NewStats: 3,263,427 , 8,180,087 topics. Date: Thursday, 05 June 2025 at 09:07 PM 12659

I did this, I am from Rivers State I didn’t see any DNA match who is Igbo.

I matched a lot of Deltans, Bayelsans, Rivers, Some carribean people etc.
But 0 everybody else.
ittedly I saw 1 Fulani and a few Yorubas but that’s through marriage of my 4th great grand mothers sister on my mothers side that sister had a child who probably married a fulani or Hausa or someone who would later give his or her children Arabic names but in my results I am 0% Yoruba 0% Hausa 0% fulani 0% Igbo

99.7% Ijaw
0.3% unassigned

So igbo people, Rivers state is not Igbo. Thank you.

Regions: Delta, Edo, Lagos, Rivers, Bayelsa

Let me guess, you're based abroad, hence you were able to do your ancestry DNA.

DuBLINGreenb:
I did this, I am from Rivers State I didn’t see any DNA match who is Igbo.

I matched a lot of Deltans, Bayelsans, Rivers, Some carribean people etc.

But 0 everybody else.

ittedly I saw 1 Fulani and a few Yorubas but that’s through marriage of my 4th great grand mothers sister on my mothers side that sister had a child who probably married a fulani or Hausa or someone who would later give his or her children Arabic names but in my results I am 0% Yoruba 0% Hausa 0% fulani 0% Igbo

99.7% Ijaw
0.3% unassigned

So igbo people, Rivers state is not Igbo. Thank you.

Regions: Delta, Edo, Lagos, Rivers, Bayelsa

@DuBLINGreenb

That's massively insightful... Congratulations. Are you originally from Bonny Island?

Second, did you take this test with 23andme? They did an update to their database back in 2023 and added more ethnic groups especially from Africa.

AncestryDNA also uses this percentages format and has an updated database of DNA samples. I have followed these DNA testing companies since the early 2000s and the fascinating works of Dr. Kittles from the late 1990s (who is a co-founder of the DNA testing company AfricanAncestry based in the United States).

I'm aware for decades now that due to the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, the Aros and their Abam and Ohafia allies in the present Abia State captured a lot of interior tribes now collectively called Igbos (Ibos) in modern times and brought them to the coastal areas such as Bonny and Kalabari for sale to the Ijaws (who acted as middlemen) for the final purchase by the White slave traders in the 1700s to the early 1800s. Historical and archival records kept by the White folks show that an estimated 80 percent of the Ibos sold as slaves in that period to the Americas through Bonny alone were females! That's essentially how Ibo presence got to those Ijaw areas including the notorious, deported middle man Chief Jaja of Opobo who was originally from Amaigbo in Imo State but was sold as a slave in the 1800s and brought to Bonny as a child.

There's one link right BELOW for you to read:
=>https://nairaland.unblockandhide.com/6871524/true-identity-bonny-opobo-people#108032998


I'm aware that historically, Arochukwu itself is originally Ibibioland, but a war that took place between the 1690s and 1720 led to the Ibo invasion. A lot of Aro culture in of foods, religion, clothing, language loan words and writing in form of "nsibidi," etc, are copied directly from the Ibibios and their Efik and Ejagbam (Ekoi) cousins of Akwa Ibom and Cross River States

I read an article from Punch newspaper a few years ago in the 2010s where the Head of the Ogoni Council of Kings said Ogonis are a fusion of Ibibio people and migrants from Ghana. He stated clearly that a lot of words in Ogoni language are similar with those from Ghana but he didn't say which part of Ghana but I have no doubt it was Ghanaian boat people or migrant fishing communities from Ghana.

The Ijaws too are said to have migrant Ghanaian boat people in their bloodlines and I'm NOT surprised that Ijaws are matrilineal like you have in some Ghanaian ethnic groups. Unlike other Nigerian ethnic groups, Ijaws are NOT paternal or a patriarchal society where you essentially choose or identify with the Ancestry of where your father originally comes from.

DuBLINGreenb:
I did this, I am from Rivers State I didn’t see any DNA match who is Igbo.



So igbo people, Rivers state is not Igbo. Thank you.

Regions: Delta, Edo, Lagos, Rivers, Bayelsa

I sometimes wonder if the problem Nigerians have is comprehension, or if they deliberately distort what is being said, so they can argue nonsense. No Igbo person I know has ever said that Rivers State as a whole is Igbo.

