Beware the Masked Figure’s Stare

The Authority of the Ekpe Society in Southeastern Nigeria

Abigail Rakotomavo ’26

Issue: 2

2024 Recipient of the Julia B. Thomas Prize in History

Over the past centuries, West Africa has been home to a multitude of stateless societies—groups of people without an organized government—that have bred a history of cultural richness whose legacy is still palpable today. In nineteenth-century Nigeria, a once-secret society called the Ekpe (also known as the Ekpo or Egbo) reached the paramount of its power over the Cross River state in Nigeria’s southeast. A religious and political group composed solely of men wealthy enough to purchase membership, the Ekpe was deeply influential in the development of Igboland’s culture, establishing roots that even British colonization could not eradicate. The leadership tactics of the Ekpe ensured lasting authority, even during later conflicts. In manipulating the spiritual beliefs of the Igbo people, the society gained the trust and respect needed to establish dominance, which its members did by enforcing strict moral codes and punishments when necessary. The society’s inherently secretive nature created a mystique surrounding its activities that maintained interest in the Ekpe. When the British stepped foot onto Nigerian soil in 1884, the Igbo people made attempts to resist colonization. This resistance manifested in the Ekpe persecution of Christian converts who sided with the European missionaries who arrived in Igboland in the early 1900s. In essence, the Ekpe society’s success in maintaining social control over the Cross River region was not only due to its use of fear and secrecy, but also because of the imitation of a government role despite British colonial rule in the early twentieth century.

One of the society’s tactics to control the population was instilling fear by using the fundamental beliefs at the root of contemporary Nigerian society. The Ekpe were meant to represent the ikan, or ancestors from the Ibibio area; thus, society members utilized the power of the ancestral spirits to command respect and exact punishments. Simultaneously respected and feared, the ikan established a baseline of cultural norms at the center of each Ibibio village; the common people were, generally speaking, careful to honor those cultural norms. The Ibibio people held the ikan were held in high esteem, believing them to control the wealth and fate of each family and to retain this power after death. Allegedly, ikan would curse those who disobeyed them with infertility or the birth of only females, death of their children, sickness, and other misfortunes.1 Cultural fears like these gave the Ekpe the privilege needed to exert control over such a large region and impose their ideals. Should a member of the larger community who did not partake in the Ekpe activities disobey an established law or violate social norms, Ekpe members could enforce punishments on the accused individual. Members and non-members of Ekpe society alike would appease the ikan through human sacrifice—the frequency of which is unknown—and strict obedience to these social norms, the most important value being the fulfillment of familial responsibilities.2 The Ekpe’s use of punitive spirits to their advantage was arguably one of the most important means of controlling their respective villages.

Disguises were an expression of the ancestral spirits, and masks that each member of the Ekpe society donned in public were a pivotal facet. Although the range of costumes was diverse and each member dressed uniquely, most disguises contained similar elements. Ekpe members covered their faces with wooden masks and dressed in capes made from raffia palms. The masks varied in size, shape, and color, and some even had movable jaws. Other aspects of an Ekpe member’s disguise were their charcoal-painted bodies—especially their legs and hands—and weapons such as a bow and arrow, machetes, and guns (firearms first arrived in southern Nigeria in the late 15th century).3 The eccentricity and dramatic features of the masks served as tools to inspire fear among onlookers, especially during masquerades, while shielding the identity of Ekpe members. (See Appendix A) Meanwhile, the paint and colorful clothing served to more closely embody an ancestor. Apart from masquerades—during which streets were packed with people—masks would also make appearances during festivities and burial ceremonies to honor the ikan and, depending on the type of mask, members could employ them in plays or as tokens of their status (rankings in the society).4 In blending their identities with those of ancestral spirits, the Ekpe were able to use their villages’ attitudes toward the spirits’ values to implement their own.

