ABSTRACT

This study investigates the cultural practices of Mkpat Enin people since the pre-colonial period and the changes that have taken place in these cultural practices in the contemporary era. Being a descriptive study information was elicited from interviews and published texts on Ibibio history. Mkpat Enin people had developed unique cultural practices since the pre-colonial times which cut across their traditional diets, their traditional dressing, the complex marriage and burial practices, a trinity of kinship relations based on the Ukot, Iman and Eyeyin institutions. Other aspects of Mkpat Enin culture include their building methods, education system, crime and justice system, and naming practices. All these practices were derived from the people’s belief system. Mkpat Enin people held a trinity cosmology in which they belief in the heavenly god, earthly god and god of the waters. However, upon the arrival of the Europeans area, and the subsequent introduction of Christianity, Western education, and western system of administration, virtually all aspects of indigenous cultures had changed and the people adapted to the new Western practices. The few cultural practices in Mkpat Enin that have defy change are also being complimented by new ones.