PROF. OKON UYA: ECHOES OF "ORON-PHOBIA"

"Until comparatively recently the Oron people did not intermarry with Ibbi (Ibibio) for fear of contamination: first with the uncircumcised and second with the Descendants of slaves"  Prof. Okon Uya

 

 At a time like this, I cannot help but think of our good friend, late Dr. Uko Okpok: a scholars' scholar who was well versed with the Ibibio history. He would have risen to the challenge. I am hoping there are others out there who can step up to the plate. History is really not my area. There again, one does not need to be a historian to kick against a diatribe such as the above by Prof. Okon Uya whose antecedents shock no one.

 

Those who were around in the late 1970s and early 80s at the University of Calabar would recall that Prof. Uyo was, indeed, a de facto Vice Chancellor and his link or collusion with Prof. Ayandele, perhaps, the most famous UNICAL V.C. Prof. Okon Uya was in the center of these words or phrases coined by Ayandele: "Oron-phobia and Atomistic Society"? Recall the situation at then UNICAL was not unrelated with the student admission, employment, faculty and staff promotions believed to be heavily influenced by Prof. Uya. Ibibios at the university were outraged. The lopsidedness of the above led to a near crisis at UNICAL by the Ibibios who felt maltreated and marginalized: the situation that contributed to the infamous Ayandele's characterization of Cross River as the atomistic society laden with "Oron-phobia", a situation akin to the current governance in Akwa Ibom.

 

Pay Back Time?

 

In view of the above background/history, I am almost compelled to look at Prof. Uya's revisionist history as a "pay back". Here's why. In 1983, Dr. Edet Akpan Udo whose house is about half a mile from mine, published a book titled "Who Are the Ibibio?" In it, he conducted extensive research of various ethnic groups in then Cross River State that are linked to the Ibibios. The portion pertaining to Oron is reproduced below. Little did he know that the book would attract fire and brimestone from Prof. Uya. Shortly after the publication of the book, Dr. Udo was forced to retire from the University of Calabar.

 

Here it is (from p. 61 - 66 of Who are the Ibibio?):

 

"....Who are the Oron people? Do they constitute a distinct ethnic group from the Ibibio, their neighbor? Where did they come from to live in their president home? As a matter of fact, there is no absolute answer to these questions because there have never been a systematic, scientific, historical, sociological, anthropological, and ethnographical study of these people by the Oron and Ibibio themselves, and no archeological work has ever been carried out among them either. Some surmises have been made, however,  but none has been accepted by the scholars as being correct."

 

"Some people say the original home of the Oron people was in the Cameroun. Others went on to quote E. N. Amaku,Edikot Nwed Mbuk II, Chapter I which claims that Oron has mixed ancestry, that is to say, the ancestor had their father as Igbo man called Okorafo, and their mother, one Ibibio woman named Atong Ama, and both Okorafo and Aton Ama lived at Ikot Ntung, an Ibibio village nine kilometers from Eket town on the Eket-Oron trunk “A” road. Others still argue that the original home of the Oron people was in Ibibio land. Those who support the last view are the early Europeans and some Ibibio people."

 

Dr. Udo also cited the work of P.E.B. Inyang who in a paper titled “A Geographical Approach to the Study of Oron (Oro Ukpabang) People” presented at the Workshop on the People of South-Eastern Nigeria” at the Institute of African Studies, University of Nigeria Nsukka on Dec. 5-8, 1972, p.2.  P.E.B. Inyang in his paper claimed that Oron people originated from the Bakweri and Bakoro people of the Western Cameroun. Among others, Dr. Udo argues that Oron people have semi-Bantu names just like other semi-Bantu names found in Ibibio (see p. 61-66). This is to say that they are a part of Ibibio believed to have emigrated from the Western Cameroun. Dr. Udo also cited the work of Chief Mbah, an Oron historian, who claimed that Oron people actually immigrated from the Palestine and traveled through Sudan to Cameroun and through upper Cross River to their present home (see pages 66-67).

