Egbesu is the god of deity of warfare of the Ijaw peaple of the Niger Delta region, and Egbesu is the spiritual foundation for combating evil.
According to Pere Jay West the Egbesu force can only be used in defence or to correct an injustice..,and only by peaple who are harmony with the universe.
The symbols of the divine force is the Leopard and white cloth.
The Ancient Egbesu cult of the Ijaws declined after the successful British occupation of the Ijaws lands in the late 19th Century, and for some time most Ijaws only knew of the cult through folklore and traditional war songs which the Ijaws called ”Ogele”, that is why Prophet aka The God of Ajasco proclaimed that let the Ijaws should go back and practice there traditional religion, that is the only way they can unite and have there own nation according to Pere Jay West 2018.
More recently, members of the cult, also known as the Egbesu Boys, have been fighting against authorities in the Niger Delta region in responce to enviromental and other problems of oppression caused by oil exploitation and lack of investment of oil revenue in the local economy.
Many young men have joined the cult, undergoing secret initiations by powerful Egbesu priest like Tani Akparuku who impart the super natural powers of Egbesu. The followers often believed the charms and the cult initiations make them bullet proof.
Types Of The Egbesu
Though all the Egbesu are the same but the way of practicing on it are differ based on the particular Ijaw community:
(1) Arogbo Egbesu,
(2) Gbanraun Egbesu,
(3) Ekeremor Egbesu,
(4) Egbema Egbesu,
(5) Olodiama Egbesu, etc.
Functions Of The Egbesu
The Egbesu has many functions in which we can not vabally informed all to the general public but in accordance to this article, i will breafly enlight some of the significany on it:
(1) The cosmological aspects of the capacity of Egbesu is to furnish certain supplements to the view of the world of experience. For example, the tremendouse war power of the bullet proof which makes the peaple invulnerable to the white Men and the Nigerian soldiers bullets is procured from ”the Okurugbolu groove of Bolou_Ekeremor” which recently hard developed a latent war skill for the peaple of the Ijaw nation.
(2) The Egbesu never fails, it make recruitment of the Egbesu boys who outrightly replaced the law enforcement agents such as the Nigeria Police and the Nigerian army in the rivering areas like Oporoja, Gbaramatu, Okerenkoko, Arogbo etc.
(3) In most Ijaw communities along the Niger Delta region because of the threat possed by those totemic groups, the federal government has withdrawn all their policemen, and soldiers who where serving in the area of discourse.
(4) The competence of the Egbesu to furnish individuals with specific experiences and stimulation. On request this Egbesu assist believers to demand some bad debts for the owner also.
(5) Egbesu forgive those who sinned agains it and for them to do some processes like Ikolokolo wei in Arogbo and the other Ijaw communities.
Egbesu the god of Ijaws really protect them in terms of war and other relegious, socio cultural aspect, like the war of Arogbo Ijaw kingdom in Ondo State and the Ilaje peaple in which Ijaw won the battle using Egbesu at the front in 1998 to 1999.
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