Stairway to Heaven, Duat, Sitchen, Professor Achonolu, Lejja

According to  Professor Achonolu, The Stairway to Heaven: Another important feature of the Heaven or Duat of the Egyptians, where their gods lived, is the presence of a Staircase otherwise called “The Stairway to Heaven”. Zecharia Sitchen who dedicated a title of one of his books to this phenomenon, says that the Egyptian ‘Heaven’ was a physical place with a stairway or ladder leading into it.

Quoting the Book of the Dead, Sitchen writes that when the stairway is reached, “the king is nearing the heart of the Duat; he is near the Amenta, the Hidden Place. It was there that Osiris himself had risen to the Eternal Afterlife.

Plate    5A

It was there that the ‘Two That Bring Closer the Heaven’ stood out… as ‘two magical trees.” Quoting a prayer from the same passage in the Book of the Dead, Sitchen continues: “Maybe given to me my name in the House of Two; May in the House of Fire, my name be granted. In the night of computing years, and of telling the months, may I be a divine Being, may I sit at the east side of Heaven.”

All the features mentioned here (highlighted) are located in the Eastern Duat at the place where the mouth of the Duat is supposedly located. An all of them have parallels with the Dunu Oka shrine in Lejja. There is indeed a stairway, a sloping pathway constructed in a graded fashion with piles of iron slag that leads from a section of the forest into the Dunu Oka village square (plate 5). The stairway is almost dilapidated, but we were able to clearly make out that this was a stairway and we said so to the villagers and fellow researchers on the mission, and everyone concurred.

Plate    5B

The stairway is composed of four steps leading up to the central square, which is the heart and head of the entire structure. All the samples of the stairway we have so far seen in Egyptian texts are composed of four steps!

The Egyptian Book of the Dead actually says that a stairway leading up to the ‘sky’ is located in Khemennu (Khe’nnu). Even the ‘sky’ is represented in Lejja in the form of a huge crescent-shaped pile of slag with the sun disk resting in front of it (plate  6).

Plate 5a,b: (Right and Above) The Stairway leading to the Mouth of the Benben (close-up on step one down, left). Pictures by Catherine Acholonu.

Plate 6a,b: Oshuru - the ‘Sacred Groove’ where the Mouth of the Earth is hidden. Celestial Disc and the Roof of Heaven; Sun and Crescent Moon; The Sun coursing through the underside of the Sky/Neith and riding on the Celestial bark/boat – the River Niger; the Son (Sun-god) in the Mother’s womb (Nun). Plate 6a (below by Pamela Eze-Uzoamaka. Plate 6b (beneath) by Catherine Acholonu.

Two Magical Trees One of Which is Called by the Name of the Sumerian Sky God, Utu: Two magical Trees are also found at the Dunu Oka shrine. They are two ancient Trees, each with tangled roots screened off with piles of iron slag. The two sacred trees are actually shrines. They are called Utu Udeleigwe and Oya Ogwuu (plate 7a,7b)

Plate    6A

The former is called the Tree of Justice where villagers swear their innocence and culprits are punished or miraculously executed; the latter is a Tree of Life and Healing, which neutralizes every charm and poison that is brought near it.

Oya Ogwuu is a tree associated with the sun and moon cycles. The village priests use it for counting the moon cycles using pebbles, thus computing the months and the years with it.

Again this coincides with the Egyptian “night of computing years, and of telling the months”! Zechariah Sitchin posits that the Egyptian Heliopolis of modern times is an imitation of the ancient Heliopolis of antiquity called “the House of Shamash” located in a “Place of Palms” (palm trees), which the Prophet Jeremiah referred to as the “Houses of the Gods of Egypt”, while the prophet Amos called it “the location of the palaces of Adad”. Shamash was the Akkadian name of the sky god whom the Sumerians called Utu. His symbol was the Eagle for he was the god of the skies and of the Sun.

The name of the Sumerian sky god Utu occurs severally in Lejja. The name of the first of the two magical Trees - Utu Udeleigwe means ‘Utu – the Vulture of the Sky’. This cannot be a coincidence, rather it implies that the sacred tree with that name is actually a totem representative of the god Utu himself.

Plate     6B

Also, the name of the god Adad occurs in Lejja in the female form of Adada, who is the main deity female of Lejja. Her shrine is not far removed from the Dunu Oka Shrine.

Therefore the “House of Shamash” located in the “Place of Palms” referred to by Biblical prophet Amos, is Lejja in Nsukka, Enugu state.

The reference to this place as a place of palms is self-explanatory. Igbo land, nay Nigeria is the traditional home of the palm tree. It is an interesting revelation that this place is referred to in Jeremiah as the “Houses of the Gods of Egypt”. Might this be a reference to the countless shrines of gods in Nsukka, Enugu and in Igbo land?

The god Utu/Shamash is the most famous god of Sumer. He was the Sun. As Sun-god, he was perhaps the Sumerian equivalent of Egypt’s Horus. Sumerian texts reveal that Utu and his uncle Adad were always together. The same is true in Lejja with the names Utu and Adada appearing side by side. Even though the natives call her a female deity, their mythology says that she is a form of the putative male ancestor of Lejja, Ugwu Oke, whose name means ‘Male Hill’. Plate 7a,b: The Two Magical Trees: Utu Udeleigwe (below) and Oya Ogwuu (beneath). Pictures by C. C. Opata.

Plate    7A Utu Udeleigwe Tree Shrine

Osiris -The Tree God of Egypt: Besides the two sacred Trees, we noticed that there was a mighty tree in the bush near the shrine that looked like no tree we had seen before. It was very huge and very high, yet was completely hollow inside.

It looked like it was cut along its length into three parts, with the third part looking like a leg thrust out from the knee. Later on, poring through Egyptian images of the Duat, we were attracted by an image (plate 7c) that reminded us of the one in Lejja, and of the story of Osiris’ body trapped in a wooden coffin inside the trunk of a mighty tree!

Like the tree in the image, this tree looked as if someone had hollowed it out, leaving only the bark, yet it had remained strong through hundreds of years. We noticed that there are actually three trees in the image: two facing each other just like in Lejja, and a third huge hollowed tree at the side (just like in Lejja! We also noticed that all three trees are marked by the Egyptian hieroglyph for ‘god’ - a flag pole. This is a confirmation from Egyptian records that the three trees in Lejja are gods of Egypt! Egyptians believe that Osiris is buried in the Duat in the district of Abydos.

What could these strange symbols be, if the completion of the circle of symbols indicating that THIS was the “district of Abydos, the burial place of the East” where the “funeral chest” of Osiris “the Lord of the Mouth of the Duat” lies. A Text from The Book of the Dead, attributed to a god-man called Unas, refers to Osiris as the “Great Quaker (Kwa-Aka) who comes forth from the Asert Tree.”

Plate    7B Oya Ogwuu Tree Shrine

Ralph Ellis says that Osiris is a god who is associated with a Tree and who is believed to dwell inside a tree. Thus the Duat image under reference (plate 7b) could easily be seen as portraying two small sacred trees and a third large tree with a hollow space where Osiris dwells.

The villagers claim that the ancestors (in the form of the ancestral masquerades) issue out of that Tree to enter the House of Fire for the annual Festival of the Dead (Olili Ndi Ushi).

This explains why Egyptian gods wear animal heads (see plates 11b, 9b, 13a, b). They are wearing their traditional Igbo masquerade images. Plate 7c below:

An Egyptian image of the Duat showing a rough representation of the pile of slag rocks looking like blocks; the X, a known symbol of Osiris represents the Oshuru Mound where the hole is; the Two Magical Trees are facing each other as in Lejja, the Stairway, sometimes called a “ladder” is located left. The mighty hollow Tree of Osiris can be seen on the extreme left. All three trees look like flagpoles, the Egyptian hieroglyphic letter for ‘god’. (from Andrew Collins, Beneath the Pyramids, 2010, p. 72.

