Discomfiting the extent to which slavery played a role here. Ifeanyi Uche writes:
The Aro traders founded a settlement in Okpo quarter of Uzuakoli and the achi tree in the Old Agbagwu Market in the area became a location for plotting slave raids and selling slaves. This development created an opportunity for the Igbo blacksmithing communities such as Abiriba, Awka and Nkwerre to partake in the growing commerce by producing implements required for the slave trade such as dane guns, swords, chains and locks as well as other implements such as bells, pipes, jewelry and brass –mounted staves using raw iron from the mines of the Okigwe-Arochukwu ridge. During this period, the Abiriba black smiths were reputed to have developed the long two-end nails, which were used in building larger canoes made out of planks instead of the simple dug-out log canoes previously used. The Nkwerre blacksmiths became renowned for manufacturing dane guns, hence acquiring the name ‘Nkwerre Opia Egbe’. Because of the problems associated with the transportation of these heavy iron implements on human heads to Uzuakoli to sell from Abiriba, Awka and Nkwerre, it became more economical for the Abiriba and Nkwerre black smiths to settle and produce these items at Uzuakoli. The Abiriba and Nkwerre blacksmiths therefore developed their own quarters in Uzuakoli.More here
