By Okoi Obono-Obla

Introduction

In his rejoinder to my article, From the Cross River to the Caribbean: The Atam Identity and the Agwagwune Echo in Jamaica, published on 27 July 2026, Mr. Amah Jones emphatically stated that the Jukun people are the Akpa people. I respectfully disagree with this conflation.

The Jukun people are presently concentrated in Taraba State in the North-Central geopolitical zone of Nigeria. They feature prominently in the oral traditions of the various cultures and peoples of the Cross River Basin and in the South-Western Province of the Republic of Cameroon. They were the governing elite of the Wukari Confederation, otherwise known as the Kwararafa Empire, which flourished between the 15th and 18th centuries. The collapse of that empire led to a massive movement of populations from the Benue Valley to present-day Ebonyi and Cross River States, although its sphere of influence extended across what are now Benue, Nasarawa, Plateau, Kaduna, Enugu, Delta, and Abia States.

The Arikpo Thesis on Origins and Migration

Dr. Okoi Arikpo, the renowned lawyer and anthropologist, stated in his 1957 Lugard Lectures that the Yakurr people migrated from the Sudan into the region now known as Nigeria and Cameroon alongside the Jukun. According to him, they first settled in what is now southern Borno before moving southwards.

In Yakurr oral tradition, the Akpa people occupy a central place. There is little doubt that the Yakurr identify themselves as part of the powerful Akpa groups. This identity is reflected in ritual greetings chanted by priests, such as “Uwou Akpa,” meaning “Father Akpa.”

The Atakpa Evidence: Sultan Bello and Clapperton

Sultan Mohammed Bello of the Sokoto Caliphate, in both his writings and his account to the Scottish explorer Hugh Clapperton, stated that the King of the Jukun owned a port in Calabar known as Atakpa.

Hugh Clapperton (1788–1827) was a Scottish naval officer and African explorer. He became the first European to provide a firsthand account of northern Nigeria and to map parts of Central Africa alongside Walter Oudney and Dixon Denham. He later died of dysentery near Sokoto during his second expedition in search of the mouth of the River Niger.

Dr. Okoi Arikpo on Jukun Origins

Dr. Arikpo wrote:

“The Jukun are undoubtedly people of Hamitic extraction who, according to tradition, migrated into Nigeria from the Kordofan and the region of the Nile Valley. They claim kingship with the early ruling Berber race of Kanem, a type of Saharan Berbers known to the Arabs as the Zaghawa, remnants of whom still occupy the region north of Wadai and Darfur.”

He further wrote:

“A Wukari version of the Jukun legend of origin says that the Jukun came from Yemen in company with the Kanuri, and together they settled in Bornu. A dispute over succession to the kingship caused a split. The Kanuri remained in Bornu, while the Jukun migrated southwards to establish the settlements of Kona, Kororafa, Pindiga, and Wukari. Other traditions add that some Jukun moved further down the Benue to the south of Idah, where they displaced the Yoruba rulers and established the kingdom of Igala.”

Arikpo continued:

“Whatever may have been the truth about these stories, there is historical evidence that between A.D. 500 and 1400 these Zaghawa tribes dominated the region between Darfur and the valley of the Shari River. They established a powerful kingdom in the region of Fika, Biyiri and Ribadu in the valley of the Gongola River around A.D. 1250. From this centre, Jukun influence radiated in all directions until by A.D. 1550 the Jukun occupied the whole of South-Western Bornu.”

Arikpo on the Jukun–Akpa–Aro–Calabar Nexus

Dr. Arikpo also linked the Jukun to the Arochukwu Kingdom:

“The Jukun at one time conquered most of the region of the Niger-Benue confluence and extended their influence eastward to Central Cameroons and southwards to the Bight of Biafra. They were called by the Kanuri as Kwana, by the Hausa as Kwara-Akpa, and by many of the tribes with whom they came into contact as the Akpa, the name by which the Jukun designate themselves. It may be of some significance that the original inhabitants of what is now known as Calabar were also known as the Akpa.”

He added:

“The Jukun were in contact with these early inhabitants of Calabar and were probably ethnically and culturally related to them. Indeed, many traditions of origin among the peoples of the Cross River Valley refer to Akpa invasions. For instance, an Arochukwu legend states that the Aros descended from Akpa people who migrated from the northeast under the leadership of a king named Kakakpu. They displaced the original inhabitants and established the original seven Aro villages.”

