Ekpu Oro are ancient carved wooden images made from the 'Oko' tree representing the ancestral father of the

Oron people The Oron people or Örö people are a sub- ethnic group of the larger Ibibio people, that make up the Akpakip Oro or Oron Nation. The Örö are located primarily in southern Nigeria in the riverine area of Akwa Ibom and the Cross River States ...

of the

Akpakip Oro Oron Nation had existed as a free sovereign and egalitarian society for hundreds of years before it was forcibly incorporated into the amalgamated Nigeria in 1914. Oron people share a strong ancestral lineage with the Efik people in Cross River ...

kingdom. The Earliest known ancient wooden carving images of the Oron people is dated to the 2370BC.

Goldie Clifford Joseph Price MBE (born 19 September 1965), better known as Goldie, is a British music producer and DJ. Initially gaining exposure for his work as a graffiti artist, Goldie became well known for his pioneering role as a musician in th ...

, Dictionary of the Efik (1862), p.114 Found today in the

Oron Museum Oron Museum is a museum in Oron, Nigeria. The museum was established in 1958 to accommodate eight hundred known ancestral figures ( Ekpu Oro) of the Oron people which are believed to be among the oldest and finest surviving wood carvings in Africa ...

and other museums around the world, Some of the finest wooden statuary attributed to Oron people were beautifully carved ekpu (ancestral figures) which were destroyed and removed from Nigeria during the

Biafran war The Nigerian Civil War (6 July 1967 – 15 January 1970), also known as the Nigerian–Biafran War or the Biafran War, was a civil war fought between Nigeria and the Republic of Biafra, a secessionist state which had declared its independence f ...

in the late 1960s. Male Ancestor, Oron people, NMC

Ekpu Oro ancestral figures existed as summaries of the personal and social experiences of the Oron people of Southeastern Nigeria - they embodied Oron spiritual beliefs and cultural history; hence, were vessels for the spirits of the dead that instilled great influence over the daily, religious, and social lives of the living. As an art form, Ekpu held the key to understanding Oron past tradition that was largely destroyed by colonial and Christian presence in Oron society. In ancient times it also serves as pictures where individuals uses this craven images to trace their ancestry and family tree down to twenty and above generations.Book Embodied-in-Ekpu-Figurines-of-the-Oron-People by Onyile, Onyile Bassey dt 2007

Reference

{{reflist African sculptures in the British Museum African sculpture Oron people Nigeria–United Kingdom relations