A
village has been discovered in Cross Rivers State where the people live
like in the days of old and where the modern lifestyle is a mirage.
File photo: A snail
How the people of Ekpene Ibiabong, situated on the mountainous part
of Eki East Ward, Odukpani Local Government in Cross River State,
manage to reccount their tale is a phenomenon.
The villagers basically exist like people in the Stone Age with no
access road, no single borehole in the community, forced 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, who scarcely travel
out of the community because of the topography saw a vehicle for the
first time was in 2003 when the local government chairman at the 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 Bush Method, BM. In fact, the villagers hardly
dig latrines because of the rocky soil, the same reason for why there is
no borehole in the village.
They also trek to far-flung streams to get water for their household use as there is no alternative due to lack of borehole.
Isolated
One of the villagers, who preferred anonymity, confirmed to NDV
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 a very difficult, but nowadays, our people can
now use motorcycle to get their farm produce to town (Okurikang).”
It’s been so—Village Head
Contacted, the deputy 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.”
The man died
He 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 was 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.
***
Culled from Vanguard
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