17/02/2020
TRADITIONAL LEADERSHIP IN UMUOKEAWA OGBE AHIARA AHIAZU MBAISE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, IMO STATE.
According to MARCUS GARVEY the famous philosopher, he says any man without the knowledge of his origin & history, is like a tree without a root.
My community is a big community with a total of Eight schools, and many churches surrounded by it. It is one of the popular community in Mbaise due to their cultures and laws guiding them.
My community is comprises of three other communities making it Ogbe , and it is governed by one king. They have Umuokeawa Ogbe, ( The eldest ) Umuoma Ogbe and Umuahiara Ogbe. Crowning of king is not Monarch but rather is rotational. If a ruling king from Umuokeawa die, it will be in turn of Umuoma to bring out three qualify men from their Community and an election will be conducted between the three. So shall it be in Umuahiara if the king happens to die.The Ofo is horded by Umuokeawa till a new king has been crown.
The main source of income in my Community was Subsequent agriculture. The king ruled the community with a system of government depended largely on kinship relations and shared custom. His power is shared with “Amala” exercising all power. The weekly gathering of the male family members around the fresh palm wine key (“awuruawu” or “ manya-orie” ). Constituted the forum for discussing matters. The” Aladinma” of my community exercise judicial, legislative, administrative, administrative and executive powers and functions.
My community practice a lot of tradition for e.g. The Ahianjoku festival (Iriji Mbaise) introduced in 1946, is the christianized modification of the ahianjoku and it is fixed on 15th August every year. One unique features in my community, not only in my community Mbaise the whole, is the high fecund among their women called “EGHU UKWU’ To qualify to be a member of this club, a woman must have a minimum of ten children. There is no maximum and some women were known to have given birth to as many as 15
