Ikono Is Not The Cradle Of Ibibio Nation

By UbongAbasi Ise

"If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed" - Adolf Hitler 

"Doctor, I've not seen this book before," I confessed thoughtfully after examining it for close to 30 seconds.

He looked up, glanced slightly at a book with faded cover stuck in my palms, which I fetched halfway across the table. I rotated it slowly to a certain degree to ensure that he get a good view. 

He shifted his gaze to me with apparent niggle looks. 

"I'm surprised that you have not come across it, I'm so surprised," said Dr. Uwem Akpan, shaking his head mildly.

I was being sincere after all. The music from a live band coming from the background of CBN auditorium, University of Uyo town campus, where the students of the selected secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State were having music competition that afternoon, become a bit stronger by this time. It bridged the hiatus, and it was more functional as it forced Dr. Akpan to go on top of his voice.

"That book is the most misleading and un-researched work I have ever seen in my entire life," he exclaimed.

By this time I summarily stared up at him and then looked back at the book with the title, Ikono, The Cradle Of Ibibio Nation, which was still fixed in my hands. It now appeared as a piece of abomination owing to the disapproving description it has just received.

I knew he would explicate and then rubbish the content of the infamous publication.  Dr. Uwem Akpan is a lecturer in the Department of History and International Studies in the University of Uyo. Being a Scion in the traditional history, he is one scholar that places so much primacy on facts and details and exudes so much erudition in the discussion of migration history. He has written several books, and has published extensively in both local and international journals.

"That book has been in circulation since 2001 and it has succeeded in distorting the truth about Ibibio history," he remarked.

I looked at the names listed as authors. They came under the auspices of Mboho Ndito Ikono Ndo Ini. The names, David Ukpong, Martin Akpan and Nnamso Akang, appeared to me very strange to history scholarship. How could I miss everything about them until now?

"These are not familiar history authors, Doctor," I said.

"Yes, they are not historians, said Dr. Akpan."They belong to a socio-cultural organization known as Mboho Ndito Ikono Ndo Ini with membership drawn from Ikono and Ini local government areas. The group set up Ikono-Ini Research and Documentation Committee (IRDC) which afterwards came up with a poorly researched work. The book was pushed into the market and was imposed on the people because of the cultural slant it carries.  It has been circulated so much even though it is very misleading and a-historical. The content of the work has nothing to do with history."

Dr. Uwem Akpan later noted that it was after the publication of the book in 2001 that the superficial belief that Ikono is the Ntippe (Cradle) of Ibibio nation became popular and accepted by wide audience. Of course it is common today to hear politicians at functions extolling Ikono as "Ntippe Ibibio." Reading through the book, the authors submitted that Ikono Obio Atai, which they claimed to have located within Ikono-Ini axis, was where Ibibio and all its sub-groups settled when they were driven out by the Aro from Ibom in Arochukwu region found in a location in the present-day Abia State. Having been expelled as a result of Igbo-Ibibio war in Ibom in 1550, they arrived and settled at Ikono Ibom Atai. According to the authors, it was from Ikono Ibom Atai that Ibibio people dispersed to other part of present day Ibibioland.

The location where these writers called Ikono Ibom Atai, from a glance at a map, is mainly situated at Ibiaku Ntok Okpo and environs in the present day Ikono local government area. The historical significance accorded to this location in Ikono was what certainly incensed Dr. Uwem Akpan, who discredited the book, describing it as a clear amateurish, unresearched postulation.

“Doctor, are there any findings you are able to come up with to counter their position?” I queried.

“Of course” he said.

And went on, “The content of the book stands on its own. The thesis is wrong because, first of all, the Ibibio people had lived in the present day Akwa Ibom State long time before 1550. In fact all the European authors whether missionaries, administrators anthropologists, or researchers including P.A. Talbot, G.I. Jones, Dally Ford, M.D.W. Jeffreys and the indigenous scholars like Prof. Monday Abasiatai, Prof. Monday Effiong Noah, Prof. Okon Edet Uya, C.C. Efemesia all agreed that Ibibio is one of the oldest set of Nigerians.”

I was very familiar with those names he mentioned. Late professors Abasiattai and Uya were my lecturers of course. Dr. Akpan stood up, brought out a certain document and returned to the seat.

“UbongAbasi, this is what P.A. Talbot said” he adjusted his glasses and read out.

“Ibibio is one of the most ancient peoples in this or perhaps any part of Africa who have probably been in this neighbourhood for many thousands of years, particularly, in the southern Nigeria...” He put the document away, and continued, “There is no group that is older than Ibibio people whether Ijaw or Igbo. The Igbo of course are the recent group of people to have come. By the time they arrived, Ibibio had settled. So the war at Ibom in 1550 was a recent development. This is very clear. There was a group of mercenaries from Okonyong stock known as the “Akpa” who were employed by the Aro to fight Ibibio with firearms at Ibom. Don’t forget that Okonyong in Cross River were the earliest group to have had interaction with the Portuguese that arrived at Calabar shores in 1472.”

He further explained that it was through the interaction between Akpa war mercenaries and the Portuguese that they got the firearms to help Aro people expel the Ibibio from Ibom.  While the Ikono-Ini writers posited that Ibibio first settled at Ibiaku Ntok Okpo axis or Ikono Ibom Atai, Dr. Uwem Akpan mentioned another place entirely in Ibibioland. This is where the crux of the argument lies.