Plate 9b: Another image associated with the Duat in Egypt clearly showing pillars surrounding a mound like the Oshuru shrine of Lejja. The stairway can be seen on the chest of the crescent with an antelope head.

Plate     7C

The crescent is the matches the one in Lejja and the antelope head implies a forest environment.

This image also seems to represent the lead masquerade of the Lejja Festival of the Dead (Omoba masquerades) who wears an antelope head.and carries bells on the head area as well as sticks for caning offenders. It is called Icharicha. (Opata. C., “The Ethnography of Otobo Ugwu Dunoka”, unpublished paper, p. 14, 23). Great House of Two Truths: Osiris proudly referred to himself as “the victorious scribe of Ani”, “the favoured one of his divine city”, “Lord of the Mouth of the tomb” the one whose “throne is placed within the darkness’, while his princes in Lejja/Igboland/Nigeria “make festivals for him in Annu” – “he shall do whatsoever pleaseth him even as the gods who are in the underworld, for everlasting millions of ages, world without end”.

Osiris refers to the Duat as the Hall of Double Truth, and frequent references to it in various Egyptian texts maintain that it is a Great House of Two Truths, represented by two lions sitting back to back as if in opposition to each other.

Plate      8 Place of Iron-Slags Pillars

This too is the tradition at the Odegwoo (Benben) shrine in Lejja. We are told that this is the only shrine in Igbo land, where one shrine has two priests who make offerings at the same time but with separate incantations and prayers.

The two priests are said to be forever in competition while praying, for which reason they each pray silently so as not to be overheard or copied by each other. The Two Truths may be a reference to the duality of life such as the unity of male and female, sun and moon, night and day – the yin and the yang.

The House of Fire: The third sacred monument in this section after the stairway and the two magical trees, is a House that the villagers call the ‘Furnace House’ (Plate 10). It is named Okiti Akpuriagedege in local parlance and is built exactly like a furnace - a tubular mud house with a small door and no windows. The natives say it is the meeting and resting house for the Dead. As in the Egyptian tradition everything associated with the Duat has to do with the Living Dead.

The Duat is called “the Land of the Dead”, and also “Black Land” - a reference to its black population.  The Lejja furnace house is where the Dead Ancestors who were smiths in past ages congregate during the annual Covenant Renewal Festival between the Dead and the Living (Olili Ndi Ushi). Like any furnace, the Lejja furnace house is a house of fire. It is, doubtless, to say, the original model of the Egyptian “House of Fire” (plate 10) whose images as represented in The Book of the Dead, is very akin to the Lejja Furnace House.

Plate      9A

                                                            Plate 10a (further below): The House of Fire at Lejja.    Plate 10b (further below): The House of Fire extreme right of the pic. The god Anubis is conducting the dead Pharaoh into the House of Fire amid wailing relatives and black African native priests.

Ashura – The Sacred Groove of Osiris; The Celestial Disc Symbol of Ra and the Table of the Sun: The symbol of the Celestial Disc in Lejja is called Oshuru. It is the rounded pile of slag surrounded by the huge crescent-shaped pile (plate 11).

The Book of the Dead says that the Duat city of Abydos in Heliopolis was called Busiris – ‘House of Osiris’. The word Busiris – ‘House of Osiris’ is an Igbo expression, meaning Obu Oshuru – ‘House of Oshuru’ or ‘House of Osiris’! From this perspective, it can be further confirmed that Osiris, the Lord of the Egyptian Duat, was the Lord of the Lejja smelters. The Oshuru object in Lejja is in the shape of the celestial disc/mound.

It is flanked by a crescent-shaped pile of slag rounded into a circle around the disc (plate 6, 11). Egyptian images and symbols created by the combination of disc, crescent and surrounding circle are: a winged disc; a circle with a dot in the center (symbol of Ra); the sun coursing along the roof of heaven or gliding under the bosom of the mother goddess Nut; the sun traveling inside the boat of millions of years (plate 6).

Plate      9B

                                   
Plate 11a, b: The Celestial Disc where the bottomless pit is located. 11 b: The god Thoth bearing the Celestial Disc inside a crescent moon, as in plate 6, far above.

The Boat of Millions of Years is a metaphor for the River Niger – the Traverser of Millions of Years. Egyptians believed that it was on the BACK (metaphorical ‘BARK/BOAT’) of the River Niger that civilization, like the sun, rode to get to Egypt in North Africa, borne by the gods Thoth, Maat and Osiris (plate 12).

From all indications, the Eastern side of Heaven, from where the sun rises out of the underground Duat is Enugu State, marked by the mouth of the Duat in Lejja, while the Western side of Heaven is Anambra State, marked by the Niger/Omambala/Ezu double confluence (Egypt’s ‘Double Nest’) in Aguleri, where the Sun takes a dip and goes to sleep in the night. A Double Confluence is a rare phenomenon. The Egyptians could not have missed it.

Plate      10A The House of Fire at Lejja

The dot in the center of a circle in the Lejja shrine is arranged with piles of slag into a “fortified circle” as implied in ancient Egyptian texts. This is the popular Egyptian symbol of the Ra. The dot is the Sun while the circle around it represents the Mother Goddess Neith/Nut who represents the sky enveloping the Sun’s celestial disc. These concepts are also ingrained in Igbo metaphysics, implying that it was Igbos who introduced these concepts in Egypt.

Accordingly, Prof. John Umeh reveals that the dot in the center of the circle is “Mgba Aka, which in its original purity is the alternative terminology (for) Mgba Nne Chukwu – ‘Circle of the Mother of God’, and is enshrined in the ancient Igbo Astronomical symbol of a circle with a dot in its center.

Plate     10B

This mystical symbol, according to him, is the Sun’s Astrological symbol of ancient Egypt and Igbos as is used today in Igbo astral divination.”

Here is more than enough evidence of a tie between Egyptian and Igbo metaphysics, for the dot in the circle, famously known as the symbol of Ra, is in actuality a Mother Symbol alluding to the womb of Nun where the Sun god dwells and from which he rose at the First Time of Creation.

The circle with a dot in the center is the central monument in Lejja! Nun is the Egyptian name for the Waters of the Beginning, from which the Sun-god rose, but it is also the name of one of the Delta tributaries of the River Niger.

The entire complex of the Lejja shrine is laid out on the ground surface like a table. Citing Herodotus The Histories III, in his own book, The Stairway to Heaven, Zecharia Sitchen revealed that king Cambyses of Persia sent soldiers on a hazardous journey across the Sahara into Sub-Saharan Africa in search of a mythical Table of the Sun. He lost his entire army in the process.

Plate      11A

Yet he did not find what we have found.

The Lejja Table of the Sun has the overall appearance of a huge Eye looking up to heaven – the so-called Eye of Ra.

In the year 500 B.C., Alexander the Great made the same journey in search of the abode of the gods of Egypt. Biblical Moses made the same journey to the land of Ham and Canaan’s God when he was looking for divine help against the Pharaoh of Egypt. This God is known in the Hebrew Old Testament as El – ‘the Hidden One’. In Igbo tradition, he is known as Ele. The name Ele is enshrined in the words Lejja, which means Ele Jaa (“Ele is Hidden”).

We also gathered in an interview with the natives that the hill where the ancestor of the Lejja people is worshipped is called Ugwele/Ugwu Ele. Ugwu Ele is the name of the hill in Abia State where the Early Stone Age ape-men lived before moving to Lejja.

