Category Archives: IKA culture

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THE FARMING CYCLE IN IKA CULTURE

The farming cycle in Ika begins between January and February each year, at a time when the harmattan wind has opened up the bushes. The general pattern is a block system in which segments of a village make their farms in one section of the village land each year. The duration of the ‘bush fallow’ reflects the pressure of population on land. In the olden days, in some villages, the period of the bush fallow varied from seven to fifteen years whereas a five-year or less was characteristic of some other villages. Nowadays, the duration has reduced to three or two years and even less in some villages.

Men brush the bush with machetes and lately with shovels. Trees are felled or their tops lopped in recent times as a result of the tenderness of the trees. The substances are allowed to lie on the ground to dry whereby they are burnt to form an ash base, the chief source of fertilizer. While clearing the farm after burning, sticks for staking yams are collected. In recent times, bamboo sticks are mainly used for staking as there are not enough sticks in Ika bushes any longer.

Planting starts with the first rains which generally occur in late March or early April. Men use hoes or shovels in recent times to make cylindrical holes at about 180 centimetres (six feet) intervals. The period for planting and staking is one of great task for the men. Some who have arrears of work, for any reason, often engage the services of their kinsmen, in- laws or paid labour in recent times. Before the services of paid labour were known in Ika culture, there were several ways through which the Ika farmers side-tracked the difficulties of obtaining labour for their farm work. Apart from the household, extra labour was supplied by work parties. A work party is formed when three or four men agree to pull their efforts together and work on another’s farm in turn. Sometimes, additional labour is supplied by a person’s distant relations. There is another system referred to as otu-ohu/ofu; in this case, two men work in each other’s farm in rotation throughout a farming season.

The economic interest of Ika women in the farm is so well recognized that the women crops follow the men’s. Even before the planting of yams (the prime crop), portions, mkpa, are allocated to the women individually. Each woman plants such women crops enumerated above after yams are planted. This gives place to inter-cropping, a system where three or more crops maturing at different times are grown on the same plot of land. While the women are busy planting their crops, men stake the growing yams. From this period on, the women tasks in the farm increase, while those of the men are reduced to periodic visits to support the yam veins. Weeding is done twice or thrice on each farm, and it is usually performed by the children. The first weeding occurs in April, the second or perhaps the third in July, August or September.

In March or April, women plant cassava and sometimes, early okra in their special garden (ofia oka or ali igari), cassava farm. This is a recent development caused by the fact that even on poor soils; cassava has a high yield than yam. There is an increasing demand of the growing town population for cassava flour and garri, coupled with the fact that cassava has a comparatively low cost of production. Its food is easy to prepare and ideally suits the bachelor and the migrant. Initially, the Ika people who have not lived outside their villages regarded garri as nni ndi aghalo-uzo, the travellers’ food. However, the older people then regarded it as an inferior food lacking the prestige of yam, the traditional staple. It was regarded as the poor man’s food. Nowadays, among the people who are losing the older dietary preference, and acquiring new ones in Ika community culture, garri is superseding all other staples in importance, but certainly not in prestige.

By June, all the yams have been planted. A period of food shortage called famine, (ogen onwu/ugari) sets in. As yams become scarce, men depend on their wives for subsistence. The chief staple then becomes cocoyam or cassava in more recent times. In the olden days, when cassava was not known in Ika community, pudding of various types saved the situation during the famine period. Ogen onwu or ugari is caused by lack of well-developed system of storing surplus yams during the harvesting season for their use during the out-of-season period. Men of prestige and high social status, however, keep enough yams for themselves and their visitors. In the olden days, people also saved the situation by planting an early variety of yams called ore, which were planted early and harvested very early. This helped to shorten the famine period.

