Monday, October 12, 2009

The Arochukwu motto "Ako bu ije" still inspires research







Foretaste:
“The world of archaeology has many holes in its knowledge because there is an assumption of discontinuity across space and time. But now that so much new evidence is pointing to major connections between apparently unrelated cultures and myths, we can start to gain a better understanding of what may fill those gaps.” (Chris, Knight and Robert Lomas in URIEL’S MACHINE – The Ancient Origins of Science. Arrow Books Limited London: 2000. p. 365.) With this background, I will summon the courage to proffer a new paradigm on the raison-d’être of our most misunderstood antient institution, the Ibn-Ukpabi. This is a hard task and would make interesting reading, tending to excite controversy but more importantly research and greater awareness of the excellent greatness that was Aro. This is a people that are said to be difficult to understand, a kind of a mystery – ‘Aro di ogbu’, and whose motto extols the excellence of wisdom – ‘Ako bu ije.’

“A new paradigm on the functionality of Ibn-Ukpabi”
-* Prof. Chris Aniche Okorafor *-

Prologue:
Current opinions of Ibit Ukpabi mispronounced Ibn-Ukpabi or Ibiniukpabi, as a “slave god” among other derogatory designations is here reviewed in light of recent researches on similarly structured institutions that are found in practically all corners of the globe. Ibn-Ukpabi is a name-change of Ibit Itam, pronounced and written Ibritam sometime after the Aro-Ibibio War of about 1534. The affinity of Ibritam with the esoteric sciences that developed in relation with ancient sites identified with subsisting monoliths or menhirs and dolmens, indicates that its establishment about year 200AD by the Idiong Society was more popularly known as an oracle because of its predictive properties. Recent researches in archaeoastronomy have proven that these ancient sites were basic astronomical observatories. Ibritam’s ‘oracular’ quality as observed in other identical sites, is principally the establishment of calendars with the related determination of seasons, moon phases, tidal movements, and even eclipses. This science was characteristic of the Neolithic era associated with the origins of farming and a sedentary way of life. It enabled the hunter-gatherer migratory societies to switch over to agriculture with the consequent development of cities and commerce. Ibritam’s influence grew with the establishment of sedentary communities in and around its immediate and proximate neighborhood.

The change in management, control and name of Ibritam was by conquest and elimination of the pristine Idiong esoterists. Consequently, its total body of developed knowledge which is secretly conveyed within strictly controlled hierarchical structure was not transferred to the management of Ibn-Ukpabi. The commencement of coastal trade with the Europeans provided the incentives to exploit the influence of Ibn-Ukpabi in the establishment of Aro hegemony and trade monopoly. This brought Aro into a head-on collision with the alliance of the British Colonial Office, British Trading Companies and the Christian Missionaries. Most other sites of ancient astronomical concern have been reconstructed as tourist centres. Petty interest of a few who earn pittances in their continued proselytization of the “secrets” of Ibn-Ukpabi has led to misconceptions as to its actual location. They believe that a reconstruction in the real site will deprive them of their earnings from the false forest groove they purport to be the base of Ibn-Ukpabi. The result is that tourism authorities and tourists are fed with inconsistent fables by the “tour-guides.” The present site or sites that “guides” take tourists to is/are the copycat sites established away from the destroyed site that was too close to the constant official sights of the colonial officers and missionaries in those days following the fall of Aro in 1902.

To earn its deserved World Heritage status, Ibn-Ukpabi must be divested of these falsities and the net effect will be of considerable benefit to the community and the country as a whole. These points are articulately spelt out in the following article. The author infers that one may accuse him of writing purely as an Aro patriot where patriotism according to Alistair Cooke of the BBC ‘Letter from America,’ is a bad historian as it writes the most beguiling history, and always offers a flattering explanation of a complicated story. If you think this applies, please question the issues raised and thus provide prompts for further elucidation.


Preamble:
It is very well acknowledged that the Aro are culturally very eclectic. This flows naturally from the genesis of Aro Confederacy from three diverse dynasties from Igbo, Akpa, and Ibibio tribes. It is important to note that of the five main African language sub-families, Aro is about the only one that is composed of people of more than one language sub-family, namely Kwa sub-family (which includes the Igbo, Yoruba, Edo, Igala and Ijaw) and, the Benue-Congo sub-family (which consists of Tiv, Bantu (Bamileke and Ekoi); Efik-Ibibio, Jukun, and the Plateau languages).

Culture embraces the entire patterns of social organization that regulates the social interaction of individuals within a society. A people’s culture ought to a considerable extent facilitate the prediction of how its member will react in a given situation. Culture also embraces a society’s technologies through which its participants produce the assortment of food they eat, build their houses, make and put on their dresses and, their instruments of war and peace. All who live within the culture, have predictable expectations of cause and effect in the interaction and employment of their knowledge and technology. Unfortunately, things often occur which are not predictable. A well-set trap fails to catch any game animal. A married couple fails to produce an issue. An ordinarily hard working, healthy young man suddenly falls ill and dies. Several other everyday occurrences fail, as for instance when an eclipse shrouds the light of the sun, or a devastating drought nullifies all agricultural efforts. These frustrating unplanned for and unpredictable events are held to have predisposed all primitive societies to the development of special patterns of behavior aimed at foretelling, foreseeing and forestalling or mitigating the adverse impacts of these abnormal events.

Some members of the society soon develop a knowledge or propensity to reasonably identify and isolate certain sequential occurrences that are very consistent. They therefrom isolate some correlation between those serial occurrences and the other events in their lives which they want to predict. If giving a hunting-dog some part of the cooked-kill enhances its determination and success in a hunt, will the same apply if an identical offering is made to a hunter’s gun or trap? Is the same theory applicable in agriculture to land, in fisheries to the rivers and so on? This need for certitude in life and living is held to be the source of religions and religious practices. It represents an adaptation strategy to circumstances which according to Biermatzki, W. E. in ‘Symbol and Root Paradigm’, draws on resources at hand in a particular time and place. They may be resources consisting of knowledge and technology inherited from earlier generations, acquired from neighbors, or the products of the inventive human imagination.

