IS ABA IN ABIA STATE A
MASONIC TOWN? ©2012
Aba is a south eastern town
in Abia State Nigeria, built in the early 1900’s
and boasts of industrial complexes and manufacturing companies from that time.
There’s new evidence to suggest that Aba,
the commercial town of Abia
state was founded and built by masons. The designs and planning of the roads
leading to the town hall and its environs seems to depict deep knowledge into
the secret symbols of the freemasonry and there functions.
Aba
was built in the early 1900’s (1900-1920’s) and at that time there existed, no
known Masonic body or Lodge within. Lodge Endeavour No. 1593 SC was founded
under the rolls of the Grand Lodge of Scotland on the 3rd of May
1962 and consecrated on the 12th of June 1963. So this evidence
might point at the existence of a secret Masonic body which operated in the
town in the early 1900’s and which had Rosicrucian and Egyptian influences.
It might be that the inhabitants of the land before
colonization by the British empire, had knowledge of the pyramids and their use
in religious worship ( see The Calix Papers),
and they may also have used elephants as transportation, a fact which probably
led to the nick name of the town known in certain circles as “Enyimba”, meaning the Elephant clan.
A theory suggests that they might have migrated from Congo, the land
of pygmies, and the place where the Legendary King Solomon’s mines are reputed
to be located. The pygmies were known to hunt elephants for food and
domesticated them for transportation, which might explain how they were able to
travel the far distance between the deep forest of the Congo and the delta region of Nigeria.
A common feature between the local inhabitants of Aba and the Pygmies is
height. The Ngwa, the local inhabitants, are known to have many pygmiods (a mix
between pygmies and Bantu) among their clansmen. Also one of the legends
connected to Nri, the reputed first stop of Ibos, is that they had a pygmy race
amongst them “Nwanshi”. This might also allude to the origin of the Nigerian
pygmy goat and cattle, prevalent in Ibibio, Hmong, and Igbo lands. The later is
now a rare find in Ibo, land but can still be found in lands between Ngwa-land
and Akwa- Ibom State.
The main modern Masonic evidence is the visible “square”
shaped connection of roads right smack in the middle of the town and leading
the town hall (see diagram). The ancient
are pyramids which depict a primordial form of tantric worship and an elephant
shaped masquerade. Evidence suggest that the ancient worship entailed an
elaborate interconnectivity of paths; which included spiritual currents flowing
through “Omuma “ to certain sites; which were conscripted by the British, who erected churches on these sites.
In ‘The new Masonic plan’, the pyramids appear like they
were employed to depict a Christian view. One of the pyramids tips at “Garden Avenue” an
obvious allusion to “Eden”,
which in certain Masonic legend represent a garden of roses in the center of a
cross of four rivers. At the center of this pyramid is St John’s parish Osusu road.
According to sources close to historical figures in the
Anglican community in Aba, this parish was
supposed to have been the site of the Anglican cathedral in Aba, but the land struggle between the church
and the inhabitants of the land now housing St Eugene’s Catholic Church
thwarted this plan.
As a result, the Anglican Church moved its center to St.
Michaels, inside the main town, while the natives sold off most of the land
which had previously been conscripted for further development by the British,
in that part of town.
The modern Masonic
roots of Aba it
may seem from the evidence, was spurred by the Colonists and early migrants
from Sierra Leon, who might have been made up of masons from Portharcourt and
Calabar. Okirika Lodge Portharcourt has names like Sankoh etc on their list of
officers from the early 1920’s and Mc Donald Lodge Calabar also boasts of
Sierra Leonean Masons from the early 1900’s. A name like “Boyle” was once a
street name in Aba
which may have been changed, while Tenant, George’s, still remain as a road and
street. These were named after Sierra Leoneans who once lived in Aba.
In fact history has it that the rolls of Endeavour Lodge
were filled with Sierra Leoneans in the sixties and seventies; the last of
which were the late Barber’s. Many buildings in the Government Reserved Area of
Aba was once virtually owned by Sierra Leoneans, and while some sold their
properties to relocate elsewhere as a result of the 1966 civil war and its
aftermath, there still remained a few families who and married Nigerians in the
process of naturalizing as indigenes.
Studying the town plan, one gets the feeling that
individuals responsible for the designs did not conclude all their planning before
the handover date in 1960; but they completed the Masonic landmarks before
lodge Endeavour in 1963, was strategically placed at the base, and right under
the second pyramid with its apex in Ariaria market and environs.
The realization of the unfinished divine plan gives the
impression that a higher architect was at work when the city planners were at
there’s. I hope that sometime in the present or in the future other masons can
have the time and resources to research more on these remote planners, the
church which obviously influenced them and the masons who dwelt in the city in
the early 1920’s to see if the plan would be completed. ©2012
Wor. Bro.
Chief (Dr.)C. C. Ohiaeri Past Master &
Secretary
Aba Urban Lodge 908IC
No comments:
Post a Comment