Untold Secrets Of Ikpaisong
By Da Effiong Daniel
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| My humble self (L) with Chief Jeremiah Ikono, the oldest village chief in Odoro Ikot clan |
Sometimes ago, as I embarked on a brief research on Ikpaisong phenomenon in Annang traditions, I met with former obong (priest of) Ikpaisong, Chief Akpan Umo Ikara - now a Village Head of Ikot Udu. He confessed: "to serve Ikpaisong is one dirty thing to do. When I was obong Ikpaisong, I used to be so dirty; people were afraid of me. It was against the law of Ikpaisong for one to go to church. As a priest of Ikpaisong, your “church” is the shrine and your worship day is Edet market day, and so I did not go to church."
He further made a surprising revelation about serving Ikpaisong. According to him, with Ikpaisong, you don't plan evil against anybody; you don’t fornicate in the bush or have sex in the afternoon; you don’t eat anything forbidden in the land; you are there to serve the people by sacrificing to Ikpaisong. If anybody offends Ikpaisong, you stand as a middle man between the offender and Ikpaisong and appease it at the shrine for anyone involved. Then, I was thinking that people respected me, but unknown to me, people were only afraid of me.
"As Ikpaisong priest, you see fowls and goats always; you don’t lack what (meats) to eat because people keep on offending the Ikpaisong, and keep on sacrificing animals to it. You have enough meat to eat because not everybody is qualified to eat animals offered to Ikpaisong - not even your wife and children. It is more of secrecy than openness. Most of the sacrifices are done in the secret because whenever individuals know they have committed offence against Ikpaisong, they would come in secret and I would appease the Ikpaisong for them. It is a dirty thing but when the fullness of time came, God sent help to me. Now I go to church and abandoned the Ikpaisong, and that doesn’t stop me from being a head of my village. I was baptized.
"When I was made a head in my village, I was called Obong Ikpaisong. It was a twofold office - the king priest. But now it only a king who will give account to the King of kings (God) for all you have done in the community he trusted in your hand as treasure. Since then things have changed in my life. Even as a chief, I have not done all those things again. I can confidently say that Ikpaisong is the biggest power of Africa, and it is the Satan of the earth that people served. You may not really know but as a former obong Ikpaisong and now in Christ, I want to let you know that Ikpaisong was satanic; a big snake that swallows, as prophet Ezekiel 36, said, “the earth devoured men.”"
"Do you know that before any foreign or local power comes in or have a place in the land, it must consult the Ikpaisong whether it will accept or not? No power of the sea, or air that could have a place without the authority of Ikpaisong. That was when Ikpaisong was not dead but because of the presence of Christianity, Ikpaisong is dead in Africa. I chief Akpan Ikara is a living witness that the thing is not working again. Even fake churches consulted Ikpaisong of the land before they function well. There is nothing done that Ikpaisong is not consulted but now God has taken over the land."
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| Chief Akpan Umo Ikara |
In October 2019 interview, Monday Akam of Ikot Ide, another Ikpaisong priest, corroborated Chief Ikara's information thus:
“As a priest, you shall not steal in the farm.You must not do wickedness in the land.You must not have sex in the afternoon or in the bush or with someone’s wife.You must not bring thieves into the land."
On twin babies, he said: "If a woman is gives birth to set of twins, you know before they were not wanted, but now sacrifices must be done before they can stay in the compound with people or before the mother has anything to do with people”.
On whether priest of Ikpaisong has an authority to forgive sin, he replied:
"Yes, that is my work, even church people came and I forgive them. If anyone commits sin against the gods of the land, the moment they bring what the deity demands, I would take the offering, then go to the shrine and offer it to the gods, release the people and forgive them.”
I further asked him: do you know God Almighty loves you and have good plans for you even to use you?
He got up angrily, took his local gin (Kaikai) and poured it in his small cup and then emptied it on the ground, invoking all the evil spirits in the land to rise up that the strangers have come. He went outside to where we parked our motorcycle and spoke to his deities, while pouring the libation again. As he was invoking the demons, I knew he was a different person.
He exclaimed: "Let me tell you the truth, I am the Ikpaisong of Ikot Ide. People call me Ikpaisong." From then, I preached to him that he should repent, but he replied that I should be preaching to his children because as for him, he would never repent. I told him God is terribly angry with him and has taken back his powers from him for all power belongs to God. It wasn’t long God took back his power from Monday Akam and he died by falling into a shallow well. Ikpaisong didn't save him.
Had he toed the path of Chief Akpan Umo Ikara, perhaps his end wouldn't have been disastrous.
But what is the meaning of Ikpaisong? It comes from two Efik /Annang/Ibibio compound words "Ikpa", meaning "skin" or "cover" while Isong means "earth", "land" or "ground" etc. In a way, this means, "the skin that covers the ground," "the earth's covers” or "the surface of the earth" or "the cloth of the earth."
