Living in Ijaw in the UK: Unusual among young Nigerian peers | Art and Culture

“Ijaw? What is that? You mean Igbo? ”

The first time I heard these questions was when a girl I met in high school asked me about my race. We were very close because of our green and white heritage, however, the form of confusion he gave me when I told him I was Ijaw will be shown by every young Nigerian I met the following years.

Little jokes are made about how “my race is not known” and if I’m sure I haven’t mixed it with Igbo. Even though I was joking, always being seen as my race was nothing but a mistake with words that can be frustrating.

The three Year 9 Geography courses taught in Nigeria only provide an overview of the culture and history of the country, not to mention the ethnic groups of all but the three most populous. I learned that in the United Kingdom, the Ijaw were in the Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa languages.

The UK is home to Nigeria in some 200,000 countries, second size after this in the United States. In London, where I live, the “Nigerian culture” is often similar to Igbo or Yoruba.

Their influence in places like south London in Peckham, aka the “Lagos” in the UK, has made it possible for Nigerians to emigrate internationally, including my family. However, without their flaws, their numbers have also created an invisible explosion on many smaller species. Although Ijaw is the fourth ethnic group in Nigeria, I feel like a stranger to my fellow Nigerian youth in the UK.

But my nation, rich in culture and part of the country formerly ruled by British colonists, should have a place in the cultural literature and ideas of British Nigerians.

Until the culture of Ijaw

The people of Ijaw, also known as Izon or Ijo, live in the state of Niger in southern Nigeria, and they are known for their relationship with the water and the river Niger.

In an oil-rich region, conflict, government neglect and reliance on the history of the Ijaw people in oral history, contrary to the record, have contributed to the erosion of Ijaw’s ​​presence and culture in Nigeria – as well as anonymity in the West.

I moved from Nigeria to the UK at the age of two and found my culture was not easy. As Nigerians in London, I have relied on my mother to tell me about our culture, how to cook Ijaw dishes such as kekefiyai (a special dish resembling plantain porridge), or to call my relatives to learn about my ethnicity.

My experience with other Africans is similar to that of Nigerians.

“What is Ijaw? I think there are only three ethnic groups in Nigeria, ”I eventually multiplied so much that I became afraid to talk about my ethnicity.

Throughout my teenage years, my name Ijaw, Ayibaemi, was ridiculed by white children, as well as other black children.

While I would say that a big part of this is childhood ignorance, here I am at university and the realization of Ijaw is not available. I continue to use Ayis, an abbreviated, “simple” name for my full name, but it no longer worries. As the so-called “Nigerian” became a thing of the past, I began to identify with the people of my race.

People are water

Although the sources of Ijaw are not known, the Ijaws are believed to be beginners of Niger province. Water is the lifeblood of Ijaw and the Niger River is just another area of ​​life, but also of Isoko, Itsekiri, Urhobo, and many other tribes in the region.

Ijaw is known not only for fishing, but also for textiles and art, a well-known example being the carved liquid shells used in the Ijaw religion. Masks, many of which have human and animal motifs, feature water spirits among the traditional Ijaw religions, and honor the aquatic animals and rivers found along the shore.

Ijaw traditional clothing includes special waistbands, as well as handmade coral caps, hats and walking sticks. I grew up admiring the beautiful, handmade clothes that my mother brought with me when I moved to church on Sundays.

My mother lived for a long time in Yenagoa, the capital of the southern coast of Bayelsa, where I was born. “Being a Ijaw, I’m getting water,” says my mother.

He always thinks of his relationship with water as a description of how he was raised as a child of Ijaw through work such as fishing with his siblings, collecting fish in river markets or swimming in the river with other local children. After a long day at school, they would expect to come home to eat kiri-igina (a rich, juicy soup made from heat and pestle as opposed to cooking and fire) and steals, a sturdy cassava meal.

She speaks Atissa, a Ijaw language, which only affects Yenagoa citizens so she only speaks once every two weeks to her sisters over the phone. Since they do not meet fellow Ijaws in London, I hear English words being forced into these discussions more than ever.

Although my father was born in Ghana (originally from Ijaws), he grew up in the small village of Otuan, also located in Bayelsa. His area was poor but ordinary. His father was a local fisherman and a river trader, the life of many Ijaws in history.

Her mother had a special letter on her belly and a leaf, which looked like a sun, while other women had letters on their foreheads to be identified as Ijaw. The practice of fertility is still practiced in many tribes today, especially in the Yoruba language, but it is rare to find Ijaw with a rich cultural background. The earliest memories my father had of his mother listen to him recite dō (Ijaw folk tales), every morning as he prepares to fish or cross the Niger Valley on his family boat. They no longer remember these stories.

Regarding the people of Ijaw in a very positive way, he once said to me: “The people of Ijaw are very truthful. The meaning of the word Izon is true, in particular. ”

Violence at the hands of the government

In October 2020, Nigerians started walking the streets with It’s over anti-police brutality and corruption. On October 20, in the capital, Lagos, where the protests took place, Nigerian troops opened fire and killed protesters in Charging gate. Ijaws in Bayelsa too they went into the streets, and show solidarity with the group – after all, Ijaws in Nigeria are well aware of how violent and oppressive the state feels.

Even Ijaw and other tribes live in areas very rich in the world, the most important regions in Africa oil production area poverty alleviation and the environment have been destroyed waste oil. In 1998, a young man from Ijaw encouraging adatsata Kaiama’s notice, describing the rights of Ijaw in an area that has been threatened by environmental violence and harassment by oil companies and the federal government for years. Opposition continue today to take over this land.

In 1992, the establishment of the Movement For The Survival of The Ijaw Ethnic Nationalities in the Niger Delta (MOSIEND), which aims to bring Ijawland back to Niger and to oppose the oppression of the Ijaw people, called for an end to our existence. The people of Ijaw are one of the tribes of Niger who have established a movement aimed at preserving their race and nationality.

Maintaining Ijaw culture

Language it seems to be one of the strings that binds culture, however, beyond 10 Ijaw Languages is at risk of it’s over. The main language of Ijaw, called Ijaw or Izon, is limited to a few instruction manuals, such as Izon Fie (Speak Izon). It is the first language of Ijaw to learn book and was established in 2013 by the Bayelsa government.

Ignoring the many negotiations against the Ijaw tribes and preserving the traditions is the first way to get us out of the endangered area, but these negotiations between the diasporic Ijaws are limited. In the US, groups such as Ijaw American Women provide a safe environment for women and promote the equality of Ijaws within and beyond Nigeria. Many Ijaw Facebook groups in the UK and neighboring countries have been temporarily inactive.

Clubhouse, a social networking site, has groups and groups of Nigerians of other ethnic groups, such as Yoruba or Igbo. Establishing Ijaw groups is one way to unite our nation around the world to make us aware of who we are – and the challenges we face.

My parents taught me the importance of my race and helped me to follow my culture. Today, when I am asked about Ijaw and if I mean Igbo, I no longer worry about educating people about who we are.

The identity of the species extinct in the Nigerian diaspora cannot be overemphasized, but in the light of the Nigerian-British partnership with Nigerians like me, I believe it can happen.