Before the final harvest begins in October, the yam house (oban), barns, have been repaired or new ones prepared. The yams are harvested by men and carried by women and children. Some people still maintain two separate yam barns, one in the farm and the other at home. Yams are tied to long up-right sticks secured permanent live posts by means of ropes in those days, but nowadays, by threads imported by traders. From the harvest to the next planting season, yams are eaten as often as possible. In addition to farm crops, the Ika people add in their diets, banana, bread fruits, oranges and pears. The men often wash the food down with palmwine. The trees that provide these supplementary foods are often grown in separate groves. An important source of food supply from the nutritional point of view is obtained by the collection of wild vegetable products such as mushroom, ujuju, oziza, oda, onunu-abun, utenzi, orioma, etc. In recent times, where close settlement and extensive cultivation have reduced the natural vegetations, these wide vegetables have become scarce. To be continued…
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Community, Editorial, IKA culture, Ika society, ikaland, RELIGION

T here are so many aspects of Ika culture which are being abandoned and forgotten in the present-day Ika society:

(i) Paying homage to the elders, idioma or diokpa of Idumu.This was done in many ways:-

a. Through the reserving of the dreg of palmwine to the most elderly man. Whenever people or the descendants of a kindred, ebon gather to drink palmwine, the dreg (the last cup of the calabash of a palmwine) is reserved as a tribute and loyalty to the idioma or diokpa.

b. Offering of meat Ohuhu: It was the tradition that whenever any adult of Ika man killed any of the following animals, bush pig, ezi, antelope, mgbadan, deer, ele, etc, in his trap in the bush or with his gun, some portions of the meat would be offered to the idioma or diokpa and the people of his Idumu (See Chapter Four for details on Ohuhu).

(ii) Communal labour orun ogbe: The ancestors of the Ikaland helped themselves through communal effort. They built houses for their kinsmen with mud walls and roofed them with mgbodo (igbodo), and worked in their farms without any payment except for the entertainment given to them by the person they helped (See Chapter Fourteen for details in Communal build of ulo ejan.)

(iii) Nowadays, the Ika people find it difficult to carry out such civic duties which were carried out by the age-grades. For example, a particular age-group is charged with weeding and sweeping the major streets of the village, market squares, playgrounds and lanes in the villages, especially during festival periods. They weeded farm and stream roads when the needs arose and performed a lot of other duties. Communal labour is a big problem now facing the Ika people at home. This has to do with manpower shortage. The youths drift to urban and industrial towns in the country and abroad to look for employment in ministries, industries, firms, etc.

(iv) Wrestling contests during some festivals: In the years past, and on such days, the elders and the youths in a village would assemble at the square or playground for the wrestling contest for the year. Nowadays, the youths of Ika do not attach any importance to this important aspect of Ika culture. It is only the small boys that wrestle in their respective villages, if at all.

(v) Native dance: In the days of the Ika ancestors, new native dances were released regularly by the native musicians. They introduced different tunes of music which they teach the youths. There are various types of music for entertainment on different occasions and nights. Agbara was Ika’s famous music for entertainment on happy evenings or Eken days. Other native dances are Ojerima, Okangan, Kokoma, egu ogbugba, egu ofufe, etc. At present, no new native music is being released by Ika musicians and the old ones are fading away. The Ika elders, who danced them, are so old now that they cannot teach them to the modern Ika youths. The modern sophisticated orchestras have taken the places of the Ika native music. The dangerous aspect of this phenomenon is that modern instruments are no substitutes for ancient and customary musical instruments of the Ika people. As the youths neglect these native music, such music may die away with the elders who danced them. Ekpere trumpet and drumming of the Ika musical instruments cannot be left out. The case of ekpere is most disturbing. Ekpere which gives melody to all Ika native music is rapidly passing away. The modern youths of Ika are not prepared to learn ekpere trumpet. Many drummers of Ika musical instruments are also “passing” away without replacements.

Most traditional rulers seem to have abandoned their traditional roles and responsibilities in Ika polity. Some of them have become Christians while others are neither Christians nor pagans. Many of them pay little attention to the maintenance of sacred places, traditional rules and sanctuaries, which were the mainstay of the purity and holiness of the palaces. Many traditional rulers have restructured and equipped their palaces in modern ways; and yet, many of them have destroyed, or abandoned their ancestral ways of sanctifying their palaces. All in all, it is becoming very apparent that the Ika traditional culture is shrinking with the emergence of new generation of the Ika people.