Plate     11B

As weird as this may sound (and as stated in the preface to the first edition of They Lived Before Adam) Okwara Ugwele was the title of the putative ancestor of the natives of Orlu town in Imo state, the native home of this writer!  Plate 12 below:

The River Niger (representing the Goddesses Nut/Nun) on which the Igbo gods Atum-Ra, Maat and Thoth sail like the sun by boat to Egypt (extreme left). The trio arriving in Egypt (extreme right). Atum – The Igbo Opara Adama:

The presence of the names of two famous gods of Sumer Utu and Adad in the Lejja pantheon of local gods tells us that the Lejja iron technology was part of the Mother pot of Sumerian civilization, a civilization originally located in ancient Nigeria before migrations to the Middle East took place.  The issue of a West African location of early Sumer, is no more a matter of surmise, but a reality. As pre-empting our forth-coming book Eden and Sumer on the Niger, a new book by Hermel Hermstein titled Black Sumer - An African Origin of Civilization, has broken the deadlock surrounding Africa’s contribution to Sumerian civilization by advancing a West Africa mother tongue for Sumerians.

Anchored on the linguistic argument that the ancient Sumerians who midwife the Babylonian, Assyrian and Mesopotamian civilizations that later sprung up in the Middle East, spoke the Niger-Congo language of ancient Nigeria and Cameroon. Hermstein posits that “Proto Niger-Congo has been estimated to date back to between 8,500 B.C. and 11,000 B.C.!” The story of Creation in Eden was passed down from Sumer and became part of the mythologies of the whole world.

Plate    13A

In Lejja and in Igbo mythology these powerful ancients who never died were and are still being referred to as Ndi Ushi.

Their descendants were called and are still Adama in Igbo and Idoma languages, and Atama by the Edo and Igala people. They function as priests if the earth goddess Eze ana, and as First sons God among humanity. Adama/Atama means “Founding Father of the race” in Igbo, Idoma, and Igala. For this reason, they are called Opara Adama in Igbo language.

Opara Adama is the traditional Igbo truest form of kingship resting upon the Adamas by divine primogeniture direct from the god of the immortal Ape-men, who is the invisible God of this Earth Ele/El/Adum/Amun.

Modern Igbo Masquerade

That this concept was carried from Igbo land into Egypt and was the origin of the Pharaohnic dynasties of Egypt, is evident from the fact that, according to the Wikipedia definition of Atum, the word Pharaoh is derived from Par-Atama, which is derived from Par-Atum/Par-Aat –

‘Son of the Great Royal House of Atum’, derived from Igbo Opara Atum in Igbo.

It is in reference to those First Ancestors who never died and the later ancestors who died and found eternal life in the Duat, that Egyptians refer to their ‘Heaven’ or its Igbo land location as the Land of the Living and Land of the Dead. The Igbo, Igala, Benin/Edo and Idoma belong to the Kwa linguistic family of the Niger-Congo, which as we have seen in this piece, is genetically linked with the Canaanites.

Waddell insists that Par-aat is the origin of words like Bharat (the Bharat clan of Mahabharata epic of India) and Brit from which is derived from Britannia and Britain. Indeed all nations in existence came from the one Post Deluge putative ancestor of the Kwa tribes, whom the Nigerian (Edo, Idoma, Igbo, Benin, Yoruba) mythologies call Eri/Iduu Eri or Obatala/Oduduwa). End of part 4 0f 10. The next blog 19/02/19.

Duat, Igbo, Nsukka, Hills, Lejja, Egyptian, Dunu Oka, Orunmila

The Geographical Environment of the Duat
A vital pointer to the geography of the Duat is the statement in The Book of the Dead that the Heart of the Duat, called Restau “is the underworld … on the south of Naarutf and it is the northern door…”. “Naarutf/An-rutf mean in Coptic - the language of native Egyptians - ‘It never Sprouteth” or “Place where there is neither Sprouting of Seeds nor of growth’.

Egyptian depiction of the Duat

An-rutf and Naarutf are cognates of Igbo words Ani Erutefu and Naerutefu which mean “Land that Supports no Growth’ and ‘That Cannot Sprout’, respectively. This is an obvious reference to the Sahara desert. A place located south of the Sahara is a West African location! The northern door of such a place implies, in this case, the northern area of Igbo land. Nsukka is located in Northern Igbo land!

COMPARATIVE ANALYSES WITH EVIDENCE FOUND IN LEJJA
The Eastern Side of Heaven: The Egyptian reference to the Duat (the Egyptian name for the underground Dwelling of the God Amun) as being located in the “East” or “Eastern side of Heaven” is, we believe, a reference to Igbo land traditionally known as “the East” or “the Land of the Rising Sun”. The Duat is called ‘Heaven’ by the ancient Egyptians, for that is where the good Pharaohs go when they die, to spend their Afterlife in the company of the Father of the gods, Amun.

River niger at Sunset

The Duat is traditionally located in the place where the ancient Egyptians believed the Sun rises and sets, and both locations are in the Eastern region of Nigeria – Igbo land. Traditionally, Igbo people also believed like the ancient Egyptians that their heaven is under the earth, which suggests that these ancient Egyptians were Igbos.

The Chains of Hills: Our first in the list of the geographical landmarks of the Duat found in Nsukka area is the chains of hills, which according to Zacharia Sitchen, marks the fourth region of the Duat. Nsukka is interspaced by chains of hills. Not only is Nsukka full of hills, Lejja is also surrounded by chains of hills, with some still showing evidence of ancient terrace farming, which the natives are proud to showcase.

Sahara Desert near Northern Nigeria

Enugwu State where Nsukka is located is a state marked by chains of hills, so too, is Nsukka town and the roads leading to it. C.C. Opata states that “hills are included in the deities of Lejja”, and that within Lejja itself are located the following hills: Ugwu Amushi, Ugwu Nkwo, Ugwu Nwadike, Ugwu Amagu, and Ugwu Amaovuku.

The Famous Three Hills and Two Hills of Egyptian hieroglyphics: In all ancient Egyptian texts, two major hieroglyph letters that mark the location of the Duat are Three Hills and Two Hills. Most Egyptologists translate the three hills and two hills hieroglyphs (plate 1)  as ‘foreign land’ and or ‘desert’.

Enugu's step pyramids, Enugu State, Nigeria

But L.A. Waddell in his comparative study of Sumerian symbol-writing and Egyptian hieroglyphics made a very important discovery.

He found that the Egyptian word for ‘desert’ occurs in Sumerian inscriptions under the name Du or Dun, which is written in Egyptian with the three hills and two hills hieroglyphic letters, and that over the years, the Three Hills and Two Hills have been read by Egyptians as ‘Desert’.

He noted that the actual Sumerian meaning for ‘desert’ is “mound, earthworks or sand hills (– in other words that these hills were piled up sand)” Waddell reveals that the Sumerian word DN –the name for these sand mounds  - is a sun title and that the fifth pharaoh after Menes (in Egypt’s first dynastic king) bore the title Dun Du.

All these revelations go to show that the Egyptian Three Hills and Two Hills symbols are referential landmarks for actual Three Hills and Two Hills located in the place called Dunu Oka in Enugu State; that the gods of Egypt created these hills by piling up sand, as a way-shower and landmark pointing to the Duat!

Also, one is led to the conclusion that the fifth Pharaoh after Menes in Egypt’s first dynasty, who was said to have borne the name Dun Du/Dan would have been a native of Dunu Oka, Nsukka, Enugu or Heliopolis in Igbo land! Perhaps the word Du-At is derived from Dunu Atum! Dunu means ‘Lord’ in Igbo. It also means ‘to settle/to sit’- ‘The Place Where Atum Sits’! The Enugu's step pyramids, in Enugu State, Eastern-Nigeria has been speculated by Professor Achonolu to be the Sumerian lost City of Akkad.

