By Young Erhiurhoro
In the world today, so many nations and people seek and attain popularity, fame, greatness and recognition through diverse means. The Urhobo as an ethnic nationality in Nigeria and her people are not exempted from these global classifications. From the Urhobo historical foundations, there were usually stories of Urhobo people that attained popularity and greatness through different means or ways.
From pristine to the slave trade era, and from pre-colonial to colonial and to the post-colonial periods in Urhobo land, so many communities and people attained popularity and greatness through various means. Before the introduction of western education in Urhobo land by the British in the 1800s, the Urhobos were already parading huge numbers of popular and great people in areas of humanities, agriculture and economics.
However, before we go further in this short discourse, we must understand that popularity and greatness in this context are not necessarily the same as “wealth or riches”. A person can be very popular, yet he’s not very much wealthy. A person can be so great and his/her name heard all over the world, yet he’s not the most richest person in the world. In this case, the exigency we want to draw in this discourse is to tell us about the essence of popularity as it’s being achieved through diversity. Popularity and greatness is not tied to a particular profession or career. You can definitely become popular through your chosen profession or career. It all depends on your determination, level of knowledge and craftiness in the chosen job.
As we earlier explained, during the pristine period in Urhobo land, people attained popularity and greatness through war and hunting. Many popular and great people then were warlords and hunters in different communities. From Urhobo history, many communities today were founded and established as a result of inter-communal or inter-tribal wars between two or more communities in their original abodes. In fact, there was no community or clan that is in Urhobo land today that was founded outside this sociological trend of war and hunting. In that time, there were dreaded warlords and brave hunters. These warlords were so vast in local warfare and they have recorded so many victories and achievements to the utter amazement of weak people.
This is why these set of warlords had formed a vast compendium of Urhobo folklore, songs and moonlight tales especially from those communities they came from. The names of such people as forebears, founders and progenitors still ring bell louder and louder everyday in those communities across Urhobo land. They formed the bulk of the community histories which are being handed down from generation to generation either verbally or written in so many communities.
The story was the same with brave hunters. Some of these brave hunters also founded many of the Urhobo communities. For instance, Evwreni kingdom was known be founded by a brave hunter called Ewurhu who killed an elephant in a thick forest after he had earlier settled down with his brother, Usu who founded Unenurhie community. Till today, the name Ewurhu is not forgotten in the land of Evwreni as the founder of the community. The name is always very popular and great, even amongst the younger generations in the community. There are other communities too in Urhobo land that were founded by brave hunters.
From the slave trade era to the pre-colonial period, many Urhobo people attained popularity and greatness through agriculture and business. Many Urhobo people ventured into large scale agricultural practices by cultivating large expanse of arable land. This could be food or cash crop farming. This was the period when the British were buying our people as slaves. In most cases, our farmers especially the influential ones sold these people to the British in exchange for farming implements like cutlass, hoe, axe, climbing ropes etc.
However, the funniest part of this scenario was that, the influential farmers in this case might not necessarily participate in all the farming activities like clearing, planting, weeding, harvesting, processing and others throughout the farming season. These great farmers have workers under them. In every of the farming activity, there were readily available skilled workers to handle such a job. Their own was just to supervise the workers in all the activities and pay them in whatever agreed form. Yet, the popularity and fame as great farmers always came to them at the end of every farming season in the community. The workers were not even known for anything.
It was this same period that great traders emerged in Urhobo land. These influential traders became trade agents for the British merchants. They bought agricultural produce in large quantities especially non-perishable products like palm oil, palm nuts and other ones. They stocked them in large quantities awaiting the British merchants. These set of traders became so popular, fame and great in their own communities and across Urhobo land. This was the era of the late Mukoro Mowoe of Warri, Uloho of Ughelli and others. This was how these people established business contacts and family relationships with the British people in their own countries. Even till today, the names of these people are still very popular and great in the lips of every Urhobo person.
Then it comes to the colonial and post-colonial periods in Urhobo land. In this period too, so many popular and great people were also recorded. In fact, this is the same period we are today in Nigeria. In this period like in the past periods as explained, many Urhobo people attained popularity and greatness in diverse ways.
First, many attained popularity and greatness through educational breakthroughs and pursuits. This was the period when western education was formally introduced and established in many Urhobo communities. Many Urhobo young people grabbed this opportunity and passed through the four walls of the classroom to attain popularity and greatness. Today, Urhobo as one of the ethnic nationalities in Nigeria has over five hundred professors in different academic disciplines in different universities and other tertiary institutions across the world. And to any academic or scholar that is able to attain professorship in his chosen discipline, such a scholar is already popular or great in his academic field through his researches and publications. They are the most respected and most popular in the academic world; yet they might not be as rich as business people and politicians in Urhobo land.
Secondly, other set of people that attained popularity and greatness in this era were those that brought innovations through local or advanced technology in Urhobo land. Many Urhobo people were very popular as a result of different innovations they made to their credit. These people used craftsmanship and innovative prowess to sourced out materials locally and used same to produce one product or the other. For producing such household or industrial products, those people became so popular and great in their own communities and across the Urhobo land. The names of such people are still very in remembrance even till these days.
I want to conclude this discourse by saying that, people can attain popularity, fame and greatness through diverse ways. We only mentioned people that attained popularity and greatness through positive ways in Urhobo land. What about those that their names are very popular, but through negative ways? People are very popular and great today as a result of armed robbery, terrorism, harlotry and many evil ways of life. As an Urhobo youth or child, what do want to be popular or known for in this life?
So many Urhobo people were popular and great in those days. These set of people were known for something good by adding immeasurable value to the Urhobo society. These past Urhobo popular people should be our role models and guardians in whatever we have chosen to do in life to hear our names in popular ways. We can only be popular in this case if we live meaningful lives and contribute meaningfully to the lives of others around us. Don’t ever dream of achieving popularity and greatness in your community by partaking in evil activities. Whenever your name is mentioned amongst people, let them respond by calling you better names. This is why the Holy Scriptures says, “A good name is better than riches.” Therefore, seek popularity and greatness to promote the name of Urhobo as a tribe and a local country.
Young Erhiurhoro;Kjc is a reporter and a member of the Urhobo Historical Society.