What you should have done is to tell us your specific ethnicity. Rivers is not an ethnicity. It would seem you are Ijaw. Ijaws are not Igbo, and no serious Igbo person has ever claimed they are. However, if it turns out you are Ibani-Ijaw, and your DNA shows no match from Igboland, that would be an interesting result - every student of history knows Bonny absorbed a large number of Igbo slaves at the height of the trans-Atlantic traffic and shortly after. This also happened on a smaller but still significant scale in Okrika and Kalabari.

You not being matched with anybody from the Southeastern states can as well be as a result of limitations in the database of the DNA-testing company you used, since they can only match you with what they have already got in their database.

RedboneSmith:


I sometimes wonder if the problem Nigerians have is comprehension, or if they deliberately distort what is being said, so they can argue nonsense. No Igbo person I know has ever said that Rivers State as a whole is Igbo.

What you should have done is to tell us your specific ethnicity. Rivers is not an ethnicity. It would seem you are Ijaw. Ijaws are not Igbo, and no serious Igbo person has ever claimed they are. However, if it turns out you are Ibani-Ijaw, and your DNA shows no match from Igboland, that would be an interesting result - every student of history knows Bonny absorbed a large number of Igbo slaves at the height of the trans-Atlantic traffic and shortly after. This also happened on a smaller but still significant scale in Okrika and Kalabari.

You not being matched with anybody from the Southeastern states can as well be as a result of limitations in the database of the DNA-testing company you used, since they can only match you with what they have already got in their database.

I am kalabari ijaw.
Most dna data base does not have Ijaw but the more we take the test the more their database improves
The test I took is 23&me they have igbo, edo & Ijaw dna as one which mine fell under, Yoruba and many other African tribes in their data base so it’s good

However some other dna companies lumps us all into southern Nigeria or just Nigeria
I did my heritage and they don’t break it down as well as 23&me

Maybe in future I will do African Ancestry dna or Ancestry dna I’ve heard good things about these two. Especially for Africans.

Back to the talk I have heard igbos saying Kalabari’s are Igbo, they say Asari Dokubo is Igbo and all Kalabari’s, Opobo, Bonny, okrika, Ikwerre, basically all the local government in Rivers except Ogoni are Igbo.
I have also heard them claim Bayelsa is Igbo.

Look I don’t expect you to understand after all the axe that chops down the tree doesn’t chopping down the tree but the tree that is chopped down will never forget being chopped down.


For some of you it may be cruise, it maybe fun and games, it may be just flexing ego or muscles but to us you are threatening our existence as a people. And if you know anything you would know that we don’t hate Igbo people, we don’t discriminate against anybody, everyone feels at home in Rivers state, Igbo, Yoruba everyone we don’t use language to insult people at their back if you don’t like you we tell you to your face. We don’t stop our people from marrying Igbos or Yoruba or anyone else, today there are so many Igbo girls from Imo state in Rivers state, I only realized when I was in university and the Governor was coming to inaugurate some stuff a news station was trying to interview people and the girls kept saying I am from imo, imo, imo I was like wtf Joy you too? How many of you and they laughed but from that day on I kept seeing state of origin: imo I even jokingly asked one are there women left in imo state this one that all of you are now in Port harcourt, if I had married in Rivers during my uni days the odds that I would marry an igbo girl would be very very high and if my child took a dna test and it shows Igbo would that mean his kalabari ancestors are Igbo? Absolutely NOT, it will not be prove that Kalabari’s are Igbo but prove that His mom is Igbo. we in PH sell land to everyone infact people used to use it to make fun of ikwerre’s especially. “Una done sell una village finish to outsiders finish now una wan do event na main road una dey use” 🤣
Pidgin english is our own state language, you can use standard normal English anywhere in the state and even our great grand parents will understand you. Especially those of us from the Riverine regions

I in particular My great grand father wrote letters in English, one of my grand fathers served the English military during one of the wars, one of my great grand fathers was traded with the English in English he also signed agreements on the Ship belonging to Queen Victoria so they knew English and were educated in English since before slavery started officially.

So History and DNA aside if you want our in politics, education, Music, movies, business etc. Just tell us simple we will you. There is no need in attacking, insulting, black mailing, ridiculing us or our ancestry.

I have lived in Kano, Enugu, Lagos, abuja, and many places. You know that thing you guys do where you speak your language to us assuming every Nigerian must speak your Yoruba or Igbo or Hausa we in PH dont do that to people we do not assume everyone must speak Ikwerre or Kalabari we speak in English or pidgin to you until you tell us or we find out that you can speak the language then we speak with you.

