J.O.S. Ayomike and Itsekiri History
By Gaga Ekeh
I saw Elder Ayomike once. I am not sure what the Itsekiri call their leaders, so I use the term “elder.” He towered, much like my uncle Chamberlain, as tourists, magnetized by him, sought to discover why he knew so much. I was amused by this, partly because this was during a dear friend’s wedding and Ayomike was much too busy to attend to the details of history in such a forum. The wedding was a smashing success and for the first time I felt like I knew the Itsekris. But then came the gloom. The Urhobo Historical Society, led in principle by Professor Peter Ekeh, in their quest to set the record straight, seemed to conspire to calumniate Ayomike by, in effect, labeling him a “pseudo-historian.” I am not a scholar, in the European sense of the word, and so I had little basis for disputing the claim. All I had was the African instinct that told me that such a man as Ayomike ought not be ridiculed in any fashion, and if it were to happen, then the offending parties ought to realize, quite quickly, that even if Oxford gave them their stature amongst the whites, it was the Niger Delta that gave them their name. Claims to the knowledge of African History are controversial. What we might suggest, in any case, is that we are current African History and what we do now ought to be documented “…in some way” that is culturally and internally accessible (in the most semantic sense possible) so that future generations may discover what we had learned. But to see the UHS fighting Ayomike, one can only conclude that what we had learned may not have been very much. Indeed, history will blame Chief Okumagba for all the troubles in Warri. And yet, where was the UHS when it was needed to take a non-partisan stand in the only science that matters in Warri, Conflict Resolution? History is awash with charlatans and brigands, but Ayomike is not one of them. But, in the spirit of African respect, perhaps he is the only man who can dialog with Chief Okumagba so that the Delta can get on with the process of reinstating our ancient heritage so that valuable children of that land might return. As is, we will stay where we are and become citizens of the land of the whites, and only because the UHS and J.O.S. Ayomike cannot agree to dialog with Chief Okumagba and give us a home. We will continue this dialog after I have had more palm wine.
