria Police
Force is expected to be involved in resolving domestic quarrels between husbands and wives
as well as quarrels between ethnic and religious groups; in arresting miscreants in local land
disputes as well as prosecuting white collar crooks involved in "419" and corporate
corruption; in fighting petty thievery as well as armed robbery; in detecting and prosecuting
the heavy volume of political frauds and corruption in Abuja, and then in overseeing
corruption in its own ranks. How can a policing body loaded with so many grave functions
in the large expanse of Nigeria's space be expected to perform its duties efficiently? And yet
the central government, which we have inherited from military rule, forbids any other
policing bodies in Nigeria.
In precolonial times, and even during the colonial era, every community had its own
policing structure. Now, we are being persuaded to accept the view that all policing matters
634
must be managed from Abuja on the grounds of a specious argument that communities and
even state governments do not have the capacity and temperament to run such policing
functions as the Nigeria Police Force currently exercises. The question is, would local and
state police be worse than the Nigeria Police? I assume that some will be. But others will
attend to local problems much more efficiently while broader federal matters of security are
left to a Federal Police Force. That is how a federal system of government works.
By the way, the argument about the Nigeria Police Force should not be about the word
"Force" in its title. It should be about the word "Nigeria." British colonial rulers so named the
Nigeria Police Force because it began as an instrument for colonizing Nigeria. It therefore
did not belong to Nigerians, just as its parent colonial body, the West Africa Frontier Force,
did not belong to us. At its inception the Nigeria Police Force was an alien body in which
2
Nigerians were used for forcibly winning converts to British colonial rule. It
is sad that after more than a hundred years, the word "Nigeria," and not the possessive
Nigerian, remains in its original title. I suggest that it is high time we changed the name to
"Nigerian Police." But we should do so under a different charter that will make it to belong
to Nigerians in word and in deed. Such a charter should be a constitutional matter that
empowers different layers of policing. A slim Federal Police Force and a targeted State
Police Force, along with local police forces in cities like Lagos and Warri, should be helpful.
But that begs the problem of local governments. Why should there be the same type of
local government for communities in rural Zamfara State and for urban Lagos or Warri? The
uniformity of local governments was imposed on Nigeria by military government in 1978.
Why does anybody believe that Abuja has more common sense in the management of our
local affairs than the people who live in the localities? Anyone who believes that there would
be more justice from Abuja than in the locality should weigh the decision to locate the capital
of Delta State at its northernmost periphery. Is there any doubt that if that matter were left to
local decision, that the capital of Delta State would be somewhere else – either in the old
headquarters of Delta Province at Warri or in a more central location? Such are the wages of
military rule.
Over-centralization has led to a major political ailment that is difficult to root out from
any nation where it has grown big and intense. It is what political scientists call alienation. In
simple terms, Nigerians no longer regard the government that runs their affairs from Abuja
as their own. In normal course of the affairs of a free nation, rulers, including elected
legislators, are presumed to be trustees who take care of the affairs of the political
community on behalf of its significant constituents. When that expectation fails, the rot of
alienation settles into the public square. Alienation is aggravated by the reckless practice of
election rigging. On the elections that were conducted in 1998 and 1999 in the Niger Delta,
the respected Human Rights Watch has noted as follows:
Between December 1998 and February 1999, local, state and federal elections
were held in Nigeria, which led to the inauguration on May 29, 1999 of the first
civilian government in Nigeria for sixteen years. In the Niger Delta region, these
elections were marked by such widespread fraud that, though pleased to
2
Tekena Tamuno, the respected Ibadan historian, tells us that the origin of the Nigeria Police Force is the [British] West African
Frontier Force, a paramilitary organization with quasi-police functions formed in 1898: "By far the most crucial factor in
understanding the existence in Nigeria of semi-military police lay in the nature of Nigerian opposition to British jurisdiction and rule.
.... These sources of friction ... emphasized the need for troops and police as the ready instrument of enforcing government orders
when peaceful overtures failed.... In the circumstances, the police formed the front line of defence in Britain's attempts to maintain
law and order while soldiers afforded the last -- at least in theory. Where however the Constabulary housed, as it were, both the
soldiers and the police, the distinction was meaningless" (Tamuno 1970: 39):
635
be rid of military rule, few members of the electorate regard those "elected" as
their real representatives. The current problems in the delta are exacerbated, if
not partly caused, by these problems in the electoral process (Human Rights
Watch 1999).
It is remarkable that a number of states and local governments, which are close to
the people, have since moved to remedy those electoral abuses by forceful governance
for the benefit of their people. On the other hand, Abuja remains distant from the Niger
Delta. Its chieftains may rely on another round of rigging of elections in the Niger
Delta. If so, the gulf between the Niger Delta and Abuja will remain wide. We expect
those who desire victory on account of our votes to come to the Niger Delta, take off
their flowing robes, and wade into the mud of the Escrovos River and the fishing boats
of the Cross-River. Let them watch, close to the scene of disaster, the flaring of gas at
multiple points in Urhoboland and elsewhere in the Niger Delta. Let them visit polluted
ponds. Let them visit the charred ruins of the great Idjerhe petroleum fire disaster to see
the source of their wealth. Yes, let them touch the sludge in the Escravos. We do not
want them to steal our votes. That will only worsen the rot of corrosive alienation in the
Niger Delta. We want them to come and work for our votes. That is the meaning of
democracy. The rigging of elections is robbery, a heinous political crime. Worse, it
breeds apathy and alienation in the body politic. We should do everything in the Niger
Delta to discourage it, because it victimizes our people and belittles our chances of
ensuring self-determination. The continued rigging of elections under a civilian regime
will make it extremely difficult for us all to crawl out of the abyss of political alienation
that military rule created in the Niger Delta.
Ethnic Reactions to Military Rule
Military rule began with the banning of ethnic associations. Ironically, in the end
military rule was terminated by refreshed ethnic associations. In the Niger Delta, the
activities of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People and the martyrdom of its
leaders, Ken Saro-Wiwa and his associates, did much to delegitimize Nigerian military rule
in the international community. The vigorous and open opposition of Yoruba ethnic
associations, at home in Nigeria and in the Diaspora, presented formidable obstacles to the
continuation of military rule. Everywhere in the Niger Delta, ethnic youth movements
challenged the quiet acceptance of military rule by their leaders. Declarations of ethnic Bills
of Rights (see, e.g., Ogoni 1990, Kaiama 1998, Urhobo 1998, Oron 1999) weakened the
leadership claims of military rule and exposed the growing crisis of governance in Nigeria. It
is fair to say that from about 1995 to1999 military rule had become fully discredited in all
areas of Nigeria. Nigerians no longer looked to their government for justice and fair play or
even security. Instead, they turned to their ethnic associations, of varying grades, to protect
their interests.
In the aftermath of military rule, the succeeding government at Abuja has not been able
to wean itself from the bad ways of military rule. Its chief claim is that it has prevented
military rule from further continuation. But such acts as the reckless military invasion and
destruction of Odi Town in the Niger Delta in November 1999 (see Ekeh 2001) have enabled
many Nigerians to see the evil that their Government can do to them and their futures. There
is little doubt that the legitimacy of, that is to say the amount of Nigerians' regard for and
trust in, the central government at Abuja remains abysmal. On the other
636
hand, there is a strong indication that Nigerians appreciate the work of some state
governments.
In these circumstances, Nigerians look to their ethnic associations for mapping out their
future. In the Yoruba southwest, Afenifere has emerged as a full replacement for Egbe Omo
Oduduwa. In the southeast, the Igbo's Ohaneze has risen to replace Ibo State Union that was
abolished at the onset of military rule in 1967. In the far North, Arewa Consultative Forum
has claimed the mandate of Northern Peoples Congress that collapsed with the coup d'etat of
1966.
What about the ethnic nationalities in the Niger Delta and in Middle Nigeria? In these
regions, we may well be on the threshold of a major political development in Nigerian
history. There are fresh movements that seek to combine the cultural and political resources
in each of these regions to form supra-ethnic associations that will protect their people's
interests. The Union of Niger Delta has been a pioneer in this new venture. We must salute
Chief David Dafinone and Chief Johnson Ukueku for providing the leadership that has
enabled the rise of this important development. The state governments of the Niger Delta
have also sought to work together for their people's interests. We note the campaign on
behalf of control of our resources by Niger Deltans themselves. These efforts seek to
maximize the capabilities that are available to the people of the Niger Delta by working
together. Ten years ago, Akwa Ibom appeared distant from us. Today, Ibibio and Effik,
Annang and Oron, Ogoni and Ikwerre, Itsekiri and Ijaw, etc., have become our neighbours in
a common struggle for survival in the Niger Delta. Nationally, what is so very healthy in this
development is the fact that the activities of the Union of Niger Delta and of the Governors
of the Niger Delta have not offended the leaders of Afenifere and Ohaneze. On the contrary,
they seem willing and ready to work with the conglomerate associations emerging from the
ethnic nationalities of the Niger Delta. For that we salute Afenifere and Ohaneze. We would
urge Arewa to follow the worthy examples of these formidable ethnic associations and work
with the Union of Niger Delta for the sake of mapping out the future of Nigeria.
In Middle Nigeria, Middle Belt Forum has arisen to cater to the interests of this vital
region of Nigeria. Its uniqueness cannot be accommodated under the overall umbrella of
Arewa Consultative Forum. Nigerians in Middle Nigeria deserve to state their own case for
their future choices in matters constitutional. We trust that the conglomerate representation
of the ethnic nationalities in Middle Nigeria by Middle Belt Forum will receive the support
of Union of Niger Delta, Afenifere, Ohaneze, and Arewa Consultative Forum. We need the
strong representation of the ethnic interests of Middle Nigeria for preparing for a renewed
future for Nigeria.
There is much work to be done. Hopefully, Nigerians will understand that a strong and
prosperous nation takes a large effort to build and that it does not follow automatically from
oil revenues. That type of work requires leadership and commitment. No area of the
preparation for our future political welfare calls for greater leadership than the crafting of a
new constitutional order for Nigeria. It is a task that is necessarily invested in a leadership
that the people trust. At the present time, that is clearly the leadership of the various ethnic
associations.
I am aware that there are those who believe that the government makes constitutions
for the people. That position reverses the process of legitimate governance. Legitimate
governments are empowered by constitutions which the people and their trustees make. The
notion that constitutions are administrative handbooks which are handed down to the people
is a cruel and irresponsible consequence of military rule that must be denounced. In this
regard, we all must respectfully say that our President is doing what history will regard as
637
important. President Olusegun Obasanjo's significant role in history at this time is to secure
the assurance that military rule does not come back. He is in a unique position to ensure that
the transition from abnormal military rule to a normal governmental process is permanent
(see Ekeh 1999). We cannot ask him to do more. Nigeria must rely on an enthusiastic
leadership in this quest for a renewed constitutional order. My reading of Nigerians is that
they prefer to entrust this important task to the leaders of their ethnic associations. Nor must
Nigerians who were elected to the National Assembly over-interpret their mandate to include
in their powers an imposition of a defective constitutional order on their country. We all hope
that Abuja's chieftains will avoid dry legalities and do the patriotic thing of allowing
Nigerians to work out a new constitutional order for the future existence of the nation. The
President and the National Assembly will be lending an important hand to the making of
history by creating a serious environment for discussing Nigeria's constitutional affairs that is
free of intimidation and violence. Those of them who want to be engaged in discussions of
constitutional matters should do so without acting like military officers who have imposed on
us numerous administrative handbooks which they have falsely labelled as constitutions.
Constitutional Reforms
An important reason for entering such a plea before the Nigerian public is that there is a
persistent attempt to hang on Nigerians the so-called 1999 Constitution. Before embarking on
the making of a valid Constitution, it is important that we offer reasons why the so- called
Abdulsami Abubakar Constitution of 1999 is an abnormality in the annals of
constitution-making. It was a document that was drawn up in a hurry at the behest of the
Military's Provisional Ruling Council in 1999. Various groups of Nigerians advised against
such haste. In this regard allow me to quote from the views of Nigerian Scholars For
Dialogue in its submission to the Justice Niki Tobi Panel that the Provisional Ruling Council
gave the task of sifting through civilian views on the Constitution. In 1999, Nigerian Scholars
for Dialogue wrote:
Nothing is more important in the political culture and history of a nation than the
Constitution by which its citizens are ruled. Nigerian Scholars for Dialogue
therefore view with utmost seriousness the debates that the Military Head of
State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, has asked for under the auspices of
Constitution Debate Co-ordinating Committee (CDCC). We assume that General
Abubakar wishes to hand over to a civilian regime a constitutional
mandate that will enhance the legitimacy of his civilian successor in office. We
note with regret that this difficult task has been given a time span of less
than two months.
There is a grave danger that the constitutional process for Nigeria will become a trivial
undertaking which is viewed as a ritual that should be ventured into several times in the
course of a decade or two. A nation's constitution is its most solemn document. Preparing it is
a sacred and weighty undertaking that should not be addressed lightly. The disrespect for the
Nigerian Constitution by the history of military rule should not be compounded by an
assumption that the supreme law by which Nigeria will be ruled under a democratic order
can be rushed through with military dispatch. Nigerian Scholars for Dialogue strongly
advises those on whom this solemn responsibility falls to understand the full weight of their
charge. If the process and substance of the resulting constitution are damaged, history will
judge those entrusted with this sacred duty harshly for endangering the nation's political
future. On the other hand, history will be benevolent toward General
638
Abdulsalami Abubakar's regime if he does the right thing. We plead for a reasoned approach
to this serious obligation.
Justice Niki Tobi added his caution in doing his military duty as commanded by the
Provisional Ruling Council when he presented his "report" to the Military Head of State.
After noting the "short notice" and the hurried work of his Committee, he added "It is the
hope of the Constitution Debate Co-ordinating Committee (CDCC) that the Provisional
Ruling Council will implement the desires, wishes and the views of Nigerians in the making
of the Constitution and enthrone a truly democratic polity." It was a vain hope and the
document that resulted from that administrative exercise by the Provisional Ruling Council is
an abnormality.
A major provision of that Constitution has already been flagrantly violated. One of its
clearest statements concerns religion. Article 10 of Chapter One of the so-called 1999
Constitution reads as follows: "Prohibition of State Religion: The Government of the
Federation or of a State shall not adopt any religion as State Religion." What else does
the regime of Sharia in numerous states of the Nigerian federation mean if it is not the
establishment of a state religion? It would be wrong for its authors to preach adherence to the
other provisions of the so-called 1999 Constitution when a major article in it is violated by
forces that its authors support.
The irregularities in the authorship of the so-called 1999 Constitutions provide us all
with the strongest reason for rejecting its validity. It was secretly made by a military council
that in no way represented Nigeria's magnificent diversities. The Military's Provisional
Ruling Council in 1999, which rushed through the secret deliberations on the Constitutions,
left out huge areas of Nigeria.. There were no women in its ranks. No one in that secret
military enclave was up to the age of sixty in 1999. The Niger Delta and Igbo regions of the
country were sparsely represented in that Provisional Ruling Council. Nor can it be shown
that Yoruba West was adequately represented. The customary notion that in constitution-
making the final verdict is made by the people in a referendum or by their representatives
was forbidden in the making of this so-called 1999 Constitution. In other words, Nigerians
and their ethnic nationalities were left out at the making of the document that has been forced
on Nigeria as its Constitution. It is a recipe for continuing illegitimacy of the institutions of
our government. It is wrong to push for the amendment of what is an obvious abnormality.
The Nigerian people had no choice when the so-called 1999 Constitution was offered by a
military dictatorship as the basis for the conduct of a civilian regime whose election, be it
remembered, preceded the so-called 1999 Constitution.
In my view, Nigeria has no choice but to make a fresh Constitution. In doing so, we
must learn from the lessons of the 1950s. In that decade, Nigerians asked fundamental
questions of their future. Various regions and peoples of the country had to decide whether
they could function together as a modern nation-state and if so on what common grounds.
There was no assurance in the 1950s that amalgamated colonial Nigeria would stay together.
The self-government of Western and Eastern Nigeria took place in 1957 whereas
self-government for Northern Nigeria was in 1959. That was possible because each of
Nigeria's political units was weighing its future. In the end, commonsense and compromise
and the forging of a national consensus allowed us all to remain as one Nigeria. It should be
clear that after military rule, Nigerians are once again faced with daunting problems that
require the posing of fundamental questions that will be understood by average Nigerians and
it ethnic nationalities. The answers to these fundamental questions will provide the
groundwork for any new efforts at making a people's Constitution for Nigeria.
Two such fundamental questions have emerged from our colonial and postcolonial
history. They are as follows. First: Who own the Nigerian State? Second: What is the
639
purpose of the Nigerian State? These questions were implicit in the Constitutional
deliberations of the 1950s. The sordid era of military rule and some recent national
contentions require that they be spelt out carefully and made the basis of our new efforts at
rebuilding our national existence. Every meaningful constitutional charter – ranging from
the pioneering English Magna Carta of 1215 3to the rebellious Dutch Declaration of
Independence of 1581 or the daring American Declaration of Independence in 1776 or the
comprehensive French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen of 1789 or the
sagacious African National Congress's Freedom Charter (1955) -- in every one of these
instances, there is a seed idea that is gleaned from the political history of the society that
seeks a constitutional order. I argue before the Nigerian people that the two central
questions of our times concern (a) the ownership of the Nigerian State and (b) the
purpose of the Nigerian State . It is upon these precepts that any future Nigerian
Constitution should be founded. Permit me to elaborate on their implications.
First, Nigerians and their ethnic nationalities own the space, culture, and resources that
make up what is known as Nigeria. By their Constitution, they agree to empower a Federal
Government and Regional and State Governments to act as trustees for the development of
these assets and to manage their common affairs for the benefit of the Nigerian people and
their ethnic nationalities. Therefore, only the laws made by the Federal Government on behalf
of the entire Nigerian people or by Regional and State Governments on behalf of relevant
fractions of the Nigerian people, and on the grounds of Nigeria's Constitution and the
Constitutions of Regional and State segments of Nigeria, shall hold sway. Having suffered
from regimes of decrees from colonial rule and military rule, Nigerians and their ethnic
nationalities reject any further decrees -- be they clerical or secular. Any laws that are not
made within the space of Nigeria shall not be applied in Nigeria unless they are international
conventions that are compatible with Nigerian laws and that are adopted by Nigeria's
legislative assemblies as authorized by Nigeria's Constitution. On no account, shall the
Federal or Regional and State Governments alienate lands and waters from Nigerians and
their ethnic nationalities who own these resources.
Second, the supreme purpose of the Nigerian State is to enhance the welfare of the
Nigerian people and of their ethnic nationalities and to contribute to the development of
human civilization, ensuring that peoples of African descent receive their due respect in the
international community. While Nigerians and their Constitution will acknowledge and
respect the diverse religious views that Nigerians hold, none shall take precedence above
others and none shall dictate the purpose of the Nigerian state.
These are statements that I believe average Nigerians will understand. Once we arrive
at a consensus on these fundamental issues, we can craft a sound constitution whose articles
will reflect the values that Nigerians treasure. Such a Constitution will necessarily be similar
to the 1963 Constitution in the sense that it allows Regions or States to draw up their
Constitutions which, while being compatible with the Constitution of the Federation, will
attend to their unique wishes and circumstances. Matters concerning resource control and
management of economic resources, which the 1963 Constitution largely consigned to
Regional Governments, will logically follow from the above statements of the master
principles of a Constitution. The Land Use Decree of 1978 will disappear from our public
affairs by the force of such a Constitution without the embarrassment that repeal will create
for President Olusegun Obasanjo who was its author.
3
Thus, consider the import of Article 39 of the Magna Carta of the early thirteenth century: "No free man shall be arrested or
imprisoned or disseized or outlawed or exiled or in any way victimised, neither will we attack him or send anyone to attack him,
except by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land."
640
Such fundamental assumptions group together men and women who hold these
principles as a valid basis for co-existence. I believe the above statements reflect the
consensus that was worked out in the 1950s by Sir Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, Dr. Nnamdi
Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and their followers. What was good for Nigerian pioneers
of the 1950s ought to be good for Nigerians of our generation. However, in the spirit of the
1950s, there should be a window of opportunity open to any regions and their ethnic
nationalities that do not accept the fundamental Constitutional axioms that most Nigerians
regard as a proper basis for our common existence. Such regions and states should exercise
their choice of exiting from the Nigerian federation if they disagree with the rest of Nigeria
on these fundamental issues.
Once we arrive at a common consensus and definition of what master principles should
guide our future Constitution, such as those that I have canvassed above, then I believe it is
proper for those sections of the country that accept them to explore the prospect of drawing
up a constitutional document that should be presented to a National Conference on the
Constitution. The strategy of calling a National Conference without such a document is
unattractive and leaves too much room for mischief-making. The idea of the Constitution is
sufficiently important to propel those Regions and States that accept a common grounded
definition of its master principles to begin work on it. There should be a forum open to the
recognized ethnic associations – Arewa, Afenifere, Middle Belt Forum, Union of Niger Delta,
and Ohaneze – to indicate their choices in the matter of the fundamental assumptions of the
Constitution. Indeed, I can see no legal or moral impediment in the path of the leadership of
any of the recognized ethnic associations, which accept common assumptions underlying a
new Constitution, from moving ahead to pave the way for a new Constitutional document. In
my judgment, they would be performing a patriotic act if they would empanel a task force to
work out a Constitutional document for the consideration of their people and for possible
presentation before a National Constitutional Conference. Such a procedure need not be left
to a Government that is reluctant to embark on a new constitutional order. Nor does its venue
need to be some expensive Abuja hotel. Great constitutional documents are rarely ever
conceived in places of such extravagant splendour as Abuja.
Some Concluding Thoughts: The Challenges Ahead
I have come before you with an idea that is national in scope. There are good reasons
why many of you will ask whether attending to Nigeria's Constitutional problems is a
responsibility about which Urhobo National Assembly, whose duties properly focus on
Urhobo welfare, should bother itself. There are some of you who are comfortable in life or at
least who have some access to the largesse at Abuja. Some of you may well ask, why not
leave these matters to the Almighty Federal Government at Abuja to handle? Others may
wonder whether these leadership ideas should not be left to the three big ethnic groups to
resolve and then we follow their decisions.
In concluding this address, I wish to attend to these questions by arguing before you
that it would be suicidal for our people and culture to let Nigerian constitutional problems
remain as they are currently or for those of us in the Niger Delta to entrust our destiny to the
leadership of other ethnic nationalities outside our region. I wish to offer you three reasons
why our leadership is not only desirable but indeed imperative in the present depressing
circumstances in Nigeria.
First, we should not assume that we are as handicapped as we were in the 1950s. Then,
we were the awkward followers of some national leaders. Now, in the year 2001,
641
there are significant groups inside the Niger Delta, and outside of it, who look to the
leadership that we can provide in our common affairs. The intellectual resources that
Urhobos and other Niger Deltans can provide in the matter of the theory and practice of
constitutions are considerable and will rival what is available to any of the majority ethnic
nationalities in Nigeria. Moreover, we do have a voice in Nigeria's public media. If, despite
these endowments, we turn away from helping to shape our constitutional future, we may
discover to our sorrow that the outcome will lead to the utter endangerment of our future and
our children's future.
Second, the absence of a vigorous constitutional government in Nigeria is posing
enormous problems to all regions of Nigeria. But no area is suffering more than the Niger
Delta. There are vested interests in the nation who reap fortunes from the Niger Delta in
circumstances of confusion in the constitutional affairs of Nigeria. Our people will suffer the
most in the face of constitutional chaos because there are groups and individuals who regard
the Niger Delta as their "cash cow."
Third, there is a deep-seated reason why we in the Niger Delta should push for reform
so that the resources in our region will be much better managed. This grave reason may be
stated as follows: If the exploitation of the Niger Delta continues at its current pace, then it is
almost certain that the Niger Delta as we know it will not last into the next century. Our
culture, our lands and waters, and the survival of our peoples are at risk with the infinite
greed of those who believe that the petroleum resources of the Niger Delta are there for them
to harvest in any manner available until they are exhausted.
That last reason calls for a citation of concrete instances of threats to our ways of life. I
will provide two classes of these instances that have especial significance for our corner of
the Niger Delta, but about which the rest of the Niger Delta will feel our pain.
First Instance: Oil and Gas Pipelines and Petroleum Oil Fires
Twenty five years ago, in 1976, the Nigerian military dictatorship, which Murtala
Muhamed and Olusegun Obasanjo led, laid oil pipelines through several Urhobo
communities. Their construction was undertaken in order to drain crude petroleum oil from
the Niger Delta to a refinery at Kaduna, in privileged Northern Nigeria, hundreds of miles
away from the Niger Delta. There was no consultation for the consent of the Urhobo
communities through whose homesteads and farms Nigeria's central government's oil
pipelines carelessly crossed. Now these pipelines have aged and they are tormented by
sophisticated thieves who have access to privileged information and equipment for siphoning
oil from the pipelines.
On October 17, 1998, a huge oil fire broke out at Idjerhe, a western Urhobo
community, from one of these pipelines owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation. It killed more than a thousand people in minutes, roasting to death hundreds in
their own homes and in their farms where they labored for their own survival. If a tragedy of
such size and causation had occurred in Great Britain, France, or Japan, a national day of
mourning would be declared and a strong accounting of the government's conduct would be
requested. If Idjerhe's hell fire had occurred in India, Pakistan, Greece, or any nations
elsewhere where governments value their citizens, the relevant government would cry out for
international help, attracting billions of dollars to help the victimized communities. But
Abuja did not care about a thousand lives in the Niger Delta. Indeed, the military Head of
State, Abdusalami Abubakar, without any investigation, denounced the victims of the Idjerhe
Fire Disaster as the cause of their own death and troubles!
A year later, on September 17-18, 1999, a similar fire broke out at Ekakpamre in
eastern Urhobo from an oil spill in facilities owned by Shell in which the Federal
642
Government of Nigeria has shares. The affected communities had complained in vain about
the dangers that the oil spill posed to their lives and properties. In the year 2000 alone, in
quick succession, a rash of petroleum oil spills and fires destroyed whole communities along
the Federal Government's ageing oil pipelines in the Warri-Sapele corridor. On February 12,
2000, a major oil spill at Amukpe ruined a vital portion of the Ethiope River, destroying fish
resources and plant and animal livelihood. On July 10-14, an inferno of fire consumed the
town of Egborode. A BBC reporter who caught the destructive power of this fire in its raw
state likened it to a "World War scene" (see Phillips 2000). A more spectacular oil spill fire
occurred at Elume River on November 16, 2000, destroying everything in its path. (See
Petroleum Oil Fire Disasters 1998-2000).
What is frightening about these fires is that they only betoken the dangers ahead. There
is no indication anywhere that Abuja is following any strategies that will lessen these dangers
of great fires in our lands. On the contrary, pursuing a headstrong policy, Nigeria's Federal
Government insists on constructing a West African Gas Pipeline Project which will carry gas
from the Niger Delta to the West African nations of the Republic of Benin, Togo, and Ghana
(see UN Integrated Regional Information Network 2000). This project, in the course of time,
will definitely worsen the potential for graver fires. These are the evil that a government can
do to its people. Should anyone be surprised at the statement that the Niger Delta as we know
it may not last into the next century, if these destructive fires continue, combined with oil
spills and gas flares?
Second Instance: Blocked Rivers and Dredging of the River Niger
Less than fifty years ago, rivers, streams, and lakes criss-crossed the entire Urhobo
landscape -- as they did the lands of many other ethnic nationalities in the Niger Delta. They
constitute the water networks of the Niger Delta. They are all mysteriously connected in the
vast framework of what is called the Niger Delta -- in ways that are not visually obvious.
Today, these invaluable assets are in grave danger. Many of the streams and lakes have
dried up. Others are threatened by weeds which form sediments that can, and do, turn our
streams and lakes into solid lands.
Why is this happening? One can take a guess from the timing of their occurrence.
These water bodies have been with us for thousands of years. Their decay has occurred in the
last forty years or so. It is entirely possible that there is a multi-faceted causation involved in
this matter. Foreign fast-growing weeds that have drifted into our region have contributed
their share. But the decay of our rivers, streams, and lakes have occurred at the same time
that dams have been built on the River Niger, causing unusual interference on the water level
and distribution of the River Niger's tributaries. In these circumstances, the proper thing to do
is to reclaim these rivers and lakes which already have their natural water ways. The World
Bank has been engaged in such reclamation ventures in various regions of the world.. Our
own Professor Austin Egborge (1998), from the University of Benin, has suggested very
simple and sensible ways of making these important efforts. Any wise government in the
Niger Delta would increase its value in the eyes of the people if it engaged in the restoration
of our endangered rivers and streams.
Not surprisingly, the Federal Government of Nigeria at Abuja has not cared anything
about the tremendous cost to our people and to Nigeria from the loss of these waterways,
which is linked to Kainji Dam. However, it has responded to the political needs of well-
placed Nigerian communities in a manner that will complicate our problems in the Niger
Delta. Of the many questionable contracts that Abdulsalami Abubakar's military regime
643
gave out before leaving office was one for the dredging of the River Niger. Its purpose is
overtly political. It is said to be for the sake of providing river ports for Niger State and
Anambra State. It seems to matter little that there are numerous ports in Nigeria that are
underutilized -- at Sapele, Burutu, Port Harcourt, Warri, Koko, Calabar, etc. The present
civilian government at Abuja has brushed aside the cry from environmentalists and from
Niger Deltans that the dredging of the River Niger may cause enormous damage to the Niger
Delta. Without any credible impact studies, the Federal Government is hurrying to embark
on this dangerous scheme of dredging the River Niger.
What dangers will the dredging of the River Niger pose to the Niger Delta? First and
foremost, it will lead to enormous flooding. There are currently low-lying islands and
peninsulas in virtually every state of the Niger Delta, including Ilaje areas of Ondo State, that
will be flooded. Many of them may be wiped out of existence. This is a problem that will
touch many ethnic nationalities, including low-lying communities in Igboland, that are
largely in the riverine areas. One can imagine several lands in Itsekiri, Ijaw, and Efik areas of
the Niger Delta that will be fully endangered. Houses and human beings may be washed into
the sea.
There is another type of flooding that will come with the dredging of the River Niger.
Blocked tributaries -- rivers and streams that were fed from the River Niger before the
damming mania of the 1960s-70s -- will no longer be able to receive excess water from the
Niger. Such water may now find new avenues which may well be the streets of Ughelli, Port
Harcout, Calabar, or Warri. We who own these lands should be informed of these dangers.
We who own the Niger Delta should fight to ensure that any dredging of the River Niger is
postponed until its consequences are well understood, allowing us to secure our lands and
waters.
But these dangers also remind us that we need a government that fights for us, not one
that does not care whether we are burnt to death from government's oil fires or whether we
are washed away into the Atlantic by man-made floods. That is to say, we need constitutional
reforms that will allow us to own the government that is responsible for managing our
resources. That is the essence of the doctrine of genuine resource control. Only maximum
federalism, which will bring government close to our people, can ensure that Urhoboland and
the Niger Delta will last into another century and beyond. Therein lies the power of the
intellectual argument which Professor Itse Sagay, Dr. G. G. Darah and quite a few others
have laboured to outline. The status quo is unacceptable. Under the current constitutional
impasse, Abuja will bury the Niger Delta in hell fires, uncontrollable floods, and poisoned
environments. We must summon all our resources and leadership attributes to prevent such
fate. We must organize to realize a constitutional form of government that will protect the
Niger Delta and our futures and children's futures. What does it profit a man if he amasses
great personal fortunes but suffer the loss of his homeland? Yes, our homeland is worth
fighting for. The stakes are high. We should not be intimidated. We should join with others to
accomplish a new constitutional order for Nigeria -- or for those parts of Nigeria that accept
with us a common definition of our desired future.
References
African National Congress. 1955. African National Congress Freedom Charter . Reprinted in Seymour
Martin Lisped, ed. The Encyclopedia of Democracy , Volume IV, pp. 1511-1513. Washington, D.C.:
Congressional Quarterly, 1995.
644
Agbassa Treaty. 1893. "British Colonial Treaty of Protection" With Agbassa in Warri District." Pp. 62-64
in Peter P, Ekeh, editor. (2004) Warri City & British Colonial Rule in Western Niger Delta . Lagos,
Nigeria: Urhobo Historical Society.
American Declaration of Independence [From England] (1776). Reprinted in Seymour Martin Lipset, ed.
The Encyclopedia of Democracy , Volume IV, pp. 1432-1434. Washington, D.C.: Congressional
Quarterly, 1995.
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646
Chapter 36
The Place of the Elite in Urhobo Leadership 1

