By Nkasiobi Oluikpe Correspondent, Lagos
Location
Ilaje people are located in the coastal region of Ondo State, between Lekki/Epe Lagoon and the eastern boundary of Delta State. They can also be found in cohesive diasporic communities in Douala (Cameroon), Sapele/Warri (Delta), Asejire (Oyo) and parts of Lagos State. According to the 2006 census statistics, they have a population of about 290,615 people.
In the words of Pa Robinson Aiyemoboye, the oldest Ilaje man in Bariga and a retired Major of the Nigerian Army (popularly known as Papa Major), the Ilaje in Lagos have been existing for over 80 years.
Natural instinct
For every child bearing Ilaje blood, there is an inherent instinct to swim. This is because when a child is born in Ilaje land, they are thrown into the river and the river throws them back in return. It is a traditional rite to welcome the child into their world. So, there is no occasion for teaching a child to swim, you just have to swim, how it happens, is beyond explanation to the rational mind. But, skills like backstroke, frogs, diving, and Abata, are said to be learnt.
Aborigines
According to Ben Omowafola Tomoloju, popularly known as ‘Pappy Ben’, a culture activist, author of books and the Aremo Onipopo of Ilaje Land, the Ilaje were members of the ancient communities that existed in Ile-Ife before the advent of Oduduwa in the the 10th century A.D. Upon the arrival of Oduduwa in Ife, he seized power from the incumbent ruler and assumed monarchical authority over the land.
Tomoloju said: “The ancestors of the Ilajes detested the Oduduwa take-over and, therefore, migrated through the forest of Oke Mafunrangan to a place near Esinmirin River from where they invaded Ile-Ife over a long period, carting away spoils and capturing slaves. This invasion was what motivated the legendary Ife Queen, Moremi, to embark on a heroic espionage quest that led to the eventual defeat of the marauding aborigines.
“The coastal town, Ugbo, under the paramount ruler, Olugbo, is a major settlement of the protesting migrants. Its full meaning is ‘Mo r’ubo gbo ni.’ (I have a place to stay.) Ugbo is primary setting in the Moremi legend, which people sometimes mistake for Igboland in South-eastern Nigeria.
“Another major town, Mahin, comes under the paramount rulership of the Amapetu. Ugbo, Mahin and other towns like Atijere, Obe-Nla and Igbo-Egunrin reflect a degree of cultural mix which suggest some form of historical kinship between the Ilaje, Itsekiri and the Edo.
After their migration from Ile-Ife, Papa Major remarked that every other community where the Ilaje settled and inhabit is founded upon the presence of water and fish. The fishes, he said, can never go extinct, as long as the Ilajes are there.
Primary occupation
Being riverine by nature, their primary occupation is fishing, added to which is timber logging. Though the wood logging occupation in Ilaje land suffers some kind of setback due majorly to the absence of a sawmill, they still manage to use their canoe to ferry the woods to Igbekun, a neighbouring towns in the hinterland. But, in areas like Ebute-Metta, Makoko and Epe in Lagos, the wood logging business around the riverine thrives.
Commenting, Tomoloju states: “My late grandfather, the Onipopo III of Mahin Kingdom, was fondly called ‘Johnu Epe’ because for a long time, Epe was his trading post in the logging business and his niece, was a matriarch of the Epesanmi family in Epe. So, you can see how rooted the Ilajes can be in diapora.
Added to this, Papa Major also indicated that pre-colonially, Ilajes were salt miners. “You know we are very close to the Atlantic Ocean which contains a lot of salt water.”
Beyond knowing the names and species of the various fishes in water, Isaac Aiyemoboye, a lecturer at the Department of Industrial Technical Education of the Yaba College of Technology, noted that the average Ilaje person knows which fish is gotten from the fresh water and which fish is gotten from the salt water. There are also seasons when the water in the Lagoon turns to salt water, this is between April and July, when we have heavy rainfall.
Aiyemoboye also indicated that despite fishing across several villages at a time, there is no occasion where any Ilaje fisherman loses his way on the high sea. This, he said is due to the fact that, when you are on the sea, there is a way you picture yourself and there are landmarks you will identify to tell you the distance from home. The weather condition, the direction of the wind, the position of the sun by day and the position of the moon by night, all contribute to forming part of your compass and a forewarning for straying off the normal route.
A very few of the Ilaje, who live outside the water, known as the Ilaje Igbo (that is, Ilaje on land) try their hands on farming, but some people jocularly state that, nature never conferred farming on them but fishing, as a result they have not been able to produce beyond subsistence level as the lands are said not to be fertile enough for agriculture. So, they majorly depend on the Ikale and Apoi people for enough farm produce.
Peculiarity
The Ilaje are not the only race in Nigeria that resides within the coastal lines. We have the Ijaw, Egun and others. With all these other tribes they co-exist peacefully and where they are not close door neighbours, they meet on the high seas.
