community, defecate in nearby bushes and estranged by a tradition, which forbids them from eating snails, regarded as a deity.
It was learned that the only time the people saw a vehicle for the first time was in 2003. They scarcely travel out of the community because of the topography.
The local government chairman at that time, who is from that part of the state, bulldozed the foot path leading to the community. Without being asphalted, the ‘emergency road’ tumbled down to its former position. It is not clear whether the governor of the state, Prof Ben Ayade, even know there is such a community in his state.
Niger Delta Voice visited the rocky community that is surprisingly very fertile for agricultural produce and found the people were living in poverty. You could count houses built with blocks on your fingers and there was, indeed, no single borehole in any part of the village.
We could also not find any house with a toilet; rather the people do what is generally referred to as (BM) Bush Method. In fact, the villagers hardly dig latrines because of the rocky soil, the same reason for why there is no borehole in the village.
Due to lack of borehole, they also trek to far-flung streams to get water for their household use as there is no alternative. One of the villagers, who preferred anonymity, confirmed that more than 40 percent of the young people barely leave the community, as they prefer to stay within, except the ones that attend secondary school outside as the community only has a primary school.
We went by motor cycle for that is the only way anybody can get to Ekpene. Our guide, who witnessed the entry of a car into the community in 2003 when the then chairman of Odukpani local government, Hon Justin Asuquo, bulldozed the foot path, said:
“He opened a road then with bulldozers, that was the first time in modern times that many children in this community saw a car, it takes ages again for it to happen, as I speak to you, without motorcycle you may not want to come down to Ekpene. “Even those, who are building houses use motorcycles to bring all their materials here, you can imagine the difficulty.”
He also asserted: “We are praying that one day; government will remember us and come to our rescue. As you can see, the houses built with cement and blocks can be counted and it is largely because of no access road, the money you will spend to bring in the material can take care of labour and other things if we were to have an access road.”
"Any block house you see here, just know that the owner is well to do, it is not an easy task to bring in all the materials with a motorcycle unless you have money, and the only means of transportation is motorcycle.
From Okurikang Junction to Ekpene, which is about 22 kilometres, so you can see how hard life is with us, “the villager added. He explained: “Before now, we used to wake up as early as 3a.m. and trek to Okurikang ,it takes approximately three hours to get to the market there, we did this for many years until the little bush part was opened up a bit , it was very difficult, but nowadays, our people can now use motorcycle to get their farm produce to town (Okurikang).”
The Village Head Elder Chief Okon B. Effiong, who confirmed that it was forbidden to eat snails in the community, a delicacy in other parts of the country, said it was a tradition he was born to meet and he does not really know or understand the mystery behind it.
He said: “I was born in 1941 and I grew up to meet this tradition that snails within the community are not to be consumed by anyone, whether by strangers or indigenes. It has been our custom from time immemorial, I mean from our forefathers. “Sincerely speaking, I was never told by my father or anyone the mystery behind it, at least I have lived for 75 years, no one in this community knows or understands the reason why. For those who paid a deaf ear to the instruction, they have always paid the ultimate price with their life; it has nothing to do with Church or religion.”
Elucidating on the location of the snails and the types that can be found, he said: “The specie of snails in the community cannot be found in the bush while the ones in the bush can never be found inside the community .Their shells are different and anyone can differentiate which is from inside or the bush.” Chief Effiong continued: “It is a long standing tradition, anyone who violates it will surely have problems ,and as a people, we do not even know the remedy in the event it happens or what to use to appease the gods, which is why the best remedy is just to obey the custom and tradition and abstain from eating snail.”
Chief Effiong also spoke about a man, who defied the tradition many years ago and what happened to him. According to him: “Some years ago, one of our in-laws married to our daughter came and picked the snails and then went away, after consuming them without anyone knowing, he fell ill, it was when he became sick that we all knew what happened. “It was when it worsened that they took him to various places and yet there was no solution, then they began making findings, that was when they discovered that it was the snails he took and ate from the community that caused his ailment. “At this point, the man reported himself to the community and brought some of the items he was asked to bring to the community by the people, who revealed his travails to him. They told him to bring some items to Ekpene to appease the gods, but honestly speaking, nobody knew what to do or how to go about carrying out the appeasement and few days later, he died.”
Another indigene, who also pleaded anonymity, said: “The snail is believed to be a goddess, who moved into the community and protected our people, for that reason, they promised not to consume it, but frankly, it is a myth, I wasn't born then, I only heard it.”
So many mysteries The deputy village head, Chief Okon also said that besides the snail taboo, another peculiarity in the community was that birds flock on a traditional tree, near the Ekpe shrine, but before every New Yam festival, once it was time to eat the new yam, the birds customarily depart and return only after the festival has been completed.
“There are so many things that have remained a mystery to us here and we have been living with it that way, but I believe that it makes us unique and different as a people and a community,” he said.
Comments
Post a Comment
Drop your comments. Thank you