AFRICANS FEARED THE DEAD AND THEIR DIVINITIES MORE THAN THE LIVING GOD;A case of Annang kings and the people
By Da Effiong Daniel
Look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none beside me ,I have sworn by myself ,the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness , and shall not return ,that unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear Isa.45;22-23
According to the research report from what we called “Jesus University” in African holy land Obot Akara Akwa Ibom State Nigeria.
In Annang one of the ethnic group in Africa, almost all villages and their kings are controlled by the ghosts of their dead kings, elders of the land and others divinities rather than God.
Looking at their practical daily life, you will agree with me that they only say about God in their mouth but work tirelessly for their ghosts and divinities in their hearts and in their doings. Practically almost always their lives are directed by the spirits of their departed ancestors and divinities and not God the Creator hence this proverb exposed their hearts.If ghosts of the departed ancestors and your living in-laws invites you for a work in the farm at the same time ,which one would you go? Their answers is ghosts of the departed ancestors. They love their dead ancestors than their living inlaws.
What are their fears?
They said, If you don’t do those things you will die prematurely. The people that hated you may invoked the ghosts or the spirits of the departed for you and they will kill you before your time. We can see that the fear of being killed by the Spirit of their dead ancestors and divinities are the things that make them fear the dead and their divinities than God, the Creator of the heaven and the earth whose live and dead are in his hands.
It is true here to say that the power of the grave is the power that rules and controls the land and the people hence there used to officially consult or invoke the spirit of the departed at the very beginning of every meetings at the village square or in everything thing they do.It is part and parcel of their life,it is hard to separate them from the power of the graves of their departed or their respective divinities that comes with their market days.
According to an eyewitness, “My father was the custodian of the graves of the land ,the invoker of the the spirits of the departed through prayers at the village council. Every time they have meetings at the village council hall, he will be the one appointed to pray and some Christians will be there, Even though others are around we must wait for the chief to come before the prayers, then my father and others following will go outside the hall of the meeting, with a bottle of kaikai i.e. hot drink (gin) in his arm and a small kaikai cup hold at his right hand. He begins with using his left hand and pouring the gin into the small gin cup in his right hand. He began with inviting those he called" those that cleared the forest of the land. The founding fathers first and mention their names, one after the other and by superiority. He first mentions the good ones, those he called the good ghosts who are the guiding ghost of the land and poured the drink on the ground for them to come and drink. He will afterward mentioning the names of the leaders by rank and gave them the drink, he also before mentioning the ghosts of good women and others in the land. When he prayed, he will be looking up and down and mention the evil men(the evil spirit) in the land that died and gave them the drink with his left hand. If he forget names, some of the elders with him would remind him those names he has not mentioned and he will mention them and gave drinks.
Finally, he generalized the prayer to all the ghosts by inviting them both great and small men and women, good and bad should come and take their own drink. He then poured the drink on the ground saying, ndoho kiet Nyak kiet, I don't give to one and forgo the other.
Afterward he took the cup and filled the drink till some poured on the ground and took the drink as last person. when he finished drinking he will exclaim with a loud voice and say (Ahe!) the people will immediately stand attention say “Ete omonyong” the is to say you are welcome back, the exclamations ahe! !,( this is a living sound that proved that he has come back alive or successfully before going into the hall and as the man comes in to the hall, the people would be very happy because he has come back successfully. "
One day I asked him where did you go that the people welcome you back? Not a small place. to the world of the death, I asked him how did you know all the names of the death people in the village that you have mentioned?, he said I know because I am the custodian of the (Ikpaisong) the earthgodess of the people, the spirit of the land is with me according to the tradition of the people. I asked why did you do this before you start any meeting in the village? He said like the church did opening prayers and call upon God to take over the business of the day so did we call upon or invoke the spirit of the founding fathers of the land and former leaders for their help because they were here before us we believe that their ears are opened to us and that what we would do for the day will be successfully.More so the ghosts would not caused trouble in the village or to anyone if we recognize and give them drink first. Do you see what the Priests or the Custodians of the traditions of Africans are doing? Praying to ghosts and divinities that are not God that created them first to help them in controlling the villages.
From what we have seen above, who lead them in all their activities? it is the spirit of the departed power of the grave, and the power of darkness and Satan using them and leading them in all their activities. It is proving that what controls kings and leaders of the village in Africa are the ghosts of the ancestors or the spirit of the death, hence they never joke with the graves of their departed Kings and Dignitaries
The substitution /replacement by the Roman catholic church.
