User:Ukabia/Nsibidi

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Nsibidi has a wide vocabulary of signs usually imprinted on calabashes, brass ware, textiles, wood sculptures, masquerade costumes, buildings and on human skin. Nsibidi has been described as a "fluid system" of communication consisting of hundreds of abstract and pictographic signs. Nsibidi was described in the colonial era by P.A. Talbot as a "a kind of primitive secret writing", Talbot explained that nsibidi was used for messages "cut or painted on split palm stems".(P.A. Talbot 1912:308, 1969:932) J.K. Macgregor's view was that "The use of nsibidi is that of ordinary writing. I have in my possession a copy of the record of a court case from a town of Enion [Enyong] taken down in it, and every detail ... is most graphically described".

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Considered broadly in the context of such pan-regional groups as the Leopard Society, nsibidi could also transcend potentially divisive ethnic and linguistic boundaries (see Battestini 2002:69). Indeed, historian O.E. Uya maintained twenty years ago that the "unifying influence [of nsibidi] within the Cross River region is no longer debatable" (Uya 1987:42).

In Calabar today, nsibidi is generally associated with the men's Leopard Societies. Prior to colonialism, such groups wielded great legislative, judicial, and executive power, primarily on the local level, but for the Efik, who controlled access to overseas trade, their influence was felt throughout the Cross River region. The power of the Leopard Societies was maintained in part through the secrecy surrounding the meanings of nsibidi, which members learned more deeply as they advanced in rank within the society.

In preparation for important occasions, Leopard Society members also paint their bodies with nsibidi. As the missionary William Ward noted in 1913, "When a person has just been received into membership he parades the streets, exhibiting on his ... body the mystic signs of [the Leopard Society] chalked thereon in several colors" (Ward 1913:38). Members decorate their bodies with nsibidi for other transitional events, such as the initiations and funerals of fellow members (FIG. 4) and, in Calabar, the installation of new paramount rulers, who are generally chosen from the ranks of Leopard Society members. (4)

Painted nsibidi patterns decorated Leopard Society meeting houses, and such decoration made them unmistakable in the community. According to the colonial-era researcher John Parkinson, "no village in [Calabar] country exists where the [Leopard Society] house does not occupy the most prominent position and form the most conspicuous object" (Parkinson 1907:262; see also Mansfeld 1908:146-149, P.A. Talbot 1912:248, 257).

Nsibidi was also displayed in the homes of Leopard Society members.

While the Leopard Society has been the most prominent men's institution associated with nsibidi since the early twentieth century, it is not the only one. According to Talbot:

In the Ekoi folklore there is occasionally a mention of the Nsibidi (or Nchibbidi) Society, which was apparently in existence long before even the Ekkpe Club. Only chiefs might belong to it, and its seven Images [masquerades] acted as the executioners of those sentenced to death. It is possible that the Nsibidi writing ... was developed among its members as a method of communication or, perhaps with greater likelihood, its use was kept up by them long after it  had been forgotten outside their circle (P.A. Talbot 1969:792).

Talbot believed the name was derived from the Ejagham word nchibbi, which he defined as '"to turn', and this has taken to itself the meaning of agility of mind, and therefore of cunning or double meaning" (P.A. Talbot 1912:305).

Colonial-era sources, while enamored of the "mysterious" qualities of Leopard Society nsibidi used by men, also described the nsibidi arts of women. For example, Consul Hutchinson noted "hieroglyphs" that women carved onto calabashes (1970:160), many of which survive in museum collections today. A popular form of body painting with nsibidi was reserved for young women.

Art historian Amanda Carlson, having worked among the Bakor Ejagham in the northern Cross River area, explained that there, "Nsibiri literacy is negotiated along gender lines. And when women do have access to it, they use nsibiri differently than men" (Carlson 2003:xvi). The calabash designs now created by Bakor women, while not considered by them to be nsibiri, are nonetheless meaningful; they often reference relationships to loved ones (FIG. 5). One artist, Moku Mokpuk, was described to Carlson as "the writer of the designed calabash" (ibid., 215). Contemporary Bakor women's body art is also not considered to be nsibiri. According to Carlson, it "marks critical events that involve social transformations or elements of the unknown or even danger.... [In these women's calabash design and body decoration], there is no overt emphasis on secrecy or the mediation of power" that characterizes nsibidi usage among men's groups such as the Leopard Society (ibid., p. 216). This is a good example of the problematics of nomenclature when dealing with nsibidi usage in areas where comparable practices using similar symbols are employed. As quoted above, Talbot (and others after him) specifically described (and illustrated) such artistic production among Ejagham women using the term "nsibidi." The point here is that however they may be labeled, the designs are meaningful to those who create and view them.

Ukara
Ukara can be worn as a wrapper (a piece of clothing) on formal occasions, and larger version are hung in society meeting houses and on formal occasions. Ukara motifs are designed in white and are placed on grids set against an indigo background. Some of the designs include abstract symbols representing the Ekpe society such as repeating triangles representing the leopard's claws and therefore Ekpe's power (ibid., p. 61).

Ukara includes naturalistic designs representing objects such as gongs, feathers and manilla currency, a symbol of wealth. Powerful animals are included, specifically the leopard and crocodile.

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