F.M.A. Ukoli
Just before putting pen to paper, I thought it expedient to refresh my memory about
the meaning of the word elite which I always thought had something to do with a select
group or class within a society. I did a double take when Webster's Dictionary definition
made a serious rethinking of the import of the title of this lecture inevitable. Says Webster,
Elite: "The few who are considered socially, intellectually or professionally superior to the
rest in a group or society." It dawned on me that many kinds and levels of elitism are implied
in this definition. Thus while there can be a political elite, a social elite, an educated elite, an
academic elite, an intellectual elite, a university elite, a military elite etc, in a given polity, it
is immediately obvious that there are various categories within each of these select classes.
For example, while a university graduate can be classified as belonging to the educated elite
in, say, Ughelli community, humility will dictate that such a one should refrain from laying
claim to such an exalted status in an academic community like the University of Ibadan,
dominated, as it were, by professors, lecturers, doctors of philosophy, etc. On the other hand,
while an Ohonvworen can justifiably be said to be part of the social and political elite in
Kokori, it does not necessarily follow that he would automatically qualify to be accorded
similar recognition as the Ehonvworen of Agbon kingdom or the Ekakuro, who constitute a
more exclusive elite class of a higher status; not to mention the Ovie who, according to
Adjara III and Omokri, is "the distributor of authority ... a most feared, revered and adored
2
leader…"
Then again, membership of the social/political and intellectual elite classes may not be
mutually exclusive. A man may quite easily gain admission into the former, but may be
considered ineligible for the latter. So where do we go from here?
I think that it is safe to assume that "elite" in this context refers to the social and
political elite in Urhoboland. I make this assumption because of my impression that the
Urhobo man is unduly preoccupied with the issue of elitism, particularly when it has to do
with leadership. And leadership is another concept with which we have to come to grips --
but later.
The Urhobo constitute an ethnic group, but there is great diversity in the origins of the
various clans as well as diversity in their culture. Indeed, the differences are so marked that
H.R.H Adjara III and Omokri, in their recent book Urhobo Kingdoms , elevate the 22 clans
which constitute the entire Urhobo tribe to the status of kingdoms.2 Each kingdom is headed
by an Ovie who is vested with religious and secular powers; he sits at the pinnacle of the
social and political elite, exercising administrative, judicial, legislative and religious authority
over his domain, while reserving the power of bestowing chieftaincy titles on deserving
persons who constitute the social and political elite class. And yet it is ironic that
1
This is the text of a lecture given by Professor Olorogun Frank Ukoli in 1998 in commemoration of the anniversary of fifty years
of the death of Chief Mukoro Mowoe in 1948.
2
Adjara III H.R.H., O.I. and Omokri, A. Urhobo Kingdoms, Political and Social Systems, Textflow Ltd., Ibadan, 1997, p. 21.
no recognizable aristocracy has emerged, not even at the clan level, with such a vibrant and
respected ovieship system. However, in the absence of an aristocracy, there has developed in
the traditional Urhobo social organization, a number of titled societies and associations,
prominent among which is The Ohonwvoren Institution, which ranks next to the ovieship in
importance as a traditional institution. "The title Ohonvworen is conferred on individuals
adjudged to be of high integrity and moral standing ... promoting them above commonality.
It is a mark of recognition in society, a mark of honour and nobility…. The titled chiefs
have come to assume the status of a political elite in the clan and now constitute members
of the Ovie-in-Council and hence advisers to the Ovie." 3
How does one qualify for membership of this institution? According to Adjara III and
Omokri, "it is predicated on ability to perform prescribed initiation ceremonies and pay the
necessary (prescribed) fees …." 4Professor Onigu Otite's terse description of the procedure
for obtaining the chieftaincy title as "long and expensive" 5is an understatement covering a
multitude of requirements designed to keep only the affluent, the men of substance, in the
race. Only those who, in popular parlance "have arrived," dare to aspire to membership of
this class. Indeed, according to Otite, "the expense in the whole process of obtaining a
chieftaincy title is prohibitive.'' 6
How did one come by such wealth in the traditional Urhobo society? The answer is
simple; success in farming and trading, which were the two main occupations of the Urhobo.
At home in the villages, this means subsistence farming -- to keep the body and the soul of
the family together, with little left over for exchange, and petty-trading -- peddling a few
items of assorted goods around neighbouring villages on their various market days; hardly
two of the surest ways of accumulating wealth and influence. But some people did emerge
from such humble beginings to attain elite status as defined above.
But greater prosperity was assured for those who could break away from the limited
opportunities at home to literally seek greener pastures. Thus Urhobo migration, a topic on
which the renowned anthropologist and sociologist , Professor Otite, has worked
extensively, 7 became a major feature in Urhobo history and heritage. The inborn
adventurous spirit of the Urhobo took hold of the young, strong and enterprising men from
virtually all the clans, in search of their fortunes, far and near. They went forth and, for want
of a better expression, colonized most of the rural areas of the Yoruba country, so that from
at least about the 1920s to the 1970s, Urhobo communities were scattered all over
Yorubaland, engaged in farming, palm oil and palm-wine production, fishing and trading in
various goods. Thus Urhobo settlements flourished in such far-flung places as Ilesha,
Okitipupa, Ikorodu, Osogbo, Ondo, Shagamu, Akure, etc. Though far from home, they
retained their identity, and they maintained their culture. There were interactions, and while
cases of inter-tribal marriages were not unknown, they were kept to a minimum. They
worked hard, and they saved.
The pull to maintain contact with home was strong and so these migrants were not lost
to the tribe. A young man who felt ready and able returned home to take a wife or sent
3
Ibid. blurb.
4
Ibid. pp. 10,12
5
Otite, Onigu. Autonomy and Dependence: The Urhobo Kingdom of Okpe in Modern Nigeria, North-Western University Press;
Evanston, Illinois; 1973 p. 38.
6
Otite, Ibid. p. 43
7
Otite, Onigu. “The Urhobo in Ukane,” in The Urhobo People Second Edition edited by O. Otite; Shaneson C. I, Ltd., Ibadan,
1998.
648
The Place of the Elite in Urhobo Leadership
home for one. Any one of middle age or near who had achieved a measure of success in his
work went home to erect a building in the family compound -- the bigger and more opulent
the better -- as an indicator of his success. But of particular relevance to this lecture, many
who were confident that they had accumulated enough wealth and were old enough to
contemplate retirement from active service returned home to settle down and worked towards
their receipt of chieftaincy titles. The migrants were not the only group that could repatriate
their externally gotten gains in exchange for chieftaincy titles. Petty traders who, by dint of
hard work and business acumen, later evolved into merchants and made it big in the urban
centres of Warri, Sapele, Benin, Lagos, Jos, Kano, etc., were also able to acquire the fortune
required for the acquisition of chieftaincy titles. You don't need me to tell you why they did
not spread eastward.
Thus, until about the 1970s, while there were a few homegrown farmers/ traders who
could cover the increasingly prohibitive cost of membership of the social and political elite in
Urhoboland, it was from the ranks of the successful latter-day migrant farmers and traders
and the modern merchants, businessmen and contractors in the urban centres that the bulk of
them were drawn. While all the Ehonvworen, by whatever means they attained this mark of
distinction, could and do play the role of advisers to the Ovie (at least by correspondence or
telephone, if not by personal contact), the effectiveness of those living abroad in their roles as
members of the administrative and political class of the clan, and in their participation in the
functions of the Ovie-in-Council, is bound to be limited because, to
all intents and purposes, their impact could only be felt in absentia . Their periodic, even
infrequent contacts with the home base, usually during festive and ceremonial occasions,
nevertheless provides them the opportunity to appear in their gorgeous regalia, head-dress
and other insignia of chieftaincy especially the bracelets and a special stiff round necklace
which lays on the chest, called Agheghon, all made of beads (usually coral beads). These
are all designed to enhance their noble status, dignity, good reputation, evidence of wealth
and general prosperity; public appearances provide the forum for showering the chiefs with
praise names (starting with Olorogun!) to boost their ego.
On a more serious note, the foremost authority on Urhobo history, Professor Obaro
Ikime, put his finger right on it when he described Chief Mukoro Mowoe as "a personage
8
extraordinary in the Warri of the 1940s." According to Ikime, Mowoe rose from petty
trading, with no formal education (he was self-taught), to the status of general merchant, and
was without doubt the leading Nigerian businessman in Warri Province of the 1930s and 40s.
His business interests were diversified and far flung in Warri, Agbor, Eket, Calabar, Lagos,
etc. He was an exporter (palm oil, rubber and cassava) and importer, dealing with a wide
assortment of goods ranging from toothpaste to textiles, provisions, formic acid for
processing rubber, bicycles, aluminium ware, iron pots, etc - a wholesaler and a retailer.
9
He was a contractor who supplied food to the prisons in the Province, as well as a
general contractor for building and road construction. He was a transporter - Mukoro Mowoe
Transport (M.M.T.) was one of the leading transporters in the 1940s. He was in the foodstuff
trade, transporting large quantities of garri, etc., from Warri to Lagos for sale. He was in the
mining business - tin in Jos, gold in Ilesha ... and so on.10
8 Ikime, Obaro. The Member for Warri Province: The Life and Times of Chief Mukoro Mowoe of Warri, 1890 - 1948 (2nd Edition)
Original Edition Published by Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, 1995 p. 103.
9
9. Ibid. p. 19.
10
10. Ibid. pp 21 - 25.
649
According to Ikime, Mowoe was known for his capacity for the sustained hard work
needed to manage these various businesses spread over a very large area. In private, public
and business life, he seemed to have built for himself a large reservoir of goodwill,
confidence and trust; and, without doubt, enormous wealth and influence, not only in
Urhoboland but in the entire Warri Province. Above all, there were no corrupt politicians in
office with whom to liaise for filthy lucre. The age of shameless topping of contracts had not
11
yet dawned. Mowoe did not make easy money. He sweated for what he made."
Mowoe possessed the prerequisites for the chieftaincy title in his clan many times over,
and in order to be able to serve on the Ovie-in-Council, he became an Olorogun of Evwreni
in the late 1930s. The Evwreni people held him in high esteem, and "the assuidity with which
the Ovie cultivated his goodwill and support" are all additional testimony to the fact that he
was the leading Evwreni citizen. "He played the various roles Evwreni expected of him with
distinction, and the people were appreciative and adored him. He certainly was not the kind
12
of prophet who had no honour in his own home."
Evwreni produced the greatest Urhobo man; Dr. Muoboghare, the reviewer of Ikime's
book, said "Mukoro Mowoe shone like a thousand stars." 13 Ikime himself said Urhoboland
has not been able to produce another Mukoro Mowoe, a quarter of a century after his death.
14
Alas, Evwreni was not big enough for Mowoe's sagacity, foresight, organizational
ability, and skills etc. How I wish there were a united Urhobo kingdom under one Ovie, with
one Ovie-in-Council; Mukoro Mowoe would have taken his place there, bestriding the
council like a colossus. Mukoro Mowoe, the quintessential political and merchantile elite in
Urhoboland! At a time when the Urhobo sought identity, Mowoe created the focus, the
rallying point, the one who emerged to assume the leadership of his people by the mid-30s
and 40s, by virtue of the qualities he had more than adequately demonstrated. And what does
leadership imply? As I have said elsewhere, a leader sets a direction, develops a vision of the
future, and seeks to achieve this by motivating and inspiring, keeping people moving in the
15
right direction." Mowoe achieved this to a large extent as can be gleaned from this
summary:
(1) Between 1917-1932 – The Age of Dogho , the British accorded the Itsekiri
predominance over the Urhobo, and in many ways treated the latter as second-class
subjects. Due largely to Mowoe's efforts and stature as a man of substance and
influence in Warri Province, the Urhobo position was gradually strengthened, and the
predominance of the Itsekiri redressed before his death in 1948. The period from
the mid 1930s to 1948 was justifiably tagged the Age of Chief Mukoro Mowoe by
Ikime. 16
(2) He was one of the founding members of the Urhobo Brotherly Society in 1931
(indeed, the inaugural meeting was held in his house). This evolved into the Urhobo
Progress Union (U.P.U.), and Mowoe became its President in 1934 and later Life
11
Ibid. p 110.
12
Ibid. p. 40.
13
Muoboghare, P. Review of The Member for Warri Provinceby O. Ikime. Unpublished manuscript, 1997, p. 5.
14
Ikime, Op cit. p. 180.
15
Ukoli, F.M.A. A State University is Born: Throes of Birth; Ordeals of Growth ; Textflow Ltd. Ibadan; 1996, p 28. Also, see Ukoli,
F.M.A., "Leadership through Academic Excellence" First Professor C.G.M. Bakare Memorial Lecture Organized by the Department
of Guidance and Counseling, University of Ibadan on 26 March, 1996, pp 3-4.
16
Ikime, Op cit. p. 110.
650
President General until his untimely death in 1948. The general aims and objectives of
this society were to foster unity amongst the clans, and launder the disreputable image
the Urhobo had cut for themselves in Warri and elsewhere for resorting to
questionable means of livelihood and engaging in litigation mongering, all of which
earned derogatory epithets, the most provocative of which was "Usobo Wayo"!
According to Chief J.S. Mariere, Mowoe's protege and later Governor of Midwest
State in the 1960s, "few people (could) put their chest forward to answer the Urhobo
17
name." They were ashamed of their "Urhoboness." One of Mowoe's greatest
achievements as President of U.P.U. was helping restore the pride of the Urhoboman
in himself so that he could walk about with his head held high.
(3) He played a leading role in the establishment of Urhobo College, and in getting the
British Government to move Government College from Warri to Ughelli in 1951.
(4) Mowoe was a genuine believer in inter-ethnic peace and harmony. He fought for the
rights of his people without forgetting the goodwill of their neighbours, particularly
the Itsekiri.
(5) As the member representing Warri Province in the Western Regional House of
Assembly, he brought pride to the Urhobo through his brilliant and effective
performance, thereby promoting and enhancing the Urhobo image.
(6) Finally, Mowoe was a legend in his lifetime. He set a standard far too high for those
after him to reach. To quote Obaro Ikime, "He served his people at great cost to
himself. Urhoboland gave him next to nothing in return… Those Urhobos who call
themselves leaders today and who aspire to leadership in the future must ask
themselves first what their aim is -- exploitation of their people for personal gain, or
service in the interest of those they claim to lead? ... Urhoboland of today can do with
18
a few more Mowoes. Indeed, so can Nigeria."
Snippets gleaned largely from Ikime's book, The Member for Warri Province: The
Life And Times of Chief Mukoro Mowoe of Warri 1890 - 1948, encapsulate my concept of
the elite in Urhobo leadership. Mowoe was the archetypcal Urhobo elite, only he pitched his
sights far too high for the rest of us mortals. In a sense, we are lucky that we have such a
symbol of excellence whose performance we can seek to match in the conduct of public
affairs. In this, Mowoe cut a larger than life figure. Hence, we may not be doing justice to
those leaders who came after him if their performance is assessed using his standard as a
yardstick.
But this has been an exposition of the subject, "The Elite in Urhobo Leadership" before
the advent of the educated elite. Professor E.A. Ayandele of the University of Ibadan
defined the Educated Elite in his University lecture of 1973 as:
The Western-style literate group in the Nigerian society, with emphasis on their
articulate, self-styled leaders.... They symbolize the moral, and social unity of a collectivity
by emphasizing a common purpose and interest different from those of the unlettered. 19
This class of people could not have flourished in Urhoboland until the 1930s (education
had not been properly organized in Urhoboland until 1920). Even then this handful of men,
spread thinlyover the whole area, had no more than primary school or teacher training
qualifications. A few were self-educated. Though highly respected for their knowledge (the
Urhobo have always valued education), the prohibitive minimum entry
17
Ibid. p. 52 - 53.
18
Ibid., p. 111
19
Ayandele, E.A. The Educated Elite in Nigerian Society (University Lecture), Ibadan University Press; Ibadan, 1974, p. 4.
651
requirements for admission into the Ohonvworen Institution made unrealistic any aspirations
towards membership of the social and political elite class; they were effectively excluded
from assuming leadership roles in their various clans, and so their contributions towards the
social and political development of the group was limited. This makes Mowoe's case all the
more remarkable. Mowoe did not acquire formal education by going to school. He became
part of the political and merchantile elite by dint of hardwork and success as a businessman.
But to aspire to greater heights, he overcame the disability imposed by lack of a formal
education; he embarked on self-education. His success in this was simply stupendous.
According to Ikime, "His letters, his speeches, his notes on issues he raised in the House of
Assembly reveal a high level of erudition and even higher level of understanding of the
20
issues of his day." Until 1948, therefore, with the exception of the
self-educated Mowoe, the contribution from the educated class could not have amounted to
much.
By the 1950s and early 1960s, there had been what can be described as a phenomenal
increase in the number of graduates of teacher's colleges and grammar schools, with a
sprinkling of university graduates (mostly lawyers). Most of these took up civil service or
teaching jobs while the lawyers set up practice in the urban areas, thereby effectively
precluding them from active overt participation in social and political activities at the clan or
local levels. For most of them, induction into Ohonvworen Institution and such like
traditiona1 societies was not only a dream (for obvious reasons), but was not a priority
particularly for those in the rarefied and sophisticated environment of the civil service in
Lagos, Ibadan, Benin-City and Warri. Recall that because of the identity crisis and image
problems mentioned earlier, many of them did not welcome too open an association with
their kinsmen in the cities or even give an indication of their place of origin
However, thanks to the enterprising spirit for which the Urhobos have now become
famous, from the late 1960s to date, Urhoboland and indeed Delta State, Lagos, and Abuja
are now awash with Urhobo graduates in every conceivable field of study. Intellectuals and
professionals of Urhobo origin, both male and female, in virtually every field of
specialization can be found holding their own and jostling for positions in the public and
private sectors – government, industry, commerce, the financial sector, the oil sector, the
professions, politics, the military, the universities and other educational institutions all over
Nigeria. If the truth must be told, the Urhobo, man for man, have oversubscribed their quota
in the various fields of human endeavour when compared to other Nigerian ethnic groups.
And younger ones are coming; it is not for nothing that the Joint Admission and
Matriculation Board (JAMB) statistics show clearly that of all the states in Nigeria, Delta
State records the highest number of applicants for university admission. And here, the
Urhobo hold sway. We now have a build up in the last 20 - 25 years from which an educated
elite can emerge to join hands with the social, political and merchantile elite at home to work
towards the growth and development of Urhoboland. But what do we find?
(1) First the bulk of our educated clansmen are still concentrated in the cities far away
from home and show little or no inclination for coming home to their various clans to
settle. Even with the emergence of clearly defined Local Government Areas with their
various headquarters which are supposed to be centres of development, most
graduates seem to prefer toughing it out in the cities because there is where the good
life is and fortunes are made. So although there is a multitude of qualified Urhobos,
Urhobolond does not seem to be deriving the fullest benefits from this blessing. By
20
Ikime, op cit. p. 107.
652
the same token, most of them are neither available for nor prepared to offer themselves
for leadership roles at home.
(2) The prospect of taking chieftaincy titles and, therefore, being assimilated into the social and
political elite class leaves most of them cold. For one thing, the financial considerations are
sufficiently formidable to dampen their enthusiasm. A graduate in the public service does not earn
enough (unless he is in a position to amass ill gotten gains from the spoils of office) to make
aspiration in that direction anything but a pipe-dream. Even now, special concessions are made to
waive the payment of prescribed fees for any person who, in the opinion of the Ovie, deserves to be
honoured by virtue of his contribution to society. But then, the cost of acquiring the paraphernalia
of chieftaincy and the lavish entertainment of friends and relations who come from far and near to
grace the conferment ceremony (for it is indeed a great occasion) can still break the financial back
of a willing recipient of the title. Besides, the initiation ceremonies are still perceived by some as
having a semblance of fetishism which is incompatible with their Christian beliefs and practices.
And this is in spite of the fact that, according to Adjara III and Omokri, the ceremony has been
"modernized (in many clans) to remove any inhibiting conditions which had made them
unattractive for Christians to aspire to." Can this situation be likened to
21
a case of 'water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink'; a case of starving in the
midst of plenty? A multitude of graduates specializing in a multiplicity of disciplines,
but their combined knowledge and experience cannot be fully harnessed, neither for
the development of the physical infrastructure nor for the political, economic,
agricultural, industrial and technological transformation of Urhoboland. This inability
to draw from this pool of abundant talents and expertise at our disposal could be due to
a failure to mount an aggressive campaign to raise awareness on the benefits to the
greater society of belonging to the traditional chieftaincy institutions from within
which these graduates can gain insight into the problems of their clansmen at the
grassroots level. By being precluded from serving on the Ovie-in- Council as members
of the political and social elite, they are prevented from putting the skills for which
they have been trained at our disposal.
(3) So, we are left with just a small proportion of our graduates who are able and willing
to go through the motions and bear the cost of induction into the chieftaincy institution.
These include the few successful lawyers and doctors in the cities and the politicians - they
want the title anyway; Chief ABC has a more dignified ring to it than plain Mr. ABC and
Chief (Dr.)(Mrs.) XYZ carries more weight than plain Dr. (Mrs.) XYZ. In any case, a title
''provides the opportunity of attaining vertical social and political mobility" and they know
22
it. But, in effect, they are just like their
forerunners, a generation or two ago, who served largely in absentia.
(4) What about the academic elite or the university elite, you might ask? They are also
mostly financially handicapped, and they are located far away from their home clans. Since
they are unable to make their contributions through their clan councils, they tend to favour a
pan-Urhobo approach to development. They tend to opt for organizations like U.P.U. and
similar bodies or committees where they can generate ideas, debate issues, prepare position
papers on burning issues of interest to the Urhobo, and advise and make recommendations to
Urhobo leaders on such matters. How successful they have been in this approach remains to
be seen.
21
21. Adjara III H.R.H., O.I. and Omokri, A., op cit. p.10.
22
Otite, Onigu, op. cit. p. 45.
653
But as invariably happens, there is a lot of intrigue and jostling for position within
these bodies. Many people use them as stepping stones for greater things – appointments to
ministerial and commissioners posts, chairmanship and membership of boards etc., and once
those goals have been attained, it is 'goodbye committee'. I have observed too many of these
bodies take root and flourish, only to wither and die once offices have been fought for and
won or lost. This trend reached its peak during the administration of General Ibrahim
Babangida – a period in which the elite generally, but the academic elite from the ivory
tower in particular, believed in the concept of "everything goes"; an elite which lacked
principles and according to my friend and colleague, Professor M. Nwagwu, "an elite with a
high inclination for political intrigue; an elite obsessed with power and the pursuit of power
(for personal monetary gain); an elite without a sense of proportion, nor a sense of good
23
order, nor a sense of fair play; an elite without a national focus.'' We look in vain for
idealism and altruism. The Urhobo academic elite seem to have developed this trait into an
art form; personal interest tends to be paramount in any crusade; the struggle for power,
privilege or gain is fought with no holds barred; the art of hustling for position and favours
had to be mastered for success to be assured, and for this no amount of kow-towing; or
boot-licking is considered infra dig; personal dignity and self-respect are subjugated in the
interest of personal aggrandizement.
What is even more disturbing is the charge by Ayandele that in spite of the higher
degrees, research and publications, not a single political thinker has emerged from the ranks
of the academic elite... they exhibit total ideological barrenness… and what is worse, "they
seem unable to understand and adapt to the Nigerian situation, world conquering ideologies
which are being turned to advantage in other parts of Africa." 24 Contrary to the tradition in
the developed parts of the world, our universities are not arsenals of ideas. And he concludes,
"On the whole, it is clear that no revolutionary group with ideologies has emerged among the
educated elite in Nigeria; that the students and staff of universities have been, essentially,
bread and butter agitators, rather than fathers of ideologies to which they would be
25
exemplarily and passionately committed." The Urhobo educated and academic
elites are not different from the other Nigerians of their ilk. No wonder then that Urhoboland
has been waiting in vain for the past quarter of the century, since the emergence and growth
in number of this class of people, to make a difference to its lot.
I close by calling on you to give a dispassionate assessment of our achievements since
the age of Mukoro Mowoe and the emergence of the educated elite.
(1) At the pan-Urhobo level (for example U.P.U.), has there been any progress since
Mowoe's sudden exit in 1948? Has any generally accepted leader emerged? Mowoe
held office for 14 years. Has there been any success at resolving disputes and
conflicts? What success can we chalk up to the U.P.U.?
(2) Is unity among the Urhobo being enhanced, or are the clans (kingdoms) growing stronger?
(3) What gains have we made politically, with our neighbours, and at the state level? How will
our performance in the struggle for the creation of Delta State be assessed? What about our role
in the struggle for the siting of the capital in Asaba instead of
23
Nwagwu, M. Beyond the Double Helix: Biology and the Social Order (University Lecture) University of Ibadan, Ibadan, 1994, p.
67.
24
Ayandele, E.A. op. cit. pp.142-143
25
Ibid., p. 145.
654
Warri in l991? And what about the campaign for the creation of the New Delta State
in l996? How did we fare there?
(4) What about the struggle for the creation of Warri East Local Government Area for
indigenous Urhobos in Warri Metropolis? Did the Urhobos acquit themselves credibly in this?
Did they give adequate support to their kith and kin in this contest? Or were the poor oppressed
Urhobos of Warri left to their own devices?
These are valid questions worthy of being posed, and not simply because I am
an Agbassa (Urhobo) man from Warri. Dr. Muoboghare is not from Warri; he is from
Uwherun, and this is what he said in his review of Ikime 's book:
The Agbassa people would [be] in a better state if there were a Mukoro Mowoe
in their time. What happened to Agbassa could have happened to the Okpe in
connection with their land in Sapele but for the intervention of Mowoe and the 26
U.P.U...
(5) Are we now at peace with our neighbours as Mowoe so assiduously fought for 40-50
years ago? In any case, how well are we handling Itsekiri-Urhobo relations? What are the
advances towards achieving lasting rapport, peace and harmony?
(6) How do the Urhobo counter thc accusation that the activities of the U.P.U. and I.N.C., umbrella
organizations for Urhobo and Ijaw interests respectively, have encouraged chauvinism amongst
these two ethnic groups in their relationships with their neighbours everywhere? "The existence of
these umbrella organizations encourages the Urhobos and Ijaws who are minorities in Warri to team
up with their kith and kin from outside the kingdom (sic) with a view to annexing Itsekiri lands and
oppressing us in our homeland." Have we prepared a well-reasoned argument
27
to counter this? One thing I know for certain: none of our Urhobo kith and kin from
outside the "kingdom" have teamed up with the people of Agbassa to annex any
Itsekiri lands and oppress them in their homeland.
(7) Urhoboland is among the largest oil-producing areas in Delta State, nay, in Nigeria
as a whole. What benefits have accrued to the Urhobo people in view of this fact?
Has any Urhobo man been appointed Petroleum Minister, Chairman or
Commissioner of OMPADEC, or member of the Petroleum Trust Fund?
How many Urhobo have served in the various and several boards and committees of The Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), or for that matter, have the Urhobo had a say in any policy
making bodies or programme implementation agencies likely to exert a positive effect on their
development? Is there any evidence that we are enjoying the good fortune that should have been our lot,
endowed as we are with the black gold? What have we to show in the area of the development of
infrastructure -- like roads, water supply, school and hospital buildings, transportation facilities etc.,
which other oil-producing areas seem to be taking for granted? Have we done enough to seek redress or
adequate compensation? What have Urhobos, in crucial positions in the federal government, done to
ensure that we get our fair share of the national cake, in spite of our penchant for sending delegation afte
delegation of leaders to them in Lagos and Abuja?
(8) If the performance record of the academic elite in the political and diplomatic spheres has been nothing to
home about, or to express it in the prevailing
26
Muoboghare, Op. Cit. p. 5.
27
Anon . Okere & Her People: 500 Years of Existence (1497 - 1997), Arimabo, Warri, 1997, p. 38.
655
official jargon, if their experiment with seeking solutions to the intractable or even
formidable problems of their people through dialogue have failed to yield tangible
results, then what? Or does the Urhobo believe they are yet to be pushed to the wall?
(9) Could the academic elite change tack and apply their considerable intellectual
capabilities and professional skills to tackle our numerous scientific, technological,
environmental, educational, agricultural, employment, and health problems? What
about setting up foundations, scholarship funds, etc., to promote academic activities
within the Urhobo polity?
(10) What about the damage to intellectualism and scholarship inflicted on Delta State University in the
recent past? What ideas are forthcoming from the Urhobo academic
elite in answer to what I tagged the "Abraka debacle" in my recent book A State
University is Born. 28
Planning and conducting researches to proffer solutions to all these problems
surely do not depend on membership in traditional chieftaincy institutions. In other
words, nothing stops those academics and intellectuals who are inclined to reject or
are unable for one reason or another to accept chieftaincy titles from conducting
studies and making recommendations which will promote growth and development in
all spheres of life in Urhoboland.
In conclusion, what options are available to us on the issue of the "Elite in Urhobo
Leadership?" Is the traditional system of Ovie-in-Council, made up of a social and political
elite through induction into the Ohonvworen Institution, the answer? Just because a man "is
adjudged to be of high integrity and moral standing... and is able to perform the prescribed
initiation ceremonies, and pay the prescribed fees," it does not necessarily follow that he
would be endowed with the intellectual capabilities and professional skills and expertise
which are pre-requisites for grappling with modern societal problems. If the Ovie-in- Council
must persist, can its structure be strengthened by attracting more educated/academic
elements into its fold? The Ovie-in-Council concept is clannish or, at best, local in outlook.
In view of this, should we give the educated/academic elite a pan- Urhobo focus through a
centralized system like the U.P.U.? If none of the above is the answer, then we must strive
to devise a novel system. It is crucial for us to do so because our survival as a people in
the context of Vision 2010 and beyond, in Delta State in particular and in Nigeria in
general, depends on it.
28
Ukoli, F.M.A., A State University … Op. Cit. p. 285.
656
Chapter 37
An Autobiographical Statement
By Chief D. A. Obiomah
Editorial Foreword
Mr. Daniel Obiomah was invited as the Special Guest of Honour at the Annual
Conference of Urhobo Historical Society holding at Goldsmiths College of London
University, November 1-3, 2002. We invited him to play this role because we in Urhobo
Historical Society believed that he deserves such honour. Many Urhobos have grown to
respect Daniel Obiomah as a man who has fought battles for his people in Agbarha-Ame
without expecting anything in return. We know him as a pioneer. I heard of Daniel Obiomah
in my Okpara corner of Urhobo culture because his name was mentioned by ordinary people
as Urhobo's first D. O. (District Officer), a lofty position that many Urhobo elders in the
1950s and 1960s never expected that an Urhobo man would occupy in their life time. We
were pleased that he played that role magnificently at the venues of the 3003 Annual
Conference of Urhobo Historical Society. We were thrilled to hear that on his return from
that Conference in London, United Kingdom, he was conferred with a loft chieftaincy title by
the King of Agbarha-Ame.
In inviting him to be our Special Guest of Honour, it occurred to us that there must be
a powerful human story behind Daniel Obiomah’s achievements. Despite total family
support for their children, for which Urhobos have become famous in Nigerian cultural
history, few Urhobo families in the 1940s and 1950s had ample means to sponsor their
children for higher education, which in the times of Daniel Obiomah included secondary
school education. In preparing for the London Conference, we asked Daniel Obiomah to tell
his own story with emphasis on the road leading to his achievements and his remarkable
dedication to the study and propagation of Urhobo history and culture. It is our hope to ask
other Urhobos of his generation to narrate their unique Urhobo experiences to their Urhobo
compatriots, especially a younger generation of our people, as well as to the rest of
humankind.
We are fully delighted that in the following account of the early portion of his
distinguished life experience, Daniel Obiomah has set an example that will help others to
understand what we will be demanding from them. In doing so, Daniel Obiomah is a pioneer
in an area in which our web site seeks growth: authentic biographical and autobiographical
profiles of Urhobos who have achieved heights, mostly by fighting the difficult odds that
history dealt their generation. In addition, Daniel Obiomah’s autobiographical statement
supplies important nuggets of the history of British colonial times in Urhoboland and Nigeria.
Peter P. Ekeh
Chair
Editor@waado.org
I was born in Agbarha (Agbassa) Warri on December 25, 1927, to Urhobo parents of
Agbarha and Uvwie. Until I was about to enroll for the Common Entrance Examination for
admission into secondary school, my age was never in issue. Now, Mr. James Egbo, a cousin
within the extended family, good naturedly undertook the formality of swearing to a statutory
Declaration of Age to give me the age of thirteen years, the maximum for admission to
secondary school. So, from 1946 when I was admitted to Government Middle School, Warri
(later known as Government College, Warri, and later still as Warri College, Warri; Warri
College, Ughelli; and now Government College, Ughelli) my year of birth was 1933. As time
went on I was keen to know my real age. Then my mother told me that I was born on
Christmas Day some three months after Chief Ofiaigbe was arrested by British colonial
officers at Egborode over the tax riots in the year that capitation tax was paid. The tax riots
were in 1927 and payment began in 1928. But Chief Ofiaigbe was arrested about September,
1927. I have, accordingly, since established my date of birth as December 25, 1927,
superseding the official date of December 25, 1933, obviously a convenience.
When I was a baby, my Christian father had a serious religious disagreement with the
Agbarha Community during which his elder brother, of full blood, took sides with the
community. In the result, my father took his wife and children to safety at Egborode, in
Okpe Clan of Urhobo, his mother's place. So my first awareness of names and people was at
Egborode. In those back days the test to determine if a child was ripe to go to school was to
let him touch his left ear with his right hand over his head. I could not reach my ear yet but
my father wanted me in primary school. He requested the erstwhile offending brother who
was visiting Egborode to bring me back to Agbarha, Warri. My uncle came alone in a dugout
canoe paddled by him from Warri River through the many tributaries of the Niger Delta. My
uncle, since resting in peace, treated me most tenderly. He laid for me, in the canoe, a
bed-seater where I had my hands resting on either edge of the craft, watching the weeds slide
by fascinatingly on the serene water. Dusk soon came and night. I lay down and slept for the
rest of the journey, woke up at dawn, watching the canoe being pulled upon the sand by my
uncle. We had arrived. My uncle lifted me to shore, and without knowing it I was due to start
a new chapter of my life. I joined several cousins and servants among whom I earned the
reputation of a naughty boy who refused to do errands. I often defended myself by querying
why I was the only one sent on errands.
My fathers' compound abutted on the Roman Catholic Mission School. Here I was
enrolled. The school uniform was a white shirt over white shorts. But my father did me
proud giving me such memory to treasure. I was rigged in a white pair of shorts, a T-shirt
and a coat made out of prestige drill known as a T-20. The new boy was enrolled into small
ABC class. I did not know what was meant by passing to another class so I tried to
demonstrate it by walking across, swinging my hands, and caused laughter. Then the day
soon came when most of my classmates moved on to Big ABC class leaving me and a few
others behind. I was not allowed to follow them. I was miserable. What was it, why should I
not join them? But my day did come to move to Big ABC which was then merged with
Infant One thus catching up with my classmates in Small ABC. We were later promoted to
Infant Two which then merged with Infant Three. All told it was eight years of primary
school, with two years of junior primary and six years in Senior Primary consisting of
Standards One to six, one grade per year.
I was some thing of a prodigy in primary school. It was those days when men
euphemistically known as Big Boys, some already fathers, went to school, but I led them at
the examinations. They too called me naughty. But at exam time they were very friendly and
urged me to defend the honour of our class by beating the other arm of our class to second
position. For there were two other bright small boys there. In 1942, the year I left
658
school in December, the Catholic Mission introduced a tougher school leaving examination
for their schools in Warri Province. Only six of us from Warri passed the examination. I
placed second overall. Once I acted as Puck in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
and drew much applause. Before then I had a reputation in recitation. For example, before an
audience of the whole school of teachers, pupils, of Standards I to VI and the Reverend
Father, I recited, off the cuff, the entire "The Deserted Village" by Oliver Goldsmith. This
streak also featured in my secondary school where I was a member and head of the Dramatic
Society, making and staging my own plays now and again.
But not so fast. Despite my performance inprimary school, I was not to enter
secondary school for three years until January 1946. I had, for reasons neither here nor there,
not sat for the Common Entrance Examinationfor admission into the few Government
Secondary Schools. My two other classmatesmentioned above passed the examination and
were admitted one to King's College, Lagos,and the other to Government College, Ibadan.
When my Headmaster, Mr. Augustine Egbuwe ofblessed memory, learned that I was
stranded at home he promptly sent for me and offered me a place at St. Thomas' Teacher
Training College, Ibusa (Igbuzor). Here, the Catholic Mission trained, at their own expense,
teachers who contracted to serve the Mission as teachers for four years. I refused the offer
for my own reasons: I did not like teaching; I was not a Catholic, Mr. Egbuwe had been
unable to convert me to Catholicism and thepresent circumstance meant that I would be tied
to the Catholic Mission for eight long years. I was brought before my father by an indignant
elder sister. My father's cousin, Ikomi Eghagha, who came calling, advised, "Why don't you
leave the child alone. You never know. Children are clairvoyant." So I went scot- free to do
domestic chores for three years. Being of small stature and of stunted growth, I had not
become a Big Boy, and armed with Declaration of Age, I qualified for admission into my
famous school headed by the disciplinarianand sports enthusiast, Mr. V.B.V. Powell and,
later, by Mr. C. Carter.
At Warri College, Ughelli, I was also known as Cicero. In my second year – and the
third for my new school – Government scholarships were introduced and I won one. We all
became boarders. In Class Four I took part in an essay competition organised for secondary
schools in West Africa by certain Africans in England under the leadership of a Mr. K.A.B.
Jones Quartey. I won second prize of £4.00 which was good money in 1949. Albeit, I was
always poor financially. My Common Entrance examination essay was, by order of the
Education Officer, read to Standard Six classes in all the schools in Warri. I contributed
poems and stories to the College Magazine, of which I was editor under the English Master,
Mr. C. Carter. I was also the Librarian for the well-stocked school library. I was a School
Prefect, Head of my House, and missed being Head of School because a School Perfect in the
foundation class next above ours had to remain a year longer in school. I made First Grade at
the Senior Cambridge Examination, in 1951 and obtained the requisite credits to sit for
admission to University College, Ibadan. I passed the examination and won a Western
Region Government Bursary award for 1952 entrants.
My days at U.C.I. were quiet and emotionally trying financially, mostly due to my
loving mother's constant ill health. I won first place in Radio play for NBC in the Nigerian
festival of the Arts. I was published in U.C.I house magazines and two of my short stories
were aired by BBC, informing me that they had been translated into seven languages. But
mostly I benefited from the rich Library in my third year which I considered a free year
without examinations and literally roamed the range. I had occasion to play a role in
Oedipus Tyrranus by Sophocles and received loud ovation for my short appearance. I
remember the day in 1956 when the Arts Theatre was packed to capacity to debate the
motion that Nigeria was "Ripe for Independence." Moving the motion was Mr. Agunbiade
659
Bamishe, Action Group Party Manager, supported by a student, Mr. Ifemesia, later Professor
of History. Opposing the motion was Dr. Chike Obi, now Emeritus Professor of
Mathematics. Supporting Dr. Chike Obi was another student, D.A. Obiomah. Dr. Chike Obi
went to town. I contributed what I could. At this stage we seemed to have won maybe 80%
majority. The motion was thrown open to the floor. Immediately, one quiet and unseemly
student threw a spanner into the works by raising an apparently foolish point, to the effect
that the opposers of the motion had spoken out of point by making Nigeria's inability to as
yet govern itself properly our plank. He pointed out that the question was one of right.
Ripeness did not come into it. Did we have the right to govern ourselves or had we lost it to
the uninvited imperialist? What we made of our independence was our business whether we
ruled ourselves horribly or well. This at once split the house sharply so that we won the
debate by a narrow margin after all. Looking back down the years, and judging our kind of
rulership today, that was the day that was. Was the student, Iborigi, right or was he wrong?
An intriguing question.
I entered U.C.I to earn a degree and earn a social status above that of Chief Clerk,
granted, just before his retirement, a loan to buy an old car which lasted less than a year
after, because he lacked money to maintain it. So the car remained jacked up on blocks as a
symbol of high status attempted. Unfortunately, I should say, I all but missed the degree,
but was determined that I could not stand yet another year. U.C.I. did not award aegrotat
degrees [degrees awarded on account of the candidates' ill-health --ed.]. I used to do all my
reading during the day up to about 10 p.m. after which I enjoyed my sleep till six o'clock in
the morning. Now, I was sick of what I did not know. Two other students had the same
problem as I. Ogedegbe, from Isoko, went home for treatment and did not return. He died.
The other failed his final examination but was to show his mettle later by becoming the
chairman and managing director of a reputable company. I adjusted my reading time-table
since I felt so hot in my head that from 11 a.m. I could no longer read. My thinking was lazy,
not concretising. Notwithstanding, I was confident enough to aim for Second Division. I
made Third Division instead.
Thereafter I avoided, as much as I could, taking up a job before I felt physically fit
enough. I abhorred to be called incompetent. As it happened, I was not rejected at the
interview for employment as Class A Administrative Officer ( Oyibo job) under the Western
Region of Nigeria Government. Together with my Nigerian colleagues, I was determined to
do the job as efficiently, even better, than the whites we were replacing. Happily some of the
older people who, I still remember, call me complimentarily D.O. (District Officer), the first
for Urhobo. I ran for six years. When it was getting less and less possible to be efficient
under the new political atmosphere, I resigned my prestigious job and walked the next day
into selling cigarettes, in Nigerian Tobacco Company. At the onset I was morally troubled
and worried, because I was highly paid while I seemed to do nothing worthwhile, in sharp
contrast to my previous job in which I was boss, and in which I promoted rural welfare,
adjudicated on appeals from native courts, developed local government councils, and now
and again had to talk agitators out of brewing disturbances and riots. I knew better later when
I began to earn much money for the company and demonstrated originality in sales
management and promotion. Again after six years I called it a day with Nigerian Tobacco
Company. I had been due to join the board but events seemed more than just coincidences. I
decided to leave before it would be impossible to decide. I made up my mind then never
again to work for anybody but to serve myself. Through thick and thin that is how it has
been, ending up as a small real estate player.
But something happened unnoticed as I was leaving the Government. It is the kind of
probability that religionists often interpret as divine intervention. The government gazette for
the week reported the proceedings of the first of Agbarha legal challenges to Chief Dore
660
Numa in the suit Ogegede vs Dore Numa , 1925, presided over by T.D. Maxwell, Puisne
Judge. Somehow, I swallowed this falsehood and deplored how Agbarha seemed to have
spoilt their own case allegedly drunk in court. I came home to Warri from Lagos to set
myself up in business. This gave me the opportunity which I never had before to interact
with my own people. As I listened and picked up one document after another I had a haunch
that my father might be right when he told me as a boy that the whites had done the Agbarha
people in over Warri lands. I became involved in research, was converted and became the
moving spirit of the Agbarha struggle to correct the distorted history of Warri and to claim
our political rights from the Itsekiris. Was it divine command that I should join the struggle
hence I left one job and then another and came home? To this question, another question is a
corollary, that is, whether the conflict which necessitated the struggle was also divine
conduct.
Concerning games, it was a slogan from Mr. Carter, to wit, that "P.T. (Physical
Training) is a lesson." Hence nobody could be excused from it. All students, the best and
worst performers, were duty bound to participate. Everyone must enter for at least three
sports at inter-house competitions. The untalented performers were allowed a score of one
point if they reached a set level called standard. Knowing my prowess I always reached,
heart and soul, for my three standard points only. My School Leaving Testimonial says it all:
"Obiomah enjoys his games but he is without natural talent."
I have the experience of both urban and rural life and have enjoyed it tremendously.
Thus, I am proud that I was not only known as “Koso Town Boy” but also as a frolicking
bush boy, hopping from peak to peak of galloping swamp, catching fish in the streams and
birds with bird lime, and making cages and cane baskets, harvesting yams and watching
them strung up in the barn. I witnessed palm oil making at the camp, Okô in Urhobo. There
is a lot more to remember. There was the happiness at festivals when communal animals,
such as pigs, were slaughtered and shared, the coming of guests, the drums and the
masquerades.
In retrospect it can be solemn. Once pucky faces have furrowed. Since yesterday many,
some the best of friends, have quit into eternal silence. If I can recapture it correctly without
acknowledgement (I do not know the author now):
The harp that once in Tara's Hall

