ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY IN ABIAKPO IKOT ABASI INYANG 1920-2020 By DA EFFIONG DANIEL AFRICAN HOLY LAND AKWA IBOM STATE NIGERIA

THE CENTENARY OF CHRISTIANITY IN ABIAKPO IKOT ABASI INYANG (1920 – 2020) THE LAND BEFORE THE MISSIONARIES ARRIVED It would be hard to fully understand us when we say by the leadership of God’s Spirit, that the kingdom of God has come upon the land of Abiakpo Ikot Abasi Inyang village, except you are taken through a brief historical background of the people of the said village. The reference made of Abiakpo Ikot Abasi Inyang today as a land dedicated to the God of heaven is not the reference made of it some years back. A number of events transpired that has ushered the village out of the dark days of unrighteousness into this present day of light. This paper seeks to talk briefly about the dark era and how God led us out of it by His marvelous light. Read, learn and enjoy. The Dark Era The people of Abiakpo Ikot Abasi Inyang were a backward people who did not know God. Civilization was far from them. They could not boast of any reasonable amenity. There was no hospital, no school, there was no church, and good road network. There was no concrete building except thatch and mud houses scattered all over the land; and there was no industry and no large scale commerce. 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. And no one was considered a brave and successful Annang man (OwoUko) if he did not prove his worth by bringing ‘Ekaubara’ (a fresh human head) before the juju Priests. When anyone brought “Ekaubara” before the juju priests, he is decorated with red bead (ndo) on his right hand to proof the extent of his success. History has it that the land shed blood the of an innocent twin children and that of their Ngwa neighbors at Adawa during intertribal war by killing and cutting their ears and pinning them together with three bamboo branches and brought them home celebrating. Before this land went to war, they would perform dark magic and would mystically call on palm tree to come, and the palm tree would bend in obedience to their incantations; and they would set trap with the bent palm tree, just the same way 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 of their deity by the Ekpenyong/Ekang cult. Ekpenyong market day was also recognized and honored just as we Christians set aside Sundays for the worship of our God. By the Ikpaisong tradition, people were forbidden from working or doing any major thing on the Obo Market days. It was a taboo to desecrate the Obo Market days. The punishment for desecrating it was enormous and unbearable. On these days, a number of persons were in their shrines (Iso Ekpenyong) consulting their gods. In this land over 50 prominent deities were worshipped by the people on 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 also known to be a place of strong stench emanating from the remains of sacrificed animals. As a defiled land, the place was popularly known as “Ikot Afid”, meaning: “the place of excreta”. People defecated in the bush recklessly. Just like Jerusalem was not originally known to be a holy land, Ikot Nsekong was not originally called “Ubon Abasi” (God’d People). Jerusalem was the land where the Canaanites, Jebucites, etc. were dwelling (Exodus 23:20-24). Jerusalem is today known as promised land because it was a land promised to the Israelites even when it was inhabited at the time by idolaters. The land was given to Abraham pursuant to God’s promise. Abraham obeyed God and as a consequence thereof God designated the land as a holy land. Please note that Jerusalem was not a Holy place from the beginning. It was when God commanded the Israelites to enter into the land and eject the idolaters and their idols (gods) from the land (Exodus 23:23-25); to erase all the names of their altars, and pull down every structure that represented other gods in the land, that the land was made pure and holy unto God and thus designated “the holy land”. Now it is easy to observe that it was the idols the dwellers worshipped that desecrated/dirtied the Jerusalem. 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 hitherto a dirty land with several gods just like the land of Abiakpo Ikot Nsekong. My community was filthy with idols of different types. Almost all the families had native doctors (juju priest) or any form of charms and altars of dark magic. It was a land where family gods were worshipped. They had no regard for the God of heaven. God saw that the land was filthy and was even referred to as “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 known to neighboring communities and even some swore on oath 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 made of the land that: “you cannot purposely sleep in Abiakpo unless it is either by circumstances like rain or nightfall” because of the evil it was known for and associated with. As at that time, visitors would not come in to the village in the night for fear of being killed. Men would not drink with others except they are doing so 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 popular proverb: “Abiakpo unam Abiakpo ke atang awōt“ meaning: “it is Abiakpo that have caused you problems/pains, and it is Abiakpo that you have gone for solution”. The village was known for everything evil. It was known for unrest and war which is why it was named Abiakpo Ikot Nsekong. Men could turn to animals to attack another. They did not love embrace western education; they abhorred anything that had to do with God. About 90% of the people were native doctors, practicing dark magic. People who wanted to learn and master the art of wickedness/witchcraft came to Abiakpo Ikot Nsekong. The people rejected and opposed any developmental project coming into the village. 