However, the view is still held that despite the presence of religious organizations and educational enlightenments in Ika nation, the average Ika indigene is obsessed with superstitious beliefs. While many Ika people may wish to be regarded as connected with one or the other of the fashionable Churches in Ikaland, many are, at heart, still having regard for their indigenous beliefs. It is now becoming clear to the most optimistic Christian evangelists that the problems of the Churches in Ika today is the divided loyalty of most of their followers between Christianity with the Western culture and the Traditional Religion on the other hand. It is well known that in strict personal matters relating to the passage and crises of life, most Ika people may regard the Traditional Religion as a final succour. In hospitals and maternity homes, for instance, people who are on admission, and have declared themselves Christians, and indeed are practising Christians, have medicines prepared in traditional ways smuggled in simply because, psychosocially at least, that is more effective, in that it is a consecrated medicine with the touch of a divine healer in contrast with some mere “coloured water” or pills. In matters concerning providence and general well-being therefore, most Ika people still look upon their own religion or herbal medicine as a way out.

Magical practices still take place throughout Ikaland. They are often times applied to meet new circumstances. For example, many young native doctors specializing in the preparation of magical objects of all kinds abound in Ika. New magical objects and preparations are imported from the communities around Ika culture. Some carry amulets which they claim have magical powers around their necks, waists and arms, for protection against evils or evil spirits. Many also consult diviners in secret. There are of course, education and the Churches to give positive enlightenment and combat magic practices, but it will take time before there is a decline of superstition in Ikaland.

Beliefs in gods may linger on as ancestral worship persists. Many Ika people still believe in the spirits of the forests, those of streams and other areas, even if they do not worship them. The ancestors may habe their cults transmuted, but the belief in the nearness of the dead is very strong with the people of Ika community culture. The large and ornated tombs, the long obituaries and the popular memorial services and masses testify to this. Christians may still name their children baba-abia, Abiamuwe, Uwerihun etc, which means “my father has returned to earth”, “I have come back to earth”, “there are other lives ahead”. All these are strongly inclined to traditional beliefs. If there is a death in the family, for instance, Christians cut their hair like the other members of the family do. What all these portray is that we are still living in both worlds of the Christians and that of hate non-Christians. By all these beliefs and practices, Ika Christians seem very close to their cultural root than they are to Christianity.

The study of the new Churches reveals that they seek to incorporate elements of indigenous religion into the formal Christian religion. Their mode of worship is very traditional. For example, traditional musical instruments are now used, and their songs are at times, very similar to those used in the shrines of Ika local deities. Some of the new Churches have prophets and apostles who are reputed to have the power of traditional medicine-men. They heal the sick, define the causes of misfortunes and prescribe remedies that are not very different from those normally prescribed by the Ika traditional medicine-men. But at the same time, they read the Bible and pray through Jesus Christ. Although the adherents of these new Churches appear generally devoted, they are still not as devoted as the practitioners of the Traditional Religion in Ika nation. Indeed, in times of real life crisis, most of the members resort to the traditional faith in secret. This situation may continue in Ika for a long time to come.

Witchcraft belief and magic flourish as ever in Ika community culture. For example, in most cases, the educated ones even attribute to witchcraft their failure at work, their failure to have children, or seek magical protection against diseases. They may use new types of medicine but of magical kind. Many have recourse to the medicine-men and to the European trained doctors. A medicine-man serves as a link between the villagers and their ancestors, he may interpret a patient’s sickness or nightmares as due to an angry ancestor who has been neglected, and demand that money be sent home to make offerings.

