An Open Letter to the Ekene Society of Agbarha-Otor: Between Historical Preservation and Erasure from History

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

An Open Letter to the Ekene Society of Agbarha-Otor : Between Historical Preservation and Erasure from History

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

It can be so sad watching a friend, a  person you admire, using their own hands in ensuring the erasure of their achievements from history.

I stumbled, in February 2024, on the wonderful blend of nature shrines, human made shrines, exquisite visual and performative arts, and hospitality of a good number of those I met, of the Ekene Society of Agbarha-Otor in Ughelli North in Nigeria's Niger Delta.

BUT 

They have a taboo against taking of pictures of anything associated with their spirituality, a taboo enforced through threats of violence, as I have experienced, and through actual violence, as I have read.

Most likely they also dont write anything about their spiritual and artistic culture.

Who, in today's world, will survive in human memory if their activities are not visually or verbally recorded?

[Dompere, Kofi Kissi]

GREETINGS ALL,

THE MOST IMPORTANT DIFFICULTY IN AFRICAN HISTORY OF TELESCOPIC PAST IS SECRECY AND LACK OF GENERAL INSTRUMENTS

FOR MEMORY AND REMEMBRANCE INTO THE FUTURE. LET US NOT REPEAT THIS TO CREATE NEW  DIFFICULTIES FOR THE NEXT GENERATIONS

FOR THE MAINTENANCE OF HISTORICAL CONTINUITY.

KOFI.

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From: Dompere, Kofi Kissi <kdom...@Howard.edu>
Sent: Sunday, March 17, 2024 11:32 AM
To: Dompere, Kofi Kissi <kdom...@Howard.edu>
Subject: FW: USA Africa Dialogue Series - An Open Letter to the Ekene Society of Agbarha-Otor: Between Historical Preservation and Erasure from History

 

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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Great thanks Kofi

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[cornelius...@gmail.com]

Doesn’t your concern fall within the purview of The National Commission for Museums and Monuments ? 

In that case, instead of beating your drum (in this forum) as a one-man band, you could take your problem to them: Two heads are better than one, and it’s you that has the problem, not the Ekene Society of Agbarha-Otor in Ughelli North in Nigeria's Niger Delta.

 Is it not likewise with the Ogboni ?

Ostensibly, you are altruistic, nationalistic, very concerned about preserving, documenting and perpetuating a potentially threatened species, a worthy bearer of centuries-old cultural history that has survived in secrecy, namely the Ekene Society of that specific location, in that neck of the woods. You want to protect and perpetuate their practices and secrets, for all posterity; in short, if you ask me, you’re nothing less than a nosey parker - serious like Polonius - and if you persist with your curiosity also in danger of being dispatched - by violence - in his case inadvertently daggered and dismissed with a ”Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell! I took thee for thy better. Take thy fortune. Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger.”

Even as an anthropologist you’ve got to respect the rules of privacy that govern the Ekpene and every other secret society that exists and that has ever existed such as e.g.The Assassins 

For your own self-preservation, and cognizant of the truths of  “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread”, don’t you respect signs that warn “Trespassers will be prosecuted/ annihilated/ shot survivors will be shot again” 

Those should have been the warning signs for the colonial settlers “the impies” (short for imperialists), the impies and their invading armies : Trespassers will be shot on sight and shot survivors will be shot again - in short, annihilated ( by the Reception Committee).

That way there would have been no Belgian, British, French, German, Portuguese "colonies" and no Nuremberg Trials , talk less of fighting for or being granted “Independence”; and hence we get these lines from a decorated Zionist seer, serial monogamist, singer, poet, prophet, sage :

“Democracy don’t rule the world

You’d better get that in your head

This world is ruled by violence

But I guess that’s better left unsaid”

So, you, Senor Adepoju, instead of standing on the outside trying to have a good peek inside, you could, of course, apply for membership of the Ekpene. (My greatest regret is that I did not join the Arochukwu Society in Chidi’s neck of the woods when I was invited to do so ( early in 1983). Alternatively , you could set up a few satellites in outer space - as you know, some of those satellites up there can locate and film objects that are the size of a golf ball down there in Damascus.

