Nsibidi/Ekpuk

Philosophy and Mysticism

Research and Publication Project

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Compcros
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems

"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"


Project Purpose, Rationale and Organizing Concepts

Philosophy, Mysticism, Esotericism

An exploration of the philosophical and mystical potential of the art of Victor
Ekpuk and the Nsibidi symbolism of the Ekpe esoteric order of South-South and
South-East Nigeria and South-West Cameroon which inspires his work, in the
context of Africana and global esotericism.

Philosophy may be perceived in terms of the exploration of the meaning of
existence while mysticism may be seen as the aspiration to perceive or
experience ultimate reality.

Esotericism is understood in this context as the development of metaphysical
knowledge, knowledge about the meaning, underlying conditions and scope of
existence, through epistemic and/or social procedures not conventionally
accessible to most people.

I hereby introduce the concept of esotericism into discussions of Ekpe in place of
the limitations represented by the relatively simple designation of Ekpe as
a "secret society", in order to highlight Ekpe secrecy as an epistemic
strategy demonstrating metaphysical implications beyond the social values in
terms of which it has been highlighted before now.
This understanding of Ekpe esotericism is implicit in Ekpe studies and in relation
to Ekpuk's work but for an adequate understanding of this quality of Ekpe
thought and practice the epistemic and metaphysical implications of its esoteric
core need to be made explicit, in dialogue with correlative Africana and global
cultures and their associated scholarship.
This repositioning of Ekpe discourse contributes to building the foundations
for the scholarly study of Africana esotericism and mysticism, embryonic
disciplines that are beginning to achieve an identity necessitated by the need
to integrate various studies on Africana "secret and power societies" as well as
Africana mystical discourses.
This emerging identity commences the journey to disciplinary maturity already
reached in the 20th century by the discipline of Western Esotericism through the
pioneering work in which Antoine Faivre in France and Wouter Hanegraaf in the
Netherlands have been prominent, as narrated, among other sources, in Hermes
in the Academy: Ten Years' Study of Western Esotericism at the University of
Amsterdam. Edited by Wouter J. Hanegraaff and Joyce Pijnenburg. Amsterdam:
Amsterdam University Press, 2009 and by the study of Jewish esotericism and
mysticism pioneered by Gershom Scholem and further developed by his
successors, such as Moshe Idel and Moshe Halbertal in Israel and Eliot Wolfson
in the United States.

My understanding of esotericism, however, is not necessarily correlative with

that of contributors to the study of Western and Jewish esotericism, my
approach being a synthesis derived from integrating aspects of Western, African
and Asian esotericism as presented by its practitioners and explored by myself
through practice and in dialogue with other schools of thought.
My focus, however, is on approaching a community of beliefs and practices on its
own terms, seeking to understand its own self perception as deeply as possible
from within the scope of the presentations available to me, and from that ground
developing dialogues with other cognitive communities beyond itself.
Ekpuk studies so far recognise his work as a novel exploration of intriguing
hermeneutic techniques, strategies of interpreting meaning emerging from his
engagement with the esoteric symbolism of Ekpe, but responses to his
achievement may be seen as yet to engage with Ekpuks work in terms of the
ideational depth and disciplinary scope required to explicate the range of its
force and of its cultural implications.

Guiding Questions and Ultimate Goal


What is the scope of Ekpuk's achievement?

What is the source of the compelling enigmatic power of his work?

What are the implications of adapting a symbol system the meanings of which
are kept hidden from people outside the group that created it?

In what ways may the Nsibidi symbolism that inspires Ekpuk's work speak to
people outside its original context, in terms of an imaginative logic that expands
human perception?

This project is driven by these and other concerns as it presents the art of Victor
Ekpuk in relation to Nsibidi as one of the world's great creative struggles with
forms of expression in a way that responds to the power and mystery of
existence, transposing humanity's perennial wrestling with these questions
through an individual re-imagining and synthesis of diverse creative streams.

In the course of this exploration of Ekpuk's art, a profound exploration of
Nsibidi is attempted in order to adapt it as a powerful creative form that may
speak beyond its originating context.

