Igwe Alfred Achebe, Obi Onicha Narrates the Origin of Onitsha and how his ancestors migrated from Benin to found present day Onitsha. He also mentions there was an earlier migration from ife(Ado) hence they’re called Onitsha Ado n’idu which simply translates to Onitsha of Ife and Benin.
Have you ever wondered why Onitsha has the western style rulership and not the Eastern style? Have you wondered why they Use the Ada and Evben, why they clothe in the royal cotton clothes of the Anioma people and why they consider themselves different from other igbos? Here’s why. Enjoy this revelation by the Obi himself, the custodian of culture and tradition of Onitsha, Agbogidi himself (I hope you all know the origin of the tittle Agbogidi)
For the benefit of those that don’t understand the Obi’s Dialect, The Obi after narrating the history known to him as passed to him from his ancestors went on to say that the next question that will be asked is ‘If the Onitsha people are indigenes of Ado or could they have come to Ado from somewhere else?’
And he went on to still ask that what they’re saying then is ‘Did the igbos move from Eri to Ado and then moved back from Ado’ (this was just him thinking aloud, as this part is not in Onitsha history but he was being diplomatic not to upset other igbos who might not be comfortable with this account passed to him by his ancestors), so he’s leaving these questions for our perusal.
He goes further to ask ‘is it that Igbo came from Egypt to Ado and then Benin to their present location ?’ (remember that these are just rhetorical questions and he didn’t provide an answer to it). And then he says ‘all these (questions he raised) are for our perusals
And then he goes on to say that he and the previous Oni and the the present one are in touch/contact/communicate(d) (in an attempt to decipher some of the questions raised)
He also says that the reason why Obi of Onitsha and the Oni (past & present) keeps in touch is because they know that they’re the same (I wanted to use ‘one family’ but I remembered it’s the slogan of a terrorist organization and I have no intention of implying that ife people are parts of it).
Personal Opinion of X user; Obi Achebe has no need to be diplomatic with his origin, he owes no one no apology whether his people are considered second class lbos because they have migrated from across the Niger shouldn’t be his concern. I do appreciate the fact that he was courageous to do this as this will be preserved for unborn generations.
Conclusively, it’s called Onitsha Ado n’idu portraying their origin and not Onitsha Eri.
