Religious Beliefs. Although religious rituals concern several deities and spirits of ancestors, it has been argued that, like the Igbo, the Ibibio believe in a Supreme Being, Abassi, who is the sky god. Abassi is generally regarded as the creator of human beings. As in Igbo religious culture, there is no specific cult or priesthood established for this supreme deity. An Ibibio myth attributes the distancing from the earth of the abode of this sky god to the pounding of an old woman's pestle.
Death and Afterlife. Worship of the ancestors is a very important part of Ibibio religious culture. Sacrifices are often made at the ancestral shrine, which is kept at the house of the eldest member of the lineage group. Disgruntled ancestors may wander among the living, causing harm until the ceremony of Obio Ekpo ("world of the dead") is performed so that the spirit can enter the world of the dead. The Ibibio have a concept of good ( eti ) and evil/bad ( idiok). A person has two souls, the immortal soul ( ukpong ) and the animal-linked soul ( ukpong ikot), which can live in lions, leopards, bush pigs, antelopes, and pythons. The latter also dies at death, whereas the former is reincarnated or becomes a malevolent ghost troubling the living.