Ejaw

Ejaw, whose name is glossed 'Wildcat', is the first woman in Ekoi tradition and the wife of the first man Etim 'Ne. She comes down to the waterless earth from the sky together with her husband, and bears him seven sons and seven daughters; from the marriages of these children and their grandchildren the peoples of the earth descend and the rivers given by Obassi Osaw are spread across the land. She is a minor but distinctly named figure in the Ekoi creation narrative recorded by Talbot.

Domains

• first ancestor and motherhood

Powers

• to bear the first generations of humankind

Relations

• spouse: Etim 'NeEjaw the Wildcat is the wife of Etim 'Ne, the first man; the two descend together from the sky and become the ancestors of humankind.Harold Scheub, A Dictionary of African Mythology: The Mythmaker as Storyteller (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000). (secondary)

Sources

• Ejaw ('Wildcat') is the first woman of Ekoi tradition, wife of the first man Etim 'Ne, with whom she descends from the sky and bears the first generations of humankind.: P. Amaury Talbot, In the Shadow of the Bush (London: William Heinemann, 1912). (secondary); Harold Scheub, A Dictionary of African Mythology: The Mythmaker as Storyteller (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000). (secondary)