To the ordinary man on the street of Warri and its environs: How much does he know about this great kingdom on which he is treading? And off course, the 'sons of the soil' who might have heard stories transmitted to them by their various lineages, kith and kin, how in-depth are they? As for those who already know, it is pertinent to go down memory lane - to refresh the mind.
            As we take a critical look into the historical perspective of this kingdom, attempt will be made to straighten the myths and legends surrounding it, drawing excerpts from notable scholars and authorities whose views are respected.
            First in a series debuting this paper, we shall unearth the entire gamut of the Itsekiri origin: x-raying who the aboriginal inhabitants were, what led them to the choice of the place of their settlements and the key players in the exodus with special reference to Mr. Itsekiri in the formation of the place popularly referred to as Ode Itsekiri. And in our subsequent edition, we shall mirror the reign of the Benis over the early settlers and how the word 'Iwere' corruptly metamorphosis with many variants until it eventually assumed the name Warri.
            The historical perspective of the Warri Kingdom is akin to 'a tale of two kingdoms. Historical experts on this subject, prominent among whom are Dr. Jacob Egharevba, John O. Sagay, Chief A.O.Rewane; Mr. J.O.S. Ayomike and some other notable writers agree that the Warri Kingdom is a marriage of two kingdoms  the Benin and Yoruba Kingdoms. The Benis, by the gradual unfolding of events, were said to have 'contributed' the monarch; while the Yorubas 'donated' most of the settlers who were Chiefly Ijebus. We shall deal with this later.
Origin:
            It is a fact universally acclaimed that the only constant thing in life is change. Thus, before the 15th century, the forces at work in fashioning a kingdom had begun; the people that would make the epoch event, place and time  the necessary materials for its 'foundation,' being piled up.
            Although, like the case of most historical traditions of the world, the origins of the Itsekiri people had given rise to many opinions not based on firm evidence. One of such documented account is an excerpt from journal of the Anthropological Institute, Old Series Vol. XXVIII by Messrs. R.K. Granville and F.N. Roth.
            “Some says” they wrote: “They descended from the most easterly of the Yoruba Kings' subjects, made up of runaway slaves, law breakers, etc. Inter-married with adjoining tribes; they sometimes say Jekri means a coward, a man who would not fight and therefore who was expelled from their tribe….” Another statement is that “when the Portuguese came to Benin City, one of the leader's sons, a half-caste, was sent to Warri, or as the people themselves name the town, Jekri, and there a house was built for him. By means of the Juju of the King of Benin, he was declared King of that part of the delta; he brought Yoruba wives with him and was the founder of the Itsekiri nation.” A third statement would seem to be a mixture of the first two, for it said that “the half-caste found at the delta, Yoruba runaways of whom he constituted himself Chief and from these Yorubas, the Jekri are descended.”
            From the aforesaid, it can be seen that the impression of these two white men, who were piecing up antecedents in Itsekiri history that culminated into the Warri kingdom were mere speculators. The basic reasoning adduced by the Itsekiri people in disregarding these speculations by Granville and Roth who were closely associated with the administration of the territory after it came under the British protection in 1895 was that the word 'Jekri' (as we shall know later) does not mean “A coward, a man who would not fight….”
            Also, the Itsekiri people would not buy the contention that the origin of their descent is traced to a Benin monarch's son, a half caste, who reigned in the 17th century. This, they claimed, is a misrepresentation of facts as the kingdom had already been founded before his reign. The reference to a half-caste king (as we shall unveil later) referred to an Itsekiri King, Dom Antonio Domingo (Olu Oyenakpagha or Obanighenren) whose mother was a Portuguese woman of a noble birth. Thus, if this contention is allowed to gain ground, it therefore means that the Itsekiri people would have been a race of the mulatto colour. However, this is not to say that this colour is not uncommon in the kingdom. The last statement by Graville and Roth: “… for it said that the half-caste found at the delta, Yoruba runaways of whom he constituted himself Chief and from these Yorubas, the Jekri are descended,” seemed to be in line with the Itsekiri views, save that the Benin leader was not a half-caste but a Benin Prince, who constituted himself king over the aboriginal inhabitants.
