THE UNIVERSALITY OF THE OBA’S PRONOUNCEMENT ON IDU’S DESCENDANTS.
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Last Update August 4, 2022

Since the Oba of Benin placed a spiritual embargo on the obnoxious human trafficking and its consequential evils of prostitution and slavery,many uninformed persons of Edo extraction including some of those involved in the evil act have been trying to play down on and or disaffirm the injunction. Some,who perfunctorily believed on the efficacy of such Imperial pronouncements, have ignorantly tried to limit the geography of its operation to only the children of Idu in Edo south. This is one of the reasons I believe knowledge of history is the most important humanity subjects to a people. Knowing your past and applying lessons from them to the present will ensure you are never lost or endangered in this wild and unfriendly earth. Britain the country we so much admire and try to emulate in every way owes her prominence and glory to her preservation of her history and culture. In fact,Britain went further to establish the most informative,biggest and richest museum in the world where it not only ensures that her history is intactly documented and preserved but the history of other races of the world are too. The substance of this write up is to admonish those Idu children where ever found,who believed that their current geographical nomenclature is sufficient enough to exonerate them from the Oba’s curse. It cannot and will not so long as Idu blood flows in their veins. That you are anywhere but home does not make you less the son of your father than your siblings who are at home or live close to your father. You are all same children of your father no matter the geographical proximity to him. Perhaps I can push home my point by taking us back history lane.

THE CURSE ON IDU PEOPLE OF UNEME IN AKOKO EDO LOCAL GOVERNMENT OF EDO NORTH.

There are many twisted versions of this story about Uneme people. Some said they were slaves and some said they were traitors in the old kingdom who were ostracized by the Oba of Benin. The true story is that The Idu People of Uneme were never slaves nor traitors. The reverse is the case. They were freeborns who performed the most patriotic duties for the Oba. Long ago,the Uneme people were the empire’s armorers. They fabricate the arms and arsenals that were used to conquer lands even to Togo and Dahomey. Even till date,many of them still do this work of producing tools for farming and hunting. Whenever the Oba is on a military expedition,all Uneme tools and arms fashioners were usually called upon with their apprentices( usually their male children) to the war camps to do their duties of producing arms for the war. These wars can take more than 6 months to a year to prosecute. At the end of any of these wars,when the Uneme men come home,they will find that the neighboring Edo men who did not go to the war have impregnated their wives and matured daughters( they have very fine women which you can still see today). This made many of them to resist going with the Oba’s army on subsequent missions. The Oba( Esigie I guess) who was disturbed called a meeting of their elders and enquired about their new attitude. They told the Oba their problem and how they always returned home to discover that their wives and daughters have been appropriated by their neighboring cousins. The Oba was sad and pitied their plight and decided to do something about it and he did by placing a curse on any man( exempting only Uneme men) who goes and lay with an Uneme woman. Many men who thought the curse was made in puff tried it and were visited by many plagues with the known and most popular afflictions being leprous penises and incurable rashes. When they saw that this curse is universal and efficacious,all Edo men stopped sleeping with and marrying Uneme women. Till date,anywhere you find an Idu descendant,they still retain the memory of the curse and it’s repercussions. Some later painted the story in a wrong way to make it plausible to their libidinous children. There is a story that this curse was later lifted but many still do not want to take chances on Uneme woman. It is good to remember that the pronouncement by Oba Esigie was made to protect the Uneme people and was never made to denigrate their clan.

THE CURSE ON UOKHA PEOPLE OF OWAN EAST IN EDO NORTH.

