Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria

When the Inkum people first came to the Cross River about one hundred years ago, Chief Indoma established the five Inkum towns on the right bank of the river, and Chief Awum took his people over to the other side, and, having given the Enfitop people presents, asked them to allow him to build his town there, and also requested them to give him sufficient bush where he and his people could make their farms.

The Enfitop people eventually agreed to do this, and Chief Awum built his town, which he called Aliese, and appointed a man called Osode to be his second chief. Both these chiefs were under Chief Indoma of Inkum.

When the houses were finished and their farms made, Chief Awum called a society to play, the name of the society being Eberambi.

It was one of the rules of the society that anyone wishing to join must pay fifty rods, one goat, and five pots of tombo, which would be divided amongst the members.

Then Chief Osode sent invitations to the young men of Enfitop to come and join their society, and altogether about fifty of them became members.

Now, when the young men of Enfitop joined and paid their goats, rods, and tombo, Chief Osode divided up all the things they brought amongst the Inkum members, and never gave the Enfitop boys their share.

This caused great dissatisfaction, and at last they became so vexed that the Chief of Enfitop gave orders that for the future no more of his boys were to join the Eberambi Society.

When Chief Awum heard this, it made him angry, so he made a scheme or plan to rid the society of the Enfitop boys, who were no longer of any use, as they had paid up their presents to the society.

The Chiefs Awum and Osode then went into the bush, and searched about until they found an open space, which could be cleared without much trouble. There was a big rock in the middle, and the members all began working on the ground, and after a few days had it quite clear.

Chief Awum then told his young men to dig a very deep pit on one side of the rock next to its deepest side, and, when it was finished, he placed sharp stakes firmly in the ground with the points upwards.

A meeting of the members was called for the next evening, and the chief told his young men to sit all round the rock.

When the Enfitop boys arrived, they all sat together a little distance off, and one of their head boys was told to sit on the rock with his back to the pit, which he could not see, as it was dark.

The singing and dancing then began, and the tombo was passed round, but when it came to the turn of the man sitting on the rock, just at the moment when he began to drink, one of the Inkum boys, who had been instructed by the chief what to do, seized him by the ankles and pushed him over backwards, so that he fell into the pit on the sharp stakes and was killed at once. As it was quite dark and such a noise was going on, no one missed the boy or saw what had happened.

Then, in the early morning, before it was light, the Inkum boys went to the pit, and having taken out the body, covered the blood stains with sand and carried the body back to the town. The body was then cut up into small pieces and divided amongst the members of the society, who lit fires and cooked and eat their portions.

That night Chief Awum said to Osode:—“Well! that accounts for one of the members, and I hope soon that we shall have got rid of all of them.”

Chief Osode said that he thought the plan a very good one, particularly as it brought them in a supply of food which was always welcome.

Then, for four nights running, the same thing was done, and the boy who had been killed the previous night was divided up and eaten by the Inkum members of the society on the following day.

On the sixth night, however, the Enfitop boys met together, and counted their numbers. Finding that there were five of their members missing, they could not understand what had happened, so they decided not to attend the play that night.

This enraged the Inkum people, and the next day Chief Osode went to Enfitop and told them that, as they had refused to attend the play, they would not be members of the society any longer. So, after that, the Enfitop boys did not go to the play again, and the Inkum people lost their chance of getting any more of them for food.

After a short time had elapsed, Chief Awum consulted with Osode as to how they should get some more Enfitop boys to eat. After thinking some time, he said he thought the best way was to steal the children from the town.

So the following morning the Inkum young men surrounded Enfitop, but hid themselves in the bush, and waited there until all the men and women had gone to their farms to work, leaving only the old people and young children in the town.

When they had all gone, the Inkum men went very quietly into the town from house to house, and stole all the children they could find and carried them off. They did not take any of the old people as they were not much good for food.

That night they had a great feast in the town.

When the parents of the children who had been stolen returned from their farms they missed their little ones, and so they went and complained to the head chief.

The next day he called all his people together, and they held a big palaver to settle what should be done. At the meeting, one of the boys who had been a member of the Eberambi society got up and said that five of their members were missing, and he believed that it was the Inkum people who had killed them, and that they had stolen the children as well.

After a long discussion, it was decided to drive the Inkum people away, and to send them back across the river again, so a message was sent to Chief Indoma to tell his people to leave their town at Enfitop and go over to the Inkum side.

Chief Indoma could not understand the reason of this message being sent, so he replied that he certainly would not tell his people to move, and that he would see what they could do.

When the Enfitop people had completed their preparations for war, the head chief took one of his slaves to his ju-ju as a sacrifice, and the blood was sprinkled all round the ju-ju, the chiefs dancing in it. The body was then cut up and divided amongst the fighting men, who eat it. The chief then addressed the ju-ju as follows:—

“You always help us in the time of trouble. Here are my fighting men. I want you to make them strong and so that they will not receive any wounds from their enemies. If you help me, when the war is over, I will bring all the heads of the men we kill to you as tribute. I will also bring the prisoners we capture and kill them before you as a sacrifice.”

The chief then put his hand into the ju-ju pot containing water, rotten eggs, and mashed-up leaves and roots, and having stirred it well up, the fighting men all came up to him one after another, and he smeared them with the liquid on the forehead and breast.