Appendix A

Ekpo mask, 19th century, wood, 27 cm., Berlin, Afrika-Fachreferat am Ethnologischen Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

To accompany the disguises, rituals were another fundamental element of Ekpe culture, acting as a method of weaponizing fear and providing the society with another way of establishing dominance over non-members. One of the most well-known rituals was a parade typically performed in an Ibibio village center or in busy streets called masquerades. Like those of other societies that inhabited the Cross River region, Ekpe masquerades primarily existed to display and enforce power. Masked Ekpe in colorful costumes would parade around the village; in order to steer people off of the streets, one or more wore a bell to announce the masquerade’s presence.5 (See Appendix B) These types of masquerades occurred routinely not only to keep the community in check, but also as a reminder of the society’s secrecy and exclusivity. Their mysterious nature facilitated these rituals, clearly drawing a boundary between commoners and society members through their spontaneity and distinctive disguises. The masquerades’ specific circumstances, however, varied depending on the occasion. For example, some would be private in the sense that women, children, and slaves would be beaten if they watched the masquerade.6 Others would be present during public ceremonies or when someone from outside the village wanted to buy membership and/or a lodge.7 In certain cases, a masquerade would symbolize punishment for a breach of the law or failure to pay a debt, in which case the members participating in the parade had the right to attack anyone in the street.8 Routine floggings were another important ritual: every nine days, an Ekpe man would masquerade around the town as a spirit, flogging those of a lower rank or who were not a part of the society. This man would dress himself in a disguise made from matted bamboo along with a black mask and a bell at his side to announce his presence.9 In his left hand, he would carry green leaves—a symbol signifying the presence of the Ekpe—and a cow-hide whip in the other to execute the whippings.10 A British newspaper, The Leeds Mercury, described a British perspective on these violent floggings:

A brutal peculiarity of the Egboship is this, that the want of a single variety of the title will expose him who is so unfortunate as to lack it, to the lashings of the Idem of that particular grade which he has not purchased. If an individual who is in possession of all the inferior grades, and three of the superior ones, happens to be out on the day when the Idem [or Ndem Isong] of that particular Egbo that he was in want of his walking, he is marked out from the common multitude and treated with extra severity. Should the Idem not meet any slave in the streets to whip on his rounds, he is at liberty to go into their houses and whip them to his heart's content. The sound of Egbo bells, and the name of Egbo day, are enough to terrify all the slave population of Duketown, and when they hear it they hide in every available place.11

The Ekpe of the highest rankings could even target other members of the society of “inferior grades.” Their willingness to find slaves in their house signifies their dedication to inspiring fear in those they regarded as inferior. The bells that would “terrify all the slave population” and motivate them to “hide” demonstrated the extent of the fear Ibibio villages felt toward the Ekpe. Regular displays of violence are not an original method of obtaining obedience; like Hitler, Ivan the Terrible, and many other infamous rulers, the Ekpe’s use of physical force was one of their primary methods of communicating with the wider village community.

Appendix B

Eliot Elisofon, Ejagham Ekpe society leopard dancers, Big Qua Town, Nigeria, 1959, photograph, https://www.si.edu/object/archives/components/sova-eepa-1973-001-ref20175.

The Ekpe was able to maintain its elite reputation early on largely due to the mystery and mysticism of Ekpe lodges. In a 2013 interview from Ivor L. Miller’s The Ékpè “Leopard” Society of Africa and its Cuban Diaspora: A Conversation between Cultural Leaders, Mbe Philip Tazi, chief of the village of Njeh-Mveh in Fontem, Cameroon, noted the importance of mysticism to the Ekpe’s success:

In the early days (before colonization), Ekpè was able to retain its prestige because lodges were seen as mystical places where not just anybody could belong. People with certain skills as well as the highest leadership of the village were the only ones admitted in Ekpè. People who did not know the ways of Ekpè or who could not belong to Ekpè came to believe that Ekpè functioned in a paranormal state where special powers were used to cleanse the village of evil as in the case of Angbu, for example. Mysticism served Ekpè very well when Ekpè functioned in the village in a small, remote, forested location.12

The society’s selectiveness facilitated its “prestige” and led those who were not a part of it to link the idea of the Ekpe to “paranormal” phenomena. Tazi asserted that this fantastical reputation was at the peak of its functionality when Ekpe villages were “forested”; to enable the secrecy of private Ekpe rituals, it was commonplace for non-Ekpe citizens to dedicate sacred forests—also known as the Bush—specifically for the Ekpe to inhabit and bury their members in. The ikan would then permeate these forests and rule over the Cross River region with them as a headquarters of sorts. While men who were not part of the Ekpe could enter the Bush, women were forbidden and would be punished for disobeying this rule.13 Granting access to only a certain part of the population was another means of enforcing social norms, as Ibibio society stripped women of many freedoms that men possessed.

