Part 5
Much of West Niger Igbo Originated From Ile-Ife and Not Southeast
Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe, PhD August 13, 2025
From the last part, we were able to establish the historical evidence of autochthonous Igbo settlers at Ife and much of Eastern part of Yorubaland before the arrival of Oduduwa from the north. We equally established the fact that with the invasion of Igbo-Mokun by Oduduwa which his descendants later renamed Ile-Ife, many of the Igbo autochthones drifted southwards to form the present Ijebu sub-group and the Ilaje Kingdom of Igbo (Ugbo).
A substantial number of Igbo refugees from Igbo-Mokun moved eastwards and consequently came into collision with the original Ijon settlers around the vicinities of the present Benin City. The Ijon were subsequently forced to move further southwards to finally settle within the vicinities of the present Niger Delta.
The remaining Ijon people were later absorbed by the Igbo-Mokun immigrants to form the present ethnic amalgam known as Edo. However, some of the Igbo-Mokun Igbo immigrants who evaded the ethnic amalgam and still retained their original Igbo-Mokun Igbo identity subsequently became the people known today as West Niger Igbo (Anioma).
These original Igbo-Mokun settlers of West Niger Igbo represented by the likes of the Ikelike of Ogwashi-Ukwu, Opu of Akwukwu-Igbo, Okwe and, both Eze-Anyanwu and Ugboma of Asaba, among others, are accepted today as aborigines among in their respective communities and thus constitute the original settlers of the present West Niger Igbo territory, now politically defined as Anioma. Evident enough, these aboriginal communities assert Benin origin, thereby validating their Igbo-Mokun Ile-Ife ancestry.
But the controversy which has trailed historians of Africa is the origin of the word, “Edo”, as it applies today as a term representing an ethnic group. A lot of theories of its origin have been visited variously by both scholars and non-scholars as well; just as in the case of the word, “Benin.”
However, before visiting these theories, we should bear in mind that the word, “Edo” as it is presently used was first used by the British Colonial Government anthropologist Northcote W. Thomas to describe the people of Benin City and related linguistic areas during the first decade of the 20th century.[1] According to the Benin expert R. E. Bradbury, “The term ‘Edo-speaking peoples’ appears to have been first used by N. W. Thomas, who carried out ethnographic investigations in Nigeria in the early years of the century.”[2] Similarly, Paula Ben-Amos Girshick and John Thornton in their note stated that, “While in the documents the kingdom is called ‘Benin’, ‘Benjin’. Or ‘Benym’, today the people call themselves, their language and their capital city ‘Edo’.”[3]
Neither the Portuguese nor the succeeding Dutch and later English visitors of the Kingdom of Benin made mention of the word, “Edo.” Even the first three popular British writers of post-1897 British invasion of Benin City—Reginald Bacon (1897)[4], Captain Alan Boisragon[5] and, Henry Ling Roth (1903)[6] never made mention of the word, “Edo.”
So we can conclude at this stage that historically, the use of the word “Edo” started from the 20th century, possibly a form of Anglicization through misapplication of the phonetic liaison of the word “Ado.” We will however confirm this conclusion by looking at the existing theories of origin of the word, beginning with the Ijon version by Professor J. C. Anene.
According to this tradition, when the immigrant Edo [Igbo-Mokun] arrived at the present location of Benin City and its environs, the bulk of the Ijon settlers drifted southwards, in what was described as a peaceful migration. The remaining group was eventually absorbed by the immigrants who subsequently gave the name “Edo” to the latter.[7]
Here again the question might be asked, what was the immigrant Edo people called before adopting the name “Edo”? Furthermore, bearing in mind that even among the Edo and West Niger Igbo groups “Doo” and “Ndoo” remain extant forms of expression of general greeting and sympathy; could it therefore be equally assumed that both terms originated from the pre-Edo Ijon settlers of Southern Nigeria?
