Öka Smiths among the Western Igbo and Others

In Onicha Olona, a western Igbo town, two individuals in the courtyard of a house with what seems to be blacksmithing tools (tongs and hammers). Photographed by Northcote Thomas, 1912. MAA Cambridge.

Awka, ... is famous for its smithing skills. ... In fact, the men of one section of the town, Agulu, were Awka's principal blacksmiths. ... As itinerant journeymen, Agulu smiths ... [worked] in northern provinces of Igala and Idoma and over a broad belt of southern Nigeria, from Yoruba settlements in the west to the Cross River in the east. The orbit of Awka (Agulu) peregrinations was vast, limited only by the existence of rival smithing groups, such as the Hausa to the north of the Benue, and by the necessity to return to Awka annually. ...

Smiths of three Agulu villages worked the western side of the Niger, supplying iron hoes, machetes, spears, cooking stands and other useful items to Western Igbo, Urhobo, Isoko, Itsekiri and Ijo communities. They also used the lost-wax method in making bronze ofo for Western Igbo patrons.

– Nancy C. Neaher (1976). "Igbo Metalsmiths among the Southern Edo."