Again, ikpa means, cane. This English word, Cane (Ikpa), can also means staff, or walking stick. It could also be a thrash, a beat, a whip etc. If you combine the two, that is, cane and earth, we can confidently say Ikpaisong means, cane of the earth; something to cane the earth; whip of the earth; and walking stick of the earth.
It seems when God took the earth (dust) and formed a man, he (God) became the covering of the original man. But when man sinned against him, the God's cover left man and he returned to dust. What should God do to help man? He looked for another covering for man, that is skin (Ikpa unam) of an animal in the human language. Ikpaisong is an animal skin for a falling man who have returned to earth and become earthly, known in Annang/Efik/Ibibio language as owo Ikpaisong (man of the earth) which is another word for “the man of sin.”
If Ikpaisong means, whip of the earth or walking stick of the earth, the question now is who holds the stick or the staff of authority of the land? In African (Annang) setting, it is the king/priest, who is Obong Ikpaisong. Are the mbong (priests of) Ikpaisong the whip of the earth, or the staff of the earth? If this is true, we can trace back to Egypt when God through Moses threw down his walking stick or staff and it turned to snake and the mbong (priests) of Egypt also threw their staffs and they turned to snakes but Moses's staff swallowed all of theirs. Since that time, have we heard that Moses staff has vomited back their original staff to them? All they are carrying now are not the first ones; they are fake. The real were swallowed by God's staff through Moses and now the cross of Jesus Christ has swallowed Ikpaisong.
What is another way of understanding Ikpaisong? It is a shrine or altar of the earth where some traditionalists in Annang (Africa) worship on every Edet market day. Ikpaisong is also believed to be “the god of the land,” hence it receives worships, adoration and sacrifices. It even brings punishment upon offenders and those who indulge in taboos in the land.
It is believed to be the one of those forces that protects the people and the land. if anyone defiles the land by committing a taboo, Ikpaisong brings upon him dead penalty. Its shrines were mostly located at the centre of the village. All other deities must consult it before they operate in the land. If it accepts, the conjuration would work, but if not there is nothing done on earth that would make it works. Ikpaisong must be consulted before the building of block houses. It is also consulted in funerals, marriage ceremonies, politics, church ordinations, etc. It is like the mother of all gods of the land.
In other words, Ikpaisong is a big snake whose head all the people born into the planet earth walked upon. Unknown to men, its head is inside the earth but anytime it brings it out it swallows people. (I saw beast coming out of the earth, (Ikpaisong). It looks gentle and protective but it acts like dragon. These snakes are scattered all over the world but in different names. But any child of God who knows that Ikpaisong is a snake whose head is in the ground, it will not swallow him, rather, it would give way immediately because of what Jesus did on the cross. It is proven beyond doubt that the cross of Jesus is the only unmistakable evidence that the serpent is overpowered, and Christ has arisen and we that were dead in sin have now been raised with him.
One day I was in a palace of a monarch. Suddenly, the head of the clan came in and others rose and said “the Ikpaisong of the land have come.” I was not comfortable with the statement and I asked the clan head whether he is the Ikpaisong or the ndem (god) of the land. Surprisingly, he denied and said: “those thing are no more; I am not the Ikpaisong or the ndem of the land: I am an elder in the church."
According to Chief Jeremiah Ikono the oldest village chief in Odoro Ikot clan on the 14th May 2020 at African Holy Land, Abiakpo Ikot Abasi Inyang in Obot Akara local government area of Akwa Ibom state, Nigeria, “the Ikpaisong you are taking about is no more what you see in some places. They are now shadows. Christ has taken over the land that is why I decided to follow him."
What are the signs to show that someone's death is emanating from Ikpaisong? One. The person would die on the Edet market day. Two. The person would be swollen and water would be coming out of the body and they would die on Edet market day. And three. Before the person dies, he will confess, then die on Edet market day.
This is satanic tactics to disgrace a man. If you go to hospital and diagnose the real cause of the problem, it will be detected. If you go to God he will tell you that he kills and make a life (1Sam.2.3-6.) And Jesus said he is the holder of the key to death and hell. (Rev.1; 18).
Ikpaisong is known of passing a wrong judgment. One of the priests of Ikpaisong died and divination said it is Ikpaisong that killed him. The reason was, there was this goat that was given to Ikpaisong: It is known as ebot ikpaisong. Two boys from the village stole the goat and it was not long the priest was sick and according to their findings, Ikpaisong was angry because its goat was missing. And finally the man died. Before he passed on, he instructed that if he dies nobody should follow Ikpaisong again for it is wicked, directing that all his children should go to church. Till now, those two boys that stole the goat are still alive but the priest of Ikpaisong had died since 1994. If Ikpaisong whose worshippers are making noise about was to be God, it would have given right judgment by arresting those that stole the goat not its priest.
Again, a woman went and had sex with another man. She knew that Ikpaisong will not be happy with her. Then she took an egg, boiled it and put it in her virgina. Later she gave that same egg to her husband to eat. Unknown to the husband, he ate the egg, and it wasn't long Ikpaisong killed the man simply because the man ate the egg. If Ikpaisong was to know the truth, it would have held the woman, and not the innocent man.
