Nsibidi

Nsibidi (also known as Nsibiri, Nchibiddi or Nchibiddy) is a system of symbols or proto-writing developed by the Ejagham in the southeastern part of Nigeria and South Western part of Cameroon. They are classified as pictograms, though there have been suggestions that some are logograms or syllabograms.

The symbol system was first encountered by Europeans like Charles Partridge, a British Assistant District Colonial officer and anthropologist who discovered the Ikom Monoliths (also known as the Bakor or Akwanshi Monoliths) in 1903 on the banks of the Aweyong River. Description of the Circles of Upright Sculptured Stones on the Left Bank of the Aweyong River in the Ikom region of southeast Nigeria, dated to roughly the 5th Century. He specifically mentioned the occurrence of these stones in such places as Etiningnta (Itinta), Agba, Iseni (Abinti nsene) and Anop (Alok). He also indicated that he saw some in Okuni, near Ikom while a cluster of stones were also found in the village of Abuntak Isam in the Ekajuk village group of Ogoja district. Partridge who also first drew attention to the relationship between the cicatrices on these stones and the tattoo marks he noticed among the indigenes, especially women of the area. A further work by P. A. Talbot, In the Shadow of The Bush (1912) took time to document the elaborate veneration of stones as objects of ritual and worship by Ejagham people. He also underscored the organic relationship between the tattoos found on the bodies of Ejagham people and the designs on some of these stones, going further to explain for the first time that these tattoos and designs were indeed, a form of indigenous writing called Nsibidi.