But there is the contradiction arising from the fact that the Ijon presently do not refer to the Edo as “Edo”, which goes to question the authenticity of the Ijon tradition by Professor Anene. Professor Osarhieme Benson Osadolor had noted that different neighbours of Benin refer to her by different names. According to him:
The Benin people call themselves Edo and not ‘Benin’. Their Yoruba neighbours to the west call them ‘Ado’, while their Igbo neighbours to the east call them ‘Idu’. Among their southern neigbours, the Urhobo call them ‘Aka’ while the Ijaw and Itsekiri call them ‘Ado’ and ‘Ubini respectively.[8]
On the other hand, while Benin tradition acknowledges the existence of an autochthonous group, it however has a contrary version of the origin and meaning of the word “Edo”. Professor Osadolor in confirming the evidence of an autochthonous group stated:
The use of a Benin political vocabulary—ivbiota –meaning “children of the land” but often interpreted as “children of the soil” suggests there were some people who are the original inhabitants of the land. In fact, an area in Benin City is called Idunmwun Ivbiota, which is a well-known neighbourhood. This may also suggest that the original inhabitants were joined by immigrants from other areas. The question is: from where did they come from?[9]
On the origin of the name “Edo”, citing the renowned Benin traditional historian Jacob Egharevba,[10] Professor Osadolor in a somewhat foggy account, narrated the Benin tradition of the origin of the name thus:
The name ‘Edo’ or Oredo for the capital of Benin Kingdom is also claimed in Benin tradition to have originated through royal proclamation by Oba Ewuare the Great who reigned in the second half of the fifteen century. The circumstances surrounding its proclamation are not well known except that the name Edo, became an expression of love. In this case, the tradition which claims that Ewuare’s aim was to immortalise his deified friend, Edo, for his love and goodness, seems more acceptable. Hence, the City became known as ‘Edo N’Evbo Ahire’ meaning ‘Edo, the City of Love’.[11]
One important point of note in this argument over the origin of the words “Edo”, “Ado”, and “Benin” is that we were told by Henry Ling Roth that the “Ado” was the first capital of the Benin Kingdom, which was situated north of the present capital. He went further to state in a quite convincing manner that, “Great Benin up to the present time [1903] was called Ado.
Quoting the British trader Cyril Punch who visited Benin several times between the late 1880s and early 1890s, Roth recounted this tradition thus:
It must be remembered that ‘the first capital was not Benin City as at present but a town further north called Ado though not the Ado now known in the Lagos Colony. Great Benin up to the present time was called Ado. In the song it is said: Obubu, eriado. Obubu—don’t go to Benin; and again Uhado—Do you understand Bini; Imahado—I do not understand Bini.[12]
Indeed, the same Roth quoted Olfert Dapper in the latter’s 17th century description of the geographical location of Benin Kingdom, in which he referred to the people as “Udo.” According to Dapper: “Nine or ten miles from Gotton, fifteen miles to the interior, lies the town of Benin, so called with us, Great Benin, there being no other town of that size in all these countries, the natives Udo.”[13]
Roth further quoting the 17th century French Huguenot explorer John Barbot wrote:
Its extent from south to north must be near 200 leagues, and its breadth from west to east about 125 leagues. The land about Udo, the metropolis and those near the seaside, are very well peopled and stored with towns and villages little frequented by Europeans, it is also well inhabited towards Alkomy [Olukumi].[14]
However, beyond Dapper’s doubtful location of the old capital called Ado, we should accept the fact that Udo being once a rival power to the main Benin Kingdom was probably prominent before Dapper’s time. The question then is was Udo a rival Kingdom of Benin or just another capital city of the old Benin Kingdom? But before going further on the question of Udo rivalry, we shall first look at the question of the origin of the name “Benin.
From the names pointed out earlier as associated with the Kingdom of Benin, it is evident that it was indeed from the Itsekiri’s “Ubini” that the name “Benin” eventually evolved. This is aptly supported by the fact, as noted by Osadolor,[15]and according to Ekhaguosa Aisien,[16] that it was the Itsekiri who first introduced the name to the Portuguese visitors; being their guides to the Great kingdom, with the latter popularizing the name through its corrupt version of “Benin”.
But the truth remains as Osadolor and Aisien aptly noted that the first written record of the word “Beny” [Benin] was handed down to us by the first Portuguese visitors to Benin. After Ruy de Sequeira’s brief visit of Benin Coast about the year 1472, it was indeed Jao Afonso de Aviero who first announced Benin to the world in 1486.
