The Enuani People in Perspective

 

The Enuani People in Perspective

By Emeka Esogbue

Enuani is one of the subgroups that make up Anioma with Ika and Ndokwa as the other two. It is the combination of these three subgroups that make up Anioma. As a whole, Anioma is a group of people geographically located in Delta State, South-South Geo-political Zone of Nigeria. Since the history of the creation of what is now Nigeria by the British, the people of Enuani have not only had their destiny tied together as one but given different names at different times depending on the geographical location they are made to find themselves. Incidentally, together with the wider Anioma nation, they have occupied the defunct Western Region, Midwestern Region, Edo State, and now Delta State and are proposing Anioma State where they hope to be situated in the South-South of the country. The Urhobo, Ijaw, Isoko, Itsekiri, and Anioma are the five major ethnic groups that makeup Delta State, a state created by the Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida administration in 1991. However, this article is about Enuani, one of the three subgroups that make up Anioma.

Enuani being distinct and subordinated to Anioma defines the physical and cultural space of a people who live within shared understanding and existence and within shared human relationships. The people may migrated from different ethnic groups but now live in the same geographic area and as a unit in the same environmental conditions having allowed coalescence to occur. The people of Enuani have since the millennia established distinct customs, beliefs, cultures, and civilizations, all of which are now reflected in the traditional marriages, funeral ceremonies, and traditional dress codes of the people. For instance, if an Enuani intends to celebrate his traditional marriage, he adorns the age-long Akwa-Ocha traditional attire of the people. They have also united, adjusted, and fallen under a single culture and tradition which now also slightly distinguishes them from Ika and Ndokwa. Notwithstanding, Anioma-Enuani, Ika, and Ndokwa altogether enjoy distinctness from the rest of Nigerians.      

The word, "Enuani" etymologically defines "highland," hence, the people of Enuani are seen to be "highlanders" because the territory is characteristically "upland" contrasting the "Ukwuani" Region which is "lowland" in nature. Typically, the word, "Enuani" (Enu+Ani) geographically and emphatically delineates the territory as a hilly region occupied by upland dwellers. The phrasal name, "Ndi Enuani" would then imply "people of the upland." Indeed, the Ibusa, Ogwashi-Uku, and Idumuje-Ugboko are three examples of Enuani hilly communities with Ogwashi-Uku being the hilliest point of the Enuani Region. The upland geographical nature of Enuani is best tested with a journey to the Idumuje-Ugboko home of Senator Ned Nwoko which beautifully sits on a hill or accessing the Ibusa community from either Asaba or Ogwashi-Uku. The ascension will offer visitors to the community a beautiful experience down to the community once described by a newspaper writer as a "little hilly, dusty community."  

It is difficult to retell the earliest period the name was formulated or first used to describe the people but we know that the name had been in existence long before the name, "Eka," a Benin evolutional name for the people, later Anglicized to "Ika" by the British due to inability to pronounce the name effectively. Interestingly, the whole of the present Anioma region was once called "Ika" by the British colonial administration. The name, later versioned "Ika-Ibo" gained currency when Forde and Jones became the first to use it as the general name of the people that now comprise Anioma. The name, "Ika" would later become limited or stuck in use to the present Ika people of Anioma around the Agbor axis as it is today. Ndi Enuani as they are known also describes their Igbo dialect as Enuani thus, the word, "Enuani" descriptively applies to the general name of the people and the language spoken by them.   

Enuani stock also extends to Onicha-Ado (Onitsha), a settlement of Ezechime, founded by Benin migrants who also founded several other Anioma settlements in today's Delta State. The Enuani stock further broadens to include Oraifite, Ozubulu, Ogbaru, Obosi, and Atani, all geographically located in Anambra State and Ndoni community in Rivers State. Although these communities are located outside Delta State, the people still maintain their cultural affinity and social relationships with their Enuani kinsmen in Delta State. In this sense, Enuani is the collective name of a people who are within the Anioma umbrella. Onitsha strikes the mind as one community that officially expressed interest in rejoining the proposed Anioma State to become reunited with their Enuani people. The people of the community also embark on journeys to Onicha-Ugbo and other Onicha-related settlements in Delta State for socio-cultural purposes. The people of Onitsha have not lost the knowledge of their origin as an indivisible part of Enuani which they are proud of.  

