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AN ORAL ACCOUNT OF AKWUKWU-IGBO FOUNDATION AS TOLD EMEKA ESOGBUE BY GABRIEL N. OSAKWE

AN ORAL ACCOUNT OF AKWUKWU-IGBO FOUNDATION AS TOLD EMEKA ESOGBUE BY GABRIEL N. OSAKWE

The version I was told my  my late uncle, Mordi Osakwe, which I find more authentic is as follows:

Akwukwu-Igbo came from Nri, the origin of the Igbo tribe. Adaigbo (Odaigbo), a Prince of Nri kingdom committed an abomination, the penalty on which was death. His father, Agu, the King, loved him so much that he could not bear to see him beheaded. He therefore prepared him to leave the town surreptitiously by night. His junior brother, Okolie Agu who loved him so much, decided to go with him. 

A half brother was asked to carry a medicine pot on his head with the instruction that wherever the pot fell, there they should settle. They left and the pot fell in the present day Ogwashi-Ukwu, and there they settled. Okolie Agu was a great Hunter, and hunted in the jungle after Umu Opu, a small town with their own king.  When he came back from his hunting, he rested at Umu Opu before going back to Ogwaski-Ukwu. After some years, Okolie Agu, asked the king of Umu Opu to give him a place to settle, instead of going back to Ogwashi- Ukwu each time he came back from hunting. 

The  king then pointed out to him, Akwukwu ( the old farm) to settle. That was how Akwukwu was founded. The “Igbo” was added to it later to distinguish it from another town in the area called Akwukwu- Akumazi. The town, Umu Opu, diminished so much because it was alleged that they annoyed a medicine man (Dibia) who cursed them. Umu Opu, a town that had their own king until not too many years ago, is now a village in Akwukwu-Igbo.

The half junior brother who  carried the medicine pot was asked to go and settle between Ogwashi-Ukwu and Nri so as to alert them if they came after them from Nri. That was how Igbuzo (changed to Ibusa by the colonial masters) was founded.

King Agu did not dethrone himself because of Ilo Fejoku as stated by the author. Kings did not do that those days. They were either dethroned by their people and excommunicated, or they committed suicide. 
This is my own contribution to the history of Akwukwu-Igbo.

Chief (Barr) Gabriel N. Osakwe, the Onyechinyeze of Akwukwu-Igbo hails fromg Ogbe-Obiin Akwukwu-Igbo
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