Last modified: 2015-07-18 by bruce berry
Keywords: ijaw | egbesu | white flag |
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The Ijaw is a major ethnic group in southern Nigeria, primarily in the States of Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers, in the oil-rich region of Niger Delta, numbering more than 14 million.1
Complaining about environmental degradation and wealth distribution from the oil exploitation in their homeland, the Ijaw people demand more autonomy or even secession from Nigeria or, in their own words, "resource control and self determination by any means necessary".
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta - MEND, with few allied groups, conducts armed operations against the Nigerian government and foreign oil companies - mainly kidnappings of oil workers and disruption of oil fields work.2
There are several flags in use by the Ijaw, but the information on them is very sketchy.
image by Chrystian Kretowicz, 08 Feb 2009
The website of the Ijaw Foundation shows a logo (emblem) featuring two crossed flags. One (on the right - a blue, red, green tri-band) appears to be an Ijaw "national" flag. The other (on the left - - plain white) is used by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).
image by Chrystian Kretowicz, 08 Feb 2009
The plain white flag of MEND appears on several photographs on the web - two examples are a shown at siu.no halfway down the page. It has also been shown on english.aljazeera.net. The flag is supposed to signify the Ijaw god of war, Egbesu.
image contributed by Chrystian Kretowicz, 08 Feb 2009
The Ijaw People's Association uses the Ijaw Foundation flag with three horizontal stripes of blue, red and green with the Association's logo in the centre (Source: Ijaw People's Association website).
image contributed by Chrystian Kretowicz, 08 Feb 2009