Every Ikpaisong of a village came in through a particular animal which becomes sacred to the people. it becomes a totem that is worshiped and must not be eaten by the people of the land. In Annang, the Abiakpo people don’t eat tortoise: it's against Ikpaisong's law to do so. You must not eat tortoise if you were born a citizen of the village. In most cases, one is forbidden not to even bring the tortoise into the village. If you do, Ikpaisong will punish you. it won't be long you swell as a sign of judgment of Ikpaisong and the community would now know that you have eaten a totemic animal or offended the Ikpaisong of the land in one way or the other. The priest of Ikpaisong would be consulted for sacrifice in order to appease the gods so that you could be free. But some elders find a way to punish one for committing that sacrilege. They fight for Ikpaisong and not allowing Ikpaisong to fight for itself as it used to be,
Another means Ikpaisong used in entrenching its system of injustice is through swearing. For instance, if a woman swears to her husband and say “this my body kill you” “idem ami uwot fien.” It is immediately interpreted to have meant that the woman has sworn to her virgina to kill her husband. Therefore such wife must consult Ikpaisong priest for sacrifice if not any time she has sex with the husband he will die. Even if she cooks for him, and he eats her food, he will still die. Why is it that it only has power when the wife swears to the husband not when the husband swears to the wife? When we were children if someone beats you, it was very common to say "my body kill you” but there would not be any sacrifice at all. When young boys fight with girls and beat them, a girl would swear “my body kill you”, still there wouldn't be any act of sacrifice. This is the trick of the devil to handover the body of a woman to Satan.
A man told me how he fought with his wife and his mother was inside the house and remained silence about the whole thing. She didn't tell her son not to be fighting with the wife but when the woman was crying and uttered to her husband “this my body kill you” “idem ami uwot fien,” the man’s mother heard only that and immediately accused the wife for seeking to use her virgina to kill her son. She alerted people and told her son not to eat from her, sleep, or touch anything she touches else he will die. The man asked her mother what could be done to save his life. She replied that he must go and meet a native priest for sacrifice. She added that he must buy cock and hen; human parts - male and female and hot drink The man's mother added that if the sacrifice is done, his wife who is pregnant will give birth else there will be problem during the child birth.
The man was terribly afraid not only because the wife sworn to her body against him but because he knew he will die because he had touched and drank from the same cup with her, and used the same plate she used in eating in the house. He was in bondage in his own home. All those gra-gra he made as a man stopped abruptly. He didn’t want to die. When he finished speaking, I asked: who own the body God or Ikpaisong? He said God, and I asked again who demanded for this sacrifice? He said, Ikpaisong. I said,”you are in error not knowing the scripture nor the power of God (Matt 22;29) “If the woman swears her body which belong to the Lord to you, will you not go to God who owned the body for help? Why would you rather you go to Satan? He said, he would go to God not Satan. Then I said to him, Ikpaisong is a messenger of Satan. I showed him in the bible that the body belongs to the Lord not for Ikpaisong. He was comforted and I led him to Christ. They practically ate together in my house. The mother was waiting to see when he would bring the native priest to the house. He told the mother the matter was settled before the Lord at the altar. It wasn’t long, the wife gave birth to a baby and they were celebrating together. May God be glorified.
A certain woman from Ikot Ebok who used to be tormented by the spirit of Ikpaisong in the eve of every Edet market day confessed: “the spirit will be tormenting me and I would start talking from that day through the next day”. According to her, she was a child of God from the Assemblies of God Church. Anytime the spirit took control of her, she would be cursing her children and people around her but whenever she comes to her senses, she would be praying to God for forgiveness and help .
“I have been praying as a child of God and even change my traditional name, Arit, which connect with the deity Ikpaisong to Joy, yet I am not free. It was when I encountered the man of God that he told me that until the spirit of Ikpaisong leaves me, I will not stop talking on the Edet market day. He prayed and cast out the spirit of Ikpaisong since then I am free," she said in November 2019.
People respected the laws of Ikpaisong more than the laws of God in some communities in Efik/Annang /Ibibio land. This confirms Jesus Christ word which points that man uses his traditions to destroy the commandment of God.
God created the heaven and the earth (Gen.1;1,). It was not from big bang theory but part of God’s creation, and it is the Lord's. Even now God has not handed over the government of the earth to any man, for the Most High God is he who sits at the Centre of the earth.(Ps24;1-2, Isa.40;15-22). The earth has a Maker whose name is GOD OF THE WHOLE EARTH. (Isa54;5).
For prayers and deliverance from the powers of Ikpaisong, call 08164000878 or send email to daniel4altar@gmail.com
Da Effiong Daniel, a Sociologist and a Minister of the Gospel, writes from Altar of Virgin Generation Ministry a.k.a. African Holy Land in Abiakpo Ikot Abasi Inyang, Obot Akara Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.
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