The Efik people inhabit the coastal and riverine zones of present-day Cross River State, Nigeria, and parts of Cameroon. Their language belongs to the Efik–Ibibio subgroup of the Benue–Congo family. Historical linguistics and oral histories trace Efik migrations from the lower Cross River basin toward the estuarine region, where Old Calabar developed as a thriving commercial centre.
By the 18th century, Old Calabar had emerged as one of West Africa’s most active coastal polities. It’s towns Duke Town, Creek Town, and Henshaw Town formed a confederation of trading communities that engaged intensively with European merchants. The economy initially revolved around the Atlantic slave trade, later shifting toward palm oil, ivory, and other commodities as abolitionism gained ground in the 19th century.
EXPLORE: Nigerian Civil War
The Ekpe Society: Structure and Function
At the core of Efik governance stood the Ekpe society (also known as Ngbe among neighbouring groups). Ekpe was not merely a “secret society” but a multi-tiered institution integrating ritual, legislation, law enforcement, and social regulation.
Membership was graded, with each rank, such as Nyamkpe, Mboko, Okpoho, and Mgbè, requiring initiation fees, ritual obligations, and community recognition. Advancement depended not solely on commercial success but on an initiate’s ability to meet ritual costs, demonstrate moral integrity, and perform civic duties. Each town maintained its own Ekpe lodge, though major decisions, such as inter-town sanctions or trade rules, were sometimes coordinated across Calabar.
Ekpe functioned as a judicial and executive organ. It resolved disputes, enforced fines, sanctioned lawbreakers, and even disciplined chiefs who violated community codes. Its verdicts were binding, backed by spiritual and social authority. Transgressors faced boycotts, confiscation, or ritual censure.
Symbols, Secrecy, and Nsibidi
Ritual symbolism defined the Ekpe identity. Ceremonies featured masquerades, drumming, and the sounding of the Ekpe bell (nkong Ekpe), whose deep tone signalled assembly or judgment.
Members employed Nsibidi, a symbolic script of ideograms and gestures, to record proceedings, communicate coded messages, and decorate ritual objects. Nsibidi predates the Efik settlement in Calabar but became closely associated with the Ekpe institutions. Some symbols appeared in court records and murals, while others were restricted to the initiated.
Nsibidi’s visual expressiveness later drew academic and artistic attention, influencing modern Nigerian art and the Cuban Abakuá fraternity, which derived from Efik–Efut migrants in the 19th century.
The House System and Trade Regulation
Efik society was organised through trading houses (ufok) under powerful heads known as Etubom. Each house consisted of family members, dependents, and apprentices engaged in trade and politics. The Obong of Calabar, selected from among the Etuboms, served as primus inter pares, guided by a council and Ekpe hierarchy.
Ekpe’s authority complemented the House system: while the Etuboms oversaw trade and kinship, Ekpe enforced moral and commercial discipline. The society’s sanctions could suspend a merchant or house from trade if found guilty of fraud or violence. Thus, Ekpe acted as a commercial regulator, upholding fair dealings and ensuring stability vital for trans-Atlantic commerce.
Women were central to trade networks, especially in the marketing of foodstuffs, textiles, and palm produce, and in kinship diplomacy. However, formal membership in Ekpe was reserved for men. Women’s influence came through economic leverage, song traditions, and spiritual roles rather than political office within Ekpe.
The Colonial Encounter
European intervention transformed Calabar’s institutions in the early 19th century. British missionaries, led by Hope Waddell and the United Presbyterian Mission, founded the Hope Waddell Training Institution in the 1840s, introducing Western education and Christianity.
Simultaneously, British traders and anti-slavery officials sought to reshape the local economy. The Oil Rivers Protectorate (1885) and later the Niger Coast Protectorate (1893) formalised British control. Treaties between Efik chiefs and the British Crown curtailed traditional autonomy. Ekpe’s judicial authority and the powers of the Obong’s council were gradually superseded by colonial courts and district commissioners.
Yet, Ekpe adapted rather than disappeared. Its ritual life persisted; masquerades, initiation festivals, and judicial symbolism continued as markers of identity. Some Efik chiefs even became intermediaries between the colonial state and indigenous society, balancing new and old systems of legitimacy.
Continuity and Transformation
Despite colonial disruption, Ekpe survived into the modern era as a cultural, spiritual, and social organisation. Its authority in dispute mediation and moral discipline continues in parts of Cross River and Cameroon.
Nsibidi, once secretive, entered broader cultural consciousness. Scholars and artists revived it as an emblem of African literacy and symbolism. Nigerian visual artists, writers, and filmmakers reference Nsibidi in their works, reaffirming Efik heritage.
Today, the Obong of Calabar serves primarily as a traditional monarch within Nigeria’s constitutional framework. He presides over cultural ceremonies, such as the annual Calabar Festival, and represents continuity with Efik history.
Identity, Power, and Law
Ekpe embodied a worldview where law, morality, and spirituality were inseparable. Justice was both social and metaphysical; violating communal codes invited not only fines but spiritual danger. The society’s rituals dramatized authority through dance, masks, and music, means of enforcing law as performance and spectacle.
The interlinkage between Ekpe law and Nsibidi literacy created a distinctive mode of governance: symbolic, theatrical, yet binding. Ekpe’s influence extended across ethnic lines; Efut, Qua, and other Cross River groups shared comparable institutions, creating a regional network of mutual understanding and identity.
Author’s notes
Old Calabar, under the Efik and the Ekpe Society, represented a fusion of trade, governance, and spirituality. Ekpe was not a marginal cult but a central institution that regulated social order, commerce, and moral life. Colonialism transformed its political functions but could not erase its symbolic authority.
Today, renewed interest in Ekpe and Nsibidi among historians, linguists, and cultural revivalists underscores the durability of Efik civilisation, a system where ritual was law, and law was identity.
READ MORE: Ancient & Pre-Colonial Nigeria
References
Forde, Daryll (1956). Efik Traders of Old Calabar. London: Oxford University Press.
Talbot, P. A. (1912). The Peoples of Southern Nigeria. Oxford University Press.
Hackett, Rosalind (1989). Religion in Calabar: The Religious Life and History of a Nigerian Town.
eScholarship (University of California) — “Ekpe Society and Indigenous Law in Old Calabar.”
Nair, J. (1972). Politics and Society in South-Eastern Nigeria, 1841–1906.
