Simingi as a Source of Identity for the Iyankpo people of the Niger Delta

This paper will take a cursory look on how the deity Simingi have served as a source of identity and unity for the Iyankpo (Tombia and Finnema) people from the 15th century till the present times. Religion as a unifying factor is explicit in the case of Iyankpo (Tombia and Finnema) people as they are denied recognition in the descriptive recording of modern Nigerian history. In Africa deity‟s and masquerades served as the major source of identify for indigenous communities before the advent of colonialism. Most indigenous people were recognised by their deities and major masquerades. Like the Iyankpo‟s with Simingi, Aros with Chuku Obiama, Efiks with Ekpouwo, Ekpo Itaiaba, If the early Europeans did not document the deities prominent in the areas they traded with some communities would have lost their historical contributions to world civilization to others like the Iyankpo people whom the British tried to erase from historical records but were recognised by their deity Simingi by the early Portuguese explorer Pachecho Perreira. The research methodology from this study is qualitative sourcing data from primary and secondary sources. The theoretical framework utilized for this study is post-colonial theory which stipulates that colonial societies should write a history for themselves to correct the inconsistencies of their recorded history. From the findings of this study we have seen that history in a sense is recorded from the perspective of the victor. The British having secured the Niger delta as part of the Nigerian protectorate decided to write a history for their friends Kalabri, Bonny, Nembe, and Okrika excluding the Iyankpo people who were the first to arrive at the Rio Real. But the for the historical records of the Portuguese explorer Pachecho Perreira in his work the Elsmeraldo De Situ Orbis which chronicles the ruling deity of the area as Simingi in the Rio Real estuary history would have forgotten them the Iyankpo (Tombia and Finnema) people in the annals of Niger delta.