Perspectives On Aro History and Civilization: The Splendour of a Great Past Vol. 3

By Mazi Azubike Okoro and Mazi Ben Ezumah

Arochukwu kingdom has a great history, made more profound and authentic by its deep-rooted culture and traditions. Also, it’s richly endowed with abundance of human and material resources, enough to transform it into an enviable society. This was demonstrated by the socio-economic and political exploits of our forebears in the 18th and 19th centuries when the kingdom was a Mecca of sorts. This book is incisive, thought provoking and a compendium of thoroughly researched data on Arochukwu history and civilization. It is authored by Aro citizens themselves and draws attention to some of the salient issues and grey areas which are yet to be successfully resolved by researchers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Nov 23, 2017
• ISBN: 9781483475974

Book preview

Ezumah

Copyright © 2017 Mazi Azubike Okoro & Mazi Ben Ezumah .

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible

ISBN: 978-1-4834-7598-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-7597-4 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 11/15/2017

Endorsements

.. a reference guide and compendium of fresh data on Aro history and civilization, a must read to all Umu Aro, libraries and schools all over the world.

Mazi George Ezumah, President-General, Nzuko Aro World-Wide

………………………………….……………….……………….….…..

… the richest, largest and most authentic repository on Arochukwu history, culture and civilization by Aro, not by outsiders and pseudo-historians…

Mazi Anicho Okoro, Secretary-General, Nzuko Aro World-Wide

………………………………….……………….……………….….…..

… a handbook and guide for further research work on Arochukwu history and civilization and people of Aro descent all over the world ..

Dr. Azubike Okoro, Founder/Pioneer Editor-in-Chief, Aro News

………………………………….……………….……………….….…..

…,the book is incisive, thought provoking and a compendium of thoroughly researched data on Arochukwu history and civilization. It is authored by Aro citizens themselves and draws attention to some of the salient issues and grey areas which are yet to be successfully resolved by researchers

Ben Ezumah, Pioneer Editor, Aro News

………………………………….……………….……………….….…..

…a remarkable assiduity in proselytizing a resurgence in Aro tradition and study of her history.

Prof Chris Aniche Okorafor, Vice Chancellor, Novena University, Nigeria

………………………………….……………….……………….….…..

.. Aro now has its own history, written by her people…

Mazi Ugo Okoro, Managing Editor, Aro News

FOREWORD

This is the third volume in our book series. The first and second were published in 2001 and 2004 respectively. On purpose, each of the volumes marked specific events in our history, in particular, and in Aro, in general. Whereas, Volume 1 was timed to coincide with the 1st centenary commemoration of the Anglo-Aro war of 1901; Volume 2 was packaged to celebrate the third edition of the All-Aro National Conference which held at Ajalli. The present volume is no less significant as it marks the tenth year of the inception of Aro News publication. A historic event associated with it is the formal hand-over of the publishing project and firm (Aro News Publications Ltd) to Nzuko Arochukwu, while the pioneer editors dedicate themselves to developing and nurturing Aro News International - www.aronewsonline.com. This third volume therefore, marks the end of the phase of hard copy publishing by the pioneer editors.

Henceforth, we shall be available online, but our columns in the paper edition will remain. All is well that ends well. It was ten years of unbroken appearance on the newsstand. Aro News, lest we forget, came as a child of circumstance. It hit the newsstand on the heels of a kingship tussle that polarized Arochukwu kingdom. Then dissension, mistrust and acrimony were propelled to the fore as norm. Aro News came as a soothing balm on the frayed nerves of our common heritage and community. It provided the veritable platform for dialogue and through that set agenda for meaningful development. Aro News sparked off the reawakening of interest and learning in Aro history and civilization to near renaissance level. It encouraged networking Aro Diaspora by reporting news and development from such places. Indeed, for once, there was a dialectical framework and premise for the articulation of our common problem and its solution.

I thank God for the rare opportunity of being found worthy to serve the community not withstanding the high risk nature and uncertainties that characterize publishing endeavor in our environment. All through the period, commitment to higher ideal of service to fatherland was our sustaining value. Although past volumes adequately captured the philosophical basis that dictated our pioneering role, it’s worth highlighting that the current volume, which marks the transfer of ownership to Arochukwu kingdom, completely satisfies our yeaning at inception to create an organization that would outlive its founders. A publishing firm which we founded, nurtured and built up in the last ten years has now assumed a life of its own, including an online version. We give God the glory.

Disengaging from the current service apart from being propitious in view of timing of one decade is equally imperative given the need to train new hands and to pursue higher endeavors. A major plank of our next phase of community development initiatives entail placing Aro at the centre stage of world communication network, empowering Nzuko Aro to deliver more dividends to the kingdom and reporting Aro Diaspora to people at home via a network. The process started with my appointment as President and Mazi Ben Ezumah, Executive Editor, Aro News Online, by the board of Aronewsonline & Co. Our current roles notwithstanding, we are committed to ensuring that Aro News continues to make great impact in the development of Arochukwu. So in addition to playing advisory roles, including keeping regular columns; we shall place our priceless goodwill at the service of the new management. Coupled with the website-www.aronewsonline.com, we believe the community will surely be taken to higher heights.

