Onitsha-Ado
Encyclopedia
Onitsha-Ado is the small, original village that was later incorporated and formed the city of Onitsha
Onitsha
Onitsha is a city, a commercial, educational, and religious center and river port on the eastern bank of the Niger river in Anambra State, southeastern Nigeria....

, on the east bank of the river Niger in eastern Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

, in the area currently called the Anambra state of Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

. The Onitsha-Ado were originally Igbo people
Igbo people
Igbo people, also referred to as the Ibo, Ebo, Eboans or Heebo are an ethnic group living chiefly in southeastern Nigeria. They speak Igbo, which includes various Igboid languages and dialects; today, a majority of them speak English alongside Igbo as a result of British colonialism...

 who migrated from the Igbo hinterland, in around 1100 AD crossed to the western bank of the river Niger, and moved into the deeper interior of what is now known as western Nigeria. They later settled on the east bank of the river Niger after migrating back from Benin
Benin
Benin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...

 (or the present western Nigeria),

The people forming the Onitsha-Ado (originally called 'Onicha-Udo' but corrupted by the British colonial masters to 'Onitsha-Ado') were perhaps originally Aro people
Aro people
The Aro people or Aros is an Igbo subgroup with Akpa and Ibibio elements who originated from Arochukwu kingdom in present day Abia state, Southeastern Nigeria. The Aros can also be found in about 250 other settlements mostly in the Southeastern region and adjacent areas...

 from Arochukwu
Arochukwu
Arochukwu, sometimes referred to as Arochuku, or Aro-Okigbo, is the third largest city in Abia State in southeastern Nigeria and homeland of the Igbo subgroup, Aro people....

, Ohafia
Ohafia
Ohafia is a town and local government area in Abia State, Nigeria. It is an Igbo speaking region. The ancestral capital of Ohafia is the centrally located village of Elu. The Ohafia Local Government Area also includes the towns of Abiriba and Nkporo....

, Bende
Bende
The Bende are an ethnolinguistic group based in the Mpanda District of Rukwa Region in western Tanzania. In 1999 the Bende population was estimated to number 27,000.-Further reading:...

, Afikpo
Afikpo
Afikpo is the second largest city in Ebonyi State of Nigeria. Until recently it was the home Local Government Area of the late Eze Akanu Ibiam, who hailed from the village of Unwana. Dr...

, Okigwe
Okigwe
-See also:Roman Catholic Diocese of Okigwe...

, and other parts of Igboland.

Today, the people of Agbor speak a dialect exactly like that of the present day Afikpo and Owerri
Owerri
Owerri is the capital of Imo State in Nigeria, set in the heart of the Igboland. Owerri consists of three Local Govern Areas including Owerri Municipal, Owerri North and Owerri West, it has an estimated population of about 400,000 as of 2006...

people, showing that these may be descendants of the contingents from the areas in the Igbo hinterland.

These show very ancient civilization in the Igbo areas. although the made impossible the republican system that is also associated with the Igbo civilization.
For instance the Igbanke people are Igbos; Ika and Anioma people are Igbos. The Igbo speaking people of Benue and Kogi state are some of these Igbos who migrated from the bank of the river Niger or the areas around Nri, IgboUkwu, Awka, Orlu Owerri, Afikpo, and environs. The genocidal agenda of Yakubu Jack Gowon and his administration's use of the military, police, paramedicals and all the law enforcement agents to massacre defenceless Igbo men, women and children in cold blood during the crisis of 1966 and the civil war and the genocidal killing of Murtalla Muhammed at Asaba and northern Nigeria and Western Nigeria including the Midwest made all the pockets of Igbo communities and Igbo indegines fabricate nonsense. Therefore the present migratory life of the Igbo did not start after the coming of the Europeans but predated it. . Ukwuani people are Igbos from Nsukka and still speak pure Nsukka today. Therefore Onitsha is purely an Igbo town and Igbo people's town originally.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK