THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN IKA PEOPLE (UMUNEDE) AND BENIN KINGDOM

Umunede Kingdom was founded by a Benin Prince, called EDE and his wife, IYE who migrated from Benin and settled in the present location, later known as Umunede. The exact date of migration of Ede and his wife from Benin was not recorded but generally, historians put the approximate period as the Thirteenth Century A.D., during the reign of Oba Ewedo The Great (1250-1280 A.D.) Thus, the Kingdom is over seven hundred years old and many historians believed that Umunede Kingdom is one of the oldest kingdoms east of the Benin Empire.

Historians had contended that during Oba Ewedos reign, the Oba had two battles to fight: a diplomatic battle against the great nobility led by the Ediommehan and military battles against Ogiamien III in order to destroy once and for all this anti-royalist movement. As a result of these events, many princes and noble men fled with their families to different safe locations.

The second wave of migration to Umunede probably took place under Oba Ewuare The Great (1440-1485). During his reign, an attempt to eliminate members of the nobility who were threatening the monarchy gathered momentum and brought about another wave of migration out of the Benin Empire.

Historians also believe that there were other settlers before and after Ede and Iye arrived at the present location but no one was sure when those earlier settlers arrived at this same location. However, later migrations to Umunede were well documented. For example, there were other immigrants from Ishan, Benin-speaking areas and Yoruba areas of the west between the 16th and 19th centuries and their quarters are well known in Umunede. Also, there have been large number of immigrants from the Eastern Igbo-speaking area since the last quarter of the 19th century and, since the civil war; Umunede has also been witnessing a large number of immigrants from neighbouring towns and villages.