The land of IKOT NSEKON BEFORE DR. FARRAR ARRIVED BY DA EFFIONG DANIEL AFRICAN HOLY LAND AKWA IBOM STATE NIGERIA

THE LANDBEFOR FARRAR’S ARRIVAL For you to know that the kingdom of God has come upon the land of Ikot Nsekong (Ubon Abasi Ibom) through Dr. Henry Farrar, an American medical doctor turned missionary, you need to know a brief history of the people of Abiakpo Ikot Abasi Inyang. They were people that didn’t know God. Even the place was at the backwaters of civilization. There was no reasonable amenity ranging from hospital, school, church, and good road network. There was no concrete building except thatch and mud houses scattering all over the land; and there was no industry or whatsoever. In this land Ikpaisong deity and its accessories like Ekang, Abasi Ekong, etc. held sway. ‘Abie-owo’ was one of the highest cults of the day. For one to be a considered brave (Owo Uko) as an Annang man, he must prove it by bringing ‘Ekaulara’ (a flesh human head). The priests would decorate him with red bead (ndo) on his right hand. This was a land that before they could go to war, they must mystically called on palm tree to come, and the palm tree would bend down, and they set trap with it as it was done for Ojukwu before the civil war. The first day of the week was Obo Market day – one of the biggest days in Annang set aside for the worship by Ekpenyong/Ekang cult. Ekpenyong market day was also recognized and honored just as we Christians do now on Sundays. Based on Ikpaisong tradition, people didn’t work or do any major thing on Obo Market days. Some would be in their shrine (Iso Ekpenyong). With over 50 deities worshipped by the people with different market days, Ikot Nsekong was spiritually defiled. Apart from being a place where excreta were littered about owing to lack of proper toilets, it was known to be a place of deep stench emanating from the remains of sacrificed animals. As a defiled land, the place was popularly known as Ikot Afid, meaning, place of excreta. People defecated in the bush recklessly. Just like Jerusalem, Ikot Nsekong (Ubon Abasi Ibom) was not originally called holy land. Jerusalem was the land where the Canaanites, Jebucites, etc. were dwelling (Exodus 23:20-24). Jerusalem today began with God’s promise that is why it was called the promise land, and it was given to Abraham. He obeyed God and from then the land which was not a holy land at the beginning, now become a holy land. When Abraham people entered there, according to Exodus 23:23-25, they were told to eject all the gods of the land, erase the name of their altars, and pull down every structure that represented other gods in the land. And now, we discover that it was the gods whom the natives worshipped that dirtied the land. After the cleansing, God took over the land which He covenanted to be a kingdom of priest and a center of a holy nation, Israel. Hence, people are trooping to visit Jerusalem which was a dirty land with several gods just like the land of Ikot Nsekong. My community was filthy with idols of different types. Almost all the families had native doctors or any form of charms and altar. A land where family gods were worshipped, God saw that the land was dirty; even the people called the place Ikot Afid because of the gods and the idols that fouled the place. In fact, it was a land of wickedness where men transformed to animals in order to destroy people’s crops in the farm. The evil nature of this community was noted by neighboring communities and even some swore to oaths never to give their daughters’ hand in marriage to any man from Ikot Nsekong of Abiakpo Ikot Abasi Inyang. In fact there was a popular adage that says “you cannot purposely sleep in Abiakpo unless it is either by circumstances like rain or nightfall”. As at that time, people wouldn’t come in the night or otherwise they would be killed. If you are a visitor and you sit on a chair without checking, they would give you Isim Ebot (pile). Men wouldn’t drink unless they are going out with their own cups for fear of being poisoned. The people of Ikot Nsekong, and by extension Abiakpo community, were known for wickedness with a proverb, “Abiakpo unam Abiakpo ke atan awot “.it is Abiakpo that have done the wickedness, it Abiakpo you go for solution”. A man could mystically transform himself to a woman and brought another man to be killed for meat. My family was known for war hence, it was called Ikot Nsekong. Men could turn to animals to attack another. They didn’t love school and anything that related to real God. About 90% of the people were native doctors; people that wanted to be wicked would go there to learn. If anything that would bring development comes, they would reject it. They loved their own ways and become masters of evil. The only people that were thought to be good were the priests called Mbong Ikpaisong and Mbia Idiong. The only set of people that were spared of evil attack were the grand-children, In-laws and occasionally strangers. Looking at such land, to me, it was worse than Nazareth whom Philip