EXODUS
            The movement of the aboriginal inhabitants can be said to be as far back as to some few years before the medieval time when communities were frequently engaged in inter-communal clashes, most especially from the Yoruba communities. According to John O. Sagay in his book, The Warri Kingdom, “the people called Itsekiri today did not have a common origin. They represent different migrant groups on which a monarch was superimposed. Who were these migrants groups and when did they occupy the Warri, Forcados and Benin Rivers?”
            And according to Mr. J.O.S. Ayomike in his book, Benin And Warri: Meeting Points In History, “…much earlier peoples from Ode, near Ijebu Waterside and Igala in Nupe country had moved to settle in Omadino and Irigbo-Okotomu (Ode-Itsekiri) respectively. Others had come from Akure and Owo, and through the coast by way of Gulani to settle in various parts, including Uregu and Ugborodo. Even though they remained a part as independent mini-communities, they appeared because of the predominance of the Yoruba stock amongst them, to have developed a Yoruba dialect (Itsekiri) as a lingua franca.” And in his other book, The Itsekiri At A Glance, he stressed further, “…in several waves of migration before the 15th century and some a little later, groups from Igala in Nupe country, came in through the Greeks, Yoruba from Ijebu-Ode, Akure and Owo found their way into parts of the kingdom and a group from Aboh also came in. Some along the coast came in through Gulani/Amatu….”
ITSEKIRIS
            How did the tribe that inhabits this kingdom acquire the word ITSEKIRI as dialect in the first place? We were told that before and during the medieval period (1100 1400AD), when the struggle for the carving out of kingdoms were at its peak, various communities in the Yoruba Kingdom engaged themselves in inter-communal clashes. The resultant consequence of these clashes was a mass exodus of refugees looking for a safe haven. The migrants like ants moving in echelon had come from diverse places: Akure, Owo, IjebuOde through the coast by way of Gulani to settle in various parts, including Ureji and Ugborodo.
            According to John O. Sagay, “…we are told that the people of Ugborodo, Omadino and Ureju migrated from Ode in Ijebu. This should explain some affinity between the Itsekiri Language and Ijebu; if we accept this, then there may have been some Yoruba settlements along the Benin and Escravos Rivers, but it was unlikely that they were found before then, there may have been small fishing settlements. The people of Ugborodo and Ogidigben still describe themselves a descendants of their immortalised ancestor named Olaja-Oriwu.Those of Omadino claim to be descendants of Lenuwa, the title of the ruler of Ode.”
            From the above account, we can see that some communities in the kingdom still believe in their ancestral descents before their settlement. Nevertheless, they are still bonafide citizen of the kingdom in view of the monarch's dominance over all the communities in the kingdom.
            Of all the movements for a safe haven by these migrant groups, one that is most instrumental to the carving out of a race that is today known as the Itsekiri tribe is that conducted by one Mr. Itsekiri and his family. The journey, which started from Ode in Ijebu, saw them migrating to Kerenmu. From Kerenmu, the horde moves to Ijalosan and then finally to Okoyitemi (Okotomu) presently called Ode-Itsekiri.
            From the foregoing text, it can be seen that the word Itsekiri which was corrupted by these variants: Jakri, Jekri by various Europeans who had contact with the tribe is not an interpretation of cowardice or a man who could not fight as surmised by Granville and Roth; but rather a word adopted from the name of the founder of a place. Culling from J.O.Sayay's book, The Warri Kingdom, the picture becomes clearer.
            “…while Yorba settlements were maturing along Escravous and Benin Rivers, the children of one Ijenekun called Fifan Wandobo and Itsekiri were migrating from Kerenmu to Ijalosan and later from Ijalosan to Okoyitemi: Itsekiri led the migration to Okoyitemi (Okolomu). He was thus head of the settlement of Okolomu when the migrants from Benin arrived.”
…To be continued.