StapleNigeria
Pounded Yam and Egusi Soup
White yam pounded to a smooth elastic mound with a soup of ground melon seeds, greens and meat. The centrepiece of Yoruba and Igbo tables alike.
Serves 6 · 1 hour 30 minutes
Anaang (Annang)
People of the Cross River hinterland whose ekpo and ekpe societies governed before any state did, whose raffia weaving and wood carving are among the finest in Nigeria, and whose oratory gave the region its reputation for the most elaborate proverbs in West Africa.
Identity
Population: Estimated 1.5 to 2 million
Location: Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, in the north-west of the state around Ikot Ekpene, Abak and Essien Udim
Language: Anaang (Annang), closely related to Ibibio
Language family: Niger-Congo → Cross River → Lower Cross
Traditional governance: Village councils with lineage heads and the ekpo and ekpe societies historically holding executive and judicial authority; Akwa Ibom State administration with recognised paramount rulers.
Clans, Sections & Sub-groups (3)
Most African peoples are federations of named sub-groups (clans, sections, chiefdoms or sub-tribes), each with its own dialect, territory and traditions.
Anaang of Ikot Ekpene
The raffia and carving centre.
Anaang of Abak
Southern communities toward the Ibibio border.
Anaang of Essien Udim and Ukanafun
Northern and western communities toward Abia State.
Culture
Clothing: Raffia and woven cloth in the older tradition; contemporary Nigerian ceremonial dress; the ekpo masquerade's raffia and carved wooden masks.
Food: Yam and cassava (as fufu and afang), edikang ikong and afang soups made with dense greens, periwinkles, fish, palm oil in quantity, and palm wine.
Ceremonies: Ekpo masquerades at the year's turning; ekpe society gatherings; new yam festivals; funerals with masquerade appearances; the fattening room for brides, now much reduced.
Marriage customs: Patrilineal with bridewealth in goods and cash; the fattening room (mbopo), in which a bride was secluded and fed before marriage, was general and is now largely symbolic.
Initiation rites: Entry into ekpo and ekpe, graded and paid for, with each grade conferring knowledge, regalia and a place in the society's authority.
Food & Recipes
Every dish the Atlas publishes for Nigeria, at national rather than community level — 10 in all: the staple a household eats daily, the dish the country names as its own, street food, what is cooked for a wedding or Eid, regional specialities and a drink. Quantities and method are given for every one, so these are recipes rather than descriptions, and each has a photograph from Wikimedia Commons. The Food page carries the whole continent, searchable by country and by ingredient.
StapleNigeria
Tuwo Shinkafa
also Rice swallow
Soft short-grain rice cooked and beaten into a smooth mound, the northern Nigerian staple eaten with miyan kuka or miyan taushe.
Serves 6 · 45 minutes
National dishNigeria
Nigerian Jollof
Long-grain rice cooked in a reduced pepper and tomato base until the bottom of the pot lightly scorches, which is where the smoky flavour comes from and is not a mistake.
Serves 6 · 1 hour 20 minutes
National dishNigeria
Miyan Kuka
also Baobab leaf soup, Luru
Dried baobab leaf powder cooked into a dark, faintly slippery soup with dried fish and locust bean. The Hausa soup of northern Nigeria, eaten with tuwo.
Serves 6 · 50 minutes
Street foodNigeria
Suya
Thin beef skewers rubbed in yaji, a groundnut and chilli spice mix, grilled over open charcoal by Hausa mallams and served on newspaper with raw onion and tomato.
Serves Makes 12 · 40 minutes, plus 2 hours marinating
Festival & feastNigeria
Ofe Nsala
also White soup
A pale peppery soup of catfish thickened with pounded yam and scented with uziza and ehuru. Made in Anambra for a woman who has just given birth, and served at important occasions.
Serves 6 · 1 hour
Regional specialityNigeria
Moi Moi
Steamed bean pudding of peeled black-eyed peas, peppers and onion, wrapped in leaves and studded with egg and fish. Eaten alone or beside jollof at every party.
Serves 8 · 1 hour 30 minutes, plus 4 hours soaking
Regional specialityNigeria
Efo Riro
also Yoruba spinach stew
Shredded greens cooked into a base of blended pepper, onion and palm oil with assorted meat and stockfish. The Yoruba vegetable soup, and the one Lagosians argue about most.
