Original

Igbo names and spellings for various settlements
Abakaliki is Abankaleke; Afikpo is Ehugbo; Awgu is Ogu; Awka is Oka; Bonny is Ubani; Enugu is Enugwu; Ibusa is Igbuzö; Igrita is Igwuruta; Oguta is Ugwuta; Onitsha is Onicha; Owerri is Owere; Oyigbo is Obigbo... any more will be added.

Sunday, March 3, 2019

Unidentified women [Omu Nwagboka?]

Unidentified women photographed by Henry Crosse with the Royal Niger Company, c.1886–1895. MAA Cambridge. It’s almost safe to assume that this is Omu Nwagboka (left), the last Omu of Onicha (Onitsha).

Omu Nwagboka was a wealthy trader who was appointed as Omu by the Obi of Onicha, Obi Anazonwu in 1884. She had her own ofo and it seems an abani (royal Benin-style staff) also. She had a son who she bought the Ozo title for and gave over ten wives.

The encroachment on women's authority (due to Victoriana and the exclusion of women from leadership) lead to her leading a women's protest which was so effective that after her death in 1888, Obi Anazonwu did not appoint another woman to the position of Omu in Onicha.

(With all these photographs, whoever this woman was, she certainly did not want to be forgotten, along with the lady who seems to be accompanying her in all these photos. See: Unidentified Women, Niger River)

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