INTERESTING KNOWLEDGE.
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END OF LIES ABOUT BENIN ANCESTRY OF ANIOMA, IKWERE, ONICHA PEOPLE ETC

Whenever Onye Onicha (Onitsha) in Anambra State comes up with the tale of their town originating from Bini (Benin) and loathes you with that condescending tag of “Nwa onye Igbo”, all in the bid to establish that ndi Onicha are not originally Igbo, argue him/her to thorough scrutiny and cross-examination with the below. Many Igbo born between 1970s hardly know this and may never get to know. Please, share more to people in that age bracket. Read:

“Chima: The Aro Native Doctor
Eze Chima was an Aro native doctor. In pursuance of the role of the Aros in the Atlantic Slave Trade quoted…from Michael Crowder’s story of Nigeria, Chima left Arochukwu to Benin to set up as an agent of the Aro Long Juju, for the usual purpose of collecting slaves from Benin.
Whenever, in the olden days, a native doctor travelled to a place, he by custom would, on arrival, report himself to the local chief or to the head of the society of native doctors of the land. He is either the guest of the head chief of the clan or puts up with head of the local society of native doctors. Accordingly, when Chima arrived Benin he reported himself to the Oba of Benin who accepted him as his guest. In time Chima settled down and set up practice as a native doctor and agent of Aro Oracle. He impressed the Oba of Benin so much with his magical art that he became very influential over the Oba. In consequence, the Oba installed Chima a chief in the palace of Benin. Thus the plain blunt and ordinary native doctor who left Arochukwu to establish an agency of the Long Juju, earned a chieftaincy title and became Chief Chima or Eze Chima.
Having found his feet firm in Benin, Eze Chima sent for his brother Ekensu and other relatives from Arochukwu, and also set up an Aro settlement in Benin similar to those Aros had set up within the description of Michael Crowder, in other areas throughout former Eastern Nigeria.
With the march of time, Chima’s practice in Benin expanded down to Niger Delta. Among the Urhobos and Itshekiris also the fame of the Aro Oracle spread and clients from those areas trooped to him to consult the Oracle. The greatest index of Chima’s influence on culture in Benin Kingdom is found in the fact that Benin people adopted the Igbo days of the week – Eke, Orie, Afo and Nkwo – on which Chima made one sacrifice or the other or observed his abstinences and spiritual disciplines, as names also of Benin week days. And till today the Binis have, as the Igbo, Eke, Orie, Afo, Nkwo – as names of their week days.
According to Mr Wellington Igunbor a Benin historian, who on the mother side, belongs to one of Benin’s traditional chieftaincy families (Chief Gaius Obaseki’s family – Gaius Obaseki who was the Iyase or Prime Minister of Benin in 1947) – the settlement of Eze Chima in Old Benin was established in the area through which Siliku Street runs in the present-day Benin city. As Eze Chima’s influence increased so did population of his settlement expand. So influential was Eze Chima and so completely absorbed in the society was he and his clan that there was hardly a thing he and his people could not do on the basis of equality with Benin indigenes.

How Chima left Benin:
At the time Eze Chima lived in Benin, the mother of Oba of Benin was Asije. The Oba’s brother who also was the Oba’s War Lord was called Gbunwala. One day, Asije the mother of both the Oba and Gbunwala, the Benin War Lord went into a farm belonging to Eze Chima’s people and collected firewood. Eze Chima’s people then caught Asije the Oba’s mother, and beat her thoroughly for taking wood from their farm without permission. Back home, Asije reported to her children – the Oba of Benin and Gbunwala, the Benin War Lord, her bitter experience with Eze Chima’s people. Red with anger, Gbunwala, the Oba’s brother and War Lord, took some of his soldiers, went to Chima’s settlement, set upon Chima’s people – beat them thoroughly and killed some of them.
From that day, Gbunwala began to harass Eze Chima and his people. In the circumstance, Eze Chima decided to quit Benin with his people and return to the East whence he came to rejoin his Igbo kith and kin – or, in the alternative to find new settlements for himself and his people in places far and safe beyond the reach of Oba of Benin.
This story was told in Igbo Primer popularly known as “Azu Ndu”, approved by Government Education Department for infant classes of primary schools in the Igbo Provinces of then Eastern Nigeria, now Biafra, since the beginning of the 20th century.
On their way out of Benin, some of the Eze Chima’s people settled at Agbo (Agbor), 44 miles away from Benin City which they considered far, and out of reach, molestations and influence of the Oba of Benin and his brother, Gbunwala. Others went beyond this distance and settled at Isele-Uku, Onicha-Olona, Onicha-Ugbo and Obio.

When they reached the West bank of the Niger, some took a canoe and paddled down the River to Abo and settled. Led by Oreze, the eldest son of Eze Chima, the balance of Eze Chima clan crossed the River Niger to the
eastern bank and settled among Oze people – the original inhabitants of what is today the big and prosperous commercial and education
centre in Biafra – Onicha (Onitsha). On page 73 of his story of Nigeria, Mr Michael Crowder believed that the migration of Onicha (Onitsha) people – this is of Umu Eze Chima clans – from Benin took place in the 17th century.

