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THE TRADITIONAL HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF UMUAKA AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITY:- ORIGIN
The name Umuaka originated from the great grand Ancestor called AKA/ARKA/AKAH.
The name “AKA” signifies sharp strong thorn, which constitutes a big threat or danger for any one to trample upon. Naturally the Akah remains where it is and does not disturb anyone except someone who attempts to trample on it. It is in view of this that it was traditionally believed that the Great Grand Ancestor “Akah” was born, bred and originated from where he was and did not migrate from any place he was chased out from by an invader. See Akah location in Nigeria map
The traditional historians used to refer to the man “Akah” as “EPUM”, that is some one who grew and remained and expanded from where he germinated. “Akah” was a very strong man who always stood and defended his ground and never yielded to any invader but rather chased away any invader and thereby expanded his abode or domain. It was in this mood that “Akah” trained and brought up all his descendents. Akah was an indefatigable warrior but was never pugnacious for he never, never attacked any of his neighboring towns but when he was attacked he fought his invader to a finish and vanquished him.
There was an illustrative traditional war song association with reaction to an invasion or attack by an enemy. One of these illustrative war songs was changed as follows:-
“Ole ndi Na abara agu???
Ha bamara Agu
Mgbe ahuru Agu
Ha gbalaga oso
Abmara Agu” Mgbe ahuru agu……
That is:-
“Who are the people scolding the Lion
They continue scolding the Lion
But when they see the Lion
They run away.”
There are similar other war songs.
In effect when such war songs were chanted the Akah Traditional warriors will hurry out in their traditional war attire and pursue the enemy invaders. In this way the AKA safe guarded their/his domain, drove away the enemies and expanded his/their boundaries.
It was said that the AKA's safe guarded and afforded protection to her smaller friendly neighbors – like Amurie which was for so long referred to as “Amurie Umuaka” and was even treated as part of Umuaka before the advent of the white man. But as time went on, the Amurie people resolved to go by their current name “Amurie Omanze” originating from their grand Ancestor called “Diomanze”.
TRADITIONAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF UMUAKA AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITY:
As was stated earlier, that the Umuaka Autonomous Community is made of his offsprings, Ten sons that formed the Ten villages of Umuaka, namely:-
1. Uba Umuaka – the Senior Son
2. Isiozi Umuaka
3. Achara Umuaka
4. Amiyi Umuaka
5. Ibele Umuaka
6. Umuele Umuaka
7. Ugbele Umuaka
8. Amakor Umuaka
9. Obeakpu Umuaka
10. Amafor Umuaka – Circumstantially See below
11. Ohewe – But along the way, Ohewe village/kindred was chased out of Umuaka at the instigation of Ugbele because of the brutal activities of Ohewe offspring – who were alleged to have kidnapped and sold an Onyenze Ozor – a titled man passing through Ugbele Umuaka. These Ohewe kindred villagers took refuge at other distant places like Izomba and Ideator. There are still some members of Ohewe kindred who are living among Ugbele villagers. They are very well behaved, cultured, intelligent and very progressive.
These Ten villages had and have Traditional Social Organizations by which they socially interacted in the areas of:-
1. Worship: - Originally Pagan Worship before the Advent of Christianity. With the Advent of Chrisitianity, over 75% of the population have become Christians.
2. Pagan Title Taking:- “The Traditional OZO Title.
3. Traditional Festivals:- “Oghu”, Ekere Mgba and Emume.
4. Traditional Marriage Ceremonies:- and the like-
5. Traditional Funeral ceremonies:-
THE TRADITIONAL CEREMONIES IN UMUAKA COMMUNITY
RECENT 21ST CENTURY CHANGES IN UMUAKA:-
Umuaka had for centuries uniterruptibly maintained the unity and coexistence inherent in her ten children, as mentioned earlier. The children of Akah as they are known have always shared, maintained and celebrated unity and peace in the order of seniority as willed by their father Akah. But in the early nineties, politics and the zeal for leadership aspiration, or rather community development led to the disintegration of the children of Akah warranting the carving out and subsequent creation of an autonomous community named "AMAZANO".
Initially Amazano comprised of four out of the ten original villages in Umuaka. Umuele the head, Obeakpu, Ibele and Amakor. As the process to actualize autonomy was being hatched and propagated, Ibele bowed out of the makeup and resorting back to the old heritage of Umuaka. Amakor followed suit afterwards leaving the make up of Amazano to include only Umuele and Obeakpu.
When the autonomy of Amazanor became real and development projects began to flow, pressure started mounting on the remaining eight villages to follow suit in seeking their own autonomy. Result is that today in Umuaka, there are Isiozi autonomous community, Amiyi autonomous community, Ugbele autonomous community, Ibele autonomous community, Achara Autonomous community, Amakor autonomous community,and Amaukwu autonomous community.
THE QUEST FOR NAME CHANGE:
Recent news and reports suggest that a group of well placed Umuaka sons, including the highly political placed have started the process of a name change that will include and bring back the ten sons of Akah into one unified fold of OLD UMUAKA. The process is still being debated and has not yet been actualized.
