One of the major trade routes used by the Arọ slave traders from about the middle of the 18th century – the Bende-Okigwe-Awka route – passed through Awka, to the North-western Igbo area. The presence of a powerful oracle in Awka makes it tenable that Awka might have played some part in the slave trade, probably in alliance with the Arọ. It would appear that every major oracle we know from Igboland was involved in the slave traffic. And the Awka oracle was one of the four most eminent in Igboland, next to Arọchukwu’s Ibini Ụkpabi, Ụmụnọha’s Igwe-ka-Ala, and Ozuzu’s Kamalụ.
Sometime in the mid-18th century, a young Awka boy, from the Ogonogoezi kindred of Enuifite village in Ifite-Awka was kidnapped by men from the neighbouring town of Amantogwu, and sold to a prominent Aro trader from Ibom Village. The boy’s name was Ikeliọnwụ. The Arọ trader who bought him was Ufere Mgbokwa. Ufere Mgbokwa (a childless man) raised Ikeliọnwụ as his own son, and the boy grew up to be a notable ‘Arọ’ trader in his own right. He founded a settlement known today as Ndị-Ikeliọnwụ, probably the first Arọ colony in what is now Anambra State. The ruling line in Ndị-Ikeliọnwụ traces its descent directly from Ikeliọnwụ.
Relations between Awka and the new, related colony was often difficult. Arọ-Ndịkeliọnwụ quest for slaves was creating some unrest in the region. From the beginning of the 19th century, a number of refugees fleeing from the slave raids and its attendant insecurity arrived Awka, seeking stability and protection. Awka resettled them on a stretch of land called Ama Ọbịa (Strangers’ Quarter). A buffer village called Ụmụokpu, was established by Awka between this ‘refuge settlement’ and the direction from which the Arọ-hired slave raiders were attacking. Ama Ọbia (anglicized spelling: Amawbia) is today an autonomous town, and visitors often wonder why there is an Awka village (Ụmụokpu) on the other side of Amawbia, seperated from ‘main’ Awka!
Awka-Arọ relations worsened considerably in the last three decades of the 19th century. At that time, the Arọ colony of Ndịkeliọnwụ was under the leadership of Ikeliọnwụ’s notorious grandson, the warlord Okoli Ijọma. Okoli Ijọma had subjugated the towns in Adagbe country to the north of Awka (Achalla, Isu-Anaọcha, Mgbakwu), and they used to send yearly tribute to Okoli Ijọma. Then one year, the tribute didn’t come. Okoli declared war and invaded Adagbe country with his Cross River (Ada) warriors.
The road used by the Ada warriors going to fight the Adagbes passed through the northern outskirts of Awka. It was called Ezi Agha (War Road) or Ezi Ada (Ada Road). The war was prosecuted very cruelly, and the Ada warriors cut a lot of heads in Adagbe. On their way home from the warfront, they had to pass again through Awka. But this time, Awka men mounted a block on the road and demanded to see the cut heads they carried with them before letting them through; Awka feared that some of the heads might belong to Awka men operating in Adagbe. In the altercation that followed, the Ada warriors shot dead a young Awka man called Ọmalị. This was the immediate cause of the Ada-Awka War of circa 1878.
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