Uokha is the oldest settlement by Idu children in Edo North. Most migrants from Edo south to Edo North first took refuge at Uokha before proceeding to their current location. It is ironical that Uokha of today is still as small as the Uokha of 600 years ago. If age determines how a town should grow,after Benin and Uromi,Uokha ought to be the next biggest town in Edo State but alas,it remained more or less a hamlet despite its age of existence. This stagnation has a history behind it. Uokha was founded by Odion a Benin Prince who had a twin Brother. He was a hunter and the story is that,on one of his hunting trips,he stayed away too long and missed the death of his father and the coronation of his younger brother in his stead. He came back home and was very bitter. He wanted his younger brother dethroned and himself enthroned but was refused by the people who alleged that the Kingdom is already being prosperous under the new Oba his younger sibling. He became bitter and tried to place a curse on the Oba and the people. The Oba Oba preempted him and cursed him that he will never grow above him or his relatives. Later,he made peace by providing white chalk to the Oba but the curse that Uokha will not grow remain. Uokha is about the smallest( though the oldest) clan in Owan. When Afemai people are gathered in any occasion, an Uokha man is usually called upon to break the kola being the senior of them all. It was not untill Oba Akenzua lifted the curse that Uokha started experiencing development and modern expansion.

THE AD HOMINEM CURSE ON THE MAN WHO MASSACRED THE IDU PEOPLE OF ANIOMA IN DELTA STATE.
For obvious reasons,I will relate the event but will avoid mentioning names. During the unforgettable and unfortunate Nigerian civil war where the Igbos were targets of annihilation,the Federal forces which recaptured Midwest was led by an Aviele man( hausanized Idu descendant). One of the things he did was to start massacring Idu people in Delta north who share cultural,geographical and provable filial affinities with the Igbo people of South East. The reigning Monarch,Oba Akenzua II admonished him and tried to enlighten him that the ANIOMA People are his children and children of his forefathers. The man refused and intensified his killings. There was a particular incident that happened at Asaba and the Oba was angry and in anger he pronounced a curse that the killer of his people without just cause will die by the very instrument he used in killing his people. This curse was never revoked and it came to pass that the Idu man who killed the Idu people of Anioma was killed later with the same gun he used in killing the Oba’s children in Anioma.

IMMEDIATE CONSEQUENCES AT IGUOMON COMMUNITY IN UHUNMWODE LGA.

Simon Ebegbulem & Gabriel Enogholase report from Benin as follows

MYSTERIOUS deaths has hit Iguomon village in Uhunmwode Local Government Area of Edo State, following curses placed on the community by the Oba of Benin for flaunting his orders. Benin Priests placing curses on human traffickers in Edo. The curses, Vanguard gathered, was necessitated by the disobedience and perversion of native norms by the former officials of the outlawed Community Development Association, CDA, in the village, who flouted the orders of the Benin monarch. The inhabitants of the village, who besieged the palace of Oba Ewuare II in tears yesterday, appealing for a revocation of the curses placed on Iguomon community. They also claimed that mysterious deaths, strange diseases, attacks of various kinds as well as untold afflictions have been ravaging the community shortly after the curses were placed. Spokesman and Secretary to the community, Mr. Joseph Ighodaro, said they were at the palace to appeal to the monarch as the supreme traditional authority in the state to revoke all the curses placed on Iguomon village by his ancestors. He stated that the people of the village were ready to carry out all the necessary rites needed for the revocation of the curses. They also pleaded with monarch to consider Mr. Roland Okhuarobo as the rightful Odionwere of Iguomon village, just as they promised to refrain from all forms of violation of traditional norms to avoid further premature deaths and disasters.

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/…/mysterious-deaths-diseases-h…/

CONCLUSION:

I can reel out many instances of how the Oba’s words have potent consequences. Many descendants of persons and clans who have tasted it will will not be too happy that such dark episodes in their personal history is being published without their consent and it will be indecorous for me to do so here. I want to apologize to anybody who may be offended by the ones I have escalated here in this article. I want them to know that I did so with the positive intention that it will help save lives of many of our brothers and sisters who continually delude themselves that their current status and geographical location have diluted their Edoid blood to the level that our ancestors( whose living viceroy is the Oba) can no longer see,reach or feel them. A word they say,is enough for the wise.

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Benin kingdom copy right