A look at a neglected Ebira culture
There is no better illustration of the small-mindedness of some Ebira people than in the treatment of minorities in their midst. In their myopia, whoever is perceived to be outside the dominant Ebira social, economic and political tendencies at any given moment is treated as an outsider, routinely discriminated against and scorned by those who […]
There is no better illustration of the small-mindedness of some Ebira people than in the treatment of minorities in their midst. In their myopia, whoever is perceived to be outside the dominant Ebira social, economic and political tendencies at any given moment is treated as an outsider, routinely discriminated against and scorned by those who see themselves as the “authentic” or “true” Ebira.
Thus, we still have people being categorised today as “the descendants of slaves”, as “people who live on the outskirts of Ebiraland”, as “descendants of blacksmiths”, and as “settlers”, etc. These labels, which ought to have become meaningless today, are invented to exclude other people in the often vicious struggle for resources or to confer undue advantage on those who claim to have been born well – as opposed to those perceived to be occupying the margin of Ebira society.
Such needless snobbery and baseless stigmatisation of ‘difference’ continue to undermine the unity of Ebira people, create unnecessary rancour and stall development. And outsiders find it rather funny that such a relatively small place (the Ebira are over one million in Kogi State alone, according to the 2006 census) can be so prejudiced and fragmented on the basis of where a person lives, what he does for a living and his ancestral line of descents. Of course, it must be quickly added that the Ebira are not the only ones who routinely discriminate against certain members of their communities perceived to be different.
Nevertheless, it remains part of the internal contradictions of Ebira society that the same people who have always fought fiercely against injustice and discrimination by external forces will at the same time condone same within their society.
This is the concern of the recently published 200-page book, “Blacksmithing and Aningere in Ebiraland”, written by Alhaji M. J. Bajehson, the Shettima of Ebiraland. It is an important book authored by one of the key figures in contemporary Ebira society. He drew copiously from oral and recorded history and from other writings to make the point that blacksmiths in Ebira have been part and parcel of Ebira community since time immemorial and that it is “highly illogical that blacksmiths in Ebira are considered strangers”.
The blacksmiths, Bajehson argues convincingly in the book, have always produced the hoes and cutlasses with which the Ebira farm and the arrows, spears and guns with which they fought wars in the past and hunted for animals then and now. He retraced Ebira purported migration route from Wukari, the capital of the ancient Kwararrafa Empire, through their stop-over at Idah to their present location southwest of the Niger-Benue confluence and concluded that while the majority of Ebira were farmers and hunters in the past, a few Ebira worked as blacksmiths producing the farming tools and war/hunting weapons that served Ebira so well at critical moments in history.
In his preface to the book, Bajehson says he wrote the book to “clear as much as possible the misconceptions, the ambiguities and the resulting confusion created in the minds of some people about blacksmithing in Ebiraland and the Aningere” and “to put the history of blacksmithing and Aningere in Ebiraland in the right perspective”.
One of those misconceptions is the belief that all blacksmiths come from the same place in Nigeria. Every community or ethnic group, the author argues, has its own blacksmiths that provide what they need by smelting iron in the heat of a furnace and hammering it into different shapes and tools in an anvil. He says that blacksmiths have always equipped the warriors of each community with swords, daggers, spears, arrows and guns. They have always produced the hoes, cutlasses and axes that the farmers use. They also produce household tools such as knives, spoons, forks, spikes, needles, nails, etc.
The second mistake about blacksmiths in Ebira is the slamming of the generic name, Aningere, on them. Blacksmithing is known as “uhi” and blacksmiths are known as “umu-hi” in Ebira, according to the author. When the Ebira migration team crossed the River Niger to Ebira Opete (now in Ajaokuta Local Government Area), Ebira blacksmiths came with them under the leadership of one Iyakize, who was said to have crossed the river miraculously.
At Ebira Opete, Iyakize and his fellow blacksmiths settled at Ingere and also established a market there known as Ohu-Ingere. The people of Ingere were called “Aningere”, just as Okene residents are called “Ana-Okene” or “Ana-Abuja” for those living in Abuja. It was not derogatory. The Ebira farmers and hunters created other settlements at Opete, such as Upake, Ukako, Upaja, Egodo, Obangede, Ochobanyi, Ohuanchi and Ohuruku. They attended Ohu-Aningere to source for their farming and hunting tools just as the blacksmiths visited other settlements regularly to purchase foodstuffs and other items.
