Who We Are
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Urhobo, a people of the northwestern part of the Niger River delta in extreme southern Nigeria. They speak a language Urhobo language. The name Urhobo Association of Manitoba came from their origin. Their local communities are different in economy, social organization, dialect, and origins.
Under the influence first of European traders and then of the British colonial administration, the Urhobo and other peoples began to grow oil palms, and later rubber, as cash crops. Yams and cassava, as well as corn (maize), beans, peppers, and peanuts (groundnuts), are the Urhobo’s major staple crops. The Urhobo also fish and are known for their canoes, sacred mud sculptures, masks, figures, bronze jewelry, and stilt and masquerade dances. Property duties and rights descend patrilineally. The extended family, living in a compound of dwelling structures, is the basis of town or village wards. The Urhobo traditionally worship Oghene, the Supreme Creator, who is connected with the sky. Individuals may also worship personal or ancestral spirits and supernatural powers. Christianity and its clash with existing institutions has resulted in some social problems among the Urhobo. Since the 1960s the Urhobo homeland has been one of Nigeria’s main petroleum-producing regions. |
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Permit us to put aside the two controversial terms of “clans” and “kingdoms.” In their place, We will use the politically neutral expression of “Urhobo Cultural Units” or more simply “Urhobo’s Subcultures.” These are sociological notions for which the word “clans” or “kingdoms” had been suggested as a shorthand. Note that we have not employed another popular expression, polities, in characterizing these subunits of Urhobo culture. That is because the word polities is limited by its political anthropological baggage to matters political whereas the units of Urhobo culture that are the subject of our discussion here have vast historical and cultural nuances and interpretations.
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Urhobo Culture |
Boundaries |
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These basic subunits of Urhobo culture were prehistoric. That is, their existence predated modern historiography that assigns dates and ascertainable time periods to historical events. Today, Urhobo scholars and culture artists have arrived at a sum total of twenty-two of these units of Urhobo culture. By saying that they are prehistoric, we mean to say that all of them -- Agbarha-Ame, Agbarha Otor, Agbarho, Agbon, Arhavwarien, Avwraka, Ephron, Evwreni, Eghwu, Idjerhe, Oghara, Ogor, Okere, Okparebe, Okpe, Olomu, Orogun, Udu, Ughelli, Ughievwen, Uvwie, and Uwherun – were well settled before the rise of significant historical epochs that defined the boundaries of medieval and modern Urhobo history. Thus, it is presumed that all these twenty-two subunits of Urhobo culture were in existence before the rise of Benin Empire in the 1440s and before the arrival of the Portuguese in the Western Niger Delta in the 1480s.
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To say that Urhobo’s subcultures were ancient and prehistoric is not to suggest that they are of the same age and generation. On the contrary, a group of these subcultures was of great antiquity, giving birth to newer subcultures. In general, the older subcultures were geographically separated from the less ancient ones. There is ample evidence from internal Urhobo folk knowledge and rituals that suggests that the oldest cultural subunits of Urhoboland are in the low-lying swampy southeastern region which is bounded by Patani River and Ijawland in the south and Isokoland in the east. These primeval subcultures of Urhoboland include Uwherun, Evwreni, Arhavwarien, Okparebe, Eghwu, and Olomu.
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