A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DC EKPE LODGE

DC EKPE LODGE LEADERS

The most recent history of The
WASHINGTON DC EKPE LODGE goes back as far as 1996 with the immigration into the USA of Sisiku OJONG OROCK.

He is the first SISIKU (EKPE CHIEF) who set foot in the USA on February 27, 1996 to settle in America. With his arrival, He and the then Tata Ngbe Mfonten Mbu, Tata Ngbe Carlet Ako (of blessed memory) and Tata Ngbe Martin Mbeng, who was then First Cousellor at the Cameroon Embassy in Washington DC, began the growing of the Washington DC EKPE LODGE.

In June 1996, Sisiku Stephen Ayuk Okang handed over his throne to his grand son, Sisiku Alfred Okang (Dr. George Okang's son). Present at this Solemn Ekpe Ceremony were:
1. Sisiku OJONG OROCK Emmanuel
2. Tata Mfonten MBU Joseph
3. Tata Ayuk Ako Carlet
4. Tata Agbor MBENG Martin (now Cameroon Ambassador to Brazil) Non-Ekpe members present were:
1. Dr. Nkwanyuo
2. H.E. Nkwain (former Cameroon Minister of Foreign Affairs)
3. Mrs. Nkwain
4. Mrs Ojong Orock
5. Dr. Okang
6. Mrs Okang
6. Joyce Nkwain

In December 1996 Tata Mfonten Mbu became a Sisiku.
The second activity of Ekpe DC was the celebration of the Life of Sisiku Okang. Whose Ekpe title was passed on to his grand son, Alfred Okang, son of Dr. George Okang.
The third major activity of Ekpe DC was the celebration of the Life of Tata Ako Ayuk Carlet.
Other activities included: the celebration of the anniversaries of the deaths of Sisiku Okang and Tata Ako Ayuk Carlet.
The celebration of the life of HRH Stephen Agbaw, traditional ruler of Okoyong Chiefdom.
The celebration of the life of Sisiku Tabot of Bachuo-Ntai.
The celebration of the life of HRH Nelson Enonchong (late), sisiku from Besong-Abang Chiefdom, former Secretary General of the Ministry of Justice in Cameroon, founding member of the Cameroon Bar Association and Chairman and CEO of the Enonchong conglomerate.
The celebration of the life of H.E. Sisiku Emmanuel Tabi Egbe (late), former Minister of Telecommunications and Roving Ambassador of the Republic of Cameroon.
We first got in Contact with the Efik Ekpe of Nigeria when Tata Eyong Tabe (Joe) was celebrating his Eyum Ngbe at Takoma Park, Maryland, in 2000.

The Efik in Nigeria have Nkanda as the basic Ekpe whereas,
in Cameroon we have Ekpe as the starting point in Ekpe. This created a need for Ekpe DC to have a full Ayamba Nkanda (Nkanda Chief). That is why Sisiku
Ojong Orock after consultation with the other Ekpe members and Sisiku Mfonten Mbu decided to acquire his own Nkanda Lodge in April 2003.

Some important activities of Ekpe DC Lodge include the recognition of Ekpe personalities from Cameroon who visit Washington DC Metropolitan Area like Sisiku Egbe Achuo (Hilman) Supreme Court Justice in the Republic of Cameroon; HRH Sisiku Dr. Achale traditional ruler of Ewelle Chiefdom in Cameroon and Executive Director of Finance at the National Petroleum Investment Fund in Cameroon; Sisiku Ekortarh (Late) former Supreme Court Judge in Cameroon; HRH Sisiku Ndiepso Tabetando, traditional Ruler of Bachuo-Ntai Chiefdom and President & CEO of Euro Oil in Cameroon; HRH Chief Mukete, paramount chief of the Bafaw region in Kumba and Chairman of CAMTEL and Mukete Estates; etc. Ekpe members who visit the area also pay homage to the Ekpe DC Lodge.

