YEGWA ORGANISATION

YEGWA ORGANISATION

OUR RIVERS; OUR HISTORY

History is dynamic. Africa is now beginning to document its stories for the world and in less than 100 years have made it possible to assume world reckoning which has culminated to the election of a blackman in the white-house.

As patriarch of the Offoboche dynasty, the onus is on you, it�s a responsibility too, to properly document the history for which you have by providence been handpicked.

It is a duty for which foot-soldiers have been trained to lend you the necessary assistance when the time comes. We believe the time is now!

Find below a brief on the extent and reach of Yegwa�s incursion in the early 19^th century to lay a foundation that present generation will be happy to exhume for the purposes of straightening out the many rough edges.

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Yegwa, a Yala name for snake is synonymous to the flow of waters that forms streams collecting into crossing rivers, uploading itself into the Atlantic Ocean at Ikot-Oko (Ikot means forest in Ibibio language).

There exists various connotation in various community all over the world when making reference to their place of abode just as the Ibibio say forest, the Songhai (earth) Igala (fire)- essence, Jukun (water), Yala (air) Langtang group(wood)

Ijaja stream is flows into Monaya (�Mon� is Ishibori word for �Son�), Monaya therefore means Son of Aya, a River in present day Ogoja Local Government Area of Cross River State Nigeria.

Monaya joins a bigger river Aya, a Yala word for (Friends) in Abakpa (a Yala name for Hausa settlers) near the Ogboja market also in present day Ogoja. Aya is joined by Ugaga Waters collecting at Aya that is directly linked to the Ukelle-Yahe Ebo muddy water at the back of Oyi-Onwu Secondary School, Yahe. The mountains of Igede is the source of all the tributaries that spreads into five main collection centres located in key Yala territories of Echumofana, Yache, Okuku, Ugaga and finally Ebo.

Other rivers join Aya from Bekwarra, Mbube, Boki making up the Ikom River. The Ikom River is joined by the Imo River that cascades from the Nji-Aba Mountains in Imo State.

The confluence of Imo and Ikom River forms the Calabar (Calm Bar) River because of �Red Gold�. Cross River is derived from these rivers which form into myriads of deltas; Bakassi is the biggest.

The business of the protectorate were taken care of in old Ogoja (Ogboja) because of the early involvement of two locals, Chief Odo Ariku, the Chief Tax-Collector to the Protectorate and Chief Offoboche Yegwa who is in charge of the Protectorate�s Forces. Due to a mishap at the �The Salt-Lake� in Okpoma, the protectorate decision making area was relocated to Lokoja in present day Kogi State as headquarters. The �Calm Bar� Calabar, which later became the first capital of the Colonialist regime in Nigeria had five zonal headquarters; Ogoja, Lokoja, Kaduna, Enugu and LAGOS (Lets All Go Over Sea). Lagos was bought and became congested after the colonialists left.

Nigeria�s Political leaders at the time demanded to buy back Lagos off the British but were informed that the granting of independence to the former British colony has returned Lagos to Nigeria. In an attempt to decongest the ever busy commercial city, a new capital was contemplated in 1972 by General Gowon, who believed that a new capital for Nigeria should be at the centre. General Murtala in 1976 decided the exact areas that should host the new capital. The Original plan was drawn up by General Obasanjo regime in 1978 and kick-started that same year. It was General Babangida finally that moved the physical location of Nigeria�s capital to Abuja in 1992.

This is the heart of our very essence. The Yala history is very rich indeed.

From Yegwa�s waters to the Estates of Ikpala to the Networks of Ogar to the Salt-lake of Odey Yala as huge and extensive as it is; is Our Stories as a Family that is waiting for proper documentations. Our Rivers our stories gives Yala Renaissance.

�Brownoga & Oko Offoboche

*The Maps below gives us a historical picture that our tribe Yala has been in the heart of global discuss ironically, without us. We believe this is the time�

Bantu Migration

Today, millions of people across the southern half of Africa speak related languages, collectively known as Bantu languages. Linguistic evidence shows that the root Bantu language emerged in what is now Nigeria and Cameroon by 2000 bc. By 1000 bc, in a series of migrations, Bantu speakers had spread south to the savanna lands of Angola and east to the Lake Victoria region. Over the next 1,500 years they scattered throughout central and southern Africa, interacting with and absorbing indigenous populations as they spread.

2000 BC - AD 1000?

Bantu Expansion

The Bantu speakers carry an agricultural way of life from western Africa into the area of the continent south of the equator. The Bantus domesticate plants and animals and introduce metallurgy, laying the foundation for complex societies to follow. The Bantu expansion is one of the largest in human history.

Routes of Human Migration

It is widely agreed upon that original routes of human migration began with emigrations from Africa into the Mideast, Asia, and Europe, and only much later from Asia to the Americas. Exactly when and how migrations occurred is highly debated. Nonetheless, it is clear that people encountered and overcame substantial geographic and climactic barriers, including deserts, mountain ranges, bodies of water, and glaciers (especially during periodic Ice Ages).