Ekoi people

The Ekoi culture is known for mastering the art of sculpture. The complexity of its art is a hint on the complexity of the Ekoi people's organization. Their masks are unique because, unlike most traditional African masks, the Ekoi masks are fairly realistic. In the Ekoi's approach to make 2-sided masks, the darker side represented the male force, and the whiter side the female force.[3] The wooden masks were often covered with strips of animal skin (similar to the Leopard Society's use of human skin on masks), and worn during rituals or erected on top of totems.[6][7]

The arts, like body-painting and poetry, are also critical to men, as they are seen simultaneously as warriors and artists, though war has been largely uncommon in Ekoi history, except for the German-Ekoi War between 1899-1904.[4][5]

• 
  Long-corned statue, Coleção Museu Afro Brasil (São Paulo)
• 
  Ekoi mask, British Museum.
• 
  Ngbe statue
• 
  Ekoi Headdress, De young Museum.
• 
  Ngbe statue
• 
  Ekoi Headdress, Honolulu Museum of Art.
• 
  Ekoi sculptures, Linden-Museum Stuttgart

The Ekoi language is one of the Ekoid languages, a Bantu language in the Niger–Congo dialect cluster. They are the creators of the Nsibidi script, a script which can be seen in many surviving artefacts found in the areas inhabited by the Ekoi/Ejagham people, and which roughly translates into “cruel letters.”[4] It is an entirely African script, with virtually no Western influence.[4] According to Ekoi folklore, the script was taught to them by mermaids.[4]

Nsibidi ideograms convey countless concepts; there are over 12 different symbols for love, 7 different symbols for hatred, 7 different symbols for speech, 8 different symbols for mirror, 14 different symbols for a set table, and 6 different symbols for journeys. Symbols that are shaded in usually mean danger or bad fortune, and include ideas of a dead body or the death of a friend.[4] The Nsibidi script is used in the Ekoi languages and is understandable in reading and writing. Still, the script’s importance is emphasized more through its beauty and artistic aesthetics than through its ability to shape cohesive sentences.[4]

The Ngbe and Nnimm societies were for males and females, respectively, in the Ekoi community. The Ngbe (Leopard) Society believed in the story of an old king named Tanze. When he died, he became a fish that was caught by a woman. A man killed the woman, created the leopard society, and Tanze became the body of a female drum.[4] This tale raised the symbols of the roaring fish and the leopard as signs from God and so they would be referred to in every Ekoi court.[4]

Initiates of Nnimm would be unmarried young girls.[4] They would wear cursive body-painting and material dresses of calabash and shells, as well as leather necklaces. Bones of monkeys were matched with feather headdresses (the single feather at the back of the head was most important, as it was the Nnimm feather) and finished off with a cowrie-fringed wrapper.[4] Nnimm plumes would become very important to Africans in Cuba.[4]

• 
  Head priest of Nimms
• 
  Nimm neophytes

The Ekoi have a large number of spoken stories. One creation tale tells of God creating the first man and woman and allowing them to live in a hut. God tells the man to impregnate the woman and leaves before the child is born. When the child is born, God instructs the man and woman to care for their new child. At the end of the tale it is revealed that all people are descendants of this man and woman.[8]

Another tale that explains the natural world tells of Eagle and Ox playing hide-and-seek. Eagle finds Ox immediately and then hides on Ox’s horns where Ox cannot see him. Ox goes to every animal and asks if they had seen Eagle, but Eagle tells them all not to say anything. Finally, Fowl tells Ox that Eagle is on his horns. Enraged, Eagle seizes Fowl and swears that he will take his children for this offense. It is said that because of this, eagles eat younger fowls.[8]

Leopards especially would be seen as important in Ekoi society. In times of ntuis (chiefs), the appointed ntui would leave his house and make a series of sacrifices, including those of skull-caps with leopard’s teeth, a staff bound with leopard’s skin, and a necklace of leopard’s teeth.[9] Also, when a ntui died, his people would enter the jungle to bring back the ngbe as the ntui’s spirit returns to God. If they were not wary, it is believed a real leopard would attack them.[9]