GOD BLESS OKPOGHO PEOPLE IN EZEAGU LGA OF ENUGU STATE – THE RED GOLD OF AFRICA!!!!!!
By: Ikenna Ezeakor
Okpogho in Ezeagu LGA, Enugu State is an ancient city of Igbo land and an iron-smelting community in Ezeagu LGA that gave West Africa the first metallic currency known as Okpogho Manila.
The innovation of this ancient metallic currency: “Ego Igwe/Ego-Onah” was attributed to a great “Wawa man” from the present Ezeagu Igbudu LGA.
The word “Okpogho” which is the Efik fishermen’s term for money or brass was given to this wawa iron maker; when one of the the fishermen noticed that those precious bangles which he fashioned for his daughter “Mgbolie” could be used as a means of exchange of goods and services.
The early Portuguese explorers of the 1470s observed that Copper Bangles “Okpogho Manila” were the principle money and means of exchange all along the West Africa coast.
The people of Okpogho will dig iron out of the ground and melt copper out of the stones to make a Okpogho Bangles.
Through this process, the first metallic currency was introduced.
Thus, the ancient monetization of the precolonial Ezeagu economy by Okpogho people brought international trade to Ezeagu area earlier than the 15th century.
Since Okpogho Manila became the means of exchange, marketing activities took place among Ezeagu communities themselves and went to far countries like Mali, Cameroon, Burundi and Congo where Okpogho Manila had sphere of influence.
In its inception, these bangle or Okpogho were predominantly made from copper as copper was referred to as ” THE RED GOLD OF AFRICA “.
The name Manila is derived from Spanish for a bracelet “Manella”, the Portuguese for Hand-Ring or after the Latin “Manus”(hand) or from “Monilia”, plural of “Monile” (Necklace).
HRH Igwe Apostle Chimereze Linus Pius!
Christian Chris Okpoko Isiakwu 1 of Okpogho!
(c) IGBO HISTORY (IGBOS SINCE 3000BC)
