Onima Institute for Tradition and Development USA, Inc is a non-profit organization whose aims and objectives are education, research and to foster African traditions and development.  Some of our projects include working with young people in our community in Georgia.  Our concerns for young people extend to the youths in African towns and villages with much needed school supplies and financial assistance for tuition. We also assist community schools in these towns and villages with basic classroom equipments such as desks, and chairs including recreational materials such as school bands.

Onima Institute is also an outreach organization that is dedicated to assisting students in our local community by offering counseling, tutoring, motivating, and helping them to be of good behavior at home and in school.  To help in strengthening the youths’ ability to interact within the world that they are a part of, we offer free classes in African languages which include Edo, Etsako, Esan, Hausa, Igbo, Ijaw, Isoko, Itsekiri, Owan/Onwan, Urhobo, and Yoruba.

Academic Forum: The Journal of African Traditions and Development (JATAD).. The mission of this Journal is to provide a forum for the examination of issues related to the cultures and traditions of Sub-Saharan Africa and the peoples of African descent while encouraging the promotion and analysis of the indigenous cultures and traditions of the people as a way to preserve the human nutrients for posterity.

PRESS RELEASE
 

New Book: The title of the new book is "African Names and the Reason for a Name," recently released by the academic, a social scientist, and author, Dr. Omoh T. Ojior. This is first in the series of African names the author is currently working on. The book talks about the need for Africans to ensure that African native names are given to the children in order to make sure that foreign idiosyncrasies and influence do not erase our most treasured identity.

The author points out that it is a grievous mistake and a disservice to Africa, and more so, to the Africans as a member of the human race. The book discusses the factors that are considered before a name is given; they include history, the meaning and significance of the first seventh day on earth in which a child is named by African culture and tradition; the impact of a name, positive or negative, on the bearer, and the sacred and solemn evocative ritual before a name is pronounced. The book also traces the origins of naming, This book, African Names and the Reason for a Name, first of its kind, tells what a name is; and explains the purpose, reason for this book, and the way it was written.

There are many illustrations to show the importance of a name. Showing further the importance of a name, the book concludes with a profound illustration of an interesting story of a former Slave who after becoming free, wrote a book of his experience after he was captured and taken away with his young sister; this was Olauda Equiano, the son of Etsako, and the man who started in England, the fight to end Slave Trade in the world.