Benin-Igbo Exchange of Culture:
Having lived for some years in Benin as one of the chiefs of the palace of the Oba of Benin, Eze Chima, the Aro agent of the Aro Oracle in
Benin and his people had learnt Benin chieftaincy institutions and titles and so adapted the Benin system to the administrative structures and customs of the place where they settled among other West Niger Igbo and in Onicha (Onitsha) on the east bank. But as Eze Chima took away from Benin a copy of their chieftaincy institutions, so did he deposit in Benin, and the Binis adopted it, Igbo weekdays – Eke, Orie, Afo, Nkwo
– which are vital in the determination of appropriate days for abstinences , spiritual religious cultures of the Igbo and Bini too. In
other words, the West Niger Igbo borrowed from Benin in chieftaincy, traditions, just as the Binis borrowed from the Igbo in religious
traditions—through the agency of Eze Chima.”
End of quote!

(References: Pgs 171-174 of THE IGBO AND THEIR NEIGHBOURS by Professor Adiele Eberechukwu Afigbo. Published in 1987).

Nna Mehnn TV on FB

Interesting piece

Agbor had always been under the Benin Empire. And was overseen by Prince Ogunagbon, one of the Oba's son.

Due to commercial activities and slave trade activities, and being around a coastal region, there was a mixture of a lot of different ethnic groups as seen around most coastal areas. (Spanning from present-day Lagos to Rivers).
Agbor was one of such towns having a significant population of Edos, Igalas, Yorubas and Igbos (this account you gave may have been one of the instances of migration of Igbos to this area).

The names - Anioma, Asaba, etc were coined names in the 20th century.

History

“If you want to understand today you have to search yesterday.”

Pearl S. Buck, American novelist (1892-1973)

Nwa onye Igbo was misused later I guess, by ignorant fools.

Nwa onye igbo simply means that you are not from the riparian Igbo axis AKA Igbo mmiri or oru /olu Igbo.
. We often say "ka m tupenye gị azụ na esi m or / oru" implying that there are 2 major divisions of Igbo
The oru Igbo or riparian Igbo are the Igbo close to the waters
Onitsha, Asaba, etc.
Then we have the second part known as Igbo Agụ.
The forest dwelling Igbo. These people are not Close to the rivers.
They are simply called Igbo which means forest.

However over time misguided igbos started using the nwa onye tag which simply referred to people of the forest Igbo as an insult.

We know better now.
Igbo amaka

“History gives answers only to those who know how to ask questions.”

Hajo Holborn, German-American historian (1902-1969)

“History is who we are and why we are the way we are.”

David McCullough, American historian (1933- )

“History is not the past but a map of the past, drawn from a particular point of view, to be useful to the modern traveller.”

Henry Glassie, US historian (1941- )

Interesting

NaMe4:
Agbor had always been under the Benin Empire. And was overseen by Prince Ogunagbon, one of the Oba's son.

Due to commercial activities and slave trade activities, and being around a coastal region, there was a mixture of a lot of different ethnic groups as seen around most coastal areas. (Spanning from present-day Lagos to Rivers).
Agbor was one of such towns having a significant population of Edos, Igalas, Yorubas and Igbos (this account you gave may have been one of the instances of migration of Igbos to this area).

The names - Anioma, Asaba, etc were coined names in the 20th century.

I have read all the wordings of your pics and they are right. However the ancestral they meant there is Ezechima who was an Igbo that went to Benin and left in 17th century can you see? So the argument is this, since Ezechima is not an Edo man, we can rightly say they are not of Edo ancestry....do you get it now. I like the fact that in the pics you dropped, it was stated that Ika, Aniocha, Ndokwa are all igbos and coined the name Anioma from A=Aniocha, N= Ndokwa, I= Ika, O= Oshimili then they added Ma to it making it Anioma. Nice one...Nice history OP kudos

boltwings:
I have read all the wordings of your pics and they are right. However the ancestral they meant there is Ezechima who was an Igbo that went to Benin and left in 17th century can you see? So the argument is this, since Ezechima is not an Edo man, we can rightly say they are not of Edo ancestry....do you get it now. I like the fact that in the pics you dropped, it was stated that Ika, Aniocha, Ndokwa are all igbos and coined the name Anioma from A=Aniocha, N= Ndokwa, I= Ika, O= Oshimili then they added Ma to it making it Anioma. Nice one...Nice history OP kudos

Correct.
It was tradition for the Oba to host chief priests of various origins.

EzeChima was an Igbo chief priest who after being hosted by the Oba of Benin, ultimately migrated to Abor where there were existing inhabitants of mixed origin.
There were indigenous Edos, Igalas, Yorubas and probably even Igbos before EzeChima arrived there (in the 17th century).
These coastal regions had high trading activities as early as the 13th century.

Unarguably, the present day Northern Delta indigenes are not homogeneously of Edo ancestry, but of mixed ancestry of various tribes.