Bottom-line : I suppose they are free to enjoy their privacy as long as they don't practise cannibalism or ritual murder etc

YouTube : Secret Societies

[cornelius...@gmail.com]

I think that this is serious, when you consider that George W  Bush (of the land of the free) was known to be a member of the Skull and Bones Secret Society and when pressed about it said “ It’s too secret to talk about it”. In an African context  - thinking about the Christian Missionary imagination - an African Secret Society with a blood-curdling name such as “The Brotherhood Of The Skull and Bones” would send a chill or two down the missionary’s Pentecostal spine, confirming their greatest fear : demonic possession, Witchcraft and Voodoo posing a challenge to their exorcism talents and their salvific mission  to save the heathen in this vale of tears

According to chapter 6 part i section 137  - clause  f of the 1999 constitution - a person is disqualified from running for President of Nigeria  “if he is a member of any Secret Society,” 

There must be a good reason for this clause. Especially Secret Societies headquartered outside the country.

In Sierra Leone for example - apart from the Creoles, more or less everyone else has belonged or gone through rites of passage via the Poro ,the Sande or the Wonde Secret Societies - which means that it would be foolhardy to have  a disqualification clause in any Sierra leone Constitution, stating, that you cannot be Prezzo if you belong to a Secret Society. A wannabe president should not be beholden to foreign interests.

For ordinary citizens there’s Articles 18 and 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

In Colonial Kenya, people did not go around informing the Colonial Authorities that they were members of the Mau Mau. Not that the Mau-Mau was a secret society, or was it? 

# The relationship between religion and secret societies

Google : Secret Societies of Africa

YouTube : Africa : Secret Societies

YouTube : African Secret Societies

YouTube : Secret Societies in Africa

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Thanks for your efforts Cornelius

Do i know what to say at this point?

Anyway, a community in the city of Ughelli has expressed interest in my studying their shrines.

Ill focus on that and individual Agbarha spiritual practitioners who are interested.

Ill leave the Ekene Society alone.

I was welcomed into two of the three Ekene shrines.

Even those i was welcomed into im likely to discontinue visiting so as to avoid anyone objecting to my presence there.

thanks

Toyin 

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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

On second thought, in relation to interacting with the Ekene Society, I promised the Ekene deity, when the priest was praying for me at one of the Ekene shrines where I was welcomed, that if Ekene did for me what I had requested, I would contribute money  for the removal of the dirt at the base of the Ekene grove that borders the main road as well as for building a wall to surround the grove and for providing  a plaque identifying the significance of the location.

I have contacts in the Ekene Society with whom I have discussed that goal.

I pray a way can be found to accomplish it.

Thanks

Toyin

[cornelius...@gmail.com]

Oluwatoyin, 

The Quran begins by enumerating the conditions which qualify the reader to accept its contents : 

al-Baqarah: The Cow

“ Alif. Lam. Mim.

This is the Scripture whereof there is no doubt, a guidance unto those who ward off (evil).

Who believe in the Unseen, and establish worship, and spend of that We have bestowed upon them; And who believe in that which is revealed unto thee (Muhammad) and that which was revealed before thee, and are certain of the Hereafter. These depend on guidance from their Lord. These are the successful.”

Do you remember this post which begins, “The whole world is waiting”?

There must be a reason, something compulsive that attracts you to shrines. I hazard a guess that maybe in a former life you were a High Priest at one of those sanctuaries?

There are all kinds of invisible spirits flying around, some of whom they say, can be very harmful and that’s why you’ve got to be careful because if you are at loggerheads with them or their priests they are said to be capable of causing grave bodily and psychic harm  - as a result of which some people need the services of an exorcist. So, when you say ” I'll leave the Ekene Society alone”, that’s what I call a kosher decision.

