Inokun Village

Legend

Inokun is made up of two quarters, Ntasek and Ntota, descendants of two brothers. The two quarters are separated by a small stream (Akem-ayeb), which flows right through the center of the village and is commonly used for bathing and laundry. No one remembers exactly where the founding brothers came from or when they settled in present-day Inokun, but legend has it that through pure grit and servile labor, they subdued the land and built the most important commerce center of their times. A tradition of hard work was implanted. The first professionals, other than medicine men, who did not live off the land were the craftsmen. Inokun became famous for its highly skilled artisans (artifacts from the 18th century remain). Marketing of their work led to the establishment of a trade route linking the lower Ekwe area to the cosmopolitan port city of Calabar, Nigeria. Valuables like pottery, sculpture, animal skin, foodstuff, domestic utensils, household implements, and musical instruments were being exported, while manufactured goods such as lamps, hunting riffles, radios, loincloth, and sewing machines were being imported in ever-increasing proportions. By the turn of the 20th century, Inokun boasted of a culture of nouveaux riches. They were easily identified for smoking a pipe, sporting a top hat, while riding a bicycle(locally referred to as the “iron horse”). Ejagham architecture was the principal casualty of this new wealth. The Ejagham method of building consists of a framework of interwoven sticks padded with mud and roofed with thatches. Mud was being replaced by cement, and thatches were giving way to corrugated metal sheets locally referred to as “zinc.” Zinc quickly became a status symbol to the extent that those who could not afford both had to choose between buying a bicycle and covering their homes with zinc. The use of mud and thatches, though common today, is easily associated with poverty.

Setback

Inokun has seen its importance diminish from the days when it was host to the only school and the only native authority court in the Ekwe area. The reasons for Inokun's dramatic reversal of fortune, from precursor of modernism to custodian of antiquated customs and traditions, cut across politics, geography, and unyielding pride. The story of Inokun, like that of most sub-Sahara people, is a story of bad government. Inokun lost much of its independence when it was incorporated into Eyumojock Subdivision, but never given access to Eyumojock, the administrative capital. The people of Inokun are required to trek for several miles through the forest to Eyumojock for basic health care needs, to register births, to attend secondary school, to make a police report, or even to buy stamps. There is a zero-police presence in Inokun, a void that is occasionally filled by vigilante justice. Women still give birth at home, attended by local midwives ill-equipped to handle certain complications. The result is a staggering loss of women during childbirth and a disconcerting ratio of stillbirths to live births. Inokun has no electricity, no pipe-borne water, no gas, no television signals, and no telephone. Houses have no plumbing, and the main source of cooking fuel is firewood.

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