Selected Ika proverbs: their aesthetics and contexts of usage

Education, Summer, 2007 by Canon Benji Egede

PREFATORY REMARKS: THE IKA ETHNIC NATIONALITY IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

In this section of the essay, the notion of "Ika", as an ethno-linguistic label descriptive of the language and people of a particular ethnic nationality in Delta state of Nigeria shall be applied with every modicum of discretion. The concept shall acquire some new frontiers in such a way as to imbue it with the spirit of reinvigoration, to expose its elasticity or resilience.

Past and present research efforts on the Ika ethnic nationality, such as Victor Manfredis' "Centre and Periphery in Ika Literacy" (1982) and Ben Nwanne's Ika: The Land and Its People (2000: 2004) have, in their analyses, tended to overlook an important aspect of the soul of the Ika nation. They have, for instance, over-concentrated on the factor of geographical location, as delimited by politically and therefore artificially imposed boundaries on the basis of local governments or states of the federation, rather than on the basis of socio-cultural affinities. To buttress the point being made, we may draw attention to the Editor's Note page of the seminal publication, Ika: The Land and its People (2004). Here, Ben Nwanne says, concerning the earlier and maiden edition of the work (2000): "The historic and well-acclaimed directory has become a reference material on the Ika ethnic nationality in Delta State of Nigeria, being the only one of its kind" (vii, emphasis added). In this connection, we would like to conceive of Ika in this write-up as subsisting within a broader network or framework, as an ethnic nationality in Nigeria's South-South geo-political axis, rather than as localized only in Delta State.

In other words, when we talk of Ika, as a language or as a people bound by social, cultural and linguistic similarities, we are not and should not be seen to limit that usage to serve the purposes of geographical contiguity only. Rather, when applied with every discerning consciousness, untainted by some self-serving considerations, "Ika" should transcend the banality of a geographical-cum political connotation, to encapsulate the reality of its expansionist thrust-the Ika in Diaspora, if you like!

With the forgoing in mind, we can speak of the Ika people in Diaspora within the larger context of the Nigerian State, just in the same way as we can speak of, say, the Ijaw ethnic nationality. The Ijaw people, as is generally known, live in no less than five states of the federation.

In Edo State, the people of Igbanke, Iru, Ute-Oheze and Igbogiri, who are scattered in Orhionmwon and Uhunwode local government areas, speak the Ika language, which some people think is a dialect of the Igbo language. Politically, as it were, these people are in one state while their kith and kin with whom they share social and cultural affinities by means of a common language, are in another.

In Delta State, where the majority of the people who constitute the Ika ethnic nationality live, they inhabit two Local Government areas, Ika South, with Headquarters at Agbor and Ika North-East, with the seat of administration at Owa-Oyibu. The Ika South Local Government is made up of two clans, Agbor and Abavo. Ika North East, on the other hand, flaunts nine clans and these are: Akumazi, Idumuesah, Igbodo, Mbiri, Otolokpo, Owa, Umunede, Ute-Ogbeje and Ute-Okpu. In the two local government areas, the constituent clans are autonomous to the extent that each of them has a traditional ruler, who is designated "Obi". With the Obi is an executive council of a sort, the Obi-in-Council, which is saddled with the responsibility of proffering wise counsel, from time to time, to the king, to enhance the day-to-day administration of the people. This is designed to ensure that peace, good governance and good neighbourliness reign supreme in Ikaland at all times.

On the question of origin of the Ika ethnic nationality, there are varied opinions or schools of thought, each of these made up of a curious blend of actuality and fictionality, in a way. There is a school of thought that says that Ika, a migrant from Ife, in Yorubaland, was the founder of "Agbon", perhaps a variant and corrupted form of Agbor, the headquarters, generally regarded by the Ika people as the socio-cultural pivot of the' Ika ethnic nationality.

According to M. A. Onwuejeogwu, cited in Kester Echenim's "Language and the Dynamics of Development: Ika in Perspective" (2004), the determination of the origin of Ikaland should be approached within the context of what is described as "multiple founders". In this case, according to Echenim, emphasis should be laid on "the distinction between core founders, that is, those responsible principally for the origins of clans and subsequent or secondary founders".

The Bini, according to Echenim, in his paraphrase of Onwejeogwu, on the matter, still, is the core founder of Igbodo, Otolokpo and Akumazi, while Nri or core founder from East Igbo is responsible for Agbor, Owa and Uteokpu and so on.

Because of the kind of controversy that surrounds the question of origin of a people, the Ika people, not an exception, there are bound to be speculations and certain lack of any sense of exactitude with regards to who the founders and co-founders of the Ika people were. A number of questions arise here. At what point in time did those founders make their entries into Ikaland? Upon their arrival, did they meet already existing indigenous populations or could it be that they were welcomed by an empty space filled with a rare populous groups--the flora and the fauna?