In all the villages and towns in Ika community culture, the ancient religion is still practised by many people. Some people have become largely Christians while many others have nearly rejected it. Also, many men and women out of sheer carelessness and laziness have joined Churches and Sects if only they would be freed from being subjected to traditional trials and sanctions. And the majority of these crusaders of the new Churches are women who cannot find husbands, or wives suffering from infertility. Yet, others are those who have found no jobs. Even in the villages, and among those who have accepted the new religion, there is a great substratum of traditional beliefs which must never be left out of Ika community culture. These are the ancient ideas which constantly reappear in Christian societies in Ika. They are not only the spiritual Churches that are currently trying to weld traditional concepts with the imported religion in Ika community culture. For instance, the Catholic Church which, for sometime banned the second burial ceremonies and the taking of titles by her members has partially revoked the ban with a justifiable conviction that such practices are parts of people’s culture.For many people in Ika, Christianity is quite superficial and has no real answer to life’s personal difficulties nor deep-rooted influence on the people’s moral problems. Those people that have affinity with the community’s Traditional Religion in the past, or on beliefs in the phenomena like reincarnation, witches and wizards, clandestine forces, spiritual world, ancestors, deities, spirits, etc, may continue to be shaky. For instance, if such people are threatened by insecurity, death, disease, famine, etc, they may quickly fall back on their indigenous religion for succour. This apparent situation may continue to make some people in Ika to deal only superficially with Christianity while yet, many people may be taken off of Christianity by the ‘evil and unhealthy practices’ of some members of the Churches and Sects.

It is not enough to embrace a faith that is active once a week, either on Sundays or Fridays while during the rest days in the week, nothing is done. It is not enough to embrace a faith which is locked up six days, and opened only once or twice a week. Unless Christianity fully occupies the whole person as much as, if not more than the Traditional Religion does in Ika community culture, most converts to these faiths will continue to revert to their old belief and practices, for perhaps six days a week and certainly in times of emergency and crisis.

In an attempt to restore the soul of the Ika cultural beliefs, the traditional foundation of a ritual has gradually been introduced into all the gatherings, be it civil or traditional in nature. Such a ritual always proceeds the Christian prayers, that is, the ‘traditional breaking of kola nuts’. This ceremony is always performed in a traditional setting. Kola nuts are presented and broken in the traditional manner with the avowed purpose of helping the Ika people to pray to their God/gods through the dialect which the kola nut understands. “Kola nut does not understand any other language but vernacular.” Libations are poured with drinks, and the prescribed details of the foundation of the ritual are carried out. This is often accompanied by poetic affirmations of justice and fair play, and invocation of the gods of the Ikaland to enforce the traditional concepts. Kola nuts and drinks are shared in the traditional way as a form of communion.

“Our recommendation, therefore, is that all the Ibos, Christians as well as non-Christians, acknowledge those links with our patrilneal ancestors in the pouring of libation and in the giving of kola nuts.” (Prof. (Rev.) Ilogu Edmund).To be continued…
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Ika News: T here are so many aspects of Ika culture which are being abandoned and forgotten in the present-day Ika society:

Community, Entertainment, IKA CULTURAL, IKA culture, IKA PEOPLE, Ika People in Diaspora Association, ikaland, Top News

IKA GREETINGS AND NUMERALS

IKA GREETINGSThe Ika people have many concepts of goodness that are almost peculiar to them. Some of these concepts are an automatic invitation to a stranger to share in a meal, the respect for elders, and above all, the exchange of barrage of greetings in the streets, which tend to ease the pressure of living considerably. These are some of the ways through which the Ika people maintain good relationship with their neighbours. Convention demands that younger people show their respect for superiors or elders by greeting them first whenever both meet. The respect for elders is considered very important; and a child who does not observe this cardinal article of code of behaviour is not likely to turn out well. In the first place, his parents will practically disown him; and in the second, the children of the elders to whom he shows disrespect will make life extremely difficult for him.

As a mark of respect, the young calls the elders not by their names but by the pseudonym, diokpa or idioma or baba (aba) for the elderly males and edede or odede or iye or nne for the elderly women, before greetings. Refusal to exchange greetings indicates a strained relationship.Ika people have very many greetings suited for various people, time and occasion.

