Author: anyameluhor nwabueze

For years,scholars and historians alike have been baffled as to why Asaba people have refused to write down their history.this is because it is believed that people with high standard of education and remarkable intelligence should document their history.it is doubtful whether there is any other community in igboland where there are more highly educated people at the earliest time as Asaba people.they took full advantage of their early contact with the the European missionaries and merchants on the river Niger to enhance their educational position and this has created in them a deep feeling of benevolent arrogance in their dealings with some of their immediate neighbors.therefore,Asaba history has always been handed over orally from generation to generation.several noble individuals have tried to put it down among who are Isichei,Spencer etc.their noble efforts has always been flawed or incomplete.recently,Asaba people has decided to open up on their history.

The story of nnebisi is an interesting story of how a slave became a king and not only a king but became the founder of a town that made him a slave.The city of asaba,the capital of oil rich Niger delta in Nigeria is located on a hill,on the western edge of the famous river Niger.the river Niger is a trans-African link from east Africa and down into the Atlantic ocean.asaba forms a connector between the eastern and western and southern Nigeria through the river Niger.asaba lies approximately six degrees north of the equator.it has an area of about 300 square kilometers.it maintains an average tropical temperature of 90 degrees during the dry season and an average rainfall of 6 inches during the rainy season.the native language is Ibo.

I would like to go into the detailed history of Asaba. Ugboma was the first settler in Asaba,then known as Amanka.Ezeanyanwu was another settler who had children.he was said to be the son of one famous Ezechima,the legendary settler of many towns.odikpe and Obodo Achalla are the other original settlers.the place was not yet known as Asaba.now,a woman called Diaba got pregnant in that settlement by a slave in king Ezeanyanwu’s care.some said her lover was a settler from a place in kogi.Diaba was a woman sold to Ezeanyanwu as pawn in that settlement. Diaba took her child to Nteje where she came from immediately after Nnebisi’s birth.while young Nnebisi was growing up,he noticed that there were some privileges were denied him.the climax was when they were asked to get a bush cow [buffalo] that will be used for sacrifice.as usual as in so many other things,Nnebisi got the cow.he was denied the tail among other things as this goes with a title.in igboland,you don’t give title to a foreigner.he inquired why and was told that he is not a native of nteje.he went home and asked his mother,who had been growing uneasy about the way his son is being treated.his mother told him that he is not from nteje but from a town,across the river Niger.nnebisi decided to embark on the legendary ’search for the lost fatherland’.his mother thought he was too young to embark on the journey and tried dissuading him through many tricks but it seems as if destiny was calling him,so young Nnebisi set off.but before he began,his mother got a medicine man who prepared a pot of charm for him.this pot is what he will carry on his head and was supposed to fall off in his fatherland.thus,nnebisi embarked on this journey in a long narrow boat rowed by a kogi boatman.when he got to Asaba,the pot fell off his head at the present day cable point,off the shore of the Niger,by the shrine of the great onishe rock-the mystical goddess of Asaba.when the pot fell off his head,he exclaimed “AHAB AM”,meaning “I have appropriately chosen” in igboland.thus,Asaba got it’s name.it was called Ahaba but the British changed it to Asaba during their colonial occupation of Nigeria.(on onishe, my grand father who was an obi told me that she has large breasts and is draped with white.he said that he sees her in a trance}.nnebisi later went to look for his father and on finding him,the latter asked him to go and settle where the pot fell off as he is now old enough to settle down.thus,nnebisi settled down in asaba and flourished there.after the death of ezeanyanwu,his father,nnebisi became the king and married a woman from illah.he later took a second wife.as his household was the largest and comparatively the most successful,he Incorporated all the other settlers.nnebisi dealt in ivory.initially,he didn’t deal in slavery but according to Spencer(1901)when nnebisi was dancing in the annual festival,he hit his foot against a tree stump.the toe bleeded profusely that nnebisi said,”if it is human blood that this tree wants,i must give it to it”.and so,nnebisi began slave trading.this slaves were used as sacrifices during ceremonies and installation of an Eze.they are also buried alive at the death of an eze(king) and in the installation of an eze.in all,nnebisi came and dominated a previously inhabited settlement,gave it the name Asaba and ruled over them.the lineages of the other settlements were forgotten or lost.his first wife ujom had three children;onne(male,ezeumune(male) and ojife(female).his second wife also had a son called iyagba.iyagba;s seed are part of the lost seed in ASABA now.ezeanyanwu,odikpe,ugbomaand obodo achalla were the original settlers in asaba and make up the nine quarters in asaba together with the 5 grandsons of nnebisi-ezenei ugbomanta,agu,ajaji and onaje.they were the original nine quarters of asaba but nnebisi;s grandchildren later absorbed those of ezeanyanwu,odikpe,ugboma and obodo achalla,reducing it to the present five quarters. in the next account,i will give you the origins of Asaba cultures,festivals,masquerades,goddess etc.it has never been told anywhere or documented.this will be the first site that will publish it.

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