Charles Anyansi pointed out in the book, "Anioma: Resolving the Identity" that the people of Onitsha Local Government Area once issued a press briefing in which they declared the belief predicated on their long-standing and fervent aim to exercise their natural rights to self-determination and association with their Anioma kith and kin with whom they share a common origin, common outlook, common social values, and common heritage.

He wrote:

"As established earlier, the Ezechime history makes it abundantly clear that the people of Onitsha have been separated from their westward sisters simply by the River Niger. Nonetheless, Onitsha indigenes have been quite uneasy with their geographical lumping with Anambra. They have since been taking advantage of every available opportunity to clamor for unhindered association with their other Anioma brethren."

The writer went on to add:

"In a memorandum endorsed by about 72 prominent Onitsha indigenes a few years ago, the traditional rulers, legislators, local government councilors, and other community leaders within the Onitsha Local Government Area comprising Onitsha Urban and Ogbaru District declared their support for the creation of more states in Nigeria, belief in a grouping based on linguistic and cultural affiliation towards the promotion of peace and stability in Nigeria..."

The Onitsha people are by origin, migration, and culture Enuani of Ezechime stock and are tied by "Ofu Nmor," which binds the Ezechime ancestral family. The British who punished the Enuani people for the Ekumeku resistance carried out against them, balkanized the region to forcefully separate the Onicha-Ado n'Idu (Onitsha), Atani, and Ogbaru from the rest of Enuani by pushing them to the Eastern Region where they are found at present. The balkanization necessitated by foreign incursion in which the British sat down in their home to divide the Enuani territory into small, hostile states, choosing to isolate Onitsha from the rest of Enuani is a 'replication' of the 1884 Berlin Conference in Enuani territory, something that permanently alienated the people from the rest of their sister communities.

The various people of Enuani have heterogeneous origins traceable to Igbo, Igala, Benin, Yoruba, and Anioma (neighbouring communities within the region). According to the research conducted by Mordi and Opone (2009), the present Anioma area is populated by migrants from different ethnic groups. The research particularly identified four broad groups in the Anioma area though it may be slightly broadened. There exists the Benin group that includes Ozanogogo; the Igbo claim that includes Ibusa, Isheagu, Ewulu, and other settlements and the Igala claim that includes Ebu, Oko Anala, Oko Amakom and Oko Ogbele, and others. There is the Yoruba group of settlers with Ukwunzu, Ugbodu, Ogodo, and others. Some Anioma settlements migrated from neighbouring communities of Anioma and they include Issele-Mkpitime, Issele-Azagba, Ubulu-Okiti, and Idumuje-Ugbo. These are purely Anioma settlements since they migrated from the area.

Although there seems to be an erosion of the functions played by Bini, Igala, and Yoruba in the ancestral peopling of the Enuani, these groups helped to position the foundation of the present Anioma area in terms of migration and are sustained in the languages spoken in the region. There are various languages spoken by the Enuani people which include Enuani, a version of Igbo, Igala spoken by bilingual Ebu that also speaks Enuani, and Olukunmi version of Yoruba spoken by Ugbodu, Ukwunzu, and Ogodor. Nevertheless, Enuani is intelligible to every Enuani community.

This writer is not unaware of the frequent use of "Aniocha" and "Oshimili," both of which divisionally serve to separate the collective identity destiny of the people. Collectively, the Aniocha-Oshimili are Enuani and have always known themselves to be so. While Enuani is the core native name of the people, Aniocha and Oshimili are more of the names of the earliest local government areas to which the people were administratively situated. There is nothing that natively links the bearers to Aniocha and Oshimili. For instance, the Ibusa community was once an Aniocha community under the Ogwashi-Uku District but with the creation of more states and local government areas, the community is today an Oshimili community, finding itself in Oshimili North Local Government Area headquartered by Akwukwu-Igbo. Whether situated in Aniocha or Oshimili local government area, all the communities under this local government are natively Enuani.

Today, the Enuani people in Delta State have become closer and having realized that their collective destiny is tied to the Delta North Senatorial District, are working faster to becoming a single community, and online platforms existing in the collective name of the people are playing crucial roles in pushing the people to this realization.