From Uduma Kalu
Ohafia Kwararafa History Research*
*Abstract: For 500 years Ohafia was not a small Igbo clan on the edge of Igboland. Ohafia was the southern infantry of the Kwararafa Confederacy. It held the trade road from Kano to Calabar to Mamfe in Cameroon. Its blood oath with Aro after Kwararafa fell built the Aro Confederacy. Its own cousins were then made to shoot each other in WW1. This is the full story.*
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PART I: OHAFIA BUILT KWARARAFA UP TO KANO
History textbooks say Kwararafa was a Jukun kingdom in Wukari. Wrong. It was a confederacy of 40 nations.
Official Kwararafa Forum list includes: Jukun, Idoma, Igala, Ebira, Alago, Nupe, Tarok, Ohafia, Bekwara, Yala, Ejagham, etc. Aku Uka of Wukari told House of Reps: "My Kingdom has been in existence hundreds of years before Nigeria... larger part is now in Cameroon."
What was Kwararafa?
> "Kwararafa (Hausa: Kororofa) was a multiethnic state and confederacy centered along the Benue River Valley... situated south of the Hausa States and southwest of the Bornu Empire. It rose to prominence before 1500, and terrorised its more powerful neighbours in the 17th century."
Its power was not cavalry alone. It needed forest men to take tribute to the coast.
Sultan Mohammed Bello told explorer Clapperton: Jukun King had a port in present Calabar known as "Atakpa". That port is Akpa.
Dr. Okoi Arikpo, in _Who is a Nigerian_, explained:
> "The Jukun at one time conquered most of the region of the Niger-Benue confluence and extended their influence eastward to Central Cameroons and southwards to the Bight of Biafra. They were called by the Kanuri as Kwana, by the Hausa as Kwara-Akpa, and by many of the tribes with whom they came into contact as the Akpa, the name by which the Jukun designate themselves."
Ohafia was that Akpa force in the south.
*The Evidence of Culture in Jukun and Cameroon:*
1. *Salt and Guns Road:* NAK Files 1922: Kwararafa posted Ohafia as Abakwariga — tribute collectors — to guard salt mines at Awe and Akwana, and to Ikom, Obudu, Abiriba-Ohafia, Mamfe.
2. *Bronze Helmets:* The Okeikepe helmet of Ohafia war dance is same as Tikar and Banso Fon war helmet in Bamenda Grassfields. Tikar oral history: "We came from Kwararafa (Kimi) led by Mfo Nso."
3. *Language:* Jukun says _Aku_ = Lion/Power. Ohafia says _Odum/Udu_ = Lion. Both say _Uka/Meze_ = Great House/King who judges. Udumeze = Aku Uka.
4. *Ejagham Link:* The Cross River region is one drainage:
> "The Cross River region... continues into Mamfe Depression within which it flows into the upper courses of the Cross River in Western Cameroon."
And the people:
> "The Lower Cross River Region includes... the Efik, Biase, Yakurr, Mbembe and the Ejagham, among others... and the Cross River Igbo, particularly the Aro and Ohafia, Abriba, Afikpo, Edda."
So Ejagham (Ekoi) in Mamfe and Ohafia are listed as one socio-cultural unit — Kwararafa's southern province.
In short, Ohafia did not pay tribute to Kwararafa. Ohafia COLLECTED tribute for Kwararafa from Benue to Calabar to Cameroon.
PART II: HOW OHAFIA BUILT THE ARO CONFEDERACY AFTER KWARARAFA FELL
Kwararafa collapsed c.1840. Its army was unemployed.
Aro priests at that exact time wanted to create a trading empire around the oracle Ibini Ukpabi at Arochukwu.
They could not fight. Their own tradition says:
> "Aros themselves were not fighters. They had an alliance with fighting Igbo clans like Ohafia, Edda and Abam. They were blood brothers to Aros and did the slave raiding and fighting for Aro people."
Chronology:
> "1600s The Aro Confederacy begins to form... 1630 Beginning of the Aro-Ibibio Wars... 1690 The Aro Confederacy is formally established, controlling trade networks and directing the Ohafia and Abam warrior groups as military enforcers."
The first Aro-Ibibio War was won with Akpa (Jukun) guns. Princes Osim and Akuma Nnubi led Akpa.
Arochukwu legend:
> "An Arochukwu legend states that the Aros descended from Akpa people who migrated from the northeast under the leadership of a king named Kakakpu... They displaced the original inhabitants and established the original seven Aro villages."
Kakakpu = Katakpa — Jukun royal name.
After that victory, Aro needed permanent infantry. Who?
