For an account the festival, see Cuban Abakua Participate in the Ekpe Festival, 
December 19-26,  2004, Cross River State, Nigeria

The Investiture of Lady Elizabeth Ayo Eremie into the Ekoretonko Lodge, Calabar, Nigeria, 9/05

Ebongo Masquarade - Calabar Photo by Mr. Mpkan Ekpe Bassey

International Ekpe Festival
Calabar, Nigeria: December, 2004

The 3rd annual International Ekpe Festival took place December 2004  in Calabar, Nigeria, organized by local Ekpe leaders with the sponsorship of the Governor's Offfice of Cross River State. Ekpe culture is shared among many groups in Nigeria and Cameroon, and this year the special attraction was a visit of Cuban Abakua musicians, whose traditions derive directly from those of the Calabar Ekpe. The festival announcement cited Dr. Ivor Miller's essay on trans-Atlantic cultural connections (African Studies Review 2005):

Ekpe Musicians, Calabar Photo by Mr. Mpkan Ekpe Bassey

"The Cuban Abakuá society — derived from the Èfìk Ékpè and Ejagham Ngbè societies of southeastern Nigeria and southwestern Cameroon — was founded in Havana in the 1830s by captured leaders of Cross River villages. . . . Abakuá intellectuals have used commercial recordings to extol their history and ritual lineages. Evidence indicates that Cuban Abakuá identity is based on detailed knowledge of ritual lineages stemming from specific locations in their homelands, and not upon a vague notion of an African “national” or “ethnic” identity. . . . After publication of samples of Abakuá phrases from a commercially recorded album (Miller 2000), Nigerian members of the Cross River Ékpè society living in the USA informed me that they had recognized these texts as part of their own history. Èfìk people in the USA had learned about the Cuban Abakuá and were actively searching for contact with its members. The website www.efik.com (now defunct) had references to Cuban tourist literature on the Abakuá in Spanish; our communication led to what was perhaps the first meeting between both groups. The privilege of examining this material with both Cuban Abakuá and Èfìk Ékpè members has provoked me to grapple with questions of using oral history materials as new evidence for rethinking the African Diaspora in the Caribbean. A specific example can illustrate this interpretive process:

Title translates as "group of young proud Efik." Etubom Asuquo Etim, at left, is producer and mask maker from Efe Ekpe Eyo Ema in Calabar

"Okobio Enyenisón, awana bekura mendo/ Núnkue Itia Ororo Kánde Efí Kebutón/ Oo Ékue” 

This phrase is part of an Abakuá chant memorializing the actions of Èfìk and Efut leaders who helped found the society. Abakuá leaders interpret this phrase as: “Our African brothers, from the sacred place/ came to Havana, and in Regla founded Efík Ebutón/ we salute the Ékue drum.”

Mr. Orok Edem, an Èfìk scholar residing in the USA, equated “Efí Kebutón,” the name of Cuba’s first Abakuá group, with “Obutong,” an Èfìk town in the Cross River region. He interpreted many Abakuá terms as deriving from Àbàkpà, an Èfìk term for the Qua settlement in Calabar, originally formed by migrants from the Ejagham-speaking area to the north. 
After connecting with Edem, I was invited to facilitate an exchange between a group of Cuban Abakuá and West African Ékpè at the Èfìk National Association meeting in New York in 2001. In preparation for this event, I introduced Asuquo Ukpong, an Èfìk Ékpè member, to several Abakuá musicians at a local cabaret performance. As they played, Ukpong enthusiastically identified many possible relationships to Èfìk culture in the form of dance and musical instruments. During an Abakuá chant, Asuquo danced towards the Cuban musicians; then as the lead drummer stepped forward, Asuquo gestured symbolically with his eyes and hands. A Cuban Abakuá dancer joined them, also using a vocabulary of gestures dense with symbolism. This was perhaps the first time that Ékpè and Abakuá members had met in a performance context, and their ability to communicate through movement contrasted with the divisions between them created by Spanish and English, their respective colonial languages. 

A week later, a group of Abakuá attended the Èfìk National Association meeting. An ìdèm Ékpè

Ekpe Musicians in Oban, Cross River State Mr. Akpan Essiet, photographer National Museum, Calab

costume, visually very similar to that of the Cubans, danced to the accompaniment of a large ensemble of musicians and chanters. In the 1860s, Rev. Goldie translated this Èfìk term as: “Idem ...A representative of Egbo [Ékpè] who runs about the town.” Essien (1986: 9) reported Ídêm as ‘masquerade’ in Ìbìbìò.

As the Cubans prepared to perform, they realized that their Íreme — a term derived from Èfìk pronunciation of “ìdèm Efí” — costume lacked the ananyongá (ritual waist sash), as well as the nkaniká bells placed over it. In Èfìk, “Ñ-kan’-i-ka, n. 1. A bell . . . Nyeñe ñkanika, Ring the bell, by shaking it.” Lit. ‘shake bell.’

"Obane Sese Condo" - an Abakua  banner from Matanzas, Cuba,  derived from Oban, Calabar,  home of the musicians upper right. Photo by Ivor Miller.

 They explained that an Íreme cannot function without these, together with herbs and a staff in the hands. As Ékpè masquerades are nearly identical to those of Abakuá, these items could be lent by the Èfìk. This interchange of ritual objects occurred in a matter-of-fact fashion, a further indication of cultural similarity between the two areas.

Similar use of nkaniká ‘bells’ was recorded on both sides of the Atlantic. While in the Cross River region in 1847, Rev. H.M. Waddell described two Ékpè masked dancers wearing bells: “Two Egbo [Ékpè] runners in their harlequin costume entered the town to clear the streets. Their bells, dangling at their waists, gave notice of their approach.” In the streets of Havana, a late nineteenth century description of the Three King’s Day processions notes the Abakuá “covered in coarse hoods . . . so large and bulky that to their sides arms and  legs appeared like simple appendages. . . . they marched slowly . . . behind the dancers, who did not cease, in their startling convulsions, from shaking the many bells they carried bound to their waists” (Meza 1891)."

The title "Ubane" refers to Obane,  Cross River State, in this album  by Mongo Santamaria

Ekpe celebration in Calabar, 9/04 Photo by Mr. Mpkan Ekpe Bassey