The first European thought to have visited Awka was Alfred Jones, a missionary based in Yorubaland, in 1894. The people of Awka were said to have been very hostile to him, and his visit yielded no fruit.
Three years later, in 1897, Thomas John Dennis, a CMS missionary at Onitsha wrote in his diary:
‘Oka is a large town, 40 – 50 miles [sic] to the north-east of Onitsha which I hope may be occupied some day by the CMS. The people are blacksmiths and travel all over the Niger territories. In every town their little sheds can be found. They are a peaceable people as it is in their interest not to get embroiled in any quarrel. To establish a station there would be an important step towards the evangelization of Iboland. I hope that either the bishop or myself may be able to visit Oka before Christmas with a view to seeing what can be done.’
The next year, 1898, Frances Hensley and a party of CMS missionaries visited Awka. In her book, Niger Dawn, Mrs Hensley records:
‘If Oka could be opened up to the Gospel and souls brought into the blessed service of our saviour, wonderful things could happen as the heavenly seed was sown through the length and breath of the country.’
In January, 1899, another party of CMS missionaries led by the Reverend Dr S. R. Smith came to the town. Awka oral history remembers that they rode into the town on horseback, and were shown the way by an Awka man, Ezeukwu, from Umuokpu Village, a smith based in Onitsha at the time. Travelling with the party was Mrs T. J. Dennis, who has left us an important description of Awka as it was in the last decade of the 19th century.
Concerning the mannerisms of Awka people, Mrs T.J. Dennis writes:
‘Most of the men we saw in Oka wore some English article of clothing. For instance, one man would wear a sailor-hat, another man a pair of trousers, another a waist-coat. We were surprised to see some of the young men carry whips similar to those used by carters in England. A great many were armed with Snider rifles, and all carried themselves with a dignified air, or perhaps, more correctly, a sort of swagger, as though all the world belonged to them. We were saluted by one young man with a most graceful bow and an English “Good morning”, as he raised his sailor-hat. The Oka people certainly seem more civilized than their neighbours, probably because they travel about so much. From what I have said it will easily be seen that the Oka men would make excellent evangelists for the Ibo country, if only they could be converted to Christ.’
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