Nsibidi is Older than the English Language
Nsibidi existed from the 3rd century before the metamorphosis of the English language from the West Germanic languages in the 5th century.
Nsibidi has been described as a Semasiographic script comprised of ideograms and pictograms that were used in southeastern Nigeria among the Ejagham (Ekoid people), Efik, Igbo, and Ibibio societies.
The Ejagham originally came from Northeast Africa which supports my analogy of the origins of Igbo Ukwu art of the ancient Igbo Ukwu Kingdom with the ancient Indus Valley Civilization of the 2600 BCE to 1900 BCE.
Igbos believe that they are descendants of one of the Sons of God who descended from heaven and had a relationship with one of the daughters of Eve.
(Genesis 6, Holy Bible)
Lucy (Australopithecus) the oldest
fossilized bone comprising 40 percent of the skeleton of a female of the hominin species Australopithecus afarensis was discovered in 1974 in Ethiopia, at Hadar, a site in the Awash Valley of the Afar Triangle, by Donald Johanson, a paleoanthropologist of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
Insibidi is the secret language of the Ekpe Leopard Secret Society of the Efik, Ibibio and Igbo societies.
Nsibidi means The Beginning in my mother tongue of the Igbos sharing borders and ethnic similarities with the Efik and Ibibio tribes.
Nsibidi is more than a written language.
It is also a sign language of the Ekpe Leopard Secret Society and unknown to the various Nigerian artists who have been doing nothing more than to copy and paste Insibidi for drawings, paintings, sculptures, prints and potteries and posing and posturing as experts, Nsibidi is also expressed choreographically in a movement of hands and footsteps of secret language communication by members of the Ekpe Leopard Secret Society and used by the dreaded Ekpe masquerades.
I once confronted an Ekpe masquerade decades ago in the early 1990s on the popular Fola Agoro Road leading to the University of Lagos on my way to visit a beautiful girlfriend, Naomi, the Joy of my heart.
As others were either avoiding or running away from the scary looking Ekpe masquerade holding a machete and bell and a chain was tied to the waist held by his guides, I stood face-to-face with him. He was growling and snorting angrily. I was not afraid, because I have also met original Ekpe masquerades during festivities in my mother's hometown of Umuda Nsigwu in the Umuahia North Local Government area of Abia State of southern eastern Nigeria.
Two weeks ago, whilst waiting for a tailor in front of his residence in the Ekpri Nsukarra village in Uyo, a friendly discussion with one of his young neighbours drifted off to Nsibidi and the Ekpe masquerades and he demonstrated one of the movements of their secret language.
- Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima
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