Òkòloma is one of the Ndọki villages in Oyigbo LGA of Rivers State, near Afam. The name, Okoloma is also an alternate name for Bonny, an island located further South. or “Ubani” as the Bonny-Opobo natives call it.

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Òkòloma is one of the Ndọki villages in Oyigbo LGA of Rivers State, near Afam. The name, Okoloma is also an alternate name for Bonny, an island located further South.
or “Ubani” as the Bonny-Opobo natives call it.

Older documents by European Anthropologists and traders, even dating upto the 1750’s have linked the founding of Bonny (Ubani) to Ndọki settlements such as Azuogu, Afam, Azumini and Akrika-obu. There is still today a strong link between the Ndọki and their Ubani (Bonny/Opobo) kith and together, form the South-Easternmost tip of Igboland.

Alternating accounts have stated that “Okoloma” means “Curlew town”. However, the Curlew doesn’t seem to translate as Okolo in the language of the Brass region where the other coexisting groups of Ubani had been documented to have come from. Even the Okolo in the name of the town Okoloba in Delta State, who are of same ethnic background with the people of “Brass area”, doesn’t translate to as curlew !

If the town were actually named after the Curlew, then the Okolo said to mean Curlew, would most possibly be an onomatopoeic adaptation of the English word “Curlew”. In the Same way, some scholars have suggested that the names Ubani and Ibani are onomatopoeic adaptations of the word “Bonny” which means “Beautiful”, although however, the existence of the surnames “Ubani”, upto places in Abriba and in Ebonyi State, and in names of older settlements, especially around Umuahia, indicates that the name is of Igbo origin, whose usage and meaning is today critically endangered.

Okolo is an Igbo word for Creek. The word is mostly used among the Southern Igbo and riverine Igbo, although its usage is endangered.
Ọ́ma in Igbo means “arena” or “Region” or “territory” or “area”.

Examples of places where “Ọma” is used in the naming are
“Ọma-Mbala” (Region of vastness),
Ọma-ahịa, (region or territory of the Ahịa birds)

In areas like Achalla, the area of the community fallowing farmlands is known as “Ọma-ágụ̀” ..

So bringing Okolo/Ogolo+ Ọma together, you’ll get “Creeky region” or “Creeky territory”.

The Igbo ancestors named some settlements after geographical features.

One may argue why the “Ọma” comes behind the “Okolo”, because the prefixes for communities in names of Igbo settlements usually come first before the nouns the describe.

But consider names like Obe-ama, Isi-ama, etc.

Then the name of the town “Òbí-ọ̀má” in Enugu State. (NB: The name of this town doesn’t mean good heart),

Then Isu-ọma (Isu territory/region).

Another popular place in Igbo land with the name “Okolo” is “Okolochi” in Owerri West LGA of Imo State.