On the road to Nsukka University town, one is shocked to actually see on both sides of the road, one after the other, the actual Two Hills and Three Hills (plate 2) looking every inch as if they are tailored and barbed daily with no trees and high foliage on any of them.

Plate   1.

This confirms the Sumerian explanation for the Three Hills and Two Hills as “sand mounds”, piled up by ancient Igbo god-men rulers of Egypt. This revelation also confirms a Nigeria-based ancient Sumer – the origin of civilization.

Plate 1: The Egyptian Three Hills and Two Hills hieroglyphic letters. Plate 2: Three Hills near Ozalla (by C. Acholonu), and  Plate 3: Two Hills (by A. Animalu) near Umuoka on the road to Lejja, Nsukka, Enugu State. The Hole in the Earth: The Egyptian City of the Sun was known by the ancient name An, Biblical On, meaning ‘Hole’. Egyptian texts refer to this place as “the mouth of the earth… the eastern door of heaven” – “the Gateway to Heaven”. The Igbo word for ‘Hole’ is Onu.

There is a hole in the ground in the Lejja shrine at Dunu Oka (see plate 12, the hole is under the mound/celestial disc). The hole is covered with a mound of black iron slag. The villagers claim that the hole is bottomless and those ritual offerings are made to it at annual festivals to the Dead ancestors. This, of course, is “the mouth of the earth” that leads into the Duat.

Plate    2.

By Egyptian tradition the sun to ends its daily course at a place called Abydos in Heliopolis, and to enter into the Tuat (Duat) at this place through a gap (hole) in the mountains called in Egyptian peq.”

The Egyptian hieroglyphic letters for peq - consist of a cross within a circle (which is the symbol of Khemmenu and/or Heliopolis), a bush foul, a staircase representing the Stairway to Heaven, and a symbol meaning Theth – ‘Sunrise’ – (Igbo Teta means ‘Wake up’). Peq (hole) is derived from the Igbo word mpio okwa, which means ‘Bush fowl’s escape hole’. All these words and their corresponding metaphors for the movement of the sun belong to the Igbo linguistic and cultural environment.

 Plate   3.

Africa’s most celebrated poet, the late Christopher Okigbo, a former librarian at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, gave the title Heaven’s Gate to his only collection of poems. In the collection, he wrote about a visit into the bowels of the earth to draw inspiration from the gods of ‘Heaven’ who dwell inside the earth.

The poems treat themes such as the ‘Last Judgment’; an adventure-like journey through several stations inside a Duat-like environment; the encounter with gods of various appearances and roles in the bowels of the earth, ritual prayers at every station,; Death, Burial in an Egyptian stone sarcophagus, and resurrection…

Knowing what we now know about the Egyptian Duat, it is obvious to us that Christopher Okigbo knew about the Duat located in the bowels of the earth in Igbo land and of its “mouth” located in Nsukka University’s neighboring town of Lejja. Perhaps he was an initiate of the Dunu Oka shrine of Horus and Osiris.

Oshuru's Shrine at the top of this image

The Conical Benben Mound: A Conical object called the Benben is the major landmark of the Duat in Heliopolis. Egyptian texts say that it was a conical or tower-like structure with a strange stone on its tip.

The Benben was, in fact, the original model of the Egyptian pyramid, thus the hieroglyph for the pyramid (a conical form with a rectangular base) was actually an image of the Benben.

Ralph Ellis in Jesus, Last of the Pharaohs notes that “the Benben is one of the most ancient traditions in Egypt. It was centered on the (legend of the prehistoric) city of Heliopolis and the temple of the Phoenix… Legend presumes that the original Benben stone at Heliopolis went missing around 2,000 B.C.” And Ellis posits that the Benben is a phallic symbol projecting Amun’s sexuality in siring divine children/gods.

There is an ancient dilapidated model of the Benben in Lejja. It is a conical structure made of mud, with huge round blocks of slag piled around its base in a graded step-pyramid style (plate 4).

Plate       4. A

The Lejja example of the Egyptian Benben is called Odegwoo. Dr. Chukwuma Opata, in his study of the Lejja sacred monuments, noted that Odegwoo is a “conical” shrine object “associated with fertility and procreation,” and that all children born in the town are ritually registered and dedicated to it by the shrine priests.

This, in fact, links the Lejja conical structure with the phallic sexual and procreative Benben of Egypt’s Heliopolis, for both are procreative and are associated with the process of sexual siring of children in both cultures! In both cases, the Benben is understood to be a representative of the phallus of the god of the conical structure/Benben. Accordingly, this god is the father of all children born in Lejja and of all the gods of Egypt.

Plate      4. B

The 2,000 B.C. date of the disappearance of the Egyptian Benben stone might have been connected with the 2,000 B.C. archaeological date for Lejja iron smelting furnaces. 2023 B.C, was also the date of the destruction of Sumer and the rise of new Sumerian cities in the Middle East – Babylon, Assyria, Mesopotamia, Akkad. Perhaps what happened was that by 2,000 B.C. Heliopolis of Igbo land was abandoned when Sumer fell.

The priests migrated finally to Egypt or crossed over to start new civilizations in Bantu Africa and the Middle East under the old names of Sumerian cities, Assyria (Oshuru), Babylon, Akkad, Mesopotamia, Uruk.

Note: By looking at the map of Africa as a whole, including many ancient tribes and myths, it is absolutely impossible for the Igbo tribe to evolve to modern man, and also be the sole ancestors of the ancient Egyptians, independent of the many other African tribes before and all around them, at the time. Especially the Yoruba tribes who are the next door neighbour to the Igbo tribes. They have their own Flood and Creation Myth parallel to the Igbo Creation Myth.

ARGUMENT AGAINST
For example; the Igbo God Nri and also called Orunmila in Yorubaland, Thoth or Tehuti, in Egypt, Hermes Trismegistus in Greece and different names in China, Japan, Australia (Aboriginal Myth), and in both South and North Americas, cannot be unique to the Igbo tribes alone.

True Egyptian Benben Stone

Orunmila! The witness of fate Second to Oludumare (GOD or The Supreme Architect)) Thou are far more efficacious than medicine, Thou are the Immense Orbit that averts the day of Death. My Lord, Almighty that saved mysterious Spirit that fought death. To Thee, a salutation is first due in the morning.

Thou are the Equilibrium that adjusts World Forces. Thou art the One whose exertion it is to reconstruct the creature of the bad lot. Repairer of bad-luck, He who knows thee becomes immortal Lord, the indisputable king, Perfect in the House of Wisdom! My Lord! Infinite in knowledge! For not knowing thee in full, we are futile, Oh, if we could but know thee in full, all would be well with us. Ase o, Amen, Amun or Amen-Re.

Furthermore, Orunmila, in order to make access to the retrieval of the Divine Message (Ifa) easy, devised the computer compatible binary coding system, thousands of years before the emergence of computer consciousness in so-called modern man! So, Ifa is preserved in binary coded format and is output Parable - Format. According to many indigenous African legends, "their gods once existed as humans and had their way of communicating. Prior to their disappearance, they left with the people a means to communicate with them in the outer realm (Oracle Divination Systems)."

Omphalos Greek Version of the Benben Stone

"Ifa Oracle divination is based on the square of 16=16x16=256, 2^8 corresponding to the vertices of an 8-dimensional hypercube and to the binary 2-choice Clifford algebra C1(8) and so to related ones such as C1(8)xC1(8) = C1(16).

