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I can't but help coming back to this thread. I owe Uncle Gbenro a bottle of cognac for it.
Let me build on it a little...
Prior to when Carlos Zappa renamed Ahaba to "Asaba", ndị Oshimịrị were quite an intertwined people who knew their kin.
As such, you could not "kpa alo" in Ahaba without a priest from Nri present.
This kinship is seen in the names. Onicha Mịrị, Onicha Ụgbo, Onicha Olona, as examples, the first being the great market town, the last two being on the west side of the great river, Ori mịrị...
Then Carlos Zappa came, and renamed Ahaba to Asaba, while TE Dennis renamed Onicha to Onitsha.
A hypothetical child, let's call him Chukwudebe Isichei, born exactly 120 years ago today in Asaba, knew himself as being Onye Oshimili, as did his cousin across the great river.
The year Isichei was born, a strange company, the Royal Niger Company, without his elders' consent or even knowledge, passed over "ownership" of his village to the British Crown, and the cartographers went to work.
Isichei became a "Southern Nigerian" from Onitsha Division.
Then on Isichei's 14th birthday, his Southern #Nigeria was "amalgamated" with a strange land called Northern Nigeria, and he was told that himself and those people whom he had not much in common with, except perhaps the colour of their skin, were now from the same country.
Let me build on it a little...
Prior to when Carlos Zappa renamed Ahaba to "Asaba", ndị Oshimịrị were quite an intertwined people who knew their kin.
A short note on ethnicity.
— Gb\xe9nr\xf3 Ad\xe9gbol\xe1 \u0646 (@GbenroAdegbola) December 27, 2020
A lot of these labels are mere identity. Useful labels though.
Identity is important
Many don\u2019t know their own parents were not even born Nigerians.
Most were a strange, now defunct nationality called British West African.
As such, you could not "kpa alo" in Ahaba without a priest from Nri present.
This kinship is seen in the names. Onicha Mịrị, Onicha Ụgbo, Onicha Olona, as examples, the first being the great market town, the last two being on the west side of the great river, Ori mịrị...
Then Carlos Zappa came, and renamed Ahaba to Asaba, while TE Dennis renamed Onicha to Onitsha.
A hypothetical child, let's call him Chukwudebe Isichei, born exactly 120 years ago today in Asaba, knew himself as being Onye Oshimili, as did his cousin across the great river.
The year Isichei was born, a strange company, the Royal Niger Company, without his elders' consent or even knowledge, passed over "ownership" of his village to the British Crown, and the cartographers went to work.
Isichei became a "Southern Nigerian" from Onitsha Division.
Then on Isichei's 14th birthday, his Southern #Nigeria was "amalgamated" with a strange land called Northern Nigeria, and he was told that himself and those people whom he had not much in common with, except perhaps the colour of their skin, were now from the same country.