Mbanasato

Mbanasato is the name given to the group, printed jointly with Awka, its leading town. Its towns are Awka, Nibo, Ugwuoba and Ebenebe. Four communities are left unnamed.

Awka's smiths had influence beyond their own craft, working also as doctors (dibia), as circumcisers, and as agents for the oracle at Agbala. They were organised as a guild with a developed apprenticeship and were split into two sections, each required to travel in alternate years while the other stayed at home; everyone who had served was a member, obliged to attend the guild's yearly ceremonies at Awka.

The people of this area were formerly known together as Umudi Awka. The group belongs to the western uplands, home of the Ọzọ title system.

Afigbo reads the name as the eight towns, one of the numerical titles taken by federations without a common founder. He also describes the Awka smiths, the leading ironworkers of Igboland, as a guild in which only half the members travelled in any one year while the rest stayed home; they worked Northern and Western Igboland and reached the Isoko, Igala and Idoma, and drew their ore from the Agbaja of Udi and from Nsukka smelters.