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Ohafia women with long braids fashionable in Ohafia at the time. Photographed by Rev. William T. Weir. From The Women's Missionary Magazine of the United Free Church of Scotland, 1904. Google digitisation.
Dike nwaàmị̀, women warriors are recorded in the history and folktales of Ohafia. A version of one story tells of Nne Mgbaafo who, in war gear, risked her life looking for her husband who she thought was killed in Ibibio territory and was able to rescue him through her bravery.
Another story tells of Inyan Olugu whose husband, Itenta Ogbulopia, hadn’t taken heads during battle. To secure the honour of her house, Inyan Olugu took her husband into the forests of the Nkalu and took the heads of five Nnong Ibibie men.
As warriors hailed Inyan Olugu's husband, she told the revellers to also sing praises of Inyan Olugu who brought heads and gave the honour to her husband.
In the 20th century, by the instruction of the divinity Kalu Akanu through a woman in the compound of his priesthood, Nne Uko Uma Awa of Akanu Ohafia and other girls in a coming-of-age ceremony carried out a ritual hunt usually done by boys.
The girls were lead by Nne Uko who dressed in attire usually worn by male warriors including an òkpu agụ, the leopard cap. Nne Uko continued to dress in a typically male style.
Nne Uko was admitted into the Ekpè society, danced the male style of the iri agha dance of Ohafia warriors, and married two wives who had children through Nne Uko's brother. https://twitter.com/ukpuru/status/1254812076670935045
Nne Uko had yam titles as a successful farmer with the assistance of the wives and children and became the custodian of the maternal lineage shrine. In later years, Nne Uko wore more conventionally female attire.
In Nne Uko's words, “I dressed like a man because by creation I was meant to be a man. But as it happened, when coming into this world I came with a woman's body.” These are some of the stories of the dike nwaàmị̀ of Ohafia.
… (Main sources are Professor Chukwuma Azuonye in various works and John C. McCall who interviewed Nne Uko Uma Awa of Akanu Ohafia in 1991.)
… (*led.)