A. Greetings to the Traditional Rulers:(i) The Dein of Agbor is greeted Do-Dein.(ii) Agun or Agu is the greeting to other Obis in Ikaland, exceptthe Okparan-Uku of Idumuesah, whose greeting is Okparan. Agun is a name of powerful animal in the forest, Tiger. By the greeting, an Obi is adulated as a Tiger in strength. Agu is a short form of prayerful greeting. The greeter fervently prays that “this throne shall never terminate”, meaning that Ukponi-agu.(iii) Domo is a Bini greeting which some subjects, especially the elderly ones in Abavo, often times greet their Obi.

In greeting, one stands in an upright position and says, Do-Dein or Obi Agun or Obi agu or Obi Domo or Okparan, with a genuflection, with the right fist held set in the form of a bow; or put at an upright angle towards the king, firmly supported by the left hand below the elbow. The greeting could just be made with a bow. In the olden days, people prostrated on the floor when they greeted the king. Also, the king can be adulated with such forms of greetings like Agadagidi, Agwo Ekika, Eka Oghai, Agbogidi, Tutu, etc. In response, the king prays for the greeter.

B. Morning Greetings:Abavo, Idumuesah and Owa kingdoms have common morning greetings for males and females differently.(i) Lie is the morning greeting of the males to their elders of both sexes. Lie is a short form of prayer to an elder, ni toru nka ni hun onye eli ni, meaning may you live long and may you have who will give you a befitting burial at death. This greeting can also be interpreted to mean, eli-ye nimi meaning “I doff my hand for you”.(ii) Layu-Uwe is the morning greeting of the females in Abavo, Idumuesah and Owa to their elders of both sexes. Layu-Uwe is a short form of prayer to an elder which wishes him or her to live up to the ripe age (Laru-Uwe)(iii) Legite is the morning greeting for the females in Okpe village in Abavo to their elders of both sexes. The greeting is of Bini origin, and it is fast dying away.(iv) Labo is the morning greeting of Oza-Nogogo people in Agbor Kingdom.

C. Evening Greetings:(i) Enyase is the greeting for all in Abavo, Idumuesah, Owa and Mbiri kingdoms. It is a short prayer to an elder wishing him or her very fruitful old age. Ni uwe enyasi bo-i or ni uwe enyase re ima or laru uwe enyase.(ii) Ogbe-e or kaa-ra is an evening greeting for the people of Oza-Nogogo in Agbor kingdom.

D. General Greetings:(i) Uwe-Oma is a general greeting for many kingdoms in Ika. Notably the greeting is most popular for Agbor, Umunede, Akumazi, Mbiri and Ute kingdoms, at all times. Uwe-Oma is a prayerful greeting wishing the elder a blessed and fulfilled living. Baba (aba) or (Nne) is added as a suffix to distinct the greeting between a man and a woman. The greeting is Uwe-Oma Baba shortened to sound Ma-aba for a male and Uwe-Oma Nne shortened to Ma-nne for the female.

(ii) Isichei or Isicheri is a greeting of both sexes to very elderly people in all Ika kingdoms, especially those in the highest age grades in life or the retired people. Isichei is prayerfully wishing the ‘elder’s head’ to continue to survive or live.

(iii) Okpa is the greeting to elderly males at all times for Igbodo and sometimes for Akumazi people.

(iv) Omu is the greeting for elderly females at all times for Igbodo, Owa and Akumazi people.

(v) Omodi is the greeting for the younger ones in Igbodo and Akumazi at all times.

(vi) Ndo or Ndo-o is greeting expressing sorrow to somebody who is hurt, or who has suffered something which needs sympathy. It means sorry, and age or sex do have any barrier in the greeting.

(vii) Alua or Alua-o is a greeting expressing welcome from any journey, visit or outing.
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Entertainment, IKA CULTURAL, IKA culture, Ika North East Constituency in the Delta State House of Assembly, IKA south, NDI IGBOME, spirit, spirits, Top News, TRADITIONAL RELIGION BELIEF, WITCHES

SPIRITS IN IKA CULTURE

IKA CULTURAL CUM TRADITIONAL RELIGION BELIEF IN SPIRITS IN IKA CULTURETHE SPIRIT OF THE WITCHES (NDI IGBOME)

Since witches fly with birds or swift nocturnal animals or with other materials, it is not surprising that their favourite haunts are on top of trees. Tall trees in the forests or hollow or curiously shaped trees, especially silk-cotton, baobab and Iroko trees are widely held to be their meeting places.