I don’t think that I’m superstitious but I must confess that not only Edgar Allan Poe but also the Missionaries have also got a hold on our imagination and that’s why unlike Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, Chidi Anthony Opara wouldn’t dream of spending a night in the cemetery writing this kind of poetry - because he fears - and he fears because of all that talk that he has heard and read about The Holy Ghost  // The Holy Spirit - in contrast with ghosts and spirits that are not so holy, ghosts and spirits that hang out in some of the shrines, and hence we get stories such as Tutuola’s “ My LIfe in the Bush of Ghosts”

You have also spoken in glowing terms about Christopher Okigbo’s The Passage 

As the Scottish Sheikh put it in his attack on His Holiness Benedictus Erectus ( Papal Bull) :

“ The little ex-Hitler Youth, Pope Someone the Something had just returned from his African Holy-day. He made one important announcement for a continent crippled with the doctrines of bankism, poverty, genocide, and sexual anarchy with its pandemic disease. Africa, he declared, had to cure itself of witchcraft and the practices of magic.

He then celebrated the primitive magical rite which is the foundation of his claim to fame. Wafer biscuits were served to the people and goblets of red wine were elevated before a large cross and drunk by the initiate priests. Only he and priests ritually initiated by his Cardinals and Bishops were able to perform this magic act. For, it was claimed, this bread and wine were transformed, transubstantiated in their special language, into the flesh and blood of the Lord Jesus who lived two thousand odd years ago. It was not, as the rebel protestants claimed, consubstantiation – that is, it both is and is not the flesh and blood of Jesus. Nor was it, as the extreme protestants claimed, nonsubstantiation – that is, not changed from bread and wine, merely a commemorative act of the ‘Last Supper’. The ‘Hic est corpus’ of the Roman Mass – ‘This is my body’ – was already by the Middle Ages being mockingly called ‘Hocus pocus’, which became the synonym of fraud.”

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

I have become engrossed with Agbarha-Otor.

I count my days in terms of when I can return there, having been there in Feb and early March this year and planning to return as soon as possible.

What attracts me to the place?

A representative example of Onobrakpeya's greatest works, housed in his two galleries there, which I am able to tour almost daily on a visit to the town.

Interactions with spiritual adepts in their magnificent shrines.

Ready access to Ughelli with another powerful network of shrines, with the custodians ready to share knowledge with one, it seems.

The Ekene groves and shrines in Agbarha-Otor, the first examples I encountered of the town's spiritual culture, would have completed the picture, but even taking time to look at those groves is something I wonder if it could attract the angry attention of those Ekene members who think Ekene should be restricted to Agbarha people only.

Some of the shrines welcomed me, but the stark division between Ekene members on admission of non-Agbahar people is such that I have decided not to visit those shrines again, lest something negative occurs. 

Its a semi-rural environment, with a vast palm tree planation with clear roads, near the Onobrak Art Centre, where the galleries are, along with a lot of quiet roads in that area, perfect for walking and  contemplation.

The only problem is that a good part of the town has no electricity.

This can be addressed by using a relatively cheap but good hotel but the price of a room for a week in such a hotel  is equal to the cost of a good part of the year's rent for a self contained room and parlour in the rural section of town near the art centre.

I considered  renting such an apartment there but the absence of any electricity nullifies the value of the low rent.

I have been thinking of where to move to. Ive been wondering what value Lagos has for me since it does not have a library or bookshop culture, two primary  attractions of a city for me.

In the absence of those, tree shrines and human made shrines, along with large natural space, are my next main attractions.

Agbarha has the latter but the tree shrines are part of the conflicted Ekene orientations.Ughelli can take care of that part of my interests, though and Ughelli is not far from Benin, another place with a rich shrine culture but the swift urbanization of Benin means that such structures might not be as visible as before but their tree shrines one can gaze at till eternity without any apprehension even though one may not enter them. 

