Abia is a state in Nigeria's South-East, created on 27 August 1991 out of Imo State, with Umuahia as its capital and Aba as its commercial city. It is one of the smallest states by area and it has no coastline, which has shaped its economy for two centuries: the trade went down the creeks to the Cross River and Bonny, and later along the railway to Port Harcourt. The state is Igbo country with several voices - Ngwa in the west and south, Ndoki and Asa along the Imo River, Ibeku and Ohuhu around Umuahia, the Bende and Isuikwuato communities in the middle and north-west, and the Ohafia, Abiriba and Arochukwu peoples in the north-east. Its culture is kola and chalk at ceremony, the new yam, the masquerade societies that were courts before they were performances, the Ohafia war dance, Akwete cloth and Aba's workshops. "God's own state" is the state's slogan.
Its address is /culture/abia-state on www.buzzbuntu.com.