The “old road,” leading for about 35 kilometers eastward out of Onitsha to Awka and continuing from there to Enugu, constitutes one of the most important lifelines of northwestern Igboland. The oldest available detailed map of the area, published in 1910, marks this road as “metalled,” that is, suitable for motor cars even during the rainy season,1 pointing to the significance of this link between the “queen of the Niger,” as the old commercial center of the region and point of entry for European influence, and Awka as headquarters of an administrative division and of the Anglican Mission. The old road crosses the northern part of a very densely populated area, with about a dozen “towns” situated along it. As I passed along it in the year 2000, most of the roadside between Onitsha and Awka appeared as a single semiurban sprawl, with bus stops, markets, and churches forming local central points. What had formerly been empty spaces between the towns along the road were largely built up. Today, the old road carries only local traffic. Long-distance traffic passes along the new expressway linking Onitsha and Enugu some kilometers further to the north, where settlement density is much lower, crossing through the northern outskirts of Awka, which became the capital of Anambra State in 1991. New major facilities, such as the state secretariat and Nnamdi Azikiwe University (a state university), have been built in this area. Still, the old road continues to be intensively used, and the adjoining towns remain comparatively lively places.

One of the towns along the old road is Enugwu-Ukwu (“large hill-site”), about 10 kilometers west of Awka, between Nawfia and Abagana. As you come in along the old road, the boundary with neighboring towns is not easily to identify, for example, from the buildings. The stranger has to look at the “Welcome to Enugwu-Ukwu” signboards erected by “social clubs” in order to be really sure about where EnugwuUkwu begins. The same is true even along some of the minor roads leading to neighboring towns, such as Nimo. It is only at some distance from these roads that larger open spaces used for gardening or agricultural purposes become visible. Such areas demarcate the boundaries between the towns which, unlike the roadside sprawl, are in fact rather compact, densely populated settlements.