Serves 6 · 1 hour 15 minutes
Regional specialityNigeria
Banga Soup
also Ofe akwu, Palm nut soup
Palm nut pulp cooked with catfish and the Delta's particular spices — beletientien, oburunbebe stick, ataiko — into a thick orange soup. The Urhobo and Isoko signature.
Serves 6 · 1 hour 15 minutes
Drink & sweetNigeria
Zobo
Hibiscus infused with pineapple, ginger and clove, bottled and sold cold at every Nigerian gathering. The non-alcoholic drink of choice at weddings.
Serves 8 · 40 minutes, plus chilling
Stories & Oral Literature
The Societies That GovernedPolitical institution
Before colonial administration, Anaang villages were governed by their men's societies rather than by chiefs: ekpe, with its graded membership and its nsibidi sign system, and ekpo, whose masked members enforced decisions, collected debts and executed judgements. The British, finding no chiefs, appointed warrant chiefs — a policy that produced the Aba Women's War of 1929, in which women across the region attacked warrant chiefs' compounds and native courts, and dozens were shot dead.
NsibidiWriting system
Nsibidi is an indigenous system of signs used across the Cross River region — Ejagham, Efik, Ibibio, Anaang and Igbo communities — for communication within the ekpe society and for public inscription on cloth, walls, calabashes and skin. Some signs are pictographic, others conventional; a portion was restricted to initiates. It travelled to Cuba with enslaved Cross River people and survives there in the Abakuá society's anaforuana signs, which is among the clearest transatlantic transmissions of an African graphic system.
Ikot EkpeneCraft economy
Ikot Ekpene is Nigeria's raffia capital: bags, furniture, mats, hats and the raffia elements of masquerade costumes are made there and traded nationally, alongside a wood-carving tradition that supplies masks and figures to markets and to collectors. The town's craft economy survived the civil war, the oil boom's distortions and the collapse of Nigerian manufacturing, and it remains among the most substantial handicraft industries in the country.
Proverbs
“The one who has not been told the meaning sees only the mark.”
On nsibidi and on restricted knowledge.
“Ekpo does not argue; ekpo arrives.”
On the enforcement society.
“A proverb is the palm oil with which words are eaten.”
A saying of the region, on oratory itself.
Mythology & Spiritual Beliefs
Creation: Abasi as the high god; ancestral spirits appearing as ekpo masquerades; the earth as guarantor of oaths; water spirits of the creeks and rivers.
Beliefs: Ekpo ancestral masquerade; ekpe society knowledge; earth oaths; Presbyterian, Catholic and Pentecostal Christianity now dominant, the Presbyterian mission having been established in the nineteenth century.
Ancestors: The ancestors appear as ekpo; the society's grades determine who may know what about them, and who may wear which mask.
Gods, Goddesses & Spirits
Abasi
The high god
Ekpo
The ancestral dead, appearing as masked enforcers at the year's turning
The earth
Guarantor of oaths and of boundaries
Architecture
Traditional settlements: Villages of rectangular houses among oil palm and farmland, with the ekpe lodge and the ekpo shrine at fixed points and the market at the centre.
Building techniques: Mud walling with thatch and iron roofing; raffia weaving and furniture making; wood carving in the mask and figure tradition; the ekpe lodge built and decorated with nsibidi signs.
Village layout: Compounds along a path with farms behind, the society lodge and shrine at fixed sites, and the masquerade grove outside the village.
Artifacts
Ekpo masks
Masquerade
Carved wooden masks of the ancestral enforcement society, among Nigeria's finest.
Nsibidi signs
Writing system
Indigenous graphic system of the Cross River, transmitted to Cuba's Abakuá society.
Raffia work
Craft
Bags, furniture, mats and hats made at Ikot Ekpene and traded nationally.
Ekpe lodge
Ritual structure
The society's house, decorated with nsibidi and holding its regalia.
Historical Timeline
Pre-1800
Anaang communities occupy the Cross River hinterland, governed by graded men's societies.
1800s
The palm oil trade reaches the interior; Efik middlemen on the coast control the outlet.
1900s–1920s
British administration appoints warrant chiefs over societies that had governed without them.
1929
The Aba Women's War: women across the region attack warrant chiefs and native courts; dozens are shot dead.
1987–present
Akwa Ibom State is created; Ikot Ekpene's raffia and carving industries remain among Nigeria's largest handicraft economies.
Sources & Further Reading
Open sources
Premium & scholarly sources
- Nwaubani, The Aba Women's War of 1929JSTOR
- Ethnologue: AnaangSIL International