It is important for me to remind us at this point that in the course of history, humans inhabiting widely separated regions often independently develop identical skills, arts and sciences. Unfortunately, human history is also replete with instances of what I may call cultural contests and outright cultural wars. This must be distinguished from enculturation in that in most of these ‘wars’, colonialists frequently strove to transform what they label ‘primitive’ or ‘barbaric’ culture to their own native culture to the extent of forcibly and completely destroying the arts and crafts of the people they colonize. President and Poet Leopold Senghor summarized this in his saying that;
“our misfortunes have been that our arch enemies in propagating their own values, had made us despise and disown our own.”

This is particularly the situation in the colonization of the Igbo territories in Nigeria. The Aro persistent resistance to the direct trade by British trading firms within the hinterland of the Bights of Benin and Biafra, disposed these firms to configure the assistance of the missionaries and the gunboats. The successor of the United Africa Company, the Royal Niger Company chartered in 1885, escalated the colonization process by sheer force of arms. To win the sympathy of Christian Europe, it built an enormous image of a region reeling in slave trade, human sacrifices and devil worship thereby strengthening the resolve of the Colonial Office in more than adequately raising a rampaging army to crush opposition to British rule and heathenism while with the same stroke enthrone Christianity. The colonialists identified the satanic power base of this zonal criminality as the Ibn-Ukpabi with the Aro as its evil sole cultists. Consequently, it had to be captured and destroyed, its cultists exiled and Aro brought under British rule. As stated in Azubike Okoro & Ben Ezumah’s “Perspectives in “Aro History & Civilization Vol. I”,
“the British High Commissioner could not have put it better. He stated in his dispatch of March 24th 1902 that it was to teach Aro “who had persistently resisted any interference on the part of the white man… a salutary lesson”, and that the campaign “had clearly demonstrated to them the power of a government that intends to rule them and control their country”.

The Aro Expeditionary Force broke and retained all records in British War strategy, technology, administration and duration against the natives in all of West Africa. Before the invasion, field officers’ reports had been very vocal on the use of occultism by the natives in warfare. One such report in “Juju and Justice in the Jungle” by Frank Hives and Gascoigne Lumley illustrates the inference that:
“I can only say that I am relating exactly what I saw. I attempt no explanation – for to me the thing is unexplainable.”
If the people under Aro hegemony had such mysterious skills, the colonial military strategists would naturally assume that Ibn-Ukpabi, ‘the Long-Juju’ which was the most dreaded and consulted shrine in the region would have among its adherents, a yet more “unexplainable” form of wizardry. To further enhance this was the report, “Notes on A Journey to Bende”, submitted by anthropologist A. G. Leonard in 1898 to his sponsor, the Manchester Geographical Society, on his encounter with an Aro merchant in 1896.-
“He announced in broken English that he was an ‘Aro man’ and a ‘God boy’. Motioning them to a seat on the box, I told the interpreter to tell the Aros that I was very pleased to see them, but, before I could talk to them, the man with the hat on must remove it; to this he replied that he was as good, and would not take his hat off to any white man, saying in broken English, and with an air of giving satisfaction, as he looked at me, ‘Me be “God boy” – me be “God boy”. You be white man; me be ‘God boy’”.

A prior authority on African languages, missionary-teacher Sigismund W. Kôler, in his 1854 work “Polyglotta Africana” surveyed some 300 words and phrases in 156 different African languages. In the section that detailed Igbo dialects spoken among the liberated slaves in Sierra Leone in 1847, he indicated that he could not find any single Aro native speaker. This also was indicative of the uniqueness and mystic of the Aro and which contributed to Aro being assessed by foreign historians as non-natives of the Delta Region, but rather either migrant Macedonians, Jews expelled from Spain, Carthaginians or Portuguese.

In the other areas that came under the charter of the Royal Niger Company, shrines were looted of their artistic ritual objects and exported to Europe. In Aro, Ibn-Ukpabi physical structure was studiedly destroyed with high power incendiary explosives. Still in the “Perspectives” indicated above,
“In defeat, Aro was still its characteristic self. It objected to a meeting with the frontline white military commanders quartered in Amanagwu where their barracks were pitched. They bravely insisted on discussing only with the British High Commissioner in person. They were conceded this on Avòr day March 26th 1902 in a neutral soil, Bende. They did not just secure Ralph Moore’s audience, but also had the meeting extended to the second day in their unsuccessful attempt to negotiate the retention of Aro autonomy within defined limits, namely the removal of the troops to Itu and the non-interference with the political structure of the town including the traditional religious practices relating to Ibn-Ukpabi.”

It is within this background and other related issues, particularly the inspiring work on “The Ancient Origins of Science” published by Arrow Books Limited London: in which it is shown that-
“The world of archaeology has many holes in its knowledge because there is an assumption of discontinuity across space and time. But now that so much new evidence is pointing to major connections between apparently unrelated cultures and myths, we can start to gain a better understanding of what may fill those gaps,”
that I began to build my proposition for a reassessment of the purpose and functionality of the Ibn-Ukpabi. What was it? What were its functions? Were there copycats in Aro? Were such copycats part and parcel of Ibn-Ukpabi organization? This reassessment is necessary in circumstances where it is proven, or there are doubts that what we are taught or have been made to believe or hold as fact, are built on deliberate distortions or culpable or non-culpable misconceptions.

According to Professor Thomas Samuel Kuhn of Harvard University - a philosopher of science and a leading contributor to the change of focus in the philosophy and sociology of science in the 1960s - there are two fundamentally different phases of scientific development in the sciences. In the first phase, scientists work within a set of accepted beliefs or paradigm. As the basis of the paradigm weakens, it is replaced by new theories and scientific methods on which the next phase of scientific discovery depends. The scientific progress from one paradigm to another does not therefore conform to any scientific method. My goal in proposing a new paradigm on the functionality of Ibn-Ukpabi, is therefore only to excite inquiry and confirmatory research on theory of the essence and raison d’etre of this assuredly much maligned institution variously labeled ‘oracle’, ‘chukwu’, ‘long-juju”, Ibn-Ukpabi and so on. Without this, the door to recognition as a world heritage will remain shut.

