Nsibidi

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Robert Farris Thompson glosses the Ekoid word nsibidi as translating to "cruel letters", from sibi "bloodthirsty".

The context is the use of the symbols by the Ekpe society in the Old Calabar slave traders who had established a "lavish system of human sacrifice".{{Cite book |last=Sublette |first=Ned |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fZZ4QKZEumIC&pg=PA196 |title=Cuba and its music: from the first drums to the mambo |publisher=Chicago Review Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-55652-632-9 |volume=1 |page=196}}

In old Cross River region, Nsibidi is mostly associated with men's Ekpe society. The Ekpe societies were a legislative, judicial, and executive power before colonisation in parts of Aro Confederacy,{{Cn|date=June 2024}} including Igbos, Efik, Ibibios who exerted much influence over the old Cross River region, located in today's Nigeria.

The origin of Nsibidi is now generally attributed to the Ekoi or Ejagham people of the Northern Cross River,{{cite book |title=African Folklore: An Encyclopedia |last1=Carlson |first1=Amanda |chapter=Nsibidi: An Indigenous Writing System |editor-first1=Philip M. |editor-last1=Peek |editor-first2=Kwesi |editor-last2=Yankah |edition=illustrated |publisher=Taylor & Francis |page=599 |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-415-93933-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pOcWLGktIYoC |quote=Scholars believe that nsibidi originated among the Ejagham, who use it more extensively than any other group in the region. The spread of nsibidi may have been a result of Ejagham migrations or their practice of selling the secrets of the Ejagham men's Leopard Society (Ngbe) to their neighbors (the Igbo, Efik, Ibibio, Efut, Banyang, and others).}}{{harvnb|Slogar|2007|pp=18–19}}. "Nsibidi is generally thought to have originated among the Ejagham peoples of the northern Cross River region, in large part because colonial investigators found the greatest number and variety of signs among them."{{cite book |last1=Thompson |first1=Robert Farris |author-link1=Robert Farris Thompson |url=https://archive.org/details/flashofspiritafr00thom |title=Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy |date=1984 |publisher=Vintage Books |location=New York |pages=227, 244 |quote=The Ejagham developed a unique form of ideographic writing, signs representing ideas and called nsibidi, signs embodying many powers, including the essence of all that is valiant, just, and ordered ... The late king of Oban in southern Ejagham told me in the summer of 1978 that nsibidi emerged in the dreams of certain men who thus received its secrets and later 'presented it outside'.}}{{cite journal |last1=Nwosu |first1=Maik |title=In the Name of the Sign: The Nsibidi Script as the Language and Literature of the Crossroads |journal=Semiotica |date=2010 |issue=182 |pages=286 |doi=10.1515/semi.2010.061 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/semi.2010.061/html |language=en |issn=1613-3692|url-access=subscription }} though in the 1900s J. K. Macgregor recorded a native tradition attributing it to the Uguakima or Uyanga section of the Igbo people.{{Cite journal |last=Macgregor |first=J. K. |date=January–June 1909 |title=Some Notes on Nsibidi. |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1449627 |journal=Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute |publisher=Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland |volume=39 |pages=209–219 |doi=10.2307/2843292 |jstor=2843292}}{{sfn|Nwosu|2010|p=301 (note 2)}}

However, the Nsibidi of the Ejagham people predates Macgregor's stay in the area and he may have been misled by his informants.{{cite journal|journal=West African Archaeological Association |title=West African Journal of Archaeology |volume=21 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=105 |year=1991}}

A few years later, the anthropologist {{interlanguage link|Percy Amaury Talbot|fr}} was unable to verify the tradition recorded by Macgregor and concluded that the claims of the Ekoi to have created the system were more plausible.{{cite book |last1=Talbot |first1=Percy Amaury |title=In the Shadow of the Bush |date=1912 |publisher=George H. Doran |location=New York |pages=255, 305 |url=https://archive.org/details/inshadowofbush00perc |quote=Perhaps it is allowable to mention here that the Ekoi claim to have originated this script, of which several hundred characters and a considerable number of complete stories were collected during our stay ... Among the Uyanga also it has unfortunately been impossible to find any trace of the interesting legend alluded to above [that the script originated in this area, as recorded by MacGregor], whereas ... the Ekoi, who certainly have a strong Bantu strain, claim, and with what seems good grounds, to have originated the whole system. At the present day a greater variety of signs seems to exist among the Ekoi of the interior than amid any other tribe.}}

Nsibidi has a wide vocabulary of signs usually imprinted on calabashes, brass ware, textiles, wood sculptures, masquerade costumes, buildings and on human skin. Nsibidi has been described as a "fluid system" of communication consisting of hundreds of abstract and pictographic signs. In the colonial era, Nsibidi was characterized by Talbot as "a kind of primitive secret writing", with Talbot explaining that it was used for messages "cut or painted on split palm stems". Macgregor's view was that "The use of nsibidi is that of ordinary writing. I have in my possession a copy of the record of a court case from a town of Enion [Enyong] taken down in it, and every detail ... is most graphically described". Nsibidi crossed ethnic lines and was a uniting factor among ethnic groups in the Cross River region.

File:Carved Mahogany doors with Nsibidi script at St. Francis Specialist Mortuary Aba, Nigeria.jpg: carved mahogany doors covered in Nsibidi symbolism and Christian iconography in Aba, Nigeria]]

Nsibidi spread to other parts of Nigeria, especially the Igbos, who are neighbors to the old Calabar people (the Efik, Ibibio and Annang).

