ABSTRACT
The association which Banyang describe as Ngbe is found over a wide area, stretching from Banyang country through much of the country neighbouring and within the Cross River bend to Old Calabar, where it formerly had central political importance. One of the first lodges of Ngbe among Lower Banyang is said to have been bought by Obot Egbe Aya, a former leader of Tetukenok hamlet of Besongabang village, some time before the arrival of the Germans, possibly in the 1880s. The general spread of the association from the west to the east has been reflected in the main direction of purchase, which is usually (but not invariably) for an ‘Upper’ Banyang hamlet or village section to seek to acquire a lodge by going to an already established lodge in a ‘Lower’ Banyang or eastern Ejagham village.
