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| the Igarra masquerade |
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| THE Igarra Masquerade at ekuochi festival |
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| Prince frank ukonga- a royal prince of the Eshinogu ruling family of Ezi Dynasty |
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| the Father & grand father of prince frank ukonga owns 2 masquerades |
THE HISTORY OF THE IGARRA PEOPLES: HOTTEST LATEST NEWS:
SEVEN PEOPLE DIED WHILE TRYING TO STEAL 500 YEARS OLD DRUM- AGIDIBO- OF IGARRA
[ ETUNO]- THE ANGER OF THE GODS OF KUKURUKU PROVINCES, PRINCIPALITIES AND
POWERS UNLEASHED….
Igarra is the Capital of the Kukuruku
Province of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria in the colonial Days of Lord Lugard, McPherson etc as Governor General
of the Nigeria.
A country created in 1914 by the colonial Governor General Lord Lugard amalgamating
the North and southern protectorates of the area that is now known as Nigeria.
Before then there was
no country called Nigeria
and in 2014 that creation of Lord Luggard will be celebrating its first
centenary…
The Kukuruku
Province was one of the
federating provinces created by Lord Lugard with its capital town in Igarra.
The Kukuruku Province and Igarra has been
marginalized since the country gained independence from the British rule in
1960.
All other provincial Capitals have become state Capitals
like Oshogbo, Lafia, Gombe, Abeokuta, Benin,
Onitsha etc but Igarra was only able to become a Local Govt headquarters till
date…
Also all the Provinces of created by Lord Lugard has become
STATES in the new dispensation like Kaba
Province now Korgi
State.. etc but the Kukuruku Province has not been given a state status till
date but only bastardized and butchered to enlarge other states like EDO State,
Korgi State and Ondo state… this was actually not the design of H.E. Lord
Lugard the first Governor General of the Nigeria state, because the Kukuruku
Province was and is indeed a very rich Province that even loan the government
of Western Region the sum of 200, 000 pounds Starling which was a big sum of
money those days and unpaid till today.
H.E. Lord Lugard built a house and a secretariat for the
Governor of the Kukuruku Province in Igarra and they were resident in Igarra
and invested heavily in the great endowment of the Kukuruku Province.
The Province leads in the availability of solid mineral deposits like lime
stone used for cement and the Okpela cement factory gets its limes stone from
the Kukuruku as well as located in the kukuruku province, we have gold at
Damgbala also a town in the Kukuruku, diamond, barium, uranium, iron ore, ferrous
metal ores, emerald….these metals are highly invaluable to the industrial man
in the context of energy generating as in weaponry.
The Kukuruku is also very rich in both cash crops of cocoa,
palm oil and kernel, cotton, timber, cashew nuts, sheer butter, groundnuts etc
while in the aspects of food crops and animal husbandry the Kukuruku province
was a leading province contributing above its quota to the development and
advancement of the Nigeria state before the discovery of oil in the 60s.
But soon after oil/
petroleum were discovered in some parts of the federation all attention moved
to that industry and the Kukuruku province suffered neglect and abandonment.
Only recently that a fertilizer plant was situated in the Kukuruku and a number
of big cement plant is being constructed by some investors and also Dangote
group announced last month that they will build the Largest fertilizer company
in Edo State and we are hoping that it will be sited in the Kukuruku province
that is the actual source of the raw materials for the industry…
again many industries in Lagos, Kano, Kaduna, Ibadan and even
abroad source their line stone raw materials and its derivatives of calcite etc
from the kukuruku province companies like Nigerite, Jagal etc manufacturing
asbestos roofing sheets etc… Kukuruku is also having Aluminum deposits,
petroleum, and many other undiscovered minerals
but for lack of attention and will of the leadership both in federal level
and state level the place has become virtually a ghost town and almost all the
great sons and daughters of the Kukuruku Province have checked out of the Province
living in other states of Nigeria in search of greener pasture and a large
percentage of its citizens are in Europe, America , Asia and other parts of the
world in search of livelihood were as they have at home ,GOD given wealth that
could make them leaders of the entire globe… but destiny for now have turned
most of them to sojourners and aliens in other peoples land being used as beast
of burden to enrich and develop the glories of other people with disregard and
impunity…
In The History and Peoples of Western Sudan, Prof Ade Ajayi
and Leon Davidson wrote a lot about the great civilization of the KUKURUKU
Empires before the coming of the White Race. They said in the Book that the
KUKURUKU was the richest empire in the southern aspects of Sub Saharan Africa
but were constantly invaded by the armies of the stronger Benin Empire who
carted away all the time the great wealth, gold bullions and artifacts as well
as capture able men and women from the KUKURUKU and sell them as slaves to the
white slave traders of fortune… So most of the Blacks in the United State,
Britain, Latin America etc have their origin linked to the Kukuruku Empire.