It is also generally believed that the guild of witches has its regular meetings and ceremonies in forests, or in open sandy places called ubom (covens) in the middle of the nights. The meeting, a respondent explained, is the meeting of “souls”, ‘spirits’ of the witches. It is believed that the spirits leave the bodies of witches in the form of birds. Their main purpose is to work havoc on other beings; but the operation is the operation of spirits upon spirits; that is, the mortal bodies of the victims are attacked, extracted and devoured. This is what is meant when it is said that witches have sucked the entire blood of their victims. ‘Spirits meet spirits’, spirits operate against spirits, while the actual human being lie ‘asleep’ on their beds. It is always held that if anything prevents the return of the witch’s soul to its body, the owner (witch) will die. By definition, therefore, a witch is known to harm not through any palpable materials and as such, there are no rites, ceremonies or incantations which a witch has to perform. Perhaps, this is why it is not easy to know who is a witch in the community.

Witchcraft is an evil thing. Another respondent explained that it is hereditary with more than eighty percent of its practitioners being women. She said that mothers pass down their witchcraft to their daughters, but very rarely to their sons. Some, she agreed, are born witches; others acquire it, while many more are unknowingly given the act of witchcraft through food, kola nuts or drinks. Practitioners of witchcraft are mostly old and handicapped women, she said.Another respondent said that it is a well known fact that witches bewitch mostly themselves and their families. In line with her thinking, the witches are charged, each to provide victims in turns, and they meet to feast on their victims. These victims brought to the assemblies are mostly close relations of theirs. Witches prey most often upon those who are in close contact with them. The new witch entering the company must bring the soul of a relative, often one of her children. “Witches are terrible, and that is how they are initiated”, the respondent added. If the witch does not find a victim, she is liable to be torn to pieces by the other enraged harpies. The witches are said to eat their victims spiritually; that is to say that although descriptions of the feast sound like cannibalism, yet it is spiritual. The assembled ghouls tear the victim limb from limb, eat it raw or cook it. Or the blood may be sucked, vampire like fashion. Yet all these are done to the soul and not the body. “The soul is closely linked to the body, and as the witches devour the ‘spiritual body’, so the mortal frame weakens. Its blood is sucked away spiritually. Pains, paralysis or impotence appear in different victims. When the centre of blood, the heart or liver, is reached, then the victim dies”.

In the olden days, and even till date, it is believed in Ika that all kinds of troubles may be caused by witches, from barrenness in human beings to bad harvest. A wife who was a witch was believed quite capable of sucking her husband’s blood at night. In such a case, the husband would waste away, while the wife grows fatter and more robust.

Witches could cause abortion, and could delay a pregnancy beyond the usual nine months or indefinitely. They could enter the womb and devour the unborn child, so that a full-blown pregnancy would gradually wither away until it disappears. Witches could cause monstrous births. The child could turn into a tortoise, chimpanzee or snail, or it might have two heads, and so on.

Virtually, any illness whose cause was unknown was attributed to witchcraft, especially those diseases that cause the patient to lose weight progressively. To provoke illness, witches are said to enter the bodies of their victims in the form of crabs, lizards, spiders, ants and the like; thus, it was quite unusual for a sick person to complain of creatures crawling round his body and causing pains. Sudden deaths, lunacy, crop pests, invasion by soldier ants or bees, witches take the blame for them all. Children who cry out in the night may be troubled by witches, and even animals that behave strangely have perhaps been bewitched. They cause social disaster, sickness, unemployment, etc.

Some sorcerers and idibie are able to extract disease so caused from the bodies of their sufferers. The extracted diseases usually assume the form of stones, pins, nails, tiny pebbles, etc. The extracted materials are shown to the patients who would often recover thereafter.