Especially in Igboland, one’s membership in the Ekpe society was a determinant of both their wealth and social status. As one had to purchase a spot in the Ekpe, membership evolved into something that many coveted. According to Tazi, “the most important people in a community became members.”14 Subsequently, those who were not members experienced social pressure to join and discounts were often offered to fathers who wanted to enroll their children or to former slaves15 who had the means to pay for entry.16 By correlating ownership of a position in the Ekpe with being “important,” the society was able to earn respect and use social pressure to create an incentive to join.

The similarities between Ekpe’s powers and those of a formal government supplied the society with the necessary authority to assume control over Igboland. Like a variety of other pre-colonial Nigerian communities, the Ibibio region did not have elaborate governmental structures until the first decade of the 20th century; thus, other societies with formal governments—especially in the West—deemed it a stateless society. Rather than having a singular ruler or ruling family, the Ibibo region and other stateless or headless societies made their political and social decisions through an assembly/council of representatives.17 However, the political authority and structure of the Ekpe mimicked that of a government—to an extent—and led the Ibibio people to recognize the society as the governing body. The political powers of the Ekpe fell into both the executive and legislative categories. Apart from penalizing lawbreakers as members saw fit, they included freezing property, imposing the death penalty, administering fines, and boycotting neighboring towns.18 Additionally, the Ekpe exercised the right to oversee foreign affairs. In particular, the Ekpe Council placed trade sanctions on merchants from Europe.19 In acting as the link between their villages and the wider world, the Ekpe could control both the spread of foreign products within their communities and the movement of ideas.

The Ekpe’s organization was similar to that of a standard government with its grades, or rankings. As previously established, membership in the society required payment, though the specific price was dependent on the grade. The Ekpo Ndem Isong, a group of Ekpo elders and heads of influential families, were the rulers of each village and the highest (and most expensive) grade. They would implement traditional laws into the community while the remainder of the Ekpe acted as the executive arm of government and enforced these laws.20 In the Nigerian capital of Old Calabar, the Ekpe formed the foundation of the wider society’s government, with the king and chiefs as its most important members and the Abaw-Efik—a position similar to that of a high priest, deriving his powers from the chiefs—as its head. In total, the society consisted of eleven grades whose entry fees ranged from 75 to 400 brass bars (the region’s most common form of contemporary currency).21 The Ekpe was not local to Nigeria alone, though its activities and leadership differed in other areas. For example, Tazi’s village in Cameroon had an Ekpe chief titled Sesekou, which was the highest ranking possible in that version of Ekpe society.22 Though the Cross River state lacked formal structure in comparison to countries with developed governments, the Ekpe’s hierarchical grades and chain of command brought it to become the area’s principal authoritative group.

Among the Ekpe’s main duties was resolving conflicts among members of the village, particularly those involving property disputes. Any member of a village could "invoke Ekpe," or present their conflict to an Ekpe leader, when problems arose with another individual or family. According to The Leeds Mercury,

If a man, woman, or child have a complaint or grievance against a master or neighbour [sic], he or she has only to give notification of it by slapping an Egbo gentleman on the front of his body, or by going into the market square and tolling the large Egbo bell.23

If the “complaint or grievance” pertained to property—as they typically did—the notified Ekpe member then granted leaves that symbolized his grade to the accusing party so that the leaves could mark the property as an Ekpe issue; subsequently, no family could work on the property until the Ekpe settled the issue.24 Besides individual Ekpe members, the Ekpo Ndem Isong as a whole would also handle conflicts. In these cases, the council would direct the accused citizen to swear an oath with sacred water collected from multiple sources across the village called mbiam. The oath supposedly caused the accused citizen to swell or dry up—and sometimes die as a result—if they were guilty in reality. When someone who swore the oath first displayed these symptoms, they consulted a diviner, or abia idiong, to resolve the issue before the point of death.25 The society was not only law-abiding, but its members were also the solution to many of the Ibibio people’s everyday complications. Through these rituals, the Ekpe asserted themselves as mediators and kept their villages united.