 

Ibibio Origin of Oron

 

Differing from Amaoku, Dr. Udo in his extensive research came to a conclusion that the ancestor of Oron people was an Ibibio man. As evidence in support, he cited similarities in names, culture, words roots and language. In his research, he found out that at least three villages in Oron – Urua Eye, Edok Oruko, and Usung Udung Uko – worship Atakpor, Uruan’s deity in Ibibio land,  as their main deity. In page 70, Dr. Udo states that “the people of Edok Oruko state that their ancestors were immigrants from Uruan in Ibibio. The other two villages have the same tradition” (p. 70). Similar traces are made of villages of Ikpa in Eket LGA and Ekpene Ukim in Ubium that also migrated from Uruan.

 

Recommendation

 

It is good that many have reacted the way they do. My suggestion is that in addition to our individual reactions, historians among us should actually come up with books "in prints" to counter Prof. Uya's falsehood. Reason being that once his book is in circulation, references will always be made of it by others regardless of the misleading information expressed therein. A counter information in a book form will go a long way to minimize the misinformation. Prof. Okon Uya owes the Ibibios a good explanation.

 

Sincerely, 

Dr. Tom Mbeke-Ekanem, REA 

Tom:

 

Thank you for reviving this matter. Like you, I am not a historian, so, any comment from me would be based on what I may describe as a lay-man's academic awareness (please take note, not knowledge) of Ibibio history. Though the write-up about the book by Uya was not written by me, I am the one who forwarded it to the forum. And I noted that I reserved my comment until I read the book purportedly written by Prof. Okon Uya.

 

My reaction to this story is just to add sources to the ones you have already posted. In Chapter Eight ofIkono: The Cradle of Ibibio Nation, written by David Ukpong, et al, states as follows (please pay attention to how the same Prof. Uya is being quoted in the narration);

 

"The Oron people have been described by Noah (1980) as sea-borne Ibibio when he writes ' Among these sea-borne Ibibio would be included the Oron, Eket, and Ibeno people who, upon their arrival moved northwards and eastwards until they came up against the Eastern Ibibio expanding southwards.'"

 

"There are three accounts of the origin and migration of Oron people to their present location. A source quoted by Uya (1984) reports that four groups of Ebrutu reached Uruan from Ibom (in Arochukwu) and later migrated from Uruan to Obutong in Calabar from where they crossed the river to their present site in Oron."

 

"The second account of origin of the Oron people, which is also stated by Professor Okon Edet Uya (1984:18), maintains that Oron and Ibibio were once neighbors living in Igboland and their movement away from there was part of the general dispersal from the Akwa-Orlu centre. According to this account, the Ibibio, Oron, and Okobo moved from there southwards towards the coast. The Ibibio (Central Ibibio including the Annang) settled firts while the Okobo and the Oron continued their movement towards the Atlantic Ocean, passing through Andoni, Eket, and Ebughu in the process."

 

"The third account, which is becoming increasingly popular in scholarly circles and widely quoted even by the Oron people themselves, according to Chief Okon Effiong Emana, village head of Ikono-Offi group, states that after the great dispersal at Ibom in Arochukwu, the Oron group moved towards the Cameroons and the wave of their migration took  a different route from the other Ibibio. Eventually, they settled in Usak Edet, now in the Cameroons. Later on, the migrants crossed the river on rafts, landed at what is today Oron beach (Esuk Oron) and spread from there."

 

"What the first account appears to suggest is that Oron is a section of Ibibio Uruan. Edet A. Udo (1983) who also holds this view explains that the Uruan people founded fishing settlements at Oron, Ine, and Uruan Ekpe (now in Cameroons) and that the southwards part of Uruan expansion was into Oron area."

 

Readers can go to the source and read more on this. I mplore experts and those interested in this story to dig more in order to set the records stright for the benefits of future generations.

 

Ikpafak Thompson Essien

Portland, Oregon