The Efik Society Of Old Calabar

Professor Angela Thompsell

Modern World Seminar

In order to properly interpret history, one must put themselves in the mindset of

the society and the people at the time of the event. To understand an important part of the

African slave trade and its role in human history, historians have to put themselves in the

mindset of the era of the Efik society of Old Calabar during the first half of the sixteenth

century. The African slave trade had a direct roll in changing the Efik society of Old

Calabar’s political hierarchy, the basis of its economy, and its social order.

Before the massive expansion of the African slave trade, the Efik where a

well developed and organized society with strong social and political systems where the
The name Efik, “is derived from the

Ibibio verb ‘fik’, which means to oppress”1

history, they had some sort of a conflict with other Ibibio-speaking people.2

people were well-established traders, and had control of many of the necessary

waterways that would allow them to trade efficiently and effectively. They had control

of one of the best harbors on Africa’s west coast that gave them access to the series of

waterway and canals that buried deep into the land of Africa. Later this network for

trading would become a great asset for the Efik’s slave trading empire. The basics of the

Efik society consisted of, “well-structured, semiautonomous towns that were governed

by kinship-based merchant houses”3

Randy Sparks, The Two Princes of Calabar: An Eighteenth Century Atlantic Odyssey,

Kindle Edition (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2004),

facilitate trade. This allowed the Efik’s to control and maintain a great amount of power,

both political and military wise. Powerful and influential lineage houses controlled the

power in Efik society. The Efik society was broken up into a series of towns, or as

Sparks puts them “wards”, where a powerful lineage house governed each
According to John Barbot, an English trader, the Efik settlements were, “well furnished

with villages and hamlets all about, where Europeans drive their trade with the Blacks,

who are a good civilized people”.6

Efik’s extremely adaptable to the fast growing need for slave trade. The slave trade

quickly infiltrated every aspect of life in the Efik society. Even though the Efik people

were already involved in the slave trade, they used slave labor for agricultural workers.

The massive demand from the Europeans for slaves caused a major shift in the society’s

political hierarchy. Power in the Efik society began to shift from lineage houses to

merchant houses. These merchants weren’t the typical goods and services exchanging

kind of merchants, but they specialized in exploiting the massive demand for slaves and

slave trade. The Efik society began to change who and how the society was governed. It

became the wealthiest person in the merchant houses who would make many of the

This open and organized trading system made the

decisions for the ward and the people in it. This change is noted by Sparks when