page_title: Nsibidi
section_title: Court cases - "Ikpe"
hierarchical_section_title: Nsibidi / History / Uses / Court cases - "Ikpe"
caption_attribution_description: English: Nsibidi characters for an "ikpe" judgement as recorded by J. K. Macgregor.
context_page_description: Nsibidi is a system of symbols indigenous to what is now southeastern Nigeria that are apparently pictograms, though there have been suggestions that some are logograms or syllabograms. Early forms appeared on excavated pottery as well as what are most likely ceramic stools and headrests from the Calabar region with a range of dates from at least 400 AD, to 1400 AD. Nsibidi was used to decorate the skin, calabashes, sculptures, and clothing items, as well as to communicate messages on houses. 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. Nsibidi is used on wall designs, calabashes, metals, leaves, swords, and tattoos. It is primarily used by the Ekpe leopard society, a secret society that is found across Cross River State among the Ekoi, Efik, Igbo people, and other nearby peoples.
  Outside knowledge of nsibidi came in 1904 when T. D. Maxwell noticed the symbols.
context_section_description: 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 by them (j) and decided; (k) denotes that the case was one of adultery or No. 20.
caption: The Ikpe from Enyong written in nsibidi as recorded by J. K. Macgregor
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