Oratta

It divides into six clans and, like the rest of Oratta-Ikwerri, has no tradition of migration from elsewhere.

Oratta is the first of the three groupings in the Oratta-Ikwerri and the largest clan among them. Oratta divides into six clans, which carry its local communities between them: ten in Uratta, nine each in Agha Umunwoha and Abala, seven in Obudi, six in Nekede and five in Owerri. One of the six, Owerri, is entered separately in this file.

The six clans are set out as follows. Uratta is a single village group. Agha Umunwoha consists of two village groups, Agha and Umonwoha. Nekede takes in Nekede, Ihiagwa and Imeabiam together with three smaller village groups, and Abala takes in Emii, Emekuku and Ulakwo with six further ones. Owerri has four smaller village groups besides Owerri itself. Obudi was a separate group in the first place but now prefers to be counted as Oratta.

Forde & Jones record no tradition of migration from elsewhere for Oratta, or for the rest of Oratta-Ikwerri. Mbari houses are singled out as the most striking cultural trait of the Oratta proper: temple-like structures holding painted figures of mud, put up for the tutelary spirits of each village. A priest begins the work after consulting the elders, and it is done by communal effort and contributions, the builders living apart under taboos until it is finished. The houses serve no purpose in worship; they are said to appease a deity or turn aside misfortune, and they are left to fall into decay soon after completion.

The Etche and Oratta, lying north of the Ikwerri, are better yam farmers than the Ikwerri, though less wealthy. The Oratta-Ikwerri as a whole have abundant land, most wealth coming from palm kernels and palm oil, from food sold to the more crowded districts nearby, and from tolls levied on travellers crossing their territory on the way to trade or work in the south.

Meek sets out the terms on which the Oratta and the Isu held each other to be separate peoples: the Oratta claimed a warrior past and looked down on the Isu as traders, the rule of marriage ran one way only, with an Oratta man free to take an Isu wife while no Oratta woman would take an Isu husband, and the bride-price and food customs of the two differed. He adds that the Oratta had the better farming land and so had less need of trade.