Umunoha

Umunoha is a village in southeastern Nigeria, located near the city of Owerri. The town usually, that is not always, is claimed to have been founded by a common ancestor, as we saw, usually larger-than-life, who begat several children to whom he allocated areas on which to settle. These areas eventually evolved to become villages. A typical example of such a claim is the tradition of origin of Umunoha autonomous community in Mbaitoli Local Government Area (LGA) of Imo State, Nigeria. Today, Umunoha is one of the autonomous communities in the LGA. It is a typical Igbo town. It is bounded on the north by Eziama Obiato and Afara communities; on the south and southwest by Ogbaku and Ejemekwuru communities; and on the south and southeast by Ifakala and Afara communities. It is served by the great East-West Road-the Port-Harcourt-Lagos Highway. It is about thirteen kilometers from Owerri, the Imo State capital. It is a small, compact but thickly populated community with a projected 1997 population of twenty-five thousand people.

Map of Umunoha, Nigeria

According to this tradition, a sort of warlord called Nnoha Okechi with vague Aro ancestry, but certainly a peripatetic individual, migrated from Ozuzu in the present Etche Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria and settled in the present Umunoha town, having decisively defeated the original Isu settlers who had resisted him fiercely. he dispersed the Isu, seized their land, and distributed it among his children accordingly to seniority as follows: Duru, his first son, became the progenitor of the present Umuduru village; Okparaoma, Duru's younger brother from the same mother and the third child, the progenitor of the present Umuokparaoma village. Okparafor, the fourth child and third son from a different mother the progenitor of the present Umuokparafor village; Durundom, Duru's only sister and Nnoha's second child whom he refused to give out in marriage remained at home and begat the present Umudurundom village; and Mbara, brother of Okparafor and Nnoha's fifth and last child begat the present Umumbara village. Later the area so divided and effectively occupied was renamed Umunoha. Here is a case where consanguinal relationship is a sina qua non for citizenship. Any Umunoha person who cannot trace his ancestry directly to Nnoha Okechi cannot aspire to be and will not be accepted as a true citizen of the town. Indeed, a citizen of Umunoha, even today, proudly describes himself as Nwafo Nnoha Okechi ("uterine child of Nnoha Okechi") or Okechi for short. he regards, often with contempt, nonUmunoha people as nde mbakeshi ("barbarians").

This brief account of the evolution of Umunoha town in the precolonial period is recorded here not because of its peculiarity but because of the general in its peculiarity. In other words, the story is very representative of Igbo communities. There are, of course, several instances where towns arose in this period as a result of several villages, not related by blood, were forced to confederate to defend themselves against a common enemy or danger. Over the years they developed a sense of community and in some cases invented a common ancestry and began to call themselves brothers. It is probably towns founded in this way which, for the most part, and with increase in population, tend to be loudest in clamouring for autonomous community status these days.

Its Popular Markets: -Orieamaigwe (Big Market) Nkwo Ukotoro, Umudurundom (Small Market)

Churches: