“Word traveled quickly to other districts, and soon Igbo women everywhere were staging demonstrations complaining of their treatment under British rule. They wanted assurances that they would not be taxed and also wanted corrupt warrant chiefs removed from office. Their campaign came to be known as ogu umunwanye—the women’s war. In fact, they dressed as warriors, painting their faces and wrapping their heads in fern leaves. Although their action was a shock to the British, it was a traditional form of protest among the Igbo. The women were engaging in a practice called ‘sitting on a man.’”
“You’re kidding.” Cassie giggled at the image.
“They didn’t physically sit on him, of course.” Oluoma smiled. “It’s just an old expression. The idea was to put pressure on a man as a way of correcting his bad behavior. Igbo women were traditionally considered to be the guardians of proper conduct. Whenever a man acted in a disrespectful manner, the women would follow him around and sing mocking songs about him. This was intended to make him reflect on what he had done. They would chant outside his home day and night and completely disrupt his life. In extreme cases, they would burn down his hut.
“Because Igbo women had suffered abuses at the hands of the warrant chiefs, they saw their protest as just. They burnt several district offices as an extension of the idea of burning a man’s hut. The British, of course, didn’t understand that this behavior had a long history among the Igbo. To them, it seemed like crazy savages acting up. Eventually, troops were ordered in to control the protests. They shot into crowds of women, killing fifty and injuring fifty more.
“The killings ended the protests, but significant changes came as a result. The warrant chief system was abolished, and women remained exempt from taxation. Igbo women continued to lead protests periodically over the next several decades which resulted in even more social reform.”
Oluoma stopped speaking abruptly. She consulted a road sign as it loomed into view. “Well, this trip passed in a hurry, didn’t it? It would seem we’ve arrived. Here we are in Alok.”
Chapter 16—Thumb Place
Their guide apparently knew her way around the village. She made a few decisive turns and parked the car in front of a walled enclosure.
“Now you will see the akwanshi—the ancestors. That’s what the Ekoi people call them anyway.” Oluoma led the way into the enclosure which proved to be a park planted with orange trees and a variety of shrubs.
Whatever Cassie had expected to see, it wasn’t this. They were confronted with several carved stones, none more than three feet high, sticking out of the ground like giant thumbs. The Arkana team clustered around one.
Griffin bent down to get a better look. “I say, this is extraordinary.” He tentatively touched the swirls carved into the stone.
Each of the monoliths bore similar markings—a face with round eyes and a mouth shaped into a large, surprised O. The back and sides of the figures were decorated with spirals, chevrons and what appeared to be some unknown script. Each face was different.
“These are made of basalt,” Oluoma explained. “Similar carved stones are scattered throughout the villages and countryside close to the big town of Ikom. That’s why they are known as the Ikom monoliths. Some are in the middle of villages, like here. Others are on the outskirts and still used as gathering places for local ceremonies. They were all originally positioned in concentric circles, but that arrangement was disturbed long ago. Many have disappeared altogether.”
“I guess their size makes them a little easier to carry off than the megaliths we’ve been dealing with til now,” Cassie observed.
Griffin unexpectedly sat down cross-legged in front of one of the carvings and stared at the face intently.
“You trying to talk to it?” Erik asked skeptically.
“No, I’m trying to remember something,” Griffin replied absently. “Something quite familiar.”
The others gathered around him in silence.
After a few moments, he looked up at his companions eagerly. “I have it! The fish goddess of Lepenski Vir.”
“The what now?” Erik inquired.
“The face looked so familiar to me. I knew I’d seen a series of carvings that look almost like this. They came from a dig in Yugoslavia dated around 6000 BCE. And it isn’t simply the face. The geometric decorations are also quite similar.” He spoke more rapidly as his excitement grew. “Yes, yes, and now that I think of it I can recall another. A bird goddess statue found in the south of France around 4000 BCE. And of course, some of the abstract designs at Gobekli Tepe are very much like this.”
“You mean that place in Turkey?” Cassie asked. “That one’s about eleven thousand years old.”
“Quite right,” Griffin confirmed.
“What you say is very interesting,” Oluoma commented. “These Ikom stones have been dated anywhere from 200 CE to 1000 CE.”
“But that means the Minoans couldn’t have seen them,” Erik objected. “We’re looking for rocks that would have been positioned at least three thousand years ago.”
Oluoma gave him a knowing smile. “Fortunately for you, there are many who disagree with the estimated age of these sculptures. Some believe them to be much older. In fact, a Nigerian academic recently put forth a theory that they may be eleven thousand years old.”
Griffin nodded approvingly. “Well, that would dovetail nicely with the dating of Gobekli Tepe.”
“Ah, but there’s more to the theory than their great age,” Oluoma continued. “It is believed that these monoliths were erected by a lost civilization that flourished before the days of the pharaohs. Right where modern-day Calabar stands, in fact. A civilization so advanced that its inventions and ideas were carried far from here by land and sea.”
“A sophisticated sea-faring culture on the west African coast,” Erik said pensively. “Maybe that explains the Olmec stone faces with African features found in Mexico.”
Oluoma stared down at the monolith before her. “Some of the writing on these stones has been matched to