Dr. Arikpo further strengthened the connection between the Jukun and Calabar, Ogoja, and Southern Cameroon:

“The Kakakpu of the Aro legend may well be the same legendary figure as the Katakpa of the Jukun. Legends about Akpa invasions are widespread among the peoples of Calabar, Ogoja, and the Cameroons Provinces. Many traditions recount migrations from north of the Cross River due to pressure from the Akpa. The Efik-Ibibio, Aros, Ejagham, and Yakurr all appear to have originated from somewhere within the Benue Valley. It is possible that the term Akpa was applied to a broad range of culturally distinct peoples within the former sphere of Jukun influence.”

The Akpa Confederacy: A Distinct Ethnic Nation

My contention, therefore, is that while the Jukun exercised imperial hegemony and were often called Akpa by neighbouring peoples, the Akpa were a distinct ethnic nation that formed the core of a larger confederated kingdom or empire.

This position is supported by Ellie Yari of Ogbia Local Government Area, Bayelsa State, who argues that the Ogbia people were originally Akpa. According to him, the Jukun and the Akpa were distinct peoples who coexisted within the same political confederacy.

He stated:

“We definitely have relatives amongst them. They were part of the Akpa Confederated Kingdom; it was like an empire. But they are a distinct group who trace their ancestry to Yemen. The Idoma were also part of the confederacy, yet they are equally distinct. We have relatives among all the groups that made up the confederacy. Akpa was an ethnic group with its own identity, while the confederacy included groups such as the Akweya and the Jukun. The Akpa language served as the lingua franca of the confederacy. The confederacy is different from the ethnic nation. When Ajayi Crowther documented Igala history, the elders informed him that Akpa was one of the three ethnic groups that founded Igala. They also said the Akpa language had died out, demonstrating that the Akpa possessed their own language before the confederacy expanded.”

Conclusion

The historical and oral evidence suggests an important distinction between political nomenclature and ethnic identity.

The term Akpa appears to have functioned on two levels. First, it referred to a distinct and ancient ethnic nation whose language served as a lingua franca and whose descendants can be traced among the Ogbia, Yakurr, and Atam peoples. Second, it became an exonym used by the Hausa, Kanuri, and several Cross River communities to describe the Jukun ruling elite of the Kwararafa Confederacy.

To equate the Jukun with the Akpa is therefore to confuse the empire with its foundational ethnic core. While the Jukun were a leading constituent and the ruling elite within the broader Akpa Confederacy, they were not synonymous with the Akpa people themselves.

Recognizing this distinction is essential to understanding the significance of the Atakpa port in Calabar, the Yakurr tradition of Uwou Akpa, and the enduring Atam identity that echoes as far away as Jamaica.

Footnotes

1. Amah Jones, Rejoinder to Okoi Obono-Obla, From the Cross River to the Caribbean: The Atam Identity and the Agwagwune Echo in Jamaica, 27 July 2026.
2. C. K. Meek, The Northern Tribes of Nigeria (1925).
3. J. H. Greenberg, studies on Benue-Congo migrations.
4. Dr. Okoi Arikpo, Lugard Lectures (1957).
5. Dixon Denham, Hugh Clapperton and Walter Oudney, Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa (1826).
6. E. W. Bovill, Missions to the Niger, Vol. II.
7. Ellie Yari, Personal Communication, Ogbia LGA, Bayelsa State, July 2026.
8. Samuel Ajayi Crowther, Journal of an Expedition up the Niger and Tshadda Rivers (1855).

Bibliography

• Arikpo, Okoi. The Origin of the Yakurr People and Other Essays: Lugard Lecture Series. 1957.
• Bello, Mohammed. Infaku’l-Maysur. c.1812.
• Crowther, Samuel Ajayi. Journal of an Expedition up the Niger and Tshadda Rivers. London: Church Missionary House, 1855.
• Denham, Dixon; Clapperton, Hugh; and Oudney, Walter. Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa. London: John Murray, 1826.
• Meek, C. K. The Northern Tribes of Nigeria. London: Oxford University Press, 1925.
• Obono-Obla, Okoi. From the Cross River to the Caribbean: The Atam Identity and the Agwagwune Echo in Jamaica. July 2026.