HISTORY OF EZEAGU

 TRANS-ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE ON IGBO NATION AN EXTRACT FROM THE BOOK ‘OGHE PEOPLES AND CULTURE E-BOOK BY Chief (Hon) Ndu Oliver Kanayo (Ezedinaobi) Dip. Telecom (S/W Engr.), HND Acc, MBA Acc, ACM. Former Administrator, Ezeagu North Development Council. Phone: 08039572901 Email: nduoliverkanayo@gmail.com Over the period of the Atlantic Slave Trade, from approximately 1526 to 1867, some 12.5 million captured men, women, and children were put on ships in Africa, and 10.7 million arrived in the Americas. The Atlantic Slave Trade was likely the most costly in human life of all long-distance global migrations. The first Africans forced to work in the New World left from Europe at the beginning of the sixteenth century, not from Africa. The first voyage carrying enslaved people direct from Africa to the Americas were brought by the Spanish in 1526.   The number of people carried off from Africa reached 30,000 per year in the 1690s and 85,000 per year a century later. More than ei...

 EZEAGU HISTORY AND CULTURE (Abridged) The man EZEAGU was the son of IGBUDU, the son of KWEKWO, the son of GBOKO. Gboko was traced by oral history to the race of GAHD and believed to have migrated from areas further north, possibly from Niger Confluence, and eventually settled in the area of GBOKO, now in Benue State. Another story was that IGBUDU migrated from IGALA country of the BENUE RIVER country into the IGBO belt to avoid the Fulani Slave trade. KWEKWO (KWEKO) the son of GBOKO found fertile land, and became a successful farmer. He therefore remained in his birthplace, GBOKO. KWEKOs sons include UGBOKOLU and IGBUDU. The two brothers moved away towards the south. IGBUDU went one way and UGBOKOLU another. This separation happened so long ago that now one hardly links them up. However, some cultural similarities still exist between UGBOKOLU in Benue State and Ezeagu in Enugu State. IGBUDU had three sons, OGALAH, OTEKWA and OWAH. Owah, the youngest son, a brave hunter, in his hun...