Edda people

Edda Egbebu, also known as the Edda, are a sub-group of the Igbo people in south-eastern Nigeria. The land and people of Edda have been constitutionally designated the present day Afikpo South Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, Nigeria.

Information on the Edda and their immediate neighbors has survived, barely, through a combination of folklore and an elaborate and highly ritualized priest-kingship evolved by the people; hence, the variations in accounts.

The oral interviews reflected in this study are subject to debate and criticism. They commence with respondents’ opinions on the migration of Edda people and other “Clans” they interacted with prior to settling on their present site.

Eze Aro of Arochukwu (now deceased), the longest reigning monarch of Igbo people stated that Edda people lived initially at Afia Isagha Orie with the Arochukwu people (Aros). The two clans were said to be of the same ancestral father, Eze Oke Mgbom who begat Imo Eze (father of the Edda) and Oti Eze (father of the Aros.

According to the monarch, the Edda left for their present settlement, through Ohafia, mainly in search of more fertile land for agricultural purposes. On leaving Afia Isagha Orie, he went on, the Edda settled successively at Okoni Ohafia, Amangwu Ohafia, Ukwukwa Okagwe Ohafia and finally Ugwu Nzu- now known as Nguzu, the traditional headquarters of Edda.

A community leader in Isieke Ibeku suggests that a group known as Elugwunta once inhabited the present location of Isieke Ibeku and following some misunderstanding ending in deaths, the survivors left through Bende for the present-day Abam, Ohafia and Edda. These three groups are one and the same people: while they had a common father – Eze Oke – Abam and Ohafia were of the same mother.

Another community leader and scholar, Chief K.O.K. Onyioha of Nkporo, in his contribution, reveals that the oral traditions of his people posit the Edda, Abam and Ohafia descended from three brothers – Egbebu, Onyerubi Abam and Uduma Eze respectively. These three groups once lived together in Isieke Ibeku, but left for Arochukwu after some disagreements with the earlier settlers, Elugwunta. The Elugwunta had accused the new-comers of killing their war dogs and a fight ensued which forced the departure of the Edda, Abam and Ohafia. After a while, the Edda separated from the other two groups which in turn subsequently broke off and headed to their present locations. Chief Onyioha adds that it was from the Ohafia that the Ututu emerged later, and that the Arochukwu Clan boasted of able-bodied young men and women of Abam, Edda, Nkporo and Ohafia origin who were settled there to act as buffer against the incessant attacks and invasion of the Ibibio of the south-east. The praise name Aro Oke Igbo refers to the Aros situated between the Igbo and non-Igbos.

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Wikipedia