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Arochukwu, Abia

5.3894° N, 7.9147° E

Oral historyHistory

The oracle that ran the interior

Arochukwu governed trade across the Igbo interior through a shrine, until the British destroyed it in 1902.

Words Chidiebere Okafor

9 min read

A long flight of stone steps cut down a wooded slope.
The steps at Arochukwu — seventy-nine of them, cut by the British after the 1902 expedition. Photograph: Goodymeraj / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

About Arochukwu

Arochukwu was the home of the Ibini Ukpabi oracle, which the Aro used as the basis of a trading network that reached across what is now south-eastern Nigeria. The British destroyed it in 1902 in an expedition they called a punitive one. The Long Juju gorge and the colonial steps cut down to it are both still there, and the town is quieter than its history.

Everything from Arochukwu →

The Ibini Ukpabi oracle at Arochukwu was the institution around which the Aro built a trading network reaching across what is now south-eastern Nigeria. Disputes were brought here for judgement. The judgement was authoritative because the oracle was, and the trade followed the authority.

In 1902 a British expedition — described at the time as punitive — destroyed the shrine. The Aro trading system did not survive it, which was the point.

The stepped descent at Arochukwu, seen from partway down.
Photograph: Goodymeraj / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The steps cut down into the gorge are colonial work, put in afterwards. There are seventy-nine of them and they are counted, precisely, by everyone who takes visitors down.

An Ekpo masquerade figure in raffia and cloth, mid-performance.
An Ekpo masquerade at Arochukwu. Photograph: Chimeremeze Okoro / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The Ekpo masquerade still performs in the town. It is not a reconstruction and it is not put on for anybody, which visitors sometimes find disappointing and should not.

Sources

Who reported this

Chidiebere Okafor

History editor · Enugu

Works on the histories that are held locally rather than written down, and on the buildings that are the last surviving witness to them.

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