The soul of music shed,
Now hangs as mute on Tara's wall,
As if those souls were fled.
So stills the pride of former days,
So glory's thrill is o'er,
And hearts that once beat high for praise
Now feel that pulse no more.
You asked me to tell about "the dark backward abysm of time." That I have done. You
know about more current times. You can pick and choose.
D.A. Obiomah
September 22, 2002
661
Chapter 38
Understanding Urhobo History through Obituaries

Editorial Foreword
Most Urhobo men and women who came of age from the 1910s through the 1950s
carried with them the difficulties of bearing Urhobo labels among their fellow Nigerians.
Most of them worked hard to improve on their own life circumstances. Many of those who
had opportunities to attain some level of education were conscious that they represented the
Urhobo people and that their successes were applauded by their fellow Urhobos. Some were
the first to go to elementary schools and secondary schools from their families. They were
almost always regarded as heroes in their hometowns.
Unfortunately, we do not have chronicles of all those who should rightly be saluted as
pioneers. One avenue for recording the deeds of representatives of men and women of these
pioneering generations is through obituary essays that pay tributes to their times. We do not
have many of these obituaries that reflect on the challenges and difficulties of the times in
which these courageous Urhobos lived. We are able to gather only a few of such essays
which have significance for aspects of Urhobo history.
What follow in the rest of this chapter are obituary essays that bear nuggets of Urhobo
history. They are valuable because they portray elementary means available to members of
past generations who had to overcome major challenges to survive in colonial Nigeria. If
younger Urhobos have prospered in various professions, it is because their elders overcame
difficulties that these obituary essays reveal.
(1)
Memorial Tribute to Orhoro I, Orodje of Okpe (1921-2004)
By Hope Eghagha
University of Lagos, May 2004
The Tree has entered the River:

Celebrating the life and times of His Royal Majesty Orhoro 1, J.P., OON,
Orodje of Okpe, Delta State.
The Okpe Traditional Council recently announced the transition of His Royal Majesty,
Orhoro 1, JP, OON, the Orodje of Okpe in Delta State of Nigeria. HRM Orhoro was the first
and pioneer Chairman of Delta State Council of Traditional Rulers when it was created in
1993. With about a third of the population of the state as subjects in his domain, he was indeed
one of the most influential traditional rulers in Delta State. He was host to many Itsekiri and
Urhobo communities. But alas, in our socio-political environment, a man who carries himself
quietly and in dignity hardly ever gets into headline news.
He served his term as Chairman of Delta State Council of Traditional Rulers peacefully
until it was the turn of his successor with whom he co-operated in a most charitable and royal
manner. Some have described the late king as ‘peace-loving, even to a fault'. In my view, this
is an eloquent testimony to the grand, simple and peaceful personality that was His Royal
Majesty.
Throughout his reign Okpe Kingdom witnessed massive growth, particularly in terms
of social amenities, road construction, and unity of purpose. He was a man who made no
enemies, but who at the same time stood for the truth. But alas, that which is good but mortal
must come to an end. Thus came an end to the thirty-two year glorious, peaceful and eventful
reign of the traditional ruler of the most populous sub-ethnic group in Delta State, the Okpe
people.
For most people familiar with his long reign, the word that summarises his era is
'peace'. It's not all leaders who manage to ensure peace. For as Thomas Kempis has observed:
"All men desire peace, but very few desire those things that make for peace." Under the
Orodje, the kingdom was spared the ethnic clashes that had rocked the state in the last 10 odd
years. The Bible says, "God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the
children of God."
It is true that minor skirmishes were reported in Sapele between the Okpe and Itsekiri.
But the firm and gentle hands of the great man of peace helped to douse the tension. He was
genial, kind and patient. He also had an immense capacity to listen to all parties that
presented matters to him.
Who was the Orhoro I, Orodje of Okpe ?
Who are the Okpe people over whom he presided?
By some irony, this icon of our time did not hit the headlines during his reign because
the kingdom was not enmeshed in crisis. He had no clashes with his chiefs nor did he do
anything to cause disaffection between the Okpe and her neighbours. If anything, he ensured
that conflicts were amicably resolved. Okpe land stretches from the River Ethiope on the
northern side to Uvwie clan in the south and from Agbon and Agbarho clans westwards to
the sea. The Okpe people are the descendants of the four princely brothers namely Orhue,
Orhoro, Evbreke and Esezi, whose ancestor migrated from Benin about 1170 AD. The Okpe
share boundaries with Agbarho clan, Agbon clan, Idjerhe clan, Uvwie clan, the Itsekiri
people of Warri Division, the people of Oghara Division, and Uvwie and Ughelli clans of
Delta State.
Domingo Amujaine Ejinyere as His Royal Majesty was then called, was born at
Orerokpe, the ancestral home of the Okpe and the headquarters of Western Urhobo Divisin,
in 1921. His father, late Chief Ejinyere Edjere, was a principal member of the Ibobo family
on the paternal side and of the Ohwere family on his maternal side. His mother, the late
Madam Etadievu Erhabor was of the Ohwere family.
It is instructive to note that both the Ibobo family and the Ohwere family are sub-
branches of the Orhoro ruling House. His Majesty therefore was a full-fledged member of
664
the Orhoro Ruling House. The ruling houses, four in number, are Orhue, Orhoro, Evbreke,
and Esezi, named for the brothers who founded the kingdom.
His Royal Majesty received his early education at the Holy Cross Catholic School,
Lagos. He then joined the Nigeria Police Force in 1940, retiring on pension in 1952. In
search of the Golden Fleece, His Royal Majesty proceeded to the United Kingdom in 1956
where he studied Business Administration, obtaining a Diploma. Upon his return from the
UK, His Royal Majesty took a Chieftancy title and established a business. He was appointed
President of the Customary Court in 1963. In 1964, His Royal Majesty and his brother, Chief
J.E. Odiete, jointly established an industrial company, known as The New African Industries
Ltd. He held the positions of Director and General Manager of the company until his
appointment as Orodje of Okpe in 1972.
HRM Orhoro 1 ascended the Okpe Kingdom throne after the demise of His Highness
Esezi 11 on March 26, 1966. Thus HRM Orhoro was the second monarch after the long
period of interregnum in Okpe land. He was crowned king in colourful ceremony on the
30th day of December 1972.
He carried himself with immense dignity both during and after the coronation
ceremonies. His appointment was sealed by gazette No. 58 volume 9 of December 7, 1972,
issued by the then government of Midwest, headed by Colonel Samuel Ogbemudia. His area
of authority covered two local government areas, Okpe and Sapele, presiding over the single
largest ethnic nationality in Delta State, both in terms of population and landmass.
During his reign, he was first vice Chairman, Midwest Council of Traditional Rulers
(1973-1977); Deputy Chairman, Bendel State Traditional Rulers Forum (1977-1991);
Member National Council of States (MNCS) 1992; First and pioneer Chairman of Delta
State Council of Traditional Rulers (1993); Chairman, Southern Delta Traditional Rulers
Forum; Chairman, Traditional Rulers of Oil Mineral Producing Communities
(TROMPCON), Delta State Chapter. HRM was also the Life President of the Okpe
Traditional Council. During his reign, he was able to handle and resolve many intra- and
inter-communal conflicts in Delta State. For example, he intervened and succeeded in the
settlement of the conflict between Igbide and Emede (both in Isoko); he also intervened in
the conflict between Aladja and Ogbe-Ijaw, Oboro and Olota, Dabri and Aladja, and
Alagbabiri and Gbaregolo, Izon and Itsekiri warring groups in Sapele, etc.
In his colourful career, he won a medal of honour during the war of 1939-45. He got a
commendation from the Police High Command in 1950, and in 1978, he became a Justice of
the Peace. He also got the Merit Award for Development and Upliftment of Okpe Culture by
National Association of Okpe Students (UNIBEN/UBTH chapter) in 1998.
HRM was also Grand Patron of the National Union of Urhobo Students for which he
got a merit award from the Union. In 1998, he got the Distinguished Community Leadership
Award by the Institute of Corporate Administration of Nigeria.
In 2003, the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, honoured him with Officer of the Order of
the Niger (OON). During his reign, the palace at the traditional home of the Okpe was re-
built. The new architectural masterpiece that is the palace at Orerokpe is a manifestation of
how he quietly and unobtrusively brought different forces and persons together to pool
resources for the development of Okpe land.
Some of his professional colleagues in the Police Force include the Oba of Akure,
Adesida IV and the late A.I.G., F. Hausa Brisbe.
In his long reign, he had occasions to play host to some important traditional rulers in
Nigeria. These include the Emir of Ringim, Alhaji (Dr). Sayyadi A. Mahmoud (31st
September 1997); the Emir of Kano, Ado Bayero (28th March 1998); the Ooni of Ife, Oba
665
O.A Sijuwade (1st November 2001) and the Itsekiri King, Ogiame Atuwatse II (1st
November 2001).
st
Others are the Ewi of Ado Ekiti, Oba Adeyemo A. Aladesanmi III (1 November
2001); the Dein of Agbor, HRM Kegboekuzi I, JP (1 stNovember 2001) and the Olubaka of
Aka-Akoko, Oba Y.A Adeleye (1st November).
Some notable persons who are his subjects are Chief J.E. Odiete, the Otota of Okpe
Kingdom; Chief D.O. Dafinone (OFR), the Owhere I of Okpe Kingdom, Chief P.A. Gbinije
and Professor Sam Oyovbaire, former Minister of Information and Culture. Others are
retired General H.O.D. Eghagha, former Military Administrator of Ogun State and High
Commissioner to Ghana (the Ogbvivie Okpe); Generals Patrick Aziza, Felix Mujakperuo, Air
Vice Marshall Frank Ajobena (rtd), (former Military Administrator of Abia State); Mr.
Macauley Ofurhie, (DPR); Chief Charles Obule, (Director, NNPC Abuja); Barrister J.Y
Odebala, Chief Onomigbo Okpoko (SAN), former NBA President; Professor William
Odiete, etc.
Already, grand plans are under way to give the grand old king befitting rites of passage
for a man of his stature. His challenge to the Okpe people in general would be to produce a
worthy successor as soon as practicable and ensure peace and stability in their homeland.
(2)
Remembering Matriarch Janet Omotogor Ibru
Matriarch Janet Omotogor Ibru
A Letter of Condolences
P. O. Box 1454
Buffalo, New York 14226, U.S.A.
Web sites: http://waado.org; http://urhobo.kinsfolk.com;
http://www.urhobowaado.info/
E-mail: UrhoboHistory@waado.org
Fax: (716) 691-5066
March 25, 2006
Olorogun Michael Ibru

