ABSTRACT
I have recently had the opportunity to visit Calabar and discuss their political system with its chiefs and elders. This discussion has elucidated a number of points which were not clear to me when I wrote this essay and on which contemporary records were obscure or definitely misleading. In regard to Egbo, for example, it seems that there were two distinct organizations in Old Calabar, one for Old Town (Obutong) and one for Duke and Creek Town combined. In the second Egbo society the head was called Eyamba and was always the Obong (king) of Duke Town, while the deputy head was called the Obong Ebunko and was the Obong of Creek Town. King Eyamba V, when he became Obong of Duke Town, preferred to be called by his Egbo title and the name Eyamba came to be applied thereafter by Europeans to his house. Calabar people of today maintain that he was not the fifth head of Egbo but the fifth member of his house to become Obong and Eyamba.
