For those still in doubt why Cross River State is the most visited tourism destination in Nigeria, the reasons abound. Of course, the state is not tagged ‘The People’s Paradise’ for nothing. It is truly nature’s paradise.
Apart from hosting 50 percent of the remaining rainforest in Nigeria, and being one of the world’s great biodiversity hotspots, the state has abundant natural and man-made attractions that appeal to diverse visitors.
But the attraction, a mysterious one for that matter, which keeps wooing global visitors, especially adventurers and researchers, is the monolith; unique standing stones found in Alok and Ikom, both in the northern Cross River.
It takes a visit to discover that while Stonehenge in the UK ranks among the most famous stone sites in the world, the mystery and inscriptions on Alok and Ikom monoliths, Nigeria’s standing stones, have deferred modern interpretation and scientific inquiry.
About 40 kilometres north of Ikom, the popular commercial town, and only 30 km from the border with Cameroon, lies sites in abundance with these standing stones that are worth the feats and allure of Stonehenge in the UK.
The monoliths, standing stones or Akwanshi (living among the dead, as the locals call it), are distributed among over 30 communities. In each community, the stones are sometimes found in perfect circles, facing each other and standing erect, except where they have been tampered with by weather or man.
The stones, which stand between 1 and 1.8 metres (3 and 5 feet) high, and are laid out in some 30 circles in and around some villages, especially Alok, are as intriguing as they are awe-inspiring.
They bear a form of writing and a complex system of codified information and symbols that are only known by the original artists. The origin, artists, what they used in making the inscriptions, meaning of the inscriptions, ability to survive centuries are among many things that baffle scientists, researchers and tourists who visit the sites.
Although they seem to share the same general features, each stone, like the human fingerprint, is unique from every other stone in its design and execution.
The geometric images on the monoliths suggest that their makers possessed more than a basic knowledge of mathematics, not only because they are geometric, but also because of the obvious implication that there were computations and numbers on the layout of the stones.
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The geometric inscriptions could be compared to the Rock Arts of Tanzania, similar in arrangement and ordering to the stone circuits in the Gambia, but unique in their complexity of design and interpretation.
Most importantly, a visit to the sites makes you wonder if the monoliths could be West Africa’s answer to the United Kingdom’s Stonehenge.
Of all the 36 sites, Alok community is one site that over time has assumed the centre of the famous Ikom Monoliths. The majority of the stones are carved in hard, medium-textured basaltic rock, a few are carved in sandstone and shelly limestone.
The common features of the monoliths are that they are hewn into the form of a phallus ranging from about three feet in height to about five and half feet and are decorated with carvings of geometric and stylised human features, notably two eyes, an open mouth, a head crowned with rings, a stylised pointed beard, an elaborately marked navel, two decorative hands with five fingers, a nose, various shapes of facial marks.
In Etinan and Nabrokpa communities, the stones are located in an area of uncultivated forest outside the villages. But in Alok, the most popular of the whole 36 sites, the stones are found in the centre of the village or in the central meeting place of the village elders.
Sylvanus Ekoh Akong, village head of Alok and curator of the Alok site, says the stones are gifts from God and have survived centuries despite a few natural and manmade setbacks because of the history embedded in them.
“We are happy that these stones stand the test of time to further testify to the efforts of our forefathers to ancient civilisation. We are of great descent and have something the world hasn’t known,” Akong says as he explains the meaning of the colours on the stones to some visitors.
Akong also points to the particular monolith from which the Cross River State Tourism Bureau derives its logo and the significance of the paintings on it. Most probably, the giant size monoliths (20-30 times the original ones) adorning the roundabouts in Calabar town are drawn from the Alok sites.
“Only by pre-pubertal children and post-menopausal women, described locally as ‘women who no longer go sexual’ are allowed to do the decorating,” he explains. The colours are white for peace, blue for fertility and red for bravery.
Wiping his sweat, Akong reads into the facial features and geometrical carvings everything from the symbols of leadership to the birth of feminism, fertility, war, peace among others to the team.
Blood sacrifices anywhere near the stones, according to him, are forbidden. But on September 14 of each year, the eve of the annual yam harvest festival, the stones are decorated with coloured powder.
Dates, however, are not the chief’s strong point – he explains that the first archeologists to study the monoliths in a neighbouring village used carbon dating to put their age at around 2,000 years.
More recent studies, he says, also using carbon dating, have estimated the age of the stones at Alok at 4,500 years – that is roughly as old as the Egyptian pyramids.
You need to visit these sites to see and feel life in these phallic-shaped pieces of volcanic rock largely ignored for centuries. They are remnants of a glorious civilisation made up in equal parts of Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament, but now in Nigeria.
You need to visit to unravel the mystery, as well as meet the people, enjoy their communal living and beautiful culture, especially the New Yam Festival every August.
Direction: From Abuja, Alok and Ikom towns are accessible through the Makurdi-Ikom Highway or Yola-Katsina Ala-Ikom Highway. At Ikom, cabs are always waiting to convey visitors to the villages for a fee.
If you are coming from Lagos, a flight to Calabar eases the journey. From Calabar, you move by road to Ikom (about two and a half hours) or Port Harcourt-Uyo-Calabar and Ikom.
