ORON: Where men haunt
ghosts
By MAURICE ARCHIBONG
Thursday,
September 13, 2007
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Oron Museum: Statue of the late Keith Nicklin
PHOTOS: MAURICE
ARCHIBONG |
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Ordinarily, most humans harbour a morbid fear of ghosts,
but there are some Nigerians who would have nothing of such
trepidation. In deed, rather than dread the souls of the departed
ones, it would seem that ghosts actually "live"
in fear of the people in question.
Thus, in other climes, ghosts haunt man but in one part of
Nigeria people hunt ghosts. In other places, robbers go for
gold but some Nigerians consider it more profitable to go
for ghosts. What is it some people won’t do for money?
For these people, who have no qualms for their rather ghoulish
venture, the fear of ghosts is certainly not the beginning
of wisdom.
Welcome to Oron, where thieves of a peculiar kind have been
making "life" hell for ghosts since 1958. In ancient
Oron society, no dead man could be buried until a wooden image
of the deceased had been carved.
In pre-Christianity Oron, natives appeared convinced the spirit
of the departed one would relocate to a new home in the wooden
sculpture its survivors had provided. These locals also held
the view that from its new body, called Ekpu, the dead could
still participate in the life of its survivors. Such was the
belief in the potency of the Ekpu in ancient Oron society,
that a biannual festival was held in honour of these spirits.
The fiesta usually took place during crop planting and harvesting,
when offerings of food and drinks were made to the ancestor
figures. Those days, Ekpu carvings were kept in shrines called
Obio.
However, the introduction of Christianity led to not only
the apparent death of Ekpu cult but also the total neglect
of the shrines. To worsen matters, many of such houses of
worship were set ablaze by new Christian converts in various
feats of religious zealotry. This must be one of the reasons
the tourist would hardly find an Obio across Oron nowadays.
Interestingly, Ekpu was only made for dead males and no such
thing applied to a dead woman in ancient Oron, leaving one
wondering, whether the womenfolk had no spirit or soul. In
any case, the living in ancient Oron believed they could invoke
fertility, bounteous harvests and even ward off misfortune
and so on by calling on an "Ekpu" to intervene in
their affairs. It is worth noting that Ekpu worship also translated
into a source of livelihood for local sculptors and that a
thriving wood carving industry revolved around that traditional
religion. Such was life in ancient Oron, until the advent
of Christianity, when converts turned their back on Ekpu worship
leading to the virtual extinction of wood carvers in that
riparian settlement today.
Curiously, it is these abode of spirits (Ekpu) that some people
have been stealing and selling. Since they cannot lay their
hands on a ghost that is invisible and intangible, "then
why not steal its home," the criminal elements seem to
reckon. This is how ghost hunters have been operating for
decades in Nigeria.
Unfortunately, antiquity traffickers began their war on "Ekpu"
long before looting of museums became common. Theft has been
plaguing Oron Museum for a long, long time. In fact, even
before Oron Museum building was completed, 20 Ekpu figures
were stolen and dispersed over the world in 1958." Thus,
next year (2008) would mark 50 years, since the Oron carvings
became more widely known in the most regrettable of ways"....
Today, almost half a century after the Oron carvings were
pushed to the world stage by theft, remnants of these priceless
antiquities could also be lost in the most spectacular of
ways: Oron Museum faces serious risk of being razed down by
fire. For inexplicable reasons, transfer of inflammable petroleum
products has been taking place barely 10 metres from one of
the fences surrounding Oron Museum along the banks of the
local river.
During our latest visit to Oron, we counted over 10 gargantuan-sized
tankers, each bearing the inscription "8, 500" (litres)
dumped around the museum’s fences. Sources say at least
two huge vessels bring oil, which is then transferred to these
tanks most nights around 10pm. Thus, some 85, 000 litres of
petrol are transferred to tanks lying next to a national museum.
Observers say it is doubtful any functional fire-fighting
equipment is available at Oron Museum.
Why the business takes place only at night remains unclear
but what is most disturbing is the fact that such transfer
poses acute dangers to Oron Museum and the priceless antiquities
stored there.
Ekpu carvings
Since "Ekpu" was supposed to be one’s deity,
only the most durable of woods were used for its carving,
for it would have been very troubling for a god to "die"
in its worshipper’s lifetime. Thus, the Oron carvers
went for only the best quality wood around. The tree from
which that wood came is known as Oko in the Oron dialect of
the Efik-Ibibio language. A worker at Oron Museum said the
Efik call that tree Ekom and that its fruit (also called Ekom)
is edible. Oko wood was the preferred choice for carving an
"Ekpu" because that tree could live for as long
as 300 years, and its wood is termite-resistant and shows
uncommon resilience against weathering elements, we were told.
Owing to Oko’s outstanding quality, Oron carvings rank
among the oldest wooden sculptures in "the whole of Africa,"
wrote Mr. Keith Nicklin, a late British anthropologist, who
recalled that Mr. Kenneth C. Murray, founding father of the
NCMM, brought the importance of the figures to international
attention in 1938. According to Nicklin, Mr. Murray, a former
art master at Teachers’ Training College, Uyo spent
a decade (1940 to 1950) collecting Oron carvings. The need
for proper storage of the antiquities informed the establishment
of a museum in Oron in 1959.