Since the number of sub-hypercubes in an 8-dimensional hypercube is 6,561 =81x81= 3^8. The Ifa Oracle has N=8 ternary 3-structure as well as binary 2-structure."

In addition; the Igbo God Eshi and also called Obatala in Yorubaland told us a similar story about flood and creation myth, apart from the fact that the tools employed to dry the land are slightly different.

Instead of Oka Smiths, Hills, and Bellows, in Igbo Flood and Creation Mythology, the Yoruba Flood and Creation Mythology, stated a snail's shell filled with sand, a white hen, a black cat, palm nut and a Chain (Signifying DNA).

Homer in an often-quoted passage tells how the Greek gods used to go on their feast-days to Ethiopia to commune with their ancestors. Dionysius wrote, “Upon the great Atlantic (formally known as Sea of Ethiopia), near the isle of Eritrea, for his pastures famed, the sacred race of Ethiopians dwell.” The original Niger-Congo 11,000 BCE, the homeland in the general vicinity of the upper Nile valley is probably as good a hypothesis as any.

From such a homeland, a westward Mande migration may have begun well over 5000 years ago. Perhaps the earliest division within this group resulted in the isolation of what is now represented only by Bobo-figure (Burkino-Fasso).

Illustration of 8 Dimensional Divination Plates

Somewhat later— perhaps 3500 to 4500 years ago, and possibly from a new homeland around northern Dahomey [now Benin]— the ancestors of the present Northern-western Mande peoples began pushing farther west, ultimately reaching their present homeland in the grasslands and forests of West Africa.

We have to remember that the Greek historian informs us what the Egyptians told him directly concerning their origins and customs. We are told by Diodorus that:

They say also that the Egyptians are colonists sent out by the Ethiopians, Osiris having been the leader of the colony…And the larger part of the customs of the Egyptians are, they hold Ethiopian, the colonists still preserving their ancient manners.

For instance, the belief that their kings are gods, the very special attention which they pay to their burials, and many other matters of a similar nature are Ethiopian practices, while the shapes of their statues and the forms of their letters are Ethiopian; for of the two kinds of writing which the Egyptians have, that which is known as "popular" (demotic) is learned by everyone, while that which is called "sacred" is understood only by the priests of the Egyptians, who learn it from their fathers as one of the things which are not divulged, but among the Ethiopians everyone uses these forms of letters.

Iwo-Eleru Cave, where the Skulls were found, also called Iho-Eleru, 'Iho' meaning Hole in the Yoruba Language

Furthermore, the orders of the priests, they maintain, have much the same position among both peoples; for all are clean who are engaged in the service of the gods, keeping themselves shaven, like the Ethiopian priests, and having the same dress and form of staff, which is shaped like a plough and is carried by their kings, who wear high felt hats which end in a knob at the top and are circled by the serpents which they call asps; and this symbol appears to carry the thought that it will be a lot of those who shall dare to attack the king to encounter death-carrying stings.

Iwo-Eleru Skulls: Iwo-Eleru, Ondo State, Western-Nigeria, Yorubaland. The cast of the Iwo Eleru skull shows marks of a more ancient ancestor "[The skull] has got a much more primitive appearance, even though it is only 13,000 years old," said Chris Stringer, from London's Natural History Museum, who was part of the team of researchers.

Igbo God Eshin also called Obatala in Yorubaland

Similar Skulls was discovered in Tanzania dating back a whopping 140,000 BC. These ancient humans skulls were discovered alongside modern-human at the time, suggesting at that point in history, ancient men were living side-by-side with modern humans and teaching them their ancient ways.

"This suggests that human evolution in Africa was more complex... the transition to modern humans was not a straight transition and then a cut-off." Prof Stringer thinks that ancient humans did not die away once they had given rise to modern humans.

They may have continued to live alongside their descendants in Africa, perhaps exchanging genes with them, until more recently than had been thought. The researchers say their findings also underscore a real lack of knowledge of human evolution in the region.

Ancient Zambia: Zambia is famous for its ancient schematic rock art. Northern Province has the highest concentration of rock art in Zambia and paintings are mainly found in and around rocky overhangs and caves. The most famous site is Mwela, about 7 miles east of the town of  Kasama which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The oldest in Zambia have been dated to between 350,000 and 400,000 years old! Many more are yet to be discovered.

Map of West and Central Africa

Ancient Gabon: The forest-savanna interface typical of central Gabon is well preserved in the park, and ecological and archaeological evidence shows that the area was inhabited almost continuously from late Palaeolithic times 350-400,000 years ago to the present. Scattered across the landscape is an exceptional archaeological record of successive cultures including the remains of Palaeolithic tools, Neolithic villages around 4,000 years old and Iron Age metal-working sites from 2,500 years ago. The Lope area has been inhabited for nearly 400,000 years and there are numerous artifacts telling the tales of the ancient hunter-gatherer settlements.

The Ogooué River has been a major trading route through these times and a road was built through the north of the park in the 1960s. The area was opened to forestry by the building of the railway in the 1980s this connects the national park to both Ivindo and Libreville. One can conclude that there was a lateral transmission from the East to the West, not only across the southern Sahara but also across all of Sudan to the Nile and Niger, the location of origin being in both cases Nubia.

The assertion by Professor Achonolu, that all Egyptian Pharaoh are direct descendants of Igbo people without considering the fact that other African tribes may well have contributed to the Pharaoh gene-pool as well. This claim by Professor Achonolu of Igbo exclusivity is sounding more and more improbable. We agreed with the research that the ancestors of the ancient Egyptian are from the Niger-Congo Civilisation made up from a family of nations tribes, of which the Igbo tribes are part of. End of part 3 of 10. Next Blog 13/02/19.

Egyptian Edfu Texts, Igbo, Smith, Dunu, Lejja, Nsuka, Nigeria

Painted image of Egyptian God Horus

Egyptian Edfu Texts say unequivocally that the oldest evidence of iron smelting in Egyptian records was that conducted by the God Horus in a hidden place called UaUa in the land of Khennu. Horus was said to have established a hidden iron smelting industry in the territory of a man called Khennu, in the UaUa region in the Southern lands, far away from Egypt, where he forged weapons for his war with Seth.

It is not a coincidence that Wawa and Nkannu are the aboriginal clan names of the people of Nsukka and the people of Enugu state! This is recorded in Egyptian history as having taken place ca. 8,970 B.C. during the wars of Horus and Seth!

Note: In any balance research, debate or supposition you need to have an argument for and against, including documentary evidence. We will, therefore, introduce documentary evidence contrary to Professor Achonolu viewpoints and assertions. Sometimes we will also present documentary evidence to strengthen and support a particular point of view she asserts. They will be formatted as For and Against.

Further evidence that Enugu State smelters were well known in world mythology is the fact recorded by Prof Afigbo in Nri mythology that when Eri came into Igbo land, the land was soaked with water, but God advised Eri to employ an Oka smith to dry the land with his bellows.

This Oka smith of the Eri fame was no doubt the Dunu Oka smith of Lejja! It is also clear from here that the famous Akwa smiths of Igbo land are descendants of the Oka smiths of Prehistoric Nsukka (The word ‘Nsukka’ appears to be derived from Nshi-Oka – meaning ‘Dwarf Smiths’).

Before Egypt, There was Sumer – An Igbo-Speaking Ancient Nigerian Civilization? L.A. Waddell in his path-breaking work, Makers of Civilization in Race and History, provided evidence to the effect that Egyptian civilization was a fall out of the earlier Sumerian civilization. mmannu, shortened to Khe’nnu/Khennu - Nkannu) and whom the rest of the world called ‘gods’ for want of a better term.

