Ufuma

Ufumaland (Ana Uvume) is one of the 16 major towns that make up the geo-political area called Orumba North Local Government Area of Anambra state, Nigeria. Ufuma has the geographical coordinates of 6° 5' 0" North, 7° 11' 0" East .

Around the early thirteenth century a man named Ooluchuo was known to have had a son named Ngada who fathered an only son named Egbe popularly called Diji. Egbe on his part had two sons named Nkwere and Uvume in that order. It is likely that Egbe (aka Diji) might have had other children outside these two. Egbe was nicknamed Diji because he was a famous farmer and was said to have had large barns of yam.

In addition to farming, he was known to be a good hunter. He engaged in hunting mostly after planting season and before crops were ready for harvest. During these periods, food was usually scarce and there was always need to look for other food sources beside farm crops. Hunting for wild animals and fishing especially in the famous Mmamu River were easily the major engagements.

According to Nze Patrick Okeke, in an interview conducted in 1978, the two sons of Egbe namely; Nkwere and Uvume continued like their father to move from place to place in search of fertile land for agriculture. While Uvume was tall and heavily built like their father Egbe, Nkwere his brother was more like their mother. Their life styles were also said to differ a lot. Uvume was good at farming while Nkwere preferred hunting and fishing. –

It was the search for habitable and arable land that brought them to the present day Ekeakwa where they finally settled. Before this time, they had tried settling down at different times and places but found the places hostile. At one of those places Uvume was said to have lost his most loved wife during childbirth. The baby, a male child also died. Uvume was said to have had several children who died in infancy. This was one of the reasons that set them perpetually on the move until they came to Ekeakwa. At this place, one of his wives who had been carrying a baby gave birth to a bouncing baby boy. Before then, Uvume had two daughters. The baby boy was named Ehirimobu.

By this time Diji, their father had become very old and not long after he died and was buried there. With the death of their father, cracks began to appear in the relationship of the two brothers and their children. Uvume had four wives while Nkwere had only one. It was said that Diji their father had a warmer relationship with Uvume to the anger of Nkwere. Not long after the death of Diji, relationship between the two brothers became so frosty that Nkwere decided to seek another place of abode for himself and his family. Today the descendants of Nkwere live on the other side of Mmamu River close to the people of Orosiama in Oji River LGA of Enugu State.

...
Wikipedia