The Anioma peoples

The name

Chief Dennis Osadebay, later the first Premier of the Mid-Western Region, coined the name Anioma in 1951. It is built from the first letters of the four original areas, Aniocha, Ndokwa, Ika and Oshimili, and it also means "good land" in Igbo.

Towns and languages

Anioma covers the nine northern local government areas of Delta State, the Delta North senatorial district. Its peoples speak Igboid languages: Enuani in the north-east around Asaba, Ogwashi-Uku and Issele-Uku; Ika in the north-west around Agbor; and Ukwuani in the south, around Kwale. Smaller Igala and Olukumi-speaking communities live there too.

Chima and the founding towns

Many Anioma kingdoms trace their royal lines to Benin. Local histories credit Chima, also written Cheime, a figure who left Benin, with founding several towns, Issele-Uku among them. Other towns tell different founding stories, and each keeps its own.

Ekumeku: the long resistance

When the Royal Niger Company pushed inland from Asaba in the 1880s, town societies across the area formed a secret, oath-bound resistance known as Ekumeku. After the company's constabulary attacked Ibusa in January 1898, Ekumeku fighters resisted company and then British rule for more than a decade.

The fall of Ogwashi-Uku in 1911 broke the movement, and about 300 fighters were tried and jailed at Calabar. It is remembered as one of the longest organised resistances to colonial rule in Nigeria.

Identity today

Identity in Anioma is discussed and debated. Some communities stress their Igbo roots, others describe themselves differently, and there are long-running calls for an Anioma State of its own.

Identity in Anioma is debated, and each town tells its own founding story. Where accounts differ, we say so.

Visit it

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  Issele-Uku

  Aniocha North

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  Ogwashi-Uku

  Aniocha South

• Photo coming soon

  Agbor

  Ika South

Read next

• The story of Asaba
• The Royal Niger Company
• The Ine new yam festival, Issele-Uku
• Anioma associations