Abani - The Face: Cartography of the Void

This essay is not just an exploration of my physical face; it is about the face we all identify with. It is about more than just what flesh covers my bone structure. It is about reflection too. What we see or want to see in the mirror.

Biologically my face is a mix of two races, of two cultures, of two lineages. One white English, perhaps a mix of Celt and Anglo-Saxons. My maternal grandmothers lineage was Strong, first held by a family in Somerset that predated the Norman Conquest. Strong of course referred to a person who displayed those characteristics in some wayphysical, mental, even by way of dress, as in dressing for strength, which might have included armor in the past, or style in the present. In the Old High German it was Streng, which is related to String. A line, a connection, lineage. On my maternal grandfathers side, it is Huntfrom hunta, which is a hunter. They came from Shropshire and again predate the Norman Conquest. Strong Hunt, Hunt Strong.

Before the Engle (Angle) and the Saxon, early Germanic tribal amalgamations settled in Great Britain. In the Middle Ages, the areas of Somerset and Shropshire were occupied by Celts. The Cornovii occupied the area of Shropshire and the Dumnonii the area of Somerset.

The Celts were headhunters and hard to subdue (much like my Afikpo ancestors in Nigeria) and their swords, the falcata, were curved in the right way to hook a head on the backswing of a slash. The falcata was a specialized weapon and could not be used everyday. This was both its strength and weakness. The Saxons, however, defeated the Celts with the weapon they were named after, the seax, an unusually versatile sword. Fifteen-hundred years ago, swords were expensive, and so the Saxon warrior farmers needed a knife that could double as a weaponhence the seax. The fact that they were always armed this way meant that they could catch the Celts off guard and unarmed. In Afikpo, you receive the knife, which is both for farming and taking heads, as part of your initiation into manhood. Ceremonially you wear the mask mma ji, or yam knife. These are the people I come from. A long line of noble people, a long line of mongrels. That is one story of my lineage. Another is that my maternal grandfather got his name from Henry John Hunter, a trader who made his fortune in the romantic East and returned to buy the Beech Hill Estate in Berkshire. Was he a relative or was he the child of an indentured worker? Whatever the case, my maternal grandparents are from the Windsor basin of Berkshire, and they were first cousins.

But for all that, this essay is not about them. But about my father and the lineage I know for sure. The Egu and Ehugbo.