History of Owukpa people of Nigeria.

                        

  As Africans may say, "no ethnic group fell from the sky", this clears the reason why it is a general believe that every ethnic group in Africa and beyond have history. To day we bring to you a clear and well researched history about owukpa people of Nigeria.

                     

                    Emanation

 Owukpa is one of the ancient villages  in the present day Benue state of Nigeria . The people of owukpa is said to be blood related as they all sprang from single father called Amuche Onomo. The Amuche onomo is believed to have  migrated from the present day Ikemu in isi-Uzor local government area of Enugu state. He was said to be hunting from the far land when he encroached the empty tick forest full of Bush mangoes. He saw the  fertile land, full of animals and  decided to settled under one of the numerous Bush mangoes (ogbonor trees).

He became very comfortable in the empty land and also  got married after years of exploring the land. He later got married and had 6 male children. Amuche Onomo, the father of owukpa gave birth to six children and these six children make up the present day major  clans in owukpa. However, In 1977, one of the clans out of  the six decided to divide into two. Subsequently, the government of the state  granted and politically recognised each of the divided clans  as separate entity. 

The children of Amuche onomo who is the father of  owukpa community are as follows.

(1) Ogwuche Ekwo
(2) Okpe
(3)Agada
(4) Agbo Ogri
(5) Ai-Amuche
(6)Oko

Okpe is the clan that  later divided into two.  After Ai-Unwaba sprang out, okpe later became two separate clans. This gave birth to the present day saying that "Owukpa is made up of seven clans".

          How Owukpa Was Named

When Amuche Onomo who is the father of owukpa first settled under Ogbonor tree ( Bush mango) in the present day Ipole Owukpa,  there were Igbos who already inhabited Ubolo, Amala, Veti, Ovoko, Ihaka and other present day Nsuka-Igbo villages. They were predominantly farmers and traders. In Nsuka language, Bush mango is called 'Okpupka' . The traders among the already settled neighbouring villages mentioned above  usually passed through the front of the 'Okpukpa' (bush mango) trees where Amuche Onomo settled down in Ipole owukpa. Amuche Onomo was always being described as "man who lived under 'Okpukpa' (bush mango) by traders  who always traveled through the front of his  abode while going to Orokam, Otukpa,  Otukpo, etc. It was by this means that the children of Amuche onomo were being called Okpukpa children and later when life expanded, populations and interactions with other languages became much, the 'Okpukpa' was later pronounced as 'Owukpa'. This is how Amuche Onomo children adopted the name 'Owukpa' .

      Owukpa is blessed with numerous  mineral deposits. One of  which is coal. The coal was being mined years back but along the line, the economic melt down affected the mining activities.

Owukpa are loving people and they are predominantly farmers and traders.

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