Zuwy's Pandora

  An audience with his Majesty Oba Ovonramwem Nogbaisi Interview notes Q: Thank you for having us today. Your Majesty how are you feeling?   A: Very frail from my illness.   Q: Your Majesty, it is exactly 17 years to the day today that the British put together a naval squadron of 1200 Royal marines to capture Your Majesty and burn down your city. We apologise for their cruelty but we would just like to get your views on what happened and on life for you after that punitive expedition. Q: The British claimed that they were acting in response to your soldiers eliminating a peaceful party they had sent to bring you presents at Christmas, what would you like to say in response to that?   A: What is Christmas? My people had no idea about Christmas, we had our sacred ancestral ceremony during that period (the Igue Festival) and the British Party led by Lawyer Phillips knew that and was told to wait for just two days for me to complete my fasting but he said he was too b...

  So many scholars of the Biafran war history, has always said that the war was instigated by the killing of Igbos in the North. Azikiwe disproved that theory and said that the Igbo massacre, Ojukwu referred to in declaring Biafra, was just a facade. He disclosed that the killing of Igbos in the North was actually instigated by Igbos who were celebrating the Major Nzeogwu's coup in the North, thereby taunting and defaming the killed Northern political ellites. He narrated thus: " *_In the meantime, some Ibo elements who were domiciled in Northern Nigeria taunted Northerners by defaming their leaders through the means of records or songs or pictures. They also published pamphlets and postcards which displayed a peculiar representation of certain Northerners, living or dead, in a manner likely to provoke disaffection. The natural reaction to these positive acts was the germination of a revanche movement which smouldered at first only to erupt in the May 1966 massacre of Easterne...

     Introduction Oba Ewuare the Great( now known as the first of that name) of Benin have 5 sons of whom Crown Prince Kuoboyuwa was the eldest.Before he died,Kuoboyuwa had Prince Ihaman( Imaa) and Prince Obazuaye ( Obazu). Prince Imaa gave birth to Prince Uzuamvbi(Oyaibi),Prince Aribi and Prince Uzoyare(Oboh).Aribi died childless and Uzoyare(Oboh) founded Ihievbe Clan.The Eldest Prince Oyaibi(Grand Duke Uzuamvbi) had four sons namely,Uanhume(Founder of Uanhunmi),Owuno( founder of Ovbiowun),Oruamen(founder of Evbiamen) and Uulelovbuevbomuen(founder of Uule kindreds) respectively.In interpreting our customs in plethora of modern cases,our courts have proved that,it is the Edo tradition that,the first son( irrespective of the circumstances of his birth) assumes the Igie-Ogbe ( shrine,Azaa or custody of other traditional items or office) of the deceased father unless such roles have been apportioned otherwise intervivo( whilst the father was still alive).Cases that come to m...

  History be it royalty or our progenitors are always interesting. They help us know the truth, have insight and understanding where clarity is needed. This piece was culled from Mohammed Jalal's Facebook page trying to educate his followers as it relates to the selection of the Emir of Zazzau, after the demise of Shehu Idris. I found it interesting and thought I should share. Enjoy! Malam Musa is the founder of the Mallawa Ruling House of Zazzau. By 1804 there were many Fulani families settled in Zaria and Musa Bamalli was in touch with them even before his final onslaught on Zaria. He had visited Zaria before and had some acquaintances who had confidence and respect for him. It has been reported that Musa taught Quran in Zaria years before the Jihad and he had travelled South of Zaria at that time where he met Malam Yamusa, the 2nd ruler and founder of the Bornawa dynasty. He met famous Malam Kilba as well and his family and the Limamin Kona who helped him while stagi...

  Ogiso Owodo; the last Ogiso under the (Ogiso periods) was not a very popular king. Apart from the problems of his wives infertility , the execution of a pregnant woman for minor misdemeanor became too much for his subjects and his frontline chiefs, who banished him from his throne. Owodo took refuge at a place called Uhinwinirin. Evaina a brave warrior was subsequently appointed as an administrator he ruled for 40 years and appointed his son Ogiamien as a successor unfortunately, the Edo people maintained that succession to the throne was always applicable to kings and not to commoners of Evian’s class. As a result a search party led by Oliha went to look for Ekaladerhan (the banished son of Ogiso Owodo) who was now taking refuse at Uhe (Ife). At Uhe, the search party met Ekaladerhan already enjoying the status of a king. However the Edo people were unable to persuade him to return home. But, Ekaladerhan now known as Ododuwa agreed to send his son (Oromiyan) if onl...

Mrs Hajara Usman When we were taught in Education that learners are categorised into SLOW, AVERAGE and BRILLIANT and that a classroom is usually filled with learners with individual differences, l never thought it would hold sway for children that come from the same family. I believed it could only be so for those children that came from diverse parents because of differences in genetic intelligence quotient (IQ). Little did l know that my impression was a fallacious premise. I remember when l discovered that my auta, the last of my sons was a very slow learner. His first three brothers were so academically bright that we never needed any intervention classes for any of them to pass exceedingly well. It was when Auta was in Primary three that l actually noticed that his reading skills were very poor. I knew it would be a very big problem if it was not corrected early enough and so priding myself a good teacher, l decided to get "The Queen Primer" to ...