NO. 1: TRADITIONAL WORSHIP: RELIGION:-
The Traditional Religion of Umuaka Autonomous Community was Paganism by which they worshipped God – the Supreme Deity through various intermediaries or other small gods. They believed in the existence of the Supreme deity – God the Creator of other gods which they often referred to as “EKE-KERE-CHI” – That is – “God the Creator of other gods”. They believed that the Supreme God is too great, too big to be approached directly hence they, “Pagans from Umuaka Autonomous community resolved to approach the Supreme God the Creator – “EKE-KERE-CHI” through some intermediaries – the Pagan deities – through which they worshipped the Supreme God – the creator of other gods.
THE PAGAN DEITIES THROUGH WHICH THEY WORSHIPPED THE SUPREME DEITY:
These were:-
1. “Ezhieakwo(Eziakwo)- The Pagan Male Deity.
2. Njaba– The Pagan Female Deity.
The Pagans of Umuaka Autonomous Community worshipped EZHIEAKWO – the Pagan male
Deity that they very much venerated. They used to offer various sacrifices to “Eziakwo” at various times with cows, goats, fowls, sheep, he goats, rams, cocks, and even human beings.
Similarly, these Pagans worshipped Njaba – the family Deity. All their worship centered around these pagan Deities – Eziakwo and Njaba. To consolidate their commitment to the worship and veneration of these Pagan Deities they established a common Market for the entire Umuaka community where they were to come together certain times of the year to worship these Pagan Deities.
ORIGIN OF AFOR UMUAKA MARKET:
It was for this purpose that the Afor Umuaka Market was established and placed under the care of the Pagan Male Deity – Eziakwo. Hence the Pagans often refer to the Male Deity as “EZIAKWO AFOR UMAUAKA.” The female Pagan Deity, NJABA was also represented at one side of Afor Umuaka Market adjacent to the Male Deity – but later was established at Eke Ibele and often was referred to as Njaba Eke Ibele. At various times during the year the pagans offer various kinds of Sacrifice to Eziakwo Afor Umuaka with various animals and other materials.
But once during the year at the “Emume pagan Festival Ceremony,” some pagans of prescribed status offer one goat each in sacrifice to the Pagan Deity “Eziakwo Afor Umuaka.”
Thus, the Afor Umuaka Market became an Eight-Day market and one of the largest and biggest and most popular markets in the Orlu Division, Nkwere/Isu LGA, Isu LGA and Imo State as a whole.  In between the eight days, there is another Afor day on the same site – usually referred to as “Afor Nta” – that is Small Afor which is even bigger than any other market on the same day in the neighborhood. The “Afor Nta” was also named “AFOR-ONYE-EBULE-UKA”, meaning “Let Nobody cause Palaver in this Afor”. It was regarded as a very serious offence against Umuaka Traditional Law for anybody to cause palaver or fight in the Afor Umuaka market on Afor Market day.
In this way, the Afor Umuaka Market became the meeting place for various celebrations – OZO Title Ceremony, Funeral Ceremonies, etc. Only the Principal Market “Afor” is identified with the name of Umuaka, thus, “Afor Umuaka Market” is collectively owned by Umuaka Autonomous Community as an entity:-, an indivisible Traditional Autonomous community.
Apart from Afor Umuaka Market, each of the ten villages in Umuaka has a market associated to it, e.g.
Eke, Uba
Orie, Isiozi
Nkwu, Achara
Orie Ala, Amiyi
Eke, Ibele
Nkwo, Umuele
Nwa Orie, Ugbele
Orie, Amakor
Obeakpu
They have village or kindred small Pagan Deities associated with these Individual villages or kindred.
Small pagan Deities Associated with individual Villages or Kindred are:-
Uba Okpurukpu Uba
Isiozi Duruofor Isiozi
Achara
Amiyi
Ibele
Umuele
Amakor Iyiafor Amakor
Obeakpu
ORIGIN OF AMAFOR (Now known as Obinwanne):
To consolidate their worship and high regard for their Pagan deity – Eziakwo Afor Umuaka, the Pagans resolved to dedicate human beings for the service of their Pagan Deity – Eziakwo Afor Umuaka. They often brought these human beings, mostly male, from other places and dedicated them to the service of their Pagan Deity.
Almost every village or kindred brought male human beings to this Pagan Deity. As time went on they brought female human beings to become wives of those male human beings who served the Pagan Deity. The people dedicated to the service of the Pagan Deity, Eziakwo Afor Umuaka were solemnly regarded as the servants of sons of the Pagan Deity – “Eziakwo Afor Umauaka – A place or portion of land close to Afor Umuaka Market – owned by the Senior Son of Akah – Uba Village – was set aside for the habitation of the servants of Eziakwo Afor Umuaka. These servants of Eziakwo Afor Umuaka were regarded as the dedicated servants of the Pagan Deity and were thus offered protection.
No one dared to fight or kidnap or kill any of these dedicated servants for the Pagan Deity. If anyone may make the mistake of killing any of them, he must solemnly make the necessary prescribed pagan sacrifice to replace the one he had killed. In view of this, the servants of Eziakwo Afor Umuaka were held in very high esteem or regard for the fear and honor of the Pagan Deity – Eziakwo Afor Umuaka. When any Pagan sacrifice was being made at the Eziakwo Afor Umuaka Juju Shrine, the entitled servants of Eziakwo Afor Umuaka will be there to collect their prescribed due share.
The late nineties also brought about the zeal for Amafor to change its name to "Obinwanne", which symbolizes a strong warrior in the family of warriors. The change of name was finally realized and today, Amafor Umuaka is formally known and called OBINWANNE autonomous community. |