Edfu Temple Egypt

The Sumerian civilization was destroyed by 2,023 B.C., the very time when the Lejja shrine monument was in its heydays.

Evidence provided in this work demonstrates that the so-called ‘gods’ of ancient Egypt were dare-devil ancient Nigerian Sumerians who had built a thriving prehistoric civilization that spanned all of North and West Africa.

With Egypt as its political capital, while preserving the homeland as the no-go area reserved only for the great Lords of Antiquity whom the Egyptians called Khemennu (Oke). That the Khemennu were known in Egyptian Book of the Dead as ape-men, on the one hand, and as gods on the other – Primeval Ancestors of man and gods - tells the primitive African origin of Canaan and connects him with Nkannu clan.

These ape-men Khemennu were the Ndi Ushi of Igbo land. Their population was mostly dwarfed, who were also associated with metallurgy throughout antiquity.

Egyptian Dwarf God Pataeke or Pataikos, son of Ptah 

Africa’s most renowned archaeologist elix Chami of the University of Dar-es-Salaam wrote that the dwarfs, known throughout antiquity as the Neshi/Nehsi (Igbo Nshi) were Black Africans who served a hidden god of sun and fire known as Vul-can (a derivative of Nkannu). This Nehsi, Chami argued, were “the founders of Egyptian civilization”, and the Egyptians and Greeks called them Pancheans.

Herodotus and Homer spoke of a race of Black West Africans, “who came to Egypt and colonized it”
Zecharia Sitchen in The Stairway to Heaven notes that the Egyptian God Amun/Atum-Ra – the God of Heliopolis - was called Vul-can, a name associated with fire (as in furnace) and that the land associated with him was called the Land of the Race of Can/Khan. Khenites/Qenites, who, according to Zecharia Sitchen, are reputed to be the world’s Oldest Blacksmiths, and their name Can/Khan (Igbo Nkannu) means “smiths and metallurgists.”

Egyptian God Amun-Ra

It is the original homeland of the Canaanites or

The fact that in Igbo Oka means ‘smith’ and ‘metallurgist’ implies that the Canaanites/Khenites were Igbo-speaking and that they were one and the same with the Oka/Nkannu people of Igbo land.

The added fact that the village of smiths in Lejja is called Dunu Oka, meaning ‘Master Smith’ in Igbo, is conclusive proof that Nsukka in Enugu State in Igbo land, Nigeria is the original homeland of the ubiquitous Canaanites who gave metallurgy to the world! M.A. Pinkham in Return of the Serpents of Wisdom noted that Ham, the father of Canaan, was called Vulcan and that as Khem – a Khemennu ape-man - he was the one who gave civilization to Egypt (Khemet) by becoming its first Pharaoh.

Pharaoh Min (Menes). Pinkham posits that: Khan/Khem/Kha/Ka/Ca/Qa and variations of this etymon are derived from the lineage of Ham and Canaan and allude to the same race of god-men. Accordingly, the words Nkannu, Oka, and Nsukka as self-explanatory in this context. From the translations of Sumerian texts conducted by L.A. Waddell, we now know that Many Sumerian kings proudly bore the title Qa in imitation of Sumer’s earliest divine kings, who ruled before the Deluge.

Sitchen reveals that the Sumerian term Dun/Duni (which survives to this day in Dunu Oka village in Lejja) is equivalent to the Assyrian word Ka’ini (the root of the word Canaan) and that Sumerian and Assyrian texts maintained that “Ashur is the Lord of Duni”.  Duni is, of course, a reference to Dunu Oka, and Ashur is the title of the Egyptian god Osiris and the origin of his name.

Igbo Dwarf early 1900s

Osiris is the Sun Disc. He is represented in the ancient Dunu Oka Shrine with the Sun disc symbol called Oshuru. Oshuru is thus the original word/concept from which Osiris derives his name. Ralph Ellis in Eden in Egypt, notes that Ashura means ‘Sacred Groove” or Shrine.

This is in keeping with the fact that Oshuru is the most sacred part of the Dunu Oka Shrine. It is indeed a mound of iron slag covering the Hidden Hole that leads into what the native priests call a “bottomless pit” – which no doubt is the Underground Duat of Osiris and Atum.

Another pointer that Canaanites were the Nsukka iron smelters is the fact that the word Khem, a title of Osiris and Biblical Ham, means ‘Black’, ‘Burnt’, implying that Biblical Ham, the father of Canaan was Osiris of Egypt and that he worked in the scorching furnaces of Nsukka with Canaan and the latter’s descendants. This confirms the involvement of Horus, the son of Osiris in Nsukka smelting technology.

Apparently Ham worked for the god Osiris and bore his title Khem, while his son Canaan worked under Osiris’ son Horus, as confirmed in the Egyptian Edfu Texts, where Horus is said to have made friends with a man called Khennu or Khannu in whose territory Horus established a metal “foundry of divine iron” (an industry for iron smelting) in the district of UaUa (Wawa)!

This also explains the astounding, industrial amounts of iron slag found in Lejja; and it calls for a government-supported archaeological work to establish the correct date of the Lejja smelting, which Egyptian records put within the 9th millennium B.C. (a whopping 11,000 years)!

Oshuru, Osiris Groove, Lejja, Igboland Eastern-Nigeria

Physical Evidence of the Egyptian ‘Temple of Heliopolis’ Located in Lejja. It is said in the Egyptian Edfu texts that the place where Horus built the world’s first iron smelting industry, was the same site where he also built a Holy City and a Temple in which he housed his Winged Disc in a hidden enclosure. The Holy City is Heliopolis, City of the Sun and the Temple is the Sun Temple found in Lejja. Horus, of course, is the Egyptian god of the Rising Sun, and Igbo Land is the ‘Land of the Rising Sun!

The following are the characteristic geographical landmarks, features, and symbols leading to and located in and around the ‘Temple of Heliopolis’ as recorded in ancient Egyptian texts, notably The Egyptian Book of the Dead:

River Nigern & River Benue Confluence, Nigeria

⦁ A Land in the South and West of Egypt beyond the Sahara desert, identified with the word “East” or “Eastern side of Heaven”; the northern part thereof.
⦁ Double Nest Rivers (confluence) of which one is called the Traverser of Millions of Years and the other a purifying Lake.
⦁ A Body of Water called ‘a Bight’ and ‘Lake of Fire’.
⦁ A place associated with the palm tree.
⦁ Chains of Mountains
⦁ A Horizon marked by Two Hills and Three Hills
⦁ A place with a name that has the root DN or Dunu associated with three Hills and Two Hills, a mound and/or earthworks.
⦁ A ‘Hole’ in the ground called ‘the Mouth of the Earth’, leading into an Underground abode of the gods (Duat)
⦁ A Conical Structure (which the Egyptians call the Benben)

Bight of Biafra, Nigeria

⦁ A Stairway
⦁ A Celestial Disc symbol of the Sun rising and setting in the horizon
⦁ A Circle with a dot in the Center – the Symbol of Ra
⦁ A Crescent Moon (the Sun and Moon are symbols of Atum-Ra)
⦁ Two Magical Trees
⦁ A Fortified Circle
⦁ A Place of Pillars
⦁ The House of Fire associated with a furnace
⦁ A Place for computing the Years and telling the Months
⦁ “The Great House of Two Truths”
⦁ The kings of Heliopolis bear two Plumes on their heads, a white feathered crown, a flail, a U-forked staff. (The fact that Osiris wears two plumes as on his conical hat, shaped like Igbo Okwu agu, and he carries the Igbo metal staff (Alo) and fly whisk (Nza), as seen in all his images in Egyptian texts, shows him to be an Igbo royalty).

