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 roles in pre-colonial life: (1) The conferment of full citizenship; holding a title in Ékpè accorded one the status of full citizen with rights to make decisions having implications on the entire community, much as the respect accorded to the ‘toga virilis’ in ancient Rome. (2) Ékpè was the no-nonsense community police, with the power to discipline and — as a measure of punishment — confiscate the property of a community member who disobeyed the law. (3) Ékpè also provided entertainment with dances, music, and body-mask performance for members. (4) Finally, Ékpè was a school for esoteric teachings that revealed ideal stages in a person’s life to achieve maturity within their community, as well as cognizance of the possibility of reincarnation. In this light, Ékpè also is fixated on funerals which is the province of ancestry, rooted in the earth — which has an ecological dimension through the sacred initiation groves that serve as key water sources in many communities of the Cross River basin.
Because Calabar Efị̀k-speakers played a central role in the systematization of Ékpè in the trans-Atlantic economy, from Calabar in the 1700-1800s, Ékpè also developed chapters in Malabo as well as in Havana and Matanzas, Cuba. In the present, Ékpè continues to be practiced in hundreds of communities in southeast Nigeria and South West Cameroon with a common set of symbols and values, namely truth and justice.
Traditionally, Ékpè titleholders were male descendants of the founding fathers of a community, that is, of royal lineage. Non-royalists who achieved heroic deeds like defeating enemy warriors or slaying a leopard were often bestowed Ékpè titles, while great artists in song, percussion and dance were admitted into lodges to raise up the performance level. In some communities, groups of royal women play a prominent role in important Ékpè ceremonies, for example in Arochukwu, “Women whose husbands have been initiated into the Mboko grade of the Ékpè are initiated into the female equivalent called the Iyamba”, as reported by Chike P. Dike in 1987.
Because Ékpè developed over the centuries through the accumulation of titles, the numbers and names of Ékpè titles vary from one community to another. For example, the Èfìks of the port of Calabar have had nine titles since the mid-nineteenth century, while hinterland Cross River communities tend to have less titles. Nevertheless, the leading titles are consistently found in multiple communities of the Cross River region and in Cuba, including Ìyámbà, who acts as the overall chairman of a lodge; Mbókò, who represents the esoteric ‘Voice’ of the leopard; Mbàkàrà, who represents the transition from material to spiritual life; Èbònkó, who represents the ‘universal mother’ of the society that ‘gives birth’ to initiates; Nyàmkpè, who represents discipline amongst membership and is active during funerary rites; and Nkàndà, who represents the highest spiritual teachings of Ékpè as a ‘warrior against ignorance’. Many distinct language communities have local names for other titles.
Ékpè practice embodies the repository of knowledge about the ways of life and expectations for mature adulthood in the Cross River region, therefore all male citizens from ‘royal lineages’ should be initiated by their fathers should they have the wealth to do so. Young people learn about Ékpè generally through public displays that occur during funerals, coronations, investitures, and other celebrations. Deep knowledge of Ékpè undoubtedly has been and continues to be transmitted through family lineages. This is evident in early photographs and family manuscripts from the nineteenth century in urban Calabar. One early postcard documents a display of “The Inokon Society, Creek Town, Calabar”, Ínòkòn referring to Arochukwu, thus demonstrating cultural exchanges and trade relations between these two regions, which continue into the present. Upon the death of a titled member, the immediate male descendants who are initiates must be present for Ékpè ceremonies before the body may be laid to rest. After this, the eldest son may give notice of his intention to take over his father’s position, although there will likely be contenders from other branches of the family. If the son is not present during the final rites of his father, he will be unable to make claims on the title. The major path of transmission of knowledge of Ékpè is through family lineages.
Ékpè remains the primary symbol of cultural heritage and community prestige for hundreds of communities of the Cross River region. Becoming a titled member authorizes full citizenship in a given principality. The performance of Ékpè body-masks and music teaches values and philosophies about an individual’s responsibilities through the journey of life. Today Ékpè is known primarily for its entertainment values in festivals, but in rural areas, it continues to have a jurisprudence role, especially in land disputes. Although primarily defined as a male society, the wives and daughters of leading members are often initiated in order that they participate in community-wide events. Moreover, a female counterpart organization also exists (called Ekpa in Éjághám-speaking communities), which has not yet been adequately studied. Today, as in the past, Ékpè serves as an instrument of friendship, trade, and currency between nations and communities. Even though communication between neighboring communities was difficult and hazardous, possession of Mbókò Ékpè and Nyàmkpè facility opened the doors to the courts of unknown communities and served the same purpose as letters of credence between modern nation states.
Since the early nineteenth century, Ékpè titleholders in Calabar have used Ékpè for the development of their communities; for example, by inviting the first missionaries and Western educators into their communities for education, starting with the Presbyterians in 1846. They used Ékpè to promote the survival of the new European culture by creating laws to defend the presence of foreign merchants and educators, by granting them rights and land for their activities. For merchants working in multiple communities, knowledge of Ékpè was a huge asset, as traders who were Ékpè members would work with each other, to the exclusion of non-members. Before the colonial period, travel in the Cross River region was difficult because of natural suspicion amongst communities; those with Ékpè knowledge, however, were protected wherever they went. Ékpè lodges have historically emphasized the formation of external alliances.