The ultimate goal is to develop an understanding of both the art of Victor Ekpuk
and Nsibidi, individually and in tandem, as systems of knowledge through which
the most profound issues are addressed in a manner that is
imaginatively scintillating and intellectually exciting.


Updating on Progress of Project

This list of essays and other media will be updated as the project moves on.
Inspirational Quotes
"I seek to arrive at a universal language that still retains the essence of the ritual
communication of the ancient symbols and signs while I use them to interpret
my present reality".
Victor Ekpuk. "My Sources", Glendora Review (Lagos) 1, no. 2 (1995): 17-
18.Accessed 17/02/2016
"[Ekpuk's] work reminds us that the power of literacy cannot simply be reduced
to the capacity of written symbols to convey semantic meaning or formal
content, but is more broadly invested in human spiritual and cognitive struggles
to transform the very grounds of perception".
Mark Auslander."Trans/Script: The Art of Victor Ekpuk". October 21,
2004, Slosberg Gallery, Brandeis University, Massachusetts, USA.

"In [Victor Ekpuk's] painting [ Good Morning, Sunrise, 2001) , the spiral is an
nsibidi sign meaning journey, but it also suggests the sun and eternity".

Inscribing Meaning : Writing and Graphic Systems in African Art

Ekpe cosmogony depicts "the process of creation by the Supreme Goddess in
Ekpe belief called Mboko. Nsibidi signs show the progression from when the
world was a void to the start of creation and to the present state"[in terms
of] "philosophical precepts...moral, spiritual, cosmological...that stand the test of
time".
Etubom Bassey, quoted by Maik Nwosu in "In the Name of the Sign:
The Nsibidi Script as the Language and Literature of the Crossroads". 292.
Nsibidi is "a living and evolving cultural heritage [ the use of which ] has
changed over the years[ and is used today ] mostly as a sigil...representing
allegorical events surrounding the origins of Ekpe, man's place in the universe
and other cosmological concepts."

Bakara, Skyscraper city online forum, March 27th, 2014 .

The principles and philosophies of kp practices and public displays were

embedded in a perceived connectivity between the visible aspects of living
things, which are empirical in nature, and the spiritual or the metaphysical'.
Ivor Miller and Mathew Ojong. kp Leopard Society in Africa and the
Americas: Influence and Values of an Ancient Tradition. Ethnic and Racial
Studies 2012. 1-16. 9.
kp philosophy is grounded in "Cross River region concepts of community that
include the living, the ancestors, and the land itself" [ Ekpe being] "a school for
esoteric teachings [ revealing] ideal stages in a persons life [ in their growth
to] maturity within their communities [ framing terrestrial experience within
the context of the continuity of life represented by] the possibility of
reincarnation"
The Application to Place the kp (Leopard) Initiation Society on UNESCO's
Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Introductory Essay
1. Nsibidi/Ekpuk Philosophy and Mysticism

Summation of Larger Research and Publication Project to Which this
Project Belongs
2. Theories and Practices of Cognition:Sense Perception, Metaphysical
Integration in Western, Asian, Islamic, African Thought
3.Website : Symbol Quest
An initial exploratory statement

On Philosophy
4. I develop perspectives on philosophy in What is Philosophy and What is Its
Significance, of which the third part Metaphysical Mapping with Ifa as
Cognitive Matrix: What is Philosophy and What is its Significance 3? has been
posted online, with parts 1 and 2 in preparation.

5.The ideas of the essay on philosophy may also be related to Classical African
Knowledge Systems and Cognitive Universality.

6. Themes in Ese Ifa, Ifa Literature: Biological Genesis : Obatala and the Dark
Room, is a demonstration of the perspectives on the philosophical potential of
artistic forms expressed in Metaphysical Mapping with Ifa as Cognitive Matrix:

What is Philosophy and What is its Significance 3?

