Afor Umuaka market is a general merchandize market. It functions both as daily and as weekly market. The big market day (Afor-ukwu) takes place every eight days. The Afor-ukwu day attract various sellers and buyers of diverse merchandize from different parts of the country. One can literally buys whatever you want to buy in the market on an Afor-ukwu day. The market is usually highly over crowded on that day, which brings about a superstitious saying that all the visitors of the market on Afor-ukwu day are not all human beings, that there might be some ghosts among the visitors. The saying was as a result of the crowd that the market pulls.

Although, many people do come to the market to sale whatever they have, as it was believed among Akah people that Afor-ukwu day is a day you will go to the market empty handed and comes back with money (Afor onye gbara aka ofu ego). This encourages people to take anything they want to sale to the market on Afor-ukwu day, which would definitely fetch them some cash.

However, the name "Afor-ukwu" originated from the traditional Igbo week days, which are as follows; afo, nkwo, eke and orie. A week in Igbo land comprises of 8 days, which is two times (2x) the week days. To differentiate between the two groups of week days that constitute the week (8days), the first four days are regard as the small week days (afo nta, nkwo nta, eke nta, and orie nta), then the next four days are considered the big week days (afo ukwu, nkwo ukwu, eke ukwu and orie ukwu). Any market that falls on the big week days is regarded as big market day. In the case of Afor Umuaka, every afor ukwu day is her biggest market day, and that was where she derived her name 'Afor Umuaka'.

In the afor market place, every village in umuaka had their resting place (lounge). The lounges used to be the place where the villagers shared the animals they sacrificed to Eziakwu and Njaba deity. As time progressed, the place turned to be a meeting point where you could meet any member of your village that attended the afor ukwu market, hence almost every member of the village that came to the market would pass by the lounge before leaving the market. Most old men brought their palm wine there to drink with others. While they drank their palm wine they engaged themselves in discussion about past and current events in the community. During the traditional burial ceremony for the village member, after the dancing procession around the Afor market, the villagers would converged to the lounge to conclude the procession with drinking and eating.

However, in recent years as the afor market area experienced expansion due to development, the village lounges were affected. Most of the areas had been taken over by various facilities around the Afor market. For instance, Ugbele lounge was located in front of St Mary's Church, it was taken over by the church. The same fate occurred to the lounges of most of the villages, since the market area has becomes the centre of attraction in Akahland, which necessitated the construction of various structures. Besides, the lounges were no longer being used as most of the traditional practices that were associated with it are getting into extinction. Read more about the origin of Afor market.