Umuopara (“the children of the first son”) is a community situated a few kilometers west of the outskirts of Umuahia, the capital of Abia State since 1991. The Umuopara villages extend west of the expressway that was built in the late 1970s and links the old regional capital, Enugu, with Port Harcourt, the center of Nigeria's oil industry. It forms a major traffic artery in southeastern Nigeria, despite its sometimes deplorable condition. At a major roundabout on the expressway, marked by a small motor park and a roadside market, the roads into Umuahia and towards Owerri branch off. In the middle of the roundabout a tall concrete monument has been erected, carrying the inscription “Welcome to Abia. God's own State.”

Only a few hundred meters away from this point, the untarred road leading to Ogbodiukwu, one of the Umuopara villages, branches off toward the west. The expressway has been laid out to bypass existing settlements, and on the approach to the area, few villages can be seen as long as one travels on it; the oil-palm bush which has replaced the forest is dense enough to hide most buildings at a little distance. However, once one takes the branch road toward Umuopara, the appearance of the landscape changes after only a few hundred meters: The visitor finds himself in the middle of an extensive village area, with numerous houses and compounds, linked by an extended network of roads and paths. Cars may pass along most of these village roads; but one encounters few of them. There are a few shops selling household articles and drinks. A mechanical palm-oil press is operated by a dozen people in an open shed, even though this industry has lost most of its importance today. From time to time, one encounters small squares along the road, used for festivals or funerals on Saturdays. A tall tree in another square may mark an ancestral place of worship, and on a closer look the visitor notices the donations that somebody must have recently given to the deity; traditional religion does not make many public appearances any more, and its adherents seem to be few and quiet. The village area is extensive, and densely built-up. Along the roads leading through the farms into neighboring villages a stretch of tall trees, or even more frequently a stream, may mark the boundaries of the villages (Madubuko 1996: 1).