Water, a home for the Ijaws

By Gloria Ikibah

Culture universally is the totality of man's life in every description; it is a potent tool for supporting a progressive society.

It is also defined as the characteristics of a particular group of people, defined by everything from language, religion, food, social habits, music and arts.

The Ijaws called ‘Izon’ are predominantly found in Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Ondo and Rivers States located in the South-South region of Nigeria. They are also the fourth largest ethnic group in Nigeria.

The ancestry of the Ijaw people can be traced to Benin in Edo State, where they migrated from to settle in their present location. They fish in the region's waters and engage in little farming, their culture and customs are water dominated, this is because God has blessed them with water and making their occupation fishing and a little of farming.

Bayelsa state is motherland to the Ijaw people of Nigeria’s Niger Delta region and due to the riverine and swampy nature of their environment in the south-south states, they have over the years, established a perfect relationship with the rivers that surround them.

Because of their attachment to rivers, the Ijaw cultural, social, economic and religious lives are defined and influenced by water. According to late Fela Anikulapo, “Water e no get enemy” and an Ijaw adage also says, “Water is friendlier to the Ijaw people”. However, every Ijaw is expected to be a good swimmer so he or she can survive the capsizing of boats when it happens.

Through life experiences, the descendants have developed a social system that makes the Ijaw feel comfortable being around water.  It is not uncommon for Ijaw children, especially those born or raised in the country side, as young as 5 years, to become expert swimmers and divers in their teens making them professional swimmers.

Every Ijaw person must be able to swim irrespective of the size, the wave or current of the river or sea. As a result of this, it is believed that an Ijaw family start to train its child some days after birth, by throwing the baby into the river, if he/she floats in the water it is interpreted to be an Ijaw and thus will be able to swim with proper training.

They are known around the world for their ‘owigiri’, ‘ogunsei’, ‘andasei’, ‘ekpedesei’, ‘duewesei’, ‘owusei’ and ‘orusei’ cultural shows/displays.

More intimately and frequently known are the masquerade festivals organized annually in practically every Ijaw community, where the beautifully attired masquerades of ayakoromo, akparemogbene, oyangbene, gbekebor, obotebe, ekametagbene, eseimogbene and akugbene captivate onlookers with their swiftly changing choreographically arranged dance steps invade the mind readily.

Everything about the Ijaws is inter-related with water, the ijaws dance fishes by the women wagging their waist and the men too with their shoulders. The dance steps are like the movements of the fish and the wagging of their tails in the waters.

The Ijaw masquerades usually wear heads of the fishes, with most festivals having their origins from the water, having in mind that the way of life of an Ijaw person are influenced by their environment which is surrounded by water.

Boat regattas are always a part of Ijaw festivities, this symbolizes the early days when their forefathers went to war in the waters so as to conquer neighbouring communities and make them their slaves.

There are two types of boat regattas which includes the ceremonial boat regatta and the war boat regatta.

One of such festivals is the Obunem festival which is linked to the beginning of floods, it is a time when farmers are bringing their food stuffs from the creeks and when the waters are overflowing farmlands. The yearly Obunem festival celebrated from the 26th of June to the first week of July is characterized by the paddling of the Ijaw ceremonial boat regattas accompanied with all night singing and dancing, with women dressed in colourful attires and presentation of gifts to community leaders and clan heads. The bigger event is usually celebrated by all the communities at a designated community with the overall paramount rulers.

During such war boat regatta, canoes are put in the boats with a small traditional pot tied to the rear end of the war boat, which dangles from one point to the other. As the boat passes by a community, the warriors challenge member of that community to dare them by cutting the rope that holds the dangling pot at the rear of the boat. When somebody from the community swims across to cut the rope it signifies the beginning of the war but if they don’t want war, they simply allow the boat to pass to the next communities.

The ceremonial boat regattas on the other hand, are usually colourfully decorated and have a tail similar to that of the fish and are also used for marriage ceremonies, annual festivities and carnivals to showcase the rich culture of the Ijaw man.

Another event celebrated by the Ijaws is the “Ogori” (buffalo) festival. There was an animal which was a spiritual buffalo,that used to kill and tormented the people of Odi. An Ijaw man killed the animal and today the “Ogori” celebration is carried out to commemorate the killing of the buffalo.  It is celebrated by jubilations, dramatization of the fight, boat regattas and shooting of canons and dances.

Though Christianity has overtaken 70 percent of the religious lives of the Ijaw people, a percentage of them, especially the southern Ijaws are believed to still maintain spiritual connection with the water gods.

The Ijaws have a traditional believe in water spirits, there are still some areas in southern Ijaw, where people still worship spirits that provide them with power and means of living. Some of these water spirits are called the Benkurukuru, Opukula, Eguru, Seseibiri.

Sacrifice is carried out to the spirits, which are in some cases pythons, fish and snakes, periwinkle and snails depending on what has been prescribed. Items brought and used are goats, fowl or food stuffs and the time for the sacrifice equally depends on when the spirit demands.

It is customarily wrong for an Ijaw man to start a fight because it is believed that they should always allow their enemies to start the fight first and they act in self-defence. When going for war, the law of chastity must be kept as they are prohibited from sleeping with a woman and taking away the enemy’s properties. During war if the enemy’s possessions are taken, they are to be given to the deities such as the Egbesu (the god of war) or the Beni-Awere, going contrary to this would make the body vulnerable to bullet attacks.

It is believed that the Benkurukuru has territories in the Ijaw waters and boats made of certain types of woods are forbidden from crossing, if the boat attempts to cross there, the boat will sink.

Common Ijaws see the large oil deposit found in the waters of Ijaw land as more of a curse than blessings, owing to the high level of corruption among Nigerian leaders and consequent militancy in the region. Water is then seen by most Ijaw as their only blessing which keep the Ijaw man going. The average Ijaw man believes that the water surrounding him is a gift from God that must be valued in all sense.

The economic strength of the Ijaw people lies in the rivers, apart from oil exploration in the Ijaw land that has defined the economic future of not only the Ijaw people but Nigeria and its place in the world, everything inside and around the Ijaw water is of huge economic value.

The sand in Ijaw watercourse is a source of income to a large number of Ijaw youths and a source of income to community leaders and clan heads.

Ownership of the rivers that surround the Ijaw communities and the activities therein is shared among different communities and are a source of revenue to each neighbourhood. One river bank is owned by one group of people while the other side belongs to another community. Revenue is paid to both sides by business individuals operating there.

Being fishermen and women by occupation, the Ijaw people feed on fish, market some to make some money, water snails are similarly eaten and sold by the Ijaws while the shell of the snails are used in place of concretes in buildings and as ornament by artists for decoration.

Due to lack of adequate roads, many Ijaw communities can only be accessed by boats; canoe is therefore the mode of transportation of goods and people and a source of income to many Ijaws. Sharam waterside in Yenagoa is one of the economic nerve centres of the state where petroleum products are brought in and transported to different towns and communities by Ijaw youths. The waterside by the market is also where passengers are conveyed to neighbouring states of Delta, Rivers and other nearby places.

Ijaw women are not left out of benefiting from the waters of the land, canoe ferrying employs many Ijaw women and serves as a means of livelihood to their families at hospital road waterside in Yenagoa.

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