Welcome to the Dept of Folk Studies and Anthropology @ WKU

Slavery Was Not Their Destination

My research now shows that there is a Cave Temple Complex in Arochukwu in the hinterland of Nigeria that served as a secret slave dealing location and processing center. I have self-consciously established a particular trail of Igbo slave journeys from the Temple of Complex in Arochukwu through former interior slave markets and slaveholding quarters in Ututu, Bende, and Azumini. When developed, the Temple Complex together with the trail could bring slave journey-related tourism in Nigeria to a point comparable to the boom in Ghana and Senegal.

More than just a tourist destination, the Arochukwu Cave Temple Complex is expected to become a pilgrimage site for African Americans; more so those of Igbo ancestry. Since we celebrate the history of our long journey from slavery to freedom every February, the Aro Pilgrimage Foundation will start organizing a Journeying Back from Freedom to Freedom Pilgrimage to Africa; with effect from February 2009. That will be the beginning of an annual symbolic journeying back to the state of freedom that was before the Atlantic slave trade began.

The following is a sample of the landmarks and relics found on the trail from the United States to Arochukwu:

From Freedom to Freedom Pilgrimage: The Trail

Here is a map showing the direction escape routes from Virginia to Canada. For a more detailed map of escape routes of the Underground Railroad produced by the National Park Service Cartographic Staff at Harpers Ferry Center.

New York Site 1 Auburn:

Auburn: Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged, Harriet Tubman National Historic Landmarks photographs for a very detailed information click here: Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged, Residence and Thompson AME Zion Church

New York Site 2: Itthaca

Photograph by Richard Pieper. Courtesy of New York Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation. St. James AME Zion Church continued to be a focal point in the black community of Ithaca into the 20th century. In 1906, in the basement of St. James, for detailed information click here St. James AME Zion Church--Ithaca

New York Site 3 Peterboro:

Gerrit Smith Land Office and one of the barns used as a hiding place for fugitive slaves National Historic Landmarks photograph

New York Site 4: Lake Placid

The John Brown Farm House for detailed information, click here John Brown Farm and Gravesite

New York Site 5 Tarrytown:

Foster Memorial AME Zion Church
Foster AME Zion Church is located in Tarrytown, New York at 90 Wildey Street. It is open to the public. Photograph by Wes Haynes. Courtesy of New York Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation. For a more detailed information click here Foster Memorial AME Zion Church

New York Site 6 Brooklyn

Exterior and interior of Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims
Photographs from National Historic Landmarks collection. For a more detailed information click here Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims

FOR NEW JERSEY SITES CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING
1. The Grimes Homestead--Mountain Lakes
2. Peter Mott House--Lawnside Borough
3. Bethel AME Church--Greenwich
4. Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church and Mount Zion Cemetery--Woolwich Township

FOR A SITE IN VIRGINIA CLICK FOLLOWING
1. Bruin's Slave Jail –Alexandria Routes on the Underground Railroad accessed December 24, 2006 Great for the Virginia connection.

SITES IN IGBO HINTERLAND OF NIGERIA

The Blue River

The Blue River the waterway to Bonny

The Last Stop in Igboland (Azumini)

Chief and elders in the last stop (slave quarters) by the Blue River

3. The Ram Market in Azumini

Ahia Nwaebule the Main Slave Martket in Azumini.

4. The Dark Chamber Presence of Chukwu

The Slave Market in Uzuakoli

Eke Ukwu, Agbagwu former slave market showing the goat shed or stalls

Eke Ob

The Eke Oba Agbagwu former slave market

The Slave Root Agbagwu (Eke Oba) Market in Uzuakoli

Captives for sale were tied to this surface root of the achi tree

8. The Stones of Disorientation in Uzuakoli

Stones of Disorientation at the former Slave Market in Uzuakoli

The House Museum in Uzuakoli

Chief Iheukwumere talking about the material culture

Slave Route to Bende via Ozu Item

The Mgbele Nkume Hill in Uzuakoli on the slave route to Bende

The Slave Market in Bende

Ahia Afo: A Former Slave Mart in Bende

The Slave Cells (Ulo Isi) in Bende

A Slave Holding Cell (Ulo Isi [Dark House] Built by Omenuko) in Bende

Omenuko’s Friend’s House

A House in Ndi Mgborogwu where it is believed Omenuko stayed

Eke Kalu’s Family House in Elu Ohafia

The house of the legendary Eke Kalu who escaped slavery from Arochukwu

15. An Subsidiary Shrine of Ibin

Ibin Ukpabi shrine at the Obunkwa and Safe Haven Asaga

16. The Safe Haven in Asaga Ohafia

A compound hall in Asaga and safe haven for escapees

17. The Slave Mart at the St. Paul’s Junction in Abuma Ututu

St. Paul's Junction and the route to Calabar via Ihe Osu

18. Cave Rendezvous

The Cave Rendezvous at Abuma Ututu

19. The Cave Outlet in Abuma Ututu

A shrine and checkpoint before cave rendezvous in Abuma

(Ambience of Mother God) in Obiene Ututu

Rain Forest Rendexvous

21. The Cave Outlet in Iyi Eke, Arochukwu

Aniyom making the ritual marks on the outer wall of the cave outlet in Iyi Eke

The River of Blood

Crossing the River of Blood in the Cave

23. The Tunnel of Disappearance at the Temple Complex

A Tunnel of Disappearance

24. The Alter at the Temple

The Kitchen Area

25. The Oracular Shrine of Ibin Ukpabi

The Oracular Shrine of Ibin Ukpabi

26. The Chamber Presence

The Dark Chamber Presence of

Chukwu Abiama (The Holy Holies)

