WHAT IS OBOT EMANA

 

Dr Farrar and Cultural changes in Africa

By Da Effiong Daniel

 African holy land.

 

Being a position paper on Dr Henry Chair Farrar of the Church of Christ missionary  activities and cultural change in Africa.

 

The word of God settled in heaven with absolute final authority and is irrevocable.Hence Jesus said,"the scripture cannot be broken".
Therefore, "Thou shall not kill"(Exo.20:13) can't be debated or broken or abrogated  . More so  when the elders of the land of Israel,(the priests) in the days of Jesus Christ queried the disciples on" disobedient to the tradition of the elders".

Jesus Christ also queried  them about the commandment of God.
"Why do you also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?”( Matt.15:3)

You can now see two commands  or laws at  work  not only in Africa but global .The commandment of God and the tradition of the elders for us to choose.The choice is our for God will not force his choice on us.

In Peter days (Act 5 ) as an apostle of Jesus Christ ,he choose to obey the word of God than the word of men.(elder) whom Jesus Christ detested.

Here in Africa,the traditions of the people were the highest laws of the land and were  obeyed  more than the commandments of God.In the fullness of time,God who created all send missionaries in to Africa with the word of God which was against  some of the traditions of the elders of the land(traditional practices ).
"I want to believe that, in the hearts of the missionaries( God messengers,to Africa) these scriptures' "Thou shall not kill” and Why do you also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?  were ringing always when they saw the people killings the twins to satisfy or appeased their traditions or gods.
It was a known fact that,In cultures and the traditions of the people of Efik, Annang and Ibibio, the deity Ikpaisong(the Earth Mother god)is the highest deity whose shrine scattered throughout all the land. This deity Ikpaisong was responsible for the killings of twins and ostracized their mothers within the cultural area.
Lots of souls were carted out of this earth because of the killing of twins - a sacrilege to divinely accepted order or God order "thou shall not kill" which the UN has adopted as" right to life". Aside from the killing of twins, Ikpaisong has destroyed the fortunes of Africa and leach her greatness and glory into doom. It has one most prominent destructive for to the Afro mythology. It killed more than any other deity in Africa, especially in the axis of Annang/Ibibio/Efik publicly and secretly(think about the killed twins and others) When Ikpaisong killed a man or woman, their corpses and property were taken to the shrine as Ikpaisong property forever. They will be there rotten; it was the rottenest place in the land of Africa with so many unburied corpses and property.Ikpaisong was also called. "ndem Isong or abasi Isong"  by some people with edet market day for worship or as the communities decided.It also claimed certain death when someone died on the traditional edet market day.Hence until now some people especially the traditionalists/some Christians in the Efik,Ibibio and Annang cultural area greatest  prayers to God is may I not die on edet market/Ikpaisong worship day that I may not be taken as bad death.More so,The deity Ikpaisong had some sacred animals or food that must not be eaten by the people of that particular village.like that of the one Dr Farrar destroyed,the animals is tortoise."you don't bring tortoise into the village or eat it.if you eat you will swell and died. But I brought it into the village and pray and nobody died.I met one boy who said he eats  it in Warri