Originally, our meetings were held monthly, but now we meet on a bi-weekly basis due to the high demand for Ekpe exoteric and esoteric skills in the community. With a membership of over fifty initiated members in the Metropolitan Washington DC area, our priority is to increase the initiated membership roll by encouraging aspirants who number over thirty, to go home and be initiated.

Our second priority is to be present or be represented wherever there is an Ekpe event, anywhere in the world. That is why at short notice; we were able to send a delegation to New York City to rediscover our Cuban brothers and sisters on Saturday October 05, 2009 at the launching of their Ekpe CD which will be sold during The Conclave Cultural Gala in Maryland on October 17th 2009.

We are preparing to attend The World Ekpe Festival which will take place in Calabar, Nigeria, in December 2009 or Spring of 2010.

We put together an excellent research team headed by Sisiku Solomon Egbe Esq., Sisiku Joseph Mbu, Etobetobe Ntui Asam Asam and Tata John Ashunkem. They have been charged with the responsibility to track down all our Ekpe brothers and sisters who were displaced from the Cross-River area of Nigeria and Cameroon by the Slave Trade. So far, we have made contact with Ekpe members in Cuba, Brazil and Haiti. We are currently reactivating the relationship we have had with the Ekpe groups from Nigeria. We have also developed an Ekpe library with very rare ancient and modern books that cover the exoteric details of the Ekpe Society. We also have manuscripts that cover the esoteric details of Ekpe, and these can be reviewed by initiated members only.
MEMBERS PERFORM AT ACCDF EVENT IN MARYLAND

Our long term goal is to build a model Ekpe Lodge in the Washington DC Metropolitan Area based on a solid foundation of Ekpe principles that can be replicated around the world.

PROGRESS OF EKPE DC Lodge
The top brass of Ekpe DC has been growing as follows:
The list of active Sisikus in the DC Ekpe Lodge and allied Sisikus continues thus:
4. Sisiku Elias Akwo, April 2006.
5. Sisiku Peter Ebot, December 2007.
6. Sisiku Solomon Egbe Esq., March 2008.
7. Sisiku Christmas Ebini, April 2008
8. Sisiku Jean Jacques Enow, April 2009.
9. Sisiku Arrey Barchel (allied member in Dallas)
11. Sisiku Dr. David Tambe (allied member in Dallas)
12. Sisiku Dr. James Tabe (allied member in Dallas)
13. Sisiku Maurice Enow (allied member in Dallas)
14. Sisiku Dr. George Besong (allied member in Florida)
15. Sisiku Philip Tabi (allied member in Atlanta)

References: In the Shadow of The Bush, Leopards and Leaders, Ekpe Effik, Imagined Power Contested, and various secret manuscripts.

Note: The Christians names exhibited by the Ekpe chiefs show how “Christed” the Ekpe society has become.

Auto-Biography of Sisiku Emmanuel Ojong-Orock, Leader of Cameroonian Ekpe Lodge in Metropolitan DC

Sisiku Ojong-Orock was born on Saturday October 2nd, 1948 in Ogomoko Village,Eyumojock Sub-Division, Manyu Division in the Republic of Cameroon, West Africa. In Ekpe, he is a product of a dynasty of more than five Generations of Ekpe Sisikus, also known as Nfor Ngbe or Ekpe Chiefs.

He is the first surviving male child of his father and the second surviving child of his father after he had lost twelve children, most of who died before the age of two. The infant mortality rate amongst these forest tribes in Cameroon was extremely high in those days which prompted his father to initiate him into Ekpe at the tender age of three. Initiating toddlers into Ekpe in this area was exceptionally done by the elderly because only Ekpe members could take part in Ekpe burials. So they wanted to ensure that their direct blood relatives and heirs witnessed the burial.

