Ikot Afanga is a rural town in
Akwa Ibom State
Akwa Ibom is a States of Nigeria, state in the South South, South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria. It borders Cross River State to the east, Rivers State and Abia State to the west and north-west, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south. The state ...
,
Nigeria
Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...
.
This town featured prominently in the history of the "man-leopard murders" of
Southern Annang. A series of
murder
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...
victims were found in the 1940s, with injuries looking as if they had been caused by an attacking
leopard
The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant cat species in the genus ''Panthera''. It has a pale yellowish to dark golden fur with dark spots grouped in rosettes. Its body is slender and muscular reaching a length of with a ...
, causing rumours about
wereleopards in the area. In 1946, a man called Udo Anwa was arrested, tried and sentenced to death by hanging for the killings.
[Pratten, David. 2007. ''The Man-Leopard Murders: History and Society in Colonial Nigeria''. Indiana University Press]
There is a major colonial road linking
Ntak Ibesit and Ikot Afanga, named Nsiak Udo Anwa (Udo Anwa's Road).
Today, Ikot Afanga is a commercial centre noted for
cassava
''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although ...
production and distribution.
References
Towns in Oruk Anam
Towns in Akwa Ibom State
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