Ikot Udo Abia is a village in ward four of the Etinan local government area,

Akwa Ibom State Akwa Ibom State is a state in the South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria, bordered on the east by Cross River State, on the west by Rivers State and Abia State, and on the south by the Atlantic Ocean. The state takes its name from the Qua Iboe ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya 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 G ...

."Local governments in Akwa Ibom State."
Special Duties Dept., Military Administrator's Office, Nigeria, 1996 p132. Accessed at Google Books 7 February 2014.Sanni L. O
"Cassava Postharvest Needs Assessment Survey in Nigeria,"
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture 2007 , 9789781312656. "Ikot Udo Abia" means ''followers of Udo Abia''. The villagers are the

Ibibio people The Ibibio people (English: / ɪbɪˈbiːəʊ/) are a coastal people in southern Nigeria. They are mostly found in Akwa Ibom and Cross River States. They are related to the Efik people. During the colonial period in Nigeria, the Ibibio Union ...

who are of the Afaha group within the Iman Clan (their spiritual guide is Itina). The language spoken in the village is Ibibio. Ikot Udo Abia lies in the area of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

which was affected by the

Atlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and ...

of the sixteenth to nineteenth

centuries A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial or ...

Geography

Climate

Because of the effects of the maritime and the continental tropical air masses, the climate of Ikot Udo Abia is characterized by two seasons, namely, the wet or rainy season and the dry season. The wet or rainy season lasts for about eight months. The rainy season begins in March or April and lasts until mid-November. The total annual rainfall is approximately . The

dry season The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The ...

begins in mid-November and ends in March. During this brief period, the continental tropical air mass, northeasterly winds and an associated dry and dusty

harmattan The Harmattan is a season in West Africa that occurs between the end of November and the middle of March. It is characterized by the dry and dusty northeasterly trade wind, of the same name, which blows from the Sahara over West Africa into th ...

haze affects the village. However, as a result of proximity to the

ocean The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refer to any of the large bodies of water into which the wo ...

, the harmattan dust haze, is relatively mild; it may only last for a few weeks between December and January. The farmers benefit from the harmattan characteristics as they are good for harvesting and storage of the food crop. Ikot Udo Abia records warm to hot temperatures throughout the year. The mean annual temperatures varying between . The humidity varies between seventy-five percent in July and ninety-five percent in January.

Infrastructure

The community has two primary schools: St. Martins UNA primary school and Sixtowns school. Sixtowns was founded to be a service centre for six nearby villages: Ikot Udobia, Ikot Akpabio, Anan-Ikono, Nung Asang-Ikono, Ikot Ebo-Ikono and Ikot Isong, hence its name “ Six Towns.” (It is located in Ikot Udobia but it is associated with the

Qua Iboe church The United Evangelical Church (Founded as ''Qua Iboe Church'') is a Christian denomination in Nigeria. It has existed since 1887. It has more than 1,000 congregations and 2,000,000 members. The church was founded by an Irish missionary, Rev. S ...

which sits on the boundary between Ikot Udobia and Ikot Akpabio). The St Martins school was built by the First African Church (UNA) and is located in the center of the village. There is also a health centre, a market, a sub post office, a youth center, and a mini-water project that was constructed by the government of Obong Akpan Isemin. The village has an electricity supply.

Culture

The culture and arts of the people are influenced by their religious beliefs and their farming and fishing lives. In the late 1800s, the people of the area were receptive to European

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

. Most people are

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words '' Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρ ...

and festivals tend to occur at Christmas.

Food

In Ikot Udo Abia ''gari'', ''fufu'', plantain and

yam Yam or YAM may refer to: Plants and foods *Yam (vegetable), common name for members of ''Dioscorea'' * Taro, known in Malaysia and Singapore as yam * Sweet potato, specifically its orange-fleshed cultivars, often referred to as yams in North Amer ...

are staple foods. A wide variety of soups are prepared to eat with the staples. They are made with seafoods, such as crayfish, shellfish (periwinkles for example) or dried fish,

palm oil Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of the oil palms. The oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel. Palm oil accounted for about 33% of global oils produced fr ...

, palm fruits, meat from cow skin, chicken or goat, local spices and leaves such as afang (''Gnetum africanum''), pumpkin (''Telfairia occidentalis''), water leaf (''Talinum fruticosum''), editan, Ntrong, etighi (

okra Okra or Okro (, ), ''Abelmoschus esculentus'', known in many English-speaking countries as ladies' fingers or ochro, is a flowering plant in the mallow family. It has edible green seed pods. The geographical origin of okra is disputed, with sup ...

) and atama. Examples are ''

Afang soup Afang soup (not to be misconstrued for Okazi soup or Ukazi soup, a soup from the Igbo cuisine), is a vegetable soup that originates from the Efik people of the Efik kingdom in Cross River State and the Ibibio People of Akwa Ibom in Southern Nigeri ...

'', ''edikaikong'' soup, ''atama'' soup, ''afia efere ebot'' (white soup, made without palm oil), ''efere ndek iyak'' (fresh fish soup), ''efere nyama,” ''ubo, “ bitter leaf soup, melon soup, ikpafai ntuen, and mkpafere.

Economy

The villagers are engaged in crop farming (mostly

cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated a ...

), raising livestock, fishing, hunting and gathering. Secondary industries include food processing and manufacturing, forestry, and blacksmithing. Tertiary industries include provision of services and governance. The village has a fabricator of cassava processing plant replacement parts.

Farming

The farming year is divided into three seasons: the early, late and dry seasons. Cassava is the main crop, and its root processed into ''fufu'',

tapioca Tapioca (; ) is a starch extracted from the storage roots of the cassava plant (''Manihot esculenta,'' also known as manioc), a species native to the North and Northeast regions of Brazil, but whose use is now spread throughout South America. ...

, flour, starch and porridge. The Nka Iwa association is the cassava growers and processors' association in the village. Irrigation is via streams and

borehole A borehole is a narrow shaft bored in the ground, either vertically or horizontally. A borehole may be constructed for many different purposes, including the extraction of water ( drilled water well and tube well), other liquids (such as petro ...

s. Vegetables crops are also farmed, for example, fluted pumpkin, bitter leaf, waterleaf, okro, pepper and afang (''

Gnetum africanum ''Gnetum africanum'' (eru or African jointfir) is a vine gymnosperm species found natively throughout tropical Africa. Though bearing leaves, the genus ''Gnetum'' are gymnosperms, related to pine and other conifers. ''Gnetum africanum'' has nume ...

''), atama, editan (an orange cultivarOseni T. O
"Orange cultivars in Nigeria."
Nigerian Journal of Science Vol 21. 1987. Science Association of Nigeria, Ibadan University Press.), ntron, uyayak, mmeme, and utazi.

References

{{reflist Ibibio Populated places in Akwa Ibom State