A Woman of Onicha Olona

An Igbo woman photographed by Northcote Thomas, Onicha Olona, 1912. Onicha Olona (now in Delta State) is one of the sister settlements to Onicha Mmili (‘Onitsha’) as part of the Umu Eze Chima (or Chime) lineage, a lineage of the patriarch Eze Chima who travelled from the west.

Onicha Mmili is now the biggest of the Umu Eze Chima settlements due to the river trading port from colonial times at Otu Onicha (away from the original Enu Onicha). Onicha Mmili ('Onitsha') is the only major Umu Eze Chima settlement to the east of the Niger River.