Origin of Ibn-Ukpabi and Known Source of Its Mysticism:
Ibn-Ukpabi is generally accepted to have attained and retained up to end of March 1902, the status of the most influential among the other regional oracles. Shankland writing on “Inside Arochukwu” reported that in 1890s as many as 800 western Ijaw adherents visited it. This will give a fair estimate of over 20,000 for the same period from all regions then under its influence. It took Shankland who later served in Aro as an Administrative Officer, to regret this damage to Aro civilization. He had reported that the Aro had organized a very functional judicial and administrative system, and that the burning desire of the Aro Expedition Force to destroy Aro power was such that little of the indigenous system was permitted to survive. In effect, something other than a fetish was destroyed.

The origin of Ibn-Ukpabi is material in this reassessment. As already indicated in an ARO NEWS article under a nom-de-plume James Elias, the oracle was known in the Eastern Delta as “Tsuku ab yama” which translates to “God resides there.” The colonial officials called it the “Long Juju” because of the distance and length of days it took supplicants to visit it for consultations as well as the extent and coverage of its influence in the then Eastern Nigeria and its peripherals. Among the Igbo it was referred to as Chukwu (God). When Christianity was introduced, one of the the oracle’s name was adapted by the Igbo Catechism in reference to God Almighty, namely ‘Chukwu-abiama.’ This oracle formed the basis for the attachment of the surfix ‘Chukwu’ to the name of Aro thereby converting it to Arochukwu (God’s own Aro). Some Igbo communities knew the Aro as Umuchukwu, (the children of God). Dr. Alex Ukoh in Vol. 2 of ‘Perspective in Aro History’, inferred this when he stated that the Aro were known as Umuchukwu (Children of the Supreme God). The Efik and Ibibio knew Aro as ‘Mbot Abasi’ (the People of the Great Spirit).

The oracle was located in “Ibom”, the name for the pristine territory occupied by the Ibibio on which Arochukwu metropolis was later to be established after the Ibibio War of 1534. Under Ibibio kingdom, the oracle was known as Ibritam (ibit itam - giant drum). Ibritam developed some great influence on the neighboring and far distant communities, but this was very miniscule when compared with the degree and spread of control that Ibn-Ukpabi would later sway. Professor Monday B. Abasiattai, identifies it as developed by the Idiong secret society about 300 AD. This is more than 1,230 years before the Ibibio War. Idiong is loosely interpreted as sorcery, which is defined by Barnhart as “The act of foreseeing the future or foretelling the unknown, especially by signs and omens.” J. S. Mbiti defines it as “the ability to consult the spirits and invisible things.” Idiong, as researched by Professor J. E. Utin is much more than sorcery in that it is connected with the belief in superhuman powers and is a method whereby man endeavors to obtain from these powers the knowledge of the future for assistance in the affairs of life. Its members serve as a link between their fellow human beings on the one hand and the gods, spirits and the ancestors on the other hand. The Ete Idiong (Divine Father) instructs the new members and hands over to a successor when he is about to die. There are two types of Idiong. Idiong Ibok combines prophecy and divination with medicine. Its members are able to foretell the future, reveal the unknown, or tell who may have worked evil against the sick or the cause of poor harvest, sudden death, epidemic, or other tragedy, and at the same time prescribe the remedy, provide the medicine and the method of prevention against future occurrence. Idiong Ifa is superior to Idiong Ibok in that its members are also the decision making body of, and take part in deciding serious cases in the community.

Identical Physically Structures:
Ibritam shares some unique characteristics with other centers of the ancient world that were dedicated to specific functions whose purpose were not understood until the development of archaeoastronomy - the ‘study of the varied astronomical achievements of ancient peoples involving the application of the science of archaeology, astronomy, ethnography, and other sciences in interpreting the meaning of architectural remains and written records of astronomical significance.’

Ibritam was situated in a limestone cave beneath the watershed mound enveloped by what was later to be known as Ovia Chukwu (God’s groove). The word cave has hitherto been applied to this structure, but that does not imply that it was not intentionally designed and built as such in contra-distinction as arising from geo-physical effects. Admittedly, Arochukwu has geological features that are predisposed to natural formation of limestone or solution caves. The escarpment on which the modern day highway running from Ututu into Ugwuakuma right through to Barracks and broken into spurs by valleys as it extends and disappears into the Cross River-Enyong River confluence valley, is dominated by several sizes of solution caves. As rainfall water seeps into the ground and drains internally towards the Iyi Ukwu, it absorbs and reacts with the carbon dioxide in the soil to form carbonic acid. This slowly dissolves the limestone which in turn runs off with the spring water into the Iyi Ukwu. Over time, a cave is formed from the gap left by the lost limestone. Oral evidence does indicate that Ibritam although housed in what was later categorized as a cave because there are some natural caves within its geophysical neighborhood, was in actual fact a dolmen.

Dolmens are characteristics of the Neolithic period that began when man converted from purely hunter-gatherer status to agriculture, thereby settling down to permanent enclaves and creating the technological innovations and economic basis that ultimately set the stage for the development of complex societies and civilizations around the world. They are built as a chamber covered with artificial mound or hillock. Dolmens are sometimes surrounded by stone slabs which may be either unhewn or carved into statuary. The stone slabs are known as Menhirs or Monoliths. These early architectural structures are numerous in Great Britain and Ireland and are also found in lesser numbers in France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, the islands of the western Mediterranean, Scandinavia, Middle East, India, Burma, Japan, Africa, in the Polynesian, Melanesian, and Micronesian islands, in Uluru near Lake Eyre of the Western Australia and in Cahokia-Illinois in the United States.

