₦airaland Forum

Nsibidi, an ancient symbol writing system, flourished in South Eastern Nigeria from the 5th to 15th centuries. Similar to Egyptian hieroglyphics, Nsibidi was first discovered in 1904 through excavations of terracotta vessels, headrests, and figurines. The symbol system, comprising hundreds of signs, was once taught in schools and used for various purposes, including love affairs, warfare, and sacred rituals.

Nsibidi was employed on various mediums like walls, calabashes, metals, leaves, swords, and tattoos, primarily by the Igbo society and neighboring regions. Before colonial rule, Nsibidi had a sacred and public version, with the latter being more decorative and accessible to women. However, Western education and Christian doctrine significantly reduced the number of Nsibidi-literate people, leaving secret society members as some of the last keepers of this ancient knowledge.

Nsibidi was transported to Cuba and Haiti through the Atlantic slave trade, evolving into anaforuana and veve symbols. It's heartbreaking to think that we abandoned our unique writing system for the Latin alphabet. If we had continued to develop Nsibidi, it would have become a sophisticated and beautiful writing system.

Instead, we've been convinced that Western ways are superior, leading to the erosion of our cultural identity. We've been told our gods are false, our language is poor, our hair is ugly, and our skin is not attractive. We've been persuaded to adopt Western standards, even punishing our children for speaking our native languages.

However, it's ironic that Western societies now seek to appropriate our features, like full lips and curvy figures, which they once deemed unattractive. Until we embrace our uniqueness and heritage, we won't progress. I urge the Nigerian Ministry of Education to reintroduce Nsibidi writing into our education system, preserving our ancestors' legacy and cultural identity.

It's not an Igbo invention but Ibibio

It was never a writing system. Just a random pictogram

Hard to follow

Nsibidi of the Efiks seem quite different from this your writeup.

MimiSheWrote:
Nsibidi is a form of symbol writing widely used in South Eastern Nigeria around roughly 5th to 15th centuries. Nsibidi is quite Similar to the Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Use of the symbol system was first discovered in 1904. Excavation of terracotta vessels, headrests, and anthropomorphic figurines from the South Eastern region of Nigeria.

There are several hundred nsibidi symbols. They were once taught in 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 (such as bronze), leaves, swords, and tattoos.

It is primarily used by the Igbo society and other relatively close regions such as Cross River region and other nearby peoples.

Before the colonial era of Nigerian history, nsibidi was divided into a sacred version and a public, more decorative version which could be used by women.
 Aspects of colonial rule such as Western education and Christian doctrine drastically reduced the number of nsibidi-literate people, leaving the secret society members as some of the last literate in the symbols. Nsibidi was and is still a means of transmitting Ekpe symbolism. Nsibidi was transported to Cuba and Haiti via the Atlantic slave trade, where it developed into the anaforuana and veve symbols.

Now I still can't believe we had a way of writing and abandoned it for ABCD! Its really sad and hearbreaking...

Imagine if we had continued using it, it would have been fully developed and advanced by now. And it would have been beautiful and interesting.

But instead, the western world successfully convinced us once again that their own way of doing things is "superior" to ours!

They told us our gods are false, now we worship theirs, they told us our language is poor, now we speak theirs... and even punish our kids in schools for accidentally speaking our own language?

They told us our hair is thick,primitive and ugly, now we wear their hair.
They told us our dark skin is not attractive, now we bleach our skin to appear more like them?

Now this is where it gets interesting...

They told us our lips are fat, and being thick/having a big butt is not a criteria of beauty. But now guess what? they are running to surgeons to enlarge their tiny lips and make their butt bigger. Who is deceiving who??

Look... Until we start loving ourselves and realize how special we are as people... I don't really see black people getting anywhere!

I wish the Nigerian ministry of education will re-introduce Nsibidi writing to our education system, so that it can be developed and preserved. If not for anything else, atleast for the fact It is heritage, our ancestors developed it and and it shouldn't be thrown in the gutter just like that for any reason! C'mon!

1Sharon:
It was never a writing system. Just a random pictogram

But still, it could be developed! Let's stop all these fvcking excuses! If you're passionate about learning languages and writing systems, you would understand what I'm saying!


Good job, OP. Keep spitting facts.

Oya, let's start.

The problem with our ancestors was that they didn’t share information with others. The Nsibidi was for a select few.

We Africans that love hoarding.
Ekpo society was very secretive yet fell to the whites
Oboni of Ikwerreland was secretive but is still functioning but hoarding there informations
But i heard and read that in other climes of the Whites and Asians do share information and develop those information into theories and practicals, the same way they come together to form alliance's in build corporations , societies , firms etc but here they prefer to hoard information.
Just check this things out , it is still affecting every sector of our society and govt, but we forget that our environment is so polluted that life expectancy is now so low but yet people still fail to form alliance's and share information.
Why is Yahoo prosperous in Nigeria it is because the boys are sharing information to there friends and whoever is willing, thats why they are thriving.
Let's learn to share and build business alliance's and support our selves when called upon, alot of skills are dying now because the young minds are only interested in soft work now because it pays quicker.

Nsibidi should be revitalized by the people of the Eastern region for Nigeria to adopt as it's alphabet just like the Ethiopian, Egyptian and Chinese all have theirs

HarryGleb:
Continue fooling around.

Shut up,he is right ..

You igbo's love to claim everything

ednut1:
The problem with our ancestors was that they didn’t share information with others. The Nsibidi was for a select few.

The same thing happened in Europe and other parts of the world. In some of these European societies, the elites could read and write unlike the other classes — this was a normal occurrence in the Middle Ages.

Most Jewish people in Europe spoke Yiddish because they believed Hebrew was a holy language only meant for prayers. However, that same Hebrew was revived in the 20th century, it is not even the same Hebrew spoken some 2000 years ago. At first, the attempts to revive the language was met with resistance but now a lot of Israelis speak and write in Hebrew.

There's even a YouTube video I came across here where a lady was showing how an Igbo scholar revived the Nsibidi and wrote Igbo language with it.