230 Efik
Supreme Deity, Mother God, and the ancestors
find its strength and value in the fact that every act
is one of beseeching blessings from the deities.
In conclusion, the Earth is viewed by Africans
as a sacred space where humans express their joy
at the living and reciprocal relationship between
humans and the Earth as the Great Mother of life.
Molefi Kete AsanteSeealsoBlessing; Fertility
Further Readings
Asante, M. K., & Nwadiora, E. (2007).The History of
Africa. London: Routledge.
Downes, R. M. (1971).Tiv Religion. Ibadan, Nigeria:
Ibadan University Press.
Drieberg, J. H. (1936). The Secular Aspect of Ancestor-
Worship in Africa (Suppl.).Journal of Royal African
Society, 35 (138).
Dubois, R. (1978).Olombelona:Essai sur l’existence
personnelle et et collective à Madagascar. Paris:
L’Harmattan.
Lawson, E. T. (1984).Religions of Africa—Traditions in
Transformation. San Francisco: HarperCollins.
EFIK
The Efik people live in the southeastern part of
Nigeria and the western part of Cameroon. They
number about 500,000. The traditional religion of
the Efik people begins with the idea of Abasi, the
Creator, as the Supreme Being. According to the
oral traditions of the Efik, Abasi’s wife, Atai,
convinced him to permit two of their children, a
female and a male, to settle on the Earth. They
were told they could not reproduce because Abasi
did not want humans to challenge his wisdom and
authority. The children violated the rule that was
set down by the Supreme Being.
Another narrative has Abasi creating two
humans and then prohibiting them from living on
the Earth. Atai persuaded him to allow them to
live on the Earth. Abasi agreed on the condition
that the settlers eat all of their meals with him.
This meant that they could not grow or hunt for
food. They were totally dependent on Abasi. They
were prohibited from procreation as well. Of
course, the humans refused these conditions, and
the woman planted food and the man joined her
in the fields. Soon they had children, and then
Abasi and his wife sent death to the Earth and
abandoned humans to their own resources. Abasi
became a distant creator God.
Because the Efik are a branch of the Ibibio
people, they share some of the same values and
traditions. The Efik migrated along the Cross
River and founded the Calabar settlements of
Creek Town and Duke Town in the 1600s, about
the time the Europeans started coming in increas-
ing numbers to the coasts. Actually, many of the
Ibibio customs were soon distorted by the accep-
tance of the styles and cultures of the Europeans
coming to the Nigerian coast and influencing
the way the Efiks saw themselves. They became
Christians, wore European clothes, and engaged
in practices they discovered among the European
traders, such as patriarchy.
Despite the presence of the European culture
along the coast and its influence on the Efiks, many
of them retained the powerful system of the Egbo
society. As in other African communities, this soci-
ety of secrets assisted the leaders in maintaining
stability by insisting on initiation and education of
the youth in the traditional manner. This meant
that elders had to teach about the valor and honor
of the ancestors, and the priests and kings had to
insist on the Efik people recognizing the annual fes-
tivals in reverence to their ancestral spirits.
Thus, while undergoing transformation, the
Efik still retain many aspects of the traditional
religious expressions of the ancestors. One might
say that the presence of European culture did not
completely destroy the emphasis that the Efiks
place on their past, although the 1884 signing of
a treaty with the British by the Obong of Calabar
precipitated much distortion in the religious unity
of the people. Things did fall apart, to paraphrase
the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe; when the
Efik Monarch, the Obong, essentially delivered
his people to the control of the British, he also
unintentionally perhaps delivered them from
many of their own traditions.Molefi Kete AsanteSeealsoAncestors; Kings