My labor of love, a book dedicated to the Ibibio in the diaspora, is finally available for purchase.

The Ibibio Culture - A Quick Reference for those in the diaspora. Available only at lulu.com - http://www.lulu.com/content/670762

Buy it for a yourselves, Buy it for your children, Buy it for a friend.

Thanks in advance.

http://www.lulu.com/content/670762

Can you post an excerpt from the first chapter, and maybe table of contents? Oya, promote it well!

A lot of the book is available as a preview on Lulu, but here is an excerpt:

Introduction

Africans are leaving the motherland in droves. The longer they stay away, the higher the probability that they and/or their children will forget their culture. The Ibibio culture is one of those fast disappearing cultures. This book was inspired by the need to preserve the Ibibio language in written form for posterity. For the most part, the Efik language is the language du jour for the written word. This book will hopefully reverse the trend.

Basically, the book is meant as a quick reference for those who "don't speak" Ibibio in the diaspora. It is recommended for parents who wish to teach their kids about Ibibio culture and those who love learning different cultures as well. Also recommended for those adults who have never had the opportunity to visit the motherland.

Table of Contents:
[list]
[li]Introduction[/li]
[li]About the Author[/li]
[li]Dedication[/li]
[li]How to use this book[/li]
[li]Secret Societies[/li]
[li]Deities[/li]
[li]Days of the week[/li]
[li]Popular Dances and Masquerades[/li]
[li]Musical Instruments[/li]
[li]Judicial Instruments[/li]
[li]Common Words and Phrases[/li]
[li]Counting Numbers[/li]
[li]Compass Points[/li]
[li]Common Household Items[/li]
[li]Colors[/li]
[li]Common Parts of the body[/li]
[li]Family Heirarchy[/li]
[li]Popular Soups[/li]
[li]Common Food Items[/li]
[li]Common Animal Names[/li]
[li]Ibibio Names[/li]
[/list]

My2cents,are u Ibibio?

byrocind,

Yes ma'am - born and raised

why?

Hmm, meaning sey u b "Ete" .Anyways,am also Ibibio.

and byrocind, meaning u be "Mma"

On a more serious note though, I am happy to see that there are more Akwa Ibom/Cross River folks on this forum than I previously thought.

Song Idem o!

Song Idem too,wish u all d best with ur book.

My2Cents--I wish you the best of luck with your book. I've been interested in aspects of Ibibio culture in Cuba and Nigeria for several years, particularly the [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abaku%C3%A1]secret societies and masquerades like idem[/url] (ireme in Cuba). I don't know if you are interested in things like that, but that might also be something to incorporate into future work.

Iren Ison ho!!!
Mkparawa Isonho!!!!
Iban i no uyooooo!!!!
Men, My2cents kudos for bringing this topic on this forum about the Ibibio people.
I'm an ibibio boy and a proud one indeed.
Gonna get the book.
Hope to read more from fellow ibibio people.We need not forget our root
no matter where we are.
Just my 2 cents to My2cents!!!!

TerraCotta and Mathways,

Thanks for the words of encouragement. Just in case, I do have an Ibibio website out there: http://geocities.com/myibibio/ My next project will be to interprete the entire site into Ibibio.

To Terra: Yes, the plan is to add more and more (including CDs) with each successive edition.

To Math: There are other Ibibio books you might be interested in at my Ibibio website: http://geocities.com/myibibio/books/index.html

Enjoy!!

I am also Ibibio.

men, Is a good thing to know that i have so many brothers and sisters in the house.
Great ndito Ibibio
Great ndito Annang
Great ndito Akwa-Cross
Great ndito Nairaland

My2cents how much will it cost me to get
the book

About $13.00 for hard copy and about $8 for the electronic version.

For more details, please visit: http://www.lulu.com/content/670762

E song idem o!

Thanks,

The Ibibio's do not really have a written version of their language. The first attempt was in 1987 after the State creation of Akwa Ibom.Uptil now the Bible is being read in Efik language throughout churches in Akwa Ibom. Inasmuch as I applaud your efforts, there needs to be a consensus on the spelling and usage of so many Ibibio words that have never been written down before. Thats why the Colonists preferred to use Efik rather than Ibibio to communicate with the people of the area, including Mary Slessor.

London,

And that is y I started this book

As you may know, our people in general tend to be the "nya, nya, nya" people but never seem to "nam". So I have decided to "nam", first with my website: http://www.geocities.com/myibibio and now with the book. Hopefully my efforts will give us the necessary kick-start that has been needed since pre-mary slessor times Look out for the Ibibio version of the site sometime this summer. Again, knowing it may not be 100% correct, your suggestions/comments are appreciated in advance.

I have come in contact with professors at a school in Germany and Uniuyo via my site who have told me that they are working on a project aimed at standardization. We will see how far they go. Moreover, this book isn't meant for those back at home (at least I hope not ) but for those of us, both child and adult, who have never been home and who may never return. Content in the book, I am sure you will agree, is quite basic.

Feel free to join the effort if you have the time. We need it. Not like the guy I once talked to last summer about collaborating and having accused me of being "slow", decided to go out on his own. You may want to see what he has done so far at: http://www.ibibiodictionary.org/ - it's a good thing my site ranks higher than his on google

Buy the book, encourage me to do better, spread the word. The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.

Thanks,

hum!

Congrats@my2cents. Are yu considering promoting your book at the Akwa Ibom convention this summer? More grease to your elbow. Nna, I go read that book of yours, when I get time. Just curious, did you ever address the subject of "IMAN" in your book? It is a relationship shared between villages in certain parts of Uyo (cant speak for the rest of Akwa Ibom state).