File:Ikpe nsibidi.jpg

Nsibidi was used in judgement cases known as 'Ikpe' in Enion, an Igbo subgroup, according to Macgregor, who was able to retrieve and translate an Nsibidi record of an ikpe judgement.

The record is of an Ikpe or judgement case. (a) The court was held under a tree as is the custom, (b) the parties in the case, (c) the chief who judged it, (d) his staff (these are enclosed in a circle), (e) is a man whispering into the ear of another just outside the circle of those concerned, (f) denotes all the members of the party who won the case. Two of them (g) are embracing, (h) is a man who holds a cloth between his finger and thumbs as a sign of contempt. He does not care for the words spoken. The lines round and twisting mean that the case was a difficult one which the people of the town could not judge for themselves. So they sent to the surrounding towns to call the wise men from them and the case was tried by them (j) and decided; (k) denotes that the case was one of adultery or No. 20.

File:Brooklyn Museum 1990.132.6 Ukara Cloth.jpg

File:Nsibidi.jpg

Nsibidi is used to design the 'ukara ekpe' woven material which is usually dyed blue (but also green and red) and is covered in Nsibidi symbols and motifs. Ukara ekpe cloths are woven in Abakaliki, and then they are designed by male Nsibidi artists in the Igbo-speaking towns of Abiriba, Arochukwu and Ohafia to be worn by members of the Ekpe society. Symbols including lovers, metal rods, trees, feathers, hands in friendship war and work, masks, moons, and stars are dyed onto ukara cloths. The cloth is dyed by post-menopausal women in secret, and young males in public. Ukara was a symbol of wealth and power only handled by titled men and post-menopausal women.{{Cite book |last=Chuku |first=Gloria |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z3jouPZxPC4C&pg=PA73 |title=Igbo women and economic transformation in southeastern Nigeria, 1900–1960 |publisher=Routledge |year=2005 |isbn=0-415-97210-8 |page=73}}

Ukara can be worn as a wrapper (a piece of clothing) on formal occasions, and larger version are hung in society meeting houses and on formal occasions. Ukara motifs are designed in white and are placed on grids set against an indigo background. Some of the designs include abstract symbols representing the Ekpe society such as repeating triangles representing the leopard's claws and therefore Ekpe's power. Ukara includes naturalistic designs representing objects such as gongs, feathers and manilla currency, a symbol of wealth. Powerful animals are included, specifically the leopard and crocodile.

Nsibidi plays a central role in the Nsibidi Script Series of fantasy novels (Akata Witch, Akata Warrior, and Akata Woman) written by Nnedi Okorafor.

Nsibidi was the inspiration for the Wakandan writing system shown in the 2018 film Black Panther.{{Cite web |last=Desowitz |first=Bill |date=22 Feb 2018 |title='Black Panther': How Wakanda Got a Written Language |url=http://www.indiewire.com/2018/02/black-panther-wakanda-written-language-ryan-coogler-afrofuturism-1201931252/ |website=IndieWire}} Nsibidi symbols were also featured in its sequel, Wakanda Forever.{{Cite web |date=2023-04-24 |title=How the Nsibidi Script Inspired the Black Panther Movie |url=https://okwuid.com/2023/04/24/how-the-nsibidi-script-inspired-the-black-panther-movie/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230424065851/https://okwuid.com/2023/04/24/how-the-nsibidi-script-inspired-the-black-panther-movie/ |archive-date=2023-04-24 |access-date=2023-08-20 |website=okwuid.com |language=en-US}}

Below are some examples of Nsibidi recorded by J. K. Macgregor (1909) and Elphinstone Dayrell (1910 and 1911){{cite journal|title=Some "Nsibidi" Signs |first=Elphinstone |last=Dayrell |journal=Man |publisher=Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland |volume=10 |year=1910 |pages=113–114 |doi=10.2307/2787339|jstor=2787339 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1449500 }} for The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland and Man. Both of them recorded symbols from a variety of locations around the Cross River, and especially the Ikom district in what is now Cross River State. Both of the writers used informants to retrieve Nsibidi that were regarded as secret and visited several Cross River communities.

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{{col-3}}

;File:Nsibidi name written.jpg : "Nsibidi"

;File:Nsibidi welcome.jpg : "Welcome"

;File:Nsibidi talk.jpg : "Two men talking"

;File:Nsibidi door.jpg : "Door"

;File:Nsibidi gun.jpg : "Gun"

;File:Nsibidi cross bow.jpg : "Crossbow"

{{col-3}}

;File:Nsibidi calabash.jpg : "Calabash"

;File:Nsibidi big drum.jpg : "Big drum"

;File:Nsibidi plantain.jpg : "Etak Ntaña Nsibidi — Nsibidi's bunch of plantains. When the head of the house wants plantains he sends this sign to the head boy on the farm."

;File:Nsibidi umbrella.jpg : "Umbrella"

;File:Nsibidi toilet soap.jpg : "Toilet soap"

{{col-3}}

;File:Nsibidi matchet.jpg : "Matchet"

;File:Nsibidi woman.jpg : "Woman"

;File:Nsibidi man.jpg : "Man"

;File:Nsibidi moon.jpg : "Moon"

;File:Nsibidi tortoise.jpg : "Tortoise"

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• Writing systems of Africa
• Africa Alphabet
• African reference alphabet

{{Reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/19991023140023/http://www.library.cornell.edu/africana/Writing_Systems/Nsibidi.html Nsibidi Script — Cornell University Library]

{{Igbo language}}

{{List of writing systems}}

Category:Proto-writing

Category:Igbo language

Category:Cross River languages