Of myth, fiction and non-truths
SIR: Jide Osuntokun's piece "Ife-Benin Controversy" (The Guardian, June 22, 2004, page 75) worsened Africa's problem of lack of documentation culture. One kept flip-flopping between the body and end of the said piece to be sure that I was not in the hands of some fiction writer. The piece lacked scholarship and anything scientific: no identifiable and provable names of peoples and places, no dates and no archaeological evidence to buttress any assertion.
One would have expected a 21st century historian to have supported oral history with archaeological findings and used carbon dating method to prove dates. Nothing of such: instead we had Osuntokun parroting the same myth and non-truths we have heard over the years. Surely, there was no Ife kingdom or empire so one finds the Benin-Ife controversy as purported by Osuntokun as most absurd.
Osuntokun worsened matters by mentioning the Itsekiris and the Yorubas as a people from the same kingdom. The problem is not that of origin but its connotation. For record purposes, the Itsekiris migrated from Ilaje of Ondo State as early as the 1900s, through Benin River and settled in a marshy and uninhabitable part of Warri they themselves (Itsekiris) call Ode Itsekiri, that is, capital of Itsekiri. Before the arrival of the Itsekiris, Warri was already inhabited by the Urhobos and the Ijaws and that part of Warri (Ode Itsekiri) was part of Urhoboland in Warri, which was graciously given to the Itsekiris out of pity for their migration condition.
The Itsekiris quickly assimilated the Urhobo culture hence you have that the Itsekiri language today is a homogenous mixture of Urhobo and Yoruba. To establish a social and cultural presence in Warri, the Itsekiri built a palace on a land leased to them (Itsekiris) by, guess who, the Okumagbas of Warri; the same Okumagbas that the Itsekiris are fighting. Talk of biting the finger that fed you!
They called their traditional leader the Olu of Itsekiri (note, Itsekiri and not Warri). The title Olu depicts their Yoruba origin. Then just in 1952, Chief Obafemi Awolowo who was then the Premier (Governor) of Western Region changed the title from Olu of Itsekiri to Olu of Warri, to gratify Chief Rewane for delivering the Itsekiris to his Action Group political party. The move was purely political and was not meant to last or be taken seriously. Suffice it to mention that this action of Awolowo attracted wide spread condemnation then and even now.
The claim of Warri by the Itsekiris is even more absurd for how could a tenant claim ownership of a land he leased from the owner. Surely, no traditional ruler that I know in Nigeria is living on rented grounds. The write-up is meant to enlighten the reading public of the facts of the matter and to be guided accordingly.
The recurring problem of Warri therefore is deeply rooted in this change of title and its permanent solution is the reverting to the status quo, that is, the restoration of title from Olu of Warri to its original Olu of Itsekiri. Warri would then know peace, the truth would have being told and history would have saved us Nigerians. Every assertion here is incontrovertibly provable.
Noel Obiabuchi,
Lagos