The idea of Substitution/replacement which the catholic church practices is global.Anywhere they went that is what they do ,substitute /replace what you came with what is going on there. Give them what you come with and educate them and make them believe that what you brought from oversea is superior to what they have here.
When they went to Israel ,they substitutes /replace Israel and say Israel is the church that is against psalm83,which some people came together that the name of Israel may no more be remembered.so that when they took over the bible names and replaced with their Roman gods.take the queen of heaven whom they worship and substitute with Mary the mother of Jesus Christ.
When the Roman Church came in they saw a fertile ground and platform for operation in a Christian way in Africa as the British counterpart used indirect rule in the political way. In fact they mixed up amalgamation with indirect rule, in the sense that the moment you became a catholic ,they give you a roman names, doctrine, and language, then it was Latin ,whether you know it or not they made you believe Latin is the language of God hence you must speak it for their God to answer your prayers.
How will they removed the fear of God in Africa and give them the fear of Satan in a Christian way knowing that the people had the fear of God, the fear of the most high God made African turned to intermediary and the worshipped of ancestors believing that they are nearer to God because they are spirit .when the Catholics saw this, they use them indirectly and in religious way i.e. Using the Roman graves of the departed substituting/replacing their dead and idols for our African deads/idols ,bringing their queen of heaven and replace our earthgodess, and others hence controlling the people and the land with their inventions.
They made the people to believe that the ghosts of the people of Africa are not holy enough to be intermediary between the people and the most high God but their ghosts, the foreign ghosts whom they called holy or saints. Therefore they gave the names of their dead from Rome whom they certify as holy or saints to Africans replacing their original names which comes with their destinies. If you were called Eno Obong (God gift ) which is symbolic,they would give you a name like Lucia which has no meaning to the people. Since Africans invokes the names of their death ancestors in prayers, the catholic used that as a platform , saying their death ancestors are not holy but theirs are holy as a means of gaining control over Africans' knowing that they have special attachment their dead ancestors and their lives is connected world of spirit and dead .The people now were indoctrinated not to pray or invoke the name of God because they are not qualified but can only invoke the names certify by the catholic church as saints to pray for them while you relax i.e. saint so and so pray for me .they were taught not pray using the names of the ancestors again for they are evil and not certify saints for their ancestors are not holy enough to stand before a Holy God and those intercede for them . This is indirect rule in the religious way ,capitalize on their ignorant to control the spiritual transactions in the land of Africa. They are so smart in exchanging their Roman ghosts for African ghosts, knowing that it is customary for Africans to names their children after their ancestors i.e. If your forefather was considered a good man when a child is born they name the new child after the dead father or mother.If he was called Etim ,whatever you gave,they will say this child is my forefather .seeing this in Africa, They gave their ghosts ; their death people whom African people never know neither do the ghosts knew the people, for them to ask , saint so and so pray for me" and make the people slaves to foreign ghosts and prayers making God angry the more with the people for sacrificing to the deadDeut.32;17-23.
According to one village chief during interview, he said" there is no difference except, the white people ghosts and our black ghosts' but all ghosts are ghosts whether blacks or whites but the little difference is that we pray to our ghosts to help us, protect and bless us but they told us to ask their ghosts, which they made us believe were holy to pray for us. It looked to us that we don't know how to pray again or our ghosts would not answer us again except their ghosts pray to God for us. That is why we are thought how to tell the Roman ghosts, which they say are holy and standing before God to pray for us.
In Africa,we never mixed God and the ghosts of our ancestors .we believe that the most high God is not to be disturbed but our good ghosts which we believe to be angel of the family or to the people.Hence we say" eti Ekpo ede angel ono mme andinyene enye" holy ghosts are angel to thier owner, .Note that what they called holy ghost is the Eti Ekpo,that is the good man that died is a good ghost or holy ghost to the people. our tradition, we never mixed God with our ghosts, for we never told our ghosts to pray for us but we pray to our ghosts not to God but they mixed up ghosts with God, and teach us how to tell their ghosts to pray to God for us, hence there is confusion and they made us believe that they came to us with the holy ghost and our ghosts are unholy ghosts and evil .
According to another person, before they came to our land, we have been worshiping our ghosts with drinks and fowls,goats and cows for those that have hands but the poured only gins or cola can do but now, we are thought in church how to serve God with foreign ghosts names what is the difference? foreign and native, good and bad, white and black the ghosts are now brought into the church in a white peoples name because they were the one that brought the church to us. They came to us with their own ghosts which they called Holy Ghost but when I checked the bible the Holy Ghost didn't come with the name of the dead people as our own. More so, the dead were not invoked by the men of God in the bible but by the mediums/wizards which God condemns with dead penalty ,that was why the king of Israel ,Saul when he knew that God has left and hides his face from him, he went secretly to Endor and seek for medium to invoke the dead for him.
