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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.
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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju Compcros Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems "Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"
Nsibidi/Ekpuk Philosophy and Mysticism Research and Publication Project
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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
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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 Ekpuk’s 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.
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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 Ékpè 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'.
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Ivor Miller and Mathew Ojong. “Ékpè ‘Leopard’ Society in Africa and the Americas: Influence and Values of an Ancient Tradition”. Ethnic and Racial Studies 2012. 1-‐16. 9.
Ékpè 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 person’s 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 Ékpè (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?”
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On Mysticism
I present my understanding of mysticism in
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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
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Developing Nsibidi Hermeneutics
17. An Nsibidi Philosophy and Mysticism : Developing the Philosophical and Mystical Potential of a Classical African Symbol System
On Victor Ekpuk
18. From Nsibidi to Tantra : A Comprehensive Approach to Exploring the Art of Victor Ekpuk
19. Victor Ekpuk's Art and the Philosophical and Mathematical Foundations of Cosmos by Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju and Evelyne Huet
20. The Cognitive Matrix of Victor Ekpuk
21. The Cognitive Matrix of Victor Ekpuk Part 2 by Evelyne Huet, Mathematician and Artist
22. Victor Ekpuk's Art and the Philosophical and Mathematical Foundations of Cosmos by Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju and Evelyne Huet
23. Shrine Master and Shrine : Victor Ekpuk at the Convergence of Global Shrine Aesthetics
24. The Magic of Fibonacci and the World of Art
25. The Human Being as Concrete and Abstract Form in Visual Art : Auguste Rodin, Bodhisattva Maitreya,Owusu-‐Ankomah and Victor Ekpuk
26. A Mysterious and Compelling Language
On Ekpuk in Relation to Ekpe, Nsibidi and Africana and Global Esotericism
27. “Victor Ekpuk's Artistic Transposition of Nsibidi Semiotics in the Context of African and Global Esotericism Part 1”
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28. “Victor Ekpuk's Artistic Transposition of Nsibidi Semiotics in the Context of African and Global Esotericism Part 2”
29. “Victor Ekpuk's Artistic Transposition of Nsibidi Semiotics in the Context of African and Global Esotericism Part 3”
30. “Victor Ekpuk's Artistic Transposition of Nsibidi Semiotics in the Context of African and Global Esotericism Part 4”
31. “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
32. Ekpe and Abakua Reconnections : Esoteric Conjunctions by Victor Ekpuk
Blog 33. The Mystical Art of Victor Ekpuk
Facebook group 34. Studying the Art of Victor Ekpuk
Video
35. Scripts of Power from the Art of Victor Ekpuk
36. Ripples of Thought and Action from the Art of Victor Ekpuk
37. Journey into Infinity ( Incomplete. Very basic initial exploration).
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Posted on
Facebook The Mystical Art of Victor Ekpuk blog Scribd ( PDF) academia.edu ( PDF) with ongoing comments section open Funded by
Jhalobia Recreation Park and Gardens, Lagos, Nigeria
“Transforming Space from Chaos to Cosmos”
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