Queens Drive, Ikoyi
Lagos, Nigeria
Dear Olorogun Michael Ibru:
666
Condolences
I write this letter to express a special message of condolences from Urhobo Historical
Society to you and your siblings on the occasion of the death of your esteemed
mother.
Mothers are especially precious in Urhobo culture. The late Chief Obafemi Awolowo,
who was not particularly a good friend of the Urhobo people, was quoted as having
once uttered a special word of praise of Urhobo women. Chief Awolowo was quoted
as having told a confidant of his that Urhobo women worked night and day so that
their children would go to school and become successful in life. That virtue of hard
work and abiding dedication to the future and success of their children was especially
important in the case of Urhobo women who raised their children in the difficult
pioneering years of the 1930s through the 1940s. We dare to say that no other Urhobo
woman deserves greater credit for such steadfast dedication than your blessed mother.
We believe many future Nigerian historians will venture various deductions as to

what accounts for the unmatched and untainted successes that you and your younger
brothers have attained in so many fields. We in Urhobo Historical Society, who study
Urhobo history and culture as our assigned responsibility, would rush to say that the
early foundation that your mother gave you in life was most probably critical to your
achievements. In mourning the loss of your mother, Urhobo Historical Society
celebrates those virtues of Urhobo womanhood that have churned up so many
successful men and women in our history of the last three-quarter century. We know
that the loss of your mother will touch your core feelings because of what she
contributed to your life and the lives of your siblings. We trust that you will mourn
your beloved mother as a prototype of Urhobo womanhood. We mourn her loss with
you in that vein. Your mother’s loss will remind many Urhobos of the wonderful
things that our women have wrought in our history and culture. Please accept our
sympathies and condolences for the loss of a remarkable mother and a virtuous
Urhobo woman.
Urhobo Historical Society is currently working on its 2007 Calendar. We intend to

feature several Urhobo men and women of significance in Urhobo history and
culture. We plan to include your mother as one of Urhobo women personages who
deserve to be celebrated in our history.
Once again, accept the condolences of Urhobo Historical Society for the loss of your
respected mother.
Sincerely yours,
Professor Peter Ekeh

Chairman
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Editorial and Management Committee Members : Ovie Felix Ayigbe, B. Pharm.,

R. Ph.; Onoawarie Edevbie, M.A., M.Sc.; Peter P. Ekeh, Ph.D.; Edirin
Erhiaganoma, M.Sc. Joseph E. Inikori, Ph.D.; Isaac James Mowoe, Ph.D., J.D.;
Omokere E. Odje, Ph.D .; Aruegodore Oyiborhoro, Ed.D.; Ajovi Scott-Emuakpor,
M.D., Ph.D. Executive: Peter Ekeh, Chair and Editor; Andrew Edevbie, Secretary;
Edirin Erhiaganoma, Treasurer.
“The Matriarch Extraordinaire Goes Home” 1

By Oghenevware Evwode
On Wednesday March 15, 2006, the cold hand of death snatched away Chief Janet
Omotogor Ibru, the matriarch of Ibru dynasty at the age of 97 years. In fact, her death has
further showed that all creatures of God owe the debt of death and this great Urhobo woman
has just settled that debt.
The death of Chief Janet Ibru is a pointer to the biblical injunction as contained in the
book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3: “To every thing, there is a season, and a time to every
purpose under the heaven. A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to
pluck up that which is planted…”
Without mincing words, the entire Urhobo nation mourns the demise of Chief Janet
Ibru and by extension, other ethnic nationalities in the country and beyond also mourn the
death of this great Urhobo woman.
Her marriage to late Chief Ibru of Agbarha-Otor in Ughelli North local government
area of Delta State, Nigeria, was blessed with seven children who are today shining examples
of a multitude of virtues.
Her eldest child, Olorogun (Dr.) Michael C.O. Ibru, OFR, was once described by his
children and grand children in these words: “You are a pillar of strength, a visionary- guiding
hand, a moulder of character, an educator, a lover of children especially the family. You are
a humanitarian par excellence, a philanthropist without recompence, a grassroots organiser
and community leader, and a true patriot without equal.” In one of his classical songs, the
Urhobo poet-musician, the late Ogute Ottan, described Olorogun Michael Ibru as the Mungo
Park who opened channels of riches and investment for Africans.
In the same vein, Chief James Onanefe Ibori, Governor of Delta State, was reported to
have said that the Ibru organisation founded by Olorogun Michael Ibru, with 25 subsidiaries,
has been rated as the largest indigenous conglomerate in Africa. He added: “In the saga of
entrepreneurship, Olorogun Ibru’s name is a modern equivalent of the late Chief Mukoro
Mowoe, the first president-general of the UPU, the pioneer Urhobo multi- millionaire, and the
Nelson Mandela of the Western Niger Delta. Olorogun Ibru’s philanthropy knows neither
bounds nor social class.”
Records have it that Ibru is a pioneer in the production of fish and animal protein,
thereby not only strengthening Nigeria’s human resources for over 40 years, but also building
a healthy and viable economy. Other economic activities include a strong agro- industrial
base: farming and irrigation schemes, construction and steel works, brewing, bulk and liquid
transportation by land and sea, distribution and marketing of industrial chemicals, food
processing, chemical preparations, marketing of industrial chemicals, plastics and container
manufacturing, oil and gas exploration, aviation and automobile distribution, sales and
services, banking and allied matters as well as hotel and tourism.
1
Culled from Weekend Urhobo Voice, Thursday April 27 – Thursday May 4, 2006, page 6
668
Let us look at the background of the Ibru Organization. What is now one of the
foremost groups in West Africa started in 1966 with the establishment of a trading company,
Laibru limited. The first and most significant step in the organization’s evolution came in
1957 when the founder and chief executive, Michael Ibru pioneered the marketing of frozen
fish in Nigeria to alleviate the acute shortage of animal protein in the average Nigerian’s diet.
Despite initial market resistance, the venture was pursued so successfully that it developed
into allied areas, and made full use of opportunities for further diversification. The following
shows something of the present broad base of activities and given indication of the
capabilities of the Ibru group namely: Ibru Sea Foods Limited, Aden River Estate Limited,
Aero Contractors Nigeria Limited, Ibache (Ibafon Chemicals) Limited, Ibafon Oil Limited,
Ibron Nigeria Ltd; Ibru Merchandise 33 Limited, Ikeja Hotels
Plc. (Lagos Sheraton and Federal Palace Hotels), Societe Benninoise De Produits De Mer
(SOBEPROM), Zabadne and Company Limited, Osadjere Fishing Co. Limited, Marine
Harvest Ltd., Spibat Nig. Limited, Rutam Motors Limited, Nitrec Limited, Oceanic Bank
Int’l. Plc, Aquamarine Finance and Securities Limited, Queens Petroleum Company of (Nig.)
Limited, Guardian Newspaper Limited, Express Processing & Packaging Limited, Waskar
Ltd., Mitchel Farms, Nigerian Hardwood Co. (Nig.) Limited, F. Steiner & Company Ltd.,
Blue Water Marine, Delta Freeze Limited, Lillershall (Nig.) Ltd, Superbru Ltd., W.F. Clarke
(Nig.) Limited, Boardroom Service Ltd., Minet Nigeria Ltd. (insurance
brokers), Atlantic Estates Limited, Societe Camerounaise De Product De Mer-SCPM
Douala.
The above mentioned companies of Olorogun Michael Ibru, has showed that the
mother that gave birth to this business mogul of our time, deserves all the tributes now that
she has answered the call of the Lord. Both Nigerians and non-Nigerians alike would
continue to pay tributes to the deceased.
The late Chief Janet Omotogor Ibru would be remembered for the good legacies she
left for her children. In fact, this legend was a disciplinarian par excellence, who instilled
that discipline in her children. The late matriarch of the Ibru family was a role model and
that could be the reason why her children are today role models in their chosen careers.
Chief Janet Omotogor Ibru was also an epitome of humility and that trait always
reflected in all her actions while she sojourned on planet earth. Indeed, the success story of
her children did not make her to be arrogant in dealings with people and if you were not told
that she was the one that gave birth to Olorogun Michael Ibru and his siblings, you would
not know.
She was a good counsellor, no wonder she gave good advice to her children who are
today embodiment of good things of life. Chief Janet Omotogor Ibru must have followed the
biblical injunction which says: “Train up a child on the way of the Lord and when he grows
up, he would not depart from the way of the Lord.”
By all standards Chief Janet Omotogor Ibru was a virtuous woman and she possessed
all the sterling qualities of the virtuous woman as enunciated in the book of Proverbs chapter
31. The late matriarch must have been guided by this Indian proverb: “The nearest approach
to happiness for man in the course of his life is to possess liberty, health, and a peaceful
mind,” no wonder her children are marvels of the world.
The late nonagenarian attached much importance to this statement of James K.
Feibleman: “Morality is a set of laws that one sets up for oneself.”
The children of Chief Janet Omotogor Ibru attained greatness because their mother was
a woman who had a great aim in life. One should not be castigated to say that the children of
the late nonagenarian must have been guided by this statement of Johnann Wolfgang Von
Goethe (1749-1832), the German writer: “The important thing in life is to
669
have a great aim, to possess the aptitude and perseverance to attain it.” The late Chief Janet
Omotogor Ibru died in the Lord and that is why she is being given a Christian burial.
Indeed, the obsequies released by the family showed that on Thursday April 27, 2006
service of songs was held at the Ibru compound, Ovwor, Ughelli North local government
area of Delta State. While, on Friday April 28, 2006 the funeral service for the late
nonagenarian would take place at all Saints’ Anglican Cathedral, Ughelli and later her
remains would be interred at Ibru compound, Ovwor.
Olorogun Felix Ibru, another son of late Chief Janet Omotogor Ibru, is a politician of
no mean repute. He became the first civilian governor of Delta State and in the present
political dispensation; he is the senator representing Delta Central senatorial district in the
National Assembly.
Mr. Alex Ibru, OON, another son of the late Chief Janet Ibru is a businessman, a
publisher and administrator. He founded The Guardian newspaper in 1983 and today, that
newspaper is being described as the flagship of print journalism in the country. He also has
business interest in insurance, computer, and other allied matters both in Nigeria and
overseas. He was minister of Internal Affairs from 1993-1995.
Mr. Goodie Ibru is another illustrious son of late Chief Janet Omotogor Ibru, who has
made breakthrough in the hotel and hospitality industry. He also has business interest in
banking, stocks, insurance, as well as a member of many professional bodies. Today, he is a
force to reckon with when the issue of hotel and hospitality is discussed in the country.
In a chat with The Urhobo Voice, Chief Patrick Atsiangbe (JP), a chieftain of the
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Delta State, has this to say about late Chief Janet
Omotogor Ibru: “She is a virtuous woman and a model which every woman should emulate,
she lived a fulfilled life. Let the Urhobo nation be agog in festivity with the Ibru family.”
As for Chief Patrick Gbinije (JP), the most senior chief of Okpe Kingdom, he said:
“Her destiny with God was good and she made use of that goodness to train up her children
on the path of righteousness, and today they are successful Nigerians in their respective
endeavours and we have every cause to celebrate her burial. I therefore use this medium to
appeal to all parents to be of good behaviour, be of good understanding and pray unto God
so that they can bring up good children.”
A Testimony:
“Mamma Ibru is the Greatest Mother in Nigeria” By
Mr. Samson O. Eruvwavwe
“The Ibru family is one of the greatest and foremost in Nigeria. I believe that there
should be only a few Nigerians whose lives have not been touched in one way or the other
by the Ibrus.
“I worked as a Stenographer in Mitchell Farms, a subsidiary of the Ibru Organisation,
from January 25, 1985 to May 15, 1989. During my employment in the Ibru Organisation, I
came to realise that Olorogun M.C.O. Ibru is a very, very liberal person and his liberality
was reflected in the conditions of service applicable to all employees in the group. As a
matter of fact, the Ibru Blue Book which contained condition of service for all junior staff in
the entire Ibru Organisation, was well-known all over Nigeria.
“In the ‘80s when I was engaged in Mitchell Farms, there were 53 different companies
in the Ibru Organisation which cut across every sector of the economy! And the number of
Nigerians who benefitted from the Ibrus through direct employment, or sales agency, or
contracts, or clientele services ran into millions. As a matter of fact, the Ibru Organisation, as
at that time, was the greatest employer of labour in the organised private sector (OPS) in
Nigeria.
670
“Educationally, many Nigerians also benefitted from the Ibrus. Many underprivileged
children were given good education through scholarships by the Ibrus, and many workers
were sponsored abroad for specialised trainings by the various companies in the Ibru
Organisation. In Mitchell Farms alone, more than five persons were sent to Salisbury, for
courses in animal husbandry during my stay.
“Now, let me talk about the late Mama Ibru. It is not an exaggeration to say that Mama
Janet Omotogor Ibru was the greatest mother in Nigeria. I have not heard of any other
woman in Nigeria, who was mother of seven millionaires! I mean all her children — five
men and two women — are well-known millionaires!
“Some employees had complained that Mama Ibru was hard. But I did not see her to be
so. Such employees who complained were either questionable or lazy. I rendered personal
services to Mama and also chatted with her several times in the‘80s. In those days, Mitchell
Farms had a tradition of giving free-of-charge (FOC) frozen chickens to its workers every
week. Every junior staff was entitled to one chicken weekly, senior staff to two and
management staff to three. Mama Ibru was entitled to three chickens weekly and I had to take
them to her home in Ovwor-Olomu frequently, as most of my co-workers were afraid of
facing her.
“Mama Ibru was reputed to have fought against those who embezzled money in any of
the companies in the Ibru group. She, indeed, protected the business interests of her children
and thereby contributed to the growth and popularity of the Ibru Organisation. That is
something that every good mother in Urhoboland should learn from. Let no mother in
Urhoboland pull down her children; rather, all mothers should build up their children in
emulation of Mama Janet Omotogor Ibru.”
(3)
Lessons from Daniel Okumagba's Mathematics and Games
By David Okpako 2
Chief Daniel Okumagba
Chief Daniel Okumagba, who died two months ago [on Thursday, July 27, 2000], aged
78, was a founding tutor at Urhobo College, Effurun (UCE). Established in 1948, UCE must
arguably be one of the best known community-inspired secondary schools of the pre-
independence era in Nigeria. Two things were unique about UCE: It was entirely home
grown, inspired by the great Mukoro Mowoe -- no missionaries, no governments, no
expatriates. And, true to its motto, aut optimum aut nihil --either the best or nothing -- UCE
recruited the best staff and students available, irrespective of ethnicity, despite its name. My
2
David Okpako, UCE class of 1954, was a Professor of Pharmacology, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
671
classmates and life-long friends, Benjamin Maku, Ejebba Esisi, Julius Ifidon Ola, to name a
few, are non-Urhobos. The longest serving president of UCE Old Students Association, Dr.
Salami of blessed memory, was Ishan. It was under Salami's leadership that the old students
were able to contribute their small quota to the growth of the college. Nor did ethnicity count
when UCE's Governing Board awarded Urhobo College scholarships to young secondary
school leavers to go and study at the University College, Ibadan, so that they would return to
teach at the College. Some returned to serve their bonds to further strengthen the quality of
teaching staff; others did not, preferring to pursue higher academic goals. Urhobo College's
reputation today as a good secondary school owes as much to this foresight of its founding
fathers, as to the sterling qualities of its founding tutors.
One of them was Daniel Okumagba and it is about his lessons in mathematics and
games that I want to write a few words in tribute. With Okumagba, the mathematics master,
a reasoned step-by-step approach to a mathematical problem was more important than the
final answer itself; for him, no working back from the answer! He marked every line of the
work. If he just marked the answer, my career in mathematics would have been a complete
disaster. That brilliant Oji was different; he seemed to see the solution to the problem laid out
before him, as soon as he set eyes on the problem. Me, I frequently managed to get the final
step to the answer wrong! I found this frustrating, but it was apparently even more irritating
to Mr. Okumagba; "Okpako, what is the matter with you? You have done everything, now
only to substitute values for a, b, c, and multiply. Can you not do simple multiplication?" The
number of times I have reflected on this experience and reminded myself that the closer you
are to your final objective, the greater is the care you need to take. It is not over until it is
over!
Okumagba was a great teacher of arithmetic. His specialty in my memory was relative
motion represented by those "Lacombe" problems where train A and train B of different
lengths are travelling on adjacent tracks at different speeds, either in the same or in opposite
directions. The usual problem was to calculate how long it would take for the trains to pass
each other or for the faster train to overtake the slower one if they were going in the same
direction. I have to say this about Okumagba's train problems. Many of us in the class of
1954 had never set eyes on a train or a rail track! We could visualise the scenario because he
was patient and fantastic with diagrams, etc. It was many years later, travelling frequently by
train in the United Kingdom, that Okumagba's lessons on relative motion became a reality to
me. If you concentrate on those fast trains, you can get the impression that it is the buildings
that are moving, not the train. Albert Einstein might have felt like this while travelling by
tram to his job in the patent office in Zurich, and noticing the passing buildings when, we are
told, the seed of relativity was sown: "What would the world look like if I travelled on a beam
of light?"
If older schools like Government College, Ughelli; Edo College, Benin; and schools as
far afield as Government College, Ibadan; and King's College, Lagos, took Urhobo College
seriously in the 1950s, it was because Okumagba was its Games Master. Sport was only a
game then. Now sport is such big business that it is no longer just a game! I was not big
enough or strong enough to come under Okumagba's tough games lessons, but the 1950s
were the heydays of secondary school sports. In secondary schools like UCE, participating in
"Grier Cup's" competitions in field and track athletics, no boy was untouched by sports
enthusiasm, and I was no exception. Names like A. K. Amu from King's College (440 yards)
and Ifeajuna from University College Ibadan, who jumped more than a foot higher than
himself to win a Commonwealth Games gold, were on the lips of every school boy. At UCE,
we had our own heroes -- Scott-Emuakpor and Okoro in the jumps (high, long and triple);
and Jackson Adjogri, Benjamin Okumagba, Agbamu, the late Peter Ibi, etc., in football.
Chief Benjamin Okumagba, a younger brother of the master, is
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currently President-General of Urhobo Progress Union, founders of UCE. Scott-Emuakpor

