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Nsibidi

Nsibidi
A symbol simply described as "Nsibidi name written" by Elphinstone Dayrell in 1911.[1]
Script type
Ideographic
Time period
circa 400 AD – present
LanguagesEkoid, Efik, Ibibio, Igbo
Related scripts
Child systems
anaforuana (Cuba), veve (Haiti), “Neo-Nsibidi” (Nigeria), “Akagu”  (Nigeria)

Nsibidi (also known as Nsibiri,[2] Nchibiddi or Nchibiddy[3]) is a system of symbols or proto-writing developed by the Ekpe secret society that traversed the southeastern part of Nigeria. They are classified as pictograms, though there have been suggestions that some are logograms or syllabograms.[4]

The symbol system was first encountered by Europeans in 1904.[4] Excavation of terracotta vessels, headrests, and anthropomorphic figurines from the Calabar region of southeast Nigeria, dated to roughly the 5th to 15th centuries, revealed "an iconography readily comparable" to nsibidi.[5][6]

There are several hundred Nsibidi symbols. They were once taught in a school to children.[7] Many of the signs deal with love affairs; those that deal with warfare and the sacred are kept secret.[7] Nsibidi is used on wall designs, calabashes, metals (such as bronze), leaves, swords, and tattoos.[2][8] It is primarily used by the Ekpe leopard society (also known as Ngbe or Egbo), a secret society that is found across old Cross River region among the Igbo, Ekoi, Efik, Bahumono, and other nearby peoples.

Before the colonial era of Nigerian history, Nsibidi was divided into a sacred version and a public, more decorative version which could be used by women.[8] Nsibidi was and is still a means of transmitting Ekpe symbolism. Nsibidi was transported to Cuba and Haiti via the Atlantic slave trade, where it developed into the anaforuana and veve symbols.[9][10]

  1. ^ Dayrell, Elphinstone (July–December 1911). "Further Notes on 'Nsibidi Signs with Their Meanings from the Ikom District, Southern Nigeria". Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 41. Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland: 521–540. doi:10.2307/2843186. JSTOR 2843186.
  2. ^ a b Elechi, O. Oko (2006). Doing Justice without the State: The Afikpo (Ehugbo) Nigeria Model. CRC Press. p. 98. ISBN 0-415-97729-0.
  3. ^ Diringer, David (1953). The Alphabet: A Key to the History of Mankind. Philosophical Library. pp. 148–149.
  4. ^ a b Gregersen, Edgar A. (1977). Language in Africa: An Introductory Survey. CRC Press. p. 176. ISBN 0-677-04380-5.
  5. ^ Slogar, Christopher (2005). Eyo, Ekpo (ed.). Iconography and Continuity in West Africa: Calabar Terracottas and the Arts of the Cross River Region of Nigeria/Cameroon. University of Maryland. pp. 58–62.
  6. ^ Slogar, Christopher (Spring 2007). "Early Ceramics from Calabar, Nigeria: Towards a History of Nsibidi". African Arts. 40 (1). University of California: 18–29. doi:10.1162/afar.2007.40.1.18. S2CID 57566625.
  7. ^ a b Isichei, Elizabeth Allo (1997). A History of African Societies to 1870. Nsibidi: Cambridge University Press. p. 357. ISBN 0-521-45599-5.
  8. ^ a b Rothenberg, Jerome; Rothenberg, Diane (1983). Symposium of the Whole: A Range of Discourse Toward an Ethnopoetics. University of California Press. pp. 285–286. ISBN 0-520-04531-9.
  9. ^ Lowe, Sylvia; Lowe, Warren, eds. (1987). Baking in the sun: visionary images from the South (1st ed.). Lafayette: University of Southwestern Louisiana. ISBN 978-0-936819-03-7.
  10. ^ Asante, Molefi K. (2007). The History of Africa: The Quest for Eternal Harmony. Routledge. p. 252. ISBN 978-0-415-77139-9.
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