On Mysticism
I present my understanding of mysticism in
7.Mystical Theory and Experience Across Cultures Part 1
and
8. Mystical Theory and Experience Across Cultures Part 2.
Those essays explore classical African cognitive forms and a global spread of
imaginative expressions in relation to mysticism as a universal phenomenon, an
undertaking vital to Nsibidi as an artistic form of philosophical value and
mystical potential.

On Esotericism in General
9.Exoteric and Esoteric Knowledge : A Cross-Cultural and Interdisciplinary
Summary

10.The Esoteric: A Hair's Breadth International Survey

African Esotericism in General
11.African Esoteric Orders

Ekpe Esotericism
12. African Esoteric Orders:The Ekpe Society and Nsibidi

13. The Ekpe Esoteric Order and their Nsibidi Semiotics : Classical to Modern
Expressions

Nsibidi
14. On Nsibidi and Cultural Change

15. Nsibidi and Ifa:Metaphysics and Connections of Hermeneutic Systems by
Phunk O Naut,Okon Etukudo and Anietie Esitoho

16. Of Indigo and Light: Manifestations of the Immortals in Cross River Sacred
Textiles by Kat N Rob

Developing Nsibidi Hermeneutics

17. An Nsibidi Philosophy and Mysticism : Developing the Philosophical and
Mystical Potential of a Classical African Symbol System

18. Developing an Nsibidi Philosophy and Mysticism 2 : Entry into the Forest
Cosmographic 1

19. Developing an Nsibidi Philosophy and Mysticism 2: Entry into the Forest
Cosmographic 2

On Victor Ekpuk

20. From Nsibidi to Tantra : A Comprehensive Approach to Exploring the Art of
Victor Ekpuk

21. Victor Ekpuk's Art and the Philosophical and Mathematical Foundations of
Cosmos by Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju and Evelyne Huet

22. The Cognitive Matrix of Victor Ekpuk

23. The Cognitive Matrix of Victor Ekpuk Part 2 by Evelyne Huet, Mathematician
and Artist

24. Victor Ekpuk's Art and the Philosophical and Mathematical Foundations of
Cosmos by Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju and Evelyne Huet

25. Shrine Master and Shrine : Victor Ekpuk at the Convergence of Global Shrine
Aesthetics

26. The Magic of Fibonacci and the World of Art

27. The Human Being as Concrete and Abstract Form in Visual Art : Auguste
Rodin, Bodhisattva Maitreya,Owusu-Ankomah and Victor Ekpuk

28. A Mysterious and Compelling Language

On Ekpuk in Relation to Ekpe, Nsibidi and Africana and Global Esotericism

29. Victor Ekpuk's Artistic Transposition of Nsibidi Semiotics in the Context of
African and Global Esotericism Part 1

30. Victor Ekpuk's Artistic Transposition of Nsibidi Semiotics in the Context of
African and Global Esotericism Part 2

31. Victor Ekpuk's Artistic Transposition of Nsibidi Semiotics in the Context of
African and Global Esotericism Part 3

32. Victor Ekpuk's Artistic Transposition of Nsibidi Semiotics in the Context of
African and Global Esotericism Part 4

33. Adventures in Cognitive and Aesthetic Mysticism: The Art of Victor Ekpuk as
Hermeneutic Template in the forthcoming Victor Ekpuk: Connecting Lines Across
Time and Place edited by Toyin Falola.

On Ekpuk in Relation to Abakua, the Cuban Development of Ekpe by the
African Diaspora

34. Ekpe and Abakua Reconnections : Esoteric Conjunctions by Victor Ekpuk

Blog


35. The Mystical Art of Victor Ekpuk

Facebook group


36. Studying the Art of Victor Ekpuk

Video

37. Scripts of Power from the Art of Victor Ekpuk

38. Ripples of Thought and Action from the Art of Victor Ekpuk

39. Journey into Infinity ( Incomplete. Very basic initial exploration).

Posted on
Facebook

The Mystical Art of Victor Ekpuk blog

Scribd ( PDF)

academia.edu ( PDF) with ongoing comments section open



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Transforming Space from Chaos to Cosmos