Okoyong Tee · Plate IX · The Forest Holds the Language · Pre-Order (Ships ASAP)

The Okoyong are the Kiong-speaking people of the forest between the rivers. The plate is drawn as a canopy transect of the left-bank forest — the forest holds the language.

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

History

The Okoyong held the forest ridge between the Cross and Calabar Rivers, a warrior country that guarded its independence from the trading towns downstream. Their Kiong tongue — a Cross River language distinct from Efik — marks them as an older forest people, and today it survives only among a handful of elders, making the Okoyong keepers of one of Nigeria's most endangered languages. It was among the Okoyong that the Scottish missionary Mary Slessor settled from 1888, living by their laws while working to end twin-killing — a chapter that carried Okoyong's name around the world.