By the time I had walked about a quarter of a kilometer of astounding smooth roads and enchanting roadside shrubbery, I had received no less than 30 resounding greetings of ‘afoha’ the local parlance which could as well stand for ‘good morning.’ It is indeed a bright morning with the magnificient glowing sun king reclining majestically behind foreboding receeding clouds. The fact that my city looks stood me out like a sore thumb from other passersby who trudged along the road that bright morning did not in any way reduce the affable warmth that accompanied the greetings. Elderly men and women, bent with the noble weight of age, some with wrinkled but glitering carriage with various farming implements slung across their shoulders, moved with amazing agility as they walked to their various farmlands spread along the long winding road linking the villages of Inyima and Ekpeti, Assiga and New Assiga which occupy a large swathe of Yakurr local government in the Cross River region of the Niger Delta.
For these villagers today is another one of such days when they visit their farmlands to carry out the routine of planting and cultivation of various crops that the community is known for. In Assiga, food is in abundance as the community produces large amonuts of crops such as cassava, yams, maize, rice, palm kernel, cucumber, plantain and pear to mention a few. Market women from as far as Lokoja, Kano, Lagos and Owerri fill the town on a daily basis to buy bags of cassava and garri which is reputed to be one of the best varieties in the country. Assiga women produce large amounts of garri every day A flourishing palm oil industry also thrives in this little enclave. There is hardly any household in the village that does not practice the profitable trade.
Patrick Ekong, a retired security operative who has come to spend his latter years at home is an indigene of the community. He says the community is indeed, blessed agriculturally and the residents are taking full advantage of this divine providence. “There is nothing that gladdens our hearts most than the fact that our land is fertile. Whatever we plant grows rapidly. People come from virtually everywhere in the country to buy all our farm produce which include yams, cassava, palm oil, plantain and fruits. They are relatively cheap and are of higher quality. Our garri is one of the best in the country. Market women from all the Igbo lands you can think of come here on a daily basis with large trucks to buy the garri which we are presently producing in massive quatities. My wife is one of those who constantly meet these commercial needs. We are truly blessed here,” he enthuses brightly as he ties another bag of just fried garri which his wife is about to include alongside other bags. A bag of garri, he says, goes for as little as a thousand naira.
In the distance, a small palm oil industry is buzzing with activities. Women and men alike wearing greasy attires, a result of their trade, process huge bags of palm kerrnels into palm oil for the market. There is no time for conversations for these people as they have deadlines to meet. Consumers and merchants depend on the palm oil they are processing. Anxious merchants are already on the fringes with different vehicles to cart several gallons of the palm pructs which many of them say is one of the finest and cheapest in the country. Palm oil for many Assigans, is a sure way of making good cash as many of them own large farmlands with hundreds of palm trees. In Assiga, every young man surely has a ready source of income irrespective of his background as long as he is willing to put his energy to good use.
For lovers of good palm wine also, this community is also the place to be, because several gallons of palm wine are tapped from the ubiqitous palm trees that dot the landscape. Residents like Joseph, a commercial motorcyclist who plies his trade in the communities that make up the local council area says the wine is also one of the best and attracts consumers even as far as Calabar about 150 kilometers away and Ikom many miles away. “People come into this community daily to buy so many of our products. We have the best of every farm produce you can think of and we are proud of it,’ he says with a radiant smirk on his fleshy face.
Assiga is believed by many to be one of the most endowed communities in Yakurr local government area of Cross River state. According to online records by www.yakurrpeople.webs.com, “the Yakurr (also Yakö and Yakạạ) comprises five urban settlements. They were formally known as Umor, Ekoli, Ilomi, Nkoibolokom and Yakurr be Ibe. Due to communication problems encountered by the early European visitors, the settlements have come to be known by their mispronounced versions – Ugep, Ekori, Idomi, Nko and Mkpani (Okoi-Uyouyo, 2002). In the latter, it is a product of Yakpanikpani (Lokạạ the word for tricks), a name given to them by the Ugep people after being tricked in a conflict.
Other Yakurr communities include Assiga, Inyima and Agoi. Yakurr lies between latitudes 50 401 and 60 101 north of the equator and longitudes 80 21 and 60 101 east of the Greenwich Meridian and 120 km (75 miles) northwest of Calabar, the capital of Cross River State, Nigeria. They are found in the present day Yakurr Local Government Area and constitute the largest ethnic group in the state. The people share their northern and eastern boundaries with Obubra Local Government Area, the southern boundary with Biase Local Government Area and the western boundary with Abi Local Government Area.”
Assiga is equally a point of attraction for tourists who may want to explore the rich vegetation and water resources of the enclave. The impressive Assiga river attracts foreigners yearly who throng its beaches to savour the rich landscape and exhiliriating breeze. Fishes of various sizes and breeds at affordable prices can be bought from local mongers who jostle against one another to sell their wares.