The KUKURUKU is also great in the aspect of scenery, great
and favorable friendly climatic conditions for tourism and a lot of tourists
attraction abounds in rock climbing, caves, and many other grotesques shapes of
rocks delicately manicured by master nature through weathering producing great
pictures of nature at its best and till today it is a great credit to the
people of KUKURUKU who preserves with reverence this great natural environment
undiluted by the brute adventures of man in search of civilization.. It is also
a quite place for those who would want to escape from the maddening crowd and
noise of the cities…
The people of KUKURUKU respects their culture very highly
and they believe in their gods as the intermediary between mankind and the
supreme omnipotent GOD called OSHOMOSHI the omnipotent , the omni present and
the greatest of all, the benefactor, the just one, the holy one… etc just as
the God of the Bible…but then they believe they can only reach him through
their own Deities or gods that we call
Ori like Ori Idakoriko, Ori Ivokoto, Ori Ofu, Ori Dowo, Ori Isami, Ori Opicolo,
Igo Ilukogbe, Ori Ukora, Oria Danope,…Ori Adaebeba, Ori Fege Ori Ogu…...etc
The believe is in the unity in diversity and manifold
existence of the supreme being in the various outlets of their Deities in an
avalanche with that of other cultures as those of the Yoruba Oludumare as the SUPREME being in equivalent
of Kukuruku’s Oshomoshi while the other gods and deities of Obatala,Elegua,Elegbara,
Orunmila, Ifa, Esu, Esu Odara, Ogun, Ogun Ori Apata, Yemoja, Osun, Efusheke,
Oro, Songo, Oya, Shopona,Egbe Ogba, Gelede, Orisha Oko, Darufunwontan, Ayelala,
Adumila,….also have its corresponding with the previously mentions kukuruku
deities…like a reflection of same underlying reality in two and many places of
manifestations of the God head.
Just like the Egyptian mythology it is also similar to ours
of sub Saharan Africa with only change in names and perhaps methods of worship…like
the Amon Ra, Horus, Isis, Osiris, goddess of Hator, goddess of Apis, Goddess of
Anu, Janus, Tutunhaven, god of Thor…Nafetiti….and many other Egyptian gods and
goddesses through which they believe they can reach the most high in their
demands and supplications addressed to achieve greater heights in social
economic, cultural and industrial enterprises…
And in Europe we have the Greek
civilization that have similar believes in the gods as a go between, between
mankind and the Supreme Deity the omnipotent GOD.HEAD. Here we have gods and
goddesses like Zeus, Olympus, goddess of Artemis,
Demeter, Aphrodite, Apollo, Jupiter god of the sojourners and inventions,
Dionysus…..And it is similar in all other European civilizations….
Likewise among the Indians a somewhat similar arrangement is
in place where they have many gods and goddesses as intermediary between man
and God….Among then are Lord Shiva, Lashmi,. .Buhda, Hindu, Hari Krishna…Vishnu…
and more than a thousand gods and goddesses……This is applicable to all the
civilizations of Asia as well.
That is why the great works of Dr Chiek Anta Diop about the
Egyptian Origin of world civilizations find a resounding corroboration in all the
civilizations of the world, as well as that of Sub Saharan Africa…in
similarity and origin of Egyptian root and ontology.
Our Research and Development at National Peoples News
arrived at the inferences that, the peoples of the kukuruku particularly the
Princes of Igarra called Etuno came from the civilization of kursh in the White
Nile called lower and middle Nile whose capital was in Napata , a great sprawling
town located along the Nile, it was later changed to Meroe after it was invaded
by the Coptic and another later invasion by the dynasty of Cleopatra Damepator
who were somewhat of fair jet complexion .
