The logograph for Nsibiri
Nsibidi (also known as nsibiri,[2] nchibiddi or nchibiddy[3]) is a system of symbols indigenous to what is now southeastern Nigeria that is apparently ideographic, though there have been suggestions that it includes logographic elements. [4] The symbols are at least several centuries old: Early forms appeared on excavated pottery as well as what are most likely ceramic stools and headrests from the Calabar region, dating between 400 and 1400 CE.[5] Nsibidi's origin is generally attributed to the Ekoi people of southern Nigeria. Alternatively J. K. Macgregor claimed in 1909 that it is traditional ly said to have come from the Uguakima, Ebe or Uyanga tribes of the Igbo people, which legend says were taught the script by baboons,[3] although one writer believes Macgregor had been misled by his informants.[6] There are thousands of nsibidi symbols, of which over 500 have been recorded. They were once taught in a school to children. Many of the signs deal with love affairs; those that deal with warfare and the sacred are kept secret.[7] Nsibidi is used on wall designs, calabashes, metals (such as bronze), leaves, swords, and tattoos.[2][8] It is primarily used by the Ekpe leopard secret society (also known as Ngbe or Egbo), which is found across Cross River among the Ekoi, Efik, Igbo people, and related peoples. Outside knowledge of nsibidi came in 1904 when T.D. Maxwell noticed the symbols. [4] Before the British colonisation of the area, nsibidi was divided into a sacred version and a public, more decorative version which could be used by women. [8] Aspects of colonisation such as Western education and Christian doctrine drastically reduced the number of nsibidi-literate people, leaving the secret society members as some of the last literate in the symbols.[9] Nsibidi was and is still a means of transmitting Ekpe symbolism. Nsibidi was transported to Cuba and Haiti via the Atlantic slave trade, where it developed into the anaforuana and veve symbols.[10][11] The origin of the word nsibidi is not known. One theory traces the word to the Ekoid languages, where it means "cruel letters", reflecting the harsh laws of the secret societies that hold nsibidi knowledge.[12][13] In Calabar, nsibidi is mostly associated with men's leopard societies such as Ekpe. The leopard societies were a legislative, judicial, and executive power before colonisation, especially among the Efik who exerted much influence over the Cross River.[5] Origin The origin of nsibidi is most commonly attributed to the Ejagham people of the northern Cross River region, mostly because colonial administrators found the largest and most diverse nsibidi among them. Nsibidi spread throughout the region over time and mixed with other cultures and art forms such as the Igbo uli graphic design.[5] Status Nsibidi has a wide vocabulary of signs usually imprinted on calabashes, brass ware, textiles, wood sculptures, masquerade costumes, buildings and on human skin. Nsibidi has been described as a "fluid system" of communication consisting of hundreds of abstract and pictographic signs. Nsibidi was described in the colonial era by P.A. Talbot as a "a kind of primitive secret writing", Talbot explained that nsibidi was used for messages "cut or painted on split palm stems". J.K. Macgregor's view was that "The use of nsibidi is that of ordinary writing. I have in my possession a copy of the record of a court case from a town of Enion [Enyong] taken down in it, and every detail ... is most graphically described". Nsibidi crossed ethnic lines and was a uniting factor among ethnic groups in the Cross River region.[5] Uses Court Cases - "Ikpe"  The Ikpe from Enyong written in nsibidi as recorded by J. K. Macgregor Nsibidi was used in judgement cases known as 'Ikpe' in some Cross River communities. Macgregor was able to retrieve and translate an nsibidi record from Enyong of an ikpe judgement. The record is of an Ikpe or judgement case. (a) The court was held under a tree as is the custom, (b) the parties in the case, (c) the chief who judged it, (d) his staff (these are enclosed in a circle), (e) is a man whispering into the ear of another just outside the circle of those concerned, (f) denotes all the members of the party who won the case. Two of them (g) are embracing, (h) is a man who holds a cloth between his finger and thumbs as a sign of contempt. He does not care for the words spoken. The lines round and twisting mean that the case was a difficult one which the people of the town could not judge for themselves. So they sent to the surrounding towns to call the wise men from them and the case was tried bv then (j) and decided; (k) denotes that the case was one of adultery or No. 20.