Ibibio

Ibibio, people of southeastern Nigeria, mainly in the Cross River state. They speak dialects of Efik-Ibibio, a language now grouped within the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family. The Ibibio comprise the following major divisions: Efik, Northern (Enyong), Southern (Eket), Delta (Andoni-Ibeno), Western (Anang), and Eastern (the Ibibio proper).

Mainly rainforest cultivators of yams, taro, and cassava, the Ibibio export mostly palm oil and palm kernels. They are noted for their skillful wood carving.

About 500 individuals make up the typical Ibibio village. Each village consists of compounds of rectangular buildings of several rooms, arranged around a courtyard. Villages are divided into wards and sometimes into physically distinct hamlets occupied by separate patrilineages. Wards are governed internally by a council consisting of heads of households and the secular head of the ward. The lineage head is a moral authority who has ritual duties and serves as the guardian of ancestral shrines; he may also be the secular leader. Groups of villages form larger territorial units united by traditions of descent from a single parent village or village group and by the possession of a common tutelary spirit and totem. Secret societies, both male and female, are prominent in Ibibio village organization. Membership in the Ekpe (Egbo), or Leopard, society, for example, available to wealthy men who can meet the expense involved, confers high social status and political authority; these men participate in ceremonies concerned with ancestral spirits and are believed to protect the community through magic and religious ritual.