When people want to visit the beginning points of the slave journeys to the United States from West Africa, they usually do not go to Nigeria in the Slave Coast. Instead they go to Senegal (the former Grain Coast) or Ghana (the former Gold Coast).Yet it is estimated that over 50% of the enslaved Africans that came to the United States, came directly from the region that Europeans traders named the Slave Coast to distinguish it from the Grain Coast (much of Gambia and Senegal), from the Ivory Coast (now Cote D’Ivoire); and from the Gold Coast (now Ghana). Some of the Igbo victims of the Atlantic slave trade (maybe thousands), were not declared slaves until they were ritually processed, symbolically declared dead, and covertly funneled through cave tunnels to coastal towns of Bonny and Calabar for the forced journey across the Atlantic Ocean.Most of them boarded slave ships at Bonny and traveled directly to Virginia and the greater Potomac/Chesapeake region of the United States and later to the plantations in the regions that became known as the Cotton or Black Belt in the Deep South—including part of Georgia, all of Alabama and Mississippi.From the Deep South, with their eyes set on freedom, thousands of the enslaved Africans escaped to freedom in the North even to Canada.

More than just a tourist destination, the Arochukwu Cave Temple Complex is expected to become a pilgrimage site for African Americans; more so those of Igbo ancestry.Since we celebrate the history of our long journey from slavery to freedom every February, the Aro Pilgrimage Foundation will start organizing a Journeying Back from Freedom to Freedom Pilgrimage to Africa; with effect from February 2009.That will be the beginning of an annual symbolic journeying back to the state of freedom that was before the Atlantic slave trade began.

As we view this material vestige of slave journey, we should look beyond the vicissitude of the journey and begin to seek to bring healing to the deep-seated wounds of the historical tragedy of chattel slavery, on both sides of the Atlantic. I propose a journey back to the Temple Complex in Arochukwu, Nigeria.The Arochukwu Cave was a definite starting point of some of the slave journeys that took enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean—the Middle Passage—to the Americas where they eventually became free.The implication of from Freedom to Freedom here is that a journey that leads from North America back through the tunnels of disappearance in the Ancient Cave Temple Complex to the hinterland of the Slave Coast would be a symbolic journey to the state of freedom that was before the Atlantic slavery began.

In pre-Atlantic slavery times, the people of Arochukwu (the Aro) had performed customary rites for Chukwu—the Great Spirit—in the Temple Complex. As the ritual specialists and custodians of the Temple the Aro alone could enter the cave to travel into the Dark Chamber Presence of Chukwu (God) and through a major Oracle (Ibin Ukpabi) interpret the voice of Chukwu. At that time, the Ancient Cave Temple Complex was the highest court of justice in Igboland. People from all over Igboland went to the Temple to seek the truth from Chukwu Abiama or Abiamara (“the Great Spirit to which Seekers of the Truth Come”) and to hear judgments through the Oracle. Those found guilty were either sold on to slavery or put to death depending upon the degree of their offence and the judgments of Chukwu. The blood of those that received the death penalty colored the running stream in the cave, the River of Blood, red. At the cave entrance from which the River of Blood issued, families thus waited to receive judgment on the fate of the accused by the subsequent coloring, or not, of this stream.

It was with the advent of the Atlantic slave trade in West Africa during the 17^th century that the Aro, assuming the role of the leaders of the trade in the Igbo hinterland, exploited the Temple Complex in a very remarkable way—by using it as a major secret slave dealing location. During this time, the Aro took captured victims to the Temple Complex in what appeared to be the same ritual that had been undertaken since before memory, but as the victims disappeared into the cave tunnels (the tunnels of disappearance), the Aro would falsely color the river red with dye from the red cam wood to leave the impression that the condemned had died. The red water flowing from the cave was a signal to the relatives that the victims were dead.

In reality, some of the tunnels (the Tunnel of Disappearance) led to various exist points on the trade routes to the Slave Coast. One of the outlets eventually led to Iyi Eke; a point from where the enslaved, now blindfolded, were led to Onu Abu Bekee, or European Beach in Ito. And from there, waiting boats took the slaves to Calabar for onward transmission to the New World and slavery. The other led to Afia Oso Nwamkpi a slave market in Ututu from where, using He-Goat as a metaphor, Aro traders and escorts took the victims to major hinterland slave markets in Bende, Uzuakoli, Azumini and eventually to Bonny.

Ours is a story of the memory of pain. The idea of slave dealing in the Temple of God with direct links to Shipping Ports in the Slave Coast is painful. Entering the Chamber Presence and facing the exact place to which the slave dealers took the victims of the Atlantic slave trade for judgment and ritual processing; to the exact place where probably thousands of African slaves entered and symbolically died is breathtaking. Following the tunnels of disappearance through the trade routes to the point where the Atlantic Oceans ends in a twilight zone is heartrending. The experience can be overwhelming and the story bitter. But it is the truth that must told in order to begin to make real the reconnection with Africa our ancestral home, enhance reconciliation and forgiveness, and start the healing of the deep-seated wounds of the Atlantic slave trade and slavery on both sides of the Atlantic.