Illah

Illah is an Igbo town of the Niger bank in Oshimili North, whose nine villages keep their own accounts of coming — the Eri line from the east, the Ogbaru country upstream, and the families that joined them.

Illah is a town on the bank of the Niger in Oshimili North local government area of Delta State, about twenty-five kilometres north of Asaba. Ebu lies to its north, Asaba and Ugbolu to its south, Akwukwu-Igbo to its west and the river to its east. Its people are Igbo, of the Anioma country.

It is made up of nine villages: Umuagwu, Umutei, Ajaji, Ukwumege, Umutedem, Onya, Ukpologwu, Ogbe-Olu and Ogbe-Orji.

The tradition of the town runs back into the Eri line of the Igbo. Ifikuanim Eri's son Ika-Eri is remembered as founding Omo-Ika-Iberi, the market of Ika of Eri, which the town's people know as the original ground of their ancestors, and Illah, a son of Eri, is given five children by two wives who became the founders of its villages. The first quarters to settle were Umuagwu, Umutei, Ajaji and Umutedem. Driven from the insecure riverside by raiders from across the Niger, they moved inland to the higher ground and named it Ala amaka — this land is good — shortened to Ala and written Illah.

The Onya quarter came later, from Osamele in the Ogbaru country of Anambra State, led by Prince Ogwu, who had left home to rule in his own right; he was settled at the waterside at Otu-Eke to hold that side of the town. Ogbe-Orji takes its name from an iroko, orji, planted by Chika, who came to Illah from the east and set the tree as a signpost for the relations who would follow him.

Illah is governed by its oldest, not by a king. The Ogbelani-in-Council, presided over by the oldest Obi, the Obi Ogbelani, heads the town, and each of the nine villages is headed by its oldest man, the Diokpa Ogbe; in Ukwumege that same oldest man is also the Iyase of Illah, and so the town's prime minister.

Its people are farmers and fishermen who trade with their neighbours to the east in yam, rice and fish, and Illah's riverside markets are a middle market for traders from the hinterland. The town keeps the Emime new yam festival, and the Alor title, the highest in Illah, may not be taken while a man's father is alive.