When the European merchants began to permeate the Cross River region in the 1880s, British colonizers soon followed suit. The British formally gained control of Nigeria in 1906, but the Igbo people did not recognize them as having established control until at least five years later. World War I broke out soon after, and the British Colonial Office shifted its goals to preventing rebellion and restructuring the economy and administration of the region. To execute these plans, the British government established Native Courts to implement their own laws and cease activities—like sacrifices—that directly opposed their own cultural norms.26 The British courts set up throughout Igboland waged secret attacks on the Ekpe and neighboring societies once they were in place.27 British violence toward the Igbo people led members and non-members of the Ekpe alike to regard the British as enemies and resist their attempts at full colonization. Despite the hostility between the groups, Igbo people expected a level of respect from the British. The Leeds Mercury explained that if an Ekpe member passed a European on the street, “the [European was] expected to turn his back and let the supposed spirit pass unnoticed and undisturbed.”28 The normalization of this exchange exemplifies the implied dominance of the Ekpe in comparison to the British from the Nigerian perspective.

The influx of European missionaries engendered a period of conflict between Ekpe culture and the missionaries’ goal to enforce total conversion to Christianity. Missionaries forced converts to cut off cultural ties, especially in terms of customs regarding marriage, burial rituals, and Ekpe-specific activities. As a result, the Ekpe would persecute those who chose to convert to Christianity.29 Igbo attitudes toward the British enforced the idea that the British were a secondary power and inferior to the Ekpe society. In Miller’s interview, Tazi explained that Christian missionaries perceived the fundamental cultural beliefs and practices of the Ekpe to be destructive and immoral:

The arrival of Christian Pentecostal (Born Again) associations has only compounded this situation as these denominations find it too easy to attribute society's ills, not to the absence of good governance that has brought untold poverty, but to the very mystical forces that once validated Ekpè's credentials as the governing body and protector of the village and its people. The assumption is that Ekpè practitioners are the ones doing things that God does not approve of. The same is true for traditional medicine: the traditional healer who once cured the sick and protected the village from calamity is now considered an evil force in the face of western-trained medical practitioners whose ways are more easily explicable to the ordinary person than the mysterious ways of the Haitian "houngan," voudou [sic] priest, or the Jamaican shaman.30

The application of Europeans’ own beliefs to their attitudes about the Igbo people characterized the Ekpe as the responsible party for the “society’s ills.” These missionaries used the notion of God’s will to twist the Ekpe narrative into one that God, and subsequently the Europeans, did not “approve of.” Because of the imposition of European faith and morals, the Igbo people rejected complete colonization from the British, for the most part. Although Nigeria formally gained independence from Britain on October 1, 1960, its inhabitants in the Cross River region largely regarded the Ekpe to have retained its cultural influence and authority well before they were free of the British.31

While many of the secrets each Ekpe member swore to protect remain a mystery to this day, the society’s consistent ubiquity in southeastern Nigeria throughout the country’s history speaks to the fortitude of its ruling capabilities. Apart from the use of specific fear tactics, the culture of the Igbo people, along with its contradictions to that of Europeans, facilitated the Ekpe’s success in providing an informal form of leadership to the Cross River state. Its inherently secret nature bred an atmosphere of mysticism that portrayed the society as having higher authority than common citizens. The society’s maintenance of control in that area elucidates the workings of communities that do not follow typical governmental systems and its impacts on culture.

Bibliography

19th century. Ekpo mask. Mask. Place: Afrika-Fachreferat am Ethnologischen Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, http://www.smb.museum/smb/home/index.php?lang=de, Provenance: Max von Stefenelli Collection, acquired 1904. https://library-artstor-org.hopkins.idm.oclc.org/asset/BERLIN_DB_10313630616.

Arnold, Clay. “Nigeria (1960-present).” University of Central Arkansas. Accessed March 2, 2024. https://uca.edu/politicalscience/home/research-projects/dadm-project/sub-saharan-africa-region/nigeria-1960-present/.

“Cults and Rituals.” In World Eras, edited by Pierre-Damien Mvuyekure, 284-89. Vol. 10. Detroit, MI: Gale, 2004. https://link-gale-com.hopkins.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/CX3035500140/GVRL?u=s0936&sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=c69f06d1.