became the first school boy to beat the six-feet mark in high jump in Nigeria in 1954 and
then went on to a brilliant career in genetics and academia as professor of Botany at the
University of Ibadan. Jackson Adjogri carved out a distinguished career in the civil service,
becoming the first Secretary to the Delta State Government. Okumagba, as games master,
treated his sportsmen well; he put them on a punishing training schedule, but they also
received a diet that was the envy of the rest of us -- eggs for breakfast, Ovaltine drinks,
beans and dodo for the boys were of special quality! In 1954, Okumagba and others in the
sports hierarchy brought the Grier Cup competition to Warri; it broke his heart and all our
hearts that UCE lost the cup that year by a hair's breath to King's College, Lagos. Ah! We
should have won it.
Football was particularly important to us at UCE in the 1950s because that was where
we came in close competitive contact with our nearest neighbours -- Edo College,
Government College, Ughelli and Hussey College, Warri. Against these colleges we must
win, otherwise you would have no face in Warri! Of course, we did not always win. Win or
lose, Okumagba's attitude was a lesson in sportsmanship. Honesty and integrity were his
hallmarks in sports and everything else he did. I am sure it was the same when he became a
national figure in Nigerian politics.
It is a Monday morning at the Assembly Hall. Urhobo College, Effurun, had beaten
Government College, Ughelli, the previous Saturday by a one-goal margin. The school is
jubilant. The erudite Principal, M. G. Ejaife, opens with a short prayer. As usual on days like
this, it is Okumagba who addresses the assembly on the events of Saturday. "You did not
deserve to win," he begins, to the amazement of those who do not yet know the games
master. "Adjogri, you could have saved that goal if you did not lapse in concentration. And
Ibi, Ibi! How many times have I drilled it into you, to keep your cool in the goal area? How
many times? You had all the time in the world to square that ball before netting it. Instead
you hurriedly shot wide off an open goal, why, why, why?" In spite of this tongue lashing,
we older boys knew that deep down the Master too was happy that his team had won. But he
was a perfectionist; just winning was not enough, everyone must do their very best. On other
occasions when UCE lost, he would surprise the assembly by praising the team for its
good efforts, conceding that we lost because the other team played better on that day. Aut
optimum aut nihil , always put in your best; then if you lose, you would have satisfied
yourself. Don't backslide! You did not have to be a sportsman to learn Okumagba's games
lessons. What I can conclude, when I look around among the class of 1954 and other old
students, is that many took Chief Daniel Okumagba's lessons in mathematics and games to
heart.
I salute the passing of a great teacher, a great sportsman, a great Nigerian.
(4)
Dr. Mudiaga Odje San (OFR): A Bright Jewel Lives On 3
By Daniel Obiomah
Dr. Mudiaga Odje is dead. It behooves every Urhobo person to pay tribute to him. He
made ample success of his chosen career and never indulged in weeping and blaming others
for his failures. He was a bright jewel in Urhobo attire. It goes far beyond this indeed.
3
Culled from Weekend Urhobo Voice, Thursday May 4 – Thursday, May 11, 2006, page 20
673
Warri is the cradle of Urhobo progress and unity despite natural hiccups. Name any of
our early Urhobo potentials, but he was one who cut his success teeth in Warri – Chief
Mukoro Mowoe, Chief J. Obahor, Chief Okpodu, Hon. P.K. Tabiowo, Chief A.T. Rerri,
Chiefs Mowarin, Okoh; Mr. Ighakpata, Akpoyovware, Chief (Mrs.) Alice Obahor. Warri,
therefore, is the great pride of Urhobo nation. Anyone who helped Warri out of the thraldom
thrust upon it and its Urhobo owners by colonialism did more, (to adapt Oliver Goldsmith) to
the Urhobo population than he who forever talks of Urhobo progress without daring to stick
his neck out for Warri.
Dr. Mudiaga Odje
This, Dr. Mudiaga Odje did. I knew Dr. Odje as far back as the mid – 1950s. He was a
teacher in UPU’s Urhobo College, Effurun (which started off in Warri). We were friendly
though not such chums that sat over beer in a happy chat. But when we met, it was as cordial
friends who were aware that they could rely on each other.
It happened that we met as members at the 1977/78 Constituent Assembly, which
produced the 1979 Federal Republic of Nigeria Constitution, which has since become a
model for subsequent ones. Up to that moment there had been entrenched in the 1963
Constitution a clause, which discriminated against Agharha-Urhobo and everyone else in
favour of a rival ethnic group generally regarded as powerful and dangerously vindictive as a
bear.
My duty at the Constituent Assembly was to expunge the inappropriate discriminatory
clause already in the Draft Constitution to be considered. Because I know I was being
watched for attack and obstruction, I made it a point to work behind the scenes. In this
regard, I teamed up, without show, with the women members of the assembly who were
determined to save women from discrimination. We produced a draft motion for debate and
approval by the assembly. My name was not, as a matter of diplomacy, on the motion. But
before it was sent to the clerk of the House for inclusion in the order paper, I took it to Dr.
Mudiaga Odje who vetted it, ensuring that it closed for good the discrimination aimed at not
only Agbarha but against all Urhobo. In due course, the motion was called to be moved and
debated. It was moved and seconded. There was no counter motion. It was put to vote and
endorsed unanimously! This amendment to the Draft Constitution and the 1963 Constitution
then appeared in the 1979, and now in the 1999 Constitution.
Dr. Mudiaga Odje had given his weighty support, as it were, to the children of Israel
freed from Egypt. It was like heaving the rock from the Resurrection Tomb. All is well.
674
That was not all. We, Agbarha, Warri-Urhobo were sued to court by adversaries who
should be friends. Why? We dared to assert our independence and sovereignty following the
constitutional amendment. Dr. Mudiaga Odje stood by the Agbarha people without a fee. He
won. In due course, of his own volition in order to fortify my own effort, he gave me,
without a fee two legal authorities.
The Agbarha Urhobo says, “ Arha mre Oghene ne ene-e .” You cannot pay more
homage to God than this, that is, best is best, there cannot be a better.
Oho re Izegede! 4
Take a message to Oyivwi: 5
Tell Oyivwi Mission complete
It is the dream come true.
Say also you were labourer in the vineyard with
M.G. Ejaife and Igho to spread knowledge now prolific throughout the land.
It is a common quote from Shakespeare that:
“The evil that men do lives after them
The good is oft interred with their bones.”
It will not be so with you. All Urhobo acclaim you and with
Long fellow say:
“Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of times.”
You have left bold footprints on the sands of time
Ohorizegede! Ohorizegede! Ohorizegede!!
Ewewu!
Your family mourns you, but are proud of you.
Adieu.
***
Mudiaga Odje (SAN): A Veteran Lives On 6
By Dafe Omoko
AN iroko tree has fallen. A man who provided cover not only to the Urhobo nation, but
to the entire country has departed this world for the great beyond. And since his demise,
dignitaries within and outside the legal profession have been attesting to the fact that he
contributed immensely to the development of our legal system. He also worked tirelessly to
change the destiny of the Urhobo of Warri, especially in the celebrated Supreme Court case
No. SC/309/74. If not for him, the story of the Urhobo of Warri would have been different
today.
4
Oho re Izegede would be Mudiaga Odje’s self-name ( odova) by which he was called in courtly assembles among his Urhobo
colleagues.
5
Oyivwi is the favourite moniker among the Urhobo people for Chief Mukoro Mowoe
6
Culled from The Urhobo Voice, December 26, 2005, page 22
675
His contribution to the growth of Urhobo Progress Union (UPU) alongside Dr. Esiri,
late Chief Daniel Okumagba (of blessed memory) was priceless. They all combined tirelessly
to maintain the legacy of the likes of late Chief Mukoro Mowoe, Chief Salubi, and Chief
Sam-Warri Esi, who ensured the Urhobo spoke with one voice and won their battles in a
manner devoid of distrust, hatred and disunity. No wonder their authority was never
challenged or questioned. It was a period the Urhobo nation was held in high esteem by other
ethnic groups in the defunct Bendel State and indeed Nigeria.
Then, the leadership of the UPU meant authority to every Urhobo man on earth, even in
politics. There was no dissenting voice. The whole Urhobo nation respected the candidature
of late Chief Daniel Okumagba who was the governorship candidate of the defunct National
Party of Nigeria (NPN). This was why the NPN got more than the 25 per cent vote required
for Alhaji Shehu Shagari in Bendel State to become the president of Nigeria in the 122/3 saga
against all expectations. Though Chief Daniel Okumagba did not win the governorship race
due to the gang up of the other ethnic groups, the political might of the Urhobo was respected
and recognized to date.
Dr. Odje was a man who valued education and knew its importance to the development
of man, hence he preached the sermon of education to the upcoming generation. He ensured
that his seven siblings (all male) read up to university level, and also made history in Delta
State by making five successful lawyers out of his seven male children; while the other two
are also doing fine as university professor and accountant outside the shores of our country.
He did not limit his interest in the education of his children, he also assisted in educating
others.
This is the story of the first Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in Urhoboland, Dr.
Mudiaga Odje (OFR), who transited into the great beyond peacefully at about 6:30p.m. on
Friday December 9, 2005 at the ripe age of 82 years.
After the death of the legal icon was made known to the public by one of his sons,
Barrister Okiemute Odje, relations and friends from all walks of life have been trooping to
his G.R.A Warri residence to register their condolences, making the once quiet area busy.
Notable and highly distinguished Nigerians have since been registering their condolences.
Honourable Justice E.O. Akporido of Effurun High Court described late Chief Odje as a
great man who contributed immensely to the development of law in Nigeria. While Hon.
Justice (Mrs.) E. Akperi of the same court described him as a source of encouragement to the
younger generation. Hon. Justice R.N Pemu simply described him as a rare gem.
On his part, Barrister Albert Akpomude (SAN) who worked under Chief Odje said his
former boss was “the icon of the NBA, the lone star of the Warri branch of NBA, and a
foremost lawyer in Urhobo nation.” The incumbent chairman of NBA, Warri chapter, Ojo
Abijogun simply said: “An iroko has collapsed, our foundation has shaken,” while another
legal luminary in Urhoboland, Chief Okpoko (SAN) described Chief Odje as a merchant of
honour.
An Itsekiri historian, J.O Ayomike in his brief comment described Dr. Odje as a good
man. While another prominent Itsekiri figure, Chief O. Temile stated that “Chief (Dr.)
Mudiaga Odje was a very jovial and friendly man.” Chief F.O. Esiri, one of Dr. Odje’s
contemporaries simply said: “Rest in peace after a job well done.”
Speaking in the same vein, one of the children of the deceased, Barrister Okiemute
Odje, said: “Daddy has not died, he has gone home. He has fought a good fight. And he has
achieved everything a man could ever wish for. All we need is prayers and strength to give
him a befitting farewell. “His admirers should begin to celebrate, to thank God, and wish to
have another great Urhobo man who would be able to take his position.”
Dr. Mudiaga Odje (SAN), OFR, was born in Evwreni, Ughelli North local government
area of Delta State. Between 1934 and 1940, he attended Catholic Primary
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School, Evwreni and Anglican School, Warri, for his primary education and teacher’s
training course. He also trained at the Government Teachers’ Training College in Warri from
1944-1945, thereafter, he taught at the N.A. Schools in Uzere and Ughelli, the Salvation
Army School, Sapele, and Urhobo College, Effurun between 1946 and 1954.
He read law at the University College and the School of Original and African Studies,
both of the London University, and successfully completed the legal profession course at the
Council of Legal Education, London, and was duly called to the English bar by the
Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, London.
He returned to Nigeria in July 1961, but went back to London three years later to
complete his doctoral programme. Until his death, he was mainly engaged in private legal
practice, but also devoted time for national and other professional obligations outside the
country.
Dr. Odje was called to the English Bar on February 9, 1960 and enrolled at the then
Federal Supreme Court of Nigeria on July 24, 1961. He became a fellow of the International
Academy of Trial Lawyers in December 1976, and was conferred with the Senior Advocate
of Nigeria (SAN) on January 12, 1978. He was later conferred with the Officer of the Federal
Republic (OFR) in October 1982.
He was the leading counsel, Hon. Justice Begho Tribunal that probed assets of former
public officers of Midwestern Region, Benin City, in 1966; member of the Midwestern
Nigeria Delegation to the ad hoc constitutional conference in Lagos between 1966 and 1967;
president of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) from 1974-1976, and was elected to
represent Ughelli and Isoko local government in 1979. He was chairman, Odje Commission
of Inquiry, Bendel State from 1975-1976; chairman, Federal Government commission for
in-depth study of the Nigeria /Benin boundary dispute, including the maritime sector between
1989 and 1990.
Dr. Odje became a life bencher on March 30,1989 and was past chairman of the
Honourable Body of Benchers of Nigeria from 1996 – 1997. He was also responsible for the
admission and call of new entrants to the Nigeria Bar during this period, and was the
chancellor of the Diocese of Ughelli, as well as legal adviser of the Diocese of Warri, both of
the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), and member, Oputa Human Rights Violation
Panel of Inquiry.
Odje was a holder of four chieftaincy titles, including Olorogun and Okakuro in
Urhoboland and Delta State. He will be greatly missed by his wife, Chief (Mrs.) Paulinah
O. Odje (JP); children, family, colleagues, friends and staff for his love, support, humane and
kind disposition to those who came in contact with him, one way or the other.
***
Late Odje Added Value to Lives
By Francis Daniel-Okumagba
Olorogun Francis Daniel-Okumagba has said the late Chief (Dr.) Mudiaga Odje
(SAN) added value to many lives while on earth.
In a chat with The Urhobo Voice during the service of songs for the one-time Nigeria
Bar Association (NBA) president, the renowned banker recalled that his father (Chief
Daniel Okumagba) and late Chief Odje impacted on their environments.
“Look at the houses Chief Okumagba and Chief Odje lived in, you would know the
kind of morals they had,” he added, remarking that the two men would have made a lot of
677
wealth, but “they confined themselves to the little they had because they were not interested
in making dubious money; what they were interested in was adding value to life.”
He said the legacies which they (children of both men) received from their fathers
centred on selflessness and love for their nieghbours, describing Chief Daniel Okumagba
and Chief Odje as two great men who fought for the growth of the Urhobo nation.
“It would be rare to have such people today,” he declared, tracing the friendship
between his father and Chief Odje to the early 20s when they were teachers at Urhobo
College, Effurun.
In a related development, Chief Yoma Esiso has described the death of Chief Odje as a
loss not only to the Urhobo nation, but to the country. Esiso, who was present at the burial,
urged the children of the late deceased to sustain the legacy their father left behind.
On his part, a frontline politician in Delta, Chief Okiemute Majemite described Chief
Odje as a collossus in the legal profession.
The Agbarha Otor-born politician, who is also a lawyer suggested that the likes of
Chief Odje should be immortalized, and called on upcoming lawyers to emulate the
deceased.
***
How Odje Was Laid to Final Rest 7
By Dafe Omoko
The life and time of Chief (Dr.) Mudiaga Odje was during the past weekend celebrated
in a colourful ceremony that could best be described as a burial carnival as the high and low
in Nigeria attended the three-day burial ceremony which took place in both Warri and
Evwreni.
The burial carnival which started with service of songs at late Chief (Dr.) Odje’s Warri
GRA residence on Thursday, January 26 was conducted in a grand style. A popular
Warri-based master of ceremony called Pecee confessed to The Urhobo Voice that he was
in awe at the turn out of eminent personalities at the service of song to the extent that he
was careful while acknowledging names of distinguished personalities present in order not to
offend anyone.
The service of songs that took place between the hours of 4pm to 6pm also witnessed a
reunion of loved ones, particularly amongst relations and friends. The premises of Dr. Odje’s
residence and indeed the length and breadth of the quiet GRA Road was jam-packed with
people who came from far and near to pay their last respect to the late sage.
The next day which was Friday, January 27, 2006 was more eventful. This was the day
the legal icon received his dues from members of the profession, which he helped to build.
After a brief stopover at his residence, the late legal luminary was then taken to High
Court (I) Warri where a valedictory court session described by many as first of its kind was
held in his honour. The court session was attended by all sections of the judiciary including
the bar and bench. In spite of the strict restriction of admission into the court hall, it could
not contain the eminent lawyers as well as magistrates from within and outside Delta State,
who struggled to gain entrance into it, to no avail. Meanwhile, canopies were erected at the
wings of the congested court hall to take care of those who could not get into the hall,
7
Culled from The Urhobo Voice, February 13, 2006, page 8
678
including relations and friends of the first Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in Urhoboland.
The pitiable scenario actually called for building of modern court hall in the state.
The Delta State Chief Judge, Justice R. Bozimo was in charge of proceedings. She was
flanked on both sides by the president of Delta State Customary Court of Appeal and another
high court judge. Time and space would not permit one to recount the encomiums poured on
late Chief (Dr.) Odje (SAN). The Agbarha-Warri Delta State born chief judge was the first to
read her speech. She was followed by the Minister for Justice and Attorney- General of the
Federation, Chief Bayo Ojo (SAN), the Delta State Commissioner for Justice and
Attorney-General, Professor Amos Utuama (SAN), and a host of others including the
secretary-general of Nigerian Bar Association, Minimo Watson-Jack who presented a speech
on behalf of the national president of the association, president of the Warri branch of NBA,
Mr. Ojo M. Abijogun, Hon. F.F. Tabai (JCA), who presented an unprepared speech on behalf
of all the lawyers who passed through the tutelage of Chief (Dr.) Mudiaga Odje. A
Benin-based Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Asawata spoke on behalf of all the Senior
Advocates of Nigeria. He acknowledged in his speech that Dr. Odje was a saint and he
harmoniously substantiated his points with several verses from the Holy Scripture to the
admiration of all. The valedictory speech was wrapped up by another legal luminary in
Urhoboland, Chief T.J. Okpoko (SAN), who is the leader of the Warri branch of NBA.
After Chief Okpoko’s speech, the remains of late Chief (Dr.) Mudiaga Odje (SAN,
OFR) was driven in a motorcade to the St. Andrews Anglican Cathedral Okere Road, Warri
where a church service was conducted.
Here again, there was a problem of space as a result of the multitude of people from all
walks of life, who went there to pray for the repose of the soul of the man who changed the
legal destiny of the Urhobo of Warri in the celebrated Supreme Court case No. S/309/74.
The presence of Governor James Ibori, his deputy, Chief Benjamin Elue, Dr.
Emmanuel Uduaghan, Senator Felix Ibru, Chief Ighoyota Amori (JP) were announced at the
pulpit with apology to the array of other eminent personalities who were present but whose
presence could not be acknowledged due to lack of time.
However, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor of World of Life Bible Church, Rev. Father Ambrose
Abaka Oghenejode of the Roman Catholic Church, Chief Ray Inije, Yoma Esiso, Chief
Adolor Okotie-Eboh, Justice Niki Tobi of the Supreme Court, Justice F.F. Tabai, Chief Efe
Akpofure (SAN) and a host of other highly placed personalities were present at the church
service.
Immediately after the church service, Dr. Mudiaga Odje (SAN) made his final journey
to his hometown of Evwreni where he was received like a hero (which he was) by thousands
of natives who were seen clad in a specially designed textile material with the photograph of
late Chief (Dr.) Odje on it, dancing and singing in praises of him.
Meanwhile it was celebration galore in the posh residence of late Chief (Dr.) Odje. The
premises was wide enough to contain about eight canopies including the final resting home
of the late sage which was described by many as one of the best tomb in this part of the state.
Caterers were at different spots including the nearby primary school to attend to people
without discrimination of any kind. A gospel musical band was also on hand to entertain
with the latest gospel music in town.
On Sunday, January 29, 2006 an outing service was held in honour of the late Urhobo
patriot at the St. Paul Anglican Church Evwreni. Again, a galaxy of who is who in
Urhoboland and indeed Delta State attended the outing service. The outing service was
wrapped up with a superb reception at the residence of late Chief Odje. Present at the
679
service were HRM Ohworode of Olomu Kingdom, Mr. Albert Akpomudje (SAN), Yoma
Esiso, the publisher of The Urhobo Voice newspapers, Chief Oghenemure M. Imene and a
host of others too numerous to mention.
(5)
Rex Akpofure's Sports Prowess Remembered8
By John Esangbedo 9
Rex Akpofure (1930-2003)
HOWAZAT! The umpire would either stay motionless or shoot out his right arm
over his head, with his index finger pointing skywards and simultaneously shouting back
"OUT". Chief (Dr.) Rex Akpofure must have heard that typically cricket appeal for the
opposing batsman's downfall dozens of times in his illustrious cricketing career. Over the
last 12 years there were at least three occasions that I know of when the Grim Reaper
(Death) assailing his wicked turned to the umpire belting out "Howazat". In all three
occasions, Rex Akpofure survived in his battle against Hogkins Lymphoma. He fought
the damn thing to the ground. But on June 10, 2003, Rex Akpofure was bowled out by a
slow and wicked offspin from this earthly world at the age of 73. There was no reprieve.
It was final. Granted that Rex Akpofure hit a couple of centuries (100 runs) during his
cricket playing days, but a score of 73 was not too bad an innings. He had reached the
biblical 3 scores and 10 + 3. He had lived a fulfilled life.
A few days after Rex Akpofure's death, I was sitting in his living room with a number
of his close friends and associates who were on condolence visit. Among the guests, was
Ambassador B.A. Clarke and his brother, the literary giant" J.P. Clarke. Ambassador Clarke
was thinking aloud when he wondered why someone of Rex Akpofure's muscularity in
frame and robust sporting antecedence should die. In my typically scientific and medical
8
Culled from The Guardian, Lagos, Nigeria. Tuesday, July 15 2003.
9
Esangbedo is a medical practitioner in Lagos.
680
mind set, I responded, perhaps too rapidly, that no one was immune (to disease and death). I
immediately felt a sense of guilt that I was disregarding the spiritual and supernatural aspects
of human existence as Chief Akpofure often accused me of.
I felt that my response to Ambassador Clarke's comments was incomplete and that I
should have added that even on scientific bases, things are not always that predictable and
besides the good Lord moves in a mysterious way. On my way home that night I was still
musing over the issue raised by Ambassador Clarke. If indeed Dr. Akpofure was not such a
solidly built man with nearly 20 years of sporting competition at or near international level,
perhaps he might not have survived Hogkins Lymphoma for over 12 years.
This short valedictory tribute will not attempt to describe Chief Rex Akpofure's
biographical data. After all, the chronological distance between Chief Rex Akpofure's class
set and mine at King's College Lagos (K.C.) was at least 10 years. In the tradition of K.C.
any student going through the portals of the college one day after you, is called a fag (by
implication a small boy). Therefore, it would be quite impudent ("saucy and overbold even")
for me to be describing that Chief Akpofure was born in Kokori in Urhobo land, entered
K.C. in 1945, etc. I will leave that to his contemporaries (Chief Adebayo, Dr. Alex
Ekwueme, Dr. Ebi Ikomi , amongst others) who would be far more competent to give an
account of the history of his life. This tribute is from a student to a reverted former school
teacher, house master and a cricket instructor/coach.
Chief Rex Akpofure will be buried in Kokori on August 16, 2003. The aim of this
writer is to praise him and to ensure that the good he did here in this world is not interred
with his bones. Chief Akpofure whose life bestrode several generations of the King's College
Fraternity, first as a student, a versatile student athlete, school master, House master, cricket
instructor, later became the first substantive African/Nigerian Principal of King's College.
His later exploits in the larger Civil Service and UNESCO will be featured in his full
biography.
Chief Rex Akpofure returned to K.C. as a School Master in 1955, the year of entry of
my class set. His impression on the whole school, especially the fresh young students in form
1, was instantaneous and profound. He was to us then (12-14 year olds), very tall (stood 6ft
2ins), muscular and spoke with an uncommon diction. His biceps bulged through his shirts;
his calf muscles hugged his trousers. He epitomised all the things young boys would like to
be: good height, muscular, athletically versatile and articulate. He walked with a swank. One
of the nicknames we called him then was "STYLE".
Yes, K.C. boys experienced style before John Kennedy popularised style in the
corridors of superpower politics of the Cold War era. But it was not all style and panache
with Chief Rex Akpofure. Chief Akpofure was a teacher with character, both in the
academic classroom and sporting field. He lectured us at various times in English literature,
Civics, and General paper. But history was his major. There was a high content of European
history in the syllabus of Secondary Schools in those days. The medieval history of what
later became Eastern Europe (Bohemian Empire, Poland, Hungary and the Principalities of
Wallachia and Modovia) was particularly interesting for their endless disputes of Royal
succession, in some cases one dynasty ruling in two countries. Another influential ex-
Principal of K.C., Mr. P.H. Davis, was nicknamed Wallachia.
In order to illustrate the involvement and commitment of Chief Akpofure in his
teachings, I crave your indulgence to digress a little bit by describing one of such disputes in
Hungary. At the demise of King Louise of Hungary who ruled over Hungary and Poland, he
was survived by two daughters. He had willed that the elder daughter, Maria Theresa,
succeed him in both thrones. But the Poles refused to continue the union if the younger
daughter who had been married to a Polish Prince was not made the King.
681
The Hungarians were up in arms. The picturesque description of the Hungarian

response was Rex Akpofure at his best. He would take one step backwards head slightly
turned upwards for effect and would reel off one Latin quotation after another in his
extremely entertaining lectures in which we used to be spellbound. "Moriamo pro rege
Nostro Maria Theresa". According to Rex Akpofure. "No matter how bad Latin construction
may be to the Hungarians, Maria Theresa was the King". Some of his nicknames like
"Moriamo" and "le Roi" were coined from some of the Latin quotations during his history
classes.
Rex Akpofure's sporting activities ranged from track and field tennis and soccer, but
cricket was clearly his main claim to fame. He took over as the master in charge of cricket as
soon as he returned to K.C. Being an all rounder (batsman as well as a bowler) he coached
us both in bowling and batting. He was a fast bowler with an off swing. In those days,
helmets and face protectors had not been introduced to cricket. When we faced "Rex" as a
bowler, you go out to defend your life; if in the process your wicket survived, thanks be to
God.
In addition to his school responsibilities as an academic teacher, Boarding House
Master, Sports instructor he was also active in the competitive cricket league matches which
were mostly played across the road from King's College – the Race Course. He later became
the Captain of the Nigerian International Cricket side. Till today, Rex was arguably the most
accomplished all round Cricketer, dead or alive; white or black that has ever played the game
of cricket in Nigeria - with due respect to late Pa Edward Hughes, Namse Eno, Chris
Enahoro and Ewa Henshaw.
It was therefore quite painful to see the once rugged Rex devastated by disease and
aging. How time cuts down all both great and small. But despite his own ailment he had to
attend to his wife's ill health, during the greater part of his last three years on earth. He faced
the challenge with characteristic strength and courage. He applied his well-known discipline
and strict adherence to the rules. If a prescribed drug was incomplete by one tab, Rex would
drive out at 10 p.m. to get it and made sure his wife had the correct dose as when due. In
between dropping off his wife at St Nicholas Hospital for admission, Rex would take off to
Kokori in Delta State to see his two elderly sisters whose lives revolved around Rex
Akpofure's own existence. Unfortunately, his wife passed on in July 2002 – just 11 months
before his own death. I cannot imagine how those elderly women in Kokori will now take the
death of this devoted family man.
Rex was an icon of dedicated and upright public service. He was a man amongst men.
He left his footprints in the sands of our time and as we bid him farewell on his ascent to his
Creator, we pray that his surviving family members will be protected in the years to come,
in the Mighty Name of Jesus.
(6)
Andy Akporugo: A Tribute
By Urhobo Study Group c/o

Bright Ekuerhare, Ph.D.,
Delta State University, Abraka
The Urhobo Study Group was shocked to receive the news of the passing on of this
patriotic son of Urhoboland, Chief Andrew Ighofose Akporugo. As a multi-dimensional
professional journalist and intellectual, Chief Andy Akporugo has deservedly received
accolades from a wide spectrum of his calling, nationally and internationally. This tribute
682
by the Urhobo Study Group, which Chief Andrew Ighofose Akporugo helped to found,
served very well and enriched with his professionalism, is an addition to the avalanche of
accolades from his professional colleagues and friends.
Until the demise of Chief Andy Akporugo, he was the Consultant to the Urhobo Study
Group that came into existence about ten years ago. Since the founding of the Group, he
showed extraordinary commitment to the ideals of fostering understanding and focus-
mindedness amongst the various segments of Urhobo professional and intellectual elite.
Particularly, he advanced the interest in studies and publication of the results of such studies
on the relations between Urhobo nation and the Nigerian nation. In this regard, he brought
to bear his experience as a journalist, especially with respect to integration of journalism and
political power engineering in Nigeria.
From the inception of the Urhobo Study Group, and until his untimely demise, Andy
Akporugo ensured that he was a driving spirit of the Group by his regular attendance at
meetings of the Group that were holding every week during its first year of formation, and at
all subsequent meetings that became monthly. This was at a personal cost and risk during
journeys from Lagos to the heart of Urhoboland where the meetings were taking place.
During these meetings his contributions were forever incisive. Andy Akporugo's major
contribution to this Group, apart from his professional contributions, was the connecting of
this Group to centers of power through presentations of well-researched policy - oriented
memoranda.
Witty, deep and eloquent, Akporugo always exuded the air of a great mind. These
elements of profundity of mind were on display in the delicate twists of his analysis, the
sudden dialectical thrusts of his reasoning and sheer grace of his language. Reading
Akporugo's articles was a delightful excursion into some of the best that the English
language can convey. He was as robust and creative in the use of Urhobo language which he
spoke usually only at occasions when it is proper to probe the depths of rhetorical finesse.
Even when Akporugo found it necessary to disagree with you, as was his wont to do, he did
so on the basis of the strength of his arguments and conviction. Those who sometimes took
exception to his brief moments of playing the prince and the nobility of birth always left
fulfilled that they had had an engagement with an intellectual giant.
It is noteworthy that Akporugo had a rich preparation for his years as a journalist. His
maternal pedigree is rooted in the Ambakederemo dynasty of Kiagbodo, a merchant-
nationalist whose stout heart made him a respected friend of the British colonial authorities.
The folk origins of Akporugo's sharp wit and fearless, piercing voice may be found in this
cultural fount at Kiagbodo. The sophistication of his Urhobo rhetoric would have benefitted
from his years of childhood in Kiagbodo and Umolo-Olomu where his father was a cultural
icon. But many hardly remember that Andy underwent priestly training in a Catholic
seminary and thus mastered the drills of Latin lexicon and semantic density. At Urhobo
College, he was a top flier in Latin and English. And, of course, Andy trained at the
University of Ibadan under luminary scholars like Billy Dudley, James O'Connor, Tunji
Aboyade, Ola Oni, Onigu Otite, Peter Ekeh and others. His grasp of theory and political
pragmatics was honed at Ibadan where he was a Postgraduate Rockefeller Fellow in Political
Science.
Journalism was the turning point. Andy did not only enter the profession at a youthful
age, he brought into it the kind of intellectual rigour and vigour associated with the likes of
Ernest Ikoli and Nnamdi Azikiwe. T he Sunday Times Andy edited in the 1980s created a
Nigerian sales record of over 500,000 copies a day. Readers of The African Guardian still
treasure the magazine today because Andy transformed it into the Nigerian equivalent of
The Economist of Britain or the Newsweek of the United States of America.
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We would like to cite two instances in which Andy combined his deep sense of Urhobo
nationalism with his cosmopolitan élan. One was in January 1994. At this time, Abacha, wily
and intractable, already had his sights set on being a "President for Life". Knowing the
political significance of the Niger Delta region as the country's economic powerhouse,
Abacha set up an Inter-Ministerial Committee to visit and obtain the views of the region on
matters of oil and its politics. Andy was one of the persons that undertook the groundwork
for mobilizing the Urhobo nation to stand up for its rights over oil and other resources.
Thus emerged the formidable "Urhobo Oil Mineral Producing Communities Council"
which submitted a radical 24-page memorandum when the Inter-Ministerial Committee was
received by the Urhobo Progress Union at the Petroleum Training Institute, Effurun. Chief
James Edewor, General David Ejoor, Chief Benjamin Okumagba and six other eminent
Urhobo signed the "Urhobo Oil Manifesto". The issues covered in the memorandum included
briefs on the cruel policies of oil multinationals, the Federal Government, a reparation fund
and 100 percent derivation principle for oil and gas.
The historical nuancing of the document, its analytical rigour and political trajectory
derived, in part, from Andy's involvement in its preparation. The ideological kernel of that
document was to influence ethnic and environmental movements in Nigeria from the 1990s.
Akporugo also worked with others to produce the monumental documents of the
Association of Mineral Oil States (AMOS). Andy Akporugo and Alex Ibru in 1993
encouraged Dr. B.C.N. Ineneji to publish a clarion call with the title "The Urhobo and The
National Question". In 1994, the Urhobo Study Group organized a seminar on "The Urhobo
and The National Question" on the eve of the 1994-95 National Constitutional Conference.
Andy Akporugo's experience in this high-profile political agitation was invaluable to us at
Agbarha-Otor where the historic seminar was held. Some of the best and most courageous
Urhobo scholars, cultural icons and giants in Industry were present. The Agbarha-Otor
seminar produced the blueprint on the themes of sovereignty over resources, political
autonomy and self-determination that the Niger Delta delegates advanced stridently at the
Constitutional Conference of 1994-1995 in Nigeria. It is gratifying that these ideas became
popular anthems while Andy Akporugo was still alive.
On the basis of the attributes that we have highlighted, we have no doubt that
Akporugo's good works will outlive him and make the future more assured for the Urhobo
and the valiant people of the Niger Delta. The Urhobo Study Group misses him, but wishes
his soul a perfect rest.
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Remembering Andrew S.P. Emorhokpor and His Times
By Peter P. Ekeh
Andrew S.P. Emorhokpor
Andrew Emorhokpor and I first met at Ovu in 1948. He was living with Mr. William
Okome, a teacher at Catholic School, Ovu. We were of the same age and were both in
Standard Three in different elementary schools of British colonial educational system. We
immediately struck a friendship that lasted for full five decades. Sadly, Andrew died on
February 24, 2001 – by modern standards, rather early. He was buried yesterday, Saturday,
March 24, 2001, in his beloved hometown of Isiokoro, political and ritual headquarters of
Agbon.
Mr. Andrew Emorhokpor was a typical Urhobo man. His life and his life vocations
fully mirrored those of millions of good Urhobo men and women who went before him to
the Great Beyond. And yet Andrew had his uniqueess that must be celebrated alongside
those virtues of the Urhobo men that he shared so abundantly.
These recollections and reflections on his life and his times are from a biased source,
of course. I was Andrew's life-long friend. We called each other Oko, simply. But I believe
they are a truthful testimony to the life of a deeply moral and decent Urhobo man who loved
and served family, friends, and townsfolk with utmost dedication. Andrew deserves to be
remembered on two other scores. He loved his father's hometowns of Isiokoro and Ughelli
and his mother's town of Kokori. His passion for Urhobo affairs and his wish for Urhobo
progress were pristine. I am sure Andrew would insist that I add the following: He loved the
Catholic Church with a commitment that he shared with his father who was the premier
Catholic leader in Isiokoro. Andrew was a traditional Christian in the best sense of that term,
with great attachment to the Holy Rosary, which he prayed fervently as his own father did
before him.
Isiokoro, where Andrew was born and in which he grew up, had a special gift from the
British colonial administration. In the 1940s, it had the sole full-fledged Native Authority
(N.A.) Elementary School in Agbon. The only other full-fledged elementary schools in
Agbon in the forties , with grades up to Standard Six, were two missionary schools: Baptist
Elementary School at Eku and Catholic Elementary School at Okpara Inland. So, Andrew
Emorhokpor's beloved hometown of Isiokoro was lucky and it attracted many young people,
like David Ejoor, from other Agbon towns to its excellent Elementary
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School. I once asked Andrew why he did not go to that N.A. School, instead of going to live
with Mr. Okome at Ovu. It was his father's choice. He wanted his first son to be educated in
a Catholic School. So, he sent Andrew to live with teachers in other towns where there were
Catholic schools.
Andrew Emorhokpor moved to Okpara Inland in 1950 to continue his elementary
school education in Standard Five, then a major feat. He and I became not only classmates
but very close personal friends at Catholic School, Okpara Inland. But it was also a tragic
year. Andrew lost his mother, an event that brought him to early maturity as he struggled to
help his father to make decisions about his future and those of his sisters and a very young
brother, Bernard, whose name was constantly on his lips in those years.
We completed elementary school education together in 1951. In our final class of 30
pupils, three entered secondary schools the following year. Andrew was one of them. At
great sacrifice, his father was determined that Andrew should proceed to a secondary school,
a rare possession at the time. That was how Andrew and I moved on together to become
students of St. Peter Claver's College, first at Sapele in 1952, then at Aghalokpe from 1953
onwards.
***
Moving from Isiokoro and Okpara Catholic School to St. Peter Claver's College,
Sapele, was no ordinary rite of passage for terrifically young people in 1952. We were not
accompanied by any parents. We had to search out relatives and friends with whom to live
because St. Peter Claver's College had no boarding facilities. It only had classrooms in
premises owned by a Catholic Girl's Elementary School at Sapele. Andrew Emorhokpor
struck one of the most faithful and valuable connections he ever made in his life in that year.
Richard Arigbodi, a fellow Isiokoro man with whom he lived at Sapele that year, became a
friend and confidant throughout Andrew's decent life. Richard and his young wife eased the
difficulties of attending St. Peter Claver's College at Sapele for Andrew.
I know that the memories of St. Peter Claver's College and the events of 1952 are ones
that my good friend would want to be shared with his fellow Urhobos. Ours was the third set
at this first Catholic College in Warri Province. At its founding in 1950, St. Peter Claver's
College was the fourth secondary school in Warri Province, following behind Government
College, Ughelli; Urhobo College, Effurun; and Hussey College, Warri. Attending this
College was a difficult experience for rural Urhobo youngsters. There were no Urhobo
teachers at St. Peter Claver's College throughout our time there. Urhobos were minorities,
often misunderstood. In my own and Andrew's class of 1952 there were six starting Urhobo
students, clearly a small minority: Godfrey Akoro, Stephen Aruoture, Palmer Ekeh, Andrew
Emorhokpor, Frederick Inisiagho, and Bright Sohwo.
The year 1952 was traumatic for Urhobos. The outstanding religious leader G. M.
Urhobo, of God's Kingdom Society, died suddenly in that year. Then quickly followed the
catastrophic conflict between Urhobos and Itsekiri. The name of Warri Province was
changed to Delta Province in that year in difficult circumstances created by a hostile Action
Group Government. For first year Urhobo students in the midst of these changes, it was not
easy. Andrew Emorhokpor witnessed them all at Sapele as these painful events unfolded.
Friendships among Urhobo students came to count tremendously in those circumstances as a
way of understanding a rapidly changing world that was not always kind to Urhobo
youngsters.
Moving St. Peter Claver's College from Sapele to Aghalokpe helped to ease the pain
quite a bit. But the conditions at the College were very elementary. Most Urhobo students
were day students. We lived in clusters, with two of them being the most memorable. There
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were the Natufe quarters, managed by the late Samson Natufe and his younger brother,
Victor Natufe. Then there were the Okotete quarters where Andrew lived with Isaac
Ogodogu, Frederick Inisiagho, Palmer Ekeh, Jackson Emefeke, and a number of others.
Andrew Emorhokpor's life-long friends were made in these circumstances. The circle of
friendship widened as we matured at Aghalokpe. But it was an experience that Andrew
talked about a great deal throughout his life. Apart from being a personal experience, it was a
tremendous Urhobo story.
Andrew Emorhokpor completed his secondary school education at Aghalokpe in 1957.
Thereafter he began his long career of working to support an ailing father, battling with the
difficult illness of his elder sister, training a beloved younger brother, helping friends like
myself in various circumstances, and then raising a solid family that any Urhobo man would
be proud to count as his own. In his work in the old Midwest Civil Service at Benin City,
Ughelli, etc., and in his subsequent move to the treasury division of Delta Steel at Aladja,
Andrew Emorhokpor never forgot family and friend. He was always at their service, at their
call. It was a befitting tribute to this man of peace and decency that his last work experience,
after retirement from working for Aladja Delta Steel, was as a Customary Court Judge in his
hometown of Isiokoro.
***
So, for what shall we remember Andrew Emorhokpor in his eventful life? He always
reminded me that we have come far, from a long distance. Perhaps, we should rephrase this
question and ask: What would Mr. Andrew Patrick Emorhokpor like to be remembered for
having accomplished in his six decades on our earth?
Andrew Emorhokpor's life was an Urhobo story because his life work bore those
attributes that are dear to the Urhobo character: service to family, binding friendship, faith in
one's chosen religion, and hard work. He will remain Dele's and their children's hero because
he loved them and worked for them with all his might and love. His memories will remain
dear to his Aghalokpe comrades and friends and to the numerous other friends he was so
faithful to all his life. Andrew was such a typical Urhobo man because he dared difficult
circumstances. And always, as he would quietly remind this old friend of his, never leave our
Mother Church out of this accounting. Andrew would want to be remembered as one who
remained faithful to the Church, his father's Church. Let me pay my final tributes to this
virtuous man on each of these accounts.
Andrew was surrounded by family love in his childhood and youth. I often wondered
whether his father was more of a friend than a father to him. They were dearly close. But
Andrew gave back to the family in full measure. His sisters received full support from him.
Bernard, his younger brother, was his pride. I last met Andrew at Ughelli on August 24,
2000, during my most recent home visit to Nigeria. Towards the end of our conversation, I
congratulated Andrew for having raised such a great family -- nine wonderful children, most
of whom had completed their University education. Never one to claim all credit for
himself, he told me: " Oko, the praise goes to Dele. She has been a wonderful wife." He
added, "The children are now taking care of me." What more can an Urhobo man ask for?
Dele, this hometown Isiokoro girl, became for Andrew not just a dear wife, but a good friend
and a fellow worker in the great Urhobo art of raising and sacrificing for children.
Friendship is an Urhobo virtue that is in danger of vanishing. One hopes Andrew
Emorhokpor is not among the last breed to treasure this wonderful Urhobo virtue. Friendship
for Andrew Emorhokpor was a total commitment, not a fair weather relationship. It was not
simply a bilateral relationship between two people. It involved their
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families and their children. My own father became a great friend of Andrew's father because
of their children's friendship. Andrew became the greatest confidant for my sister who
virtually replaced his counsel with that of an elder brother who is far away in America. But
friendship for Andrew was also a life-time commitment. During our Ughelli meeting in
August last year, I was in awe of Andrew's recollection and contact with Aghalokpe friends
and comrades dating back to the early fifties. They were not just old fellow Urhobo pioneers
like Isaac Ogodogu, Frederick Inisiagho, Thompson Idiegbe, Francis Tagbarha, Bright Joseph
Sohwo. They extended to old and dear Aghalokpe classmates and friends from all parts of
Southern Nigeria whose whereabouts I did not know: Ignatius Adigwe, Nelson Demi,
Clement Oshogwe, Thaddeus Obadoni, John Erewa, Godwin Egwu, Christian Ogbu, etc., etc.
Andrew could tell me something about these Aghalokpe pioneers, most of whom continued
to maintain relationships with him. What a faithful friend!
And he was faithful to the Church. My warmest memory of Andrew in Church matters
was his role as a Mass Server. In the nineteen fifties, when he was a Mass Server at Okpara
Inland, the Catholic Mass was celebrated in Latin. Serving at the Mass required a major
commitment. Andrew had that commitment which he carried through his life, in easy and in
difficult times. The news of Andrew's death came to me first through his daughter. But it was
followed by a phone call from Monseigneur Anthony Erhueh of the Catholic Cathedral,
Warri. Yes, that was right, because he treasured his relationships with the Church. That is
how Andrew would want it.
I have my personal reasons for mourning Andrew Patrick Emorhokpor's passing away.
But I believe his life deserves to be celebrated because it enriched humanity in its own subtle
ways. In remembering Andrew, we celebrate Urhobo culture because he was a quintessential
Urhobo man. But he was more than that. Andrew was a decent human being, a faithful
friend, and a beloved family man. We all -- family, friends, Aghalokpe pioneers and
comrades, and many more -- will miss this fine man of virtue and peace.
May His Soul Rest in Blessed Peace.
Peter Palmer Ekeh

