Background
The Apoi of Ese-Odo Local Government Area in Okitipupa Division of Ondo State live in the nine towns of Igbobini, Ojuala, Ikpoki, Inikorogha, Oboro, Sabomi, Igbotu, Kiribo and Igbekebo. They are one of the most land-bound Ijo sub-groups. All towns, except Gbekebo, are sited on minor creeks, and are as much main land as delta towns. For these environmental and cultural reasons, some Apoi refer to themselves, by the local name of upland peoples, Perekiri. The Apoi are bordered to the north and north-west by the Ikale (Irele and Okitipupa Local Government Council Areas), in the west by Ilaje Local Government Area, to the east by Irele Local Government Area (Ikale) and to the south by the Arogbo-Ijo, their neighbours in Ese-Odo Local Government Area. In spite of their Yoruba speech, the Apoi have not completely lost their Ijo culture. Each town still observes an annual festival at which Ijo rituals and Ijo masquerades are performed. Apoi history, then, has been affected by their Perekiri environment and neighbours, but their traditions of origin and migration firmly relate them to other Ijo sub-groups in the Central Delta and Western Delta fringe (Alagoa 1972: 27).
Origin And Migration
The earliest recorded account of Apoi traditions gave their place of origin as Brass, meaning the Brass Division of the Rivers state, an expression covering the entire Central Delta. Two sub-groups in this area, Kolokuma and Apoi, have traditions deriving the western Apoi from their territory. The most recent recorded western Apoi traditions specifically named Kolokuma as the place of origin, presumably from the published Kolokuma account.
According to the Kolokuma account, Opoi, one of the seven sons of Kala-Okun (ancestor of Kolokuma, and founder of the Opoidani lineage of the Kolokuma), “left with his grandfather Ijo (Kalasuo) to Apoi creek and founded the Apoi clan in western Ijo”. Internal textual evidence points to the conclusion that Kolokuma tradition really refers to a migration to the Apoi of the Central Delta, and that a secondary migration from that area is the subject of the western Apoi traditions of origin. This conclusion is supported by the many points at which the traditions of both Apoi meet.
The central Apoi name Kalasuo as the founder of their sub-group, arriving from an unknown home, in a group of nine. The western Apoi give the name Kalasuo as a title taken by their leader, named by them Apoi, but also migrating with nine “sons”. The central Apoi name Oborowei as the war god of their ancestor Kalasuo, the western Apoi still worship Oborowe as their national god and ascribe its ownership to their ancestor Apoi.
The central Apoi have preserved as a sacred spot the site of Okotoaza just south of the village of Apoi on the Kalasuo creek (Apoi creek in the Kolokuma account) from which the western Apoi are believed to have migrated. The Central Delta Apoi worship Oborowe at the water front of this sacred forest site. Tradition now current among the western Apoi relate their migration to the migration of other sub-groups of the Western Delta limit. B.O. Duyile (1984) agrees with Alagoa on the origin of the Apoi, that they migrated from the Central Delta. He also confirms that the Ife legend of origin is not supported by any written evidence, and is not popular among the Apoi themselves. According to him, the Ife legend of origin was an attempt by the Apoi of slave origin to trace their origin outside the Niger Delta, in order to exploit the political situation prevalent in pre-independent western Nigeria. Alagoa (1972) stated that the first stopping place on which all accounts agree is Okomu in the Furupagha area. The Apoi stopped at Okomu for “a long time”. Out of the nine lineages, one remained at Okomu, while eight settled at Akpaka (Apaka) about a mile from the present town of Kiribo. After five Kalashuwe (rulers) at Akpaka, a gradual process of dispersion set in during a long interregnum. The eight lineages from Ukomu were relocated in the new settlements of Igbobini, Igbotu, Oboro, Inikorogha, Ojuala, Gbekebo, Kiribo and Shabomi. But the original number of nine lineages from the Central Delta was made up by elevating Ikpoki (originally an off shoot of Kiribo) to the status of ninth in the new polity.
The Nine Towns
Since the migration from Akpaka occurred during an interregnum, there was the problem of political control of the nine towns. It seems that the former ruling lineages moved out to found a settlement, Toru Abukuba. A Kalashuwe was then appointed from this settlement for all the Apoi. Later Toru Abukuba became the two towns of Oboro and Shabomi. Since no Kalashuwe was again appointed until Jubo of Oboro in 1914, it is clear that the Apoi had lived for long periods of their history without a central political authority.
Accordingly, there have been disputes in this century as to whether it was Oboro or Shabomi which should provide a ruler.
The blurring of the historical out line in the matter of a central authority is further complicated by the claim at Igbobini that a third branch of the royal family settled at that town.
The order of coronation, however, reveals something of the sense of unity and of precedence among the nine towns. All elders meet at the town of the “most senior man” of the clan to elect a Kalashuwe. They take the Kalashuwe to his own town and invest him with a white gown, chanting “Shuwe, shuwe”. He is then taken to Akpaka and kept for three months unseen in a place called Iselu. The ceremonies of public coronation are performed at Gbekebo which contributes a cow, as against the goats offered by each of the other towns, to the new Kalashuwe. Three months later, the crowned Kalashuwe goes on a tour of all nine towns before he settles down at his headquarters at Oboro or Shabomi.
The remembrance of traditions of common origin, of the presence of the last common settlement site at Akpaka within the present territory, and of the common worship of Oborowe at Igbobini, have preserved a sense of unity among the Apoi. In other respects, each of the nine towns seems to have gone its own way after the dispersion from Akpaka. After the migration from Akpaka, there seems to have arisen no occasion for concerted action against an external threat (Alagoa 1972: 29).
Contacts
The traditions refer to contacts with Benin Empire at the settlements of Okomu and Akpaka. One source suggests a Benin attempt when they were at Ukomu, to place them under the direct control of the Oba. Other traditions recorded that the Oba used the Apoi at Akpaka as paddlers on errands to Ugbo. Later some of the slaves of the Oba’s mother settled at Iyakeje “on the Akpaka side of the Siluko River”.
According to a third informant, the Apoi at Akpaka “started to deal with the Oba of Ado and Oba of Ondo”. The Edo of Benin and the Yoruba of Ondo sold slaves to the Apoi (Alagoa 1972).
Apoi traditions recorded cordial relations with their immediate neighbours, the Benin related groups to the east, Ilaje settlers from Ugbo and with the Ikale; all these stated to be comparatively recent settlers on Apoi land. They relied on the Apoi for water transport and gave their daughters in marriage to Apoi men, paid dues, although Apoi never gave their women in marriage to any of these peoples (Alagoa 1972: 30 – 32). According to Duyile (1984), relations between the Apoi and the Ilaje was not limited to the economic level, it extended to political matters as well. A colonial Traveling Commissioner first visited Igbobini in the Apoi area and established a court there. This court was attended by Ikale and Apoi from their various settlements. In 1899 the court was moved to Ondo.
According to Duyile (1984), the Ikale were strictly farmers while the Apoi and Ilaje were fishermen. The Ilaje being sea fishermen while the Apoi were fresh water fishermen. The Apoi, Ikale and Ilaje were thus economically interdependent. The Apoi exchanged fish with the Ikale who supplied garri, pepper and other food items. The Apoi also engaged in towing logs or timber and local gin to Epe and Lagos.