asked to know if anything good could come from it. This is the land that almost all the elders of the community were animal incarnates or human-animals. For instance, Essien Amamkpa was a lion who had been manifesting physically and people saw it. Abraham Essien and Nathaniel, Tommy Essiet were strongmen that can incarnates physically. Akpan Nana was one day seen as a big python variedly referred to as, esititiaba(seven heart) etc. these men were full of mystical powers of demons. Also, there was one man called Ukpong Anwa who was famous for displaying his powers openly. He would go to a river called Idim Udo Nwaknwo, walk on top of it well into the middle, and then sat down on top of the water and sew mats and spread them there. But a man who could walk on river and sat down on the surface of the water later died mysteriously. This was the type of land that needed remedy. It was full of idols, juju, and sacrifices, with shrines scattering everywhere; a land fill with divinities as captured in Isaiah 19:1-19 -31. Could this be the land of my birth which was a type of the biblical land of shadow of death? Certainly, it was a land of darkness, a typical African darkness of the highest degree, but the divinity of Christ is setting the land free. Considering the biblical report of 10 spies sent to the land of Canaan, the place was described thus: “land that eateth up the inhabitant thereof, and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. They are giants, the sons of Anaks which come of the giants, and we were in our own sight as grasshopper and so we were in their sight.” Because it was feared as “the land that eats up the inhabitants”, God said to Canaan in Ezekiel 36:13: “thus says the Lord God, because they say unto you thou land devourest up men and hast bereaved thy nation. Therefore, thou shalt devour men no more neither bereave they nations any more saith the Lord God.” As it is confirmed in the bible, the land of promised was “a land that eats up the inhabitants”. Yes this is easy to understand because the children of Israel didn’t yet go into it, but when they entered, they possessed it. At last, Israelites said: “For the people of the land, for they are bread for us… Their defense is departed from them and the Lord is with us, fear them not” (Numbers 14:9). This later report brought comfort to the people of Israel. The land of Ikot Nsekong which the Lord gave to us in Africa is like then Canaan - “the land that eats up inhabitant.” Based on my findings, there were men of great stature. Instances are abound – a man like Ukpong Ibanga, could hide in the bush for 7 weeks and came out more powerful. Umoren Ekut, who was the most powerful Juju man during the Biafra war, had set the trap using palm tree, making warriors to be appearing in sevens at a time while the real ones were with him at the shrine. He could make someone appears and disappears. What made Odumegwu Ojukwu strong for a time being was the power of Abasi Ekong Abiakpo. Amongst men of great stature was Essien Amamkpa who owned and controlled Ekpo Itiaba, the demon called the Seven Ghosts. It used to kill at instance of invocation. A man of great stature like Essien Nsekong, could singlehandedly, arrest thieves anywhere and kill them. This was a land in which almost all the men were native doctors, wizards, priests of Mbiam (African oaths) or Ndem (mermaid spirits). A land whose dwellers love Juju than school; a land of power shows, and what counts to them was show of might as a man. When you kill a fellow man, and bring the head, you would be rated high with an award of Ndo in your right hand – you become Owo Uko, or Abiaowo (powerful men). Here, men would manifest physically as lions, pythons, dogs, bush pig; also taking the forms of birds like hawk and vultures, causing trouble with one another so that they would fear them. It was the land of unprecedented wickedness which the nearby villages put injunction not to allow their daughters get married here. This was similar to how God told the Israelites not to marry the Canaanites whose land they dwelt. A land you don’t go in the night; a land you don’t drink with general cup except you are with your own cup; a land that a man would turn to a woman and then took a man home to the house where he would be hospitably received, but unknown to the victim, he was sitting on a covered pit and when he fall inside it, he would be killed for meat; a land that eats up people; a land that a man would open his buttocks and bees would come out and bites his enemy; a land that a man like Ekpenyong Umomah will make strong men of another village blind till he brought them to his house and open back their eyes; a land that had a special portion that women don’t enter or pass through it; a land that had different kinds of sickness in store for people, waiting to be released at a slightest provocation. As the Promised Land was initially portrayed as the land that eats up the inhabitant, such description also fit well on our land. What the powerful men brought and