A brief walk into the lives of Apa people

May 4, 2018 3:34 PM

Men from Akweya- Yachi tie wrapper on singlets while their women tie wrappers and headgears.

There are many tribes in Nigeria that are overshadowed by the three major ethnic groups, the Akweya-Yachi tribe is one of them.

Occupying the Akpa District in Otukpo Local Government Area of Benue state, Nigeria, the Akweya people are known to call themselves Akweya (sons of Akwu), while the non-indigenes call them Akpa, which, although distorted, means people from Apa.

And closely related to the Yatye-Akpa sub-group, the Akweya subgroup comprises the Idoma ethno-linguistic group in Nigeria whose ancestors are from Kwararafa, Igalaland and Igboland. Its lexical similarity with Ekpari is 84%.

This, coupled with its small size in population, is among the reasons they’ve been classified as a sub-tribe under the Idoma tribe by sociopolitical analyst.

However, it is important to note that Akpa has been the name officially used by the government since 1950 to date. And the two generic names can be used interchangeably to mean the people, the language and their land.

Geographically, the district has a common border with the Otukpo district in the north, Oglewu in Ohimini in the northwest, Edumoga in Okpokwu to the west, Obi-Ito-Igede to the east and the Ufia-Utonkon in Ado, to the south.

Akweya territory is a level land which is only dotted in some areas with hills around Odonto-Adim, Ilo, Angbo, Otobi, Egbla, and Atito-Adankari.

The two main vegetations are the deciduous rain forest belt that covers the River Ohmenyi (R. Okpokwu) and the River Ogbadibo, which is the main tributary.

The forest is guarded on the east and west banks by large expanse of guinea savannah grassland. The entire district is almost bisected by the Ohmenyi river which runs from Aturukpo town on the northeast through the towns of Otobi, Egbla, Omajaga, Adim, Ejor, Ogyoma and drains away down to the Oyongo river south eastwards.

Occupation

The people of Akweya-Yachi are majorly farmers. But some of them are into fishing as well.

Belief

Just like every other tribe in the country, the westernization of this has adulterated their traditional beliefs in the deities of their ancestors. Thus, the majority of the Akweya-Yachi practices Christianity and Islam.

Attire

ALSO READ: A brief walk into the life of one of Africa's humblest people