Ogoloma

Ogoloma takes its name from its founder, Opuogulaya; the dictionary spells him Opuogoloya. In the founding tradition of Kịrịkẹ it is his meeting with Oputibeya that gives the whole people its name. Wakirike USA names Kịrịkẹ and Ogoloma as the two earliest settlements on the island and notes that they still dispute which came first.

A study of Andoni (Obolo) and Okrika migrations by Asuk and Adubo traces Ogoloma’s founders to Andoni fishermen led by Opu-Ogulaya, who left after a dispute over fishing rights. Tradition also links Ogoloma to the mainland: Opuogulaya is said to have befriended Obulo, the ancestor of Abuloma.

Ogoloma has its own Amanyanabo, styled Amanyanabo of Ancient Ogoloma, and its own council of chiefs. In 2017 its king crowned the first Amanyanabo of Kala-Ogoloma, a branch of the Ogoloma people whose land now lies inside Port Harcourt.

In 1993 the British-Nigerian filmmaker Ngozi Onwurah made Monday’s Girls, a documentary following two young women of Ogoloma through the Ịrịà ceremony.