Agbarha's Ekene Society, its Spirituality, its Arts and its Anti-Photography Taboo

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Agbarha's Ekene Society, its Spirituality, its Arts and its  Anti-Photography Taboo

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

The Ekene Society of  Agbarha  in the Ughelli North Local Government of Nigeria is a remarkable combination of spirituality and associated arts.

This artistry is demonstrated in their shrine constructions, in their sculpture,  in their ritual clothing  and in their performances, represented by  dances , prayers and ritual dramas.

The entire experience is most memorable.

BUT

No pictures are allowed.

Taking pictures can put the photographer's life at risk, I am told by Ekene members.

They also have beautiful groves, composed of magnificent trees, some in striking forrmations, but photographs of those are also not allowed. , 

This taboo has held for generations, including in connection with the main Ekene festival, formerly held every twenty years but now reduced to fifteen, in which what is described as an incredible pole, constructed without nails, is carried about as people dance at its apex, an engineering feat described as unreplicated by any other people.

What is the reason for this taboo against photography?

One Ekene member, Ejiro Ogbumere,  informed me it has to do with the absolute primacy of Ekene, the deity the Society serves, the primary deity of the Agbara community, in terms of its own projection, its unaided powers being adequate to the task, photography, therefore, being a form of blasphemy, in presuming the inadequacy of Ekene to adequately project himself, this being my understanding of these subtle concepts as they were shared with me in pidgin English by Ejiro, the one language we share since I don't understand Urhobo.

Sunday Emazargbo, another Agbarha indigene, but not an Ekene member, presented a view on the origin of Ekene devotion that could suggest the reason for this taboo.

He described Ekene as originally a war deity, his worship imported from the Itsekiri, who was invoked to protect Agbarha in war with neighbouring communities.

Perhaps the need to protect ethnic secrets, of warfare, spirituality and art, all interrelated in classical African cultures, might have informed the anti-pictures taboo.

I was also informed by Emazargbo that the main Ekene festival used to be out of bounds to Ekene people.

Even now, my efforts at attending the mini Ekene festival that began on the 2nd of March 2024, a prelude to the main one in 2027, was vigorously resisted by a man at the festival grounds in front of the shrine of Ekene the Father, Ekene being a water deity represented by a Father, Mother and Child aspect, each of them associated with a sacred grove and a human made shrine, and it seems, a priest and priestess.

Ekene is understood as the husband of Ekene female devotees, who need to perform certain rituals in order to get married to human men and have children, I was told by Ekene members.

Ekene is capable of calling Agbarha indigenes from anywhere in the world to serve him in Agbarha, it is held, a call complemented by Agbarha citizens from across the world converging in their home community for the Ekene festival.

Agbarha is the home community of the famous politically powerful and unusually wealthy Ibru family, who have a college, a university,  an economical centre and a structure meant to serve as an airport, in Agbarha-Otor, likely to be the largest in this community of twenty seven communities, I am told.

It is also the home community of the great Nigerian artist Bruce Onobrakpeya, who has sited there two large multi story galleries displaying a representative number of his greatest art, selections from the arts, often sacred and magical, of various African peoples, and the works of successive participants in the Annual Harmattan Workshops, which the Bruce Onobrakpeya Foundation he established has held in Agbarha-Otor for almost thirty years, to which artists from anywhere may attend for two weeks of training, accomodation and food three times a day, for a subsidized fee, as they also listen to educational lectures, take advantage of early morning guided exercises and prayer and the rich library of the Onobrak Art Centre, as the entire complex is called.

What is likely to be the future of  Ekene, a spiritual and artistic tradition stubbornly maintaining its oral character, devoid of any effort to record itself, its values, its thought, its history, its creativity, in words or images, with some of its members being against non-Agbahar people even showing interest in their affairs, even though I get the impression those whp are welcoming outsiders are  a much larger fraction, going from my experience in Agbarah-Otor earlier this year, interactibg wurh very nice,  very accommodating members of the Society who nevertheless insisted on their no-picture tradition being honored, a taboo i upheld even im private when there was no one watching.

It is held by some Ekene members that the camera of anyone who tries to take such pictures will not work or that Ekene, the deity will exact vengeance on the person

Encountering the groves, shrines and people of the Ekene Society has been one of my richest experiences in 2024.

I hope we can be mutually useful to each other as they have been to me in enlarging my horizons,  and  also useful to Agbarha in suggesting and contributing to carrying out developments beneficial to the community.