Mvuyekure was a professor of English and African-American literature at the University of Iowa in 2004 when he edited this section of World Eras. This chapter in particular examines certain facets of civilization that many West African societies shared in common. The book in its entirety argues that these elements, among other factors, allowed West African kingdoms to flourish in the way they did.

Elisofon, Eliot. Ejagham Ekpe society leopard dancers, Big Qua Town, Nigeria. 1959. Photograph. https://www.si.edu/object/archives/components/sova-eepa-1973-001-ref20175.

Marriott, H. P. Fitzgerald. “The Secret Societies of West Africa.” The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 29, no. 1/2 (1899): 21–27. https://doi.org/10.2307/2842572.

Marriott was a British anthropologist who traveled to West Africa in the 1890s to study the region's culture and natives. His article details the workings of West African secret societies to argue that these secret societies just existed as manifestations of their tribes' culture. His work explained pivotal functions and aspects of the Ekpe, like disguises, rituals, and political power.

Iweriebor, Ehiedu E.G. “State Systems in Pre-Colonial, Colonial and Post-Colonial Nigeria: an Overview.” Africa: Rivista Trimestrale Di Studi E Documentazione Dell‘Istituto Italiano per L‘Africa E L‘Oriente 37, no. 4 (1982): 507-13. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40759619.

Iweriebor argues that control over Nigerian states has belonged to small groups of elites before and after British colonial rule. In his argument, he mentioned the nature of “stateless societies” like the Ibibio region. Iweriebor was a teacher at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria and went on to work as an Adjunct Lecturer at Rutgers University in New Jersey soon after.

Kalu, Ogbu U. “Missionaries, Colonial Government and Secret Societies in South-Eastern Igboland, 1920-1950.” Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 9, no. 1 (1977): 75–90. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41857053.

At the time of the article’s publication, Kalu was a Nigerian theologian teaching at the University of Nigeria in the Department of Religious Studies. His article argues that, unlike the media had portrayed thus far, the collaboration between missionaries and the colonial government in Nigeria existed indisputably but was complex. He seems to have written it as a response to E. A. Ayandele’s argument that missionaries paved the path for British colonizers’ success in Nigeria.

The Leeds Mercury (Leeds, England). “The African Order of Egbo.” June 3, 1863, 4. Newspapers.com.

Lewin, Julius. “Native Courts and British Justice in Africa.” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 14, no. 8 (1944): 448-53. https://doi.org/10.2307/1156303.

Lovejoy, Paul E. “Transformation of the Ékpè Masquerade in the African Diaspora.” In Carnival: Theory and Practice, by Christopher Innes, Annabel Rutherford, and Brigitte Bogar, 127-63. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2013. https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/43820788/Lovejoy_Transformation_of_Ekpe-libre.pdf?1458225587=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DTransformation_of_the_Ekpe_Masquerade_in.pdf&Expires=1707705869&Signature=f~wVuVXAhBYYjTFunvCp~kJxgc5zPU13FucV7rfeW7kDLhR4LcD6buDYZ7ruLjwNv5FEJb45nq3I2Of9~GcQJx1ZPLupsAa2LEH51Twohg032a8gm3q8XDdeMZ3-Qgh3CoplX10xNRntpEY90G4BgsmzhnJj7XJQrfkliRvv8bP5p7jkzM8OJGTf0DEvzqLtz1xizF9KFTvX-0wFjrnJRWngTWHt29O0-O6AmAChER5dU9x2UhYClZCeg7fqF7OyVeMfeH3UABJIaTs7YdI4g73KijsFI1tzYi9EQLWpvILPEgeo1y6uwmwHE0iKWLKIvEScIVtyNllGtl1nXG00eg__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA.

Miller, Ivor L. “The Ékpè 'Leopard' Society of Africa and Its Cuban Diaspora: A Conversation between Cultural Leaders.” Afro-Hispanic Review 35, no. 2 (2016): 142-61. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44797204.

Offiong, Daniel A. “The Functions of the Ekpo Society of the Ibibio of Nigeria.” African Studies Review 27, no. 3 (1984): 77–92. https://doi.org/10.2307/524025.

