IGBO IDOMA CONNECTIONS REPORT

Mazi Nnamdi Kanu stated on Biafra Radio that:

Over a few hundred years ago Fulani invaded idomaland, annihilated the army and killed off so many men to the point where Igbo had to come and procreate with Idoma women to save the race from extinction. 

He says to ask any Idoma or Igbo man over 100 years to find out if they had heard any folklore about those times.

He also points out that Ochi Idoma actually means Onye na chi Idoma and he moves further to point a shared naming culture of first daughters as Ada.

He claims that Idoma and Igbo belonged to one large groupings of people before the British and Nigeria began later day divisions.

Terhemba Osuji: MNK may have played with the facts to suit his broadcast, and hypotheizes that perhaps:

1) Igbo soldiers or hunters may have arrived to join the fight against an existential genocidal threat along their shared borders. Perhaps the banded together to fight together with the resultant intermarriage and offsprings.

2) The british documented some of the history detailing the invastion of the Tiv valley by genocidal Fulani hordes and legend has it that the Tiv though successful in thwarting the invasion suffered severe casualties. The jukun and other minority tribes in the Middlebelt also record Fulani attacks in their folklore with a few documented by the British. 

3)  of the divisions of today were created by the British, the igbos shared borders and there is no history of land disputes today. The jukun and tiv are at loggerheads today because of the british putting some tiv under the Jato Aka I’m Wukari, before then there was no history of fighting, they people lived in peace.

In regards to this claim many might say it did not happen but history provides hints

4) Around 1400 a certain Igala prince was killed wounded by the Jukun in battle, he was ferried to medicine men in Nupe land, but he died and the NUPE had to perform certain rituals and escort his body back to Idah for burial. 

5) both the igala and Idoma and Igbo share market days – EKE, ORIE, AFOR & NKWO in Igbo and EKE, EDE, AFOR & UKWO in Igala and Idoma in seriatim. 

Select Quotes

1) I don’t know how that came about because the Utokon people are not even at the border line, yet they speak same dialect as the Igbo Effium people,” Otokpa concluded

2) For instance, Otokpa noted that the Odaburu dance of the Agila kindred originated from the Igbos, while the new yam festival which is annually celebrated in both communities before now,  was a war festival meant to commemorate victorious outings, adding however that, “there is a little margin between us now in celebration of the festival.”

3) There are yet other Idoma groups notably in the southern regions, which claim their ancestors arrived at their present location from Northern fringes of Igboland as a result of land disputes. 

4) We Are Mistaking Something Here, Actually They Was A Time That Fulani Invaded Some Part Of Owukpa And Itabono In Ogbadibo Local Government.

My observation is that many of us debate history from our gut as History is no longer taught in our schools leaving us confused and mystified about our interconnectedness and distinctness at the same time. 

We can blame the british for these distortions.