Okonji Npi and Esogbue Houses: Colonial Heritages for Tourists in Ibusa

By Emeka Esogbue

I was excited to see the video of the Igbuzo Ifejioku feasting at the Obi Okonji Npi Isieke ancestral home in Ibusa, Delta State. The Narrator whose identity I am yet to determine gave a knowledgeable and historical account of a colonial residence also seen in the video.

Showing the original structure of the building, well preserved by the Okonji Npi family, the Narrator explained that the imposing structure was over a century but it was built in 1948 though. The buildings, two of the oldest colonial structures in the community, strike one with a deep sense of architectural taste of the colonial British, eventually preserved for the Ibusa people of today to appreciate their colonial legacy.

The account rendered is that the owner, Nwanze Okonji Npi, a respected farmer, together with his cousin, Joseph Ozoemezia Esogbue, a train driver and cocoa plantation merchant, two great and hardworking men were quick to identify the importance of colonial development in the community. Okonji Npi and Esogbue were stupendously wealthy, popular, and influential in the community and beyond.

Perhaps, the right phrase to describe their relationship was at best, 'twin-cousins' because they heightened the spirit of cordiality as they related more as close 'friends' and twins though the Igbuzo people would proverbially state that "nwanne onye adi abu oyia."

Okonji Npi and Esogbue, it is said, were often consulted by the colonial masters to gain approval before the implementation of administrative policies in the community.

The houses are finished in British-colonial architectural taste with the walls made of very fine and strong bricks. The bricks of Esogbue were baked somewhere in Oboshi Uzor Umuekea where some of traits are still found today while the zincs used in constructing the roof were imported from Britain.

The foundations of the buildings raise them very high, above the ground and immediate surroundings with strong wood used for the frontal twin doors and widows. After many decades, the doors and windows remain as intact as yesterday, something very fascinating. The external level of both houses is covered by a rising-pattern style of roofing with thunderstorm resistance standing on top to counter the cumulonimbus action or effect of destructive thunder and lightning.

Since the tradition of the Ibusa people forbade fencing of structures due to the close-knit relationship shared by the people, descendants of Umejei and Edini, neither of the two houses was fenced.

The Okonji Npi and Esogbue houses, withstanding the calamitous effects of the Nigerian Civil War of 1967-1970, beautifully stand complete and whole and inhabited by the families of the original owners. Although the Civil War account has it that soldiers inhabited the Esogbue house briefly during the war when family members fled to bushes and other destinations to take refuge, it was later abandoned. According to family sources, the soldiers tried to raze it down but the wood used in constructing the were fireproof and not combustible.

With both houses painted in similar colours today, the closeness, love, and unity shared by Okonji Npi and Joseph Ozoemezia Esogbue continue in their children and grandchildren whose sameness in taste in retaining the heritages of their patriarchs seems a clear design.

These buildings will satisfy the tourist interest and curiosity of visitors to the Ibusa community.

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