Exploring Calabar; Tracing the Footsteps of Slaves while visiting the Hidden Twins

The most beautiful place in the world is, of course the world itself – Wallace Stevens

After a terrible road trip all I wanted was a good night sleep, moving into the hotel, we were given our respective rooms since it was a school trip I shared a room with four amazing girls.

A part of me kept wishing I could go right to sleep but another part knew I won’t be able to get my much cherished rest if I didn’t bath so I decided to take my bath, plugged my phone too.I went to the bathroom with high hopes just to get them dashed as the water wasn’t running. After a long and tiring wait, I was able to take my bath,clad in my nightwear with just about 4hrs to my much anticipated tour – I collapsed face-down on the bed.

Finally Morning

As at 6 a.m I could still feel aches on my body though every other thing appeared normal. In a bid to have the best of the day,I wore a broad smile as I patiently waited for breakfast which arrived 9 a.m instead of 7 a.m.
At around 10:30 a.m everyone was set for the drive to our first stop, the famous Marina Resort which doubles as both a recreation center and a historic site with amazing facilities for fun. This includes : the slave history museum,speed boat ride, carrousel horse ride, movie theater,night clubs and cinema halls. You can also have a caress from an unaldulterated wind or even the panoramic view of the stunning Calabar River.

Tracing the footsteps of slaves at the Calabar Slave History Museum

The entrance fee to the museum is two hundred naira with a tour guide. Sadly, pictures are not allowed in the museum. The museum contains an extensive depiction of the slave trade era in Nigeria and West Africa as a whole.

It exhibits the grim paraphernalia of the trade including shackles and chains, and the variety of currencies used to buy people such as copper bars,brass bells and flutes. It also has an exhibit that shows how slaves were transported and treated, how slaves were arranged on the ships, how the white masters treated the slaves while on the farm and lots more are also exhibited in the Slave History Museum.

A sharp distinction of this museum to other slave museum is the graphical representation of the slaves in human life sculptures.
These sculptures depicts different scenes representing different eras and goes a step further to include audio recordings. You would hear; slaves being auctioned and sold off,them working on plantations and some other scenes. You can also see the unique historic artifact roles Calabar played in trade and commerce.

A visit to the Hidden Twins on the Twin Island

Although history is not an integral part of the Nigerian educational system, the story of Mary Slessor and how she abolished the killing of twins in Calabar is very popular. All we know of her from every current affairs book, movie or stories, is that she stopped the killing of twins in Calabar but that’s about to change.

Long time ago…

In a kingdom not too far away,there lived a people who believed twins brought bad luck so when twins were born they were left to die without been buried as they’re considered spoil to the earth – they just kept them in pots.

Mary Slessor, to prove them wrong, pulled off an experiment. She took twins that were rejected to a place now called Twin island.

Then something drastic happened…

In the household of the king,a princess put to bed. She bore twins. Boys. Instead of having them killed like the others,he let Mary Slessor to take them to the island.

Those boys according to the stories were named Duke and Henshaw. This was a prelude to the end of the tradition.

A ten minutes boat ride can be taken from Marina resort to the island for one thousand and five hundred naira. On the Island you will find the hut Mary Slessor stayed although it has been rebuilt into a concrete building. The island also has a bar where people normally host parties and other events although this was closed during my visit.

I was getting tired but we still decided to check out the Calabar mall popularly known as “Spar mall”. It has various stores where you can window-shop and hang outs.

After the window shopping (yeah, didn’t get anything), we returned to the hostel at about 8pm then I took my bath, had dinner and off to bed in preparation of more exploits.

A visit to Calabar is incomplete without a visit to Tinapa resort which happens to be my next stop for adventure.

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