Ékpè culture has been unfortunately misrepresented in the literature. From the early merchants, missionaries and colonists to the present literate elites, Ékpè has been caricatured as ‘witchcraft’ and superstition, to the point where some view it as a dying practice. Nevertheless, the Ékpè institution embodies universal values of cultural continuity, community justice, aesthetic beauty, and insight into a philosophy of correct living and a ‘good death’. The teachings of Ékpè are shared by all great civilizations: individual responsibility within one’s community, the prevalence of justice, comradeship, the refinement of the arts, and to demonstrate that humans may create binding ties through cultural membership.
The Cross River region being amongst the most diverse linguistic areas of the world, Ékpè has historically functioned as a form of United Nations. The dialog through Ékpè diplomats promises to expand into a global phenomenon that will enable a rewriting of African cultural history from indigenous African perspectives. With more than fifty languages in a small geographic area, the Cross River region has long been noted for unparalleled linguistic and cultural diversity. Through the centuries, Ékpè was the single institution that has enabled cross-cultural communication, travel and trade in the area. By creating a shared system of symbols and values, the Ékpè society is a model for creative solutions to managing diversity with mutual respect.
Ékpè has long served as a vehicle for human creativity, whether in music and sounds, in symbolic costume designs, symbolic communication through colors and signs (called Nsìbìdì). Each community with Ékpè ensures its viability by teaching their youth the values and practices of Ékpè in various stages.
Nigeria is a wealthy nation, yet outside of urban Calabar, little has been done to promote Ékpè as a national tradition; the major issue appears to be a lack of awareness of Ékpè’s value to the history, identity and organization of Cross River communities. A major constraint to the survival of Ékpè has been the constant attacks from the Christian churches of all denominations. These attacks started in earnest in the late twentieth century when Nigerians became interested in being ordained as church leaders, particularly in the Pentecostal churches. Many were disgruntled with Ékpè because they were rejected from membership. The attacks, which have become popularized through television and radio, are based upon ignorance of Ékpè’s aims and teachings.
To enhance education, a curriculum on the values of Ékpè and related traditional institutions should present the values of Ékpè as ‘universals’ that are found in human civilizations worldwide; this course would discuss philosophy or ‘world view’ with Cross River region concepts of community that include the living, the ancestors, and the land itself. A course on the symbols of Ékpè — the use of colors, sounds, designs, fabrics, flora and fauna to convey cultural messages — would review the specific materials used in the Cross River environment that were selected over the centuries to convey the values of Ékpè. The primary symbols are related to Ékpè titles, which convey the duties and responsibilities for leadership.
The transmission of knowledge of Ékpè occurs through the passing down of symbols from one generation to another. The primary symbols were often derived from the natural environment. Further symbols, such as drawn signs, body gestures, and coded language, were abstracted from the social environment. In practice, their meanings are explained to the initiates only after they receive a particular title. Therefore a general course on education would not discuss the inner meanings of Ékpè symbols, but would discuss their historical creation from the natural and social environments of the Cross River region, and discuss their relationship with similar symbols across the globe.
A course on artistic production of Ékpè — the use of body-masks (or ‘masquerades’), the use of Nsìbìdì (symbolic communication through signs), the performance of music ensembles, the design of ùkàrà ‘Ékpè’ cloth, the design and construction of Ékpè halls, — would educate students about the conception and craft of Ékpè arts. For example, the distinct designs of Ékpè body-masks are interpreted by some specialists as representing the individual characteristics of human development through the ages. The Nyàmkpè mask has a plumed-rod attached to the head that acts as an antenna, meant to represent the links between an individual person and the Creator God at any given time, depending on how the person covets this knowledge. The plumed-rod oscillates as the mask moves: if the antenna is vertical, it means that the link between Creator and the individual is strong. As it drops from the vertical, this represents the departure of the individual from the Godhead. The movement of this plumed-rod demonstrates that the departure of the individual from Godhead can be redeemed through the positive efforts of humanity, in short through the development of good character.
Ékpè leaders in a variety of communities have participated in the local, national and international promotion of their institution by creating a series of cultural festivals such as the annual Nyoro (dance competition) in Calabar that is at least a century old, the International Ékpè Festival in Calabar since 2000, and by aiding the extended field research of this author, a Fulbright Scholar to Nigeria (2009-2011) and Senior Lecturer in the Department of History, University of Calabar (2012-2021). Miller’s book “Voice of the Leopard: African Secret Societies and Cuba” (2009) documented the background of Ékpè in the Cross River region and its later recreation as ‘Abakuá’ in colonial Cuba to defend the captured Cross River people who were forcibly migrated there. Since 2004, Miller has been working with Ékpè titleholders of Nigeria and Cameroon to document the extent of Ékpè practice to promote its traditions through public education. Research has been supported by the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, the University of Calabar, and by a variety of leading Ékpè members from various communities. This regional and multi-ethnic research — always conducted in collaboration with Ékpè leaders in their various communities — has helped stimulate awareness of Ékpè’s values and widespread practice in heretofore isolated communities, as well as demonstrated the unity of Ékpè across distinctions of geography, language, and ethnic identity.
With a panoramic view of the contemporary situation in West Africa and the Caribbean: The Cuban dimension plays a key role in demonstrating how this cultural practice adapted and triumphed across the Atlantic middle passage to become the cultural DNA of modern Cuba. The moral of the story is: if the Abakuás have maintained their heritage despite all their hardships including the Spanish inquisition as well as brutal capitalist plantation slavery, then someday the Cross Riverians in Nigeria and Cameroon can also muster collective strength to overcome their local oppressions which have reduced Africans to beggars in their “own” country.
Sources:
Dike, Chike P. 1987. “Art, Symbol and Authority among the Aro of South-East Nigeria.” Nigeria Magazine 55, 2: 30-35.