Some German Historians corroborated this facts that after
the invasion of Napata/ Moroe the capital of Cush another nation was established called Nubian
in the same location by the invaders Some of those negroid Blacks who could not
accept the new rulers migrated to sub Saharan Africa while some went to North
and Central Africa. Garman Historians traced
the path into three categories of migration from Napata..
The first one passed through Kenya,
Tanganyika, Uganda…into Sudan,
Burkina Faso Niger and into Nigeria
and they moved down to the south and this could be said of the Fulani Princes, Princes
of the Yorubas and the Princes of the kukuruku. The German historians said that
some people were already living in these areas where the new migrating princes
decided to settle as in Modakeke in the case of the Yorubas and as in the Unemes
in the case of Kukuruku Provinces.
But then the German Historians said that these new Princes
settled among the natives they met in sub-Saharan Africa and established great
civilizations, semblance of the one the left in Egypt/ Nubian [kursh]. And with
this advance exposure they were able to subjugate the natives they met and
created very great civilizations as in Fulani Empire/ Hausa, as in Oyo Empire,
Jukun/ Nupe Empires of the Kwararafa as well as the Kukuruku Empires….
To corroborate this first movement is my name PRINCE FRANK
ONAIVI UKONGA- A PRINCE OF THE KUKURUKU PROVINCE IN NIGERIA…..IN TANZANIA A PROVINCE IS CALLED- UKONGA- And that was
the exact route the German Historians discovered that the first mass migration
to sub Saharan Africa from Napata / Meroe capital of the state of Cush and as a
Prince it is most likely that I am bearing the name of my ancient migration
stop over town as this is the name of my grand father and the name has been
passed down through several generations- And it is customary to bear the name
of towns among the three major groups that migrated into sub Saharan Africa…
like the Hausa /Fulani bears the names of their towns like Dan TORO, Mohammed
JALO Hassan Utsman Katsina etc Katsina
is the name of a town in Nigeria, Alhaji Shehu Shagari- Shagari is the name of
a town in Nigeria. The name TORO is the name of the capital town of the Fulani
Empire of FUTA TORO where they used as capital to rule Mali Empire; also Jalo
was a town in the Mali
Empire…
The second set of migration from Napata
the German Historians believe took place shortly afterward and the route was
direct to North Africa through Mali,
Spanish Sahara to the Senegambia valley and
this also has its corroboration in our features, nomenclature and folk tales.. As
in our movement from kursh to forming the town of Wangara
in the Mali Empire that was the riches gold mining town of Mali Empire and moving down along with our
Fulani allied forces after the invasion of the Fulani Rule of Mali empire by
the more vicious Almoravids that established the Songhai Empire.
The Fulani as well as
the Yoruba and the Igarra moved to the present locations in Nigeria in a
great migration in 17th century. And in the Fulani Chronicles, a great Sultan
of the Sokwoto Emirate Sultan Abubakar -1 said the Yorubas and some other
tribes in Nigeria
are brothers and allied of the Fulani and this will immediately corroborate the
research of GERMAN HISTORIANS…
Note worthy was that the Great Fulani Leader Samaguru
toppled the government of the Mandingo/ Nubian King Abubakadri in the Mali
Empire in 1311 AND Prince Abubakadri Abdicated the throne and sailed to America
through the great seaport of Walata also a settlement of the Nubia/ Igarra
people of the Mali Empire…and we made the ships by which he used to travel
about 2000 ships and loaded with Gold, diamonds, and great wealth of Wangarra
mines…It was Abubakadri that discovered
America, the United State, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Guyana, Peru, Bahamas,
Cuba and all the Nations of the Caribbean seas and not Christopher Columbus as
claimed by many history books…
One thing that can be asserted from the great research of
German Historians is that both movements can be corroborated as in the case of
Igarra and the kukuruku princes. For instance the name of our town Igarra kept
changing in diction and orientation in the order of our movement from Nubian
lower/ middle Nile to Mali Empire of Wangarra which simply means a united Igarra
town, down to the middle belt of Nigeria called Kungarra in Nupe/ Jukun Empiresthe
name Kungarra- means coming together
again, and we migrated down to the present location of the kukuruku
after a war with the Princess of Zauzau Empire
Queen Amina of Zauzau… and it was said that she was wounded in the war