In the past ,If certified that Ikpaisong killed,whatever things in the compound or house was declared abominable,no one can enter there to take anything,be it fruits or property and none participate in the burial but only grandchildren according to Ikpaisong tradition/cultural laws used a particular ropes in the bush to tied the corpses and drawn to the shrine with much sacrifices else they may be killed by the deity Ikpaisong.Each Ikpaisong had official  priest,messengers and others in charge of the gods of the land according to lineage chosen by the deity itself.you don't take up the office but according the lineage.
Culturally, this deity had priests who in the past were kings of the land called" mbong Ikpaisong" in pre colonial times
During  the colonial times  ,they was a' cultural shift" from the traditional  "mbong Ikpaisong" government to the British Indirect rule -chieftaincy' (Mbong Isong) government   .
This" cultural shift"  from England has reduced the power of "mbong Ikpaisong"(  the priests of the god of the land) and lifted up the newly created  office of mbong Isong( Chief)  that favor  the Britain Indirect rule.
Now the" cultural shift" brought about  cultural war between the foreign government and the Trado-cultural. It becomes two offices, the office of the Obong Ikpaisong became silent and gradually extinct after 1964 gospel blow from the church of Christ, and the office of Obong Isong (chief) became prominent with entitlement. Hence people wanted to go for the British government indirect rule because of the incentives attached to chieftaincy.more so it is cleaner than the mbong Ikpaisong which made their priests dirty and smelling with blood of animals always and at the smelling shrine.Which the Obong Ikpaisong stayed in the palace . This made the British government indirectly took over the government of area using indirect war   they created between Obong Ikpaisong and obong Isong.
The Obong Ikpaisong handled the ritual/rulership of the village in pre-colonial era.They kept dual offices of the priest and king of the village. The colonialists    brought division viz: Obong   Ikpaisong and ObongIsong. Now they made  the obong Ikpaisong , a ritualists and obong Isong for administrative purposes of the village because they were not presentable but very dirty.
In the Efik, Ibibio and Annang land, the deity Ikpaisong was a common deity responsible for the rejection and killings of the twins and their mothers which the Obong Ikpaisong and the chief were traditionally/culturally subject to.
When Mary Slessor came  they was a cultural war , but with God intervention, she finds favorwith some kings in Efik and Ibibio under the paramount chief called the Obong of Calabar who was the most senior representative of the Ikpaisong of the whole Cross River State of the South-Eastern Nigeria which   Ikpaisong Abiakpo Ikot Nsekong  in Annang  that exploded as Dr. Farrar preached  was under the jurisdiction.
Mary  Slessor collected those twins and cared for them. When the people saw that those twins were not evil as they thought they started changing their beliefs about the twins and their mothers as she preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to them. She was not  able to destroy the deity, but was able to save them by negotiating their deliverance/ redemption in the Efik/Ibibio speaking areas and was very nice to the chiefs by giving them biscuits,milk,tin fish,soup,perfumes and other foreign provisions( things that were not commonly used or seen in the area)
When Dr Henry Farrar came into Africa 1964,he didn't go to Efik and Ibibio speaking people of the then Cross River Basin  where  Mary Slessor spent her life but to the Annang and Ngwa  speaking people in the  same south eastern states .  Dr. Farrar  started with the Annang and the Ngwa people  as he encountered directly and personally Ikpaisong: the deity responsible for the killings of the twins in Annang/ Efik /Ibibio of the SouthEasternStates.
Eyewitness oral  history has it that, in July  1964 at Abiakpo Ikot Abasi Inyang,Dr. Farrar encountered the twins loathed deity called Ikpaisong at its shrine in the very presence of the priests and messengers and  it exploded like gunshot and the people said" the white man has gunshot our gods  dead"confirming the word of God " creations itself is groaning  waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God as happened that day at Ikpaisong shrine.
The reaction of the people brought the attention of the paramount chief in the South Eastern States  Chief Marcus Nsekong Abiakpo Ikot Abasi Inyang who  was also the village  chief and a clan head of  Ikot Abia clan under the government of the obong of  Calabar in the  then south eastern states of Nigeria.
When Dr.Henry  Farrar finished with the Chief Marcus Udo Nsekong, he ordered    him to be baptized at Ikot Abia  river as one of the first baptized clan head in the then SouthEasternStates.
While he ministered to the highest Chief Marcus Nsekong, he explained the reason for worshiping God only on Sunday and that the obo market law  must be abrogated.
More so, through him(Chief Marcus Nsekong) a law that binds everyone in Efik, Ibibio and Annang people to Ekpenyong worship on obo market day  were changed or abrogated. A law that Ete Nelson of the Qua Ibo Mission tried but the Ikot Nsekong people resisted and warned him even when the British government representative, Chief Umo Udo Otong in 1920  disobeyed by doing a little work on his farm outside his compound the people went and killed his sheep for breaking obo market day law.  If they can do this to a government representative for breaking the law, what about the common people. This British representative brought Pa Nelson and the Qua Ibo mission to the village at about 1918/19 but fully established church and school in 1920 at his compound.Yet the people valued  Ekpenyong day of worship(Obo market day) more than a day for worshiping God which was Sunday, but God used Dr Henry Farrar of the United states of America,from the church of Christ got breakthrough in these are as of ministry until now Ikpaisong and Obo market law died and only Sunday became a day of worship for God in Africa.He also   stopped  some traditional medical practices like  every first born son eat fowl for headache,etc.(Dr Farrar and traditional medical change in Africa.)and  others.Now Christ reigns and some of those cultural practices gone.
Praise the lord

 

 

*************** *****Da Effiong Daniel is a minister of the gospel and a sociologist /anthropologist.He writes from African Holy Land, Abiakpo Ubon Abasi Ibom, Obot Akara, Akwa Ibom State Nigeria.