ORO HISTORICAL ORIGIN

ORO HISTORICAL ORIGIN: OBIO UFREH GARNISHED WITH AHTAHSHIP CORONATION

By: CrownPrince Chris Abasi Eyo Esu Udoembo Eyo Antai

Apart from the well known migrations of the Jews and perhaps the precisely recorded journey of the Mormons into the shores of Great Salt Lake, described by historians as the best organised migrations the world has ever known, there exists no migration history in the exactitude of how it occurred. Ours, is not an exception. However, from oral and written records, Oro journey to the present locale, dates back to aeons, and accordingly, Oro and its immediate environing communities, are said to have been fully settled  by 1200AD., long before the Portuguese arrived, which was triggered by the search for the trade routes to the resplendent wealth of the Oriental world and natural riches that abound on the horns of Africa, which saw the Portuguese ship of Captain Ruy de Soneita, reached the territorial waters of the Niger Delta in 1472 and fourteen years later in 1486, Alfonso d'Aveiro, stepped on the soil of Qua Iboe and Cross river basins including Oro shores, with a trading mission where he took the first pepper to reach Europe from West Africa.

Correspondingly, Abang the putative father of Oro Ukpabang, is said to have left home in the Mediterranean region and after several stopovers in the Sudanic belt, entered Congo basin (where Oro assumed the semi-Bantu status). Lying along the Nigeria – Cameroun maritime corridor including the BAKASSI Peninsula, now ceded to Cameroon, Oro, like most of sub Sahara African communities, came out of the Congo Basin as a result of the war of the Pygmies (a dwarfish people of Equatorial Africa) which had scattered most of the Africans – known to Oro people as “ekung amamisim-isim asuan ofid oduobot. So, from there, Oro people came into Cameroon and settled at where is called Isangele (Usakedet).

Oro ( called Adon by the Obolo) who is said to have led the people out of Cameroon, was a brother to Obolo (Andoni), who were both children of Donni, while Donni was begotten by Do, who himself was Abang's son. While Obolo or Andoni went separately out of Cameroon (in response to the civilisation note struck in ancient Benin Kingdom), Oro people crossed over to Calabar and its environs, where they lived for a while, and from where they finally moved to where they are found today in modern day Nigeria.

Through their lineages identified with their founding ancestors who were children of Oro and his other brothers, the putative fathers of the Oro race, have come eleven (11) traditional clans in Oro, who today, are gathered in their contiguous or separate clusters in and around Oro country. These are: Uquong, Okpo, Ibighi, Akiuso, Ubodung, Idua, Effiat, Ebughu, Eta, Odu and Atabong.

GEOGRAPHY:

Oro, constitutes five of the thirty one Local Government Areas of Akwa Ibom State, in the Niger Delta Region of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Oro situates within latitudes 40 321 – 40 451 North and longitudes 80 121 – 80201 East.
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Oro, occupies an interesting land mass with an admixture-topography, being swampy, sandy and littoral, beautified by forested foliage and mangroves vegetation, ornamented with irresistible fauna and flora.

Oro is made up of several villages and towns spread across the five Local Council Areas under their clans and as contained in THE TRADITIONAL RULERS EDICT CAP. 15 OF 1990, AKWA IBOM STATE OF NIGERIA.

ORO LANGUAGE: Linguistically, Oro people speak the central Oro Language (Nsingi Oro) and other variants of Oro, which are; Mbo (spoken by Uda and Enwang), Ebughu, Effiat, Idua and Okobo. According to ETHNOLOGUE: http://www.ethnologue.com, scholars' most veritable resource for research on language related studies, 7,105 living languages, have been identified globally. In that study, Oro language, identified as ISO -639-3, is counted among. Interestingly, Oro language is unintelligible to the neighbouring Ibibio, Annang, Efik and Ekid speakers, while Oro speakers, being multilinguals, naturally understand their neighbours.