[14] Ukara Ekpe [b]The Igbo 'Ukara' cloth of the Ekpe society, covered in nsibidi Nsibidi is used to design the 'ukara ekpe' woven material which is usually dyed blue (but also green and red) and is covered in nsibidi symbols and motifs. Ukara ekpe cloths are woven in Abakaliki, and then they are designed by male nsibidi artists in the Igbo-speaking towns of Abiriba, Arochukwu and Ohafia to be worn by members of the Ekpe society. [/b]Symbols including lovers, metal rods, trees, feathers, hands in friendship war and work, masks, moons, and stars are dyed onto ukara cloths. The cloth is dyed by post-menopausal women in secret, and young males in public. Ukara was a symbol of wealth and power only handled by titled men and post-menopausal women.[15]  The Igbo 'Ukara' cloth of the Ekpe society, covered in nsibidi Ukara can be worn as a wrapper (a piece of clothing) on formal occasions, and larger version are hung in society meeting houses and on formal occasions. Ukara motifs are designed in white and are placed on grids set against an indigo background. Some of the designs include abstract symbols representing the Ekpe society such as repeating triangles representing the leopard's claws and therefore Ekpe's power. Ukara includes naturalistic designs representing objects such as gongs, feathers and manilla currency, a symbol of wealth. Powerful animals are included, specifically the leopard and crocodile.[5]  The name of a boy called 'Onuaha' as recorded by J. K. Macgregor in 1909. Macgregor interpreted the first two symbols as corruptions of the English letters 'N' and 'A' and the last symbol a generic nsibidi. Macgregor noted the growing European influence on nsibidi. Examples of Nsibidi Here are some examples of nsibidi recorded by J. K. Macgregor (1909)[14] and Elphinstone Dayrell (1910 and 1911)[1][16] for The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland and Man. Both of them recorded symbols from a variety of locations around the Cross River, and especially the Ikom district in what is now Cross River State. Both of the writers used informants to retrieve nsibidi that were regarded as secret and visited several Cross River communities. "Nsibidi"  "Welcome"  "Two men talking"  "Door"  "Gun"  "Crossbow"  "Calabash"  "Big drum"  "Etak Ntaña Nsibidi — Nsibidi's bunch of plantains. When the head of the house wants plantains he sends this sign to the head boy on the farm. "[16]  "Umbrella"  "Toilet soap"  "Matchet"  "Woman"  "Man"  "Moon"  "Tortoise"[1][14][16]  |
 
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There have been various attempts to revive the writing for daily use, one such site with this
goal is http://nsibiri.blogspot.com The site author's mission statement: Mission Objective The mission of the Nsibiri Project (the name 'nsibiri' chosen for no particular reason apart from the fact that nsibidi was an already occupied blogspot/domain name) is to record, modernise, and make the nsibidi ideographic symbols relevant for communication in the Igbo language and Cross River languages such as Efik, Kwa and Ejagham, by transitioning it into a (fully) logographic script. Nsibidi is also meant to inspire and encourage Igbo descendants, and people in general, to learn the languages it will be used in, and to attempt to add the Igbo and other related cultures to the worlds general consciousness, in a positive light, overtly! Why not just the current önwu script? I don't know about you, but I know quite a few fluent Igbo speakers that have trouble reading a sentence in the önwu (very ironic name) Latin-derived alphabet. If you give an average Igbo speaker a novel in Igbo, even with all the accents, they will not be able to read it as fluently as an English speaker reading an English book. The problem, for Latin, is that Igbo is a tonal language and it has limited grapheme's (symbols) to represent the many different tones, phonemes (sounds) and syllables that Igbo utilises. Latin was never made for Igbo, it was there for the convenience of those who wanted to tell Igbo speakers that they have a new queen. Using Latin in Igbo is like using a nice silver Italian (wait for it...) designer fork to eat some extra spicy, thick, meaty, and flavourful pepper soup made with aged ingredients (sorry...). Do you ever wonder why most African cultures never independently developed a writing system above the level of ideographs? (nothing really wrong with that) I believe this has something to do with many of the languages being tonal. I believe a Chinese speaker fluent in the Latin alphabet will not be able read any of the Chinese languages in Latin, I found a perfect example of why this is on Wikipedia: 妈妈骂马的麻吗?