By Uwuechue {Last Update August 2, 2022}
I will like to state that the people of eka and agbor have always guarded their culture with fiercely in the face of all oppositions , we as eka people know where we come from and we are proud of our origin , we have a long history of kingship and culture that is why many people will not let us be , it is not new for a tribe to have two or more ancestory , e. g . take itshekiri , they have both benin and yoruba ancestory , but that does not make them benin or yoruba , today , they are know as itshekiris . but the founding father of their tribe was the a benin prince called iginua , son of oba olua of benin . we as ika people of agbor and owa will not wish to be drawn into stupid arguements with those who do not know our history and who do not know our culture and whose sole arguements rely on nearness of language as a proof of where a people come from , if he is a historian then he or she will know that changes in language can occur due to large migrations or trade or due to other factors .
please can any one tell me what agbor means in igbo language ? going back to history agbor was called ogungunagbon or agbon , which means earth in benin language and the british changed it to agbor in 1906 . ,most eka founders or founders of agbon were benin princes and people from ishan land in ancient times and later other groups of migrants came from igbo land , some from yorubaland e. t. c . it will interest you to note that most of agbor and ika culture and traditions came from benin and edo areas . we call GOD- oselobue , we believe in ehi as our guardian spirit as the benin do, we perfom festivals like igue -new year , ogbanigbe , osi-ezi and ugboze . we dress like binis and maintain same dances like ojerima, okangan and uje like binis . our traditional gods are same as theirs like ovia, uhunmwunde, idigun, olokun e. t. c . we believe our kings are devine beings from the lineage of olokun and oselobue . our chiefthanct titles are same as benin , iyase, obasogie, obaseki , ihondor , ihama , ezomor , ologbosere et.c . our towns are divided into ebon (umu), idumu and ogbe in agbor there are two languages spoken ozara and ika , ozara is edoid while ika is a mix of bini and igbo , each town has her history of founding fathers and they are well kept, there are still some titles that if you want to take in some villages today in agbor you must go to benin , where the original founder came from to collect things and receive blessings of approval . it will interest you to note that all ika and agbor kings are benin princes and the present dein of agbor is same royal blood family with the omonoba of benin . but all these do not make us binis , although in the past we bore benin tribal marks ,but today we are eka people , we are not binis or igbos , but we know where most of our ancestors came from , no proper ika man will want to be refered to as igbo , but properly as ika people . we the ika people share both igbo and bini cultures that is why we still have igbo names like ngozi , okechukwu and the likes , but we still have our benin names too like irabor , obaigbena , ovia, osagie etc. this is our heritage and we are proud of it, looking at my family history of about 800 years i saw all my ancestors were having benin names from omigie, agbontaen, ehiabor, imade, osaigbovou, efeizomor, okundaye , ebie, ogbe, e. t. c , so one day i asked my father why and he told me that our fore-father was the son of a prince from benin,and that our people from our village in idumu-ezomor were children of ezomor the great warrior general from benin who assisted oba esigie of benin to quell the ida war . some times it is good for people to consult natives of a place and ask them of their history , before the write on it. anioma is a big place , i know the igbo language plays a part in anioma history , but not all aniomas migrated from igboland and their are about 11 languages spoken there like ozara, ika, olokumi ( old yoruba), igalla, aboh, etc . that is the reason why no proper ika man will join any group like ohaneze, we have our own group called the ika group ,while we support anioma ,we also believe that those who can trace their ancestory to igboland should join the group, but we will like to say we the agbor and ika people should be left alone as we are a seperate people called ika . i am happy that this is bearing fruit as on delta radio there is now news in ika language as a different languge , ikas have commenced writing the bible in ika language and right now the gospel of mark, luke , mathew and john have been published and we have books on ika languge right now ,during the colonial times our people resisted the celebration of igbo day in ikaland, i want to state that the agbor people even though we have cultural afinities with some of our neighbours like ogwashi, ubulu-uku , asaba , i will like to say we are very different from them ,. we are ika people , we are not binis neither are we igbos . please take note