A respondent told this writer. “Well, you are a child. Those who have seen life know that there are witches and wizards. One just prays that they do not put their hands in one’s load”

In modern Africa communities like Ika, there is great fear of witchcraft; and people look round before voicing their opinion on matters concerning witchcraft.

Chief (Dr) Onyekpeze .F.A. (JP)

The subject which occupied the people’s minds in the olden days, in Ika community, was witchcraft with which the aged, and perhaps, childless women were constantly accused to their destruction. No matter who they might be, whether the mother or wives of a king, of a rich or poor person, when once accused of witchcraft by any priest or dibie, they would be prepared to die.

They had to pass through the danger of drinking the poisonous tonic drink made from the leaves or barks of inyin tree to prove their innocence, which nine cases out of ten proved fatal. The result of an ordeal would sometimes be manipulated through the influence of bribery. Thus, a poison brew for an ordeal could be diluted or strengthened if the death of the accused was desirable. Tradition has it that the doses were regulated by the priest according to whether the priest regarded the accused as innocent or guilty, or in some cases, whether he had been bribed or not. The ordeal might include that of pouring poisonous fluids in the eyes and beating.

Witchcraft can also be used for the benefit of man. In that case, it is called white witchcraft. This is so because it is thought to be used for protection as when a woman uses it to protect her children, a respondent said.

BELIEF IN ANCESTORS IN IKA CULTUREAncestor-worship is at the centre of Traditional Religion in Ika culture. In the community, any ritual begins with the invocation. Osolobue (Deity) come and eat kola nut, Olokun come and eat kola nut; our ancestors come and eat kola nut. This shows indisputably that the ancestors are assigned a significant place in rituals.

The people of Ika do not debate whether their ancestors are gods or can be prayed to or not; they believe that having passed the grave, the ancestors have out-soared the shadow of their nights. They have acquired new powers, and so can help mortal beings on earth. It is this belief that makes a man to appeal to his ancestors for help in times of need. Their belief is generally that only good people become ancestors after they have received a ‘well-done’ judgment by the deity or by the ‘court of the ancestors’. In other words, they are those who lived well and great live when they were on earth; those who attained perfection and have joined the ancestors in the final home of mankind, okun.

Bad or wicked people will be cast into a ‘rubbish heap’, the ‘hell of midden’, or the ‘hell of potsherds’. In some cases, they become wanderers in celestial plain. The bad and the wicked people never arrive at the sublime resting place. They stay in their graves or keep roaming about on earth constituting bad or wandering spirits, ihoghai, and disturbing human beings and causing troubles. When they re-incarnate, they are afflicted with all sorts of misfortunes as punishments and purification for their bad deeds.

The Ika people believe that the ancestors have survived death and to be living in a spiritual world, but still taking active interest in the affairs of their families. They are believed to be watching over their families like a ‘cloud of witness’. Everything that concerns the family, its health, wealth and fertility are of interest to the ancestors since they are its elders, and will also seek rebirth with the same family. The family land is their property, and they must be consulted when land is let out to other people. In everyday life of the community, the dead are very present. Most people, as a regular habit, never drink and may never eat, without throwing a small portion on the ground for their forefathers.

As a result of their concern about, and their presence with their families, the community believes that their lives are profoundly influenced by their ancestors. Consequently, the ancestors should be continually loved and respected; their names should be adopted; their descendants should bear their titles of relationship like father and mother, respect their beliefs, values and culture handed over to them. These beliefs require the people to respect their parents and elders, maintain their family bounds such as to avoid meddling with wives of their kinsmen, ina nwunyen ebon, and so on; and practice hospitality towards strangers and visitors. The living should always call upon them when they are about to undertake any great task. They should invoke the ancestors when they break kola nuts, or when they are at meals. Their ancestors should always be in their lips so that their lives may be guided by their sacred presence. And above all, they should strive to live noble lives so that they may join them after death.

(To be continued)
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