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. Each time I took my mind to the wickedness perpetrated in the village then and the fact that all sparks and appearance of good was always quickly put out before its maturity, it became clearer to me why Philip wondered if anything could come out of Nazareth. The situation of Abiakpo was worse than situation of Nazareth that got Philip bothered. There was no hope, no excitement, only deaths, pains and all round darkness. This is the land where almost all the elders of the community were animal incarnates or human-animals. For instance, men were manifesting physically like a lion and people saw it. They were strongmen that could physically turn into big pythons variedly referred to as, esititiaba and the likes. These men were full of mystical and demonuc powers. 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 would sit on top of the water to sew mats; and when was done, he would spread them there. But this man who could walk on and sit on the surface of the water later died mysteriously. This land was very sick. It was full of idols, juju, and sacrifices, with shrines scattered everywhere; a land filled with divinities as captured in Isaiah 19:1-19 -31. It was a land likened to the biblical land of the shadow of death? Certainly, it was a land of darkness, a typical African darkness of the highest degree. This land needed help; it needed heavenly intervention and it needed it urgently. Thankfully, the light of the gospel of Christ is penetrating the nooks and crannies thereof and is setting men free from the bondage of sin. 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 and mentioned earlier in this work, the land of promise was “a land that eats up the inhabitants”. Yes this is easy to understand because God’s people-the Israelites had not yet gone into possess it. But when they eventually entered upon and possessed it, the story changed. They had this to say 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). Please quickly note that a land which was eating up its dwellers became a place of comfort immediately God’s people entered upon it. The later report brought comfort to the people of Israel. The land of Abiakpo Ikot Abasi Inyang which the Lord gave to us in Africa was like the Biblical Canaan - “the land that eats up its inhabitant.” Based on my findings, there were men of great stature and examples 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 priest during the Biafran 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 appear and disappear. What made Odumegwu Ojukwu very powerful and strong was the power of Abasi Ekong Abiakpo (God of war). Amongst men of great stature was EssienAmamkpa who owned and controlled EkpoItiaba (the demon called the Seven Ghosts). It used to kill at instance of invocation. A man of great stature like Essien Nsekong had tremendous powers and could singlehandedly arrest thieves anywhere and kill them. Abiakpo 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 loved and worship idols but abhorred education; a land of power-show, and what counted to them was show of might to prove their worth as men. In this land, when a man killed a fellow man, and brought the head to the priests, he is rated highly and awarded with the prestigious award of “Ndo” on his right hand, certifying him as “Owo Uko”, or “Abia owo” (powerful man). Here, men would manifest physically as lions, pythons, dogs, bush pigs; also taking the forms of birds like hawk and vultures, causing trouble with one another so that they are feared by fellow men. As the Promised Land was initially a land that ate up its inhabitants, Abiakpo was such a land. The diabolic things the “powerful men” brought into the land ended up eating up its 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. When God saw all these woes that befell the land, He sent help and led missionaries to the land of Abiakpo ikot Abasi Inyang to lead men to Christ for salvation. Penetration of the Gospel The first and primarily attempt to Christianize the land came in the early 1920s when the founder of Qua Ibo Mission, Samuel Alexander Bill commissioned Pa Nelson (Etubom Nelson, as he was fondly called), to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to our land as the first missionary