We may be born equal but to the living, even the dead must
be put in their rightful place. Nicklin observed, "The
size and mode of execution of the actual carving reflected
the social status of the ancestor ... A large Ekpu with intricately
carved details would portray an important chief, while a minor
would be represented by a small un-carved stick."
Nicklin again: Ekpu "were thus visible records of lineage
history.
The Ekpu representing the lineage founder was kept in the
care of the senior segment of the lineage; (and) if one segment
died out, its Ekpu would be taken over by another." Although
Ekpu carvings share distinctive features, such as being pole-like
and about a meter in height, the head crowned with a hat,
a long beard and marks around the temple area, bulbous stomachs
with narrow bodies, Ekpu feature a generous male organ. Mr.
Nicklin further observed that unlike typical Ibibio carving,
Oron wood sculptures "show composed, serene expressions
befitting of an ancestor, and that the great variety in the
portrayal of facial features" reflect the human population
of Oron.
Oron Museum
To understand where we’re going, the tourist needs to
know Oron Museum or the Oron station of the National Commission
for Museums and Monuments (NCMM). In the same vein, the story
of Oron Museum sheds more light on the travails of the NCMM.
Oron Museum is located in Oron Town in Akwa Ibom State. Specifically,
Oron Museum stands to the right, on disembarking from the
boat that brought one from the Cross River State capital,
Calabar.
Sailing in one of the numerous boats from Calabar costs N600
and the journey lasts roughly 30 minutes, whereas it takes
longer to drive to Oron from Uyo, capital of Akwa Ibom State.
Admission to Oron Museum costs N50 or N20 for adult or minor
(student) respectively. Oron Museum is an anthropological
repository. In this regard, Oron holds a specialized museum.
Compared to Ibadan, Enugu, Kano and Calabar outposts of the
NCMM, Oron Museum covers a small land area.
Nonetheless, this repository is one of the best kept in the
land. Oron Museum is evocative of Old Residency, Calabar,
where the lawn is usually well kempt and the flowerbeds delectably
pruned. One of the impressive stations of the NCMM, Oron Museum
is not only always spick ‘n’ span, the complex
also offers a beachside resort, where the tourist can grab
a bite or quench his thirst. Although no theft has taken place
at Oron Museum for years, since Mr. Adeoye assumed duty as
Curator, that repository currently faces a new kind of risk.
God forbid that a fire should break out near this museum,
otherwise all the Ekpu figures and their other collections
would simply go up smoke.
Established in 1959, Oron Museum, which is the first such
repository opened east of the River Niger, is one of Nigeria’s
first generation museums. Initially, Oron Museum was designed
to cater for the South Eastern State, which comprised today’s
Akwa Ibom and Cross River States. Oron station of the NCMM
is an ethnographic museum, and had been the target of antiquity
thieves for many years. Although there has been no breaking
in since November 2003, theft at Oron Museum was once so rampant
that the iconic "Ekpu" figure on display inside
the local bays (gallery) is a replica.
The establishment of Oron Museum was informed by the need
of a store for some 800 antiquities.
Less than 10 years after its opening in 1959, Oron Museum
was destroyed during the Nigerian civil war (1967-1970). Tragically,
at the end of the war, the then "Department of Antiquities
was only able to retrieve a little more than 100 of these
once venerable figures," stated Dr. Ekpo Eyo in the Foreword
of "Guide to the National Museum Oron." The majority
of the carvings (Ekpu Masks) were "scattered, destroyed
or stolen for sale abroad," Dr. Ekpo, a former Director
General of the NCMM, revealed.
Unfortunately, "Oron Museum was blown up" during
the Nigerian civil war, which led to the destruction and looting
of numerous objects. Many of the stolen antiquities were taken
abroad. However, after that museum’s rehabilitation,
about 100 Ekpu figures were recovered and returned to Oron.
Unfortunately, numerous other thefts at that NCMM outpost
resulted in severe depletion of the number of Ekpu currently
in store. Such is the fear that antiquity looters could still
descend on Oron Museum that authorities long ago removed the
remaining Ekpu from public view and hid them away. Subsequently,
a replica was produced which is on display in the Gallery
of Oron Museum, for those interested in seeing what an Ekpu
figure looks like.
Mr. Oluwasola Adeoye is Curator of Oron Museum. He assumed
duty there in November 2003, after seven years at National
Museum, Minna. Prior to his deployment to Minna, capital of
Niger State, Adeoye had spent the same number of years at
the Yola, Adamawa State outpost of the NCMM. The curator,
who stressed that there has not been any theft at Oron Museum
since November 2003, when he took over the reins there, confirmed:
"In fact, the Ekpu figure we have is a replica."
Although Oron Museum is rich in various ways, that station
has no room for exhibition of contemporary art because of
"lack of space," as the curator put it. Although
Christianity put a halt to the biannual Ekpu fiesta in Oron,
decades ago, a new festival premiered last year. That celebration,
which took place at Oron Museum on April 17, 2006, was dubbed
Akpakip-Oro Cultural Carnival 2006: Our past values in songs
and dance.