KINGSHIP

It will be recalled that OBIO UFREH, became the first permanent OBIO of Oro People after their arrival in the land. And at that spot, Oro People dispersed to many other locations in and around the Oro country. At that same spot, it was therefore agreed that  "Ku Oro m'eka ufreh nye-eke Ku ini ifuo ma onung ulid" (that's that Oro clans will rise in alliance to defend their own when attacked by non Oro groups). This is the origin of the coinage "*OBIO UFREH - Idika ufreh oyo-eke.

AHTASHIP owes its origin to a legendary hunter, AHTA AYA-ARAH. He was a great hunter native to Eweme, the ancestral home of Oro Ukpabang. During a perilous time of hunger in the middle ages, AHTA AYA-ARAH, went out on his usual safari, but failed to return home same day as should have been. The following day, the community met and set up a search party for a rescue, but all to no avail. One day led to one week, one month passed by, AHTA AYA-ARAH, remained unfound.

Thereafter, a burial was done, believing that AHTA was dead, but surprisingly, two months after his missing, AHTA AYA-ARAH reappeared with species of sweet yams known in Oro today, as NYIN-ENI. When asked where he was, he said "Ku ntak mbiong ku isong, nkuka Abasi idide NYIN-ENI idi unadid", meaning "Because of hunger in the land, I went to God to collect this yam for mankind." This is how Oro ended up with the axiom that "AHTA AYA-ARAH ekedeh NYIN-ENI Ku ABASI odi Oro - AHTA AYA-ARAH brought Sweet yams from God to Oro. This feat, earned AHTA AYA-ARAH, the Oro kingship about 500 years ago, such that the Royal Stool, the contemporary AHTA-ORO sits today, is the same Stool AHTA AYA-ARAH sat in the medieval age. This well calved wooden Stool, remains the oldest surviving artifact of Oro and in the Lower Cross River Basin.

ODIDEM AHTA AYARA (Oro's First Cropper/Introducer of NYIN-ENI ( Sweet yam ) in the Oro Country and last pre colonial Oro Patriach, to be called 'Ahta'), besides ABANG, the progenitor of Oro and perhaps the founding fathers of Oro Clans, is the most invoked name during royal coronations in Oro. Some claim that, Ahta Ayara, was just a name and not a title, whatever this means, the irrefutable fact is that, most histories which have flourished, have been reconstructed. Ours can equally benefit from this historical tool.

Consequent upon the foregoing, and since the mid seventies when the ORO MONARCHY was renewed, visits to OBIO UFREH, by succeeding AHTAs, as parts of the rituals leading up to coronations, have remained sacrosanct. This is why AHTASHIP is a sacred symbolism, and must be held in very high esteem as opposed to some discordant tunes which echoed in the last  sacred week. Let us shield the sword and embrace the much celebrated AFANGI spirit. Because Oro, our native home, is at a crossroads, beckoning and seeking for a rallying point. Since the past forty years, AhtaOro has remained a rallying point even when politics treats us badly. Therefore, Ahtaship, must not be desecrated at the altar of inordinate ambitions.

In a time such as this in the chequered history of Oro, what should we go for, is it a united Oro or a fragmented one? No one should come here to bamboozle us to believe in any leadership as being themselves exceptionally virtuous, having martyr souls with irredentist spirit. We have all failed Oro. Therefore, we condemn every action aimed at further dividing Oro than heretofore. We must be discerning enough to know the antics of the devil at this season of Oro's journey in search of holistic leadership in a turbulent time.

Historians bear witness to the fact that aeons ago, when human kingship began to take root, common ancestry was the keyword, and even today, it is still largely the determining factor. However, the search for and subsequent enthronement of kingship in human affairs, primordially stemmed from the search for leadership as a rallying beacon and epitome of unity. Since Oro was not an exempt from the rest of the human race, and like the Jews, having had a disconnect with the past, we proclaimed "Give us a king to judge us as the other nations do." And it has been so through the emergence of HIS ROYAL MAJESTY (OVONG) EDET OKON ISEMIN, AHTA ORO VII.

AHTA K’OBIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!