The Ibibio Origins of The Okonko Cult

Origins of Okonko
OBINKITA
Obot Okon Ita or Obinkita was the capital of the Ibibio kingdom of Obong Okon Ita a.k.a. Ibom/Mbot Abasi, before its conquest by Igbo and Akpa invaders between 1630–1720. This town is significant in Aro History because Obinkita became the center where defeated Ibibio warriors and many of their Long Juju Shrine priests were judged and eventually executed. That is why all Aro villages assemble, annually, at Obinkita during the Ikeji festival. Obinkita is now one of the 19 villages of Arochukwu.

Note: Obot means HILL in IBIBIO. So, Obot Okon Ita means Okon Ita Hills
Note: The Akpa (Efiks) were themselves of Ibibio origin
Origin of Okonko
The exact period and date when the Okonko Society came to Igboland is not known. Most heads of families and elders in Igboland today
cannot give the historical origin of Okonko. They are contented with saying that the society was in existence even before their forefathers. They do not know or cannot provide the answer because the Igbo are not the originators of the Okonko Cult.
The society came into being in an attempt to put a stop to community conflicts, inter-tribal wars (Ibibio versus the migrating Igbo and their allies) and eventually create a peaceful coexistence among people and neighbors. According to James (1976), the people realised that warfare was incompatible with trade. The Aros used the Okonko society in order to win the co-operation of different communities.
From another angle, prominent elders from Ohafia, Bende and Ikwuano areas of Abia State strongly opined that Okonko was derived from
Ekpe society of the Efik-Ibibio. Okonko originated in the Ekot areas, and by early part of the eighteenth century, it had spread to the Cross River territory. It is likely that Ekpe diffused into Arochukwu, a neighbouring group where it was known as Okonko during the same period. From Arochukwu Okonko spread to other parts of Igboland.
In the light of the above, Ekpe society migrated into Igboland as Okonko, spreading to almost all communities of Igboland that have “ndee wo” and ”mma mma” (Ngwa/Annang dialects) as their forms of greetings. It is to be noted here that early members of Okonko were associated with the Long-juju of Arochukwu. According to Offenberg (1975), “members visited Arochukwu so that the oracle would solve such problems as “poor crops”,
continued illness, epidemics and lack of children.”
A middle opinion on the origin and history of Okonko society claims that the local agents of the Long-juju of Arochukwu were pioneers of
Okonko society. They were called “Enyi Ndi Aro”, friends of the Aros. It is claimed in some Igbo quarters, that the Aros (Ibibio descendants) gave them a secret symbol of Okonko called “Ngbara” which empowered
them to form the society in their localities (Abadist,1954).

NOTE: The Igbo word, NGBARA (Power or authority) is similar to the Yoruba word, AGBARA, which also means POWER or AUTHORITY. The Igbo and the Yoruba were one and the same in ancient antiquity. They split and eventually developed separate and very distinct identities over time.
The founder of Okonko in each Igbo community was recognized as the President or “Eze Ngbara”. Eze means King or Lord in the Igbo language.
The president presided over the weekly meetings of the society and regulated its affairs with the multi-titled holders constituting the
second rank in Okonko society (Abadist 1954).
In all analysis, the consensus opinion about the origin of Okonko in Igboland is that the society sprouted from among the free-born as a
platform of social, economic, political and religious metamorphoses. The society existed and still is a formal society in Igboland permeated by
a sense of mystery. Just like the descriptions Laye (1981) gave to a coherent society with a consistent manner of life, Okonko society is a society whose origins “are incapable of explanation”.
Religious and Social Functions
All households and lineage in Igboland have their own heads. Most, if not all of such heads, are elderly men and staunch members of Okonko
society. This informed the reason why Onyejekwe (2003) described Okonko society as indispensable in the daily governance of communities in
Igboland. He strongly submitted that, Okonko was a powerful institution, which dominated the government of the community. During the precolonial
and colonial eras, Okonko promulgated laws, enforced laws and order and performed the function of social control, it employed different
techniques to enforce its rules and regulations.

Okonko served and still functions as the principal means of communicating with supernatural beings and the ancestors with the purpose of maintaining religious and social
stability in Igboland. Offiong (1989) puts this point thus: “The Okonko is an attempt to reduce the all pervading spiritual world to an organization in
which a few selected men can contact the spiritual world and interpret it to the people.” Therefore, among the religious and social functions of Okonko is the settlement of important disputes in various Igbo communities. When there is a religious or social matter at stake, threatening community stability, Okonko members would assemble at the village square or at the “Obi” to listen to the matter. Decision or judgment is decided according to custom and tradition.
Against this background, Ilogu (1980) wrote that, “the sort of things that are publicly judged include “aru” which are against the earth goddess
believed to bring disintegration to the “Umunna”, village or town such as murder of a fellow town’s man, Inbreeding, stealing of yam especially by… titled
person. Okonko society, no doubt, had the most powerful administrative network in Igboland.
Before any major feast or initiation ceremony in Igboland, the “eze Okonko” makes sacrifices to the mother spirit inviting her to grace the occasion with her presence. Her presence is believed to be inevitable if the ceremony or initiation is to be successful. The Okonko society also performs immersion ritual on behalf of the community. The community passes through such a cleansing process in order for all the evil things and sins of the community to be forgiven. This religious duty is often carried out, by the Okonko
society, at the beginning of the planting season.
The religious and social functions carried out by the Okonko society give the people a sense of reassurance that all is well again in the community.
It is also the Okonko society that determines the date and manner in which the new yam festival will be celebrated within the year. The new yam
festival is an agricultural and social ceremony designed to rejoice together for the good harvest. It is also put in place by the Okonko society to
appeal to the spirit in charge of yam, to be equally propitious the next season. Until this ritual is carried out by Okonko society, new yams, at least
theoretically, are not eaten. The ceremony is quite elaborate involving sacrifices to the “ahia njoku”, the yam spirit. In all these, the Okonko Society
features prominently (Offiong 1989). Okonko society also excommunicated people in very severe cases. The person is outlawed, banished and sent on involuntary exile (Achebe 1981). Despite Western education and the influence of Christian Religion in Igboland, the functions and activities of Okonko society are still celebrated with zeal. Though these are now done with modifications, the secret symbol and mysteries of Okonko society remain a matter of pastoral concern for the Christian Churches. Today, even though membership in Okonko is not mandatory,
young men still look up to membership. A lot of parents feel uneasy until their male children indicate interest and are initiated into Okonko
society.