Map of West, Central & West Africa

By looking at the map of West-Africa as a whole it is totally impossible for the Igbo tribe to evolve to modern-man independent of the many other African tribes all around them, including the San and Khoi people of Southern Africa. And Professor Alchonolu has not provided or use as an example, a single point of view that contradict her assertions.  In any balance research, debate or supposition you need to have an argument for and against.

First of all, there are the Khoisan with the oldest human DNA, including the Yoruba tribes who are the next-door neighbour to the Igbo tribes, as well as Cameroon, the Ethiopians also made similar claims followed by the Gabonese and Congolese. This is professional research but reeks of too much Igbo-centricity. End of part 2 of 10. Next blog 08/02/19. We will be debunking some of Professor Alchonolu's point of views and reasserting others with documentary evidence.

 

Igbo, Lejja, Enugu, Eastern Nigeria, Cavemen, Duat

THE DISCOVERY OF THE EGYPTIAN DUAT, TEMPLE OF THE SUN AND LOST CITY OF HELIOPOLIS IN WEST AFRICA, By Professor Catherine Acholonu. Before Egypt,  Was Sumer – An Igbo-Speaking Ancient Nigerian Civilization? Physical Evidence of the lost Egyptian

The late Professor Catherine Acholonu

‘Temple of Heliopolis’ Located in Lejja, Igboland, Eastern-Nigeria? Did Ancient Nigerians from Upper Egypt Rule Lower Egypt’s First Dynasty? Did Igbo Cavemen of Lejja Survive the World-ending Deluge! and Thus the Answer Suggest ‘Yes’?

The location of the Two Magical Trees One of Which is Called by the Name of the Sumerian Sky God, Utu? The location of "The Stairway to Heaven" in Egyptian Mythology?

The Geographical Environment of the Duat A place with a name that has the root DN or Dunu associated with three Hills and Two Hills, a mound? or A ‘Hole’ in the ground called ‘the Mouth of the Earth’, leading into an Underground abode of the gods (Duat)?

The kings of Heliopolis bear two Plumes on their heads, a white-feathered crown, a flail, a U-forked staff. (The fact that Osiris wears two plumes as on his conical hat, shaped like Igbo Okwu agu, and he carries the Igbo metal staff (Alo) and flies whisk (Nza), as seen in all his images in Egyptian texts, shows him to be an Igbo royalty)?

The second called 'correspondence', of the eight principles of natural law stated; as below so above, as above so below and what is unbeknown shall be made knowable. We will break all the answers to all these questions into a bite-size. Using, history, religion, philosophy, occultism, psychology, and logic. Let us start the process via Occulist Encrypted Creations Myths. It is speculated that our world has been created, then destroyed, only to be re-created again, specifically four times. We are living in the year of the Fifth Son of The Sun, while the year Sixth Son of The Sun is fast approaching.

Sphere Earth

The first replenishing of the earth first occurred during the time of Apsu (Freshwater) = “One who existed from the beginning” and Tiamat (Freshwater) = “The Maiden of life.” Both Fresh and Seawaters mingled together to become the first Adam and Eve, Nun and Naunet = the Primeval waters and the counter heaven, (Egyptian version).

All marine life-forms were supposed to have evolved from both Fresh and Seawaters. They existed during the period of the “First Moon or Silver Cycle,” known as “Morning.”

When on high the heavens had not been named, Firm ground below had not been called by name, Nothing but ‘Primordial Apsu’ the Begetter, [Fresh Water] and ‘Mummu Tiamat’, She Who Bore them All, [Salt Water] their waters commingling as a single body No reed hut had been matted, no marshland had appeared, Uncalled by name, their destinies undetermined. Ile-Ife, ile Owuro Ile-Ife, the land of the most ancient days (Ile-Ife's version).

The second replenishing of the earth occurred during the time of Lahmu (Mr. Mud) = “Deity of war” and Lahamu (Mrs. Mud) = “Lady of the battle,” Huh and Hauhet, = the boundless and its opposite, (Egyptian version). They existed during the period of the first Sun Cycle known as “Evening.” Then it was that the Gods were formed within them. Lahmu [‘mud’] and Lahamu ‘Mrs. Mud’ was brought forth, by the name they were called Before they had grown in age and stature. Ile-Ife, Oodaye Ile-Ife, where the word of creation took place (Ile-Ife's version).

The Egyptian Ogdoad

The third replenishing of the earth occurred during the time of Anshar (Upper Firmament) = “Foremost of the heavens” and Kishar (Lower Firmament) = “Foremost of the firm-lands,” Kuk and Kauket, = darkness and its opposite (Egyptian version).

They existed during the period of the “Second Moon or Silver Cycle,” known as “Morning.”Anshar ‘Upper Firmament’ and Kishar [‘Lower Firmament’] were formed, surpassing the others. They prolonged the days, added on the years. Ile-Ife, Ibi ti ojumo ti mowa Ile-Ife, where the dawn of the day was first experienced (Ile-Ife's version).

The fourth replenishing of the earth occurred during the time of Anu = “The Heavenly one” and his spouse Antum. Amun, or (Amon) and Amaunet, = the hidden and its opposite (Egyptian version). They existed during the period of the second Sun Cycle known as “Evening.” This cycle was the last cycle of an equinox which occurs every 24,000 years.

Anu was their heir, the rival of his fathers; Yes, Anu, Anshar’s first-born, was his equal. He begot in his image Nudimmud [Ea]. This Nudimmud was the master of his fathers; Of broad wisdom, understanding, mighty in strength, Mightier by far than his grandfather Anshar. He had no rival among the gods, his brothers. Ile-Ife, Ori aye gbogbo Ile-Ife, head of the whole universe (Ile-Ife's version).

The Sumerian depiction of Lahmu (Mr. Mud)

The fifth replenishing of the earth or the first replenishing of a new set of four cycles occurred during the time pertaining to the Bible Genesis Chapter 1. Adam (Kadmon) son of Atum and Lillith, and Eve daughter of Ptah and Anath. Ile-Ife, Ooye Lagbo Ile-Ife the city of the Survivors (Ile-Ife's version).

In addition, there are also, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Aboriginal and Native-Americans Creation Myths. If you search this blog using the keywords like Chinese Creation Myth,  Indian Creation Myth,  Aboriginal Creation Myth, or  Japanese Creation Myth, an so on, you can locate them in the archive, as being covered before.

The only thing debunked now that we know for a fact; is that the world creation and destructions stories, came for multiple myths, pertaining to many races.

And this is very important because it demonstrates Multiplicity rather than Singularity, even in the World's Creation Myths. Without any further delay let us start with assertions of Professor Catherine Acholonu and the evidence presented to make those bold assertions.

In December 2012, under the resourceful organization of the Honourable Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Enugu State, Barrister Joe Mmamel, a team of ten African American Tourists visited various parts of the Enugu State under the Ebo Landing Project. The project was designed by Professor Catherine Acholonu and Sidney Louis Davis of Catherine Acholonu Research Center, Abuja in partnership with NAGAS International Consortium Inc., USA and Ebo Landing Incorporated, USA. The 2012 Ebo Landing tourism trip was facilitated by the Honorable Minister of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Chief Edem Duke who personally wrote letters to four State governors in the Federation urging them to play host to the Tourists.