The greatest sacred forest in Benin known to me though, the Ogba forest, has been destroyed, to make way for a housing estate, one of the most destructive acts of something I have bern directly connected with .

Thanks for the conversation.

Toyin

On Tue, Mar 19, 2024, 4:04 AM Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovde...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks Cornelius.

I entered into shrine construction through Western esotericism and into African spiritually shrine construction by reading Soyinka's Myth, Literature and the African World, and into the further appreciation of shrine aesthetics through exposure to Benin City shrines.

I was so happy on being admitted to two of the three shrines of the Ekene Society while in the third one the priestess told me " speaking for my gods, you are not welcome. Those who admitted you to the other shrines and showed you the sacred groves do not know the traditions. Ekene is for Agbarha people only."

The priests of the other two shrines received me warmly, prayed for me and one even gave me sacred chalk with which to pray for myself.

The entire experience was very moving.

I cant get the Agbarha experience out of my mind.

I have various things I would like to do to the to benefit of the town and my work if im given a chance.

Am I becoming like one of those the  Ekenene deity calls to serve him in Agbarha?

Thanks

Toyin

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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Thanks Cornelius.

I entered into shrine construction through Western esotericism and into African spiritually shrine construction by reading Soyinka's Myth, Literature and the African World, and into the further appreciation of shrine aesthetics through exposure to Benin City shrines.

I was so happy on being admitted to two of the three shrines of the Ekene Society while in the third one the priestess told me " speaking for my gods, you are not welcome. Those who admitted you to the other shrines and showed you the sacred groves do not know the traditions. Ekene is for Agbarha people only."

The priests of the other two shrines received me warmly, prayed for me and one even gave me sacred chalk with which to pray for myself.

The entire experience was very moving.

I cant get the Agbarha experience out of my mind.

I have various things I would like to do to the to benefit of the town and my work if im given a chance.

Am I becoming like one of those the  Ekenene deity calls to serve him in Agbarha?

Thanks

Toyin

On Mon, Mar 18, 2024, 11:08 PM cornelius...@gmail.com <cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA]

"....Chidi Anthony Opara wouldn’t dream of spending a night in the cemetery writing this kind of poetry....."-Mazi Cornelius.

Mazi,

Let me remind you that poetry is creative writing, so, I do not have to spend a night or nights in a cemetery to write poems about same, all I need do is to create a cemetery situation from what I heard and read.

Warm regards,

-CAO.

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[cornelius...@gmail.com]

Oluwatoyin,

I’m impressed by your second thoughts. They sound quite rational to me in that you demand reciprocity from the deity : You have promised the Ekene deity that if Ekene does for you what you requested, you would contribute money for the removal of the dirt at the base of the Ekene grove that borders the main road as well as for building a wall to surround the grove and for providing a plaque identifying the significance of the location.

I suppose that a Nigerian Pentecostal who also believes in the existence of juju  may well ask if you believe the Ekene deity to be as efficacious as The Almighty or Jesus, when it comes to fulfilling your prayer requests. The holy rabbis of course would quote Tehillim 96:5, to wit that “the deities of the nations are merely idols” etc and the people you refer to as ”Muslim fundamentalists" will denounce your decision as Shirk 

I suppose that from a strictly monotheistic point of view your decision could be subject to transactional analysis.

In my honest opinion yours is quite a logical move, it’s transactional : If the Ekene deity answers your prayer you’ll donate to the garbage clearance outside the shrine - and I suppose you’ll also start paying your tithes (but if the deity doesn’t answer your prayer / fulfil your wishes, then it's no cigar ?

But the deity could delay in fulfilling your request - it could take a long time and you could have to be as patient as Job.

“Do you ever wonder just what God requires ?

You think He's just an errand boy to satisfy your wandering desires?” 

When You Gonna Wake Up?

Bob Dylan wants to know.