After this ceremony was over, all the people went to the chief’s compound, where he consulted his head ju-ju man as to what the result of the war with the Inkum people would be. The ju-ju man then cast lots, and told them that they would drive the Inkum people away, killing many men and taking many men, women and children prisoners, but he warned them that they must not commence the fight, as it was the Inkum people who were in the wrong and had killed the Enfitop people.

They then armed themselves with bows and arrows, stones, and short heavy throwing sticks sharp at both ends, so that one end or the other would stick into their enemies. The next morning they surrounded the town of Aliese, and very soon the Inkum men came out.

The first arrow was fired by an Inkum man named Osim, and at once the fight became general. They fought for the greater part of the day, until at last the Inkum men were beaten, many having been killed and wounded. The survivors, including Chief Indoma, who was present at the fighting, escaped into the bush, leaving the women and children and old men at the mercy of the Enfitop people.

Most of the old men were killed, and the women and children were made prisoners and taken to Enfitop.

That very night they held a big play, and the heads of all the men who had been killed were placed before the ju-ju. Six of the best of the prisoners were then killed in front of the ju-ju, and after their blood had been sprinkled on the ground, the bodies were cut up and given to the fighting men, who lit fires and boiled the flesh with yams, pepper and salt.

While the food was cooking, a big dance was being held, and one of the prisoners was placed on his back upon the ground in front of the ju-ju. He was then staked securely to the ground, and a heavy wooden drum was placed upon his stomach and was beaten with sticks while the fighters were dancing.

When the food was sufficiently cooked the fighting men eat it, and then, after drinking plenty of tombo, went to bed. The prisoner was left on the ground all night with the heavy drum on top of him.

The next morning the head fighting man released the prisoner, and having tied him up to a tree, cut his head off with his matchet. He then dressed himself up in the long hair (mane) of a ram, wrapped a leopard skin round his waist, painted his face, breast and right hand with white chalk, and placed four feathers from the black-and-white fishing eagle in his hair, one down the centre in front, one behind, and one on either side. He then took the head of the man he had just killed in his left hand, and holding his matchet in his right, he danced all round the town, shouting out that they were great fighters, and that the ju-ju had made them successful in the battle. When he had been all round, he went into the open space in the middle of the compound, and the women came up to him with presents; some would present him with a fathom of cloth, but the poorer people would offer a few rods, yams, or some salt. The body of the man was then divided up amongst the chiefs, the head chief getting the right arm, shoulder and breast for his share, and the head fighter was given the man’s heart to eat.

All the heads were then collected and placed over a fire to singe the hair off. They were then given to the head chief, who boiled and eat the meat off them with his sons and people. The chief placed the skulls on the ground of the room where he slept, so that the room was quite paved with them. This was done so that the chief could put his feet on them, to show that he had trampled on the enemies whom he had conquered.

The head of the man who was first sacrificed before the war commenced was not eaten, but was left on the ground in front of the ju-ju as his share.

To return to the Inkum people, who had escaped into the bush on the night of the battle, as soon as it was dark, Chief Indoma called them all together and asked his ju-ju man what he had done to make him so unfortunate in the battle and to lose so many people. The ju-ju man told him that Chief Awum and Chief Osode had caused all the trouble by killing the Enfitop boys and stealing the children for food. He also said that the Inkum people had gone to fight like women; they had not consulted him (by which he lost a handsome present) neither had they killed a slave as a sacrifice to their ju-ju.

Chief Indoma agreed with the ju-ju man, and said he would not forget again, and that in the future when he went to war he would see that the proper precautions were taken and the usual sacrifices made as had always been done in the past.

He then spoke to Awum and Osode, saying “I am very angry with both of you. Up to the present I have been known to all people as a good fighter and leader, but I shall always be ashamed to meet the Enfitop people now. You have done wrong. You have killed and eaten many of the Enfitop people and told me nothing about it. When they sent a message to me, I told them that I would not move my people across the river, as I never thought they would fight against me, but now I am compelled to do so, as they have either killed or taken as prisoners nearly all the men, women and children of the town. I look to you to arrange how to get me and the remaining people over the river in safety.”

Then Chief Osode stood up, and said that he could manage that quite easily, as he was a ju-ju man, and would make a bridge for them out of his body.

Now, in those days there was a big snake who used to live on the land, and when he grew to be as long as a palm oil tree is high, he forsook the land and lived in the small creeks and rivers, where he grew to a tremendous size. The name of the snake was Ku Ku Barakpa.

In the early morning, Osode turned himself into the snake, and placed himself across the river with his tail on the Enfitop side and his head on the Inkum side, his back being out of water, so that the people could cross over in safety. As soon as he had done this the survivors of the Inkums, headed by Chief Indoma, walked over the snake’s body, but, when the Enfitop people tried to follow them, the snake waited until they were in the middle and then sank, leaving the Enfitop men to drown. After two days their bodies floated and were picked up by the Inkum people who carried them back to their town and eat them.

Chief Indoma blamed Chief Awum very much for what had happened, but he praised Chief Osode for getting them back in safety across the river, and also for his ingenious device in getting them some more human food without any risk or fighting.

Told by Abassi of Inkum, 7th June, 1910.