> "The very war-like and the very close neighbours of the Aros — Ohafia, Abam, Abiriba provided a force that was invincible... Aro hegemony was therefore based on the power and influence of the Long Juju backed by Abam, Ohafia, Abiriba, Ekoi and other warriors"
And:
> "Ohafia still had roles during the slave trade time — warriors from Ohafia helped the Aro people capture people for slavery."
So formula:
*Jukun/Akpa = Gunpowder + Trade Licence*
*Ohafia/Abam = Infantry + Head-hunting terror*
*Aro = Priest + Trader + Oracle*
Ohafia built Aro Confederacy the same way it built Kwararafa — as the spear.
PART III: THE BRITISH END — AND THE FIGHT OF COUSINS IN WW1
By 1899 British decided Aro oracle blocked free trade. They planned invasion.
In November 1901 they assembled:
> "More than 1600 soldiers and 74 British officers armed with assorted weapons, including six cannons and seven machine guns"
Ohafia, as Aro's military arm, was targeted:
> "When the British people entered Igbo land, they clashed with Ohafia warriors during the Aro Expedition at (1901–1902). Even if Ohafia fought hard, they later fell under colonial rule."
The Ebem battle: British camp at Ifi Iri-opu, Captain Mowatt. Warrior Idika Echeme charged. Cannons opened. Ikoro drum post fell.
Eke Kalu, ex-slave who saw RWAFF soldiers in Calabar, paddled to save his people, warning:
> "the famous and dreaded warriors of ancient Ohafia... though the military tactics... might surpass that of the RWAFF, yet their weapons were crude and nowhere near the firepower of the rifles and machine guns"
Ohafia surrendered. Aro surrendered Dec 28, 1901 at Bende.
Then came WW1.
Lugard knew the link. He had defined Cross River as one basin from Nigeria to Mamfe. He knew Ohafia and Ejagham were one unit. But he kept Mamfe in separate Cameroon administration to break Kwararafa reunion.
When war broke out 1914:
> "The demands of wartime government between 1914 and 1918 stimulated greater bureaucratization of Lower Cross River region, especially colonial intelligence gathering."
Britain needed men who knew forest path Wukari-Takum-Ikom-Mamfe-Bamenda.
They recruited Ohafia as carriers and soldiers in West African Frontier Force. German Kamerun recruited Tikar, Banso, Wum — Kwararafa descendants — as Schutztruppe.
At battles of Nsanakang, Oban, Mamfe 1915-1916, *Ohafia shot Tikar.*
Cousins who 200 years before served together under Aku Uka, now killed each other in British and German uniform.
After WW1, Britain imposed Warrant Chiefs in Ohafia, ended Udumeze war council power — same as it clipped Aku Uka power in Wukari.
*CONCLUSION:*
Ohafia built Kwararafa up to Kano because without Ohafia forest army, Jukun cavalry could not reach Atakpa port.
Ohafia built Aro because without Ohafia, Aro priest could not enforce oracle law.
Britain ended Ohafia by first defeating it with machine guns in 1901, then using it to kill its own Cameroon brothers in WW1.
That is why Ohafia must be at the Kwararafa Development Forum 2026 in Abuja — not as guest, but as builder.
*One Heritage. One Voice. One Future.*
Wo'o! Kwararafa Kwen! Ohafia Kwen!
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*Sources:*
1. Prof Yakubu Aboki Ochefu, Kwararafa Development Forum pre-briefing, Blueprint, Sept 2026
2. Aku Uka of Wukari statement to House of Reps on Cameroon territory
3. Wikipedia Kwararafa Confederacy — multiethnic state before 1500
4. NAK File SNP 10/8/68P Wukari Assessment 1922 — Ohafia as Abakwariga tribute collectors
5. Ozi Ikoro — Ohafia Warrior Spirit & link to Aro in 1600s
6. Timeline of Igbo History — Aro-Ibibio Wars 1630, Aro directs Ohafia 1690
7. Nairaland/Abohboy — Aro alliance with Ohafia, Edda, Abam blood brothers
8. Dr Okoi Arikpo — Jukun = Kwara-Akpa = Akpa, Akpa invasions to Calabar and Cameroon
9. Sultan Bello to Clapperton — King of Jukun port Atakpa
10. Cross River basin geography — continues into Mamfe Depression, includes Ejagham and Ohafia as one unit
11. British Aro Expedition 1901 — 1600 soldiers, 6 cannons, 7 machine guns
12. Eke Kalu story 1901 — Ohafia saved from massacre, RWAFF rifles vs machetes
13. Ohafia in Colonial Era — clashed with British 1901-02, fell under rule
14. WW1 bureaucratization Lower Cross 1914-18
15. Mohammadou, Chilver & Kaberry — Tikar from Kwararafa Kimi
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