Perhaps one sight that many may want to visit is the Lemane pool. It has a mystical history and appeal which have refused to thaw through hundreds of years. The small pool said to be once a big one, habitates fishes of different shades. But ironically, the fishes must not be killed for consumption, say the residents. It is a belief that for survived all through the ages, because the fishes are regarded with reverence by all Assigans and there is an unwritten law that anyone who dares to kill for consumption may face dire consequences from the ancestral forebears of this small enclave. Fifteen year old Evelyn says the culture has been instilled in them right from childhood and though they were not told why, they have come to accept it. “When we were small, we were told never to kill these fishes. They told us that any one who dares do it will be visited by the other fishes in the pool at night to demand that the person produce their dead colleague. Obviously the fear kept us from going against the law,’ she smiles demurely. Her elder sister, Mary is more forthcoming. She says that it is a tradition handed down to every Assiga child right from childhood and which no one has ever gone against. “We are allowed to drink from the water but you must not kill any of the fishes. But now that there is pipe borne water everywhere in the community nobody fetches from the pool again that is why it has become very dirty and stinking but the tradition is still ever strong,”she enthuses. She works and resides in Abuja now but she says the culture of the her community still resonates in her even miles away.
Isaac Isan, another resident points to the yam festival that takes place every September in the year as a memorable one that no Assigan ever misses. “If you are an Assigan and you miss the yam festival, you are not fulfilled for that year. Even our sons and daughters come from foreign lands to witness the occassion,” he proudly points to an architectural symbol along the road to the chief’s palace which depicts the momentous occassion. ‘If you want to see various sizes of yams that you have never seen before in your life, come for this festival later this year,” he adds.
Interestingly, while many communities even in the advanced cities across the nation bemoan lack of electricity supply and pipe borne water, these are not the immediate concern of the community. The community enjoys relatively uninterrupted power supply and taps running with water can be seen at various points in the village.
The online source has more to say about Yakurr. It explains further: “Lokạạ is the language spoken by the Yakurr. The language is of the Bantu linguistic family. Bantu, which means “the people”, is a linguistic classification of a group of closely related languages spoken in the boundary known as the Bantu line, which runs from the south-eastern area of Nigeria, through Central and Eastern Africa to Southern Africa. Some people have often misunderstood Bantu to be a racial classification, which it is not. The Lokạạ language is described as one of the major languages of Cross River State, comparable in terms of number of speakers, with Efik, which enjoys the special status of a lingua franca in the state.
It adds inter alia that, “the Yakurr exhibits a very high degree of social heterogeneity, but linguistic, political, religious and cultural homogeneity. In the absence of written records, linguistic, political, religious and cultural hegemony is the most dependable evidence of establishing descent and biological connections. All Yakurr people share a common tradition of overland migration and ancestry. The ancestral homeland of the Yakurr people is “Akpa”, said to be shortened form of “Lẹkanakpakpa”. This area is believed to correspond with the Cameroon–Obudu range as it stands today. The Yakurr cites the Okuni, Nsofan and Ojo people as their neighbours at Lẹkanakpakpa. The traditions of Okuni, Nsofan and Ojo corroborate the Yakurr claim to having lived together at Lẹkanakpakpa which is referred to as “Onugi” by the Okuni and Nsofan people and Lẹkpamkpa by the Ojo people.”
On how the people of the community and their neighbours came to reside at their present location, history says: “the migration of Yakurr from their ancestral homeland started at about AD 1617, when a misunderstanding between the Yakurr and their neighbours, arising from the violation of a burial custom forced their neighbours to wage war against them, leading to their expulsion from their homeland. The history of Yakurr people’s migration is pegged at between 1617 and 1677, the Yakurr migrated from that ancestral homeland to look for a new homeland following a military defeat from Akpa. About A.D. 1660, some Yakurr migrants founded new homelands in their present locations. These locations are Idomi and Ugep. Between 1677 and 1707, some other Yakurr migrants founded the towns of Ekori and Nko. Between 1707 and 1737, yet another wave of Yakurr migrants founded Mkpani settlement.”
It concludes that, “the reasons for the relocation of populations in new settlements by the Yakurr is mainly due to competing demands for land resources, as a result of growing populations on the one hand and unresolved conflicts on the other. This development is aided by the patrilocality of marriages and strong patriarchy in the family system. It was thus easy for patriclans to relocate to new settlements. This has produced a slight parallelism in names of patriclans and strong parallelism in names of matriclans in all the Yakurr settlements.”
A vist to Assiga no doubt will reveal a community with a unique identity it is proud of. It also shows that indeed a rural community can very well enjoy the dividends of democracy in terms of basic infrastructure and still retains a refreshing rural ambience that is unequalled by any. On the faces of every child, woman, youth and man is a sparkle of pride and rigid determination to succeed and live a fulfilled life that glows even amidst the strains of daily farm work and everyone is proud to be associated with his traditional homestead and this they eagerly tell any visitior to their community. Indeed, amidst the strident calls of afoha (good morning) and afoh (welcome) thrown at each other and visitors is a solid nay ironic mixture of calm and excitement that can only be strictly Assigan..
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