In Africa and very significant too in view of its being principally populated by people of the Bantu ethnic group, is the city of Bouar in west Central African Republic on the highway linking Bangui with Cameroon. In this city, several granite Menhirs are found in a variety of arrangements. They are dated as erected by a culture that inhabited the area about 500 BC. Further south westwardly, Menhirs known locally as Akwanshi are found in several location of middle Cross River State. These locations lie on the migratory route of the Ibibio from the Central Benue valley which according to Professor Joseph Greenberg was the original home of Proto-Bantu speaking peoples which also included the Akpa. The spectacular Monoliths and the most studied ones are those of the Stonehenge in Britain dating before 3000 BC, and of Newgrange in Ireland. A universal feature of Monoliths is the simple art forms with which they were decorated. These consisted of spirals, triangles, wavy lines, and other geometric forms. Other important artistic expressions were basic human statuaries, usually without the limbs, on which the spirals, wavy lines and geometric forms are engraved. These we shall later identify and associate with Nsibidi Aro and the pictograms on the Ukara Ekpe.

A May-June 2005 bi-monthly journal (MOFINEWS) of the Ministry of Finance Inc. Calabar Cross River State states that:-
”The Monoliths of Alok and Nkarassi are just two of large collections of these original stone carvings of intricate and highly artistic relief. They are altogether an expression of the culture, religion and occupation of a people. Some of the stones are believed to date back to as far as 200AD. Students of history and arts find these a veritable goldmine.”

According to an Ikom indigene and historian Dr. Sandy Onor Ntufam these ellipsoidal and cylindrical shaped stone carvings some as high as 2.4meters bear Nsibidi scripts which are a
“symbolic reference to the esoteric, organized and functional complexity that it represents; a highly pictorial form of writing, developed independent of Western, Arabic and Latin contributions.”

Ibritam As One of the Pristine Astronomical Observatory:
Archaeologists have in the past, guessed around the purpose for which the ancients built Dolmens and Monoliths. The accepted hypothesis had been that they were built as sacred places for religious rituals and ceremonies, as well as burial chambers for priests and kings, and cults for the dead. In this wise they shared the same classifications as the pyramids. When it was later recognized that they were consistently oriented towards the direction of sunrise at either the solstice, the midwinter or the midsummer, some then began to speculate that they were built by Sun worshipers and that the Monoliths were either fertility symbols or statues of ancestors.

The works of later astronomers as Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer and Gerald S. Hawkins led to a greater acceptance of the theory that Dolmens and Monoliths were indeed astronomical observatories for determination of calendars and a wide range of astronomical phenomena, particularly the phases of the moon, the equinoxes, the summer and winter solstices and, including eclipses and the rising of Sirius the brightest star visible from the earth. These were very material information to the societies in the determination of agricultural, religious and festal cycles. These Neolithic wise men had constructed the tunnel to these mounds or restructured the caves and established the Monoliths in such a way that the light of the sun or the star lit-up or cast a definite and unique shadow on a specific spot on each of the days of the calendar. These have been confirmed by recent studies in archaeoastronomy.

At the Equinoxes which occur about the 21st of March and 23rd of September each year, the duration of daylight and night are exactly equal and the sun rises due east and sets due west. A marking indicating the shadows cast by a Monolith at sunrise and sunset would form a straight line. After the Equinoxes, the shadows form a diminishing angle on each successive day as the sun moves away from the equator. On a certain day the sun literally comes to a stop before it again apparently starts to slowly retrace its rising and setting towards the Equinox. This is known as the Solstice (Sun stands still). There are therefore two Solstices, the one occurring about June 21st when the sun reaches the ‘stopping’ point in the Northern Hemisphere, and the other 21st December in the Southern Hemisphere. An appropriately oriented Dolmen has the added advantage of admitting the light of the sun to rest on a particular spot of an object within it. Such spots and or shadows are therefore very functional in establishing calendars.

This observatory potential is not restricted to Dolmens and Monoliths. Each and every one of us must have noticed at sunrise or sunset, the varying directions of sunlight into his room as the days go by. If we put distinctive marks for each successive day or for spaced out weekly or fortnightly intervals to indicate the points where the rays rest on such a day and hour, particularly at sunrise and or sunset, whichever is convenient, we shall soon observe the variations. If this is carried on over a year, it would be interesting noticing how the ray of the sun comes back to the same point at approximately the same hours and days as they were initially marked. To be more precise, one can use a screen over a window allowing only a small opening from which the ray of the sun penetrates and lights up the points as the year rolls by. A better alternative for one who has access to open ground as is remarkably available on the ridge over Ovia-Chukwu the base of Ibritam, is to establish two posts outdoors at about one metre apart on a North-South orientation, each post measuring at least one metre high. The shadows of the posts are then marked out at sunrise and at sunset. With any of these forms of models one shall be able to predetermine the months, the equinoxes, and the solstices after the first year’s cycle shall have been established.

If on the other hand, one goes into the greater detail of having a roof opening made in such a way as to afford sighting of a particular star from within the room’s dark enclosure, he shall have gone a step further in improving this model of a Dolmen observatory. The heavenly bodies easily and more significantly targeted in such a model are the star Sirius and the planet Venus. With a combination of these two crude models, one can replicate the functions of Dolmens and Monoliths, namely an observatory with which to build a veritable calendar.

To these our ancient wise men who built the Dolmens and Monoliths, Venus was easily a star of choice on three accounts. Firstly, it is the brightest object in the sky apart from the Sun and the Moon and therefore easily recognizable. Secondly, it has the unique feature of being visible for not more than three hours before sunrise for which reason it is called the Morning Star, and also for not more than three hours after sunset, for which cause it is again called the Evening Star. Thirdly, just as the sun is seen to rise from particular positions in the horizon at the Equinoxes and Solstices, so also does Venus over a period of 1.6 years. With this observable feature, it tends to mark a point of coincidence of the solar and lunar calendars with that of the stars once in every eight years within an error of very few minutes. Over five such cycles, or once in forty years, the differential error is reduced to a few seconds. With this observation it becomes easy to determine with an error limit of a few hours, such important calendrical moments as the phases of the moon, tides, lunar eclipses, agricultural seasons and festal days. Ethno-historians are inclined to link this Venus cycle with the ancient mythological significance of forty years in many traditions.

