Authors
Chukwuemeka Nwosu, Ph.D
Senior Lecturer
Department Of History and International Studies
Faculty of Humanities
Imo State University,
Owerri
+2348037112023
barrchukwuemekanwosu@yahoo.com
Donatus Nath Uzoma Okwara
Federal University of Technology,
Owerri
+2349060132276
uzomaomoore67@gmail.com
Abstract
The purpose of this essay is to examine the intergroup
interactions between the Aro-Igbo and their Cross River
Basin neighbours, with particular reference to
geography, migrations, trade links, conflicts and cultural
borrowings spanning through decades and centuries.
Aro-Igbo is located in the Cross River plains, in the
buffer zone between three major ethnic groups; Igbo, Ibibio/Efik, and Ekoi. Her Cros River basin neighbours
of Southeastern Nigeria was the highway by which light
and civilization would penetrate the remotest recesses
of the terra incognita inhabited by the Efik, the Ibibio,
the Oron, the Ejagham, and the Agwagwune peoples of
the upper Cross River basin. Presently, there is a dearth
of detailed studies of the interrelationships between the
Aro-Igbo and their Cross River Basiin neighbours.
What we do have are mainly documented tidbits of
aspects of Aro-Igbo interactions with their Cross River
Basin neighbours and such accounts tend to cover a
relatively short period in the history of their relations. In
this regards, the colonial dispatches, collections of
private papers, missionary correspondence and oral
tradition, however, indispensable to our area of study
were be used, though with caution to investigated this
seemingly neglected aspect of intergroup relations. It is
our argument that the communities that inhabited our
area of study were not strangers to each other; however,
there had been diverse levels of intergroup contacts and
historical forces of geography, propinquity, migration
routes, mingling of people, migration routes, trade,
conflict, politics and marriages, ultimately hoisted
bonds of affinity and consanguinity.
Endnotes
Onwuka Dike and Felicia Ekejuuba, The Aro of
Southeastern Nigeria 1650-1980 (Ibadan: University
Press Limited, 1990), p.1
2Onwuka Dike and Felicia Ekejiuba, the Aro of
Southeastern…p2.
3A.K Hart, Reports of the Enquiry into the
Dispute Over the Obongship of Calabar (Enugu:
Government Printer, 1964).
4For the contributions of Mathews to this subject,
see the Aro People: A.C. 635, Aro Sub-Tribes, Arodist
1/7/33, National Arochives, Enugu (NAE). See also,
Ottemberg, “Ibo Oracles and Intergroup Relations,
Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 14, No. 3, (1958),
295-317; Ukwu, “The Development of Trade and
Marketing in Igboland”, Journal of the Historical Society
of Nigeria 3, No. 4 (1967): 647-62: and Northrup,
Journal of African History 13, No. 2 (1972).
5S.O. Onwikwe, Rise and Fall of the Arochukwu
Empire, 1400-1902: Perspectives for the 21st Century. (Enugu: Fourth Dimension Publishing Co. Ltd, 1995), pp
1-2.
6OkonUya, Effiong U. Aye, Emmanuel N. Nsan
and Ekpenyong Ndiyo,The Efik and their Neighbours
(Calabar: Cats Publishers and, Clear Lines Publications
Ltd, 2005).
7C.B.N. Ogbogbo, R.O. Olaniyi and O.G.
Muojama, The Dynamics of Intergroup Relations in
Nigeria Since 1960: Essays in Honour of ObaroIkime @
70 (Ibadan: B Wright Integrated Publishers Limited,
2012).
8Edet A. Udoh, Who are the Ibibios? (Onitsha:
Africana-FEP Publishers, 1983.
9L.C. Dioka, “Inter-Group Relations Among
Nigerian communities”, in AkinjideOsuntokun and
AyodejiOlukoju (ed), Nigerian Peoples and Cultures
(Ibadan: Davidson Press, 1997), pp 55-76.
10P.I. Oguagha, “The Igbo and their Neighbours:
Some Patterns of Relationships in Pre-Colonial Southern
Nigeria”. in A.E. Ekoko and S.O. Agbi (ed), Perspectives
in History: Essays in Honour of Professor ObaroIkime
(Ibadan: Heinemann Educational Books (Nigeria) Plc,
1992), pp 41-56.
