Ekpo masquerade |
Akwa Ibom lawyer, Udeme Ekott, has taken to Facebook to share an interesting story about his growing up in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom state capital, how he and his friends ate rice and stew, drank fanta which were kept by the roadside as ‘sacrifice’ for some gods.
Below
is the unedited post by Mr Ekott:
I
was reminiscing over some grotesque religious practices I've come across, which
probably has swelled the ranks of ATHEISTS.
As
part of the adventures back then in the early 90's, we used to go 🐟 @ Akpa Atak Eka.
Dwellers
around Barracks road in those days can relate. It was(Is it still there?) a
pond behind the Uniuyo(Town Campus) ravine with mysterious tales woven around
it. Tales of Mermaids and it swallowing women, young men and stuff like that.
I
was just a new recruit into the 'streets' then, I had just gained admissions
into Anwa Ikpa (Uniuyo), but we were on strike. There was sanity in the streets
then as cocaine & it's variants were a taboo, unlike today.
So
two of my friends-John & Solo (not real names) urged me to go fishing with
them & I obliged. I gathered the equipment as prescribed: Hook, line,
sinker, worms, cork etc and a powerful flashlight. I waited for them outside
our gate and off we went as early as 5:30 am.
We
used Imatan street, but halfway to our destination, we met these two beautiful
ladies probably in their late 30's, they passed us on the opposite direction
and we wondered aloud where they could be returning from that early, Imatan
wasn't as habited as it is now. Our energetic enthusiasm didn't allow us dwell
on that distraction for long as we trudged on.
Barely,
a distance of 50 metres thereafter, we came upon a hot delicious meal of Rice
and Stew laid out upon cocoyam and plaintain leaves, accompanied with 2 bottles
of Fanta. I was petrified but I observed that my friends were beside themselves
with joy. I expressed my surprise at the scene. My friends, who were more
worldly than me explained to me that the food was a sacrifice for the gods for
help or intervention on something, for e.g against barrenness, for marriage,
health issues, to ward off spiritual attacks, etc & is done as an ASSIGNMENT
by religious practitioners.
I
now related the ladies and the food, I shrugged and was about to move on but my
two friends were already squatting, they washed their hands with dew from
leaves & told me that God had provided for them in answer to their prayers.
They took time and finished the food , drank the Fanta & belched. They even
searched for toothpick on the leaves. Can you beat that!
I
was in awe all the while fearing that my friends will come to some mysterious
harm after eating the food meant for the gods, but they are alive till date,
probably reading this piece.
We
went on, caught some fishes, Solo actually, jumped into the river and swam to
another side caught some bigger fishes, swam back and we later went home in one
piece.
My
take now is this; of what significance was this assignment and many others? Are
all these part of what Christ asked of us? Did they actually expect the gods to
eat the food?
Many
marriages have been broken due to assignments, I know of a former lawmaker in
Akwa Ibom whose wife was caught carrying out assignment naked for him at a
religious house.
LOVE
YOUR NEIGHBOUR AS YOURSELVES! In Words, Thoughts and your Actions.
Approach
your creator in humility and simplicity.
Give
gratitude and honour to your Creator-our God in Heaven for His everday mercies.
Pray
fervently to Him when in anguish or pain,
He
will answer you.
All
these obnoxious practices are what ATHEISTS use to snigger against Religions.
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