By Uduma Kalu
1. I don't know about owan meaning a strong person. 2. Based on my little finding, that phrase, owan awatugu ji is a corruption of their place of origin.
3. The Ohafia, not Ohafians, (we should be mindful of how we address our people. In academic journals and serious journalism, it's The Ohafia or Ohafia. Ohafian is colloquial, like Naija for Nigeria. Igbo is Igbo not Igboan), were of Ika origin. Yes, Ohafia has Ika origin. Anioma.
4. In fact, their place of abode in Edo is called Owarinuzo. Owa is an Ika town. The Owarinuzo journeyed from there. I got to know this through my history professor from from that area. It needs more research, though.
5. When we say we are from Bini, it refers to Benin empire, not Bini town or ethnicity. We were among those under the influence of the Benin empire. We were not Bini. But Igbo.
6. Our Ohafia dialect clearly shows Ika bearings till date. Such as Ali for earth, ofi for pumpkin.
7. This brings me to the Andoni part of the Ohafia origin. And I think it's recent. Yes, we share a link with Andoni but it's not that we journeyed from Ika to there and came to Umuahia and now Ohafia.
8. The journey track or mapping from Ika doesn't near Andoni but Ndoni. Our homestead in Ndoni, as Chief Ekea Ncho writes in his biography is still there. He visited there.
9. The Andoni story of our origin actually a war aspect of our already settled ancestors who fought for Jaja of Opobo. The warriors after sacking the original inhabitants of Opobo chased them to Andoni and built their settlements, expanding from there to become a big territory. I have explained sometime ago how the Ohafia, etc, built buffer towns. Andoni was in this sense a buffer for Opobo.
10. The descendants of the Andoni today were the children of Ohafia warriors that fought for Jaja of Opobo. Yes, the Ohafia established Opobo for King Jaja of Opobo, same way they did for their daughter's son, Izuogu, by sacking and establishing what's now Aro Ndizuogu for Izuogu. All those so called Aro towns were founded and handed over to the Aro with our ancestors ( Mben) also building theirs beside the Aro towns. Such as Umunze in Anambra state where Flavour is from.
11. We need to research more on the Ohafia or the Mben of the Niger Delta. At least, we know of Asari Dokubo saying he's Abam of Abia state. We have Ebiriba in Rivers too. Ohafia is yet to find its people among the Niger Delta.
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