Emeka Esogbue

 How the Onicha-Olona People Retained the Indigenous “Onicha” but Lost “Olomina” to “Olona” By Emeka Esogbue Colonial rule left a durable imprint upon the nomenclature of many Anioma communities. In the course of British administration, missionary activity, and cartographic documentation, indigenous place-names were frequently rendered into English orthography in ways that reflected phonetic approximation and administrative convenience rather than indigenous linguistic form. In this process, Ọnicha was recorded as Onitsha in official usage, while numerous other local names underwent similar transformations. Yet the people of Onicha-Olona achieved a notable reversal in part of this colonial legacy. In the post-colonial period, the community successfully reasserted the indigenous form Onicha, displacing the anglicized Onitsha from its local identity. The second element of the name, however, followed a different trajectory: while Onicha was recovered, Olomina gradually gave way to Olo...

 Agbalanze Dance: A Sacred Bond Between Father and First Daughter in Onitsha Culture By Emeka Esogbue The Agbalanze dance stands as one of the most moving ceremonial traditions in Onicha Ado (Onitsha) culture, wherein the Ada—the first daughter dances with and embraces her father in a profound expression of their unique bond. This ritual captures the essence of familial love, honour, and cultural continuity that defines that society. Onitsha tends to be one of the richest Nigerian societies in terms of culture, all of which brighten the people's way of life. This is not surprising since it is due to the unique identity of the people having enriched themselves with what was acquired from different societies. While Igbo culture broadly holds the first daughter in high esteem, distinguishing her from other daughters, the Anioma communities, including Onicha Ado, place particular emphasis on this honoured position. The Ada is set apart through specific rites and ceremonial privileges t...

  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 Bab...

Obomkpa-Ugboba Crisis: Historic Claims, Counter-claims and Government Recognition of Ugboba as an Anioma Autonomous Community in Delta State By Emeka Esogbue INTRODUCTION The above topic, an investigation of this author who is a fervent and wholehearted writer on the people of Anioma, geographically located in the Northern part of Delta State of Nigeria into the shared legal, historical, and colonial claims; offensive and defensive assertion of the people's communal right and geography, makes scholarly interest for several reasons, part of which is captured in the conclusion of this piece. One of the reasons is that the controversy bedeviling Obomkpa and Ugboba, two sisterly communities with common boundaries and a common claim of homestead source of migration, is nearly a hundred years old, and even with various interventions by the local organs of both communities with strong affirmation and the intercession by the nation's highest court with final appellate jurisdict...