Welcome to Community World Tour: Landscapes & Sacred Sites . I will be taking you once again to Akwaibom state. Here we have so many community sacred sites, one thing about sacred sites in my country is the rules and regulations guiding the place. In some places women or unnecessary pictures are not allowed, but after asking questions about IFA ikot okpon community scared sites , I have to visit.

IFA ikot okpon scared Forest

This place means a lot to the people of IFA ikot okpon village here in Akwaibom state . This place has been preserved for many years, and it is used for many purposes . My father in-law told me that many powerful people have come to buy land where this scared Forest is located but the story behind the forest is not pleasant and the Left. One man greedily wanted to sell this land to church people who wants to convert it into crusade ground on reaching the site bees chased them out of the place, and the man was excommunicated from the community for sabotaging the forefathers traditions.

Here is what I was told about this scared Forest.

During the Nigerian war this place was where prominent rulers lived, it was like a Government reserved Area(G.R.A )of then because of how hidden it was. The village heads and chief worship their gods in this place until one day the soldiers discovered this land and killed all of them. Since then this forest became sacred.
Here are the rules of this place .

• No woman on her monthly flow goes in here until she is free.

• It's only for people who want to do initiation into masquerade or becoming a traditionalist.

• Cutting of wood is prohibited in this land.

• Pregnant women are not allowed inside the forest.

• There's no movement around the forest during any initiation.

This place is also used for swearing of oath. In the case of people who committed sacrilege they are brought to this Forest for oath taking, when they stayed for the stipulated time they also come back here to remove the oath with animal sacrifice accompanied by the Ubong IFA (village head) and a native doctor.

During my visit to this Forest I got this native Herb that special for curing different kind of diseases. The Efik call it Mbritem,the Igbos call it Okpete the Cameroon call it Monkey sugar cane.

I have been seeing my father-in-law use this plant to cure migraine, high fever and it can be used for dehydration as it contains water.

This plant gotten from this forest can be used as a scrub.

This is the drawing of the place

//:# (!steematlas 5.00125809 lat 7.99942017 long Akwaibom state d3scr)

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A tree can not make a Forest. This mean there's unity when more hands are on desk. It illustrates teamwork.