To an extent the study and the documentation of Isoko history has begun. The effort of the University of Ibadan and some of the Isoko students of the University of Ife in the 1960s need to be commended. Their effort became necessary when they observed the near to nothing of the inclusion of the history of Isoko people into the history of Nigeria.
In the late 1950s and the early 1960s, the history of Isoko and indeed that of Ovrode appeared in a very scanty form. What may be considered as an effort to document the history of Ovrode was the carrying out of inquiries and the intelligence report of E.R. Chardwick and that of J.W. Hubbard of the early 1930’s as it affects the Clan of Owhe in which references were made to Ellu, Ovrode and Aradhe.
During the period of the inquiry and the reports, the people of Ovrode were kept in the dark of what was going on. More than one reason may have been responsible for that state of affairs. The remote location of Ovrode at that time may be the primary factor. Another may be the very close association with Ellu under whose name the three communities of Aradhe, Ellu and Ovrode were proudly identifying themselves as explained in chapter one. That situation literally led to the seemingly little knowledge of Ovrode by the people who carried out the said inquiries, as a separate, independent and sovereign town. Awareness that was still in a very low level in the town was also responsible. These factors gave rise to the little and poor documentation of the history of Ovrode especially in the tradition of her origin. Again the report became known to Ovrode people very late; not until perhaps the late 1950s and early 1960s, a time when the wrong information had gone out of the shores of Owhe clan and far beyond. Regrettably, some early writers considered the report as real and began to make further documentations based on what they read in those reports.
During the late 1950s and the early 1960s, some Ovrode sons and daughters were so well equipped in western education. On their discovery of the distortions of the history of Ovrode especially in the tradition of origin, they began to raise objection to the false claim.
The pioneering people in this regard were Barrister B.O. Olokor,
Mr. P. Ebedi, Mr. U.J. Edor and Mr. A Ezuzu all of blessed memory. Barrister B.O. Olokor drummed a very serious awareness on the people of Ovrode. He championed the course and made the people to realize the need to revive their oral traditional history and document it. With the passage of time and with the wide awareness, more people especially the younger generation began to press for the history of the town in documents, especially after the returning from England of Barrister B.O. Olokor in 1965.
There came the formation of a Social Club in 1990, membership which is limited to only Ovrode male indigenes. The club is ENYAHARO SOCIAL CLUB OF OVRODE. The club has the revival and the propagation of the history, the custom and the culture of Ovrode as one of her major objectives. It was an exciting opportunity to document the culture and the tradition of Ovrode town. The members of the club became very concerned in the pursuance of that objective.
On further observation, it was discovered that the efforts made so far to write the history of Isoko, much of it was still on a survey stage. Most importantly, such writings, as much as they tried to cover, made little or no reference to Ovrode. The reasons may be the same difficulties as experienced by J.W. Hubbard and R.E. Chadwick of the 1920s and 1930s. Movement was difficult for both teams. Those authors also concentrated more in the areas that were opened to them. Again there was virtually no written history of Ovrode that they could lay hands on, at the time of their writing.
When that unfortunate situations were observed, the club under the leadership of Mr. Boniface A, Enwonode (Now Chief B.A. Enwonode) decided that, with the unfolding events, there was the need to put down the history of Ovrode in this form, since there were still some eminent elders who could provide the club with some concrete oral informations with which a book such as this could be written.
Three major observations were recognized. One was the near to complete absence of the tradition of origin of Ovrode as a town in the world of history. The second was the rapid extinction of the rich cultural heritage of Ovrodeans as a people. The third is the near to total neglect of our old values, language and ascent. To this end, it became imperative that effort should be put up sporadically to call for a reversal of the observed negative trend in a very idealized manner.
On one hand, the tradition of foundation as it affects Ovrode has to be made. On another part the cultural heritage of Ovrode people as it was practiced, is made to be explained, as it was observed also that tradition and the custom of Ovrode is rapidly going away. On the other hand, effort to call for a reversal and a change of ideology of our people should be put up. A clear distinction has to be made between urbanization, civilization and modern living on one hand and the culture of our people on the other.
The increasing urbanization of our hitherto simple society made this study and the writing of this book imperative not only to the adults but our children who must be encouraged to learn about their roots. The way children are brought up in the cities and even within the town has increasingly contributed to the erosion of our language, ascent, traditional background, belief, values and indeed our entire culture. The need to arrest this drift towards rootlessness that is so prevalent in this (present day) modern society, apart from other reasons inspired this work. It is therefore aimed at re-awakening the consciousness of our root and common aspiration as a people.
In an effort to remedy the above observations, some serious challenges of inadequate preparation emerged. To arrest such challenges, a committee of three was set up with Mr. Francis Ozuwo Ekaka who was the president of the club at that time as the chairman, Mr. Sonney Egbareluke Eture and Sylvester Okworode Olokor were members.
Unfortunately, in less than one year of the life of the committee, Mr. Francis Ozuwo Ekaka died. Sonney Eture and Sylvester Olokor went into action more vigorously. It was a very difficult task indeed. Oral informaiton were collected. Hands were laid on few available writings of a few people. People’s archives were dug into freely. All those informations in addition to what were already known to us form a bulk of the materials for the work. The two people went into a deep research exercise with Sylvester Okworode Olokor as the editor-in-chief, while the rest members of the club form the editorial board.
With this book written, the history of Ovrode as a town in Isoko North Local Government Area of Delta State has come to stay in a written form. Any other one that may come up should now have a board from which to spring since these writers can not claim a total knowledge of all that is needed to make the full and the complete history of Ovrode in a dynamic world. Be that as it may, the writers and indeed the club did not present all the facts in this book in such a way that is devoid of criticism. While criticisms may be welcome, it shall be so disheartening if such criticism fails to be constructive. Again it should be emphasized here that this book merely serve the purpose of making the public to know the tradition of origin, culture and the custom of the people of Ovrode for the purpose of making a real and a clear history. In the process, statements and the use of words may be considered to have tempered with the interest or happiness of some people or group of people. If such is observed, it may not have been written with the intention of hurting the feelings of anybody or group of persons, rather the writers should be regarded as just been human.
It is our joy that the present and the future generations of Ovrode and indeed the rest of Isoko nation and our country Nigeria are now made to know the true history of Ovrode as it is boldly stated here that no parallel version of the history of the foundation of Ovrode other than the one presented in this book is ever known to the people of Ovrode. The distortions which has long been in circulation is now considered to have been corrected. The claims and counter claims are put to rest.
The present twenty members of ENYAHARO SOCIAL CLUB OF OVRODE made up of:
1. Agbra Peter
2. Agidife Friday
3. Akporehe Solomon
4. Akaka Augustine
5. Eture Sonney
6. Ebemehor Raphael
7. Edoh Lucky
8. Enwonode Boniface
9. Igbuku Michael
10. Ikpokpo Michael
11. Itewor Matthew
12. Ochegwu Godwin
13. Ogagarojor Monday
14. Olokor Abraham
15. Olokor Sylvester
16. Onowakpokpo Felix
17. Orioka Peter
18. Oshie Evans
19. Ovemeso Gabriel
20. Unuedi Donatus
In the twenty four years of the club’s existence, it has succeeded in uniting the people for the upliftment of Ovrode.
Sylvester Okworode Olokor
Editor-in-chief
Founder/Pioneer President
of Enyaharo Social Club of Ovrode
June 2014