Abayen Tee · Plate XVI · The Cotton Tree at Ndodoghi · Pre-Order (Ships ASAP)

Abayen is one of the original seven Efik clans, remembered by the cotton tree at Ndodoghi. The plate draws that tree.

Navy shirt carries ivory and gold ink; white shirt carries navy. Full-front print.

History

Abayen completes the count of the original seven Efik clans, its memory rooted — literally — at the great cotton tree of Ndodoghi, the landmark by which its settlement was known. In the estuary world the silk-cotton tree is never just a tree: it is a boundary post, a shrine and a witness, standing longer than the houses around it. Abayen's people, like those of Enwang and Usukakpa, were drawn into the larger Efik towns over the centuries, but the tree and the name remain fixed in tradition — the clan whose monument is living wood.