Based on information he got from his father: Sisiku ATA EGBE OSOKO I, was the first.
SISIKU (EKPE CHIEF) in their Ekpe lodge. He was succeeded by SISIKU ATA EGBE OSOKO II. Ojong-Orock’s Father, SISIKU OJONG EGBE took over from his father, Ojong-Orock’s grandfather. Information about the family genealogy and their births is found in their family registry which was created by the late Sisiku Ojong Egbe. It is preciously preserved in a safe in the family strong room.Ata Egbe Osok EKPE LODGE of Ogomoko:

Sisiku Ojong-Orock’s original Ekpe Lodge is known as ATA EGBE OSOK's EKPE LODGE. Their family is located on the southern slopes of Ogomoko Village, which is a village about 16 miles West of Mamfe, the administrative capital of Manyu Division in the Republic of Cameroon, West Africa. They live on his late father's plantation of 535 Acres of registered land. His father's plantation is made up mostly of Cocoa with plantains, coffee, palm tree and various other crops. Sisiku Ojong-Orock has acquired an additional two hundred hectares (about 500 acres) of land in Njege where some cash and food crops are being grown.

MY EYUM NGBE INITIATION 1987
Sisiku Ojong-Orock was initiated into EYUM NGBE (Public Initiation) on April 18th. 1987. This was after a month of lavishly feeding and entertaining the Leopard and cajoling it into welcoming the new Sisiku into the higher ranks of the Ekpe society. His EKPE LODGE was like a bee hive during this period and he used this opportunity to help twenty-two sons of Ata Egbe Osoko cross that stream into the prestigious Ekpe Society.

EKPE BUSH 1980. Before his EYUM NGBE initiation, he had been initiated into the Ekpe bush in 1980 by his father by proxy. He effectively saw all his ancestors in the EKPE BUSH in 1985 which is a key process in the initiation ceremony in the bush. Key witnesses to this process were Dr Moses Besong and Mr. Ayuk Tabe-Ebob. Their mentors were Sisiku Elias Tanyi, who was the "AKWA OTNGHO EZUM NGBE" (The Professor of Professors in EKPE) and Taata Ngbe Oben Besong; and Dr. Moses Besong's was their close range teacher, who polished their knowledge of the Ekpe Bush.

NNE EBHOO (SITTING MAGISTRATE)After fulfilling all the requirements which took him about five years, he was promoted to the rank of a Sitting Member in 1987. It is then that he could sit and drink or greet Ekpe.SISIKU AND OKPEII NGBE (AHUII NGBE) 1994.
He became a SISIKU in March of 1994 and pulled out his OKPEII NGBE in June 1994. In 1996, he immigrated to the United States of America where he became the founding leader of the Ekpe DC Lodge – a coalition of various Ekpe lodges in Cameroon.

NKANDA AND EKPE PURCASES He then felt the need for an AYAMBA NKANDA to be in America because that is the basic Ekpe among the Effik of Calabar, Nigeria, and whenever we met with them the Cameroonian members of Ekpe were wanting in Nkanda sign language. He bought his Nkanda in April 2003 and was forced to regularize his Sisiku title, because if you are not a libation pouring Sisiku, you cannot pour the Nkanda Libation. He then became SISIKU AYAMBA NKANDA OROCK OJONG of Ogomoko Village.

Ekpe members from the Manyu region in Cameroon discover their brothers and sisters who have been seperated from them for over 200 years.

Dear Brothers, Sisters and Folks,

It is difficult to find the right words to describe what I and a delegation of Cameroonian Ekpe members from the Ekpe DC Lodge saw and felt in New York on September 5th, 2009. Two hundred years of separation from our brothers and sisters in Cuba, caused by the vices of the slave trade came to a crashing halt on this blessed day in New York.

