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Migration · c. 1550–1650 by Idigo’s reckoning; other accounts far earlier

Eri comes down from Igala

Prince M.

See it on the old map

Overview

Prince M. C. M. Idigo of the Aguleri royal family wrote in his History of Aguleri (1955) that the Aguleri people came from Igala. Their leader Eri was an Igala warrior who came to the Anambra valley with his followers on a military expedition and set up his war camp at Eri-aka, near the Odanduli stream. That was three or four centuries before Idigo wrote. The colonial ethnographer C. K. Meek (1937) heard the same from the northern Umueri towns: the clan was founded by a man called Eri who came from the Igala country. Meek also recorded that Aguleri’s ruling family descends from Aguve, who was given the title of Eze by the Attah at Idah. Eri’s children founded the Umueri towns: Agulu founded Aguleri, Menri founded Nri, Onugu founded Igbariam and Ogbodulu founded Amanuke, and his daughter Iguedo was the mother of Nteje, Awkuzu, Ogbunike, Umuleri, Nando and Ogboli in Onitsha. Igala elders tell it the same way from Idah: they remember an Attah Eri whose sons left Idah and founded Aguleri and the towns around it. Other traditions disagree. Nri, Igbariam and Amanuke say Eri came down from the sky, sent by Chukwu, and some Aguleri writers say instead that Eri’s son founded Igala.[2],[6],[7],[3],[8],[1],[4],[9],[10]Disputed

Drawn as the owner asked, after Prince M. C. M. Idigo of Aguleri. On the owner’s request (2026-10-10) no migration line is drawn from Idah; the Igala origin is told on Aguleri itself (the town card and the camp mark). Dates for Eri range from 1043 (Angulu) to the 1500s; Idigo’s ‘three or four centuries’ before 1955 is used here.

Who took part

What happened

  1. Three or four centuries before 1955 · Aguleri (Eri-aka)

    The war camp at Eri-aka

    Eri, an Igala warrior from Idah, comes with his followers on a military expedition and makes his camp at Eri-aka, near the Odanduli stream. Aguleri, the town his son Agulu founds here, is of Igala origin by this account. His shrine, Obu Uga (Obu-Gad), stands in Enugwu Aguleri, and each new Eze Nri comes to sit on Eri’s throne there before he is crowned.[2],[3],[4],[5]Disputed

  2. Recorded 1937 · Idah

    The title from Idah

    Meek records that the ruling families of Aguleri descend from Aguve, who was given the title of Eze by the Attah at Idah.[6],[3]Disputed

  3. In tradition · Nri

    Nri

    Nri (Menri), Eri’s son, leaves his father’s camp and founds his own kingdom at Agukwu Nri, while Agulu stays at Aguleri. Nri’s priest-kings carry Eri’s line and ritual authority across Igboland, and each new Eze Nri still comes back to sit on Eri’s throne at Aguleri. Nri itself may be far older than this date.[1],[5]Medium confidence

Kingdoms involved

Sources

Every claim carries a confidence level: high (well attested), medium (one source or approximate) or disputed (sources disagree).

  1. Wikipedia contributors. Eri (king)
  2. M. C. M. Idigo. (1955). The History of Aguleri. Nicholas Printing and Publishing Co., Yaba (cited elsewhere, not yet checked directly)
  3. Ayegba Abdullahi Adojoh, Izoduwa Amowie Imasuen, Omede Abdul Solomon and Onucheyo Sunday. (2024). Examining the Interwoven Relationship Between Igala, Benin, Ika, Urhobo, Isoko and Ijaw (quotes Idigo 1955, Meek 1937 and Boston 1960 on Eri). International Journal of Trend in Research and Development 11 (1)
  4. Wikipedia contributors. Aguleri
  5. Wikipedia contributors. Kingdom of Nri
  6. C. K. Meek. (1937). Law and Authority in a Nigerian Tribe: A Study in Indirect Rule. Oxford University Press (cited elsewhere, not yet checked directly)
  7. J. S. Boston. (1960). Notes on contact between the Igala and the Ibo. Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 2 (1) (cited elsewhere, not yet checked directly)
  8. Daily Trust. (2022). Igala footprints in Enugu
  9. Local knowledge from the HistoNaija owner: Eri is of Igala origin, according to Prince Michael Idigo of the Aguleri royal family
  10. HistoNaija owner. (2026). Local knowledge from the HistoNaija owner: Eri came from Igala, as Prince M. C. M. Idigo of the Aguleri royal family wrote; Nri, his son, founded his own kingdom