Visiting ‘Nigeria’s Jerusalem’: Inside The Christian Site Where Pilgrims Seek Miracles
In Nigeria’s Delta State, believers travel to the Araya Bible Site — a small religious landmark revered as the country’s own Jerusalem — in search of healing, divine intervention and spiritual renewal.
More than a century after a mysterious Bible was reportedly discovered among a crop of yams in a rain-soaked field, testimonies of miraculous births, healings and deliverance continue to draw thousands of pilgrims to the sacred ground.
Glory Oghene, 43, was married for three years without children and faced growing marital pressure and persistent witchcraft attacks. Childlessness is often accompanied by stigma, declining self-esteem and marital instability in Nigeria.
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“After I got married in 2010, and no issue for three years,” Oghene said. “I was receiving spiritual attacks and having problems maritally. I was not pleased with it, so I went to Araya Mountain and asked God for a baby miracle. I told God I will appreciate him if he does it, and I also sowed a seed of faith.”
That same month, Oghene became pregnant and now has two children.
“When you call on God with faith, he will answer you,” she said. “I also used sand from the Araya mountain around my environment and bathed with water from the healing stream, and all the witchcraft attacks ceased.”
Located in Araya village, the Araya Bible Site serves as Africa’s “local Jerusalem” and sees a huge number of Christian visitors yearly. The site was launched over 100 years ago and has endured as a pilgrimage destination despite the claims of many who reject the miracle’s premise and the site’s supernatural powers.
“In August 1914, Mrs. Ofuunweike Esievo, a woman of Araya village, went to the farm amidst heavy rainfall to harvest yams. Nestled amongst the rain-soaked tubers of yams, Ofuuweike found a book, completely dry,” Franklin Kwakwa, pastor of the Christ Partners Church in Araya, said.
After alerting the elders of the community, the book was taken to Rev. Henry Proctor, a missionary who confirmed the mystical book to be the Bible.
“The Rev. Proctor took the bible from the Araya elders to CMS eastern headquarters in Onitsha for further investigations,” Kwakwa said. “However, from Onitsha, he boarded a ship to England with the bible and died on the way.”
A seven-foot monument depicting an open Bible and twelve yams was constructed at the Bible site, alongside a small white cathedral, to accommodate the increasing number of Christians visitors.
Bridget Oghor said she suffered from chest pain and partial hearing impairment when she first started using the water from the healing pool at the site. Despite the water being unsafe for drinking, she prayed over the water, drank it and was healed.
“We had a water hygiene program at the Araya Bible Site, and the miracles I heard there motivated me to take some of the water home,” Oghor said. “I prayed over it and started using it, and all my problems were solved. I feared drinking the water because it is unsafe for drinking, but whenever I drink it, I do not feel any side effects, but whenever I drink any other unsafe water, I get E. coli and abdominal pains.”
Dr. Oluwaseun Afolabi, a religious and peace studies researcher at Lead City University, Ibadan noted that religious symbolism and myths play a vital role across the Abrahamic religions and African traditional religion.
“We believe in religious symbols as it helps us believe in what we don’t see, it’s just like Al-Qur’an, it is believed that it descended from heaven,” Afolabi said. “That is why although the original Bible that descended has been taken away by the white missionaries, but because their faith is still attached to God, miracles will continue to happen.”
The Easter and Christmas seasons attract thousands, but the main attraction is the praise night hosted there on the first Friday of January that goes long into the night, only ending at dawn.
Despite the tourism potential of the Araya Bible Site, supporters said it has not received the needed development it deserves. The site suffers from annual flooding, and the natural stream running along the site is unclean.
Afolabi said it is the job of the Delta state government to develop the Araya Bible site to international religious pilgrimage destination.
“It is the work of the government to develop that place to become a religious site where Christians can come and develop their faith,” he said. “Countries with religious sites like Israel and Saudi Arabia make more money from tourism than anything else.”
As for Oghene, she added that she will continue to intercede for God to continue performing miracles, signs and wonders at the Araya Bible site.
“God is here and anyone who comes here receives miracle,” she said.
Chinonso Kenneth is a writer based in Lagos, Nigeria.