Ibritam whose structure were completely destroyed must have had Monoliths as those now in Alok and Nkarassi. It is though known from oral history to have shared some features with some of the structures in the Great Zimbabwe ruins whose functions have been archeologically studied and documented. Both had large enclosed caves that must have served for ceremonies and, as we have noted, observation points for the sun, the moon and the stars. Both also made use of the acoustics of the cave to produce echo that enabled human voice and drum beats to be carried far into the surrounding settlements for specific announcements. These would have been news about the calculated calendar events and other prophetic pronouncements.

The proposition here asserted is that acceptance of recent archaeo-astronomic findings on Dolmens and Monoliths have created a paradigmatic framework for a more appropriate perception of the origin and functionality of Ibritam and thereby of Ibn-Ukpabi. It was not just an oracle or a shrine as has been hitherto accepted. It was a scientific establishment, similar in design, construction and management as all other Neolithic astronomical observatories developed in several cultures to primarily aid and enhance agricultural production as well as rationalize and confirm the predetermination of the phases of the moon, lunar calendars for festivals and probably tides and eclipses. These functions of Ibritam was nothing other than “The act of foreseeing the future or foretelling the unknown especially by signs and omens”, which is literarily Barnhart’s definition for sorcery. But from the wisdom of hindsight, retained traces of oral history and the benefits of recent archaeoastronomic research, we know that the Idiong secret society was none other than early practitioners of astronomy.

Source Of Attribution to Sorcery and Magic:
On the sideline, having mastered these sciences, it was only natural for it to also fulfill the other religio-medical aspects of divination, spiritual prophylactics and cures. With good knowledge of the phases of the moon, it is only logical that those scientists would be able to advice on human fertility problems in circumstances where the female menstrual cycle was material. Naturally, this their practical science was unfortunately, misconstrued as sorcery and magic by the uninitiated. To the neighbors of the Aro of the mid-17th Century, the mirror was magic and mystical. Matches and even torch-light were also considered as magic when they were first introduced As demand generates supply, so the need by the outsider to resort to Ibritam for all his problems, created the incentive among these early wise members of the society to mystify their fundamental scientific knowledge thereby accepting the ascription of priests and holy men who commune with the divine. The people of Aro, their successors in title when Ibritam was taken over in consequence of the Ibibio War were later to be known as Umuchukwu, (the Children of God). The community’s name Aro earned the suffix Chukwu and became Arochukwu (God’s own Aro). These characteristics were not unique to Ibritam.

Remarkable Identicals:
Ibritam was not therefore just an oracle or a shrine as has hitherto been accepted. It was a scientific establishment, similar in design, construction and management to all other Neolithic astronomical observatories developed in several cultures in numerous parts of the world. They were to primarily aid and enhance agricultural production as well as rationalize and confirm the predetermination of the phases of the moon, lunar calendars for festivals and probably tides and eclipses all of which are tied up with agriculture. It is material and significant to recollect that this Neolithic scientific advancement in agriculture led to the resultant increase in wealth in contrast to the hunter-gatherer status. The consequent increase in population enhanced city dwelling and influenced the development of skills specialization and trade.

Among the historic Dolmen and Monolith sites, Stonehenge is the most spectacular. All that is yet known about the religious applications of Stonehenge is derived from the Druids. They practiced Druidism, a religious faith of ancient Celtic inhabitants whose history we owe mostly to the Roman historians Posidonius and Pliny and, the accounts of Julius Caesar. The Druids believed that they were descendants of the one Supreme Being and Creator of all beings. They identified this Supreme Being with the Sun. The Arch-Druid with supreme powers held sway over his lifetime. The Druids performed the functions of civil administrators, judges, priests, prophets, teachers and bards. They were also involved with medicine, astrology and magic. Julius Caesar also described their mode of human sacrifices on great occasions as for success in war or for relief from dangerous diseases.

Prior to the time of the Druids, it is held that Newgrange was home to the Tuatha Dé Danann or Tribe of the goddess Danann. They are said to be Fairy-Folks often referred to as the Lords of Light. Another group on the other side of the world, the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls dwelt in caves at the north-western end of the Dead Sea in the area of Khirbet Qumran in modern day Jordan. They labeled themselves the Sons of Zadok, the Perfect, the Holy Ones. the Sons of Light or Sons of Dawn. We must also note that the Sadducees, the Jewish group that arose in the 1st Century BC, took its name from Zadok.

We already accept that Ibritam was developed and managed by the Idiong society which had identical functions as in these other ancient ‘ritualists’. The Arch-Druid counterpart in Idiong society was the Ete Idiong, (Divine Father) who instructs the new members and designates who would succeed him when he is about to die.

Let us now recall our previous discussion with respect to the shadows cast by two posts whether they be ordinary stakes, dolmens or menhirs at sunrise or sunset of each successive day. Let us also recall that marking out these will easily determine two points in time when the sun as it were stops (Solstice) and the angle formed by the shadows ceases to increase before it begins a gradual decrease to a point the angle becomes zero when the sun is at the equator. The gradual increase then resumes until the other Solstice is attained. The cycle then repeats itself the ensuing year. The illustration here presented, roughly represents these situations. The bold lines stand for the shadows of the posts at sunrise while the dotted lines represent those at sunset. This has been proffered for the explanation of one other common characteristic of these ancient astrological observatories, namely the inscriptions of the cross or diagonal or X-shaped cross in the caves, pottery, menhirs etc. These have been identified as used by these early calendric astronomers to signify a year.

Other characteristic carvings and marking common among these sites are circles, spirals and zigzags. The spirals are sometimes shown as double spirals. Their significance is best observed by creating a hole on the roof of a high roofed enclosure and marking out the path of the sun at definite intervals for a period of one year. The design so traced is a double spiral. The zigzags are sequences of the X-shaped cross and are sometimes replicated to appear as a square. In the illustration, the sun-shadow intersections around the two posts are definitely rectangular. Circles or a point within a circle, are ascribed to the sun itself and other esoteric entities. All these carvings are readily well preserved in the Menhirs in Alok, Nkarassi, Ikom and Bansara in the Cross River State to mention but a few subsisting ones. Interestingly these sites lie on the migratory route of the originators of Ibritam.

