Today we will talk about the Olu Igbo people. These were originally Igalla riverine people who settled among the Igbo in canoes in ancient times, and assimilated completely with them- to the point that today, apart from history, there is no other distinction between them and the rest of the Igbos. They were mainly fishermen. Like the Nri and Aro people, the Olu can be found in communities all over Igbo Land.
As Igbo Defender likes to point out, the Igbo are not people with one ancestor. They are diverse people with one culture, and that is what makes us Igbo. The Igbo are a receptive people, and that is why even the political concept of Biafra was infused with the ‘Bia fara’ attitude, the attitude that calls others to come and share in your good fortune.
That is also why Zik decided that the other regions should wait for the North and caused independence to be shifted to 1960. He wanted the North to share in whatever good fortunes Nigeria would offer its constituent groups (never mind the problems we are faced with currently).
So, just as the Aro Igbo people were partly Ibibio in origin, the Olu Igbo people were Igalla in origin. This reminds us of the English who are of partly German (Anglo-Saxon) and French Breton) origin.