If it were to be now, the medium,/wizards would have said, Saint Samuel, the priest of God, a holy man of God, pray for king Saul. What was the result of Saul seeking medium/wizards to invoke the dead. Why do you trouble me? Today, you and your family will die and it was so, let us reason, how many of the white ghosts names brought to our land equals Samuel but he didn't pray for king Saul instead announce his dead. Can it be that they want the dead of Africans, or wants God to turn his face away from us? To me there has no good intentions in giving their ghosts to Africans instead of giving them Christ. If they were coming in the name of Christians, they would have given Africans Christ and nothing else but they give us the names of their ghosts as guiding angels.
When the whites know that we are not happy because the ghosts our ancestors are not recognize.
The whites have marginalized our ghosts, they got a day for our ghosts to be prayed for or worshipped in their own way yet we pay them to pray for our dead kings, leader and people every time or year. ,But they never pay us for abandoning our ghosts and asking their ghosts to pray for us. As one said, our dead ones are marginalized, since the white brought their ghosts, they make us invokes in prayers the white ghosts every day and everywhere more than our ghosts.
And they make us believe that in the church, if you called on or pray with the name of the your death people it is evil, but if you want to do so write the names of the death people in your family for us to pray for you with payments attach to each name you wrote; because you have no right again to pray using the names of your ancestors except in secret.
While researching a confirming case came when a village head sue a young man at the Clan head palace for a land that he claimed was his own land.when the young man was told to bring witness,he brought out his living witness but when the village head was told to bring witness,he "my witnesses are here in this palace I came all the ghosts as my witness’ .One of the chiefs ask him, can they answer questions? He became very angry with him.Do you see village head going to the palace of the clan head with ghosts as witness.someone asked again when you judge cases in your palace do you demand for witness from the dead or living ? And if they bring the dead’s as you do what would you say? He was speechless and angry because they refused all his ghosts as witness in the case hence he lost the case. Do you see a village chief whose ghosts have eaten his head. One day in a village general meeting he said , "I belonged to the highest cult ,It was the pope that gave me the cap. Someone asked? Is Pope God? Ok the reason is that the pope control ghosts and has given you cap to control graves here and you boasted. Another asked when did he go to pope for the cap? Let him tell us the truth, this man have misled the village.
Here the Bible condemns such practices; according to Deut. 32:17-25, but they sacrifice to the death and forget God that created them. And God become angry and say I would hide my face from them. Do you see? When God hide face from people, what do you think would happened, which face would they see? I believe they would see the face of the ghosts, the face of their death fathers and mothers, which some people may put in their house and called holy face.
Since God face can’t be seen again in the land because they sacrifice to the graves and trouble every where. If God hide his face in the community, a family, a village, a nation or the people group, no good thing would come out from or to the land, it would be evil every where. It can therefore be said that if you wants God face to return to the people, the community, the nation and Africa and beyond. You must not sacrifice to the ghosts or the death people in the land either in church or in village or in families or in communities but you must repent and look for the face of God for he said if you return unto me I would return to you.
I want to therefore summaries that the kings of Africa must repent and return to God and do away with the spirit of the death for God is bigger than that and is a jealous God. They must arise and do something about the matter to stop God’s anger upon the people and the land. When such case happens in Psalm 106:28-29; when the people join themselves with Baalpoar and ate the sacrifice of the death. God anger arose because of their action. But Phineas rose and stop the nonsense in his time.
Therefore, arise and stop wrong customs , traditions and negative cultural practices in your land. Arise like Governor Attah of Akwa Ibom state Nigeria and Chief Etim Akpan Udo Ntekpere the then Chairman of Council of Traditional Rulers did when they stopped Masquerades (Ekpo) display in Akwa Ibom State and their ancestors did not kill them but God’s blessings them even till now . Arise like Donald Trump in America, like Phineas did in his days and you will be given a name that would be remembered with eternal blessing for you and your generation. Don’t look at the graves or the spirits of the departed again, look at Jesus Christ and saved, that was the name given for your salvation. God want you to look at him alone for your salvation or he will force you to knee directly or indirectly. Hence he says, Look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none beside me ,I have sworn by myself ,the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness , and shall not return ,that unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear Isa.45;22-23
Being a paper presented by Effiong Daniel Ukpong
On the Centenary of Christianity in Abiakpo Ikot Abasi Inyang
1920 - 2020 at “Jesus university “Africa holy land
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