Diamond and Gold Product, NTA, Mbo and Okobo Local Government
Councils as well as AKRTV sponsored the event. It is worth
noting that the host council, Oron, could not contribute to
the programme because it had been dissolved. Although the
organizers had planned an encore in April 2007, the carnival
had to be postponed because of the general elections that
took place in that month. However, Adeoye assured that plans
were afoot to bring the fiesta to life "in November or
December this year."
Keith Nicklin
On one side of the surrounding garden, close to the entrance
of the bays (gallery) at Oron Museum stands a painted cement
statue of a white man clad in a pair of shorts with sandals,
for footwear. Atop his shirt, the bespectacled man spots a
pullover and has a camera hanging conspicuously around his
neck. Both of the man’s hands are on his photographic
apparatus like a professional poised to "take one."
That monument stands in honour of British-born anthropologist
Keith Nicklin, who played an invaluable role in the re-building
of Oron Museum, which had been devastated during the civil
war. "Now dancing with his ancestors," reads part
of the epitaph on the marble plaque affixed to the pedestal
of the statue. That phrase is an apt reference to Mr. Nicklin’s
interest in the well-being of the ancestors of the Oron people,
to whom he devoted part of his life.
In 1971, Mr. Nicklin, then a 25-year-old resident of Morniman,
Forest Hill area of southeast London, had left the comfort
of his British home and travelled to Nigeria, where he worked
assiduously with his partner Ms. Jill R. Salmons, toward the
reconstruction and re-launch of Oron Museum. That exercise,
which was finally completed in 1976, kept Nicklin busy for
five years of his life. Jill was constantly by his side to
encourage him every step of the way, all those years. And
after the man’s transition, in 2002, the lady returned
to Nigeria and funded the execution and installation of the
sculpture in memory of her late partner.
Insomnia over Nigeria’s museums
In late 2006, we wrote on what obtains at Nok, the southern
Kaduna State, settlement, where illegal excavation is believed
to be going on.
Few weeks ago, we dwelt on risks facing precious stones in
Alok, an open air museum in central Cross River State in southeastern
Nigeria and the unfulfilled promises, made more than 30 years
ago, to open a Museum of National Unity in each of the northern
Nigerian cities of Maiduguri and Sokoto. The neglect afflicting
Alok Open Air Museum (AOAM), led Nigeria into a darkening
spotlight following her inclusion in the 2008 List of 100
Most Endangered Sites. The list, a biennial compilation of
the World Monument Fund (WMF), bespeaks of poor management
of heritage sites by the nation, where such a treasure lies.
It goes without saying that the emergence of Ikom Monoliths
in the 2008 WMF Watch List brought the National Museum’s
authorities, and by extension successive Nigerian governments,
under focus they would rather do without. We’ve now
chosen to draw attention to Oron Museum, which, if care was
not taken, could land Nigeria in the 2010 WMF list of 100
Most Endangered Sites.
Where local politicians understand the importance of preserving
national heritage, the museum is properly run, well funded,
and relevant sites and monuments get the attention they deserve.
Consequently, some of such heritage sites or monuments find
their ways into the World Heritage Site (WHS) under the World
Heritage Programme (WHP) of the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Conversely,
sites or monuments that ought to make it into the WHS but
are not there by virtue of improper management, neglect and
so forth wind up in the list of 100 Most Endangered Sites.
Reason behind WMF Watch List
Through its Watch List, the WMF elicits sympathy and galvanizes
support for technical and financial resources to rescue endangered
sites. Although its headquarters is in New York City, the
WMF has offices and affiliates in the French, British, Spanish
and Portuguese capital cities of Paris, London, Madrid, and
Lisbon respectively.
Through efforts by the WMF, threats facing historic structures
at more than 450 sites in over 80 countries have been curbed
over the last 42 years. Sites that have benefited from WMF
attention include the 18th-century Qianlong Garden complex
in Beijing's Forbidden City; the vast temple complexes at
Angkor in Cambodia; Nicholas Hawksmoor's London masterpiece
at St. George's, Bloomsbury and Conger Goodyear House in New
York’s Old Westbury neighbourhood. WMF sources claimed:
"More than 75% of the sites brought to world attention
have been saved or are well on their way, to rescue."
However, it remains to be seen, whether this infamous honour
bagged by Nigeria through the careless handling of Ikom Monoliths,
would galvanize relevant agencies and government to do the
proper thing, which is to launch a team of experts and enthusiasts
as well as provide adequate funds to save the Ekpu, Akwanshi,
Nok and other antiquities and take measures to curb the loss
of several other items of our national heritage.
About time Nigerian authorities made selfless and sincere
moves to ensure that deserving sites end up in the WHS and
not in the WMF List of 100 Most Endangered Sites.
At this point, we think the honour for the last word should
go to the WMF President, Mr. Bonnie Burnham, who advised:
"Just as we caused the damage in the first place, we
have the power to repair it, by taking our responsibility
as caretakers of the world’s cultural heritage seriously."
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