I had in the “Perspectives in “Aro History & Civilization” informed that Nsibidi should be understood and left for what it was, namely.
“a system of symbols developed by the cult members for their own exclusive use. From subsisting evidence, it was never intended to be taught or imparted indiscriminately for common use. The concept was to veil their esoteric knowledge from the eyes of the un-initiated”.

Here we have to lean on Ukara which is the Ekpe Aro textile material of batik print dyed with indigo and replete with numerous Nsibidi symbols. The Nsibidi as today used on the ukara consists of more than the same geometric forms we have just shown to be common with all those known sites whether in Cross River communities, at Stonehenge or Newgrange. There are indeed other common features depicted in the Ukara which pertain to the scripts and drawings in use by the ancient astronomers most of which have come down to our own day astro-scientists and their pseudo star-gazers, the astrologers. The Nsibidi found on the ukara is also replete with geometric forms which in other well researched religions and mystery schools denote moral and philosophical interpretations. The most pertinent ones are the square, the circle, a point within a circle, the cross, the sun, wavy lines, zigzags, human and animal icon.

Specific to the Ukara and the wall of the Ekpe hall but not on the dolmens or menhirs are zoomorphic symbols of particularly the leopard, crab, elephant, crocodile and the python. Every Ukara in addition to the geometric designs must have more than one of these often in repeats. These are all identical and related markings of the astronomical observations found in all other ancient locations with similar functions. As with all other astronomers prior to and in their own time, the architects of Ibritam must be seen to have presented in Nsibidi the visualized grouping observable among the stars which they labeled with various animals. We are all familiar with such groups of stars or constellations named by their counterparts in other cultures after such animals as the Aries (Ram); Cancer (Crab); Canis Major and Canis Minor (Dog – greater and lesser); Leo (Lion); Pisces (Fish); Scorpio (Scorpion); Serpens (Snake); Capricorn (Goat); Taurus (Bull) etc. There are also human symbols on the Ukara which while definitely relating to some cultic information as when it is shown seated astride a circled point, are also not unconnected with for instance other cultures’ astronomer’s constellations as the Hunter (Orion), Aquarius, Gemini and Sagittarius etc.’ There should be no complications about this. Ibritam is very close to the equator. Ibritam was located in Arochukwu which is about 5o:23'N latitude and 7o:53'E longitude. Astronomers know that the star constellations visible in the night sky around the equator have been visible to most people in the world throughout human history and have had a lot of myths and legends woven around them by all groups of interested stargazers in all races.

On much closer study, it would be seen that the Ekpe would seem to have been part and parcel of the operations of Ibritam or must have derived much of its essence from it. From the residual practices observable in and about it in our own time, we note that its hall is oriented East-West. Its generally visible form, the Inyamkpe on exiting from the hall performs some gesticulations towards the East. We had observed that two posts oriented North-South are material in the functions of the primitive astronomical observatory. The Ekpe hall also happens to have two columns oriented North-South in its general assembly space over which is usually suspended a brass bell of not less than fifteen centimeters diameter at its base. To the ancient Romans, Jupiter who overthrew his father Saturn is the king of the immortal gods. To the Ekpe society, the leopard (may be a substitute for Leo since in our fauna the lion is non-existent) is the king or altaego for the sun god. Its initiates are body-marked with the x-cross and the point within a circle. Their dance and movements within the hall is clockwise. This incidentally, is the path traced by the sun from the East to the South at noon to the West at sunset and through the region of darkness in the North and back to the East in its daily perambulation.

These several correspondences of Ibritam and its subsisting derivative Ekpe with such other extensively studied and documented ancient sites and practices the world over cannot just be attributable to mere coincidence. Ibritam derived from the same fundamental concepts in its own age and environment as did myriads of other historic sites of Stonehenge, Newgrange, Stonehenge and the several others in France, Spain, Middle East, Japan, Africa and in Cahokia-Illinois

Loss of Concept and Commercialization of Ibritam:
After the 1534 Ibibio War[i], Aro took over the management of Ibritam but retained its priesthood on Loesin as Ete Idiong. In time Aro indigenes were initiated as neophytes and later as priests. Eventually, Aro took over the archpriesthood and full control of the oracle and renamed it Ibit Ukpabi (the drum of Ukpabi) - the name Ukpabi[ii] being the Aro word for the “Creator God”. In effect, to the Aro inheritors of Ibritam, the establishment related to the Most High Architect of the Universe. Ibritam very much predates Aro Confederacy by over twelve centuries and has since its absorption by the Aro hierarchy been variously named as Chukwu, Ibn-Ukpabi, Ibiniukpabi, Long Juju etc. To the Ibibio and definitely to all those other who knew the objective functions of the institution, it was and remained Ibritam. In a very much later F. N. Ashley’s Ikot-Ekpene Inquiry, Chief Inokun Eyo of Uyo deposited as follows:-
“I went to Ibritam, (Ibn-Ukpabi) for though I had several wives, I had no sons, only daughters. I was told by Ibiritam to make a certain sacrifice in my town and sons would come. I was taken to a place where there were big rocks and trees and water. I stayed up to my knees in water and Ibiritam spoke to me. I came back and performed the sacrifice through an Aro man. I had a son born to me within a year as the Ibiritam predicted. I now have forty sons. I called one of them Inokun (Ibibio name for the Aro) and the other Ibiritam. I have only had eight daughter since then[iii].”