The third mistake about Ebira blacksmiths is the tendency to lump together those who settled at Ingere with the more recent group of blacksmiths who came from Ekpedo, Uneme and other northern Edo settlements to live and work as blacksmiths in Ebira. Both the aboriginal Ebira blacksmiths and those from northern Edo are now referred to generically as “Aningere”. The implication is that all blacksmiths are “settlers” and not “indigenes” of Ebiraland. It has thus excluded so many bona fide Ebira sons and daughters from the political and socio-cultural space just because of their profession. It has also robbed them of access to ancestral land and the freedom to freely partake in cultural and political activities in Ebiraland.
“The arrival of Uneme blacksmiths from northern Edo advanced iron technology in Ebira”, the author quotes from the writings of the late respected historian, Professor J. A. Ohiare of the University of Abuja. “The number of blacksmiths increased and there was a marriage of northern (Ebira blacksmiths) and southern (Uneme blacksmiths) traditions of iron working…..Some blacksmiths from Ekpedo have acculturated through marriages. They speak Ebira and practise Ebira customs”.
Some Edo blacksmiths in Ebira land still speak their language and maintain contacts with their kith and kin in Edo, according to Bajehson. But the Ebira blacksmiths who trace their origins to Ingere have no kith and kin elsewhere other than their Ebira brothers and sisters with whom they have lived together since antiquity.
The author quotes Mohammed Sani Omolori, the late Ohinoyi of Ebira, cautioning his people in a 1986 interview not to discriminate against blacksmiths in Ebira. “We have lived together as one for so long that the Aningere should not be referred to as strangers in Ebiraland”.
It has not always been like this. The author says that Ebira blacksmiths enjoyed a higher social status in the past than they do today. He cites as evidence Professor Ohiare’s research on blacksmith communities in various Ebira settlements in Kogi (Ebira Tao and Ebira Igu) and Nasarawa States (Ebira Panda). “Blacksmiths are highly respected, next in rank to the king in social status”, he quotes Ohiare as saying. “In Ebira Tao, the Aningere were respected in the past and treated fairly. They were exempt from taxation because of their special skills and services. When the joint foreign forces invaded Ebira from Ilorin, Bida, and Ibadan in 1860s and 1870s, Ebira depended on weapons produced by Aningere to defend itself”.
The reason for the present discriminatory practices against Ebira blacksmiths is not far fetched. From about a hundred thousand in the early 1900s to nearly 1.5 million people today, the growth in population has put a lot of pressure on resources and a serious strain on social intercourse. The struggle for survival has become more ferocious and grossly immoral, thus creating more conflicts between the different groups. In order to move ahead of the pack, some people feel they have to play the “indigene-settler”, “slave-master”, “central Ebira-periphery Ebira” card. These divisions which are borne out of the fear of “the other” have continued to weaken society and hurt the people.
For without any iota of doubt, the stereotypes that people peddle about blacksmiths and other minority groups in Ebira hurt not only the intended victims but Ebira as a whole. Whenever any member of the group is demeaned, everyone is demeaned because of our brotherly ties and our common humanity.
“Some people have told tales and written negatively about Aningere as a people and their origin. The contributions of blacksmiths to the economic, security, social and cultural development of Ebira land can neither be overvalued nor overlooked”, Bajehson concludes in the book.
“If we choose to be prisoners of the past, we will never move forward. If we truly believe that minority groups should be remembered, treated justly and equitably in Kogi State, we should equally accept that minority groups in our senatorial district and in our local councils should also be remembered and treated justly and equitably”.
The author, a devout Muslim, sums it up with a quotation from the Holy Koran:
“O mankind! We created you from a single pair of male and female, and we made you into nations and tribes that ye may know each other and not that ye may despise each other”.
Bajehson believes that the Ebira ethnic nationality evolved from a mosaic of peoples and cultures and that none is superior to the other. Therefore, the continued well-being of the group can only be guaranteed if its members love one another rather than despise one another.
Dr. Onukaba was a Managing Editor of Daily Times newspaper