The Izon people or Izon Otu, otherwise known as the Ijaw people due to the historic mispronunciation of the name Izon, are an ethnic group majorly found in the Niger Delta in Nigeria, with significant population clusters in Bayelsa, in Delta, and in Rivers. They are also found in other Nigerian states like Ondo State, Edo State, Akwa Ibom State, Abia State, and Ogun State Many are found as migrant fishermen in camps as far west as Sierra Leone and as far east as Gabon. Population figures for the Ijaws are placed at just over 4 million, accounting for 1.8% of the Nigerian population.
They have long lived in locations near many sea trade routes, and they were well connected to other areas by trade as early as the 15th century.
Language
The Ijaws speak nine closely related Niger-Congo languages, all of which belong to the Ijoid branch of the Niger-Congo tree. The primary division between the Ijo languages is that between Eastern Ijo and Western Ijo, the most important of the former group of languages being Izon, which is spoken by about five million people. While these languages are classified as Ijaw language clusters, they are not mutually intelligible causing Ijaws to use English or Pidgin language in pan-Ijaw gatherings.
There are two prominent groupings of the Ijaw language. The first, termed either Western or Central Izon (Ijaw) consists of Western Ijaw speakers: Tuomo Clan, Egbema, Ekeremor, Sagbama (Mein), Bassan, Apoi, Arogbo, Boma (Bumo), Kabo (Kabuowei), Ogboin, Tarakiri, and Kolokuma-Opokuma. Nembe, Brass and Akassa (Akaha) dialects represent Southeast Ijo (Izon). Buseni and Okordia dialects are considered Inland Ijo.
It was discovered in the 1980s that a now extinct Berbice Creole Dutch, spoken in Guyana, is partly based on Ijo lexicon and grammar. Its nearest relative seems to be Eastern Ijo, most likely Kalabari.
Clans
NameStateAlternate Names Akassa Bayelsa Akaha, Akasa Andoni Rivers Apoi (Eastern) Bayelsa Apoi (Western) Ondo Arogbo Ondo Bassan Bayelsa Basan Bille Rivers Bile, Bili Bumo Bayelsa Boma, Bomo Buseni Bayelsa Biseni Egbema Delta Operemor Delta/Bayelsa Operemor, Ekeremo,Ojobo Ekpetiama Bayelsa Gbaramatu Delta Gbaramatu Gbaran Bayelsa Gbarain Iduwini Bayelsa/Delta Isaba Delta Kabo Delta Kabowei, Kabou Kalabari Rivers Ke Rivers Obiansoama, Kenan City Kolokuma Bayelsa Kou Bayelsa Kula Rivers Kumbo Delta Kumbowei Mein Delta/Bayelsa Obotebe Delta Odimodi Delta Ogbe Delta Ogbe-Ijoh Ogboin Bayelsa Ogulagha Delta Ogula,Small London Okrika Rivers Wakirike Okordia Bayelsa Okodia, Akita Olodiama (East) Bayelsa Opokuma Bayelsa Oporoma Bayelsa Oporomo Oruma Bayelsa Tugbene Oyakiri Bayelsa Beni Seimbiri Delta Tarakiri (East) Bayelsa Tarakiri (West) Delta Tungbo Bayelsa Tuomo Delta / Bayelsa T.T Clan Zarama Bayelsa UnyeadaRiversUnyeada
Traditional occupations
The Ijaws were one of the first of Nigeria's peoples to have contact with Westerners, and were active as go-betweens in the trade between visiting Europeans and the peoples of the interior, particularly in the era before the discovery of quinine, when West Africa was still known as the "White Man's Graveyard" because of the endemic presence of malaria. Some of the kin-based trading lineages that arose among the Ijaws developed into substantial corporations which were known as "houses"; each house had an elected leader as well as a fleet of war canoes for use in protecting trade and fighting rivals. The other main occupation common among the Ijaws, has traditionally been fishing and farming.
Being a maritime people, many Ijaws were employed in the merchant shipping sector in the early and mid-20th century (pre-Nigerian independence). With the advent of oil and gas exploration in their territory, some are employed in that sector. Another major occupation is service in the civil service sector of the Nigerian states of Bayelsa and Rivers, where they are predominant.
Extensive state-government sponsored overseas scholarship programs in the 1970s and 1980s have also led to a significant presence of Ijaw professionals in Europe and North America (the so-called Ijaw diaspora). Another contributing factor to this human capital flight is the abject poverty in their homeland of the Niger Delta, resulting from decades of neglect by the Nigerian government and oil companies in spite of continuous petroleum prospecting in this region since the 1950s.
Lifestyle The Ijaw people live by fishing supplemented by farming paddy-rice, plantains, cassava, yams, cocoyams, bananas and other vegetables as well as tropical fruits such as guava, mangoes and pineapples; and trading. Smoke-dried fish, timber, palm oil and palm kernels are processed for export. While some clans (those to the east- Akassa, Bille, Kalabari, Okrika, Andoni and Bonny) had powerful kings and a stratified society, other clans are believed not to have had any centralized confederacies until the arrival of the British. However, owing to the influence of the neighbouring Kingdom of Benin, individual communities even in the western Niger Delta also had chiefs and governments at the village level.
Marriages are completed by the payment of a bridal dowry, which increases in size if the bride is from another village (so as to make up for that village's loss of her children). Funeral ceremonies, particularly for those who have accumulated wealth and respect, are often very dramatic. Traditional religious practices center around "Water spirits" in the Niger river, and around tribute to ancestors.
