The Death of an Unknown Visionary: Obanor and the Modernization of Ekene Spirituality and Arts of Agbarha in the Niger Delta
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
The Death of an Unknown Visionary
Obanor and the Modernization of Ekene Spirituality and Arts of Agbarha in the Niger Delta
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
I knew he had not been well. Could that be why he had not called me since I received a call from the hospital where he had been checked in?
I thought I was busy and so did not call to speak to him after that day.
Why had he not called as he used to? An old man, frail and living in difficult circumstances. I hoped he was still alive.
Between the business and pleasure of the moment, as Arnold Toynbee put it, I kept putting off the call. My phone that I knew as having his number was bad.
Why not borrow another phone to call him?
But the resolve recurrently evaporated once
that moment of self recollection was over.
What is the gulf between those whose bodies are energized by the sun and those who have departed into the darkness beyond Earth from which there is no return? The everlasting blackness that renders the short journey on Earth of problematic importance?
On a particular morning, having eaten a refreshing meal of jollof rice and ogi, completed with an exquisite apple, I made the call I had postponed for so long.
Perhaps I had come close to a milestone in a years-long project of life impactful significance and could relax in relation to a far away friend I had not seen in two years.
I tried his name on my new phone. It was there. I dialled, expecting the familiar voice.
A woman picked the phone. I asked to speak with him.
She asked who I was. I gave my name and stated that he knew me.
She let out a sound of regret and spoke-
"Obanor is dead".
"When?!" I exclaimed. "18th of April." Almost a month ago.
That was his daughter, who with her husband, had done so much for his care, as he used to tell me.
His little daughter who I knew to be schooling, was still doing so and was even now preparing for an exam to the next level of her education, his daughter on the phone assured me.
What I am left with are memories.
What is the significance of the death of Obanor and at this time?
Obanor had a vision. A vision for the opening up of the extreme secrecy around the Ekene spirituality of Argbaha in the Ughelli North Local Government of the Niger Delta.
Ekene, the name of the water deity, being also the name I give to the spirituality, is highly artistic, but its an art partially revealed to the world, under severe taboos.
Its most spectacular performance, the Ekene masquerade, performs every fifteen years, enclosed behind the most dire of those taboos, taboos that must not be broken on pain of death, death through violence at the hands of Ekene devotees.
Photography and perhaps even audio recording are a taboo in relation to Ekene.
In a moment of excitement, seated near an Ekene shrine, with an Ekene devotee with whom I was getting along, I suggested we take a picture together.
"If you do that" she responded "you will be killed".
Stated calmly, without any change in her manner or facial expression. A statement of cold fact, not a threat.
The moment passed and we continued or conversation in its convivial mood.
That is the tradition of secrecy, of taboo to visual and perhaps other forms of recording, that Ekene represents, as I experienced first-hand im my fateful trip to take part in the mini Ekene festival on the invitation of my Ekene friends in Agbarha-Otor in March 2024.
When I wrote a book on Ekene that year and informed Obanor about it, the first writing of any significant length about Ekene, his first response was “that thing you said, I did not hear it".
He later agreed to read the book and present it to the Ekene community, a move I doubt he ever made, either because of his failing eyesight or desire to protect himself from being accused of being behind the desecration of Ekene, perhaps for financial gain or a combination of both.
Obanor is gone. Will his vision of working towards allowing photography in Ekene, beginning with the 2028 Ekene festival, outlive him?
Will compassionate and wise voices like his be around to make sure the stealing of property and the raping of women described as attending the Ekene festival do not arise again, allowing the artistic and spiritual glory of the tradition to shine through without stain?
I bend the knee in salutation, great brother, frail of form but large of heart and glorious of spirit, may the water spirit that nurtures all creation bring you to themself.