Via Proudly Abian
The people who occupy the territory known as Abiriba descended from the Igbo and Efik people of Calabar. They migrated from the upper Cross River area centuries ago led by a Nnachi Oken, from whom the title "Enachioken" ("The Monarch") originates. Initially, they occupied a smaller territory which expanded when the Abiriba people routed the surrounding Nkporo people and took over their lands. The Abiriba people were war-like and quickly established themselves in the area.
The origin of the Abiriba people is not as speculative as the origin of other Igbos of southeastern Nigeria. Historical evidence supports the fact that Abiriba people have common ancestor with the Yakor tribe of Ekoi of cross river basin and the people of Arochukwu. At Ekoi, constant disputes between the seven families under Ukpaghiri prompted the clan to move to Ena and finally to Akpa.
The settlement at Akpa was difficult for many years due to hostilities with neighbors. After the death of Ukpaghiri, Mbiriba and his group moved to Usukpam and stayed there for many years but were never at peace with the neighbors. Mbiriba decided to move to Udara-ebuo whereas Otusi led the other branch of the family down stream and eventually founded Arochukwu. The term Nwadim is often used between Abiriba and Aros because of our common lineage. Mbiriba who had advanced in age, moved his group once more and settled at Udara-ebuo.
Nature was inhospitable to the inhabitants at Udara-ebuo. There was no water and the place was overrun by monkeys. Oral history has it that monkeys used to visit homes to look for food, and the people became sick living on monkey meat only. Mbiriba died at Udara-ebuo and left his son Ifa Mbiriba in charge.
Ifa Mbiriba finally moved to Uruanta and Agboha and settled there. The new settlement was very fertile and had a natural fortress. Thus Abiriba was derived from the name Mbiriba or nickname “Ebiri-Aba”.
Oko Ogo opened Ndi Okogo which is currently where the Chiefs palace is situated. Nwagu Ifa founded Okagwe and later Agboji. Ngwu founded Ihungwu. Chukwu Oke founded Amogudu. The name Amaeke was derived from the market day Eke. The Capital of Abiriba is Ameke and the paramount Chief for the whole Abiriba uses the title Enachi-oken.
Incessant conflicts and border skirmishes between the Item and Amogudu led to the creation of a standing army in form of the age-grade system. Historical artifacts exist to support the consensus that the age-grade system started at Amogudu. Nwagu Ifa, Ngwu, Oko Ogo and Chukwu Oke used the age-grade as a standing army to protect the Abiriba from hostile neighbors.
Geography
The Abiriba people are known to be industrious both in crafts and trading; their arid lands make it tough for agriculture to flourish. These made them popular amongst the Igbo people of Nigeria. As a matter of fact, in the history of the Igbos of Nigeria, Abiriba is reckoned for her pre-historical black smithing and sculpture artifacts. These ancient occupation of the Abiriba people later on metamorphosed into what is today the trademark of the people - Trading (or better merchandise) popularly known among Abiriba People.
Since the people were predominantly merchants, they were widely travelled both within and outside the boundaries of Nigeria, and they are correspondingly cosmopolitan. Being so exposed and prosperous, the people have enough information about vogue and money that made them transform their locality from the normal village setting, as is common with the surrounding villages, to a model sub-urban but purely residential setting with some of the most exotic building in the Igbo land, even in Nigeria as a whole. The Abiriba people take great pride in the serenity and aesthetic value of their landscape, consequently shunning attempts by government or individuals to set up factories in the town, and seeing same as attempts to "pollute" their land. In 1959, the late President of Nigeria, The Rt Honourable Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe was so taken in by the beauty of Abiriba that he called it "Small London" - a name in use today.
ReplyDeleteMadam Kaa,
According to you
“The people who occupy the territory known as Abiriba descended from the Igbo and Efik people of Calabar. They migrated from the upper Cross River area centuries ago led by a Nnachi Oken, from whom the title "Enachioken" ("The Monarch") originates. Initially, they occupied a smaller territory which expanded when the Abiriba people routed the surrounding Nkporo people and took over their lands. The Abiriba people were war-like and quickly established themselves in the area.
I want to begin that some of the histories of Igbo people in your useful blog is within 150 years, reflecting the felt form of the received history until the coming of Britain. But there are several gaps in some of the histories, that emphasis on the Aro Confederacy in 1699 (Afiajoku, Ahiajoku declaration) merit a different interpretation. I mention that briefly because of the tenuous relationship between Aros in Imo State, Anambra, Enugu to some extent, with Arochukwu in Abia State.
It seems that an envelop history of Igbo people is not easy to synthesis largely due to the last grasping of their land by the warrant chiefs and the church broke the oral tradition from forms received to permanent written form under the churches.
