Agulu Lake, a lake in Agulu town, Anaocha Local Government Area, Anambra state, has some myths behind it. A man in search of settlement went to Adazi-nnukwu, another town in Anambra state, and asked the elders for a land to settle in.
In the olden days, land was not a commodity but freely shared and given. During the meeting, kola nuts were brought to be served, and a young child was sent to get water for them to wash their hands. The stranger dismissed the idea, touched his beard, and washed his hands with the water that flowed out. The elders gave him the evil forest. It was said that late at night, sounds of clearing and cutting were heard from the evil forest, and in the morning, a lake lay where there was once a forest. The villagers who saw it raised an alarm, and the lake was sent away before it became larger than they could control.
The man journeyed on and went to Agulu. They accepted him well and gave him a land too. He turned it back into a lake, but this time he was accepted by the Agulu people. He asked that a shrine be set up for him and promised the people that none of their children would ever be killed by the crocodile that inhabits the lake. When an indigene who doesn’t know how to swim ventures deep into the lake and is about to drown, the lake throws the person up three times towards the beach. However, it drowns non-indigenes without throwing them up or towards the beach.
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