Ohafia is a country of twenty-six villages in Abia's north-eastern highlands, with its headquarters at Ebem Ohafia, and its own account begins with warriors: the men were renowned as fighters, they wear the knitted warrior's cap, the Okpu agu, and their war dance, Ikpirikpi Ogu, is danced by age grades today at funerals, festivals and homecomings. The photographs in this gallery are of that dance and of the Obu house, the traditional meeting house, which is a Nigerian cultural heritage object. The nineteenth-century and early colonial record describes Ohafia and Abiriba as organised, mobile warrior and trading communities, and the tradition of head-taking belongs to that period. It is a difficult history and it is written here as history, with the care it deserves, rather than as spectacle. Abiriba, inside the same local government, is the Enuda kingdom and has its own entry; the Ukpo festival kept by Ndi Nko at Nkporo has its own entry too. Photographs, via Wikimedia Commons: The Obu house at Ohafia - National Commission for Museums and Monuments, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Ohafia war dance - Chinanzagracy, CC BY-SA 4.0. The war dance, Ikpirikpi Ogu - Bibiire1, CC BY-SA 4.0. War dancers of Ohafia - Ekaychee, CC BY-SA 4.0. A lead war dancer carrying the Oyaya - TopmanJnr1, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Ite-Igbo dance at Ebem, Ohafia - AID Project, CC BY-SA 4.0. Licences: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
What to see
The Obu house
The traditional meeting house, held as a Nigerian cultural heritage object.
Ikpirikpi Ogu, the war dance
The dance that turns the warrior tradition into an occasion, performed by age grades at funerals, festivals and homecomings.
Ebem Ohafia
The headquarters town of the local government, and the centre of the Ohafia country.
The Ite-Igbo dance at Ebem
The dance performed by the Ohafia war dance group at Ebem, photographed on 16 August 2022.
The Okpu agu
The knitted leopard cap that the warrior tradition wears, and the emblem the community is known by.
Its address is /tourism/ohafia on www.buzzbuntu.com.