As Roth pointed out, the 15th century Portuguese royal chronicler Rey de Pina first reported Aviero’s discovery of Benin Kingdom in the following statement: “This year, 1486, the land of Beny was for the first time discovered beyond the Mine on the Rivers of the Slaper, by Johan Affonso de Aviero who died there.”[17] Thus one can rightly say that the probability of the origin of the word “Benin” tilts in favour of the Itsekiri.
Professor Osadolor[18] however had noted that Professor A. F. C. Ryder disagreed with this line of argument on the ground that “the possibility that the Portuguese took the name ‘Benin’ from some coastal people before coming into contact with the State is an unlikely one, because no Southern Nigerian language offers a reasonable source for it.”[19]
He instead pointed towards Nupe north of Edo-speaking peoples as the probable source of the name “Beni” which Professor Osadolor unfortunately accepted. As he put it, “There is reason to accept the view of Ryder because the ‘Beni’ associated with the Nupe comes nearer in form to the ‘Beny’ of Portuguese records than any of the derivations of the name current in Benin tradition.”[20]
The truth is that Ryder’s opinion does not seem to align with extant course of historical events at the period of Portuguese intervention in Africa, which was south-bound for most of the peoples and States of what is today Southern Nigeria. On the other hand, it is necessary to point out that at the period in question, Nupe people were driven by the historical current of the Trans-Saharan Slave trade and associated political influences and, southward driven.
Indeed, if there was any “Beni” associated with the Nupe, it could not be further than the Arab Clans of “Beni Hilal” and “Beni Soleim” associated with the Fulani tradition of origin, migration and settlement in West Africa, as noted by the Colonial Government ethnographer Dr. C. K. Meek.[21]
It was clear that Ryder’s opinion which was hypothetically driven by the ill-famed Hamitic Hypothesis was based on Jacob Egharevba’s hypothesis of Egyptian origin of Bini people, in which he claimed that they settled briefly in Nupe land before migrating further south to their present abode. According to Eghaevba:
Many, many years ago, the Binis came all the way from Egypt to found a more secure shelter in this part of the world after a short stay in the Sudan and at Ile-Ife, which the Benin people call Uhe. Before coming here, a band of hunters was sent from Ife to inspect this land and the report furnished was very favourable. …they met some people who were in the land before their arrival. These people are said to have come originally from Nupe and the Sudan in waves.[22]
Egharevba’s account was again influenced by Roth’s account of the same tradition in which he wrote in a note, aptly basing his information on Cyril Punch’s account that, “…tradition says the Bini came from a place north of the Niger originally, and lived under a King Lamorodu.”[23]
However, both Ryder and Osadolor in asserting the Nupe hypothesis of the origin of the word “Benin” failed to take cognizance of the tradition of the origin of the word “Ubini” as recorded by Roupell’s officials which Roth presented thus:
When Eweka came here he found a small town, just a few houses in the part where the white man now lives; Eweka bought a slave named Ubini—when he died he buried him near him, and told the world that whoever came and asked the name of this country should be told Ubini or Aiye, so the Bini people became very plenty.[24]
It is therefore plausible to assert that the name “Bini” originated from this tradition which was accordingly appropriated by the Itsekiri through their first Olu, who was exiled from Benin Kingdom. And indeed, just as Osadolor rightly asserted, we must differentiate “Ubini” from Oranmiyan’s “Ile-Ibinu” which stands for “a land of vexation.”[25]
Be that as it may, it is instructive to point out that before the 16th century and to some extent during the early part of the 16th century, the Kingdom of Benin was not one whole indivisible territory with one commanding authority. History records that there were three contesting rival Kingdoms respectively holding sway in their different spheres of influence; and that part of the reason for the massive eastward migrations of many people from the vicinities of these three rival kingdoms was the ensuing wars of rivalry and unification among them.
These kingdoms include, the core Ado Kingdom of Igodomigodo which centred around the present Benin City and which was inherited by the Eweka dynasty; the Udo Kingdom on the western axis of Benin City which had been a rival city-state against the main Ado Kingdom of Igodomigodo; and the Igu Kingdom of Idu situated eastwards of Benin City.
