User:Kamachime

The Kamah-Chime dynasty started almost the same time as that of the time the igbo's of eastern Nigeria came across the river Niger and settled into what is today Igboland sometimes referred to as the land of the rising sun.

The Enugu people which translates to the mountain or hill dwellers lived further from the river Niger and have inhabited the hills for centuries every man dwelling in his huts until recent memory when men began to organize themselves and as the saying goes 'leaders are not made but born' the Kamah-Chime dynasty started during the early days of slavery in Africa when the white men and agents of slave masters patrolled villages in search of able bodied men and the home of the local chief was like a beehive of event with the warriors of Ezinesi which translates to the 'six villages' gathered in the home of Ogbo Ukwoke who later became their 'Eze' though a short man he was brave and led the community on several tribal battles and always returned victorious because he was a great strategist.

History has it that during one his conquests women were used to stand guard to the entrance of the village they were going after and he disguised himself as an ordinary traveler who was on a long journey and approached one of the women who fell for his charm and took him unaware into the village and he was able to study the villages vulnerability and and when he had returned at a time when the women went back to their huts unaware and the men unprepared he and his men sneaked into the village and took it without firing a single arrow.

In this singular raid Eze Ogbo Ukwoke with his men released over 100 slaves already captured from neighboring villages and waiting transportation to Calabar present day Cross River in Nigeria a well known slave trade hub in eastern Nigeria. Most of this former slaves will pledge allegiance to him and most stayed up to recent times making him the only man of recent memory to have treated slaves equally as he treated his children. Today in his ancestral home of Nanwu Ezinesi Odume in Enugu State Nigeria most of his properties which according to the custom landed properties are only to be shared by legitimate sons the ex while slaves saved by Eze Ogbo Ukwoke still share the landed property of the great Ogbo Ukwoke and still lives with his legitimate children with equal and unhindered right something that is not common in those slave years and even till today in most modern Nigeria and African cities we still have people being referred to osu (outcast) but the slaves rescued by the great Ogbo Ukwoke lives freely.

But like great men of his time Ogbo Ukwoke had only one son by the name Chime Ogbo Ukwoke who inherited the large estate of his father and being the only son though with other half sisters scattered allover the old eastern region he stayed home to look after the estate of his late father and history has it that as the next inline to the throne he married several wives looking for male child but found it difficult and had to rely on the many children born by the rescued slaves of his father to do the many farm works of his fathers vast estate. One of this rescued slaves prominent among them is Duwah Nwa Onyeonu who was a strong and vibrant young man who Chime Ogbo Ukwoke took like his first son.

Today in Enugu state the family dynasty has produced prominent sons and daughters and in Enugu today you hear names like Chime Avenue, even one the descendants became governor of the state. The legacy of the Ukwoke dynasty was to be eventually carried to high heights by his only son Kamah Chime whom he had at an advanced age. History has it that after marrying several wives and only having female children and according to the believe of those days it was a disadvantage to not have a son who will replace you especially as an 'Eze' or king as they are called was a nightmare and if you die without having a male child the kingship goes to another family close to yours. So Chime Ogbo tried one more time and this time it was a boy. it was said that when his friends persuaded him to marry the woman who was to give him a male child he refused and the day he finally accepted to go with them he took in his bag a tuber of yam unknown to his friends and when they got to the woman's home he brought out the yam and told the woman that this is his entire life possession and the woman simply answered by saying if this is what has kept you alive it will be enough for both of us.

This was the woman by the 'Una' Chime who will later bear him the only male child in his old age though and it was said that not long after she bear the child she died and the old man also died and the young son was left to manage a vast estate and kingdom which he could not for share size and coming under severe torture by the Chukwu family his cousins he fled to Uzuakoli present day Umuahia and lived there and by share luck it was the same white people his grand father fought not to take slaves from his village who seeing him and hearing his name quickly took him in and trained him and he becoming the first person to get formal education in the entire Ezinesi.

He will later return to his fathers house to take up the throne though and it was his reign which was the most famous and of course the most persecuted because many of those who were happy to see him fled had squandered his fathers estate and shared the vast landed property among themselves and seeing him returning back was their greatest nightmare. History has it that he was among those appointed by Nigeria during the independence celebration and he it was who received and brought back money that was shared among the different nationalities that made up the old eastern region. He it was who first brought the rice seed to Ezinesi his kingdom it was said that no one knew exactly was the seed was nor what its uses were neither has anyone seen such seed before he introduced it into his kingdom this made his fame to spread even farther than that of his father and he became the Kamah Chime of fame. He expanded the kingdom when he received a small persecuted minority who fled their homes to Ezinesi and today 'Ezinesi' which translates to six villages is made of seven villages instead, this and other acts of kindness and astuteness made the only son to marry three wives because according to the people of their time the more kids you have the better your annual returns from the farms. The name of his first wife Margret Kamah whom he nicknamed Nwanna Diya which translates to husbands sister because she was from the same community as him and the second Oyili Diya which translates to husband lookalike and the third Ihu Diya which translates to Husbands Face, together they gave him male and female children.

When the Nigerian Biafra civil war began in 1969 his young son 17 years at the time sought his permission to join the Army which he refused and he ran away and forged a letter and took to the military commander at Awgu town and when the commander saw him he was not sure but he could not refuse a letter from the great Kanu Chime as he is sometimes referred to and this is how James Onyeama Kamah became a soldier and quickly rose to fame because of his many victories and the late warlord and Biafran leader General Odumegwu Ojukwu personally decorated him at government house Enugu. He was to later to take over the running of the Kamah Chime dynasty and today to continue that journey his first son Ikenga has been holding forth.