Offiong, Daniel A. “The Process of Making and the Importance of the Ekpo Mask.” Anthropologica 24, no. 2 (1982): 193-206. https://doi.org/10.2307/25605095.

Shubi L. Ishemo. “From Africa to Cuba: An Historical Analysis of the Sociedad Secreta Abakuá (Ñañiguismo).” Review of African Political Economy 29, no. 92 (2002): 253-72. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4006814.

Ishemo, a teacher at the University of Leeds, argues that the Ekpe and Ngbe societies inspired many aspects of Cuban culture, most notably the Abakuá society. He gave an overview of the Ekpe as a whole, particularly in regards to its political functions.

Footnotes

[1] Daniel A Offiong, “The Functions of the Ekpo Society of the Ibibio of Nigeria,” African Studies Review, vol. 27, no. 3, 1984: 78–79. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/524025.

[2] Offiong, “The Functions of the Ekpo Society,” 79.

[3] Offiong, “The Functions of the Ekpo Society,” 79.

[4] 19th century. Ekpo mask. Place: Afrika-Fachreferat am Ethnologischen Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, http://www.smb.museum/smb/home/index.php?lang=de, Provenance: Max von Stefenelli Collection, acquired 1904. https://library-artstor-org.hopkins.idm.oclc.org/asset/BERLIN_DB_10313630616.

[5] Paul E. Lovejoy, “Transformation of the Ékpè Masquerade in the African Diaspora,” in Carnival: Theory and Practice, by Christopher Innes, Annabel Rutherford, and Brigitte Bogar (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2013): 136.

[6] Slavery was a widespread institution within Igbo communities; typically, they were members of other villages that the Ekpe captured in raids or warfare. Alternatively, someone could be sold into slavery as punishment for a crime.

[7] Lovejoy, 136.

[8] Lovejoy, 136.

[9] H. P. Fitzgerald Marriott, “The Secret Societies of West Africa,” The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 29, no. 1/2 (1899): 22. https://doi.org/10.2307/2842572.

[10] Marriott, “The Secret Societies,” 22.

[11] “The African Order of Egbo,” The Leeds Mercury (Leeds, England), June 3, 1863, 4, Newspapers.com.

[12] Ivor L. Miller, “The Ékpè 'Leopard' Society of Africa and Its Cuban Diaspora: A Conversation between Cultural Leaders,” Afro-Hispanic Review 35, no. 2 (2016): 148, https://www.jstor.org/stable/44797204.

[13] Offiong, “The Functions of the Ekpo Society,” 79.

[14] Miller, “The Ékpè,” 147.

[15] The British banned the local slave trade in the mid-1880s, so formerly enslaved members of Ibibio villages had the opportunity to join the Ekpe if they had the means to do so.

[16] Ogbu U Kalu, “Missionaries, Colonial Government and Secret Societies in South-Eastern Igboland, 1920-1950,” Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 9, no. 1 (1977): 82. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41857053.

[17] Ehiedu E.G Iweriebor, “State Systems in Pre-Colonial, Colonial and Post-Colonial Nigeria: an Overview,” Africa: Rivista Trimestrale Di Studi E Documentazione Dell’Istituto Italiano per L’Africa E L’Oriente 37, no. 4 (1982): 508, https://www.jstor.org/stable/40759619.

[18] Shubi L. Ishemo, “From Africa to Cuba: An Historical Analysis of the Sociedad Secreta Abakuá (Ñañiguismo),” Review of African Political Economy 29, no. 92 (2002): 259, https://www.jstor.org/stable/4006814.

[19] Ishemo, “From Africa,” 259.

[20] Offiong, “The Functions of the Ekpo Society,” 82.

[21] Marriott, “The Secret Societies,” 21.

[22] Miller, “The Ékpè,” 142.

[23] “The African,” 4.

[24] Offiong, “The Functions of the Ekpo Society,” 82.

[25] Offiong, “The Functions of the Ekpo Society,” 83.

[26] Kalu, “Missionaries,” 77-78.

[27] Kalu, “Missionaries,” 85.

[28] "The African,” 4.

[29] Kalu, “Missionaries,” 80.

[30] Miller, “The Ékpè,” 148.