An added informational treasure in this quotation is the reported presence of “big rocks” presumably monoliths, and the prescription to perform the sacrifice in his own place of worship, not within Ibritam or its environs. The sacrifices that were later reported as demanded for and made to the proprietors of Ibn-Ukpabi is explainable from the perspective of loss of tradition and commercialization of counterfeited functions of Ibritam. This explains the various misconceptions and misapplications of its fundamental objective. When the Aro took over the institution, Ibritam’s enshrined master-disciplinic succession process was not maintained. Under such circumstances, the esoteric knowledge, oral traditions and ritual protocols are not handed down. Consequently they were irretrievably lost. The Aro that took over the administration were not rooted in the sciences and traditions of the Idiong society that managed the Ibritam in quite the same way that the Druids worked the Stonehenge. The services of Ibritam, like its counterparts in other cultures were central to agriculture in view of their science’s relative excellence in astronomical, calendrical and festival calculations in those days. Aro Confederacy was soon diverted from agriculture to commerce that was concentrated purely and wholly to the coastal trade with the European merchants in whatever category of item of trade that were in that age dictated by circumstances of outright profit and situational morality. It is in consequence of this circumstantial attitude of convenience, this fall from pure science, that Ibn-Ukpabi, nee Ibritam earned its evil reputation in the late 19th Century.

The pace and periodicity of this erosion of philosophy and science may not be easily identified, but suffice it to say that Ibritam had been central to the fundamental theology of the Aro. The common theological dogma among Ibritam’s counterparts the world over, is the existence of one Most High God and Creator of the Universe. They had physically identified this God with the Sun. The missionaries that first entered Aro with the invading colonial forces of the Arochukwu Expedition, noted the absence of any shrine dedicated to idols. Aro Confederacy has been conceived in an age and environment that had advanced to the stage where it had Ibritam and its concepts of the Most High God and the universe. Right up to 1948, there was still no shrine dedicated to an idol in the entire Aro metropolis. There were though in each family an Ogbiti and or Ulonta housing the Inyam Avia. All worship, prayer and sacrifice were first to Obasi di n’elu, the Most High God, with special honors paid to named ancestors of good repute. Later, due to immigration of people from the Diaspora, such idols as Iyi-Eke and Ugwudike were imported. Even these do not have communal adherents as are characteristic of idols in other non-Aro communities where communal sacrifices are made or special days or festivals set aside for them.

What really is left of this great institution?
As late as 1939, long after the British had claimed that they had smashed Ibn-Ukpabi, Jones reported in “Who are the Aro?” that:-
“people still continue to consult it, though mainly nowadays as a fertility juju, since the village councils today find it more profitable to keep expensive litigations for their native courts.”[iv]

Ibn-Ukpabi as with its counterparts in other parts of the world has lost its functionality, but quite unlike Ibn-Ukpabi these others have remained historic sites. Several of them like Stonehenge have been made the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s World Heritage Sites. Whatever is left of the precise location of Ibn-Ukpabi naturally and equally too, qualifies for the same designation. There are problems towards achieving this originating from irrelevancies.

Admittedly, the physical structures at the site were totally destroyed. As with other sites, the purpose for which they were set up and even the people who built them were not known. It is only recently that more light has been shown in explaining their purpose by scholars of archaeoastronomy. Most have to be reconstructed. Even the precise location of Ibn-Ukpabi is left under the cloak of secrecy. There is only an agreement to the fact that it is located in Arochukwu. To better dwell on this thematic issue, we must first disabuse our minds of the erroneous concept bought into by most people. The crisis of identity for Ibn-Ukpabi was well brought out of all times during the centenary of the 1901-1902 conquest of Aro. The author of an article “The Great Home Coming – The Long Trek to Long Juju Shrine” later published in Chapter Two of Vol. II Perspectives in Aro History informs us that Ibn-Ukpabi “exists at several locations,” the one which they were led to being accessed by “the slope along Aggrey Memorial Secondary School into the Iyi Eke forest and cave.” The article definitely was not referring to the same subject as I am treating here. It is metaphysically impossible to conceive of a one-subject material site existing in several locations. We though accept that some mystics have been endowed with and have manifested the power of bi-location, but this has never been ascribed to physical structures. Whatever therefore exists in those several locations are either copycats of Ibn-Ukpabi or at best manifestations of the attributes of the ancient maxim “Aro di ogbu” – (Aro is a fathomless mystery) - “Imara nka, Ima nka?” – (All knowledge has fringes of ignorance), each of which are manifestation of Aro fundamental characteristic of keeping her secrets secret and sacred.

Other misconceptions are still very prevalent among certain influential sources and I will only illustrate with a few of them. In an address by the Honorable Minister of Culture and Tourism, Ambassador Frank Nchita Ogbuewu at the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Culture and Tourism Meeting this year (2005), he stated that:
“The Arochukwu oracle called "long-juju" in the form of a long tunnel is part of the ancient slave routes of South- Eastern Nigeria, linking the inland Igbo markets of Abakikili and Itu to the coastal ports of Calabar, Bonny, Opobo, Nembe and Brass where various relics abound as tourist delights.”