Before now, the tribal marks stood the Ilaje person out from their other riverine neighbours, but presently, due to civilisation, parents no longer give their children such marks. But, on the high sea, there are very obvious differences. These include the size and shape of their boats, the make of their fishing nets, the type of paddle, the type of fish trap, the shape of the fish spear, etc. And of course, their language, which is a variation of the Yoruba language. The Ilaje can also be spotted fishing in the high sea in the middle of the night.
Religious inclination
Like in other tribes in Nigeria, the Ilaje have their traditional beliefs before the advent of the white men. Even at that, Tomoloju said, the Ilaje tend to celebrate the moral force of the goddess, Aiyelala, whose legend was researched by Archdeacon (Professor) Awolalu and later given an international dramatic elucidation by Ben Tomoloju.
Isaac Aiyemoboye pointed out that the advent of the white missionaries saw the Ilaje embracing Christianity with full force, with 90 per cent of the Christians among them worshipping with the Cherubim and Seraphim Church, which has its headquarters in Ugbo Nla.
Festivities
Though the Ilaje are scattered in various places along the coastal lines, at various times of the year, they all returnto their home base in Ondo to celebrate some of their festivals, which according to Tomoloju, include: masquerading (the Umale festival), Malokun (a fertility festival for the goddess of the sea), regatta and periodically, the Epo (Raffia-costumed masquerade), which was used to scare the people of Ife before the Moremi saga.
During these celebrations, Tomoloju stressed, there is the uniquely polyphonic renditions of both the Biripo traditional music and the Ilaje spirituals of the Zion Christian sect. They are particularly soul-lifting and you find a lot of upland Yoruba musicians trying to imitate these in their compositions.
Monarchical system
Mahin is the major town in Ilaje land and is under the paramount ruler known as the Amapetu of Mahin. Unlike in some other monarchical systems where the headship of a clan falls on the eldest member of the clan, there are four ruling houses in Mahin within which the rulership of the clan is rotated.
Beside Mahin, there are three other major clans as indicated by Papa Major. These include Ugbo, Aheri and Etikan. Aheri is presided over by the Maporure and Etikan is headed by the Onikan of Etikan while Ugbo is headed by the Olugbo of Ugbo.
Dress culture
Being migrants from Yoruba land, it would be surprising to know that the core Ilaje traditional dress code borrows from outside the Yoruba tribe. Hear Tomoloju: “Actually, the Ilaje traditional mode of dressing is of the semblance of the Itsekiris or Urhobos with slight modifications. The men dress in wrapper with a buba top, while the women dress in blouse and wrapper. But, in the past few decades, most Ilaje have embraced the conventional Yoruba mode of dressing, except on special occasions.
Food culture
During festive periods, Aiyemoboye said, though the presence of fish is emphasised in all the foods, there are special kinds of foods prepared. These foods are peculiar only to the Ilaje. They include the Pupuru and Obe Marugbo. The Pupuru is made from cassava, and prepared in a similar process as fufu, it also has a similar taste with fufu. The Obe Marugbo is cooked with a special type of vegetable that is grounded. The colour of the Obe Marugbo is dark green. There is the mashed yam prepared with palm oil and we also have what is called the Igbanyeghe, boiled corn with fish and palm oil added to some other Ilaje food condiments.
Receptivity to change
The dynamism of the world has also rubbed off on the Ilaje people, especially those dynamisms that tend towards positive change, so they are not left out. This is reflected on Tomoloju’s statement thus: “Everyone across the world is now campaigning for peace and advocating the absence of war. This is the very essence of the apotheosis of Aiyelala, the youngest goddess on the Yoruba pantheon. She lived in the late 19th century, many years younger than Mary Slessor. She was to be sacrificed to reconcile the warring Ilaje and Apoi communities. Before she was sacrificed, she warned that there should be no more war, no witchcraft and any form of human sacrifice. She would offer herself as the last human sacrifice, and would always return to punish anyone who disobeyed her order. That was a huge injunction in humanitarianism, a paradigm shift in the consciousness of people in the traditional Ilaje society. So, the Ilaje are naturally well-disposed to positive change.”
Impact of civilisation on Ilaje tradition
And like in several other tribes, the encroachment of civilisation has eroded the Ilaje culture. As Tomoloju puts it, it would take an epic battle of wit to convince the Christian community that masquerading is only a long piece of drama re-enacting the legends and history of the people with all its economic, tourist benefits. To some, it is paganistic and should be discouraged. That tradition is fading off while the westerners and Asians are guarding theirs jealously. There is also a tendency towards the adulteration of the typical Ilaje music. Its uniqueness is reduced when it begins to play to the gallery of other genres.
Government’s presence
Though petroleum is found in Ilaje land in Ondo State, plus abundance of glass sand, bitumen, quartz and clay, this is not reflected on the economic life of the people as the area is said to suffer from long time neglect by successive governments.
Rural electrification exercise is yet to get to Ilaje land. Aiyetoro, which is said to be lit, is powered by generator bought through community efforts.
There are a few primary and secondary schools in Ilaje land, a Technical College at Aiyetoro, established by the community itself and a new university of technology.
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