Buffalo, New York, U.S.A.
March 24, 2001.
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The Reverend Father Gabriel S. Akemu, M.S.P.: A Tribute
By Rev. Father Patrick Otor, MSP 10
The Reverend Father Gabriel S. Akemu
Rev. Father Gabriel S. Akemu, M.S.P. was born to the family of Mr. Akprekpre
Akemu of Effurun and Madam Comfort Unuovorhaye Erhiaganoma of Orhokpokpo,
Agbarho. His father died while Gabriel was only a boy. Consequently, his mother had to
move back to her hometown of Orhokpokpo, Agbarho, and little Gabriel had to relocate with
her.
It is noteworthy that neither of Father Gabriel’s parents was a Christian at the time of
his birth. Both parents were strong believers in African (that is, Urhobo) Traditional
Religion. In fact, Rev. Father Akemu's mother only became Christian just a couple of years
ago.
Father Gabriel went to Catholic Primary School in Oviri-Agbarho which shared the
same compound as St. Gregory Catholic Church, Oviri-Agbarho. Here, little Gabriel came in
contact with the Irish Missionary of the Society of African Missions (SMA), Father Brown.
Father Brown was at that time the Parish Priest (Pastor) of Old Okpara parish. I say Old
Okpara parish because Okpara parish then covered the whole of Agbon kingdom, all of
Agbarho kingdom and a great portion of Okpe kingdom, including Orerokpe. From time to
time, Father Brown would visit the out-stations (these are towns and villages outside the
parish headquarters in Okpara Inland). During those visits, Father Brown would play and
joke with the children that came around. He would even greet the children ‘Mi guo,’ a
greeting specially reserved for the elderly in Urhoboland. This caused great laugher among
the children, who marvelled at the hilarity of this ‘Oyibo’ or white man.
Little Gabriel was one of those children, who enjoyed Father Brown’s plays, jokes and
presence. Unknown to the mother and close relatives, little Gabriel was secretly admiring the
white missionary but could not aspire to be like him because he (Gabriel) thought only the
white man could be a priest. Since he was black and African, he thought all he can ever do
was to admire the white priest. While he was still wondering in admiration, God showed him
a sign that a black man, an Urhobo man, can be a priest. This strengthened his resolve to be a
priest. This sign came, when Rev. Father Peter Ovadje, an Urhobo, and even much more an
Agbarho man, was ordained to the priesthood in Warri in
10
The author of this obituary, Reverend Father Patrick Otor is an Urhobo Catholic priest who is currently on missionary service in
the United States of America.
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1970. As a result of this, Gabriel, now a teenager, decided to be a Christian and was baptized
by Father Peter Ovadje in 1971.
A year later, Gabriel could no longer hide his feeling and desire to be a priest like
Fathers Brown and Ovadje. Although he was aware that letting his mother know of his desire
to be a priest, would be taken as bad news, he went ahead to tell her of his intention to go to
the (Minor) Seminary at Effurun, to start his training for the priesthood. His mother saw the
idea as either madness or an expensive joke. She immediately informed other members of
her family and a meeting of the extended family was convened. Gabriel was called upon to
tell the entire family what he had told his mother earlier. Gabriel repeated with passion, all
he told his mother. The extended family told him that if he intended to live a life of no wife
no children, then he should consider himself no longer a member of the family.
That night he had nowhere to go except to the home of Mr. Paul Onar’akpoberuo, the
Catechist of the Oviri-Agbarho church. Catechist Paul fed and housed him for a few days.
When this became known, to his mother and family that he was in the Catechist’s house, they
(the family) went there to pick a quarrel with the Catechist. But that was too late because
Gabriel had moved the previous day to a friend’s place (Patrick Okorodudu). Not finding
their son with Catechist Paul, they could not do much. From this time on Gabriel moved
from one friend to another. He would spend the nights with these friends and go secretly to
the Catechist and his Godfather for food. Two or so weeks later Father Ovadje came by to
celebrate mass at Oviri-Agbarho and the Catechist mentioned to him Gabriel’s plight. Father
Ovadje asked to meet Gabriel before returning to Warri. During his meeting with Gabriel,
Father Ovadje advised Gabriel to pray for a change of heart for his mother and family. He
also encouraged him to be strong in faith. Finally, Father Ovadje asked him to visit him
(Father Ovadje) in Warri. Father Ovadje gave Gabriel three shillings. At that time, it only
cost one shilling to go from Agbarho to Warri. For almost a year he depended on the
generosity of Catechist Paul Onar’akpoberuo, Father Peter Ovadje, his Godfather and other
Christian friends. He was forever grateful to all these people for their help, support and
encouragement.
In January 1973, Gabriel was admitted into the Holy Martyrs of Uganda Minor
Seminary, Effurun. All through his days in the Minor Seminary, Gabriel spent his vacations
either with Fr. Peter Ovadje, his Godfather, Catechist Paul Onar’akpoberuo or one of his
other Christian friends. As a student in the Minor seminary, Gabriel was given the
responsibility of Food Prefect as well as Seminary Bursar; the latter is a responsibility that is
rarely given to students. He held both responsibilities so well that in his final year, he was
relieved of the food prefect responsibility and was given even a greater one of the Seminary
Senior Prefect, while still the Seminary Bursar. He graduated from the Holy Martyrs of
Uganda Minor Seminary in June 1978.
In October that same year, Gabriel Akemu proceeded to Saints Peter and Paul Major
(Senior) Seminary, Ibadan, along with three others. After a month or so at Saints Peter and
Paul Major Seminary, Ibadan, he moved to the newly established National Missionary
Seminary of St. Paul, Iperu-Remo, Ogun State. This movement came about because of a new
admission policy at the Major Seminary in Ibadan. The seminary was seriously considering
affiliating its philosophy faculty to the Philosophy Department of the University of Ibadan at
the time. This required all students entering Saints Peter and Paul Major Seminary to have not
just a minimum of five credits but one of the five must be English Language. Gabriel though
had five credits but had only a pass in English language. Feeling that he was being called to
the priesthood, this obstacle would not stop him, hence his movement to the National
Missionary Seminary of St. Paul, which was at the time accepting candidates with five credits
and a pass in English Language. Years later Gabriel
690
saw this movement as a design by Providence for him to fulfill his desire to be a missionary
priest like Fr. Brown, his parish priest at Agbarho (Okpara parish).
At the National Missionary Seminary of St. Paul, Iperu-Remo, Gabriel spent his first
year, studying spirituality, technically called “spiritual year.” After his spiritual year, he
proceeded to do his study of philosophy and theology, as required by Church Law for all
students studying for the priesthood. He began in Iperu-Remo and in October 1984, when the
Seminary moved to its Abuja Campus, Gabriel was a third year theology student. He finished
his seminary studies in June 1986 and was ordained a priest for the Missionary Society of St.
Paul, on Saturday, June 28, 1986 at Our Lady, Queen of Nigeria, Pro- Cathedral,
Garki-Abuja, Nigeria.
Immediately after his ordination, Father Gabriel Akemu, MSP, was assigned to Liberia.
He was a pioneer Missionary of St. Paul to that country. In truth, Father Akemu is a pioneer
in many areas. As a missionary of St. Paul, his class was one of the pioneer classes. His class
was the first ever to be sent out on mission by the Missionary Society of St. Paul. He was the
first missionary priest of Urhoboland, the first missionary priest in Delta State and also the
first in the former Bendel or Mid-West State.
While in Liberia, a civil war broke out in 1990–1998. Father Akemu and his
parishioners became refugees in Ivory Coast for almost a decade. During this time, he
endeared himself to the people of Liberia, whom he fondly referred to as “my people”. Father
Gabriel Akemu stood by, with and for his people all through this difficult and trying period.
In recognition of his dedication to God and His people, the Catholic Bishop of Cape Palmas,
Liberia, appointed him the Vocations Director and the Vicar General of the Diocese of Cape
Palmas.
Father Akemu was the head (Superior) of the Missionaries of St. Paul in Liberia,
1988–1999. Father Gabriel displayed a remarkable sign of leadership when he brought all the
priests under his care safely home before deciding to return to his people, who had then
become refugees in Ivory Coast. He was recalled home to Nigeria because of ill health in
June 2000. In January 2001, he was asked by his Superior General to go for a sabbatical. At
the end of which, he was assigned to the United States. This was done principally to take a
better care of Father Akemu’s health, which was getting less and less wonderful. He arrived
in the US in summer 2002.
Father Akemu became seriously ill on February 12, 2003 and was admitted to Christus
St Joseph Hospital, in Houston, Texas, USA. He died about five weeks later on March 18,
2003.
At his funeral mass in St. Peter the Apostle Church, Houston, Texas, Father Patrick
Weah, a priest of the Diocese of Cape Palmas, who represented the Bishop of the Catholic
Diocese of Cape of Palmas, Liberia, said: “Father Gabriel, in very concrete and unique ways
fulfilled Matthew 25:31-46, because he fed the hungry, gave something to the thirsty to
drink, gave clothes to the naked, visited many people who were sick as well as burying the
dead. He risked his own life many times to help my (Fr. Weah’s) people. He took Liberians
as his people. He shared his life with them and he served them with love." Continuing Fr.
Weah said: “We call him ‘Pa Gab’ because he was like a father to many of us. I was a
seminarian under him; he cared greatly for us (Seminarians). Pa Gab was both Vocation
Director and Vicar General of the Diocese of Cape Palmas, not because there were no other
priests around but he was the most capable and most deserving”. He concluded by saying:
“The Church has lost a very committed missionary, a dedicated priest and a good man. Pa
Gab rest in peace.” Also present at the funeral were many Liberians from different parts of
the USA.
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Nigerian Reverend Sisters (Nuns) in Houston and the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate
Word of Houston, to whom he ministered before he took ill, visited Father Akemu several
times while he was in hospital. Their presence at Father Akemu's funeral was most
significant and very visible. They were very much present during the wake and funeral
masses. The Missionaries of St. Paul and indeed this writer are grateful to them for all their
prayers and support during our moment of grief. May the Good Lord bless and reward them.
All who knew Father Gabriel Akemu, MSP, will agree that he was a dependable,
unassuming, dedicated, hardworking, generous and selfless priest as well as a committed
missionary. He was a man of great faith.
According to the Constitution of the Missionary Society of St. Paul “Members are
buried …in the last place of work” (Article 123). Following the constitutions, Father Gabriel
Akemu, MSP, was laid to rest at Sacred Heart Catholic Cemetery, Raywood, Texas, USA.
Father Akemu has left behind an aged mother, a brother, two sisters, nephews and
nieces all back home in Nigeria. All his confreres in the Missionary Society of St. Paul, his
family and all the people he ministered to in Liberia, Ivory Coast, the United States and
Nigeria will seriously miss him. May the soul of Fr. Gabriel Akemu, MSP, and the souls of
all the faithful departed rest in the peace of Christ. Amen.
+++
Many thanks to members of the Urhobo Progress Association of Houston, Texas. They
made several visits to Father Akemu while he was in hospital. They put up a strong presence
during the wake service and the funeral, dressed in their colorful Urhobo attire and songs of
final farewell. Urhobo priests from all over the United States flew in to bid their final
farewell to their brother, Father Gabriel Akemu. God bless them all for their brotherly love.
The Very Rev. Hyacinth Egbebo, Superior General of the Missionaries of St. Paul flew in a
day before the funeral from Nigeria. Also present was the delegation from the Diocese of
Galveston-Houston led by Bishop Vincent Rizzotto. The Missionaries of St. Paul are grateful
to all of you for sharing in our grief. May the Good Lord bless all of you.
I am sure some might be asking, what does “MSP” mean? Or who are the missionaries
of St. Paul? The Missionaries of St. Paul or The Missionary Society of St. Paul is a
missionary order of priests established by the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria in 1977 in response
to the call by Pope Paul VI in 1969 at Kapala, Uganda. “It was time the African Church
joined in the missionary work of Universal Church.” It is the first indigenous missionary
order in Africa. There have been many missionary orders in Africa established by Europeans
working in Africa, but this one is different because it is the first to be established by Africans
themselves in the Church. As I have already mentioned above Fr. Akemu is the first Urhobo
priest of the Society. Following Fr. Akemu’s lead are seven other Urhobo sons, one of whom
is this writer. They all need your prayers and support. The Missionary Society of St. Paul too
needs the prayers and financial support of good men and women to provide for the training of
students at the National Missionary seminary of St. Paul, Abuja, Nigeria. For more
information visit www.mspfathers.org or email: mspusa@aol.com or call 713-747-1722 in
USA. In Nigeria call 09-882-1413; 09-8821402 or 09-671-0629.
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Index
A Ajohwomue, Isaiah, 154
A State University is Born, 656 Aka Stream, 11
Abati, Reuben, 571 Aka, 11
Abeokuta, 82 Akande, Revd. I.T., 141-143, 147, 156
Aboh, 24, 44, 45,68 Akassa, 49
Abolitionist Movement, 127 Akassa, Attack on, 73
Abraka, 18, 42, 72, 75, 76, 88, 90 Akatamu, Chief, 75
Abraka, Chiefs of, 72 Akemu, Mr. Akprekpe, 689
Abubakar, Gen Abdulsalami, 525, 530, 632, 638 Akemu, Revd. Father Gabriel S. 689, 690-692
Abuja, 666 Akengbua, Death of King,
Acheowhe, 139 Akiabodo, 73
Action Group, 632, 687 Akiewe, 45
Adaka Boro Revolution, 556 Akinnaso, Niyi, 250
Adaka, B, 161 Ako, Chief J. Gordon, 360
Adam, Captain John, 254 Akpo r’ Awaren, defined, 10
Adams Anglican Preaching Society, 220 Akpo r’ Igho, 596
Adesanya, Chief Abraham, 319 Akpo r’ Oba, defined, 10, 74
Adjani, James, 164 Akpo r’ Onyibo, defined, 10, 74
Adjara 111, His Royal Highness, 647 Akpo, 74
Adjarho, Mr. Oluku, 132 Akpofure, (Dr.) Rex, 680-682
Adjarho, Oluku, 146 Akpomude, Barrister Albert, 676
Afemai, 74 Akporido, T.G., 177
Afenifere, 637 Akporugo, Chief Andy 682-684
Afiesere, 148 See also Urhobo Study Group)
Afigbo, Adiele E., 300 Akure, 648
Afikpo, 82 Akwa-Ibom, 637
African Nationalist, 156 Alex Miller Brothers and Company, Messrs, 110,
African Trading Company, 239 114
Africa, v, vi, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 25, 259, 629 Alla square, 161
African Bethel Church, 160, 175 Alli, Prof. Ambrose, 507
African Church Primate, 175 Amalgamation, 81, 114
African Deities, mentioned, 6 America, New World], 12, 25, 26
African Historians, listed, 6 Amovwan, 60-62
[Danquah, Abraham, Idowu, Mbiti] Amukpe, 113, 130
African Labour, 26 Amuwuokpe,
African National Congress, 640 (See also Ancestral Capital, defined, 19
Freedom Charter) Ancestral Cult, 131
African Nationalist Theologians, 6 Ancestral Shrine, 19
African Timber & Plywood, 111, 556 Anglican Book of Common Prayer, 194
African Traditional Religion, believers in, 689 Anglican Christianity, 156
Aganbi, 131, 142 Anglo-Nigerian Defence Pact, 599
Agbaluwa, S.G., 171 Annual Report, 114
Agbamu Elemodia Family, 71 Anyedijo, Destruction of, 160
Agbara Ame River, 12 Apostle’s Creed, 156, 159
Agbarha Ame, 90, 461, 657 Arawore, Venerable Enajero, 191, 194(See also
Agbari, History of the Urhobo Bible)
Agbassa, 79 Araya, 45
Agbaza, 41 Arewa Consultative Forum, 637
Agbon, 18, 19, 21, 61 Arigbo, Significance, 160
Agbro, Matthew, 154 Arigi, Mr. Ejiro, vii
Agege, 175 Armageddon, arrival of, 179, 180
Aghalokpe, 168 Asaba Ose, 39
Anioma: A Social History of the Igbo People, 23 Asaba, 90
[See also Ohadike] Ascension Day, 137
Aitken, Revd. J.C., 197 Ase River, 17
Aitken, Revd. J., 131, 132 Ase, 39
Aja Igbodudu, 82 Creek, 44
Ajayi, Prof. J.A. Ade, 127, 193 Association of Mineral Oil States, 684
Association, 381 Bini, 11,37, 40 [See also Benin]

Atamu Social Club, Lagos, 596 Birbrina, Madam, 131
Atani, 44 Bishop of Rome, 185
Atite, Prof. Onigu, 11, 13, 19, 34, 35 Bohannan, P, 51
Atkins, Rev. J.D., 131 Bonny, 29, 115
Atlantic Slave Trade, 30, 225, 395 Book of Common Prayer, 194
Atlantic World, vi, 22, 25-27, 31, 32 Boserup, E. 501
[Features, 22, Consequences, 6] Boundary Delimitation, 73
Atonement, 184 Bozimo, Justice R., 679
Aveiro, Alfonso de, 251 Bradbury, R.E., 103
Aveling, Mr. H.G., 272 Brass, 73
Aviara, 41-42, 44, 46 Brazil, 42
Avwarecha, 131 Bristol, 108
Avwraka [Abraka], 90 Britain, 62, 127
Awatighre, Mr. Kevin, 211 British & Foreign Bible Societies, 204, 206
Awolowo, Chief Obafemi, 632 British Broadcasting Corporation, 659
Awowo, 46 British Colonial Administration, 686
Aya, Mr. Napoleon, O., 192 (see also Mckay British Colonial Agents, vi
Group of Companies) British Colonial Court, 228
Ayandele, Prof. E.A. 651, 654 British Colonial era in Urhoboland, vii
Ayomike, J.O. S, 452-453, 676 British Colonial Government, 62
Azikiwe, Dr. Nnamdi, 338, 683 British Colonial Officers, 21
Aziza, Dr. Rose, 596 British Colonial Rule, vi-vii
British Colonialism, 8, 31, 613
B British Colonisers, 28
Babangida, Gen. Ibrahim, 574, 654 British Conquest, 487
Baikee, Dr. William Balfour, 69 British Government, 56, 61-62
Balewa, Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa, 632 British Imperial Government, 87
Banishment, 132 British Imperial history, vi
Baptist Church, 163, 169-170, 172-174 British Parliament, 128
Baptist Mission, 136, 143, 169, 171 British Rule, 49
Baptism, 130, 139-140, 144-145, 148, 154, 161- British, 3, 4, 17, 20-21, 25, 27-28, 30-31, 35-36
162, 165, 170, 173, 184 Broderick, Bishop Thomas, 185
Barovba, Chief Johnson, ix (no such page no.) Brown Mr. W. Ross, 115
Beamush, Captain, 79 Brown Radcliff, 63
Beecroft, Mr. John, 68, 84, 103, 105 Buhari, Gen. Mohammed, 600 {not found}
Bello, Alhaji Sir Ahmadu, 632, 641 Bunkowske, Dr. Eugene, 205
Bendel State, defunct, 665, 676 Burton, Sir Richard, 104, 116
Benin Division, vii Burutu, 75
Benin Empire, Fall of, 11, 21-22
Benin Empire, Rise of, 22-24 C
Benin Expedition, 62 C.S.S. Bookshop, Mentioned, 215
Benin Imperial Agents, 25 Cabral, Amilcar, 555
Benin Kings, mentioned, 23 Cadogan, Revd. Father, 162
Benin River, 30, 68-69, 71, 87, 99, 101, 103 Calabar, 27-28, 34-36, 70-71, 85, 105-106, 115,
[Closure of, 82] 117, 131, 486-499
Benin Wars, 23, 24 [As Efik capital, 26]
Benin, 10-12, 14, 16-17, 22, 25, 30, 52, 56, 58-59, Cambridge, 128
60, 62, 87, 99, 101, 163-164, 167, 179 Cameroons, 111
Benin, Oba of, 10, 24-25, 33, 52 Campaignie Francaise del Afrique Occidentale
[Juju powers, 78, Capture, 70 78] [CFAO], 88
Berlin Conference, 49, 225 Cape Palmas, Diocese of, 691
Biakolo, 143 Capitalism, discussed, 500-504, 522, 524-525
Bible Society of London, 206 Caritas Centre, 189
Bible Society of Nigeria, 193, 215-216 Carter, Mr. C, 659
Bible, 132, 141, 169, 171, 179-180, 182-183 Catechist, 129-131, 140-142, 147-152, 155
Bight of Benin, 68 Cavagnera, Revd. Father, 159, 162
Bini Tradition, 42 Cavangh, Revd. Father, 168
694
Index
Caxton Press Ibadan, 209 Credit System, 30

Census Figures, 67 Cross River Estuary, 27, 30
Central Bank of Nigeria, 383 Crowther, Bishop Samuel Ajayi, 115, 127, 128,
Central Hospital, Sapele, 534-535 156, 220
Cesaire, Aime, {not found} Cultural Unions, listed, 400
Cheetham, Mr. S, 115 Culture, defined, 584
Chief, defined, 54 Customs Port, 72
Chiefs listed 58
Chieftaincy in Ashanti, 53-55 D
Chieftaincy in Yoruba, 53-55 Dafinone, Senator David, vi, 637, 545
Chieftaincy Titles, 53 Daily Times, 366
[Conferment, 58, 64 Daniell, Mr. William, 68, 105
Chieftaincy Titles, 462 Darah, Dr. G.G., 596, 604, 644
Christ Apostolic Church, 177 Darby, Mr. C, 114
Christ the King’s College, Onitsha, 345 Davis, Mr. Ben, 340
Christ Urhobo Church, 176 Degema, 13, 109, 114
Christ, Divinity of, 183, 184 Delta Edoid, 13
Christian Association of Nigeria, 216 Delta Province, 67, 68
Christian Council of Nigeria, 208 Delta State University, 656
Christian Persecutions, 39 Christianity Delta State, 652, 654, 655, 656, 663, 664, 665,
in Urhobo, Origin of, 193 668, 670, 673, 678, 680, 682, 691
Christianity, 127-157 Delta Steel Company, Aladja, 585, 621
Christmas, mentioned, 160, 168, 658 Denedo, 131
Church Missionary Society, 116, 127, 128, 129, Dennis, Archdeacon Thomas J., 197
133, 134, 135, 136, 137-443 Denominations, 129, 142, 143, 156
Church of Bethel, 151 Derivation Fund, 559
Church of England, 129, 157, 174 Derivation, Issue of, 575
Civil War, mentioned, 21, 634 Development Commission, 559
Civilisation, 4, 6 Dickson, H.A.G., 178
Clan, defined, 321, 326 Diemor, 60
Clark Prof. J.P., 680 Dike, Kenneth O., 29
Clark, Ambassador, B.A., 680 Diocesan Regulations, 148
Clark, Chief Edwin, 262 Diop Cheika Anta Diop, 6
Clifford, Hugh, 490, 491 Divination Damsel, 149
Cohen, Abner, 475, 480 Divorce, 164
Cold War Era, 681 Doctrines, 165, 171, 172, 180, 182, 184
Cold War Politics, 556 Dogho, Chief, 62
Cole, Rev. 135-137, 139, 141, 146, 148 Doherty, Barrister, 174
Collegiate School of Commerce, 332, 355, 356, Dudley, Prof. Billy, 634, 683
358 Duff, Fanrank, 165
Colonial Land Policies, 275-276 Duta, Henry Wright, 197
Colonial Nigeria, vii, 13 Dutch Declaration of Independence, 640
Colonial Rule, 3, 32
Colonised Elite, discussed, 241 E
Colonising Elite, discussed, 241 East Africa, 598
Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria,82 Eborge, Prof. Austin, 760
[See also Amalgamation] Ebossa, Masima, 131, 144, 145, 146, 148, 149,
Columbus Christopher, 25 150, 151, 156
Communal Land Rights (Vesting in Ebrohimi, 100
Trustees) Law, 111, [Enactment, 111] Eclipse of the sun, 189
Communal Lands Vesting Trustees Law, 289 Ecological Fund, 559
Communal Nationalism, rise of, 233, 254 Edevbie, Mr. Andrew, vii
Community Based Organisations, 607 Edewo, 476, 477, 478
Constituent Assembly, 674 Edewor, Chief James, 681
Corinthian Church, reference to, 449 Edidep, 28
Council of Traditional Rulers, 664, 665 Edio Ilogbo, 46
Crans Montana International Forum, 575 Edio Iteba, 46
Crawford, Major Copland, 78, 81, 113 Edio, 46
695
Edjere, Chief Ejinyere, 664 Emuakpor, Prof. Scott, 451, 159, 470, 471
Edjo, 130, 160, 161, 173 Enahoro, Anthony, 599
Edjorame, 43 Enaohwo, J.E.E, 160,175
Edo, 23, 42, 100, 104, 112 England, 104
Edo State, 13, 115 English Bar, Called to, 677
Edoid, 13, 14, 15, 23, 24 Eni Oracle, 48
Educated Elite, defined, 647, 651 Eni, 43, 56
Edukugho, Reece, 292, 295, 296 Enugu, 179
Eduvie, Dr. Hastings,535 Environmental Rights Action, 530, 533, 536, 541,
Effuru, 71, 78 546, 549, 551
Efik, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31 Enwhe, 40n
Egbe Omo Oduduwa, 292, 633, 637 Ephron, 18, 130
Egbebruke, David, 145 Ephrotor, 18, 148
Egbeka, King, 10, 11 Ephrron Otor, 18
Egbo, 60 Epia-Atisa, 13
Egbragbra, 44 Ererukpe, 56
Egene, 13 Erhabor, Madam Etadievu, 664
Egerton, Sir Walter, 81 Erhueh, Monseignueur Anthony, 688
Egharen, George Jevu, 180 Erivwin, 173
Egharevba, Jacob, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 23, 40, 42 Erivwo, Prof. S.U., 191, 200, 205, 209, 219, 398
Egware Ekpako, 179 Erohwa, 13, 15, 18, 19, 20, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46,
Egypt, 6, 14 67
Ehengbuda, 23 Eruemukohwarien, 146, 1148, 149, 153
Ejaife, M.G., 101, 312, 317, 342, 348, 356, 357, Esan [Ishan], 11
368, 359, 360, 372, 373, 388, 401, 673, 675 Esedjo, 160
Ejinyere, Domingo Amujaine, 664 (See also Esekeghre, Okotie, 172
Orodje of Okpe) Esemo, Worship of, 160
Ejoor, Gen. David, 537, 538, 684, 686 Esezi, 52, 56, 59 [Coronation, 56 Death,57-58],
Ekakpamre Fire Disaster, 541-545 63
Ekakuro, 54, 56 Esiri, Chief F.O., 676
Ekanaka, 113 Esiso, Yoma, 678 (See also Urhobo Voice)
Ekeh, Prof. Peter, vii, viii, 88, 241, 250, 427, 429, Establishment of Mission, 115, 116
430, 444, 445, Establishment of School, 115
Ekiugbo, 132, 141, 146 Ethiope L.G.A., 160
Ekpako, 47 Ethiope River, 11, 12, 17, 18, 20, 42, 68, 70, 73,
Ekpalo Igheghe, 46 74, 80, 87, 88, 89, 99, 103, 106, 107
Ekpan Uvwie, vii Ethnic Bills of Rights, 636
Eku, 21, 83, 88, 130, 131, 135, 140, 141, 142, 143 Ethnic Conflicts, 263
Ekwueme, Dr. Alex, 681 Ethnic Group, v, 67, defined, 236
Elesi of Odogbolu, 234 Ethnic Militias, listed, 602 OPC, Arewa Youth,
Elite, defined, 647, types, 648 MASSOB & Egbesu Boys.
Ellu,45 Ethnic Nationalities, v, 3, 578, 579, 627, 629-633
Emedo, Thomas [of Orogun], 200 Ethnic Pluralism, 613
Eloho, Mr. Israel Upelomo, 197 Ethnicity, defined, 236-237
Eloho, significance of, 160 Ethnocentrism, defined,240
Elugbe, Ben, 13 Ethnographic and Historical Studies of Itsekiri, vi
Elume Fire Disasters, 528, 529, 551-554 Evhro, [Effuru], 71
Emade, J. 178 European Christianity, 6
Emadu, Madam, 132 European Conquest, 3, 4
Emede, 47. 133, 140 European Explorers, 71
Emedo, T, 141 European Imperialism, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Emerson, Ralph, 576 European Merchants, 71
Emevor, 45, 47n European Missionaries, 128, 140, 150, 151, 153,
Emorhokpor, Andrew S.P. 685-688, Holy Rosary, 155
686 European Missionaries, 71
Empress of India, 630 European Nations, listed, 68 [England, Holland,
Emu, John, 154 France, Portugal]
Emuakpo, Omofoye, 130, 131, 174 European Reservation Proclamation, 110
696
Index
European Slave Trade, 87 Gbekebo, 114