In the website dedicated to tourism “showcaves.com/english/index.html”, it is recorded that:
“Arochukwu Cave is a famous tourist destination with the cave of the famous Long Juju Oracle as a particular attraction. The cave is believed to hold the long metal pipe through which the gods speak to the people. This place is a religious centre with an administrative structure headed by a Chief Priest.”
In yet another article on “Ibiniukpabi: Futile Search For A Slave God” carried on the website of nigerdeltacongress, the author’s comments were not complementary of their guides. Their first contact on their desire to visit the site was reported as a 'traditional Prime Minister' who recoiled at such "weird" suggestion. A member of the tourism committee “eventually offered to lead the long trek to the Gate of No Return, as the boundary separating the shrine from the abode of human beings was called….. A long gulley described our movement down the valley, The Tour guide explained. This is no ordinary gulley, he said. It was the route or pathway designed for the slaves. Through it they traced their way to the shrine of Ibiniukpabi before their final departure to their new masters….. A long gulley described our movement down the valley, The Tour guide explained. This is no ordinary gulley, he said. It was the route or pathway designed for the slaves. Through it they traced their way to the shrine of Ibiniukpabi before their final departure to their new masters…… The quartet crossed the river and came face to face with a thick forest and the tour came to an abrupt halt. But the tour guide offered to help by cutting down the forest to enable us move further. But this was an impracticable task almost impossible, which would have lasted for a day or two.”
How did these misconceptions emanate and why have they persisted? It is common knowledge that many copycats manifested themselves soon after 1902 within and around Arochukwu, some being located as far out as Obot Ito Ikpo nearly 15 kilometers off Aro on the road to Itu. The rivalry among these counterfeit institutions has created this problem impeding the recognition of the real site which is a pre-condition for its reconstruction and attainment of World Heritage Site status. There should be no atom of doubt as to the actual location of Ibn-Ukpabi. Even the records of the field commander and the civil and religious authorities who were in Aro about 1902-1933 indicate the appropriate location. Mary Slessor’s letters which formed the source of her 1917 biography “The White Queen of Okoyong” regretted her not entering Aro “before the soldiers, because she felt that if she had done so she might have saved all the fighting and bloodshed… … ‘The Gospel should have been the first to enter,’ she said, ‘but since the sword and gun are before us, we must follow at once’.” The location of Goldie Institute, the Barracks and the Mary Slessor Institutes for Women and Twins, were such as it were, semi-circling the conquered icon. The location tourists are now being led to is definitely one of those copycats that sprang up after 1902 as the real site was destroyed and under the consistent eye of the colonial and missionary authorities. Any enabled tourism committee must sit up to its responsibility in this regard. Firstly, it must formally identify the appropriate location; research a reconstruction program which will later be financed by UNESCO after it shall have studied and conferred World Heritage Status to the location; ensure proper education of guides who in other locations including Nigeria, are necessarily graduates of tertiary institutions and fluent in good communicative English. One key ingredient of success for tour guides is consistency of narrative - consistency with verifiable history, oral and written. If a UNESCO consultant receives the sort of welcome and tour guidance that the author of “Ibn-Ukpabi: Futile Search For A Slave God” received, his report to UNESCO would very much hurt any prospects of Ibn-Ukpabi ever getting recognition for its site.

Conclusion:
The facts are that Ibn-Ukpabi is a name given to Ibritam sometime after the Ibibio War of 1534. The change in management was in consequence of conquest. The esoteric sciences practiced within Ibritam establishment under the Idiong Society hierarchy were not transferred to the new management. The demands of the coastal trade with Europeans occasioned a change in the functions of the institution. This earned it an uncomplimentary label and precipitated the coalition of colonial, commercial and religious interests in the total destruction of the physical structures it inherited from Ibritamxxx.

We have in this paper, engaged Ibritam’s coincidences in the widely spread Neolithic sciences typified in the monoliths or menhirs and dolmens that modern day archaeoastronomic research have identified as astronomical observatories. We also noted that the output of these observatories enabled the computation of calendars, eclipses, tides, seasons and festival days and thus precipitated the hunter-gatherer societies’ shift to prosperous city dwelling agriculturists. Aro emerged from a fusion of three clans at the dawn of the Neolithic age and benefited from the acquisition by conquest of Ibritam establishment. There was no appropriate handover of the esoteric sciences and arts of Ibritam to the priests of Ibn-Ukpabi as the reigning arch-priest or Ete Idiong, Loesin and his associates were murdered in the process of the take over bid. The secrets of the workings of the establishment were therefore lost to the acquiring party. Substituted rituals which had no foundation with the original design and purpose were therefore practiced. The net effect was the exploitation of the erstwhile glories of Ibritam as an enabling factor in the establishment of Aro hegemony.

If Ibn-Ukpabi lost the principal esoteric knowledge operant in Ibritam, it does not have to loose the world heritage status most other identically instituted ancient astronomical observatories have earned from UNESCO. Much of the task for achieving this status rests with each and every Aro. The philosophical maxims “Aro di ogbu” and “Imara nka, Ima nka?” ought like other precepts be utilitarian. They must be seen to serve the optimally attainable advantages of its adherents within a mini-max framework. The cloak of darkness shrouding the Ibn-Ukpabi is being sustained by those few Aro who still proselytize its “mystics” for the very personal benefit they earn in the process. Such benefits of meat, drinks and paltry cash, are definitely detrimental to the overall public interest that would accrue from opening up the real location as a tourist centre. Where they lead tourists to is definitely not the true location, but one that suits their cash flow. The real location must now be generally accepted and enriched for the benefit of all. Tourist centres are not necessarily tied to prevalent religious beliefs or practices. Tourist centres must not of a necessity be made to retain their pristine inaccessibility in circumstances where they have been enveloped by recent city developments. The mistaken emphasis that Ibn-Ukpabi is a “slave god” that speaks through “long metal pipes” is neither based on reality nor defensible theology. It will neither help its cause towards meaningful and general beneficial recognition nor will arrant disinformation by tourist committee tour-guides prove anything other than a presumption of fraud. Ibn-Ukpabi must be seen for what it was, namely an ancient astronomical observatory built about 200 AD by the Idiong Society and operated as Ibritam on similar principles as the other centres of the world. The onus lies squarely on the shoulders of Aro leadership. Those earning pittances from the present disinformation that led an Ambassador to claim that:
“The Arochukwu oracle called "long-juju" in the form of a long tunnel is part of the ancient slave routes of South- Eastern Nigeria, linking the inland Igbo markets of Abakikili and Itu to the coastal ports of Calabar, Bonny, Opobo, Nembe and Brass where various relics abound as tourist delights.”
must be taken off the tourist guide group because their petty interest is inimical to the opening up of this glorious heritage to the world at large. Their copycat “mystiques” can subsist in the location they fake for tourists with the re-construction of the realist Ibn-Ukpabi site albeit now relatively restricted by encroaching recent city developments. Let them retain the name Ibn-Ukpabi for their present forest groove with “cave” and “long metal pipe” while the tourist committee adopts the original Ibritam or Ibit-Ukpabi for the real location that merits world recognition. We not only owe this to ourselves, we more than owe that to our children and no less to the glory of our ancestors.

One may accuse me of writing purely as an Aro patriot where patriotism according to Alistair Cooke of the BBC ‘Letter from America,’ is a bad historian as it writes the most beguiling history, and always offers a flattering explanation of a complicated story. If you think this applies, please question the issues raised and thus provide prompts for further elucidation.