Akoko Edo People
Bookmark and Share

Akoko Edo is a community a conglomerate of sociolinguistic group each one maintaining its individualized identity with historic pride and enduring posture. It is conspicuously the land of Akoko Edo people of Edo State.

The Akoko-Edo was formally classified with those referred to as Ivbiesakon which came under the general terminology Kukuruku. The Akoko-Edo comprises of fourteen clans namely: Atte, Akoko-Edo Central, Akoko-Edo East, Akoko-Edo North, Akoko-Edo North-East, Ikpesi/Egbigele, Enwan, Igarra— Akuku,Kakumo-Anyanran, Okpe-Oloma, Okudoso, Ososo, Uneme-Central, Uneme North.

It is said that the earliest settlers of Akoko Edo were the Benins who would have been there the same period the Etsako people moved from Benin during the reign of Oba Ozolua (1483-1504). Other migrating people, due to the fortunes of time, came into the area. Thus, the spill-over of the Ekiti people known as Ado-Ekiti who by the way, are Edo people, who had settled at Ekiti found their way back into this area from the West. As a matter of fact, Ado-Ekiti and the whole of Ondo and Ekiti States were part of the old Benin Empire. It is little wonder that part of Akoko-Edo still forms a part of the Ekiti area today. Of the Igbirra and Idah from the North and East, the war which Oba Esigie fought in 1515-1516 with the Attah of Idah would have brought a lot of migration into the area.

Located in a rocky terrain, Akoko Edo occupies a land area of about 13(k) square kilometer or 6, 5% of Edo state of Nigeria 1991 census record a population of about 124,000 for Akoko Edo land. The land share a western boundary with the Yoruba of Ekiti land and a northern boundary with the Igbirra the Nupe and the tribe of Igala land. 

The ‘Akoko ‘has applied to the inhabitants of all these villages but no satisfactory explanation of its meaning and origin has been discovered. The most possible interpretation is that it is an onomatopoeia word “cork-e-doodle-do- and was applied by Ibadan raiders to the people they seldom say, but whose cock they heard crowing in their hiding places in the hills. The word ‘kukuru’ has been similarly interpreted. According to the authors of Akuku the book title The Land its Aborigionals Otaru J.A & Joseph S.I. They state that Akoko Edo literally means outskirt of Edo.

There appear to be Eight (8) distinct languages spoken within the area but overlapping occurs. The Ojiramis (Group II) for instance, understand their neighbours Akuku (Group III) and Enwan (Group I), but not the people in the other village.

Yoruba is the lingua franca and is understand by all. This has been necessitated by the incursion of the Yoruba traders who proved more intelligent and enterprising than the Local inhabitants but it seems also to have received official encouragement in early days. The District commissioner note in 1917 that he has fined the son of the “Headman” of Igarra £51 for refusing to try to speak Yoruba in court