Evangelisation, Method of, 180 Gbinije (JP), Chief Patrick, 670
Evangelist, 131, 140, 155, German Bible Society, 216
Evidence Act, 312, 313, 314, 315 German Philosophers, 5 [See also Marx & Hegel]
Evwreke, 52, 58, 59, 60 German, 108
Evwreni, 16, 18, 131, 132, 194, 210, 211, 365, Gerrard, O.N.; 140
378, 385, 389, 399, 400, 403, 677, 678, 679 Ghana, 63
Eweka 11, Oba, 573 Ginuwa 12, 27, 29, 40, 224, 244, 245, 246, 250,
Eweka Dynasty, 11, 15, 22 251, 306, 307, 317, 318, [as Itsekiri
Ewu, 24 Founder,40]
Ewuare the Great, 23 Glassgow, 103
Excon Holdings Limited, vii God, 127, 132, 138, 143, 145, 149, 154, 171, 172,
Expeditions, 127 173, 189, 181, 183, 184
Eyube, George, 76 God’s Kingdom Society, 157, 189, 181, 182-184
Eyube, J.A., 159, 160, 166 Goethe, Johnson Wolfgang Von, 669
Gold Coast, 131
F Goldie, George, 225, 368
Fage, J.D., 4 Goldsmiths College of London University, 657
Faith Tabernacle School, 143 Goody, Jack, 54
Faith Tabernacle, 177 Gospels, Translation of, 132, 153, 154, 200
Faith, Lack of, 130 Government Teachers’ Training College, 677
Falladoh, Tom,76 Gowon, Gen. Yakubu, 634
Fani-Kayode, Chief R. A., 315 Greece, 642
Fani-Kayode, Femi, 319 Greek Mythology, 384
Fanon, Frantz, 6, 556 Gregorian Calendar, 10, 246
Federal Environmental Protection Agency, 565 Guelph University, Canada, vii
Federal House of Representatives, 418
Federation Account, 561 H
Feibleman, James K., 669 Harper, Captain, 127, 126
Feminism, discussed, 500 Hartz, 15
Feminist-Marxism, 500-504 Heally, Revd. Father J.J., 164, 166, 167
Festival of African Cultures (FESTAC), 608 Heathenism, 145
Festivals, listed, 584, 589 Heaven, Teachings of, 165, 166, 183, 184
First Bapt Church, 190, 170 Hegel, G.W.F, 5
Fitzgibbon, Most Revd. Edmund, 211 Hellenic, 6
Flint, Mr. John, 75 Henry Venn’s Policy, 128, 130
Fodio, Uthman Dan, 632 Her Britannic Majesty, 92, 95
Folk Poem, 25 Herbalist, 180
Forcados River, 39, 42, 68, 70, 72, 73, 105, 108, Hindustan Ship, 109
113 History of Itsekiri, mentioned 456
Forde, D, 27, 51 History, defined, 1 [As conquest, 3, 4, 5, 6 As
Fortes, M, 51 violence, 3, 4, 7, As Human Progress, 3, 5, 7]
Foss, Prof. Perkins, 385 Hitler’s Germany, 4
Foster Whitney, vii, 7, 16 Hocart, A.M, 63
Fourah Bay College, 341, 342, 383, 388, 617 Hogkins Lymphoma, 680
Frankenstein Terror, 100 Holland, 104
Free Labour, recruitment of, 114 Holy Bible, 191, 192, 193, 196, 197, 198, 214, 217
Freedom Charter, 640 Holy Communion, 144, 145, 147, 168
French Declaration of the Rights of Man & the Holy Cross Catholic School, 665
Citizen, 640 Holy Ghost, 149
French, 6, 49, 160 Holy Martyrs of Uganda Minor Seminary, 690
Holy Mass, 162, 164
G Holy Year, 168
Galadima, Alhaji Tanko, 569 Hope Waddell Training Institute, 131, 179
Gallwey, Captain, H.L, 62, 70, 71, 82, 83, 104, Houston, Texas, 691, 692
106, 107-108, 113, 114, 115 Howel, E.M., 129. 189
Gana Gana, 49 Hubbard, Revd. J.W, 16, 42, 43, 52, 67, 84, 103,
Gao, Bishop Gasper, 193 155
697
Human Rights Watch, 635, 636 Ilotu, 60, 62

Hungary, 681 Inarhe, 22
Hymn Books, listed, 208, 209, 211, 212 Incarnate Word, Houston, 692
Independent National Electoral Commission, 299
I India, 630, 642
Ibadan School of History, 7, 8 Indirect Rule, 77, 79-80, 269-272, 275,283, 287,
Ibagere, Samuel, 154 289, 490
Ibibio State Union, 633 (See also Ethnic Influenza, Outbreak of, 170
Nationalities) Inner Temple London, 677
Ibiegbe, 132 Institute of Benin Studies, vii
Ibo State Union, 633 (See also Ethnic Int’l Conference on Urhobo Studies, 596
Nationalities) Integration of Isoko, 46-48
Ibo, 68 International Academy of Trial Lawyers, 677
Ibori, Chief James Onanefe, 668, 679 International Monetary Fund, 512, 521
Ibru Organisation, viii, 506 668, 670, 671 International Slave Trade, 4, 11, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30,
Ibru, Chief Janet, 670 31
Ibru, Mr. Goodie, 670 International Trade, 22, 25, 26, 27, 28, 87, 90
Ibru, Olorogun Felix, 670 International Women’s Day, 512
Ibru, Olorogun Michael C.O., 666, 668, 669 Interpreter, 179
Ibru, Olorogun Oskar, viii Inweh, Peter U., 160
Idjerhe Fire Disaster, 527, 529-540 (Also see Jesse Ireland, 165, 630
Fire Disaster) Irish Priests, 162
Idjerhe, 12, 18, 20 Irri, 18
Idols, 138 Isele Uku, 43, 44
Ifaka Providence School, 389 Ishaka, Mr. Peter, vii
Ifie, Dr. Egbe, 192 Ishan, 74
Ifon,114 Ishoshi Erhi Movement, 148, 149, 153, 155, 587
Igbe religious worship, 477, 478, 480 Isikpen, 131
Igbide, 45, 46, 132, 137, 138, 139, 140 Isiokolo, 18, 19, 21
Igbide-Umeh Fight, 45 Isoko, vi, vii, 12, 13, 15, 16, 16, 42, 37-49, 67,
Igbo People, 23 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 136, 138, 139, 140,
Igbo, 18, 24, 25, 27, 29, 31 [As victims of Slave 150, 153-158 [Sub cultures, 17-20, Economy, 39
Trade, 28, Hunters, 16, Immigration, 16, Location, 38]
Settlers, 18] Isoko Central School, 153
Igbogidi, 160 Isoko Okpe, 13, 18, 52
Igboshemusua, 596 Isoko Prayer Book, Composition, 153
Igegen, significance, 160 Isololo, M., 161
Ighomrore, Mr. L.U., 360 Italian, 159
Ighoyivwi, Mr. Atete, vii Itsekiri, vi, 25, 26-27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 68, 71, 72,
Igun, 21 76, 80, 84, 87, 88, 89, 90, 98, 99, 100, 103, 104,
Ijaw Slave Raids, 30 106, 112, 115, 233-327
Ijaw Territories, 13 Itsekiri Communal Land Trust,279, 282, 293-294
Ijaw, 39, 40 Itsekiri Historian, 115 [See also Moore, Mr.
Ijo States, 28, 29, 31, 52 William]
Ika, 74 Itsekiri Monarch, Restoration of, 279, 285-288,
Ikale 584 Native Courts Ordinance, 287
Ikime, Prof. Obaro, 17, 24, 30, 31, 41, 47, 133, Itu, 28
133, 228, 229, 253n, 263, 382, 387, 388, 394, Iva Valley, 599
399, 400, 401, 402, 403, 405, 614, 617, 618, Ivie, 77
625, 649, 650, 651, 652, 655 Ivory Coast, 691, 692
Iko, 46, 47 Ivrogbo, 30
Ikorodu, 648 Iwe, Bishop Agori, 141, 145, 146, 149, 150, 153,
Ikutegbe, Joseph Akpolo, 332, 333, 334, 339, 340, 385, 587-588
341, 351 Iwremaro, 148
Ile Ife, 14, 52 Iwreogbovwa, 148
Ilesha, 648 Iyede, 16, 18, 39, 40, 41, 42, 44, 45, 48, 79
Iletu, 46
Illue-Ologbo, 45, 132, 154
698
Index
J Land Use Decree, 556, 640

Jackson’s Judgment, 321-327 Land, Lease of, 261, 263, 264, 271, 273, 274, 275,
Jaja, 29 277
James Welch Grammar School, 168 Land, Ownership of, 55
James, C.L.R. 501 Language, defined, 585
James, Mr. F.S.,83 Latham, M.C., 140, 153, 154
Jamieson, Mr. Robert, 103 Latin, 166
Japan, 642 Lay Reader’s License, 146
Jesse [Idjerhe] Fire Disaster, 529-540 Lecky, Hugh, 31, 32, 83
Jesse [Idjerhe], 530, 531, 532, 533 Legion of Mary, 161, 164, 165-166
Jesus, 143, 149 Leper, Cleansing of, 130
Jewith, Miss Dorothy, 155 Liberia, 691, 692
Jiboku, J.P., 175 Little Key of Heaven, 166
JIM Travels, 383 Lloyd, Prof. P.C, vi, 51, 71
Joel, Prophecy of, 148 Local Government System, 110
John Holt & Co., 399 London University677
Johnson, Bishop James, 128, 129-134, 136,137, London, United Kingdom vii, 69, 72, 75, 82
146, 151, 156, 157, 200, 219 Lord Salisbury, 74
Joint Admission & Matriculation Board, 652 Lord’s Supper, 145, 147, 162
Jones Esq., Hugh, 110 Louise, King, 681
Jones, Bishop F.M., 137, 111, 146, 148, 149, 150, Lucifer, 183
151, 153, 155 Lugard, Sir Lord Fredrick, 82, 269-272, 275, 283,
Journal of African History, 4 [See also Fage] 286, 436-438,
Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria , 453 Luther, Martin, 206, 215, 216, 217
Juju, 103, 104, 487 Lynch’s Assessment Report, 274
Julian Calendar, 10 Lyon, Mr. Henry, 76
Justice Niki Tobi Panel, 638, 639
M
K Macaulay, Herbert, 418, 618
Kaghogho, Mukoro, 146 Macdonald, Sir Claude Maxwell, 70, 72, 105, 108,
Kainji Dam, 643 268, 269
Kalabari, 26, 27, 40 Mackay, Archdeacon, 142
Kanem-Bornu Empire, 249 Macpherson Constitution, 285n, 291
Kano, 649 Magi, 141
Kelly, Revd. Father Patrick Joseph, 162, 164, 165. Magna Carta, 640
166, 168 Maidera Commission of Inquiry, 127
Kennedy, President John, vii, 681 Manley, 137
Kerr, 59 Mariere, Chief J.S., 651
Kidd, Revd. R, 137, 141, 142, 143 Martyrs, blood of, 138
King’s College Lagos, 672, 673, 681, 682 Marx, Karl 5, 595
Kirk, Sir John, 73 Marxism, discussed, 500-504
Koko Town, 109 Mass Meeting, defined, 55, 56
Kokori Waterside, 88 Maxwell, T. D, 661
Kolawole G.L., 175, 176 Mckay Group of Companies, 192
Kraught, Revd. Father, 162 Mecca, 628
Kukuiye, D.H., 175 Mediaval Europe, 4
Kuti, Funmilayo Ransome, 505 Menedez, Mr., 80
Kwa-group of languages, 613 Merolla de, 253
Kwale, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82 Methodist Mission, 177-178
Middle Ages of Urhobo History, 12, 21-32
L Middle Belt Forum, 637, 641
Lagos Colony and Protectorate of Southern Midwestern State of Nigeria, 51
Nigeria, 114 Migueo, 181
Lagos, vii, 68, 69, 75, 137, 141, 148, 150, 153, Military Rule, discussed, 628, 633-638
155, 157 Mills, Wallace, 270
Lagos, Colony of, 82 Minorities Commission’s Report, mentioned, 292.
Laham, Miss Seyi, vii Miracles, 130
Land Tenure System, 233, 234, 235, 236, 248, 255 Modernisation Theory, Scholars of, v
699
Moir, Captain, J.P, 82 Nigerian Labour Congress, 512

Moloney, Sir Alfred, 69 Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, 530,
Monogamy, 183 534, 539, 548, 549, 550, 552, 655
Monteleone, Revd. Father Francisco de, 193 Nigerian Scholars for Dialogue, 638
Moor, Sir Ralph, 74, 75, 83 Nigerian Students Movement, 600
Moore, Mr. William, 40, 41, 115 Nigerian Tobacco Company, 660
Moorehouse, Colonel H.C. 273, 278 Nigerian Women Uprisings, 500, 501, 504-506,
Moir, Captain R.E, 114 510, 514
Morley, Mr. Henry, 75 Nigerian Youth Movement, 599
Mother Agnes, 168 Nkurumah, Kwame, 613
Movement for National Reformation, 560 Nobel Prize in Literature, 631
Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, 636 North Western Edoid, 13
(See also Ethnic Nationalities) Northern People’s Congress, 637
Mowoe, Chief Mukoro, 9, 88, 331-406, 650, 651, Notre Dame College, 168
652, 654, 655 Numa, Chief Dore, 76, 79, 80, 84 [See also
Mukoro Mowoe Transport, Mentioned, 649 Political Agent]
Munro, Mr. S, 107 Numa, Dogho, 132, 362, 363, 364, 365, 366, 375,
Muoghere, Rt. Revd. Vincent Omasheho, 192 402-403
Mwagwu, Prof. M., 654 Nunnery, 168
Nwakanma, Obi, 601, 602
N
Nabofa, Prof Michael, 8, 16, 17 O
Nana, Chief, 71, 72, 74, 76, 78, 83, Trial, 71 Oagbi, 73
National Constitutional Conference, 555, 559, Oba Egbeka, 42
560-562, 684 Oba Ehengbuda, 23, 43
National Council of Nigeria & the Cameroon’s Oba Esegie, 23, 43
(NCNC), 418, 423, 618 Oba Ozolua, 23, 43
National Party of Nigeria, 676 Obas of Benin, 23, 24
Nationalism, Mentioned, 156 Obasanjo, Chief Olusegun, 634, 638, 640, 642
Native Authority, 589 Obeke, 200, 208
Native Councils, Role of, 79 [See also Native Obi of Aboh, 44
Authority] Obi, Prof. Chike, 660
Native Court, 79, 80 Obiomah, Chief Daniel, vii, 25, 657
Native Courts Ordinance, 79 Obituary Essays, 663
Native Courts Proclamation, 79 Oboiriroro of Ogor, 458
Native Revenue Ordinance, amendment, 283, 284 Obruche, Chief Simpson, vii
Negro Civilisation, 6 Obubra Hill, 82
Neville, Mr. Geo, W, 71 Oceanic Bank, vii
New England, 12 Odi Town, invasion of, 636
New Testament in Urhobo, Translation of, 200, Odiegware, 56
201, 202, 205, 206, 207, 213, 216 Odiete, Chief J.E., 665, 666
New York, 180 Odio, 46
Newsweek, 684 Odje (JP), Chief (Mrs) Paulinah, 677
Nigenans [Christians], 178 Odje Commission of Inquiry, 677
Niger Coast Protectorate, 27, 70, 82, 73, 74, 75, Odje, Barrister Albert, 676
82, 88, 90, 98, 99, 101, 105, 110, 115, 629, 631, Odje, Dr. Mudiaga, 673-680
Creation of, 27 Odogun, 56, 61
Niger Delta, v, vi, vii, 7, 13, 25, 27, 30, 37, 38, 40, Odorume, Chief, 58, 59
48, 87, 88, [As source of Slave Trade, 26] Odovie, 148
Niger Delta Development Commission, 607 Oduduwa, 628, 633, 637
Niger Delta Pastorate Church, 128, 129, 134, 153, Oedipus Tyrannous, 659 (See also Sophocles)
156, 159, 169, 170, 174. 175 Ofagbe, 45
Nigerian Association of Law Teachers, 313 Officer of the Federal Republic (OFR), 666, 668,
Nigerian International Biographic Centre, vii 673, 676, 677, 677, 679
Nigeria Police Force, 634, 635 Ogagan, B.M., 161, 162
Nigerian Baptist Convention, 163, 169-173 Ogba [native trumpet], 58
Nigerian Bar Association, 679 Ogbaru, 24
Nigerian Festival of Arts, 659 Ogbaurhie, 385
700
Index
Ogbemudia, Colonel Samuel, 665 Okudu, S.J., 382

Ogbodo, Abraham, 381 Okugbo, 44
Ogbomosho Seminary, 172 Okujeni, Abraham, 154
Ogbomosho, 170 Okumagba, Chief Benjamin, 596, 672, 684
Ogbovwan, 131 Okwagbe, 127, 219
Oghara, vii, 12, 18, 20 Oleh, 48
Oghele, 41 Ologbo River, 11, 12
Oghene, 127 Ologududu, Revd. 136, 141, 142
Ogiso, Era of, 14, 14-16, 22, 23, 24 Olomoro, 18, 39
Ogisos, 11, 16 Olomu [Urhobo Clan], 18, 19, 52
Ogo, 41 Olomu, Nana, 25, 30, 87, 89,98, 99, 100, 266
Ogoni, 540 Olotu Olegbo, 46
Oguara, 43 Olson, Howard S., 216
Ogugumangu Industrial Institute, 115 Olu of Itsekiri, 228, 245, 248. 250, 261, 263, 264,
Ogugun, 131 266, 273, 278, 279, 280, 281, 282, 284, 285- 289,
Ogun State, 577 307, 322, 324, 616, 618
Oguname, 131, 132 Olu of Warri, 230, 231, 238, 264, 305, 418, 419,
Ogwezi, 44 420, 421-422, 618
Ohadike, Don, 23, 24 Olu Trust Fund, 325
Ohaneze Ndi Igbo, 637, 641 Oluwole, Jacob, 136
Oharisi, His Highness Ovie, 179 Omarin, Chief A.E, 105, 110, 115
Ohrerhe, 131, 133 Omatsola, Revd. Aghoghin J, 116, 130, 131, 134,
Ohwofa, Mr. Simon,viii 135, 136, 169, 170, 171, 175
Ohwovwiogor, Mrs. Janet Anore, 192 Omene, Prof. Jackson, 452
Oil Boom, 500, 505, 507, 508, 510, 520 Omonyowoma, P, 161
Oil Companies, listed, 508, 509, 516 Onabrakpeya, Bruce, 385
Oil Exploration, Crisis of, 32 Onajovwo, Igben, 145
Oil Palm Production, 556, 558 Ondo, 141, 149, 648
Oil Pipeline Fire disasters 642, 643 Onitsha, 24, 44, 137, 139
Oil River Protectorate, 105 [See also Niger Coast Onya, 39
Protectorate] Open Air Preaching, 161
Oil Spillages, 557 Ophorigbala, 159
Oil, discovery of, 655 Opiri, 184
Ojakovo of Iyede, L., 161 Okpa meaning, 160
Ojede, 60 Opobo, 32, 90
Ojo, Chief Bayo, 679 Oputa Human Rights Violation Panel, 677
Okandeji, Mr. I., 338, 339, Ora, 74
Oki, Mr. Wilson, 197 Oral Tradition, 37, 40, 47n, 51, 52, 57
Okiale, 42 Ordination of, 160n, 163, 175n,
Okitipupa, 114, 476, 477, 478, 479, 480, 648 Orodje of Okpe, 663-665 (also Orhoro I)
Okoloko, G., 161 Orerokpe, 18, 19, 103, 104
Okorefe, M.E., 175, 176 Orhan, 173
Okoro, Omorohwovo, 387 Orhoakpor/Orhokpor, 21, 78
Okorodudu, Michael, 292, 294 Orhogbua [King of Benin], 23,
Okotie Eboh, Chief Festus Sam, 111, 116, 418, Orhoro, 52, 58, 60
423 Orhue, 52, 58, 59
Okpako Okpe, 60 Orieda, 48
Okpako [clan ruler], 67 Orita: Ibadan Journal of Religious Studies, 191,
Okpara Waterside, 88 192n, 210n
Okpara, 21 Orji, Christopher, 383
Okpare River, 88 Orode, J.M., 179, 180, 181, 182
Okpari, 152, 153 Orodje, 54, 58
Okpe Communal Land Trustees, 111 Orogun, 12, 18
Okpe Okakuro, 54, 58 Orugbegwa, defined 132
Okpe, 13, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 53-63, 103, 104, 110, Oruhe, 44
111, 112, 113 [Sons of, 52, Political History, Osia, 22
56] Osogbo, 648
Okpe {Isoko], 42, 43, 44, 45, 48 Osonobruwhe, 173
701
Otite, Professor Onigu, v, vii, 11, 13, 19, 20, 596, Petroleum Products Marketing Company, 530
648 Petroleum Training Institute, Effurun, 578, 684
Otobodo, 146 Petroleum Trust Fund, 655
Otomewo, E.R., 183 Philanthropy, 668
Otota, 54 Philippi, 149
Otota Okpe,54 Phillips, Canon S.C. 150n
Otovwodo, 146, 148, 152 Pidgin English, 578
Otu Iletu, 47 Pioneer of Urhobo Literature, 141 (See also
Otu Imitete, 47 Emedo)
Otu Ovrawa, 47 Plantation Economy, 26 [See also African Labour]
Otuada, role of, 61 Plutocracy, defined, 56
Our Lady’s High School, 168 Polish Prince, reference to, 682
Ovadge, Revd. Father Peter, 690 Political Agents, Role of, 76-77
Ovadje, D.E., 1176 Pollution, 620, 622, 499, 506, 510, 511, 513, 521,
Overlordship, Doctrine of, 228, 229, 230, 231, 263 528, 547, 565, 566
Ovie, 8n, 24, 67, 77 Death of an,44 Polygamist, 131, 159, acceptance of, 170, Practice
Ovie-whisky, Justice, 215 of, 171
Oviri Ogor, 148 Pope Paul ll, 692
Ovonramwen, Oba, 486, 487, Port-Harcourt, 644
Ovrode, 45 Portsmouth, Virginia, 173
Ovu, Secession of, 21 Portugal, 104
Ovuakporaye, J., 177 Portuguese Explorers, 12, 20, 25, 26, 27, 29, 87,
Ovuoronye, S., 161 104, arrival in Benin, 10, 27, 68
Ovwori, 114 Post Offices, 114
Oweh, Chief G. Ohwotemu,342 Postal Agent, 114
Owhe, 39, 40n, 45, Powell, Mr. V.B.V, 659
Owhere, Chief, 58, 60 Prayer Book, 141, 145, 153
Owo, 114 Premier of Northern Nigeria, 632
Owodokpokpo, 138, 140 Prest, Chief Arthur, 111
Oxford University, England, 3 Primary Education, 115
Oyibo [ White Man], 49 Prince Aruanran, 43
Oyibo-Edjo of Evwreni, 285 (see also Foss) Princess Idolu, 105
Ozolua (Oba of Benin), 23 Proclamation, 100
Ozoro, 45, 46n, 431, 447, 449 Proctor, Rev. Henry, 128, 132, 133, 139, 140, 153,
Ozue, 44, 45 197
Propaganda, 31, 32
P Prophet Mohammed, 628
P’Bitek, Okot, 6 Protectorate of Southern Nigeria, 82, 84
Pagans, 165 Protestant, 159, 161, 165
Pakistan, 642 Protestantism, 127
Palm Oil Trade, 26 Provisional Boundary Line,72, 73-75, 82,
Palmer, I.T. 135, 136, 322, 323, 325 Provisional Ruling Council, mentioned, 638, 639,
Palmer, Mr. I.T, 124, 131 Public Land Acquisition Ordinance, 276, 281
Paper Protectorate, 49 [cf Isoko] Public Land Ordinance Laws of Southern Nigeria,
Paramount Chief, 80 326
Parkview Baptist Church, 173 Public Works Department, 113, 115, Established,
Parochial Church Council, 135 113
Patani River, 17, 20 Punitive Expeditions, 78, 83, Nana Expeditions,
Patani, 39, 42, 52, 128, 132, 139, 140, 153 Benin Expeditions
Patrilineal Descent, 53, 54
Patrilineal Systems of Kinship, 31 Q
Peace Corps Volunteers, vii Quartey, Mr. K.A.B. Jones, 659
Pender, Captain J.C., 287 Queen of Great Britain, 630
People’s Democratic Party, 670
Pereira, Captain Duarte Pacheco, 40, 41, 42, 43, R
68, 251 Reformed Ogboni Fraternity, 156 (also Christian
Perry, Miss Mary, 171 Ogboni)
Petroleum Oil, v, 497, 527-554 Refugee Territory,7
702
Index
Regan, R.O., 163 Self-Government, Motion for, 599 (See also

Regius Professor of History, 3, See also Trevor Enahoro Anthony)
Roper Seminary Collection, 166, 167
Religious Leaders, defined, 583 Senegal, 6
Report of Political Bureau, 599 Senghor, Leopold Seda, 6
Rewane, Alfred, 292 Senior Advocate of Nigeria, 676, 677, 679
Richards Constitution, 285, 291, 400 Sequeira, Ruy de, 251
Richardson, 171 Shagamu, 648
River Ethiope, 11, 12, 17, 20, 68, 70, 73, 74, 80, Shagari, Alhaji Shehu, 634, 676
393, 395, 404, 664 Shakespeare, William, 361, 675
River Niger, 127 Sharia, mentioned, 639
River Niger, dredging of, 643 Sheath, Margaret B., 155
Rivers State, 13 Shrine, discussed, 385
Roads and Creeks Proclamation, 80, 81, 113 Sierra Leone, 120-121, 127, 131, 143, 150, 152
Rodico’s School Hall, 178 Sign of the Cross, mentioned, 161
Roman Catholic Church, 156, 159-169, 185-189, Simpson-Gray, Mr. S, D, 79
202, 217 Sisters of Charity, 692
Roman Catholic Liturgical Book, 209-212, Roman Slave Sacrifice, 47
Catholic Mission, 116, 157, 159, 193, 198 Roman Slave Trade, 4, 11, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 104,
Catholics, 140, 152, 153, 156 105,, 413, 423 Abolition of, 28, 87
Rome, 168 Slaves, 485, 486
Royal Geographical Society, 113, 116 Smith, M.G, 51,
Royal Niger Company, 25, 29, 49, 72, 73, 74, 75, Smith, Cathecist, 142
87, 88-89, 90, 98, 101, 570, 629 [See also UAC] Sobo, 40, 41, 42, 45
Royal Niger Company, demise of, 225-226 Sobo Division, 438-445, 447, 448-449
Rutherford, J.F., 182, 183 Social Anthropologists, 51
Ryder, Prof. A.F.C., 193 Society of African Missions, 689
Society of Missionary for Africa, 185
S Socio-Linguistic families, 613 Sokoto
Sao Tome, 193 Caliphate, 283, 631
Sacred Heart Catholic Cemetery, USA, 692 Solomon, Solade, 135
Sadjere, [Repentance], 168 Sophocles, 659
Sadjere, D.F., 159, 161 South Western Edoid, mentioned, 13
Sagay, John, 244, 246 South Western Niger, 115
Salem City, 181, 182 Southern Minorities Front of Nigeria, 539, 540
Salisbury Square, 127, 128 Southern Nigeria, 32
Salubi, Chief T.A, vi, 29, 31, 32 Southern Nigerian Defender, 343, 380
Salvation Army, 178 Soviet Union, 555
Sanubi, 130, 142, 143 Spear, J.G., 569
Sapele Association, 173 St. Andrew’s Church (Warri), 135, 137, 139, 141,
Sapele Association, Formation of, 171 152
Sapele Power station, 572, 573, 574 St. Andrew’s Primary School, 141, 144, 145
Sapele Ferry, 104, 114 St. Andrew’s College, Oyo, 141, 142, 174
Sapele Urban District Council, establishment of, St. Gregory’s Catholic Church, Oviri-Agbarho 689
110 St. Joseph’s Teachers Training College, 168
Sapele Urban District Council School, 116 St. Luke’s Church, Sapele, 137
Sapele,31, 70, 71, 72, 74, 75, 76, 77, 79, 80,81, St. Mark, Translation of, 141, 153
83, 85, 103-117, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 134, St. Michael’s College Oleh, vii
135, 136, 137, 140, 141, 142 147, 155, 156, St. Paul’s College Awka, 587
157, founders of, 103, Variants, Sapoli, 108, St. Peter & Paul Major Seminary, Ibadan, 690, 691
Sapeli,103, Urhiapele, 103 Urhuapele, 103, St. Peter Claver’s College, 168, 686, 687
Isapele, 103, Usapele, 103 St. Thomas Teacher Training College, 162, 163
Saro, 129, 135n Stalinism, discussed, 500
Saro-Wiwa, Ken, 540,, 636 State Religion, 639
Saul, reference to, 149 Structural Adjustment Programme, 601
Schapera 1, 51 Students, 599, 600, 601, 603
Secularism, 180 Studies in Urhobo Culture, viii
Sudan United Missions, 197
703
Sunday Vanguard, 601 Thomas, Northcote, 263