It could therefore be right to state that those traditions of origins associated with Benin Kingdom and subsequent eastwards migrations by the likes of Ezechime and Chimeukwu, among others, were consequences of the successive wars of rivalry among them and, subsequent unification wars undertaken by the central Ado Kingdom of Benin against these two rival kingdoms. Some of these wars of unification and associated migrations will form the next part of these series.
However, what we should not be shy of accepting at this stage is that, while it is generally agreed by historians that Ezechime was of Igbo extraction, it is however impossible to associate him with the Igbo of Southeast origin, against the backdrop of the foregoing copious evidence of aboriginal Igbo migrations from Igbo-Mokun (Ile-Ife).
Dr. Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe is the Odogwu Ibusa & President, International Coalition against Christian Genocide in Nigeria (ICAC-GEN). He was formerly Director, Centre for Igbo Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He lives in exile in Manila, Republic of the Philippines.
Email: Nwaezeigwe.Genocideafrica@gmail.com
[1] Northcote W. Thomas, Anthropological Report of the Edo-Speaking Peoples of Nigeria, Part I: Law and Custom London: Harrison and Sons, 1910
[2] Bradbury, The Benin Kingdom and the Edo-Speaking Peoples of South-Western Nigeria, 13
[3] Paula Ben-Amos Girshick and John Thornton, “Civil War in the Kingdom of Benin, 1689-1721: continuity or political change” Journal of African History, Vol. 42, 2001, 353
[4] Reginald Bacon, Benin: The City of Blood London & New York: Arnold, 1897
[5] Captain Alan Boisragon, The Benin Massacre London: Methuen & Co, 1898
[6] H. Ling Roth, Great Benin: Its Customs, Arts and Horrors Halifax England: F. Kings and Sons Ltd, 1903
[7] J. C. Anene, Southern Nigeria in Transition 1885-1906: theory and practice in a colonial protectorate Cambridge: At the University Press, 1966, 6
[8] Osadolor, “THE MILITARY SYSTEM OF BENIN KINGDOM c.1440 – 1897”, 51
[9] Osarhieme Benson Osadolor, “THE MILITARY SYSTEM OF BENIN KINGDOM c.1440 – 1897” THESIS in the Department of Philosophy and History submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Hamburg, Germany, 2001, 54
[10] Egharevba, J. U. The Origin of Benin Benin City: African Industrial Press, 1954, 8
[11] Osadolor, “THE MILITARY SYSTEM OF BENIN KINGDOM c.1440 – 1897”, 53
[12] H. Ling Roth, Great Benin: Its Customs, Arts and Horrors, 9
[13] H. Ling Roth, Great Benin: Its Customs, Arts and Horrors, 11
[14] H. Ling Roth, Great Benin: Its Customs, Arts and Horrors, 12
[15] Osadolor, “THE MILITARY SYSTEM OF BENIN KINGDOM c.1440 – 1897”, 52
[16] Ekhaguosa Aisien, Benin City: the Edo State Capital Benin City: Aisien Publishers, 1995, 12
[17] H. Ling Roth, Great Benin: Its Customs, Arts and Horrors, 4
[18] Osadolor, “THE MILITARY SYSTEM OF BENIN KINGDOM c.1440 – 1897”, 52
[19] A. F. C. Ryder, “A Reconsideration of the Ife-Benin Relationship” Journal of African History Vol. VI, No. 1, 1965, 31-2
[20] Osadolor, “THE MILITARY SYSTEM OF BENIN KINGDOM c.1440 – 1897”, 51
[21] C. K. Meek, The Northern Tribes of Nigeria: an ethnographical account of the Northern Provinces of Nigeria together with a report on the 1921 decennial census Vol. I London: Frank Case, 1971, 61
[22] Jacob U. Egharevba, A Short History of Benin Ibadan: Ibadan University Press, 1
[23] H. Ling Roth, Great Benin: Its Customs, Arts and Horrors, 6
[24] H. Ling Roth, Great Benin: Its Customs, Arts and Horrors, 7-8
[25] Osadolor, “THE MILITARY SYSTEM OF BENIN KINGDOM c.1440 – 1897”, 52
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