ANYANKA Tourism Site
ANOTHER TOURIST SITE ABANDONED
Abandoned Tourism site
Denen Daniel
In Gwer East, Benue State was a mysterious settlement with the potent to heal children with various deformities. Legend has it that Anyanka, Ajande Akuji, the man after whom the famous Anyanka Bathing Shrine is named is the ancestor of the Anyanka family in Mbamar Kindred of Mbasombo.
Peter Uhambe, an indigene of Mbasombo said: “In the 1940s, Anyanka was known as the most popular traditional healer in Tiv land. People walked long distances to visit him. And the healer never disappointed his clients. When the whiteman arrived the hinterlands of what is known today as Benue state, a meeting was summoned of all the prominent people of Tiv extraction at Abinsi. The agenda of the meeting was how to bring people together. Anyanka attended the ‘Abinsi Accord.’ When he returned he began his healing which made many to conclude he had acquired his powers from Abinsi. It was concluded he had chosen healing as his own way of bringing people together.” When Anyanka returned from this accord, he turned his compound to a shrine; planted trees such as kon-kuaar, vanbe, sho’oor, and akinde. After all these were done, he commenced healing.
To Mama Mbayemen Tyodzua, “No one could be more interested in anything, it was a demonstration that the gods materialized in the physical form and were healing. I never had any cause to consult Anyanka anyway, but I was there when he performed his wonders; it was all miracles. Children with severe degrees of deformities were instantly restored once they established contact with the shrine. The healing drew a large number of people to the community. Anyanka suggested that women in the community underwent a compulsory cleansing. Because as he continued to purge bodies of bad spirits, the spirits were no doubt roaming the community and this was to prevent them from getting into the wombs of expectant mothers. So, it became a constituted practice that all women in the community underwent ritual bathe at the shrine during pregnancy to ward off the spirits. This part of the practice has continued 60 years after the death of the patriarch.”
According to Baba Anyom Bali: “Anyanka did not just performed healing, he did miracles which none who lived after him can imagine. Children with terrible deformities were brought to the shrine. After a careful look at such a child, he would go into the bush, return with leaves which were not strange to anyone, grind them into pulp, plaster the affected area with the mash. It never took more than usual for such a baby to return to normalcy, no matter the state of deformity.” This made Anyanka famous which in Mama Mbazendan Orshior’s voice “went as far as one could know.”
What remains of a once busy community is a sorry state. Economically, such a place can be preserved for tourist attraction. This will in turn create jobs and enhance wealth for the inhabitants and the state at large. Elsewhere, people who know better are making fortune out of places like Anyanka.
