Content area
Full Text
The Ékpe ("leopard") society represents an ancient African institution that provided the supreme functions of governance in the communal societies of the forest regions of the Cross-River basin and the hilly terrain to the east, in what is called today southeastern Nigeria and southwestern Cameroon. Ékpe had four major roles in pre-colonial life. The first was the conferment of full citizenship; holding a title in Ékpe accorded one the status of full citizen with rights to make decisions having implications on the entire community, much as the respect accorded to the "toga virilis" in ancient Rome. Secondly, Ékpe was the no-nonsense community police, with the power to discipline and-as a measure of punishment-confiscate the property of a community member who disobeyed the law. Third, Ékpe provided entertainment with dances, music, and body-mask performance for members. Finally, Ékpe was a school for esoteric teachings regarding the human life as a cyclic process of regeneration, with the eventual reincarnation of that being.
Through the trans-Atlantic slave trade, Ékpe was dispersed within Africa and was even recreated in Havana and Matanzas, Cuba in the early 1800s, where it still exists as the Abakuá society.
With the colonial intervention in West Africa the late nineteenth century, the emergence of modern individualism and western political systems has tended to ignore the important roles which Ékpe played in the past. Nevertheless, because Ékpe (also known as Ngbe) and Abakuá are highly valued traditions for many communities in the Atlantic region, they have become the focus of research, education, festivals and so on, in order to teach both members and non-members alike about the contributions of indigenous African peoples to the cultural heritage of humanity. As part of this process, we are privileged to present a pioneering conversation between innovative leaders of this institution from Cameroon and Cuba:
"Sesekou" Mbe Philip Tazi [MT] is the traditional ruler of the village of Njeh-Mveh in Fontem, Cameroon. He works in Maryland, United States, as a school administrator. In Cameroon, the title "Sesekou" identifies the highest-ranking member of an Ékpe Lodge. Ékpe is a stratified society where rank is highly respected; only the Sesekou is authorized to "arouse Ékpe" ("sei Ngbe") up to the last rank. During entertainment in Ékpe, the Sesekou must be served...