CONCLUSION
Of all the societies in Igboland, Okonko has
the central place of importance in the lives and
affairs of every free born male adult in the land.
Okonko covers the traditional, religious and social
lives of the Igbos prior to the advent of Western
Culture and Christianity. The society is primarily
a social, political, religious and judicial organization,
established for the purpose of maintaining
justice, peace and order in Igboland. This means
that Okonko Society had the effect of preventing
crime in the community. It was a vital society that
reassured the rest of the populace concerning
the enforcement of customary laws, especially in
land matters and marriage cases.
Yet discussing the signs and counter signs in
Christian life in Africa, a former Duff Lecturer
insisted that “however anxious a missionary may
be to appreciate and retain indigenous social and
moral values, in the case of religion, he has to be
ruthless…, he must admit and even emphasize
that the religion he teaches is opposed to the
existing one and that one has to cede to the other”
(Westermann 1973).
These submissions by Westermann (1973), a
German missionary scholar, today captures the
relationship between Okonko Society and
Christianity in Igboland. Some indigenous clergy,
zealous and committed to pleasing their European
masters, see Okonko society as an institution that
should be completely eliminated. According to
them, “giving” the new means taking away the
old. It has taken the intervention of another scholar
of missionary expansionism, Cragg (1968), to raise
the question: “if the old is taken away, to whom is
the new given?”

From all these and what is on ground in
Igboland, one is firmly moved to state that
Christianity cannot succeed in enthroning God’s
kingdom if it ignores the impact of “Okonkonism”
in the lives of Igbo Christians. “Okonkonism” is
a manifestation of Igbo race’s search for God.
This means that Okonko society was a providential
preparation for the advent of Christian
religion in Africa in general and Igboland in
particular. In the theory and practice of Okonko
society, as this paper has highlighted, God was
ahead of the Christian missionaries, preparing the
Igbo race to encounter Christ. Thus, Sanneh
(1983), in connection to this fact said that the
places (in Igboland) reflecting the most marked
accession to the Christian religion are also the
areas of the highest concentration of the old
traditional religion.
Okonko society in Igboland is thus, a significant
factor that the immense Christian presence
should not ignore. The Church has a lot to learn
from the Okonko society especially in the areas
of human and divine values embedded in Afrel.
Therefore, this paper advocates that African
Bishops and Priests drop their negative views of
their own culture and religious history. This will
be the beginning of the enormous task ahead in
the area of inter-religious dialogue with Afrel and
incarnating the gospel in Okonko society of
Igboland.

REFERENCES
ABADIST 1954. Report on the Long –juju of Aro and Okonko Society. National Archives Report Series
No 54/20, Enugu: Abadist.
Achebe C 1981. Things Fall Apart. London: Heinemann
Books.
Ayandele EA 1991. The Missionary Impact on Modern
Nigeria 1842-1914. London: Longman Group Ltd.
Awolalu JO, Dopamu PA 2005. West African Traditional
Religion. Ibadan: Macmillan Publishers Limited.
Comblin J 1998. Called For Freedom. New York: Orbis
Books.
Cragg K 1968. Christianity in World Perspective. London:
Lutherworth Press.
Ilogu E 1980. Igbo Traditional Societies. Enugu: SNAPP
Press.
Jones J 1976. The Trading States. Nairobi: Heinemann
Books.
Laye C 1981. The African Child. London: William Collins
& Co. Ltd.
Mbakwe PU 2008. Christianity and Socio-Cultural
changes in Mbaise. Imo State. AAU: African Studies
Review, 7: 28-38.
Offenberg D 1975. Ibo Oracles. Port Harcourt: Newsman
Press.
Offiong DO 1989. Continuity and Change in Some
Traditional Societies of Nigeria. Zaria: Ahmadu Bello
University Press Ltd.
Onyejekwu U 2003. Okonko Society in Igboland. The
Guardian Newspaper, Daily, February 15, 1982, P. 12.
Sanneh L 1983. West African Christianity. The Religious
Impact. London: C. Hurst.
Thompson BF 1970. West African Secret Societies. The
Organizations, Officials and Teachings Westport:
Negro University Press.
Vatican II Fathers 1965. Declaration on the Relation of
the Church to Non-Christian Religions. Vatican II
Council. October, 1962-1965, pp. 733-743.
Westermann D 1937. Africa and Christianity. London:
Oxford University Press.
http://www.krepublishers.com/02-Journals/T-Anth/Anth-12-0-000-10-Web/Anth-12-3-000-10-Abst-PDF/Anth-12-3-161-10-601-Nwosu-P-U/Anth-12-3-161-10-601-Nwosu-P-U-Tt.pdf