Culture is eclectic. No human society has an unadulterated culture purely its own. One academically spectacular element of the Aro culture is the Ekpe cult. Academic in the sense that its origin, content and form like the rituals of the “Chukwu” oracle form which the town Aro obtains the suffice that labels it Arochukwu, (ibini Ukpabi or was it Ibn Ukpabi – implying an Arabic influence as Obinkita was Obto Okon Ita – deriving from Ibibio origin?) transcend the similitude of the cultures in the Aro immediate environment. The areas of research into this, - which is not a secret society as general understood and legally defined, but rather a open society with secrets, as its membership its time and place of meeting are known – are numerous but subtle.

Different authors have ventured to classify it differently as, or a combination of a judicial, religious, convivial, co-operative self-combination of a judicial, religious, convivial, co-perative self-help fraternity or mystical organization. In each case , the authors were singling out the observable characteristics of the society and using these as the basis for their differentiation.
There are very obvious constraints to a formal discussion on Ekpe Aro in a medium like this. One can at best proffer areas of further research and investigation. If in the process of this tickling of the mind, the issues are independently researched and collectively reviewed among persons in a position and within circumstances for its discussion, then such vague areas as to its origin, concept and philosophies will be better appreciated to the benefit of all Aro adult males who are its sole natural adherents.