/媽媽罵馬的麻嗎? Pinyin: māma mà mǎ de má ma? English: "Is Mother scolding the horse's hemp?" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tone_%28linguistics%29 Chinese, and some other tonal languages are read by billions of people with logographic writing systems. To a certain extent, Igbo/Ibibio was using some logographic symbols. Logographic symbols do not require you to pronounce a word, but, rather, to understand the word which is important in languages with lots of homophones (where multiple words have the same phonemes). Ákwà, Àkwá, Ákwá are popular examples of Igbo tonality. Let's not forget the issue of Igbo languages, central Igbo, and general intelligibility; nsibidi could almost provide a solution to the issue of Igbo literature being unintelligible to certain Igbo languages, and the perceived bias towards certain languages by leaving open the pronunciation and variation of certain words and their tones. Nsibidi also cuts down words/sentences in Igbo, or those new/translated words that are actually sentences and that cannot be understood in one word using the Latin alphabet. With nsibidi, you'll only have to teach the person the word and the nsibidi that goes with it and they'll have no problem understanding it somewhere else where it is written in nsibidi. With a logographic script, backed by a simpler yet relevant syllabary derived from the grapheme's of nsibidi, Igbo writing can go places that it may have never gone before. Why use nsibidi? Because nsibidi is a legacy and cultural artefact that the Igbo/Efik/Efut-speaking ancestors developed with their own ideas independently. It is a window into the genuine and independent ideas of these cultures and the people who developed the cultures. Nsibidi was a channel for the ancestors to communicate their love, their spirituality, their fears, their greed, their lust, their wants, their needs, their knowledge, their anger, their sorrow; it documented their organisational skills, their marriages, court cases and other sorts of thing. Why not nsibidi? Why has it died in the first place? Nsibidi has been used for over a thousand and a half years as we now know, and Igbo has been using a Latin-based orthography for roughly a hundred and a half years. Something invested in and passed on for countless generations should not be discarded and forgotten so easily, this is 'why use nsibidi'. How many characters will there be Hundreds, or probably thousands of current old nsibidi characters as well as compounds and simplified characters. Where there's an Igbo word, there ideally should be a unique character/compound for it. How will people remember all these characters They won't have to, there would a standard set of nsibidi people would learn, then they will be given a nsibidi-derived syllabary to use when they don't have an nsibidi character for something. For example, a computer keyboard will have a basic form of the syllabary (plus computer combinations/short-cuts) to use in digital typing. There can be a software for locating nsibidi symbols if the user wants. All this will be done if the nsibidi script is successful in capturing the imagination of Igbo speakers and if it is taken further as a serious and legible writing system; nsibidi and its syllabary can be created digitally with a special unicode for it to be distributed in computers and other digital products. The syllabary will also be used to pronounce words that are foreign to Igbo ('London', 'Ferrari', 'Snow', etc). Will the Latin script be thrown away? The Latin script will have its paramount status demoted, but it will be at the same level as nsibidi (and derived syllabary). This project is not an attempt at isolationism, but a language preservation action. If it is accepted, when/where will nsibidi (or neo-nsibidi) be taught The same place it has been taught in for hundreds (if not thousands) of years, which is school. Igbo language, I believe is a compulsory subject in Igbo-speaking states of Nigeria up till a certain level when it can be dropped; nsibidi can be taught here, just like önwu is being taught in Igbo classes. Are you not messing original nsibidi