Thomas Nagel : Mortal Questions

A mind teaser right up your street : A commentary on Liberation  

On Monday 18 March 2024 at 19:07:15 UTC+1 Oluwatoyin Adepoju wrote:

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Thanks Cornelius.

It was actually the shrine priest who asked me to state what I would do in return if my wishes were granted.

I dont even need to wait to have my wish granted to do what I promised. I'm eager to do it at the earliest possible opportunity.

I could ask my friend from the shrine in question to get a bricklayer in Agbarha to cost the potential wall and get workers to state their cost for cleaning the side of the road next to the grove. I could then make my donation and suggest the shrine do the rest as well as supervise the job.

But having observed a sharp ideological divide in the Ekene Society over admittance of non-Agbarha people to participating in even the basic rites of the Society, such as sitting with others in the shrine as one shares the same small cup in drinking a shot of gin or watching the festival from near the shrine, privileges which the shrine which welcomed me granted me but which some others, represented for me by the shrine whose priestess declined to welcome me, believe should be taboo for non-Agbarha people, I want to be wary of igniting any political frictions.

By the time one is instrumental in inspiring the tidying up of the area around a particular grove, what will the insularists think? Will they be impressed or displeased, particularly when the beauty of the newly constructed wall is clear to all as the groves  associated with other Ekene shrines could still be without such walls? 

Keeping that in mind, it might be better to wait until the wish I presented to the deity is fulfilled before initiating that step, by which time a greater change might have occured within Ekene on welcoming non-Agbarha.

Ekene devotion is a rich example of nature/ humanity synergy and artistic culture, the significance of which goes beyond one's  attitude to belief in the Ekene deity.

Thanks

toyin

 

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[cornelius...@gmail.com]

“The greatest sacred forest in Benin known to me though, the Ogba forest, has been destroyed, to make way for a housing estate, one of the most destructive acts of something I have been directly connected with “

In this day and age of ecological consciousness, how on earth could that have been permitted to happen in Nigeria?

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Oluwatoyin, 

Thanks for the timely clarification ; it absolves you from any wrong impression that you were bargaining with the deity ; dear deity if you do this for me, I will do that for you - first hear my prayer and then I’ll donate to your cause. Unlike dear Abdullah, Allah’s weakest slave serving in humble obedience always, doing all things with a joyful heart, fi sabilillah

This afternoon, I ran into Stockholm’s nicest Rabbi, a great teacher: Chaim Greisman (I would defend him with my blood). I mention him because of what you are saying concerning “the Ekene Society’s policy about over admittance of non-Agbarha people to participating in even the basic rites of the Society” reminds me of many years ago /about 25 years ago around the time of the Second Intifada which was accompanied - paralleled by a dramatic rise in antiSemitism over here in Sweden and it was around that time that I told a Sephardic Jewish guy from the Mahgreb who to me was the spitting image of a Shia Muslim friend from Iraq - I told him that if I had been working as the security man at the synagogue door I would not have let him in. He asked me, “Why?” I told him, “Because you look like a certain guy I know from Iraq.” He replied,” That’s alright, I know him too.” I asked him, “ You know him too? Who?” He said,” Saddam Hussein”

OK, so just because the God Who created the heavens and the galaxies belongs to everybody doesn’t mean that the  custodians of that Epene Shrine should not have a policy.

If you were one of the custodians of that shrine and some patriotic Boko Haram brethren wanted to pay a visit, what would you say? Would you discriminate - them? 

Commandement 13, I should not exaggerate?

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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

The tragedy of the destruction of the  Benin Ogba forest occured beceause the forest was underappreciated and so the forces of commerce swept away what understanding existed.

In all my journeys in various parts of England, both rural and urban, I never saw anything like that forest.

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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Thanks Cornelius.

The Ekene Society does not have a collective  policy of not admitting non-Agbahar people into its activities.

Its an attitude shared by only some Ekene members and I suspect they are i the minority in Agbahar-Otor, given my Ekene experience there so far.