But Igbo names and families have no direct meaning today, because the language over the years and some family names such Ivo, Izzi, Izzila, Atta, Abba, Attani, Baro, Baruku, Mbawsi, Nllewedim, Elebe, Eledo, even names such asAro, Ohachem, are not without Hebrew and Jewish influences. These names are Hebrew. For instance when we point three villages with Hebrew names such Baro, Abba, Atta, put together, you reciting Hebrew encomium, Baro Atta Abba or Baro (Baruch) Abba or Baruch Abba Atta...literally means ‘Sovereign is your name Oh lord”
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ReplyDeleteI want to point out, that the further you look into Igbo history, the evident it’s roots are in histories no longer at ease with our people. For instance when we compare the linguistic structure of Igbo and Hebrew --- the acclaimed progenitor –, there are elements of Hebrew in Igbo and elements of Igbo in Aramaic. To the point that a linguistic connection between classic Greek – up to Medieval ages and Igbo exist to the extent that Greek is classic form is the closest language to Igbo.
There is something singularly about Hebrew (Jews) of Spain and Portugal called Ibos (Ivos) and our own Igbo – also called Ibo, that a theme about displaced and expelled Jews of Portugal, Spain, Venice, Rome, Genoa, etc., to various ends of the world including West Africa ‘Fernando Po’ (Guinea Bissua), Bight of Biafra as it appears on the oldest reference to the area we now occupy in Nigeria, that the meaning of the word ‘bight of biafra’ (a little ways from Fernando Po) means ‘bay of crayfish’ in Portuguese and Spanish, suggest that Benjamin Netanyahu’s father --- Benzion Netanyahu referencing that the presence of Aro people in what is now Nigeria may or may have something to do with Spanish and Portuguese expulsion in 1492 is probably correct.
I cite the Aro(s) in the early paragraph because of the cultural separation between Aro people who influenced a lot of Igbo villages, and others in the same neighborhood as Arochukwu in Abia State that were not influenced by Aro. I cite in this case, Nkporo people of Abia State, neighbors with Abiriba --- who are historically one of Nkporo’s brother (the other’s include Akaeze, Nkporo Akaeze) --- is not part of Aro confederacy, not part of Abam, and not part of Nnachi Oke or Oke Nnachi for a reason I will invoke later, Nkporo from beginning is not part of Ibibio.
I state clearly that historically Nnachi Oke (Enachioken) is an Aro Prince from Edda that is in the same boundary as Nkporo, and helped the Aros overcome Ibibio in what is Obinkita the former capital of Ibibio. The grand son of Nnachi Oke (Ogbonnaya) helped some year later to founder Owerri after the Chief Owerri Dada or Ewu eri of both Bini and Igboukwu recrudesce. All the Chiefs of Bini were crowned at Igboukwu (Nri, Eri) including a late revival of Ewu eri II crowned in Onitsha after being saved from the invading Muslims, his brother was hard at speech and was castrated and historically bled to his death.
To the point that the statement Abiriba is part of Enachioken is correct because Oke Nnachi and his group possessed a town called Nkporo or what is now Abiriba years after the town was abandoned by the elders and the sons of Nkporo and it happened in the circumstance that a certain people --- possibly Akpa people (?) terrorized Abiriba and sold some of them into Slavery until an invitation from Abiriba to Nnachi Oke and company who helped to restore the hegemony in Abiriba. Abiriba is today indirectly part of Nnachi Oken because of this, whereas Nkporo who has moved upwards in what now their settled lands refused for reasons which we do no know to help Abiriba under the gangrene of slave traders.
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ReplyDeleteWe want to mention that the people called Nkporo (whose history you may know very well that Nkporo is different from Aro and close in boundary and people-ship, Aro does not answer Onwuka, Abiriba and Nkporo do, so also Ohafia, Nkporo link to Aro through Panya by the descendants of Anya Kalu and Nkporo is part of Agbaja, and their ancestors following founded Nkpologu in Aguata local Government in Anambra, and Nkpologu in Enugu including upper parts of Enugu-ukwu and they speak of Ogwo Oji in what is now Etitiama where village matters were decided and speak also of Elughu Nkporo) moved into the current rich fertile land in what is now Abia - long before the issue of the crown came up in Abiriba with the evading Nnachi Oke from Arochukwu, Edda, and Ohafia.
So to mention, Abiriba is by our secret history Isiogo Asato inherited from Nkporo priest – that 8 villages headed by former Nkporo Priest. Whereas Ohafia and Arochukwu (including Afikpo) and Edda – parts and parcel of Oke Nnachi and their Children are villages made up of 24 priestly heads like Agbaja, showing that Abiriba couldn’t have founded Arochukwu. Let me say that Nkporo tolerate Abiriba, to the point you may think Abiriba is even the older one, but that’s just it, that you can’t mess with Abiriba people historically and in terms of war, for one thing, they can fight back, secondly there is Nkporo at the background. It’s been like that for a long time….
According to your history,
“Mbiriba decided to move to Udara-ebuo, (also Nkporo history)….