Supreme Court of Nigeria, 305, 675, 677, 679 Thompson, Revd. J.,141, 142, 143, 146, 147, 151
Swahili, 197 Tri-Continental Trade, 25
Swainston, Major H. O. 79 Titles, mentioned, 61 [Orodje, Otota, Okakuro]
Switzerland, mentioned, 571, 575 Tiv revolts, 556
SWOT Analysis, 611 Tonybee, Arnold, 5, 7, 391
Town Planning Authority, 126, 201
T Township Ordinance Enactment, 123
Tadaferua, W.A., 141, 200 Trade and Politics in Nigeria, 29 [See also Dike]
Taggart, Mr. John Mc, 74 Trade Boycott, 30
Taiga, Olorogun Moses, vi, vii, viii Trade Monopoly, 71
Talbot, Dr. P.A., 82, 85, 307 Traditional Chieftaincy Titles, 131
Tamuno, T.N., 382 Traditional Cults, discussed, 385
Taraba State, 578 Traditionalist, 160
Tasie, Dr. 129 Translation work 164, 166-168
Taungy Farminga System, 492, 493 Tramway, 81
Tawiah, Sam T.H., 178 Treaties of Trade and Protection, 72, 74, 75, 77,
Tax Riots, 658 82, 87-101, 261, 263, 264, 267-268, 269, 274,
Telegraph Construction, 82 276, 300, 302
Temile, Chief O., 676 Treaty, Signing of, 31
Ten Commandments, 199 Trevor Roper, Hugh, 3, 4, 5, 7
Tennyson, Lord Alfred, 592 Tribes, v
Territorial Expansion, 23 Tri-Continental International Trade, 25
The Apostolic Creed, 195 Trinity Sunday, 166
The Dual Mandate Mandate in British Tropical Trinity, doctrine of, 183
Africa, 270 Triune God, 181
The Economist, mentioned, 684 Tugwell, Bishop Herbert, 128, 133, 134, 146, 137,
The Guardian Newspaper, 381, 571, 669 141, 146, 157, 174, 192, 198-200
The History of the Urhobo Bible, 192,, 201n Need Turner, Professor Terisa, vii
for, 196-198, Significance, 214-216 Twin, Killing of, 144, 132
The Jehovah’s Witnesses, 179-182, 183, 184
The Key to Heaven, 588 U
The Lord’s Prayer, 191, 194, 199 UAC Charter, 88-89
The Member for Warri Province: The Life and Udje poetry, 384, 386, 595, 596, 604
Times of Chief Mukoro Mowoe of Warri, 387 Udje, 184
652 Udogun Okpe, 54, 55,58
The Middle East, mentioned, 628 Udori, 131
The Miracles of an Original Thought, 386 Udu, 12, 18, 131, 146, 148
The National Question, discussed, 555-562 Uduere, 148
The New African Industries Ltd., 665 Uganda, Kampala, 692
The News Magazine, 319 Ughelli, 12, 18, 21, 38n, 41, 43n, 82, 131, 132,
The Nigerian Christian, 191 146, 152, 155
The Ohonwvoren Institution, 648 Ughienvwen, 18, 475
The Parousis, 180 Ugolo, 60
The Patriots, 575 Uhawha, 384 (See also Muse)
The People of Southern Nigeria, 307 Uheri, Cosin, 170
The Punch Newspaper, 537 Uhwokori, 21, 131, 132, 133, 135, 136
The Republic of Plato, 143 Ukoedjo, 131
The Roman Catholic Mission, 159-169 (See also Ukoli, Catechist, 165, 166
Roman Catholic Church) Ukoli, Prof. F.M.A., 451, 457-459, 583, 593
The Scramble for Africa, 265-266, 395 Ukueku, Chief Johnson, 586, 591, 637
The Urhobo People, v, 596 Ukwuani, 24, 25, 31, 35, 74, 83, 113
The Vatican Council, 192 Umurie, Stephen, 160, 161 162, 163, 164, 157,
Theresa, Maria, 681, 682 168, 169, 588-589, 593
Things Fall Apart, 602 Umusiavwre R’ Odjuvwu, 166 (See also Little Key
Thomas, Dylan, 386 of Heaven)
Thomas, J.C.C., 143-153, 155, 156 Umutu, 80
Thomas, Mr. J.A, 110 UN Declaration of Human Rights, 575
704
Index
UNESCO, 681 Urhobo Translation Committee, 590

Union of Niger Delta, 573, 574 Urhobo Voice, 597, 599, 670, 677, 678, 680
United African Church, 173-176 Urhobo Women Uprisings, vii, discussed 499-522
United Africa Company, 87, 88, 104, 556 Urhobo, G.M., 179 (see also Ukoli)
United Bible Societies, 205, 206-207-216 Urhobo, Middle Ages of, 12, 21-32
Unity Party of Nigeria, 507 Urhuovie, 131
University College Ibadan (also University of Use, 28
Ibadan), vi, 575, 659, 662, 673, 683 Usman, Dr. Bala, 629
University of Exeter, England, 569 Utuama, Prof. Amos, 679
University of Lagos, 383 Utuedon, 132
University of Sussex, vi Usuanlele, Dr. Uyilawa, vii
Uraife, S.A., 341 Uvwie, 12, 13, 506-509, 512, 514, 515-520, 522,
Urhobo and the National Question, 555-562, 684 526, 597, 604, 605, 606, 608,
Urhobo Bible, 141, 191-217, 589, 590, Uvwie, [Origin of,] 18-20
Urhobo Brotherly Society 368-370, 387, 399, 402, Uzee, 43, 44, 48
495, 650 Uzere, 18, 42, 43, 44, 46, 47, 48, 49, 132, 138,
Urhobo Calendar Chart, 192 139, 154, 155
Urhobo Catholic General Committee, 163-165
Urhobo Christian Hymn Book, 209 V
Urhobo Christian Liturgy, Evolution of, 191-217 Valedictory Court Session, 678
Urhobo College, Effurun, vi, 331-360, 381-391, Vanguard Newspaper, 461
671-673, 674, 677, 678, 683, 686 Variations in Urhobo Language, 19
Urhobo College Old Students Association, 81 Vision 2010,656
Urhobo Cultural Centre, 384
Urhobo Dictionary, 596 W
Urhobo Educational Scheme Fund, 335, 340, 342, Waghoregho, Ikimi, 141
346-352 War Against Indiscipline, 512
Urhobo Historical Society Annual Conference, viii War Canoes, 99
Urhobo Historical Society Calendar, importance, War Office London, 69, 84
viii Warrant Chief, 62, 77, 79
Urhobo Historical Society,vi, vi, vii, viii, 9, 19, 34, Warri City & British Colonial Rule in Western
584, 592, 657 Niger Delta, 451, 452
Urhobo History, v-viii, 7-32, 657, 663 Warri, 39, 43, 49, 69, 70, 71, 74, 76-80, 82, 85,
Urhobo Inter-ethnic Relations, 383-383 679
Urhobo Isoko History, vii Warri College, Ughelli, 658
Urhobo Ivie, 77 Warri Ceek, 72, 73
Urhobo Joint Consultative Translation Committee, Warri District, 72, 79, 84
202-203, members, 202-3, meetings, 204 Warri Division, 68, 77, 80, 81
Urhobo Kingdoms, 647 Warri Province, 60
Urhobo Language Committee, 192, 215 Warri Refinery & Petrochemical, 509
Urhobo Language, 10, 13-14 Warri River, 69, 99
Urhobo Literary Committee, 615 Warri Study Group, 452
Urhobo Literature, 141 Warri Township, study of, vi
Urhobo Migrations, 10-21, 648 Watch Tower Society, 180, 182, 183
Urhobo National Assembly, 528, 543-545, 573, Watson – Jack, Minimo, 679
574, 633, 641 Wayling, Captain, 79
Urhobo National Museum, 384, 385 WAZOBIA, 556, 561
Urhobo Priests, 169 Weah, Revd. Father Patrick, 691
Urhobo Professors, 571 Webber, Justice A.F.C., 229, 230, 278, 280
Urhobo Progress Union, vi, 32, 63, 331-406, 613- Webster’s Dictionary, 647
626, 650-651, 673, 676, 684, Achievements of Welch, James W., 153, 155
Past Presidents, 617-618, (See also Urhobo Welsh culture, 386
Brotherly Society) West Africa, 10, 26
Urhobo Social Club, Lagos, 596 West African Frontier Force, 75, 635n
Urhobo Study Group, 682-684 West African Gas Pipeline Project, 643
Urhobo Traditional Calendar, features of, 9-12 West African Pilot, 494
Urhobo Traditional Religion, 583 West African Students’ Union, 599
Urhobo Traditionalists, 172 West Indians, mentioned, 151
705
Western Christian Missions, arrival of, 32 Y

Western Igbo, 23, 24, 25, 35 Yahweh, 149, 583
Western Niger Delta, v, vi, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, Yako, 51
21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 29, 31, 32, 34, 87, 100, 101, Yoruba Council of Elders, 319
159 Yoruba, 80. 85, 112, 129, 130, 131, 132, 141, 155,
Western Region Local Government Law, 110 156, 628, 636, 637, 639
Western Region of Nigeria, 103, 117 Yorubaland, 131, 132, 319
Williams, Jacob S., 174, 175 Yoruba Mission, 137
Williams, Revd. J.R, 169, 170, 173 Youth Earnestly Ask for Abacha
Williamson, Kay, 13, 36 Young, Miss Neale, 171
Willink’s Commission, 343, Report, 556 Youth Earnestly Ask for Abacha, 601
World Bank, 643 Yoruba Provinces (of Benin Empire), 24
World Press Conference,543, 544
World War II, mentioned, 398 Z
World War, 163 Zamfara State, mentioned, 635
Zeus, 384
Zikist Movement, 599
Zimmer and Bay, Messrs, 107, 110n
706
Biographical Notes on Contributors
Compiled by Onoawarie Edevbie

Secretary, Urhobo Historical Society
Editor
Ekeh, Peter P., earned B.Sc. (Economics) from University of Ibadan in 1964, M.A.
(Sociology) from Stanford University, Palo Alto, in 1967 and a Ph.D from University of
California, Berkeley, in 1970. Ekeh is Professor at the State University of New York at
Buffalo, USA, and a former Chair of its Department of African American Studies. Ekeh has
taught at several universities, including University of Ibadan where he was Professor and
Head of Political Science (1978-1983) and Chairman of Ibadan University Press (1983-
1988). Dr. Ekeh has numerous publications, including the highly acclaimed Social
Exchange Theory: The Two Traditions . He is the founding Chair of Urhobo Historical
Society and editor of its web sites. He was a Secretary of Urhobo Progress Union, Ibadan
Branch, while studying at the University of Ibadan.
Contributors
Dafinone, David, OFR, BSc., DPA, FCA. Consultant, Horwath Dafinone, Chartered
Accountants, Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria. Educated at Exeter University (1953) and University
of London (1958). Holder of Guinness World Records for the most chartered accountants
(six) in one family, held by three sons and two daughters, who all qualified as members of
the Institute of Chartered Accounts of England and Wales between 1986 and 1998. Senator
Dafinone himself became a member of the Institute in 1963. Elected member of the Nigeria
Senate for Urhobo (1979-1983). An early patron of Urhobo Historical Society. Writings
include State of the Nation: The Future of Nigeria.
Edevbie, Onoawarie, MS., MA. Studied at Andrews University, Berrien Springs and
Wayne State University, Detroit, all in Michigan, USA. Adjunct Professor of Mathematics
at Wayne Community College, Detroit. Chemical Engineer, Water Quality Protection
Division of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department. Founding Secretary and member
of Urhoho Historical Society. Authored a number of essays including “Doctrine of Over-
lordship and the Warri Crisis” and “Urhobo Naming Practices, Principles and Cross-cultural
Applications.”
Egborge, Austin, B.M. Ph.D. Educated at the University of Ibadan. Professor of Zoology
at the University of Benin, Nigeria. Lectured at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. Research
interests: Fresh water ecology (zoo planktons of fresh water bodies in Nigeria), and
environmental pollution and food chains. Major publications include Water Pollution in
Nigeria: Pollution of the Warri River. Until his untimely death in a car accident, Egborge
was actively working on solutions to environmental problems in the Niger Delta.
Ekuerhare, Bright U., Ph.D. Educated at the Universities of Ibadan, Cambridge and
Manchester. Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration) and Professor of Economics at Delta
State University, Abraka, Nigeria. He was previously Provost of Asaba Campus of Delta
State University. Taught at Ahmadu Bello University (1972-1984), and Ambrose Alli
University (1985-1992). Founding Chairman of Urhobo Study Group, Delta State
University (1993). Major publications include Studies in Patterns and Problems of
Industrial Accumulation in Nigeria , and series of articles contributed to various reputable
journals and books.
Erivwo, Samuel O., Ph.D. Educated at the University of Ibadan. Former Professor and
Head of Department of Religious Studies at Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Nigeria.
Lectured at the University of Ibadan, Jos Campus, Ibadan Polytechnic and the University of
Ilorin. Preferred canon in 1974, Archdeacon in 1986 and served as Provost of Saint Andrew
Cathedral, Warri City from 1999 until retirement in 2006. Member of Urhobo Historical
Society. Major publications include Traditional Religion and Christianity in Nigeria: The
Urhobo People , A History of Christianity in Nigeria: The Urhobo, the Isoko and the
Itsekiri, and The Life and Work of Agori Iwe.
Foster, Whitney P., M.A . Educated at the University of California, Los Angeles. Currently
retired after years of service in both government and private sectors. Member of the United
States Peace Corp volunteer in Nigeria in the 1960s. Taught at Saint Michael’s College,
Oleh, Isokoland during the period of his service in the Peace Corp.
Ikime, Obaro, Ph.D. Educated at the University of Ibadan. Retired Professor of History at
the University of Ibadan and a former President of the Historical Society of Nigeria. Major
publications include Niger-Rivalry, Itsekiri-Urhobo Relations and the European Presence
1884-1936, Merchant Prince of Niger Delta , The Isoko People, and The Member for Warri
Province. Co-authored The Fall of Nigeria and edited Groundwork of Nigerian History ,
published by the Historical Society of Nigeria.
Lloyd, Peter C., D.Phil. Studied at Oxford University. Research Fellow, West African
Institute of Social and Economic Research, Ibadan, Nigeria (1950-1956), Land Research
Officer, Ministry of Lands and Labor, Ibadan (1956-1959), Lectured at University of Ibadan
(1959-1964), University of Birmingham (1964-1966), Reader and Professor Emeritus in
Social Anthropology, University of Sussex (1967- ). Author of many books
including Yoruba Land Law, Africa in Social Change, The Political Development of Yoruba
Kingdoms in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries and Classes, Crises and Coups.
Nabofa, Michael Y., Ph.D. Educated at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Professor and
Head of Department of Religious Studies at the University of Ibadan. Member of Urhobo
Historical Society. Lectured at King’s College, London, John Carroll University, Cleveland,
Xavier University, Cincinnati, and Mount Union College, Alliance, all in the State of Ohio,
USA. Major works include Symbolism in African Traditional Religion , Religious
Communication: A Study of African Traditional Religion , and Igbe Ubiesha: An Indigenous
Charismatic Movement of the Urhobo People.
Obiomah, Daniel E., BA. Educated at University College (now University of) Ibadan,
Nigeria. Member of Urhobo Historical Society and the 2004 recipient of Adogbeji Salubi
Urhobo History Award . Entered the British Colonial Civil Service and rose to attain the
rank of a District Officer (DO). Joined Nigeria Tobacco Company from which he left to run
a profitable real estate business in Warri City. Major publications include Warri: Land,
Overlords and Land Rights (Ometan Vs. Dore Numa): Facts, Fiction & Imperialism, Warri,
708
Biographical Notes on Contributors
Urhobo & The Nigerian Nation , and Who Owns Warri? (A Treatise for Peace ), and poetry
books.
Okpako, David T., Ph.D. Studied at Urhobo College, Effurun (member of the graduating
class of 1954), a community school established by Urhobo Progress Union in 1948, and at
Bradford University, United kingdom. Unofficial historian of Urhobo College. Professor of
Pharmacology and founding Dean of the School of Pharmacy at the University of Ibadan.
Lover of Udje dance and songs for which his native Ughienvwen community is famously
known in Urhoboland. Publications include his inaugural lecture Good Drugs Don’t Grow
on Trees Or Do they ? Co-authored Pharmacological Methods in Phytotherapy Research,
Volume 1.
Omene, Jackson A., MD. Educated at Urhobo College, Effurun, a pioneering community
school opened by Urhobo Progress Union in 1948, and at the University of Bonn, Federal
Republic of Germany. Neonatologist. Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the State University
of New York Health Sciences Center, Brooklyn, New York, USA. Founder and Medical
Director of Atlantic Medical Center, Brooklyn. Member of Urhobo Historical Society.
Former Professor of Pediatrics and Provost of the College of Medical Sciences at the
University of Benin, Nigeria.
Onoge, Omafume F., Ph.D. Educated at Harvard University. Retired Professor of

Sociology and Anthropology, University of Jos, Nigeria. Former Dean of Social Sciences at
the University of Jos. Former Executive Director of Center for Advanced Social Studies
(CASS), Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Recognized community leader in his native Uvwie
Community near Warri City. Writings include The Democratic Imperatives in Nigeria.
Otite, Imo, MBA. Studied in Catholic Schools including Saint Paul Catholic Seminary,
Benin City, Nigeria before proceeding to Columbia University, New York, USA and
University of Economic Science, Berlin Germany. Edited West African Link Magazine and
served as a member of the Board of National Business and Technical Examination in
Nigeria. Contributed articles to various journals, internet and other electronic media.
Otite, Onigu, Ph.D. Educated at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and the University of
London. Fellow of the Nigerian Anthropological and Sociological Society and retired
Professor of Sociology at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Visiting Professor of Sociology,
University of Pennsylvania (1987), Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Development
Studies, University of Bergen, Norway (1986), and Senior Social Development Research
Fellow, African Centre for Applied Research and Training on
Social Development, Tripoli, Libya (1990-1991). Major publications include Autonomy and
Dependence, The Urhobo Kingdom of Okpe , and The Urhobo People (edited) and Ethnic
Pluralism, Ethnicity and Ethnic Conflicts in Nigeria.
Salubi, Adogbeji T.E., Diploma in Labour Relations. Educated at the London School of
Economics. Awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Ibadan for his academic
contributions to Urhobo history. Entered the British Colonial Service in the 1940s and rose
to become one of few Nigerians who served as Commissioner of Labor Relations in British
Colonial Service. On retirement from civil service, Salubi was elected President-General of
Urhobo Progress Union. Major publications include Perspectives on Itsekiri History and the
Title of the Itsekiri King.
709
Scott-Emuakpor, Ajovi B., MD, Ph.D. Educated at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka,
Nigeria and Michigan State University. Professor of Pediatrics and Human Development,
and Division Chief of Pediatric and Adolescent Hematology/Oncology at Michigan State
University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Member of the Editorial and Management
Committee of Urhobo Historical Society. Former Director of Institute of Child Health, and
Acting Chief Medical Director at the University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria.
Taiga, Moses, BA. Educated at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and University of
Lagos, Nigeria. Professional Accountant and a multifaceted businessman. Secured early
employment in the oil and gas industry and rose rapidly to become the Managing Director of
Philips Petroleum, Lagos, Nigeria. A prominent patron of Urhobo Historical Society.
Turner, Teresa, E. Obtained B.A. from the University of York in the U.K., M.A. from
Oberlin College in the U.S. and Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and Political
Science. Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Guelph,
Guelph, Ontario, Canada. An editor of the Canadian Journal of Development Studies .
Founding member and co-director of the International Oil Working Group . Co-founder of
First Woman : The East and Southern African Women’s Oral History and Indigenous
Knowledge Network . Her writings include Arise Ye Mighty People! Gender, class and race
in popular struggles , and articles on petroleum, resource conflict, international political
economy, gender and the environment. Co-edited with Leigh S. Brownhill, a special issue
of the Canadian Journal of Development Studies on Gender.
Ukoli, Frank, M.A. Ph.D. (1936-2004). Born at Warri, Nigeria. Educated at Warri College,
Warri (later moved and renamed Government College, Ughelli), University College, Ibadan
and the University of Ghana, Legon. Fellow of the Academy of Science (FAS). Former Head
of Department and Professor of Zoology, Dean of the Faculty of Sciences at the University
of Ibadan. Founding Vice Chancellor, Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria.
Member of Urhobo Historical Society and the 2004 recipient of M.G. Ejaife Education
Award. Major publications include a seminal volume on parasitology titled Prevention and
Control of Parasitic Diseases in Tropical Africa: The Main Issues
Usuanele, Uyilawa, Ph.D. Educated at Ahmadu Bello University . Assistant Professor of

Theatre, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Founding Coordinator of the
Institute for Benin Studies, Benin City. Nigeria. Cultural Research Officer with Nigerian
National Council for the Arts where he headed the Edo Zonal Office (1995 – 2003).
Contributed articles to various academic workshops, books and international academic
journals, including History Induced Modification as a Problem in the Use of Proverbs as
Oral Source Materials , and Benin Princesses Can’t Make Catholic Wives: Snippets Into the
Life of Princess (Mrs.) Katherine Oronsanye (nee Eweka), Catholic Wife, Pioneer Colonial
Midwife and Social Worker.
710
711of Urhobo People of Niger Delta
History
About Urhobo Historical Society

Urhobo Historical Society (UHS) was inaugurated in a brief ceremony at LaGuardia
Marriot Hotel, Queens, New York City, on August 28, 1999. Its original aim was expressed
in its motto: "Serving Urhobo History and Culture." Despite its rapid growth, the Society has
stayed close to its original mission. Actually, it has expanded its mission by linking Urhobo
history and culture to the larger context of the Niger Delta.
Urhobo Historical Society has pursued its goals through two principal means. The first
is the organization of its Annual Conferences. The first two such conferences were held in
North America and were relatively small. The third and fourth Annual Conferences were held
in London, United Kingdom. Both of these were large events. Our Fifth Annual Conference
was held October 29-31, 2004, in Urhoboland at Petroleum Training Institute, Effurun, Ibru
Centre, Agbarha-Otor, and Niger Delta Cultural Centre, Agbarha-Otor. Attendance at the
Fifth Annual Conference was huge. These conferences have provided important platforms for
the study and promotion of Urhobo history and culture.
The second vehicle of Urhobo Historical Society for achieving its goals is through its
Web sites. The first two of these have grown tremendously and are well regarded,
particularly in academic circles. This is because they have largely been focused on
documentation. The flagship Web site of the Society is called URHOBO WAADO, with the
following address: http://www.waado.org/. It deals with Urhobo issues in the context of the
Niger Delta and Nigeria. A second Web site that focuses exclusively on Urhobo matters is
called URHOBO KINSFOLK and bears the following address:
http://www.urhobo.kinsfolk.com/. Our latest Web site is called URHOBO COMMUNITY,
with the following address: http://www.urhobowaado.info/. It emphasizes contributions by
Urhobos in the world of arts and culture.
In addition to our Annual Conferences and Web sites, Urhobo Historical Society has
added a new responsibility of publishing books on Urhobo society, history and culture. In
2004, we published Warri City and British Colonial Rule in Western Niger Delta . It has
been very well received in Nigeria. Our second publication is Studies in Urhobo Culture
(2005). In 2006, we published a new volume titled Research Papers and Essays in Urhobo
History.
Editorial Policy
We are guided in our academic interpretation of Urhobo history and culture by an

editorial policy that has been formulated by Urhobo Historical Society. It is as follows:
The supreme aim of Urhobo Historical Society is to create a movement that will
promote the preservation of historical records and the writing of diverse historical
experiences among the Urhobo. Unlike some of their neighbours, the Urhobo do not record
their histories in terms of the reigns and achievements of kings. The Urhobo story is
ultimately a record of multiplex achievements involving ordinary people who have risen to
make differences in the lives of their communities.
Recording such a history is a much greater undertaking than that involved in
chronicling the glories of kings and the great deeds of aristocratic families that we have
inherited from the manners of imperial historiography. Imitation of such alien European
imperial methods of history-writing has led to the diminution of the significance attached to
the achievements by ordinary individuals in traditional historiography in several African

societies. To avoid such pitfalls, the methodology of Urhobo history clearly calls for a more
decentralized undertaking. We accordingly seek to involve all grades of people in telling and
recording the Urhobo historical experience. It is a story that sometimes picks up local hues
reflecting the twenty-two subcultures of Urhoboland. We will honour those who have shaped
such local communities along with others who, like the great Mukoro Mowoe, have had a
pan-Urhobo impact.
We welcome documents that have historical relevance for pan-Urhobo history and for
local history. While we will receive printed documents, we prefer to acquire such material,
whenever it is possible, in an electronic format. In any case, we encourage those privileged
to know the whereabouts of significant materials on Urhobo history and culture to write to
us at editor@waado.org. We also encourage individuals to embark on fresh efforts that are
aimed at elucidating any aspects of Urhobo history and culture.
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Veja as discussões, estatísticas e perfis de autor para esta publicação em:

História nigeriana, cultura e política ver projeto

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African Books Collective

In North America, they are distributed by

Michigan State University Press

The Urhobo People

©Urhobo Historical Society

Nigerian Contact Address:

© Urhobo Historical Society 2007

Cover Design by Anne Warner,

Our Annual Conferences have emerged to be important venues for expression of

Books published by Urhobo Historical Society in Nigeria have been kindly

Table of Contents …………………………………………………………………… ix

A Map of Western Niger Delta ……………………………………………………xiii

BEGINNINGS OF BRITISH COLONIAL RULE IN URHOBOLAND

Document: Planning for the First School in Sapele:

ADVENT OF CHRISTIANITY IN URHOBOLAND

Document: Historical Background to

COLONIALISM AND THE SCRAMBLE FOR URHOBO LANDS

Introduction ………………………………………………………. 223

11. Ownership of Pre-Colonial Warri ……………………………….. 233

URHOBO PROGRESS UNION

URHOBO AND ITS ETHNIC NEIGHBOURS

A Poem: Death? Not Frank ………………………………………. 471

MODERN URHOBO MIGRATIONS AND THE URHOBO DIASPORA

OIL EXPLORATION AND ITS VICISSITUDES

FRAGMENTS OF URHOBO HISTORY

Hope Eghagha. Oghenevware Evwode. Samson Eruvwavwe. David

Index ……………………………………………………………………… 693

Biographical Notes on Contributors ……………………………………... 707

About Urhobo Historical Society ………………………………………… 711

Imperialism, Nigerian Historiography and the

We believe that such a perspective of history is defective. In this chapter, we will

European Imperialism and the

Undergraduates, seduced … by … journalistic fashion, demand that they be

Trevor-Roper considered the African experience to be a proper subject matter for

African Reactions to Imperialism’s Ideologies

African nationalist [theologians] ... protest vigorously against any Western

Nature and Problems of Urhobo History

Recording such a history is a much greater undertaking than that involved in

Traditional Urhobo Calendar and the

Stages of Urhobo History

Ancient Times in Urhobo History

Primary Migration from the Lands of the

Secondary Migrations into Urhobo Country

Internal Migration and the Conquest and

Internal Migrations and the Creation of

Ughwerun Ughwerun Ughelli North

Source: URHOBO WAADO, Web site of Urhobo Historical Society at

Internal Migration and the Peopling of Urhobo Towns and Villages

The Middle Ages of Urhobo History, c1450-1891

The Rise of Benin Empire

Shall I run, Shall I walk,

Europeans’ Arrival in the Niger Delta and the

(a) International Trade on African Agricultural Products and European

Creation of Coastal States and Societies and

fragmented mainland Urhobo neighbours. Ikime's important point deserves to be highlighted

What was perhaps a singularly warm demonstration of friendliness by the people

Conclusion: Modern Times of Urhobo History

Abraham, W. B. 1962. The Mind of God. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Cornevin, R. 1956. Histoire de L’Afrique des Origines a nos Jours. Paris.