Again, I remain grateful to our team which is drawn from diverse backgrounds within and outside Aro, including friends who are generally interested in literary works irrespective of their callings in life. Larger interest of service to humanity remains the unifying bond as there was no pecuniary benefit to their efforts because the outfit was run on not-for-profit basis. Like the earlier volumes, the current one is a collector’s item. It features major articles by various writers that were published in Aro News from January 2004 - December 2006. There were some mid-quarter editions also. So, we do not claim any originality in the ideas espoused except in the articles authored by us. They were edited to desired shape to meet the house standard and reader’s expectations. Our thanks therefore, go to all those who contributed articles during the period, thus qualified to get a mention in the historic text. We deliberately credited contributors with their bylines as they would be too many to acknowledge individually. However, I must not fail to appreciate the invaluable contributions of the editorial board whose sacrifices kept us in a good stead to contend with the challenges inherent in this endeavor. You make me proud.

Finally, as a historic bow-out beckons, I pray the Almighty to prosper and keep Aro in peace. To people genuinely concerned about our future roles, we are simply raising the stakes a notch higher via the web. So as we sign-off from this phase of service, we enlist your support for the current publishers of our community’s foremost quarterly, Aro News. May the wisdom of our forebears abide with you.Thank you and God bless you all.

                        Mazi Azubike Okoro

                        Founder/Pioneer Editor In-Chief

                        Abuja.

                        June, 2008

Preface

For over a century Aro history was deliberately suppressed, maligned and made to look obscure. In the darkness of this ensuing conundrum many versions and interpretations of Aro history emerged. For a people vibrant and versatile as ancient Aro who contributed immensely to the growth of the economy of the sub-region through commitment in produce buying and selling and such other sundry businesses, it would indeed be perilous to ignore such people and such history.

Arochukwu is very important. Aro was once great, so great that it once stood as an imperial power in the whole of the Eastern region and beyond. That history and that civilization shouldn’t be allowed to suffer misinterpretation especially by outsiders and pseudo-historians.

The authors through the book series present accounts of Aro history, not as perceived by outsiders or some commentators. After over a decade of non-stop coverage and reportage on Arochukwu; we now have, and it’s no mean achievement, the richest, largest and most authentic repository of materials on Arochukwu kingdom anywhere in the World. Aro now has its own recorded history, told and written by Aro citizens themselves, not foreigners. All the materials are uploaded on the internet making accessibility easier for anyone who desires to know the truth.

The book is divided into five parts, from Aro’s Golden Age, which captures historical origins, clears grey areas and deepens our understanding of Aro history and civilization, to issues bordering on sociological and political developments and challenges peculiar to most Third World economies. This edition promises to be a bumper reading experience.The 21st century offers wider opportunities for anyone who seeks knowledge or information to find it with ease.The rich resources which the Aronews Book Series offer is unlike anything that ever existed on Arochukwu in whatever format.This effort at pushing vital information about Arochukwu should be supported by all and sundry.The Arochukwu citizens all over the world have a duty to pull their hometown up from the doldrums it has fallen for centuries and place it on the trajectory of sustainable development.That is a duty that no free born of Aro must shy away from, and that has been our sole commitment in all these efforts for over a decade now. Happy reading.

Ben Ezumah

Abuja

Goodwill Message

When one reflects on the historical transition of Aro News from its ten years of periodic publications to www.aronewsonline.com, one cannot but recognize not only the natural pride of its founding editors as Umuaro, but also the intensity of their zeal and assiduity in propagating the resurgence of interest in Aro tradition and study of her history.

May I therefore congratulate this twosome team of her founding editors for a concept excellently conceived and a job welldone. One does not need to resort to subtle landmarks identified in their serial publications to recognize the excellence of their achievement. It is easy to attribute these landmarks to the deserved merits of our revered ancestors very much recognized in numerous excerpts from the reports of early European explorers, and later the British colonial officers and merchants referred to in Aro News publications.

Suffice it to say that to have effectively and efficiently sustained such a community publication for a period of ten years is a record achievement within any country, whether developed, developing or under-developed. The jewels on your crown are the three summary publications – PERSPECTIVES ON ARO HISTORY & CIVILIZATION, of which this is the third volume.

My dear editors, may I conclude this my congratulatory note by recalling that among the religious, the numbers three and ten are regarded as sacred. I simply wonder if there is but only a coincidence in your creating and piloting Aro News over this ten years period, which is interspersed with three crown jewel publications! I greet you and wish you well, and particularly more grease to your elbows as you merge into the world wide virtual publication.

                           Prof. Chris Aniche Okorafor

                           Enugu, June 16, 2008

List Of Contributors

                     Editorial Suite

                     Dr Azubike Okoro

                     Mazi Ben Ezumah

                     Mazi Emma Kanu Ivi

                     Prof. Chris Aniche Okorafor

                     Chinasa Kanu Ukpabi

                     Sunny Okoli

                     Mazi Ogbonnaya Irokwe

                     Mazi Emma Onyema

                     Nwamazi Emeka Aniche

                     Onyema Ogboh

                     Rev. Fr Benard E. Kalu

                     Dr Orji O Orji

                     Mazi J O Ogbonnia

                     Elder Jonathan N Orji

                     Mazi Ohiaerinwa Ogbonnaya Okoro

PART ONE

Aro Golden Age

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 reviewed in light of recent research 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 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 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 that of establishment of calendars with its 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 are 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 an 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. 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 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 Igbo persistent resistance to the direct trade by British trading firms 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 in the Niger Delta. 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 on 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 unexplanable."

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 the reassessment of the purpose, and functionality of the Ibn-Ukpabi within the context of Aro history. 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 Physical 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