By Kalabari Indigenous Movement, Kalabari Agitators
From left direction across the present day Bayelsa State and right direction to the present day Calabar City was null and void until arrival of the allochthonous and autochthonous” “(about Seven (7) beings descended to the ancient Ke Land (present Ke Community in Kalabari Nation, located at the present day Degema Local Government Area, Rivers State, South South, Eastern Niger Delta, Nigeria)…………………….
Beings Exist in Ke BC (uncommon era)) and they did not ascend from the old Agadagba-Bou, as some historians frames up their stories. And purported stories that says Ke began at 500-800 AD are all lies, because no kind of archaeological samples can prove the case of Ke begining on earth, because her origins were not just migrants as others …….
The truth is that no living human can tell where the descendants of Ke came from because no one recorded such as a fact from the likes of Keni-Ala(Keni Opu Ala), Keni-Opusuo, Opu-Ogbu, Ombiyi, Opu-Jaja, Ogbokiya, and Opupiri (Opusiri), that was assumed seven founding ancestors descendants from sky.
Centuries ago, it was from Ke that the Adumu Spiritual Initiation Society/Cult/Lodge commonly referred to as the water people or the mask spirit people (Owu-ame/Owu amapu) derived from. Inwhich all other neighboring lands or tribes in Niger Delta adopted as culture (tradition)…………………….
Around 1932 about sixty one (61) successors had ruled Ke Lands as Amayanabo starting from Omonie (Omoniye), narrated by Ke Historian Madam Kala-Dokku and published by Talbot 1932…..
To cut short story, Ke can not be people that came from Ijo, or Ejo which are variations of Ujo or Ojo (i.e Ancestors of Kala-Okun, Ujo-Gbaran(Gbaran) – Gbaramatu, Arogbo, Tuomo, Kabo, etc), and Ke can not be addressed as people that came from the Niger-Congo Tribes, Kumoni-Oru, Otu-Ife (Ile-Ife)/Benin/Ijaw(Ejo or Ijo or Ujo alias Idekoseroake, etc,) even though some migrants came to join the Ke People from other parts of Ancient Africa e.i the Seven(7) ancient wards of Kalabari, Ilelema, Angulama, Kula, Bille, Tombia, Oproama, Ogoloma, Bonny, etc, BC-AD..
The fair fact is that Ke should instead be seen as a landlord to all Kalabari’s, Ibani, Obgolo’s(Andoni), Okirikan’s, Nkoro & Opopo, including the Rivers State Igbo’s, Nembe, Ogbia, Epie, Etc…………………
If anyone sincerely wants to narrate or tell the myth of the origin or root of Kalabari People Ke should be considered as one of the geneuin origin of Kalabari’s that is still locatable ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Because even when the first Seven(7) wards that formed Kalabari migrated to the Elem-Kalabari Ke has been in existence for more than ten(10) centuries and most of the Kalabari Clans were made up of Ke Offsprings just as it is to other Kingdoms like Kalaibiama in present day Bonny, Ekeni in Bayelsa State, Abame in Okirika, Okpoma in Nembe, etc, so therefore it is too wrong, bad and baseless to frame the entire Kalabari People as people that rooted (came from) Ijaw/Ijo/Ujo/Ejo or Ojo for any reason, because that is a fatal lie by some desperate or egotistical persons whom tries to paint all the Riverine Tribes or Fishermen tribes to a root..
Also, most persons confuses the term Oru (Horu or Oru’s) as Ethnic Group, while some complicates Oru(Horu) as the source of Kumoni-Oru which some baseless historians stated as who settled the Niger Delta with the most ancient inhabitants known as the Oru (TOBU OTU) who gave birth to the Ijos; meanwhile the curious name “ORU” was applied by the early British explorers to Brass from the Nun enteranc to Taylor Creek, Dr Baikie said of them 1854.
Just as some small minded historians classifies Ijaw as Ethnicity in Nigeria due to very few adopted, anglisized or corrupted similarities in some tribes even when the said similarities does not match or conclude beyond common imaginations………….
Now,
Same goes to individual clans/towns/communities that formed the previous and the present Kalabari World……………………………….
The overall and first capital(headquarter) of the Ancient Kalabari Nation was a virgin island which originally began the popularly known Kalabari race on planet earth.
