A short History of the Ogbia people

There is no doubt about the fact that the Ogbia people are close relatives to the Abua and Odual people. The origin of the Ogbia people therefore cannot be different from the Origin of the Abua and Odual people.

Linguists and Historians have studied the language of the central Delta people (Abua, Ogbia and Odual) They all agreed that Abua, Ogbia and Odual came from an Easterly direction to where they are settled today.
Prominent among these historians and linguists are Murdock (1959), Nair(1972), Alagoa(1972), Williamson (1987), Faraclas(1989), Okorobia and Olali(2012).

Nair in his Account recorded that Abua, Ogbia and Odual are an offshoot of the Bantu spreading. They migrated from the neighborhood Usha Edit (Rio del Rey) in Cameroon. They are among the seven Efut towns that were founded near Efut mountains. Our language is grouped among the Delta cross languages.
Ejituwa(1991) writing about Obolo which is also a Delta-cross speaking people, suggested that there was a migration of Delta-cross speaking people from from Rio Del Rey in Cameroon down the Cross river. By 300 BC, they have reached the mouth of the Cross river. Ejituwa suggests that Abua and his brothers were among those Delta-cross migrants that reached the mouth of the Cross-river about 300 BC. By 300 BC, There was a population pressure at the mouth of the Cross river. The population pressure as a result different groups migrating to the mouth of the Cross river. This population pressure necessitated another migration for new places to Settle.

Ogbia and his brothers moved Eastwards because many other groups were moving Westwards
They, Abua, Odual and Ogbia moved Eastwards and settled near Obolo in the area today called Andoni. Obolol sources have confirmed that these people were their neighbors for sometime before they left. The place became known as Andoni because because when a stranger comes to the place, the stangers were greeted with the words Andoni that is exactly how the Ogbia people still greet or salute strangers even today.

After leaving the Obolo area, They settled in present day Port Harcourt. The settlement was called Obomotu meaning a big house in our language at that time. The existence of Abuloma which is corrupted from the name Aḅoloma is proof that the Ogbia, Abua and Odual once settled there. Another proof is the wrestling music of the Abua, Odual and Ogbia popularly known as oḅutu is still being played by the Ikwerre people of Port Harcourt. They could only have learnt it from us. The Igbo people know nothing about Oḅutu. Oḅutu is unique to Abua, Ogbia and Odual alone.

In Obomotu, the group experienced a lot of violence from neighboring communities which necessitated another movement. They moved towards the West close to the Kalabari area of today and later left after a few years. The existence of Bukuma is a proof that they were once in the vicinity.

They moved to present day Bayelsa State and settled first at Ogbia-otokolo and had to move because their population has grown immensely. Other places they settled is the present day Ewelesuo and present day Fantuo. They probably stayed longest in present day Fantuo before moving. The people of Fantuo today will confirm to you that people lived there long before them. And the evidence is still there.

As their population continued to increase, there came a need for a bigger land. They found the Edumanom area. It was fertile and very large. They moved into the Edumanom area and founded the Ebela Kingdom. The Ebela Kingdom had many communities with a central monarch.

They lived in the Ebela Kingdom for a very long time time. The people of the Ebela Kingdom were a people who believed a lot in spiritual powers and gods or juju. The cultural practices that were introduced there after some decades were not people-friendly. The preists being possessed by juju do injure people with spears during their festivals. And to appease the gods where someone has transgressed or offended the gods, it sometimes involved human sacrifice from the transgressing family. These practices made people to consider living the Kingdom. First to leave was Abua and his family. This is evident in how much the Abua language has differed. These practices continued and another large group had to leave. This group settled opposite present day Oloibiri. Oloi and many others like a woman named Aghoi, Abula, Okoroma, Abagi, Oke and many others lived there. In that settlement there was trouble amongst the people because of quarrels that could lead to loss of lives so Oloi crossed to the overside, which is the present day Oloibiri. The elders of Oloibiri will confirm that there was a town on the overside. Okoroma was the first to leave with his family from that settlement to his present day settlement. Abula and Oke also also left early. For the fact that these people settled there has brought the misunderstanding that they are the children of Oloi. Due to the quarrels I mentioned earlier. Aghoi left to her present settlement.

Aghoi was a good and accommodating woman so not long after she left, many people from that settlement including Edu left to stay near her. Many like Abagi left with his family including his son Odefe to their present settlements. Others went to live near Aghoi. And founded a Town called Osuan-Ewoi. They again were faced with problems of juju and people getting lost in the forest which they attributed to juju in the forest so they founded another settlement called Atubu. Before the founding of Atubu many of the people have left the Osuan-Ewoi. Some went to Akani. Some went to Okaka and later came to help found Azikoro. Some lived went to present day Yenegwe and present day Igbogene. Some left to Otuoke be and from Otuoke a few went to help found Yenaka and Ibebelebiri.

Those that left to Atubu or the new Osuan-Ewoi, left the Atubu settlement later for some unknown reasons. Edu left with his family to establish the present day Otuedu. If Edu was the son of Oloi as mistakenly believed, the Otuedu people would not have been part owners of Atubu. For the fact that they are among those who left from the settlement opposite present day Oloibiri, it is erroneously believed that Edu is the son of Oloi.
Onuebum is also a part owner of Atubu because the founder of Onuebum was one of those who left from Atubu. Onuebum did not migrate from Okoroma. If they had migrated from Okoroma, they would not have been able to claim any part ownership of Atubu. If Edu had migrated from Oloibiri, his children would not had a right of ownership in Atubu.

I will stop here. Many things have been left out. I have not written about the Abureni people, the Opume people, and most of the communities of Ogbia. I have tried to make this story as short as possible. I will write on the full history of Ogbia in a book that many others will also contribute. That will be much later.