Papa Dc Enamhe.
By Dc Enamhe
In 2018, the release of the first ever black superhero movie featuring a futuristic African kingdom and its superhero prince, T’Challa took the world by storm. Expectedly, it was a hit among Africans and the African diaspora.
At the center of the black panther experience was the eye catching traditional Nsibidi script etched boldly on the columns of T’Challa’s throne room. The adoption of the script by this $700 million blockbuster sent the black race into a frenzy. The black diaspora, victims of systemic oppression that told them they were from an unlettered and uneducated race yearned to know more about the script and began threads seeking answers online.
Nigerians, desperate for a redeeming moment as the country’s image took a plummeting worldwide, jumped at the opportunity to show off.
Nsibidi, a 400 year old script clearly CREATED by the Ejagham of Nigeria, had become a heritage forcefully claimed by other tribes, whose voices rose the loudest. The Igbos said it was theirs, citing Arochukwu history. The Efiks demurred, pouting at the blatant theft of ‘their script’ by the Igbos, pointing to the Ekpe society as evidence. The Ibibios scoffed and said Nsibidi was theirs. In some cases, the three tribes came together as one unit to lay claim to the script.
The Ejagham, watched rather too quietly for their own good. However, soon voices rose to counter this misinformation. We pointed to well researched documentation showing that the Ejagham of Cross River and South Western Cameroon were infact the rightful owners of the Nsibidi script. They also pointed to the Ikom monoliths as concrete evidence of our ownership of the script. It took some time but those voices got loud enough to be regurgitated by others so that the Ejagham were no longer relegated to the background in the discourse involving Nsibidi.
While, we celebrate these little wins in our effort to reclaim what is ours, it has become impertinent that an awareness campaign is initiated by Ejagham elders about this heritage. I find it rather shocking that our people do not pass this important part of our culture to their children. We have neglected our history and allowed strangers to lay claim to our heritage.
Just today, one of us found that the Wikipedia page that formerly cited the Ejagham as creators of Nsibidi had been edited to show the Ekpe of the Efiks as the originators of the script, mentioning the Ejagham at the bottom of the article as if as an afterthought. These culture thieves cited put the Efiks, Ibibios and Igbos as owners of the script, claiming their collaboration as the Aro confederacy was the vehicle through which the script was spread in South Eastern Nigeria. Nautically, the Wikipedia page was immediately edited to correct this blatant lie.
As we clamour for Ogoja state, we must also put the sensitization of our people on the Nsibidi script seriously before we are written out of history by our more ambitious neighbors.
The Ikom monoliths is not only a tourism potential that we need to one day explore, it is loudest echo of our history and the strongest evidence that Nsibidi is Ejagham.
Let the best and worst of us sing it from every rooftop, every corner and every door post. We will not be overlooked.
At this point in our lives
We won’t watch our heritage of over 600 years get stolen or reassigned to another ethic nationality.
Enamhe is the Ntol Ikokon 1 of Nkim land. Convener/Spokesperson
Movement for the Creation of Ogoja State