as she led her great armies to conquer the Jukun/ Nupe of which we the Igarras
were Princes and Rulers in our town of Kungara in Jukun Empire, it is a general
knowledge till today that all the Princes of Nupe/ Jukun Empire ;kukuruku ran to take refuge in the great kukuruku
hills in safety of the reprisal from the armies of the Zauzau empire and our houses
in those caves of refuge are still their till today for all to see… at Enarchi,
Epuko, etc by father was born in Enerchi, while some of his brothers were born
at epuko that is another settlement outside the rocks and latter when the war
died down we came out of the caves into the valleys of kukuruku to form our
towns of Igarra{ meaning scattered civilization], Obalende, Ufa, Ugbogbo ,
Utua, Ogogoro…etc…
In the book that my father wrote, chief Gabriel Omo Onaivi
Ukonga the son of Ogbodo , the Okomayin of Igarra Land and the former
Controller of Accounts of the Nigeria Military Complex, my father wrote that we
were settle in the Jukun Emipire of the kwararafa/ middle belt now Niger state
covering all the areas of the Federal capital territories, up to the town of
Bida, and down to the town of Lokoja Zuba, Sulieja, Kotonkerifi, Kungarra etc
and there was a big war waged by H.E Queen Amina of Zau zau to conquer all the territories up to the
Niger / Benue confluence of Lokoja and we lost in the war and had to move
downwards towards the south. On getting to Lokoja we moved to Idah while some of
our tribes people ,decided to hide in the hills around Lokoja and later after
the war they came down and settled in the valleys including the Basanges who
are the rightful co owners of Ajaokuta Areas in allied with the people of
Igarra. We call them Igarra –resu –eyin; that is Igarra on the waters- like the
Russian town Rostov na don ie Rostov
on Don- Don is a famous Russian
River.
The Majority Princes
moved with their slaves, servants and properties to the shores of the River
Benue at Idah. Idah people were hospitable until the armies of the Zauzau
Empire arrived to crush the remaining group of the Igarra Princes encamped at
the shores of River Benue in the Idah end of the River; we had no other place
to move to as the Zau zau armies had encircled us then the great miracle of the
gods of Igarra took place.
My Father wrote that
Ogbodo my great, great grand father lead the Igarra people out of the quagmire
by calling for help from the gods of Igarra like Mosses of Israel did in Egypt. We had
only one option of escape and it was through the sea by crossing the River
Benue. The great Ogbodo prayed to the gods and he was asked to stretch forth
his staff which he did and the staff became a long bridge miraculously and all
the people of Igarra cross the long stretch of the Benue River to safety in the
other shore of the town called Agenegbode and after crossing the River he stretched
forth his hand again and the bridge changed again to the long Iron staff like a
spear. My father had that staff with him handed to him from generation to
generation until after his death and it is with one of my brothers who may not
really know its origin and historical importance. And as for me, my Father told
me never to quarrel nor scramble for any thing that he would leave behind
knowing the problems of voodoo and pear rivalry among Princes.
My father traced and wrote about our history from the point
of Kungarra in the Jukun Empire up to the present location. I Prince Frank
Onaivi Ukonga, his son traced it from its Origin in Napata/ Meroe in Middle
Nile of Egypt/ Nubian up to our sojourn in Mali Empire of forming the towns of
Wangara and sea port of Walata and up to our migrations across the Sahel and
Sahara deserts up to crossing the Savannah grassland and up the where my Father
began his own Research in Kungara now Niger State. I had to travel through the
entire territories of Western Sudan to the major towns in Mali, Timbuktu
Wangara, Agades, Ghana, Gambia, Senegal, Togo, Paraku, Ivory Coast, Guinea,
Benin Republic, Niger Republic, and Burkina Faso…up to Libyan to really
understand the whole picture….
It was from there we
moved back Northwestwards to the present KUKURUKU Hills as refuge and later
when the heat of the reprisal calm down we settled in the valleys of the
KUKURUKU to establish a civilized kingdom called the KUKURUKU EMPIRE by
Historians all over the world.
NOTE: This is only a quick summary of the history of the
IGARRA people that span more than 1000 years and we shall need more funding in
terms of material and logistics to fully put the entire history together
properly in a book for use as history book in schools and as research materials
for researchers and practitioners all over the world..
