There are few communities in which the culture and tradition of the people,
as exhibted in their daily lives and habits, provide so much evidence of their
background and origin as in Ali-Ogba: The elaborate greeting ceremonies, the praise
names and titles, the ancient sayings or proverbs and slogans, the peculiar traditional
festivals, the obsequies, the stratified age grade organizations, the wedding customs,
the speech, the folklore, the historic sites and ruins, the shrines, the cultural
associations, the traditonal religion, and the geographical terrain itself, all
tell a vivid story, in clear unmistakable terms.
The Onuobdos, their Origin, Ellah (1995)
Ogba people comprise about fourteen extended families or onuobdos (literally mouths of the city i.e. quarters), each named after an eponymous ancestor, (e.g. the Umuenyike Onuobdo are the sons of Enyike, the “strong elephant”) likewise, The Umuebe Onuobdo are the sons of the Beetle). An onuobdo is an agnatic, exogamous group, with its own history of origin, its own ohuo or family idol, its own totem.
The average population of each onuobdo today is about 7,000; but all the members of an onuobdo do not occupy a restricted area on the ground. The members of various onuobdos are to be found in all parts of Ogba. That every onuobdo today has its own centre of highest population, which is usually the original home of the founding ancestor, indicates that originally the various onuobdos occupied exclusive geographical locations on the ground until they began to disperse and intermingle with their neighbours.
Every community (that is, town and village) in Ogba is made up of people of the various onuobdos and cuts across all Ogba communities of Omoku, Egi, Usomini and Igburu. Below is the list of Onuobdos that exist in Ali-Ogba…More Ogbas fall into four major groups: Egi, Igburu, Usomini and Omoku with twenty-five families or Onuobdos.
NO | USOMINI GROUP | IGBURU GROUP | EGI GROUP | OMOKU GROUP |
1 | UMUEBE | UMUEBE | EDEIHURU | UMUEBE |
2 | UMUEYINKE | EYINKE | UMUNGWU | UMUEYINKE |
3 | IHIKWU | IHIKWU | UMUAKPA | IHIKWU |
4 | UMUOHALI | – | – | UMUOHALI |
5 | UMUNKARU | UMUODU | OBEYE | UMUNKARU |
6 | UMUCHI | UMUCHI | UMUCHI | UMUCHI |
7 | UMUOYORO | UMUOYORO | UMUOYORO | UMUOYORO |
8 | UMUOBA | – | UMUOBA | UMUOBA |
9 | UMUEZEALI | EZEALI | UMUEZEALI | UMUEZEALI |
10 | UMUAGBURU | UMUAGBURU | UMUAGBURU | UMUAGBURU |
11 | UMUOKPARAME | UMUOKPARAME | UMUOKPARAME | UMUOKPARAME |
12 | UMUNGAH | UMUNGAH | UMUNGAH | UMUNGAH |
13 | UMUALINWA | UMUALINWA | ODOGU | UMUALINWA |
14 | UMUIYESARA | IYESARA | IMEAJI | UMUIYESARA |
15 | UMUOGIDI | UMUOGIDI | UMUOGIDI | UMUOGIDI |
16 | UMUCHIKERE | UMUCHIKERE | UMUCHIKERE | UMUCHIKERE |
17 | UMUAGBDA | UMUAGBDA | UMUAGBDA | UMUAGBDA |
18 | URIEM | URIEM | URIEM | URIEM |
19 | UMUOKIRIE | UMUOKIRIE | UMUOKIRIE | UMUOKIRIE |
20 | UMUIMEGI | UMUIMEGI | UMUIMEGI | UMUIMEGI |
21 | UMUERIECHI | UMUERIECHI | ERIEHI | UMUERIECHI |
22 | UMUODOGU | UMUODOGU | – | UMUODOGU |
23 | UMUOKOROCHA | – | – | UMUOKOROCHA |
24 | UMUAKOCHA | – | – | – |
25 | UMUORODU | AGWOLO | AGWOLO | AGWOLO |