Onitsha was known as Ado NIdu by citizens who departed from the vicinity of the Kingdom of Benin near the far western portion of Igboland (near what is now Agbor), after a violent dispute with the Oba of Benin that can be tentatively dated to the early 1500s. Traveling eastward through what is now Western Igboland (and various towns also called Onitsha, for example Onicha- Ugbo, farmland-Onitsha), the Onitsha, led by one Chima eventually crossed the Niger River (Igbo: Orimili) and settled on the east bank in their current location. Onitsha is an Igbo speaking town , is a city, a commercial, educational, and religious centre and river port on the eastern bank of the Niger river in Anambra State, southeastern Nigeria. In the early 1960s, before the Nigerian Civil War , the population was officially recorded as 76,000, and the town was distinctive in a number of dimensions; the great Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe characterized it as harboring an esoteric region from which creativity sallies forth at will to manifest itself, a zone of occult instability Though it experienced great suffering during and after the civil war, by virtue of its still-strategic geographic position Onitsha has continued to develop, and by 2001 had an estimated population of 511,000 with a metropolitan population of 1,003,000. It is currently one of the fastest growing cities in the world. The indigenous people of Onitsha are Igbo and speak the Igbo language. It is here worth noting that Onitsha should not be confused with the other municipalities of the same name Onicha lying further east in Nigeria: Onicha-Uboma, Onicha- Uburu, Onicha-Agu, Onicha- Nwenkwo, Onicha- EnuguEzike, Onicha Ngwa, Onicha Nkwerre etc.. On the west bank of the River Niger exists also Onicha Ugbo, Onicha Olona and Onicha Ukwuani. All of which speak Igbo as their native language. Most theories on the word Onicha point to the meanings despiser or arrogant; apparently the people of Onitsha were prone to look down upon the people of the towns adjacent to them. Onicha may be a contraction of either Ọnịsịlị-ncha, meaning too headstrong [to be disciplined]; Ọnyịsịlị- ncha, too headstrong [for everyone]; or Ani-Ocha, the fair or white land. Some claim that Onicha is a contraction of Igbo and Edo words, and perhaps from the word Orisha. However, the existence of quite a number of communities bearing Onicha in the eastern Igbo hinterland, whose history do not relate to Edo, did severely jeopardise this hypothesis. After their arrival on the east bank (Onicha- mmili,Onitsha-on-water, see above), the community gradually became a unitary kingdom, evolving from a loosely organized group of royal and non-royal villages into a more centralized entity. Eze Aroli, was apparently the first genuinely powerful Obi of Onitsha, the ruler of the city. In 1857 British palm oil traders established a permanent station in the city, Christian missionaries joining them headed by the liberated African bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther (a Yoruba recaptive) and Reverend John Taylor (an Igbo Recaptive) In 1900 Onitsha became part of a British protectorate.{ The British colonial government and Christian missionaries penetrated most of Igboland to set up their administration, schools and churches through the river port at Onitsha
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 14:31:48 +0000
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