By – Mazi Achinivu Okorafor (Obong Ekpe: Isu Ekpe Bianko) “There is nothing so indestructible as a symbol, but nothing is capable of so many interpretations.” Count Goblet d’Alviella Introduction: The Indestructible Symbol Across civilizations and millennia, the language of symbols forms the oldest and most persistent archive of human thought. Long before the advent...

Preamble This paper is presented in the souvenir program of “Ogbo Ekpe Amuvi”. The Ogbo Ekpe celebration, organized by the Arochukwu people, stands as a profound testament to the preservation and advancement of African Traditional Religion, a spiritual foundation that has quietly nurtured many of the world’s major religions though its story often remains untold....

Dr. Ivor Miller (Boston University, USA) The Ékpè ‘leopard’ society represents a centuries-old institution that provided the supreme functions of governance in communities of the Cross River region of Nigeria and Cameroon, before the colonial intervention. Possession of this graded initiation society with representative body-masks confirmed the autonomy of a principality. Ékpè had four major...

By Comrade Oji Ujah Oji  ooji@fpno.edu.ng ojiujahoji01@gmail.com Social Sciences Department          Federal Polytechnic Nekede,Owerri  Imo State, Nigeria. Abstract  This study examines the dynamic role of the Ekpe Society in the transformation of Arochukwu’s religious and cultural landscape through a process of Christo-cultural renaissance. Rooted in sacred tradition, the Ekipe Institution historically functioned as the moral, judicial,...

By Nnamdi Anyaogu Okorie, Esq* In his article titled ‘From Integration to Bifurcation: The Internalization of Calabar Boundary Regime in the Context of Border Conflicts and Management in Africa’, Michael Omang Bonchuk (2015), held that one of the dominant themes in the history of the Cross-River region of Nigeria and Cameroun is the secret societies....

I recall I had a number of invitations to contribute articles on issues pertaining to the history and people of Arochukwu Kingdom. On those many occasions I did not decline out of the necessity of time or duty of care but was rather riddled with a phenomenal feeling of insufficiency to rise to such top...

Alaezi is a beautiful name some Arochukwu parents like to give to any of their beloved daughters to signify that such a daughter is very special to the family and the compound where she is born into as she is deemed to be a true daughter of the land. In the olden days, such daughters...

From inception Aro prided as the centre of culture, character and diplomacy in the areas that made up the present-day South-Eastern Nigeria and surrounding areas. So aptly ingrained in the Aro persona is Ako b’ije, a conscious adherence to certain elements that distinguishes an Aro. An essential element of this guiding principle is “Nwa Aro...