Akwuke
beach: The hidden Oasis of The East
As we alighted from the chartered vehicle we
were astonished by the mass of stones heaped together down the valley, some
were in brown sack bags while the bigger ones were stacked together. Grooves of
aged trees adorned each sides of the road but what struck us were two ancient
trees tied with white cloth and sprinkled with red substance. We knew it was a shrine or a sacred tree or
so. Some people sat close to it drinking beer and chatting.
The road was scattered with deep wine-coloured stones. We walked down the broad path
that seems to have been dug out by erosion. Several persons passed us.
The sloping
road led us to the beach and the view was simply breathtaking. Standing up
there we saw the beach! It looked more like an oasis in the Sahara desert. Then
the undulating hills at the background completed the picture. We felt
transported; the transition from the hard gully soil to glittery, and shiny
white sand was astounding. I imagined that a playful giant came down through a
bean stalk to heap the sands high at each side then let the waters run through
it or an angry giant torn his way through the sandy
escarpment.
My backpackers’ friends and I was excited that
we ran down to feel the glittery white sand of the beach. But a massive concrete that seem to be a relic
of a bridge or so caught my attention.
The river
hurried here and there as if it on its way to a very important occasion. It dragged along the glittery sand along it
bank hence the Sandy colour.
But it is joined by it confluence by another hurrying river called Orubo.
The sand
towered many feet. I felt I was in the Sahara and as we descended the valley we saw some Fulani children
walking towards our direction. Their oblong faces were so beautiful that I had
to photograph them. I was surprised that they weren’t camera shy and even posed
very well for pictures.
From the other side we saw people playing
games on top of the sandy hill. Down the river, some group of persons scrubbed
their clothes in the sandy coloured water. Some cattle grazed on the sloping
hills, while some persons crouched inside the water, they dug their hands into
the water as if they were looking for
something in the river bed. Then they
brought out stones and dropped them into a wide mesh. I watched curiously
wondering at what they were doing. The
rumble of the sand trucks afar distracted me. I stopped a man who walked past
me and I asked him about the place.
"This
river is called Iyama.” He scratched his head.
"The river is revered and worship by some group of persons. During
the rainy season, it is very mighty and it overflows to where we are standing.
The river is a goddess that is swift to anger but kind to it worshippers. The
chief priest is not around, he comes and goes, and he and his followers pour
libations intermittently to it. The other one over there is called Orubo. There
used to be a bridge but it collapsed because of the eroding topography.”
“You see
there used to be two rivers that flows to different directions.'' He pointed to a gully stricken dried water
path that housed some shrubs. “But the activities of the sand dredgers
diverted Orubo course and join them
together at that bend, together they now flow down south. '' he rambled on
"What
are those people doing"? I pointed to the persons in the river.
''They are
stone pickers; the river bed contains a lot of stones so they pick, and sieve
the stones into bags which are then sold to distributors." So the mass of stones we saw before was a
collective efforts of these people. I marvelled at their tenacity; how they
managed to be stay so long in the water!
We asked him
if we could see the source of the Iyama stream. He laughed...
‘‘No one has
traced the source of the river. Tradition says u have to climbed seven hills to
see it beginning. A white man with his power bike came here a long time for
that purpose but he gave up the expedition.”
My little
Fulani friends played at the foothill exposed by the low tide. They filled and
emptied plastic rubbers with the water. I joined them in their play while they
giggled shyly. Then my friends reminded
me that we had to leave....
We crossed
the shallow Iyama to the beach, despite it shallowness the river current was
very strong and I almost tripped.
We joined a
stone picker called Cynthia who kindly allowed us to help her picked the stones
deep inside the river bed. She guided us on which stones to pick. She said she had to fill up nine bags to get
one thousand and hundred naira. We felt sorry for her. My friends handed her
some snacks then we walked uphill to see the Fulani settlement.
Find out in
the next post……
Akwuke
beach: a visit to the Fulani settlement
