ÉFIÉ OKWOÑ

Seven days you stood by Baba*
Through nights and days you calmed Ibaka*
Great water deity dared not your strength
And those of the wind are mute when you vent
The sea rose about yet stayed still at your mouth
As you watched over Amanam
And dried him back to his clan

When you visit, your sister deity too visits.
As white hens grace our land,
Our barns surely knows increase
As white snails leave the trace
Our crops dare not fail
The dawn grace you off udim uya-oro
Thus, huts that warm you, you bless at dusk

You left us a hen, a black hen,
And left with the rest into that thick forest
The hawk never clawed her
Her eggs feared no weather and soon covered my farm
Yet I neither sold nor took you off my barn
I lost you to lanterned strangers’ pot
Dusk after dusk

You were venerated by my ancestors
Yet they passed not your mystery.
Kill not éfié okwoñ
Yet, your sister deity graces my otoñ
Oh! Éfié okwoñ Uya-oro
The cathedral has lost you to shrubs
And its ways have given men guts
They hail all that gladly get you crushed!

Baba        grand-pa
Ibaka        fishing community in southern Nigeria
Amanam    someone’s name (grandpa)
Udim uya-oro    Uya Oro stream (one of the largest streams in Oro communities and Akwa Ibom state)
Efie okwong    white snail and totem of a clan in Akwa Ibom State
Otong        the traditional ditch (soup of the Oro people)

Written by: Owokere A. Etim
Edited by: Kukogho Iruesiri Samson