Iboku Tee · Plate I · Mother Clan of the Four Towns · Pre-Order (Ships ASAP)

Iboku is the mother clan of the four Efik towns of the estuary: Atakpa (Duke Town), Obio Oko (Creek Town), Nsidung (Henshaw Town) and Ekoretonko (Cobham Town). The plate charts them as a river survey, with soundings marked on the Calabar River.

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

History

Efik tradition traces the Iboku from Uruan on the Cross River, moving downriver by canoe to settle Creek Town before spreading to Duke Town, Henshaw Town and Cobham Town on the Calabar River. From these four towns the Iboku houses became the middlemen of the Atlantic trade from the 17th to the 19th century — every European ship anchoring at Old Calabar dealt with their kings and trading houses. Governed through the Ekpe leopard society and writing in Nsibidi signs, the Iboku built one of the most sophisticated merchant polities on the West African coast, and their name remains the core of Efik identity today.