Ozikorotown in the archive
Opi
Recorded in Enugu. A place page gathers every related history, image, recording and document rather than opening only one article.
Connected writing
Histories about Opi
Named in other records
Histories that mention Opi
No published record in this archive names Opi in its own words.
“Opi” is not counted on its own — in this archive it is the ọpị musical instrument.
The record
What the archive holds for Opi
| Region | Enugu |
|---|---|
| State | Enugu |
| Local government | Nsukka |
| Division | Northern Igbo |
| Ethnic group | Igbo |
| Recorded as | town |
Opi is a town of the Nsukka country in Enugu State, one of the three towns of the Omabe group with Lejja and Obimo. Its iron smelting furnaces date to 750 BC, and the town is divided into three autonomous communities across two local government wards.
Opi is iron country. Its furnaces are dated to 750 BC, and they worked on a scale that left slag blocks of up to forty-seven kilograms — the ore was smelted in natural-draft furnaces, the molten waste drained through shallow channels into pits, and the temperatures reached between 1,155 and 1,450 degrees. The site is one of the group that makes the Nsukka plateau the earliest iron-working region in this part of Africa, with Lejja beside it and Igbo Ukwu's bronzes downstream of the same craft.
The town is three autonomous communities in two local government wards, and it belongs with Lejja and Obimo in the Omabe cultural group.
Sources
Wikipedia, "Opi (archaeological site)"
Archive records
Photographs, oral testimony and documents connected to this community would appear here with provenance.
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