Two Years After Omu Martha Dunkwu's Death: The Anioma Omu Institution Faces Extinction

 Two Years After Omu Martha Dunkwu's Death: The Anioma Omu Institution Faces Extinction

By Emeka Esogbue

Monday, February 15, 2026, marked exactly two years since the terrible hand of death snatched away from the Anioma people, Omu Martha Dunkwu, the iconic Omu of Anioma. While anniversaries are typically times for reflection and the honouring of legacy, for the Enuani region, this milestone serves as a grim alarm. Since the passing of the woman who single-handedly modernized and popularized the Omu office, the 500-year-old female traditional institution has spiraled into a state of marginalization and near-total collapse.

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From Oshimili to Aniocha, a chorus of neglect is apparent;

​ across the Enuani cultural landscape, the story is tragically consistent. The vibrant presence that Omu Dunkwu commanded has been replaced by systemic erasure. In communities where the Omuship is still practiced, the institution is being strangled by a variety of modern pressures. 

In fact, financial disenfranchisement occurs in most cases, with the Omu being separated from the traditional incomes allocated to them by the region's ancestors—incomes from markets, burial rites and rituals, fines for market violations, and women's disputes. The rivalry between the Omu and domineering male traditional world appears inexplicable.

In extreme cases, the Omu is barred from entering the market, her traditional office in some Enuani communities thereby widening the gap between the people's tradition, Western administration, and modernity, and excluding the traditional female custodian from her age-long benefits formed and agreed upon even before the arrival of the Europeans to what later became Nigeria. While it is the dominant male traditional world, the Omu is schemed out of the cultural system.

Under the guise of varied excuses, the age-long traditional allowances and market tolls rightfully due to the Omus from the market and other traditional sources are either diverted or ceased completely, leaving these custodians of culture in financial distress. The women are in need, unable to eat, or get medication and the societal eyes look away from them.

Again, in many Enuani communities of today, the Omus are now denied formal recognition, effectively stripping them of their authority and voice in communal governance as they become unable to compete with the males in the traditional leadership arena after the same tradition forcefully snatched them from their matrimonial homes and returning them to their family homes but no one cares. While official documents provide for the inclusion of the Omu in monarchical councils, the Omu is often absent in some Enuani communities, with female voices completely excluded from the community's decisions, resulting in the cultural marginalization of women.

There is now an act of forced Isolation since some Omus in some Enuani communities are being forbidden from associating with their peers, breaking the collective strength that once defined the sisterhood of the institution.

​The Enuani ancestors were visionary; they established the Omuship as a mechanism to ensure women held a seat at the table of power. It was a sophisticated system of gender balance that survived half a millennium. Even as some Enuani gerontocratic societies transformed to monarchy on the strength of government papers, the crafters of such papers recognized the presence of the Omu in the council but they are easily treated marginally.

​Yet, today, the Omu institution seems unable to withstand the weight of a modern, male-dominated traditional hierarchy. Without the fierce advocacy of a leader like Omu Dunkwu, the office is being treated as an optional relic rather than a fundamental pillar of Anioma identity.

​The Omus of today are tired, hungry, and ignored. They are being overwhelmed by a system that prefers their absence to their counsel. As traditional rivalry grows, they are becoming forgotten. 

As we remember Omu Martha Dunkwu two years later, we must face a sobering reality. ​Unless there is an urgent intervention, the end of her life may signal the end of the Omuship itself. To lose this institution is to lose 500 years of history, leaving a void in the heart of the Enuani region that can never be filled.

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The personal choices of the males in traditional leadership should never be allowed to vanish the presence of the people's Omuship, a once unique beauty and civilization of the Anioma people. This was the stand of Omu Martha Dunkwu, the Omu of Anioma.

May her soul rest in peace!