Owa

Owa is an Ika-Igbo kingdom of Ika North East whose principal foundation is traced from Nri to Ute-Okpu to Odogu, who founded Owa-Oyibu; its other communities keep memories of their own.

Owa is one of the historic kingdoms of the Ika people of Delta State, with its centre at Owa-Oyibu in Ika North East local government area, which it also serves as the headquarters of. The kingdom belongs to the Ika cultural and linguistic region of western Igboland.

Its foundation story begins at Ute-Okpu rather than at Owa. Marshall recorded that Ute-Okpu was founded by Ute, who came from Nri, and that Ute's sons were Okpu and Odogu: Okpu succeeded his father at Ute-Okpu, and Odogu left after a succession dispute and founded the settlement that became Owa-Oyibu. The oldest recorded tradition of Owa therefore begins not with an outside kingdom but with a chain of migration running from Nri to Ute-Okpu to Owa.

Others were already in the area when Odogu arrived — Ufie is named as an earlier settler — and the contest between them is remembered in a ritual at the Ikenga festival, which settled Odogu's superiority while leaving Ufie an important part of the community.

The rest of the kingdom is not of one origin either. Owa-Alizomor is traced to Ozomor, Odogu's brother, and to the Iru, who had come from Igwaza near Abudu. Owa-Ofie traces to Adagba, who came from Ekhoha near Okada, and is remembered as one of the oldest settlements in the kingdom. Owa-Ekei keeps its own tradition for its founders, Ekei and his wife Abor. Owa-Alero grew out of families linked to Ute-Ogbeje, Agbor, Otolokpo and Ute-Okpu. Owanta, also called Owa-Nta, from Ute-Ogbeje, Abavo and Ute-Okpu. And Owa-Alidinma grew as an extension of the Owa settlement system, set to guard Owa's trade in the country about it.

Owa was made by political consolidation as much as by migration. Obi Igbedigin Igborgbor Ogidigan, dated in the oral tradition to about 1320 to 1356, is remembered as the ruler who widened Owa's reach and drew the communities under one authority, and the Osiezi festival is traced to a ritual he instituted after consulting the Ewaise during an epidemic. Those dates are the tradition's own and have not been fixed from any document. The Obi of Owa, who lives at Owa-Oyibu, is the political and ritual head of the kingdom and governs with chiefs, elders, villages and lineages, and the kingdom grew as a central kingship over communities that remained distinct.

Boji-Boji Owa belongs to the modern period: it grew around the Agbor railway and military station after troops arrived in 1906, and it is a mixed commercial town rather than one of the older villages. The Obi of Owa is Emmanuel Efeizomor II, on the throne since 1959.