It all started with two groups of curious cultural researchers from the Island of Cuba, in the Caribbean, and Cameroon, in Africa, trying to trace back their origins. While the Cubans traced the first phase of this great culture to the Old Calabar region in Eastern Nigerian, the Cameroonians from the Washington DC Ekpe Lodge went looking for people with similar cultures all over the World. The Ekpe Washington researchers discovered that Cuba had a similar culture as theirs called Abakwa with signs, rites and music identical to the Cameroonian Ekpe or Ngbe. They further discovered that this Abakwa was the origin of Merengue, Pachanga widely known in the world today as Afrocuban music. The Researchers from the Ekpe DC Lodge in the quest for more information found out the addresses of the leaders of the Cuban Ekpe lodges in the United States and Cuba. After a series of correspondences between the two groups, the Cubans invited the Washington Ekpe Lodge to New York to the unveiling of their latest Ekpe Album which attracted over 500 Cubans to the Joe's Pub in Uptown Manhattan, New York..As members of the Washington Ekpe Lodge started getting ready to go to New York, the Cuban Abakwa leaders informed their community that their long lost relatives from Cameroon, the place where Ekpe originated, the original custodians and chiefs of the "Nyamgkpe" society were coming to town. Never have I felt such reverence as I felt on that day, a feeling that was quickly echoed by the score of members in the delegation. You had to have been there to fully appreciate seeing the numbers cameras, camcorders and Television cameras flashing non-stop in a “red-carpet” welcome, as this team of tigers from Manyu walked majestically towards the waiting crowd in hall which was now close to mass hysteria. As we proceeded through the ovation-standing crowd, the Abakwa chants (Cuban Ekpe music) were roaring through the speakers accompanied by thunderous drums and claps. As we glided towards our assigned seats in characteristic Ekpe fashion, the announcer pronounced the name of the leading tiger, "Sisiku Ojong Orock", then Sisiku Joseph Mbu, and continued down the list according to the ranks of members of the delegation.


As the night went on, the Abakwa band kept singing praises to the mighty Ekpe society in Spanish except when they were using purely Ekpe language, or when they were naming the various villages in the Cross River region of Cameroon and Nigeria where Ekpe originated. Then suddenly, the Cuban "Emanyankpe" emerged, accompanied by the chanting drummers in a language only understood by the Ekpe members. That moment will be engraved in history forever, as it marked the exact moment when a 200 year separation of two brothers by the result of slave trade finally came to an end. It engraved in history one of the most precious accomplishment of this generation of Cameroonians as they finally tracked down their displaced relatives from the Cross River region. As the Emanyangkpe danced towards the table where the Cameroonian Ekpe members were sitting, Tata Ngbe, Haywood Mbu advanced towards the Ema and gave the tiger salute to the amazement of everyone watching.

The magnitude of this discovery became all too evident when the Cuban Emanyangkpe kept taunting members of our delegation, bumping his chest to theirs in the traditional Ekpe salute. As he went around the first time, we all responded and greeted him, chanting praises to the Ekpe of our common ancestors. As he came around the second time, he bumped chest with our own “Obenny”, the "Ewunjem" from Sabes, and perhaps our most gifted Ekpe performer. As is always the case with those children bestowed with “the gift of Ekpe”, Obenny turned around and started mimicking every move that the Cuban Emanyangkpe made. He then turned around and started demonstrating his own Ekpe moves, and the Cuban Emanynagkpe mimicked the same moves. By this time, everyone in the Ekpe DC delegation had joined in and the crowd had gone wild. You could barely hear the music in the background because the volume had been over shadowed by the cheers and screams from the Ekpe people dancing in orchestration, with Cuban sisters and brothers weeping, overcome by the joy of being part of history. A historical event that finally showed them where they came from. Some explained, between tears of joy, that they only learned in school that their tradition came from Cameroon but were never sure that they would live to see people from their ancestral land, live, in flesh and blood.

The event lasted about three hours, and as we prepared to leave after the closing of the hall, the Cuban Ekpe members stopped us and continued outside with a libation of last "mimbo" by our leader, Sisiku, Ojong Orock, and their Cuban Grand Master, Ecubio.

As we drove back to Maryland, the importance of this accomplishment dawned on us. Members of this generation of Manyu Elements, through the study of Ekpe and a review of ancient Ekpe Archives have rediscovered their relatives who where involuntarily plucked from the cross river region and sold into slavery in Cuba. We had just closed all the gaps in one of the greatest cultural historical puzzles of our time.

Long Live Manyu,Long Live Cuba,Long Live Cameroon,
Sisiku Joseph N. MbuEkpe Washington DC Metropolitan Lodge.