The Ijaw

Where the Ijaw live

Delta State's Ijaw live in six local government areas: Burutu, Bomadi, Patani, Warri North, Warri South and Warri South-West. Their fifteen clans, or ibe, include Egbema in Warri North, Ogbe-Ijoh in Warri South, Gbaramatu and Isaba in Warri South-West, Ogulagha, Tuomo and Iduwini in Burutu, Mein across Bomadi and Burutu, and Tarakiri, Kabowei and Kumbowei in Patani.

The land shapes the life: Ogulagha and the Gbaramatu settlements sit on sandy beach ridges, most communities in Burutu, Warri South-West and Warri North are in the salt-water swamps, and Bomadi and Patani are in the freshwater swamps.

Language

The Ijaw speak nine closely related languages of the Ijoid branch of the Niger-Congo family. Izon is the most widely spoken.

Life on the water

Fishing and farming have always been the main work of Ijaw communities, and the creeks are their roads. The Ijaw are spread across Delta, Bayelsa and Rivers states, and number just over four million people, among the largest ethnic groups in Nigeria.

Oil and a political voice

Much of Nigeria's oil lies under Ijaw land and water, and the Ijaw have been at the centre of the struggle over who benefits from it. The Ijaw National Congress, formed in 1991, speaks for the Ijaw as a nation, and in December 1998 the All Ijaw Youths Conference issued the Kaiama Declaration, setting out Ijaw grievances over oil and the environment.

The Ijaw share Warri and the western creeks with Itsekiri and Urhobo communities, and each tells the area's history in its own way. Where accounts differ, we say so.

Read next

• Oil and gas in the Delta
• The Warri Kingdom
• Ijaw associations