kept in the land ended up eating the people. The Lord, in his mercies, sent men to come to this land saying, “As I was with Israel so will I be with you in this land.” Since I came to this land and searched all part of the land as grace is given me, I found out that, as it was with the people of Israel so it is with the people of the land. The primarily attempt to Christianize the land came in the early 1920s when the founder of Qua Ibo Mission commissioned Pa Nelson, as he was fondly called, to bring Gospel of Christ to our land. He had tried several times using several means and methods to penetrate but could not succeed. The land of Ikot Nsekong which was nicknamed, Ikot Afid, in Ikot Abia Clan supposed to be the anchor point for the revival, but the natives rejected such move. The land became abode of idols and it was one of the most dreaded places in Annang land. From 1920 through 1940, Pa Nelson had come into the land, trying to penetrate Ikot Nsekong with the gospel of Lord Jesus Christ, but he was bluntly rejected. He tried to explain the need for them to accept Jesus Christ and reject their Juju and evil ways of life. Pa Nelson later succeeded in starting Qua Iboe Mission at Chief Umo Udotong’s compound who was the British government’s representative in the village before the chief allocated a piece of land for the school and the church in the village. Udotong’s compound had a big hall which was divided into two: that is, one for school and one for the church. When the man of God, Pa Nelson, tried to convinced the people to keep only Sunday for God and stop the traditional Obo market day observation which didn’t permit anyone to work on the farm that day. The Ikot Nsekong people insisted that the day serves as their sacred day for the Ekang cult and must be respected just as Sunday was revered. Since Pa Nelson didn’t want to have trouble with the natives, he consented to them. On those two days: Sunday and Obo market day, young men would be blocking the roads so that nobody would pass. It was so strict that one day, the first British representative of the clan, Chief Umo Udotong, was seen setting fire in a small portion of farm he cleared at Anwa Obo. His act drew the ire of the people. Ikot Nsekong mobilized the youth, fined him, and killed his big sheep. He paid a price for trying to do a work on that day even as a British representative of the community. The people of Ikot Nsekong who owned Ekang cult brought great trouble for Chief Umo Udotong for working on Obo market day. Pa Nelson was a no-nonsense man. For example, when he heard that a healing home was attached to the church, he came and set it ablaze. It was reported everywhere in the community that the white has set fire on the structure. He was so preoccupied with the Lord’s house yet he never touched Ikpaisong. Yes, he established the Qua Iboe Church and the school but could not go beyond that to penetrate the land. All that was reported about Pa Nelson concerning the land is his own concluded opinion about the people of Ikot Nsekong. Nelson described them thus: “they loved old, old things; they are back, back people… a people who don’t even respect God or their king… Not a forward people.” I was given this hint when I interviewed late Ime Eyara, who was a former choirmaster in Qua Iboe Mission then, before joining the Church of Christ. Eyara further revealed Nelson’s remarks during their conversations about the people, and quoted him thus: your people don’t want God to come into their land because they don’t want to leave their Juju. They loved darkness rather than light. Your people don’t love education; they love wickedness and their show of satanic power to prove their manhood. They are strong men that others are afraid of. They preserved and respected their juju more than God.” Ime Eyara disclosed that Pa Nelson had warned him thus: “The people that love selling people during slave trade – my son be careful of your people, they don’t love or appreciate good thing.” Coming from an eyewitness who dwelled in the village at the time, it was a clear confirmation that this land actually rejected God’s messenger and affirmed their love for their old traditions and customs that opposed the word of God. According to Late Ime Eyara, Pa Nelson had prayed fervently for the emergence of people that would bring change to the community. He quoted Nelson in his prayers as saying: “Lord raise a people in this land that will love you and your word.” Again, Eyara quoted Nelson’s prophesy that came on another day thus: “God will raise a generation in this land that will not love old things; these back, back things as their fathers’ did. And this land will be for the Lord’s.” In the fullness of time, God sent another man, a medical Doctor, to a land of native doctors who never believed in God’s word. God’s answer to Pa Nelson’s prayers brought Dr. Henry Farrar from the United State of America to the land. My grandfather, Ukpong Ibanga family, was the anchor man that brought the white man to Ikot Nsekong for revival.