If I tell you my experience in Igbo land and Yoruba land you will pity me. But that’s story for another day.
But that experience opened my eyes to the fact that we are different people (the way we see the world, the way we carry ourselves, our definitions of success, respect and more) and that’s why I make long comments like these hoping to educate people.

We don’t hate you, I don’t hate you I just want you to know and respect my identity and that of people like myself. That’s all. The fact that we do not share the same identity or history or culture or language does not mean we cannot work together. We must not be blood brothers before we can work together.

DuBLINGreenb:


Kalabari is a kingdom of Ijaw people. Communities like Abonnema, Buguma and Bakana have few Igbo migrants anyway . Having such Igbos in those communities dont make Kalabari a bi ethinc kingdom. The Land is Ijaw land and th founding fathers were all Ijaw .
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am kalabari ijaw.
Most dna data base does not have Ijaw but the more we take the test the more their database improves
The test I took is 23&me they have igbo, edo & Ijaw dna as one which mine fell under, Yoruba and many other African tribes in their data base so it’s good

However some other dna companies lumps us all into southern Nigeria or just Nigeria
I did my heritage and they don’t break it down as well as 23&me

Maybe in future I will do African Ancestry dna or Ancestry dna I’ve heard good things about these two. Especially for Africans.

Back to the talk I have heard igbos saying Kalabari’s are Igbo, they say Asari Dokubo is Igbo and all Kalabari’s, Opobo, Bonny, okrika, Ikwerre, basically all the local government in Rivers except Ogoni are Igbo.
I have also heard them claim Bayelsa is Igbo.

Look I don’t expect you to understand after all the axe that chops down the tree doesn’t chopping down the tree but the tree that is chopped down will never forget being chopped down.


For some of you it may be cruise, it maybe fun and games, it may be just flexing ego or muscles but to us you are threatening our existence as a people. And if you know anything you would know that we don’t hate Igbo people, we don’t discriminate against anybody, everyone feels at home in Rivers state, Igbo, Yoruba everyone we don’t use language to insult people at their back if you don’t like you we tell you to your face. We don’t stop our people from marrying Igbos or Yoruba or anyone else, today there are so many Igbo girls from Imo state in Rivers state, I only realized when I was in university and the Governor was coming to inaugurate some stuff a news station was trying to interview people and the girls kept saying I am from imo, imo, imo I was like wtf Joy you too? How many of you and they laughed but from that day on I kept seeing state of origin: imo I even jokingly asked one are there women left in imo state this one that all of you are now in Port harcourt, if I had married in Rivers during my uni days the odds that I would marry an igbo girl would be very very high and if my child took a dna test and it shows Igbo would that mean his kalabari ancestors are Igbo? Absolutely NOT, it will not be prove that Kalabari’s are Igbo but prove that His mom is Igbo. we in PH sell land to everyone infact people used to use it to make fun of ikwerre’s especially. “Una done sell una village finish to outsiders finish now una wan do event na main road una dey use” 🤣
Pidgin english is our own state language, you can use standard normal English anywhere in the state and even our great grand parents will understand you. Especially those of us from the Riverine regions

I in particular My great grand father wrote letters in English, one of my grand fathers served the English military during one of the wars, one of my great grand fathers was traded with the English in English he also signed agreements on the Ship belonging to Queen Victoria so they knew English and were educated in English since before slavery started officially.

So History and DNA aside if you want our in politics, education, Music, movies, business etc. Just tell us simple we will you. There is no need in attacking, insulting, black mailing, ridiculing us or our ancestry.

I have lived in Kano, Enugu, Lagos, abuja, and many places. You know that thing you guys do where you speak your language to us assuming every Nigerian must speak your Yoruba or Igbo or Hausa we in PH dont do that to people we do not assume everyone must speak Ikwerre or Kalabari we speak in English or pidgin to you until you tell us or we find out that you can speak the language then we speak with you.

If I tell you my experience in Igbo land and Yoruba land you will pity me. But that’s story for another day.
But that experience opened my eyes to the fact that we are different people (the way we see the world, the way we carry ourselves, our definitions of success, respect and more) and that’s why I make long comments like these hoping to educate people.

We don’t hate you, I don’t hate you I just want you to know and respect my identity and that of people like myself. That’s all. The fact that we do not share the same identity or history or culture or language does not mean we cannot work together. We must not be blood brothers before we can work together.