All About Ogidi History

Ogidi is an Igbo town, the headquarters of Idemili North Local Government area, Anambra State, Nigeria. It has an estimated population of 70,000 and has as its neighbours Abatete, Ṅkpọr, Ụmụnnachị, Ụmụoji, Ogbụnike and Ụmụdiọka. Ogidi is best known for its mid-July annual Nwafor Festival, an 11-day festival in July that takes place after cultivation of yams and included prayers for a good season. It usually starts on the first Friday of the month.

The town is the birthplace of Chinua Achebe. Other attractions include the famous Iyi-Enu Hospital and Aforigwe market.

Nwafor Ogidi Festival.

Nwafor Festival is a major cultural celebration in Ogidi and Ogbunike communities of Anambra State. Within the same period, other neigbouring towns such as Umunya also celebrate Isigwu, while Umudioka people celebrate Nkpukpa. Performed after the cultivation of yam to mark the beginning of a resting period, Nwafor takes a period of 11 days, starting from the first Friday (Afor) in the month of July and for the next 10 days.

It marks the end of the planting season. It is a transitional period after the planting, because by August and September, harvesting of yam starts.

Unlike other festival dates that could be altered, Nwafor has a fixed date well known to the Ogidi People.

The festival is a time of joy for the people as they came together in love and unity in honour of their forefathers and to offer prayers to God for a successful season ahead.
The Nwafor festival is believed to unite the people of Ogidi.

In preparation for the festival the people in the community sanitize their environment to enable the free flow of the event and in readiness to welcome all the indigenes of Ogidi returning home for the festival. A few days to the festival, on Thursday precisely the Orie market day, ceremonial masquerades perform the traditional dance around the community, setting the tone for the main event. There is also the induction of new initiates into the masquerade group. That is for young boys of around 10 years of age. And when he gets initiated, it's assumed that he has come of age; and so he will be present if there is a family meeting.

The highpoint is usually on Sunday when the people gather at the community halls to say prayers and thanks God for a successful cultivation period and also pray for a large harvest of the New Yam.

This festival is very important so much so that there's a popular saying in local parlance that an Ogidi man should not be outside when Nwafor is being celebrated. This clearly points to the importance of the feast to people of Ogidi.

Ogidi Landmarks: IyiEnu Hospital.

In an earlier study of Iyi-Enu Hospital (1907-1982), it was noted that the hospital had its early beginning in the Church Missionary Society's (CMC) Niger Medical Mission at Ozalla, Onitsha, where the mission carried out a ministry of healing through tending the sick, the suffering and the dying (Dike Ibemesi, 1982).

About 1890, through the efforts of Rev. Henry Dobinson and his former vicar, the Rev. F. N. Eden, money was raised and medicines collected abroad, for the starting of a formal medical work among parishioners in and around Onitsha . This was the origin of the Niger Mission Medical Services.

In fact, Rev. Dobinson and another missionary, Rev. P. A. Benneth actually began dispensary work on a small scale in a dilapidated mud building built by the first Bishop of the Niger Territories, the Right Reverend Samuel Adjai Crowther, who had lived there himself. Not long afterwards, a nurse Miss Taylor joined the mission as the only medical staff. By 1893, another nurse, Miss Maxwell arrived to beef up the medical team.

Dispensaries were held twice a week, for several hours in the morning in a small shelter without walls. A somewhat better dispensary was erected in 1897. On the two dispensary days, patients began to arrive before 6.30am . Activities started with a short divine service and treatment given until 1.00pm . These clinics recorded up to 135 patients in the morning.

In 1897 Rev. Henry Dobinson (now an Archdeacon) suddenly died of dysentery while on a pastoral visit to Asaba, and in 1898, a fund was raised to erect a small hospital as a memorial to honour him. The Onitsha Medical Mission was put on top list of recognized medical missions of the CMS. As more funds were received, the hospital services improved. For instance in 1898 when Dr. Clayton was appointed to be in charge of the medical work, the old compound was transformed into a twelve bed medical centre with two of the bungalows as hospital wards one for men and the other for women. Dr. Clayton stayed for only two years, and Miss Maxwell also resigned about the same time.

However, the medical work was carried on by Miss Mary Elms, a Nursing Sister who had had her nursing training in Shefield England in both general and Midwifery. Miss Elms arrived Onitsha in September, 1901. There was a great need to finance the medical centre which was growing in lips and bounds. That necessitated the introduction of a small fee for treatment. Miss Elms thereafter started a very elementary training of a few non-literate Igbo girls as nurses. It was with these girls and one or two male assistants that Miss Elims carried on the tedious and over-demanding work at the medical centre.

ESTABLISHMENT OF IYI-ENU HOSPITAL

By 1907, the services provided at the centre were found to be inadequate for the increasing work. Since there was no room for expansion, the centre was consequently transferred that same year to an old CMS Mission compound at Iyi-Enu, eight kilometers (five miles) east of Onitsha on the Onitsha/Enugu road (Dike Ibemesi, 1982,:3). The mission station there had been started about 1896/97 as a training college for boys-an embryo theological college, which was later moved in 1903 to the present site at St. Paul 's College, Awka.

It will be recalled that on the removal of the theological college, the mission compound had been occupied by the Onitsha Girl's Boarding School, which was then transferred out from Onitsha . But soon the girl's School, fast developing under the leadership of Miss Edith Warner, was offered still more suitable site, up on a hill in a secluded spot in Ogbunike called Ugwu—Ogba (Hill Cave), in 1906; and by now it was known as St. Monica's School.

The following year, 1907, the medical centre at Onitsha moved in to occupy the CMS Mission Compound at Iyi-Enu vacated by St. Monica's School. Necessary approval for the transfer was granted by the London Committee of the CMS and Dr. A.E. Druit who arrived the same year, was appointed on its present site, and continued its services straight away as a medical institution.