ANNANG

The Annang (Also spelled by nonnatives Anang or more erroneously Anaan) is a cultural and ethnic group that lives within southeast Nigeria. The Annangs are found in the former Abak and Ikot Ekpene Divisions, subsequently forming the Abak, Essien Udim, Etim Ekpo, Ika, Ikot Ekpene, Obot Akara, Oruk Anam and Ukanafun Local Government Areas of Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria.

Their society is patriarchal. Individuals locate their place in the social world as being from Idip, literally translated as, stomach. Thus a brother/sister from the same Idipmeans that they can trace their origin to the same mother or father. Since polygamy is practised in the society those who can so trace their ancestry to the same parents form Ufok (literally a house or compound) Several ufoksmake up Ekpuksor extended family and several Ekpuks (extended families) make up the village and several villages make up the clan.

Leadership at the family, lineage, village, or clan level remains the prerogative of the men. And lineage ties extend to women even after marriage. There are many societies and associations (Nka) for men and women which are very important in traditional village life. Individuals are measured by both the number and types of memberships in Nka's and by the achievements of one or more Nkas. Governance is done by elderly males who act as the legislative arm called Afe Ison, directed by the Obong Isoñ (Village Chief and Clan Chief) who is the head and the chief executive but without the authority beyond what the Afe Isoñ lives. A chief can be appointed by the Afe Isoñ can be an inherited office. The strength of any individual, family (or group for that matter) is typically based upon a consensus of the village or clan through this complex social system.

In all this, Annang women are not completely subordinate to men. The first-born female known as Adiaha is important and commands respect in the family and lineage. Some traditions hold that a woman's first birth should take place in her mothers compound. Women organizations such as "abi-de" and "Nyaama" play important roles in giving the women voice and status in society. There are no traditional or cultural barriers that prevent women from attaining high offices or positions. Indeed, traditionally Annang women have a great deal of economic independence from men.
Annangs value the ability to speak well and oratory ability using proverbs is highly desirable, especially among the leaders. The American anthropologist, Peter Farb, stated that the name "Annang" among this group means 'they who speak well' An individual who has the gift of eloquent speech is often complimented as Akwo Annangmeaning the singer of Annang.

Very little was written in the European papers about this group before the middle of the nineteenth century. The first recorded mention of the group is in Wilhelm Koelle's account of liberated slaves in Sierra Leone about a liberated slave named Ebengo who hailed from Nkwot in Abak. He was captured and sold to the Portuguese but was subsequently freed by a British warship and later settled in Waterloo, Sierra Leone. The British soldiers listed the languages spoken by the slaves in that captured ship as "Annang" (Koelle, 1854). The second mention is in the description of what is known as the Ikot Udo Obong Wars. The British described the killings of the Annangs by King Jaja of Opobo as a punishment for the Annangs defying his orders and trading in palm oil directly with the British merchants instead of going through the "king". In the war that ensued, the British intervened and with the help of the Annangs captured King Jaja and sent him to the West Indies. The British established a military post at Ikot Ekpene in 1904 and then in Abak.

The Annangs have a historical reputation for their fearlessness and the ability of villages and clans to bind together to fight a common enemy. This is perhaps why they were able to thrive so close to Aro-Chukwu and also why the British created the first local area government unit in Nigeria at Ikot Ekpene.

The Annangs are known for the efficacy of their charms, prowess in trading, and their renoun art. This extends to mural paintings, raffia, masks, cement sculpures, markets, ceremonies and exceptional food.

The Annangs suffered genocide during the Nigeria Biafra war 1967- 1970and lost a significant number of its people. The front between the Nigerians and Biafrians went from one end of Annang to the other at least 3 times. This did not happen in other areas and has been ignored in most current thinking.
(Culled from Wikipedia.org)

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Iman Annang and the Food Taboos

The early history of the Annangs is from oral traditions. The group is related to the Efiks and the Ibibios It is believed that they all originated in ancient Egypt and through various wars and conquests were pushed south into the Sahara Desert. They moved across the desert and some settled in the upper West African region about 7500BC. Remnants of their language according to Waddell can be found among the Egyptians. (Waddell, 1893) Another evidence of their Egyptian origin is found in the burial customs and veneration of the dead. Migration brought the groups to live among the Twi of Ghana where the name Annang means fourth son.  From Ghana, the group moved eastward and settled among the Igbos before moving to Southeast Nigeria. It was in the Cameroon highlands that the group broke off and some group became known as Kwa and later called Ibibio. It is believed that the group that remained took an oath of solidarity to be together and bonded to fight whatever was seen as a common enemy. Lineages were recognized and the groups organized themselves into clans based on old family origins known as Iman much like their Igbo neighbors.

The following are some of Iman Annangs and their food taboos. Eka Abiakpo clans do not eat turtle. The Afaha people forbade its members from eating the (Nserise) squirrel. They identified with the quickness and intelligence of the animal. Other examples of clan groups and their food taboo are:Ukana: python, (Asabo) Ekpenyong albino Python, (Ibom), Ikpe, snake (Uruk- Ikot), Utu, a kind of bird(Ebom), Midim African black bird (Nto Osung) Other Annang clans  chose vegetables as their food taboo. Thus Ika has sweet yam (anem) and Nto Edino has the river reed (Nyama). The food taboo was so important to the Annang that it was used as a distinguishing characteristic to locate the origin of an individual and to separate one Iman from another Children learnt as part of the socialization process that a particular Iman are people living in a particular geographical area with a given food taboo.

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THE FATTENING ROOM

Much has been written about the fattening room among the Annang, and the interest of the academic community in this subject has increased since Professor Brink’s introduction and field work in Annang. The Annang Heritage Preservation Society, a socio-cultural organization dedicated to the preservation and archiving of the Annang culture is in the process of documenting these practices and appeal to individuals and organizations to help us to document them for posterity.
The fattening of the bride in Annang land, though seen mostly from the point of view of aesthetics, is more than a demonstration of what the culture regards as “beautiful”. To the Annangs, plump women were seen as beautiful. It meant that the woman came from a home where the parents were well-to do and it also meant that the husband was also well-to-do. Some western social scientists have theorized that individuals from societies where the food supply was lean and famines  frequent were likely to regard being fat as a desirable body structure and to see being fat as beautiful. We in Annang are not surprised by such theories because western scientists who derive their worldview from evolutionary perspectives have always seen Africa and Africans from Darwinian lenses.  As Gloria Allred observed, the characteristics of the powerful have always been seen as the ideal while those seen as without power have historically been relegated to the background and often seen as pathological. The destitute-likes-fat explanation disregards the very definition of what a culture is and looks at the world primarily from an ethnocentric perspective. Thus, what is western is ideal and how the other lives becomes primitive.  Augustus Comte had divided the cultures of the world into two camps namely: the primitive and the civilized. Under the Comtean classification the European culture was the civilized one and all the others were primitive. Yet according to him, they all began at the same time but the development of the primitive cultures was arrested and the western culture advanced and reached a civilized stage. Today, this Comtean model has been used to describe the fattening of the Annang brides.
What the world has refused to hear in the fattening practice is that the fattening period was a period of education. The young bride was taught house keeping, child care, history, and how to be a wife and citizen of the community. The Annang society was semi-matriachal before the Christian missionaries destroyed it. It became important therefore for the women to be taught the importance of good citizenship in the fattening period. The fattening room was more than an exercise in primitivity; it was a period to educate and to socialize the young into the values of the society.

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