Abbi

Abbi was founded by Amacha, who came from Achalla-Ukwu east of the Niger by way of Aboh, and the town grew by taking in later families from Achalla-Ukwu and Ubulu-Uku.

Abbi is an Ukwuani Igbo town of Ndokwa West in Delta State, and its history is kept in traditions of migration, settlement and the slow absorption of families into one community.

Its founding story centres on Amacha, who came from Achalla-Ukwu, east of the Niger, and reached Aboh in the late sixteenth century with his wife Omai, his children, his servants and his dependants. The Obi of Aboh received him as a kinsman, their speech and custom being alike. When that Obi died, two princes fought for the stool; Amacha backed the losing side, and he and other families of that party left. He stopped first at Umu-Olu, passed through Ashaka and Ushe, and came at last to the land where Abbi stands. He had carried the sacred things of his line with him, among them the Nze shrine.

He arrived with Omai and three sons — Ogwezhi, Okolo and Aninta — and with his wife's younger brother Ndueze, who had come from Achalla-Ukwu with her and who took charge of the Nze shrine. Amacha explored the land with his sons and stayed once he was satisfied that it suited both building and farming, and he set up the Ani, Nze and Ndiche shrines and the Orile Abbi, the communal ground. The name is read from Ka anyi biri n'ebe a — let us live here — worn down through Ka-Abili to Abbi.

Abbi grew by taking people in. Ewolokpo came from Achalla-Ukwu too, took the oath of oneness and was given charge of the Ani shrine; a later Ogwezhi came from Ubulu-Uku after a family quarrel and settled in what is now Elovie Quarter; and after a dispute with the Ewolokpo family was decided against him and he was driven out and then reconciled, he was given the ground that became Okwele Quarter. Amacha's brother Ukwata founded Umukwata, whose first village was Owa, and other members of the same movement helped shape Amai, Orogun and Emu. So Abbi is not the story of one ancestor but of a settlement founded by Amacha and enlarged by the families that joined it.