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ENUMABIA FOUNTAIN in OROKAM - August 2023


There is no doubt that Orokam is a land that overflows with milk and honey like the promised land in the holy book because of its strategic position and proximity to the Eastern part of the Country.



Orocity (Okam Aroji) is a kingdom and apparently, it is the only kingdom in the Idoma conglomerate with five sub-communities namely; Inamu, Oko, Onah, Agboriko, and Akor clans, respectively all of which migrated from various parts of the country to form the kingdom known as Orokam today.

Over the centuries, the inhabitants of Orokam only depended on rainfall as their major source of water, and traveled to distant communities to get the same water in case they ran out of this rainwater (even update, water is still a major constraint). But they'd see some relief from this burden with the entrance of Enumabia which became a major source of water during the dry season.


Mythology holds severally views about Enumabia and the name Enumabia which is the Idomanization of the Igbo words, "M na-abịa." corroborates the various myths. Mythology holds it that it was first located in the Far East of the country where it moved from and saying, "M na-abịa" to her husband because she's a female water fountain, wife, and mother. (for us, drinking from her equals suckling the breast of our darling mother) Other mythological views hold that another water body in the East had approached her to destroy their host community because they were turning away from worshiping them and settling for foreign Gods. This, she'd turned down because she's a female and mother, and she won't hurt the very community she considered its inhabitants as her children. She'd get angry and leave that community.


In Orokam too, it's settled in various places before its current permanent location. First, it settled in a place called Adupi in Orokam. But the inhabitants would irk her so she opted to relocate elsewhere but not without an appeasement with a first son(Okpara) and a first daughter (Ada). Unfortunately, since human blood sacrifice is considered taboo in Orokam, the community won't meet this demand. Thus, she moved from there to settle near the community center which became accessible to nearby villages and inaccessible to inhabitants of Adupi who had to cover a long distance before getting to the Town center. Unfortunately again in this new settlement, she'd be irked with community folks washing blood-stained clothes from baby delivery. She prides herself as the purest water on the planet which flows into other water bodies and making them pure. She moved from this second location and would be stopped later by night when a farmer(In yore time, farmers also lived on their farm watch over their farm against animals such as Gorilla and other primates from destroying their crops) saw an old lady walking in the dead of the night. He requested her to take a rest on his farm and be offered drinking water. This act would make her settle in her present location in Orokam. The farmer would return not finding the old woman but beholding a wonder he could only see in his dream.


Ever since, it has become a tourist attraction site because it is naturally phenomenally designed, with an arc-like rocky and hardened red earth covering the beautiful fountain. Others have conceited the unique outlook of a moon-like body that has water gushing out of its belly from primordial times. A mystic side to this ancient site is the fact that this water source has in the 1990s defied attempts to get her captured on camera and any other smart device. A discussion for another day though.




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