His argument is that when Ibibio left Ibom, they mainly settled at Ikot Oku Ikono that is located in the present day Uyo local government area. This position downplayed the theory of ‘ntippe’ or ‘cradle’ because Ibibio did not germinate like mushroom. According to him, it is from Ikot Oku Ikono that a set of Ibibio people that came from Ibom were moving to other parts of the Ibibioland, including the present day Ikono.

“If you go to Ibiaku Ntok Okpo, you will understand that the first settlers came from a village called Ibiaku Itu Udo in the present day Ibiono Ibom, and others came from Ibiaku Ikot Edet in Ikot Idaha along Ikot Ekpene-Uyo route,” he said with some degree of emphasis. 

“Have you confirmed this from reliable sources?” I asked.

 “I have told you UbongAbasi before. As an historian, you know history is not speculation. You must have the evidence whether it is written, oral or ethnographic data. There are many clans in Ikono and Ini. I was privileged to conduct interview in these clans. Ediene clan in Ikono migrated from Ikot Oku Ikono area in Uyo; Itak was not from Ikono. Ndiya migrated to Ikono from Nsit. Ukpum is a distinct group. So what the Ikono-Ini writers did not know was that all the groups in Ikono-Ini were from distinct stocks. Like I said, I have gone to all the groups in Ikono. Throughout Ediene, Itak, Ndiya, Ukpum, Nkwot, Ikpe and Ukwok, none of them accepted their thesis. The traditional authorities I met confessed that the writers did not contact them before they went on to write the treatise,” he said.

Citing S.T. Harvey’s intelligence report on Ikono, Dr. Uwem Akpan said why there are Ikono group in Ikot Idaha is that they were forced to move after Ikono group were defeated in a war by Ibiono at Ikot Oku Ikono area. They had to move to that location taking a replica of Etefia deity with them.

To buttress his point further, Dr. Akpan said, “Ikot Oku Ikono is where we have the concentration of the Ibibio and Annang clans including the concentration of their deities. That is where you have the ‘Obio.’ In fact, Obio in Ibibio means ‘capital’ or ‘headquarters.’ There we have Obio Ibiono, Obio Nsit, Obio Itak, Obio Offot, Obio Etoi, Obio Iman and so on. And then you have deities like Etina Iman, Anyan Nsit, Etefia Ikono, Anantia Ibiono, Abam Itak, Ukana Offot, Awa Itam, Udo Oku, Afia Ndem Etoi, Ebom Ukpum within that area.”

As established, Etefia Ikono, the chief Ikono deity is situated in Ikot Oku Ikono. The Etefia deity replicated in various places in Akwa Ibom State was derived there. The Akwa Esop Imaisong Ibibio, the pan-Ibibio organization which in the 1980s sited asan Ibibio (its headquarters) at Ikot Oku Ikono, did that with the full knowledge of the tradition of origin, migration and settlement of the Ibibio people, taking cognizance of Ikot Oku Ikono area as the crucial ancestral position.

To further puncture the thesis of Ikono-Ini Ikono-Ini Research and Documentation Committee (IRDC), Dr. Uwem Akpan said the migration wave from Ibom was just a minor one. Citing a notable historian, Prof. Monday Noah, he maintained that Ibibio lived at Edik Afaha in Usak Edet area in the Cameroons, and migrated towards the riverine part of the state. It is from Edik Afaha that Ibibio have the main wave of migration into the present location. This is where the Afaha stock came from.

According to Akpan, “what is called Afaha permeates almost all parts of Akwa Ibom. In Oron, you have Afaha; in Eket, Afaha is the largest group there. In Ibeno, the current paramount ruler is from Afaha. You go to Obolom, you see Afaha; all over Ubium, Nsit, Iman, Offot, Ukanafun and so on, you would see Afaha. But if you go to some clans in Ikono such as Itu Mbon Uso, Ikpe, Iya, Ukpum located in the northern part of the state, you won’t see any Afaha group there.”

“But Doctor, where could you best describe as the cradle of Ibibio?” I felt it is pertinent to ask.

Then the answer goes, “Ibibio came from the place called ‘farther north.’ This is the position of Prof. Abasiattai. The major place they lived was where it is called the ‘Cradle of Bantu’ located along central Benue valley which is found around the modern day Benue, Adamawa, Taraba, Abuja and Plateau area. But later on many things had happened including wars and geographical issues, causing them to migrate through a corridor to the side of the Cameroons, while few came directly towards Ibom”

 Of course, there is no much doubt in Akpan’s position because, if the Ibibio were the earliest people that dispersed from the cradle of Bantu southwards, there was possibility of them not encountering hindrances by other groups along the southwards routes. After all, they had a seemingly endless country to traverse and meet their kith and kin at any point down south. 

            History is not storytelling. It is based on evidences or facts that survive events. If the book written by IRDC and aimed at installing Ikono as the cradle of Ibibio on the historical narrative of Akwa Ibom people was not founded on verified evidence, then we have been taken on a long ride; we have lost historical direction as a people.  Of course this would be one reason Dr. Akpan was quoting Lech Walesa thus: “if we lack freedom, it is because we submit to falsehood. It is because we do not expose it; and do not dispute it each and every day; we do not try to rectify it; we remain silent, pretending to accept it. That is how we came to live in falsehood.

Yes! I am UbongAbasi Ise. For comment, please send SMS to 08189914609 | email: ubongabasiise@gmail.com

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