to the land. Bill had tried severally using several means and methods to penetrate but could not succeed. This was because then, the people said the power which accompanied the missionaries was too much that it caused calamities to their deities. The people said the missionaries brought strange power which opposed the authority of their idols in the land. They fought and blackmailed the missionaries out of the land. We came to understand that those missionaries brought the kingdom of God which is power, but the people in their usual character fought and opposed them. The land ofAbiakpo Ikot Abasi Inyang which was nicknamed, “Ikot Afid”, in Ikot Abia Clan is supposed to be the anchor point for the global revival. During the Nigerian civil war, this land hosted world council of churches several times, yet cannot boast of any globally recognized man of God. And now Jesus Christ is saying to us: “I have returned to you. Will you accept to be used for the global revival?” the choice is ours to make. Christ came into Abiakpo Ikot Abasi Inyang through the instrumentality of the missionaries one hundred years ago. From 1920 through 1940, Pa Nelson had come into the land, trying to penetrate Ikot Nsekong with the gospel of our 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 but was rebuffed. Pa Nelson however later succeeded in starting Qua Iboe Mission in the village, particularly at the compound of Chief Umo Udotong who was the British government’s representative in the village. Udotong’s compound had a big hall which was divided into two sections. The first section was for Qua Iboe school and the other section was for the church. The church and school activities held in this hall until Chief udotong, as some point, allocated a piece of land in the village to Pa Nelson to build a school and church hall. 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 day no one was permitted to work on the farm, 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 reserved for church. Since Pa Nelson did not 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 man had 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 as the people were still practicing their idolatry. All that Pa Nelson reported concerning the land is his own concluded opinion about the people of Abiakpo Ikot Abasi Inyang. Nelson described them thus: “they love old, old things; they are back, back people… a people who do not 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. Evangelists Eyara further revealed Nelson’s remarks during their conversations about the people, and quoted him as saying the following to him: “your people do not want God to come into their land because they do not want to leave their idols. They love 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 the true God.” ImeEyara disclosed that Pa Nelson had warned him in the following words: “The people that love selling people during slave trade – my son be careful of your people, they don’t love or appreciate good things.” 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 the message of Christ that they brought, 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 the things of old; who will abandon the evil ways of their fathers; who will claim this land for the Lord.” 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 States of America to the land through Mr. Udo Ekong Ukpong. Mr Ukpong was the anchor man who facilitated the coming of the white man to Abiakpo Ikot Abasi Inyang for revival through the church of Christ. The man of God Dr Henry Farrar spoke to Ikpaisong and it exploded like gunshot and the people exclaimed,the Whiteman have gunshot our gods dead. Since that time in July 1964 till now Ikpaisong and its accessories dieties are dead. More so through him with the Help of Chief Marcus Udo Nsekong stopped Obo market law and now the village is serving God on Sunday and Obo market law for services of Ekpenyong and Ekang cult are dead. Evangelist Ime Eyara, while speaking to me personally had this to say of what God is doing in the land through us: “What you are doing now in the land is a fulfillment of prophecies. Pa Nelson saw God raising a new generation that will come out of the land and reject the old ways. And this supports the vision Elder Ephraim saw of a new generation that will use God’s word to form a new earth and the old earth shall pass away”. We do not attribute what God is doing in the land to our might. It is the desire of God to cause a turn around in the lives of the inhabitants of Abiakpo Ikot Abasi Inyang and we are just blessed to be chosen by God as instruments to bring His will to pass in our land. We give all glory to God. Therefore let the people of Abiakpo Ikot Abasi Inyang know that there is hope for the church and school in the land. My earnest hope is that the eyes and hearts of the people will be opened to accept the true revival that God has brought upon the land through Christ’s gospel, amen. Your brother and friend Da Effiong Daniel Altar of virgin generation ministry@ African holyland