The Kalabari way of life is our heritage as Kalabari people and we must do our utmost to guard this valued possession as a people and hand it over as a treasured possession to posterity.
However, Kalabari people are scattered all over the world and wherever we find ourselves, we tend to want to live and belong there. We work there, we get married and raise families all over the world. Some of us try to teach our children to be Kalabari by showing them our culture and traditions, but there is a limit to what an individual can teach their kids on their own. You can only teach them what you know and only if and when they are willing to learn. But for various reasons, some of us don’t even pass anything to our kids in form of history or culture.
As kalabari people, we had prided ourselves with being able to live self sufficiently with our natural surroundings. Our fishing ports and fishing business had somehow vanished into thin air. Our masquerade displays, albeit still there has all but become “by the way” (a shadow of itself). How about gathering our kit and kin under the moonlight to tell them stories about the tortoise, the lion, hare etc. Where have all these things gone. It suddenly dawns on us that we did not teach our children these things, and they did not teach their own kids. How much of the Kalabari way will remain in 100 years.
This platform in it’s own small way, is designed to help ensuring that our history, culture, customs and traditions do not die with our generation.
We hope to start a set of activities on this platform by fist of all posting some books and articles on the history of the Kalabari in order to create discussions and debates on Kalabari. Let us make it an intelligent discussion, without insults or hurling abuses. Let us, on this site, try and produce an authentic History, Customs and Traditions of our people for the future generations of Kalabari people. Let us refer other people onto this site to join our conversations. Let us begin the culture of telling these stories to our children so they can tell their own children and so on. If you have pictures you wish to share with us, please be kind enough to do so, especially pictures of our great grandfathers and ancestors. Pictures of the Amachrees, Omekwe Horsefalls, pictures of Owukoriye Ekine, Young Briggs e.t.c. Also pictures and videos of traditional displays like the Iria ceremony, masquerade displays, boat and war canoe displays are particularly welcome. You may send any items you are unable to post here to [email protected] and we will make sure that Kalabari sees it.
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Thank you so much for being a part of our journey!