Okija shrines as Otokoto Chapter 2
By Kingsley Osadolor
ISE Jingu is Japan's most sacred shrine. It actually consists of two shrines, Geku (the outer shrine) and Naiku (the inner shrine). The shrines are the places of worship of adherents of Shinto, the indigenous faith of the Japanese. The Shinto gods (Kami) are believed to dwell in the shrines. Visitors are allowed into the shrines to pay their respects to the gods or to supplicate for a better life. Traditionally, newborn babies are brought to the shrine a few days after delivery. In addition to being hosts to wedding ceremonies, Shinto shrines are also visited on New Year and during other festivities. The Ise Jingu shrines are located at the foot of wooded hills. According to an ancient Shinto tradition, the Ise Jingu shrines are rebuilt every 20 years. Shinto priests perform rituals, the chief purpose of which is to ward off evil spirits through purification and offerings to the gods. Nowhere in sight do any of the shrines display skulls and cross bones, or fresh corpses, as an indication of the powers of the Kami.
It is true that social anthropologists warn of cultural relativism. By that principle, a cultural practice or trait need not be condemned simply because such trait or practice is antithetical to the cultural background of the observer. But there are exceptions that have been compounded in recent times by the phenomenal expansion in the frontiers of knowledge coupled with the global village phenomenon. In other words, there is a growing universalism in the acceptance/condemnation of cultural practices and traits. Which is why it will be abhorrent anywhere in the world that anybody today would make a human skull his drinking cup, nor would anybody today display in his lounge the skull of an enemy felled in a conquest.
The foregoing explains the horror and shock expressed by Nigerians and the world at large over the grisly discoveries when the police last Wednesday sacked the Okija Shrines in Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State. Skulls, bleached bones, fresh, decomposing and decomposed corpses " all of human beings littered the forest grounds of the Okija Shrines. So far, more than 40 priests and their associates have been arrested by the police who are also keeping in custody a register of the victims whose remains were cast about disrespectfully in the shrine. Until the bust last week, the Okija Shrines, the home of ogwugwu spirit, were off limits to tourists; the only patrons were those who went in to swear to various oaths often in circumstances that mirror trial by ordeal.
There is no sense in which the doctrine of cultural relativism will excuse the gory spectacle that was exposed at the Okija Shrines. The scene was simply abhorrent, reeking of barbarism, if not cannibalism. It was no less shocking, therefore, that Col. Joe Achuzia (rtd), the secretary-general of Ohaneze, the pan-Igbo socio-cultural organisation, said that the police raided the Okija Shrines in order to ridicule Igbos. Achuzia had earned a reputation during the civil war (1967-70) and emerged with the nickname, "Air Raid". Prior to his assumption of office as secretary-general, another distinguished Igbo son, Prof. Ben Nwabueze, had occupied the post. At present, Prof. Joe Irukwu leads Ohaneze. Both Nwabueze and Irukwu are Senior Advocates of Nigeria. They, along with other self-respecting Igbo leaders, have not spoken since the Igbos were obviously embarrassed by the Okija horror shrines that seem to be several times more barbaric than the Otokoto incident eight years ago in Owerri, Imo State.
Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in Ohaneze's constitution, the least that the organisation would do in the meantime is to ask Achuzia to relinquish his position. Henceforth, in his capacity as secretary-general, Achuzia is more a liability to Ohaneze, than he is an asset. Any statement or opinion that he issues hereafter on behalf of Ohaneze will be tainted with the recall of his scandalous attempt at defending the Otokoto priests at Okija. The Igbos have a dynamic culture but not one that worships barbarism or is accommodating of cannibalism. But Achuzia implied that it was customary for Igbos to maintain such shrines as Okija in these modern times. The more reason why Achuzia should go is that at certain levels, the public and private lives of an individual merge. The one is indistinct from the other. Achuzia may have spoken on his own behalf. But he was the first prominent Igbo to speak and what he said was leveraged by his status as secretary-general of Ohaneze. Achuzia must be a collateral victim of the Okija raid and of his own unguarded utterances.
It would be an error to assume that the shame of the Okija Shrines is an embarrassment only to the indigenes of Anambra State, or for that matter Igbos in general. The horror of the Okija Shrines compounds our national image crisis, because Okija reveals yet another paradox, in addition to those of our being such a rich country yet with poverty everywhere; of our being the happiest people in the world, yet we are ever so angry. Nigerians are being branded as probably the most religious people on earth, although a more appropriate label would be the most church- and mosque-going people in the world. It is trite knowledge that the only boom industry in Nigeria today is religion. As factories have shut down, on account of poor business, churches have sprung up in their stead. Warehouses have been reconfigured as places of worship. Revival programmes have become a public nuisance as the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway is virtually closed to vehicular traffic. Islamic fundamentalists are here competing with the Talibans in imposing and enforcing criminal Sharia, its inconsistency with the country's Constitution notwithstanding. We couldn't have so many people praise-worshipping every so often and still be faced with so much crime and societal decay and collapse.
God has imbued us with intellect and blessed us with natural resources for us to husband and be the best in the world. Yet, because we cannot manage ourselves, every narrow escape from an adversity or mishap is the subject of testimony. We have eyes; we have policemen on the beat, we have the laws. Every day, articulated flatbed trucks (trailers as we call them) are laden with unlatched containers. Each time those containers fall off, everyone will be thanking God that no life was lost. But God gave us the wisdom in the first place to deal with that potential man-made hazard, which we chose to ignore and instead focus on the social imperative of praise worship: don your Sunday Best and outshine other worshippers.
Anambra State, like the rest of the South East, booms with Christian religion, and mostly Catholicism. Father Tansi was beatified in Anambra. Cardinal Arinze, a prominent citizen in the Papacy, is from the state. Yet, Okija was a den of barbarism, animism and sundry fetish behaviour. Indeed, it is not only in the South East that such a paradox is evident. There is probably no zone in the country that is not similarly afflicted. Whether in the South-South, South-West or the entire north, where Islam is the predominant religion, there are occult practices often typified by ritual killings. Stories abound of northerners that gouge the eyes of their victims for ritual purposes. Today, it is the turn of Anambra to bear the odium, but the rest of the country is not necessarily clean.
Nor will the clean-up be an easy task. Many there are who will posture in public in their sanctimonious garb but in private are patrons of the same fetish shrines. As matters go in Nigeria, the success of the police in raiding the Okija Shrines is likely to be an episodic event. While there has been so much praise of the informant who blew the whistle, there seemed to be no evidence that the police had any real marching orders before now to tackle the incidence of ritual murderers and missing persons. Despite frequent reports in the media of ritualists on the prowl, there is no systematic approach by the police in dealing with such organised crimes. If the police devoted a fraction of the time and energy that they spend on pursuing armed robbers, many ritual murderers will either be in the net, or change professions.
Nevertheless, the invasion of the Okija Shrines is akin to the denuding of a masquerade. It means that a myth has been exploded, although considering the havoc that had gone on for so long in those groves of ritualists, it might take a long while before the reality dawns that the Okija Shrine whose deity killed people was a manipulative fraud perpetrated by the hatchet men who daily earned a bloody living on the fears of the people. Myths have a quality of authoritativeness, absolutism and a sacredness that define their uniqueness. Myths seek to justify, to explain or validate a belief. They could also serve as a source of social control. But true knowledge and myths are incompatible. Myths can provoke the quest for knowledge. The efficacy of a myth recedes upon the advance of knowledge. For so long, Anambra people did not know that Okija, though not a cemetery, was turned into one by priests whose vocation is antithetical to the times. Now, the people know. It is nunc dimitis for the Okija myth.
