History of Ekoli-Yeden

WHAT THIS IS This is a starting point, not a settled account. It gathers what two publicly available web sources say, so that the Ekoli-Yeden Preservation Team, elders, and researchers have something concrete to correct, expand and verify. Each claim below names where it came from. Nothing here has been confirmed by the community. A caution about the sources: the Wikipedia article on Ekori carried, at the time it was consulted, Wikipedia's own notice stating that it does not cite any sources. The Yakurrwatchblog article is a community blog post from 2017. Both are secondary. Neither establishes historical fact on its own. ON THE NAME According to the Yakurrwatchblog account, the Yakurr community comprises nine clans: Assiga, Inyima, Ugep, Idomi, Agoi Ibami, Mkpani, Ekori, Nko and Agoi Ekpo. That source states that earlier names included "Umor, Ekoli, Iloli and Yakurr Ibe", and attributes the change in form to difficulty of pronunciation by Europeans. The relationship between the names Ekoli and Ekori is exactly the sort of question this archive exists to settle properly, from the community's own knowledge rather than from a blog post. It is recorded here as a claim to be examined. ON ORIGINS The Yakurrwatchblog account reports that different researchers have proposed different origins. It attributes to Captain Chessmab the suggestion that the Yakurr people first lived near Okuni. It attributes to Dr. Otu Abami the assertion that the ancestral home was located at "Lekanakpakpa", and states that the historian Enang Basset confirmed this. These are presented in the source as competing scholarly positions, and are reproduced here as such. The same source relates that a Princess Obia, described as from Abiriba in Igboland, married a hunter and founded the first dynasty, and that her son Ibe established the second. ON MIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT The Yakurrwatchblog account places migration in the period around AD 1617 to 1670, and gives its causes as conflicts over burial rights, competition for land, and population growth. It describes the migration as occurring in phases, and gives the following dates: • AD 1660 — Idomi and Ugep established settlements • AD 1677–1707 — Ekori and Nko established • AD 1707–1737 — Mkpani founded A note on an inconsistency: the same article describes the phases of migration in an order that does not sit comfortably with the dates it gives — it lists Mkpani among the first to migrate, while dating its founding last. This has been left as found rather than tidied away. Resolving it is a task for the Preservation Team, and it is a good illustration of why a single web source is not sufficient. ON EKOLI-YEDEN TODAY The Wikipedia article states that Ekori lies in Yakurr Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria, and gives its coordinates as 5°52′50″N 8°07′21″E. It identifies Lokaa as the native language, with English as the official language and Pidgin English also spoken. It describes three major wards — Ajere, Ntan and Epenti — and names further communities including Lekpankom and Benini Ekori Epepe. On livelihood, it states that over half the population are subsistence farmers growing cassava, maize, yam and vegetables, and that around 80% of cassava is processed into garri. On religion, it describes the community as mainly Christian, with about 2% identifying with traditional religions. It refers to age-grade associations called Ekoh, and to the Ekori Progressive Elements League (EPEL), described as having primarily women members in Calabar, Lagos and Abuja. It cites Daryll Forde (1964) for the claim that the community is the second largest in Yakurr Local Government Area. That original work has not been consulted for this compilation. ON LEBOKU The Wikipedia article describes Leboku as the New Yam festival or harvest thanksgiving, celebrated in Ekori during the month of September. It also refers to KEPU, described as a wrestling practice used when celebrating people of certain ages. The Leboku…