The History of Uneme  Aiyetoro

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Last update July 1, 2020

Although it emerged and develop since early part of twenties century , Uneme Aiyetoro has often been neglected and excluded from scholarly works done on the Uneme  and other Edoid communities in the present northern Edo State . Following this marginalization of the community and perhaps, because of it relatively small size and population, not much had been known about the early history and culture of Uneme  Aiyetoro  in Akoko-Edo . Though it resulted from aspects of the demographic revolutionary changes which the larger nation of the Uneme had Experienced since their exit from their former places of settlement in Benin City. Uneme Aiyetoro has had some uniquely distinctive characteristic connection with its founding and early development.

Among such peculer features are the facts that :-

(¡) Uneme Aiyetoro (unlike the other Uneme communities in the present Akoko-Edo) came into being only relatively recently in the early 1900s

(¡¡) Uneme Aiyetoro was not a product of direct migration from Uneme Akpama, where as earlier indicated, all the other Uneme communities in Akoko- Edo had derived their origin

(¡¡¡) Aiyetoro has been the only Uneme community in Akoko-Edo which bears and continues to retain a Yoruba place

Having provided the above general picture of some of the unique  features  of Uneme Aiyetoro, it is appropriate to indicate where the founder of the  settlement came from our informants point of Uneme Nekhua, as the place of migration of the people . Their decision to move out of that area and settle in their present location in 1930 this was cursed by a misunderstanding in the community. The group was said to have been led among others, Adeyemi whose mother was of Etuno-Igarra origin Ikhazuagbe and mose Balogun.

Another major distinguishing feature of the new community concerns the fact of it location on topographically plain land. The reverse was the case with Uneme Nekhua, which emergence at the top ancient rocks and hills which were common in most area of Akoko-Edo and which are often described by geographer either as the “kukuruku hills” or the Afemai hills, or the Akoko-Edo hills. On the whole, however three kindred came into being in Uneme Aiyetoro namely:-
(¡) Okioya

(¡¡) Afeaokhai

(¡¡¡)Ifevbafe

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