In this article, platinumtimes.ng archives a concised history, culture and traditions of the Ogoni people
The Ogoni people are an ethnic group found in Ogoniland, an easy senatorial district of Port Harcourt in Rivers State, Nigeria. They speak the Ogoni language and have a population of over two million people that live in a 404-square-mile (1,050 km2). They share common oil-related environmental problems with the Ijaw people of Niger Delta. They have lived in the Niger Delta for more than 500 years and are famous for their fight against oil exploitation and infringement of human rights.
History
The existence of the Ogoni people can be traced to their migration across the Imo River into the area, they survived the period of the slave trade in total isolation, and did not lose any of their members to enslavement. After Nigeria was colonized by the British in 1885, British soldiers arrived in Ogoni by 1901.
According to oral history which is a verbal way of passing information from one generation to another, it is believed that the Ogoni people came in boats from Ghana and settled in the southern part of the area. Which is why most of the Ogoni people call themselves (Khana) as a pointer to their Ghana origin.
They have an internal political structure subject to community arrangement, including appointment of chiefs and community development bodies, some are recognized by the government and others are not.
Location
The area is located in Rivers State near the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, east of the city of Port Harcourt. It extends across three Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Khana, Gokana and Tai.
Ogoniland is divided into the Five kingdoms: Babbe, Gokana, Ken-Khana, Nyo-Khana and Tai. Nyo-Khana is on the East while Ken-Khana is on the west. The region once was covered by a thick rain forest but has suffered from deforestation and pollution after decades of aggressive oil exploration.
Language
Three main languages are spoken by natives of Ogoni in addition to English, they are; Khana, Gokana, and Eleme. Linguists trace these linguistic clusters to the Cross River group of languages in the large Niger-Congo language family.
The Eastern languages are Khana and Tẹẹ, with a quarter million or so speakers, and Gokana, with about half that number. The Western languages are Eleme, with about 70,000 speakers, and Baan, with about a tenth that number.
Occupation
The traditional source of livelihood of the Ogoni people is subsistence farming, livestock herding, fishing, salt and palm oil cultivation and trade.
The major foodstuff which they cultivate is yams and cassava. Yams are very significant in Ogoni economy and culture.
The oil reserves which are scattered throughout Ogoniland serves as a primary source of income for the Nigerian government.
The Ogoni people have never profited from oil exports due to loss of farmlands through oil exploitation and pollution and partly to soil fertility problems arising from acid/alkaline rain caused by gas flaring. Large areas of fresh and salt water resources as fishing grounds have also been rendered useless by oil spills and this has led to a heightened rate of poverty in Ogoniland.
Also, a common art among the Ogoni people especially the women is Pottery. Women in the Ogoni community handled the production and distribution of pottery. This was achieved by being crafted on a foot-operated turntable called the ladum, a tool shaped like a saucer that stood on a pedestal “about three inches in diameter and two inches high.” Upon completion, each item was given a unique brand by the potter, distinguishing the handiwork from that of others in the community and displayed in the pottery markets.
Beliefs and traditions
The Ogoni people believe and worship a Supreme deity and creator called Waa Bari which is regarded as a female deity who resides in the earth and performs the role of creativity and motherhood.
Ogoniland which the people live and the rivers that surround them are not only meant for provision of food but are also believed to be a god and are worshipped as such. Also, Christianity is widely practiced in Ogoniland due to the coming of the British missionaries.
Festivals and Ceremonies
Cultural festivals that the Ogoni people are endowed with includes masks and masquerades, human figure representation of the ancestors, as maybe used in Ka-elu performances and the puppet shows which are performed exclusively by the Amanikpo Society.
The festivals are mainly held to commemorate the founding of the villages, to pay allegiance to particular ancestral land or water spirits, to mark the planting and harvesting seasons, for the fertility deity, to recognize the taking of titles, to restore peace in communities, to maintain unity within social groupings and for general entertainment.
Marriage in Ogoniland is considered sacred. Ogoni traditional marriage is referred to as ii-ii wa.
When a man is getting married, it’s called ii-wa, and ia-dam in terms of a woman getting married. It is viewed as a rite of passage, connected to initiation. It is a sacred institution inextricably glued to the Ogoni traditional religion.
The sacredness attached to marriage makes it a highly celebrated ceremony among the Ogoni people. Like every other traditional institution, the Ogoni people believe that marriage is ordained by Kawaa-Bari (The Supreme Being). This is not only because it is the acceptable institution that promotes the transition of life and the survival of kinship, it serves as an essential criterion for assessing how responsible a man or a woman is.
Before the maidens are given out in marriage, they must undergo the fattening room practice to help prepare them for their future responsibilities as mothers and wives.
To solidify the union, the suitor alongside his family members visits the family of the bride with gifts to inform the bride’s family about his intentions and probably fix a date for payment of the bride price and dowry.
On the day of the formal marriage ceremony, the bride and groom is beautifully adorned in their tribal outfits. There are lots of celebration,music and dance entertainments on this day.
Also, on this special occasion, the Ogoni traditional cuisines are served, these cuisines are; garden egg soup(kaa), pounded yam(akponkasia) with vegetable soup(barii na aboobormaa’ru), rice(Zia ko) and fish pepper soup local drinks also may be served.
Desecration of rights
The Ogoni people have suffered human rights violations for many years. In 1956, four years before Nigerian Independence, Royal Dutch/Shell, in collaboration with the British government, found a commercially viable oil field on the Niger Delta and began oil production in 1958.
After a period of years, from 1976 to 1991 there were reportedly 2,976 oil spills of about 2.1 million barrels of oil in Ogoniland, accounting for about 40% of the total oil spills of the Royal Dutch/Shell company worldwide.
In a 2011 assessment of over 200 locations in Ogoniland by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), they found that impacts of the 50 years of oil production in the region extended deeper than previously thought. Because of oil spills, oil flaring, and waste discharge, the fertile soil of the Niger Delta is no longer viable for agriculture.
In many areas that seemed to be unaffected, groundwater was found to have high levels of hydrocarbons or were contaminated with benzene, a carcinogen, at 900 levels above WHO guidelines.
UNEP estimated that it could take up to 30 years to rehabilitate Ogoniland to its full potential and that the first five years of rehabilitation would require funding of about US$1 billion. In 2012, the Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources, Deizani Alison-Madueke, announced the establishment of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project, which intends to follow the UNEP report suggestions of Ogoniland to prevent further degradation.
In 1990, under the leadership of activist and environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa, the Movement of the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) planned to take action against the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the oil companies. In October 1990, MOSOP presented The Ogoni Bill of Rights to the government.
The Bill hoped to gain political and economic autonomy for the Ogoni people, leaving them in control of the natural resources of Ogoniland protecting against further land degradation. The movement lost steam in 1994 after Saro-Wiwa and several other MOSOP leaders were executed by the Nigerian government.
In 1993, following protests that were designed to stop contractors from laying a new pipeline for Shell, the Mobile Police raided the area to quell the unrest.
In the chaos that followed, it has been alleged that 27 villages were raided, resulting in the death of 2,000 Ogoni people and displacement of 80,000 up till today.