Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria

by Elphinstone Dayrell

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.