Ejagham Qua Nation Tee · Plate XII · Fourteen Clans · Pre-Order (Ships ASAP)

Plate XII — the Ejagham Qua nation. Fourteen clans in a ring around the Mgbe rosette, each under its Ntoe: Big Qua, Akim, Nkonib, Ikpai-Omin, Ikpai-Ohum, Ediba, Nyanghasang, Eta-Nkpinghi, Bakoko, Okpan, Akim-Akim, Kasuk, Ifiang and Idundu. Keepers of Mgbe and Nsibidi.

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

History

The Qua nation is the Calabar branch of the great Ejagham people whose forest country runs from the Cross River into Cameroon. Each of their fourteen clans stands under its own Ntoe, and the Ntoes together under the Ndidem, in a federation held by Mgbe — the leopard institution that carried law, rank and judgment through the whole region and gave the Efik their Ekpe. The Ejagham are also the acknowledged masters of Nsibidi, the indigenous sign-script whose symbols travelled with Mgbe across the Atlantic into the Abakuá of Cuba — an African writing older than any colonial alphabet on this coast.