THE LAND OF MYSTERIES – Aguleri : Obu Gad

Watching or reading Harry Potter, we are told of Hogwarts School

of Witchcraft and Wizardry – the school of uncountable mysteries. It might be an imagination of J. K. Rowling but she really is right about
the existence of the supernatural.

Welcome to our own Hogwarts School of mysteries – Aguleri.

You surely have heard about Aguleri, or you might not have heard of it. Even if you have heard of it you might just know it as the hometown of the current Governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Maduabuchi Obiano and for Catholics, the hometown of the first West African saint, Blessed Cyprian Iwene Tansi – Another mystery all together as his body lies uncorrupted twelve miles from the mystery town in the Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity, Onitsha.

The mysteries of the Obu Gad, the Agwuve Trinity tree, Ini Eri, Agbanabo Ezu na Omambala and the Olili Obibia Eri festival will be unravelled by the Discovery Africa 247 team.

OBU GAD

You probably have heard about the twelve sons of Jacob – the eleventh, Gad. The Book of Genesis tells us about Gad and his sons – the fifth being Eri (Gen 46:16). If you did your elementary Social Studies well, you would have come across the ancestral father of the Igbo race, Eri.

HRM EZE CHUKWUEMEKA ERI.

Ime Obu Gad is the palace of Eze Chukwuemeka Eri, Eze Ora the thirty-fourth of Enugwu Aguleri. The Obu Gad is the shrine where Gad was buried.

Before the Aguleri people knew of the existence of the Holy Bible, they have passed on the legend of Gad and Eri from generations to generations. They believed that their father Eri (from where the town derives her name Agulu Eri) migrated from a distant land unknown to them with his father, Gad (which the natives called “Ga” before the advent of the Christian Bible to them). Gad died and was buried at the present day Obu Gad (Still called Obuga or Obi Gad meaning Gad’s temple). The legend still speaks about Arodi (biblically spelt as Arod) and Areli, Eri’s brothers.

You surely want to go to the Obu Gad. Let’s go!

AGULERI JUNCTION

Stopping at the Aguleri junction, a roundabout where the statue of the Blessed Iwene Tansi stands, we are already at the Ime Obu Gad palace. We just have to ask around for the direction and walk into the Obu Gad.

Here we are!

The palace has no walls. It is surrounded by houses both old and new. Huge trees, I bet you have never seen in your life stand to greet you all adorned with the symbolic peaceful colour of white clothes and that of justice, red.

TOWN HALL

Seems, there is a gathering in one of the houses. What a crowd! Let’s ask one of these men what is happening here.

They are having a court session. The Ime Obu Gad executes immediate justice. We had better keep mute because any falsehood will be accompanied by instant death. Yes. You heard me right. DEATH! Any case so bad that it cannot be concluded is settled by God himself in the Ime Obu Gad court. Strange, right?

The most modern house around is the abode of Eze Chukwuemeka Eri himself, a direct descendant of Eri, son of Gad, the son of Jacob (Israel), the son of Isaac and the son of Abraham, the father of faith of Abrahamic religions. His house serves as an archive, call it a museum or a gallery – you can get all documents connecting the Igbo people to the Jewish people of Israel.

Adjacent the building is the reason for our tour – the Obu Gad.

OBU-GAD

A thatched house coloured in nzu (chalk), it is. A moulded bowl stands outside the shrine typical of a Hebrew temple.

Ladies! Wait for the men outside. Don’t come into the premises or the God of the Igbos will strike you DEAD.

Stop Guys! Pull off your shoes. This is a holy land (Ex 3:5-6).

ANIMAL SKULLS.

Eerie, Eerie the shrine is. Dried skulls hanging on the wall, skulls of different animals facing the throne of Gad himself. The tomb of Gad is guarded with ropes.

During the Ovala festival, the king sits of Gad’s thrown while his

THRONE OF THE KING DURING THE OVALA FESTIVAL.

cabinet sits by his side.

Those cowries on the floor? When the Israelis visited the Obu Gad in the 90s, they saw the orientation of the cowries as pressed into the floor. A lost writing of the Jews!