I was welcomed into two of the three Ekene shrines.

 I had even been welcomed into the third shrine, with even the priest present. It was the priestess who later arrived and declared, politely but forcefully, " speaking for my gods, you are not welcome".

I was well received at the mini Ekene festival by the priest and priestess of one of those welcoming shrines and the priest prayed for me. He had even earlier gave me his phone no. I have been to the home of the priestess of that shrine.

I have Ekene friends who find the non-welcoming of strangers attitude odd. They had encouraged me to come to the festival in the first place.

The man who tried to harass me at the festival bcs I was not Agbarha was not able to find anyone to support him although they could not prevent him from effecting his insistence that I remain on the distant outskirts of the festival, far from the shrine.

One view from an Agbarha indigene suggests  that what Im observing are the fractures of an older attitude emerging from Ekene as originally a war deity for Agbarha protection against aggressive neighbours, leading to rites in which indigenes of neighbouring communities were victims and to strict enforcement of the non-Agbahar rule at the main Ekene festival held in intervals of at least a decade, a rule transgressed on pain of death.

Therefore, according to this view, the priestess who declared to me not only that I was not welcome at the Ekene shrine she heads but that those others who admitted me to their shrines and those who pointed out the Ekene sacred groves to me and explained their significance as representing the Father, Mother and Child manifestations of the Ekene deity ( though the groves are visible by the road side) are ignorant of the Agbarha exclusive character of Ekene, is speaking the unmodified truth, while those others who welcomed me are responding to modifications inspired by time, modifications, one may say, that are more informal and unofficial than unassailable policy.

The rich scholarly feast that can be harvested from this nature/ spirit/humanity synergy and triadic theology alone is wonderful in its possibilities.

If the Ekene people are not uncomfortable with visual and auditory observation and verbal description of their exquisite shrine artistry, unique in each shrine, and the disciplined grandeur of their rites, that would be great.

The gravity with which they hold the photography taboo is so strong, a friendly devotee at one of those welcoming shrines informed me when I suggested we take a picture together some distance from the shrine during the festival, that if I took such a picture I would be killed.

Another friendly one advised me my phone must never be seen in my hands at the festival or shrine spaces so as to avoid the suspicion I was taking pictures with it. Any call im taking must be done far from those locations.

On account of these encounters, I have stopped even visiting the sacred groves to gaze at them in wonder from the side of the road least a zealous no-Agbahar indigene-upholding Ekene devotee raises an alarm that I could be taking pictures or wants to be aggressive about my interest in the groves in the first place.

Ekene is the major, unifying deity in Agbahar, a community of twenty five villages and one town, Agbarha-Otor, im told, so I wonder how Ekene is approached in those other communities, as different from Agbarha-Otor, where the artist Bruce Onobrakpeya has built galleries containing some of his greatest work and where he holds the annual Harmattan Workshops for artist training, attendance at the February edition of which introduced me to Agbarha-Otor and to  Ekene, a magnificent frame for my Onobrakpeya biography in progress, the town and its spiritual artists being the spiritual and artistic culture of the birth community of Onobrakpeya.

I wish I could have a discussion with the Ekene leadership, and perhaps their members, about strategies of cultural preservation within the very serious dangers faced by classical African spiritualities, of planning in terms of centuries in a rapidly changing world, of projecting pride in one's community by allowing the world to appreciate its achievements.

If I get the chance, im likely to have to speak in pidgin, since thats the language I share with most of the devotees, since I don't understand their native language, Urhobo.

Ironically, the Ekene members I met who are fluent in Standard English are the priestess who declared I was not welcome in her shrine and her shrine members I saw, all looking modern and cosmopolitan, even like university academics, but who found my intercultural orientation strange, while the largely older, Urhobo and pidgin speaking members of the other shrines welcomed me without difficulty. Puzzling.

Thanks

Toyin

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