Religion and cultural practices Although the Ijaw are now primarily Christians (65% profess to be), with Roman Catholicism, Zion Church, Anglicanism and Pentecostalism being the varieties of Christianity most prevalent among them, they also have elaborate traditional religious practices of their own.
Veneration of ancestors plays a central role in Ijaw traditional religion, while water spirits known as Owuamapu figure prominently in the Ijaw pantheon. In addition, the Ijaw practice a form of divination called Igbadai, in which recently deceased individuals are interrogated on the causes of their death. Ijaw religious beliefs hold that water spirits are like humans in having personal strengths and shortcomings, and that humans dwell among the water spirits before being born. The role of prayer in the traditional Ijaw system of belief is to maintain the living in the good graces of the water spirits among whom they dwelt before being born into this world, and each year the Ijaw hold celebrations to honor the spirits lasting for several days. Central to the festivities is the role of masquerades, in which men wearing elaborate outfits and carved masks dance to the beat of drums and manifest the influence of the water spirits through the quality and intensity of their dancing. Particularly spectacular masqueraders are taken to actually be in the possession of the particular spirits on whose behalf they are dancing. Important deities in the Ijaw religion include Egbesu, whose totems are the leopard, panther and lion, and who manifests as a god of justice.Elias Courson & Michael E. Odijie (2020) Egbesu: An African Just War Philosophy and Practice, Journal of African Cultural Studies, 32:4, 493-508, DOI: 10.1080/13696815.2019.1706460
There are also a small number of converts to Islam, the most notable being the founder of the Delta People Volunteer Force, Mujahid Dokubo-Asari.
Notable leaders Goodluck Jonathan, the third president and commander-in-chief of the current Nigerian republic, elder statesman Edwin K. Clarke, and the billionaire Olu Benson Lulu-Briggs all come from the Izon ethnic group, as does the current Nigerian Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Heineken Lokpobiri.
Food customs Like many ethnic groups in Nigeria, the Ijaws have many local foods that are not widespread in Nigeria. Many of these foods involve fish and other seafoods such as clams, oysters and periwinkles; yams and plantains. Some of these foods are: Polofiyai — A very rich soup made with yams and palm oil Kekefiyai— A pottage made with chopped unripened (green) plantains, fish, other seafood or game meat ("bushmeat") and palm oil Fried or roasted fish and plantain — Fish fried in palm oil and served with fried plantains Gbe — The grub of the raffia-palm tree beetle that is eaten raw, dried, fried in groundnut oil or pickled in palm oil Kalabari "sea-harvest" fulo— A rich mixed seafood soup or stew that is eaten with foofoo, rice or yams Owafiya (Beans Pottage) — A pottage made with Beans, palm oil, fish or bushmeat, Yam or Plantain. Then taken with processed Cassava or Starch. Geisha Soup — This a kind of soup cooked from the geisha fish; it is made with pepper, salt, water and boiling it for some minutes. Opuru-fulou — Also referred to as prawn soup, prepared mainly with prawn, Ogbono (Irvingia gabonensis seeds), dried fish, table salt, crayfish, onions, fresh pepper, and red palm oil. Onunu - made with pounded yams and boiled overripe plantains. It is mostly enjoyed by the Okrikans Kiri-igina — Prepared without cooking on fire with Ogbono (Irvingia gabonensis seeds), dried fish, table salt, crayfish. Ignabeni — A watery soup prepared with either yam or plantain seasoned with teabush leaves, pepper, goat meat, and fish. Pilo-garri — A Bille meal mostly eaten during the raining season. It is prepared with dry garri, red palm oil, salt and eaten with roasted seafoods (fish, Isemi, Ngbe, Ikoli, etc.) igbugbai fiyai_ A soup prepared without oil, only fish, onion periwinkle, Bush leaves and other seafood.this soup prepared mostly cooked by odimodi people. kpanfaranran[fry fiyai] a soup prepared by frying the palm oil before adding your fish,meat,crayfish,periwinkle, and other seafood.this food is mostly cooked by the odimodi people
Ethnic identity Formerly organized into several loose clusters of villages (confederacies) which cooperated to defend themselves against outsiders, the Ijaw increasingly view themselves as belonging to a single coherent nation, bound together by ties of language and culture. This tendency has been encouraged in large part by what are considered to be environmental degradations that have accompanied the exploitation of oil in the Niger delta region which the Ijaw call home, as well as by a revenue sharing formula with the Nigerian Federal Government that is viewed by the Ijaw as manifestly unfair. The resulting sense of grievance has led to several high-profile clashes with the Nigerian Federal authorities, including kidnappings and in the course of which many lives have been lost.
The Ijaw people are resilient and proud. Long before the colonial era, they are thought to have traveled by wooden boats and canoes to Cameroon, Ghana and other West African countries.
Ijaw-Itsekiri conflicts
One manifestation of ethnic violence on the part of the Ijaw has been an increase in the number and severity of clashes between Ijaw militants and those of Itsekiri origin, particularly in the town of Warri.
Deadly conflicts had rocked the South-South region, especially in Delta State, where intertribal killings had resulted in death on both sides.
In July 2013, local police discovered mutilated corpses of 13 Itsekiris killed by Ijaws, over a dispute on a candidate for a local council chairman. Several Itsekiri villages, including Gbokoda, Udo, Ajamita, Obaghoro and Ayerode-Zion on the Benin river axis, were razed down while several Itsekiris lost their lives.
Oil conflict