Yeah,

I will definitely promote the book at the convention. As for "Iman, Ukot and Ayeyin" , I didn't not expound on that, though I guess I should have - there is a book that already did that, "Who are the Ibibio" available via amazon. I read it as a kid in Naija and to tell u the truth, it is the book that made me want to promote the Ibibio at all cost. Our culture is so rich, yet no one ever seems to hear of it. Here's the link:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9781750871?ie=UTF8&tag=webmaofafric-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=9781750871

I am certain that the author's wife was a one time Headmistress at my primary school, University of Calabar staff school. Do you know the family? One of the sons was my classmate in primary school. The man (I think he is late) wrote another book about the Ibibios. He sucessfully showcased certain aspects of our culture, which I thought were rich. They were others that I disagreed with though.

nice on ,my dear.tradition is still the power of inheritance!

Efiks and Ibibios cultures are interchangeable, but there are differences though. Our dialect is slightly different from theirs, and moreso, their culture like the ekpe and the abang traditional play is different from the ekpo society of the ibibio culture. What of the annangs? I speak fluent Ibibio and can write the dialect as well

Ndipe:

I speak fluent Ibibio and can write the dialect as well

When did you start writing in Ibibio language, the written form was only invented in 1987 after state creation ? Prior to that every Ibibio/Annang person could only write in Efik language.

Am happy to see an Akwa Ibomite trying to bring our culture and people to lime light.

Kudos,

Sunnyoo

My2cents, one question, does your book detail the importance of "Etibe" aka credit union in the Ibibio community? That is another important aspect of our culture.

Cheers

uyai aduk ufok! iden isongoooooo!! iban eno nbangooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!! i
Keep up the good, we are unique people.

Hi Uyai, abadie? Did you used to post on 4inertia.com previously?

akwa ibom isong o!

Hello My2cents,
this is my first visit to this website. I decided to check it out on my husband's recommendations and I must say I am mightily impressed! I am a bona-fide daughter of Ibibioland so I was curious to read this topic as I scrolled down the topic list, Imagine my delight to discover this treasure-chest of Ibibio renaissance and pride! Funnily enough, many of us Ibibios of this generation here in Nigeria are as "bad" as those in the diaspora, for instance using myself as a case-study, I grew up on a University campus in the South-west of Nigeria, my parents raised us on the English language, so though I understand Ibibio quite well, my spoken Ibibio is barely fair!
Now as I grow older, I realize that I and my Ibibio husband will have to work very hard to preserve our culture and traditions for our children. My dad has a copy of the book, "Who are the Ibibio", next time I visit him, I will definitely pay some attention to it, and definitely will try and get hold of your book as well!
Keep the Ibibio flag flying, both here and in the diaspora!

IBIBIO ISONG!!!

hey guys, this is awesome, i am definately going to grab a copy of that book, i am ibibio,as a matter of fact,my beloved wife,ekybabe,posted the last reply before mine.
i am practically an ibibio in diaspora and i dont think i want my darling children not knowing their roots like they should.

happy to see all my pple, love to all you

Akwa-Ibom isong!

Whats the meaning of the word IBIBIO ?

To all:

Sorry for not replying sooner - I have been having problems signing in to NL. Wow, wat can i say? I didn't realize there were that many Akwa Ibomites/Cross-Riverians on this forum. I am happy that my thread has brought you all out. There is definitely power in numbers

To LondonCool:
At the risk of promoting his book over mine , I can't insist enough that you get "Who are the Ibibio". It was the first definitive book on the Ibibio and I dare say it still is. I would rather not delve into the meaning of "Ibibio" et al so as to stick to the purpose of this thread. I will say though that this topic and more is addressed in the "Ibibio" book. For example, if you know anyone from any Akwa Ibom village called "Nung Asang (I remember this one cos my Mom's from such a village and it was in the book )", the village was so called cos they were assigned the duty of town-crier as in "Nung (the people)", "Asang (of walkers)". Pardon my literal translations please. Hopefully you get my point that in trying to highlight such meanings, I could get into the trouble of saying the wrong thing. Forgive me please.

As for written Ibibio, from my experiences living in Nigeria b4 my "second coming" to the US, I dare say that there was a written form of Ibibio that was seldom used cos 1) the white man learnt efik and disemminated their culture to us in Efik and as you may know, what the white man teaches us is regarding by some as the best and 2) efik was the only dialect written on paper at the time. Again, at the risk of saying the wrong things, I will defer you to the "Ibibio" book and independent research on your part.

I say all this to ask this question - If written Ibibio were born after state creation, then it was pretty fast given we had our news translations in not only Ibibio but the other dialects (Annang, Oron, Itu Mbuso, etc) pretty quickly. It's almost as if someone was just waiting for state creation to "release the beast" so to speak

To Ndipe:
LOL - Etibe? It wasn't on my mind, but I could put it in the 2nd edition

To Ani4:
Thanks for the encouragement. Do spread the word

To EkyBabe and Husband:
A wise man once said though we don't have a choice in where we are born, we do have a choice in the path we want our lives to take. You may not have been brought up speaking Ibibio but you made the conscious choice to at least try. This is better than those of us who not only don't know but purposely refuse to know and rather choose to pick up the white man's culture.

Thanks all. Let's keep this thread going. Thanks for the words of encouragement. We need it in this day and age.