Ebo Landing was born out of the growing need by DNA tested African Americans, 85%? of which are of Igbo extraction, to return ‘home’ to Igbo land and support the course of development in the home country. Note: the statement above is problematic unless the 85% represent Igbo Immigrants living in the USA, after the slave trade. If it meant that 85% of African Americans DNA tested are of Igbo descendants, excluding  Igbo Immigrants after the slave trade living in the USA, after the slave trade. Then the latter statement is at best wild speculation and at worst totally incorrect. There is no singular or cumulative DNA evidence for her to boldly assert this point of view.

Map of Nigeria, pin-pointing Enugu State, Eastern-Nigeria

The team visited various tourist sites in Enugu State including the Institute for African Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), which led an excursion trip to the Prehistoric Iron smelting site in Lejja in Nsukka. The Lejja visit proved to be a most auspicious event, for it exposed the visitors to the world’s oldest iron smelting technology lying unknown and unsung in Enugu State, South-Eastern region of Nigeria. The Head of the UNN Institute of African Studies Professor S.M.

Onuigbo informed the visitors that the Lejja prehistoric iron smelting site was recently dated 2,000 B.C. by the Oxford University laboratory in the UK and that this date confirms Lejja as the oldest iron smelting site in the world!

Egyptian Model of a Votive Temple Gateway at Heliopolis

The international visitors led by researchers Professor Catherine Acholonu and Sidney Louis Davis, initiators of the Ebo Landing project, therefore made a fervent plea to the Hon Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, that the government of Enugu State and the Federal Republic of Nigeria should quickly see to it that the Lejja iron smelting technology should be made known to the world, being the only physical proof that Africa was the origin of world civilization!

They promised to join hands with the government and people of Enugu state in spreading the word worldwide, and by so doing initiate global tourism to Enugu state. The Follow-Up Trip to Lejja: Subsequently in January 2013, a combined team of international researchers from the Institute for African Studies UNN the Catherine Acholonu Research Center, Enugu South-Eastern zonal office visited the Lejja site for the second time to critically examine what is there. The research team who undertook this follow-up reconnaissance trip was made up of Professor S.M. Onuigbo, Head of the Institute of African Studies, UNN, Dr. Chukwuma Opata, Department of History and International Studies, UNN, Sidney Louis Davis, Fellow of the Catherine Acholonu Research Center (CARC), Professor Damian Opata, Department of English and Professor Catherine Acholonu, Head CARC.

That visit opened the floodgates of knowledge, throwing up more than enough physical evidence that Lejja is housing the most ancient and most world-renowned Shrine of antiquity – a shrine known in all world mythologies like the Egyptian ‘Temple of the Sun’. Ancient Egyptian records say that the ‘Temple of the Sun’ is located in Heliopolis – ‘City of the Sun’ – a city lost in antiquity; which means that to find the Temple of the Sun is to find Egypt’s lost city of Heliopolis – the world’s most famous city of mythology – a city dedicated to the Olden God Amun/Atum-Ra, the Father of all Gods and Creator of men.

Map of Enugu, Eastern Nigeria

Lejja/Nsukka - The World’s Oldest Prehistoric Iron-smelting Technology
Lejja is located in Old Nsukka division in Enugu State, in Igbo land, South-Eastern geopolitical zone of Nigeria in West Africa. It is one of the many communities in Old Nsukka that have evidence of Prehistoric iron smelting up to industrial proportions. Evidence abounds in these communities that a vast industry of iron smelting thrived in Old Nsukka involving entire populations of several communities.

In these communities which include Orba, Opi, Umundu, Owerri-Elu, Eha, Agu, Isiakpu, Eguru, archaeologists have found evidence of prehistoric mining of iron ore as well as local furnaces used for smelting. Huge amounts of tuyere, charcoal and iron slag litter the villages, hills, and streams, attesting that in the dim past, these villages and towns had developed a thriving iron smelting technology and that Lejja, though the oldest by the current dating result, was not an isolated phenomenon in Enugu state.

Lejja Village, Enugu, Eastern-Nigeria

In Nsukka communities, iron ore is called Nne nkpume, slag is called Nsi Igwe and furnaces are called Utu. Knives forged in the area are called Idu. The Nsukka industry for iron smelting must have been the industrial hub of a very thriving prehistoric civilization long gone and forgotten.

There are 500 to a thousand huge lumps of slag in the Dunu Oka village square, Lejja site alone. Shaped like broken pillars, each weighs between 34 and 57 kilograms and measures up to 50 centimeters in diameter and more than 40 centimeters in height!

Lejja iron smelting technology was dated 2,000 B.C by Carbon-12 laboratory analysis conducted at the Oxford University Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, London in partnership with the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, through the professional instrumentality of archaeologists Professor Edwin Eme Okafor, Dean of Archaeology, UNN and Professor Pamela Eze-Uzoamaka, Head of Department of Archaeology, UNN. These two have worked with Universities of Sheffield, London and Oxford University consistently for upwards of two decades to bring about the dating we now celebrate. In a recent interview on the Lejja archaeological dating, conducted in July 2012, Professor Edwin Eme Okafor elatedly announced that “2,000 B.C. is the oldest iron smelting date so far obtained for any smelting site in the world! There is no older date!”

Lejja/Nsukka Iron Smelting Technology Calls for a Rewriting of History:
The implication of this discovery is far-reaching for human history. It calls for a rewriting of the world’s history books to enshrine the achievements of the Prehistoric Nsukka iron smelters of Enugu State, Nigeria. Any nation that was the world’s “first” in the development of iron technology, was, without doubt, the Superpower of the ancient world, for it was the discovery of iron that fast-tracked world civilization in every respect. Iron technology brought about the development of Agriculture, trade, and commerce. It encouraged the drive for the building of empires through warfare and conquests.

Backdrop Image of one of the many Ancien Lejja Furnace, divided by Iron Slags

I buoyed the drive for expansion and migrations, all of which are present in Nsukka mythologies. As the Oldest Superpower of the Old World, the Igbo natural drive for itinerant trading and merchandising would have easily made Nsukka, nay Enugu zone, and Igbo land a global center of trade, commerce, industrialization, empire-building, education, military prowess and other forms of development.

It is claimed the global root of metallurgy and of civilization itself lies in Sumer. It is also claimed that the Bantus who occupy over two-thirds of Sub-Saharan Africa were migrants “from South-Eastern Nigeria” and that it was their possession of iron technology that facilitated their migration and their development of Agriculture.

Map of Africa

The Bantu are said to have left South-Eastern Nigeria ca. 2,000 B.C. The presence of iron smelting technology in Lejja by 2,000 B.C. explains the Bantu connection to South-Eastern Nigeria. Heliopolis – The Egyptian ‘City of the Sun’ is Igbo Land – The Land of the Rising Sun!

What we know so far for sure via zooming into the map of the world, and away from World Creation Myths and into the map of Africa, followed by zooming into Nigeria, then Enugu and finally Lejja is that; there is an ancient metallurgy factory in pre-historic West-Africa incorporating Eastern-Nigeria in Enugu State called Lejja. Dated between approximately 10,000 and 2,000 BCE. Linking many of the very many different Igbo tribes from far and wide to a particular place called Lejja in their common history.

But yet to be proven are the assertions linking ancient Sumer to Igboland, linking Egyptian ‘Temple of Heliopolis’ to Lejja, linking Bantu peoples and their migrations to Igbo origin and specifically stating Igbo tribes as a singular entity rather than Multiple entities that it is. Including constantly painting the picture of Igbo evolution into Modern-Man without any contact from other tribes, cultures, other civilizations, or people from the North, East, West or South of West-Africa.

By looking at the map of Africa as a whole it is totally impossible for the Igbo tribe to evolve to modern-man independent of the many other African tribes all around them, including the San and Khoi people of Southern Africa. End of part 1 of 10. To be continued. Next blog 04/02/19.