“whereas Otusi led the other branch of the family down stream and eventually founded Arochukwu.----that’s not exactly found anywhere in our history. If this took place, it happened when two villages Nkporo and Abiriba were one. The name they were called is Nkporo. The only instance where the name may create doubt about Nkporo’s hegemony in the pre-Aro years --- which is probably wrong--- is an obscure mention of Nne-Nkporo in a bygone opera about an extant river located in what is not Abiriba where where two women married to a Chief, quarreled and fought over who is favorite, and Nne-Nkporo struck the other woman with a stick and she died. She was asked to leave at some protest, but by tradition the one who killed had to leave the village. The sons of the woman (Nne-Nkporo) left with his children and gradually leading to large migration and the refusal to return after the Chief passed.
In essence the tale or the song says Nne-Nkporo, so also the River in what is now Abiriba and not Nne-Abiriba suggesting that Nkporo is a name after the facts of the incident and perhaps not before, and the place Abiriba Junction was formally known as Nkporo Junction for Afia Nkporo. When the Church arrived in that part of the world, the English fought a protracted guerrilla war with Nkporo in that region, at some point, it is claimed that some Nkporo age grade poisoned everything including lands, trees and forest and themselves to ensure that the land was not exposed to those they called ‘Slave traders’ and including the British and Senegalese. Abiriba in those days, won the heart of the Presbyterian who returned many years later and made inroads into Abiriba and it was the beginning of the rise of Abiriba in business – not before.
I can see more truth in your write-up sir.
Delete(4)
ReplyDeleteSynthesis (1), be assured that Igbos are Ibos and Jewish by claims handed to them, and by language which bear prints of medieval Hebrew, some Spanish, some Portuguese, to a point that Aramaic is close to Igbo and it is close Hebrew, that Hebrew is Ibo for Portuguese and Spanish meaning Hebrew, that a man called Isaac Abranavel had a son called ‘Leo the Eboe( Ibo)’ who was known for his crusade to save the Marranos (Jewish nation within the walled-off Spain and then Portugal in the 15th century, founded by Rabbi Aruk, a people I believe has a lot to do with the so called Igbos and the lingering settlement of earliest explorers in Caribbean during the interregnum of Phillip II and Isabel I of Spain, Christopher Columbus, etc.,)
Synthesis (2), Aros couldn’t have be founded by Abiriba – at least Nkporo is certain that Nnachi Oke existed after the wars with Ibibio, to a point that it seems only to a certain degree that Abiriba/Nkporo as you like it, mat have originally ventured into Ibibio territory today called Arochukwu and couldn’t take the two until Nnachi Oke and the Eddas from Calabar.
Historically Nkporo had a problem with those left behind in Abiriba, and carried the village symbol from Obu where Nkporo ruled to Elughu. In essence, the ruling family in Abiriba today are two people, one from Nkporo and the other from Arochukwu and Ohafia. In fact, all these villages are part of Ibibio with or without respect to Arochukwu and Ohafia, except Nkporo of pure born ‘Nwa-Igbo’ --- Nkporo is not part of Nnachi Oke – point taken, not part of the Ibibio --- not taken, and not part of Aro Confederacy – also taken, a point to also consider that Abiriba inherited a tradition from Ohafia, who fought long with Ibibio until they decided to settled among them and peacefully intermarry. We put the course of this Igbo history within the Aro declaration or possibly the Aro foundation in 1699, that it may be said that what happened later where what I consider felt forms of Igbo history with slight modicum to evident hypothesis is important is that going forward Abiriba today is two people and partly of one, that their counterpart in Nkporo (numerous) occupy a territory called Nchara which nobody dared to question including long years of internecine with Igbere, Item, Edda, Abiriba not-so much, and Ohafia particularly Mbei settled peacefully in Nkporo following their return from what is now Umuahia probably at the turn of the last two centuries. And those left behind were called Nkporo people in Abiriba and today they are part and central to the hegemony.
Synthesis (3) Arodinzogu (Imo) is behind Nkpologu (Anambra, Enugu) and they have the same boundary and trace their ancestral routes to Arochukwu (Abia) one hand, and to Nkporo (Abia) on the hand – both in current land locked Abia, reflect a kind of history that throw light on Igbo society in the years leading to the coming of the English and the Igbo society experiencing transformation due to nucleated of central power houses who sometimes made slaves of their neighbors – particularly Ohafia and Arochukwu, that they differ in epoch to other Igbos whose history is not as interesting as the people who came under the spell of one house and one Igbo family – Oke Nnachi or Nnachi Oke. In essence, some of the claims by Abiriba can only represented by Nkporo --- whose records of exploration extend to the ends of the Igbo Society.
Be advised that instead of "Philip II and Isabel I", we place Ferdinand and Isabel I and the 'Calabar' used in the presentation is probably 'Old Calabar' today's Akwa-Ibom.
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ReplyDeleteThank you for this post and wrte up, it has helped my research
ReplyDeleteThank you for this post and wrte up, it has helped my research
ReplyDeleteThank you for this post and wrte up, it has helped my research
ReplyDeleteTranslate in igbo
ReplyDeleteWho knows Legends and historic stories about the people of abiriba
ReplyDelete