Ngwa

Ngwa is the largest Igbo subgroup, of the Isuama stock that left the Orlu country for the Imo River; its founders crossed at Okpuala Ngwa, and the villages they made became Ngwaland.

It is the one Southern Igbo group whose villages are said to claim a common descent.

The Ngwa are part of the Isuama people who lived in the Orlu country. Their founders left Umunoha by way of Ama-Igbo and reached Ezinihitte, driven by a growing population in the Owerri country and the need for fresh land. Three brothers — Ngwaukwu, Nwoha and Avosi — boiled their yam and crossed the Imo before the river rose and held their companions on the bank. Those who crossed became the Ngwa and those who stayed the Ohuhu. They settled first at Okpuala Ngwa, where they performed their first ritual, and from there made the eight original villages: Ntigha-Okpuala, Eziala-Nsulu, Amaku-Nvosi, Amauha Ovokwu, Umuokwu Mbutu, Orie-Afo Umuoha, Okpu Ngwa Ovunkwu and Okpuala-Ngwa.

The clan is derived from Ezinihite, an Isu-Ama group, and grew where Igbo incomers met the Mboko who were already on the land. Its Igbo components are Isu-Ama and Asa; the Mboko are the older population it absorbed, and a few more recent Anang communities among them still speak Ibibio. Traditionally the ancestors of the Ohuhu-Ngwa moved from the Abaja area of Owerri to the Imo river: those who crossed became the Ngwa, those who stayed on the western bank the Ohuhu. Crossing, they met people they call Mboko, probably Anang Ibibio, who gave them land, and villages of both Ngwa and Mboko origin form the clan today.

Twenty-six clans or regional groups are distinguished inside it. In order they are Ntigha, Nsulu, Ngwauku and Mbosi; then Mbutu, Umiioha, Ovokwu and Ovungwu; then Ngwaobi, Amaise, Okpuruahaba and Amavo; then Arongwa and Osokwa together with the three Mboko groups Mboko Amiri, Mboko Itungwa and Mboko Umuanunu; then Ndi Okatta, Mbutu Umuojima together with Aba Na Ohazu and Ahiaba Na Abayi; and lastly Ohanze, Uratta, Akumaimo, Ibeme and Ugwunabo. These groups are numbered consecutively on the map.

Ngwa social organisation is said to resemble that of the Ibibio more closely than any other Igbo group does, and, like the Isu-Item, the Ngwa depart from most Southern Igbo groups in showing features characteristic of the Eastern Igbo. They have no title systems and no ọsu cult slaves, and their masked secret societies, named Okonko, Akang and Ekpo, answer to those of the Ibibio and of the lower Cross River groups. Their art style mixes Igbo and Ibibio elements, the Ibibio double climbing rope is in use, and palm wine is taken from the raffia palm rather than the oil palm, as in the Isu-Ama and Onitsha areas.

Ngwa people are in seven local government areas of Abia State: Obingwa, Osisioma Ngwa, Isiala Ngwa North, Isiala Ngwa South, Aba North, Ugwunagbo and Aba South.