11Adiele Afigbo, Ropes of Sand: Studies in Igbo
History and Culture (Ibadan: University Press Ltd,
1981); See also A.E. Afigbo, The Igbo and their
Neighbours, (Ibadan: University Press Limited, 1981).
12Asuquo O. Anwana, “The Ekpe Zone in
Southeastern Nigeria: The People and Historical
Linkages”, in IkechukwuAmadi, IniUdoka and
YakubuOchefu (ed), History and Citizenship: Essays in Honour of OkonEdetUya (Calabar: University of
Calabar Press, n.d.) pp 106-144.
13Linus M. Okafor, “Aro Hegemony of Igboland:
Fact or Fiction”, in African Historian: Journal of the
Historical Society, Unversity of Ife, Ile-Ife, Vol. VI, No
1, May 1973.
14O.A. Ubi, “The Agwagune of the Upper Cross
River Region” in The Calabar Historical Journal, Volume
3, No. 1, September, 1985, pp 1-17.
15Monday E. Noah, “Efik Expansion and
Influence in the Cross River Basin, 1884-1935”, in the
Calabar Historical Journal, Volume 2, No. 1, June, 1978.
16D. Ford, and G.I. Jones, The Ibo and Ibibio
Speaking Peoples of Southeastern Nigeria (London:
International African Institute, 1950), pp 9-10; P.A.
Oguagha, “The Igbo People” in B.W. Andah and A.I.
Okpoko, Some Nigeria Peoples (Ibadan: Emmi
Commercial Press, 1988), p 128 and A.E. Afigbo, An
outline of Igbo History (Owerri: RADA, 1986), pp 1-18;
See also E. Ilogu, Christianity and Igbo Culture (Enugu:
Nok Publishers, 1974), pp 2-3.
17Quoted in Asuquo O. Anwana, TheEkpe Zone,
p. 115.
18U.O. Ndukwe, The Matrilineal System of
Succession and Inheritance in Nigeria (Enugu: Executive
Publishers, 1996), pp 1-64; P.O. Nsugbe, Ohafia: A
Matrilineal Ibo People, p 19.
19Cited by A.E. Afigbo, Ropes of Sand, p. 22
20J.O. Ijeoma, Arochukwu: History and Culture
(Enugu: Fourth Dimension, 1986), p. 9
21Ilogu, Christianity and Igbo Culture, p. 16 22Cited in Asuquo O. Anwanaa, TheEkpe Zone in
Southeastern Nigeria, p. 116.
23A.E. Afigbo, Ropes of Sand, pp 20-21.
24Afigbo, Ropes of Sand, p 239
25Afigbo, p 239
26Afigbo p. 239
27E.U. Aye, “Efik Origins and Migrations
Revisited”, in S.O. Jaja et al, (ed),OldCalabar Revisited
(Enugu: Harris Publishers, 1990), pp 1-19.
28B.W. Andah, The “Efiks and Peoples of the
Cross River Basin” in B.W. Andah, A.I. Okpoko (ed)
Some Nigerian Peoples, pp. 51-56.
29B.W. Andah, “The Efiks…” p. 51
30P.A. Talbot, People of Southern Nigeria Vol. 1,
pp 12-15; M.E. Noah, “the Early History of the
Ibibio Peoples”, p. 86.
31O.T. Abia, “The Oil Palm Industry and The
Economic Transformation of the Lower Cross River
Region” Ph.D. Thesis (History Department, University
of Calabar, Calavbar, Sept. 1998), p. 44.
32M.E. Noah, “Ibibio Origins” p. 70
33K.O. Dike, Trade and Politics in the Niger
Delta 1830-1885 (Uyo: Scholars Press, 1970), p. 70.
34Mary Essang, A Study of Oron Community
(Calabar: Paico, 1984), p. 1
35S.O. Onor, “The Ejagham Nation in Cross
River Region” of Nigeria (Ibadan: Kraft Books, 1994),
p. 18.
36The Contiguity of Ikom to Mfum has been
emphasized as a factor which made it the core area of the
Ejagham group, or people.
37S.O. Onor, “The Ejagham p. 21