up? [b]No, did the person who added a steam boats wheel to the nsibidi script mess it up? That will be the latest addition to nsibidi I hope will be accepted, because I don't think adding Martini glasses and car engines to the script will do it much good. The project is not to completely recreate nsibidi characters, but to utilise them in the creation of compounds (multiple grapheme's), if there are no characters good enough (or not existing at all) they will be made from the radicals (basic characters) that the ancestors used in making the other characters. [/b]For example the straight line with one horizontal bar at its top and bottom is a common radical and will be looked at, as well as other old characters, for inspiration when creating new characters. This is silly, how can we write with drawings? Look @ these signs & tell me if they R not = to logographs, or ideographs!(?) + there R plenty > you use without knowing. In fact lift your Panasonic radio, see 'drawings' full, open your Sony TV manual, see 'drawings' full. What about Ekpe, Okonko, Ojuju Calabar, etc? If this project gets attention, and is recognised by a good amount of Igbo language key connects and contacts (whatever that is), then the nsibidi characters, all of them, will be reviewed with societies along with all other nsibidi fluent people, to see if any symbols are too personal to them for them to released, or for any other corrections. The project does its best to steer away from any Ekpe/Egbo/Okonko characters to avoid any possible future conflict. I would like to remind people that Ekpe/Egbo/Okonko really isn't necessarily a religion. As for ojuju Calabar, and any other spirits that anyone thinks is a part of nsibidi (because we all know African things are usually demonic, true?) they should answer whether they want their children to be greeting them in "Hi". The plan is to consult them to plan how this script can be used for those languages if they are interested. This project focuses on developing nsibidi for tonal Igbo language, true, but the other Cross River languages that used nsibidi are also in mind and they can't be forgotten as they played the biggest role in developing nsibidi. It would be an easy transition from Igbo characters to ______ characters as this is a logographic script, an Igbo/Cross river language speaker may even be able to read a Igbo/Cross river language book written in nsibidi, depending on the languages' patterns. |
Nsibiri conjunctions  Some conjunctions in Igbo and English. it is interpreted literally as 'Speech question unity', e.g 'Decision conjunction'. Interpreted as 'Talk fight unity', e.g 'Conflict conjunction'. out (from Igbo fùtàrà) talk unity', e.g 'Conclusion conjunction'. unity', 'The point, the mission conjunction'. Character Sheet 1 Many of the characters I have created so far will change as I try to simplify nsibidi (most won't change). Apart from this, the following will probably no change. is a very common nsibidi radical. Depending on the context it can mean anything from human to a pillar. In this context it is one of its other uses, this time a house. The character on the left is the old nsibidi sign for 'trade' probably used frequently in public. Together it is understood as 'trade house', 'market'. just a general person. The compound character (njíkọ) is understood as 'door of people', 'entrance'. 'beauty'. oval. Warrior  "Watchman/guard" + "Sword/Matchet". |
Sorry the spambot must have found the updates a little too much at one time
 More... Nsibiri conjunctions 2  Character Sheet 2  Enugu  I looked for nsibidi for "above/top" and "hill" and could not find any. I decided that from previous radicals in nsibidi, that the simple 'I' shaped radical could be used to depict a hill or a mountain and from these I forged these two characters meaning 'top' and 'hill'. These characters may change if I find out there are characters for 'hill' and 'top/above'.  Restaurant  Igbo  Chí  Middle + Fire/energy + Top + Land/Life = Chí Scholarly Comparison between Egyptian writing and Nsibiri   Umuahia  My hometown. Child in a house = household = children = úmù + Ahiá = market > got children from. Idemili  Symbol for Idemili, which literally means "pillar (represented by the symbols on the side) of water (represented by the symbol in the middle)" Diary Entry 
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Friday, 30 June 2017
Nsibiri: The Pre-colonial Writing Of The South Eastern People
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