OZEZEBIRI COMMUNITY: A CITATION
Ozezebiri, is an Izon community in Southern Ijaw Local Area of Bayelsa
State. It is one of the oldest settlements in Southern LGA. The exact date of its
inception is not known due to the dearth in historical documents. But available oral
sources hold that the founder, Ozezebiri migrated from Obioma to found in it the
late 1800 AD. Her first place of settlement was Obololi bolou, a narrow creek located
along the eastern boundaries of Southern Ijaw and Ogbia, before her permanent
settlement along one of the major tributaries, from the Ekoli River leading to the
Atlantic Ocean.
It is situated at latitude 4°46'21.5"N (4.7726400° and Longitude 6°11'55.6"E
(6.1987800°) in the world map below sea level. It shares a close proximity with
Ogbia Local Government Area, sharing boundaries three with Ogbia Communities
of Anyama, Otuedu and Ologi, with bush tracks that easily give room for regular
access.
Geographically, it takes about 10kms to access Ozezebiri from the capital city,
Yenagoa. However, it takes about 45minutes for Speed boats to arrive at the
settlement from Yenagoa. Due this close proximity with the capital city, before the
construction of Tombia Bridge and Yenagoa-Southern Ijaw road, it served as a major
route for commuters from Olodia axis, Koloama, Opuama, Oporoma and even
Nembe communities accessing the capital city. Its neighboring Izon communities
are Emete, Kaianyabiri, Boluo Aguobiri and Funibiri.
There are three major families in Ozezebiri: Oyibo, Obey, Oliolio, Oyoro and
Okorie families. The Oyibo family is further split into the Timibofa and Okiongbo
group of houses. More so, the Oliolio families are divided into the Aaron, Simeon
and the Ibo’s. Similarly, the Oyoro’s family comprises the Oti and the Oguru’s.
Same can be said about the Obey’s and the Okorie’s. Others are the Ogbara’s,
Opirisiki’s, Mangabo’s and Gbaragibe’s. Each has grown to have smaller groups of
houses.
The major occupation of the people is farming. They engage themselves in
the cultivation of cassava, yam, cocoyam, plantain among other annual crops. Away
from that, they also engage in canoe carving, fishing and weaving of fishing nets,
gears, mats and baskets.
Interestingly, the community has two primary schools: St. James Primary School,
Ozezebiri and State School ii, Ozezebiri with a community secondary school. More
so, there is a local health centre established by the state government to care for health
related challenges.
Sadly, because it is located below sea level, the people suffer annual flooding.
There is no year, the people do not lose millions of naira to the devastation caused
by the flood. It destroys farm lands, houses and artificial fish ponds not to talk of the
lives put at risk during the flooding as it exposes the people to reptiles and other
dangerous creatures, others lost their lives through drowning.
Culturally, the people of Ozezebiri had an annual fishing festival at a lake
called Alapkata, during this festival, people from neighboring communities visit in
their numbers to partake in it. Apart from that, they have an annual cleaning festival
called Ikian day. It was usually done around January. This festival was celebrated to
cleans the land traditionally and usher the community into the New year. During
these rites, people are not expected to leave the town or come in. However, these
festivals have gone with the win of Christianity. More so, there were three major
shrines the people of Ozezebiri previously paid allegiance to prior to the arrival of
Christianity. We have the Abari shrine, Tunupere and Oginigbo. The Abari is a
family shrine but generally, was consulted for individual matters while the Oginigbo
was consulted for communal matters affecting the general populace, especially,
during wrestling and inter-communal crises. Then, Tunupere was consulted for
wealth and prosperity. But today, a significant population of the people have
embraced Christianity, only few practicing traditional religion.
Politically, the people are delineated into constituency II, Oporomo ward I.
They have been active politically from its inception to date. In the past, they have
produced a political secretary, ward party members and state executive board
members as well as other minor positions at the ward level and constituency within
their different party platforms. However, they have been left to fate for the past
year. They have not had any form of representation in the government or benefited
from a project for quite some years.
The people are blessed with bush mangoes, locally called Ogbono, such that
during the period of its harvest, people from neighboring communities visit to be
part of its milk and wealth. Above all, they are a peace loving people and due to their
constant relationship with the neighboring Ogbia villages via intermarriages, funeral
rites, wrestling and football matches, most of them are bilingual: they speak Izon
and Ogbia dialects fluently.
By. Ayebanoa Timibofa