The name Torusirama-piri or Kalabari-kiri was given to the island after the first founders had settled there for centuries……..
Along the way others joined to make up the first Seven (7) – first fourteen (14) Ward’s at this very island that latter became the Torusrama-piri (Kalabari Polo, Kalabari Kiri or Kalabari-Ama)……….
The first Seven(7) Wards were.. (1). Amabin-Ame, (2). Kuro-Ame, (3). Ende-Ame, (4). Igodo-Ame, (5). Akiala-Ame, (6). Ituru-Ame, (7) Buko-Ame. -Lila-Ame…..
These names given to the Seven (7) founding wards are classification to identify each group.
The reality is that, these groups all migrated from different parts of the Ancient Africa World, such as Binin Areas, Ile-fe, Ke, Akwa Akpa(Calabar), Igbo, Cameron, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Niger-Congo, Serialeon, Tribes that speaks the Niger-Congo Language such as Ijoid(Atlantic), and Defaka(Afakani) an endangered language. And Kalabari Lands is not just about the First Seven (7) Wards that settled at the New Calabar River because the likes of Ke, Ilelema, Angulama, Kula, Bille, Abise, Soku, Tombia, Obonoma, Idama, Oguruawo-Bakana, Krakrama, Ifoko, Bukuma, Udekeama(Dekema), Oproama, Sangama, Abalama, Ido, Tema, Sema, Obu-Ama(Harry’s Town) and others joined to makeup the independent Kalabari Nation counting from the King Amakiri(Amachree) era as the Great King of All Kings.
The language of the present Ibani, Okirika and some parts of Nembe was adopted from the Kalabari Language just as the Kalabari Language became the basics of the Berbice, a Dutch Creole Spoken in Eastern Guyana.
Kalabari Language words have been proposed for some modern technical terms. And so what is now being paraded as the linguistics of the said Ijaw Ethnic Group is a Kalabari Language and never an Ijaw language.
The Kalabari Language is a tongue of many forms from the ancient days, which undergone unidentifiable mix-ups, due to the need of establishing a unique world known a Kalabari Nation…
The Kalabari Traditional attires, Songs, and dance steps, etc, has been adopted by too many tribes of Nigeria especially the Niger Deltans, and as of today it is very hard to claim Kalabari Tradition as a cultural practice which is originally native to the Kalabari Tribes, but only God and man knows that it was very few tribes in Nigeria that had traditional attire( exampling tradition) before Nigeria was amalgamated, and almost all the tribes in Nigeria did not interact directly with the whiteman (Portuguese especially) to get reach of beautiful dress codes such as original beads(Corals-Kilali,Ikuta,Illa,Stords), Cloths(Dawn, Wokor, Daminimbana, Frokor, Etibor, India-Bite, Lokor, Amasiri, Epe, Injiri, etc, ), walking sticks(Royal Staffs), Swords, etc.
Most of the credits forged as or transfered to the said Ijaw were originally Kalabari’s affairs.
The present areas known as Kalabari is not Ijaw Land but Kalabari Lands, and only liars frames up Our world as Ijaw Lands or Ijaw Sub Groups in Eastern Niger Delta, meanwhile Kalabari is Independent Nation for Centuries now.
Finally, none should mislead anyone by saying the term Kalabari was a name of a ancestor so therefore Kalabari’s came from one place called Ijaw/Ijo/Ejo/Ujo/Ojo when there is no place on Earth agreed as the genuine Ijaw Kingdom or origin on earth, apart from some myth to some villages or ancestors who they now classified as persons or villages that originated from another ancestor named Ijo/Ejo or Ujo/Ojo who was a child to Adumu some says Oduduwa is the Adumu.
This is brief but genuine history of who Kalabari’s are.
To stretching and analyze this history it can go as far as fifteen (15) times longer than this, but this is a brief yet better guidance to who we truly are.
THE FAIR HISTORY ABOUT ORIGIN OF KALABARI PEOPLE (AWOME) …………….
WHO ARE THE KALABARI’S…
WHY SHOULD KALABARI PEOPLE BE ADDRESSED AND IDENTIFIED AS KALABARI’S AND SHOULDN’T BE SUBJECTED TO ANY OTHER ETHNICITY/TRIBE BUT AS KALABARI TRIBES AND KALABARI ETHNIC GROUPS ALONE
